Education is the root of society

Education is the root of society. Primary, Secondary, Further and Higher education form the basis of society. Without educating individuals the world falls apart. All values regarded as important by a right wing government, ambition, innovation and wealth will suffer, intelligence muted. For the left, we see that social inequality will increase, social mobility will be devastated and the chance of a place where equal opportunities bloom is a dream that is killed by inability to succeed due to narrow minded, short-sighted cuts. Extracting quality education from society is like pulling out the roots of a tree. That tree will die. Our society, our culture, our pride and not only our country but our world is condemned.

Throughout the media it is shown that these protests are merely about the hike in tuition fees. For me, this is not the most pressing issue. In a perfect society education would be free. However what I see as the cuts that will have a more direct effect on the individual is the cuts to the teaching grants and the scrapping of the EMA. Not only are the politicians placing the higher cost of education on the students; they are making them pay more for less. Those who wish to study Humanities degrees will not only be faced by higher fees but by departments that struggle to survive with no help from Government. Do these politicians not see that Arts and Humanities are essential in understanding the world? Do they not see that without International relations and those academic who research world issues the governability of Britain will suffer, linguists will become scarce and Art will be transformed into a ‘rational’ money making process. People don’t just go University or College to get a better chance of a well-paid job. They don’t just want to spend 3 years lazing around doing nothing. If this were the case then why have so many students protested in the last few months? If we really didn’t care what education was then we wouldn’t protest. Education for the sake of education, for the sake of broadening our knowledge, with the aim not just to ‘better ourselves’ but to better the world we live in. Rationality is not always the answer, no one else can dream for you. But that is exactly what this government is doing, constructing a society driven solely on a financial basis with no room for diversity or creative arts. Have the conservatives forgotten the individual?

We need to turn this decision upside down; we need to convince the general public that education is a public good. We need to unite. In this day and age it is not acceptable that a politician be allowed to lie to get into power, be it a coalition or not. Nick Clegg should break the coalition if he were really a true liberal, if he were really an honest noble man true to his word. I thought that liberals traditionally defended education, fought for it; I didn’t think they attacked it. If we do not fight, if we do not mobilise, we will be faced with a situation graver than a few kids not going to university. We will see 16 year olds unable to go to college, let alone dream of University. We will see a society dumbed down in order for the conservatives to retake what they lost, to steal the milk, to sell the workers public property for them to be charged more for using a service that was previously public. We will see the conservatives gauge their vicious teeth into our society, into our homes, into our families and into our lives.

La verdad sobre el amor

Táctica y Estrategia - Mario Benedetti

Mi táctica es
mirarte
aprender como sos
quererte como sos

mi táctica es
hablarte
y escucharte
construir con palabras
un puente indestructible

mi táctica es
quedarme en tu recuerdo
no sé cómo ni sé
con qué pretexto
pero quedarme en vos

mi táctica es
ser franco
y saber que sos franca
y que no nos vendamos
simulacros
para que entre los dos
no haya telón
ni abismos

mi estrategia es
en cambio
más profunda y más
simple

mi estrategia es
que un día cualquiera
no sé cómo ni sé
con qué pretexto
por fin me necesites.

Loneliness

Loneliness seems to surround you in a bubble that appears impenetrable. It closes you in within yourself, criticising your being, mocking self esteem. But just when it starts to suffocate you, the beauty of the world slowly creeps on its surface, thawing its cold exterior. The world, not your world is full, bursting with life. All are united by their loneliness, two, six, a hundred become one, lost in the elixir of life - all searching, pursuing something - all with their own individual souls and way of battling life. We, together create one harmonious, be it cacophonous voice and OUR loneliness is in the end, the pain that brings us together.

For my Mum

I am yours,
cradled in your dreams and ideals,
swaddled in the blanket of love.
My cries are softened by your lullabies
and my dreams are guided by your wisdom.

I am but young and sure to have much pain and happiness ahead;
fleeting loves will pass, jobs and problems too
but there is one thing I can be sure of - I can always come back to you.

So let me grow old with you
because the battle of life is not over - more still - it has only just begun.

Yours

Red Wings flying over a sunset

The soft gentle flow grates on the exterior,
enticing and seducing the drowned roots into submission.
The passive echo lingers like a semitone in a cacophonous melody.
An echo of a soft, gentle history forever lost in oblivion, the recreated unknown.
The past possessed tears, smiles and pain.
But the present and the future promise, through gnarling teeth, wealth, 'order and progress',
dressed in shades of prosperity and hope.
Our reality skates on uncertain waves,
battling, retreating, fighting, giving up.
This is the lie, our waves come and pass,
Our nights of passion and suffering continue,
Our days of fear and manipulation reoccur.
This is the lie,
Our world.
Red wings flying over a sunset to a pitiful home

To Adam:

That eternal fire will never scatter Adam,
Not even all those tears we've shed could put it out.
Your wings carried you away,
Strengthened by that light.
And the wind will carry our love to you always.
A song, a skateboard brings you back to us,
planting echoes in our hearts.
I can't explain what I lost with you,
Nor can tears bring you back.
So I will smile and remember.
I will take you with me,
and I will respect everyone, just as you did.

Happy New Year Adam!

"Porque también somos lo que hemos perdido"
'We are also what we have lost'

The Circle

"The planet will continue to rotate on her axis,
While the world caves, skin by skin,
Each act peels away part of her strength
While her happiness flies on wings burdened by woe, dampened by light.

It keeps going- proving life's symmetry while disguising it by fate.

Youth and Beauty betrayed by contempt"