Words Past Present and Future

Words Past Present and Future ©

By Michael Casey

Its Chinese New Year 2017, no doubt my wife will tell me which animal it is this year when she comes home later. I think I’m a dog even though my Chinese nick name is Panzi or Pig, but at least I’ve never been called a Dog. Words mean something and they have weight and value, though some may say a Politicians words are as worthless as a Used Car Salesman or an Estate Agent or Double Glazing salesman.

So you can see Words mean so many different things, to you, to me and to the World. I’ve only ended up talking about words today as Theresa May our PM is traveling the world drumming up trade, the irony is that Napoleon dismissed England as just a Nation of Shopkeepers, and look what happened to him. A Nation of Shopkeepers was the original title of my 1^st book a comic novel, in the end it became The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker.

Why are words so important, because of the actions that follow them. He’s all talk and no trousers is one expression, I remember hearing it in a 1960s film perhaps, I know what it means but I don’t know what it means. Was it originally a girl commenting on a man’s lack of sexual performance or was it just that the man just talked but then did nothing. It’s about lack of action, whatever sort, you can all Google it for yourselves.

Red Lines are another favourite of Politicians, but if a Red Line is crossed and then there is no action afterwards then the Politician is seen as weak and feeble, no matter who they are, you can pick your own Politician wherever you are in the world reading this.

Cursing and Coarse words are very strong and effective, we all use them and if you are telling me you have never used such language then I’d say you are a Posh Panda, which is the worse thing a Shanghai zookeeper can say, believe me I was at the zoo17 years ago this very week. A curse can save a life, being called a Posh Panda in Mandarin saved me from being dumped on by a giraffe, and that would have been load of pooh from a great height. You all have a cartoon in your mind now of my head and a giraffe’s rear end, see cartoons made from words.

Your Word is your Bond, though not shaken nor stirred, if you say you are going to do something then you should do it. In different Cultures words mean different things, other cultures like to haggle and bargain that’s why Westerners seem dull and boring because they just pay the price. The Haggle is the most important part of the day for the trader in foreign lands. Words are his toys, he goes home and tells his wife the top 10 haggles of the day, English people tend to be the most boring as far as he is concerned.

That was until he met my sister on one of her travels. This looks like a load of crap she’ll begin with, though she’s posh as you expect her to be, so she says R U B B I  S  H spelling it out, just so the trader can hear. He’s reading Time magazine, he did a Masters at the LSE before coming home to run his dad’s stall wherever. Then my sister will walk away and look at another stall, tut tutting, the rubbish here is unbelievable. 

She’s set her heart on a scarf of pure silk, not viscose, she knows the difference at 100 metres, she is an international traveller after all. So she goes up and down the stalls lambasting the quality of their stock, I wouldn’t even donate this stuff to a jumble sale.

It’s a dull day, it has been raining and trade has been very bad, so my sister is like a shark circling, she’ll have a bargain or bite their arm off. After stopping for street snacks she deigns to walk past the 1^st stall, her target, her prey. How much do you want for this dirty rag, the scarf not your Time magazine, who is that blonde on the cover, never mind, how much for the rag.

The stall holder says 10 she laughs and walks away, ok 9 he offers. My sister laughs even more, she does teach Drama after all, so her wicked witch laugh is legendary. The laugh unsettles the entire market, the stall holders are afraid and one even rings the priest. Resistance is futile you will be assimilated blares from a tv above the  market, the stall holder gives my sister a scarf , she pays 5. In his haste and fear he give her a scarf worth 20, and the stall holder mumbles goodbye my sister turns back, half the other stall holders duck in fear. I always have a GOOD BUY.

So from the legal, decent and honest example of my sister’s use of words, or did I just make it up, anyway from the example you can see how we can use words to negotiate to get what we want. Now we have Theresa May negotiating for UK and some may ask why does she wear red and all the fancy fashion.

Well for two reasons, she is a woman, and when she wears red that it to hide the blood of her victims, sorry I should be more diplomatic, her negotiating partners, her opposite numbers. And why all the heavy circular jewellery, its remind men that she will crush their their, just as Sir Francis Drake did after he finished his bowls.

 Need I say more, or has my lack of words been more than enough. Less is more and as her admirers may say, she may only be the vicar’s daughter, but you haven’t got a prayer, as resistance is futile, or is that science fiction?