The Arts - Are they important?

Unbelievably according to the latest paleo-archeological information, the oldest art was created by humans during the prehistoric Stone Age, between 300,000 and 700,000 years ago. This seems to indicate that art fulfills a very basic human need & wasn't seen as a waste of time.

According to the Guardian - "Abandoning the EU could potentially result in a loss of €1.46bn of funding granted to the creative industries, impacting profoundly on the cultural climate of creative Britain". According to the Arts Council, "between 2010 and 2015, figures show that total spending by local government in England on arts and culture development and support has been reduced by 16.6 per cent, tending to hit regions outside London the hardest". Conservative Government policy, unsurprisingly, is "to encourage private donations, including through the tax system, and to support arts and cultural organisations to increase the range and effectiveness of their own fundraising". In other words privatisation & cuts.

My life has been very Arts orientated. I played the piano & have always loved all kinds of music - Opera is a passion. In my time I have enjoyed drawing, painting & textiles myself. I am a volunteer usher at the Playhouse theatre. In my working life as a teacher & head teacher the arts were a very important part of the curriculum in the schools I taught in. There is a strong relationship between arts, culture & education which we are at risk of losing in the current state of straightened financial times.

Humans have basic needs & I would argue that the Arts are one of them. Are we really so impoverished that we are prepared to risk losing the creativity which has defined humankind since the beginning? What sort of people will we be in a future without the Arts?


www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/paleolithic-art-culture.htm


www.artscouncil.org.uk/  https://www.britishcouncil.org/arts

 

Brain Drain

My Brain / Central Processing Unit seems to be developing faults.

It does seem to process information reasonably effectively, but retrieval seems to be becoming a bit erratic. My CPU adds, compares, stores & moves data gathered by my senses. It manages the data allows me to access it when I need to - In theory. In reality data goes in, but sometimes just won't necessarily come out again when I need it. There is a time lag.

I try to trick it back into function, for example by re-tracing my steps when I have set out to do something then forgotten what that was. Although I remember faces, (good visual memory), I often can't remember the names that go with them. So I have a visual link to the name - Eileen Atkins for example is an eye & a hat. Bridget is a bridge.

This is, of course, a common problem. Not just for people of my age.

A universal myth is that we only use 10% of our brain. However human beings use virtually every part of their brains. During an average day, humans use nearly 100% of their brains. I think mine is getting tired. After all it has been continuously functioning, without maintenance, for 72 years. Possibly my CPU is overloaded with information. There must be an awful lot in there after all this time. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a delete mechanism other than the stuff I forget. If I could select what is deleted it might make more room for the stuff I actually want to access.

My CPU has various types of storage for all this data - long & short term memory for example. I think my issue is with the Random Access Memory. My CPU can't cope with the randomness of my RAM. There should be some mechanism for me to tell it in advance what I'm going to need to retrieve.

Sadly my CPU knows an awful lot - It just doesn't always share it with me.

Prison Isn't Working

Where are the Independent Monitoring Board in all this? When I was a member our role was to closely monitor what was happening & take action. I worked as a lay member of the IMB in Gloucester Prison before it closed. We were not Inspectors. Our whole focus was on sampling the daily life of the prison throughout the year. The particular emphasis was on whether prisoners were treated fairly & with decency. We could go into any area of the prison including the Segregation Unit & we had access to the files held on the wings. If there was an alarm / incident we had to go immediately to the site of the problem & monitor how it was handled. We handled prisoner complaints & attended adjudications. The unpredictability of our visits was meant to reveal the overall reality in prison. We had access to the prison staff, including the Governor and we could refer concerns to the Home Office.

Many prisoners are addictive personalitites - alcohol or drugs. Many have come from very disfunctional backgrounds & are damaged - Many have psychological problems. Many cannot read or write above the age of 11 years. There is a serious question about whether a high proportion of prisoners should be in prison at all because their special needs simply cannot be met.

Many statistics are out of date, but, for example :-

• 64% of prisoners have a drug problem.
• 70% had been drinking when they committed the crime.
• 61% have a personality disorder & 10% are psychotic /
  25% of women & 15% of men suffer from Psychosis
• 49% of women & 23% of men suffer from depression
• 20 - 30% of prisoners have Learning Difficulties.

I was lucky enough to go to Conference one year. We were informed about the Government's plans to privatise Prisons, copying the American model, despite the fact that it hadn't worked there. We were almost unanimously against the plans & forsaw the problems which have now surfaced. Sadly it was all entirely predictable.

What I really don't understand is why the situation has been allowed to get to this stage before anything is done. Currently it appears that everyone inside some prisons is at risk of harm. I cannot believe that the Government were unaware. The Inspectorate, the IMB, the Prison Reform Trust & the Howard League must have been issuing warnings about the effects of cutting staff & finance. If the Government were aware they have been negligent. It must mean they were not listening.

In my experience Prison officers do a really difficult job with great humour & understanding. With very few exceptions they tried to make an inadequate system work as well as possible. I hold Conservative politicians entirely responsible, not only for what is happening now, but also the lost generations of ex prisoners who have been through this system which is failing spectacularly.

We have all the evidence we need that Prison does not work. We know that we imprison more people than any other European nation. Scandinavian countries imprison only half to one third as many people as us - why? We really do need to take positive action - quickly.

