|
From September
2010 onwards all quotes in blog entries will
be included in
this coloured font. I have done this on my Sheep website and I think it makes it so much easier to identify quotations. In some entries there are a good number of quotations and it can get confusing. Please Note some of the following entries may be depressing, this however of course depends on your perspective of life and how your depression is effected by global events, what happens to humans, other animals and the planet. You have been warned and I make no apology. This is part of who I am and how I think and this is a personal blog is it not, about a person with OCD and AS so in a way perhaps this has relevance as people with AS tend to have a keen sense of social justice. I am not so sure though about people with OCD as I was once when I used to think that everyone with OCD would share the same concerns, however this is not always the case and sometimes people with OCD can be just as self absorbed and uncaring as anyone else. There are indeed times when I do not care quite as much, times when I have to contend with pain of both body and mind, when the pain is just worse than usual as for me as of course there is no respite, there is always some level of suffering and OCD is an ever present curse and life destroyer. So social injustice concerning both humans, non humans and the environment is what I want to write about sometimes and if you are not happy with it please just simply do not read it. I intend at some point to sign up for a blog which will focus on such matters but for now I give vent here to my emotions and anger concerning the awful things that happen in our world which have profound effect on me producing a mixture of compassion, depression, and outright anger. I am too ill to do much of anything to change anything other than to write about it. I hope to at the very least release some pent up anger or sadness but also more importantly to hopefully make someone think differently. The more people speak out, the more likely things will change Comments are welcome but please none complaining about being about off topic or accusing me of self pitying . A topic of a personal blog can be anything the writer wishes to write about. I am angry these days more than I have ever been in my life, the world to my mind is a living nightmare for most creatures who draw breath and sadly as a result of or made worse by one animal only, and that animal is man of course. Human beings could do so much to make this world a better place, such as fight disease without of course experimenting on animals, an atrocity against thinking sentient beings which we know don't we, that animals are. But the progress in the battle against disease is hindered by greed, don't you think that by now there would be a cure for cancer and other diseases if drugs were not made for profit . How many illnesses can we cure, not many except by surgery. No you can't count symptom relief by medication which has the potential to cause other problems and provides a very lucrative profit for the drug companies. Well I could go on about that along with all the other social injustices now that seem so rife in our world and I fully intend to do so. This is a unique time in our entire history when many more people have the opportunity to have their say. Not everyone of course as millions of people have barely enough to eat or clean water to drink or shelter or warmth or any of the basics of life and this saddens me. It is a travesty that this technology is used for some of the banal tripe upon which many people with the privilege to use the internet waste this precious resource instead of trying to have their say and do something about the state of the world, even if only to write about it hoping that as more and more people do so something will change for the better. November 1st I have not written
here for some time, I guess I am simply too
depressed. I have lost the motivation. I
care more about my animal rights website
The world seems to me an awful place made worse by one and only one animal, and that animal of course is man. The most prolific parasite on the planet. He destroys all in his wake in the pursuit of wealth and comfort, mostly by struggling not only to subdue the millions of other species with whom he shares this planet but by controlling and enslaving millions of his own kind who allow themselves to be so exploited because one day they think that they will have good fortune and one day they will have the big house, the latest cars, technology, and zillions in the bank when sadly all they will have is bondage to a mortgage or rent, a dreary job with little and no hope of happiness, no time to live to or appreciate that which they have enslaved themselves for. The masses of enslaved humanity continue to dance to the tune of the drummers of the big corporations without question who like the medieval lord of the manor control their lives until they find themselves old and seemingly of little value other than as drones who must now work until they drop with little hope of a pension, of a little life before they enter that dark pit of oblivion, the end of all hopes and dreams filled with nothing but regret for a life never lived. I wonder why I ever felt bothered to blog anyway I have spent hours writing but it makes no difference. I feel that now I am old no one cares less and its true of course. When I was in my mind fifties a psychologist responded to my query of whether or not it was now worth my having CBT because I am now getting older and unlikely to make much progress and perhaps it is better that my appointment was given to someone younger. No he did not reply that it is never to late to improve or your life is just as important to you as that of a younger person or perhaps its possible to try and improve your