Many teens have and always will have unenviable and often ‘nuisance’ life styles.
Lets look at what teenagers like to do.

 Belong to a tribe or team eg. Join a gang, support a sports team, follow a particular music group.

 Try new things eg. The way they dress, dallying with substance abuse.

 Try to shock their elders eg. Dress, alcohol use, smoke, think they invented sex.

 Teens get bored – very easily e.g Hang out on street corners,  use childrens’ play areas that are too small for them. Also heard to say
“I’m bored”

 “They don’t give us anything to do”.  Who are they?  – blank look.

Many teenagers lack confidence, lack imagination, don’t know what goal setting means, have had to grow up with inadequate role models from a young age.

So, What to do?  Throwing money at problems rarely works – the Country is broke anyway.  If it’s not the bankers it’s a war somewhere that drains our cash away.

We need to find something that will –

  Give them an established team to belong to for support and loyalty.

 Allow them to “Be themselves”  during leisure time. Dress as they please and behave as they please within the law.

 Provide social facilities where possible.

 Provide any teaching that may be needed and teach them a trade.

 Feed them a balanced diet.

This seems like paradise.  But, while there is a war somewhere and politicians know they could run that country better, paradise it is not.

I should add here that I am not and never have been a member of a Political Party. I was a secondary school teacher. I have seen substance abuse, poverty, deprivation, violence, homelessness – Mother let his room while he was at school, trauma – child coming into school because there was nowhere else to go after she had seen her father strangle her mother to death. The child blamed herself because she couldn’t remember the number to call.  All this was in the affluent S.E. of the UK in the 1980’s.

Then we wonder why many of our teenagers are a mess!

You will have guessed my answer by now – CONSCRIPTION

Conscription provides the five needs set out above.  So where will the money come from when the Territorials are having their training budget slashed?

Lets make a list of the savings.
 Reduced law and order problems at night due to alchol and   accompanying violence.
 Reduced Social Security Payments
 Reduced National Health time and resources.
 Less damage to others’ property
 Less Local Council costs
 Reduced obesity – comfort eating and lack of cooking skills.
 Reduced pregnancy – The need to be loved without reserve

This my personal opinion and mine only.  It is built from a life time of involvement with and observation of teenagers and their needs in our society.

You are welcome to comment , but any inappropriate posts will be removed.

The long silence has been because I have been on a transatlantic cruise.  On the way across the Pond we called in at Santa Cruz which has a brand new cruise port courtesy of the EC and new roads and infrastructure thanks to the EC.  And McDonalds, no thanks to the USA.  Prices in the shops are considerably lower than in mainland Portugal.  Agriculture is the main employer.

The Azores are on every cruise itinerary that can possibly be wangled next year.  I’m glad I saw the beauty before they become another Tenerife.  Now I shall go nurse my cold,  the worst in years, contract via the ship’s air conditioning.  I had pills with me for everything except a cold!

The first thing I noticed was the lack of special offers on instant coffee.  There were no more wars than usual in the coffee growing regions, so it must be disease  or climate to blame.  Most coffee growing regions have no problem finding workers.  It’s unlikey that disease would strike in all areas at the same time.  This leaves us with – you’ve guessed climate change problems.

Then I saw a report from Columbia saying how bad the coffee harvest is.

My advise is, if you are a coffee drinker, either ‘real’ or instant, buy now and stock up for a siege.  Coffee prices will not be falling and are already rising!

Don’t forget you can save money on household bills by installing a Powertune plug-in Energy saver.

This extract from France24  just about sums up the European view of the US psyche.  Never mind, 50 people have been killed in the Carribean but our oil and petrol production will be OK.  What price a human life compared to a barrel of oil?

• Some County in Minnesota is going to disband it’s Police Force to save money!?!?
• Poland that has been invaded more than any other European Country because it is flat and slap bang in the middle of the continent so trouble comes from all sides.  So how are they going to fight the credit crunch?  By cutting their defence budget, of course!
• Orlando, Florida.  39 bus routes are to to face cuts.  So, how will people have to travel?  Use cars more or walk.  In a land built for a minimum of four wheels each, you could die of starvation walking to a shop.  I know, I tried walking there, but gave up and hired a car.
• Next to save costs Mr Bush is cutting the Science budget, presumably so he can have his country continue fighting everyone else’s war.  Not the defence side of this budget, but the area that did atmospheric research to try to find ways of helping the world’s poorest nations fight climate change.
• China has had to take cars off the road to fight pollution because of the Olympic Games.  This means that the people who were  disposessed and given no compensation because their homes were in the way of the stadium,  can sleep in the open and actually see the stars for the first time in years.
• David and Goliath have taken up arms and Israel is coming in on David’s side.  Doesn’t Israel have enough trouble at home without mixing it on Georgia’s side against mighty Russia. 
• And who is just round the corner?  Poland who is cutting its defense budget! 

