On the Badger Trail

My daughter’s friend’s mum works for an environmental charity and part of her role is to record badger numbers.  Last night she took the girls to a badger sett located in a beauty spot a few miles away from where we live. 

They all waited and waited in the hope that they would catch a glimpse of a badger.  Their waiting wasn’t in vain because three came out, one by one.  And much to their delight, one was a baby.  It was dark so the visibility was poor but still, they saw the furry creatures in all their black and white glory.

I imagine it’s not easy to collect data on such mysterious and nocturnal creatures and clearly it involves a lot of sitting around quietly and patiently.  But I’m so glad that my daughter stuck it out and got to see some even though she said the waiting was boring.

Badgers are protected by legislation but are held largely responsible for the spread of bovine TB.  Due to a strong farmers lobby, they are now, contentiously under threat of a government cull in spite of the experts saying that a cull will make no meaningful contribution to the control of the disease.  In fact, some experts say that culling would actually create conditions for spreading bovine TB.  

Have they still not come up with a vaccination?

 

Garden Pond-erings and Reflections

We took advantage of the weather this weekend and worked on our garden and patio area and as I laboured away, many a random observation and idea popped into my empty head and you’ll be thrilled to know that I’m going to share them all with you so here goes:

Ponder number 1:  To build or not to build a pond in our back garden?  A little wildlife pond . . . with rockery and plants around it and little fishes swimming in the water and a little fountain trickling down the rockery into the pool?  As a girl I was utterly enchanted by my auntie’s garden pond.  I thought it was truly magical.  It had a delightful little bridge going over it and I would constantly put her poor harassed cat on it and make him walk across.  Frogspawn would appear each year and when the little frogs emerged, they would scatter across the lawn and my aunt had to avoid cutting her grass for ages in case she killed one of the babies.  

Yes, I think I’ve talked myself into it and now it just remains for me to talk the husband into it.  My kids aren’t toddlers anymore so there are no risk of accidents and I’m sure they’ll get as much enjoyment from it as I did from my auntie’s pond.  In fact, it just occurred to me . . . a neighbour where we used to live had a pond and my kids used to pester me to make one just like it so the idea is already set.

Ponder number 2:  Why is it unacceptable for us to have dandelions growing on our lawns?  Why can’t people see the prettiness of the yellow flowers amid the sea of daisies and the green grass rather than obssessing about having a perfectly clean-shaven lawn.  We fail to see the colour of sunshine in dandelion flowers, instead we just see an ugly weed that we associate with things like bed-wetting thanks to some gossipy old tale-spreading wife of days gone by. 

Ok, the dandelion kills off other plants by blocking the sunlight but it has lots of good uses; you can eat the leaves as part of a salad dish, you can make dandelion wine or dandelion tea from the flower and it also attracts many a pretty butterfly, not to mention the very important and very busy bee.  As for the old wife and that tale, like many old-wives tales, it actually does have some truth in its origins because the dandelion root is used as a diuretic in some places. 

And remember the fun you had with the dandelion heads when they turned into fluffy cotton balls?  We used to call them sugar-stealers and we would blow the fluffy seeds off the heads until they were bald and we would make wishes.  Little did we realise that we were actually helping to spread the weed thus causing further lawn carnage. 

Ponder number three:  Why am I revolting for collecting worms from the soil and putting them into my compost bin to accelerate the process?  My daughter and my husband said it was revolting.  Well, I don’t exactly relish the thought of picking them up and I do have to switch off all my senses before I can touch them but it’s not that much of a gruesome task.  They’re just slimy worms for goodness sake.  I used to pick up the little frogs from my aunties pond too.  Is that as equally revolting? 

My arachnaphobic girls would be in a perfect pickle if I was of the hysterically squeamish type and couldn’t bear to scoop up the menacing little house spiders that terrorise them while they’re taking a shower.  Where would they be then hmm?  No, I’m not so revolting when they need me to evict the spiders. 