remaining years particularly after having such a difficult life ...well something more positive than the “NHS policy states that I have to treat anyone of any age”. Incidentally he was about the same age. Obviously he considered his life of more value than mine. Why do I think that, simply be the way he said it. People do don’t they, think their lives are of more worth than that of other people or other creatures. The lives of all beings are to my mind of equal value, life as Buddha says is precious to all. Thinking that one is better than others is of course one of the reasons why the world is an awful place to live, the hostility of the environment made worse by people who think that they are better than others. Its okay for this or that person to sweep the streets, empty the dustbin, generally for a pittance, spend their precious lives slaving in a factory or office, its all slavery white or blue collar, but not me. Somehow I am better I should have millions in the bank because somehow I deserve. it. I cannot even imagine the rationale that makes one person think it is oaky to exploit thousands of others, let children die of malnutrition or disease while he or she lives in luxury. What goes on in the mind of all those who accrue enormous wealth while others die, while every second a child in the developing world dies? Such a person to my way of thinking is truly insane, dangerously insane because it seems that it is that kind of thinking that rules the world. The competiveness, the exploitation, the greed and callousness for human and nonhuman suffering. What kind of society allows one child to due every four seconds of hunger, a child to go blind for want of medication that costs about 50 pence, billions of sentient beings to be slaughtered the world over to feed the rich a food they do not need, is not natural and results in the suffering not only of the unfortunate creatures themselves but other human beings as land is used to provide fodder for farm animals. Its a crazy crazy sick world ruled by greed and avarice, ruled by those whose sole motivation is to acquire more and more wealth to do with as they please at the expensive of others. I often wonder if there are other beings out in the universe and if they observe us and what they think of the nightmare of hell we have created. The wars that rage created by the powerful and greedy to continue to control and subdue, to seize for themselves the world’s resources at the expensive of the other beings with whom we share this world, other generations. Recently we commemorated those who died in the 9/11 attack and rightly so these people should be remembered if doing so brings comfort to relatives and friends and reminds us of the horrors of the consequences of hatred greed and intolerance and plain and simple mans' inhumanity to man. It was a sad day as it is a sad day when anyone dies, particularly in such circumstances but what about the 112,049 plus who have died during and since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, most of whom were innocent people going about their daily lives as were the people in the world trade centre. What about the 16,000 children who died of Malnutrition on the same day as the 9/11 attack as they do every day or the millions of helpless animals who were slaughtered that day, (in the UK alone about 2 million are slaughtered each day) as they are each and everyday to feed the few. Also the estimated 26,000 people who go to their graves earlier as a result of the unbridled greed of the energy companies here in the UK. Did you know that more people here in the UK die of cold than in Siberia? When will we remember them, when will we stop the killing, the greed, the exploitation, the genocide and for once and for all time recognise that every creature has a right to life regardless of species, race, religion, ideology, age or any other status with which humans set themselves up upon a pedestal and consider they are better than others or they have the right ideology, religion or are member of the right race or species or whatever. Here are the sickening statistics and relevant information regarding the points made above in more detail including links to sources and further information. Of course the above is simply the tip of the iceberg, to make a list of the appalling suffering and neglect of our fellow beings both man and animal would be a long and shocking list of exploitation, brutality, greed and neglect perpetrated on the many be the few. Death from starvation Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes. That's one child every 3.5 seconds. Every 3.6 seconds one person dies of starvation. Usually it is a child under the age of 5 People who died in the invasion of Iraq Documented civilian deaths from violence 102,522 - 112,049 plus wiki leaks Iraq war logs may add an additional 15000 / the stats above are for civilians. These are people who died during and since the 2003 invasion Animals Killed worldwide In the USA Animals killed worldwide for Americans' in 2009 amount to 8.3 billion land animals and 51 billion sea animals. (So, a total of about 59 billion animals.) Also 56 billion worldwide. Over a lifetime, this amounts to 15,000 animals per meat eater. Animals killed for Killed for Vivisection, experiments, the Estimates range from 17 million to 70 million to 100 million. Each year worldwide over 40 million animals are killed for their fur . Animals killed by hunters in the USA alone there are well over 200 million animals reported killed by hunters every year. Again in the USA alone approximately 3-4 million cats and dogs are killed in shelters in the United States every year. More information animalrights.about.com/od/animalrights101/tp/How-Many-Animals-Are-Killed.htm In the UK The total number of animals killed in British slaughterhouses in 2003 was approximately 900 million. This included 9.35 million pigs, nearly 15 million sheep, 28 million turkeys, 20 million ducks, over 850 million chickens and 2.25 million cattle. This equates to 2.4 million animals slaughtered every day; 100,000 an hour; 1600 per minute and 26 every second. viva.org.uk/campaigns/slaughter/index.htm animalvisuals.org/projects/data/slaughter/?y=2008
