Bothered and Bewildered

When we are bothered and bewildered it is doubly important that our thinking and reflecting are courageous and honest. And in particular it is necessary to avoid two ‘quasi’ intellectual habits:

• The assumption that it is possible to impose solutions on people as a method of rekindling hope. Virtuous behaviour cannot be enforced. Whilst people might be forced to behave well, virtuous behaviour, enforcement does not foster hope that can counter dismay.
• The habit of thinking in terms of ‘them and us’: the raw theology of video gaming – that things get screwed up by the fact we’re people, leaves no room for distancing analyses that put the blame on some and ignore the culpability of others. Solzhenitsyn noted how the dividing line between good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being, and this reality allows for no exemption. Christian theology does not divide the world into ‘bad guys’ and ‘us’; rather we are all in need of a saviour

Bothered and Bewildered, Enacting Hope in Troubled Times

Ann Morisy, Continuum 2010 page 5

 

 

Elizabeth Fry

  

Elizabeth Fry (nee Gurney) was born in 1780 into a well-to-do Quaker family in Norwich.  As a child she did not enjoy the Quaker meetings and made her delicate health an excuse for missing them.  Later Elizabeth became one of the Plain Friends whose religious observance was very strict: they dressed plainly and refused to join in with dancing and singing.

Elizabeth married a banker, Joseph Fry, who was the partner in Gurney’s Bank.  She entertained as the wife of a wealthy businessman and helped him through financial crises, which drastically changed their lifestyle.  Elizabeth bore eleven children.  But it was her voluntary work in prisons that she is remembered for.

A visiting fellow-Quaker showed her the conditions in which women prisoners were kept in Newgate prison.  Newgate was a prison which held both men and women awaiting trial, sentencing, execution, and transportation.  Elizabeth found women and children living and dying in conditions of horror, filth, and cruelty.  She resolved to do something about it. 

Firstly, she visited the prisons and encouraged other middle class women to do so, overcoming official opposition and setting up education classes for women.  She was ahead of her time in the way she treated the prisoners as human beings.  Elizabeth did not impose discipline on them but instead proposed rules and invited the prisoners to vote on them, and she put an educated prisoner in charge.

Secondly, Elizabeth told people in the outside world about prisons.  She used her connections in high places to good effect (despite her religious principles she enjoyed high society).  Both Florence Nightingale and the young Queen Victoria admired Elizabeth for her compassionate exercise outside the home.  She was the figurehead of philanthropic endeavour in this country and today is regarded as one of the early feminists.  In 1835, she testified before the House of Commons Parliamentary committee, established to investigate “The State of Gaols in England and Wales.” Elizabeth also spoke before a House of Lords Select Committee in the same year.

 

Elizabeth was the first penal reformer to devote her attention solely to the plight of imprisoned women.  Her ideals for penal reform were based on the precepts of the Society of Friends (Quakers).  Quakers emphasised personal, paternalistic means of correction, and their main instrument of reform was religion.  Although nineteenth century Quaker doctrine and practice did not allow women a complete role in religious activities, the doctrine of direct inspiration made it possible for women to become ministers.  Long before her work in prisons, Elizabeth had become a minister of considerable renown, noted for her “peculiar gift of exhortation.” In 1797, Elizabeth wrote, “I love to feel for the sorrows of others.”

It is significant that the initial concerns of Elizabeth centred on the children and not the women prisoners.  She, unlike other early visitors, tended to concentrate on the behaviour of women rather than their moral corruptness.  Whatever her initial conceptions of the women were she soon began to see them in a different light.  In 1817, she wrote, “Already, from being like wild beasts, they appear harmless and kind.”  From the initial focus on convict children, Elizabeth quickly sought to improve the physical conditions for the women.

“We long to burn her alive,” wrote the Reverend Sydney Smith in 1821 of Elizabeth, “Examples of living virtue disturb our repose and give birth to distressing comparisons.”  When Elizabeth started her work she frightened many people with her frankness about a subject most would rather have left un-discovered.  As she progressed, the opposition to her dwindled.  The Lord Mayor of London even demanded a tour of Newgate Prison so that he could see the good work she was doing for himself.

