Yesterday I was at a terrifying meeting, Truly frightening.
Just like in any good horror film the real terror is in the minutes (unintended pun) before the monster emerges and the cliffhanger ending.
On BBC iPlayer there is a Panorama programme about life on an impverished estate in Blackburn. It was especially interesting to me as I am continuing to read Amartya Sen and seemed to be a perfect example of what he terms cabability deprivation. In many ways the people were not badly off - much better off than many in poorer nations - they had largish houses with small gardens, big screen TVs, washing machines and other such things. If one looked at the consumer goods on display in the film and ignored everything else I think you would have to conclude that these people were averagely well off in UK terms, and extremely well of compared with the rest of the world.
But if one then looks at the people and listens to what they are saying then the picture changes and the poverty and misery of their lives is only too obvious.
It would seem to be as Sen suggests, income alone does not raise people out of poverty - though it may do much to alleviate it.
A fog of despair and lack of purpose seemed to hang over the whole estate.
I don't want to write about this at length, but I would be interested to know if anyone else has seen the programme and what they thought.
And what you think of Sen's argument, if you read it.
Happy,happy, joy, joy!
I have had postcards from both Madison and Brooke.
Madison is still at her own (Madison) university, and despite fighting the US healthcare system is doing well and somehow managing to study and lead a wildly debauched student lifestyle at the same time.
Brooke is back in Jakarta fighting the Indonesian Immigration Office and bureaucracy in general while spending her spare time in the seedy underworld of Indonesian pigeon fancying. Huge amounts of money flies about with the birds.
They both continue to set a good example to elderly folk like myself.
Crawl…
He drags himself along the floor
- to reach a drink of water –
then with a delicate precision
picks up a sunflower seed
and strips it of its shell.
I watch him eat…
and a high wave of empathy
sweeps in and drenches me to the skin;
picks me up and throws me on the shingle.
It seems here are some feelings that cannot be expressed in words,
or the silent signs and symbols of emotion.
Some kind of flash or spark in the mind.
And watching this old half-blind
brown rat I suddenly experience
a momentary flare of understanding.