UK PM speaks on riots of WEALTH DISPARITY
by judd 2011-08-09 07:21:28

British Prime Minister, David 'silver spoon' Cameron has no idea how the 'other half' live, he is from the well-heeled, insular ruling British conservative establishment; however, he is as were previous PMs before him, extremely familiar with the term "criminality." The UK is currently involved -- with its NATO allies -- in OVERT CHILD and CIVILIAN killing bombings in Libya! Prior to that appalling military intervention, Britain formed with Australia and America the coalition of willing CRIMINALS that illegally invaded Iraq and killed, directly and indirectly, over one million innocent Iraqi civilians and displaced over five million people -- a gruesome mass murdering effort by any historical standard.

Cameron is therefore acutely aware of the definition of CRIMINALITY and how to avoid responsibility for criminal actions. His hypocritical accusations of the London rioters as criminals carries no MORAL weight whatsoever, "pure and simple."

For the LAW to be respected it must APPLY TO ALL, INCLUDING the RULING ELITE -- so, David, blow your double standards out your HYPOCRITICAL arse!

If I were an English toff I would be more worried about my personal safety than in making hypocritical statements. The people have learned their lessons well and seem to be applying what they have learned. LEAD by example if you would lead at all!

If Cameron had any connection with REALITY he would have addressed the REAL problem of the yawning wealth disparity and the horrendous social inequities in British society. But of course Cameron, like Blair before him, is just another errand boy for the real Banking and Corporate elites that temporarily rule the Western world.

http://tinyurl.com/3hcwy4g

[Inequitable] UK Social System Responsible for Youth Riots
by Monique Rossvia stan 2011-08-10 01:28:20

A British youth worker says the country's social system needs to shoulder some of the blame for the riots that erupted on the streets of London.

Hundreds of people have been arrested after four days of chaos and looting, and smaller-scale riots have spread beyond London to cities including Manchester.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, who has spent decades working with poor and disenfranchised youth, told ABC Radio National the mayhem was unacceptable.

But while admitting there is a degree of opportunism in the riots, she says there are social factors underlying the violence that cannot be ignored.

"This didn't happen out of the blue. There wasn’t something toxic in the water that suddenly turned all these individuals into crazy people. This was brewing for a while," she said.

"[Young people say] this is their revenge and they feel empowered by holding, in effect, governments and other people morally hostage... they’re doing what they want without regard for others because they feel they've been disregarded for years."

Ms Batmanghelidjh, who founded charities The Place To Be and Kids Company, says many disadvantaged young Britons lack the social structures to improve their lives.

"It's a number of things that erode the young people's sense of dignity and it keeps shaming them, repeatedly, into the corners of society," she said.

"Eighty-four per cent of the young people that arrive at Kids Company arrive homeless, and 73 per cent are not even registered with a GP.

"Large numbers of these people don't even have a birth certificate and because of that they can't access benefits.

"So the normal structures around these people have been eroded and they experience the state as constantly chasing them down for debts, taking them to court, threatening them with various things.

"But they don't see the state extending a helping hand to actually help them through their difficulties."

Culture of violence

Ms Batmanghelidjh says that as a result, "violence becomes the currency of survival" and many neighbourhoods are propped up by the drug trade.

"The drug economy is pulling very young children into the trade and using them as couriers and giving them the weapons and the firearms so that they can, if you like, hold the [drug] economy to account," she said.

"Because you can't take a drug dealer to court and say 'he didn’t give me my bag of heroin'. What you do is you threaten him or you shoot him or whatever else they do.

"So violence in effect becomes the norm in these neighbourhoods and I think society, rather than just putting just the blame on these incredibly badly behaved individuals, needs to reflect the light on itself and wonder why such large numbers of children and young people are able to behave in this way."

Ms Batmanghelidjh says the divide between the rich and the poor exacerbates the problem.

"The discrepancy shows up between the haves and the have-nots, and that compounds the rage and the feeling of disengagement and disenfranchisement."

Sam Awad lives in the borough of Hackney, near Tottenham, where the riots first erupted in response to the police shooting of a man.

He says the demand for housing in Hackney is widening the divide between the rich and poor, but "not to the extreme".

"You've got a mixture of different issues to entertain. You've got overcrowding; it's a time of economic decline, a lot of unskilled and semi-skilled workers end up losing their jobs, which has affected Hackney a lot," he said.

"But you've got other issues like underage pregnancy, family problems, violence within the community.

"A lot of people in the Caribbean community especially come from broken homes with only one mother, possibly a father who is not around or has been in prison."

'Victim mentality'

But Australian expat Mariesa Ferrario, who has been in London for nine years and also lives in Hackney, says nothing excuses the rioters' behaviour.

"You get the odd one that comes up on the news and they’re saying ‘oh, we don’t have youth centres, we don’t have this and that’," she said.

"But do you know what? Everyone's been young once and we’ve all had to grow up.

"I just think they’ve got a victim mentality. We’re all prisoners in our own homes while these little brats run amok on the streets.

"They’re trying to pin it on [social factors] but everyone’s got the same opportunities. They're ruining our economy.

"There's not going to be jobs if they destroy all the shops. I just don’t know where their mentality is – they’re smashing up their own streets."

Ms Ferrario says she feels like a prisoner in her own home.

"I came downstairs from my apartment [last night]and I got across the road and realised I was the only girl on the street," she said.

"It was eerily empty and there were at least two herds of ... hooded youth heading towards me. I panicked and legged it back home. I can’t even go out of the house."

'Chronically ignored'

But Ms Batmanghelidjh says many British youths have lived with that feeling of fear for their entire lives.

"This happened to the public for a few days. But many of these children are chronically frightened – they get attacked in their own homes, they get attacked on the estates," she said.

"[To them] it feels like at that point civil society doesn’t step in to, for example, create a robust child protection structure to protect these children, or to protect them from attacks at street level.

"So from a young people's perspective, their conditions of fright have been chronically ignored."

She says the way to counter the problem is to create communities which engage and support disadvantaged youth.

"Sort out the civil structures around these young people, provide for them adults who are caring; who can provide a healthy counter culture to the perverse street culture that they are exposed to," she said.

"Then you have the beginnings of the making of a genuine community that includes these young people. And then you can legitimately hold them accountable."

© 2011 ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-10/society-role-in-london-riots/2833168