"One generation abandons the
enterprises of another like stranded
vessels" This website supports the Black triangle campaign in its opposition to the drastic and detrimental welfare reforms instigated by the present government "This group is established to galvanise opposition to the current vicious attack on the rights of the disabled by the Government using "Work Capability Assessments" to re-classify genuinely sick and disabled individuals as "fit for work" read more...Before going further let me explain why I have included the quotation above by Henry David Thoreau; an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. I have included the above quotation as it is just so true inasmuch that succeeding generations often destroy the progress and enterprises of previous generations such as in the case of the on going destruction of the social services, welfare and the NHS (National Health Service) by the present government.In the above quotation and in the main article I consider the word enterprise in the context below and not in an entrepreneurial sense. Enterprise: dictionary.reference.com/browse/enterprise The present Con/Dem government it seems is hell bent on the destruction of the welfare system and the NHS, enterprises that came about in the 1950s for the betterment of society, a triumph of achievement in social justice and ethical behaviour towards the disabled, the sick and the disadvantaged. Social welfare systems such as our benefit system and the NHS are the hall mark of any country that wishes to consider itself civilised and they are the envy of the world. We cannot allow their destruction by this over privileged and unelected coalition government. For now this blog entry considers the more immediate threat of the draconian welfare reforms. It is Important to understand that the welfare reform taking place in the UK is not about weeding out benefit fraud, which is at only about 0.5 percent according to the DWPs own statistics; rather it is about saving the government money by making disabled people work. I think few people really understand what is going on concerning welfare reforms. The new assessment is aimed at getting people back to work regardless of their fitness to do so. In addition the new benefit reduces the amount of money people receive, in some cases by about a third. To achieve this claimants are put through gruelling tests, their lives made a misery with many finding themselves destitute, many have committed suicide. Few people are exempt from the assessment. People have been told they are fit to work suffering from Parkinson disease, heart disease... well just about anything. Basically if you can breath you are fit to work. Recently there has been a shocking development in this rampant evil against people with disabilities as terminally ill people are told there benefits may be cut guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/terminally-ill-told-benefits-cut? Despite the claims that assessments are carried out by a medical professional this is untrue except in a very basic sense; my neighbour's assessor was a midwife!!!! Most targeted are the mentally ill, my neighbour had a breakdown because of this a couple of years ago Make no mistake able bodied or disabled, sick or well, employed or unemployed, old or young this concerns all of us. Also when thinking about disabilities don't forget to include mental health. Consider the following based on 'First they came for' ... by Pastor Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller: First they took away incapacity benefit, replaced it with a benefit which was lower paid and made disabled people work, but I was healthy and able to find well paid work, so I did not speak out. Than they paid the unemployed a pittance, not enough to support their families and forced them to work the hours of a fully paid employee for their job seekers allowance with the threat that if they did not do so their meagre benefit would be reduced or taken a way, but I was healthily, well educated and able to find well paid work so I did not speak out. Next they proposed to take away the attendance allowance, but I had no dependents in need of attendance so I did not speak out Than they came for DLA a benefit that once transformed the lives of the disabled and chronically sick allowing them to participate more fully in society and give them a greater independence. But I was well and able to get about so I did not speak out They reduced and privatised the free health service until it finally dwindled to nothing but I was well, I had a well paid job and good insurance so I did not speak out. Finally they phased out the retirement pension beginning with the warm front payment. Now I was old and sick and I could no longer be employed in my well paid job, recessions and continuing ill health had robbed me of my wealth. I died alone, destitute, impoverished and in pain, as by now there was no body left to speak out. The above is loosely based on a quotation below by to Pastor Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller who was an anti-Nazi and Lutheran pastor. First they came for the Jews In point of fact the quotation is wrong because the Nazis came first for the sick and the disabled. But today few speak out as was the case in pre war Germany when a failing economy was blamed on the disabled. Yes the failing pre-war German economy was not only blamed on the Jews but less widely known perhaps is that in pre war Germany people were swayed by propaganda to believe that the disabled were costing the government money that could better be used elsewhere. Sound familiar? Doesn't today's present situation have echoes of the hideous and evil insanity that was perpetrated not so long ago in our history that we cannot immediately see the similarities. Here is a poster from pre war Germany