One of the first steps towards Elizabeth’s aims was the formation of the Association for the Improvement of the Females at Newgate.  The Association comprised Elizabeth, a clergyman’s wife, and eleven members of the Society of Friends.  The General Aims of the Association were,

“to provide for the clothing, the instruction, and the employment of these females, to introduce them to knowledge of the holy scriptures, and to form in them as much as lies in our power, those habits of order, sobriety, and industry which may render them docile and perceptible whilst in prison, and respectable when they leave it.”

Newgate was transformed through the changes introduced by the Association.

With the early success of Newgate behind her, Elizabeth set out in 1818 to tour gaols in England and Scotland to establish other Ladies’ Associations.  In 1825, Elizabeth published her short but influential book, “Observations of the Siting, Superintendence and Government of Female Prisoners.” Unlike other early reformers, Elizabeth provided the concrete, explicit detail for operating penal regimes.

The driving force behind Elizabeth can be summed up in these words which she used to tell a fellow Quaker her feelings on Newgate Prison in 1813 after her first visit to the prison.

“All I tell thee is a faint picture of reality; the filth, the closeness of the rooms, the furious manner and expressions of the women towards each other, and the abandoned wickedness, which everything bespoke are really indescribable.”

 

 

Pensioner Poverty

This shocking news report should move us all into some action:

 

Reform of the pensions and benefits system is urgently needed to tackle pensioner poverty in the UK, which is among the worst in Europe, campaigners said today.

The call for action came after European commission statistics showed that 30% of over-65s in the UK were living on incomes far below the national average. That was the fourth highest level in Europe, according to the figures, with pensioners in Romania, where 19% fell below the poverty threshold, among those faring better than in the UK.

Only pensioners in Cyprus (51%), Latvia (33%), and Estonia (33%) came out worse. The EU average was 19%.

The figures came ahead of the work and pensions committee’s review of government efforts to tackle pensioner poverty, which is due to be published on Thursday.

Michelle Mitchell, charity director for Age Concern and Help the Aged, said the report demonstrated that even in the years of growth before the recession, many older people were being left behind.

“In a country where the richest have incomes five times higher than the poorest, older people are disproportionately bearing the burden of this inequality,” she said.

“To lift millions of pensioners out of poverty and prevent this situation from getting worse in the future, this government and the next must find a more effective system to ensure benefits reach those who need them and meet the existing commitment to reform the pension system by 2012.”

Recent research by the charity showed that one in five people aged 60 and over were skipping meals to save money on food, while two-fifths were struggling to afford essential items.

The EU study found pensioners in the Czech Republic were least likely to be living in poverty, with 5% below the threshold of an income of 60% of the national median.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “It’s absolute nonsense to suggest this government is not committed to pensioners.

“Measures such as pension credit and winter fuel payments mean that even the poorest pensioners in the UK are still better off than the poorest pensioners in other countries.

“In 1997 our pensioners’ income was well below the European average. Today their income is nearly 10% higher than the EU average.

“Even the poorest pensioners in the UK are better off than the poorest pensioners in France or Germany.”

 

The Speaker

The Speaker

(BBC 2 14^th April 2009 8 – 9pm)

 

What makes for a good speech? How do those of us who are tasked to speak become better (more convincing) speakers? What is a significant speech?

Young people from across the country are gathered together and offered an opportunity to speak in various places. They are given the chance to offer pre – prepared pieces and then put into large arenas to speak on a variety of subjects without notes or period of preparation.

There is a great range of styles and cultural and educational backgrounds. There is an extraordinary range of personalities but they share enthusiasm and a desire to communicate. What happens to us when under pressure? What do we need to prove?  Can an introvert, filled with self doubt make a good speaker?

And what about the audience? Can we keep their attention? Can we illuminate, challenge, convince, amuse, change and enthuse?

And the message? What gives us the energy to want to fire ourselves and others with some conviction?

The programme opens up a range of fundamental questions about communication and especially the necessity for us all to find a voice. Good and challenging television.

 

How can I help?

 

In the super market the other day I glimpsed an older man guiding his frail wife around the aisles – the scene touched me in a very profound way. What amazing things emerge when we open our eyes and our hearts.

Perhaps we all have an impulse to care when faced with others in need. Whether we translate that impulse into action depends on how we deal with soem of the barriers to our natural impulse to care.

Spiritually grounded caring comes from compassion and not pity.

