Tuesday, August 30, 2005

reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic - arse?

There is a considerable amount of discussion over the use of language - written, spoken and in a wider context. An article in the New Scotsman exposes an appalling lack of standards in the educational sphere(1). Professor Frank Furedi argues much the same in his book 'Where have all the intellectuals gone ?', lamenting the lack of indepth, intellectual inquiry and lack of discipline(2). When I go to amazon to see a book of interest I'm frequently surprised that there are no customer reviews. All testimony to the fact that we are not paying perhaps as much attention as we should. Yet we supposedly have more free time than ever before. So what's amiss?

Some say we move too fast. Texting and computers have been said to have undermined correct english - gr8, lol, ect, etc . Maybe, but the kids can multitask like no other and hold adult conversations when it suits. Ok, so the writing isn't always spot on but then they could become Doctors.

Back2Basics? The three 'r's give it away from the start - who's fooling who?
I wouldn't profess to know the ins and outs of the discussion - that's best left to the experts. An embarassing moment was when talking to a workmate, I strung a sentence together and for some reason ended up banging in loads of 'big' words (many of them in context). Lordy, am I clever! The reply? - 'I don't know what you're saying, but I know what you mean'. Shoot me down in flames. Anyway, that was a long time ago and we were very drunk at the time.

When in the sixth form rumour had it that one of our english Tutors had written a forty page essay on The letter a. I tried to fathom this out - its uses in singular form, colloquialism, dialect and influence in words and sound - a cat sat on a mat, open wide, say 'aaaahh'? 40 pages? go on, Sir!, but not for me. As much as I'd like to read the good man's work there is way too much to absorb already.

Every locale seems to have it's paper or papers, the papershops are stuffed full of magazines showing stuff that we may get to do fleetingly, selling dreams or just talking shite, everywhere sells books and yesteryear's news was the day after's underlay - all very fascinating and enough choice for everyone. Plus internet, blog, junkmail and all that stuff from various councils. Let alone rereading old 'favourites' or books not understood first time around.

The spoken and written word (those for others or to be viewed again L8r) - the presented word? - can do many things and some that the presenter is unaware of at the time. One can either strike lucky - a case of a positive direction and all the lights are green. And then sometimes one overcooks it and suffers a proverbial egg.
One that thankfully went astray from yours truly was an early attempt at a critique of a spirited club singer. Many things about the evening acted on what I felt at the time and the resulting review turned out to be a thinly veiled missive to an ex- missus. Thankfully that one's 'buried' now but one really must be careful.

What of Eminem? the staccato rap attack of in-yer-face provocation. He is whatever you say he is and if you call him he will chew it up and spit it back at you. And make a few bucks at the same time.
Sometimes you don't need words. A patient in a psychiatric unit once introduced me to the lulting* rhythm of Mendelssohn and Fingal's cave. I could feel what he meant.

Then of course there's politicians, comedians and word association football. Not to mention spoonerism - half heard words that you thought you heard but weren't sure.

Messing about with language extends the use of words and their meanings. A deft choice of word or subtle omission can carry deeper resonance than at first understood or the orator's take can be the result of chinese whispers. A colleague once complained that he could shit in the eye of an eagle. I was impressed.

Anglo-saxon verbiage is said to have been particularly coarse. Retrospective actions by the Victorians to clean up the language resulted in many name and language changes including the whitearse to the wheatear (2).

Call me a philistine but with so much to choose from it's difficult to pick the 'right' book(s) - and I don't mean those to be seen reading - the work that inspires, educates or encourages one to think afresh. Harder to read and absorb than your average novel, autobiography or eyewitness account these require quality attention, note taking and discussion - worth the effort.

Unfortunately, for those of us that would like to see the world a better place, there is no shortcut. My own stumbling forays into the world of politics have been hampered by this. Sure, an individual can offer insights or play a bit part but winning arguments requires study and the development of intellectual stamina.

Must try harder.


(1) http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1959942005
(2)http://www.birdsofbritain.co.uk/features/bird-names.htm
* Quite possibly should be 'lilting' but can't bring myself to change it. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=lilting m/e root 'lulten'.