Translation: 60,000 Reich marks. What this person suffering from is hereditary defects costs the People’s community during his lifetime. Comrade, that is your money too.See more posters and information mindinflux.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/disability-and-propaganda/ Seventy years or so ago the Nazis began their first official program of mass murder starting with the disabled. This programme became the blue print for what was called the Final Solution, the genocide of Jews, gays, gypsies and others. This kind of rhetoric heralded the murder of over 200,000 or more disabled people It appears that the government with the help of certain sections of the media are doing their utmost to influence people to regard the sick and the disabled as adding to the burden of the financial crisis which has effected most people except the very rich. I am not implying of course that the present government is anything like the Nazis and I rather hope that here in the UK a similar evil will never happen. What I am saying though is that the government helped by a section of the media are using the same tactics to turn people against the sick and disabled and to view them as a burden on society, and to view these unfortunate people as scroungers and workshy. Yes these inflammatory words are banded about freely when referring to disabled people, in particular the mentally ill, at least in the beginning but now seemingly all the disabled and chronically sick seem to receive the same treatment. i will say however that the assault on the most vulnerable of our society is evil whatever label you are to put on it. The unfair draconian welfare reform is nothing other than evil, pure unmitigated evil, there is no other word for it and it has to be stopped. There has always been a lot of complaining about how much money the benefit bill costs the government but since the recession more and more emphasis has been put on how much it costs the government to support people on benefits and indirectly of course the tax payer. Very reminiscent of the above poster is it not? Again maybe for some of you the comparisons are a little extreme but who knows. I am not implying that over all the present government are behaving like the Nazis, I am simply implying that in this regard concerning welfare reforms they are behaving in a similar way. The recent welfare reforms have the potential at the very least to destroy the lives and security of all of us. I believe this is an attempt to destroy the last vestiges of socialism and entirely eradicate the welfare system, including the free NHS. The recent welfare reform policies are a deliberate attempt to demonize disabled people in order to justify reducing, and yes I can well imagine eventually abolishing, state support for the sick, disabled and unemployed. Notice the advertising recently for insurance against loss of earnings? An ominous sign if ever there was one. Of course if you are disabled or unemployed you cannot get insurance against such possibilities. Frightening isn't it for the vulnerable in our society which could be any one of us at any time. Pensioners don't think this does not include you; the government have recently indicated that there are moves that will see below-inflation pensions and welfare rises this coming April. Pensioners have already lost £50 from their winter fuel payment. No one is safe except perhaps the super rich. There is a failing economy and a great hole in the public money because the government wanted to shore up the banking system. This is being slowly and ineffectually recouped at the expense of the disabled as more and more people are being taken off incapacity benefit and told they are fit to return to work when in most cases this is simply not so. The government know full well of course that even if these people were well enough to work there are simply no jobs for them. There is at present about 2.62 million unemployed and about one job vacancy for every ten applicants. The government know this of course and the welfare shake up is more about saving money than getting people back to work despite the dressing up of rhetoric to imply that sick people are better off in work than staying at home This is not someone else's problem this concerns us all. Consider every one with a disability was not born that way, many people become disabled and many become chronically and debilitating sick and everyone gets old, if you are lucky that is. You may not do so without the support of a free health service. Today more than ever people are living longer and that is because of our welfare and health care which is the envy of the world. Consider also that at any time anyone can lose their job or their business, nothing is assured, life is precarious. What is happening to the sick, disabled and the unemployed is a shocking social injustice not worthy of any nation that wises to be considered as civilised. So whoever you are this may concern you! What can you do? Visit the following websites for more information and action you can take: blacktrianglecampaign.org/ Be sure to sign the petition Disabled People Against cuts dpac.uk.net/ The latest attacks on welfare. There are moves to reduce the already meagre benefits still further as the government have recently indicated that there are moves to introduce below-inflation pensions and welfare rises.
THE Con-Dems are
planning to blitz
Britain's poorest
families by breaking the
link between the cost of
living and benefits.
