There is such a load of crap talked about the environment, global warming, carbon footprints (what the hell is that? We’re all made of carbon aren’t we?) these days. I remember talking to people about global warming 20 years ago and they all thought I was some loony leftie hippie nutcase. And now…. now they think they can stop decades (nay, centuries) of not giving a toss about what we are doing to the environment by using our cars a bit less and paying more air tax. What a load of bollox! It is far too late to stop the tide of change now… Don’t get me wrong, I do my bit by recycling what I can and shop local as much as possible and that kind of stuff, but do they honestly think that if we stop putting our tellys and other electrical audio visual equipment on standby we can save the planet? They must think we are really stupid. Oh yeah! And if we did all turn off our dvd’s, videos, satellite boxes etc., we would lose all our settings and have to re-programme them every time we wanted to watch something. Well, I guess we could go down the road of not watching t.v. at all. But I have known a few of those in my time – self-righteous hypocrites mainly, who don’t own a t.v. set, but are happy to come round your house and watch yours! I was quite amused the other week to overhear a conversation in our local supermarket between a man and a woman:
Woman: ‘so what are doing tonight?’
Man: ‘I am going to pick up a television actually’.
Woman: ‘No! I can’t believe it! You are so against that kind of thing!’
Man: ‘I know, but it’s only a small second hand-one and we’ll keep it upstairs and only use it for special occasions’.
I really found it so hard not to laugh but somehow I managed it and gave him a wry look instead. He noticed this and the look I got back was almost as fumy as the conversation. You could tell he knew I had sussed him as a complete tosser. And what special occasions was he on about? The Queen’s speech at Christmas? The Coronation? (he could be waiting some time). I had visions of a small child getting really excited when the telly came down for some ‘special occasion’ and dad had to blow the dust off and fiddle with the aerial to get the reception, and by the time they had managed to get a decent picture, the programme they wanted to watch was over! Just like the old days!
It’s fine line between saving the planet and being an asshole if you ask me, so I think I won’t bother with either.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Crummy Lives
Here is my first rant about the lack of funding available to projects like the one I work on. (There will probably be more later).
A couple of weeks ago, a young girl got stabbed and died from her injuries. As it turned out, she was a client of the housing charity I work for where she was getting support to help her with a housing issue. Her boyfriend was on a cooking course ran the project I manage. He has said he will come back on the course, but understandably he has other priorities right now, which, at a guess, include grieving, supporting his girlfriend’s family through a rough patch, etc…
If he doesn’t finish the course, we don’t get paid by our funders for giving him the training. Is this crazy or what? What are we supposed to say? “Well, Chris (not his real name) we realise you are really upset about your girlfriend dying on you, but we really need you to come and finish your portfolio – not because we believe it’s important to you, but because we want the money”. Absurd, isn’t it? I really don’t blame the people who pay us though. They are only responding to Learning and Skills council targets, which in turn are determined by stupid government priorities and targets.
I found out today that over 50% of adults who enroll on literacy and numeracy courses do not get a full qualification. Is the response to this by the LSC to say that maybe people Aren’t too bothered about the qualification and just want a bit of a push in the right direction? Of course not! They are now saying that only courses that do lead to full qualifications will be funded. That could mean over 40% of people who would potentially benefit form some literacy or numeracy teaching, either being forced onto a course they don’t want to do, or not getting the training.
It is absolutely ludicrous that those who need the most help are falling further and further away from the mainstream, and the government give all this spin about education. They haven’t a bloody clue what projects like ours do and the sort of issues our clients have to deal with. I really wish they’d get off their high horses and come and have a look round at what it’s like in the real life for once!
A couple of weeks ago, a young girl got stabbed and died from her injuries. As it turned out, she was a client of the housing charity I work for where she was getting support to help her with a housing issue. Her boyfriend was on a cooking course ran the project I manage. He has said he will come back on the course, but understandably he has other priorities right now, which, at a guess, include grieving, supporting his girlfriend’s family through a rough patch, etc…
If he doesn’t finish the course, we don’t get paid by our funders for giving him the training. Is this crazy or what? What are we supposed to say? “Well, Chris (not his real name) we realise you are really upset about your girlfriend dying on you, but we really need you to come and finish your portfolio – not because we believe it’s important to you, but because we want the money”. Absurd, isn’t it? I really don’t blame the people who pay us though. They are only responding to Learning and Skills council targets, which in turn are determined by stupid government priorities and targets.
