Changing nature of work

Once upon a time, work was about making things or doing things with others. You made loo rolls, cars, pens, clothes and stilettos. Or you did something to someone: you took their money and saved it in your bank, you gave it back to them when they wanted it. You examined them and gave them medicine or a bandage. And so on in a number of other occupations…
Now doing useful things like this has become tangential. Those who make things are now based in the faraway abroad, like India and China. True, we still do things to others, like treat their halitosis and take money from them (though not give it them, as the card now does that). We also do a lot things of questionable value to others, like give them nail jobs and enhance their body parts.

But the main way in which work has changed is that a lot it is done for it’s own sake, with no obvious end in sight, even a superfluous one like a nail job. How many people now spend their whole working day gawping at a PC screen, writing memos, sharing email funnies and having endless cups of coffee. Even if they are conscientious workers and forgo the coffees and personal emails and web surfing, the substance of what they do serves no clear purpose.

Not surprisingly, jobs of this sort are not very secure. Whereas manufacturing jobs are being shifted overseas, the vulnerability of the non-jobs I am talking about is to constant change and restructuring. For the workers, the survival strategy is to be adaptable and take on a new opportunity arising from the restructure or to move out, often to another non-job. Those who become wedded, for too long, to particular ways of doing things do not last long. To succeed, you must be able to condemn your past and jump onto the latest fad.

Situation in Pakistan

How’s this for a crime reduction strategy: lock up the potential victims? If the victims are safely in jail, no harm can come to them. That seems to be the perverse logic of the stated reason for the declaration of emergency in Pakistan. For if the fight against terrorism is the main reason, then what other logic is there to locking up secular and left leaning politicians, lawyers and community workers? Religious fundamentalists detest such people. Imran Khan was actually handed over to the authorities by the student wing of the fundamentalist Jamat-e-Islami. So much for enlightened moderation, or Musharaff’s roshan khayali.

We all know, of course, that Musharaff is following the logic of all dictators, especially Pakistani ones. That is the quest to remain in power at all costs, presented as being in the interests of the nation. The nation will disintegrate if the dictator does not remain in power. So the biggest obstacles to this, the courts and secular leaders, need to be removed. The fundamentalists, on the other hand, can be useful, for the dictator can say to his masters, the US: “look what you’ll get more of if I am not around.” Last time it was in the national interest that the dictator remains in power we had Zia, keeping the commies at bay. All the current problems were the result.

Many commentators have likened the situation in Pakistan to Iran just prior to the fall of the Shah. That analogy is probably not wrong. Musharaff is extremely unpopular at the moment- which probably accounts for why Benazir, having had corruption charges dropped, is hardening her stance against the government and sounding out to other opposition parties. No body wants to be seen shoring up a dictator when the whole of society is in revolt.

Alternative medicine

Alternative medicine covers a wide spectrum, from the credible, such as herbal medicines, to the ludicrous, such as healing by touching. Along the spectrum, the habits of us Mirpuris probably lie closer to the ludicrous end, as shown by the popularity of pirs, or faith healers.

Often those who visit pirs have vague, undefined symptoms, such as ‘tightness’ in the head or aching bones. Some people may well experience a reduction in symptoms after a visit to the pir, but this is more to do with dubious symptoms together with the mental reassurance which goes with visiting a pir, as distinct from a three-minute visit to a more bureaucratic NHS doctor.

In so far as pirs offer reassurance and comfort, there is nothing wrong with visiting them. They can, for example, be part of the disease management process. But to suggest that the intervention of a pir can affect a biochemical change in the body, and thus cure an illness, is ludicrous.

Attitudes to work

When I arrived in the office yesterday morning, I noticed something interesting. A cleaning lady, not far off from 60, had her leg bandaged up and was supported by a crutch. Yet she had come into work. After exchanging the normal Monday morning greetings, she explained what happened and was grateful that her employer had shown consideration by adjusting her duties. She seemed pleased by that.

She should really have been at home, yet her situation got me thinking about work and health and attitudes to them. I tried to imagine British Mirpuri and Pakistani women of a similar age- and indeed a large number of men of that age. When our people reach that age, they start complaining of health problems. Sometimes they are real, like heart disease. At other times, the ailments are undefined and unspecific- just severely aching bones, tiredness, breathlessness and the like. Heaven forbid that they should work. Those that do are often dismissed as wretched.

Ramadan

In the last week of Ramadan, it is well to do a sort of spiritual stock take. Has spirituality gone up, down or remained the same? I suspect in most cases it has made no difference, because, unfortunately, for most people fasting is no more than a ritual, albeit a very painful one. Few people understand the enormity of a month in which deprivation of bodily needs becomes the key to spiritual nourishment.

