h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A man remonstrates with yobs for throwing rubbish in through the open window of his car.

A young man doesn't want to join a gang.

A guy is riding his motor cycle on the M40.

Another tries to stop yobs throwing stones at his car.

A child is sleeping in it's bed at night.

All in the news this week.

Two are shot dead, two are stabbed to death and one is kicked and stamped to death. And that was all that came to mind in a couple of moments.

This place is crap.

PP

Mr. Pink, I so agree with you and two years ago we left England to start another life in another place. It too was crap, there was wicked people and corruption. I know how you feel and it shocks me to see that this has happened but evil is all over the world. We came home a year ago to the day.

The UK is one of the safest nations on the planet. Get some perspective.

"The UK is one of the safest nations on the planet. Get some perspective."

Is it? Really?

It's not so much the "danger" that concerns me but the deteriorating care about everyone else or the quality of their life, that I see everywhere and the lack of respect for eachother in general.

If the UK is indeed one of the safest nations on Earth, why this deterioration? You wouldn't deny that things are getting worse would you Br?

PP

Move to Luxembourg.

RF

I lived for 30 years in a really rough area of London and left for another country after that. I really moved from city to village. I remember that after moving, and a long time after, I still felt unsafe.

Now, after 15 years or so, I am totally happy here. I am still street smart and still walk at a non-tourist speed when I visit a city or town, but I can carry 1000 Euros in my pocket late at night and don't feel at all frightened about being mugged. We even leave to door open at night (like in the old days?). Okay we do have a dog, which hears everything. So when she barks at night, I do get up and have a look around.

What is really funny is that people who have lived here all their lives are paranoid about being/feeling unsafe. I try to explain that being mugged by a cow or a wild bore is most unlikely. Similarly, we don't have any curtains in our bathroom window, only cows outside as neighbours and if someone really wants to stand outside in the rain and watch me undress, then they probably need it more than I need curtains.

Now my children are getting older and I try to make them street smart, too. However, you have to find a good balance between paranoid and smart behaviour.

PP do you have to live in a town/city? Or could you think about moving away? New Zealand is supposed to be nice (better weather, too!)

I didn't originally post because I'm scared, I will walk in London / Luton / Bedford / wherever without a second thought.

I just dispair at the decline in society.

Where does it go from here? The genie seems to be out of the bottle and it certainly isn't going back in.

PP

Hello PP

It looks like you have got all these headlines from a newspaper.

It might be prudent to stop reading the newspapers for a while; don't listen to the news on the radio; the same with TV news. The news media thrives from such headlines and the reaction which you have described in your question. Try it for a few weeks - ones get addicted to this type of media.

It has helped me. Perhaps you too.

London and Bedford, yes, but you walk around in *LUTON*?! Crazy, crazy man!

RF

Now that really would be World head lines, " Man is drowned in an oil slick eminating from a wild bore."

There are of course other ways to get,"Dead"

An enraged wild Boar can inflict terrible damage to the legs of any animal including humans, and once on the ground the wild boar can finish the job by going for the throat which is true of most anmals.

The lion has muliple strategies such as an attack from behind when the lion leaps up onto the back of a lumbering buffalo and bites through the back bone thus bringing down the huge beast.

A choke hold on the neck is another option.
But the mildest attack is when the beast is half asleep and the lion
creeps up and latches onto the snout and the loose skin on the lions mouth blocks the nose holes of the victim.
The lion contiues breathing through it's own nose but the victim is suffocated by the tongue and side skin of the lion's mouth.

What a way to go! so silent and almost painless.
Anyone for a hamburger?

Now that really would be World head lines, " Man is drowned in an oil slick eminating from a wild bore."

There are of course other ways to get,"Dead"

An enraged wild Boar can inflict terrible damage to the legs of any animal including humans, and once on the ground the wild boar can finish the job by going for the throat which is true of most animals.

The lion has muliple strategies such as an attack from behind when the lion leaps up onto the back of a lumbering buffalo and bites through the back bone thus bringing down the huge beast.

A choke hold on the neck is another option.
But the mildest attack is when the beast is half asleep and the lion
creeps up and latches onto the snout and the loose skin on the lions mouth blocks the nose holes of the victim.
The lion contiues breathing through it's own nose but the victim is suffocated by the tongue and side skin of the lion's mouth.

What a way to go! so silent and almost painless.
Anyone for a hamburger?

Sorry, only one Hamburger per person. :0)

You feeling better now, PP?

Ha ha! y'all missed out the O in PP = POP or P*****d off person?
And if you are going to move to Europe practice saying " Ach du lieber Gott! und Farfluchter noch mal!

The decline in society? When was the high point in society? The 1950s? Post rationing and pre permissive liberal change?

I agree... It's horrible that people are horrible to teach other...

... But moving somewhere else, shutting oneself off and locking oneself away just breeds more paraoia and IMO a worsening of the problems because society becomes more fragmented and without cohesion what is there to come together for? If all anyone worries about is their own patch, we lose even more respect for each other...

I'm not offering a solution, just offering comment on your 'it's all crap'...

Oh, and you know what? While the cobwebs catch dew and throw rainbows in the sunshine, while birds are nesting and having babies and singing for territories, while now and then one person smiles and another smiles back even though they dont know them, life's worth living for me.

Breaking news.

11 year old boy shot dead in Liverpool.

It appears that this lad was shot by a youth riding past on a bike. Now I'm not that old (however it sounds) but when I was a kid we didn't have guns (and yes, I know that it is unusual even now).

And even when the cobwebs catch dew and throw rainbows in the sunshine, while birds are nesting and having babies and singing for territories, which I share your joy in, (bad grammar) I still have to go to work tomorrow, past the rubbish thrown into the street, past the fences broken, the grafitti'd obscenities done by people who don't give a damn about the quality of other people's lives or for that matter their own.

Tomorrow I will be working in the Magistrates court where the usual suspects will turn up, along with the girlfriends in tow who have brought the children of their last boyfriend with them (and no Mr Politician, they aren't missing black fathers - what a slur!) A fair proportion of them will be prevented from bringing their cans of beer into the court at 10a.m. by the three security men who work on the door. What chance have those children got to aspire to a more pleasant and rewarding way of life?

I'm not moving in the right circles am I?

PP

Oooh. I'm turning into a grumpy old man.

I just heard about that. It hurts.

At least I live in a country where an eleven year old being killed by a gunshot is an important news story: there are many places where it wouldn't be anything extraordinary.

Still leaves me numb though.

Dont get me wrong, I kind of agree with you, and yes, it's the wasted lives that have no chance because their parents dont aspire to give them even half a chance that upsets me the most. Adults I have very little sympathy for in certain terms, except that if you try to fix them they might help to open their children's opportunities up...

There was a girl in my GCSE math class at school who actually said that her plan after leaving school was to get on the dole and have baby for extra benefits.