Moving in the time of “the Big Society”
July 20, 2010 01:32 PM
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After eleven good years in Birmingham, we have moved house to Harpenden in the year of Cameron’s grand idea of “the big society”! The Divine must be having a good laugh with our move from chaotic and exciting “Ladywood” (Birmingham) to orderly and calm Hapenden! I wonder from what social location PM Cameron is speaking when he launched his “Big Society” Plan. Unlike many of the biblical stories of people moving – with only the need to un-pitch tents, gather their few belongings (including livestock) – our move included a whole sequence of planned arrangements and timings to ensure as smooth a transition as possible. I am sure those biblical folks also had their own planning to do (though this may not be the impression) but they may have had less accumulated clutter to deal with!
I once came across as Chinese saying that to make big changes in one’s life necessitate moving 27 things in the home. I can only imagine the change we have created having moved over a couple thousand of things, that is, counting the many volumes of books – even after disposing of many. Oxfam and a colleague from Kenya have got most of my eclectic collection of academic books! And do not get me started on the cartloads of paper and accrued notebooks (of our sons) that have ended up in the city’s recycling containers. Our personal papers, however, have served as good packaging materials, after passing through a newly acquired cross-cutting shredder.
One of the exciting and yet challenging experiences in moving is the fact of having to contend with perhaps a smaller and differently structured house. “Rethinking Space” has become our silent mantra – and having to rethink what to do with all the now unnecessary things we once found helpful. And believe me: we all have more stuff than we think we need and in reality do need. Vigilant as we have been about not accruing stuff, we were shocked to discover how much we have collected over years in Birmingham.
And even after disposing of so much, there is the feeling that we still managed to transport some unnecessary clutter to our new garage. Perhaps, this is a necessary and cathartic process – to help us cope with our imagined loss of things we may have become attached to and perhaps with our own displacement. It may be that before long, we will let go of those unopened boxes which we may not miss nor care to peek into! And, while we do not intend to fill up our new house with unnecessary things, we are also mindful of the ever present danger of collecting things to fill available spaces as we try to make “home” that familiar place!
Another good experience about our house-moving – has been the process of packing, marking and cautiously sifting through things to be given away or disposed of. Tiring as it has been, the process has provided us with a space to walk down memory lane. Emotions ran high as items served as significant markers, especially for us, whose lives for the last twenty-one years have been one of frequent move from place to place. When “home has always been elsewhere”, markers are quite significant and these do take a variety of shapes.
Yet, we have also experienced that another aspect of moving lies in celebrating all we are grateful for in what we have left behind and what we are taking with us. Besides, moving is also about homecoming! In the meantime, I am looking forward to enjoy the sun while it lasts with a good Caribbean rum punch under the cool shade of the mighty tall fir trees in the garden of my wife’s new manse. And if I am lucky, I sense an opportunity for me to get a hammock in place before the sun retreats and before I take a closer look at Mr Cameron’s “Big Society” dream!
I once came across as Chinese saying that to make big changes in one’s life necessitate moving 27 things in the home. I can only imagine the change we have created having moved over a couple thousand of things, that is, counting the many volumes of books – even after disposing of many. Oxfam and a colleague from Kenya have got most of my eclectic collection of academic books! And do not get me started on the cartloads of paper and accrued notebooks (of our sons) that have ended up in the city’s recycling containers. Our personal papers, however, have served as good packaging materials, after passing through a newly acquired cross-cutting shredder.
One of the exciting and yet challenging experiences in moving is the fact of having to contend with perhaps a smaller and differently structured house. “Rethinking Space” has become our silent mantra – and having to rethink what to do with all the now unnecessary things we once found helpful. And believe me: we all have more stuff than we think we need and in reality do need. Vigilant as we have been about not accruing stuff, we were shocked to discover how much we have collected over years in Birmingham.
And even after disposing of so much, there is the feeling that we still managed to transport some unnecessary clutter to our new garage. Perhaps, this is a necessary and cathartic process – to help us cope with our imagined loss of things we may have become attached to and perhaps with our own displacement. It may be that before long, we will let go of those unopened boxes which we may not miss nor care to peek into! And, while we do not intend to fill up our new house with unnecessary things, we are also mindful of the ever present danger of collecting things to fill available spaces as we try to make “home” that familiar place!
Another good experience about our house-moving – has been the process of packing, marking and cautiously sifting through things to be given away or disposed of. Tiring as it has been, the process has provided us with a space to walk down memory lane. Emotions ran high as items served as significant markers, especially for us, whose lives for the last twenty-one years have been one of frequent move from place to place. When “home has always been elsewhere”, markers are quite significant and these do take a variety of shapes.
Yet, we have also experienced that another aspect of moving lies in celebrating all we are grateful for in what we have left behind and what we are taking with us. Besides, moving is also about homecoming! In the meantime, I am looking forward to enjoy the sun while it lasts with a good Caribbean rum punch under the cool shade of the mighty tall fir trees in the garden of my wife’s new manse. And if I am lucky, I sense an opportunity for me to get a hammock in place before the sun retreats and before I take a closer look at Mr Cameron’s “Big Society” dream!
