Monday, April 11, 2005
Tale of our times in 2005 - in three parts.
Prologue.
I started this post thinking about the toe-rags and petty criminals who ruin the lives of ordinary people in little britain today, with their mindless neighbourhood anti-social behaviour, petty crime, car vandalism, house-breaking, mugging, stabbings, drug wars, drive-by shootings.
You know, usual stuff these days.
Then I got to thinking about parenting skills, role models, leadership, civic responsibilities.... and it hit me.
Apart from the usual excuses of teenagers; "...I'm bored", "...nuffink to do rand ere, innit" mentality, lack of job opportunities (that's real enough); we are all shaped by examples around us, aren't we ?
Children have a right to be parented, nurtured, encouraged, praised, listened to; to motivate us to acquire education and life/social skills, which in turn foster aspirations, ambitions and the vision to do something with our lives.
So, arguably, parents (and society) must be failing those children, who see nothing better for themselves than petty crime, ASBO's, petty crimes, violence, drugs, UB40, dole, prison, dole and death.
Here's the thing. Who is motivating our struggling or failing parents and leading by example in our multi cultural little britain today ?
It is clearly not self serving politicians and fat cat tycoons lining their pockets and pensions, is it.
The example here seems to be feather one's own nest and to hell with the rest of you !
Hmmm. I recognise that pattern, don't you ? So, children need stronger role models to succeed.
What about the professionals in society, then.
Teachers, clerics, doctors, lawyers, politicians.... ?
Part One.
Ah, politicians. The thing is, nobody really believes that politicians are truly honest role models these days. Especially, Ministers in the current Govt. Particularly, Anthony Blair, QC, MP, who is Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.
What does it say about this society's moral and ethical standards that the Prime Minister, himself a barrister, son of a barrister, and married to a leading barrister; is so easily characterised by his own slippery words as economical with the truth, at best, or a liar at worst, on many of the defining moments in his career ?
Big lies, as in "..why we must invade Iraq, WMD". Little lies, "...I once ran away from home, yer know; slipped aboard a plane bound for Bahamas, yeah, from Newcastle !"
Only, Newcastle Airport never ran a service to Bahamas, ever, at all. So, Mr Blair was lying about his youthful escapades as well.
There are many more lies to chronicle, but they were probably all classified as "spinning the truth".
So, they weren't really lies at all were they.
Part Two.
Well, if regime change in Iraq was not on the agenda and they never did find WMD in Iraq, because they weren't there at the time of invasion; why did we go to war against Iraq again ?
So, why not Iran, N. Korea, Cuba, Libya and Syria, 'cause these are all Geo Bush's hit-list as well .
You can read more here...
I wonder why (not really...) that Burma, Sudan, Chad, Zimbabwe, and other African despotic states of human genocide and economic misery are not on Blair and Bush's To Do list of countries to invade ?
Part Three.
Now we find that 3 Labour Councillors in Birmingham have been found guilty of creating an illegal postal voting scam worthy of any of the above banana republics.
Read the judges summing up story here...
Apparently, the Govt. has known of these corrupt postal vote scams in B'ham (and Leicester and Bradford - and Pendle before that) for some time, yet chose to do nothing. Well, not quite nothing.
Peter Hain presented a formal parliamentary report with recommendations for stiffening up the postal voting system.
This report, inter alia, identified ways of improving security around the process for registering for postal votes, including stiffer procedures requiring documentary proof of ID prior to postal vote registrations.
Cynically, Ministers read the report, but decided that implementing the key recommendations *might* reduce "voter turn-out", so decided against stiffer postal registration protocols.
Epilogue.
So, exercise your vote on 5th. May. Choose wisely, 'cause we get the Govt. we deserve.
Whichever colour party gets elected, we must make them more accountable, more transparent.
That's probably as much as we can expect from our politicians at this stage.
Meanwhile, it's up to you, and you, and you, and me, to try and be better role models for the next generation.
What ? Yeah, I know, it's all bollocks till the current neighbourhood gangs grow up or die out.
