Mum, I’m hungry

The title of this post is a cry that would often be made by me and my sisters when we were growing up. Of course we weren’t truly hungry. My parents found it difficult at times but we never went hungry in reality. Not the hungry of being in pain, frightened and wondering about where your next meal was coming from and when that might be. It is frankly quite disgusting that in the 21st century in a very prosperous country we can’t feed everyone. There is no excuse. The pandemic has exacerbated an already tragic and vile reality. Our system doesn’t work. It has failed us. Capitalism is flawed. It’s always been flawed. It can’t feed everybody and it can’t house everybody. IT FUCKING WELL DOESN’T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS. We can change it! 

I’ve been a union member nearly all of my adult life. There is no reason not to be, yet so many people aren’t. I’m retired, yet I’m still a union member. My union is Unite and I’m proud to be a member. Some time ago my union set up something called Unite Community. It gives those who don’t work or are self employed etc a chance to be a union member. It also does what it says on the label ‘Community’. It has been at the forefront of helping with and organising food banks, providing meals to children during school holidays and many other good things. There’s probably a branch near you doing this sort of vital work right now. Check it out and support them if you can. 

I don’t celebrate Christmas as such and as a consequence I don’t buy any presents at all now. I see it as a pointless exercise that achieves nothing apart from perpetuating an oppressive cultural activity and generating a lot of waste. But the thought of people going hungry fills me with such anger and sadness that, at a time when lots of people are consuming to excess, I want to do more than I normally already do. I’ve given to a Norfolk Unite Community appeal and if you live in Norfolk I’d ask you to do the same, if you are able. If you live somewhere else, and are able, I would urge you to donate to a local food bank, please. Can you imagine what it must be like to be hungry and malnourished? Thankfully I can’t but I know enough to know that it must be beyond horrible. It should not be like this but it is. Please give and at the same time get political. Let’s change things for all our sakes. PLEASE. 

Where to go:

Norfolk: https://gf.me/u/y9jrqx

Nationwide: Co-op appeal, Trussel Trust, Unite Appeal.

Welcome

#compassion

Friends lovers mothers fathers sisters brothers daughters sons grandparents cousins nieces nephews aunts uncles wives husbands just because we are victims of geography doesn't make us different. We are all human we are all connected we all bleed. To be civilised is to be compassionate to be civilised is to offer our brethren shelter from the storm to be civilised is to welcome.

on a wall in Amsterdam

Bumf

I’m old enough to remember outside toilets. They weren’t too clever, especially in the winter. Most that I experienced were connected to the main water supply and the sewers, but not all. When I was very young my paternal grandparents owned a picturesque thatched cottage just outside Bury St Edmunds. Whilst it every bit looked the part in terms of bucolic gemütlichkeit, facilities it had to be said were rudimentary. There was cold running water to the cottage and that was it. The ‘lav’, for that’s what it was, was a wooden shed. Inside the shed was an oil drum. On top of the oil drum rested a toilet seat. On the right wall (looking in) about half way up and standing proud was a six inch nail that had been strategically banged in. Hanging on the nail joined by a loop of string was a wad of paper. Rough hand-torn squares of scrap ranging from shiny tissue to newsprint. It depended on what was around the cottage at the time. Periodically this wooden construction would be moved around the back garden, with one hole being filled in and a fresh one dug. As a young lad I dreaded having to go to the toilet at Granddad’s. In winter it was cold, dark and smelly. In the summer it was hot and even smellier and flies were your constant companions. This was Britain in the 60s! I was always so pleased to return to our modern council house with it’s inside toilet and hot and cold running water, and with proper toilet paper. Mind you the toilet paper in those days was nothing like today. We used to have sheets in a box rather than a roll, not that it really matter as the paper was the same; the ubiquitous Izal Medicated. Forget the super soft luxury toilet rolls of today Izal Medicated was not the faint hearted. It was hard, shiny, non-absorbent and non-stick. You were left with more than a stiff upper lip after using it I can tell you. “Kids today don’t know they are born!”

Despite having ‘roughed it’ in my youth, camped and having been to quite a number of music festivals I really I can’t imagine what it must be like not to have access to any sanitation. In too many countries having access to a toilet and washing facilities can mean the difference between life and death. The absence of sanitation can kill. That is why I urge you if you can to support the work of the One Difference organisation. One “create brilliant, quality products, and every time you buy one,” they “donate 100% of the profit to life-changing projects in developing countries”. For some time now we’ve been buying One toilet rolls. The profits from which go to fund sanitation projects in Africa. In my humble opinion their toilet rolls are actually some of the best you could hope to buy. They are really really good. Soft yet strong. And by buying them others, less fortunate than us, are benefitting. To use horrible management speak ‘a win-win situation’.

Please support them if you can.

Let’s see action

The Government’s desire to coerce charities into doing some of their work will backfire. It will decimate the workforce in the civil service, local government and other agencies, thus adding to overall unemployment, it will lead to inadequate and second-class services and it will come at a price ultimately for the government. As I’ve said on many an occasion cost savings in reality relatively are. At the end of the day you usually get what you pay for. Charities also have different agendas to governments, and unlike public servants they are not apolitical. I’m not knocking charities although in a perfect world there wouldn’t be a need for them. Charities are focused on helping people, the ConDem government isn’t, so there is bound to be a conflict of interest. Charities tend to speak up for the people they wish to help; they will probably do so even if their paymasters are the government. They will bite the hand that feeds, and quite rightly so.

I like charities that take positive action to forward their campaign. If this news story from Sky is to be believed the charity ActionAid are mounting a passive guerrilla type campaign against Asda to highlight the exploitation of foreign worker in the Asda supply chain. I’m not sure how effective ActionAid will be at getting their message understood by the average Asda shopper but I wish them success. A bit more direct action from charities can only be a good thing.

People in need

I don’t like charity, and even less do I like people who say ‘charity begins at home’.

I don’t like charity because in this day and age there should be no need for it. It is not beyond the wit of mankind to be able to feed, clothe and provide shelter for everyone on this planet. A large proportion of us just need to stop being greedy bastards.

People who say ‘charity begins at home’ tend to use this phrase as a metaphor for ‘I’m a racist bastard, and I don’t want any lazy foreigner to benefit’. You just know that when anyone utters those immortal words that they invariably have a much distorted view of the world monochrome mundi.

Whilst I don’t like charity in principle, and in no way wishing to brag, I do give on a regular basis. I don’t see how any compassionate human, that can afford it, would not do so. Today I’ve realised that I tend to take a ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs‘ approach when deciding which charities to give to. Top of my giving list is Oxfam for the very reason that they provide the basics of life to so many people around the world.

I’m not saying that any cause is more deserving than any other. We should each give according to our own conscience. But by the same token I don’t want people to tell me who I should give to. I choose not to give to children’s charities. Not because I hate children, but because they are the high profile charities that seem to hog the limelight at the expense of other less ‘sexy’ charities. I also don’t give to animal charities for similar reasons. A warped perspective? Possibly!