Awe inspiring Pageant of human endeavor, sixty seconds, a life time of effort and expectations expressed in a moment, no second chances, deliver in the arena right here and right now, make it happen but allow you to be, trust in the flow of things in the celestial city, climb mount Olympus where the air is fresh and clean, join the fraternity a brotherhood denied to many embracing a few. Vision determined by your values, persistence, determination, discipline, dedication virtuosity, illness and injury, winning and losing, a path strewn with tears of failure and successes both imposters challenging you, how much do you want it, do you dare to dream and to follow your yearnings, enjoy the journey, dare to be you, be world class in all that you do.
Selah
A hard day at work right into the night, my neck, and my muscles they feel so tight.
Long drive out of town, many people all so shrill, thank God for the peace over that Chiltern hill.
Arrive at home familiar noise through The Hall; I never have to give those hounds a call.
Zen, Shabba, Roxy nose pressed to the doors, eagerly waiting, a ménage of swirling
paws.
Open the gate slip into Rushmere Park, a wonderful Oasis in the middle of the dark.
Navigating, fields, streams, woods & a fallen log, I’m lost in Nirvana & I blame it on the dog.
This piece was written and prepared for 100words.net.
(Image: Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin, Weighed in the Balances and found wanting)
Lexicon of Acronym’s used throughout my blog:
WADA = World Anti Doping Authority
BOA = British Olympic Association
CAS = Court of Arbitration for Sport
IOC = International Olympic Committee
NOC = National Olympic Committee
Dear Reader,
Last week I dipped my toe in the Twittersverse and ventured to posit my position in what can be called the “Dwaine Chambers debate.” 140 characters is just not enough to do justice to my argument so it’s to the blogging sphere I go to shape it some more. Jamie Baulch, friend, business colleague and fellow quarter miler echoes the sentiments held by most of the British athletes I argued with last week, this being that Chambers, along with other sportsmen and women who cheat by taking performance enhancing drugs should be banned for life. Click here for source.
I do not hold that view and like Jonathan Edwards, Olympic Champion and world record holder for the triple jump, I do believe in a world of second chances, but we are very much in the minority. Fortunately for Dwaine our voices do not matter, what will matter will be the verdict delivered by CAS on Monday afternoon 30th April 2012 when CAS will adjudicate between the BOA and WADA.
The BOA are a lone voice in the world of NOC, as they up hold their bylaw in what they see as an “eligibility issue” and part of their selection policy of who is a right and proper person to represent the United Kingdom at an Olympic games.
WADA on the other hand consider the BOA position to be in effect a double sanction, and in contravention of their global policy on a drug cheats redemption. After serving the defined ban WADA would welcome the rehabilitated sports person back into the world’s sporting family.
Athletes that support the BOA position point out that since 1992 every British Athlete has signed the BOA charter knowing that if they got caught doping they would be banded for life. They note that with this being the case there is no point crying when indeed having “done the crime they now do the time”.
Legal representatives supporting the banned athletes point out since 2003 the BOA signed up to the WADA code, which in effect binds them to be compliant (or so the argument goes) to a global set of rules as a member of the Olympic family and does not allow them unilaterally to contradict the said rules. (See source here)
I’m at a loss to explain why drug enforcement agencies and governing bodies don’t spend less time arguing and more time in working out if there are a category of drugs that once ingested alter the physique and strength of an athlete forever. A lifetime ban then would not be an ethical issue but a necessary one. However there are moral, and emotive arguments, that vacillates between fairness, redemption, and the human right to employment.
Athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs do unfairly impact those who work hard without contriving the rules. It is undoubtedly unfair then when clean sport people get replaced on the podium or worst still don’t even get a chance to go to the games due to their miscreant colleague’s. But is it fair that purely due to where you are born, one should pick up a lifetime ban from competing in the Olympic Games when for the rest of the world it is only two year (I do agree 2yrs is light and would support 4year ban but it must be universal)?
Many argue yes, it’s fair because the athlete in question had a choice, those athletes who have missed out didn’t. This is not my view. No one would argue that it is fair for one country to compete under a set different rules than another. Sport needs consistent rules and regulations in order to make where possible a level playing field. Another argument that pro life banners put out for the one strike and you’re out argument, is that a life ban will act as a deterrent to other potential felons. I point out that in many states in America there is the death penalty for murder yet in the Western world I can’t think of a nation that has more homicide per capita than the good ole US of America. There has to be a better way.