Abstaining from food and drink is only one aspect of Ramadan. The other crucial part is abstaining from other vices- like lying, back biting, hurting the feelings of others and waste and a litany of other vices. On all these accounts, people fail. I see evidence of these and other vices everywhere, with not even a special attempt being made to control them.

Of Monks and Lawyers

What do monks and lawyers have in common? At first sight, you may say very little. One group cultivates the spirit; the other gathers gold. In South Asia, though, they do have something in common: opposition to military dictatorship. Pakistani lawyers were out on the streets months before Burmese monks did the same. Both have been met with an iron fist.

Here the similarity ends. In Burma, the monks are the good guys, with whom Brown and Bush are happy to associate and to deliver homilies to their tormentors. In Pakistan, the lawyers are on the wrong side. They are opposing a good guy, our military man.

Let those Western leaders who like to sit on a pedestal to lecture the wrong sorts of dictators know that such ironies are not lost on people.

Depression

Depression, we are told by the World Health Organisation, is more disabling than angina, arthritis, asthma and diabetes. This may sound counter to what most people think, but it does raise the question, what is depression and what makes it a distinct illness? There is no shortage of definitions of depression. Extreme form of sadness is central to all.

I think three points need to be borne in mind in any discussion about depression.

First, it is an illness that has only relatively recently entered common parlance. I have a lucid memory stretching back to the late 1970s. Yet I do not recall common discussion of depression then. Now, over two decades later, it is discussed even in the villages of India and Pakistan. What has happened? Has depression increased, or have people found a single word to describe what were previously considered disparate symptoms, such as headaches, anxiety and sadness?

Second, depression has become a convenient and acceptable word to mask serious mental illness. What I mean is this: in some cases, what the person is suffering from is not depression, but a serious psychotic illness that affects the thought process. In other words, it is more respectable to admit to depression than to losing touch with reality.

Third, where the intense sadness is related to extreme life events, for example bereavement, loss of job and loss of house all occurring at once, can that be regarded as illness? Is it not normal to have extreme reactions to extreme events? In some cases, then ‘depression’ is not an illness but a reaction to life events. It is important to know this, because the solution lies in tackling the problems, not in taking tablets or making the person feel better when objectively their life situation has little to make them feel good about.

So I would say the medical term depression should be reserved for cases where extreme sadness is not based on life events or is totally out of proportion to any problems and where the thought process remains intact.

Vartan-bhanji

My English friends are fascinated by the concept of vartan-bhanji, the custom of reciprocated gift giving. Although they engage in gift giving and receiving with close family- brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, nephews, nieces etc- they are surprised to learn that the vartan-bhanji extends to those people from the extended family with whom you have only a very tenuous link. They are also surprised by the occasions which prompt the need to make a gift to comparatively distant relatives: marriage, the birth of a son, the arrival of someone from Pakistan and weddings (and the various customs that, over an extended period of time, take place during a wedding).

Vartan-bhanji is more than just gift giving. It is a formal process that cements extended family relations. To not engage in vartan-bhanji, or not to reciprocate a previously received gift when the occasion demands, is to express displeasure at the other person and to sever links with them. And these are noticed by others. At weddings, for example, people will notice if a certain family is not present and will enquire about the reason.

Like many other customs, vartan-bhanji is also coming under a strain in the cut and thrust of urban UK living, where extended families can often be separated by hundreds of miles. As a result, the occasions that prompt the need to make a gift are gradually contracting.

“Porcupines in winter”

“Porcupines in winter”, published by the Young Foundation, is an interesting collection of short essays that sketch out the state of the relationships that characterise contemporary British life and society. There are portraits of places and of relationships between people. It rewards reading- even if you are not an avid reader. The essays are very short.

‘Porcupines in winter’ is also an apt metaphor for the state of us British Mirpuris. For porcupines are those prickly creatures. In winter, when they huddle together too close, they begin to prickle each other and therefore have to ease off a little. Then, feeling the cold, they huddle together yet more, until they prickle each other again. It is a constant struggle to find a happy medium between stifling closeness and being totally isolated.

'Law-abiding majority' myth

A study by Keele University found that over 60% of people admit to committing ‘minor’ offences, either against the government, their employers or against businesses. This includes things like pilfering things from work, lying on forms or exaggerating insurance claims. I don’t find these findings in the least surprising and I suspect neither does anyone else. The ‘law-abiding majority’ is a myth that politicians, particularly in democratic countries, have to sustain. After all, would you vote for a politician who called you a crook? Vote me you crooks!

