29 October 2016

People count?!

People count money, and money has power, but what happens when the money is counted for you and power is not yours?


By the time I had had breakfast today I'd enjoyed more privilege than most. I woke in a warm bed, my husband brought me tea, I sat quietly in pjs checking twitter while he made bacon and eggs - a decision we made as we lay in bed! Later I enjoyed a hot shower, a stroll around the garden. We talked about what to do and decided  what to eat over the weekend...

I imagine many would not see this as a hugely impressive or mentionable weekend morning... yet, I was aware that by the time breakfast was over I had enjoyed more freedom than many. Shocked, probably not, humbled, certainly! Without sounding too whiny, the longer trip to get to today hasn't been plain sailing, but I am not unaware of the huge privilege I enjoy. I can make decisions, and live a little when the mood takes me, safe in the knowledge that within boundaries my choices are extensive.

For those less fortunate, the hour they wake, the food they eat, the clothes they wear, the time they bath or shower, the day's activity, the people they talk to, may be decided by others. For those most fragile, most hurt, and most beaten by life circumstance, even the option of toast or cereal hangs on someone else's say so. No eggs or bacon when someone else decides how much and how often you get money. Gone is the cushion, the bounce, that allows a little treat on weekends. I'm not talking champagne or truffles here, just bacon or eggs? Dare I say both!?

I'm grateful...  I'm angry... I'm ashamed... I have passion

It's laughable to say we live in a civilised society, when I know just miles away people go about daily life without freedom, choice, dignity or respect. While people are struggling, losing their sanity, because they have little choice and ever reducing options.  While others are overworked and paid very little for trying to support them, often without praise, understanding or recognition for the inequality they have to negotiate daily. Most care workers straddle delicate personal boundaries while operating in a messy system – one based on archaic foundations.

Meanwhile, others abuse their privilege. Those in power lie, cheat, and carry on in undignified ways. In today's news: tax avoidance, bad governance, ill-conceived policy, ill-spent riches... people with unearned advantage are violating laws, making choices so many are denied, while denigrating each other in ways that shame ... I haven't even touched on crime, violence, rape and torture. I felt ill reading the tale of how a government department is allegedly seeking manipulate the news.

These are all reasons why my research is important to me. I thank Prem Sikka, who reminded me this week that research can be a tool to unveil injustice and seek out the corrupt. That being an older student has its uses. While I need to go out there, I have been engaged in the world for years. My life might not be within a recognisable revolution as Bourdieu's was, or as bonkers as Foulcault's, but I have shared it with many professionals across many communities of practice. 

I hope my work serves. I hope the stories I've heard, and the telling I've shared, will help me be respectful author. An ethical player on the wider world stage. Too often I've heard some talk about their work as an individual possession. It was wonderful to be reminded that methods, as well as findings, can used - shared - for the greater good of society.  

While I observed great depravity in the news this week, I'm grateful to say it stands at odds with the ideas of the research community I’ve found a home in.  The big stories seem stuff of Grimm's tales, but thankfully they are not the reality of most ordinary storytellers...  




22 October 2016

The revenge of rough puff!

Today I took time out from writing a PhD related piece to make puff pastry .... not a huge thing really, a brief reprieve from overbearing complexity. Memories from school floated back... 

I do remember being chased around the school fete by my home economics teacher: Wendy Jones!!  She'd been trying to catch me, to let me know that I'd passed my term exam. "I can't understand!" She cried, obviously perplexed, ”I counted 4 times, and you still came top??" Well, it was the eighties, unconscious bias hadn't been invented, and the crippled child was expected to come bottom. Later that term she announced to my mother, at a parents' morning full of otherwise glowing praise, that I'd probably struggle to get through life ... because, and I quote: "she'll never be able to make rough puff pastry!"  It wasn't so much the condemnation, or the profound stupidity of the comment, but the cheerful glee in which she asserted her superiority. To this day, I truly wish my mum had lamped her one. Rather than wait and express her dismay later: "I should have told her I always buy the F-ing stuff!"

I am relieved to say she never put me off cooking. Pastry, bread, jam, curry!! I love the physicality of the science. I'm not a tidy cook, I am not the best or most accomplished cook - but love it! I do!! When my studies have scrambled my mind, an hour chopping and mixing takes me to a happy place. I smirk when I think back! I feel rough puff is a poor marker of success.    


I wonder what Mrs Jones would say about what I have done to dates! [pun intended!!]