#MeToo

A beautiful Indian Summer day. I might have done somewhat better at recording it in a photo if I had checked the settings. I suspect I must have hit the "Bokeh" button which explains the result.

Angie went to check up on her father's progress. I guess it has to be said it was very positive when she returned this evening complaining about him. He's making such good progress that he is annoying everyone. The nurse I called "robust" the other day is now the best thing for him. She gives back as good as she gets and interestingly the two of them can speak to each other in Serbian as she comes from there and Sepp was born (1934) in a former Austro Hungarian mainly German language speaking village that ended up in Serbia after WWI. Despite fleeing the Russians in 1944 aged 9 to Austria. he still remembers quite a lot of the language. If he continues at the ´current rate he will move back to a normal ward on Monday and hopefully, the result of his bone marrow test will be back then.

He's now so far that he is allowed one bottle (500ml) of beer a day - IN INTENSIVE CARE!!!!! His son was sensible enough to water it down a bit when he poured some in a mug.

You need to remember we are in Bavaria where Beer is considered an essential basic foodstuff - liquid bread. I can remember times when beer was freely available in the shops in hospitals and was drunk without question on the wards. At some stage, the hospital shops stopped selling it and you needed to know where in the cellar area there was a vending machine. That then got moved into the entrance of the staff canteen area but I suspect has now disappeared. As far as I know, it is still allowed on the wards.

Here my Blip finishes and I start my beer related #MeToo Rant.
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Just minutes ago Brett Kavanaugh was appointed a judge to the Supreme Court of the United States. I am even more astonished by the decision than even the, personally more hurtful, Brexit decision.

Now let's get something out of the way.

Women have and will in the future mishandle men.

Does anyone remember Rod Stewart's 1975 Maggie May which comes from his first sexual experience when an elder woman dragged him into a tent at a musical festival, "took advantage" of him and threw him out? Here he recalls the event.

It's probably the only thing I have in common with dear Rod but that's almost identical to my first proper sexual experience. My first student holiday job in a hotel, one of the female waiting staff, several years older, grabbed me in the corridor outside the staff changing rooms and ....

That was 45 years ago. I remember the year (1973), the time of year (Summer July-September) and, if the building is still standing (Norwich Post House Hotel), I can take you to the scene. There were no witnesses as we were probably the last two members of staff left (the most junior) waiting for some restaurant customers to finally drink up their port and wine and go to bed. You don't throw customers out of a hotel restaurant seeking to be the best in town.

I was more than capable of physically defending myself as she was a very slim lady. I didn't, nor did I give consent simply because I was in a stunned state of puzzled, fumbling, clueless shock but the "act" ended within minutes and was never repeated, just the odd eyebrow exchange when we were on the same shift. I don't remember her name as we had not had any contact, other than work, before nor afterwards.

I never talked about this to anyone and so this must be the first time I have "broadcast" it in any way. I don't know why not. It certainly wasn't an event that I would in any way consider harassment even if I didn't seek it nor positively consent to it. And boys would tend to boast about such things - I suspect that had I done so (no doubt with some poet's license), I would have got a free round of beer from the mates and be held in high esteem.

So that "silence" remains a mystery despite it being a "positive" event. Now if I kept that quiet, just think what it must be like for any woman especially a young girl who was physically forced against her will. If I wasn't prepared to tell my mates, how do you expect a girl to tell her friends knowing she would be laughed at and treated as a prostitute: "She deserved it, she provoked it"? Think she would tell her parents? Her school teachers? Her vicar or priest?

Of course, it is human nature and urge to have sexual contact. Parties, flirting and even getting drunk, are often part of that process. However, they do not constitute consent.


I am sure that many of us can think of women we have met in our lives who we could indeed imagine misusing sex as a means to better themselves such as "hunting" wealthy future husbands, even in some cases getting pregnant to force the process.  I don't personally recall any that would go as far as blackmail but I am sure there are many who would either for financial or simply revenge reasons. And let's not forget there are many men who do exactly the same.

HOWEVER, all of us know that the male human of this planet has since the beginning of mankind, used and often misused women. The few incidents such as Rod and I experienced are less than a drop in the ocean in comparison. We all know that a promiscuous man is a "lad" while a promiscuous woman is a "slut". The countless cases in recent years of prominent people, especially of my generation, has shown just the tip of the iceberg and it sickens me even more that exactly those people who could easily pay for such "services" are those that have abused their powers.

I do believe in "innocent until proven guilty" especially in a court of law. The awful cases of people being found innocent but publicly reviled and ruined through the media are horrendous. We have witnessed in the US Senate Committee these past two weeks at least two families subjected to this. I can't say who is telling the truth although I have a very strong gut feeling. I also have a very strong opinion of the suitability of Mr Cavanaugh based on his last verbal testimony to the committee.

But my opinion and gut feeling are no just way to assess someone's suitability for a job. And we weren't in a trial situation and one has to say it was a highly politically motivated two-sided scrap. But the country was presented with some evidence by a woman that even Mr Trump described as a "very credible person" yet there was no full enquiry into the events and it is almost certain barriers were put in the way by Mr Trump to prevent this happening.

At the very least, all those people who had been possible witnesses should have been interviewed. Just like me, nobody expects one to remember the time and date but most should remember if such an event happened, the persons directly involved and the place. Perhaps that wouldn't be enough to get a conviction in a court but in such a "Job Application" for a lifelong position at the very top of the US judicial and thus social system, the mere "beyond reasonable doubt" would in my mind be enough to stop his nomination, perhaps as the one dissenting Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said "not at this time".

I feel deeply ashamed as a male. Perhaps I'm a "limp" as I only recall ever being "accused" by a woman of the reverse - not making an approach. As for drink, I have either lived in very rural areas and/or my job was dependent on a car so I have generally always been careful. When I do have the opportunity to have a drink, I go from normal to slightly relaxed to incoherent, to sick and incapable in very few sips. Hitting the "sweet spot" between slightly relaxed and incoherent is the aim and involves around two to three pints. I am blessed with not having an aggressive stage.

I know many Americans would say it isn't my business, to which I would simply say "you do your country a great disservice by underestimating its huge influence on the world at large - for good and for bad".