Reserved parking spaces

On a short residential street, I recently counted 25 disabled parking spaces marked outside houses. There could not have been much more than 200 houses in total on the street. The street is in an area where parking is in general a huge problem because of shoppers visiting the adjacent high street (and it’s a popular shopping area with people coming from all over England) and because in general the families living on this and similar streets are large, with often 2 or 3 cars per household.

You’ve probably guessed what I am trying to get at. If you extrapolate the 25 spaces to a national level that would mean well over 10% of the population has some form of mobility disability, which does not sound credible. People are, in other words, creatively using disability rules and regulations to get over parking problems. Often there is some form of legally defined disability in the household, but its mobility implications are exaggerated or made up. In some cases, I have seen households given disabled parking spaces even though there is no one in the household with a visible disability.

Being given a reserved parking space outside your house is a form of welfare, and like other elements of welfare it invites abuse. Cash benefits, for example, invite the vice of sloth, by making you think twice before accepting a job that would make you a mere £20 a week better off. They invite lies by making you under-declare income and savings or, the flipside of this, they discourage frugality lest any savings affect your benefit entitlements. So the right to a reserved parking space outside your house encourages people to exaggerate minor problems, or make them up altogether, and to redefine themselves or family members as disabled.

Hypocrisy

I reckon hypocrisy must be the worst vice there is. It is so because when you witness too much of it, it makes you lose faith. How are you to feel when people who claim to be straight forward, whiter than whiter, end up telling lies about anything and everything? How should we feel when men (it is mostly men) of spirituality are found to have been involved in illicit sexual liaisons? The one can affect your faith in democracy and the other your faith in religion.

It is, however, hypocrisy closer to our own community- among British Pakistanis and Mirpuris- that I want to dwell on. It is in evidence everywhere. During the course of one weekend, I saw many instances of it.

We never tire of preaching 'sabr', or patience. It has a high status as a virtue. But alas our actions belie it. Every day I see people from our community, adults as well as youngsters, bearded as well clean shaven, who cannot wait patiently in a queue. They either just brazenly walk to the front, or absent-mindedly pretend they cannot work out where the queue begins. They are rarely challenged.

I don't know what proportion of faith patience constitutes, but it is well known that cleanliness is half of our faith. So how do we fare on that count? Our streets are the dirtiest. I see not only youngsters, high on the fire of youth, littering, but even mature people making their rubbish the problem of society. Every morning, when I leave for work, the cleaner is busy cleaning the streets. When I get back in the evening, it is as if he might as well not have bothered.

But surely, given our puritanical outlook, we are more reserved when it comes to anything to do with sex? Yet even here facts belie theory. Walk along any local high street in one of these areas and note how the young guys- and some times not so young- eye up and stare at the ladies with lascivious intent.

Blogging

I've been absent from blogosphere for a few months. Some research recently suggested that the average blog lasts around 8 months, before the enthusiasm of the writer dies down. I think I've done well by that standard, having started in 2004. Nevertheless, I hope to be able to start again in the next few days.

Politics of fear

On Sunday, I bumped into George Galloway on the Stratford Road. Yesterday evening, the door bell rang and who should be there but the local Labour MP. He is clearly startled by the reception Galloway receives, as well as by the near miss of 2005, when his huge majority was nearly overturned by the Respect candidate.

What I find bizarre is that the canvassers did not introduce themselves as Labour, but gave the impression that they were campaigning against a local sore point, the building of the new, PFI mental health facility just down the road. The local area has around 2000 mental health service users, around 200 of whom require some residential treatment during the year. The new hospital will have a 20 bed facility.

While the MP was talking with someone else, the labour party foot soldier accompanying the MP claimed it would be a secure mental health facility. I was insistent it would not, as I had read about the project in the local mental trust’s annual report. On this point the foot soldier was contradicted by the MP, who admitted it would not be a secure unit. It dawned on me that the Labour campaigners were using scare tactics to win votes and that many people, out of fear, would believe them.

With that cleared, the MP shook my hand and walked away. I told the local campaigner I would not vote Labour, because of the war and because the local MP was not pro-active, hardly spoke in Parliament and certainly did not represent the views of his constituents. To this the local campaigner replied, sotto voce, ‘We’ll get rid of him next time’.

Local election fever time....

It’s local election fever again in Birmingham. In areas with a large number of Pakistanis, there is evidence aplenty: from door-to-door campaigners to posters in windows. In other areas, you wouldn’t get so much as a cryptic clue that an election is looming.

