to think we in the UK have a bloody good life and we should stop bloody whinging?

[WriterofDreams]

This is a rant. Feel free to tell me IABU, as I am not going to be moderate in my views.

I know "what about the starving children in [insert poor country here]" is an endlessly annoying response to any complaint but it's been ringing in my head of late. I know people are struggling financially and being uncertain about the future is very worrying. But I do feel at times it would do us all good to stop and appreciate the huge privilege and good luck we have in living in this part of the world.

Something that will always stay with me is something my sister told me when she was working in Namibia. She had a spare notebook and pen so she gave it to a man who was about to study to be a teacher. He broke down in tears and she got a shock until she realised that this man could never have afforded to buy his own notebook and pen. He considered the gift hugely generous and had to be persuaded to accept it. A nun friend of mine also told me about children in Ethiopia who used to have their pens blessed by the priest in the hopes it would make them keep working. They had one pen to last the whole year and if it stopped working they might not be able to do their exams. Contrast this to my kids at school who would lose expensive handwriting pens left right and centre and expect a new one every time. We had to introduce a reward system to get them to look after them.

I wake up every day in a peaceful country in a dry warm house. I have running water, electricity, gas and a council that looks after the roads and collects the bins (as well as a lot of other things). If I need anything there are any number of shops I can go to where the shelves are constantly well stocked. My son will go to a clean well equipped school with highly trained teachers, for free, and get heaps of bloody handwriting pens, books, and photocopied worksheets. If I'm ill I can go to the doctor, for free, and be seen right away, given the correct medicine or sent to a state of the art hospital where I'll get great care, again for free. I don't have to worry that malaria or yellow fever will kill my family, or that war will tear my country apart.

On the whole I am one of the very very lucky ones.

'can you not appreciate that what we have is better than the nothing that many other people have?'

of course I can imagine that. That's why I keep complaining and whinging, to make sure that we never lose the rights that we all fought for and deserve.

I believe in listening to the people, not the politicians. I believe people are entitled to complain and whinge when their elderly relatives die on hospital wards due to dehydration. I don't get fooled by bigwigs telling me "you've never had it so good", look at how the people live on the other side of the world and ignore how the rich and wealthy live just up the road.

The rich and weathy live the same everywhere claig but the poor live very differently. You don't have to look to developing countries to see that.

I don't think the NHS should be free any more, with exceptions. I think it's encouraged its use as a hobby and a reason to get out of the house.

I like the Belgian system of mutualities. You pay into a mutuality, an insurance thing, not a huge lot but something. Then you pay to go to the doctor, say 20 Euro. Then you claim it back through your mutualite and get around 80 pc of it back.

If you have a prescription you just buy the drugs. So you can buy the cheaper ones if you like.

It seemed to work extremely well. It wasn't expensive enough to prohibit a visit to the GP but it was enough to make you think, do I really need to go. And the money seemed to fund a great system with no queues and a dr on every street corner almost.

You don't have to listen to politicians if you don't want to but you could try listening to the people who are struggling to live in places like the US because they don't have what we have here.

I agree with the people struggling in the US. But unlike you, I also agree with teh people struggling and complaining here in this country, in our towns and villages. We can't do anything about what happens in the US, but we can all do something about what happens here.

I agree Gooseberry. Might make peopel take more responsibility for their own health, too. Yunno, eat healthily, don't smoke, get off your arse.

Unlike me? You think I don't care? You think that appreciating what we DO have makes me (and others here) incapable of seeing that there still improvements that need to be made despite the fact that we've said several times that we know it's not perfect? Why don't you try reading what we're actually writing rather than what you think we're writing.

Hey is someone having a go at bubbly? Can't have that.

But STILL.

How can you get off your arse if you have been injured in a car crash?
Eat healthily? With all the additives and crap that is added to staple foods?

Okay lots of people in this country struggle. People are homeless, living in terrible accommodation or struggling in other ways. And of course we need to fight for the most vulnerable in our country.

But that doesn't mean we can't also acknowledge that life in this country is a lot easier than for people living in lots of countries. I have relatives in the US.

One Aunt has had major health problems and ended up losing her home because of medical bills. In spite of major health issues and disabilities she wasn't offered any help or housing by the Govt. My family in the UK helped her financially to get somewhere to live and her very poor sister sorted out the practicalities her end (here sister lives in 1 room in a lodging house and is not allowed to let anyone else live there).

When you see and hear first hand of how ordinary people struggle in other countries, it does make you realise that we are lucky to be living in the UK. The US is a very wealthy country, but has far less regard for the ill, old and disabled than in the UK - and I think things could be a lot better here.

Of course we are luckier than people in many countries. But that doesn't mean we should stop complaining and whinging when we receive shoddy treatment. We need to demand high standards in health, education, safety and everything else. Otherwise we risk losing what we do have and what we have gained over the years.

