Knife crime, a sign of a sick society?

The UK is not the only country having problems with its society. Dublin, the capital of Ireland has as well. A young girl and a woman, could be her mother were stabbed. And before you could drink your coffee youngsters and criminals were rampaging around the centre. Setting alight a police car and a transport bus. Plus of course the usual looting efforts. Obviously followed in great detail on TV News channels and wonderful discussions about what we should be doing. A scenario which is all too familiar. First we have the action, followed by film reports, followed by discussions about who is at fault. Followed by calls for the police to do more. Followed by politicians discussing what has to be done. Afterwards everyone goes home thinking about what a great job they have done. Except the victims are silently crying at home feeling bereft and let down by the society they also belong to. Knife crime has been a scourge for a very long time. It is an easy, too easy, weapon to obtain. You can buy any knife or obtain it from the websites by the thousands. Any homes you might visit will have an array of knives, from little apple peelers to 10 inch blades used to chop meat or whatever else. So, plenty of choice. The police, politicians despite loads of words have no real answer. The only answer is ban all knives and sharp implements. Quite obviously that’s not realistic or even possible. Like other problems that society suffers from, the only way is for the home, the families, to take a grip. Parents need to be far more involved with bringing up the family’s children. It is where the problem lies. It is the whole of society in which we all live. Just look at it, 24/7 activity, zero-hour contracts, the Internet (in paticular the criminal side of it), uncontrolled immigration and that’s just for starters. Anyone still saying humanity is doing a great job?

There are some encouraging signs things have got into peoples’ minds. In the Netherlands there has been a turn-around in its political life. Words like curbing immigration, curtailing Islamic buildings i.e mosques, outlawing Muslim faith schools. It sounds it can be done but probably not. People here talk a lot about multiculturalism. As the Wiki says: Where various ethnic and cultural groups exist in a single society. It can describe a mixed ethnic community area where multiple cultural traditions exist such as New York or London. From my point of view it is basically a failure. Not so much because people themselves do want to live in peace, but a failure because people are notoriously slow to adapt to a change of circumstances if there is no pressure to do so. The ‘notorious Bijlmermeer’ district in Amsterdam for instance saw an influx of people from Suriname (a former Dutch colony) just to preserve some indigineous culture. In other words, they built a Ghetto. Districts in London also show this behaviour and I suppose in many other large cities across the world. Well, no easy answers then. It needs real action, not just words to repair the ills of society. All of us do need to seriously think about what sort of world we want to live in, to exist in. Followed by meaningful actions and laws. Not just for here but for everywhere. If we want a society equal for all then rules and laws must be equal everywhere also. We are now moving fast to a world population of 10 billion, perhaps it is time to think about a proper world government. Celebrating our differences, but there should be one overriding language, one overriding government. I had always thought we had it already with the UN but that’s just a joke. Let’s stop laughing and start to do some real work.