Bring your own Shisha

So why is it that kids nowadays are more disruptive than previous generations. Lets look at 2 distinct examples:

Private Johnson Beharry. Awarded the highest Military honour in the UK for over 20 years. A hero in every sense of the word. But modest in accepting his

Marcus Ellis, Michael Gregory, Nathan Martin, and Rodrigo Simms.

All 5 are young black men. But you know what? Its not a black issue. Its not a skin colour issue at all.
Its about the basics: Values, Discipline, and most importantly, Respect.

Respect is something which is inherent in human beings. Everyone wants it. Everyone can give it. But people will have different ideas on how it all works.

I have been through 8 schools up until University, so I can say that I have been through the system. Some were fee paying, some were State run. But ultimately one thing stands out to me. When the teacher spoke, we shut up.

But now that has changed. Think about 12 year olds raping their teachers.

When I went to Bangladesh at the age of 9 and returned to the UK at 11, I learnt one thing, that respect for your elders is a given, unsurmountable truth. In Bengali, amongst other languages, you have 2 terms for the word ‘You’. So you can apply one to those you are close to, and the other who deserve a little more respect. So with friends it would be one, and with teachers it would be another, more respectful term. And that is something which is missing from the English Language.

But again, it is not semantics. Children need to understand that with all the human rights which they will willingly spout at any teacher, comes responsibilities. Not just to themselves, but to society as a whole and the fact that that child will play a crucial part of society in the future is not emphasises enough by today’s parents.

So Desh decides to ban smoking in public. I think this is incredibly progressive. But what does it really mean? I guess that as 50% of men in Bangladesh have some sort of tobacco related addiction, this is a good thing. But does it mean that people will turn to Paan? Why Paan? What what do we think that ‘Shada’ is? Dried leaf tobacco is what it is. I don’t see a ban on that stuff which means that people will still be suffering from tobacco related diseases. The likes of Oral cancer, throat cancer and so on, may become a bit more prevalent than Emphysema and Lung Cancer.

But what I found astounding is that Desh, as an example of the Parliamentary Democratic system is able to pass such pregressive legislation, but when it comes to the basics of ensuring that a democracy ensues is not adhered to. Without a credible opposition in Parliament to oppose the Government, then parliament is a farce. And the use of other means of protest do not preclude the elected politicians from conducting their duty.

Of course, if the UNDP say something, we would never ignore it. Maybe it’s time for the Politicians to be hit hard where it hurts, in the ballot box. The AL want an election soon, so maybe the real voters should hit the streets and show where their allegiances lie. I don’t know what is happening with Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh, but maybe a 3 party system is now needed.

This lunchtime we had a discussion about a friend, J, and her daughter K.
Now K seemingly hasn’t been studying as hard as she could because she had not thought about the results of her actions. So my question is ‘How do we learn about consequences?’.

My little one will now not touch things which are hot. Which is almost instinctive. I think.

Most theorists class consequences into 2 groups: Natural and Logical. I think the first of these is learnt by simply not being rescued by your parents, i.e. hot things hurt, clothes get wet if you stand in the rain. But the logical ones are the hardest to instil.

These are to do with consequences which people will not understand until they experience it. They show what will happen based on a person’s behaviour.

The question then is whether to use bribery or fear to enforce and follow through on logical consequences:

1. “If you shut the door, you can have lunch at McDonalds (yuck!) tomorrow”
2. “Shut that door or I’ll hit you”

Personally I think the former works, but then children may get into the habit of expecting a reward for all their actions, and not just doing something because they should.

So I think there will be a 3rd approach which goes something like this:

3. “Please shut that door because you’ll feel cold”

Now this may not have an immediate effect, but sometimes you have to let them go and understand the natural consequences of being cold.

So coming back to how a child learns about studying? For me, it was the fear of failure which drove me. I failed my first year at University and not wanting to go through that again was enough to force me to focus. I think sometimes ridicule or perceived ridicule from peers is what drive children as opposed to the fear or bribery stick wielded by parents.

Well look at this. After the fun a couple of weeks ago with the Evening Standard and the Jewish community, it seems that the Old Red Ken has put his foot in it again….

OR…

Is this some clever electioneering on the part of the Labour party? Lets think about this. Livingstone is now back in the fold of the Labour Party. The 2001 census showed the following breakdown in the population of the UK (bear in mind that 7.7% of the people surveyed chose not to answer the question on religion):

Total UK Population:   60,441,457
Total UK Muslim Population:  1,588,890
Total UK Jewish Population:  267,373

So in order to secure the Muslim vote, we have a Labour backed London Mayor who is apparently echoing sentiments expressed in some sections of the Muslim populace. Of course, Ken has always done this, but it just happens to be occuring at an interesting time. Sinister methinks.

So I should expect to be stopped and searched more often. To be honest, I have never been stopped and searched. But then I can see it happening to people. I suppose the same happened to the Irish in London during the 70s, 80s and 90s.

UPDATE: Well you know what..? I’d like to see how they spot a muslim? I’m pretty sure that terrorists are all jubba wearing, beard toting, tasbih carriers. Oh and you can tell them from the colour of their skin can’t you….? Or maybe we should all be wearing a badge. I’m sure that has never been done before. How about a yellow star?