Is charity fundraising all it should be?

Sometimes you honestly cannot make things up or even send up concepts without reality going one better.
Take Charity for instance which is a big thing here in the UK where the Voluntary and Charitable sector accounts for a major part of providing services to groups as well as individuals so the business of raising it it especially for the larger national ones itself has become big.
Several years back there was a lot of concern around people being employed by agencies to aggressively sign up people in the street to regular monthly payments via their bank accounts involving people giving information out in a public setting to complete strangers.
Not being content even with that, they both share your details to other charities who would write to you requesting payments or keep pushing you to up the amounts for that charity to the point some people had felt so under pressure, they committed suicide.
The other way of fundraising involves putting on some kind of an event usually with tickets which might start at say a fashion or make up demonstration where orders may be taken with a percentage going to 'the cause' or a kind of show with a master of ceremonies who introduces a variety of acts and maybe a guest speaker.
Some people do extreme challenges for which they may be sponsored although the tendency to push the individual to their absolute limits to emphasis the bravery and how you should reward it with a lump of your cash does trouble me as sometimes it seems anything is okay cos "it's for charity, ain't it?" 
How about a sponsored crucifixion? I fear one day someone in all seriousness will actually suggest it for it's uniqueness "You too can see if you can cheat death and raise thousands"  the promotional material will say.
Today in all seriousness we are all coming to terms with the idea of a hosted all male attendees event where by design the hostesses are dressed in a sexually objectified way, where sexual advances not consented to occur without anyone batting an eyelid and where paid sex workers even employed in a so-called Presidents Club" just to raise money for charities as if that justifies it.
Like making money from sexual services and committing sexual assaults are justified cos "It's for charity, ain't it"?
I cannot be the first person who is appalled by what happened at this and previous events organized by this club who I understand is a Registered Charity and subject to laws around that never mind not profiting from sex work which itself is unlawful.
How twisted is our obsession with the money we raise  for organizations that do help make our society the richer for what they do that we turn a blind eye to the morality of how that body is funded?
I'd like to think we'd no more condone the sexual abuse of women in fund raising which any go to help victims of that than allow children to be abused and and the proceeds to people like the NSPCC.
We really need to take a step back and think about morals rather more.

Reflections on January's current affairs

There are two things That I feel the need this week talk a little about of which I think is the collapse of Carillion the  construction and service operating concern which here in the North-west Midlands is quite important not just for those who worked directly for it such as the office staff in Wolverhampton that I know well but also for the many small and medium sized business across our region who were sub-contractors on projects for local and national government plus concerns such as Network Rail who own the railway lines across the UK.
While rightly the Governments attention has been focused more around ensuring contracted work continues and with that the employees turn in and get paid, this still leaves potential business a quarter million pounds or more each out of pocket with little likelihood of getting that after the taxman and banks have taken from whatever assets can be sold to pay what is owed to them.
Part of this is because contractual payments are made in arrears often strung out meaning considerable monies are spent before it comes in causing cash-flow issues and payments due were delayed sometime ago. It has the potential to bring down these companies and with it the well being of their employees.
I hope the business meetings due to take place from Tuesday onward bring forth a plan to assist them until much of Carillion's work is stabilized and so contracts can be renewed.
The other is The Donald and the infamous "sh*thole" remarks at least attributed to his meeting with Foreign Affairs senators.
The absence of a categorical denial by all present of these reported comments has only added to their widespread revulsion around the world.
Some of us would defend strong terms in condemning the issues of corrupt poorly performing governance in parts of Central America and much of Africa where money just disappears from western countries aid and medical welfare provision and where far from growing their economies they engage in petty squabbling and rewarding supporters.
In saying that though, one should not prejudge entire peoples who often feel as frustrated as we in the West do with their so-called leaders, the stolen monies and bare faced lies nor should we fail to understand facing that, any of us would look to moving to a better society to allow us and our families the chance to move on and to earn a better life.
Using highly offensive terms too is often counter productive in making valid points and diminish the moral authority not just of those who do but of those they represent such as the American people all ethnicities and family backgrounds. Such comments deserve widespread condemnation.
This is not a good moment in a year of many others sadly for those of us recognize who and support the American people and what their country stands for regardless of politics.

