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I'm too young to be this cynical
Dec. 9th, 2007 07:31 pmIt's official: they're closing our Post Office. Despite all the letters, the protests, the petition signed by 15,000 people. That's right, 15,000 -- about three quarters of the population. The word after the initial upset was that no matter how many people signed the petition, it would only count as one letter. So we all wrote letters. Here's an exerpt from their reply to mine:
( Would you prefer lethal injection or the electric chair? )
This sort of thing would never happen in the United States. Not because the US is more democratic -- it's not; if anything, it's less -- but because the provision of a government-run, well-functioning postal service is a historically important part of the US identity. Even though there are private parcel services, (FedEx, UPS, etc.), the USPS still has and will legally always have primacy. Analagously, even with the continued growth of private medical care in the UK, it's politically inconceivable (for now) that the government would do away with the NHS entirely.
I think when I came to the UK, I was so bitter about the US, and so dazzled by certain aspects of this system (NHS! Transferable voting! State-subsidised higher education! Cops don't have guns! NHS!) that I overlooked a lot of its flaws. I was aware of them, of course, but somewhat forgiving, since the system tends to be much better than the US. But a forgiving attitude is exactly what will allow this kind of shit to keep happening.
My hall of residence is undergoing some renovation. Despite the plans having been in place for at least three years, we weren't informed of this until last spring (only reassured that rumours of hall's closing were untrue), when they sent us our contracts for the coming year. This year. Apparently there was a 'consultation process', which accoring to the senior students (the only ones who were informed that there even was a "consultation process" of any kind), amounted to the two of them begging for a meeting with Roger Smith, the Big Man In Charge of university accommodation; or for any kind of real input or even real information about what was going on; and being repeatedly denied even this.
The renovation work began this summer, making lots of arbitrary changes that absolutely no one likes, including the removal of our primary notice board (which was replaced with ugly-ass impressionistic pictures of flowers) and a great deal of fad-ist design to make the building look more 'modern'--which, tacky as it looks now, will look even more tacky in ten years when architectural fads have moved on. Besides this, there have been an impressive number of fuck-ups, which I quite simply don't have the energy to list (but![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ragsix_bold has been documenting some of them, much more articulately than I could).
In any other situation, you'd expect the responsible party (which for the most part has been the university) to be apologetic, conciliatory, perhaps even compensatory. At the very least, to acknowledge that things have gone wrong. Nothing. We've been complaining through all the proper channels. Roger Smith's reply to our most recent official complaint was posted on one of our few remaining notice boards. It was dismissive, patronising, infuriating. He outright denied some things, and parried others with flippant beaurocratic zeal. He actually suggested that because our parents hadn't complained about the state of the building when we moved in, our complaints are most likely groundless. Excuse me? My parents are 3500 miles away; I moved in myself, carrying my stuff from across town -- half with the help of a friend's car, half strapped to my fuckin' bicycle. They're not taking us seriously. And you know, sure, building work always involves several unexpected snags. Everyone knows that, and the residents have taken all of if in more than good humour. We've been bending over backwards. Fuckit. Enough is enough.
Oh, and I almost forgot the petition! A statement of dissatisfaction, signed by (IIRC) 171 of 189 residents. This apparently is not really indicitave of the general opinion of the residents. And they think we'll achieve change through consultation? How does one consult with a jackhammer?
The dissatisfaction is coming to a head. It's not just in Hall. In our last meeting, the SRC passed a motion threatening protest if the University did not make some concessions in the Student Association's funding demands. Even Tom D'Ardenne, our president, seems to have become disillusioned with the system. He's no hothead. He really respects the way things "ought" to be done. So when even he's supporting direct action, you know things are bad. It was this motion that he and the Director of Representation brought up in the consultation we had with them on Wednesday, since the SRC motion also implied the threat of protest on accommodation issues alongside the other funding issues.
In this meeting, I raised the possibility of direct action on our own. It was pushed aside, in favour of the proposed meeting with Roger Smith--the idea being that direct action must be the last resort, and we hadn't yet exhausted the other possibilities. I don't think Roger Smith will agree to consultation. Then what will we do? It will be too late... if anything is going to be done, it needs to be done NOW. This semester. How the hell are we supposed to make that happen?
But there are whispers, whispers. Someone's contacted Historic Scotland about the ridiculously stupid plans they've made for the older part of the building, which is scheduled to be 'refurbished' in the spring. But that's only one aspect of the issue. For the rest, we need to act before it's too late. We need to fight. I just wish it didn't all have to be such a fucking battle.
One of the more ridiculous changes is that we are no longer allowed to affix pieces of paper to doors, because this constitutes a 'fire hazard'. Yesterday afternoon, I put a small note on my door stating that I would remove it when the real fire hazards were taken care of. When all of the fire doors open properly, when the emergency fire phone is working at all, when the fire alarm system is fixed. By evening, I had received several positive comments from other students. I spent last night at La Barricada--to be honest, with the threat of random fire alarms at any hour of the night, I actually prefer to sleep out of Hall when I can--when I came back today, the note had been removed.
