What would England be if everyone had a pink car? A pink car-nation! The joke is less important than your reaction ...1. If you groaned at it, that it means that you have an inferiority complex about your intellect - low self-esteem. Get some assertiveness training as you're probably quite depressing to be around.
2. If you giggled inwardly or a little, it means you are well balanced within yourself and are peaceful and/or uplifting to be around.
3. If you laughed out loud, you're probably quite an unbearable bore - get some social skills.
Actually, I just made all that up, just this minute. However, does it sound any less convincing, when you first read it, than any of the hundreds of personal assessment questionnaires around? It's so easy to become an expert today: put something in writing (anything!) and someone will believe you.
As a writer I get asked to do writing projects for people and organisations and I find that most of them go right against my sense of integrity. Companies wanting to advertise their products or services - without it looking like advertising - ask writers to find other writers' articles on topics to do with their industry. These rewriters, as they're called, are then asked to rewrite these "expert" articles in such a way that at least 20% (or some stated percentage) of the article does not resemble the original one. The article is then published in magazines websites and blogs, parading as some expert, impartial and amazed writer's reactions to their employer's "amazing" products/services.
There are 3 things here:
1. Advertising parading as something else,
2. Blatant plagiarism with no acknowledgement of the original and expert writer, and
3. An amateur (non-expert) parading as an expert, for a fee.
These are not isolated articles - there are hundreds of thousands of such articles done every day and there has arisen a whole new rewriting industry - thousands of writers doing it for a living, computer programs are created to calculate how much (as a percentage) alike the copy is to the original and huge amounts of money changes hands every day.
I'm not sure about you but I just cannot feel right about such dishonesty … or am I being picky? Let me know your thoughts.
And now to a brilliant and original piece of writing - Arthur Bayly's story, continued from yesterday's blog ... less words today as we start Mary's story tomorrow and then their indivudual stories mesh together at some later time. Can't tell you when as I don't know!
"A lottery where cronies of the government, with inside connections, favours and knowledge of available contracts, can take advantage of, like our Lord Atkinson," said Arthur, suddenly understanding much about the insurance claim that he didn't before.
"Well, yes, we need to be careful of who we're accusing of what, just yet," said Martin in solicitor mode, "but it seems there's intense competition for these contracts - hand out a million or so, with little checking how you spend it - quite a gift for someone with profit in mind!"
"And anyone giving out millions of British pounds to poorer people would gain a lot of friends and favours from those poorer people!" said Arthur, grimly.
"My God, Dad, you should have been a detective!"
"Just my cynical insurance mind in overdrive," said Arthur.
"So, we have the perfect scenario for tossing around government money - many governments' money - to great benefit to the wrong people," said Martin, smiling at his father with unaccustomed admiration. "And the governments themselves are into it too. For example, the European Union, the EU, aid programme provides huge amounts of funds to UE governments to provide aid and the checking at the EU is as shoddy as in here in England. Some of these governments - the Spanish and Italian ones are apparently the worst offenders - just don't get around to spending all the UE funds they receive and it's a great source of revenue for them - helps their balance of payments deficits considerably!"
"But that's OUR money, Martin! Don't they care about that?" asked Joan, astounded.
"Why should they?" asked Martin. "It's not their money and it's free to them!"
"Well, you look after other peoples' money, other peoples' interests ..."
"Yes, Mum, most people do but when you've got access to large amounts of power and money, those thoughts of others just seem to slip out the window, somehow. When you create a house with lots of holes and lots of cheese on the floor, the rats turn up!"
"Oh dear, so what should I do about this job offer back at AIL then?" asked Arthur.
"And what's happened that they suddenly want you back when they were so laid-back before?" asked Martin.
"Yes, it all sounds a bit desperate, a bit … well, dangerous, if you ask me!" said Joan.
"It also sounds like a lot of fun!" said Martin, rubbing his hands together with glee.
"Insurance has never been exciting before, for me," said Arthur, feeling a tingle of adventure in his veins. "And, maybe, I could help get some of your money back from these scoundrels."
"Yes Darling, maybe you could, but I don't like the sound of it at all," said Joan, "and we were just starting to get along and we've got mother's funeral and Martin needs help and you now want to go back to work?"
"Well, I could do much of it at home," said Arthur, seeing opportunities everywhere. "I don't need to be at the office or to work eight hours a day. I could fit the work in between our family needs."
"I don't know Arthur ..."
"Look Mum, Dad needs some excitement in his life," said Martin, standing forward for his father for the first time ever. "This could be his chance for that and a chance to really do some good."
"Yes Dear, I would rather relish a challenge like this - you never know where it could lead to!" said Arthur, wondering why he was talking about other unknown opportunities, while he took her hands and looked into her eyes earnestly.
"Oh, I don't know ..."
"Look Dear, let's you and I sit down later and work out what we need to do for each other, for the funeral, for Martin and then I can put a proposal to Mary about what I'm prepared to do for them and any other conditions we can set. They seem keen to have me at any cost."
"Yes, but why?" asked Joan, still concerned.
"And if it doesn't work out, I can simply stop doing the work and hand it back," said Arthur.
"I don't know about the work but I do know I've never seen you so fired up about anything before," said Joan, still looking concerned. "Maybe it is your chance to do something really special … I don't know ..."
"Look, you two," said Martin, "the world won't stop spinning if you do nothing for a day. Leave it till tomorrow and call AIL then. If they want an answer before then, just tell them they can't have one - you'll let them know tomorrow at, say, three o'clock. This is your decision, not theirs."
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