POVERTY SUCKS!

A relative quicky here (Note: With the benefit of hindsight it really didn’t turn out to be that quick!). Just to say that poverty sucks and I’m feeling well justified middle class Western guilt about it. I have had a very comfortable life and I teach kids whose lives are more comfortable still. Even our poorest here in the UK often suffer within the parameters of satellite TV and mobile phones, although there are exceptions; particularly within the demonised asylum-seeking class. (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23811988-the-dispossessed-mother-living-in-limbo-with-no-job-no-benefits-and-no-cash.do)


It is perhaps because we can’t truly envisage poverty that we do so little to alleviate it. Our pastor, a rather alpha male type, caused many to think long and hard when he talked this Sunday of having cried hard in front of his children earlier in the week at the Blue Peter footage of an 8-year old Peruvian orphan forced to scavenge for a living on a rubbish heap in order to survive. He just couldn’t help but make the comparison to his own 8-year old son.

Now I’m unhealthily emotionally stunted with the best of them, truly I am. I’m well aware that I approach the 1-year anniversary of the last time I genuinely cried – the aftershock of a truly horrendous morning watching my wife suddenly suffering convulsions whilst in intensive care following major brain surgery… But there really is plenty to get upset about outside of my metaphorical windows, and perhaps I should force myself to look at it and engage with it more. Then maybe I’d force myself to spend more money and time in doing something about it. Strangely, in addition to the incident above, I’m writing prompted by a story 230 years old. It jars because it’s in my city, it’s heartening because we have moved on as a society, but it’s shameful because it’s still happening elsewhere… and the bit that really challenges me is that it has a happy ending – a reminder that a little bit of care and investment really does make a difference. Please read it, it’s quite something:

http://www.georgianlondon.com/a-morning-walk-in-the-metropolis

Now there’s a lot in life to feel happy about – perhaps I should blog about that too one of these days, but it’s wrong that we cocoon ourselves entirely in smug satisfaction as a direct result of our taking far more than our share of what the planet has to offer. Just as wrong as it would be to sit and bemoan poverty whilst giving next to nothing towards its alleviation (and yes I do give, in case you wondered whether this was an absolutely empty gesture of an article!). I’d also like to acknowledge, as I’ve tried to in various ways in several of my posts, that deprivation is not just measurable by income. It’s about education, self-respect, opportunity and much else besides. But I’m sure a lot of that stuff only really starts to matter once you have enough to eat. And me? I currently have a bad stomach because I’ve over-eaten sugary snacks and meat these past few days. It’s a poor show really isn’t it? I wouldn’t always call it a blessing – because much of our societal excess directly feeds in to our spiritual funk, our lack of social cohesion and our worsening mental health issues (my gassy stomach acting as convenient metaphor). But it certainly carries with it responsibility… So for the sake of ourselves and others LET’S BE GENEROUS!!

PS: If you’re feeling clever, read the following – one of the world’s cleverest explaining that poverty is not just measurable in financial terms. Easier to follow in the second half than the first… but then I’m not all that clever:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/mar/23/social-justice-philosophy-freedom

WHY DON'T WE MAKE THINGS ANYMORE??

I have the rare pleasure of teaching the Industrial Revolution next term. I have taken advantage of the virtual curricular autonomy I seem to have at the Castle to ditch the Civil War project, hurry through the Stuarts with Year 8 and leave lots of time open to look at inventions, cholera, slavery, protest and factory conditions (not necessarily in that order) next term. I’m looking forward to planning the lessons for the first time, but I’m already asking the question – where did it all go? What do we make and export to the world now? Yes there are things that maintain our world presence – finance, culture or entertainment for example – but not Sheffield steel, Stoke pottery or ships banged together in Govan. No more is the ready association made between Wales and coal, Hull and fish or Liverpool and its docks. And what’s replaced these hundreds of thousands of jobs? We are now a ‘service economy’ – dominated by its tertiary sector as opposed to primary (extracting a product from the ground/sea) or secondary (turning that product into something via industrial process). We are indeed a ‘nation of shopkeepers’, and indeed of call centre operatives, bankers, IT consultants, estate agents and public sector drones. It’s not all bad – but it results in a great many jobs offering limited satisfaction, it does little to bind or define a community and it means there is little scope for providing new jobs en masse when people are wary at splashing out on non-essentials.

