Farewell 2012 hello the future

So we all survived, I think.

The hedonism of the summer of sport tempered by the lunacy of the winter of destruction. Ah yes a rabid planet rampaging through the solar system did not wipe us out a mere 10 days ago (or if it did I'm either on acid, dead or in a parallel universe)

Those cheeky Mayans eh? Thought it would be great to scare the bejesus out of a few believers. (I am a bit worried though because my son's friend is called Maya and she can be a mini tornado!) Well who knows if they were right or not and it wouldn't be so funny if someone had messed up on their maths after all abacus can be notoriously tricky for calculating advanced calculus! (Well my nuclear fall ouit shelter is still built!)

Ah but let me take you back to a balmy day on the Champs de Elysee where one man in a yellow jersey came storming in on a bike and a sideburn, sideboard more like. Oh yes Le Wiggo had arrived to do what no Englishman had ever done in a hundred years. Yes that's right ride a few thousand miles around France on a pushbike without getting knocked off. (Well I guess it's better than Lance Armstrong who used to fly round!)

And so shortly after he was then speeding round the lanes and roads in Surrey for a gold medal (and 84 speeding tickets as someone hadn't turned off the speed cameras! recession what recession I hear you say)

Soon to be followed up by a dour Scot who had cried at Wimbledon lifting his first major title (apparently gold clashed with Roger Federer's red shirt. Silver was better bling!) But hey all bow to Andy Murray we salute you for looking like the guy of Holby City!

But what on the water Britannia rules the waves, arise Sir Ben (did someone say I'm just gonna kick this Dane in the bowls- oh sorry wrong part of England! ) A finer achievement you will not see and his tiny little boat has just been purchased by the Cameron - What's his name? government as our new aircraft carrier!

Go Mo! Go Mo! you know I never new Laila Rouass could move that quick. Mind you these Eastenders know how to shift when they're being chased.


But to the real world I still feel like I'm living in Germany in 1933, We're not in this all together Dave we never were and we never will be unless of course you mean poo! Then I'm sure you and your mates would be trying to act like Boris on the high wire!


However I am a GRANDAD (ok I know most of you thought I was that old anyway) but I'm not and she is simply the most beautiful little thing.

So my reflections on 2012 as I say farewell to it:

It was a good year for inspiration

It was a bad year for society in terms of inclusivity and equality/

Will 2013 be better?

I don't know I'm not a bloody Mayan!!!!


Peace and Happiness to you all! Happy New Year!




        well except to Harvey's Furnishing because you still have my sofa and table 
       a quote

                  Fran Chapman our Head of Customer Services will be calling you on your mobile        shortly to discuss.

 good job I didn't hold my breath !

How to comfort your children

Mortality is something that we all think about from time to time, especially as we get older. I'm fairly philosophical about it all now. Having gone through the initial fears of my condition and having had a couple of very close calls I've decided that the best course of action is to accept that if the worst happens at least I won't know too much about it. I've lived day to day and grown in strength and confidence about what is happening to me yet there is one area where I am struggling with and it came to the fore this week.

That is what will happen to my children when I'm gone?

My children range in age, the eldest is 27 the youngest is 11 and they all have their own identities and strengths and that is a great thing however I also know their frailties and that is where a parent takes ultimate responsibility.

On Tuesday I went to my Grandfather's funeral. I went because of duty, because of respect for my Father and my Uncle. I didn't go because of love. He wasn't a person who matched in any way the Grandfather I lost in 1976 but he was also not the person who had been described by my father. The reality is that I didn't really know him, This is not surprising as he never really wanted to know me.

When I left the funeral I headed over the Pennines to Liverpool to where my son is following in my footsteps in studying at the University. We met in the Guild of Students and we lunched there and I am so glad that we did.

Put simply he had just attended the funeral of his best friend's dad who had died as a result of an aneurysm. Put simply knowing my medical issues he was worried that he would lose me.

As I sat in the place where I had found the meaning of the word love I realised that he was scared and for a good reason even if he didn't know it.

I am obdurate they will have to nail me into my coffin yet my life and ultimately death impacts heavily on the lives of my children.And I worry. I worry that I have not done enough to help them get on in this shark infested world that we live in.

The motto of this story is simple,

When you go to sleep at night, if you have children, make sure that you have talked to them and that they are fully aware of the world in which we live. Make sure that they understand how duplicitous people can be and how they can protect themselves and their family. Make sure that they understand the difficulties that the will face should they decide to ride things out ,

Make sure that you have given them the tools for life and that they know without doubt that you love them.

I dare you to make the difference 

The man that hath no music in himself

I wonder if like Jessica, Shylock's daughter,  Michael Gove's children think this of him after today's announcement over the GCSE's.

You see with the announcement of a return to a single examination at the end of a course he has clearly signaled that he does not care about education. Or rather that he cares about some children but certainly not all.

One swallow does not a summer make yet one result may a child's life break

Education should be inclusive and Gove's attempt to bring about an English Baccalaureate is another example of how he has no understanding of diversity in our society.

http://www.mydaughter.co.uk/educating-your-daughter/11-16/education-choices/english-baccalaureate/

It is reprehensible to this commentator that a man, who owes his good start in life to a State Education system,  is trying to take us back to a time of elitism. From a psychological perspective alone the idea of a system that ends in a single exam is horrendous. Even my son who is studying at my University, Liverpool, is no longer saddled with a series of all consuming examinations at the end of a year. Now they undergo module examinations throughout the year, a system which rewards consistent application not a one off hit. For true educational prowess there needs to be a clear combination of formative and summative assessment so that a true picture of a learner's ability can be built up. Relying on one exam in summer can have devastating results.

For example a child suffering from hayfever, asthma or allergic rhinitis can find themselves in a terrible position during the pollen season and that can ultimately lead to bad examination marks. I remember doing one paper at sixth form so doused up on drugs to combat my allergies that I could hardly keep awake.

The ongoing assessment that formative methods bring to the table means that a child has a fairer chance of reaching a better standard. That means a child has a better chance of a better future. 

I urge every parent of a child entering secondary school this year, like my son has, to oppose the plans of a return to sleepless nights and high pressure. For if a child thinks they cannot achieve then they are likely to look for other outlets in their life to get ahead. That could mean many things including the horrific spectacle of the gang colours. We have spent years attempting to include all children in learning and with this decision we may end up with an even more unfair society.

I regularly come across middle aged adults who can neither read nor write properly and when I work with them the common theme running through their life has been one of a feeling of not being good enough. Are we going to destroy more children by this?

We don't need to dumb down we need to work smarter. Use divergent thinking to solve the problems of poor assessment don't return to the depths of despair of an outdated system.

Make sure that our children have the best chance and that we can all grow together. Make sure that all children have the music inside them. 

When a Knight has no honour

What really beggars belief is the day after the most damning report ever in relation to cover up and conspiracy in the UK, one of the main players, Norman Bettiston has come out and held on to the same ridiculous story that has caused pain beyond belief to the families of 96 dead Liverpool supporters.

