Disaster

Natural disasters are awe-inspiring things. Far beyond human influence or control, it is hardly a surprise that they have always been credited to (or blamed on) the supernatural.

I've noticed, though, that the way we react to them is changing.

For a start, we find out about more of them, more quickly. March's Tōhoku earthquake hit the news so quickly that cameras were in the air in time to watch the tsunami hit. In years gone by, it would have been hours, days, weeks before we found out about it. During the Christchurch earthquake, shortly before that, tremors were being tweeted before they finished, and people were blogging in between tremors.

The reactions to disasters change as well. From a spectacle distant to us in both time and miles, live updates mean we are aware of more disasters on a day-by-day basis, so sometimes it looks as though they are increasing in frequency, which delights that certain breed of extremist ready to welcome the death of thousands as a sign of The End, or a reason to persecute those who don't follow their own rules (remember how New Orleans was apparently hit by the hurricane as a punishment for harbouring homosexuals?).

On the upside, we can get help to the victims more quickly, although sometimes the nature of that help needs to be more carefully thought out. Although I'm sure the Haitians were delighted with the delivery of 600 solar-powered bibles, I am thoroughly bemused by the assumption of so many churches that the first need of starving, thirsty, homeless people is for a really nice copy of the bible - Massachusetts congregations ordered 5000 French bibles for all those poor victims.

Anyhoo, that's a different rant.

What I'm thinking about right now is the strange connections the internet gives to disasters these days...

• One of the first friends I made on the internet had to evacuate during forest fires in California.
• A friend's sister was caught up in forest fires in Australia.
• An ex-colleague and several iblers were caught in the Christchurch earthquake.
• My wife has family who moved from Hawaii because of the storms. They now live near New York.
• My mother was in Egypt during the last lot of trouble there.
  
• And, of course, there are all the iblers caught in the path of Irene...

What's weird is not that I am concerned for the safety of my friends, of course I am, but that these connection make me, in some small way, a victim of all these disasters as well.

Not that I feel like a victim, but I feel their effects more acutely than I did in the years BI (Before Internet), and, you know what?

Rather than making me feel as though the world is out to get me, rather than making The End look ever closer, it makes me feel somehow more human.

No, I don't fully grok that yet, but I think it's a good thing.

Riots and rights.

I've been wondering how to approach the riots the started in London and spread to other UK cites.

I've worked it out: I'm sorry.

Although hundreds of people were involved, and probably millions of of pounds worth of damage has been done (not to mention the number of innocent families made homeless when mobs looted and torched the shops over which they lived), these people are not typical of Britain.

They show us in a bad light.

OK, so we've had riots in the past, frequently on a much larger scale, but they were riots with a reason. They were mass action against racism or government policy.

These riots stopped being a legitimate protest within a couple of hours.

Since then, they have been purely criminal. Mobs using a false sense of "entitlement" as an excuse to go shopping with a brick.

Nobody can pretend there is a political motivation to a woman caught on CCTV, sitting in a smashed shoe-shop window, trying on the displays.

No sane human can find the actions of the infamous "Bad Samaritans" as anything but abhorrent.

People have been trying to explain the riots, pin blame on something so that a quick fix can be pasted over the cracks and look like something useful.

"It's the internet, blame the social networks" is the most common cry, yet also the weakest excuse. Of course, folk used SMS, Twitter and Blackberry Messenger to get organised, but that's just the modern equivalent of yelling in the streets with a megaphone. Technology wasn't the reason or cause of the riots, just a tool of the criminals.

To me, the problem is deeper than that, and has been worming its way into the social psyche for years.

A sense of "entitlement" has taken over from a sense of social responsibility. People feel they are entitled, not just to being kept fed and sheltered, but to being entertained and pandered to. The acquisition of material goods becomes prioritised over mental and emotional well-being.

As a teacher, I have often heard children and parents declaring that they "know their rights", whilst simultaneously trampling or ignoring the rights of others. These are the same children who misbehave until somebody shuts them up by buying them a new game for the PlayStation, the same parents who think that it is more important to buy an iPhone for their 12 year old than it is to clothe them properly, or to encourage them to read or work hard at school.

Who needs to work for stuff when The Social will provide it anyway? Why should politicians spend their own money, when they can claim for luxuries on expenses?

This all sounds like I am blaming the welfare state, but I'm not. The welfare state, run properly, is a wonderful thing. When I was unemployed, it kept a roof over my head and food in my belly. It provided advice to help me get back on my feet and become independent again.

But, somewhere along the line, that last part has gone missing. People are too eager to take the material stuff, and leave the independent bit to waste away.

There is no quick fix to the causes of these riots, but there is a fix.

It is time to remind people, at every level of society, that for every entitlement, for every right, there is a responsibility.

A responsibility to ensure that everybody has equal access to their rights.

One of the great documents of human history is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The kind of folk who were at the heart of the riots are very keen on appealing to the idea of Human Rights to get their way, but I doubt they have ever actually read them. Shall we do that now?

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Is that what the rioters were doing when they set fire to people's homes? When they robbed Asyraf Haziq?

Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Tell that to the woman who had to leap from a fourth-floor window to escape a fire.
Tell that to the three men mown down and killed by a car, just because they did not want rioters to loot their local shops.

Article 17 (2): No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

And what would looting be?

Article 20 (1): Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

See that important word? "Peaceful". As soon as the original protest stopped being peaceful, the rioters threw away their own rights.

Article 29 (1): Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

Hang on...

See that? I'd bet a year's pay that none of those people hiding behind the banner of "it's my right" have absolutely no idea that one of their "rights" is actually a responsibility to contribute positively to their community.