There are as many reasons given for people taking drugs in sport, as there are people; but here are just a few:
1. Everybody is doing it.
2. Some one spiked my food/drink
3. I just fell in with the wrong crowd
4. Coach, Boss man, peer group leader told me to
5. I was young, and naïve and wanted to get to the top by any means necessary.
6. It just sort of happened over time
7. I was running out of time and wanted to give it one last chance
8. I looked on the label, bought it over the counter didn’t know it was illegal
9. It wasn’t on the banned list when I started and wasn’t being tested for
10. It was for recreational use not performance enhancement
And the list could go on but I stop there.
Redemption is the bedrock of any civil society, the ability to put right wrong, see the error of ones ways and if possible make recompense for the misdeed done. Obviously athletes who have missed out on a games, or medal will never be able to go back and have their day in the sun, and in certain fields of work, teacher/pedophile, banker/thief, politician/corruption, the hapless antisocial individual forfeits the right to regain employment in that field of endeavor. Not so in sport. I have already pointed out that globally sport has laws governing when athletes may return to the fold but also I must point out a lesson I learned in college “principles of correct thinking class 101”; analogies break down when extrapolated to final degrees and one must never compare apples with pears.
As a young athlete (in career terms as I was a late starter) I did have the opportunity to take drugs. I was 25 years old, England team captain, and an Army sergeant and I didn’t. The pressure was there but I was sufficiently developed in my moral compass, plus considerable pressure from my social standing to make the right decision. At seventeen however as a young man out of the “Looked after children system” faced with the same opportunities I might have made the wrong decision and succumbed. Would it be really fair to not give that “Young Akabusi” a second chance in life? Young people between ages of 16- 25 are still in the maturation process as far as brain development is concerned and may be dealing with things such as, leaving home, finding work and from dependent instruction to self autonomy. Click here and here to view sources.
(Please view page three on both sources for those who don’t wont to read the whole dossier)
These young people may not be in a position to make cogent decisions that ultimately are going to limit their career choices in later life. Does then, that young person who deviates from the norm not deserves a second chance? It is imperative in my view that society does not ostracize young people at this age group for the inevitable errors they will make, after all we where all young once and I’m sure can recall a few mistakes we would rather keep under the carpet. Chambers was 24 when he got caught contravening the law of common decency in 2003. Since then he has not only owned up to what he has done but he has done the laudable thing and warned the next generation of the perils of taking the path he trod. View source here.
Chambers has paid a very heavy price socially and economically and shown enough contrition and remorse to be given a second chance in life full stop in my humble opinon.
And finally I’m reminded of a Biblical story in which a woman is found to have committed adultery and the crowd would have her stoned. The Nazarene kneels on the ground and starts writing in the sand (in my mind paranormally I see him putting misdeeds to the names of the people he notes in the crowd) and he says, “he who is with out sin cast the first stone” (John Chapter 8 v 7). Slowly the masses disperse in timid recognition of their state, Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin, (Daniel Chapter 5 Verses 25-28) having been weighed in the balances they were found wanting.
It takes an extremely arrogant person unaware of their humanity not to recognize that to Err is to be human and that they are indeed human, all too human.
A young aspiring athlete wrote recently, that as much as he loved the event of the 400m hurdles , he had to admit that he was scared of it, and that whenever he lined up, the fear would grip him so much, that he did not want to be there. He wondered whether this was unique to him and what he could do to overcome this, as he wanted to have a good year ‘over the sticks’ but felt this fear inhibited his performance.
Below is my reply:
Dear Young and Aspiring Athlete,
Very normal indeed is your response to the 400 hurdles! For me, my fear was the stride pattern and for the first two years (even though I ran 48.59) I would count every single stride! I would be scared of the step change around hurdle 6-7-8 and as a result I messed up every time, because I did not make it in time.
Here is what I found to be the secret;
The 400h is not one event, but a series of events, that has at least four if not five parts that need to be approached as a discipline and tackled in real time.
Let’s break it down…
The first hurdle is critical and should be the only thought in your head when you go to the line. What is your touch down time going to be to hurdle one? I know that at my best mine was 5.9 secs maybe a shade under but no slower than 6.0 or I would have been climbing uphill for the rest of the race. What is your lead leg? I was right leg so I knew I had to run to an apex before attacking the hurdle straight on and line up for the second hurdle in thirteen strides time.
