John Linton
...........of decades of parental irresponsibility, poor education and bad examples everywhere you look in public life.
I suppose it's a basic characteristic of the human species that it is instinctively combative which is why it has become the dominant species on the planet. "Civilisation" over the past 200 or so years has done little to actually "civilise" the human species either in tribal relationships (between 'nations' and would be 'nations') and certainly not in 'person' to 'person' relationships. It seems to me that 'human beings', no matter how happy their personal state of affairs may be, are constantly looking to "kill" another living being and spend almost the whole of their lives in such pursuits. Apart from the insanity of 'national leaders' like Obama deciding that even more US troops are required to keep on killing the citizens of another country (using the same illogic as his predecessor for killing the citizens of another country and despite his pre-election promise "to bring our boys home from that unwinnable mess" - the same as another of Krudd's ludicrous pre-election lies) the majority of the human species devotes its time to surrogate murders via watching/supporting football games and other sporting 'contests' either at the suburban, city or national level or, decreasingly, playing some sort of competitive support where there is a 'winner' but much more importantly there is a 'loser'.
Apart from 'sport' this pernicious characteristic is seen in every, and I make no exceptions, every aspect of 'human existence'. It makes me constantly ashamed to be, through no voluntary action of my own, a member of the 'human' species and I recognise that I carry the same life negating inherited characteristics of every other 'human being' which while recognising that it is an inevitability doesn't do anything to ameliorate the self disgust it induces. Why bring up such an unpleasant and pointless view of life? Well, no real reason other than the my observation of the self destructive nature of several incidents over the past 48 hours of how humanity's need to pointlessly 'compete' produces negative results for the individual almost every time.
Exetel have rented an apartment in Colombo for 18 months at the asking price stated by the owner on firstly a twelve month lease and then an extension six month lease. Note that we paid the asking price which, because we were dumb Australians, was at least twenty per cent higher than we should have paid but because our time to 'negotiate' was strictly limited and we had so many more pressing things to do we let it go. When the time came to renew the lease we just said we would continue to pay the rent at the agreed rate for a further six months (which we paid in advance as we had paid the first twelve months). The lease came up for renewal again at the end of November and we indicated our willingness to pay for a further six months although we knew that the apartment building remained (after 18 months) more than half empty and we could get a better deal. So what does our 'landlord do? Instead of being grateful for getting a substantial premium from a perfect tenant that pays six months in advance as well as a one month bond she decides we are so stupid that she can demand a 12 month period and ask us to pay all legal costs for drawing up a new lease. Predictable result. We approached the owner of the building and got a larger apartment with a better views for 20% less than we were paying without the need to pay legal costs and only one month in advance. As the apartments are let fully furnished there was zero moving inconvenience. The lady concerned will have a great deal of trouble even finding another tenant and will certainly not get the same rent or the same payment terms (and certainly won't get paid in $US).
Twice this week I have had to deal with different residential customers who used the most appalling abuse to two different Exetel employees. The language was grotesquely awful and the threats were unbelievable. An investigation of each incident subsequently showed that both incidents were entirely the fault of the complainant and when this was demonstrated to each of the customer's concerned they didn't apologise but said it was Exetel's fault for not finding out what they (themselves) had done wrong sooner and that if we didn't employ non English speaking "monkeys" in a foreign country they wouldn't have had to say the things that they did. Ignoring that both Exetel employees speak better, and more clearly annunciated English than I do, these two pieces of human detritus illustrate the reasons I hold the opinions I do about 'humanity'......even when 100% demonstrated to be in the wrong so many 'humans' continue to insist they are the 'injured party'. For so many it's always someone else's fault that they are inconvenienced - irrespective of how incorrect that view is.
I could go on about a number of incidents over the past three days but if those three, in their different ways don't make my point then adding further examples isn't going to help....and as is obvious it is 'human nature" to act the way so many people do so there is nothing that can be done about it.
I did do something about these three incidents - I think it would be in the general community's interests for more people to adopt a zero tolerance attitude to the world's ****holes.....or at least the one's you come across and can do something about.