In 2001, the UK had the second highest child poverty rates in the European Union. Ten years on they have grown into angry disaffected youths
.
The police brutality issue and the case of the police killing of Duggan is a legal issue and likely a police cultural problem associated with the UK riots last week.
But Duggan's killing belies broader and deeper social problems across English urban societies. The rioting thus far has been in England (London's underprivileged Tottenham, Hackney, Croydon, and working-class English cities of Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Liverpool and Wolverhampton). It has not spread to Scotland, Wales, Ireland, or Northern Ireland yet - why?
Rioting though has also copycatted to the more rural privileged English towns of Cambridge, Gloucester, Bristol and around County Kent - why? What is the common denominator? All riots involved youths and Y-Gens committing break and enter and burglary of retail shops and communicating with social media mobile devices, notably Blackberry's.
It is convenient knee-jerk ignorant simplism by the English government and the media attributing blame to just 'criminals', poor-parented youth, opportunistic hooligans, and gangs.
Poor understanding of social problems by any government will not enable its social problems to be addressed. Inept media analysis also confuses the situation.
Prime Minister Cameron, with his elite background is distant and aloof to England's urban social problems. His ideological mindset as a Conservative is centred upon national economic prosperity, which presumes social good flows from economic growth and prosperity. He seems incapable of recognising the disconnect between the parallel economy of the 'haves' and the 'have nots'.
Cameron is narrow-minded in his reading of the situation. He has said in Parliament last week that what the nation had witnessed was criminality "pure and simple". He said his government would do "whatever it takes to restore law and order". How easy and simplistic it is for Cameron to blame criminals? He sees it as a matter of parental discipline and a lack of responsibility in society. Cameron rejects the suggested underlying causes of underclass and poverty in Britain. He says: "This is not about poverty, it's about culture...a culture that says everything about rights, but nothing about responsibility." Impressive words, but when the leader of country is in denial about the causes of widespread urban riots being more than criminal opportunists, the root causes are ignored and the problems risk getting worse.
Cameron clearly has inherited a depressed and debt-ridden economy from Labor and the GFC. He came to office with an economic mandate to restore sound economic management and this has necessitated severe austerity measures reducing government public service delivery. But by simplistically focusing on addressing the economic ills will not auto-address social ills. Economic and economic policy is a subset of sociology and social policy. Societies don't magically become healthy by delivering on economic policy. Did Blair's Labor window of opportunity for social reform deliver to British have-nots? If not, how could British 'have-nots' have appealed to opposition Conservatives for recognition through the Blair years? What political party was listening to the plight of British underclass who probably voted informally anyway?
David Cameron, like his counterparts in Greece and Italy, are "flat-footed, reactive, trapped in double-talk, these are second-rate political creatures unprepared to deal with those responsible for the crisis". Even Barack Obama has been spineless. Hence the blunt words of Jacques Delors, three times president of the European Commission: "We don't just need firefighters; we need architects too."
A British blogger responding to the riots in Britain agreed: "WTF is going on with this government? Are they deliberately trying to rub our noses in it, or do they just have a tin ear? What a frightening bunch of amateurs."
With injustice now the blighted face of democracy, cynicism and fatalism gain ground. "What's the best way to deal with this crisis?", runs a popular Japanese joke. The answer: "Let the system collapse." The panacea looks more plausible by the day.' [Professor John Keane, 12th August 2011].
Cameron needs to get out more and listen to the ordinary citizens of urban England. He is sending an arrogant classist message by taking foreign holidays in Tuscany, while England's poor and unemployed are suffering abject downtrodden hopelessness. The public's perception that the government has let the banks and financial gamblers get away with rampant insolvency and handballing the corporate debt to the State is not helping matters.
England's and Britain's demographic been allowed to radically alter as a consequence of open door immigration. Whilst the country side may be relatively similar, Britain's urban demographic has little similarity to that of the 1960s or even the 1980s. Immigrants are a dominant characteristic of British urban society. What was the population policy plan and intended outcome? Where was the social investment in making multiculturalism work? There has been none. Since Thatcher economics has been rather liberal and laissez faire. Problem is the same approach has been taken of changing urban society. Economic theory is inappropriate for social re-engineering. Much of urban England and Britain is characterised by inter-generational unemployment, truancy, child poverty, broken homes, domestic violence and street crime.