Why is this the case? We still drive, dwell in and use numerous solid structures… but the truth is they’re manufactured elsewhere. It’s cheaper and more efficient for corporations to set up plants in Eastern Europe, Latin America or Asia than it is to maintain a presence on Teesside. Are they wrong? Certainly not from their perspective. Our minimum wage, pension/National Insurance contributions, workplace regulations and limited working hours make a large scale UK presence massively expensive. Overseas it can all be bypassed and a product produced for far less – why wouldn’t they do so? I’m not necessarily talking ‘sweat shop’ conditions here – a company can in good conscience set up in Eastern Europe paying lower wages quite appropriate to the housing/service costs of that locality and thus mistreating no-one. In an age of increasingly global companies, there is no special obligation to subsidise the UK workforce or economy. We Brits figure as consumers and vendors rather than producers in the eyes of most I’m sure. We’re caught between two stalls in a frustrating incarnation of the mixed economy – we’ve got just enough socialism from Europe to ensure bountiful regulation, but allied to enough free marketeering to ensure no-one has to stick around and abide by it!

So how do we compete? Well, as ever, I’m no expert, but I see the key possibilities, to be considered in turn, as 1) Go the libertarian route, freeing up UK working conditions to beat developing economies at their own game 2) the opposite – embrace enhanced state control 3) Play the global game – be prepared to emigrate 4) Focus on niche markets or 5) Provide here the skills and quality that others can’t…

1. This is surely the most controversial of the suggestions. You never hear anyone suggesting we scrap the minimum wage and free employers to treat their workers worse in order that they might base production here rather than in China. Rather you hear of the need for better paid paternity leave. Had it always been thus, the Industrial Revolution would never have taken off! Plus this does rather rely upon an assumption that the material benefits of enhanced wages/conditions are more conducive to happiness than is the sureness that comes from identity within a working class community – one low paid perhaps, but with job security and communal bonds to compensate. Wages might be lower and life tough, but the fact everyone is in the same boat may lead to low-cost services and houses provided in order to tap the market – perhaps by the employer companies themselves investing in the area. It appeals because so much seems to have been lost in areas deprived of their industrial life-blood, no longer able to relate to the Labour Party and without identity as the phrase ‘working class’ becomes anachronistic. However, I’m well aware it’s untenable (and ultimately undesirable) for the following key reasons:
• The unions would never hear of it! Rightly so if they’re doing their jobs – just look at the way Unite are taking on (unfairly crippling?) British Airways for relatively minor crimes.
• Every city will attract its high earners, if only for exploitation purposes, and they will help drive prices up and beyond those paid ‘free market wages’ in the vicinity.
• It’s probably all nonsense anyway – this noble working class myth. Many living it out were probably hungry and miserable half the time, even if they could play football in the cobbled streets! Maybe on reflection many miners are happier and safer above ground, despite the negative community impact? The standard of living has demonstrably improved almost everywhere since the 70s, let alone the 19th Century!
2. There is also REAL socialism to consider – the idea that, rather than just insist upon fair pay and Health & Safety, the government actually go the whole hog and run the factories and mines themselves, thus ensuring they stay open. British Steel was always going to be based in Britain! To a lesser degree they could subsidise industry in order to incentivise companies sticking around – much as they have the banks. This prospect has reared its head in the accusation that they should have kept the Corus plant in Redcar running until a buyer was found. Again however it is dangerous – the USSR was eventually scuppered over a lack of modernisation and productivity – why bother changing and progressing if you can keep doing things exactly as you are without threat of being closed down or rendered obsolete?
3. Speeding up now –emigration should perhaps be thought about far more. A basic British closed-mindedness and lack of languages means we only ever see the new EU-sanctioned freedom to work overseas as an immigration issue. In fact, why not do as the Poles do? Why not take our skills to the markets where they’re required and remunerated appropriately within the local economy? That is surely an option for the workers of Redcar and, indeed, why stick to Europe? What demands must there be within the burgeoning economies of Brazil, India or China? I’m not saying I’m personally tempted but I think I’d rather that than the dole?
4. I well remember the time when anyone with basic computer programming skills could name their wage and walk into a job – after all, every single company suddenly had to have an IT network and online presence. Hence the fact my university housemate could drink his way to a Third and quickly make himself better paid than the rest of us! Is there an ongoing opportunity for clever people to identify in advance niche or boom markets and for Britain to be taking particular advantage in some area of its own? A random example springs to mind – when in corporate sales I would always call Israel for the bioscience companies! What’s our niche, and could it involve manufacturing something new or different?
5. Finally – let’s look at the positives. Maybe, whilst Corus couldn’t keep up in the modern world, we should realise that Britain DOES still make things – eg Rolls Royce in Derby, Mercedes in Northampton. Nissan in Sunderland is apparently Europe’s most efficient car plant! In these cases there is something keeping them here and it’s not sentimentality – perhaps a brand, a reputation, an expert workforce or just a really well-run enterprise. The problem is that none of the above employ huge numbers of people – I guess we have to accept that modern technology has cut down on the sheer numbers of workers required. Nonetheless it is a reminder that quality and skills will out. Maybe we could drop the obsession with our nation’s children reaching university, even if ill-suited, because we value graduation (whatever the debts) more than we value skills and practical expertise. That’s why we needed all the Polish plumbers in the first place! Apprenticeships should surely be designed and offered in order to reflect the needs and opportunities of industry? And a profitable business is always appealing...

