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Money matters: Is old best? Not necessarily so - Part 1
Graham Macdonald
MBMG International Ltd.
The old chestnut Lloyds of London seems to be rearing its
ugly head again, so we thought it may be an idea to unravel some of the
mysterious myths that surround this organisation.
An interesting, if not entirely impartial, reading can be found on the website
www.liarsoflondon.com - a somewhat embittered expose on the workings of that
fundamental of insurance - Lloyds of London. It certainly pulls no punches
opening with the claim, “The most infamous fraudster in the history of the
United States was Mr. Ponzi. He was convicted of operating a massive investment
scheme in which he offered unusually high interest rates to his depositors. He
paid these high returns out of the new capital he attracted from new depositors.
Eventually, of course, his scheme collapsed when he could not attract sufficient
new deposits to both pay interest to his old depositors and repay those of them
who asked for the return of their money. There are interesting parallels between
Lloyd’s and Mr. Ponzi’s scheme. A major difference, however, is that Lloyd’s
made and executed its plans with the knowledge and connivance of a great
Department of Government, the Department of Trade and Industry.”
Some rather startling facts are highlighted - Lloyd’s has recorded losses in 21
of the last 25 policy years in the “US $ Non-Marine, All Other” class of
business, with aggregate underwriting losses over those years of $4.6 billion,
with additional provisions for these years of around $790 million. In fact, for
Syndicate Account from 1979 to 1991, Lloyd’s Annual Global Accounts, which cover
all classes of business worldwide, have recorded aggregate underwriting deficits
of £5.7 billion and overall pre-tax trading losses of £4.2 billion. On 24th
February 1982 the magnitude of the ultimate losses from long standing unlimited
US Liability policies was officially admitted by the Lloyd’s Panel of Approved
Syndicate Auditors as being so large as to be unquantifiable. As was inevitable,
the losses eventually started to impact on Lloyd’s Syndicates in the late 1980’s
and the early 1990’s. Thus, claims the website, “…only recently have syndicate
Accounts and Lloyd’s Global Accounts started to reflect the deficits for which
provision should have been made so many years ago.”
What seems to annoy the ‘Names Defence Association’ here is that the allegedly
incorrect accounting practices led to excessive amounts of tax being paid when
losses should have been quantified and used to offset taxable profits. “Had
adequate provisions been made when they properly should have been, Lloyd’s as a
whole would have declared substantial losses and UK taxation revenues would have
been substantially lower. The over-statement of profits continued throughout
most of the 1980’s. It has been estimated that over those years the Treasury
collected between £500 million and £1 billion more than was truly justified as a
result of those false profits being declared at Lloyd’s.”
What also seems to be a source of annoyance is the belief that, “Lloyd’s
insiders had that knowledge in considerable detail over many years and from
impeccable sources” - i.e. that Lloyds was very much an insider’s club operating
an extremely unlevel playing field. “Some Names have now concluded that the
withholding of that material information, essential for any name and his agents
to properly assess his underwriting commitments at Lloyd’s, could only have been
made deliberately. They believe that the failures to publish that information
over so many years could only have resulted from a series of knowing and
deliberate decisions.
“It is not credible that a series of simple oversights is the explanation.”
Lloyd’s, they say, did not have the option of publishing or not publishing
information of such importance; it had a statutory obligation to publish it ...
A number of key Lloyd’s insider working Names took advantage of their privileged
information to re-insure their own syndicates’ US Liability risks to other less
knowledgeable and unsuspecting syndicates. The first examples of such insider
trading took place in the mid and late 1970’s. ... Like insider trading on the
stock market, which is illegal, insider trading by insureds which involves the
concealment of material information from the insurer is cause in law for the
resulting policy to be voided.
The possibility now exists for a number of critical re-insurance policies and,
indeed, whole re-insurance programs at Lloyd’s to be challenged and voided.
Research findings of the Names Defence Association also show that the Department
of Trade and Industry and its predecessors were also aware of Lloyd’s long tail
US Liability problems. The solution as to how those claims could be paid was
worked out and agreed by Lloyd’s and DTI officials in the early 1980’s ... The
first part of the solution was to increase the ‘reserves’ at Lloyd’s gradually
over the coming years through a policy which they described as “stair-stepping”.