Anyway, the earthworm - people should know, the humble little earthworm is atually the big daddy of the garden eco-system.  Yes, as he modestly works away, he is actually doing his very vital bit for the planet without which we’d all be snookered.  So let’s give kudos where it’s due and big it up for the un-loved and misunderstood little earthworm.

Ponder number four:  Why does the grumpy git next door threaten to keep my son’s ball every time he runs on his front lawn to retrieve it?  It’s not like the guy is an old man or anything.  He’s only in his thirties.  That’s way too young for him to be turning into the resident bogey-man.  He even has a little girl of his own.  If he can’t handle kids at play, maybe he should have thought twice about buying a house on a large estate that consists of large family homes!

Ponder number five:  Why did huge balls of hailstone come pelting down during yesterday’s storm?  Lordy!  They were like ping-pong balls bouncing on and off the road! 

What an odd end to a glorious day.   

Pastor Parsley!

Introducing Raving Rev. Rod - American televangelist, dominionist and denouncer of all things Islamic, homosexual or non-Jesus worshipping. 

Senator John McCain calls him a spiritual guide.  I’d call him a misguided spirit.

Really!  Well apologies for dragging up an old post  but where do the religious right get their self-righteous superiority from?  What is it with their deep and unmoving belief in their own moral supremacy? 

I’m always confused when the Christian right-wing disparagingly blames every social ill on the lib/lefties. They even blame acts of Islamic terrorism on liberal values.  Don’t they realise that their main man was the ultimate liberal progressive who would be mortified to know that people use his name to support their very un-Christian social attitudes; that persons of enormous power have used his name to go to war based on lies?

Jesus was the founder, albeit unwittingly, of a global religious movement based on those very liberal values that the Conservative Christians love to deride. The teachings he asked his followers to abide by were fundamentally liberal.  His life ethos was that of caring for the poor - the less fortunate.  Of healing and helping.  His whole philosophy for living was based on compassion and humanity.  Of pacifism and peace.  Of tolerance, inclusion and equality. 

He totally rejected the vengeful eye for an eye, judgemental attitudes that are, generally speaking, typical traits of the Christian right.  He opposed the massive wealth-building, power-wielding materialism that is much more natural to the evangelical right wing Bush-types.  He asked his followers to reject aggressive war-mongering and seek the non-violent peaceful path. 

None of us are perfect.  Not the Christian right nor the liberal/left.  We’ve all got it wrong. We all get taken up by self-absorbed materialistic pleasures which often make us selfish and mean individuals.  But whether we believe in a God or not…whether we follow a religion or we don’t - if we made efforts to abide by some of the social teachings attributed to Jesus it would be a pretty good life ethos to live by, wouldn’t it.  And the world would be a better place, wouldn’t it.

The last thing America needs is another theocratising American President, guided by an extremist spiritual barmpot who thinks he has exclusive access to the truth.

  

 

 

Before and After

Hubby was having a clear out and he had put this little table on the rubbish pile but I had other plans.  This table has history in it.  It’s been in our family for generations five years and has served us in a variety of ways.  It’s been a nature table, a picnic table, a shield from a mighty battalion of space-aliens, a pirate ship and even a sledge.  Yes folks, you heard.  A sledge.  Don’t ask for details, it’s not pretty, but broken teeth and bleeding lips were involved.  And lot’s of tears.

Anyway, it’s been a good little table.  We didn’t pay much for it and there’s still some mileage left in the wobbly and weather-worn old thing so why would I let it be turned into a bag of mulch or animal bedding?  It still has capacity in its original form.  All that it needed was some time and TLC so today, it being a lovely day and all, me and my star trooper got out the sandpaper and the wood stain and gave it a make-over that would impress the likes of Gok Wan no less.  Of course, more paint ended up on me and my splat-happy son than on the table itself but the result was good.