Being a Knight of the Realm is supposed to be about honour and integrity, but not for this one. This is the first positioning of saving one's own backside.

For three years during the 1980's I stood on the Kop or at Goodison Park watching some of the greatest football and the greatest teams I had ever seen. I stood in crowds where you could hardly move. I even stood in the middle of the Kop and cheered for York City in an FA Cup tie.

And not once did I feel like I was ever in danger!

Merseyside Police were impeccable at handling large crowds in tight situations week in week out, the same crowds that arrived at Hillsborough that tragic April afternoon. They were experienced, capable, forceful, directed, jovial, constantly chatting to the fans and most of all organised.

Yet in South Yorkshire that day there was complete carnage that was brought about not by the fans of two great football clubs but by the ineptitude of one or two key players who were either too wet behind the ears or too arrogant to realise that they were out of their depths.

I do not blame individual officers on the ground, from what I can tell most of them performed to the best of their ability on what was a dark day. No I see this as a clear failure of management and organisation.

So Norman Bettiston better needs to get real and needs to act in a more contrite manner as all I see is the light of his career going out like a flame in nitrogen.

And rightly so.

Justice for the 96, justice for the families, justice for the whole of Merseyside,

NOW!

You'll Never Walk Alone

Tonight my son will sleep in his Liverpool home and I am grateful that he has followed his father to a city that is vibrant, diverse, funny, harsh but most of all compassionate. As a Yorkshireman I am proud of my roots and deeply in love with the moors and hills where I grew up yet I have a second home in a land of Gerry and his Pacemakers, in a place where I grew up and learned of wine, women and of course song.

People often say to me where have I enjoyed living the most? France? Switzerland? Kent? Yorkshire? Wiltshire? My answer will always be the same Liverpool.

This is the city that taught me how to be me, for the first time in my life I actually began to know myself there. I discovered who Trace Senior really was and believe me that took some sorting out. I discovered love, deep love and friendship that will never be put asunder. And to know my son is experiencing the same is of great relief to this slightly balding, overweight middle aged man.

Yet I have that luxury, the knowledge that I saw my son only a few hours ago and spoke to him on the phone whilst I wrote this blog. Tonight in Liverpool the families of 96 children, for they were all someone's child, cannot do that. They cannot do that because of institutional mismanagement, negligence and lies.

I am convinced that this report will go deeper to the heart of British politics and institutionalisation than even perhaps the Bloody Sunday inquiry. I am of the belief that elements of our society and so called ruling bodies were absolutely clear, long before today, of the nature of what had happened that fateful day April 15th 1989 at the Leppings Lane End of the Hillsborough stadium.

The question is what was known and by who and when? And what should we do about it?

Firstly let us be clear. Whatever is done it will not bring back those poor souls who died that warm spring afternoon in Yorkshire. Nor will it take away the 23 years of hurt that the families of the 96 have fought for justice. But it may bring some kind of closure, closure on a wound that festers on the very soul of our society that like an infected pussy carbunkle has been allowed to continue to grow by inaction, ineptitude and instictive self survival of a few in the know.

Everybody at that ground that day has suffered in some way. Everyone who has any connection with Liverpool or Nottingham Forest Football Clubs have suffered in some way. Everyone connected with the Taylor Report have been affected by the realities of what they knew and saw and did, or rather didn't say.

Yet at the end of the day there are people, powerful people, who clearly know more than they have told and it is those who have caused much of the suffering and they should be held accountable.

Will that happen? Possibly not, probably not. Why? because in the words of Mulder "The truth is out there" And we all know what happened to Agent Mulder.

This is without doubt a conspiracy of the highest order and I like a good conspiracy theory like the best of us. Unfortunately I fear this conspiracy will turn out to have real truth behind it.

Tonight as I go to sleep and think of those back in Liverpool and those connected with the city I will pray that those involved will sleep a little easier tonight as the healing process can begin. I hope that we as a great nation will help those in Liverpool to do that.

For one thing I am certain of, once you have been taken in as a child of the city then you will always be part of that city. Liverpudlians are known for doing that. Tonight however if this nation wishes to be truly great then we need, each one of us, to put our differences apart and to put our collective arms, and hearts around those who are in pain under the shadow of the Liver Bird!

Hungry for it ... Part 2 in Malta

Well I said that I would continue this particular stream of thought but I never expected that I would do this because of the circumstances that arose to give me the inspiration.

And I say inspiration in a muted sense for what I am about to describe is not exactly what one would normally describe as inspirational.

Yesterday we took a jet from Heathrow to Zurich, an uneventful journey apart from the excess of £60 that I had to pay because of the stupidity of my bank blocking my card for security reasons forcing me to pay for service desk rather than e-ticket. (That's for another story though). The jet was spacious, clean and the staff were welcoming and friendly all what I have come to expect of years travelling with Swissair. As predicted we landed at Zurich on time and were transferred through to our Air Malta flight with relative ease. The staff welcomed us on board and for a local carrier the aeroplane was surprisingly modern and clean. The pilot took off with a little of an attempt to recreate a roller coaster ride but soon we were zooming over the tops of the Italian Alps and heading South for Rome then Sicily. Dinner was served and I have to say it was a rather nice combination of chicken, aubergine salad and hummus with coconut macaroon to follow and wine flowing a plenty. (Beat the hell out of Ryanair, another story)

And then it all went wrong. my daughter was sitting behind me and me and my son occupied aisle seats. Suddenly from behind there were cries of help and panic filled the cabin. Now in today's world this leads to all sorts of thoughts flowing through one's mind and I started thinking back to the earlier part of our journey when some road rage maniac in Great Hinton had tried to run us off the road (another story). Had that been a bad omen and although I'm not particularly superstitious when I fly I become increasingly thus.

As it turned out this was a medical emergency and therefore right up my street as so to speak. A call went out for any one who could help as a man was being violently sick and had gone into a serious state of confusion. By the time we had got to him though and got him out of his seat he was already unconscious and coning. His pupils were fixed and dilated pretty much by the time he was now laid in the aisle with his head in between my son and daughter. Although several rounds of CPR and defibrillation were tried (not to be taken lightly on a pressurised aircraft) the reality was that this poor chap had suffered a massive episode either coronary or cerobrovasularly.

And now my psych training kicked in as all around me I could see a vision of pure psychological trauma. My children suffering in front of my eyes and even the elderly or the tough medics assembled in shock. and spare a thought for the cabin crew, they are trained for this sort of thing but they are trained with dummies and they too were finding this difficult to handle, especially as they were helping to move the body and would have to do the clear up after we had landed.

I instructed the crew to make sure that the children particularly, and not just mine, were moved forward away from the scene, luckily we sat at the back of the aircraft in the cheap seats. There was still confusion but chaos was starting to calm down and there seemed a general air of relief with one person saying well at least it wasn't a terrorist with a bomb.

