Tag Archives: Oil&Gas

(Show) Business as usual

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Why anybody with a shred of intelligence is surprised at the disgusting behavior of Jimmy Saville and other UK showbiz personalities, surprises me. At first glance it seems confined to the UK (is paedophilia truly an English disease) until you remember Michael Jackson and the young boys who slept in his bed – and the consequent multi-million dollar payouts.

In general show business personalities are shallow, vain, and selfish; egocentric reprobates whose public image (these days carefully groomed and media managed by clever PR people) bear no relation to the real person and their dark secrets. 80% of people in “the Business” are from broken homes and/or abusive relationships – and have substance abuse problems. Look at the recent suicide/accidental overdose of GLEE star Cory Monteith, not to mention Janis Joplin, Keith Urban etc.

In my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” I deal with all sorts of characters who wash up in The Arabian/Persian Gulf for all manner of reasons. One such was Peter Moore, a decent enough fellow (but probably a bit vain and egocentric too) who happened to get very rich in the oilfields – and that attracted the undesirables. In his case he married Angie, a popular wannabe actress who turned out to be drunken, lecherous and promiscuous with a rather unhealthy interest in S&M. Eventually Peter divorced her  – and she walked away with a sizeable chunk of his fortune squandered on designer clothes, botox and cocaine. But that is just Peter’s back-story.

We pick up his story in the 2000s on the rebound when he joined the hedonistic movers and shakers in the manic property boom in Dubai, and rebuilt his fortune. Unfortunately history repeats itself, and he fell for a stunning 19 year old East European whore who led him a merry dance, and cost him most of his new found wealth – but for very different reasons. Old Habits Die Hard – and maybe that should have been the title of the story.

But I titled Peter’s story “The Girl who went to the Moon” as Chapter 10 in my book which you can review by following the link:

www.amazon.com/author/mikerichards

and you can download it if you have a Kindle.

If you do not have a Kindle and/or prefer to have a real book you can order the paperback from my publisher:

www.feedaread.com

or from

www.thebookdepository.co.uk

They offer free delivery worldwide.

 

 

 

VIVA ESPANYA

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I have not posted for over a week because we have moved back to Spain after 11 months in Australia – and I had forgotten what fun Spain is. Nothing works. We have had problems with water, electricity, Sat TV and finally with internet – only overcome this morning. But what is most scary is how quiet Spain is as a consequence of the GFC and the Eurozone crisis.

We arrived in Barcelona mid-morning, picked up a hire car and drove to the airport TRYP Hotel as usual, too tired after 22 hours of flying to attempt the 500 Km drive home. Usually the roads around the hotel are jam-packed and it is difficult to find parking. There was a 60% availability of parking spaces. And next morning when we left at 7 am – normally rush hour in a busy commercial centre like Barcelona – there was very little traffic on the roads. And we had the main highway from Tarragona to Valencia – the Autopista del Mediterraneo – almost to ourselves. Few people can afford the tolls?

How long will it be before the young people will rebel against 40% unemployment and cause serious, and I mean serious, civil unrest?

And still the incompetent and corrupt politicians, and the greedy and incompetent bankers and financiers, insist that laissez faire capitalism (where 1% of the population control 90% of the wealth, and want even more) is the correct system for a civilized society.

Perhaps now I will find the motivation to finish my second book GULF II “The Beginning of Sorrows”. In the meantime you can access and review and download my first book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” by following my URL:

http://www.amazon.com/author/mikerichards

This shows through the stories of expatriates washed up in The Arabian/Persian Gulf the consequences of the West’s botched foreign policies and greed for cheap oil. History repeats itself – first time tragedy, second time farce.