The suffering of the little children

Isn't it time to rebalance food consumption and production globally?

What is Citizenship- US elections?

I thought citizenship was about moral fabric. Old fashioned ideals like wanting to do the best for your country and being an upstanding citizen of society in that country. The most sought after citizenship in the world has to be the American one. So what is the American dream? In the current political spat between Obama and Romney the currency of being a true American throws a spanner in the works.

It is all about the free market vs small socialism. Obama says that Government must invest in infrastructure and education so that people can become successful. Romney says that (this is the free-market bit) Obama has insulted every entrepreneur and every innovator in America because this is an attack on success. Romney has accused Obama of being un-American and anti corporate.

Does this take Neoliberalism to a new level? The mixing of market forces and citizenship will only result in passports being a definition of the top 1%. I know that we need money to work capitalism but do we need money to work a democracy? If so, the 99% are doomed.

Pictoral Protest in Support of Remploy

The Story of 'LiEbor'

In 2011 Bob Diamond said: "There was a period of remorse and apology for banks and I think that period needs to be over."


In 2012 Bob Diamond said: "I am sorry that some people acted in a manner not consistent with our culture and values." 


What is the banking vulture, sorry I mean culture and values exactly?

The Innocent Victims of the Euro zone Disaster

Through the Euro zone crisis Germany has formed a rather negative opinion of Greece. Germans thinks that the Greeks are lazy and inefficient. On the other hand, Greece thinks that the Germans are profiting out of Greece. Through all of these financial crises and arguments between countries it is the children that suffer.


The picture above depicts a normal Greek family who have been left homeless because of the Euro zone crisis. The child in this picture is being subject to poverty at such a young age. A mother in Greece (please click on link below) had to leave her three children in a care home because she could not afford to give them food. For children to lose a parent because of financial mismanagement is tragic. Children always pay a high price for political disasters.  

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/15/world/europe/greece-economic-orphans/index.html

There is an Ed iceberg ahead for the Lib Dems

 Ed Miliband is going to form a new centre-left grouping with Francois Holland, the French President that will challenge the centre-right ideology of austerity. Ed says in an interview with The Independent that, “There is a grip of centre-right leadership on Europe which has said there’s only one way forward and that’s austerity…’

I fear Ed maybe right. The Greek have split their vote between the centre-right and centre-left party tonight. France out rightly rejected Nicolas Sarkozy who was part of the Cameron-Merkel school of austerity cuts. There is a growing move to the centre-left. People are looking for alternative options to losing their jobs, their benefits, their public services and putting up with salary freezes.

It sounds to me as if Ed is adopting a Keynesian approach and if so where is it going to leave the Lib Dems? Will Ed’s anti-austerity approach be a vote-winner and if so he is the iceberg that will sink the Lib Dem ship because we are in coalition and aligned with an austerity package that has not produced results or growth.  

Lib Dems are sleep walking along with the Conservatives and it is time to redefine our ideology. This week we saw Eric Pickles announce his ‘troubled families’ policy and Iain Duncan Smith redefine poverty. Lib Dems are in this. There will be no point in 2015 saying ‘we had to do this because we were in coalition’. People aren’t going to accept this standpoint.

What do Lib Dems stand for in the coalition? 

The Home Alone Dream

The movie 'Home Alone' has become a child's dream. There is a rather attractive side to it- getting left behind and being free to do what you want to do. What child doesn't want to be in charge without their parents bossing them about? 


I came close to it myself 7 years ago when I was 5 years old. I got lost during the Lord Mayor's show and I found it quite exciting but my mother thought otherwise; she called me a silly escapee and told me off for letting go of her hand, oops.  I hadn't even had time to eat as much chocolate as I wanted or to scare a few burglars off. 


David Cameron left his daughter, Nancy Cameron, at a pub by accident a few months ago. People are being critical about this but I think it must have been fun for Nancy. Nancy got to help out at the bar! I envy her.  Nancy Cameron has a story to tell people all her life now. This is the equivalent of Mark Thatcher going missing in the dessert in 1982. My story of walking around a busy show till a policewoman spotted me is no match. 


I don't mean to belittle in any way the seriousness of children going missing all the time. All I am talking about is how a Hollywood fictional film has influenced children to want to be 'Home Alone'. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9323425/David-Cameron-left-daughter-in-pub.html

Forced Marriage isn't a Cultural Practice

This country is so afraid of being called 'racist' that it has gone to an extreme of ignoring serious ethnic related offences. We should realise that if someone commits a crime and is from a certain cultural or ethnic community then they should still be sent to jail if the offence is an affront to UK justice and law. We recently saw the grooming of young girls by Asian men in South Yorkshire. It took so long for them to be convicted because we thought that it would have been seen as racism. http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/3576/full

I find it horrendous how some of the Asian community allowed young girls to be deprived of their education, liberty and dignity. There are stories of teenage Asian girls in this country having children at the age of 14 as a result of forced marriage. If this was a cultural practise, is this still justifiable? Forced marriage often leads to  beating of the woman in the marriage. I have heard stories of women having their necks broken by their husbands in forced marriages.

I am half Asian and I know people in my family who have accepted arranged marriages. Arranged marriage is completely different from forced marriage. Arrange marriage requires the consent of the people who are getting married. The people who are getting married should be able to call all of the shots all of the time because it is their life that will be affected.

Forced marriage is not a cultural practise. It is the bullying and suppression of young girls by their families and husbands. Nobody should have to face this abuse. I am angry that forced marriage has been called a cultural practice. 

Letter To Iain Duncan Smith

Dear IDS,
I want to register how angry and dismayed I am that you want to close down the Remploy factories.

I cannot believe that as work and pensions minister, with unemployment over 2.5 million, you are voluntarily throwing over a thousand people out of work - especially this group of disabled people, who you know have little chance of getting another job.

How can you justify closing British factories and putting disabled people on benefits like this? The people who work for Remploy are proud of being able to contribute to our economy and our society, and you will be ruining lives if you go ahead with this move.

The workers want you to meet them at their factory in Barking near your constituency, and I wanted to join the call to pass their message on. You can arrange a time with the factory manager John Severn. His email address is john.severn@remploy.co.uk, or his phone number is 0208 507 5820.

Vulnerable people should not be part of your Tory ideology of shrinking the state. There are business models and business opportunities that could be adopted to make Remploy profitable. One has to ask why you are so insistent in shutting Remploy down.

Yours sincerely
Maelo Manning

To readers: This letter can be found at http://www.uniteforoursociety.org/page/speakout/remploy-speakout?js=false&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=20120529saveremployfb&source=20120529saveremployfb.
Please show your support as liberal democrats and sign it.

Postcards from the Land of the Disabled