What causes thousands of people in multiple urban centres to riot, commit violence, arson and loot shops? Recognise no single one cause. Many are clearly opportunists. Not all are disaffected underclass. But as to the underlying causes, start where people see injustice. Examine the social problems in England urban centres over the past twenty years. Who sent the messages inciting the riots? Controlling street violence is essential in the short term, and I am sure we will see the water canon armoured vehicles in London reminiscent of their use in the Northern Ireland riots of the 1970s. But water canons can't prevent riots and can't address the causes.
In 2001, the UK had the second highest child poverty rates in the European Union. [Read More]
Well those children are now adolescents and many have nowhere to go and no hope for the future. And dangled in front of them and in the media constantly is the government's Olympic decadence.
Cameron's Olympics do not have a happy outlook. English urban society has a far bleaker outlook.
London 2012 Olympics logo - it may well become a legacy of English society divided
Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria 3885
Australia
Comments
Women's Rights (not verified)
Sat, 2011-08-20 08:44
Permalink
"One Law for All", No Sharia Law, Lecture, Melbourne 23 August
Maryam Namazie talks on Sharia Law, Tuesday, 23 August, 6.30pm at the Wheeler Center, 176 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne at 6.30pm, cost $10. Run by Pen, 0402049487.
Sharia Law and Human Rights – August 23, Wheeler Centre
One Law for All, UK – Presenter Maryam Namazie
Date: Tuesday, August 23 , 6.30pm
Venue: The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne
Cost: $10
RSVP by email
Maryam is a human rights and refugee advocate, broadcaster and spokesperson for One Law for All (UK).
One Law for All opposes sharia law in Britain. Maryam will explain why and reflect on sharia law and the implications for human rights, especially women and children’s rights. This is a timely presentation and discussion in Australia.
About the event
Bio of Maryam Namazie
Anonymous (not verified)
Sat, 2011-08-20 09:55
Permalink
Sharia law not welcome here
Bandicoot
Sat, 2011-08-20 13:46
Permalink
Laws from 7th-century Arabia may not be applicable in the 21st.
Tigerquoll
Sat, 2011-08-20 10:41
Permalink
Islamic Sharia Law incompatible with British Common Law
Islamic Sharia Law is incompatible with British Common Law. The fundamental principles are mutually exclusive. Therefore to try to introduced Islamic law in a non-Islamic society such as Britain can only be to either make Britain Islamic or have two sets of opposing laws in the one nation. The former solution constitutes political overthrow. The latter constitutes apartheid.
But as Britain's open door immigration policy has encouraged, hundreds of thousands of Muslims now have established a beachhead in key urban centres across England. Take the London suburb of Waltham Forest for example, just east of Tottenham.
Waltham Forest... fundamentalist group tries to enforce Sharia law in east London community'
by Oliver Harvey, Chief Feature Writer for The Sun Newspaper 28th July 2011.'It's the leafy London suburb that's gearing up to be one of the host local authorities for next year's Olympics. But yesterday bemused residents of Waltham Forest were reacting to news the borough had been declared an Islamic emirate by a fringe group of fundamentalists.
The group Muslims Against Crusades has demanded strict Sharia law in the east London community - banning gambling, smoking and alcohol. Dozens of posters had been put up - quickly removed by the council - insisting: "You are entering a Shariah controlled zone - Islamic rules enforced."
The group's Islamic Emirates Project aims to establish independent Muslim states within Britain and has also earmarked Bradford and Dewsbury in West Yorks, and Luton, Beds.
The Islamic group's website said: "Muslims Against Crusades would like to announce that Waltham Forest is to be the first borough to be targeted for an intense Shariah-led campaign."
Yesterday supporter of the group Abu Izzadeen, 36, insisted he wants to see the stoning of adulterers and women forced to cover up their bodies on the streets of Waltham Forest, which has one of the country's highest Muslim populations. The radical - an electrician called Trevor Brooks before converting to Islam - said last night: "It would be changed to the Islamic Emirate of Waltham Forest. Why not? We need Sharia law here.
"We have a big problem with prostitution here, a huge problem with drugs, we have an infestation of gambling shops on the High Road and the free mixing of males and females.
"Women would have to cover up. It should be forbidden that they are not. Thieves should have their hands cut off."
As for stoning of adulterers in Waltham Forest the preacher added: "One day we hope it will happen."
The preacher, who was convicted in 2008 for terrorism fund-raising and giving speeches urging Muslims to fight US troops in Iraq, said he will speak at a rally by the group after a march through the borough on Saturday.