How many people are aware of some of the crap that is allowed in our staple food, bread?

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2003622/Is-bread-making-ill-How-2011s-loaves-bad-you.html

IndigoJohn - Yes people should take responsibility for their own health. Although sometimes people drink too much, etc to cope with major problems such as dealing with past abuse.

But you know lots of people become ill and disabled through absolutely no fault of their own. Sometimes it is genetic problems apparent when peopel are babies, sometimes genetic problems that only become apparent when people are in their 30's and 40's.

And everyday people have heart attacks/strokes/cancer who have always been slim, ate healthily, exercised, drank little alcohol, etc. Living healthily reduces the chances of getting ill or dying when you are young, but it does not eliminate it.

I read what you repeatedly wrote bubbleymummy. You are saying people are worse off elsewhere. We all know that. I am saying that shjouldn't stop us complaining and whinging about the poor service that we get in this country. People are right to be shocked that elderly people are dying of dehydration on our hospital wards. People are right to complain and demand better. They know that people are even worse off elsewhere, but that doesn't mean that they should join them. Why don't you start listening to the complaints of people in this country? Didn't you see the millions of public sector workers on the streets complaining about what is happening here and not the other side of the world?

They should make prisoners from the UK, go out into poor countries and help to build schools and housing. Might work out cheaper than keeping them locked up in 'cushy' jails
They won't be able to run away as the local communities would know who they are straight away.
It might wake some of them up as to why they are stealing for drugs and 'luxuries' when they see what REAL life is like on this planet.

I broadly agree OP. While I think there are some real inequalities and injustices in this country, they pale into insignificance compared to what much of the world has to face. none of os will ever have to see our child starve to death or die of an easily preventable illness.
I have become addicted to "The World's Strictest parents" on cBBC3 where they basically send 2 uber brats, who have usually had a very good and expensive education but have dropped out to spend their time getting smashed and stoned and trashing their parents houses with their parties. These parents then get a load of abuse when they refuse to let their offspring have £100 to go and buy more cocaine. They get sent off to some ultra strict family somewhere in the world to get licked into shape. It sounds a bit cheesy and formulaic but there's always a bit where the parents send them to do some voluntary work at a homeless centre of an orphanage and you can realy see the penny drop and they appear to feel genuine remorse for their selfishness and realise how lucky they are. What also really seems to get their guilt levels up as well is that, in many of these countries, so many children are desperate to go to school but can't afford it. It's usually a wake up call to the ones who've pissed a £100,000 education down the drain.

There is lots of evidence to show that people who appreciate what they have are happier.

This doesn't mean that you don't fight against injustices. I am very political and would always support any fight against injustices and oppression. But why can't people see that we can acknowledge how lucky we are in comparison to most people in the world and at the same time fight against injustices in this country.

If you have access to clean water, you are better off than most people in the world.

We all know we are better off than many others across the world. But the OP suggest we should "stop bloody whinging". That is exactly what those in power want us to do; to rest on our laurels, appreciating what we have got, content with our lot, while they slowly pull the rug out from under us by making more and more cuts, while telling us "we have never had it so good" and we ought to be grateful we are not in the situation of those less well-off abroad. It is defeatist and plays into the hands of the powerful. Yes we are better off than others in the world, but it is because we complained and fought for change. Let's not stop complaining or we will end up back where we started; a lot worse off.

'There is lots of evidence to show that people who appreciate what they have are happier.'

That's exactly why the powerful want us to appreciate our lot. If we are unhappy, we might demand change, we might march and strike for better pensions or better healthcare. We might demand a few changes. Better that we appreciate our lot.

Depends what you are fighting for. If it is just "no more cuts" then that's long slow walk to nowhere. We can't afford it and we'll end up worse off in the end.

We keep being told that we have "the best in the world" of nearly everything. They say we have "the best health service in the world", they say "it is the envy of the world". Some people actually believe it and ignore people dying of dehydration and ignore the WHO figures showing where we really are in the world league table for healthcare. If you think we have "the best in teh world" then you are hardly likely to complain, you will appreciate how lucky you are.

We can afford it. How can we afford to be fighting in Afghanistan for 10 years and now in Libya? How can we afford to increase and ringfence our foreign aid budget? How can we afford to bail out Ireland?

Well, they say they need to cut your services even more. Be grateful, they say, that you're not in teh situation of the poor in teh third world. But we don't live in the third world. If you stop complaining then that's where you may end up.

claig, you're right. Money is being wasted in Afghanistan every day for no purpose that I can see.

And of course, how could we afford to bail out the bankers? With the taxes of the people and the cutbacks that the people have to suffer. Stop whinging, give thanks for what you have got and the less that you will soon have.