Next phase is hurdle two and three;
I had to discipline myself to run in the middle of the lane so that I didn’t become tempted to trail my leg in the opponents lane, and I also locked in my race stride as I knew I would rely on that momentum down the back straight.
Phase three, the ‘back straight’ off three over five;
Maintain momentum, the ‘coasting ‘phase, feel good, enjoy the rhythm, focus on hurdle five, touch down, 21.2 was an optimum speed for me to run 48 flat, and I found this to be the easiest part of the race. I would take this time to breathe in the air needed to fuel my brain, which I knew would be required in the most technical phase of the event.
Phase four Hurdle 6-9 – the step change/changes
As a hurdler doing the 1/4 mile, the step change is the ‘do or die’ phase. So many mess this up by over- striding to maintain an over ambitious stride pattern therefore chopping down too late and stuttering into the oncoming barrier. Yet it is true, that with spacial awareness one can execute the penultimate hurdle to the step down with aggression, that sets one up for the change in stride pattern.
Ideal for me was 13’strides to Hurdle 7. I would need to attack this hurdle and chop off it to prepare for 14’strides (alternative leg) for Hurdles 8 & 9. I’d then allow 15 strides into the last hurdle to set myself up for a smooth transition over the last hurdle 10, which has been known to be the one that the hapless, tired, fatigued hurdler stumbles into.
Final phase five then is the home stretch.
By the time you approach hurdle 10 the mind has been starved of oxygen but you will need all your powers of concentration as the waste product ‘lactate’ is now circulating throughout the gluteus maximus and down through the thighs! Maintaining form off hurdle 10 then is all-important and this can only be done with a smooth transition over the hurdle. So I tended to focus on being on my stronger right lead leg as I crossed over this hurdle and if I negotiated my strategy (as outlined) then I should be there. Attack the barrier, stand up tall, relax and maintain rhythm. Simple!
Dear Athlete, assuming you have trained and prepared well, if you break the race down as so described, all of a sudden there is nothing to be scared of anymore, and that is why I found the 400m hurdles an easier event than the 400 flat. For me it is the most technical track event with so much going on to distract you from the grueling realities. When it comes to the last 50 meters of the race, running with lactate is not the preserve of the 400 metre hurdler alone and I swam in lactate with much more ferocity as a 1/4 miler than I ever did as a hurdler!
Most athletes get to the line (especially in the major championships) and ask themselves why are they doing this and feel that they would, in that moment, rather be anywhere else in the world than going to the blocks. But deep down I knew that I was in a place where many others would love to be, so I gave myself a good geronimo talking to, “I’m here now, so no place to hide, do or die, let me enjoy the ride”. I would the set about the process I have explained above, and before I knew it I was stumbling across the line glimpsing the electronic timing click clock, New British Record 
Got to be in it baby!
Hope that helps!
Warmest wishes
Kriss
Vision
“I want Gold,” said Dai Greene about the forth-coming Olympic games in London. (Source)
Athletes have absolute clarity around who they are and what they stand for. Everything they do is subordinated to who they see themselves as, in Athletic terms. A 1/4 miler behaves and thinks differently to a Pole Vaulter or Shot- Putter so knowing what your discipline is, is vitality important. I like the word discipline and the rest of my life has lacked this quality when put into comparison to my life as a world-class athlete. The vision to be world class as an athlete focuses the mind on making sure you do everything it takes in order to get there. Who you hang around with, the training you do, the competition you enter, the food that you eat will all be predicated on the clarity of the vision you have for yourself and your performance.
Values
What you are going to stand for is the next key. Am I going to be a consistent trainer? Will I love or loathe competitions? Is money more important that winning? Is winning at major championships more important than winning on the racing circuit? Do I want medals or records? Will I be meticulous in my training and eating or will I be happy-go-lucky? Tom Daley the young British diver fell foul of this thought process as far as his national coach was concerned. (source)
A lot has been made of Tom Daley’s schedule and whether he’s spending too much time with media commitments and not enough time training… What do you make of it all? Daley’s commitment to the Olympic Games was questioned by British Swimming officials, most notably Evangulov, Diving’s performance director. Evangulov likened him to Anna Kournikova, whose on-court achievements were famously mismatched with her off-court profile. Following those comments a meeting took place between Daley, Evangulov, and the 17-year-old’s management company and things have been smoothed over, everybody is happy but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating and competition against the worlds’ best is a very hard test! The world of sport is hard and the written medial even harder. If Daley gets it right he will never have to work again after the Olympic games, the media PR machine will ensure greatness resounds to the uttermost but he must get it right. If he gets it wrong I shudder at the thought of the scribes who may turn Pharisees.
