The discourse switch - to what extent does this take place across professions in the UK?

Over the past few years I have raised a number of issues with public sector staff including parliamentarians, voluntary advice workers and crime and disorder staff. What I've experienced is a general refusal to acknowledge the issues I've put forward which are classed as conspiratorial, paranoid or delusional despite the fact that academic articles have been used to support the arguments made. There seems to be a tendency to cite works of literature or else where from the arts as the basis for conspiracy, for example the China Syndrome, 1984, Brave New World, Jacobs Ladder etc. despite the fact that the arguments offered have a relatively strong academic foundation. The point of concern is that it has not been easy to challenge what may be prejudiced action on the part of several professional groups or bodies in the UK and there could be scope for professional development around these issues. Scientific argument in some situations has not been dealt with rationally but rejected on the basis of an assumption that people who may have had mental health problems would willingly draw from the arts and that this is an acceptable culturally embedded framework to use to dismiss what could be significant information to provide for public safety.

I am considering writing an academic article on the issue of 'the discourse switch' and how the willingness to engage in discussion on the likelihood of conspiracy theories for want of a broad general term may tend to vary according to institutional factors which shape professional conduct. I am considering writing an academic article on the issue of argument styles and responses to ‘paranoid conspiracy’, which may be attributable to training, government guidance or ill conceived prejudice which has become institutionalised in several professions in the UK, if not more broadly throughout the world. The purpose of this would be to identify the extent to which the phenomenon does take place, to more clearly identify reasons why this does take place, if it does, and the to suggest how the problem may be construed in order to generate a number of solutions which require political action.

This may involve accessing information through the freedom of information act from a number of organisations. The possible prejudice involved in the discourse switch – ensure that the home office are responsible for the interpretation and democratically elected politicians are clearly indicating that it is definite policy to disregard conspiracy theories and this is not done unprofessionally by the police or other professionals who may be accused of exercising unnecessary prejudice or bias.

I don't know if there are academics that could be identified in the UK who may be interested in collaborating on this as a potential project or through responding to the blog but I would be very pleased to hear back if there are. The issue as a matter which could affect the quality of service delivery for several professional groups may prove fruitful to explore for a few reasons. I don't know how well this is dealt with within existing literature and to what extent the questions raised may already have been answered as I haven't had opportunity to undertake a literature review at present - this too would be interesting to hear back from people on.

Perhaps as an aside that will lead to me not being taking seriously in the least, there is some interesting cultural data on the biases in policing that may be taking place in the UK if you click The Goodies - the baddies part one, part two and part three. Watching the Goodies in El Salvador provides a certain amount of balance to my life. Oh, and the picture above, how can you not like a country like El Salvador when it has signs on the doors of banks indicating that you can't bring in guns....

El Salvador - the final frontier

Finally out of Guatemala after being there really a little longer than I anticipated. I don´t think being able to say two phrases really indicates that I am fluent in Espanol just yet but there´s a whole three and a half weeks to go yet. One of the virtues of El Salvador for me at present is that most people who claim to speak English seem to speak as much of it as I speak Spanish so I guess that I´ll be practicing more and more.

There haven´t been what I would call major incidents so far - there was a minor incident when I was getting the bus from the border at San Cristobal to Santa Ana when all the men had to get off the bus and the police checked their documents and looked through a list of faces of suspects.I had only been in the country for about half a day and I thought I was going to be on ´El Salvador´s most wanted´or whatever their local version of the US programme is. There was another search earlier on on the bus when some police went through the bags of several of the passengers so I can´t complain that the police aren´t doing anything here. I don´t mind the frequent stop and search policies - I don´t know if there is any bias in terms of who is being searched most frequently because most of the population here seem to be of an Hispanic-Mayan heritage if that doesn´t sound condescending. Consequently, I´ve felt safe here so far and I haven´t seen any form of brutality that I have had to turn away from. It was a little similar in Venezuela - the police searches didn´t bother me there either.

From Santa Ana I had to get to Ahuachapan in order to then get the bus to Apaneca and the travelling has not been too difficult so far. The bus drivers do seem a fairly reliable source of informtion on where to get the next bus and things have gone smoothly to say the least. I got here to Juayua about half an hour ago and have found it to be a relatively pleasant little town in the extensive amount of time I´ve been here. The hotel is $12.00 US a night and has wi-fi access which is about as much as you´d pay for wi-fi access alone in the UK for an hour or two without the double room with private bathroom that I have. I´m to explore the town which I understand from the guidebook will fill up with ´capitolinos´, that is people from the swinging metropolis that San Salvador is.

I did want to start the blog with the words "The smell of burning plastic, the far off sound of gun fire, relax with a local coffee and enjoy life in El Salvador, but everyone here has been pleasant and peaceful so far and I hope they´re not going to play the pipes of peace or do anything in a manner that is as bad as Macca´s acting in the video. I can hope....I did see someone on a bus in Guatemala who looked like my brother David, I can only wonder if any of his holiday´s in campsites in the 1980´s resulted in offspring. Also, the man who drove the bus to the springs, Fuentes Georginas, just outside Queztaltenango looked a little like Ricky Gervais. I don´t know if he would do the dance from the office while you sit in the hot springs for twenty quetzales but it could give a relatively straightforward day tour that little bit more alternative.

Off to explore the town.....and hopefully do something a little original - I did think it was Peter Bardell´s photography that I´d been copying but I´ve checked out his site and it´s not him. I think it was the Peter who used to wear architects glasses and looked like he spent all his spare time drinking cappucinos and being bohemian - I don´t know if anyone can contact him or tell me his name I´ve tried googling "peter SBPS cappucino bohemian architects glasses birmingham "and it didn´t really produce results. Maybe I should reflect on the opposites that I am with so many people and think about the contrasts in life that make it worthwhile. I may even find a little bar that plays just a touch of Mayan music although I have a sneaking suspicion that they´re taking the piss out of my dancing but I´m classed as paranoid....and missing Antigua a little.

