Friday, June 22, 2018

Has the World Cup finished yet?

"Has the World Cup finished yet?" I asked Dave the other day.
"I don't know. I don't think so," came the response.

I don't watch TV news (although we are buying a TV tomorrow - wild excitement!) and I try not to listen to the radio news. I read the news every morning, and I also get a lot of news on Twitter. I find it easier to cope with news in written form. That way I don't have to listen to politicians prevaricating or lying. That way the radio stays safe from having things hurled at it.

But the other day I was listening to The Archers (the world's longest running radio soap - for you guys outside the UK) and there was a scene in the village pub where some men were talking about the World Cup, and I couldn't avoid it.

It made me think. It made me think about people who say casually - "Oh, I'm not interested in politics" in the same way that I say "Oh, I'm not interested in football." They say it as if politics has no bearing on their lives, or the lives of anyone else, as if politics is a minority interest, or a hobby, and not about things like immigration policies that reduce people to poverty and homelessness  - think the Windrush generation; or widespread welfare benefit maladministration and pennypinching that mean 4 million people in the UK use foodbanks; or a policy that snatches tiny children from their parents.

I spent most of Wednesday thinking about the children in cages. I knew about the obscene policy of separating children from parents at the Mexican border before it hit the main headlines in the UK. I first found out about it on Twitter. And when Isaac rang from Colorado on Sunday he told me about a Democrat politician building a coalition to challenge the policy, and about other groups who were fighting it. Since then even some of Trump's fanbase have protested about the policy and Trump has reversed it. 

It is not clear, however, how the children already separated are going to be reunited with their parents. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine a regime that thought it was OK a/ to take children from their parents and b/ not to document everything so carefully that in the future these families could be reunited?

And yet normal life has been going on. This week I have felt like I did when my mother died: "How is it that life is continuing as per usual as if nothing has happened?" 





5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, Sue. I would so like to discuss all this with you but this isn’t the place. Trump and world politics is too big a worry to chew over here. But I am curious: why are you buying a TV?

Anonymous said...

Sorry, should explain my question: I’ve always believed you didn’t have a TV on principle and stuck to watching via an iPad or listening to the radio. Perhaps I was wrong?

Sue Hepworth said...

Oh, not having a telly was nothing to do with principle. When the village went digital we never bought a new one, Dave isn’t at all keen and I thought I’d try without.
We’ve managed for several years, but now I have decided I want one.
However, because of the way today went, we didn’t get one.

Anonymous said...

You missed the rugby, boxing, football..

Sue Hepworth said...

Yes, it a shame about the rugby. A rugby match once every ten years is invigorating.