Talking of lovely days, everywhere I’ve been today Mr Blue Sky has been playing.  In two ways.  Literally, the blue sky has been out all day and also the ELO song has been playing everywhere.  I heard it in our local co-op.  And on the way home, the man in the traffic queue had it blasting out of his car.  And it was on Virgin radio tonight while I was making tea.  Do you think the weather had something to do with it?

Talking of lovely days (again), is there any finer indulgence than eating strawberries and cream outdoors while sitting at a freshly painted, cedar coloured garden table?  I won’t spoil the scene by telling you that in reality we weren’t sitting because we had nothing to sit on, muchly due to the fact that the four chairs that came with the table really did have to be scrapped because they just couldn’t make it through the five harsh Winters that we left them exposed to.  

And . . . without really wanting to finish on a negative point, I just have to give some thought to the poor Burmese people for whom the weather has been so harshly cruel.  Avaaz are asking for donations and they tell us that in spite of the fact that the Burmese military junta managed to aggressively dispatch mighty army against the peaceful protesters last year, in contrast it’s response to the disaster has been dangerously slow.  In fact, it’s being suggested that the regime’s culture of secrecy may result in the obstruction of humanitarian aid getting to the people. 

Could things possibly get any worse for the poor people of Burma?  They need our help.

 

Threshold of Viability

The sensitive issue of abortion has come up again.  MP’s are seeking to get the upper limit of 24 weeks lowered to 20 weeks.  

Most people have very strong and definite views on abortion.  And there are those who aren’t against abortion but feel that the upper limit of 24 weeks should be lowered to 20 weeks.  Presumably, their belief is based on the fact that advances in medical procedures have made it possible for extremely premature babies to survive as early as 20 weeks.  Well I think it’s important to establish that according to the professionals, it all depends on how viability is defined and they still feel that the 24 week limit is still appropriate because survival between twenty and twenty four weeks is very rare, often resulting in complications and long-term health effects, so I’m not sure how realistic it is to base the upper limits on how soon a foetus can merely survive.  

That’s not to say I am happy with the twenty-four week upper limit, or of abortion itself,  but it’s a highly sensitive and emotional issue which is not helped by the propagating of myths and misconceptions . . . and the use of emotional images and constant guilt-tripping by tabloids such as the Mail.  Using sensationalistic words such as “abortion capital of the world” is not conducive to an honest and realistic debate.  And Daily Mail columnists and their readers have got to recognise the irony of their confusing messages when they say that pregnant teenage girls should be forced to go through with their pregnancy at all costs whilst despising and demonising them when they become single teenage mums.  And no doubt the same judgemental right-wing press will refuse to see that they will eventually come to condemn all those unwanted babies who fail to successfully integrate into society because they were shoved into social care and neglected by the system.

It’s all very well reporting success stories of extremely prem babies who have grown into healthy children.  Those babies were wanted, probably planned.  We’re talking about unwanted, unplanned, unexpected pregnancies and women who for whatever reason, cannot go through with the pregnancy. There’s a world of difference. 

Furthermore, these late abortions are very rare.  And let it be known that, contrary to what the alarmists want you to believe, the argument claiming that women and girls use abortion as a regular form of contraception really has been blown out of proportion by the anti-abortionists.  The medical professionals wouldn’t allow this and in any case, I refuse to believe that, apart from a small number of exceptions, women who choose terminate their pregnancy, make the decision lightly.  Most women and young girls who have abortions, at whatever stage in their pregnancy, have usually gone through a great deal of torment and heartache beforehand (and a great deal more after) and if a woman has got to twenty weeks, there is usually a genuine, sometimes heartbreaking, reason for it. 

I’m sure I won’t be popular among the sisterhood for saying this but I’m not sure just how much the issue of women’s rights belongs in the debate.  Feminist claims that women should be free to control their own bodies . . . that men have no right to decide on such policies etc. are valid to a degree but until we can establish at what point a foetus becomes a person, there will always be those who say that unborn babies have rights too and how do we decide whose rights prevail - the womans or the baby’s?  Feminists should perhaps stop seeing this exclusively as some kind of mysogynistic attack on women’s rights and accept that, although there are exceptions, most anti-abortionists just believe they are defending the indefensible unborn baby.