Pickpocketted when I least expected it...

Well, after leaving Antigua at 12 today I thought I had said my goodbyes and was unlikely to return to the place even though I don't think that I can imagine returning here again, I am back. I caught the bus to the connecting town of Chetaltemango and as I was getting off the bus I needed to put my bag behind me, a shoulder bag, and I had my wallet in it for the few seconds it took to get off the bus. When I'd got through the crowd and off the bus I checked for my wallet and it wasn't in the bag. This led to an afternoon of reporting this to the Police, who were very good, and being taken back to Antigua in order to complete formalities with the tourist police here. I did take a lot of shots in the police station including shots of a man who had been hit by a car which at least made me feel a little better knowing that I wasn't the worst off on the dreary Saturday afternoon that this all took place. He's clutching the ibuprofen I gave him in the shots of events out of Antigua and it is a long series of shots as far as I've completed to this point though there are some which I think may have some appeal.

I don't know if they're going to be any more original than anything else that I've seen but I did make an attempt at filling the time I had waiting for the tourist police to arrive in Chemaltenango. It seems that there is a likelihood that there will be something original in there though only because there are over 100 shots included. Again, tomorrow, I'll attempt to leave Antigua.

The walk to school - could motorists make greater effort to ensure the walk to school is safe?

Like most children in the 1970’s I used to walk to school. I was more or less limited to do this because my parents didn’t have a car and while it was only a fifteen minute walk I would have liked the option. What has become common place and entered our culture is the notion of the ‘school run’ in the ‘chelsea tractor’ - driving the kids to school is the means of ensuring that they reach the destination.

I don’t know to what extent it is classed as a problem for the most of the population however, I do regard this as a significant problem of the times. Not only because of the impacts upon the children themselves in terms of evidence of preteens coronary atherosclerosis, or heart disease in under 12s. But also because there are major impacts upon the environment as a result of the increases in traffic and the speed that the extra traffic travels at as a result of congestion. There are other areas of impacts as well, this must make some difference to a child’s awareness of local space and willingness to walk on other journeys as well.

In some areas I have been witness to motorists who will do what is necessary to ensure that the trip to school is safe who intervene in fighting or bullying when it takes place on the journey to or from schoo. If this does not take place there is greater chance that there will be a decision made by parents to take their kids to school themselves.

This may take the form of bibbing a vehicle horn at any group of youths who appear not to be conducting themselves in a way that is generally going to be classed as acceptable. It may also require some greater intervention to stop and challenge what seems like very undesirable behaviour. This could of course cause some concern or excessive noise on occasion but is it worth making some effort to do this on balance? There is also the more recent change that there are going to be camera phones and other recording equipment carried by motorists and if pupils are in school uniform, as a result easily identified on the walk to school, they may find when they reach school there are emailed copies of the events that have taken place on the way to school.

There may be a degree of distrust in society at large at present but surely collective action can ensure that the overall trend does not continue and may reverse?

Paying the criminal to keep out of trouble with the law: Is the political system ready for a solution to rehabilitiation that could work?

There have been a multitude of initiatives which haven’t worked particularly well throughout the last few years in relation to home affairs and particularly crime prevention. Crime prevention tends not be an area of social policy that most of the public appear to be that interested in and the notion of preferring a ‘bobby on the beat’ does tend to make some sections of the community feel secure despite evidence that this is a very costly means of reducing crime and increasing perceived levels of safety in a specified area.

One area that I think could be important in terms of home office business is to try to offer greater incentive for participating in rehabilitation programmes and for staying out of crime for the critical period after this process is complete – whatever this time period may be. I assume that this will vary from criminal activity to criminal activity.

This may also stop the criminal from being too disengaged with the process of rehabilitation which may be something that they don’t engage in but rather go through the motions and don’t bother to get involved in the perhaps challenging nature of therapy. The cognitive dissonance of paying for rehabilitation may make it a far more significant activity in the mind of the ex-offender.

Having read the issues that I’d raised before in relation to the scope of neo-liberalism, I still think there is some scope to examine the role of an enforced savings programme so that an individual pays both towards the cost of the rehabilitation and also saves for a one off payment after the critical period however long this may be, say two years or five years after coming out of rehabilitation or probation services.

There are exploratory papers online that are produced by Kings Fund on the subject area of paying the patient that in some respects may raise the concern that a person may engage in health damaging behaviour with some idea that there could one day be an incentive for doing so. See:

http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/other_work_by_our_staff/paying_the.html

Whereas paying the patient may not transfer at all well to ‘paying the criminal’, what could take place is tax free saving on top of or to use an ISA allowance to offer some incentive for not re-engaging in crime. This may actually fit well with the three leaders of the major political parties at present who have some affinity with the ‘neo-liberal’ (read conservative agenda) of charging the under-privileged for what they may have paid for already. If an individual has undergone a process of rehabilitation a small lump sum, perhaps enough to buy a car or put down a deposit on a part-rent part-buy home may be exactly what is required to ensure that someone has a strong incentive to stay out of trouble with the law.

There are significant differences when considering the difference between a smoker and a burglar and payment to them for stopping their activity. A smoker may have already contributed a great deal to the treasury in terms of the volume of tax that they have paid on cigarettes that they smoke (should tax on health damaging products be levied at a rate proportional to the cost to the state in rectifying the problem: if so maybe there could be greater taxes applied to skateboarding) whereas a burglar will not have. Getting the public interested in the statistics that would reveal more effective and sometimes cost-effective initiatives would also be a major challenge - this small idea may be more plausible to initiate as a project and gain more widespread support for mainstream implementation.