Tuesday 28 April 2009

Aphids: The Revenge.



For anyone whose life, or whose nearest and dearest’s lives have been harmed or ended by the diamond-hard accretion of everything moral relativist, culturally Marxist, multicultural and inbred-secretive-bureaucratic that is contemporary social work and ancillary trades, or whose children’s’ educations have been disrupted or ruined, or who have been personally mugged or robbed or who have lost friends and relations to the depredations of social work’s end-product, we present:


Social Schadenfreude Three: The Revenge.


Community Care's campaign to protect the social work profession from media distortion

Posted: 11 March 2009 | Subscribe Online

Writes Emma Maier


We at The Social Workers’ Anti-Defamation League do not believe that this article goes far enough, and so we have suggested some improvements and intensifications.


The great work…

.

Wasn’t that what they used to call alchemy? And how true a metaphor for our beloved profession – nay; our destiny – to turn the base metal of a randomly evolved humanity long imprisoned by oppressive and illogical laws into the gold of rational (Wo)Man


...of most social workers goes unrecognised while the profession gets pilloried


‘Pilloried’ actually refers to the Mediaeval process whereby individuals who have been tried and convicted of harming their fellow humans or their property were exposed to brief periods of public humiliation, insult, and sometimes having of rotten thrown fruit at them.

This was a procedure based upon the utterly false superstition (now entirely discredited by the pioneers of modern social work theory) that human beings possess sense organs with which they can perceive pain, loud noises, and discomfort. The folly was further compounded by the insane notion that Homo Sapiens Sapiens is equipped with a faculty called ‘memory’, whereby previous experiences can be recalled to mind at ‘will.’ (As if ‘will’ was anything other than a social construct that disguises the complete subjection of human consciousness and behaviour to environmental stimuli such as economic relations and power structures, the oppressiveness of family or other tribal structures such as nationality, and to xenophobic, sexist, imperialist and violent belief systems, except for Islam.) The madness continued in that it was felt - for centuries without number - that once pain, discomfort, or humiliation had been inflicted on some so-called malefactor, then whilst contemplating an act of challenge against outdated cultural norms such as ‘respect’ for the lives, health and property of others, they might recall the stimuli and somehow ‘reason’ that further testing of said norms might be followed by additional ‘punishment’, and therefore desist from acting freely as their natural feelings prompted.

It is impossible to exaggerate the harm that such primitive theories of ‘personal responsibility’ and ‘crime’ and ‘punishment’ have inflicted upon an innocent and blameless humanity and its individual members’ natural and healthy attempts to enjoy all of the activities and experiences that their instincts and emotions prompt them to pursue.

If social work’s mission is anything - and it is everything; everything! - it is to consign forever all of these Stone Age fetishes of ‘morality,’ ‘property,’ and ‘free will’ into the recycling box of Social Studies.


…in the media for its mistakes. The campaign to reverse this starts here

For too long, media coverage of social work has been hostile, inaccurate, misleading - or completely absent. Social work is often treated as a second class profession in news reports and much of the press focuses disproportionately on child protection,


‘Child protection.’ How redolent that is of the Victorian morality and hypocrisy that we social workers are dedicated to eradicating.

In their ignorance and phallocentric paternalism, the bourgeois Victorians imposed an ‘age of consent’ law which was aimed especially at girls – in typical sexist fashion. This atrocity asserted that young people were somehow unfit to judge for themselves when they might start to experiment with sexual activity or to decide when they were ready to become sex workers.

Imagine the guilt that adults who were accustomed to co-operating with youngsters’ natural urge to discover what their bodies could do now felt! For a century and more, caring and responsible adults and teenagers have been persecuted by an oppressive and ignorant state for their relationships with children, and it is only in recent years that social workers and like-minded professionals have been able to influence the courts and lawmakers to ease restrictions and to lighten or avoid sanctions based upon the false distinctions around adolescent and pre-adolescent sexuality.


leaving other aspects of children's and adults' services invisible.


Such as protecting children from oppressive social structures and inappropriate environments such as Christian families or the nuclear-marital home. Our profession has made great progress in influencing family law to prefer enlightened and progressive child-rearing away from these perilous backgrounds.


See this


How two troubled children are being separated from their loving grandparents


and this


Christian fundamentalism and anti-oppressive social work pedagogy


Portrayals of social workers in the wider media, such as TV shows, also often pander to an inaccurate stereotype - storylines perpetuate myths about social workers and fail to reflect the fact that many clients say they have a positive experience of social workers.


Here are some particularly insulting and misleading examples of how extreme examples of our work is vilified by self-appointed and unqualified investigations in the capitalist media.


‘There is an enormous bias in the UK social work profession against interracial adoption. This is not supported by research, which shows that it is more important for a child to have a family than wander round the care system.’


Social services have removed two young children from the care of their grandparents and arranged for them to be adopted by a homosexual couple.


