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.
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Sunday 6 May 2012
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!
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!
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