Monday, August 29, 2005

The end of the world is nigh?

'We're all gonna die' - txt msg from 'Pinky'.

Our hedonistic plunge into all things Sodom and Gomorrah is apparently upsetting more than your average priest/mullah/rabbi (delete where applicable (Spoilt for choice really). Doom laden predictions of the future come from all quarters. Not so subtle Tv programmes, books magazines and articles abound on 'healthy living' and how cool it would be to 'save' the planet.
For those spared a creationist or unchanging view of the world it ought to come as no surprise that it is in plain organic fact constantly changing (1). From Tsunamis, volcanoes, 'freak' weather and everything inbetween the earth gets a battering and is constantly on the move. Mother nature is somewhat schizophrenic and we should get used to it.

It's not all bad. There are two good things to come out of the doom laden whingeing of eco warriors. One being an acceptance that the earth is changing, at whatever pace, and therefore we really shouldn't view our lives as static, although significant changes are unlikely to occur over an individual's lifetime (unless with human agency). And, two, the paucity of ideas from the let's panic brigade - limited at best and nigh on fatalistic otherwise. Definitely not an aspirational vision.

What if the climate heats up and the seas rise? (I think that's still the latest prediction.) Do we suddenly forget how to cope with living under different conditions? After all, human beings survive in more habitats than any other species being able to adapt the environment to suit. Isn't it also the case that a warmer or more varied climate encourages and supports more species? (2)

What if . . we didn't bury our heads in the sand and made a pre-emptive strike (albeit by a few millenia)? The oceans are vastly unexplored for starters and developing craft and structures for their study may shed great light for our future descendents should their world shrink but also be of benefit should we take the leap into space. There are possibilities for living by, in or underwater (3).

What of vast civil engineering works? - irrigating wilderness, carving vast inlets into continents, desalination plants? (4) Surely that would leave the world in a better state for future generations. Although I'm not so sure that is what our noble leaders mean when they use such phrases.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,782628,00.html
http://www.policynetwork.net/uploaded/pdf/IPN_impacts_report_embargoed.pdf
(1)http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm
http://images.google.com/images?q=rising+sea+levels&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images
(2)http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/mid_/4176182.stm
(3)http://www.conway.com/ssinsider/snapshot/sf030915.htm
http://www.poseidonresorts.com/virtualtour.html
(4)http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/asian.superpower/three.gorges/
http://www.hitachizosen.co.jp/english/solution/en_solu5-e.html

The plot thickens?

Was the moon landing a hoax? Did Diana suffer at the hands of hired men? Are referees bent? (or just occasionally crap) ls Shabaz for real? etc., etc., ad infinitum.

Any tale is open to interpretation and tellers well always put their bent or be subject to 'unknown unknowns'. We see plots where there aren't any, patch up loose ends to get a beginning and so on. Indeed many a quirky fact or interesting lead is turned up but it would seem that once you go down that route things become evermore outlandish (1).
Scour the net and there's loads of this stuff, enough to make you believe that not much 'out there' is, erm, believable.
However, once you start picking through them their incoherence becomes apparent.

9/11 for instance - planes guided from the ground, mock-up at the Pentagon, explosives in the Towers, brainwashed dupes, etc. Enough and more to make Tolkein look like an amateur and not bad going for people that supposedly can't organise proverbials in a brewery.

There can be reason to believe that an unfair hand has been involved. The moon landings occured at a time when The US wanted to be the undisputed champions in space and given the uses of fabricated evidence it could have been a Hollywood set. Like the cow, though, get over it - we've been to the moon.


Diana was certainly an embarassment to the status quo and the accident was fortunate for those that uphold the sanctity, if not the sanity (2), of the monarchy. (I'd actually let Charles off talking to plants after all the earbashing my pc gets). However, Diana was merely a chapter in an unravelling saga.
Although you wouldn't put it past them.

Most of us accept that Elvis is dead, don't we?