Strategy
Roger Black speaks eloquently about our 4 x 400 metre relay gold medal winning team at the World Championships in Tokyo 1991; it was all down to strategy, thinking outside of the box, daring to be different, doing whatever it took to be ahead of the rest and having a good grasp on past performance and current trends. The Americans had been undefeated for the previous 50 years in the 4×400 meter relay event and they used to run from the front, take it out, stay out and win. Contemporary wisdom at the time held that in relay running you put your best man last (anchor), second best guy on the first leg and the rest in the berths in the middle. (source)
Margaret Heffernan has written a New York Times bestseller called Wilful Blindness in which she warns the eagle eyed reader that, we “ignore the obvious at our peril.”
With in our athletic tradition it had become accepted practice that best athletes ran the anchor (last) leg and the next best would get the team rolling on the first leg, but a review of outcomes showed the British runners that in all actuality this tried and tested formula meant that in world class performance (for the preceeding 50 years) the USA would run out victorious while the rest of the world fought out for the minor medals in their wake. And so a new strategy was formulated that took the world by surprise and the Title champions to the Sceptered Isles.
Goals
Goals depend about where you are at in that moment in time, and each goal can become a stepping stone to achieving the overarching goal or meta vision. Check out this youtube clip recorded by myself a couple of years ago regarding the goals of young Olympians getting ready for their big moment.
Athletes have Outcome goals, Performance goals and Daily Goals.
Outcome goal- This year I want to make the Olympic Team.
Performance goal- This year I need to run sub 45 seconds.
Daily Goal- Today the session is… and I need to do…… and I did and I felt… and as a result I’m ready for my aforementioned goals.
Athletes have a selective memory around their daily goals taking out the positives and deleting, distorting or sometimes denying the negatives. This is not to say that they don’t notice rank bad performance but they will put a spin on it so that they will go out and put measure in place not to repeat the mistake again. By the time they get to the start line for the major championships all that is recalled is the many times they have beaten their competitors, ran faster than them, trained harder than them and earned the right to be champion of the worlddddddddddddddd.
So on that note I say to you, “Let the games begin.”
To realise the value of a sister;
Ask someone who doesn’t have one.
To realise the value of 10years;
Ask a newly divorced couple.
To realise the value of 4years;
Ask a graduate.
To realise the value of one year;
Ask a student who has failed a final exam.
To realise the value of nine months;
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.
To realise the value of one month;
Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.
To realise the value of one week;
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realise the value of one hour;
Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realise the value of one minute;
Ask the person who has missed the train.
To realise the value of one second;
Ask a person who has survived an accident.
To realise the value of one millisecond;
Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.
To realise the value of a friend;
Lose one.
Time waits for no one.
Treasure every moment you have.
#CarpeDiem #DareToBeYou
I must admit I don’t know much about football. Well that’s what my mates tell me, why else would I follow West Ham ☺ It was only while watching England v Holland on the 29th February 2012 at Wembley that I realized that Captain Scott Parker was the same fella who had played for West Ham, I thought he was called Man of the Match Scottie Parker. Yeah alright, leave it leave it ☺
England lost 2-3 to a world class Holland Team, the same team (nine players) who were runner up to Spain two years ago at the World Cup of football. It was a friendly, between two teams preparing for the European finals taking place this year in June. The English team managed by Stuart Pierce, a veteran from the ‘Italia 90’ World Cup playing English team, made some daring additions to what has been an aging squad. He also picked an attacking line up full of young English flair players hungry to prove themselves to the manager, each other and the country.
Yes there were some questions, three strikers on show Daniel Sturridge, Danny Welbeck and Frazier Cambell had one goal between them in a collective four game start prior to this match, and the 14th pairing at center back were young, would they be naïve against such world class opposition? But the courage of our young lions was never in question. The Captain lead by example, putting the body on the line time after time, and that spread like a wild fire as the whole team, especially in the first half, made it extremely difficult for the technically proficient Dutch to break us down. England went into the second half definitely good value for the nil – nil draw. Not that the English team had been defensive, great runs, dribbling chicanery from our attackers Adam Johnson, Ashley Young, Danny Welbeck and when Sturridge came on the team had plenty of peeps at goal and an opportunity to nick the advantage. It was a great display of youth daring to let lose their skills, they showed off talent in abundance.