 But, what I am certain of is that spending a little on a Powertune energy saver will save a lot of money and energy.  At least something is reliable and makes sense in the world. today.

And where is there the most oil?   ALASKA The Last Wilderness. I’ve been to Alaska.  Go there now to see the beauty that will be lost through mans’ greed.   

Did you see ‘Burn Up’ last night @ 2100 on BBC2?  Second part Friday.rrels of oil now recoverable rom the Arctic Circle should be enough to meet the     This drama production is in danger of getting far nearer to the truth than Channel 4. It is both entertaining and frighteningly factual.  It would make an ideal study  for ‘A’ level.

LETS GET SOME DISCUSSION GOING ON THIS POST!

I’m trying to do my bit to offset the consequences of the energy crisis as it is now called.  Pop over to my PowertuneEnergySaver site and see what I mean.

The repot said that deforestation worldwide has been caused by population pressure.  True in part, people need firewood to cook in many regions also wood for building.

It’s easy to blame the world’s problems on lack of birth control.  In many areas there is need for a high birth rate because people die so young for a vaiety of reasons.

BUT, what about us?  We like our Teak garden furniture.  Too often wood from non-sustainable sources is used.  This means when the tree is felled, all the nutrients in the tree are removed from an ecosystem and the soil ‘dies’.

Brazil is a problem.  Rich land barons ravage the rainforest to turn it into grassland.  Why? to graze cattle on for a couple of years until the soil ‘dies’ in another place.  But never mind there’s plenty more rain forest and the natives are illiterate so what does it matter?!

So, what happens to the animals?  juicy steaks and corned beef for stomachs that don’t need it.

Question.  Can anyone tell me the make of corned beef that does not come from South America?   Or, have we got the the China syndrome?  It’s cheap and good value but I would buy British if anybody still made it here!

A product which is not made in Brazil or China is Powertune Energy Saver. Take a look and see how to save 25% off your electricity bill with zero effort!

The forests in Ontario support one of the world’s largest intact ecosystems.  There are more than 200′ sensitive’ species of animals including polar bears, wolverines and caribou as well migratiry birds.

Ontario’s forest is a significant global carbon sink, absorbing some 12.5 million Tonnes (about 30 million tons in ‘old money’)  of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.

The Canadian Forestry Service tells us that Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions account for about 2% of global emissions.

Well Done Mr McGinty – Ontario’s Premier.  You obviously didn’t attend the same school as Mr Bush!

If anyone in Canada is interested in Powertune Energy Saver.  Please leave me a comment, thanks.

The Government are always giving hefty subsidies to the ‘wind’ industry.  How? That’s why electricity bills and energy bills in general are so high. We are paying! In a nutShell —–

• The London Array could provide 25% of London’s electricity.
• Shell pull out of partnership with E.ON (Germany) and Dong Energy (Denmark).
• Crude oil $120 per barrel
• BP wants to go back searching for new big oil fields.  How will this be financed? from profits? No, by selling off its $7 billion of renewable energy interests.
• At a recent conference on “Forced Migration due to Global Warming” I asked a cabinet minister when there would be legislation to protect the majority from the the will of the minority? The reply was something like ” Oh no! That’s planning law, very complicated.  And I don’t like wind turbines anyway! Talk about fiddling while Rome burns .
• USA and China have beaten us to it with aquiring the available kit.
• Rising costs of steel for the turbines and copper wire.
• Weakened £ against the Euro.
• Construction and maintenance costs are higher offshore than land installations.
• Currently the spot price for electricity is £45 per megawatt/hour.
• The companies building the London Array could have expected to be paid £130 for every MW/hr unit produced.
• You guessed it, the circle is complete, WE PAY.

Robert Lea of the London Evening Standard 08/05/08 summed the situation up beautifully.  “The Answer my Friend is Blowing in the Wind”

PS. There’s a way to save up to 25% off your electricity bill for less than £50 – guaranteed

How?  FIND OUT HERE

Has anyone heard any more about this, maybe it’s because it’s warm at the moment.

What about the energy use monitors that the Government were promising free to every household last year?

Never mind, you can always buy a Plug-in-Energy-Saver for less than £50 and save that much money in under six months.  Take matters into your own hands and look after yourself.  You could have sprouted wings and be playing the harp if you wait for any government to act.  Oh! and Powertune is fully guaranteed.  Government promises aren’t.