Riots
This post almost called 'I predict a riot' until I decided that was flippant and silly. Well, so are the riots but you know what I mean.
So, to keep the non-UK people up to date, you might have heard about the riots that have been going on in (mostly) London, Birmingham and Manchester. There have been smaller skirmishes elsewhere, including my home town, but they haven't been that serious (example, the worst that happened here was that they broke some windows at ASDA. After it had been evacuated. And closed. For a few hours. Who tries to break into what's usually a 24 hour supermarket selling dirt cheap merchandise anyway for Pete's sake??).
London and Birmingham didn't really affect me, aside from the 'what the hell is happening to my country' feeling, but Manchester is where my brother lives, so that worried me a little. (He's fine though - when I texted him he was in the pub with a pint ignoring the commotion like a true Yorkshireman!).
More seriosuly, I know of four people who have died - one following a mugging after he tried to stamp out a fire (a sixteen year old has been charged) and three men run down by a car as they tried to protect their community (three men have been charged with murder).
Mostly it's that 'What the hell is happening to my country' feeling that is making me write this, almost a week after the riots happened. I've spent the time being busy is the main reason why I haven't posted anything earlier, but also I think this kinda thing needs a few days to simmer before you can tell your true reactions. And mine actually suprise me a little.
Yes, I think the people who rioted and looted are fuckwits who shame the rest of us intelligent human beings. Not one of them has come up with a good excuse. They seem to all be young people, mostly male, mostly under 30, and some even as young as nine freaking years old. And they all mumble some unthoughtout crap about rallying against rich people who have everything and how they think they should have stuff too. If any of them were clever enough to utter the phrase 'redistribution of wealth' then it might look better, but no, they just garble their explanation and invariably add the 'word' "innit" somewhere in there.
(The very first riot was the reaction of one borough in London to a guy being shot by the police, who had been unable to proove he shot at them first, and have since investigated and deduced that he didn't. Even that riot started as a hijacking of a peaceful march. It's still stupid and indefensible, but at least there was a solid reason. The riots that happened afterwards for no connected reasons are the focus of my disgust here though.)
Even if they had spoken their reasons in an understandable manner, they're still essentially fuckwits. You don't like rich people having more than you do? Get a better job, or save up until you can afford it, or pitch your materialistic dreams a little lower. And for those kids still living with their parents, grow the fuck up. Mummy and Daddy won't buy you pretty things? Boo freaking hoo. Wait til you move out and have to choose between designer clothes or eating that month and see how quickly the pretty things stop mattering.
But.
Ah yes, but.
There is a little part of me that goes 'Sometimes I feel pissed off that they can afford stuff that I can't'. I'm not going to go steal it, and I'm not going to set things on fire in a grown up version of throwing my toys out of the pram. But I can see how it came to that even if I wholley disagree with it. There's so much tension nowadays about going to university and getting a job, and this is all within a time of rising tuition fees, rising unemployment and job cuts, and falling academic ability and standards of good behaviour in young children. I've got ambition and aspiration, and the intelligence and drive to chase it, and I know the route forward for my career dream, but it's seems like it moves further and further away every day what with funding cuts and rising tuition fees and whatever increasingly harder to meet criteria they use to give out places anyway. Sometimes I do feel like giving up before I even really start. And I imagine that if you've been where I've been for long enough, especially if you're aiming for a lower status position, then it could be attractive to stick two fingers up in the most attention grabbing way possible, while also grabbing a little perk for yourself at the same time.
So I can understand the motivation. I just can't understand the mindset. Yes, we've got some issues in this country, and life would be better if things were a bit more equal and a bit fairer. But I can't make the jump from that to thinking that stealing things and causing millions of pounds of damage will make a point that will work out in your favour. The only point it makes is, as I've stated already, 'I'm a fuckwit'. That redistribution of wealth will have to wait even longer since it'll be paying to sort out your mess.
All I can see coming from this is even more economic and social unrest, and God knows what that'll lead to. I said when the first riots happened that I felt slightly like we were living in a comic book, and we were going to end up in a 'V for Vendetta', totalitarian government situation. I was only half joking...
The reaction of people not rioting has also saddened me a bit too. Hate, disgust, pity, fear... that's fair enough. It's natural and it's probably what we're all feeling. But the suggestions, genuine, serious suggestions, from some people are barbaric. Some assume that it's only jobseekers and want to stop benefits. Well, quite a few of those arrested have been regular working people or teenagers still in education. What do we take away from them? Dock their wages? Remove them from schools? Dent their life choices and make them even worse off? How about taking away their houses? This is actually happening - if your son rioted, and you rent a property, you could find yourself kicked out of your home. In what world is that a fair and just reaction? And it's actually been passed as viable action. And the suggestions that we just shoot the lot of them as has kept coming up on Facebook. Yes, great idea - because one guy getting shot didn't start this whole monkey see monkey do situation in the first place did it? Oh wait... Ditto the idea about sending them out to fight in Iraq with 'real men'. Soldiers do what they do out of a sense of pride and patriotism. Do people honestly believe that a bunch of people who have shown a clear lack of respect for their country will have the discipline and desire to risk their lives in such a way? I assume unpaid? Of course they wouldn't. Half the platoon would desert within the first week of demployment.
When the oppressed minorities in Egypt and Libya and wherever else had an uprising, our media hails them as heroic rebels and supports their efforts. The riots of the last week don't compare, and there is NOTHING heroic about them, but maybe we should be taking note now and trying to sort out the underlying reasons for the unrest and actually doing something about them before it becomes much more serious, and more people are brought round to the same way of thinking.
