This morning Mark, (pictured above on the tractor), Oona, and their two phenomenally wonderful daughters left and we said a teary goodbye. We had a lovely time with them and despite the tears shed at their departure, we have many happy memories to hold on to and look forward to seeing them over here again one day and perhaps teach Isobel a little more french - it’s encouraging to learn that should she ever get a cat she’d like to call him/her “Bonjour”!!
As you can imagine, having had a 3 year old and a 3 month old in the house, it was suddenly eerily quiet and so that we might ease into the void left by my sister and her family, Tony put on BBC’s Radio 2. There’s a part of me that wishes he hadn’t and that I was still completely oblivious to what is going on in the UK right now. Since Saturday, apparently 334 people have been arrested of which 69 have been charged. The youngest person arrested to date is 11 years old! A 26 year old (still un-named) man is the first victim to die of gunshot wounds and the riots continue spreading as far as Liverpool and I understand that people have been left homeless as their homes were set on fire, shops have been destroyed, rioters and looters have been asking people to get out of their cars and then setting them on fire..............at first, I really thought it must be a joke (although not a very funny one). I actually didn’t understand what was happening, why it was happening or how there was any justification to the events as they’ve apparently unfolded.
What worries me most is the fact that there has to be so much anger bubbling away beneath the surface in order for this sort of thing to just errupt and it makes you wonder how these people live when they’re not causing this kind of destruction and devastation. Where are the people who should have given these people the decent start in life that most of us take for granted. I’m not talking about financial security but the parents and the teachers that should be instilling morals and a sense of social responsibility to help form the next generation of decent human beings.
Having just been witness for the past 9 days to the way my sister and her husband are bringing up their 2 daughters - and it’s a joy to witness, they are both spectacular people and parents - I’m not sure how so many of “us” have taken such a wrong turn along the way to create and nurture the people who are now setting fire to people’s homes and livelihoods (many shops and restaurants have also apparently been set on fire - presumably after whatever worth looting has been looted).
It is a sad day indeed and we can simply hope and pray that order is restored but at this point if we’re simply looking to restore order it’s a bit like putting a plaster on a crack in the ground left by a devastating earthquake - if we don’t address the underlying problems it really will only be a matter of time before the rage that is ever present and bubbling away under the surface will erupt once more - I’m not sure I have any sensible suggestions or answers to the problems that seem to be the cause of this recent spate of riots but I can look around my little spot in rural France and give thanks for the tranquility I’m surrounded by, the neighbours that keep giving us vegetables from their garden, the people that live by what we might call ‘old fashioned’ values and I can earnestly hope that those ‘old fashioned’ values come back into fashion soon.
In the meantime, our biggest worry right now (on local and not world terms) is what to do with the courgettes that will be ripening when we head a bit further south next week to visit some good chums (who also have a glut of courgettes) and how we can ensure the veggies get watered in our absence...........
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