On arrival at Malta, and I've never been in a public aircraft landed so quickly, I did a final round of checking if everyone was OK, left my contact details whilst here on the island in case anyone needed to talk about things and took my family off to our home for the next week.

Today things seem a million miles apart but I'll keep in touch with this over the next few days .......to be continued   

Growing up, moving on the times they keep a rollin'

This is an important week in the history of my family. My youngest son starts his last week in primary school. Next term he will move into 'big' school. A whole new adventure awaits him. He got his last report this week and is achieving well beyond what he should be for an eleven year old. I cried when I read it. It has been such a journey for him from being attacked by someone who he should have been able to trust, through the long years of Home Education and the depths of insecurity that he was left with scarred onto his psyche, to the blossoming young boy that is confident and ready for his next steps.

Watching him on stage this last week performing in Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat I saw an exuberance of confidence that has only come about in recent months and through careful nurturing at both home and school. I cannot pay enough compliments to Bruce Douglas and his staff at Staverton who took a risk with a child who dearly wanted to be with other children but could not initially emotionally cope. I have seen him go off to stay with friends for nights and ultimately with the school on residential, neither of which ever looked likely a couple of years ago. He has moved from a non league player to a champions league winner and he has made me so totally and utterly proud to be his father. He has also done this against the backdrop of watching me go through tremendous bouts of illness and seen me in terrible pain at times, both emotionally and physically.

Yet it is not just my youngest son who makes me proud. All my children make me feel the same way. My eldest son about to make me a Grandad and training to be a Tree Surgeon, my next eldest son being able to take his Masters in Engineering because of his exams results whilst disappearing on sorties around the world, my daughter about to finish her year placement in PR at the BBC in London before completing her degree next year and  my youngest, eldest, child, my third son, getting fantastic results allowing him to start his BSc. in Computer Science this year. They are all amazing and have all succeeded in their own way.

As I reflect upon my life I look back and think would I have done somethings different. Of course I would that is he nature of hindsight however when it comes to looking at the incredible children that are before me now I wonder would doing things different have made them even more incredible? I have deep moments of regret of a few things in my life but I will never regret supporting my children to be who thy wanted to be, after all that is the role of a parent. The challenge I faced however was that my parents did not give me a role model to look up to so I had no idea what I was doing. An alcoholic father and a drug addicted depressed mother left me much to my own devices and even through the adversity of not knowing what to do there seems to be an invisible hand that has guided me. I can't put my finger on it but I always seem to have known what the right move for the children was. Unfortunately that has meant sacrifices for me including friendships and lovers and I indeed have regret in this part of my life. There are things I would have and should have done differently and even now I hope that there is some way of building bridges with some who have burned brightly but fleetingly at times in my life.

As a Psychologist it is a professional duty to reflect upon one's work and this can be quite painful. The honesty that stands before you when it is just you and the mirror can be acidic to the soul. But that cleansing process allows me to keep going. It allows me the ability to continue to fight for what I believe in and it allows me to continue the battle against my physical challenges.A couple of years ago I never dreamed that I would be writing this today. I was scared, felt very alone and did not see any sort of future for me. I believe that by helping my children they have in turn helped me. They have shown me the way back from the abyss. I am now displaying confidence rather than the youthful arrogance that I once oozed from my every pore. I now have faith that anything is possible given the right support. I have love to give with abundance and I hope that it will be drunk from my well.

And as I listen to my young son laughing with his friends in the lounge as I write this whilst waiting for the roast dinner to cook I have hope. I have hope in the future and I have absolute faith that everything I wish for will come true. And to those of you reading this today I wish nothing less than the very best for you. May you live your life in peace and happiness, may you be with the people you wish to be with and may you feel the love that you desire.

And if you're not quite there yet, well drop me a line and let me see if I can help you on your onward travel. We are all part of the same family and I will never turn you away. My heart and my ears are open and if I can help then I will


Live with passion, Peace and Happiness!  

Why does it always fall

I tell you that I love you but you do not hear
If you hear you do not listen yet I know not why
If I have offended you please do not jeer
For all I do is try and try and try
I strive with my soul all my sinews reach
Grasping at straws and begging your kiss
Yet you walk alone along a desolate beach
Fooling yourself that my heart you do not miss
I look to the sky to search for a clue
To how I might get beyond your deep frown
For this one thing I can say I know to be true
My love without you in life I should drown.

Touch my love

I think away the daylight hours
With thoughts of you and me entwined.
Our hearts will always be as one,
And our love is mighty,strong and proud.
Were it not for mountains in our way,
We'd be together in every way
Until the pass has cleared from snow,
When spring arises and we both know
That our path together shall be as one,
To contemplate else shall be defeat.
And our flowers can be undivided
To the point of mass excitement,
We are always one you and I
For we have a love that cannot die.
So remember when tonight you sleep
In your dreams you and I shall meet,
For my darling there is only you
And my heart pounds in symphony
Of beggars, Lords, Dukes and Kings.
Come cry ye all ring our bell,
Make our souls come forth and yell,
To seek our peace with each other's heart.
And never ever shall we part.

Othello at Euro 2012

Stan Collymore wrote a reflective piece today in the Sunday Press regarding the dangers facing English fan's travelling to Ukraine and Poland for Euro 2012. 

His thoughts that there was an awful lot of scaremongering going on in the press gave good argument to the contrary point portrayed in the Panorama documentary. And I am sure that he is right. We suffer more racism in this country than we like to believe. There may be an African-American President in the White House but we in the United Kingdom are a generation at least away from seeing Dr Martin Luther King's I have a Dream speech coming true here. In the land of supposed tolerance we often see the opposite reality.

Is there racism in Poland and Ukraine? Yes probably. Is it as bad as it is shown? Probably not. 

I can reflect upon an incident that tool place when I was a student studying at Liverpool University in the early 1980s. Another student was mugged in Sefton Park and was surprised that it had happened. The bicycle that the student rode was valued at about twice the amount earned in an average month's wage in the area. When he was confronted by a group of locals he was wearing a Varsity scarf and some nifty threads. When the locals taunted him, not very nice I know, he responded by saying how rich he was and that he would have a long and impressive career whereas they would be in the gutter, even less nice. He was really surprised when he was left sitting on his bum watching the mob walk away with his cycle to the comment "Looks like you'll be walking then on your impressive career"

Really that is the secret. If you go wandering off the beaten track and flaunting something in front of those who are not appreciating what you are saying or doing then things will lead to trouble. Predominantly I don't believe that the people of Ukraine or Poland are any more racist that the people of the United Kingdom but I'm also sure that there will be a minority just looking for trouble.

And should we allow those to have the headlines? Absolutely not. It may sell some papers but really come on now, Othello at Euro 2012 that would be a sure a tragedy as we are seeing in the cities of the UK.

  

Shot to the Heart

So folks I've not given you my thoughts from the edge for a while probably because I've been concentrating on other challenges not least of all my own health which for those who follow me on twitter will know has been somewhat challenging over the past few weeks.