What do hoax theories reveal? Probably that we don't believe much of what is put before us. There is an unacknowledged understanding that life is often valued or explained at a superficial level. Most of us just want to get through it intact, sort of plod on. Some want to make it one way or another. Those that idly dream are perhaps wont to drag down achievers or go getters whilst indulging in wishful thinking. Not believing in anything today, enchanted by the ancient but scared of the new or believing that some more intelligent (yet strangely humanoid) alien life form exists in another dimension (3).

Then, of course, you wouldn't put it past them. Anyone with a passing interest in politics, military affairs and indeed those of the heart will know there is always duplicity, cover up, intrigue and other flirtations with the truth. It makes this world go around, sort of. (4)

I must admit to sniffing some plotting after reading of Pentagon involvement with aspects of the film industry at the time of the release of the film Pearl Harbor (2001). This when the US was bristling and Bush upping the ante (6).

Perhaps the problem with conspiracy theories is the suggestion that the powers that be are all powerful, all controlling and that their operations run smoothly . .
. . hmm.

(1)http://www.rense.com/
http://www.vialls.com/
and http://www.vialls.com/wecontrolamerica/peakoil.html
(2)http://videodetective.com/home.asp?PublishedID=5607
(3)http://www.geocities.com/tasdevil42/featured-photos.html
http://images.google.com/images?q=alien+life+forms&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&start=0&sa=N
(4)http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1855852005
(5)See also http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAE89.htm
(6)Top gun versus Sergeant Bilko? Duncan Campbell, MediaGuardian.co.uk, Aug 2001.



ps Poor sleep etzzz . . . . meant an eyeballing of Big Brother just to see what the attraction is/was. People offering themselves up to that level of scrutiny can't really expect much sympathy if it 'all goes wrong'. Shabaz aside, methinx from what l've seen of Pete, he suffers a social illness in that he's largely unrestrained in what he wants to say and is overegging it with his caricatures. He did seem to hit the nail on the head (in the bits that l saw) and strike something of a common chord. Who else agrees that when he called various of his colleagues 'hwanker! he expressed what we were thinking?
Perhaps more revealing is how he is more relaxed and less prone to express himself in that way now that he's in an 'open' environment and can express himself more freely.
Big Brother should maybe turn the screw some here and flood or aversion therapy the guy - or maybe he's the ringer? (Jus' kidding).

Not fair? Who are you trying to kid? The whole show is an expose of the self (of sorts) and all it's extensions. Others have probably said that we see in the participants extreme forms of ourselves. Our quirks naked for all to see. Us perhaps squealy voyeurs and closet wannabes (could also be the start of a successful career - l suggest a spinoff Pete and Shabaz on a desert island or flat that is hooked up via net and mobile phone to the outside world. My guess is they'd probably 'cure' each other - and would be up for it).

Not fair, cont'd . . Bullying perhaps? Funny that the blonde haired lady was hauled up for a 'mauling' and sherzzassshhh was allowed to continue his manipulation of events for far too long. He was allowed to act the spoilt brat to get his way. The opposite end of the spectrum to bullying perhaps but far more insidious in effect. ln this case the emptiest contestant held full sway and now the manipulation continues (Like, l say it could all be a plot and Sheraz is in on it. Pff mugs ain't we, eh?) lf it's the case that the poor guy had gotten to the point of considering suicide then Big Brother is guilty as charged. l'm sure the contestants had some clue what they were letting themselves in for. . . .

. . .Zzzzz

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Saving Charlotte Wyatt.

Why is medical science too afraid to take on the challenge that the Wyatt's have presented them? Charlotte Wyatt is to all intents and purposes a living human being and her parents 'little fighter'. Granted the poor girl has considerable difficulties and may endure a naturally short and painful life and has only survived thus far with considerable attention. . . . . Her parents want as much support given to her as is possible and really, shouldn't this be the case?

Maybe it's not so ironic that Charlotte's parents are christian (of one loose affiliation or another). Having their broken daughter fixed to become whole again may be rich in symbolism, say, resurrection or something. I'm not sure and wouldn't want to burden them with another argument. However, it should be the case that every endeavour is made for Charlotte's survival and improvement. And while we're at it maybe we could discuss the value of human life.

Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt may be fighting something of a losing battle both legally and medically but that doesn't mean that they lose. There's a window of opportunity here.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1749984,00.htmlork

Sunday, August 21, 2005

NIMBY#5 Housing for the future?