In this respect I have found this reflection helpful:

Compassion and pity are different. Wheres compassion reflects the yearning of the heart to merge and take on some of the suffering, pity is a controlled set of thoughts designed to assure separateness. Compassion is the spontaneous response of love; pity, the invlountary relflex of fear.

Who are we to ursleves and to oneanother? – it will all come down to that. Will we look within? Can we see that to be of most service to others we must face our own doubts, needs, and resistances?

Ram Dass and Gorman  How Can I help ? Knopf 1995

What hope for a more compassionate world? It starts with us.

 

Morals and Money……

I thought this worth reading as world leaders gather today

in London

 

Interview with Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme ahead of G20 summit

Tuesday 31 March 2009

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams spoke with Jim Naughtie on Radio 4’s ‘Today’ program about the moral impact of the recession, ahead of the G20 summit in London. Listen to the interview & read the transcript.

Jim Naughtie:

Well as the G20 leaders start to arrive in London for their summit and the wrangling begins over the precise wording of the communique that they’ll issue when it’s over, what is the nature of their task? They want to get the banks lending obviously, help businesses to stabilise themselves. Hold out some hope that the recession may be shorter and not as deep as people have come to fear. But according to some there is a moral challenge too. It is a moment, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury, for example, to re-affirm commitments to the poorest people in the world and to give attention to the state of the planet that will be handed on to future generations. Dr Rowan Williams is with us, good morning Archbishop.

Archbishop of Canterbury:

Good morning

JN:

What is the nature of the moral challenge they face?

ABC:

Commitments have been made. The Millennium Development Goals I think provided a really important focus over the last few years for the responsibility of the developed nations to the less developed ones. This is no time to think of alibis for that because there is no economic problem that is just local in our world. We’ve already seen growth rates slowing down in Africa. It’s estimated that perhaps as many as over 50 million people could be in absolute poverty in the next few years – so I think that has to be at the top of the list this week.

JN:

Do you see any evidence that the leaders collectively are thinking in those terms?

ABC:

I hear quite a bit around the place from some individual leaders who seem to be very clear about this. The Prime Minister has said certain things about this, the Prime Minister of Australia has been very clear about it. I think that will be there in the discussion.

JN:

There’s a difficult question here about ‘recession’ isn’t there, because clearly the recession is going to be very bad for many people. People will lose their jobs, businesses will go down, people will find life more difficult. On the other hand, you seem to be among those who say ‘Well, yes that’s all true but it is a useful moment for reassessment’.

ABC:

I’m certainly not saying that this is just a wake-up call and we ought to be glad for the bracing message, not at all. People really are suffering and that’s a major problem. But if we can at least take the opportunity of saying ‘How did we get here? Is this a sensible way to run an economy – is this a sensible way to run a human race? That’s the fundamental question, and that’s why I’d also say with the other faith leaders who signed the letter to the G20 leaders that we can’t lose sight of the connection with the environmental issue as well. If, as someone said, the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment, then again there’s no way of isolating the problem.

JN:

Do you think we’ve become too greedy?

ABC:

I think we’ve become very short sighted. Human beings are always greedy, that’s just par for the course. We have in the last decade or so, allowed ourselves to be lured into tunnel vision – we’ve not seen the signs of coming problems. We’ve thought that there are cost free and risk free kinds of investment, and we’ve wanted a kind of economy where we are so much in control that risk is minimised. The more we go on in that, the more we create these, what somebody called ‘virtual reality economic products’, and the more we lose touch with the actual limits of where we are in the world.

JN:

Do you fear that historically the chances are that once we get through this we’ll just go back in another cycle and there will be another bubble, maybe of the same sort, maybe of a different kind, but a bubble none the less – which in it’s time will burst. We’ll go through a period of hand wringing and introspection and then do the whole thing again.

ABC:

There’s always the risk of that, I think, and that is again part of the human condition. But from time to time it is important to take stock and to say ‘Well, can we at least minimise the damage that’s done to the most vulnerable people here and now, and for the foreseeable future’.

JN:

There’s another argument running through this, which is the one we heard from the parents of Jimmy Mizen – the boy who was killed in South London – in the studio the other day, and they talked, obviously, of their heartache. But they also spoke of a society which they thought had changed in their lifetimes, and that had become angrier, more violent, and more divisive in some kind of fundamental way, and was approaching a point from which they feared there mightn’t be a return to the kind of society that they would want to see. Do you share that alarm?

