Whipping Boys

by Sean - impero Fri Sep 23, 2005 19:30 Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth. 087 9739945

I once was a fully qualified teacher but even at the height of my powers in that profession (a long time ago) I would have considered myself ill-equipped for "youth work." Now, when a scheme for training dedicated youth workers has been mooted locally, reactionary forces including members of my erstwhile profession have jumped in (it is whispered) to smother and stifle development.

No-one wants a modern day "Hitler Youth" and regimentation and restriction were too common even in the halcyon days of the 1950’s when nothing was organised around Ardee (where I come from) except street leagues. We all want to see young people healthy, relaxed and happy.

Every individual, young and old, needs free time and their own individual space to develop their own ideas and their own interests. However without even thinking about it it seems obvious that communal activity and organised recreation and formation could undoubtedly help young people in both town and country to lead more fulfilling lives. I am not thinking of anything very elaborate - for example Macra Na Feirme and Bellurgan United AFC have done useful work around here over many years.

No. There is definitely a need for trained youth workers. Training costs money but it is one of the most important arteries of the community and we should be prepared to spend as much money on it as was spent on The Clinton Highway.

I have already castigated my own political party (The Progressive Democrats) for espousing the cause of legislation, police, judges, jails, and courts as the preferred apparatus for straightening out youth behaviour. Candidly I don’t want to spend the remainder of my life in a land where the streets are saturated with police and there is a closed-circuit TV camera attached to every window-ledge and door-post.

Of course we have a Department of Health and Children. It would be an even greater tragedy if the community were to seek the solution for problem youth behaviour (as Sinn Féin seems to want to do) in providing "adolescent beds" and engaging the psychiatrist.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethcis Mon May 02, 2005 22:42

I sure agree, it is not only the young that we need concern ourselves with.

We sure have lots of categories and pigeon holes and glass ceilings now.

I wonder what is the problem with being individual and accepted......

Michelle

by pensionless precarious dwarf with no weekend snow white. - mayday mayday (send a text give em so money put the emergency signal in their servers) Sun May 01, 2005 17:46

the world we (your generation & ours) have inherited is one which systematically puts everyone in their little box.
we live in categories.
of consumption, of purchasing power, of credit card records, of points on the driving license, of library book profiling...
you don't really need to look up at the sky and think you see nerve gas, to know its no laughing matter.
the corporations such as Manpower, Adecco, Randstad and others which specialise in "outsourcing" employment contracts, to further divide the workplace amongst true company workers and the people who guard the doors, clean the toilets, count the bills, serve the coffee, type the letters, have brought us the age of short-contract work.
they have built precarity.
And they need it to survive, they profit on worker insecurity, they thrive on glass ceilings, invisible criteria of worth.
They activily work to undervalue experience over qualification in the cases of older workers, (as perversely they also) undervalue qualification and over-value qualifications in other fields.
These corporations of the "job market", insist on constant worker records, no shirking the task of building that pyramid. They work hand in dirty glove with the corporations that pressure national state governments to accept yet more strategies for control of the unemployed, of those seeking work, of migrants, of prisoners.
They work to create a world of privatised citizens, where everyone is caught in the net of the corporations. That no person may trade outside their system, and all control is held by a tiny minority whose shareholder meetings have more power than national executives, and whose decisions are affored legal protection under the rights our ancestors fought for.
Theirs is not the world of small business.
theirs is not the world of equal opportunity.
theirs is not the truth of job seeking.

Write out your CV! leave it with us, there's a pyramid to build!

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Sat Apr 30, 2005 21:59

Sean

I enjoyed your article.

The quote of Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) really grabs me attention.

For others:
'Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey
where wealth accumulates and men decay'

This bodes an apt warning as Ireland moves forth supposedly to a knowledge economy. Wealth, as the Wall Street Crash in 1929, taught fianciers; investors, property elites; is mercurial and can fade to nothingness. The question is have We learnt!!!

On another note:
Restorative Justice is my theme today. We note that Dr. McDaid, TD, has had his name bandied through the press again. Suffice to say is that his case will be presented to the Courts and the Judge who presides makes a Judgement.

However, given the nature of the charges and given the timing of the Minister for Justice's, Minister McDowell's, onslaught relating to Anti Social Behaviour, maybe it is time to channel people's attention to a more Restorative Justice Path. (I would highly recommend the Irish Council for Civil Liberties website and that of the Irislh Penal Reform Trust).

Back to Minister McDaid. The media have shamed the man enough. Perhaps the Judge would consider another route that might create riples in the Restorative Justice pond and be a learning process in society.

By chance I found this site last night. The coincidence is that The Mediation Bureau is situated in Tallaght and is a Victim Offender Mediation Service. This service receives referrals from the Tallaght and Naas district courts and is managed by an independent board representing the main stakeholders in the Criminal Justice System.

The website: www.extern.org/restorative/Tallaght.htm

Manager Peter Keeley made the following description
'Offenders go through due process and before a final decision is taken by the judge, mediation is used to explore what form of apology, reparation or resolution can be explored and agreed by the victim and offender. The mediators work through this process towards reaching some form of agreement. The service then reports back to the court, where the Judge makes a decision'

Economists speak of Economic value but I tend to personally feel that social value is of signficance and particularly when Judicial sentences have to be made.

The corruption scandals see former Minister like Ray Burke demeaned to imprisonment. A laterally thought out plan could see both economic and social capital enhanced.

The old adage comes to mind
'Justice ought to be seen to be done'

The question here is the effective definition as to what is Just, in these special circumstances.

Sean, I agree with your point about what example are we leading to the young generation......'Young people should not be caged in like circus animals. They should be consulted in every sphere and treated like human beings'

Given the media coverage, it appears that Dr. McDaid's alleged offences, added to his profession, his governmental experience and no doubt life experience, could add greatly to a social capital choice.


Michelle Clarke