Yesterday, the penultimate Sunday before the election, saw some feverish campaigning by most of the parties, in particular Galloway’s Respect and the local People’s Justice Party (the latter comprising mainly of retired/ nigh-retired Pakistani men who have failed to make headway in other parties). Galloway was himself out campaigning. As I strolled out for my Sunday walk along the Stratford Rd, who should I bump into but the intrepid Galloway himself, hugging everyone in sight (yes, even I got a hug).

A sizeable crowd gathered outside a hardware store, so a mic was thrust into Galloway’s hand to make an impromptu address. In his strong, macho accent, he asked people to vote Respect and throw out the Labour donkeys (he made a braying sound, on which there was thunderous laughter among the Pakistani ladies who probably didn’t understand what he was saying). He talked about local problems, from parking to crime and rats. Not able to resist a political jibe, he said we need to get rid of the two-legged variety of the latter as well. Standing next to him was Salma Yaqoob, the articulate young councillor who, in the 2005 general election, very nearly unseated a Labour MP who had a majority of Himalayan proportions. Galloway clearly has an eye on the parliamentary seat- hence the grassroots support building visit.

Elsewhere, I don’t think this will be a disaster for Labour in the Springfield and Sparkbrook wards. That is not because people love Blair- in fact even Labour voters hate him intensely. Rather, there is the phenomena of ‘biradriasm’ (clan identity) at play. Labour candidates hail from the same part of Mirpur, and belong to the same caste as, a large number of the voters in the area. For many people I have spoken to, that counts as more. They are keen to stress this and utter an expletive directed at the national Labour party in the same breath.

Curiously, I didn’t see any posters in windows in Small Heath, even though there was plenty of campaigning going on. My guess is that people are scared- there was a mini-riot at an election some years ago and people are afraid of having there windows done in. Who said the public is disillusioned and disengaged?

Experts

Aren't the beaming tele-experts who comment on the plight of the 15 sailors captured by Iran irritating? They analyse and comment on every movement, every mannerism, every word of the captives and then inform us that they are quite clearly stressed, unhappy and making statements under duress. What wisdom. We were ignorant before the experts told us all this; we thought they were just having a laugh. For sharing these pearls, the experts are no doubt handsomely rewarded.

On a more serious note, there is no such commentary by the tele-genic types on the plight of those in Western custody, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo or elswhere. Those who do raise concerns about them can be dismissed as bleeding hearts.

The problem with the public sector is…

There are a number of issues. First comes indecision and lack of urgency about anything. Projects run on for ever; no one knows how they are going. Meanwhile, we spend money, time and effort duplicating whatever the project is trying to achieve. Sometimes there are similar projects, running at the same time, uncoordinated and pulling in different directions.

Another malady is change for change’s sake, often packaged and sold as a brand spanking new approach to doing things that will revolutionise work practices. In reality it is nothing of the sort. Bureaucrats and quangocrats get bored easily with doing the same thing over and again. So they make a ‘business case’ for a new way of doing things. After many meetings, train journeys and lunches, the new way is approved and those lower down the order are rescued from ennui for another year by the order to start implementing the new way.

But then a problem arises. The higher ups, having written, discussed and approved the new way of doing things, begin to feel bored just sitting there monitoring the lower downs. Some of them move onto newer pastures, which are ripe for new ‘initiatives.’ Others stay and come up with more new ways of doing things; and so the bureaucratic merry-go-round of initiatives continues. If it ain’t broke, fix it any way!

Then there is the empire building and backyard protecting. Quangocrats forget that they are publicly funded, with a moral duty, if not always a clear legal one, to the taxpayers. If something can be done more efficiently if delivered centrally (e.g. a software package to automate administration), why argue against it? We have to be careful here. Often there is no direct arguing against. Instead, there are vague distinctions made to show how we are different, how the solution being offered centrally will not meet our needs. The sky will fall in if a central solution is imposed.

Crowning all this is the perpetual existential threat, particularly to Quangos. They make easy picking when HM Opposition is shouting waste and bureaucracy. When there is a problem, create a quango to deal with it; when bloated bureaucracy is the problem, chop the quango. Politicians win both ways.

All this arises, I think, because much of the daily work of bureaucrats and quangocrats lacks a convincing raison de etre. Doctors and nurses tend the sick, teachers impart knowledge and firemen extinguish fires. Factory workers make things that are sold. There is dignity and gratification in that. Quangocrats don’t do anything that makes one jot of a difference to people. Some work extremely hard, travel the length and breadth of the country and develop vast networks (always useful when turbulence strikes). But to most people, they make no difference.