This is a list of countries by incarceration rate.^[1]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221

Country (or dependent territory, subnational area, etc.) Incarceration rate (Prisoners per 100,000 population) Seychelles 799. See notes below. United States of America 693. See notes below. St. Kitts and Nevis 607 Turkmenistan 583 Virgin Islands (USA) 542 El Salvador 541 Cuba 510 Thailand 476 Guam (USA) 469 Russian Federation 450 Rwanda 434 Panama 426 Virgin Islands (United Kingdom) 425 Maldives 421 Grenada 421 Belize 410 Antigua and Barbuda 403 American Samoa (USA) 382 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 378 Cayman Islands (United Kingdom) 369 Bahamas 363 Bermuda (United Kingdom) 354 Costa Rica 352 Puerto Rico (USA) 349 Sint Maarten (Netherlands) 347 Palau 343 St. Lucia 327 French Guiana/Guyane (France) 326 Barbados 322 Brazil 307 Anguilla (United Kingdom) 307 Belarus 306 Bahrain 301 Dominica 300 South Africa 292 Uruguay 291 Iran 287 Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) 286 Swaziland 282 Trinidad and Tobago 272 Taiwan 267 Northern Mariana Islands (USA) 267 Mongolia 266 Israel 265 Georgia 262 Samoa (formerly Western Samoa) 258 Martinique (France) 256 Guyana 256 Lithuania 254 Peru 251 Chile 242 Colombia 240 Turkey (These figures must be much higher now)  238 Azerbaijan 236 Dominican Republic 232 United Arab Emirates 229 Curaçao (Netherlands) 225 Latvia 224 Morocco 222 Moldova (Republic of) 222 Kazakhstan 221 Estonia 221 Singapore 219 Czech Republic 211 Greenland (Denmark) 208 Tunisia 204 Mexico 204 Guadeloupe (France) 203 New Zealand 202 Macau (China) 200 Honduras 198 Gabon 193 Botswana 193 Albania 192 Poland 187 Slovakia 186 Suriname 183 Hungary 183 Montenegro 182 New Caledonia (France) 181 Paraguay 180 Mauritius 174 Fiji 174 Malaysia 172 Nicaragua 171 Ukraine 168 Kyrgyzstan 167 Tonga 166 Macedonia 166 Aruba (Netherlands) 165 Ecuador 162 Saudi Arabia 161 Argentina 160 Venezuela 159 Gibraltar (United Kingdom) 158 Algeria 156 Jersey (United Kingdom) 152 Australia 152 Uzbekistan 150 Jordan 150 Vietnam 146 United Kingdom: England & Wales 146. See notes below Zimbabwe 145 Jamaica 145 Bhutan 145 Namibia 144 French Polynesia (France) 144 Serbia 142 Romania 142 United Kingdom: Scotland 141. See notes below Philippines 140 Nauru 140 Portugal 137 Brunei Darussalam Spain 131 Malta 131 Kiribati 130 Armenia 130 Lebanon 128 Ethiopia 128 Micronesia, Federated States of 127 Guernsey (United Kingdom) 127 Zambia 125 Bulgaria 125 Iraq 123 Guatemala 122 Bolivia 122 Tajikistan 121 Kenya 121 Uganda 120 Reunion (France) 120 Luxembourg 120 Laos 119 China 118 or unknown. See notes below. Egypt 116 Cambodia 116 Hong Kong (China) 115 Canada 114 Cameroon 114 Myanmar (formerly Burma) 113 Kuwait 112 Tuvalu 110 Cook Islands (New Zealand) 109 Republic of (South) Korea 107 France 103 Haiti 102 Mayotte (France) 100 Kosovo/Kosova 100 Libya 99 Belgium 98 Austria 97 Angola 96 Lesotho 92 Isle of Man (United Kingdom) 92 Greece 91 Italy 89 Sri Lanka 88 Vanuatu 87 Sao Tome e Principe 87 Switzerland 84 Madagascar 84 Croatia 81 Cyprus (Republic of) 80 Ireland, Republic of 79 United Kingdom: Northern Ireland 78. See notes below Germany 78 Burundi 77 Benin 77 Monaco 74 Afghanistan 74 Slovenia 73 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Federation 73 Norway 70 Malawi 70 Netherlands 69 Indonesia 69 Djibouti 67 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Republika Srpska 67 Marshall Islands 66 Tanzania 64 Papua New Guinea 63 Equatorial Guinea 63 Togo 62 Senegal 62 Nepal 62 Denmark 61 Syria 60 Gambia 58 Mozambique 57 Cote d'Ivoire 56 Sierra Leone 55 Finland 55 Yemen 53 Sweden 53 Qatar 53 Andorra 53 South Sudan 52 Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor) 50 Sudan 50 Liberia 49 Ghana 49 Japan 47 Solomon Islands 46 Iceland 45 Niger 44 Mauritania 44 Pakistan 43 Bangladesh 43 Burkina Faso 41 Chad 39 Oman 36 Nigeria 35 Mali 33 India 33 Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) 29 Liechtenstein 27 Congo (Brazzaville) 27 Republic of Guinea 26 Faroe Islands (Denmark) 23 Comoros 19 Central African Republic 1