( Would you prefer lethal injection or the electric chair? )
This sort of thing would never happen in the United States. Not because the US is more democratic -- it's not; if anything, it's less -- but because the provision of a government-run, well-functioning postal service is a historically important part of the US identity. Even though there are private parcel services, (FedEx, UPS, etc.), the USPS still has and will legally always have primacy. Analagously, even with the continued growth of private medical care in the UK, it's politically inconceivable (for now) that the government would do away with the NHS entirely.
I think when I came to the UK, I was so bitter about the US, and so dazzled by certain aspects of this system (NHS! Transferable voting! State-subsidised higher education! Cops don't have guns! NHS!) that I overlooked a lot of its flaws. I was aware of them, of course, but somewhat forgiving, since the system tends to be much better than the US. But a forgiving attitude is exactly what will allow this kind of shit to keep happening.
My hall of residence is undergoing some renovation. Despite the plans having been in place for at least three years, we weren't informed of this until last spring (only reassured that rumours of hall's closing were untrue), when they sent us our contracts for the coming year. This year. Apparently there was a 'consultation process', which accoring to the senior students (the only ones who were informed that there even was a "consultation process" of any kind), amounted to the two of them begging for a meeting with Roger Smith, the Big Man In Charge of university accommodation; or for any kind of real input or even real information about what was going on; and being repeatedly denied even this.
The renovation work began this summer, making lots of arbitrary changes that absolutely no one likes, including the removal of our primary notice board (which was replaced with ugly-ass impressionistic pictures of flowers) and a great deal of fad-ist design to make the building look more 'modern'--which, tacky as it looks now, will look even more tacky in ten years when architectural fads have moved on. Besides this, there have been an impressive number of fuck-ups, which I quite simply don't have the energy to list (but
ragsix_bold has been documenting some of them, much more articulately than I could). In any other situation, you'd expect the responsible party (which for the most part has been the university) to be apologetic, conciliatory, perhaps even compensatory. At the very least, to acknowledge that things have gone wrong. Nothing. We've been complaining through all the proper channels. Roger Smith's reply to our most recent official complaint was posted on one of our few remaining notice boards. It was dismissive, patronising, infuriating. He outright denied some things, and parried others with flippant beaurocratic zeal. He actually suggested that because our parents hadn't complained about the state of the building when we moved in, our complaints are most likely groundless. Excuse me? My parents are 3500 miles away; I moved in myself, carrying my stuff from across town -- half with the help of a friend's car, half strapped to my fuckin' bicycle. They're not taking us seriously. And you know, sure, building work always involves several unexpected snags. Everyone knows that, and the residents have taken all of if in more than good humour. We've been bending over backwards. Fuckit. Enough is enough.
Oh, and I almost forgot the petition! A statement of dissatisfaction, signed by (IIRC) 171 of 189 residents. This apparently is not really indicitave of the general opinion of the residents. And they think we'll achieve change through consultation? How does one consult with a jackhammer?
The dissatisfaction is coming to a head. It's not just in Hall. In our last meeting, the SRC passed a motion threatening protest if the University did not make some concessions in the Student Association's funding demands. Even Tom D'Ardenne, our president, seems to have become disillusioned with the system. He's no hothead. He really respects the way things "ought" to be done. So when even he's supporting direct action, you know things are bad. It was this motion that he and the Director of Representation brought up in the consultation we had with them on Wednesday, since the SRC motion also implied the threat of protest on accommodation issues alongside the other funding issues.
In this meeting, I raised the possibility of direct action on our own. It was pushed aside, in favour of the proposed meeting with Roger Smith--the idea being that direct action must be the last resort, and we hadn't yet exhausted the other possibilities. I don't think Roger Smith will agree to consultation. Then what will we do? It will be too late... if anything is going to be done, it needs to be done NOW. This semester. How the hell are we supposed to make that happen?
But there are whispers, whispers. Someone's contacted Historic Scotland about the ridiculously stupid plans they've made for the older part of the building, which is scheduled to be 'refurbished' in the spring. But that's only one aspect of the issue. For the rest, we need to act before it's too late. We need to fight. I just wish it didn't all have to be such a fucking battle.
One of the more ridiculous changes is that we are no longer allowed to affix pieces of paper to doors, because this constitutes a 'fire hazard'. Yesterday afternoon, I put a small note on my door stating that I would remove it when the real fire hazards were taken care of. When all of the fire doors open properly, when the emergency fire phone is working at all, when the fire alarm system is fixed. By evening, I had received several positive comments from other students. I spent last night at La Barricada--to be honest, with the threat of random fire alarms at any hour of the night, I actually prefer to sleep out of Hall when I can--when I came back today, the note had been removed.