The educational divide

As of 15 January of this year, 221,523 females had applied for full-time university undergraduate courses, as against 173,784 males. We do not yet know how many of these have been accepted on the courses, but for the purposes of this blog I want to assume that the male-female ratio will remain the same. The trend of recent years is certainly a growing gulf between the number of male and female applicants.

What does this mean? It means the future is feminine:

• On the assumption that graduates earn more than non-graduates, the divide between the rich and the poor, between the well off and the less well off, could in future reflect a sex divide.
• If intellectual compatibility and equality is necessary for a happy marriage, then women could be short of suitable partners to marry. Similarly, if people in general marry from the same social class as themselves, then the sex-cum-class divide described above will further restrict the choice of marriage partners. Settling down mellows people; with all those unmarried and unattached men, there will be a lot unchecked testosterone around, which could quite easily channel into other areas, like crime, alcohol, drugs and even terrorism.
• More women will come to occupy positions of influence. Will that mean that what have traditionally been regarded as feminine values- such as receptiveness, warmth, understanding, collegiality, cooperation, ‘motherliness’- become the dominant values in society? If so, the problem above about unchecked testosterone can be avoided.
• I wonder what will happen to the birth rate and population level. Will more and more women come to delay or postpone starting families, as they progress with their careers?

State of language

In a refreshing change from the text-speak led attrition of language, the nation’s vocabulary has increased by one in recent days. ‘Mastication for the nation’ is the catchline of an advert for a new chewing gum. It is another thing, of course, that the nation’s vocabulary should increase as a result of such trivial activity as munching on chewing gum. Surely the nation has better things to do and learn from?

The point of my blog today is to bemoan the state of language. Two things have happened to language. First, any hint of using posh or long words is shunned, on grounds of arrogance, snobbery or inaccessibility. This is related to the general trend of the decline of learning for learning’s sake, and its replacement with such instrumentalism as widening participation (in itself a good thing), ‘bite-sized learning’, the dominance of easy, marketing speak-words over heavy text ones and the general preference for imagery, where words play only a supporting role. Yet life is complex: only a rich variety of words can capture the nuances of life. There is also a complex relationship between words and thoughts: it’s not a one way process of thoughts issuing in words. The ready availability of words helps to shape thoughts.

Another modern phenomenon is the rise of pre-packaged words. Indeed, there are templates for communicating anything: you just fill in the blanks. Related to this is the consultant-speak pap that keeps reappearing in different forms: enhance, diversity, ‘going forward’, value-added, knowledge management, customers (to describe taxpayers and students), etc.

Happiness

We tend in general to experience pain and discomfort more than their opposites, intense, orgasmic pleasure, that pervades everything in our being. Whether derived from sexual fusion or some other pleasure enhancing intervention, such experiences are inevitably short lived. On the other hand, the sense of general happiness of circumstances, where life, family, career, etc, are in equilibrium, is very often not on the surface and requires some reflection to bring it out.

So what does this mean? It means we become used to an easy existence and take it for granted. Our threshold for enduring minor inconveniences is thereby lowered. That, primarily, for me explains why a huge increase in living standards has not translated into an equally huge increase in happiness. It never will- we adapt.

One reason why we are not happy is because we compare ourselves to others who are better off, financially or in other ways, than us. Once we have achieved what those others have, we begin to compare ourselves to yet others who have yet more. We may start off by comparing our situation with the person down the road who lives in a semi-detached and has a two-year old car, as against our terraced and jalopy. We begin to earn more and move to a semi and buy a better car, but then another person down the road has a sports car and lives in a detached house. And so on it continues- a constant state of anxiety and restlessness.

Dress and liberty

There has been a lot of talk about how we Muslims dress. Perhaps we are being loosened up for some legislative intervention. Perhaps wearing the veil will be banned in education and, in the long term, in other public buildings. Perhaps it will also be banned while driving, on the health and safety pretext that it can interfere with the peripheral vision. We will just have to wait and see- by turning up the heat in the debate, perhaps some people hope that they will be able to influence behaviour and avoid the need for intervention.

I know at least 3 people who changed how they dressed after July 2005. A number of others altered their sartorial preference after Straw’s anti-veil outburst last year. The debate has focussed on the veil, but many men have also donned their shirts and trousers and discreetly retired their shalwar kameez suits. Some have also trimmed their beards; others, torn between cultures, are trimming their beards in stages, so that eventually it will cease to exist, by which time they hope no one will notice.

All this is a far cry from the case for liberty presented in John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. Mill argued that the only reason society should intervene in regulating behaviour is to prevent ‘harm’ to others. Over their own bodies, individuals are sovereign. As long as the harm to others principle is borne in mind, people could be as eccentric and offbeat as they wished. In fact, Mill argues, eccentricity is a good thing. A vibrantly liberal society depends on such difference.