This term first came to the knowledge of damaged names at meetings in 1994
between their representatives and DTI officials. In brief, stair-stepping
involved the gradual increase in the Minimum Percentage Reserves laid down by
Lloyd’s for the setting of RITC “premiums” each year. This policy might have
been appropriate to incorporated insurance company with its own permanent fixed
capital and on-going separate legal persona. But it was totally inappropriate
for Lloyd’s syndicates which are annual business ventures whose members vary
from year to year. As is clearly shown by Lloyd’s own Annual Settlement
Statistics, “stair-stepping” was implemented progressively and successfully
throughout the 1980’s and into the 1990’s.
Some names now seek counsel as to whether that policy of “stair-stepping” might
have been a deliberate and criminal fraud on new members joining certain new
syndicate years, in view of the fact that those members did not receive proper
financial consideration for the risks they were assuming; risks so large that,
at least since 1979, they were known to be unquantifiable.
To be continued…
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The above data and research was compiled from sources believed to be
reliable. However, neither MBMG International Ltd nor its officers can accept
any liability for any errors or omissions in the above article nor bear any
responsibility for any losses achieved as a result of any actions taken or not
taken as a consequence of reading the above article. For more information please
contact Graham Macdonald on [email protected]
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Snap Shots: Fruit salad and the best advice I was ever given
by Harry Flashman
Nobody is born as a photographer. I have yet to hear of an infant taking
shots with any camera – be that digital or film. Certainly there are
some people who have a better “eye” for detail than others, or a better
sense of composition, but we all begin from the same point when we pick
up a camera for the first time, no matter what our ages. The point of
zero knowledge.
 Commercial
shot taken with Hasselblad camera in studio.
When I first began to show a more than average interest in photography,
the thoughts of entry into the “big time” was not planned in any way. At
that stage, I had a camera for snapshots, just the same as everyone
else, and that was what I took – happy snaps! I was interested enough to
begin reading the odd photography magazine, probably because they always
had pictures of glamorous girls on the cover, and read that one of the
best cameras in the world was something called a Hasselblad.
A friend was going to Europe for a vacation and so I asked him to price
one of these Hasselblad things for me while he was over there. A few
weeks later he returned and came into the office where I worked and
triumphantly placed this camera bag on my desk, saying “There it is! I
got a real good deal and even got them to throw in the bag as well.” I
gulped and asked how much. The sum was astronomical and I went pale.
Fortunately my friend said I could pay him off in small payments and at
that point I became a professional photographer. If I was going to pay
it off, that Hasselblad had to work to bring in the instalments!
I had another friend who was a keen amateur photographer and he loaned
me all his books on the subject. I read voraciously, as just about every
bit of information you ever need about anything is written down
somewhere. I began to take some photographs, and they were certainly as
sharp as a tack. The Hasselblad lenses are famous for their sharpness.
But the lighting? Ah, that was not so good.
I experimented with the light behind me, in front of me, coming from the
side, the top, underneath, from anywhere. I bought tungsten flood lights
from the garden shop and added them in as well. A flash gun was
introduced and I began to get something that was, to my eye at least,
quite reasonable. I showed some of the results to the assistant in the
pro photo supplies shop, who by this time knew the contents of my wallet
intimately. “Can’t say I go with the fruit salad lighting,” was his
opening remarks. Then he looked at one print and said, “How did you get
that effect?” I looked and wasn’t sure, and at that point, the shop
assistant gave me the best bit of advice I ever got – and now I am
giving it to you. He said, “Get yourself a notebook and write down the
details of every shot you take. Read the notes as you look at the
pictures and you will soon see how you managed to get any particular
effect.” He went on, “That way you can always duplicate the effect for
any other shot.”
Do not gloss over that advice, if you actually want to improve. Or if
you want to be able to reproduce that great halo effect, or whatever,
you need to know how you did it the first time. And the list of
variables in photography is so great you will never remember two months
later!
You must jot down the aperture, the shutter speed, direction of the
light and what the light meter suggested (and that includes the camera’s
built in light meter). You will get notes like f8 @ 1/60th , meter f 16
@ 1/60th, sun behind subject. That photograph will turn out with a
bright halo effect as the aperture is two stops wider open than the
camera thinks it should be. And if you like it, you can do it all again,
anytime, anywhere!
