Freedom From The Mundane - A Writer's Blog

Hot on the heels of the Big Brother racist "scandal", a real one has hit the headlines here in Scotland. Trevor Matthews, Chief Executive at Standard Life Plc, one of Europe's biggest insurance companies, had to issue a public apology for a racist remark he made at a company presentation on Monday.

Matthews, an Australian, was talking about the company's unpopular pension revamp proposals when he was asked why the proposal had been hidden at the back of the company prospectus, replied, and I quote; "That's the nigger in the woodpile."

Question: what's the difference between this and Jade Goody's comments?
Answer: Jade Goody, while being as thick as mince, never actually said anything racist. Trevor Matthews is a top UK Executive, is intelligent, and thought it would be acceptable to use the N-word in front of a room full of people.

Jade Goody called Shilpa Shetty, "Shilpa Poppadom", which is about as bad as the English referring to us Scots as Mr. Haggis, Jocks, Sweaty Socks, or The Scotch. What's so racist about that? We call the English Sassenachs, Southern Softies. Australians are called Or a bunch of colonial convicts, and so on, but it's all traditional banter. It's hardly racist.

Matthews has of course issued an apology, but how can anyone take this man at face value now? Not only are he and his boardroom buddies stealing from the company employees by raiding their pension scheme, but now he has tarnished what is left of their image by hinting at the levels of disrespect and disdain they hold the public, as well as their employees.

~ Serious bit ends. ~

I was in work for before 7am today after last night being up constantly. I felt not bad, as though I had been up all night but a shower and an extra-strong coffee refreshed me a lot. By 9am though, I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I had to splash water on my face and the heat in the office made me feel worse.

I went out at lunchtime and the cold air woke me up a bit, but by 1pm I was back struggling, the headache had arrived and all I wanted to do was sleep.

I got nothing done at night and began to really regret my decision to stay up all night. By the time I went to bed at 10pm I had been up constantly for 34 hours. Poor decision, I agree, but worth it if you think the book is now totally complete.

One final thing before I go...

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POOLSIDE POETRY
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MARCH 2nd 2007

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