ABC:

I think they’ve put their finger on an anxiety that’s very widely felt, and to some extent I would share it. The sense that we’ve got a culture where the expression of immediate emotion, and the going with immediate instinct is the first thing. People don’t seem to be scrutinising their emotions, their desires in the way that one would like to think mature people do, very often. And the prevalence of casual violence in the streets, especially in the streets of this city, is certainly an aspect of that. I think we have somehow to recover a sense of what it is to be ‘a grown up’ almost, what it is to be able to look at ourselves with clarity. To value courage, fidelity – all those classical virtues, and rediscover something of what it is to be human.

JN:

We live in a moment where there is a great of cynicism around, particularly, let’s just take the issue of MPs pay – not in detail but as a question. A lot of people around Westminster say there may be something wrong with the allowances system, some people may have played the system in the wrong way, it does need to be cleaned up but the cynicism that it engenders – perhaps for some good reasons, is really corrosive in the long term.

ABC:

I agree entirely. I think cynicism is one of the worst things that can afflict a society. Scepticism, the capacity to ask tough questions and not allow people to get away with things is healthy in a society. Cynicism, which simply assumes the worst and assumes that there’s nothing you can do about it except throw blame around in an endless kind of ‘paint-balling riot’ – that’s no use to anybody.

JN:

Which brings a last question to mind: Do people still listen to an Archbishop of Canterbury?

ABC:

Occasionally – they don’t always agree with him

 

Creationism?

Theos has announced Biggest evolution and God survey ever launched today.

Among its key findings, the report reveals that:

• Only 54% of people know that Charles Darwin wrote The Origin of Species (3% believe he wrote The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and 1% think he wrote The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver).
• Only 15% of people know that Charles Darwin was a self-described agnostic towards the end of his life (20% think he was an atheist).
• 42% of people believe that evolution presents some challenges to Christianity but that it is possible to believe in both.

The research also canvassed people across the UK about the origins of human life and found that:

• The East has the largest proportion of people in the UK who believe that the theory of evolution removes any need for God (44%)
• Wales has the largest proportion of theistic evolutionists (the belief that evolution is part of God’s plan – 38%).
• Northern Ireland has the highest proportion of people who believe in Intelligent Design (16%) and Creationism (25%).

 

Bringing Dementia out of the shadows

 

It is easy to knock the Government and I wonder sometimes if any of us really understand the complex and demanding nature of modern governance?

Today I want to commend the Governments excellent initiatives around Dementia. Let me remind you about the plans. The ambition is to set up memory clinics in every town in England.

The clinics will be set up in every English town and doctors will get extra training to recognise early signs, the health secretary is expected to say.The government’s five-year dementia strategy for England is in response to rising numbers of dementia sufferers. The condition affects some 700,000 people in the UK – a figure that looks set to double in the next 30 years.

It is predicted that by the next generation dementia could cost the economy £50bn a year.Although there is no cure for the condition, early intervention can help people live independently for longer.Campaigners welcomed the plans but warned the strategy’s success would depend on adequate funding. It is not yet clear how much the measures would cost, but ministers are confident that the project will be funded, and say the new clinics will ultimately save the NHS money.

Care Services Minister Phil Hope said early diagnosis was key to improving the live of people with dementia, and their families.He said: “It takes on average three years after the disease begins for people to be diagnosed, partly because of the stigma and also a lot of GPs are not trained to spot the early ns.”If you get early diagnosis and early intervention it improves the patient’s quality of life, so we are talking about a major roll out of memory clinics. There will be a memory clinic in every town.”

He said the clinics would be “one-stop shops”, offering expert assessment, support, information and advice to those with memory problems and their carers.The clinics could be housed in hospitals, GP surgeries or in the high street, and patients could refer themselves, he added.

As well as improving diagnosis, the clinics will aim to raise the profile of dementia and improve the quality of treatment.Every hospital and care home should have a senior clinician with special responsibility for dementia care to ensure that the needs of people with dementia are addressed, the strategy will say.

In 2007 about 70% of GPs in England had access to a local memory service to which they could refer patients.Within a generation, dementia will affect 1.5 million people in the UK, costing our economy £50 billion each year; yet dementia research still receives eight times less government support than cancer research.

