Guns Versus Obesity

I certainly don’t want to be the preacher or the wag! I am simply another human being going about his business in order to provide for his family!

As the Croatian second engineer talked I realised that perhaps my shades and tinted aspect does not help me to see much at all! He talked of billions of dollars being transported in containers from A-B, proceeds of drug and gun shipments and the laundering of money on AIG failing amounts – all carried out by respectable shipping companies. Cocaine to America in cement bags, chemicals out to help the refining process. Japanese businessmen being stopped at European borders with Swedish GDP amounts in paper notes, all wrapped innocently like a packed lunch in a dinky wee briefcase and guys who are rich beyond belief who know they will not pass forty as the next strongman makes his mark (but the thrill is worth it)! It’s another world and perhaps he was enjoying his story-telling, perhaps it is for real and I have my rose-tinted shades on, it does not matter.

All I know is that fizzy drinks, smoking and coffee kill far more people in the world than any of the above and that more money is made from their consumption than any crooked mafia conglomerate makes from drug running! I see obesity and the effects of smoking daily – If I look around I don’t see drugged up cocaine sniffers or guys buying mirrors and razor blades and I certainly I don’t get asked if I want a smoke of pot or a snifter of the white stuff on a daily basis. I also don’t see adverts on television or plastered onto bus shelters for an AK47 at half price and although I might know the principles of laundering money my bank manager doesn’t offer this facility alongside an extended overdraft.

A fizzy drink a day will result in obesity as the body has nowhere to get rid of all those fatty sugars and debatable ingredients! Fast food results in obesity! Smoking ruins circulation and starts off the cancer process and those inflicted find that they can’t even climb a set of stairs without puffing like an Iraqi prisoner being tortured in the bath tub! The free-market obviously loves this excessive and globalised demand for killer food and cigarettes; pills for obesity, dietary supplements for “whatever” and a surgeon or two to chop off a leg as the blood can no longer navigate the trails! Great stuff, keep those suckers comin! Inhalers; vitamins; wooden legs; injections; consultations; psychiatry; exercise books; self-help guides; coffins; wheelchairs; sympathy: you name it you got it except that all-important advice – stop eating, drinking and smoking rubbish!

Caught making profit from selling burgers and I might get into Forbes Rich list, caught selling cocaine and I will get into hell!

The other day I witnessed five extremely overweight linesmen in Norfolk, Virginia shifting a vessels mooring line from one bollard to another. I can do this myself without breaking sweat yet these five gentlemen (who waggled along) were all doubled over and exhausted after the five-minute exercise. The driver who picked me up at the airport could hardly talk as his heavy breathing interfered with civilised conversation. This is an epidemic, an international crisis, a world disaster of endemic proportions that will sink a nation if not the world!

In airports I can’t find fruit, when I buy a sandwich I have to empty out three quarters of the contents before I can take the first bite, all drinks in convenience stores are artificially sweetened or fizzy and salads are so thick with dressing that it would knock an elephant flat upon consumption. The hotels surprise me; I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Houston and as normal they had a coffee percolator in the room but not with two mini-packets (one decaf, one regular) of coffee but six – and no tea bags. I went for breakfast and they had coffee and they even brought a paper cup with a lid at the end of the meal so that I could take the rest of the pot away with me. And then in the lobby they had further urns of the black stuff –I asked for a fresh orange juice but they didn’t have any!

The other day I watched what I initially thought was a medical evacuation after an earthquake. What came off the plane in Houston was amazing, wheelchairs galore carrying a whole array of plastered and shaking victims, hobbling kids, dazed ladies who just meandered off and stood still, coughing and spluttering adults who shook with the violent force of their exertions, people large enough to sink battleship squeezed out and huffed and puffed their way forward and obese fathers who wheezed along and who held up queues as they stopped for an essential break. Turns out this was simply another flight with another bunch of passengers going about their normal daily business. Whilst this amazing spectacle played itself out in front of me what struck me most was that there was an obvious lack of pretty woman disembarking, no handsome men or athletic kids and this in itself is most shocking – in fact not one passenger had a bounce to their step, not one person looked as if they were full of the joys of life!

What surprises me is how any nation can expect to survive this onslaught of obesity and total ill-health. Obese people lose the energy to do anything apart from sleep, drink more fizzy stuff and consume themselves into a costly grave as the medical community caters to their whims. This also transfers to the brain – obese people are not known for being the next Einstein! Sick people are not good at fighting wars or working hard and they are typically not very good at earning money. This latter fact translates directly to offspring who tend not to become very intelligent when they themselves get to working age! “Papa’s too busy to talk to me; it takes him half an hour to climb the stairs” or “mothers having her pacemaker tuned at the garage again”!

Anyway, I better shut my gob otherwise some member of the medical community, a large drug company, international fizzy drink/cigarette manufacturer or a burger tossing chain will have me knocked off! I think I’ll take the safer option and talk to the second engineer again about gun running!