Bad Reputation

Have you ever noticed how young people have such a bad reputation, even though they don't really deserve it. Sure, there are some youths who are clearly trouble, but there is also a large percentage who aren't. In fact, in some circumstances, I have found young people to be far more understanding that older people. For example, a young person in a wheelchair is quite often shunned, or looked upon as a malingerer by an older person, without their having any proof. The older person will not bother to help this person though they have no proof that the person is malingering. They demand respect, regardless of whether they have earned it. As I have said, there are youths who do exactly the same thing as this, so it is not an exclusive thing. What I am saying is that everything is relative, and that people should be judged on far more than just age. To me, age is nothing but a number. The number of years we have been alive. We do not gain wisdom by age, we simply gain more opportunity to gain wisdom, something that many young people seem to see, but not many older people do.

Perhaps it is time to start valuing people for what they bring to the table than for the number of years they have been alive.

“Oh, I can’t possibly like that! It’s way too mainstream”

I am so sick of people going on about how they hate stuff that;’s popular, simply because it is popular. The fact is, if bands like Girls Aloud and The Saturdays were not so popular, a lot of the people that currently say they hate them, would say they are great. This just makes all of these people seem pathetic. I’m sick of people saying they hate things and then secretly liking them. If you like something, then you like it. Who cares what other people think? In saying that you hate it and then listening to it when no one else is watching, you become pathetic losers who are more concerned with public image than in being a genuine person. And then, you have the cheek to go on about the popular bands being FAKE!! Have you taken a look in the mirror?! Fact is, things that are popular, are in the charts because PEOPLE LIKE THEM and are buying them!! And anyone that tries to say that people are manipulated into liking them are being disrespectful to the general public in thinking that they are so much better because they’ve ‘seen through it’. I like chart music. I like non-chart music. If I like a song, I like it. It doesn’t matter to me who sang it, wrote it, or whether it’s popular. And anyone that makes a decision based on whether something is mainstream is just as lame and shallow as the bands they believe actually are lame and shallow!

To Vote or Not to Vote?

As election day looms and we are bombarded with propaganda and lobbying from all of the different political parties, who are, let’s face it, all as corrupt as each other. Any government that gets into office will basically decide to do what is best for them. All of the parties criticising Labour for their expenses scandal seem to forget that if they were in their shoes, they would probably do exactly the same thing. The simple fact is that the government DOES NOT CARE about the general public. They only want to get into office to serve their own agenda.

Plenty of people I have spoken to have said that they will not bother to vote. The problem with this is that we risk some left wing parties like the BNP getting in by default then. The fact of the matter is that we do HAVE to vote. Though I believe that all of the political parties are corrupt and only out for what they can get, I also believe that we have a duty to vote for the lesser evil of them all. The fact is, the vote that all of those women in the suffragettes lost their lives for has become nothing more than a farce. We cannot hope to vote for someone who will fight our corner, all we can do is vote for someone whose wants and needs are going to harm us, as a public, the least.

To all the people saying that they will not vote this week, I say “It’s your choice, but do you really want someone like the BNP getting into power, because that is what will happen if we as a people stand by and do nothing”. We have a duty to this country, to do our best to make sure that we do not fall under any left wing power, whose aim is not for the better of our country, but to push their own personal agenda.

So, people, I know it feels like a farce and a waste of time, but VOTE! Vote for the party you consider to be the lesser of all the evils presented to us in the political parties standing.

Just a short one

It's been a while since I last blogged. Things here have been pretty up in the air. My Nan passed away after three weeks in hospital. We had to fight to get her home. Thing is, I think all of us pretty much think that if she'd had adequate care in hospital, then she may still have been here. Hospitals say that they are overstretched and haven't enough money. They always blame it on this, but let's face it. There are plenty of extremely busy organisations with far less money and staff who do a far better job of caring for people, and do you know why this is?? It is because PEOPLE DON'T CARE! Nurses sit around all day not doing very much. They take sometimes up to 30 minutes to come to a patient's aid. They clearly aren't interested and don't care about the patients. During my Nan's stay at the hospital, I saw elderly ladies laying on beds that were soaking wet. I saw ladies who'd had severe strokes covered in food because no one could be bothered to feed them. One lady was due to be sent home the following day, but had a fall and was made to stay in, and the worst thing was that no one knew how it had happened. Her daughter only found out when she took her mother's nightie home to wash and saw that it was covered in blood! I think the worst thing, though was a lady who came in with a broken shoulder, and in two days, she couldn't even recognise her own daughter. How can a hospital that professes to care about people, treat some of the most vulnerable people in this way and then say that it is due to understaffing. I can tell you now, although there are understaffing issues in hospitals, this is not the primary or sole cause of the poor treatment that we receive from our NHS. It is about time that people took a step back in time to when being a nurse involved far more personal care for patients and far less form filling and pen pushing!