According to a Times Bricks and Mortar supplement some 67% of us are disappointed with our houses. Whether respondents were transplacing other feelings onto their houses or whether this relates to the houses themselves is a moot point. It could be the spiralling cost or some concern over where society is headed. Astute buyers may have made a killing on the back of an inflated market but one does wonder what sort of dwellings our children or grandchildren may inhabit. Houses built at todays level of output would have to stand for 1500 years! Somehow can't see that happening by any measure as modern housing lacks the solidity of its predecessors and merely apes the style, particularly mass built housing.

Most modern housing is stuck in a timewarp. New developments of mock tudor or georgian 'style' are hastily built on any scrap of land where demand is high. New environmentally sensitive regulations call for higher density build so we still live unnecessarily in the lap of our neighbours.

Despite many improvements in materials and construction methods new housing still attempts to replicate the old. Where factory built housing components are manufactured they still resemble brickwork and little genuine prefabricated work exists particularly in the UK. Even manufacturers of prefabricated buildings still feel the need to encase buildings in brick tiles for that traditional look ie. to make them look like something that they are not.

This is pathetic but understandable in a culture that dare not face the future and seeks comfort in an imagined past.

What of bolder visions?

Although some architects may produce expensive and gimmicky one offs there are houses designed and built with increased specification and functionality, relatively simple in design and execution yet far from commonplace. Frank Lloyd-Wright with his Fallingwater house, for one, showed that nature should not bind us to limitations . . .

View/read on:
http://www.audacity.org/Acrobat%20Reader%20files/Housing%20Forum%202002.pdf
http://www.lmearchitecture.com/houses.htm
http://brasembottawa.org/cd/1arq_3.9.2.res_macab_helio.htm
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=falling+water+house&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
http://www.treehugger.com/files/prefab/index.php
http://www.channel4.com/4homes/diyandbuilding/buildinghouse/kit_homes.html

Friday, August 19, 2005

Money, money, money . . .

Currently there's to be a revamp of UK currency with a £3o,ooo prize for the six winning designs. Being totally crap with money, and bearing a grudge against my bank manager I'd rather do away with the stuff completely then we could discuss a better way to manage our affairs. (And my bank manager could get a proper job.)








http://money.guardian.co.uk/news_/story/0,1456,1551368,00.html

Sunday, August 14, 2005

NIMBY#4. Go wild in the country.

The route to and from work can be a particular joy - especially this time of year with the fields, meadows, wetlands and woods all in brilliant colour. On good days the whole area comes alive - joggers, fishermen, canoeists, barges, 'mountain' bikers, dog walkers and so on.


It teems with wildlife and farm animals - heron, kingfisher, woodpeckers - in fact more birds than I could throw a stick at (jus' kidding) let alone name - even a couple of rare (to these isles) stork. Then there's mink, shrews, mice, bats and the occasional deer . . one could go on.

Oh, and wild cherries grow around the sewage treatment plant - tasty.

Despite all this though in real terms the area is nothing special. Disused railway lines, quarries, tips and crumbling old buildings show that we've been here before. When the motorway network was in its infancy a proposed link road was outlined to join the M1 and M62 from Dewsbury to Wakefield. Though such a scheme would likely cause a great deal of protest today it should be noted that the canal network was a development from navigable rivers and a forerunner of such things as motorways. Myself, despite being pro-industry and for development, wouldn't particularly want to live too close to a major road - who does?

But then nobody should really have to. There is no shortage of available land - according to the government Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) only 10.6% of UK landmass is built upon. This figure is from 1991 but since then most development has occurred on previously developed sites - 'brownfield'. Far from covered in concrete then and plentiful land so that we shouldn't have to live on top of one another. (Not that there is anything wrong in particular with high rise, hustle and bustle city living but that is a different matter.)

Many problems face those that wish to live in the countryside. One respondent had the good fortune to acquire some old buildings but nature and officialdom won the day. Not only did the old, listed buildings have to be rebuilt to specification but since Bats moved into the residence the new owner was not allowed to occupy it!

