Pity

Pity

Pity the poor bastards who believe God is evil
Because children slaughtered, women raped
Communities destroyed in the name of God
Because ‘His’ messengers preach fear and guilt
While leaders fatten and congregations starve.
Pity the poor bastards who believe they know God,
And that God is the hardest criminal around.
Pity the poor bastards, for I am God, and you and they.
For God is larger, wider, higher and deeper than us
And the messengers are God though they run from God
And speak for themselves in tongues of corruption
Pity the poor bastards, for they still seek God
Despairing that God is not around, while they never seek within.
Pity the poor bastards, and pray they can love themselves
For only love can reveal their Godliness

Anthropomorphism and drugs

Anthropomorphism and drugs

I always thought it was a great word, but I never knew quite how much of it goes on. Take drugs, for example. ‘Drugs are bad’, we hear, ‘drugs can kill’. But they’re not, and they can’t. Drugs are inanimate objects which stay in one place and do nothing, until some human being ritualistically takes them into his or her body. If human beings never picked up drugs, there would be no ‘drug problem’; so blaming drugs for it is pointless and rather stupid. In fact, it’s an addict’s argument, ‘It was the drugs that made me do it’, says the armed robber/prostitute/shoplifter. Yeah, right, a rock of cocaine and a wrap of smack put a gun to your head and made you do it. Of course, I know what they’re talking about, but it’s ridiculous.

Perhaps I am too strong and insensitive with my language, after all, everyone knows that drugs don’t literally kill people, or make people commit crime; these are just turns of phrase. But I do think their use suggests we are avoiding taking responsibility for ourselves. It’s very selective how we do this. Take cars, for example. I don’t know how many people die on the roads every year, but I suspect it’s quite a few more than die in gun crime or from illegal drugs. However the message we receive from the media is ‘guns are bad’ and ‘cars are good’. Cars are symbolised as sex objects or faithful friends. We are almost complacent when these desirables mow down children. Drugs and guns, however, are made into malevolent characters purely seeking to kill and maim, especially children, so there is little opportunity for anyone to offer the view that either might be neutral, let alone have some beneficial effects.

The most startling example, perhaps, is that of alcohol. Alcohol has been characterised as humorous, friendly and sexy, and I’ll admit it does that for me. This effect only lasts for the first few drinks. After a few more the outrageous ranting, falling over, and vomiting begins, followed the next day by a stonking great hangover. Not very sexy. Thousands of people die every year from alcohol related disease and incidents, yet it is our good friend, always there whenever you want to celebrate or commiserate, or kill yourself.

This anthropomorphism is getting in the way of a decent debate about some very important issues. It’s time to get real and acknowledge that humanity are responsible for themselves, and for how they choose to relate to potentially dangerous things. If we were living beneath a smouldering volcano, it would make no sense to be saying ‘ban the volcano; the volcano is evil.’ Making it illegal would not make it go away, nor would reclassifying it. In fact, nothing would make it go away, and nor should it, as it is a marvellous manifestation of the power of nature. Instead, humanity should take sensible precautions for themselves.

As for drugs, are they a marvellous manifestation of the power of nature? Yes indeed, for they can have powerful medical, therapeutic and spiritual uses. But with great power, comes great danger. Calling them bad and banning them has not reduced their negative effects one iota. Calling them good and promoting them like alcohol, would not do so either. Instead, we should take a neutral view of a neutral entity, and think about how we can maximise the good, and minimise the negative effects.

A Poem

The human fear

The human is sitting on the grass,
Forgetting this day could be his last.
His face is tipped up towards the sky
Watching his life passing by.
And the clouds pass him by
As the moon lights the sky,
There’s music in the wind that he can’t hear.
Do you know what’s stopping him
From really listening?
It’s that age old human fear.
What’s stopping him from living
Is the fear that he can’t win,
The fear that he’ll ultimately die.
So he sits watching nothing,
And listening to his mind,
Forever wondering why.

Starvation and Asylum - What can we do?

starvation and asylum - what we can do

My friends are beginning to get irritated with me. I’m becoming impatient with everyone’s complacency. All they’re concerned about is getting a pay rise, or better working conditions. Their ambition reaches only as far as their bank balance and other material things. My ambitions are much greater. First I want to write, and I hope my writing will change the world for the better, but I’m going to have to go gently with the readership. They will think I am dangerous, they will be scared of what they might lose, and I’m sure I will be unpopular with many.