© copyright July 20, 2010
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Blame Culture and the inability to Lose
June 28, 2010 08:09 AM
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Whether it is World Cup Football (or any sporting event), politics or in religious circles, to lose or fail has become anathema. Mistrust is eating away at the very fabric and every corner of our lives. Consequently, a culture and ethos of “blaming”, “finger-pointing” and ”scape-goating” have taken over our lives. At least, large sections of media have degenerated into this, confusing sound analysis with finding scapegoats.When problems occur, we quickly seek to locate someone or some group/thing to blame, other than ourselves. Just listen to the football pundits and politicians: it is a constant lashing out at the created scapegoats on whom we can displace our aggression. And usually the scape-goating and blaming increases when we are frustrated and need an out let for our anger. One thought that crossed my mind listening to all the British pundits on football analysing the poor showing of the national team, is why none of these experts even attempted to become a coach to the national team!
In our success driven world of economic progress and growth at any price (the recent meeting of the G20 confirms this), the majority of us end up living in fear of failure and “losing”. Whereas failing and losing could serve to create positive experiences, our penchant for “blaming” and the branding of “losing” as cardinal sin number one, have served to kill creativity and adventure. For the inability not to attempt anything daring, means that the less we fail the more we will be unable to have an opportunity to potentially succeed. Never giving ourselves a chance to fail means living a stagnant existence!
But what really lies behind our “blame culture”, the inability to trust and to lose? Part of our problem is that we are reaping the fruits of a rampant form of capitalism for all, motivated by greed and looking out only for ourselves, in an individualistic and money-grasping environment. The habit of crass individualism, together with more and more centralisation and State Control of much of our lives, all conspire to create habits of the “blame culture”. We end up believing that our lives are wholly controlled by outside forces and has nothing to do with the choices we make. Moreover, the mentality of refusing to take personal responsibility is further chained to the half-baked psychological notion of the victim mentality: 'I am a victim, therefore I am innocent.” All of these elements combine to make us immune to accepting responsibility. The responsibility is always someone else’s as we “wash our hands” of events around us.
Our sacred texts, with its diversity of narratives, have carefully documented this tendency of the human condition and they do offer insights into ways of exorcising such demons! We should spend more time re-reading them collectively.
© copyright June 29th 2010
Penury, Tears of the Wounded, Restorative Justice
June 19, 2010 09:13 AM
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‘Never a dull moment’ is certainly the way I feel with our present economic meltdown, cutbacks, job-losses, severe pruning of government funding and spending etc. To add to the drama to our economic woes and despair is the tragic BP oil drilling disaster. Not even the present World Cup football will soothe the effects of the long reach of these events and our predicament. And the fact that England is yet to convince any of us that they are serious as a team does not help. I suppose that some of these richly paid footballers can be generous enough to bail out the UK government! I can just imagine all the doomsday prophets feasting on such as further evidence that the world is coming to end – judgment time is here. So watch out – street corner preachers will soon multiply, especially since the unemployment rate will continue to rise.Perhaps, these doomsday prophets may not be far from the truth about one thing: judgment time is certainly in our midst. But more as something we have brought on ourselves through our greedy and irresponsible actions – whether it is the economics, the environment or obesity (among so many other ills). It is common-sense that we will be unable to sustain the kind of economic growth driving our lives. I thought my days of experiencing the structural adjustment programme in the Caribbean was over. But it seems to be following me. This is certainly a wake-up of call to our idiotic and unsustainable lifestyles. Would we change our habits and re-orient the way we live and order our economic life? Are we able to wake up from the illusion of living way above our means/needs and that which the planet can sustain?
The events cited above underscore that this is no longer something happening to developing country miles away: the events are unfolding right on our doorsteps. So far most of our talks are on cuts, blaming of the other, and how to stabilise and get out of this whirlpool or cesspool, only to return “back to business as usual”. Who is talking about a total re-orientation and changing of perspectives and if there are some doing so, who are listening? We are still locked into the language of prosperity and economic growth, rather than seeking to find alternatives to a system that has imploded and have us hanging over the precipice by the skin of our teeth.
The two events highlighted in this piece should open our eyes to the fact that the disasters we have contributed to in developing countries have now come home to haunt us. The monsters we have created are here make us feel the pain. For many it has already been present here. The deep paths that tears have carved out on their faces tell the story: only we did not notice as our lives were largely comfortable. This is now changing, and the prospect of penury is now becoming a homeland battle - not one fought in someone else's garden. And this is where it is going to hurt. This will no longer be mere news items to watch on TV or as some virtual reality show in a distant place. The harsh realities are right here before us. It may be that we now need to turn to our impoverished neighbours for lessons on how to survive. Or it may just be that restorative justice has its own way of paying-back and equalising the imbalances we have created in our societies.
© copyright June 18th 2010
