Dog muck on my daughter

I have just come back from the park with my daughter who had stepped on some dog muck and picked it up. She was crying during the way back because she thought she did something wrong. I had to explain to her that it was not her fault. It was a particular dog owner's fault.

I am usually very careful but this time, some children playing football had hid the thing under some leaves. They were old enough to know better that hiding it would not have prevented them from getting dirty themselves if they had stepped on it. Anyway, they did not mean anything bad and it is beside the point.

There may be a solution to this. I will write shortly.

Scam: Tickets to see The Queen

Scammers (or con artists) appear to be using The Queen as bait. They are dressed in The Queen's guard uniform to make the scam authentic. The incident I have been told occurred on a tourist bus. At the traffic lights, there is a knock on the bus door. They enter and mention a chance of a lifetime to meet The Queen. This is particularly effective because there are many people to sell the tickets to and they can be hidden from sight until a target bus appears. They can also sell the tickets and make a quick getaway.

Scamming is an evil practice as it is but to defame someone else makes the matter even more disgusting. I must contact The Queen and the police.

This was obvious to me because I am familiar with many scams. Since someone has asked for my opinion on this, I am inclined to believe that some people will fall prey to these con artists.

The convincing trick they have used is to operate near where the public see the genuine Queen's guards. In the example that I have heard, the bus was waiting to get into Whitehall from either Whitehall Place or Horse Guards Avenue. Since the genuine guards are in sight, they try to make you think that they are coming towards the bus from that vicinity. So that they don't appear too conspicuous, they did not wear the tall bushy hat. They had the red jacket which from certain angles could look like an ordinary jacket but from the front, it should convince the vulnerable public.

A solution could be to inform the tour leader of such a scam so that the next time they get on the bus, the tourists could be advised to take pictures of the Queen's guard. The photos can be past onto the police.

Wheelie bin thefts

Wheelie bins are rubbish bins on wheels. Designed for their manoeuvrability, the UK government distributed them to most households. Theft of these things have risen due to the cut backs on the frequency of rubbish collections from once a week to once every two weeks. Why are they stolen? The neighbours have decided to steal them so that they can store more rubbish.

It is a small wonder how the thieves can neglect to put themselves in the shoes of their neighbours?

Wasting food on the Apprentice (BBC)

Last night, the BBC showed an episode of the Apprentice where the teams were challenged to sell British food in France. One team in particular did so poorly that on top of making a loss, they were unable to shift a lot of the food. At the port, they were seen to discard the food in a bin. Did the BBC need to show this? Do they think it is acceptable to waste food? I fail to see these actions as entertainment. Why show something so morally wrong?

If the BBC wanted to show a better moral standard, they should have arranged the losing contestants to store the food at their living quarters. Since there are many more weeks to go, they should be able to finish off the food during this time. Provided they are not eliminated so quickly.

I am surprised that Sir Alan Sugar did not make a big issue out of it. Even from a business perspective, throwing away your merchandise is appalling.

Incentive for pupils to take science and maths

We are seeing a decline in pupils taking science and maths. The government is reviewing an incentive scheme that pays the pupils who decide to take science and maths. Is this the right thing to do? I don't think so. I can fully imagine the government using this scheme because they have introduced a similar scheme to reward pupils who decide to stay on at school rather than leave early. Why rely on money? Science and maths are very important subjects which should already be an incentive for children to take. The government must look at why the subjects are unpopular and try to fix the imbalance by tweaking things accordingly. A common reason is that other subjects are easier. So two immediate options. Either make science and maths easier or make the other subjects harder. Another option will be to reward pupils with more points for taking science and maths (the points should closely follow the hardness of the subject).

Another problem is that science and maths are taught without any applications. Surely we can design these subjects so that pupils can see the relevance to society. Even better, introduce maths and science more to the other subjects to reflect how they cover different subjects. This should be done at an early stage so that the teachers can cope.

1 in 58 police patrolling the streets

I read today in the Sunday Telegraph that only one in 58 police are patrolling the streets at any given time. This is based on the result that each police person spends about 14% of their duty time patrolling the streets. There are about 150,000 police and around 2500 are patrolling the street.

The reason for this is blamed on the amount of paper work that they have to do which appears to have steadily increased by the government. This is just difficult to fathom. Surely the police in other countries spend much less time on paper work and spend a greater amount of time outside patrolling the streets?

I have mentioned about reintroducing smaller mini police stations around the country. Considering the area of UK to be 245,000 sq km and having three in the mini police station, we can have 50,000 covering just under 5 sq km each. This is of course a trivial calculation but on the surface, it looks feasible. I have assumed a uniform density of these mini police stations so a more appropriate spread of them will make the idea even more attractive.

Dog poo on my shoe

Dog owners, please can you pick up your dog's poo. Today, I spent some time cleaning off the mess off my shoe. Although this is a nuisance, I am much more concerned about my daughter falling ill. I have heard that some dog poos contain worms that can cause blindness (if say a toddler rubs their eye with a dirtied hand). I am sure the dog owners that leave the poo on purpose do not understand the severe consequences. I do believe that if the dog owners are told of the dangers of dog poo, they will all clean it up. Should there be signs erected in the park that succinctly explains the consequences?

I would like to know why they do not clean it up in the first place. Are they too lazy? Do they think that the rain will miraculously wash it away so that their efforts will be pointless? If they have a garden, do they leave the poo lying about without cleaning it up? I cannot believe all the owners that do not bother cleaning up the mess in public places will act in the same way at home. So why the difference? Do they think that a public area is not their responsibility? Any way you look at it, they lack moral values.

There is such a thing called the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. So it is against the law to leave the mess behind.