(1)http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/land/lduse.htm
(2)See also http://www.newstatesman.com/landreform/lrindex.htm

Saturday, August 13, 2005

NIMBY#3, Border dispute.









Despite the cosiness of the neighbourhood private property issues do surface. We all like our own space from time to time and our private concerns clash with others. 24/7 living and working means that people come and go all times of day or night, Canadian geese honk in excitement(!?!) as they approach Pugneys Lake (an ex quarry), kids playing out, the relentless DIY and garden maintainance or just playing music.

The neighbourhood is more or less constantly 'active'.
Weekend mornings become slowly disturbed as someone dares to break the relative peace and tranquility. Usually about half past nine the first few lump hammer and bolster chisel blows or power tools can be heard only to die off for a sheepish half hour as the slumbering neighbourhood resigns itself to arousal.

One of the chief culprits is Dave (whose bloody kids make World War 3 sound as though it's going off in my backyard - bless 'em).
When fixing the fence in my lower garden he asked if I could do something about the privet hedge that threatened to push out the wall into his backyard.
Pfff, go on then. As the fence was being held up by the bush they both went. Dave and family got used to the increased light and openess and I couldn't be arsed rebuilding a fence so everything turned out well.

When a new neighbour dropped a row of leylandii things got even better - much more openess. It led me to think of how we view our territory and the uses we put it to.
When we consider that, at a guess, some two thirds of homes all have common features in their gardens - shed and tools, benches, etc and the occasional use we put them to it seemed like a good idea to have all the gardens minimised opening up to parkland and backing on to the pub. Do away with all the replicated junk that we horde and have a proper public house and 'garden'. It would be even nicer to move the adjoining pallet yard and follow through to the River Calder's edge, perhaps build a boathouse.

To the front of the Pub and behind the old Post Office (now closed) there used to be a Foundry - a longstanding bone of contention to residents. Now closed down the land is to be used for yet more houses. Not a village green then.

Back to the real world.

The local pub is undergoing a fair amount of renovation as the landlord approaches retirement age and is considering selling up. Part of this is the erection of a new wall dividing the offset gardens and the pub's beer garden. Long established and overgrown hedges that had formed a natural barrier gave way to a border dispute, lines were drawn and some choice cussing was to be heard.

Bollocks!

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Some muthas do 'ave 'em.

Generation Kill by Evan Wright is an 'easy' read into the minds of men in battle. As one reviewer remarks, it's a 'visceral' read. Perhaps everyone should read one book like this just to see what are the 'on the ground' consequences of what is, effectively, colonial policy.
The book provides a snapshot into the lives, method and thoughts of U.S. combat troops at the very front in The Iraq War - now the war whose major protagonists wish to disown.

Hoo-har?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0552151890/qid=1136017454/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/203-8675549-9723131

Also of interest is Acts of war by Professor Richard Holmes (admittedly, part read). Early in the book he mentions there is something of an 80% chance of success in a military operation; this presumably when the odds are in favour. A figure perhaps as relevant as Vic Reeves' '84.2% of statistics are made up on the spot'. (82.4%?) Add in Rumsfield's 'unknowns' and then do the math(s).
When you consider the eficiencies and operation of peacetime industry then war, as the dirtiest of business, and its manner shouldn't really come as a surprise.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0304367001/ref=sib_rdr_dp/203-8675549-9723131

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Whose ideas?

The ongoing palaver over chinese computer guru Kai Fu Lee could do with discussing in detail (1). Bill Gates of Microsoft is reluctant to see Lee move to Google's chinese operation and work in competition using ideas and information gained whilst at microsoft.

Whether Gates is right or even fully voicing his concerns is open to interpretation. Regardless, taken at face value, copyright or intellectual property operates both ways and cannot be truly regulated or monopolised. I assume Bill Gates didn't hand rear Kai Fu Lee and teach him every thing he knows. Doubtless that Lee will have picked up or developed many an idea whilst at microsoft. Yet, and particularly in Lee's case, it seems just as likely that as much if not more was contributed.