Eventually naïve defending at the back, and giving the ball away at the top end of the park, saw England down two nil within 15 mins of the start of the second half. England did not roll over or die and they did not stop trying new stuff and I loved it! With a minute to go in full time my house erupted (audience of one) as Ashley Young flipped a great ball over the flailing arms of the Dutch keeper, rendering the score 2-2 as he added to the goal previously scored by Gary Cahill, bringing us back into the affray. Alas thy young lions snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory and the Dutch in the guise of their genius tormentor Arjen Robben went up the other end and scored again, we lost 3-2.
There were many stories that night at Wembley and depending upon your disposition will depend upon what you saw.
The Guardian Article
The Telegraph Article
We don’t see things as they are, but really as we think they are. Before you argue any further have a look at this selective attention test by Daniel Simons & Christopher Chabris on Gorilla dot com, an interesting perspective:
CLICK HERE
Germany lost 2-1 against the French the same night as our defeat to the Dutch, but it will take a brave person to bet against them being in the last four come the end of the Euro’s. Every four years they turn out a mixture of youth and experience, having dared to lose and try out new blood in between tournaments. Traditionally in the UK we have tended to hold on to our tried and tested (even when injured) at the expense of the exuberance of youth and I believe this has been at our detriment. By the time our fledgling starlets get their day in the sun expectations are so high externally and internally, and the losers syndrome is so infectious that they dare not release their flare incase they are the butt of the vitriolic attacks the fourth estate met out the next day. For me, Wednesday was a good day for English football, full of promise revealing the talent is there, we just need to be able to blend this talented next generation with a few old heads, one of which must be Man of the match Captain Scottie Parker.
150 days to go and counting London 2012
The Olympic games are coming to town and the excitement is slow in building but surely it is building! The venues are 96% finished, the East End of London has been transformed, the revised budget of £9.3 Billion looks like it’s providing a windfall to the treasury as not all of it will be required, and our athletes have performed well in a series of “London Prepares” events over the last 100 days! But despite this great news, the spoilers are coming out to play. Over the last two days I was invited on national radio to support the idea that the games are good for Britain and worth the investment.
Robert Hardman of the daily mail is a self confessed party pooper and in his piece dated 7th December 2011 (click to view) he bemoaned the fact that the great British public “have been treated like imbeciles by those who believe they have a divine right to squander other people’s money in the name of sport.” His invective on this occasion was towards the miscalculation (an embarrassment indeed) of the security requirements of the games by the Olympic organizers which boosted the ranks from the said 10,000 personnel to 23,000 with an associated extra spend of £271 million. I agree that the pound sterling numbers are huge, £9.3billion it will cost Great Britain to put on the biggest pageant the world ever sees but I believe it is worth every penny and especially because the country is struggling to climb out of recession.
9.3 Billion pounds is a lot of money in most people’s language that is for sure but in the great scheme of the British economy it is small beer especially when you take into account that this is the bill for the Olympic games over a 7-year period. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) available to the Chancellor is £800billion per annum, out of which the National Health Service and the Education combined draws a whopping £80billion each year. Juxtaposed to this number you see that the once in a lifetime event is averaging less that 0.2% of GDP/annum pails into insignificance. After a long day at the office or some other strenuous activity where things have not gone well and the world seems against you, coming home to a cup of tea and friendly faces is often the fillip we need to see the world as a better place. In the recession the Olympics is going to have the same temporary effect for some as their favorite non-alcoholic beverage but hopefully for many a more lasting legacy.
Roberts beef when I was debating him on BBC Radio was that the “150days” sign (showcasing Giant Olympic Rings 11m x25m click to view) displayed up the river Thames alongside all the world renowned land mark sites was another gross misuse of public funds. My contention of course was the opposite; it was a wise deployment of the entire trickle down marketing strategy, of a clever project manager in a corporate communications team. To get critical mass support of any product launch Market Communications has to be consistent, coordinated and continuous if it is to get the desired effect of ‘buy-in’ by the target audience. LOGOC (London Olympic Games Organising Committee) , and by extension the government could be accused of a gross neglect of duty if they didn’t employ a comprehensive strategy to engage the public. The Olympics is a once in a life time event, has already brought employment to East London in the construction industry, will provide ongoing jobs in the commercial sector as business come adinfinitum to the corporate venues of the Olympic city (ie Barcelona), small business will be spawned, tourists will come, sporting events will be held in the premier quality venues, and lastly and the Prestige of having held a successful games will further build on the PR of our more favourable past, well said the slogan “Quality will be left long after the price has been forgotten”.