I found out today that over 50% of adults who enroll on literacy and numeracy courses do not get a full qualification. Is the response to this by the LSC to say that maybe people Aren’t too bothered about the qualification and just want a bit of a push in the right direction? Of course not! They are now saying that only courses that do lead to full qualifications will be funded. That could mean over 40% of people who would potentially benefit form some literacy or numeracy teaching, either being forced onto a course they don’t want to do, or not getting the training.
It is absolutely ludicrous that those who need the most help are falling further and further away from the mainstream, and the government give all this spin about education. They haven’t a bloody clue what projects like ours do and the sort of issues our clients have to deal with. I really wish they’d get off their high horses and come and have a look round at what it’s like in the real life for once!
Sunday, October 22, 2006
A musical weekend…
This weekend I have been subjected to quite a bit of live music, which has been fun. On Thursday evening, I went with some work colleagues to the 21st Birthday party of Beaumont street studios which is a small community- based recording studio in Huddersfield where they also deliver training in music technology, video and radio production. We were subjected to 2 very-eighties acts – Crucial Vibe (old style reggae) and Hotline (the first proper British house single apparently, which got to no. 1 in the dance charts) then a couple of lads with guitars called I.E (who sounded like loads of other lads with guitars). Anyway, after the music there was food and I had some excellent Caribbean chicken.
On Saturday night, we went to see Leon Rosselson and I was quite surprised at the low turn-out – us living in this little enclave of alternative culture (apparently) and him being an old socialist folk singer/songwriter. He did a double-act with a socialist magician called Ian Saville who was quite funny. Amongst his props he had a William Morris ventriloquist dummy and part of the dialogue went like this:
Ian ‘so what are you doing here?’
William ‘Well, I’ve been dead for about 100 years and I thought I’d come back and see how my socialist utopia was doing’
Ian ‘er, well, not very well actually…but people love your wallpaper!’
You get the idea.
We bought 2 CDs – I got a compilation of Leon’s songs performed by other folk artists including Eliza Carthy doing ‘the man who puffs the big cigar’ (which is one of my favourite Rosselson songs and we saw her sing this when she came to Hebden for a gig last year) and Phil got a newer one, from which Leon said he had only sang one of the songs on the night, so that’ll be a surprise – haven’t had chance to listen to them yet.
On Saturday night, we went to see Leon Rosselson and I was quite surprised at the low turn-out – us living in this little enclave of alternative culture (apparently) and him being an old socialist folk singer/songwriter. He did a double-act with a socialist magician called Ian Saville who was quite funny. Amongst his props he had a William Morris ventriloquist dummy and part of the dialogue went like this:
Ian ‘so what are you doing here?’
William ‘Well, I’ve been dead for about 100 years and I thought I’d come back and see how my socialist utopia was doing’
Ian ‘er, well, not very well actually…but people love your wallpaper!’
You get the idea.
We bought 2 CDs – I got a compilation of Leon’s songs performed by other folk artists including Eliza Carthy doing ‘the man who puffs the big cigar’ (which is one of my favourite Rosselson songs and we saw her sing this when she came to Hebden for a gig last year) and Phil got a newer one, from which Leon said he had only sang one of the songs on the night, so that’ll be a surprise – haven’t had chance to listen to them yet.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Life in a Bubble
On Sunday there was a family get-together for my mum's birthday. It was the first time I had seen my eldest sister for some time, as she lives in Wales and travels quite a lot and our paths don't seem to cross too much. We do speak on the phone though so I have an overview of what her life is like.
Although I love her and think her philosophy on life has some merit, she always manages to get to me. This time, I felt myself getting really angry at her 'downsizing' theory which basically boils down to 'everyone can work 2 days a week and manage financially'.
While I agree to some extent with her views that if we are just wage slaves and then we die we haven't lived, I think she is so out of touch with other people's lives.
She sits in this little bubble in a big house with her big organic garden and works 2 days a week (earning about £50 an hour at a guess) and she has had her mortgage paid off for her... and she seems to thinks this is normal! Doesn't it occur to her that if we could afford to do it we would? Not to mention all the trials and tribulations lots of ordinary people have such as redundancy, unemployment, homelessness...
I don't know why I let her bother me, only that it is just her lack of failure to see how privileged she is. If she was saying 'this is my life, that is yours', then I'd say fair enough. But she isn't - she is saying we should all live like her. AND while pontificating about we should only eat(preferably home-grown) organic veg. and spend lots of time in the fresh air, and be aware of the environment around us, she drives around the country in a camper van and flies abroad on regular occasions. There is something wrong with her view on the environment I think, even double-standards. I suppose I shouldn't be so judgmental. After all, I am in no way perfect myself. But I guess that's it. I know I'm not perfect, she seems to think she is (or at least more perfect than the rest of us!) so perhaps that’s why it annoys me so much. I guess I should let her get on with it.
