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Tuesday 23 August 2011

What's wrong with this world

No I won't be attempting you give you a comprehensive answer to that.  This is just to hook up with the recent post appealing for help for our helpXer who had all her kit stolen out of our caravan.  First of all thank you everybody for your offers of help and support.  Unfortunately, for reasons I don't really want to speculate about on a public blog, our helper has left in rather acrimonious circumstances, not really cooperating with any efforts to help her.  I have therefore had to refuse any of your kind and generous offers.  But thank you again, I was touched to hear from total strangers, who don't even normally comment on my blog.

In the meantime it has come to my attention that there has been quite a spate of small crimes committed in the area.  A number of our immediate friends and aquaintances have had their houses and/or cars broken into.  At the same time in England kids have taken to the streets for several days in a free for all rioting and looting extravaganza.  What's going on?  Have you noticed or heard of an increase of crime where you are?

Here is my take on the story.  What those looters stole or even the damaged they caused, without of course wanting to condone any of it, is peanuts compared to what speculators and stock brokers have looted from the markets!  Our whole system is based on greed and greed only.  These bankers are no more than large scale thiefs and robbers, helping deplete natural resources.My fellow blogger Jeremy puts it much better than I could.

I also loved the quote of my money-less friend Mark Boyle, who said:

I love the way that we call people who break into chainstores 'looters', yet the rest of us law abiding citizens get to loot the entire planet and are deemed peaceful. Instead of H&M, read rainforests. Instead of JD Sports, read oceans. Instead of Tesco, read soil. If you want to see a looter, look within, we're all looters. Just some are culturally normalised.
 We live in a consumerist society where what you have defines who you are and if you have nothing you are nobody.  We are bombarded with adveritising telling us what we must have.  The politicians keep telling us the economy must grow so we must spend, spend, spend.  According to this ethos we only contribute to society by spending and buying consumer goods, thus at the same time depleting the world's resources.  
But as the gap between haves and have-nots is ever widening, those who don't have the means to buy all those glitzy new gadgets, the latest car, the newest fashion accessory will inevitably find other ways of obtaining them.  And as they see those criminals at Wall Street and in the City, the big company bosses and corrupt politicians get away with murder, they feel they haven't got much to loose.

They won't fix the system by locking up 12 year olds for stealing a bottle of wine, but by radically changing to a fairer more just, not to mention DEMOCRATIC system.  All those guys giving their lives in Lybia and Syria aledgedly fighting for democracy.  What a rude awakening they'll have when they find out there's no such thing...
But enough of the ranting.  It's been boiling hot our way, so physical labour has been off the schedule for a while.  Thus I've had some time to rant a bit.  But now the sweat is starting to drip on my keyboard so I better stop.  
 
Oh but one more thing:  I'm now the proud foster parent of Foster, the Ducklet all the way over in Ohio.  Check out my "sister's" blog here.
 

16 comments:

bartkreft said...

I CAN ONLY APPLAUD !!!!

Unknown said...

Unfortunately, it's likely we're all going to see much more of this type of behavior as austerity measures start kicking in around Europe. And your friend Mark is absolutely correct, if you have nothing to lose, then some might see that there's everything to gain by taking advantage of others...

Rowena said...

That really is a shame for the helpXer, but I guess it only goes to show that you can't ever be too careful around here. I must admit that we feel pretty safe in our area as we're familiar with all of our neighbors, but the house is always locked up whenever we leave.

LindyLouMac said...

A good question and post on your thoughts.

Ohiofarmgirl said...

Foster says "good morning!" She was the first one in the water today and happily splashed around. I read her your post and she says... "dont even get me started on the US$10M wedding of Kim Kardashian...when there are hungry people here and elsewhere. A pretty girl gets married and we are all supposed to stop in our tracks? HA! And what is she 'famous' for? Having big tata's? Really? Now that's a crime. The world is indeed turned upside down.

Heiko said...