Well one story caught my eye today and in many ways it is an old chestnut of mine. The Death Penalty.

Many of you will know that a British woman along with four others, three British and one Indian, have been arrested in Bali on suspicion of importing narcotics. As a result of this there has been a media feeding frenzy over the statement from the authorities that if she is convicted she will receive The Death Penalty.

Now those of you who know me know my objections to Capital Punishment. In a civilised society there is no room for the ultimate sanction of the state. And I think there lies the point, do we live in a civilised society? Is the human race truly civilised? How can we call ourselves civilised if we support the taking of life in such a sanitised way.

I know people will say that she was a drug runner bringing misery to many people and I understand that point of view particularly if you or a child of yours has been trapped in the wanton destruction of addiction however please take time to look at the alternate view. The person who took the drugs generally did so of their own free will in the first place.

Drug taking, one of the great four taboos in society, is as old as civilisation itself. The law of supply and demand will therefor always run out over the law of the land. Surely it is now a time for a rethink on drugs. This lady was probably fully aware of the consequences of taking drugs into a country like Indonesia that has a zero tolerance policy yet if she did do it the threat of execution obviously did not deter her. In fact Capital Punishment has never stopped the crimes it set out to deter. What would probably have prevented this from happening was if there was no financial gain to be made.

And that ultimately is how we stop drugs barons. Cut of their money supply not their heads. For it is the greed that drives on people when they talk about supplying drugs not the drugs.

Is this radical, in a way yes but in a way no. We know that the number of Dutch residents who are taking drugs have dropped in recent years yet the number of addicts in Holland has risen. The figures are deceiving for the reason for the increase of addicts in Holland is due to the foreign nationals not the indigenous population.

You cannot deal with a problem if you cannot see a problem and with drugs much of it goes on in the twilight  world out of sight and therefor out of mind.

Let us stop this nonsense now, let us wash our dirty drugs linen in public and let us rethink the whole strategy of the war on drugs, before your child becomes the next one in this situation.

Turn again Dick Whittington

The local elections are over, the race for the Mayor of London is over, people have voted in our great cities for mayors and those decisions are over.

So what is the vision of the future?

And there lies the challenge. A pathetic turn out at the polls yet again says more about the disillusionment of the electorate with the political class than it does about the democracy of Great Britain. And by doing so the British  public have in effect legitimised a system and Government that is sending this country back to the Victorian era.

Welfare

It is the mark of any civilised society that we look after the poorest, frailest and most in need of support. Instead of this happening what we are seeing are families being forced to relocate, disabled people being thrown into isolation and the elderly left to the kindness of charities and the food parcel. This tells me that we  are one step away from the workhouse again and if Tony Nicholson is given the right to get a doctor to end his life we are one step away from euthanasia of those who cannot defend their own rights. Didn't we fight a war to stop that sort of thing happening or have those in power so easily forgotten this?

Education

Education is a right, education is a must but it is not about literacy and numeracy and a set of opinionated tests that say nothing about the ability of child but all about the ability of a school to get children to exhibit Pavlovian responses from their students. What happened to the idea of expression. I am a scientist, Physical, Medical and now Psychological sciences have dominated my life, but look around and see children who have no concept of aesthetics. I see adults who have not read a book since school but can tell you exactly how Plato or Socrates work because of their life experiences. Experiences that have developed because their teachers motivated them with passion to learn. I worry that that is being destroyed by the want to drive scores and grades and I worry that the present system drives the life out of the teaching profession.

Sport

I look at the Barcelona players after being defeated by Chelsea and I saw men, not boys. To a man they stayed on the pitch and shook hands with their opponents they were honourable in defeat and sportsmanlike in their demeanour. I look at premiership players earning £100000 a week moaning to referees when they get booked and batsmen refusing to walk when they are clearly out and I think this is not how I played and it  is not how I want my children to play. It is how we lose as well as as we win that is important. The game must always be bigger than the individual

Society

Alcohol, drugs, gambling, sexism, racism and inequality. They're all there in abundance and whilst we should seek to include the positive and exclude the negative we only ever play lip service to the things that we would not talk about in polite conversation. We are a society that firmly believes in a Look after thyself first rather than Love thy neighbour attitude. In this we exclude great wedges of our society. Instead of educating people about the dangers of alcohol, drugs and gambling we sweep the challenges under the table. Instead of educating about inequality and promoting tolerance we still stay entrenched in a them and us attitude. We are still a system of class not a system of equality.


So what of the future?

We need leaders who will include, not exclude. We need leaders with empathy for all not support for corrupt practice. We need educators not invigilators.

WE NEED INSPIRATION, PASSION, ENLIGHTENMENT AND COMPASSION


And we need it......................................NOW!

Hungry for it?

Now over the years I've seen a lot of films. I've seen the good, the bad and the darn right terrible but when I went to see The Hunger Games I think I saw one of the more disturbing.

It is not a new nor brilliant concept in my opinion. In many ways it is no different from Lord of the Flies, A Clockwork Orange, Death Race or The Running Man. It is well crafted though and challenges a society that has somewhat changed in recent years especially in relation to children.

It is disturbing because I went with my 11 year old son who came out and there was little or no reaction. No reaction either from all the other children that were also watching, well perhaps there was the odd 'she killed them good remark' but that was about it. And I have to ask the question why?

As a psychologist I am aware of dissociation of events however if this is the case here it would seem to be a class dissociation of the whole of the pre-teen generation. Are our children becoming Piggy? or Droogs? Is violence acceptable now or has it always been but it seems more real now?

I think I need more time to reflect upon my observations but I really wanted to start the debate as I am concerned for our future. In our educational system we seek to destroy spontaneity not release it. Our want to control is almost second nature but we are not born wanting to control we develop that urge so does our society drive us towards that control?

To be continued..........................   

Humility

I have been thinking a lot recently about life, and death and all that lies in between. 11 years ago today I was in a maternity suite in Oxford waiting for my son to be born. I knew he was a boy as I'd been reading ultrasound scans for longer than I could remember. I knew he might not live as he'd been turned due to a wrong presentation and there was a serious risk of cord compression. So there I sat, once again in the John Radcliffe, once again in theatre greens, and I waited.

Years before I had been fortunate enough to deliver my first son. A flu crisis had left the local hospital in Trowbridge with one midwife and three deliveries almost simultaneous deliveries. The midwife said to me you know how to deliver a baby don't you? I said I knew the theory but had never actually done it to which came the reply, 'Well tonight my son you get to practice'

Of all the training I have had over the years nothing quite gets you ready for the amazing sight of a head starting to emerge from a mother. It is totally and utterly awesome and I still find pregnant women so powerfully beautiful, probably because of the incredible thing they are doing.

It made me think of how wonderfully blessed we are when we create life. It reminds me constantly of how insignificant yet unique we are and it inspires me to be the very best that I can be.