The assault being prepared by Tory Chancellor George Osborne would hit pensioners, the unemployed, the disabled, new mums and every family who claim child benefit. Read More Terminally ill told benefit may be
stopped in April Neil Coyle, Disability Alliance Director of Policy, says:
Read More disabilityalliance.org/dapress.htm I am preparing a more detailed article which will appear soon in the ramblings section of this website. Note and final comments For anyone obsessed with pedantic accuracy the quotation above by Pastor Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller is in itself an adaptation of a variation of similar quotations he made which placed the order differently, there is no definitive version of this quotation that can be attributed to Niemöller,However regardless of the sequence the fact remains the Nazis began their program of mass murder beginning with the disabled. This began In 1933 when the Nazis passed a law which ordered the sterilisation of people the Nazi considered had hereditary disabilities such as hearing and visual impairments other physical conditions and mental health problems, also such conditions as epilepsy and learning disabilities. Than the law was passed to allow the enforced abortion of any foetus suspected to have an abnormality. Than in 1938 the Nazis began to eradicate altogether people with disabilities as new born babies were taken from their parents and given a lethal injection or allowed to starve to death in special wards for the purpose. Next came the systematic removal of disabled people from care homes to be gassed: Under a policy known as the T4 Program, disabled people living in care homes were transported to six killing centres, the most notorious of which were Hartheim Castle in Austria and Hadamar near Wiesbaden in Germany. The victims were undressed, given a superficial medical examination and taken to a “shower” room, 60 at a time. Poison gas was then pumped into the room. Once the bodies had been collected, they were dissected and organs removed for medical research. The discarded corpses were incinerated. From the outside Hadamar looked like a factory and at its height it employed more than 100 staff. It is estimated that 70,000 disabled people had been killed under the T4 Program by the end of 1941. Read more of this informative article... .newstatesman.com/blogs/crips-column/2007/01/disabled-nazis-germany-program November 19th Daily 'hate' Mail parody 01 Today I have included in the gallery section of the website another artistic contribution sent in by a sufferer of AS, anxiety and depression. The computer graphic below is a "parody of the Daily Mail frontpage, highlighting the current right-wing views of the paper, it's hypocrisy, and referencing the Mails support of the British fascists and the Nazi's during the 1930's."To view this graphic clearly and read the text you will need to go to the Gallery to access a larger size
The Daily Mail is amongst the most prominent supporters of the government's welfare reforms and has made many scathing attacks on benefit claimants in particular the mentally ill.
The graphics in
this section of the gallery are free to use
for anyone who wishes to use them on
websites, in
leaflets, as
posters and so
on in the
campaign against the governments draconian
welfare reforms and the threat to the NHS
and the support of such by the media. Here is an important message from the Disabled People Against Cuts website: "Right to Work are compiling a list of
all the protests / rallies and
demonstrations on November 30. You can check
what’s happening in your areas at the link
below
Below is a direct link to the Right to Work's website with map and details of all protest rallies and demonstrations. http://righttowork.org.uk/2011/11/n30-battle-map/ if you are well enough do take part, remember that mental illness is a disability, we have to show solidarity, we cannot allow the destructive agenda of the con/dem government to go unchallenged.
November 24th Cameron is said to have spent £137,500 on the land next to his Oxfordshire home, a year after becoming prime minister. It was previously owned by Lord Chadlington, the chief executive of public relations company Huntsworth. tage.money.aol.co.uk/2011/11/23/david-camerons-deal-with-pr-executive/ Read the complete article by Sarah Coles who asks: So does any of this bother you? Or is it about time we left Cameron to get on with his own business? Let us know in the comments. Why does this bother me? Wow ! where to start. Most likely nothing from a legal perspective but from a moral, ethical and social justice perspective there is plenty wrong. That this smug faced dictator, who is among the one percent who owns the vast majority of everything, and rumour has it £30 million in the bank, can simply buy a piece of land as you and I would buy a bag of sweets is immoral. Surely to God you have to have a blinkered ideology if you seriously have to ask yourself the question why does this bothers you? ... this is an enormous sum of money to be spending on a strip of land. At a time when the 'all in it together' line was still ringing true for some people, here was the prime minister demonstrating that he had plenty of cash to splash when it came to his own life, and he wasn't afraid to spend it.Yes its a huge amount of money that this insensitive smug faced individual has at his disposal, which no doubt in his warped sense of thinking he is justified in having when so many others are struggling, not only struggling but dying. Here is a list of why it bothers me. It bothers me when: Two million people are unemployed, one million of whom are young people, and have to live on a pittance of about £67. When the draconian cuts to the benefits of the disabled, the chronically sick, the old and unemployed leave people impoverished, destitute, fearful, desperate, insecure and suicidal. When desperate