How does one cope ?

Knowing that thousands of humans are going through incredibly hard times as they try to avoid starvation in the regions near Ethiopia.

I see pictures of these people who have such strong faces and body language. People that come across as having such a strong character that one is full of admiration.

They are humans on this planet who happen to have been born in Africa whilst I was born here.

Two worlds so different.

I find it so hard to imagine their situation.

The problem is so great that it makes me run away and want to ignore it.

Now thinking about it, I remember something that I have repeated to myself many times before and it casts a ray of hope.

When dealing with a very big problem: concentrate on a very small part.

When faced with shifting a lorry load of earth: don't think of the huge pile but concentrate on digging and moving the next spade full. This, one knows is managable. Then it's just a matter of repeating the operation and concentrating on one action at a time.

Gradually, very slowly, the enormous pile goes down in size and the new one increases until after maybe a few hours - yes only a short time - the enormous pile has been shifted.

One comes out of dealing with this task stronger oneself not only physically but mentally with more self assurance for dealing with any task that comes along in the future.

Yes the famine situation is not one to run away from. Many brave friends are tackling this problem and other massive problems of life and death in their own way. Chipping away with perseverance, becoming much stronger people as they do so. They are indeed a source of great encouragement to me as I witness them cope.

Concentrating on the small picture, over and over and ever again is for me an answer.

Thank you friends for having such strength of character - a great source of encouragement.

Right, let's get to sleep now and in the morning go out with that spade tomorrow to tackle the tasks I want to achieve just one at a time.

I stand to benefit a lot, so as to cope better in the future. The rewards of living alongside people who are also struggling with determination are  massive and give a great source of encouragement.

Isn't it great having these kind of people around - next time I want to cheer myself up, I'll look at these pictures of people dealing with famine and other mind blowing hardships for inspiration.

Thank you.

Further thoughts next morning.

Previously I had considered the problem so big that I was inclined to do very little.

Now I've found a different perspective:

I like the look of the people I see, they come across as strong characters.

So I can help enabling as many as I can to survive. These are the kind of people I would like to populate our planet - many will die but those who don't can be a powerful force for good even in their own communities.

Himalayan Balsam in Gill Banks

After a steady regular tackling of this problem over the past past two months we are on top of it.

That is this side of Ulverston.

This morning we were down to finding just a few plants.

One of them had a great sense of humour.

It was where we didn't expect to find it : lots of shade, nothing much growing - "there won't be any down there", territory.

But there was - one in full bloom - on a little island  - ready to distribute thousands of seeds down into the beck below, to be carried down to the patch we had been clearing for all this time.

Now we just have to deal with the plants that come next year from seeds that are still lying dormant ready to germinate when we aren't looking.

With the Balsam gone we can look forward to a much wider variety of plants coming back with the accompanying insects that will attract other wild life.

In anyone sees some upstream we'd like to know.

The World Financial Markets Crash

So let's have some positive news.

Something we can do something about!

At very little cost and a small amount of effort each week.

The latest from Mill Dam Park - worth a visit!

We're having an event here in a week's time:

Saturday 27th August

Pottery making for The Railings, Gill Banks.

Now

Compare this taken on May 11th

This kind of behaviour is so outrageous

David Starkey's Newsnight race remarks prompt 700 complaints to BBC. 

Yes it's the complaints that I find outrageous not the historian David Starkey's remarks.

If you watch the BBC interview  there's some very poor behaviour from two younger people who jump in with emotional reaction along the lines - "you can't say that" - and don't let Starkey finish his sentences.

He quotes Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech which also got a similar reaction so many years ago.

Surely if we don't allow people to put forward arguments, we can learn nothing. Why can't we take both these thoughtful men seriously and consider what they are saying?

If we did we might change our policy a little.

I believe there is an element of truth in his argument and this needs to be examined and discussed - not shouted down or hushed up.

Both Powell and Starkey need to be praised for saying the unpalatable. Powell was immediately diserted by the main Tory party because hs vews were not politically correct.  Surely there was and will be some truth there: one doesn't have to accept the argument totally but lets examine the idea objectively.

Starkey was talking about black culture not all black people. But surely it was a mistake to encourage so many of them to come the Britain at the time - we were just taking an easy option at the time of making the most of cheap labour to do jobs the whites didn't want. Now we have a subculture that has never been integrated into British culture.

At the time of encouraging blacks to come we should have made sure that these people were treated as equals.

They were not.

When will we learn to discuss issues like this in the open and call a spade a spade?

Sadly this is not the hypocritical British way.

However the most important is to come up with a realistic solution to our problems. Now is a time to calmly listen to what wise and knowlegeable people have to say. To listen and reflect before we act.

Or if action is needed quickly, to at the same time be ready to admit that we may have part of our actions wrong, stop and try something else.

Allan Wilson again

Water in a Morecambe fountain

There's beauty all around us when we look carefully. However here we benefit from a fast shutter speed.

An objective view of our politicians

This report by Aidan Silcocks is reassuring.

He had some good words to say in favour of Ulverston Town Council


For my part I will need a lot more reassuring before getting involved and am giving this group a wide berth.

What I'm looking forward to is some new blood on this council. Next year, with the elections coming will be a great opportunity but who will be willing to stand?