But more than anything it humbles me


And today with the gluttony and the greed and the selfishness that I see in this I'm alright Jack world that we live in I think it is so good that there are things powerful enough to do this. As I gaze down upon my sleeping son hoping that we will spend many birthdays together I think to myself how lucky and blessed I am.

Happy Birthday my beautiful son, live long, stay healthy, seek wisdom and above all show grace, kindness and humility in your path through life. And remember you are loved infinitely.

Democracy through education, more like thought control

How many have listened to the Pink Floyd song 'Another Brick in the Wall'

We don't need no education , we don't need no thought control'


I am truly mortified that we stand today no further on in our society than Victorian Britain. As we come to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of the second longest reigning monarch of all times have we really learnt anything?

And do we have a democracy in our country?


Democracy is a difficult concept. It is without the most difficult concept because to be a true democrat you must fight for the right of another person to express their thought even if you totally disagree with their mantra, even if you would fight to your very death to oppose what is said. And this is difficult. I hate what they are saying but I must defend their right to say it.

No person on this planet, within the human race has the right to say that they are better than any other and no person can take the moral high ground without doing that.

I am quite simple really. I wake up, I wash and put on clothes, I go to work, I come back, I eat and then return to bed to sleep. In among all of that I find time for family, friends and hobbies. That makes me pretty much like any other person on the planet. I breathe air and I have red and bluey-red blood running through my arteries and veins. I urinate and and defecate and wish to procreate. I am a human being and as such am no different to any human being on this planet.

Yet there are those out there in the ether who would see that differently. Now I like a good conspiracy theory like a lot of people. After all we all, I think, kind of would like to know the truth about JFK or little green men in Roswell. Yet there are forces out there that believe we are not grown up enough to handle the truth. That mass chaos would ensue if we changed the system!

But would it?

Maslow described the idea that there are stages of growth starting with basic needs of food and shelter rising to a concept called 'self-actualisation'. And for those of you who are not psychologists that can be a pretty abstract concept yet ultimately it is what the human race aspires to.

If we all reach the idea of self-actualisation then rather than chaos descending I believe harmony would flow. 


But the system would have you believe otherwise. And that is why schooling was introduced. Whilst I agree in many of the thoughts of Sir Ken Robinson one thing that I haven't actually heard him say yet, although forgive me if I am wrong, is that education is actually about control of the masses for the benefit of the few for political ends. Orwell's 1984 vision is nearer to the truth I suspect than many understand. We dress it up in elections and standards and Human Rights but in reality the few that have risen through the system will ultimately keep the system in place because it put them where they are and they know the game better than others.

So should we crash the system? Well no I do not advocate anarchy in any way whatsoever but I do believe that we have to start thinking in a different way if our grandchildren are to have a life in pastures green. De Bono is fundamentally right when he talks about thinking outside the box. It's something I encourage my students to do and it's something enshrined in my personal life. I do not want to leave this planet having not reached self-actualisation. I want to feel that I have inspired a want for growth. I want my children to understand the power of the love that they have inside of them. I want them to understand that by sharing and collaborating all good things will come to all good people.

So do not become another brick in the wall, passion is the difference between mediocrity and greatness. Use you passion in a thoughtful way, help your neighbour and you shall help yourself.


Peace and Happiness 

Did they really die in vain?

The whole purpose of a democracy is that we all have equal say in how things happen. Millions of our citizens have died to protect that very ideal. I want to know did they die in vain?

Why vain? Well with the latest bill on welfare getting it's way through Parliament we have indeed taken a step back. In fact I have to ask have we gone totally retrograde. The mark of a civilised society is it's want and ability to take care of those who most need it's help and make sure that all are equal under law and society.

In forcing terminally ill patients to work we might as well just roll out the mobile gas vans and not pretend about things. How are terminally ill people supposed to work? What economic value will they have to the companies that are supposed to employ them? What employer would take them on except in servitude? And how high on morphine will they be at work and by implications how many mistakes will they make?

As many of you know I suffered a major injury in a car crash which over time has led, as predicted, to a deterioration in my overall health. Has this stopped me from working? No, but I am self employed, if I don't work I don't eat. I did, with all my qualifications, apply for over 2000 jobs in 1997 but you've guessed it not one interview. You see employers have this bit in their minds that says "How reliable is a man with a broken neck?"

And I have to agree. When my pain becomes excessive I have two choices. I can take the opiates and be spaced for a day or I can bite on some leather like they did in Nelson's Navy. Inevitably I chose the latter because I have a child to support who relies upon me, I have older children who need my support but what if I didn't? Pretty quickly I would run out of money. Then I would lose my home. My child would probably end up in care and I would be forced to work  mopping toilet floors. Or maybe worse someone may decide that I am no longer of value to society and decide I need terminating. A son would lose a father and what message would that send to him?

Sounds a bit Orwellian? Of course it does, however that is what I foresee from the latest welfare laws. I will not give in because I am a fighter. There will though be people who will just give in. No say, no voice, no hope.
Suicides may become common place, who knows? One thing is for certain people will suffer.

Is this why people died fighting for democracy. Wasn't Hitler a man who sought to create the perfect race, to destroy any sort of deformity? We need to stop, and rethink. NOW!


I AM SPARTACUS

Fools Gold

I wonder sometimes the price of friendship. And is it fools gold we pay for it with?

I have believed all of my life that a true friend is someone who will stand by you through whatever turmoil life brings and that you will stand by them in the same way. However there is in this society a loss of that vision. Friendship seems to be about what people can get out of you today not what they can do for you. It has become a dog eat anything world and we look upon our neighbours with suspicion .

This cannot be right but sadly it is all to common,

Let us as we go about our daily lives please remember that there are people out there who desperately need a friend and you can do something about that,

Peace and Happiness to you all

Senior's thoughts on Love

So much has been written on the subject of love that I felt it was only fair that I put my few thoughts down too. Not that in anyway can I compare myself to Shakespeare, Shelley, Byron or Browning.

Does love make the world go round?  Will you be there always waiting for me? Will you always love me? and are you crazy for me? Or were we just kicking leaves in Belsize Park?

This mysterious thing that we call love is the purest of emotions, the rawness of the teenage love, the depth of the devoted couple caring for each other when on their Zimmer frames as they try to navigate those final few moments together and the unadulterated simplicity and bewilderment of childbirth when that oh so precious bundle pops their head into this world for the first time.

We write about it, we sing about it, we eulogise about it we feel it's highs and lows, the joy and the pain and like an opiate more powerful than heroin we need it's claws to be deep within our soul. 

In this world in which we live there is much hate and sorrow brought about by power struggles for money or for territory but in reality the most powerful force in the universe will always be love. We are slave to it's mastery and we pay homage on days like today. 

So wherever you are today and whoever you are with, or want to be with, remember that you have the capacity to give to someone the greatest gift that you can...........

your unrestricted unblemished and totally amazing love.