people commit suicide, like the couple who recently took their own lives because they could not face another cold winter struggling on about £56 per week. metro.co.uk/news/881136-married-couple-driven-to-commit-suicide-by-utter-poverty#ixzz1dJOumjL4 When services for the sick and the disabled are cut. When people in care homes no longer get the care they need. When there are cuts to the NHS and looming privatisation. When the government does nothing to curb the greed of the energy providers and does nothing to help those who cannot afford to heat their homes. When the government reduces the winter fuel payment by £50, a lot of money when they have allowed the greedy energy providers to make price rises of 19 percent this year. When the average person has to work all their lives to buy a house that for most people will cost less than the £137,500 that Cameron is paying for this piece of land, if of course they are lucky enough to have or keep a job to pay the complete payment on such huge mortgages.When people are homeless or subjected to over crowding, 61,000 households in England were officially recognised as newly homeless by their local authorities in 2010. The figure for homeless has risen by 17 percent since 2010 and continues to rise. The cuts in benefits, loss of jobs, many as a result of the cut BACKS, and the reduction of social housing and the inadequate number of affordable housing will continue to increase the number of people who are homeless.england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns/housing_issues/building_more_homes Here’s an idea : should not the land this over privileged individual has purchased be used to build homes for whose who need them, not to extend an already more than adequate property?In general I would say it is grossly immoral that Cameron or any other greedy person should have money to squander in this way when: When One child every 3.5 in a developing country dies of hunger. When More than 30 per cent of children in developing countries – about 600 million – live on less than US $1 a day.unicef.org/mdg/poverty.html
When a children goes
blind for want of medication which cost
about 50 pence or dies of a preventable
disease.
When people have to
walk ten miles for clean water. When people world wide are homeless or live in over crowded homes or homes not suitable for habitation. On a personal note This bothers me : When my husband worked all his life from the age of fifteen, mostly for a low wage, and in the last thirty years for sixty hours a week to find that in retirement we can barely make ends meet. When he was paid only £50 redundancy payment by the firm he worked for, for thirty years when they went into solvency five years after the former owner sold the business. When he pays taxes on a small and I mean small private pension. When we live in an inadequately heated home with thick black mould growing up the wall despite paying what little savings we had to get it fixed. When we cannot challenge the inadequate damp proofing of our home without the help of an independent surveyor and most likely a solicitor both beyond our means. When I live in fear of not getting adequate health care for the chronic illnesses from which I suffer if the health service is privatised - who would insure a chronically sick person even if they could afford it! When I live in fear of what will happen to my son who is autistic and suffers stress and depression in this awful climate of selfishness greed and the assault on those who have so little by those who have so much.
November 30th United we conquer divided we fall a familiar motto expressing the need for unification in any endeavour. Concerning the strike by the public sector. For what it ‘s worth you have my support for today’s Day of Action, I only wish I could join you in events and protests. Below is a short explanation for anyone who does not know what the day of action is, the strike by workers in the public sector that will be the biggest for a generation. Often you can become really confused, mired in all the rhetoric the government and the media spews out along with certain brainwashed members of the public, that it is all too easy to be misinformed. So if you are confused continue reading: The government wants to make people pay more and work longer for a lot less. Despite hours of talks, ministers have yet to seriously negotiate. Few understand all the detail of pensions, but the issue is simple. Most public sector workers are modestly paid. Their pay has been frozen while the price of basics is shooting up. Now they are expected to pay an extra £3 billion a year for much worse pensions, by a government that cancelled the banker’s bonus tax that raised almost the same. It’s wrong to make public sector workers pay an unfair contribution to reducing a deficit they did nothing to cause. Unions want proper negotiations. We have done fair deals before. That is why the TUC has called a day of action for pensions justice on November 30. It’s a chance to stand up for decent pensions and tell ministers to start negotiating. Emphasis mine We're all in it together Many people complain that public sector workers get “Gold Plated” pensions and get more than those working in the private sector. In the majority of cases this is simply not true. Referring to the public sector strikers Len Mccluskey writing for the Guardian says: They are victims of the elite policy of taking money from the taxpayer to give it to the bankers and then plugging the budget gap at the expense of some of the poorest. Let me offer a few examples from members of Unite. A worker for the Ministry of Defence with 20 years of public service will have to start paying £870 extra a year for his pension, which is to be cut by 15%. Graeme, a fire-fighter from the north-east, will have to find an additional £79 a month not just until he is 60, as hitherto, but until he