A lot there and a violation of my ‘3-digit word count’ rule, meaning probably no-one will read. But I’ve enjoyed thinking it through, and I hope we do remain a country that makes things… even if I myself remain a DIY-phobic who merely writes about it. It’s not just nostalgia – more a belief that a nation’s history imprints upon it and that we Brits are happiest when producing THINGS of our own.

PEOPLE NEED PEOPLE!

Teaching, as I do so often, Nazi Germany to at least two different year groups here at the Castle; I have been struck by Hitler’s use of community spirit. It is a yearly source of wonder and mystery to the lads; how this deranged and murderous oddball could possibly have inspired such widespread devotion. The assumption I have to pick away at is simply that they were coerced into doing so, whether by fear or violence. There is a presumption that if they didn’t wave flags, joyously salute and fight to the death for the Fuhrer, they’d be at once picked off by an SS sniper on the roof (or perhaps by the Gestapo agent under their bed).


Neither is true. Yes, it was wise to be seen playing ball lest you be reported by a zealous neighbour or your own Hitler Youth-attending spawn. But, as my Head of Department mentioned just this week – Hitler would have retained power with a vast approval rating had he held an election in 1938. It wasn’t everyone – of course not – but there’s every sign of him having been carried along on a wave of genuine public enthusiasm as the country’s fortunes and standards of living demonstrably improved (at least for those among the ‘Volk’) and the world began to fear them once more.

There are plenty of reasons for this – the nation’s history had seen them far more used to dictatorship and militarism than to the alternative, there was shame at the outcome of WW1 and fear at the experiences of the Great Depression, Hitler was even able to tap an already prevalent seam of anti-Semitism… However, perhaps above all (and I’m aware I say this without footnotes or credible backing) Hitler tapped a human need to belong. Throughout a German’s upbringing in the 1930s they would be told they were part of an exclusive club – racially and nationally. Evenings were filled with rallies, films, hikes, meetings… for children but also for adults in the world of work; kept happy with the like of ‘Beer and Sausage Evenings’ within the ‘Strength Through Joy’ programme. It was perhaps part of the appeal that others were not allowed to participate (Jews, gypsies, asocials, Communists, the mentally ‘defective’), thus serving to further affirm those on the inside, as well as giving them a common opponent and scapegoat. All school subjects and all public pronouncements made great use of the message that Germany and its people were special, chosen, destined for greatness – deserving of land and vengeance.

So what of it? Well I think this need exists still. People want to belong and they crave contact. There has been a horrible dismantling of organic bonds within society via the abandonment of church, unions, political parties or working men’s clubs. I’m not sure anything has truly replaced them – even football clubs have been taken, at the top level, beyond the reach of those who love them, leaving only the wealthy able to attend. Rather, social groupings happen online – where people compete for ‘friends’ they have often never met. This is unsatisfactory and demeaning of our humanity. Where for most of our history entertainment meant, by definition, a coming together of people, it is now fed through tubes into televisions and computer screens, devoured by isolated people cut off from each other by walls. I’m positive it’s partly responsible for the general mental health issues written about in the likes of ‘Affluenza’. It’s also dangerous. If someone in our age appears promising a community and acceptance within it on the basis of a crass and lowest-common denominator (Nick Griffin is a sort of rubbish dry run of the theory), it will surely seem hugely appealing to many.