Our Corrupt Government

For months now, we have had to listen to the government banging on about the recession. They say prices are rocketing and that we have less money. Now, I'm no mathematician, but surely the solution is simple, STOP PUTTING THE DAMN PRICES UP!!! The base price of things in the UK may have risen slightly, but the main things piling on the pounds are the duties and taxes that the government want to add to the price of things. They keep putting the prices up higher and higher, when the product itself has only gone up by a very small margin. The fact is, that our government, charged with our safety, security and wellbeing, seems to be far more interested in lining their own pockets, buying holiday homes and duck houses with OUR money, than in looking after our economic security.

Only this week, they announced that they expect the price of petrol to rocket up to over £1.20 per litre in April. This is not because of the petrol's actual price, but because of the duty that the government seem intent to put onto it. They seem to be blinded by greed, and cannot see that although they may be able to claim fuel expenses from the state, there are people out there who cannot afford these ludicrous price leaps that they have planned.

How many times have we heard recently, "Now we're in a recession" uttered by one or other of the government. If this is the case, why do they not stop thinking of their own pockets and start doing their jobs and protecting our wellbeing. They seem to have been corrupted by their own greed and cannot see that if they just stopped adding tax and duty to things, then we would be able to claw our way out of the recession and into a slightly more stable economic condition. Then, they could add this money on and we would be able to afford it, making it a win - win situation.

This seems to me, the most sensible option by far. After all, no matter how powerful the government believe they are, not even they can get blood out of a stone!

Community Service - A waste of time?

I was thinking the other day about community service. Criminals are arrested and made to do community service, but instead of getting them to do something worthwhile, they are made to paint railings endlessly. Why not put these people’s time into something worthwhile, which may, in the end make them into responsible members of society. It is said that most people, particularly young people, commit crimes because of low self-worth and boredom. If we, as a society were to give them a means to improve this, then surely they would not end up back in the same position, or worse, in prison.

We need to take responsibility for our repeating criminals, and help them to find a purpose in life. We need to show them the meaning of true satisfaction. After all, what satisfaction is there in painting railings, which are to be torn down the following week. This merely serves to demoralise them even further, and creates the mindset of “Why bother?”.

If we want to reduce crime, then we need to find community service jobs that give people some sense of achievement, otherwise they will feel as if they are only good for one thing. Ineffective community service is just as bad as putting someone in jail. It is a contradiction. Community service is supposed to make criminals take responsibility for their actions, and make them pay back to society for their crimes. Painting something that is to be torn down the following week is not a service to society.

Litter picking, reading to the old and infirm, renovating people’s houses who can’t afford to have it done and are desperate. That is a community service.

All the while that community service is ineffective, as it is now, we may as well give up on it and throw people in jail at the first crime, because until they feel some self worth, which could be taught by community service, they will end up back in court again and again.

Doctors

Have you ever noticed that TV doctors are nothing like their real life equivalent. They are kind, empathic, caring and tend to go out of their way to help their patients even when it means breaking the rules.

This is not true of real life doctors. Real life doctors are often arrogant, ignorant, care very little and have hardly any time. Of course, there are the rare few who do care, but it has been my recent experience that doctors are useless and a waste of space, who think they know so much more than you because they have a few letters after their name.

Some doctors can't deal with mental health, but are good with the physical. Some aren't great with the physical, but excel in the field of mental health, some can do both, and recently, I had the displeasure of meeting one who could do neither.

My grandmother is very sick right now. She was ill on Monday, and so we called the doctor. He came out, told us at the very start of the consultation that he was late for lunch with the district nurses (well, I'm sorry that my sick Grandmother is interfering with your schedule oh great Doctor). He then looked at her feet, as she has gout, and said "oh yes, I see". Then he listened to her heart and said that it was a nice, steady rhythm. Then he said that he was going to do nothing. He said she was old and that her body was old and worn (no shit sherlock). He said that if he had his way, doctors would not prescribe any medication, people would live until 6o and then die of a heart attack, rather that dying a slow death due to the body failing. (How sick is that?) He said that she was old about twelve times. (Is it just me, or is this not only wrong, but very disrespectful). He wasn't interested in the fact that she hadn't been well for three days and that she hadn't passed water for over 12 hours. He didn't care that she was confused and not really with it. He put it down to old age. So, hold on, folks. If you're over 60, you don't pass water for days at a time, get confused all the time and aren't really worth bothering about. (Are you looking forward to it?) This doctor couldn't get out of the door fast enough. He left my grandmother feeling worse than before. She is now in hospital with a severe infection, which has caused complete delirium. (Malpractice? Methinks so.)

Why is it that doctors become doctors when they don't care about people's welfare and wellbeing? This doctor clearly doesn't take his hypocratic oath seriously, and is merely a hypocrite!

Come on people! If you're that disillusioned by your chosen career, then change it. If you're in the caring profession, then you need to CARE first and foremost, above everything else!