May 2008 Archives

By Guest Blogger Peter Seth, 3rd Dan Aikido.

Knives! Horrible things in the hands of fools!

In fact it does not even have to be a knife, almost anything can be employed to intimidate, terrorise, wound and kill. It is the individuals not the weapons they use which must be the priority in addressing the present violence sweeping the country.

Apart from the criminal element and the perpetuation of violence for gain, the other main area is the violence that seems to be prevalent and increasing amongst the youth in this country.

With youngsters, both male and female as young as nine up to the age of early 20s and sometimes beyond, being involved in nasty and sometimes deadly violence how do we address the issues?.

Odd isn't it, how it's always life's little irritations that wind you up the most. If something major goes wrong, you just get on and deal with it and all the other stuff becomes irrelevant.

But when you're up against the little things in isolation, what should be a minor annoyance gets magnified out of all proportion.

It was like that with my fridge door . . .

They say things happen in cycles... The other day I was involved in a car accident and my brand new dishwasher went up in smoke. To try to avoid the third catastrophe someone at work told me to break a match. I couldn't find one so I attempted to break a pencil and broke a tooth instead...Which led to the discovery that our dentist is retiring after thirty two years...