The world today

I honestly can't believe what seems to be happening in the world today. Why do we learn about history when we constantly repeat it. The world should be coming together and uniting, working together, talking to each other and trying to show some compassion. Being nationalistic and complaining about immigration and other issues that are so outdated that it defies belief.

I have three children, 24, 22 and 12 and I seriously worry about the future for them. The current situation in the USA, with their president, is disturbing. the man thinks that there is only one country and that is theirs. Quite frankly, the people who agree with his rhetoric are obviously ill-educated because thinking that it is OK to make arms deals worth $110 billion to nations who have questionable human rights issues. The only way the world will rid itself of war and conflict is to stop the massive industry bent on producing military hardware for profit.

What is most disheartening is that money, and the pursuit of it seems to cancel out any other issues.  The people who are pacifists and want peace are ridiculed. Anyone who tries to follow that objective is labelled as 'Hippies" and written off. What a sad state of affairs when it is not trendy to be "A friend of the earth." We know that the human race has caused lots of damage to the environment since the industrial revolution so why are so many apparently educated people arguing about it. It defies logic. Big business and the media brainwash people and the education system seems to fuel this.

Basically, governments of the world do not want people to think for themselves. For someone like myself, who has been aware of these issues since I was a teenager, find it incomprehensible that things have not changed.

It makes me feel so sad.

Dealing with life changing events. and Karma.

Every time some one is going through something difficult, a divorce, a bereavement, redundancy or a jobless, hopeless future, we always here the obligatory, "oh be positive and strong and it will all work out right in the end." However true this is it is rarely that easy when you are in that position.
The main issue is that everybody has problems to a greater or leaser degree, depending on what life experiences they have incurred. Learning how to deal with our ups and downs is nearly as important as eating or sleeping because of the damaging consequences that can impact ones everyday life.

Guilt can be one of the most harmful and powerful emotions as it colours ever other emotion. Even though the past is important, as it is the blue print of the person you are now, to be prepossessed with mistakes you have made is really only prolonging finding the solution.

Karma, however acceptable or unacceptable that concept is, does play a really powerful roll in all our dealings with life and interactions with other people. Hence the phrase, 'what goes around, comes around'. I have had too many experiences to prove the existence of Karma to be cynical about it. The consequences of our actions manifest themselves in a variety of ways, sometimes coming from the least obvious place, but come they do. It maybe a religious view to 'do to others as you would have done to yourself', but when creating anger, resentment and malice towards others you inadvertently are creating future problems for yourself.

I have always tried to be ultimately good and honest, even though I haven't always succeeded, but the intent was always there. There has been very major issues in my life over the last few years but it really is the bad times that make us stronger and create the new person. This tenant has never been more true than it is now. Today, really is the first day of the rest of your life, so I intend to make it count.

Paypal Account Scams

Is Paypal safe?

Paypal accounts are meant to be safe and most of the time they are. I have just nearly been caught out by scammers operating from the Ivory Coast. But something did not ring true so I thought I would investigate further before proceeding.

I put an item up for sale on ebay. It was a piece of recording equipment. Very quickly I had an inquiry from someone who seemed very interested. I must admit that I am new to ebay and paypal, which might amaze you but haven't really had much call for it. Anyway, I responded to the request and was answered quickly saying that he would send the money via paypal and I was to send a payment request, which I did.

My suspicions were first aroused when this person did not inquire about the condition and specification of the item concerned, which I thought was odd. Maybe he just really wanted it and had been looking for one for sometime, I thought. I have recently sold another item of musical equipment and the buyer wanted more photos, technical information, a detailed history, how long I'd had it and where and when did I buy it . He must have sent me 10 emails and it was quite apparent that the guy knew exactly what he was talking about. The other buyer didn't ask any questions at all and initially I thought, Lucky me!

Then I got an email from paypal informing me that the money had been deposited into my paypal account and it showed up on my page, and naturally I believed it. Trusting that paypal was a safe medium I thought I had made the sale. The customer then replied saying that the funds had been transfered and could I send him a shipping number. At that point I started to think that I had done something wrong and that I had inadvertently lead him to believe that included in the price was shipping costs. This caused me great concern because to ship an item of that size would cost a small fortune. So I emailed him back saying that no shipping details or costs were included in our communication so would he contact me so he could collect the item himself.

I then received an email from paypal saying that if I did not send the shipping number within twelve hours I would be arrested and charged with fraud. I then looked at his original details for his address and realize that it was in the Ivory coast. To ship the item there would have cost more than he had paid for it. Then I thought, 'West Africa, wait a minute?"

I then embarked on a process of google searches to contact ebay by phone, relating to my paypal account. This took me about an hour but finally I succeeded and spoke to a very helpful American lady and explained my predicament. After the normal security checks pertaining to my paypal account she informed me that no money had been deposited into my account and had I sent the item. I replied that I hadn't. She said..."Don't!" There was no record of the transaction and that paypal didn't threaten customers with pending court action, especially after just two days. I read out the page to her and she asked me to send it directly to spoof@paypal.com .

Well, luckily I had not sent anything out and was told to ignore any other communications from this person. The most frightening aspect of this all was that it looked so genuine. If anybody uses ebay or paypal beware of any dealings with people from the west coast of Africa because they are up to every scam in the book.

If you have a doubt, believe it. If you think it is too good to be true, then it probably is. But my most important piece of advice is, don't be afraid to check things out, even if you spend an hour searching on the internet and waiting in line on a telephone because it is worth it. Some of these scammers are really good at what they do and to the unsuspecting, honest person you can easily be caught up thinking you are acting with the confines of a safe environment.