Give the kids something to do

....although I'm sure a nice communal garden and decent lighting wouldn't necessarily have made them think twice about what they did... it would have contributed to their decisions.

I wrote this a couple of days ago, while making my point about improving the environment in which people, especially from deprived areas, live in. Then low and behold I read this in The Guardian this morning, regarding Hasib Hussain, who of the apparent Suicide Bombers....

'He had always found an escape in football. But, and two years ago, the Hornets' pitch was closed down. At about the same time, Hussain seemed to disappear into another world, according to associates.'

Children need things to do, to feel part of the community they live in, they need to feel their thoughts and ideas are listened too, because if they don't they're going to look elsewhere for someone who they feel does believe in them, and sadly for this boy, that someone it seems had an extreme ideology that would lead to mass murder.

But on a much lesser scale, and I hope not too sound too middle aged, children today do feel disinfranchised, and turn to violence and vandalism to fill in their joyless lives. My parents bowling club is regularly attacked by youths, a whole generation are being left behind because we only see the end result, and the administration only answer is ASBOS! For fucks sake, the only ASBOS needed are the few hundred to stop our so called political represenatives from getting anywhere near Parliament.

How to spend £18 billion?

You're in government, and someone (the taxpayer) give you a cheque for £18 billion pounds, to spend wisely in order to improve the general well being and security of the populous, what do you do?

You could, as seems likely under the current government introduce a ID CARD, mmmm doesn't that sounds impressive, sounds like something that terrorists and naughty people wouldn't like, and might even stop them carrying out their awful acts, but that's not likely, as admited by the home secretary soon after the London bombings.

Alternatively you could put the money towards improving people living environments, regenerating run down areas, developing a community spirit, across social, racial and religious boundries. It's been proved through various projects that if you improve people localities, and get them involved in the work needed, then crime, violence and vandalism is reduced.

You could put some extra money towards local policing, I think I'd feel saver seeing a couple of bobbies walking down Kilburn High Road, compared to the feeling I'd have if I had an extra card in my wallet.

It's all about cause and effect. For politicans they too often ignore the cause, and look for something that's gonna be seen as effective, a vote winner, and the cycle of lost oppotunities will continue and nothing will improve.

It appears the London bombers came from England, and although I'm sure a nice communal garden and decent lighting wouldn't necessarily have made them think twice about what they did, it's more than likely that frustration with their situation, combined with global political issues and some seriously fucked up guidance, would have contributed to decisions.

A simple metophor. You're living in a flat share, with 5 other people who ignore you, but seem to get along together fine, plus the place is a shithole. You're going feel down, depressed, angry, and bitter. But lets say the other 5 people change, and start talking to you, and you find you're not very different, and you all start getting on as a group, and then you decide you're tired of living in filth, so you all tidy up the house, and keep it neat, you're ALL gonna feel a lot better, positive and united.

Imagine that house in the UK, a few more complications, especially when it comes to what colour to paint the bathroom, but it's possible and logical and something that needs to be done soon before the situation gets any worse.

First Reactions

When news first arrived last week, you knew what was going on immediately, you just hoped that 'power surge' might actually something that could ever happen, it just hadn't made the news before. Then when SKY started talking about a bomb on a bus, again there was still that faint hope that, 'hey, SKY make shit up all the time', sadly this time they were spot on and the attacks we were always expecting had finally arrived.

From the comfort of an office, even in the same city that's under attack from these morons, it's hard to take in what's going on, and what made things even more sureal was how so many people around me were completely unaffected by the news that was now coming through on the crappy office radio.

LONDON IS BEING ATTACKED BY TERRORISTS

But some people felt the pressing issues of invoices and faxes was more important. Now I understand that for some people a way of dealing with such significant moments in life is to carry on regardless, but this wasn't about that, this was something colder, that I felt had to deal with.
The realities of what a bomb on a tube would do to the bodies of the victims would come to me, knowing the agony and pain that dozens of people were going through right at that moment, not more than a few miles away, and these colleagues around me carried on regardless. Bizarre.