I have a proposition to put to the readership. Isn’t it time we took a long hard look at how we live our lives, and what position we hold relative to the rest of the world? I doubt if you’d agree, after all, you’re overrun by stress, you’re thinking about getting a bigger house/car, or looking forward to your next holiday. There’s enough to think about already, anyway, there’s nothing you can do about the 10 million people starving in Africa. Frankly, I’m sick of people stopping me, or sending me stuff, asking for money for this cause or that. It feels pointless, putting a few quid in a pot, or signing a direct debit (it would bounce anyway). The solution to worldwide poverty surely requires a more profound strategy.

I have a number of fundamental disagreements with the whole Asylum Seekers debate. A young man I was working with recently put a knife to someone’s throat, because they came on ‘his’ estate. Surely his behaviour only reflects that of national leaders the world over, yet he is likely to go to prison, whereas they enjoy status and wealth. I’ve always been with Virginia Woolf; I’m a ‘citizen of the world’. I don’t really understand the need for national frontiers, except as some perverse extrapolation of masculine territorialism. It’s one planet we occupy, with one atmosphere, one sun, one moon and one mass of water that we all share. In the interest of mutual understanding, knowledge and resources all people should be allowed to go wherever they want. It’s outrageous that we take for granted a comprehensive range of possible holiday destinations while others cannot enter ‘our’ land.

I don’t believe many people genuinely want to ‘sponge’ off any system; greater humanity lies in resourcing one’s own life. I trust in humanity enough to believe that diversity is strength; the more perspectives that can be brought to a debate, the more enlightened it will be, and the more cultures clash and merge, the more creativity will be released. For too long ‘we’ in Britain and America have made plans for ‘them’ in other parts of the world, in their absence. No wonder some of the decisions have been questionable, to say the least. I have benefited enormously from living and working in a multi-cultural environment; I have a much broader, deeper perspective than I would ever have received in rural Sussex. I believe wider society could similarly benefit.

The government is on a self-defeating cycle. It promotes the UK as Cool Britannia, and it has long been seen as a land of opportunity where the streets are paved with gold. We’re just the best at everything these days, a place people really want to be. If you do try to come though, and you’re from a non-white listed country (or whatever the latest terminology is for ‘the unwelcome’), you will be denied access, grilled, put in detention, or allowed to live on a pittance in a squat without the opportunity to work legally. The UK is a reasonably good place to be, especially if you’re escaping from persecution, but some immigrants suffer more persecution here than anywhere else. Perhaps if we were a little more humble, people wouldn’t kill themselves in tomato consignments or falling out of aeroplanes to get here.

Another problem I have with the debate is that it scarcely recognises the reality of British history, not only our role in creating many of the conflicts or famines which lead to refugee crises, but the fact that our society has experienced numerous waves of immigration, and has been multicultural, for ever. Humankind did not evolve n this landmass, we moved here.

I suppose I’m an unusual white person, as I have no fear of immigration, in fact I love it. I live in Southall where my local primary school boasts pupils from around 40 nations. In my street are Sikhs from India and Africa; Moslems from Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and many other places; and Christians of numerous denominations from at least four continents. Rastafarians, Buddhists and Hindus are also represented. This experience has given me a more global view of politics, and I am now astounded at how narrow most white people’s view is. The fact is that we once elected ourselves to be the moral guardian of these poor ‘savages’ in other countries; we stole their land, gems, culture and even people; and we continue to intervene from on high in an inconsistent way, purely based on self-interest. I understand that you do not want to hear what I’m saying, but I think it is in our self-interest to allow 10 million starving Africans to eat decently, and even have real autonomy and power. Yes, we will have to lose some of our daily comforts. No, you will not be able to lie guilt-free on a tropical beach while people clamour to land on our own shores. But, I hope to persuade you that allowing equal access for all to world resources, will make you more human, and genuinely satisfied.

Schools Discipline and Parenting

Schools Discipline and Parenting

The debate on radio five this morning was about school discipline, an issue very current for me at the moment as I’ve been asked to make comment on my son’s junior school.

I have strong feelings about this. The state obliges me to give up my children to the ‘education system’ at the age of 4 or 5, unless I want to give up my life to do home education. Therefore I expect the system not only to provide a good education, but also to act ‘in loco parentis’ – in my place as a parent. In terms of discipline, this means it should be fair, reasonable and consistent. Does your school provide this? My children come home talking about bullying incidents, inconsistent and unfair discipline and teachers ‘not hearing’ them when they try to bring it to their attention. I do not want to hand my children every day to people I do not trust to look after them properly.

The education system should be about more than curriculum learning. The state needs our children to be good ‘cogs in the wheels of industry’ or to bring it up to date ‘chips in the motherboard of the nation.’ But most of them will also become parents, so schools should teach about parenting too. They teach about sex and contraception, but little about parenting, which seems to be in crisis. They can teach this in structured lessons like PSHE, but also by example, by providing a model of good parenting. Children would learn from this, and parents would trust the schools more and may even imitate some of the parenting methods, especially if they are clearly explained and understood.