Ohio, good morning, or rather evening here, back to Foster! :) I luckily don't even know who this Kim person is. But you are right, everthing is upside down.

Angela said...

Aah Heiko, never mind the world. I really don`t think that "people" have ever been better in moral terms. Maybe bad things happen on a larger scale, or we only hear more about distant corners. But all we, you and I, can do is carry on with what we think is right, and enjoy our lives anyway. The more good energy we create, the more positive rays will be around, no?

Rick and Pat said...

Hi Heiko.
You know I raely comment but... sadly I cant agree this time..
Yes I do agree about the corporate pirates that run this world... but those people looting the shops recently in uk ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...
The problem we have nowadays is that we have bred three generations now who havent worked, and have no intentions of trying to... the young of those families, have never known a family member who did work... its a nanny state who feeds and clothes them...
Looting is looting... however you look at it... decent people dont do it... how ever tough life is for them...
Best Wishes Pat

Heiko said...

Angela, I whish I could just be like that. But when we first arrived in Italy people left their doors unlocked. I often forgot to lock my car and left the windows wide open. The only thing that happened was that it rained in. Now people get more suspicious of each other and that does affect our lives.

Pat, I believe the causes are deeper. Our economic system calls for ever greater consumption and advertising is bombarding us from all sides calling for instant gratification. Community leaders have warned long before the riots that something like this was going to happen. Yes, it is wrong, but so is the much greater looting of the planet.

Rick and Pat said...

Hi Heiko.
Yes again I agree, the causes are deeper, its our whole social system too... we as a plante are having too many children, we have overload of population for the earth. While we (by we I mean the people who try to live as we do) hopefully understand the need to nurture the earth and minimise our damage to it, we are the ones considered cranks and weirdos...
Sadly, I can see no way back to sensible living for the masses any more... I rarely look at the world and its problems any more, it makes me despair...

Heiko said...

Pat, there is an argument that there too many people on the planet, but the real problem is fair distribution. With what the western world throws away we could easily feed the planet as it is. Especially considering that much of the food we throw away has been shipped around the world from those poorer places.

Mr. H. said...

Yes my friend...money, greed, and especially an inability to understand the importance of the earth beneath our feet will eventually bring about the entire planets downfall and I can not see how we will escape this.

"Man's heart away from nature becomes hard." - Luther standing bear

Heiko said...

Mr.H, the good news is that the planet will survive and just shake us off like a particularly bad case of flea infection.

Jeremy said...

Heiko, good article. Sorry to hear about the robbery. I think HelpX offers helpers insurance, but I'm not sure what it covers. I think we're going to have some sort of indemnity thing for helpers to sign in future - but more to cover our arses in case of accidents. Something along the lines of "we're not responsible for any damages. If you think a job is dangerous, don't do it..."

BTW, we have a couple of books from your wishlist if you want to borrow them. You can get hold of me via Contadina's blog.

Salute, Jeremy

Anonymous said...

I was speaking with someone last night who worked with troubled adolescents in the UK, but as with so many youth projects it has been dropped. She says cuts to youth services in the past 18 months have resulted in the mass closure of youth clubs, trimming back of summer programmes and the loss of many youth councils across the country.

Investing in youth helps engage young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in society and helps them develop responsibility.

An interesting background piece about the riots in Lewisham draws parallels between high youth unemployment (36% in Lewisham)and cuts to youth services in the worst affected boroughs. http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2011/08/why-there-were-riots-in-lewisham/

We ignore the young at our peril.

sunflower said...

Hi there Heiko.
It's been a while and I'm missing your posts!

On the subject of the riots....well, I was right here stuck in the middle of it and I can promise you that these were not deprived or poor kids, desperate and needy.
They were simply scum.
I did write a lengthy reply but I miss your posts and won't encourage you back to blogging by depressing the hell out of you will I?
So, come back....write to us again...there is still nature, still people working to make life better and people like yourself who inspire us.