‘Ello, I wish to register a complaint.
(The owner does not respond.)
‘Ello, Miss?
Owner: What do you mean “miss”?
I’m sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!
Yes, I wish to register a complaint. Someone out there is taking the micky. It’s like this. You’ll probably have worked out by now that I’ve written ‘Justice 4.1’ which is out in March. But it doesn’t stop there. I’m working on further books in the same setting. Indeed if you want to visit the Tsarina sector there’s even a facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/TsarinaSector
So wander along, click the ‘like’ button and bring a little sunshine into my life.
But the problem is I’m currently trying to create a decent villain who does unpleasant things. Not only that but I’m trying to portray the unpleasant and dysfunctional societies that he dominates.
‘Fair enough,’ I hear you all mutter, ‘Stop whinging and get on with it.’
The problem is that no sooner do I get a really cool, evil and devious idea for my villain, than along comes the real world, sneers at me and points out that reality has already surpassed me.
I was setting up a background where there population would be oppressed and kept in poverty by those employing them. I was a bit worried that I might be getting carried away. After all, when you’re writing fiction you have to make sure you carry the reader with you. They have to suspend their disbelief which means you have to keep things ‘real’.
And then I saw this.
http://www.upworthy.com/that-one-time-when-a-company-with-a-gajillion-dollars-tried-collecting-food-donations-for-its-staff-6?g=2&c=ufb1
Sorry but that is beyond a joke! I literally dare not make that up. Yet somebody sat in an office and decided to make that company policy!
Mind you, the great Terry Pratchett once wrote “There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.” (Small Gods)
But do we care? Will enough people be so revolted that they stop shopping in Walmart and Asda?
Why do you think I put ‘sexy checkout girls’ in the title? How many people would have bothered reading a rant about supermarket employment policies?
Tagged: Monty Python, Terry Pratchett, Tsarina, Walmart
Jim Webster 
Capitalism unfettered by any sense of social responsibility. Sigh.
It’s not even capitalism, it’s cronyism. It’s the same political force that destroyed communism, it’s the rich sticking together to help each other. If we had good unfettered capitalism, we’d have had banks go bust and bankers out on the street. Instead their political mates brought in quantitative easing to suck money out of savers to pay off the banks.
And they’re demanding more regulation!
Tacitus, Annals, “The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”
I have heard a lot of stuff about Walmart that makes me rather leery about shopping too regularly at Asda (who they own). I notice that the more meat crushing and undemocratic the regime running a country, the more likely it is to have the word “democratic” in it’s name. So it is that the fact it calls itself the Walmart “family” rings my warning bells. All of them.
Cheers
MTM
The Mafia also has ‘families’, perhaps that’s what people had in mind?
I’ve been wary of the major retailers because some of them have a seriously bad reputation among suppliers and potential suppliers. Basically those parts of British agriculture that do best are those who can export! It means that unless you’re daft enough to sign a contract, the retailers have to pay world market prices. (or import cheaper substitutes which is why we got the horse meat saga)
I work for the bastards!
Seriously though I think Wal-mart is just one of a bad bunch. Less I forget B&Q offering a 6 hour contract and Argos offering eight. All I tell people these days is skill up. If you can do something that few others can then the money should flow in. Unskilled labor is a resource of which there is plenty so the work force is essentially disposable.
I’ve had family work at B&Q and I wasn’t impressed. But yes, skill up. Kids have to learn that working at school isn’t something they can take or leave, Europe is full of people with decent education and skills who can now work in this country thanks to the EU. Slouching about or skiving off isn’t an option unless you want a life being ordered about and looked down on by the staff at the job centre.
[…] to promote it… https://www.facebook.com/TsarinaSector And he also has an interesting blog… Who wants sexy check-out girls anyway? | Jim Webster Well that's my shameless plugging done for the day. Though remember he also has a fine series of […]