Use it wisely, peace and happiness to you all 

For You

My heart is there for all eternity
Your smile is all I wait for
My soul reaches out in certainty
More in hope rather than expectation

I know you will always remember
That first tender kiss
I know that I will always surrender
My love inside my soul

If I could hold you in my arms again
That would be so amazing
My passion is like an express train
Speeding on towards it's goal

So my one and only
True love inside of me
Please do not leave me lonely
For this world cannot see

For without you I am nothing
A knarled piece of bark
For when cupid loosed his arrow
Please let it hit the mark

If I am fear to vanquish
Then let me start right now
For I cannot live without thee
Alone upon my windswept bough

A Dickens of a Day

This morning at some unearthly hour on the train I was tweeting about Charles Dickens being that it is the 200th Anniversary of his birth today. Little would I realise when doing that how bad today actually would turn out to be in terms of a Dickinseque scenario.

Dickens was a great reformer. He hated what he saw around him in Victorian Britain. Poverty, disease and destitution could not be right in his mind. He wrote books that highlighted all of those things and yet as I look around me in Elizabethan Britain I see in many ways things have not changed and I for one am worried for my children.

Sure we now have sanitation, electricity, clean streets, education, health care and social care but we have an attitude just as small minded as many of those in the Victorian world. I consider myself lucky for those who I interact with through social networking are generally people who I would enjoy having a cup of afternoon tea with or a pint down the pub and these are people who I know in a virtual world. Those I know in the real world especially my so called peer group would stab me in the back and smile into my face as I would look on going et tu Brutus.

Many years ago I was a young man aggressively seeking promotion in a dog eat dog world of the 1980's. Then as many of you will know I suffered a Saul on the Road to Damascus moment when I nearly died in not one but two car crashes a short time apart. Since then, and I don't speak about it often, my body has gradually started to capitulate to the ravages of time hastened by the damage sustained in the crashes. However the enlightenment, as you might put it, allowed me to take a step back and look at the important things in life.

My wife at the time was horrified that I was no longer bringing in the money that kept her in the manner to which she believed she deserved and fairly soon my marriage was on the rocks, something that I take my share of responsibility for. It was a loveless marriage however I had wonderful children who I doted upon. And I wanted them to be able to look up to me in years to come and say hey dad you did good you know. So I changed my outlook on life.

Unfortunately though I look around today in workplace and I still see that dog eat dog attitude. It is still all about me rather than together we can be better. Have we learned anything I ask myself? Politicians are corrupt, sports leaders are embroiled in so many scandals, business leaders seek to make the pot bigger for themselves and smaller for others and religious leaders are contemptible. And the great reformists? Well they seem to have disappeared all together. So what would Dickens have thought of it all? I dread to think.

So when the night draws in and you climb into your bed ask yourself this before you go to sleep. Have I helped someone else today. Have I brought about some kind of positive change in my theatre of influence. Have I made a difference to someone today?


If the answer is yes then may you sleep in peace and enjoy the rest that you deserve. If the answer is no then make sure you do something about it before it is too late, don't procrastinate, don't say manjana. Do it, and do it now.


All it takes for evil to succeed is for one good man not to stand up.


 

It was only a Winter's Tale

Blogging carries with it a certain responsibility. It is unlike writing any other form of article or book because there is no editor there to put upon the article their own particular spin. Yet by using the world wide web you are in fact reaching a greater audience than most daily newspapers ever will. So people read you and quote you. Agree with you or castigate you for being a heretic of sorts. And they will take on board what you have said. You will in some way reach out into their daily lives.

It is in many ways being like a parent.

Strange comment? Well think about it. No one teaches you how to be a parent. We learn from what happened to us as children and by watching how our parents and the parents of our friends nurture their children. There are no formal classes that sit you down and explain this is how you do it. Well no classes that you are compelled by law to take that is. We are free to bring up our children however we so desire. We can seek help  from professionals who have their own ideas on the nurturing of children but in reality we turn to our own parents thinking that by some way they have the answers to all our problems.

And blogging is the same. Many of us enjoy the interaction that it allows us to have outside of our hectic lifestyle. Some of us do it for campaigning reasons, some for fun and some because we like the sound of our own thoughts. No one teaches you how to blog, well beyond the functionality of it that is. There are no real rules, guidelines or even censorship which is why many like this medium however just like parenting with that freedom comes ultimately responsibility.

So when I was listening to the news this morning about the specific problems regarding Bristol's Booze Bombshell http://alcoholdebate.blogspot.com/ I started thinking about the nature versus nurture argument all over again.

And here's my conclusion.

Whilst children continue to be brought into this world parents will ultimately have much control over their offspring's development. As parents they have learned from the imperfect world of their own parents who often have limited education or life skills. We as a society need to break this cycle of lack of life skill training and educate our young in the ways of the world. Inspire them to want to learn, inspire the parents to want to learn and give all access to the education that life has to offer. Allow people the freedom to make up their own minds but make sure that they have enough information to support their decisions. As a society we must grow together or face ultimate destruction all because we thought I'm alright Jack!


This may be only a Winter's Tale but do not allow our society to reach it's Twelfth Night and become another   Hamlet in the mystery of time. 

Looking in the mirror

As a wise man once said "If you want to know who truly loves you then you must look in the mirror and see what they see. Only then will you understand"

OK so I made that up. Well I think I did for you never know, somewhere someone may have really said that. The sentiment though I'm sure is neither new nor worn out.

The challenge that we each face is looking at ourselves. We find it easier to go around wearing a mask, our 'game face', rather than being truly at peace with ourselves and the rest of the world in which we live. For to find that peace you have to look deep inside the corners of your soul reaching even the bits that you have fought for so long to bury however unsuccessfully over your life. Without true introspection how can you ever hope to connect with another human being?

As a psychologist I've seen so many theories about how we interact with our surroundings and it is so important to us to discover the whys and hows that a multi billion dollar industry has grown up telling you how to do it. The really sad part is that you already know how to do it. The challenge is, as Susan Jeffers says, is that you "Have to feel the Fear and Do It Anyway" Now here's a woman who made a fortune telling people the blindingly obvious so that kind of tells you what I'm on about.

It is almost as if we are paralysed with fear about everything we do. We are scared to change because although we may hate where we are we have our comfort zone and hey we all need our teddy bear right? The reality though is that we have been changing ever since we were conceived and we will continue to change until we are no longer mortal. And you never know we may even continue beyond that too. Our challenge comes from managing that change so that we don't melt down in some ignominious public way that will leave us as a social leper for the rest of our living days. So we take little toe dipping steps so as not to cause a problem. Result- our teddy bear gets bigger and our fears become unmanageable so we limit ourselves to remaining well...ourselves.

All I know from looking in my mirror is that I see a man who has had some success, some love in his life and some bad times too. What I see is a soul that clearly feels drawn to helping others but often hasn't got a clue how to do it. I see a deeply unhappy part of my soul too, one that will be forever longing for things to be different. What I see is a perfectly normal man who is trying to find a path through uncharted territory without hurting too many or getting blown into dangerous waters. What I see is a perfectly normal human being.

