Difference in culture

This is just an observation but young people this side of the world are hugely different to the ones at home. I first noticed it in tween magazines in Hong Kong a girl no older than 12 was posing in a very small swimsuit with huge amounts of make up on. This was my first extreme. Thailand is completely different, I have seen no teenagers on the streets unless they are begging, everyone is very modestly covered with very little skin showing. Even the American’s at the school have taken up this cultural difference its very different to home small western style tops are available but not worn by the locals. I have also noticed there is a lot more respect here for your elders, its crazy how the world evolves in different ways. Its almost fascinating. Another thing I have picked up is no one had the same competitive fighting spirit we have at home things like playing a simple game you cheer and you get a very funny look.

Photo

This is in response to a photo Jon posted a few weeks ago... i thought it was funny, please take note of the small hearts

Gun and knife crime

Last night I watched a program on gun and knife crime amongst Britain’s teenagers, as it appears channel 4 are hosting a series of these programs at 11 each night. What it entailed was members from different youth agencies, the police, councillors, anyone who works with these 'gangs' putting across their experiences to the board, this board was or government officials as far as I’m aware. Watching it I was amazed by the diversity of projects in these local run down areas of Manchester and Leeds, most projects had no funding what so ever and were purely running from the founders own funds. What appeared to me is that it is great there are these projects but none are intertwined, there is no communication between the youth workers and the police this communication was minimal at best and all the different agencies had different approaches to dealing with the problems at hand. This is great but what I want to know is why don’t they all work together, they all have the same goal; they want the young people off the streets so they hopefully are less involved in these 'gangs' the aim is to educate the young people who couldn’t cope with main stream education by putting them on vocational courses; but within this a youth worker was assigned to make sure the young person went. If that course wasn’t suited they would find another this youth worker was out in place as a kinda pastoral role to encourage and support the young person.

As the program showed there are many people of the older generation (by that I mean not of this gang and knife crime generation) who don’t understand, this isn’t just a problem for gangs but most young people, there was one women who proud fully explained that this year she had three young people put in prison for hanging out on the corner of her road (this was seen to her as anti social behaviour and they were issued as ASBO) the sad thing was when asked she couldn’t explain what they had done wrong, her response was "doing the things they do" “ as soon as they stepped foot around that corner I was watching and called the police, I don’t want that trouble”. This got me thinking and slightly angered (I know I wasn’t there so cant really make comment either way) but I think its all to do with lack of education the media has sent the country into a media frenzy all young people are going to mug you. This has been there for years I don’t need to expand, but I think if there was some kind of education for these people maybe one or two steps removed from this new culture they would understand a little more. If there were more community projects to show that not all young people are going harass you, that maybe people would see this generation in a different light. Don’t get me wrong I don’t like the fact Britain’s teenagers are perceived to all be in gangs and in some areas of the country more often than not they are but I don’t think we need to go straight in there are blow up a big stink about it more work something out from the inside, change perceptions rather than telling them they (the young people) need to change as we all know that doesn’t work. And why should they? If it can be controlled and managed no one gets hurt, were you dictated to you what you could and couldn’t do when you were a teenager?

Finally last bit, last year there was huge media coverage of the two young boys stabbed to death by their peers, this is a horrible loss of life and not justifiable at all but I just want to leave you with the thought: How many stabbing do you think there were in total last year (not by young people the total amount more than two?)? and does that mean we still have a huge child knife and gun problem?

Wow a crazy amount of stuff has happened since i last blogged, which seems like years ago...Right now i have finished college for good yay! i had my last exam on thursday boy am i looking forward to a gap in education it has slightly been doing my head in. Now it seems like a waiting game, to see if St Stephens offer me a place to see if my grades will get me into my first choice university or my second at that. its all very crazy so even though education has ended in one sence that i no longer have to go to lessons i still have all the stresses of the next year.

next note, unfortunately i didnt get offered a placement working with youth 180 which is a shame because i got on well with the team but still life goes on, thinking about it by the time i went into my interview i think they had already chosen the candidate as they didnt even ask me anything about working with young people. also a very random point about that day one of thr youth workers i met at the youthwork conference two years ago and at momentum last year, was one of the main team members, small world!
finally 18 Monday !i was thinking about all the 'fun' things you can do when your 18 as everyone makes such a big deal out of it and i was pretty disapointed, ok i can finally buy my own bottle of wine, i can make a bet (great !?!?) i can smoke (again great, if i wanted to i could have done that two years ago) oh and the final one i like but everyone has told me not to do it. Get a Credit card!?!?!?think of the lovely credit rating i would have at the end of it.

anyways over and out!

Question B how would you spend your life?

The following question is one I was given as part of my St Stevens application I thought I would post the answer but this one is slightly different ok quite a lot different by the ideas are the same, this is all a bit raw so some of it may not make sense I thought it I edited it, it would take something out of it a bit.


b. If you had no restraints of time or money, how would you like to spend your life?

If I had no restraints on time or money there are two main project I would love it set up, these two things I feel God has really put on my heart I juts feel at this point in my life its not appropriate. I also feel God has given me a passion (to coin the phrase) for the last least and the lost (personally I don’t like this phrase but I feel it best indicates how I feel in a brief way), I want to spend my time with the people no one else would even think of working with.
In this I have two main ideas of how I could do this, of course they are not set in stone and I don’t know the first thing about how I would go about them but these are the ideas I would develop into my life’s aims.

Firstly I want to set up a ‘church’ (ironic I know) for the spiritually battered and bruised the people who believed and attended church for a time however never fitted the mold and having had a negative experience of Christians, Christianity and church, the people who were left by the way side for what ever reason.(This is the lost). I feel that in today’s Christian culture is all about condemning people they have done wrong we must convert you to boost our church numbers and I hate it I really feel like you should spend your time protecting your existing flock if they are happy they in turn will show a positive refection of Jesus in their everyday lives. Many pastors measure the successes of the church on the attendance numbers the amount of money in the offering bucket each week or the amount of property their own (we aren’t playing monopoly) what ever happened to the days of letting God provide for you, if its of his work the resources will come. I think that the devil is playing a lovely little trick with churches as soon as they buy property they are no longer relying on God they are financially stable, you could put it down to changes in culture it can be put down to a number of things really.

(The last and the least) this ambition of mine is to be reflected in my youth work I feel there are too many young people who are deemed unworthy of support may they be the shy quite one that’s just plodding along therefore isn’t in need of help or the ones who no one wants to work with because they cause too much trouble; I would love it set up a youth group that caters for the needs around it, no strop to big, this in my mind will probably be in a deprived part of the country but at the end of the day that’s up to God and if its his work he will provide directions and the resources. Given the chance to this is how id spend all my life, may it be in the back seat later on watching the seeds I have sown blossom (yuck more cheese than the deli I have) or the front line where does it matter where I am if I’m doing Gods work, its not about personal gain so it doesn’t matter.

So how would you spend your life if you didn’t have constraints on time or money?