Likewise, are we to assume that Gates designed or developed every aspect of microsoft innovation or did he manage to hoover up as much from others? Not to doubt Mr. Gates intellectual or technical prowess by any means. But it does seem to be the case that the expertise in question resides with the host.

Lee's work for google may serve to refresh or refine his capabilities due to the different environment. A change is as good as a rest, so it's said.


(1) http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002426557_kaifu08.html

Ps. I am deeply indebted to Mr Gates and his team for the Windows (Tm.) 'concept' as it aids a scattered mind. Buy that man a drink.

Monday, August 08, 2005

NIMBY #2. My house*, !7 Industrial st.







(*Strictly speaking the house isn't mine - it belongs to the Bank - although they had precious little to do with building it.)


' If the street was called something other than Industrial St. then the estate agent said it would probably add £2000 to the value.' (neighbour.)

'Like - Shit farm at the end of the St.?' (me.)

Of all the houses looked at this one had instant appeal as it fit in with what I assumed to be needs at the time - close enough to family and work and with enough surrounding facilities to keep ourselves occupied. The backgarden faces easterly, receiving plenty of sunshine throughout most of the day. The bulk of residents 'love it down here' and it's not too hard to see why.

Initially the desire to have a place where my immediate family - 2 rather grown up 'children' - could come and stay meant that the structure of the house would have to change - watch out Heath Robinson!

The loft as it is is too small for any meaningful conversion. However, there is sufficient ceiling heights on both levels to lower floors and gain loft space and a 'cabin' bedroom and sundeck. Of course there would be an issue of privacy but then knocking down the neighbour's houses at the back would go some way to alleviate that (see N#3 'Border dispute').
Taking out floors does seem like a mighty task but with organisation, method and understanding neighbours it wouldn't prove too difficult. In my most recent employment, a welder/fabricator in the modular building industry, such things are done in a relatively short space of time. For instance if a roof is welded on the wrong way around (I'm not the only one to have done this!) it is easy enough (despite the ball ache) to grind it off and spin it around, albeit with use of an overhead crane. (see forthcoming N#? for 'The future of building: Prefabs?').

A partition wall between kitchen and living room that never looked right was removed making the downstairs open plan. It also revealed a stone slab floor that had been partially brutalised by fitting a gas supply for the fire. Potentially lovely and offering some continuation of the house to the patio via the newly fitted patio doors. It's coldness in winter was to be alleviated by installing underfloor heating thus giving a reservoir and even spread of heat. Time and money are lacking so this idea has been shelved. A quickfix solution is to board over the floor but I'm in more than two minds about this hence the gap above the patio doors (infilled with Kingspan insulation panels) allows the finished floor to be any height required.
Then of course there is all the rewiring and plumbing, etc but one thing at a time (or not). All this work on a house that is some 100 years old!

Despite the uniform appearance of the street from the front the houses have been built in fits and starts and probably for workers that supplied local industry its labour. Humble in their origins and never anything that special they have taken on new significance due to the prominence of housing in the economy and our lives. The build quality is nothing special either despite the solidity of traditional materials. This last point can be thrown into perspective by a comparison with 'temporary' housing built for railway construction workers about the turn of last century at Dodworth, Barnsley. South Yorkshire Buildings are built to similar standards as these workers' cottages yet still exist today and are 'worth' considerably more than was originally intended.

These days there are many people extending and 'modernising' their houses, in fact it's a continuous phenomenon so God help those working the nightshift let alone anyone wanting peace and quiet. It doesn't need to be this way.
When the amount of work upgrading old housing stock is considered against the efficiency of factory built housing it makes one wonder.


See also -
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/opinion/12krugman.html?8hpib

Who do you think you are kidding . . . . ?







These days it's not just asian youth that suffer from identity but pretty much everyone. After all isn't the very notion of identity something of a superficiality? No one has a fixed identity other than perhaps given ones. Of course there are some that will devoutly follow a cause rightly or wrongly and this is perhaps where we should begin.

Ignorance can never be bliss.


