This one's about the UK attitude to kids.
It's because I have my kids to entertain and it's revealing. You'd think in this day and age, a playground for kids would be fairly easy to find. Councils provide them, moan about how much they cost, teenagers get drunk and smoke there when the sun goes down (because there's no where else to go). It's a playground. A fairly central social hub.
Well not really. If you're new to an area, try finding a playground. It's not on Google Maps or more local searches. I can't speak for all councils, but they often aren't listed on council websites, not at all around here. They don't get listed in "Local attractions" either. Somehow the playgrounds of the UK have managed to slide past the internet world entirely unnoticed.
The only way I've discovered to find them is to ask people who have kids and have lived in the area for long enough to know a couple. It's bizarre. Even amongst that sample, you'll find people who know of one place, but not another, or 'think there still is one there but not sure'. It's just very odd. Never seem to be signposted. Not marked on maps. Not listed in yellow pages ...
Still. Not to be utterly defeated. Lets search for indoor play areas instead...
Now an odd thing happens here as well. For those of you who have kids, will know by the time 8-9-10 kicks in, kids generally are no longer interested in indoor play areas. Not only that? They are positively unwelcome even before that age. Most complaints I hear in indoor play hellzones are about older children mixing with the younger kids in play areas and tears resulting. Generally a parent gets glowered at. It's all good fun. Point is. What the hell is the 7yr+ kid supposed to do? A few tired arcade machines seems to be the answer. Neat. Just what I wanted to do, pay to go to a large noisy building and then pay even more to let them play computer games instead of stay at home and do it for free.
What bugs this Dad anyway is this void around youth, I'd say worst from 7 to around 14. By the time 14 is kicking around, they can blend in with the skate park crew and things like 10 pin bowling, lasertag, all that kind of stuff opens up. Below 7 the indoor play area exists. I'm struggling to figure out how the British cope with 7 to 14. It's almost like they are just inconvenient, not wanted in adult places, get in the way in toddler places, not big enough to mix at the skate park
Sighs.
It just feels to me that somehow in other countries I've visited that isn't the attitude. In countries where I can't even speak the language, I've usually been able to find playgrounds either from road signs or just because they sensibly put them smack bang in the middle of the shopping arcade. What could be simpler? Kids hate being dragged to the shops, coffee houses / restaurants are happy to serve near enough so you can watch the kids. Kids happier, parents happier, less pissed off kids around, shop owners happier, everyone happier!
I guess in the UK there would be complaints about the noise, or that teenagers hang around it at night and make a mess, or it costs too much ... I'm not sure what it is. But it doesn't seem to happen in the UK.
And a heads up. Yes teenage kids do need to hang around places with other teenage kids doing stupid things like learning to cough up smoke, discovering hangovers and grope the wrong people. That's part of growing up.
Pointless rant. I just wish the British were a bit more inclusive when it came to children, provided more and moaned a hell of a lot less. Maybe even valued them? Seems a bit strange not to consider children as little people who get darn bored unless us provider adult types actually provide some form of entertainment or inclusion. The other side of the rant is perhaps stirred by all the recent pedo allegations flying around. It's saddening and sickening. How can it be so easy for things on this scale to be brushed under a carpet for years with countless victims? Reminds me it's not just some people that ignore or consider kids a liability in Britain. It seems to be the prevalent attitude. No wonder it seems so easy to ignore them.
Showing posts with label Dad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dad. Show all posts
2 Nov 2012
3 Sept 2012
The World According To Me
Nice title huh?
Ok bits of the world...
Assange
It's impossible to be 100% certain, but I'm going with 95% sure the whole rape allegation thing is a set up with the CIA behind it. The lone accuser has known ties with CIA affiliated groups. The CIA is known to frame people with whatever bogus crime they can chuck at them to bring them down. The FBI has even been known to be involved in entrapment in such cases that Federal America doesn't like.
It stinks to high heaven and it plays on the worst side of human emotion. Rape is a horrific thing. By painting Assange as a rapist, they have turned every defender of him in to a "Rape Apologist". Humans tend to think in black and white. That's what it plays on. "The reliable main news media says Assange is wanted for serious rape charges, so he must be a rapist". These people forget who won awards for Journalism and revealed tens of thousands of documents and the Collateral Murder video. If you've not seen that video. Go look on youtube for "Collateral Murder". Go watch a trigger happy helicopter crew waste over a dozen people including those who came to rescue who had been shot already. As far as I know, attempting to get someone who has been shot to hospital is not a crime punishable by death from above. According to Federal America? Yeah it is. Nothing to see here. Move along.
If you're still unconvinced, do your own reading *at source* not via main stream media or some biased blog you found that has already judged Assange guilty of rape.
In my world? Yup. Assange may have some odd bedtime habits. I don't think he's a rapist. I think Federal America just wants him down for revealing the contempt Federal America has for foreign countries and foreign citizens via WikiLeaks.
The Euro
Roll up and witness the spectacle of the 2000's. Witness the unbelievable truth that when it comes down to it, it's not Goverments that control the world. It's the money that control's governments. You will not believe how the goal posts can be moved, time can be bought or how many millions of citizens can be screwed in to the ground to protect the interests of ... money. It's a meme thing. It's not (in my view) some vast Illuminati conspiracy. It's a meme. I know of some fairly clever people in the fiscal world who are still baying for the money presses to turn, for anything at all to happen to keep the market bullish to a degree and screw the people. They are not in some huge group (ok maybe the masons, but I doubt the women are so much).