There are positive instances of community still. Whatever you think of Christianity, hang around my church for a bit and you’ll see a bunch of people holding each other to high standards, looking out for one another and seeking to help out the wider community. I personally will never forget that whilst my wife was undergoing brain surgery, people were (without me asking) bringing round meals they’d cooked me, or taking my bike in to get the brakes fixed. I’m sure this mutual support is part of the reason why disconnected youngsters get sucked into the more fundamentalist forms of religion too, but it can be a very good thing – promoting charity, good parenting, moral behaviour. I’m not sure there are currently a great many alternative sources of such guidance; Harriet Harman threatening to arrest anyone who expresses a view suggesting ‘inequality’ doesn’t count! And it doesn’t have to be faith-based. I’ll never forget the glorious birth of AFC Wimbledon – a football club owned and formed by fans to replace the one bought by business sharks and literally taken from their community after 100-odd years in favour of Milton Keynes. It was clear that, with the early football at little more than parks standard in those early days, the thousands present craved above all a place to drink, sing and vent together – enjoying being a part of something that mattered to so many.

However, many seem to drift from communities once they leave school and university. Many in cities are lonely and thus susceptible to the politics of hate. It is to Britain’s credit that it never held much truck with extremes, whether Fascist or Communist. But, in troubled times, people still love a scapegoat and we need to give people a positive reason to belong. Social disconnection is prime fodder for the next budding Adolf!

NOTHING GOOD ON THE RADIO

Why can’t I listen to my music on the radio?

Right, nothing deep here – just a good old-fashioned moan at the bland and sanitising nature of commercial interests. Why can’t I listen to the music I like on the radio? It’s my frustration with the modern world in microcosm. For a little while, as a young whipper-snapper, I could listen to it on XFM. Then the sharks circled, XFM was purchased by Capital FM and, before I knew it, XFM seemed only to play The Stereophonics and the only DJ was Dave Berry. There was never anything new, or edgy, or truly alternative anymore. They were just feeding us a different aspect of the major labels’ officially sanctioned roster – the other half of the Top 20.

Then the good old BBC stepped in – the one organisation divorced from commercial considerations. They created 6Music – apparently designed for the likes of me. They kept it off the airwaves, ensuring low audiences by keeping things digital (does ANYONE have a digital car radio yet?) and advertising little. Then, when the pennies started pinching, they announced they were scrapping it – Mark Thompson citing the excuse of a serious overlap with the audience and output of commercial stations. This was ironic, given that there isn’t a single commercial station that plays a single song I identify with 6Music. Hence my point.

So what is my kind of music? It’s not that weird I promise! It’s just the usual music for a 31 year old who never stopped listening – who grew up on a combination of grunge, Britpop and Radiohead as a teenager and kept wanting thoughtful and interesting guitar music. If I listed the bands I listened to last week – Battles, Tunng, Local Natives (who I was lucky enough to see live on Tuesday), The National, Beach House, Grizzly Bear... well I’d sound obscure and pretentious to many. But that shouldn’t be so. They are not obscure or pretentious bands. Indeed the REASON you may not have heard of them is that none of the above are ever played on the radio (apart from by good old Zane Lowe perhaps on the otherwise infantile Radio 1)! There is no-one looking for exciting new music to push people’s dimensions. Because that would involve risk! No, rather the moneymen work out, via survey and focus group, exactly what people are listening to and then give them lots of it – and more ‘new’ artists that sound exactly the same again.

There is, of course, an upside to this: The internet. Things were perhaps ever thus on the airwaves, but  back in ‘the day’ of course people didn’t have Hype Machine... or Last FM... or ITunes... or a million other ways to explore, investigate and expand a budding musical horizon. We are, in reality, spoiled. But, in appreciating the fact, I don’t want to divorce myself from the lovely institution of radio, nor the guiding influence of a real human DJ.

