The thirteen changes I would make to improve our world might not appeal to all and they might upset one or two people, but I want to say, at the beginning that I am neither particularly religious nor particularly political. If I had to pigeonhole myself, it would be left wing, but not radically so. Some of these changes are light-hearted, but some are more serious.13: National “non-service” for young offenders.
In the UK, we seem to be experiencing a huge upsurge in violent crime and gang-culture among youths. Drugs are much more of an everyday experience than they ever were. Anti-social behaviour orders (dished out to persistent young offenders) don’t work. They are treated as badges of honour. Prison time doesn’t work. You here teenage murders laughing about the fact that they will be out when they are in their thirties and will then still be able to lead the life they chose.
Many people have said that we should reintroduce National Service and conscript these teenage menaces, but I don’t think I agree with that. I remember hearing a radio debate on the subject and one soldier called in and commented that if he was going into battle, the last thing he would want would be to have an unwilling conscript next to him. That got me to thinking. A problem we have at the moment is a lack of volunteers for National Service. If the training regime for the armed forces is generally about two years anyway, why not conscript these social-rejects into the training program and when the two years is up, they can chose to join-up or not. The discipline and sense of teamwork that the training would instil could have an extremely positive influence on the children that would only help them reintegrate into society.
12: Ban celebrities with no talent
I am sick to death of seeing the likes of Paris Hilton or the latest winner of the reality show “X-Treme toenail clipping on ice” constantly appearing on the TV, Papers and Internet. I’ve no problem with celebrities on the whole, but I’m sick of these no-talent wasters distorting the perception of fame. You should only be famous and on TV if you’ve got proper talent. Everyone else – just f-off.
11: Z-List Battle Royal Island / Reality TV.
With point 12 in mind, I would like to see all non-talented celebrities who don’t voluntarily drop out of the spot-light forcibly relocated to an island somewhere in the south pacific. On this island, they would fight to the death for the TV cameras in a PPV reality TV extravaganza. This would be the only reality show allowed on TV – with the exception of proper talent shows. All proceed from this show would go to some kind of cultural investment, like making more museums, art galleries etc accessible and interesting to children. This would help heal the wounds in our culture that have been inflicted by these hollow shells of people.
10: All sexual displays on TV must be after the watershed.
I’ve said that I’m not a religious man, and I wouldn’t call myself particularly conservative, but I am a father of two young girls. I really struggle to be fair with my kids. I’m a huge music fan and I’m please that my girls are as well, but when I see my 7-year-old daughter shaking her ass like a dancer in a rap video, I draw the line. I don’t let them watch mtv, purely because of that sort of thing, but her friends at school do. She doesn’t understand why its inappropriate (although I try to explain), because she doesn’t “get” all of that yet (thank goodness), but she’s copying her friends. Children are growing up too quickly these days. I’m a realist, and I know you can’t ban children from watching TV as they will become social pariahs at school, but over recent years, it seems that society has lowered it’s standards of what is acceptable for young children to see.
9: Green cars for all.
I would bring in legislation that all automotive manufactures must offer a “green”, realistically priced alternative in all class of vehicle that it produces. The technology is obviously there, but few companies are actively doing anything with it. All companies must produce aggressively market these environmentally sound alternatives
8: More stringent welfare state.
Again, I’m absolutely not right-wing in my views, but I am sick and tired of the people who actively seek to exploit the welfare system because they are too lazy to work or because they think they can make out of it. Disability benefit should be for the people who are prevented from working because they are physically or mentality disabled and have no choice in the matter. It should not go to people who are fat. It should not go to people who have decided that they can make more money by having a ridiculous number of children and then claiming housing and child benefit. If you’re “disabled” because you’re obese, you should have to go to a “fat camp”. Food and board provided, and you’re not released until you’ve lost enough weight that you’re no longer deemed “disabled”.
7: Tighter immigration laws.
Any one setting up life in a new country (not just the UK) must surely be able to contribute to that society. They must learn the language and must be able to work. Why should we allow people to come into a society that have no intention of contributing to it via tax. Many immigrants move to the UK because they get more benefits here than they would back “home”.
6: Less pressure on young school kids.
As a father of young children I see that today’s educational system places an enormous amount of unnecessary pressure on children of a very early age. Yes education is important, but so is having fun. A five year old (my daughter) should not get her work book handed back to her with the teachers only written comments: “Check your grammar”. No positive reinforcement or anything. For crying out loud, she’s five years old!
5: To sue or not to sue.
People should only be allowed to sue if someone can categorically prove that they have been physically handicapped, or absolutely lost a large amount of money due to the actions of a company or individual. I’m fed up of hearing the “I’m suing because he looked at me funny and this caused me mental anguish” bollocks. This is another example of how people are expecting far more to be handed to them on a plate. People don’t think they should work for anything any more.
4: Put the competition back in sports for kids.
More and more we are seeing a society that is trying to overprotect our children from certain things. I know, you may think I’m contradicting some of my earlier points now, but I’m not. One of the things where I think we’ve gone too far is that many sporting activities run by schools, local government etc are moving toward a “there is no loser” approach. At a young level, sports day at school now only consists of non-competitive activities like everyone has to try and work together to get a big sheet off the ground. Now, this sort of thing is fine, and I see the benefit, but you are taking away valuable life lessons by not letting children compete. For crying out loud, let them race each other. In a game of football, there is a winner and a loser. I remember hearing another radio show debating this, and a guy that ran a youth football team said that the local authority had deemed that the teams did not win or lose. If one team scored more goals than the other, it didn’t count for anything. They just played the game for a period of time and then stopped. Ridiculous. I’m not one of those guys that pushes his children to win at all costs – far from it. I believe that participation is the most important, but you can’t take the edge out of competing. That’s pathetic.
3: History.
All children (and adults) should have a greater appreciation of what has gone before us. How we got to where we are and who was responsible for this. Half of the generation below me seem to think that the country simply appeared in a puff of smoke in the 1980’s.
2: No war, unless we have to.
If a dicator is massacring the countries helpless innocents. Yes. If a country is trying to massacre our people. Yes. War over natural resources that we can find “green” alternatives to. No. War because another country told us to. No. War because it helps someone win an election. Hell no.
1: Pay for those that deserve it.
A football player earns over £100000 a week. A nurse earns £12000 a year. A fireman earns about £30000 a year. A policeman about £25000 a year. A celebrity magazine pays an ex-popstar from the 90’s and his model girlfriend ten of thousands of pounds for exclusive wedding photos. Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous. Goverments must find a way to balance this. These people that earn ridiculous money for “not a lot” should be made to suppliment the wages of those who save our lives and protect our families
Well that’s it for my first Thursday 13. Let me know what you agree with, disagree with, or even if you think I’m a complete wanker.
Steve
written by kamiza
