Prejudice

What a strange thing prejudice is. Why do we create it? Is it because we are frightened of people with different ideas to ours and who are different from us?

Religion seems to create an enormous amount of prejudice. My son has been diagonsed with cancer and was quite pleased when religious people told him they would pray for him. He would say "any help is welcome!" although he is not necessaryily a believer. He just recognised that they wanted to show they cared and it was their way of showing that.

Race is another creator of prejudice. I know that when the West Indians came over after the war we needed them but there was prejudice - the notices in the windows of rooms to let was "No coloureds". Why was that? Probably because at that time they looked very strange to us "whites" and were friendlier and noisier than "us".

However when I was young (I am 75)I wanted a brown doll! Why because I thought they were pretty! I also loved a golly wog! Now we are not "allowed" to "love" these things!

To describe a brown colour I liked I said "nigger" brown. My grandchildren were horrified!!! Needless to say I would never repeat that! I was not thinking of people when I said it but the grandchildren took it that I was prejudiced!

Climate Change

I think it is time that we stopped all these very expensive Climate Change conferences! It would safe on "carbon footprints" too.

There are a great many people who do not believe we are responsible for Global warming - that it is natural process. We have been through the Ice Age and a Tropical climate before.

What we should be concentrating on is taking care of our World. Looking after our seas - keeping our World as clean as possible. Recycle so that we do not have to use landfill. Use renewable energy even if it does not seem economical (wind turbines) We do not want nuclear power, although it seems there might not be other options, because we would have to bury the waste, thus contaminating our earth.

Fossil fuels will run out eventually. Think how lucky we are that it is possible to create energy from natural sources. Water power is amazing - the seas - the rivers. Hydro power is the way to go!

Let's take care of our World and prepare for climate change - it might be inevitable - a natural progression that we cannot do anything about!

Education

I do not think people who have had a good education and are privileged should feel guilty. They have been given the ability to get things done. If they use it to make sure that they endeavour to improve the educational standards for the rest of us it is a good thing. They know what a good education is.

This will be an uphill task and will not be achieved over night but they will and can try.

As an example of how over protected children are:

On a day out near the sea I heard a girl say " They should put up railings". She did not think to herself that she should be careful. We are not showing children how to take care of themselves. Railings would have been inappropiate because it was built so that at high tide boats could use it.

Global Warming

I really cannot understand "Global Warming". There is a question mark about it because the climate is ever changing going through cycles - an ice age and a tropical age etc. We might not be responsible!

However I am not against being "Green". We should recycle our rubbish - we do not want to pollute our country with landfill. We do not want nuclear waste buried. We do not want to pollute the seas.

For energy we should be using sustainable energy, not because of global warming, but fossil fuels will eventually run out and they do pollute the air - remember smoke

Instead of banging on about "global warming" which is questionable just make sure we all take care of our environment.

BA Strikes

British Airways have made an enormous loss. Something has to be done to save the airline. Answer join with Spain's Iberia creating more routes etc. What does the trade union Unite do? - threaten Strike Action against redundancies. Does Unite think we should pay the wages of staff that are no longer required? Their job should be to make sure we do not have more redundancies than Iberia.

We are no longer a rich country therefore we have to make savings as would any family who have had redundancies.

Why does Unite think their members should be cushioned against redundancies when so many families are facing the same fate?

What we need is an efficient and willing workforce and then maybe we will become a wealthy country again.

Jackie P

University places bias

It appears that plans are underway to give youngsters from poor homes places at University without the right grades.

We do not want to down grade our Universities. What we want is a good education in all our schools for our children, poor or rich, so that they can attain the right "A" Grades.

Let there be discipline in the schools so that teachers can teach and perhaps people who want to teach in Secondary schools will apply to become teachers. We are short of maths and science teachers.

Jackie P

Alchohol v Cannabis

Even if the scientist who wants to down grade cannabis is right and alcohol and smoking cigarettes is worse than taking cannabis it still should not be downgraded because it is still bad for you and it would send the wrong message.

I personally do not believe cannabis is less harmful than alcohol because taken in small doses it can be good for you. It has vital trace elements, vitamins and iron which are good for us.

In fact, admittedly a few years ago, my husband was very ill hospital and the doctor advised me to bring in some Guinness!

Alcohol does effect the brain but I think the effect cannabis has is worse such as schizophrenia.
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