Anyway, to sum up, I don’t agree that the upper limit should be lowered to twenty weeks.  I don’t like it but the fact is, abortions at this stage are rare, the reasons are genuine and the alternative is probably worse.

 

 

Selfish Shell

Shell, who prides itself on its progressive green initiatives, has reneged on its commitments to the London Array Scheme - a project to build the world’s biggest off-shore wind farm.  The company, who recently announced profits of £4bn, said that the decision was an economical one and claims that it is still fully committed to wind power.

Apparently, they prefer to focus on US wind power because the government incentives promised better returns.  Of course there’s nothing new about the company looking for better returns. We know that all large corporations are motivated by greed but maybe they ought to read this article.  Maybe we’ll see them scurrying back to the UK, cap-in-hand.

Anyway, although BWEA are said to be playing down the pull-out, it remains to be seen as to whether it will put the project in jeopardy.  It certainly must be a huge blow.  What a shame.

Source

Source

Food Profiteering: Investing in Starvation

According to the Independent on Sunday . . . giant agribusinesses are enjoying soaring earnings and profits out of the world food crisis which is driving millions of people towards starvation.

Why am I not surprised?  I read an article on the Food First website a while ago saying pretty much the same thing.  In fact, much has been written lately about the growing food crisis and the blame game is in full swing. 

I’m aware that there are other factors contributing to the jump in food costs and as I said, there have been many explanations put forward as to what is causing the crisis.  Pete from Change Alley has a good post up here but even so, it seems so wrong that the traders are allowed to worsen the situation and play their market games with blatant disregard for the human costs.

People are starving, there’s a major food crisis and what do the fat cats do?  They turn it to their advantage.  There’s this little known thing that the financial market guys call speculation.  Speculative trading is inflating the food prices.  When it comes to food, this free, unregulated practise is bloody immoral and questions should be asked as to whether it ought to be strictly controlled.  They have no right to use food like this.  Food is a basic human right and as yet, there is enough of it to go round but the greedy fat multinationals are obstructing access to this food in order to seek more profit.

There’s no actual, physical food shortage, not yet anyway.  There is just the inability to afford it.  The disturbing thought is that children are starving because the speculators are seeking to profit from the situation.  Hungry people are being priced out of feeding themselves because the profit-driven traders prefer to “invest in starvation“. 

Yes, big business and the elite continue to monopolise the fruits of this Earth while millions of people starve.

Nothing changes.

 

Revisiting the four minute warnings and the utterly pointless survival advice

I can remember being at high school when the nuclear war issue was hot and the cold-war paranoia was buzzing.  There was much talk of four-minute warnings and fall-out and nuclear shelters that only the rich and the powerful could afford.  Margaret Thatcher said that all local councils should build one and my father, who hated her, would fume at the fact that only the elite got to retreat there in the event of a dirty bomb going off. 

There were government information announcements telling us what action to take should we hear the chilling four-minute warning - how to Protect-and-Survive.  I seem to remember they showed us doors being pulled off hinges and leant against walls that we were to hide under - amongst cushions.  I’m not sure how accurate my memory is but Lordy,  did they really think we stood a flying chance of surviving a nuclear blast, with all its nasty after-effects, by hiding under a propped-up door with a few scatter cushions for padding?

I can also remember a book by Raymond Briggs called When the Wind Blows.  I’m sure I once had a copy but anyway, my friend had one and she brought it into school.  We all read it in class with our very cool form tutor and I can remember feeling spooked and saddened by it . . . and really quite angry.  The book was about a confused little old man and his dear wife trying to survive a nuclear attack.  Thinking about it, the image I have of propped-up doors and cushions probably comes from this dear couple who, in their confused naivety, were trying to shelter under a door that they’d leaned against the wall.  Well, whichever it was, the Protect-and-Survive programme seemed pretty pointless to us all.