Prologue.
I started this post thinking about the toe-rags and petty criminals who ruin the lives of ordinary people in little britain today, with their mindless neighbourhood anti-social behaviour, petty crime, car vandalism, house-breaking, mugging, stabbings, drug wars, drive-by shootings.
You know, usual stuff these days.
Then I got to thinking about parenting skills, role models, leadership, civic responsibilities.... and it hit me.
Apart from the usual excuses of teenagers; "...I'm bored", "...nuffink to do rand ere, innit" mentality, lack of job opportunities (that's real enough); we are all shaped by examples around us, aren't we ?
Children have a right to be parented, nurtured, encouraged, praised, listened to; to motivate us to acquire education and life/social skills, which in turn foster aspirations, ambitions and the vision to do something with our lives.
So, arguably, parents (and society) must be failing those children, who see nothing better for themselves than petty crime, ASBO's, petty crimes, violence, drugs, UB40, dole, prison, dole and death.
Here's the thing. Who is motivating our struggling or failing parents and leading by example in our multi cultural little britain today ?
It is clearly not self serving politicians and fat cat tycoons lining their pockets and pensions, is it.
The example here seems to be feather one's own nest and to hell with the rest of you !
Hmmm. I recognise that pattern, don't you ? So, children need stronger role models to succeed.
What about the professionals in society, then.
Teachers, clerics, doctors, lawyers, politicians.... ?
Part One.
Ah, politicians. The thing is, nobody really believes that politicians are truly honest role models these days. Especially, Ministers in the current Govt. Particularly, Anthony Blair, QC, MP, who is Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.
What does it say about this society's moral and ethical standards that the Prime Minister, himself a barrister, son of a barrister, and married to a leading barrister; is so easily characterised by his own slippery words as economical with the truth, at best, or a liar at worst, on many of the defining moments in his career ?
Big lies, as in "..why we must invade Iraq, WMD". Little lies, "...I once ran away from home, yer know; slipped aboard a plane bound for Bahamas, yeah, from Newcastle !"
Only, Newcastle Airport never ran a service to Bahamas, ever, at all. So, Mr Blair was lying about his youthful escapades as well.
There are many more lies to chronicle, but they were probably all classified as "spinning the truth".
So, they weren't really lies at all were they.
Part Two.
Well, if regime change in Iraq was not on the agenda and they never did find WMD in Iraq, because they weren't there at the time of invasion; why did we go to war against Iraq again ?
So, why not Iran, N. Korea, Cuba, Libya and Syria, 'cause these are all Geo Bush's hit-list as well .
You can read more here...
I wonder why (not really...) that Burma, Sudan, Chad, Zimbabwe, and other African despotic states of human genocide and economic misery are not on Blair and Bush's To Do list of countries to invade ?
Part Three.
Now we find that 3 Labour Councillors in Birmingham have been found guilty of creating an illegal postal voting scam worthy of any of the above banana republics.
Read the judges summing up story here...
Apparently, the Govt. has known of these corrupt postal vote scams in B'ham (and Leicester and Bradford - and Pendle before that) for some time, yet chose to do nothing. Well, not quite nothing.
Peter Hain presented a formal parliamentary report with recommendations for stiffening up the postal voting system.
This report, inter alia, identified ways of improving security around the process for registering for postal votes, including stiffer procedures requiring documentary proof of ID prior to postal vote registrations.
Cynically, Ministers read the report, but decided that implementing the key recommendations *might* reduce "voter turn-out", so decided against stiffer postal registration protocols.
Epilogue.
So, exercise your vote on 5th. May. Choose wisely, 'cause we get the Govt. we deserve.
Whichever colour party gets elected, we must make them more accountable, more transparent.
That's probably as much as we can expect from our politicians at this stage.
Meanwhile, it's up to you, and you, and you, and me, to try and be better role models for the next generation.
What ? Yeah, I know, it's all bollocks till the current neighbourhood gangs grow up or die out.