And finally to the assertion by Leon McClusky and other trade unionist activists that the Olympics might be a good opportunity to get jiggy with industrial action, (click to view) would be the biggest own goal in my opinion we as a nation could foist on ourselves. Rather than show ourselves at our best we would welcome the world into our bygone age best left in the 70/80’s. We would show we could not be trusted as a good steward of a world event where countries in a Biblical sense are encouraged to lay down their arms “beat their swords into plowshares” Micah 4:3 and bond together in human solidarity where the best of human endeavor and spirit is celebrated. Likewise we would truly render the investment a waste if tourists turned their back on London and the global press communicated the feudal barbarism of this island nation. It would be counter productive and destroy the very economy we are hoping to rebuild. I believe sport and politics, like oil and water, just don’t mix. 1968, 72, 80, & 84 all suffered from some sort of political action, some deadly like Munich 72 with the Israeli Team massacre, other tit for tat 80/84 with the Western democratic world boycott of Moscow and the reciprocal arrangement in LA by Russian apparatchiks. On all occasions it was the athletes that suffered while the big wheels of politics and commerce carried on regardless. Our young men and women who have trained over the last half dozen years for this moment, to take on the best in the world and make us proud to be British deserve our best support to make this moment a masterpiece, for them for us, for our country, “500 athletes but 60 million strong” is after all the British Olympic Association (BOA) motto.
I was in America on business when the scenes as depicted in this photo were blazing across my screens on Fox news. I could not believe what was going on; it was like watching a poorly scripted movie.
I’m a London boy born and bred and lived most of my formative years in Enfield and Edmonton, a stone’s throw away from the killing of Mark Duggan by the police - which soon become the catalyst for a few consecutive nights of the worse examples of civil unrest seen in the UK since the early 1980’s. Many issues have been vaunted as the root cause; deprivation in society, feckless parenting, and opportunistic greed. A little less has been spoken about the culpability of “the haves” as opposed to “the have nots.” Would it be fair to say that the riots in London were a vivid demonstration of a class war and civil schism?
It would seem to many that Western democracies put monetary values ahead social policy. A survey of 563 risk managers undertaken in conjunction with Cranfield School of Management, trying to understand the banking crisis, stated “pursuit of profits had effectively displaced concern for people.” The paucity of people-centered leadership and an over-indulgence in self can be viewed at all levels. Over the last few years scandal after scandal has been reported through the fourth estate (themselves not immune to controversy as seen in the revelations around Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation phone hacking scandal) of one white-collar crime after another.
When Harry Markopolos in USA testified before congress about the Madoff fraud, he argued that white-collar criminals did far more economic damage than drug dealers, armed robber and all associated social miscreants put together: “these fraudsters steal approximately five per cent of business revenue annually, dwarfing the economic losses due to violent crime, yet not nearly enough federal law enforcement resource are devoted to catching them.’ Days after the UK civil insurrection, vast amount of British tax pounds were spent on rounding up the “have nots” and exacting punitive measures in fines and incarcerations.
In the sceptered Isle, examples of gross corruptions and dubious values are not the sole preserve of the financial industry or fourth estate. In the highest echelons, a formerly royal Duchess was caught in a sting demanding cash from a wealthy Arab for commercial access to the Duke of York. The UK legislature was up to no good when British politicians at all levels were exposed as thieves for fiddling their expenses. And even our military have been tagged “mercenary agent provocateurs” as excursion into sovereign states on trumpeted up charges of WOMD (weapons of mass destruction) have later been proven to be pure fabrications.
These aforementioned examples of dereliction of duty and myopic self-interest are the true WOMD, destroying any semblance of moral authority transmuted to persons at the margins or base of communities as they attempt to become social climbers. Well, said the Good Book, “When the King is corrupt the nation will perish.”
It is easy to be “willfully blind” to the effects of austerity measures on the have nots when there is a vast chasm in the social pecking order. My first thoughts as I watched the wanton destruction from my $600/night bedroom suite on Pebble Beach in California was ‘bang them up; this is outrageous behaviour; where is the “tear gas”, the “water cannon?’
