So ..... Respect
Bit late in the day I guess but I didn't feel like writing about it when it was in the news because I felt so ill.
My first reaction was one to the name. When I think of it being used as a single word it just brings back times when I've heard it used as gang slang on the streets. I just found it rather strange.
The next reaction was to the minor assault that Mr Blair used to illustrate the fines that are going to be handed out, the ones he's raised from £80 to £100. I just wondered how often the police were going to be around in instances like this. You know you can wait hours and more for a response to a burglary. I just found the instance he gave rather shall we say unstreetwise. Doubtless there will be instances where everything falls into place at once but I wouldn't think that it's going to happen very often.
I read comparisons to Zero Tolerance but there's quite a difference between the way the two iniatives have been constructed. See instance above. You'd need more feet on the streets for a start.
The ASBOs. Well, almost half are known to be broken now.
I was interested to see that there are plans for arts and sports facilities. But where are they going to take place. It's quite a commitment to say you're going to open them in places where there aren't any facilities for young people. It was suggested years and years ago by an expert in The States that the UK needed to start opening facilities like this because he thought that this country was going to have the same problems that were surfacing in America but that they would start years later. His advice was to start preparing now and hopefully change the direction he saw for this country in these matters. He was ignored completely.
I read an article on the BBC news site that told about one young man's life and I can't find it now so I'm having to write from memory. But he'd been badly abused and hadn't been supported by the social services. I can't remember quite what he'd done but I think he was involved in car crime so I suppose taking and driving away and things like that. When he wanted help to try and turn his life around it just wasn't there.
I know about kids who are more or less on the street bringing themselves up because their parents are crack users. I take it the support isn't there for them either so they're just going to have to rely on the people they meet on the streets.
I know about eight and ten year old kids who are used as drug runners virtually.
Another thing that I found strange about Mr Blair's reactions was that he was apparently aghast at children taking mobile phones into school and apparently couldn't believe it. Mr Blair kids take weapons into school.
I haven't read back so I'm just going by memory on this bit but didn't he also make a reference to the "good old days" so to speak and then say that ofcourse he wasn't comparing the past to the present day. I mean you can't compare life in that way in this instance can you because society has changed so much. It's just totally different now and it'd be better to cope with todays problems without making "wistful" references to the past.
Some people said that the new iniative was just a total rehash of past ones. Well, that's not quite true is it and I suspect if some of the things said are implemented with care that some will help in some instances but I feel that perhaps respect should be seen to be going two ways. I don't think that taking kids on holidays abroad when there's been trouble and then dumping them back in the same situation that they were in before is the answer either. I read articles where people are complaining about the trips. It'd be better really if something was sorted out at home really than just sticking a plaster on a wound.
Kids when they're asked often say they want something to do. Some kids don't have the facilities at home to do what they'd like and also for some there'll be homes where they'd rather not be because of trouble and abuse. I'd've thought the answer would be to give kids some respect and start early providing interesting and fun things for them to do out of school. And also I'd think that some care should be given to providing a happy and secure time at school as far as possible.
My first reaction was one to the name. When I think of it being used as a single word it just brings back times when I've heard it used as gang slang on the streets. I just found it rather strange.
The next reaction was to the minor assault that Mr Blair used to illustrate the fines that are going to be handed out, the ones he's raised from £80 to £100. I just wondered how often the police were going to be around in instances like this. You know you can wait hours and more for a response to a burglary. I just found the instance he gave rather shall we say unstreetwise. Doubtless there will be instances where everything falls into place at once but I wouldn't think that it's going to happen very often.
I read comparisons to Zero Tolerance but there's quite a difference between the way the two iniatives have been constructed. See instance above. You'd need more feet on the streets for a start.
The ASBOs. Well, almost half are known to be broken now.
I was interested to see that there are plans for arts and sports facilities. But where are they going to take place. It's quite a commitment to say you're going to open them in places where there aren't any facilities for young people. It was suggested years and years ago by an expert in The States that the UK needed to start opening facilities like this because he thought that this country was going to have the same problems that were surfacing in America but that they would start years later. His advice was to start preparing now and hopefully change the direction he saw for this country in these matters. He was ignored completely.
I read an article on the BBC news site that told about one young man's life and I can't find it now so I'm having to write from memory. But he'd been badly abused and hadn't been supported by the social services. I can't remember quite what he'd done but I think he was involved in car crime so I suppose taking and driving away and things like that. When he wanted help to try and turn his life around it just wasn't there.
I know about kids who are more or less on the street bringing themselves up because their parents are crack users. I take it the support isn't there for them either so they're just going to have to rely on the people they meet on the streets.
I know about eight and ten year old kids who are used as drug runners virtually.
Another thing that I found strange about Mr Blair's reactions was that he was apparently aghast at children taking mobile phones into school and apparently couldn't believe it. Mr Blair kids take weapons into school.
I haven't read back so I'm just going by memory on this bit but didn't he also make a reference to the "good old days" so to speak and then say that ofcourse he wasn't comparing the past to the present day. I mean you can't compare life in that way in this instance can you because society has changed so much. It's just totally different now and it'd be better to cope with todays problems without making "wistful" references to the past.
Some people said that the new iniative was just a total rehash of past ones. Well, that's not quite true is it and I suspect if some of the things said are implemented with care that some will help in some instances but I feel that perhaps respect should be seen to be going two ways. I don't think that taking kids on holidays abroad when there's been trouble and then dumping them back in the same situation that they were in before is the answer either. I read articles where people are complaining about the trips. It'd be better really if something was sorted out at home really than just sticking a plaster on a wound.
Kids when they're asked often say they want something to do. Some kids don't have the facilities at home to do what they'd like and also for some there'll be homes where they'd rather not be because of trouble and abuse. I'd've thought the answer would be to give kids some respect and start early providing interesting and fun things for them to do out of school. And also I'd think that some care should be given to providing a happy and secure time at school as far as possible.
posted by Zeb at 10:38 AM
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