Sunday 26 April 2015

What a load of RUBBISH it's everywhere, it's complicated .

Everywhere I go rubbish everywhere , it's getting worse. Waverly council has collected more illegally dumped  crap in the first two months this year than the whole previous year. This is not surprising but  disturbing. Its  an upsetting site   seeing  things  thrown out which  aren't really rubbish, its stuff people just don't want anymore , it might be out of fashion , they  could be updating , so they dump it, obviously few think of  re-using, re-cycling, donating to charities, or not to buy the stuff in the first place. It's a transient accommodation world now, especially with hundreds of thousands of foreign students annually living here in Australia. 
Thanks to our a insatiable thirst for constant mindless consumption at places like Kmart , Target, IKEA etc, we're hyper shoppers , with no thought of  the long term environmental repercussions. At  7 billion people around how much longer can this go on for ? It's   unsustainable.
Sadly most things we buy are made in China or by third world exploited labour.
There are too many ethical issues to deal with . Anything we buy just doesn't last long anymore, so even if we don't won't to keep shopping, we have no choice....
I know from personal experience - donating is a hassle at times. I  take most items  to Salvstion Army or St Vincent De Paul charity stores, it's an effort I love to make , many others won't. Larger items such as furniture need to be picked up by their  trucks - yes it's a hassle to make an  appointment , being there for the collection, worse still when those charities claim my donation is not good enough !!! So we keep on dumping , on the streets  non stop, yet every time I see these mountains of rubbish I get so upset. I feel guilty cause we just don't love the planet...we are shitting on Mother Nature. One day maybe not now, but our next generation will be cursing us for  mindless selfishness. 
I feel after we dumped God, after we stopped believing in something bigger than us, we turned inwards in the age of narrisstic self focused consumption. At least religion didn't destroy the oceans.
We are heading for environmental disaster. I worry nothing will be done till it's too late. 
The answer is a combination of ethics and regulations. 
Local government councils collect the rubbish to dump it in tips. We need to pay a dumping fee added onto the cost of every thing we buy, like an environmental tax, so if it's $10, at the till it's an extra 2-5 % added. maybe working for welfare  program could extend to recycling at the tips, or where it's being picked up. Maybe the good stuff dumped can be taken to places where people can pic it up for free to either re use or resale for free. Let's create a smart phone app, take a pic of what you no pager want, leave it outside with its location, then it can get picked up by who ever wants it? 
We need to start education programs at schools about how happiness is not about buying more stuff unless we really need it, happiness is about experiences , not consumption.  Show videos of the exploited workers seeing away for those terrible dangerous conditions in far way lands...I can tell you as a Greek, making people feel guilty goes a long way.
We can give tax deductions to companies which  make biodegradable products, then put extra taxes on the parts or materials in the products that are non recyclable. 
Like cigarette packaging , every product or clothing sold needs a sticker on it with an environmental impact statement on it. 
We need to allow an army of   " Rubbish Reduction" volunteers allowed to roam freely into any shopping centre or store to confront consumers or question their purchases. Why are you buying this?
do you really need it ? What will happen to it when you're finished with it? How will you dispose of it? 
All products need an environmental impact statement based on materials, length of use, dumping etc, to come in a final rating of 1- 100 on also added to the base of each sales docket. 
Technology needs to work with social media, we need to develop a mind frame that's it's cool to re use , recycle or share .  Maybe we can not throw good  things out till we find someone to give them too. 
Let's face it, this is radical politics here at work, saving the planet means less consumption, equals less rubbish, this goes against the supply and demand economy. Ideally let's raise the wages in the third world, if we pay more we would hopefully consume less.
All that rubbish on my street is a global issue, yet I worry nothing will be done till it's too late...
Maybe  future climate change will cause massive disasters, I believe we'll be so spooked
Our collective energies will be about saving the environment , that's when the age of consumption will be over. The changes we need now won't happen till the are forced upon us later. 

Monday 20 April 2015

No More Eye Contact - Welcome to The New Impersonal Society.

Eye contact....
There's less and less of it. Have you noticed ? Is this defence mechanism due to over population ? 
Last year in London I was cramped on those crowded tubes, everyone was automatically avoiding
eye contact. I guess this is a way of giving each other psychic space. 
Our  attention has gone from others people  to be zapped by technology, iPhones, iPads , tablets. 
These distractions have come at a social cost, in particular to young people who look tasered. 
I remember as a child, one of our greatest fears of the future was being Zombies, worried we 
would be inserted with a computer chip under our skin, to be controlled by computers. 
Hello, that's exactly what's we've volunteered to do. 
More and more people are almost agressively ignoring eachother. What ever happened to the days when there was this sense of belonging when we acknowledged eachother, smiled , said hello to total strangers , enjoyed the sense of creating a feeling of connection through constant small acts of niceness. This was the nurturing eggs which bonded society. 
It seems now we only make eye contact when we need or have to, mostly in business, work, shops or restaurants when we are paid to or paying for ....the over focus on consumerism is leading to a lack
of compassion on a subtle level. Consumption is about me, compassion is about we. 
I believe a lack of eye contact compromises our natural perception or intuition. If we avoid eye contact, how do we go deeper into the window of ones soul ? we need to asses the other persons  intentions or motivations to protect ourselves . It's not just about filling a multiple choice selection online to determine decisions . I don't trust people who can not make deep eye contact for at least a few seconds, I feel wary, it's a warning  they are not sincere. 
Personally it's most upsetting to see how offended people are if you even look at them at all , for more than a split second. This age of being overly self focused has contributed to selfishness, social isolation and depression, inparticular  in younger people who in my experience 
are only adorable when they want something. 
So get over it , start looking at eachother and for heavens sake smile then say hello !!! 