So when you wake up tomorrow and you face yourself in the mirror just remember it's OK to be you but if you want to change something it will be inevitable that you will change something. Don't beat yourself up, don't castigate yourself, just accept that you have so much to give to all those around you.

Live with Passion people. Peace and Happiness.

Holier than thou with a touch of fuel poverty

Two things have caught my eye today for different reasons but ultimately with the same ending.

Firstly The Times led with  a story about Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury being critical of his fellow bishops over leading the revolt over welfare reforms. Is he right. Well he would be right to remember the luxury that he lived in as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the first class travel he was afforded as a leader of the Anglican community. Or maybe his Lordship has developed selective Alzheimer's over that one?

Are there people in this country in poverty? Absolutely. Are there people in this country who have no desire to work? Yes. The real question is what are we going to do about it? A one rule fits all scenario is always going to be the way governments play it and Duncan=Smith has been playing to the audience, or should I say core voters when it comes to welfare reforms.

Here's an idea! New Deal, no not that stupid pathetic attempt by Tony Blair to manipulate the jobless figures. Real unemployment has stayed pretty much at the levels it is now since the British manufacturing industry was decimated in the 1970s and 1980s and successive governments have manipulated figures to hide the true situation from the world worrying that investment might not come into broken Britain. No the New Deal I'm on about is that which was so triumphed by Franklyn D Roosevelt in the 1930s.

It's a radical thought but how about we approach the giant civil engineering companies and persuade them through long term public building projects to take on and retrain people who are unemployed or on low incomes. The bill would be massive sure but in reality if you are using the money set aside for welfare in the budget to pay for the contracts and the civil engineering companies are forced by law to pay a fair days wage for a fair days work then even if half those on low paid or who are unemployed take up the offer we can rebuild the public transport system of the UK in 10 years alone, not the 20 for HS2 on its' own. Thus improving our economy and reducing our welfare bill. And giving our children hope!

That is true public private enterprise.

Now turning to the other side of things and the story that petrol is set to hit £7 a gallon on the front of the Express and the Mail. Well here are two papers adept a scaremongering. We have at least two, yes two months oil reserves in Britain at any given time and the refinery has gone into administration not stopped refining and that is a different scenario.

The only reason that we will see massive petrol price rises is because of the greed of the oil companies and the government who get 80 percent, yes 80 percent of the oil pound in taxation revenue.


Thirty years go when I read for my first degree, some of you will already know that was in physics, I was given an assignment to look at the future viability of alternative sources of energy generation given that it was expected for oil and gas to run dry by the early 2020s to the mid 2050s. So after doing lot of research I discovered that essentially the technology for efficient generation of alternate fuel sources was either already there or very close to being there. Thirty years on we are still controlled by Oil and Gas companies with the same stranglehold over our economies as the water barons had over ranchers and farmers in the old Wild West. I thought we had learned, well obviously not and so are we likely to be in fuel poverty for a long time to come? Absolutely.

Change is difficult, change is scary but change is an absolute must if we as a species are to grow and prosper to the benefit of all not the few.


And if we do not change we will die!


copyright T Senior 2012







   

Hey you, you with the bacon sarnie, who smokes and drinks

So David Cameron has called for greater hands on contact between health professionals and their clients. I hate to use the word patient now because it's all so politically incorrect. And after all when it comes to healthcare it's now all about political correctness isn't it. And that means everything is bound to be your fault. 


You eat badly, you smoke too much, you drink too much, you don't exercise, you veg out in front of the telly, those shoes will knacker your spine. Yes we've heard it ll before and guess what you'll hear it all again too. Why? Because there is nothing that is ever really that new when it comes to healthcare. Remember an apple a day keeps the doctor away! Of course you do your mum or dad told it to you to scare you into thinking that you were going to get all sorts of lurgy if you didn't have an apple. What they should really have been shouting is prevention is better than cure. And if you want prevention then you have to get things away from doctors. Why? Well because doctors treat symptoms not cure people.

I have worked extensively in and around the NHS for pretty much all my adult life, well since university anyway and I am extremely proud of what is one of Great Britain's two great legacies to the world. (The Royal Navy being the other) However if you leave it to the NHS to prevent disease you are asking for too much. If you want to prevent things you need to EDUCATE. Give a man a fish and you stop the hunger for a while, teach a man to fish ..... well you all know the motto.

Doctors are not generally educators, in fact they are the worse educators going. Nurses are better listeners generally and therefor generally better educators but even this wonderful group of people struggle when it comes to clear communication these days. And there lies the point, when you go to the doctors you do so because you have a medical problem you don't go because you want to be told you've been a bad person and be blamed for bringing on that problem.

Should the medical profession be better with their bedside manner? Absolutely. Most junior doctors are straight out of university and completely wet behind the ears having not been taught any communication skills and many GP's still act as if they should be revered like Gods. My GP is great I have to say because he is of the old fashioned mode. He listens and then talks, and he is a very good listener, which coming from a psychologist is high praise indeed. Unfortunately he is not the norm and many people still feel uncomfortable because of the inability of their carers to effectively bond with them. And also there is the pressure on the system to get you in then out the door on a conveyor.

So getting medical professionals to start asking these blame game questions is ultimately going to lead to problems not least of all because people lie. 

When you tell a doctor that you smoke so many or drink so much they double the figure at least so we then get into the truth game. This I'll comment on in my other blog http://alcoholdebate.blogspot.com/ so in reality we don't ever get the right information for any given situation.

Thus in a nutshell we need to have better public education and information. Lip service is paid to this in PSHE lessons in schools but as teachers are also not really trained in this area are these lessons as effective as they could be and do young people just treat them as a lazy period?

So once again I come back to my regular argument stating clearly that you need to have the right people, doing the right education, giving the right information in the right way.

Educate, educate big time and educate now! But do not preach for a sermon is not required!

In Abbot more trouble

Oh dear Diane you really have caused a stir haven't you. But what's wrong with that? It is totally irrelevant if you have upset a few people or not what is important is that you've got people talking far more successfully than many politicians have done in the last 20 or so years.

I don't believe that the colour of your skin makes you the person you are. I do believe that our society can fundamentally place so much environmental pressure on an individual within a certain part of that society during their formative years that some people eventually do start acting like old fashioned stereotypes. And it is very hard for young people especially to break out of those stereotypes.

Do certain parts of our society try to rule by divide and conquer techniques, yes of course they do it works well. Are he majority of power brokers in Britain white, of course they are. Does that mean all white people work the same way, don't be silly. You can turn this round very easily by looking at India. Do Indian power brokers work the same way? Of course they do. Are Indian power brokers white, of course not they're Indian. In fact that is how power works, in any society in any race. A few people try to rule by dividing the rest. Political systems work the same way, two or maybe three main parties with followers and a few thousand floating voters who ultimately decide who is kept in power. Divide and conquer and no party ultimately carries the majority of the votes, well in the UK anyway.