Anyway, we would have long discussions about it with our tutor.  We got silly about the doomsday scenario and came up with ridiculous things that we would do if we had only four minutes left to live.  And we talked about the injustice, the stupidity and the futility of war.  And later, as young and militant minds are prone to do, we all went on a ban-the-bomb rampage across school.  Our teachers encouraged us at first but soon clipped our activism when they thought we were taking undue advantage of the free time they were allowing us out of class.  Would we ever?

These days the old MAD doctrine seems to have been forgotten and government shelters around the country have been left to crumble but it seems that some people, muchly due to the uncertainty of the future of humanity, are once again feeling the need for self-sufficiency and are thus preparing for new threats such as bird flu pandemic, food and water shortages/wars, terror, blackout looting, the collapse of infastructure, hurricanes and so on.  They’re calling it New Survivalism.

So, do any of you have a plan?  What would your secret little survival stash consist of should you ever be faced with an apocalyptic event of some kind or another?

My list would go something like this:

• Food of course (tinned, dried, powdered, whatever, of varied nutrient value)
• tin opener! (I’m sure to forget that)
• water (cups, plates etc)
• radio (to communicate)
• wine
• clothing
• bedding
• wine
• books/games
• first aid gear/medicines
• torches
• wine
• candles
• wine
• toiletries
• loo roll
• toilet! (the thought of not having a loo for a family of five is too horrible to even contemplate)
• wine
• mascara (well you never know who you might meet in a nuclear bunker)
• wine
• mobile phone (or maybe not.  It would be refreshing not to be pestered everywhere I go by telesales and stupid chain text messages (although the chances of that happening during a nuclear war would be remote I suppose))
• PC/TV/PS2/CD’sDVD’s (although I’m not that sure we’d have electricity)
• batteries
• wine
• plastic bags for rubbish

 Have I missed anything?  Let me know.  I wouldn’t want to be caught short.  Oh, I almost forgot one.

• wine

 

Cleaning to the beat of . . .

When I am cleaning up, I always play music and today my son chose for me.  His current favourite song is Cat’s in the Cradle by Harry Chapin (yes, he has good taste in music) and he often puts it on repeat play.  Interestingly, this song is often mistakenly accredited to Cat Stevens but Wiki puts us straight while explaining the story behind the song.

And indeed, the words to this song struck me as I was cleaning our bathroom.  You can’t fail to hear the message and one thing I’ve always said is that when we are busy and our kids are demanding our attention asking us to go play with them, we would be wise to realise that one day, we will be fighting for their attention.  Admittedly, to my shame, I don’t always live up to this advice and sadly, there are some strong parallels between the song words and our own family situation but anyway, here is a You Tubey of the good song itself - for your listening pleasure:

I’m off to finish the bathroom play football with me laddy.  Have a great weekend folks.

Election Autopsy

Well for me the worst result has to be London. 

He combed his hair.  That’s what did it.  I saw him on Question Time the other week and he’d swept out his branded dishevelled look in an effort to look more normal but the blubbering moron was still within.  The people of London just couldn’t see it it.

Seriously though, why on earth the Londoners chose an over-privileged, homophobic racist I will never know.  He is totally out of touch with real people and he will undo all the good things that have been achieved under Ken Livingstone.  Think of Ken how you like but he made some very real progress.  In contrast, Boris Johnson will represent no Londoner that isn’t white, über-rich and heterosexual.  He hides a proper, real-life right-wing agenda behind his bumbling appeal but, as many have already said, perhaps his mayorship will serve a purpose, if only to demonstrate what life would be like under a Tory government.

Anyway, he inherits a thriving city with sensible working social and congestion policies insitu.  Let’s see how long it takes the bloody stupid clown to cock it all up.  Of course, he has to listen to the Assembly which now has two Greens and, catastrophically in my book, a BNP member.

