Vic Rolfe

Meimei was my dearly loved 14 year-old Siberian Husky in the Philippines. She passed-away peacefully the other day. I can't complain at that as she was well-loved and well looked after by my two youngest daughters. She enjoyed life. She was a real surviver and she lived to a ripe old age. My only regret is that due to these ridiculous and largely useless travel bans, I was not able to be with her even once during the last 15 months of her life. 'Just one more of the billions of Covid-19 fall-out stories from around the world... I rescued Meimei from a pet shop when she was about 18 months old. She'd already spent about six months, as far as I can work out, in a filthy little cage in the shop window. From the moment I picked her up, she loved her Big Daddy like, well, (words fail me...) Well like only Meimei could! I was there for her when she was younger and I spent as much time as I could with her in her older years. I only wish I could have seen her in her last year of life. My kids told me that Meimei was waiting for me to come home. Covid bull... Well... Maybe she understands now. I am going to miss you Meimei. And I will always love you... Your Big Daddy forever!! Here's Meimei in her younger days, not too long after I got her - having a good look over the wall at some goats in a field there!!

Just for the record, here is a copy of my youngest daughter's epitaph for Meimei: And here was my reply. It's basically a Message to Meimei, wherever she is now! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

I have finally had enough of the Financial Times and have now cancelled my subscription. When asked for my feedback, this is what I gave them: I could have added that in the good old days, the ft was a highly respected "paper of record." Nowadays, I have better things to spend my money on.

And more power to Lord Sumption !! https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8281007/Former-Supreme-Court-judge-LORD-SUMPTION-gives-withering-critique-Governments-lockdown.html https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/03/lord-sumption-speaks-against-hysteria-driven-government-policy-.html

More power to Anders Tegnell !! All makt åt Anders Tegnell !! !! My letter to the ft. Needless to say, they didn't publish this. So, haha, I decided to publish it myself: Just in case you should decide to publish my letter, please do feel free to edit as necessary - as long as you maintain the essence of my point. Thank you - and keep up the generally high quality reporting and opinion pieces that I have been accustomed to with the ft over the last 45 years! Best regards, Vic Rolfe (Currently onboard a ship in the UAE after a full two months of quarantine - and I still can't get off!)

Here's someone talking some sense, for once, in this crisis: You don't need to take my word for it. This is from a former Supreme Court Judge in the UK: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8281007/Former-Supreme-Court-judge-LORD-SUMPTION-gives-withering-critique-Governments-lockdown.html For the record, I do not consider Lord Sumption's comments extreme in the least. I would place his views firmly in the middle ground when it comes to the great lock-down debate. I agree with every single word that Lord Sumption wrote. I would like to go even further and bring in the following points: Firstly, I believe that Lord Sumption was far to kind to Niel Ferguson and his team, with his comments regarding the Imperial College pre-print that caused the UK Government to do an overnight U-turn. The media in general seem to think that it was a scientific paper when presented to the UK Government? It was not a scientific paper at that time because it had not been peer-reviewed at that time. It was nothing more than a pre-print from one team of scientists. (As far as I am aware, that is all it is to this day? If I am wrong, please do leave a comment and enlighten me...) Lord Sumption touches on the national economic dimension of the UK lock-down. But I would take the discussion further - specifically with regards to how this will affect the final death toll. I would also like to bring in the international dimension to the debate - in terms of both health and economics. We seem to have forgotten that this is a world-wide pandemic and it needs world-wide coordinated actions - not selfish national ones that will bring hundreds of millions of people around the world back into poverty and starvation. Finally: when governments around the world shot their own and each others economies in the foot, did they even stop to consider the added threat that we now have to international peace and stability?