And Violence Begets Violence

This is a post that I did not think I would ever write, because it is quite personal and although I do not mind sharing parts of me with other people, this is a part I would rather not have shared. But I will share it now, in view of hearing calls for 'let's start a war with Iran' or 'let's bomb North Korea or 'blow Japan out of the water'. The reason for these various calls have to do with perceived or real threats to our safety or security or for other reasons, such as barbaric treatment of people or animals in their care. Whatever, the reason is, violence can NEVER be the answer.

Sure, if someone attacks you you have the right to defend yourself, but never ever be the one who starts the violence.

My absolute distate for violence is a result of my early upbringing. I am the off-spring of a mother who was in a Japanese concentration camp for four years, from age 11-15. I know in graphic detail what was done to my mother and other girls and women in those camps, it makes the British t.v. series 'Tenko' look like a holiday camp. After the war my mother moved back with her family to Holland, where nobody at that time was interested in what had happened to them, because the people who had lived in Holland during that time had themselves suffered a lot at the hands of the German occupiers.

I remember a childhood of beatings and walking home from school wondering if I would go home to 'loving mummy' or we would have to play 'Jap camp' again today. I will not bore you with the details, they are not interesting and add nothing to this story.

I want to say that violence done to one generation has lasting results not just for that generation but for the following one as well. And I guess, had I not decided never to have children, I might have visited that violence on the next generation too.

I just wish that when people say 'let's start a war' or 'let's blow them to kingdom come' they would remember that violence never ends well, and that all it does is beget more and more violence.

How Do You Like Your Surf?

Having decided that I am not going to spend the rest of my life frantically surfing on Traffic Era, I thought it was time to revisit some of the Traffic Exchanges I am already a member of and also join a couple of new ones. I will still do a couple of hours on Traffic Era, but I felt it was time to diversify a bit. This post is about the two new exchanges I have joined this weekend.

The first one is for those who like their surf easy and without frills. Ten second timer, one to one hit ratio, free, easy to use, unlimited URLs and a very good admin. Small at the moment, but that only gives us a better chance to build downlines. It is surfing at its easiest and I think it will give good results because people are not perpetually distracted by things that are supposed to make surfing 'fun'. You can visit Jus-Surfing here. See what you think, I like its pure simplicity. At the moment there is a contest going on to see who has the most points in their account at midnight 15th June UK time, and they will win £15.00 straight into their PayPal account. Nice :)

The other exchange I joined was the long-awaited second baby of Kjell, called Deep Space Traffic, I am sure you have seen the ads over all the exchanges you surf on. It is an interesting exchange, with lots of extras, possibilities to upgrade, win extra credits, lottery tickets and space travel. The design is fantastic and it does make surfing as much fun as it can be. No team surfing so you work for yourself and that can be very refreshing too. The splash pages you can use for advertising are numerous and some are very humorous.

Surfing the two together works very well, both have 10 second timers and they do not conflict with each other - even my little old laptop does not start to shudder every two minutes when I surf these two at the same time. They are as different from each other as they can be, but work extremely well together, so it is an excellent combination as far as I am concerned.

I am very happy with my two latest acquisitions, and have spent a few pleasurable hours over the weekend Just Surfing and relaxing.