Labour predictably retained their power in my local council.  And individually, in my ward, the Tories kept hold of their seat.  The turnout was 35.28%.  I voted for the Green party candidate who sadly got the least number of votes, his votes actually falling from last year by 17.  Ho hum.  The people in my area are traditional Tory voters and they’re doing fine so I guess nothing will move them.  Well actually, it’s hard to say what kind of voter they are because the estate where I live is only a few years years old so we’ve no real history to go by but we did join an existing ward which is traditionally Tory, although they did, in a moment of xenophobic ignorance, vote for the England First party in 2006.  Lordy me!  I’d rather have the Tories.

The good result of the year from my perspective is the Norwich one.  The Greens are celebrating after the good and wise people of Norwich chose them to become their second largest party and, importantly, the main oppostion to Labour.  The best thing about this is that the Greens are now in a good position to challenge Charles Clarke at the next general election so we may finally get a Green MP in Westminster.  I’m getting quite giddy just thinking about it. 

Anyway, poor Gordy.  Tony Blair must be feeling quite smug right now.  The thing about local elections, as most people know, is that they are often just a public warning to the government in power, kind of a civic mass message to our politicians telling them to get their political finger out . . . to buck up or get fired.  Of course, I’m no expert political analyst so I don’t know if there is a case to be made of these results being any kind of dire warning.  I guess we’ll see.  Some are saying that Gordon should now go but I don’t think he’s been tested enough yet.  It’s been widely suggested that the 10% tax thing broke him and sure, it was a very bad decision . . . and a very uncharacteristic one in my view because no-one has championed the cause of the poor or the lower paid better than Gordon.  He hasn’t gone far enough but no-one can deny the positive progress he has made thus far, and that’s why the tax change was so confusingly uncharacteristic.

In all honesty, I’ve lost touch with Labour.  Until I saw the light and became a Greenite, I was a true Labour gal, but not anymore.  Sometimes I long for the good old days of Tory v Labour, when Labour was actually a proper socialist party and the Conservatives were very definitely Conservative.  Yes, the days when policy fights had some real substance, something to sink your teeth into.  Oh, there’s still the bitching and the snarling in the Commons at Question Time but it’s just usually the Tories opposing anything that Labour says because that’s what opposing parties do, but without offering any alternative because their alternative is probably not actually an alternative but the same policy done differently.  In essence, all we get is two parties fighting for the same centre ground.  New Labour and New Conservatives.  Remind me, which is which?

I’m sticking with the Green party.  I know what they stand for and I like it.

It’s a Scoop! Tabloids mislead on climate change . . .

 . . . according to the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute. 

Dr Max Boykoff, a James Martin Research Fellow at the Environmental Change Institute stated that . . .

based on an analysis of nearly 1,000 tabloid articles from the Daily Mail, the Sun, the Express and the Mirror, the researchers found that many readers were being misinformed. The researchers analysed the tone, the context, the terminology, the labelling of those quoted and the relationships between messages.

It’s actually no great surprise that these widely read tabloids have been failing to report accurately on the climate change debate.  Take the Express and the Mail - both newspapers consistently mislead the public on many issues, preferring to sensationalise current affairs according to their own right-wing agenda.  And the Sun and the Mirror both provide the gossip and the scandal to satisfy those who desire an easy and leisurely read.   All four often have little conscience in my view when it comes to responsible news coverage and they value circulation figures above fair and honest reporting. 

Dr Boykoff said while quoting the Sun’s Jeremy Clarkson, that . . .

Commentators like the Sun’s Jeremy Clarkson are contradicting scientific thought with unfounded authority when making statements such as: ‘This confirms what I’ve been saying for years – cars do not cause global warming.  Now we learn that all along it was bloody sheeps and cows.’

Yes, that detestable antagonist Jeremy Clarkson, who thinks he’s so big and so clever because he dares to laugh at political correctness actually prides himself on his controversial anti-environmentalist stance because it gets him the laughs and the publicity he craves.  He does speak with unfounded authority and his readers fall for it . . . and therein lies the danger.  His careless attitude dangerously undermines the climate change debate as does the aforementioned sloppy reporting by the tabloids.