is 67. "Do you want a 67-year-old fireman coming to your rescue? Me neither," he says. Carole, working for a local authority in Lincolnshire, will be on strike because "my apparently gold-plated pension will be £6,000 per year". She warns that if the government makes the scheme unaffordable, "people will walk away from it and it will fold". Read more of this excellent article in the Guardian guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/27/wednesday-strike-start-rebuke-elite? Even if considering the above examples you have an even worse pension deal or no pension at all, two wrongs do not make a right. After all whether or not the public sector workers get a better deal your situation will not change. I recall a women who used to visit with me some years ago who would rant on and on and about how much money people got on benefits while she struggled on her pension. Notwithstanding the fact that this women was in any case deluded about just how much or rather how little people on benefits received I pointed out that even if the government stopped supporting those with disabilities and the unemployed her situation would remain the same, as of course the government would not hand over the money that they saved to her and others like her. The same goes for the way people complain about money sent abroad, even if the government did not send money abroad all these complainers would not be any better off. Sad isn't it that people actually would rather the government did not send money abroad to help starving people. A sad reflection on our greedy selfish and uncaring world. It is all to easy to say one cause is more needy than another, one social injustice less of an injustice than another. Indeed they are of course but this does not prevent our standing against social justice in any guise whenever or wherever it occurs or to what extent. For a fairer world we should not be divided, or make comparisons; we should fight social injustice at every level. It is an outrage that public sector workers are told they have to work longer and contribute more and get less. They have a right to strike and it is as much a social injustice as is the draconian benefit reforms or low pay. We need to show some solidarity for indeed the infamous phrase “ we’re all in it together” does in some respects apply, though not in the way its originator intended, as everyone except the super rich have had their lives seriously effected by the government’s savage cut backs, even middle class people are struggling. The mentality that one injustice is not as bad as another divides people, particularly the kind of issues we have here in the UK. For instance this is the kind of rhetoric I have read on internet forums in recent weeks which goes along the line of; the public sector should not get a better deal concerning their pensions because as a private sector worker I do not. This is not only childish but results in disunity and hinders progress towards a more fair and just society for everyone. The ideal is surely to have a fair wage and pension scheme for all workers, a fair pension, fair payment of benefits for both the unemployed and people with disabilities, so all can have a decent standard of living. Many people in the UK are going without food, warmth and housing. A family of four has been eating roadkill since their father lost his IT job. So serious is the situation. It has been suggested that diseases of poverty such as rickets could make a come back A new food bank is
opening every week as charities struggle to
cope with increasing numbers of people hit
by a combination of Government cuts, rising
unemployment and soaring food and fuel
prices. “There will always be people who need support, but now we are seeing poverty affecting people who never dreamed it would hit them, including young people and middle England.” Tim Lobstein, spokesman for the Child Poverty Action Group, said the crisis was directly linked to the Government’s £8billion cuts to welfare benefits. Extracts from Sunday Express article Read More express.co.uk/posts/view/286281/Starving-Britain Yes indeed we’re all in it together alright whether you are a disabled or chronically sick person told you are fit to work and have had your benefit reduced, or have lost vital services. Public sector workers told that you must work longer, contribute more to receive less pension, or a person who is unemployed and struggling on a miserable £67 per week. A person working on the basic minim wage with not much hope of a pension or a student who has to find huge fees for his or her education, or pensioner who has lost part of their warm front payment and is unlikely to get much of a pension rise as pensions and benefit rises will no longer be paid in accordance with the cost of living. Well I could go on and add to this, such as soaring price rises for food and just about anything including the alarming increases in the cost of energy about which the government do nothing. Anyone think that with the mild weather the greedy immoral energy companies will put up their prices to cover the profit they have lost due to the warmer weather? It wouldn’t surprise me in the least. The Con/Dem governments' austerity polices have effected everyone Yep we’re all in it together... well... unless you are the queen, one of the one percent or one of the government millionaires including the PM himself and other over privileged members of our broken society. So with the exception of the super rich whose taxes the government are considering reducing we are all in it together, all effected by these savage cuts. I support the strike and any future strikes, the occupy movements and anyone else working to end the corrupt capitalist system and oppose this evil government and bring about a fair world and a just society for us all. More power to the people
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