Now Mill’s essay is elegant and powerful. But the word ‘harm’ is slippery It can be applied to whatever you like. Politicians can argue that the shalwar kameez, or the veil, ‘harms’ integration (just as in some traditional societies conservatives argue that westernisation harms society). Anything that goes against your idea of how society should be organised can be regarded as ‘harmful’. Yet the whole idea of liberty is to keep the concept of harm limited. If harm is continuously expanded- for example to include how you dress- then liberty becomes an empty phrase. It no longer becomes the default position, but whatever can be saved from the ever expanding domain of regulation. For Mill, liberty was definitely a default position.

Law and psychology: creating needs

Figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service show that after law, psychology is the most popular subject. As of 15 January, 77,040 people had applied to study psychology later in the year- an increase of 3.9% from last year. Perhaps that explains why we are becoming an increasingly litigious and therapeutic society. The lawyers and psychologist coming from the universities need something to do.

There is more than a modicum of truth in this apparently simplistic link. Two examples will suffice to show what I mean.

An acquaintance was recently stopped in the street by a clever ‘personal injury claims’ salesman from a law firm. My acquaintance has never had an industrial accident, but, after a long discussion, was persuaded by the salesman to attend a private medical examination. The examination would test things like hearing, sight, agility etc. If anything was found lacking, an attempt would be made to link the deficit with the various jobs this person had done in his life by putting in a personal injury claim. My acquaintance cancelled the appointment, but you can see my point- lawyers putting in dubious claims to create work and money for themselves.

The second example is less dramatic, but real enough. In every job I have started, the induction has included a bit about the availability of counselling. This may sound innocuous enough, but the omnipresence of counselling does suggest that, by default, we are now being considered as weak and unable to cope. After all, the induction said nothing about the local cancer specialist.

Integration and language

The Commission on Integration and Cohesion has rightly identified lack of language as the single biggest barrier to integration. It is easy to see why this is the case- not being able to speak the language of your host country is an obvious disadvantage. Your career prospects are limited. In many cases, you become permanently locked into low paid jobs and you are less aware of your rights. Integration is further hampered because your colleagues are unlikely to speak English as well. You have minimum contact with the majority community.

So it is perfectly reasonable that migrants, whether here for work or to join a spouse, should be required to learn English. That means quality courses in English should be provided free of charge and at flexible times to cater for working patterns. Migrants should commit to learning the language. The government’s side of the bargain should be to provide quality learning and training.

To be frank, things have been a little too easy for migrants for too long. The easy availability of translation has removed any motivation to learn English. Yet the problem with translation is that although it gets you through a particular transaction, in the longer term it does not help your position in the host country. Many public sector organisations have been particularly over-zealous in their approach to translation, making available a large number of leaflets and documents in various languages. It is a concrete indicator of the duty to be ‘inclusive’. At the end of the year, when reporting on the performance indicators relating to inclusion, organisations can count the minority language leaflets and pat themselves on the back. This misguided approach to inclusion actually perpetuates exclusion.

Dumbing down

For some years a change has been going on in education at all levels. Universities, traditionally centres of learning and intrepid scholarship, fiercely independent, are at the forefront of this change. The change involves emphasising process of learning over substance. It involves different pedagogies and learning styles. E-learning, portfolios, student-centred learning, problem-based learning, collaborative learning: these are just some of the words in the vast lexicon of learning processes. A recent addition is ‘sustainability literacy’, which looks at how concern about the environment can be incorporated into your discipline.

What is the driving force behind this obsession with teaching process over substance? There are several reasons, but I think the main force is the wish to be inclusive. Sitting in a library studying bulky tomes and writing essays is considered elitist and old fashioned. So in an attempt to open up, new learning processes are introduced that are less taxing, like e-learning, with its drag and drop and copy paste exercises; or portfolio-based learning, with its emphasis on crediting prior experience and knowledge. By thus opening up with bite-sized learning, all can have prizes. But it comes at the expense of intellectual rigour.

Generation gap

A report recently claimed that young Muslims, born and bred in the UK, are being more radicalised than the older generation, some of whom barely speak English. I think this makes sense; the experiences of the different generations are different.

The elders, especially those in their 70s, arrived in the UK when they were teenagers or older. They therefore still have memories of what life was like in Pakistan, or Mirpur, before large numbers of people started coming to the UK. And the memories they have are not all pleasant. Many elders recall the extreme poverty. Extreme poverty, as distinct from relative poverty, is where you do not have enough food to eat. It is where what you do have to eat is very basic. Many people recall the days when all they had to eat were corn chapattis and water. Meat was a luxury.