Part two also implies a responsibility to ensure that public order is maintained to allow society to function.

So, what we, the sane members of society need to do is to ensure that the deeply materialist, "entitlement" driven members of society are educated about the true nature of "rights".

Obviously, schools must do a large part of the work, but the greater part must be done by parents. They must instil in their children a spirit of independence from free help wherever possible, and a respect for the rights of others, including the wider community.

Stop using bribes to buy reasonable behaviour, start rewarding good behaviour instead.

Closed

My school is now closed, all bar the paper work.

I've cleared out my personal belongings, tidied up, and left a hidden graffiti message to be found when they knock it down.

We've had the big party, and a lot of folk (including me) have sobbed on a lot of other folk's shoulders.

But...

I still don't know how I feel about it.

It's such a big, involuntary change in my life, I'm tempted to liken it to a car crash or sudden bereavement. I'll get it straight in my head eventually, but it might take months.

Watch this space.

The Backup Plan

As my (hoards of) readers will know, my career is reaching a crunch-point.

My school is closing down in a few months, and I do not currently have anything for September.

I do, though, have a backup plan.

If I do not get a job in time, I will be starting a business instead.

I will be setting up as a provider of Technology and Science-based enrichment activities to schools in Suffolk and Norfolk, under the name of MakerDay.

It's a different blog, on a different system, with a different email address...

Census

There is a census on the way in the UK, and there are arguments around the net focussing on the question about religion.

Last time, 72% of the population of the UK ticked the box that said "Christian".

However, there are not 45 million people in church every Sunday.

Obviously, people are ticking the box because they think they ought to, or out of habit.

We need a better set of options, to get a better picture of British religiosity.

I propose:

• Actively Christian
• Christian by upbringing only
  
• Actively Jewish
• Jewish by upbringing only
  
• Actively Muslim
• Muslim by upbringing only
  

etc

Along with ...

• Atheist
• Humanist
• Atheist/Humanist
• Don't care about religion
• Other ____________

This will give a much more realistic picture of British religiosity because it will force people to actually think about their answer. They won't sit and think, "Well, I'm not a Muslim, and I'm not Jewish, and I kind of think there's a god, so I'll tick Christian". Instead, they will have to be a bit more honest with themselves.

The answers would be fascinating ...

Rules.

Since my last post, I have investigated further, and the Official UK Indoor rules are twenty pages long.

That's a bit much to expect kids to take in quickly, so I have written a set of "Lite" rules. Please, feel free to circulate them as much as you like.

Indoor Ultimate Frisbee Lite (“Indoor Lite”)

1. The play's the thing: all players and observers must keep to The Spirit Of The Game. Teams shoukd self-referee. If any dispute requires a decision by a bystander or observer, that decision is binding.

2. The game may be played with and disc agreed upon by both team captains.
   

3. Teams of up to 8, with a maximum of 5 players on the field.

4. The game continues for either an agreed length of time, or to an agreed score (for example, “first to five”).

5. Before play, team captains agree the end zones and playing field, and choose ends to defend. An indoor game has no “out of bounds”, and play continues as normal if the disc bounces off walls, ceiling or fixtures in the room.

6. When the opposing team gains possession of the disc, it is called a turnover.

7. Ultimate is non-contact sport – intentional obstruction of, or contact with another player will result in a turnover. If a turnover is the result of a rule-break, the disc is handed to the nearest opposing player.

8. At the start of play, each team gathers in their end zone. One captain throws the disc towards the opposing team. Nobody may enter the playing field until the disc passes the half-way mark.

9. A point is scored when the disc is caught in (or above) the opposing team's end zone.

10. After a point is scored, all players return to their own end-zone, and the player who caught the disc to score the point throws the disc to re-start the game.

11. A player in possession of the disc may not move, but may pivot on one foot. “Travelling” results in a turnover.

12. The player in possession of the disc must throw the disc within five seconds – any near-by player may count to five out loud. Holding the disc past five seconds is a turnover.

13. If the disc hits the ground, possession passes to whichever team did not touch it last – if team A throws it and nobody catches it, team B gain possession. If team A throw the disc, team B block its flight and it then hits the ground, then team A regains possession. If team A throw the disc, but team B catch the disc in the air, team B gains possession and play continues.

14. If two players catch the disc, whoever caught it first gains possession. If two players catch the disc simultaneously, a single round of rock, paper, scissors determines possession.

15. Unlimited substitutions may be made after any point is scored.

House Rules.

Because Indoor Lite can be played in a wide range of venues, typically school gyms or halls, some “house rules” may be developed, such as “if the disc goes through the basket ball hoop, that's a point as well” or “if the disc falls behind the vaulting horse, possession turns over and everybody goes back to their ends to start play again”. Before play begins, any new or visiting players must be made aware of the house rules.

Bruised

Friday morning, I taught a class how to play a tweaked version of Ultimate. I heavily adapted the Quebec City Rules to work in the school gym, with teams of 13.

A few minutes' coaching, a demonstration of the backhand shot, and we were away.

The class' form teacher turned up to see what was going on, and joined a team, so I had to join the other.

Ultimate is supposed to be a non-contact sport, but I got barged, pushed, tackled, even carried across the pitch. So did everybody.

Right now, late on Sunday evening, I ache all over.

It was the most thoroughly enjoyable lesson I have taken since my day in the RM department of my wife's school.

In fact, I have decided to formalise and simplify the Ultimate rules, and start an inter-House tournament at school.

I shall, however, restrict knowledge of the forehand throw to my own House team, though. ;-)

Oh, and my team won, 10-5.