In Leyton, locals refused to react to the provocation. Muslims Redzz Shakeel and Sal Warner said the group's comments were ill-timed after the Norway massacre by a far-Right fanatic.
Insurance worker Sal, 29, insisted: "This is just trying to separate different communities but it's not going to work.
"We don't want stonings in this country. That's crazy. This is Britain and everyone should live by Britain's laws."
Musician Redzz, 24, added: "It's a tiny minority of Muslims who want laws like this. People are entitled to their own views but shouldn't try to tell other people how to live."
Shopping in High Road, Leyton, unemployed Abdul Rehman, 56, a Muslim originally from Pakistan, added: "They should go to a Muslim country if they want to live under those laws. It has no place in Britain."
Community leaders urged residents to ignore the "publicity stunt". Mohammed Ilyas, general secretary at Waltham Forest mosque, said: "We totally condemn these kinds of views and if someone came in here preaching that kind of message we would throw them out."
Unemployed Leyton Orient fan Rob Morgan, 50, said: "We have people from all over the world here and by and large we all get on well. This group is not going to change that."
Mum-of-two Valerie Houghton, 23, insisted: "They can declare Sharia law but I'm going to wear what I want and have a glass of wine when I want one.
"I believe in live and let live but won't be told what to do." 'It's a minority view' ... Redzz Shakeel, Valerie Houghton and Sal Warner say they will not be told how to live by Islamic group
Yesterday Waltham Forest Council said it had removed the posters and was combing through CCTV footage to help police prosecute any offenders.
Council leader Chris Robbins said: "People shouldn't get the wrong idea about our borough because a handful of small-minded idiots decided to deface our streets with ridiculous posters."
Ghaffar Hussain of Quilliam, a counter-extremism and pro-democracy think-tank, said: "Muslims Against Crusades are a lunatic fringe of troublemakers not even taken seriously by genuine extremists, let alone ordinary Muslims who abhor their rhetoric and tactics and find them an embarrassment."
Earlier this month female visitors to the Noor Ul Islam summer fete at Leyton Cricket Ground were ordered to cover their shoulders by Muslim organisers.
Fete volunteer Hasib Hussain told a local paper: "T-shirts were only given to people who were dressed inappropriately, like those wearing mini-skirts or low-cut tops."
Muslims Against Crusades was set up last year and its members were behind a poppy-burning protest on Armistice Day.
Britain's Chartered Institute of Management Accountants has been encouraging Sharia Law practice since 2003
CIMA First UK Institute to offer Islamic Finance Qualification
"ONE of the UK’s leading accountancy bodies will this week try to cash in on the growing popularity of Islamic banking with the launch of an Islamic finance qualification. The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) will become the first accountancy body in the UK to train its members in Islamic financial law, which prohibits the receipt and payment of interest. Investments in industries such as alcohol and gambling are also banned.
According to the Financial Services Authority, the Islamic finance industry is now worth up to £250bn globally. Over the past five years several mainstream UK banks, including HSBC, have started to offer products such as Islamic mortgages and current accounts to Britain’s Muslim communities."
No rich tapestry in public service
(ABC Radio National, 'National Interest' programme aired on 18th August 2011).Meanwhile there are those in Australia hell bent on maximising the 'rich tapestry' of migrant multiculturalism by advocating employment favouritism of migrants in Australia' public service. Case in point is Professor of Diversity Management, Santina Bertone, of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne's east.
"The post-war migration program has transformed Australian society and many of our cities are today extremely culturally and linguistically diverse. But it appears that transformation hasn't made it through to state and local governments in Australia. A new study into the cultural make-up of our public servants has shown that migrants from non-English-speaking countries are under-represented in the workforce of State and local governments in Australia.
The problem is particularly noticeable in councils -- even in those suburbs with very large non-English-speaking communities. So, why the imbalance? Why have these two levels of government not been able to create a more representative workforce? And does it matter? Do we need our public service to mirror Australia's population? According to new research, the problem is more with the culture of employment than outright discrimination. But how can we change this? And why are federal departments so much better at harnessing Australia's cultural diversity?"
...Meanwhile Australia's unemployed in July 2011 numbered 611,000. The number of people unemployed in the UK rose by 38,000 to 2.49 million in the three months to June 2011.
Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria 3885
Australia
Sheila Newman
Sat, 2011-08-20 13:01
Permalink
Maryam and the Women's movement in Victoria - Elida Radig
Add comment