We need a commitment to a major increase in research funding if we are to defeat dementia once and for all.

This is an excellent start and we should support it.

 

Uncertain Financial Times?

In these curious and uncertain times I found this wisdom:

Ethics will be the best long-term investment

• John Reynolds
• The Observer,

 

 

I started working in ‘the City’ nearly 20 years ago. I have seen, especially over the past five years, some very major investment banks engage in behaviour that is certainly unethical and only legal because it exploits obvious loopholes. There are individuals I have come across with whom I wouldn’t work, and feel uncomfortable if I am in the same room.

Extremely aggressive and barely legal trading has been very profitable but was always high risk. I have argued, with the government among others, for tighter regulation of debt trading and credit ratings. Unfortunately, when markets have been performing well and investment banks have driven economic growth, being a Jeremiah has resulted in, at best, being ignored and more often being cold-shouldered. When markets collapse, it’s too late.

If ‘the City’ ever existed as a common-minded group of people, it certainly does not today. There are some greedy slimeballs, some of whom the Archbishop of York has quite reasonably called bank robbers. There are also people who are principled and generous. Many major charities benefit significantly from support from investment bankers and hedge fund managers, some of whom are unstintingly generous with both time and money.

Most of the senior bankers with whom I have dealt have been principled. However, most have also been focused on delivering targets for this year and at most the next three years. To prioritise ethical decisions this year – effectively giving up profit and pay – requires bankers to care about the very long-term future of their banks. I don’t know precisely how long most investment banking chief executives stay in their jobs, but I expect it is about three years – too short to worry about long-term prospects if shareholders will fire you for failing to live up to your competitors for one year. If investment banking is to be reformed, banks will need to change their approach from a narrow definition of compliance and risk management to one of genuine ethical scrutiny: out with the compliance officers, in with the moral philosophers. But, other than in a major downturn, an individual investment bank will find that if it loses out on more and more opportunities by taking ethical decisions, its best staff will just be poached by more successful competitors. Ethics is the best proxy for long-term decision making – but can only be imposed on all investment banks from the outside.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has criticised ‘trading of the debts of others without accountability’ and compared unfettered belief in the market with fundamentalism. The mistakes made in the past – the collapse of Enron in 2001, the dotcom boom and bust, the Russian banking crisis in 1997 – have been repeated, implausibly soon.

To avoid repeating them again, we need regulators (the FSA and the Treasury) and to be more interested in understanding markets and less interested in bureaucracy. We need politicians to be less in awe of money and less influenced by the seemingly munificent gestures of companies seeking to show they aren’t just greedy bastards (when in fact they are). Above all we need more individuals to make a stand. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York should go further and call for more Christians to work in the city. ‘I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.’ (Matthew 10:16).

• John Reynolds is chief executive of Reynolds Partners, an independent investment bank, and chairman of the Ethical Investment Advisory Group

 

Retirement?

This may raise a smile! James Woodward thinking about retirement…. well in a theoretical sense you understand! I have to speak at a leveson Centre conference about my aspirations relating to retirement and write to ask for any advice via this page.

I remember one observation about people who read autobiography. Those who read you are not saying ‘Tell me about you’ – rather they are saying ‘Tell me about me using you as a mirror!’

What does retirement look like from this angle? A person in their 40s with at least 25 useful working life left in them? Here are some random thoughts ;

• Most of our life is an extraordinary combination of  accidents and idiosyncracies
• How do we decide what is important – our vocations, philosophies, passages and passions?
• Does life control us or do we control life?
• How much choice might I have over this second stage of my life?
• What hope is there for being less busy?
• How do we cope with whatever comes?
• Transitions are important!
• Good health is grace as well as a matter of works!
• We all need to take longer walks!
• How do we view our end? Our death? How are we to prepare for it?
• Few things tell less about a person’s being and outlook than her or his age!
• What is our vocation beyond the work role?
• How can we recover dailiness and ordinariness in our lives?
• Where might new friendships be made?
• What is our community – the place or places where we belong?
• What do we live for beyond the self – what about our sense of injustice?

If you would like to come to the conference have a look at our web page;

www.levesoncentre.org.uk  

or help me to refine my thinking :

What does retirement mean to you?????