tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078357011397157919.post6127548678242519509..comments2024-03-25T22:43:21.934-07:00Comments on Justine Picardie: Hard TimesJustine Picardiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16957669049699860596noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078357011397157919.post-48056860022025886562011-08-14T07:50:36.078-07:002011-08-14T07:50:36.078-07:00Jaywalker, thanks for your very thoughtful comment...Jaywalker, thanks for your very thoughtful comments. I think you're absolutely right on all counts.Justine Picardiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16957669049699860596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078357011397157919.post-60607337276000901102011-08-13T05:31:49.673-07:002011-08-13T05:31:49.673-07:00I am a UK citizen living in China - the damage the...I am a UK citizen living in China - the damage the pictures/reports which have been beamed around the globe have done is incalculable. Many young Chinese have asked me why our 'State' allows the citizens to be robbed, have their businesses looted, trashed and set alight with impunity. I cannot answer them. Now reading the UK press on-line I see that many of those arrested and charged are not the poor, uneducated, dispossesed in society - there were soldiers, university students, a teaching assistant and others of similar ilk. It seems it was rampant greed. They were on an orgy of self desire and seemed to have lost any idea of the consequences of their actions - either for themselves and their families (ie losing council housing etc) or whether people burned to death in the buildings they set ablaze. Time for a BIG wake-up call, actions have consequences. Excuses and explanations are pointless now. Learn the lessons.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078357011397157919.post-59331251674662039452011-08-12T20:22:55.293-07:002011-08-12T20:22:55.293-07:00Yes, there have been riots previously in England, ...Yes, there have been riots previously in England, and other countries, but what sparked them? Mostly they were about disenfranchised people who felt no one cared and they may well have had a point.<br /><br />We are just back in Australia after watching the riots for the last few days on British TV and in the papers and I also admire the mother who reported her daughter's part in it. Sensible parenting like this from more people would be a move in the right direction.<br /> <br />In our local paper today a respected education writer claims that the answer to these riots is much deeper and actually simpler and he cites a book 'Hood Rat' by journalist, Gavin Knight who believes the single most determining factor in why there is a social breakdown in England is not about poverty. It is about an absence of parenting.The reviewer says he first saw evidence of this when he taught in England twenty years ago in poor areas of London.<br /><br />As a retired high school teacher and then president of our teachers' union here, I completely agree with him. Unless you have been a close observer of children's behaviour and attitudes over the last few decades, I don't think many people actually realise to what extent this has changed. Things that evolve over an extended period are often not seen for what they are.<br /><br />The trouble is, of course, that you can't fix this sort of thing with a bigger police force or stronger penalties or forceful words from politicians. It could take generations to change as it has taken generations to reach this point.jaywalkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18057625356137450284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078357011397157919.post-25178885566143027862011-08-12T10:49:56.638-07:002011-08-12T10:49:56.638-07:00I am having a Sybille Bedford feast thanks to you....I am having a Sybille Bedford feast thanks to you. Just read A Visit to Don Octavia. I have a subject for a new book by you - Tina Chow she is so fascinating.enidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04506741826683775428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078357011397157919.post-21512819520067231512011-08-11T16:00:15.735-07:002011-08-11T16:00:15.735-07:00Matthew Parris in the Times today makes the point ...Matthew Parris in the Times today makes the point that there have been ferocious London mobs in past -- and the country has survived. Terrifying at the time, but nevertheless, democracy has prevailed.Justine Picardiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16957669049699860596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078357011397157919.post-5971112066968945782011-08-11T01:10:10.243-07:002011-08-11T01:10:10.243-07:00I am adopting your mantra.I am adopting your mantra.Lilacshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15782125673448880397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078357011397157919.post-76192288482459166182011-08-10T16:44:23.328-07:002011-08-10T16:44:23.328-07:00All shall be well, and
All manner of thing shall b...All shall be well, and<br />All manner of thing shall be well...Justine Picardiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16957669049699860596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078357011397157919.post-80069719555871238962011-08-10T15:36:48.401-07:002011-08-10T15:36:48.401-07:00I saw a tweet from the splendid Scottish-Egyptian ...I saw a tweet from the splendid Scottish-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla (he and his fiancee Cressida Trew divide their time between Cairo and London) earlier: "I'm flying to london in ten days. I can't bear the thought that I'll be travelling between countries with a mounting police presence." I can't begin to imagine how the world will look in 10 days' time; everything happens so quickly, the way a pile of crumpled paper will catch light and burst into flame...kairuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11608839703020585886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078357011397157919.post-51612735951173452052011-08-10T09:25:53.166-07:002011-08-10T09:25:53.166-07:00Enid, you have voiced my thoughts; last night, tho...Enid, you have voiced my thoughts; last night, those very lines by Yeats kept going through my head, and the opening: 'Turning and turning in the widening gyre...'<br />Very moving interview on the BBC just now with the father of one of the young men who was killed in Birmingham last night; he spoke with such dignity. <br />http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-14471405Justine Picardiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16957669049699860596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078357011397157919.post-57946024719033931252011-08-10T08:28:45.815-07:002011-08-10T08:28:45.815-07:00That ofcourse is WB Yeats not me!!! I feel so sad ...That ofcourse is WB Yeats not me!!! I feel so sad what have we done to our worldenidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04506741826683775428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078357011397157919.post-22039946397455736912011-08-10T08:13:19.383-07:002011-08-10T08:13:19.383-07:00Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere an...Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;<br />Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,<br />The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere<br />The ceremony of innocence is drowned;<br />The best lack all conviction, while the worst<br />Are full of passionate intensityenidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04506741826683775428noreply@blogger.com