I'm Just Angry...

...about the riots.

My grandma would have been 100 tomorrow. She used to leave her shoes upturned at night for her husband to notice the holes in the soles before she could get a new pair. Children not that many decades ago walked miles to school without shoes. People used to be hung for stealing a loaf of bread to feed their starving families. People were deported for similar minor crimes.

Around the world there are so many countries entrenched in poverty, dictatorships, suppression, civil wars. There are droughts, famines, lack of infrastructure. People seeking democracy are mown down by government tanks or guns. The countries we have criticised for their barbarism are now laughing at the situation we currently have, at the Oxbridge graduates who've lost control of the country.

We are seeing British kids, seemingly unaware that compared to most places they could have been born, they've actually got it quite cushy. Ok, the jobs situation sucks, and their prospects are not great. There are growing divisions between rich and poor. Public services are being cut. But essentially these kids are alive, safe, fed, housed, living in a democratic country with human rights... and they're taking advantage of safety in numbers to wreck homes, endanger lives, to get their kicks, to get flash tvs and trainers.

I am angry that they have caused all this fear and damage without being stopped in their tracks. CCTV and social networking are leading the police to the doors of some of them, but its too late - these kids have burnt people out of their homes, ruined family businesses, stuck their fingers up at the notion of working for what you have.

In Birmingham last night 3 young men were killed by some idiot who drove into them. The crowd of men were protecting local shops. I'd quite like to have words with the driver of that car, and with a few of the other idiots who've been having their fun this week.