Misreporting on human contributions to climate change can contribute to skewed views among these papers’ many readers. We’re all involved in the fight against climate change and it’s in all of our interest to widen, rather than restrict, the spectrum of possibility for appropriate policy action.’  Dr Boykoff

The tabloids have a huge influence on how their readers understand and interpret the science behind climate change so perhaps now is a good time for these tabloids to drag themselves out of the gutter and use their influence for the greater good rather than be driven by profit at the expense of any journalistic integrity they may have.

Yay, I’ve been tagged! I’m still in the Blogosphere.

Misslionheart has tagged me and and the idea is to list 5 things I wish to achieve during the week ahead and hopefully get motivated!  Well I am a great one for making lists but getting motivated to actually carry out the itemised tasks usually requires a blunt kick up the backside.  I’ve been having a look at some of the lists made by other bloggers and it seems that most of their desired achievements are of a domestic nature and trust me, if I follow the same pattern it will take much more than a kick up the backside to get all my boxes ticked.

Anyway, my intentions are good so here goes:

1. Visit my friend who is financially and emotionally struggling to get by as things are coming to a head.  It’s not good.  This one will definitely be ticked without said kick up the backside. 
2. Finish the two books I started ages ago - A Lake Beyond the Wind by Yahya Yakhlif and The Story of My Face by Kathy Page
3. Go to bed before 11pm every night. 
4. Email my friend in America and arrange a reunion with him and the chocolate orange gang before the only two all-available dates have passed.  Reunion to take place over here and not in the States unfortunately.
5. Well I suppose I should at least intend to do some domesticated stuff such as face the ironing pile that is currently breaking all world records.

I am tagging anyone who can get motivated to take part.  Helen is currently busy with her wonderful poetry but maybe she’ll enjoy the break.

 Cartoon by Dave Walker at We Blog Cartoons. 

Of Teachers Strikes and Kids Unsupervised

Bloody teachers!  My kids have only been back at school for three days after their end of term holiday and they’re off again!  No, it’s not another teacher-training day.  It’s a strike.  Yes, a real-life proper strike.  How retro does that seem?  Remember those glorious days of industrial action and picket lines and angry workers shoving placards into car windows and shouting things like scab! scab! at anyone who crossed the picket line . . . days of trade-union power and militant solidarity and passionate working class heroes?  

Of course there have been strikes since then - Thatcher didn’t totally kill off the will of the people but it wasn’t quite like that today.  Although there were some picket lines and marches and stuff, most of the striking teachers I know just stayed home.  And let’s be honest, their grievances are namby-pamby compared to the lot of the miners and the dockworkers and so on in those grim days of hardliners such as Arthur (King Coal) Scargill and that pit-closing, union-busting nemesis of compassion, Margaret Thatcher.  

But seriously, that’s not to say I don’t support the teachers in their dispute.  They, like many other workers, deserve a fair living wage and I’m all for fighting back against this government and its bias towards big business and the ruling classes.  The rising cost of living is affecting us all and it’s frustrating to see Gordon Brown and his Labour government penalise the lower paid public sector workers and the poor yet continue to reward the wealthy and pander to big business.  All those on or under the borderline are feeling the pinch and the lower paid workers are going to feel it even harder when they get their next pay packets due to that 10% tax thing.  I’m not so sure there are teachers that are all that poor but they are undervalued which is just not good business sense if we want good teachers to educate and inspire our children.  Personally speaking, I can’t help believing that there are some jobs whereby it just isn’t ethical to take strike action but that is exactly what the government exploits - our strong sense of moral duty towards those in our care, be they school-children or patients.

Anyway, today’s strike was a huge pain in the backside for me and I guess it was for many working mums.  I had to leave my children to fend for themselves all morning because the NHS bosses wouldn’t let me have the day off - no, not even when I said it was to support my fellow-public sector workers.  Bloody capitalists!