This is my country too. And I'm sick of it being broken.
Ciao
~*Ruth*~
So, to keep the non-UK people up to date, you might have heard about the riots that have been going on in (mostly) London, Birmingham and Manchester. There have been smaller skirmishes elsewhere, including my home town, but they haven't been that serious (example, the worst that happened here was that they broke some windows at ASDA. After it had been evacuated. And closed. For a few hours. Who tries to break into what's usually a 24 hour supermarket selling dirt cheap merchandise anyway for Pete's sake??).
London and Birmingham didn't really affect me, aside from the 'what the hell is happening to my country' feeling, but Manchester is where my brother lives, so that worried me a little. (He's fine though - when I texted him he was in the pub with a pint ignoring the commotion like a true Yorkshireman!).
More seriosuly, I know of four people who have died - one following a mugging after he tried to stamp out a fire (a sixteen year old has been charged) and three men run down by a car as they tried to protect their community (three men have been charged with murder).
Mostly it's that 'What the hell is happening to my country' feeling that is making me write this, almost a week after the riots happened. I've spent the time being busy is the main reason why I haven't posted anything earlier, but also I think this kinda thing needs a few days to simmer before you can tell your true reactions. And mine actually suprise me a little.
Yes, I think the people who rioted and looted are fuckwits who shame the rest of us intelligent human beings. Not one of them has come up with a good excuse. They seem to all be young people, mostly male, mostly under 30, and some even as young as nine freaking years old. And they all mumble some unthoughtout crap about rallying against rich people who have everything and how they think they should have stuff too. If any of them were clever enough to utter the phrase 'redistribution of wealth' then it might look better, but no, they just garble their explanation and invariably add the 'word' "innit" somewhere in there.
(The very first riot was the reaction of one borough in London to a guy being shot by the police, who had been unable to proove he shot at them first, and have since investigated and deduced that he didn't. Even that riot started as a hijacking of a peaceful march. It's still stupid and indefensible, but at least there was a solid reason. The riots that happened afterwards for no connected reasons are the focus of my disgust here though.)
Even if they had spoken their reasons in an understandable manner, they're still essentially fuckwits. You don't like rich people having more than you do? Get a better job, or save up until you can afford it, or pitch your materialistic dreams a little lower. And for those kids still living with their parents, grow the fuck up. Mummy and Daddy won't buy you pretty things? Boo freaking hoo. Wait til you move out and have to choose between designer clothes or eating that month and see how quickly the pretty things stop mattering.
But.
Ah yes, but.
There is a little part of me that goes 'Sometimes I feel pissed off that they can afford stuff that I can't'. I'm not going to go steal it, and I'm not going to set things on fire in a grown up version of throwing my toys out of the pram. But I can see how it came to that even if I wholley disagree with it. There's so much tension nowadays about going to university and getting a job, and this is all within a time of rising tuition fees, rising unemployment and job cuts, and falling academic ability and standards of good behaviour in young children. I've got ambition and aspiration, and the intelligence and drive to chase it, and I know the route forward for my career dream, but it's seems like it moves further and further away every day what with funding cuts and rising tuition fees and whatever increasingly harder to meet criteria they use to give out places anyway. Sometimes I do feel like giving up before I even really start. And I imagine that if you've been where I've been for long enough, especially if you're aiming for a lower status position, then it could be attractive to stick two fingers up in the most attention grabbing way possible, while also grabbing a little perk for yourself at the same time.
So I can understand the motivation. I just can't understand the mindset. Yes, we've got some issues in this country, and life would be better if things were a bit more equal and a bit fairer. But I can't make the jump from that to thinking that stealing things and causing millions of pounds of damage will make a point that will work out in your favour. The only point it makes is, as I've stated already, 'I'm a fuckwit'. That redistribution of wealth will have to wait even longer since it'll be paying to sort out your mess.
All I can see coming from this is even more economic and social unrest, and God knows what that'll lead to. I said when the first riots happened that I felt slightly like we were living in a comic book, and we were going to end up in a 'V for Vendetta', totalitarian government situation. I was only half joking...
The reaction of people not rioting has also saddened me a bit too. Hate, disgust, pity, fear... that's fair enough. It's natural and it's probably what we're all feeling. But the suggestions, genuine, serious suggestions, from some people are barbaric. Some assume that it's only jobseekers and want to stop benefits. Well, quite a few of those arrested have been regular working people or teenagers still in education. What do we take away from them? Dock their wages? Remove them from schools? Dent their life choices and make them even worse off? How about taking away their houses? This is actually happening - if your son rioted, and you rent a property, you could find yourself kicked out of your home. In what world is that a fair and just reaction? And it's actually been passed as viable action. And the suggestions that we just shoot the lot of them as has kept coming up on Facebook. Yes, great idea - because one guy getting shot didn't start this whole monkey see monkey do situation in the first place did it? Oh wait... Ditto the idea about sending them out to fight in Iraq with 'real men'. Soldiers do what they do out of a sense of pride and patriotism. Do people honestly believe that a bunch of people who have shown a clear lack of respect for their country will have the discipline and desire to risk their lives in such a way? I assume unpaid? Of course they wouldn't. Half the platoon would desert within the first week of demployment.
When the oppressed minorities in Egypt and Libya and wherever else had an uprising, our media hails them as heroic rebels and supports their efforts. The riots of the last week don't compare, and there is NOTHING heroic about them, but maybe we should be taking note now and trying to sort out the underlying reasons for the unrest and actually doing something about them before it becomes much more serious, and more people are brought round to the same way of thinking.
This is my country too. And I'm sick of it being broken.
Ciao
~*Ruth*~