Saturday 18 April 2015

Gay Sauna Sydney, Yianni Zinonos tells what's going on in this hidden sex culture.

We have all heard  of "Gay Saunas " especially in the last couple of years with the recent sex scandals. 
Few of the mainstream public know enough about what's going on there.
Yes I'm gay and I'm out. I want to tell you more about these places. These are the homo harems 
Of today, though they have been around for thousands of years, the first gay sauna in Sydney was  discretely opened as a place called KKK or Kens Karate Klub about 40 years ago, it closed up 3 years ago. 
Now 49 - I went to Kens for the first time in 1985 - 30 years ago after hearing about this place from 
My first gay friend Neil. I was fascinated, all this was new and  close by.
The first time I walked up those stairs of this non descript  place I was a nervous wreck. I had only just came out , like many men  I wanted  to find out. I'm grateful to still be around to tell this tale.
 Safe sex does work. 
During the AIDS crisis of the  80s these places  where seen as no go zones of risky disease spreading outcomes. I will never forget the sight of dying friends or the fear becoming infected . No one ever even talked about these places let alone admitted going. Even amongst fellow gays, you where shunned as a degenerative slut by your social peers. There where codes of secret silence of which still survive today.
Of the 3  remaining saunas still in operation today in Sydney, the busiest one is at 357 Sussex Str in the City near Chinatown, called Sydney City Steam commonly known by locals as simply 357. The number mentioned alone is a sort of discrete code. 
This place has a story I want to tell. This is where men go to have sex with other men, though many of those men are not "Gay" or "out" . It's a melting pot of young, old, gay, bi, closeted, curious, married , in closed or open relationships, tourists or out of towners. From high earning professionals to the unemployed everyone is civilly mixed in. 
Despite all this new technology of hook-up apps or online dating , these places are incredibly busy.
Saunas have this physical immediacy about them. There is this male bonding thing going on. 
After paying at the secure reception, you're given a key to your locker and a towel, the first area looks like a gym, get undressed then wrap the towel around your waist,  walk around the maze of 4 levels. First thing to do is have a shower, then there's the steam room, sauna, toilets. Up one level is a movie room showing constant porn off course.
Guys are either chilling out,   though generally frantically running around looking to forefil their desires. When it's busy there may be up to 200 patrons , either soaking in the hot tub or steam , or  searching for the physical partner. There are plenty of cubicles or tiny rooms just big enough for a single or double vynal  covered mattress to go in once you've found one or more partners. 
There are several areas public or private to have sex in. Suanas are places of exibition where men can fuck or wank  then shower together, there are many guys who only do sex in front of others either one to one or in groups with an audience or not. Then there's the dark room where it's not just group sex but Anonymous as well, or the glory holes where the penis is shoved through a hole in a wall to be sucked by total strangers. Yes I know this may sound a bit much but not everyone does everything. There's a lot of soft sex amongst the heavy scenes.
Guys are coming and going at all hours, the busiest times for the openly gay are Friday , Saturday nights or Sunday afternoons. The more discrete customers come at all other times. There is a 24 hour limit per visit,  yes you can get free unlimited pass outs. No I don't own a share in this business ! Despite writing this article I'm not there all the time !!! 
The suana culture goes against the public's  currently  politically motivated image of gays petitioning for  marriage equality ,complete with surrogate kids on the way.
 Saunas are the secrete men's business, the man cave.....
Love can be found for some in between the predatory lust. The great thing about saunas is the absence of prostitution , there's no exploitation, its all mutual. So maybe male to male sex is a bit more evolved than Straight sex. Nudity is democratising, it becomes more about the other stuff like their age,
Ethnicity, body, image, vibe, persona. Body language replaces conversations here. 
Saunas can be social, there are plenty of gangs of friends, you can be chatty.  
Some guys virtually live there, lingering around for many hours chilling out. 
Most  have fantasies about the type of guy they're  into,   some so open minded anything goes. Generally it seems once the sex is done that's it, no matter how good it was, for many there is no social integration after that, though there are many regulars you may bump into. You may have sex with multiple men who you would never introduce to your friends, there's a lot of odd instant coupling. 
My observations say 20% are Bi, 30% in relationships , and the rest single. 
Yes there is safe and unsafe sex , it's obvious. It's about individual responsibility, there are free condoms and  STI testing on site. With the new HIV preventing drugs lately we've entered a new  era of unprotected anal sex again, though this does not save you from all those other nasty STIs.
There  are many men who would still never want anyone to know they go to saunas, because they are straight , married, in relationships, not out ,in denial or just ashamed of them selves. There is 
Still a stigma around them. It's not the kind of thing you mention to your mum or straight friends you've done when they ask what you did last night. 
One of my friends funnily enough refers to saunas as "Day Spas". And even claims them of his private health insurance fund. 
There is still the Shaming aspect about all this because people who do saunas are seen as sex addicts, though I feel shame is about how we treat each other, if we've treated others fairly and accept our selves , we have nothing to feel shame for, but many of us feel it because we are made to, or because our actions are not widely accepted. The darker side of the sex scene is the self obsession or narcissim, men - gay or straight seeking  the flesh  unfortunately forgetting the person under the skin, after a while leaving us numb.  The sex scene can make everyone feel like discarded peices of meat , with little consideration for other person's emotions in the pursuit of our self focused impulsive desires, and this is what mainstream society does not fully encourage or accept. 
Thank you for reading. * This is my first serious story for my new Blog.