Because it was actually a school day on which, by rights, my children should be learning, the conscientious part of my brain (you know, the part that stops you from having fun) was telling me I should take take the kids to the museum when I finish work . . . or make them do homework or something as equally dull.  So, I got home full of good intentions and my kids - free from adult restraint and with idle hands and mischievous minds - how did they spend their free morning?  Why making a mess of course!  A huge, humongous mother of a mess.  Yes, in between the squabbling and the fighting they trashed the joint and I spent most of the day tidying up and peacekeeping.

So, after much consultation and with all due regret, as of today (and I am unanimous on this), I am on strike!  A mothers strike.   Anyone care to join me?

 

 

Halima and Me

I bumped into an old friend today.  A lovely, bubbly Muslim girl with a radiant smile so engaging that it once got her nominated for Britain’s Brightest Smile competition.  

We bump into each other every now and then along the years and our chance reunions are always the same . . . both of us gasping, flinging our arms around each other and squeezing hard.  We even do that giggly, girlie squealing thing, jumping up and down together whilst hugging the breathe out of each other.  We always insist that we will make efforts to get together and catch up but you know, life takes over and before you know it, another few years have passed. 

Today our greeting was the same but this time we actually had time to sit and chat.  We recalled our school-days and some of the antics we got up to such as the time when we started a soggy paper-towel fight in the girls loo’s and when we saw a teacher approaching we both hid in the showers together, desperately trying not to giggle and later denying all knowldege.  And we laughed when we remembered how we didn’t feel a single prick of conscience when all the class had to sit through a lunch-time detention because we refused to own up that it was us two who locked the geography teacher in the storeroom when she went in to get some books.  Oh such anarchy!

For all our school-day frivolities, she has become a responsible and multi-tasking mother and wife.  She’s worked hard over the years looking after her parents and tending to her kids while studying to become a social worker.  Her achievements are impressive.  At her own insistence her three kids all attend state school rather than an Islamic one.  She felt strongly that they should not be isolated from other cultures and she wanted them to be respectful of other religions - Christianity and Jesus in particular. 

What was extra special about our chat today was that she told me I had been a positive influence on her life at school, not least because she never expected a white girl to want to be friends with her.  And I’m sure I glowed when she told me of how she often tells her children about her “lovely Christian friend” (me!!) when trying to teach them about the importance of cohesion and tolerance towards the non-Muslim kids at school.  I’m not wanting to sound morally superior or anything, it’s just that sometimes we are unaware that our actions are having a positive and lasting effect and perhaps there is a lesson to be learned.  I know I learned a lot from her.  Her family encountered some hostility when they arrived here and understandably it made them defensive and withdrawn but my merry little Muslim friend was forever open-minded and sunny and when I started at the school as a shy and timid mouse, she embraced me and we became great friends.  

Anyway, eventually, we both latched onto different friendship groups but the bond was sealed and we thought the world of each other.  Seeing her today made me glow with fondness and I’m not ashamed to say, I felt a touch of pride too. 

 

 

 

Water is not a Weapon!

Amnesty has released a shocking video against waterboarding.  It’s a very powerful film that highlights the sheer cruelty involved in this method of torture.  The CIA denies that waterboarding is a torture technique, preferring to call it a professional interrogation technique and George Bush unsurprisingly vetoed legislation calling for it to be banned.  

You can watch the video on Amnesty’s unsubscibe-me website and decide for yourself whether it is torture in all its brutal and dehumanising glory or a reliable and necessary technique that enables our services to extract vital information for the sake of our security.  You decide whether it’s ok for the government officials of supposedly civilised nations to make a mockery of our human values and carry out such perverse torture methods in our names.   

My view?  Yes, it is torture . . . and it does not increase our security.  It’s illegal and what’s more, it’s a degrading and shameful misuse of a precious natural resource that many people are literally dying to get hold of.