We need to start thinking in a different way. We need to start working together to improve the planet we live on. We all share the same oxygen, we all bleed red and we all need water. We are human beings we are a single species that is in severe danger of wiping itself out through greed, disease, poverty and power. We strip mine the planet, we watch children starve and die, we build war machines to kill others who do not follow our ideals and yet we still claim that we are great.

Greatness comes from compassion, greatness comes from discovery, greatness comes from growth, greatness comes from unity. If Diane Abbot has done one thing today she has got s talking and got us looking at ourselves and for that I will not castigate her.

If we seek everlasting change, if we seek the human race's improvement, if we truly seek empowerment and survival then we need to learn to work together.

Enough small drops together make a tidal wave  

You see, I am a psychologist!

Well today was a better start, especially for my son.

He's at school now, told you he would be. He woke up this morning still feeling scared, still producing smells from his rear end like Stig of the dump but determined to overcome his fears. I held his hand on the way to school and the minute he got there all his friends mobbed him with cuddles and pats on the back. His relief was obvious. I know he will be okay now he's back.

There will still be wobbles, that is natural, but hopefully the hurdles and the wobbles will continue to get smaller and as he comes up with coping strategies as he gets older they may well be brought totally under control. If they aren't so what it just goes to prove he's human and not some machine.

Just remember folks we all have human frailties and as such we will all have our ups and downs. Life is cyclical and the next day, the next hour may be better, or worse than the last but it will not be the same and change is inevitable.

For if we do not change we stop and if we stop we die. Change is the only constant thing in the whole of the universe.

January Blues? Or hidden trauma?

This morning has been really tough for me.

It has been tougher for my ten year old son.

He is a wonderful boy. Clever, witty, cute, inspiring, friendly, caring are but a few words that describe him. He suffers badly though. Not from some terrible life threatening disease thank God, although he has gone blind pretty much in one eye, but from something that is painfully debilitating. He suffers from panic attacks. Panic attacks so severe that they leave him retching over the toilet, farting like a trooper, shaking like a new born lamb in the middle of a snowfield and having palpitations that would confuse many a cardiologist . They are the most awful things to watch and they centre around one thing ........school.

Now some of you will say he is just doing this for attention, for another day off after Christmas. Oh how I wish that were true. I genuinely wish that it was as simple as that. The psychologist in me yearns for such a simple solution as that, it begs for one. Unfortunately it isn't as simple as that for he has suffered these attacks since being attacked at school by a teaching assistant. An attack that was witnessed and brushed under the carpet by a school, a headmistress and system that makes the Stephen Lawrence inquiry pale into the background.

Without a shadow of a doubt there is institutionalised racism out there in the ranks of the power brokers in our society and without a doubt there is insitutionalised bigotry out there when it comes to mental health issues. Especially when it goes against the mantra of a system that is supposed to be caring.

To give you a brief outline, my son started school at 4, he went to the brightest of schools in the whole of the Trowbridge Area, the one with the most accolades and a headmistress lauded by the system as the next best thing to the Messiah. He had difficulty settling in and on one day when he was saying goodbye to his mother, having that last reassuring and comforting cuddle he was suddenly confronted by the school secretary and a teaching assistant ordering her from the premises for no reason. He was then physically snatched from his mother's arms by the teaching assistant so violently that he was left physically bruised for days and psychologically traumatised. His mother was then not allowed to speak to him as he screamed in physical pain and was frog marched out of the school.

A complaint was made, the headmistress then started on a cacophony of lies backed up by Governors so weak  that a feather duster could have blown them down and a LEA that refused to intervene and left him to evaporate in the ether

The upshot of this was he ended up being forced into home education.

Last year he finally went back to school. He went to a school where he was nurtured as he should have been from the start, to a school that I have only the most grateful of thoughts and eternal thanks towards because the Headmaster and his team understood how traumatised he had been and how he needed very careful handling. Within weeks he was starting to blossom and his progress has been nothing short of miraculous to the point where he led the narration in the nativity concert this Christmas, a moment that any parent would have been proud of. He left school a happy and contented child.

Unfortunately though this morning the old fears resurfaced and he suffered a wobble. A wobble so big that he locked himself in the bathroom crying and retching. He is calm now and I am confident he will be there at school again tomorrow for it is the fear of going not the actuality of going to school that now causes the problem. Although he has had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by those who he loves the fact that most have them have now departed has left him feeling a little vulnerable.

So the point of this story? Well quite simply for those of you out there struggling with the January Blues remember that mental health challenges can affect anyone of any age at any time and in any given situation. It is not something that we should shy away from discussing but it is something that we as a society need to be more tolerant and understanding of. And we should never allow a system to beat down an individual to the point where they feel useless or impotent.

All it needs for evil to succeed is for one good man not to stand up.

    

Of wind and rain

Go on do your worst blow me down
For I shall not wear a frown
I love your nature thy mighty blow
I wish more would say what a show!

Nature at it's ragged best
Time to take a thermal vest
And comes the gale so wet
You'll be inside by now, I'll bet

For all that nature can expel
The sharpest blow, the grandest swell
To mice, to men who stand aloft
To tall skyscraper, to modest croft

'Tis mother nature's way you see
To make us scared to make us flee
But soon the rain she goes away
To bring to us the brightest day

Welcome to the New Year

Well it's now 2012 and the year of civilisation's demise if the Mayans are to believed. There are many out there who prophecise the end of the world is nigh and that we are all doomed. Well I for one hope that is not true.

As a species the human race is the first in our known history capable of destroying itself. It is also capable of overcoming adversity beyond comprehension. We are powerful and strong but at the same time small and weak. We have the ability to do and have already done many great things. Yet unfortunately Newton is right in so much as for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. We as a human race have done many negative and bad things throughout history.

It is the mark of a civilisation that it grows, learns, adapts and achieves a higher purpose. Human beings are a long way from reaching that higher purpose whatever it may be. This is why we have religion and this is why we believe so passionately about some kind of omnipotent higher being. And this takes me back to a discussion that I had as a Varsity student in the early hours of he morning in a cramped room having been out most of the night drinking copious amounts of alcohol. A discussion that was repeated frequently over my student life, yet a discussion that is relevant and important today.

My first degree, physics, taught me that our ultimate goal with regards to understanding the universe was something called th Grand Unification Theory. The idea that all the forces of the universe were mathematically aligned to be part on one ultimate force and therefore co-joined and integral to each other. My friends the philosophers would classify this as some kind of measure of the soul, my theologist friends would call it God. And my legal friends argued that it could never exist as we could not prove it.

And there lies the dilemma for if we are part of some overwhelming force and energy source then by the very nature of force and energy change is inevitable. That means there are natural cycles of everything because one thing that I learned and was the golden rule was that energy can neither be created nor destroyed merely changed.

So I hope the world doesn't end in 2012 but I also hope that we learn from our past mistakes and change our human direction. Kindness overcomes hostility, friendship overcomes pain and love, well that simply make the world go round.

Wishing you a happy 2012 and hope that all your hopes, wishes and dreams come true.