NURTURING OUR FUTURE

I am now 72 and three times my wife and I have gone through the real joys of parenthood, family building and encouragement. Like any Briton, irrespective of reservations about hereditary monarchy, I am delighted at the birth of Princess Charlotte, wish her every happiness and earnestly hope she will find a fulfilling role in life.

One-day-old Princess Charlotte (Photo from PA)

Princess Charlotte has been born into a position of extraordinary privilege and will have all she could possibly need materially, the rest being up to her presumably sensible parents. Naturally my thoughts turn to those less fortunate; the many debates and exchanges in the UK general election campaign have hardly touched on existing child poverty and social inequality to the shame of all the political parties.

For Britain is by no means a beacon of perfection when it comes to nurturing and developing her children. In a recent world UNICEF survey of “child well-being” Britain ranked only 21^st – I would have hoped she would be in the top 10.

Deprived children in Britain

Our children need, at least, supportive parents, a sound roof over their heads, decent food, good schools and sound job prospects.  Too often they get ignorant, absentee or abusive parents, squalid housing, junk food, sink schools and a hopeless lifetime on benefit. This is the way to crush, not foster, the aspirations of a new generation.

Britain long had a problem with social inequality and limited social mobility. A famous 1937 photograph contrasting 2 Harrovians with 3 working class boys illustrated the divisions clearly.

Contrasting boys at the Eton-Harrow cricket match at Lord's 1937

Class divisions are much less acute these days but the gap between rich and poor is wide and getting wider. Alarmingly only 6% of those born into the bottom 10% of household incomes can now expect to get into the top 10%, reversing a positive trend flowing until the 1980s. Since then student loans were introduced, very large remuneration packages became common in the financial sector and the wealth of those in the South has been hugely enhanced by a housing bubble bringing serious windfall riches to those who simply own a house. The economy of the North has stagnated.

City workers are generous people but I see no initiative from their leaders to assist or make amends to those of their compatriots who have fared badly while their own behaviour in the economic crisis had almost ruined the nation. The government imposes a bank levy, amid much protest. But where is the voluntary fund, targeted at the British poor, subscribed by banks, insurance companies, financial professionals, fund managers, hedge funds, private equity houses and investment trusts? Poverty in deprived Britain is matched by poverty of imagination in her comfortable money-parlours. Gratitude at their undeserved good fortune is an unpaid debt.

The fate of children in the wider world is far from secure. Natural disasters take a terrible toll and few could fail to be moved by the photo of the destitute 4-year old boy in Nepal protecting his 2 ½ - year old sister.

Human compassion in Nepal

Much worse is the mistreatment of children caused by civil conflicts and the ingrained attitudes of many societies. Thus we see traumatised children dodging death in the ravaged streets of Syria. 

A Syrian boy living amidst horror

The same kind of experience will be common in Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan. Where are the voices raised to give hope to the exploited children in India and Pakistan, working long hours for minimal or zero wages? Who stands up for the girls mutilated by FGM in Africa or those trapped into forced marriages throughout Asia? The future of nations depends on these young people and they are treated as disposable chattels.

Child labour in India

Finally, when will we Europeans rise to the challenge of migration and provide some solution within our own societies? We cannot idly watch on as traffickers allow our fellow humans, including many children, to drown like rats in the Mediterranean. Saving the lives of, and helping to settle these people is perplexing, unwelcome and difficult but it is not some optional extra choice. It is our inescapable human obligation.

SMD

4.05.15

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2015