We all know how badly some parents are failing their children; we can’t avoid daily stories of children beaten, starved, sexually abused and murdered in their homes. In these extreme cases schools have a vital role as second line of defence, yet they clearly fail in this. Even in so called ‘good homes’ like mine (I hope) schools should act as good parents.

School discipline should be a model of good parental discipline, and no-one is suggesting we cane our own children. If schools could provide a positive model then parents could trust it and even learn from it. In the long term this would help resolve both the school discipline problem and the parenting crisis.

Condoms and Young People

another day, no more dollars...

i suppose this is something I won't write every day, I'm not a very disciplined person.

The subject for today class is condoms and young people. I've just been listening to a debate on radio 5 about whether schools should give out condoms. I was very nearly moved to phone in, but that's not really my thing.

I think condoms shold be freely available to anyone that wants them. My first job out of college was on an HIV prevention project as an outreach worker. In this role i gave out lots of condoms, and had long discussions with people about how to make their sex safer. Our philosophy with young people was to familiarise them with condoms early on, before they were sexually active, so that when the moment came they were well prepared. We would encourage boys to practice putting them on alone, in the dark under the duvet, to prepare them as much as possible for the real fumbling. We would show girls how to put them on chocolate bars and fake penises with their hands and by mouth. The aim of this would be to take the embarrasesment out of the moment, and give young people the skills and confidence to actually use the horrible things.

Most of all we'd recognise and acknowledge that condoms aren't very 'nice' to use, and can be embarrassing, and we'd certainly encourage abstinence and other methods of safer sex. Some people seem to think giving out condoms and encouraging abstinence are mutually exclusive, but not so.

Many, many condoms were blown up, put over boys' heads or filled with water and thrown around. We would often have to clean the surrounding streets of discarded condoms afterwards. This all served its purpose, the young people got over their embarrassment, saw how much water a condom could hold (so no more excuses about them being too small or not strong enough) and it led into serious discussions about when sex was appropriate, where to get more information or advice, what sexually transmitted diseases existed and their consequences, and many other issues important to the young people.

I don't know of any evidence that this work, or other similar projects, increased the levels of sexual activity, STIs or teenage pregnancies.

Moving on a bit, I think parenting is the vital missing ingredient out of our children's education. Neither parents nor schools seem to focus on the one role that most young people will eventually perform - that of parent. If there was more focus on what parenting actually entails I'm sure young people would act more responsibly. They need to know not just about the endless nappies, bottles and sleepless nights, but also about the lifetime commitment that is required both to the child and to the other parent, whether or not they are still getting along. They need to discuss what they want to pass onto their children, and to do this they need to discuss how they were parented themselves. There are too many chioldren suffering from poor parenting - I work with young people who fear going home becuase of the violence that exists there - this society needs to have a massive review of what's been going wrong and to involve children and young people. They are the future parents, and right now we are teaching them some very bad habits.

Zombie Crack Heads

In the next couple of hours I have to pick my three kids up from nursery and their schools, walk them home, cook them dinner, feed them and get out to work. I suppose I've had quite a relaxing day. I'm supposed to work when my youngest daughter is at nursery, as we're paying for her to be there, but actually I haven't got much work to do. Self-employed, unemployed - what's the difference? Anyway, my printer had broken, so I had to go out and buy another one.

Nothing's ever simple in the area where I live, everything has to be planned around developing circumstances. The bus came ok; I thought that might be a good omen, and I got off the stop at the right place. However, I felt a little unsafe; my hackles wree rising. I know this part of Northolt, and it's got a bad history of muggings, murders and armed sieges. It wasn't long before I spotted the crackheads, two girls looking like famine victims, eyes like vampires checking to see if i'd got any blood. 'Have you got 20p please?' asked the white one. Her cadaverous face reminded me of Michelle, an old client of mine, whose life story could fill several volumes. She too had that sunken eyed look, all cheekbones and yearning, due to the crack and the smack. She ended up jumping out of a high window and dying with her chest opened up on the pavement - a death in custody as the police were knocking on her door at the time.

I shook off the zombie, then stepped in front of the waiting dealer's BMW, its engine revving waiting to take the money and be off. I wondered how long it could take these girls to get enough 20ps for a single rock, or a half a bag of heroin...

Once I got the printer, the cables, the ink cartridges I thought it better to get a cab home, but of course all the vampires had gone by then, probably looking for the next fix by now.