In short, what am I saying? Please don’t scrap 6Music!

THE PROBLEM IS PEOPLE...

Before people remove me from their reader for lack of activity… Just thought I’d briefly summarise an assembly I bemused the kids with last week.


I was basically looking back at my formative experiences watching, on TV, the collapse of Communism and fall of the Berlin Wall – leading to the end of the Cold War. I referred to the fact that this was vividly depicted to an 11-yuear old as the Good having defeated the Bad, with a strong chance of ‘Happily Ever After’ to result. As Fukuyama (no I didn't say his name in assembly!) wrote, this was perhaps the End of History.

However, I then suggested that perhaps People were the Problem – rather than any geographical grouping or political construct. After all, the triumphal West was itself celebrating from within the confines of a pickle – Reagan/Thatcher’s recession having rendered 3 million unemployed in the UK alone, my father among them. And now we find ourselves looking back at an era in which the East has not notably flourished, nor the West covered itself in glory. Because the problem, perhaps, was the people – rather than the systems they operated within.

After all, Communism is a lovely idea. The idea that we work for mutual benefit – giving according to our means and getting according to our needs – is tempting. There is mileage in the concept of companies being run for good rather than for profit. The only problem being that we’re not wired that way! Deprived of the incentive of personal gain, and of the technological advances that come via competing corporations, Soviet farmers were eight times less productive than their American counterpart. Likewise the perpetually queuing proles, forever hoping to defect towards the materialistic West. Above all, virtually every Communist story, and those of the post-imperial new-born socialist African nations, gave headline billing to the power-drunk leaders who saw unlimited opportunity in such giddying state control and very quickly became ‘more equal than others’; reticent in the extreme to give up their superstar status for the good of anyone but themselves. And in saying that there is no pro-Western patronisation on my part: Our constitutional rights are shouted about by necessity – Blair didn’t want to let go or share… Brown couldn’t bear to hold that election just in case. Power is a drug and people aren’t selfless when they get it (this despite the fact they invariably begin their journey fuelled by ideals).

Which takes us to capitalism… the winning formula – the opportunity for all to achieve, to see reward for skills and hard work. The beauty of choice, propped up upon transparent liberal principles. How quickly it has taken us to environmental meltdown, global corporate monsters who devour the High Street, bankers who will literally gamble away your granny’s last penny, sex used to sell everything bar baby-food, exploitation of the Third World and a spiritual vacuum where few are happy with what they’ve got. Not because the ideas are fundamentally bad, but because the problem is the people. Prices are fixed, tax breaks are secured, loans come bearing brutalising conditions, politicians are paid off, lies are told (has anyone ever derived positive female attention by using Lynx deodorant?!), surpluses are dumped on Third World economies, further disabling local producers competing against the subsidised US/EU equivalent. After all, the Free Market would be great if it were free!

So is there any point going on? Shall we each retreat to our own rural Kibbutz? Well, for what it’s worth, I think Britain had it right for a while. The mixed economy of regulated Capitalism with unionised workers, its taxation funding a welfare state to pick up the unfortunate or unable… I think it seemed to do OK. But again, people were the problem. The unions ran wild and asked for too much in the 70s. Then Capitalism had its revenge and swept all aside on a tide of greed in the decade that followed. Now we have the worst of both – the over-mighty, paranoid Labour state sucking up to big business and relying entirely on wheeler-dealer finance to drive the country (after all, we don’t make anything anymore).

Why? Because the problem is the people. As I may have said already.

And yes I did attempt to communicate all this to a group of 14-16 year old boys within 9 minutes. And there was a pay-off. None of it will ever improve unless they, the next generation, realise they are not naturally good and work really very hard at being part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Because whereas humanity en masse generally disappoints, individuals remain capable of doing great things…

PS I know proft isn't the ONLY effective incentive. The Soviet miracle under Stalin made good use of the fear incentive. Khrushchev got some purchase from patriotism as incentive (Space Race, Sport Race etc). China perhaps employ both.

PPS I seem to left-lean above. I don't really think that's representative of me any more. I have no beef with the rich if they are wise in that responsibility. I certainly don't trust the state any more than I trust them when it comes to spending that wealth...