Social workers said because I was a soldier, I was more likely to be violent to my own children


This type of coverage, together with generally low levels of awareness about what social workers do, leads to a low public opinion of them. Such attitudes damage the profession's credibility in the eyes of service users and other professions, make it difficult to keep hold of experienced staff and find new recruits, and ultimately put vulnerable children and adults at risk.

You have told Community Care that enough is enough – and we agree. For the past two months we have been calling on The Sun to improve its coverage of social work issues and now we are launching our Stand Up Now for Social Work campaign.


Furthermore, we at SWADL insist on the banning of provocative and misleading ‘journalism’ such as the following;


Baby P was seen 60 times by social workers, health visitors and doctors in the last eight months of his life, after he was put on Haringey's Child Protection Register.


Baby P social work chief Sharon Shoesmith sues for pay off.


The social worker sacked after the murder of Victoria Climbie has been offered the chance of getting another job working with children.


the social services sent out a social worker from her own community. He chose not to believe Hannah and, in effect, shopped her to her father, who gave her the most brutal beating of her life.


Orkney social workers had failed to learn the lessons of the Cleveland and Rochdale child abuse cases, he added.


The campaign's first three initials - SUN - are a timely reminder of the recent poor coverage in the nation's most popular red-top.


Poor! This is appalling!


‘social workers were tearing apart innocent families, while failing to protect babies at the greatest risk.’


and this


Social services' recommendation that the baby should be taken from Fran Lyon, a 22-year-old charity worker who has five A-levels and a degree in neuroscience,


and this


Girl, 4, killed by 'brutal' abuse social workers had visited the family after hearing concerns from neighbours, but no action was taken.


and this


Judge blasts social workers who took girl, 10, into care over flimsy abuse claim


And…..But the problem is bigger than one paper and so is our campaign. We are reaching out to the media as a whole - and to government and social work leaders - in a bid to curb inaccurate and misleading reporting and promote social work's success stories.Community Care spoke out in 2006 in its Stand Up for Social Care campaign, when social work was under threat as traditional social work departments were disbanded and social care was increasingly becoming an after-thought rather than an integral part of public policy. Today that threat to the profession continues - in the form of unfair portrayals in the media and subsequent low public opinion. Once again we are taking a stand. Join us and Stand up Now for Social Work.To achieve our demands (above) we are calling on:● The media to portray social work in an accurate and balanced way, be accountable for the information they provide, and agree and adhere to guidelines for reporting on social work● The government to do more to support and promote respect and positive images to enhance the professional standing of social work, as it has done for teachers.● Social services departments and councils to improve their media skills to help improve their responses to the press in times of crisis and increase opportunities for positive coverage.What Community Care will do In the next few weeks we will publish articles in the magazine and online, run special podcasts and videos on our website, and lobby the media and politicians. Our plans include:● Protesting against the Press Gazette's decision to shortlist The Sun's Baby P campaign for the best editorial campaign of the year accolade in the newspaper's British Press Awards.● Holding the media to account by highlighting good and bad coverage of social work.● Drawing up guidelines to advise journalists and the wider media about what social workers do and how to accurately portray the profession.● Promoting positive stories about social workers and the difference they make to people's lives, and highlighting positive social work role models.● Demanding that government offers more support to the profession. ● Continuing to collect more signatures to our petition and parliamentary motion calling for better media coverage of social work blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah



Oh sod it. It’s not funny.


North Northwester here.


You know what? I reckon that social work is indeed hard, demanding and exhausting work – way and above more harrowing than my own experiences in the education system and the welfare benefits world where the everyday stories you hear are heartbreaking enough. I know that people in those trades lose sleep and obsess and worry at home and go to work and serve way beyond their job descriptions to help their fellow human beings.

Social work can be and should be and sometimes is painstakingly undertaken by thoroughgoing professionals… I guess.


Not that I’ve seen it - you understand – ever. But as I know that there are great teachers out there and benefits bods who aren’t insane tax-fountains raring to let illegal immigrants impregnate teenagers in exchange for six bed roomed mansions…I’ll assume that some, and maybe many, social workers have a grip on reality and are making furious efforts not to allow the repetition of the mistakes and hideous negligence above.


But.


Just point me to the root-and-branch humility and top-down professional self-criticism in social work about this lot. You get it from police after they’ve gone over the top or just failed – and they got lumbered with the McPherson Report. Where’s the verdict of ‘institutional doziness?’ Where the hell is it?


To err is human, but to persist is diabolical.


Top of blog.



2 comments:

Henry North London 2.0 said...

Are you aware that there was a memo sent round Haringey saying that it was too expensive to put people and children in care? Old Holborn has the memo

North Northwester said...

Hi, HNL - no I was not aware of that. Thanks for the tip.
Surprised, however, I am not.
I'll look for it and maybe add it on.

 

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