Although I love her and think her philosophy on life has some merit, she always manages to get to me. This time, I felt myself getting really angry at her 'downsizing' theory which basically boils down to 'everyone can work 2 days a week and manage financially'.
While I agree to some extent with her views that if we are just wage slaves and then we die we haven't lived, I think she is so out of touch with other people's lives.
She sits in this little bubble in a big house with her big organic garden and works 2 days a week (earning about £50 an hour at a guess) and she has had her mortgage paid off for her... and she seems to thinks this is normal! Doesn't it occur to her that if we could afford to do it we would? Not to mention all the trials and tribulations lots of ordinary people have such as redundancy, unemployment, homelessness...
I don't know why I let her bother me, only that it is just her lack of failure to see how privileged she is. If she was saying 'this is my life, that is yours', then I'd say fair enough. But she isn't - she is saying we should all live like her. AND while pontificating about we should only eat(preferably home-grown) organic veg. and spend lots of time in the fresh air, and be aware of the environment around us, she drives around the country in a camper van and flies abroad on regular occasions. There is something wrong with her view on the environment I think, even double-standards. I suppose I shouldn't be so judgmental. After all, I am in no way perfect myself. But I guess that's it. I know I'm not perfect, she seems to think she is (or at least more perfect than the rest of us!) so perhaps that’s why it annoys me so much. I guess I should let her get on with it.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
If it's good enough for Madonna..
After much prevarication and extensive research, I happened across Madonna's blog on this site today and thought if it's good enough for her, it's good enough for me!
I was interested in what she had to say about adopting a child from Malawi, as our friends in the pub last night were having a go at her and saying if she really wanted to change things, she should invest in the country not take their kids away. Well, I found out that she is doing so, according to her blog. This just shows how much even those of us who like to think that we are intelligent, go by what is reported in the media and that we should know what we're on about before we started ranting and passing judgement.
Mind you, the image of her doing that embarassing white auntie dancing with her new Malawian friends has put us right off going to see her on her next (and probaly last) tour... I realised I had a mis-conception that she could dance and when I actually thought about it, she can't really. She might be bendy and nimble, especially for a 50-year-old, but not exaclty a dance hall diva is she?
Anyway, that's enough about her... fanous people go on about themselves enough without us having to do it for them! "Me, me, it's great being me" - that's what they're like..
And what the f*** does Paul McCartney think he's doing copyrighting his own name? This may come as surpirse to him, but both Paul and McCartney arre quite common names in the English-speaking-of Oirish-extraction countries of this fair planet... but there I go again slagging off celebs, when really I shouldn't as they provide us with much entertainment. I'm not talking about the singing here by the way, or dancing or acting or whatever it is they're famous for (and for quite a few of them it's difficult to work out exactly what it is they're famous for), I'm talking about their amusing antics and their delusional behaviour where the world in their heads revolves around them. I've got news for you Macca - you might sell loads of records but guess what? When you die, the planet will keep spinning! Mind you, so will your records I guess. Ha! Ha!
I was interested in what she had to say about adopting a child from Malawi, as our friends in the pub last night were having a go at her and saying if she really wanted to change things, she should invest in the country not take their kids away. Well, I found out that she is doing so, according to her blog. This just shows how much even those of us who like to think that we are intelligent, go by what is reported in the media and that we should know what we're on about before we started ranting and passing judgement.
Mind you, the image of her doing that embarassing white auntie dancing with her new Malawian friends has put us right off going to see her on her next (and probaly last) tour... I realised I had a mis-conception that she could dance and when I actually thought about it, she can't really. She might be bendy and nimble, especially for a 50-year-old, but not exaclty a dance hall diva is she?
Anyway, that's enough about her... fanous people go on about themselves enough without us having to do it for them! "Me, me, it's great being me" - that's what they're like..
And what the f*** does Paul McCartney think he's doing copyrighting his own name? This may come as surpirse to him, but both Paul and McCartney arre quite common names in the English-speaking-of Oirish-extraction countries of this fair planet... but there I go again slagging off celebs, when really I shouldn't as they provide us with much entertainment. I'm not talking about the singing here by the way, or dancing or acting or whatever it is they're famous for (and for quite a few of them it's difficult to work out exactly what it is they're famous for), I'm talking about their amusing antics and their delusional behaviour where the world in their heads revolves around them. I've got news for you Macca - you might sell loads of records but guess what? When you die, the planet will keep spinning! Mind you, so will your records I guess. Ha! Ha!
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