Going green, poverty and the state of the English Family

Life has settled down to normal now and our day to day existence is the same as it was in South Africa, we are happy and thriving and most days are diamonds. As a result of this more settled existence I find I have more time to think and look at this country around me for all its wonders and faults and a couple of issues have really stood out for me.

Going green or reducing your carbon footprint is a massive agenda here and receives all the publicity and support that such an important issue deserves. I am not however naive and do believe that it is only able to be on the forefront of the governments minds because more basic issues such as crime, unemployment and poverty are, relatively speaking, under control.

I think the same is true for the general household or "man on the street", I confess that in South Africa, being green was the last thing on my mind, not because I feared for my safety, or was struggling with poverty and crime, but because it was hard....first washing then sorting and then driving to try and find recycling bins were I could dispose of my "recyclables" was a pain, and I did have to deal with the underlying threat of being alone out of my car in an often remote area while filling the recycling bins...well that's my excuse and I am sticking to it (lol).

Here it is made so easy that there is no excuse, again I stress probably because the county councils have time and resources to commit to this issue. I simply have two rubbish bins in my home, one for landfill waste i.e. food cutting, nappies etc and another for ALL washed recyclables, all I have to do is rinse the jar or bottle or box and pop it into the bin, it is sorted by county and this makes it a totally stress free way for the family to recycle, and consequently it is done in most houses throughout the area.

The wheelie bins are emptied once a week on a alternative basis, one week my landfill bin (with the black lid) is emptied and the following week my recycle bin (with the blue lid) is emptied, this also encourages recycling because believe me if you aren't sorting your rubbish there is no way your landfill wheelie bin will cope with the two week load. Such simple, yet such effective measures, but I guess with a population of nearly 68 million people they have to do something.

All this recycling got me thinking even more about the number of disposable nappies that are making their way into the landfills on a daily basis and I even began to consider going back to cloth nappies in a bid to do my bit for the environment....but yippeeeeee I have been able to find fully biodegradable disposable nappies developed in Switzerland, so I can have it easy and still be kind to the world.

Another issue which I have found to be a huge concern in this country is the number of "poor" people who make absolutely no effort what so ever and spend their lives getting drunk and stoned on the tax payers bill....now don't get me wrong, I think that the social support in this country is fantastic, but I wish that there was more control as to who it goes to, many people simply rely on government and live quite well, especially if they have a lot of children, so consequently there is a ridiculously high rate of teenage pregnancies and many don't ever try to get jobs.

I was having this conversation with a friend of mine yesterday and we agree that maybe you should only qualify for the dol if you have achieved at least one GCSE as a school leaver or have to make a commitment to study further to improve your opportunities of securing employment if you are in between jobs, surely this way the people who are in genuine need will continue to receive the support, but those that are just "milking" the system will be forced to get off their backsides and do something.

A direct result of this downward spiral of society is the consequence to family life, never before have I seen such a decay in family values....now I may be generalising, but from what I have experienced through tv shows such as the "Jeremy Kyle show" (similar to Dr Phil) there is a massive problem here with children being conceived into relationships which are only a couple of weeks old and the parents then spend time fighting and using the children as weapons in totally dysfunctional relationships.

The language here of the youth is also scary and I am often horrified by the level of behaviour that is considered acceptable by parents....I am known as the "strict mommy" by many of the children's friends, but if it keeps my kids safe and with high moral values then it is a label I am prepared to wear. It was quite funny to see the other night that a television show called "The worlds strictest parents" in which messed up English youths are sent around the world to strict parents to be "sorted out" very often features South African parents and generally from the Afrikaans community....so we must be doing something right!

It is amazing what, when no longer faced with South Africa's issue, I have been able to find to think about here.