A little bit about me - Gordon Eve-Tatham

Having started the thread "What can be done to help manufacturing in UK?" I feel that I owe those who have responded and others a short resume about me.  I am married to Sandy and live on Merseyside and am about to become an OAP though still feel more like a teenager.  I worked for nearly 40 years in IT first for a manufacter (ICT/ICL) before joining a software consultancy who employed me 1969 until 2005 when I was made redundant.  Like many who started in IT in the mid 1960's I never had any formal qualifications (due being slightly dislexic) but I do have superb lateral thinking and reasoning ability meaning that I could do my job extremely well.  As a consultant I worked for clients in many areas of industry so I can appreciate the workings of society as a whole understanding complex relationships.  This lack of qualifications however really hit hard when at the age of 61 I was suddenly out of work.  I am now retired and living off savings until my company and state pensions kick in later this year (2009).  Like many I have been burned by the present financial crisis loosing £1,000's of pounds over the last 18 months.  This annoys me as had followed my gut instincts and simply kept my money in savings accounts rather than spreading a chunk of it across property and stocks I would have been much better off.

I am not very capable mechanically that once I have worked out and been shown how to do something I never forget and my lateral thinking capability coupled with life experience means that I can "adapt, imitate and improve" everything from recipes to DIY techniques.  This means that I am regarded as a general experts by those who know me; though ask me to fix something electronic and I am totally lost.  By observing society over the years you form your own opinion of what is wrong and also come up ideas of how to fix it; these ideas may be flawed but then so are those of government and commerce.  Problems in society are often inter-related requiring complex solutions which look at the whole rather than just a single area.  Unfortunately politicians only think as far as the next election, business to this year's balance and rarely take into account the effects of their actions of society in general.  This all means that greed and selfishness have become virtues rather than sins in the eyes of some.  However greed and selfishness will always hurt someone and ultimately rebound on the greedy and selfish.

The one commandment whcih we all need to live by in "Do unto others and you have them do unto you".  When things do go wrong we need analyze why and make sure that they do not go wrong that way in the future.  This will mean getting tough on wrong doers but more importantly reforming them so they do not carry on with their wrong doing.  We also need to understand why they became wrong doers in the first place and address those issues.  Those who run countries. local areas and companies need to have far more foresight than they do at present with the ability to understand society and the environment holistically.

I am not religeous but most faiths if followed honestly to preach forgiveness, compassion and consideration for others.  If there is a God he/she will show far more compassion to a good non-believer than to a fundalmentalistic of whatever persuasion who uses his faith as a justification for harming other human beings.

I have recently taken up creative writing and I intend to put this new found talent to good use by writing a series of articles on various topics which I hope will be published.  I feel sure that my philosophy if adopted will allow every human being a rightful place in society.  The forums on this site provide me with feedback and insight to help me tune my beliefs into sound and practical theories.  It is helpful not to be tainted by some past theories which have over time let us down so badly; we need to learn from our mistakes and do our best to avoid futures ones.

Welcome to the forum Gordon. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your introductory post, you sound quite then man, and I am looking forward to getting to know you here through your pictures and posts.

Congratulations Cathy for being first to welcome Gordon. We mustn't let that happen to often now must we  .