Language in the classroom

The vexed question of how or what to refer to pupils at schools as has opened up again following Altrincham Girl's school decision to avoid referring to it's children as girls in what is a girls school and to use gender neutral language.
An awful lot has happened certainly around language since I left the school system and even as a Governor for a period at one least the retitling of 'Forms' for 'Year x' since the 1990's, the removal of the term Pupil and substitution of 'Student', a term I associate with those at 16+ college or University rather than say 8 year olds and yes we were always referred to as "Girls and Boys" in what was a co-ed school.
The reasoning preferred for all this is to be 'transgender friendly' and certainly personally I've no time for misgendering anyone but gender identity is a area that is complex and not the same as saying people are gender neutral although it is true some individuals may well feel 'non binary' and in principal I feel that ought to be respected.
Some as I can well recall from my junior and high school days feel very strongly about their identity and gender role as either boys or girls and to them while they would all agree they were 'children' the bigger thing to them is to be their gender  and if you were misgendered or assigned incorrectly you may well understand why it matters to them.
That's why I get a bit concerned how far we may take well intentioned attempts to make spaces inclusive we end up degendering for those who feel they are misgendered.
I don't feel in the context of an introduction say at an Assembly "Good Morning Children" is an issue although traditionalists prefer "Boys and Girls" to mirror "Ladies and Gentlemen" but when you suggest you cannot refer to a group of girls as 'girls' least it cause offence to any girls in girls school who may be questioning their gender identity in which by design doesn't admit nor allow boys to be and your school sign refers to 'girls' a few thoughts come to mind.
Firstly if hearing or seeing the term 'Girls' offends or intimidate you to that point perhaps being at an all girls school isn't really for you because at the very least you'd rather mix children of either traditional gender or non binary which is more likely at an co-ed school.
If you feel as a girl you're non-binary or especially a boy, then there is gender question about what you are doing where an essential criteria is to be that gender and where if you were to transition you couldn't stay. Does your right to be say non-binary mean it's right to deny your peers the right to called girls to include you?
Finally if you are transitioning as a boy to a girl, you may feel as good number have you'd rather be at an all girls school because you'd be away from boys and their all too real separate genderedness but how would it play to be at a girls school where being being referred to as the gender you now present as is discouraged by official policy and where you'll never be referred to collectively as girls?
To me it just this in the context of an all girl or boy school comes over as muddled and ill thought out especially when you still refer to yourself as a Girls School.

Classical update III - Beethoven

Here we are into a new year and yes I'm writing a review as I mentioned on our last edition I had  some cds over Christmas and we'd be talking about them.
Beethoven is the second largest composer in order of works I have collected after Mozart and most of the original discs stemmed from around 1989 through 1994 starting initially with a couple of Naxos titles and later on taking in discs on Deutsche Grammophon that had stood the test of time in the Galleria and Privilege series.
I had replaced a few of those in 2010 for newly remastered versions that apart from sounding firmer being slim 2 cd sets, took less space too.
The last entry for Beethoven was in 2011 when we bought a five cd box set of symphonies.
The violin is an instrument I have a liking for and Beethoven wrote quite a bit for it.

I also like the piano so when the two instruments are played as a duo then I'm enraptured and that lead to getting a recording of Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth Violin Sonatas but the sound was lacking something. Yehudi Menuhin is one of the finest violinists of all time and recordings by him certainly are worth seeking out.

It also was the case I longed for a complete set of them and these two double cd sets give me that in performances that are hard to beat and indeed in his piano works many of us feel Wilhelm Kempff just got the right feel showing sensitivity, restraint and even soul in how on recordings such as this whole set, allowing them to speak directly to us.
The nineteen-seventy analogue sound has been carefully mastered so it sounds as fresh as many modern recordings.
Having got these that had been issued in a four cd set in the halycon days of cd in the mid nineteen eighties I feel upgrading and the same time completing this series of recordings makes sense.