There were many victims during the London riots. Dedicated shop keepers and policemen doing their job. Innocent civilian passers by (who can forget the image of the young Asian student with a broken jaw being helped to his feet by an assailant who minutes later joined with the crowd in ransacking his backpack?) Society at large, as ordinary citizens sat cowering in their homes with a self imposed curfew not daring to go to the local vicinity for fear of getting drawn into an ugly mess.
But many of the perpetrators were victims too: victims of a society that was hastily taking away all of the protection and provision mechanisms that make life palatable in the 21st century’s so-called advanced economies.
Ruth (named changed) is a single mother - twin boys and a girl aged 13 born from an absent father. She is now 29 has two more children; one is seven, the other is a toddler, each also from different fathers. Until recently she has been getting a variety of handouts including income support, single mother benefits and housing allowance to bring home just under £1k/month. But in the austerity measure this has now been cut so savagely that she has to work three jobs in order to get back to within 25% of her previous income.
She loves her children, too, thus forcing her to work with early starts and late nights. She and her friends take it in turns to nanny each others’ toddlers. The eldest go off to school but come home to an open door and food prepared in the fridge. When she returns at 8pm the eldest go out to play; the daughter with her girlfriends, the son now on the street corner with the crew. He used to go to the youth club and organized activities but those have been closed down without warning (local government cuts) so they now hang out at fast food joints.
When the children come home late “after hours” (any time from midnight) mum can’t give them “licks” ’cos the kids know their rights. So she mutters a few words and then follows them to bed. My friend who explained this scenario said to me, “the children are not my kids “innit? The government tell me what I can do and not do with them.”
“They are yours then,” she retorted.
And then I realized as a child who graduated from the social care system 1975 that “there but by the grace of God go I!” … should I have done so in 2011.
This is Akabusi signing off acknowledging the truth of the adage “don’t judge a person until you have walked awhile in their moccasins.”
Photographer of riots image unknown: many thanks to its originator for its loan to us. (Please note this is a non-commercial weblog.)
Farewell Uncle Dennis
I woke up to the news on 1st May 2011 that “our enry” Henry Cooper had died; British, European and Commonwealth Heavy weight champion and the darling of British sport because his “ammer” floored Cassius Clay when I was a lad. This was followed quickly by the report that “Whispering Ted Lowe” – the doyen of snooker announcements for British fans of the green baize – had also gone the way of all flesh. However I was not prepared for the news that the grime reaper had knocked closer to my door that night.
Prince Dennis Agbugba had been introduced to me when I was 15 years old by my absent mother who came to visit me from Nigeria, as he was our kith and kin, and I needed to get closer to him in order to embrace my heritage. Uncle Dennis was a gentle man with a low and mellow voice. He did not waste words but when he did speak, his words were measured and they cut to the quick. He was one of life’s observers; he lived it with a smile and went with the flow.
Igbo wakes are not really solemn affairs. One hundred and twenty people crammed into a small hall in Kilburn to pay their respects to the family. Music, food and merriment were abundant, intermingled with hushed tones as well wishers recounted their experiences of and love for this mellow man, before exiting with a prayer. It was a fitting ceremony for a man who embraced life and the money raised (Igbos always celebrate occasions with money raising) was given to the family. This was augmented by the organizing committee of OSUH (Uncle Dennis’s Town Union) for whom I’m the sitting chairman, so that they can transport Uncle Dennis home to our family compound as his final resting place.
But all of this was to hide the reality that I faced on 24th May, when I went to pay my final respects and visit him in the mortuary before he travels back home on Monday 30th. I’ve buried my mother and father so I knew what to expect when I went behind the curtain, but nonetheless the mask of death always shocks me. The change in the lifeless body of humankind, the eerie stillness, the composed look, no shadow of turning reminds me all too well how brief my time is on this plane. Uncle Dennis has paid the final price required to transition to glory and join the ancestors; it is a journey we all have to take. We busy ourselves with all our stuff, like a patient in an occupational therapy wing, but the real question in life is what happens after death.
I have my own views. Some might say it’s wishful thinking, but while he was alive Uncle Dennis reminded me to live life to the full, make my peace with all on earth, leave my legacy and get ready to meet my maker – in the consciousness that I fought the good fight and ran the last race with all of my might.
Farewell Uncle Dennis and see you in a minute xx
Kezie
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