It's just the mantra since around the 1980's (depends where you draw the line) has been continual growth, ever expanding liquidity based on ever expanding trickery. The ride can't stop. We made billions out of this! It just can't stop! Blame the population on less than average wage. Screw them. I want my thousands to keep piling up like they have done for decades ... The rich get richer. That's how it works right?
That's what you're up against. The machine can't fail for these people. They will happily short a falling market to make a profit. But when defaults and wipe out bankruptcy on a large scale becomes an issue? Oh hell no. They can't go there. Might actually loose a bundle of cash on that one.
Stupidity
We live in a world of sheep.
It's annoying as hell how these people breed and spread yet more sheep. We live in a world where potential statesmen can talk of "Legitimate Rape" and how women can magically reject sperm if it's not. We live in a world where people still believe the every word of the bible is true (that they choose to focus on). We live in a world of climate change deniers. On this already screwed up world we then have yet more billions who focus on the actions of minor celebrities and brand label products to validate themselves and determine who they can and can't associate with. It's the same world harbouring the new wave of Nazi. A whole wave of people who hate immigrants, gays and any other bogus religion except their own bogus religion.
But hey ... don't worry ... we can make jokes on Twitter and get pissed off with all that and just ignore it ...
Uh... Yes that's tempting. But it just lets the whole things slide towards slowly getting more and more stupid as each year, month, week, day, hour, minute, second passes.
It's insanely hard work fighting stupidity when you're outnumbered by thousands to one. But ... What's the alternative?
...
The world according to me is pretty bleak isn't it? On some levels I can get by on the fact I've just got this lifespan to go, then I'm out of it. Having children complicates it. Feels to me like there's little I can do beyond chipping away as best I can to give them a very tiny bonus for when I'm gone. I try to tell them not to be sheep. I don't know if it will stick. The sheep seem to be winning. If the sheep win. My children loose.
Ok bits of the world...
Assange
It's impossible to be 100% certain, but I'm going with 95% sure the whole rape allegation thing is a set up with the CIA behind it. The lone accuser has known ties with CIA affiliated groups. The CIA is known to frame people with whatever bogus crime they can chuck at them to bring them down. The FBI has even been known to be involved in entrapment in such cases that Federal America doesn't like.
It stinks to high heaven and it plays on the worst side of human emotion. Rape is a horrific thing. By painting Assange as a rapist, they have turned every defender of him in to a "Rape Apologist". Humans tend to think in black and white. That's what it plays on. "The reliable main news media says Assange is wanted for serious rape charges, so he must be a rapist". These people forget who won awards for Journalism and revealed tens of thousands of documents and the Collateral Murder video. If you've not seen that video. Go look on youtube for "Collateral Murder". Go watch a trigger happy helicopter crew waste over a dozen people including those who came to rescue who had been shot already. As far as I know, attempting to get someone who has been shot to hospital is not a crime punishable by death from above. According to Federal America? Yeah it is. Nothing to see here. Move along.
If you're still unconvinced, do your own reading *at source* not via main stream media or some biased blog you found that has already judged Assange guilty of rape.
In my world? Yup. Assange may have some odd bedtime habits. I don't think he's a rapist. I think Federal America just wants him down for revealing the contempt Federal America has for foreign countries and foreign citizens via WikiLeaks.
The Euro
Roll up and witness the spectacle of the 2000's. Witness the unbelievable truth that when it comes down to it, it's not Goverments that control the world. It's the money that control's governments. You will not believe how the goal posts can be moved, time can be bought or how many millions of citizens can be screwed in to the ground to protect the interests of ... money. It's a meme thing. It's not (in my view) some vast Illuminati conspiracy. It's a meme. I know of some fairly clever people in the fiscal world who are still baying for the money presses to turn, for anything at all to happen to keep the market bullish to a degree and screw the people. They are not in some huge group (ok maybe the masons, but I doubt the women are so much).
It's just the mantra since around the 1980's (depends where you draw the line) has been continual growth, ever expanding liquidity based on ever expanding trickery. The ride can't stop. We made billions out of this! It just can't stop! Blame the population on less than average wage. Screw them. I want my thousands to keep piling up like they have done for decades ... The rich get richer. That's how it works right?
That's what you're up against. The machine can't fail for these people. They will happily short a falling market to make a profit. But when defaults and wipe out bankruptcy on a large scale becomes an issue? Oh hell no. They can't go there. Might actually loose a bundle of cash on that one.
Stupidity
We live in a world of sheep.
It's annoying as hell how these people breed and spread yet more sheep. We live in a world where potential statesmen can talk of "Legitimate Rape" and how women can magically reject sperm if it's not. We live in a world where people still believe the every word of the bible is true (that they choose to focus on). We live in a world of climate change deniers. On this already screwed up world we then have yet more billions who focus on the actions of minor celebrities and brand label products to validate themselves and determine who they can and can't associate with. It's the same world harbouring the new wave of Nazi. A whole wave of people who hate immigrants, gays and any other bogus religion except their own bogus religion.
But hey ... don't worry ... we can make jokes on Twitter and get pissed off with all that and just ignore it ...
Uh... Yes that's tempting. But it just lets the whole things slide towards slowly getting more and more stupid as each year, month, week, day, hour, minute, second passes.
It's insanely hard work fighting stupidity when you're outnumbered by thousands to one. But ... What's the alternative?
...
The world according to me is pretty bleak isn't it? On some levels I can get by on the fact I've just got this lifespan to go, then I'm out of it. Having children complicates it. Feels to me like there's little I can do beyond chipping away as best I can to give them a very tiny bonus for when I'm gone. I try to tell them not to be sheep. I don't know if it will stick. The sheep seem to be winning. If the sheep win. My children loose.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)