At the moment I find I need to do work that has a positive outcome that avoids hassle.

The suspicion is that energy is better spent out of 'the system'.

Geoff

Anger

Having watched the documentary on the riots on Panorama on BBC1 last night.

I came away with the perception that what sparked it all off was blind ANGER.

As a person who can feel this very strongly , I can identify with this totally irrational feeling. Trying to find simple answers can be a futile quest if this is true.

I'm going to read the article, the above picture was nicked from before writing any more.

We are going to be discussing the riots in our regular fortnightly group this next Thursday if anyone wants to share their views: Methodist Hall, Hartley St., 2:15 Thursday. We're a group that have been meeting regularly now for about five years.

I read the article and am very little further on as it doesn't deal with anger that real hurts others and this sometimes as in the case of the riots was the way anger was going to be satisfying and make those angry feel good.

Now they, the rioters, have to cope with us feeling angy with their actions.

Are we/they anyway further forward?

From Allan Wilson photographer

 

Taken during Ulverston Carnival

War or Peace ?

We're all coming up with questions and answers.

So am I.

Please help me with mine.

We could ask ourselves:

Which direction are we moving in?

We have two large opposing groups the haves and the have nots. The Government  with the ones that are in work and struggling to deal with the bank crisis brought about by too much borrowing of all kinds and the havenots who feel they have no direction to go in - no jobs, little money and as they see it  - no future with little to loose. Watching the bankers living of millions of pounds does not help.

At present we are moving in the direction of civil war.

I'm all for a clear message being sent that the rioting behaviour is totally unacceptable.

This is war talk.

At the same time we need to map out an exit strategy.

What this appears to be at the moment is :

If you don't like it - leave !

But then there is no practical place to leave to.

So if we are to have 'peace'.

How do we get there?

By the time honoured method of talking and understanding the opposite point of view.

A strategy where both sides are offered carrots.

If it's a future the rioters want, then surely we need to offer them one:

If you do this this and that then you can get somewhere that you want.

The government has got an option which it seems to ignore.

Raise taxes and use the money to provide jobs with strict guidelines. I'd favour jobs with a fair bit of exercise requiring hard labour and cooperation.

For instance

Building parks in their own neighbourhoods

Enabling people to self build as was done in Lewisham with timber frame houses. (See also)

The people to consult for ideas are those that work at the interface between the two groups of haves and havenots : social workers, youth leaders, people that run hostels, teachers, the police. People with daily contact with the problem groups. Add to these those organisations with a track record of success in getting the havenots involved with society.

Isn't it worth reflecting on what was being said immediately before the riots - on facilities that were being closed watch a video with the views of what seem to be sensible young people - One that ends "There will be Riots, there will be riots, riots" - they were right.

"You can't raise taxes you argue - we're being overtaxed already: this could mean that we have to abandon the concept of achieving 'growth'. "

It is obvious that there are people even here in Ulverston with a lot of money who could be taxed.


If Booths are able to sell at this very moment, cherries at £10 per kilogram, and cheese at £27 per kilogram, surely this proves the point.

Some have amounts of money to spend that many in society cannot comprehend.

Let's make moves towards bringing the two opposing sides together and seek out and support those that are actually working hard to do just this as part of their daily job. Remote politicians making snap judgements are the last people that should be making decisions and we should be making this clear to them if we don't like what we hear.

This is not a soft option.  What is needed is a hard tough one but we do need an alternative to prison if this means locking people up to do nothing other than cost the rest of us money and train to show lip service to the system and sadly make better more skilled criminals with a common axe to grind.

Are our police human or just robots keeping the law?

This article makes us aware just how human the police can be:

"Trying to restrain a shop owner who is attempting to run into a burning building to attempt to salvage his stock, and indeed his livelihood. Taking off my helmet so I can hear him better, he sobs as he explains to me about his life, and how he has built up his trade and now does not know what to do. I simply do not know what to say to him.

"I do something I find myself doing a lot over the next few hours, telling him I'm sorry and then giving him a manly hug with a pat on the back. Helmet back on and we're off somewhere else."

Cameron's criticism of police inaction comes across as that of a typical underhand politician scoring cheap points with the benefit of hindsight.

"The police weren't ready on Monday night". 

No neither was anyone else. Crystal balls have not, so far, been issued as part of standard police equipment.

When you reflect that several of the Ulverston Police force will almost certainly have seen duty in Manchester or even London during the past week. 

What a baptism of fire:

"As we drove we became a target. A group of people wearing hoods and with their faces covered started throwing missiles at the car," De-Haynes told the Guardian. "We stopped because that is what we are supposed to do. But the windscreen smashed and I was covered in glass, it lodged in my eye and I was spitting it out to stop myself swallowing it. It's a shock in any circumstance but when you can hear the thud of other missiles being thrown at the car, hitting the doors and windows, no matter how experienced you are, it is frightening."

The article goes on:

"Once officers were on the street, they were surprised by the support they received. "A lot of people we came across – people in an inner city area who would normally not have anything to do with the police – were on our side. We had support from everyone in an area. It was good to hear that people did want us to protect them."

I wonder how many people agreed with Cameron.

I certainly didn't and am full of respect for the job that the police did.