For people of that generation, arriving in the UK has been a life changer for which they thank their lucky stars. Here there were plenty of jobs and a good wage. And frankly, if you fall on hard times, the state looks after you anyway. What harm could a few racist taunts do compared to the hardships and struggles of existence left behind in the motherland, for which they still have an affection?

The experiences of the generation born here are different. They have not suffered extreme poverty. They do not know what it is like not to have enough to eat or to go bare foot to school. Their problems are problems of life here- poor educational attainment, ignorance, lack of job opportunities, drugs, crime and welfare dependency. It is this void in their lives which forms a breeding ground for extremism for a tiny minority, as it does for crime and anti-social behaviour in the wider community.

Therapy culture

As I browsed through the new books section at my local library recently, I was struck by the number that were about therapy and counselling. There were books about anxiety and stress, and about various phobias, including social phobia, otherwise known as shyness. There was a chunky hardback on how to be happy and contented. The library now has a large number of popular therapeutic books. What can be the reason for this? At the superficial level, the reason is that more such books are being written, therefore it makes sense that more are being bought.

There is, however, a cultural reason why more and more popular therapy books are being churned out. The prevailing culture encourages us to feel vulnerable and delicate, unable to cope with life without help and support. Even life’s everyday challenges are pathologised. Notice how fortitude and bravery are words very little heard these days. Even in the army, a profession that should represent the ne plus ultra of fortitude and bravery, we have Gulf war syndrome and post traumatic stress disorder.

Given this trend, it is not surprising that self therapeutic books have become so popular. I am not interested in the chicken and egg question, whether the books created the culture or the culture created the books. It’s fair to say that the more such books are written, the more the culture of vulnerability becomes entrenched. A quick search on Amazon and ebay confirms just how popular these books are.

A quick browse through several of the books at the library confirmed my prejudice- they are full of pap. Much of the advice is repetitive and commonsense dressed up as something better and original. There is no analytical or critical perspective of any sort. Books of this genre make no addition to accumulated knowledge. I suspect they do not make people happier either, as they fork out more money to buy the ‘Also available’ titles listed at the back, about a condition they were hitherto unaware they had.

Raids in Brum

My city and local area is abuzz with activity following yesterday’s anti-terror raids. All day, journalists, cameramen, politicians, police officers and curious members of the public could be seen along the Stratford Rd. By the time I got home from work, the only people around were the police in fluorescent jackets and the Newsnight team, with the intrepid Richard Watson presenting from outside a barber shop.

The two policemen guarding the mobile phone shop looked bored. A man passed by and asked them whether it will re-open, as he had given the shop a ‘very expensive’ handset for repairing. He was assured it would. Whereas the police had finished with the bookshop down the road when I went for a stroll in the evening, the policemen in fluorescent continued to guard the phone shop at 6:30 am when I drove by to work today.

It is difficult to gauge what local people think. People are clearly scared and concerned, but there is a hint of scepticism that anything will come out of this. Friends and relatives of some of those arrested have fiercely protested their innocence. We will just have to wait and see what comes out of it.

If no charges are brought and this turns out to be another Forest Gate, then, alas, I fear the media will not return with the same force and damage to the reputation of the area would have been done.

Are supermarkets good things?

It has become customary and clichéd to moan about the death of the bustling high street market at the hands of the supermarket behemoths. There is no doubt the quality of local life and community spirit does suffer if the local shops are all boarded up. Yet there is an element of elitism in the moans.

The reasons why people shop at supermarkets are simple: they offer value for money and variety of products. Many products they sell come in premium and cheaper own-brand versions. There is something for everyone. At the local shop, everything costs a lot more. The local shop does not have the same power of bulk buying and direct link with manufacturers. It cannot afford to have its own label stuck on things.

Problems at the Big Brother house

What is all this furore over Big Brother and the treatment of Shilpa, the Bollywood actress? Big Brother is a morally redundant and culturally banausic format. The realisation that this is the case is beginning to dawn on the viewing public. In the short term, the controversy has been like manna from heaven for the programme makers, because viewing figures have shot up. In the longer term, this could be the beginning of the end for BB in the UK.

Mirpuri ignorance

Today the Independent reports a depressing story of how a young bride, from Palak, Mirpur, was tortured to death by her British husband for, among other things, failing in her domestic duties. Palak is in fact within the Dadyal district, from which I also hail. So it’s a story that interests me.