According to Roger scruton '(i)t is not a question of the actual history, but rather the history that is required to create a national loyalty' (1)(my italics). Now anyone can commit the odd faux pas, the odd factual error or emphasis, etc. but a sanitised history should be a non starter. To all intents and purposes official histories have always been cleaned up or spun although with greater access to information - book , TV, internet, etc - a much more complete view can be gained and that is to the good. Once the project of rewriting history starts where does it end? Buildings and Empires may be ground into dust but events cannot be erased.

Call me a pessimist but after initially being pleasantly surprised at the UK's successful Olympic bid the next thought was that of it being a target of sorts. And so it was. It would be nice to think that the world could be a nicer place but such things happen and not without reason. That a handful of individuals could cause such alarm with their misguided aims is telling as to how fragile society is cohered.

After the 7th July london bombings I went to discuss the issue amongst the asian community - a very loose term. Older men (50 years old or thereabouts), couldn't understand why asian youth are so disaffected. After all, today's relative integration and prosperity stands in stark contrast to what they knew at a comparative age. The overwhelming view was that they loved this country, counted themselves as British and indeed 'would fight for this country' (2). Although when asked whether the war in Iraq was justifiable there was as much difference of opinion as amongst my predominantly white colleagues.

Of course one or two went for the war for oil line - 'Respect' had been 'fighting the fascists' in the area (but not arguing for their ideas in mainly white areas where the BNP, their ideological foe, were standing). Many held an equally misguided view of ' if you bomb them, they will bomb you' which avoids the issue as much as saying 'not in my name'.
When the conversation turned to the tyranny of Saddam Hussein opinion began to diverge and it was remembered that many of the attrocities commited had been conveniently talked down when there was any sniff of western involvement at the time (3).

Asian youth were somewhat suspicious and more reticent in offering their views (but could take the mick just as good as any group of white lads). Outwardly it would appear that asian youth have similar problems as their white counterparts but with the added burden of being part of a 'community by default'. One youth stated that he had aplied for some 30 jobs in the past 2 months but had not received one reply back. Unless they are prepared to do a dirty, shitty job(4), go into the family business, taxi driving, etc., or, even worse, a job that is set aside for 'ethnic minorities' then they are caught between a rock and a hard place. Of course with the headlong pursuit into multiculturalism, and indeed the merits of individuals, there are more people of obvious or comparatively 'recent ' arrival in top flight jobs. Not a bad thing by any means but stands in stark contrast to the days of the token black face of the eighties and the even cruder stereotyping of earlier years.

Speaking to a white company director with recruitment problems I asked why he didn't employ any asians. His reply was 'the (white) lads just wouldn't get on with them'. When 'the lads' were asked why they had negative views I was told that 'pakis' (a catch all term) were dirty, ignorant, drug-dealers, treat their women bad, don't pay taxes, sponge off benefits and generally 'shouldn't be here'. Although much of the same could be applied to themselves if truth were told. Yet the same people were matey enough when meeting asians face to face - in the takeaways, taxis and shops. In fact one guy who espoused particularly backward views - generally mouthing off about the BNP and white power - was politeness personified in his local asian ran shop. What you see isn't always what you get.

Likewise, in a kebab house in deepest Savilletown, Dewsbury, where the owner and staff were all dressed in mufti and pictures of mecca adorned the walls I figured I'd get that bugbear of many whites that 'they would all speak their own language', yet colloquial english was the order of the day - one lad got a full on effing earbashing that would have done any off TV comic or sergeant-major proud. (There's also a Kosher-Halal fish and chip shop - something for everyone?)

Bradford city council was one of the first to ban the displaying of the St. George flag for fear of arousing underlying tensions yet the fact that asian taxi drivers were amongst those flying the flag seemed to escape them. Again, there are many asians just as likely to be seen wearing England football shirts as white people (although maybe not so after the Danish debacle).



(1)See Prospect (Subscription), April 2005 http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=6832&AuthKey=104793ed6d8a973ae04abfbd3e5ff03b&issue=503
(2)And not for the first time. See Asians in Britain by Visram, pp 169-195 and 341-353 http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745313736/qid=1123568219/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_10_2/026-0984041-7434865
(3)See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack.
(4)' I feel like a wog' by The Stranglers.
(5)See Fitzpatrick The price of multiculturalism


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