still we are here - we love and breathe

still we are here - we love and breathe

Girl sitting in the back ground wants to be a Bishop. Strumming her guitar and singing songs of Jesus. Some creaking men  and a few women line up in opposition  to quote the ancient translations of a creed that mostly served men. If it were not for the lack of credible argument in their  opposition most of us would not care about the issue at all. Outside the Comet workers are quietly croaking in their swarm. They sell cheap gadgetry that has built in obsolescence to hurting people looking for solace in stuff. It keeps the pain at bay. The stuff is manna to the masses that no one needs. There is no machinery that allowed the Comet workers to fight the cause of  those previously dumped out of the work place nor did they have the desire to do so. Bleat like sheep the hammer will fall on you next where ever you are. Solidarity brothers and sisters.  Remember that?  What happens when Olympic feel good factor fades? Cold Turkey?  Mythical legacy?

Schizophrenics’  in the UK lose up to 15 years of life due to state neglect.  In 2012 three to four hundred children with mental health issues are held overnight in UK police cells due to lack of alternative Places of Safety provision.  Here is the news  spun down the wires making us dull with it’s repetitive whine. “We are very sorry that this has happened. We will  do and are doing all that we can to try to ensure this will never happen again”. 

Dark clouds forming over great institutions like BBC and HSBC. The icons of a “ Great Britain” are falling like dominoes and many more are dressed in “The King’s new clothes”.  The distant roll of the broken drums of protest is heard to rise a little but they are still not fully voiced.  Lost in a sea of stinking politics, the goodly and righteous gag on the scent of the spoilt and rotten.  The thin blue line in the north will be thinner still. Government cuts, Natural wastage, the Hillsborough enquiry and the police handling of The Miners strike will do them down.  Police morale has never been lower according to Police Federation sources. The tips of ice burgs form in the path of imminent titanic catastrophe for a Coalition not fit for purpose.  Balance of payments, National Deficit all is smoke and mirrors. Here what is being taken from the little people is wasted on the deficient schemes of mean government. The trick isn’t working and the debt will remain. New UNICEF survey places provision for and care of children and young adults in the UK near to bottom of the world and one place above the USA.

Some where a young, Chinese couple sip state made cola and dance under the light of cheap lanterns to a strange hybrid music born in the west. They have next to nothing save the promise of a better future and they are grateful. It’s a touching scene but how can we compete with a manufacturing base whose workers are looking forward to more stuff not less? Reduce wages and working conditions? Break the union pests who only rock the boat? What we have is less each day that passes and the decent standards and aspirations of a healthy civil society are a fading fast. Girl sitting in the background has heard the result of the synod’s vote. She will not become a Bishop. Another boy soldier has been killed in Afghanistan. Another mother weeps in Gaza.  The leaves turn brown in the pale shine. It’s far out there watching the white lines  - go by just like time flies -  for everybody else and the racing cyclist. Still we here. We love and breathe.

So who are the heroes? They are the besieged workers trying to maintain what is left of public services. They are the teachers who will not be diverted by the bullying tactics that arise from a desperate need for a school to get out of the bottom half of the preposterous league table game. They are the volunteers, advocates and supporters of the vulnerable and they strive to meet the real needs of real people with shrinking resources.  They are the young, bright hopefuls who want to live and work to make a difference. They are the ones who work to establish a value system that will benefit us all. They are the activists who will not give up on trying to wake you up to the need for you to participate in the struggle for a just society. Sophie is 22 years old and wants to be a social worker. She seems undaunted by all that this currently entails in the UK. In’t this wonderful? Dave  19 wants to be a mental health nurse in the NHS. All is not lost.

peace