As I read the Independent report, it became clear that the case bears all the hallmarks of ignorance and hypocrisy that blight our community and which I have discussed in previous blogs. There appears to be the hypocrisy and arrogance of a westernised family failing to understand and support a girl whose life had hitherto been spent in a village. As I have said on previous occasions, a little humility is in order from British Mirpuris. Then the there is the ignorance and philistinism of seeking the advice of a ‘holy man', who diagnosed 'problems' by looking at an item of the girl's clothing.

The horror of the case speaks for itself. I just want to say a word about relying on 'holy men'. This practice is common throughout South Asia for dealing with emotional and mental problems. Clearly cultivating spirituality has a role to play in helping to deal with these sorts of problems. However, in recent years things have gone too far- the spiritual element is in fact completely lacking, as money, power and fame take over and as the 'holy men' increasingly intrude into territory that should be the domain of professionals.

A number of satellite channels now invite these 'holy men', who you can call using a premium number. In one programme, a practice similar to the one described in the Independent story takes place. The 'holy man' asks the caller to measure an item of clothing of the person with a 'problem'. Then he recites something and blows at the camera. The caller is again asked to measure the item of clothing- a different diagnosis is offered depending on whether the item has shrunk or increased in size. Of course nothing of the sort has happened; but if you measure something in haste over the phone, using your fingers, you are bound to get different 'measurements' each time.

The point, however, is that rather than offering spiritual reassurance, these 'holy men' are offering diagnosis. That is clearly a wrong turn; in fact one that should possibly be investigated. Reliance on quacks means genuine diagnosis, and hence proper treatment, is delayed.

Myth of 'return' and 'expulsion'?

The myth of return among some immigrant communities, particularly Mirpuris, is now on the wane, as reality dawns that we are here to stay. This even as Mirpuris pour huge amounts of wealth into Mirpur, especially for constructing large residences with the Grecian pillars. Another, more ominous belief, discussed sotto voce by elders who arrived in the 40s and 50s and which has fluctuated over the years but was revived after 7/7, is that at some point we will be expelled.

It's a nasty thought that first took root after Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech and was commonly held in the days of National Front marches during the 1970s. It subsided somewhat during the 1980s, but has seen a resurgence recently in the days of 7/7, an upturn in BNP fortunes and the new wave of immigration during the late 90s and the first few years of this century.

So what is my own take on this view? Is it totally unreasonable? At one level it is; the culture of human rights is so deep in western Europe that it would be impossible to expel people. But that misses another point. If there is ever expulsion, it would be preceded by serious deterioration in the social and economic health of the country. Rising unemployment, precipitated by the drainage of jobs to low wage economies, could provide the spark for such instability. We are nowhere near that stage at the moment.

There have been reports that the BNP is ready to exploit the next recession as part of its electoral strategy. My fear is that it may also be helped by the current trend, whereby we are becoming an unequal economy, with a large number of people working in low-wage mc-jobs and a minority of super-rich people. Those in the middle are the most vulnerable to the drainage of jobs to low wage economies. Again, we are nowhere near reaching this point, but in the long term, this could provide a new pool of support for the likes of the BNP.

Execution of Saddam

What can be said about the execution of Saddam? So much has been written and much will be written. Here are just some random thoughts.

1. Whatever your view of Saddam, his last moments were, in the circumstances, dignified. He died with courage and fortitude. Others would have cracked. This contrasts with the attitude of his executors, whose appalling behaviour- reminiscent more of those who torment Western hostages than servants of the state carrying out due process- could have far reaching consequences. The tyrant has, in his last moments, won many admirers- which could make him more dangerous in death than he was in jail.
2. The hasty execution will strengthen sectarianism. Those who think that the execution will mark a new beginning for Iraq are clearly deluded. To Sunnis in Iraq and elsewhere, this was an act of sectarian vengeance, not justice, made possible by the US. It will strengthen sectarianism and anti-Americanism.
3. Why wasn’t there a fuller enquiry into Saddam’s crimes? How about because it would have disinterred some uncomfortable truths about the days when relations with the US were cosier?
4. What message did the Iraqi government wish to send to Sunnis everywhere by executing him on the day they were celebrating Eid?
5. There is, finally, a thought about what moral and logical principle can be derived from Saddam’s execution. Perhaps that those who kill innocent people should be executed? Surely he was not just killed because he was a dictator- but because he was a brutal one? What is the decisive factor, that he was a dictator or that he killed innocent people? These are actually more difficult questions than you think (from the point of view of the US and its acolytes), because if you start to generalise, then the net may be cast wider than you want, as the US has killed many innocent people and some of its closest allies are tyrannies (and have also killed many people). How to devise a principle which captures only those who harm US interests? But then you move away from conventional morality into the dubious territory of neo-con/ New Labour morality.