Just keep a notebook in your camera bag!
Modern Medicine: Am I going to die, doctor?
by Dr. Iain Corness, Consultant
Simple answer – yes, you are going to die, just the same as I
will and everyone around you. Immortality is not part of the deal, I am
afraid. I have been quoted as saying that if you can’t take it with you,
then I’m not going. But that’s wishful thinking. Despite the fact there are
no pockets in shrouds, I’ll be dragged off one day too, kicking and
screaming.
However, there are some ways that we can ensure the latter half of our lives
continues to be fun, not a drag. This is where screening comes into play,
but I am about to open a can of worms. Medically we can carry out all kinds
of mass screening tests and if we look at a large enough number of the
population, undoubtedly we will turn up conditions that people did not know
they had.
A simple one would be diabetes. If we took everyone over the age of 70 and
looked for high blood sugar, we would probably turn up something like eight
people in every hundred with a diabetic tendency. That sounds great from the
eight people’s point of view, but not so great from the other 92 people’s
point of view, who just spent money to find there was nothing wrong with
them. You see, selling “preventive” maintenance is not all that easy. “Isn’t
it great! You haven’t got disease XYZ!”
There is also another problem. Many people think that when they get a
negative test back, this means that they are now guaranteed that they are
never going to get disease XYZ. This is not correct. The negative test
result just means that at the time of carrying out the test, all tested
parameters were within “normal” limits. In fact, one of my more cynical
colleagues used to say that all an ECG showed (EKG if you are American) was
that at the time of doing the test, the patient showed signs of life! He was
not really correct, I hasten to add.
Many of the screening tests we carry out are for cancer, the big C, Jack the
Dancer and countless other nicknames for a group of conditions that have the
propensity to make you claim early on your life insurance. Again,
unfortunately a negative test does not mean you are now ten foot tall and
bullet-proof. All it means is that at the time of doing the test we could
not positively show that there was a cancer present. Next week it might just
start to grow. Who knows?
So should we be doing these tests at all? Just save our money in a sock
under the bed and take our chances in life? Common sense would tell us that
we should not turn our back on medical science, no matter how imperfect it
may be at this stage of the world’s development. I for one, would rather
know that currently I am well and that there are no diabolical medical
problems apparent. I would also like to know if there were any signs of an
impending problem – giving me time to do something about it. Even if there
was only precious little time available – at least I would have time to tidy
up my desk!
The advantage of regular annual screening is that if you were negative 12
months ago, but positive now, means that the problem is less than 12 months
old. For the vast majority of conditions, including cancers, there is time
enough to “catch it” and eliminate it or cure it.
The other good thing about screening tests is that we are getting more
clever at it every year. We now have the 64-slice CT to evaluate cardiac
vessels and the (expensive) PET which can spot potential problems even
earlier. While some of the testing may still be imperfect, it is still
better than blissful ignorance. Wouldn’t you rather be given a chance to
correct something disastrous, in place of doing nothing until it is too
late? Screening is really an “early warning system” – a good idea in
anyone’s books, surely?
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Hillary,
Enjoy.
Big D USA
Dear Big D USA,
I have to admit my Petal that I was a little unsure of who was sending me
the parcel. At first I thought it was “Big DUSA” and spent several
nano-seconds thinking about who DUSA could be while I ripped open the
wrapping. Inside, two lovely blocks of Hershey’s chocolates! Thank you so
much. While munching I looked at the wrapping again and decided it wasn’t
DUSA, but was “Big D” (from) USA. It is people like you who give me the
strength to carry on, fuelled by chocolate, of course!
Dear Hillary,
Thank you for printing my last letter! I’m sorry I mispelled (sic) “Asia”
but were you to actually take the time and look at my novel in Bookazine or
on the ‘Net, you’d see that it actually is spelled Missing In Asia. Writers
often make mistakes and that’s exactly what I did when I sent you that
e-mail. In fact, you did a rather nice job of making a mistake when you
informed your readers that A Woman Of Bangkok takes place during the Vietnam
War. Seeing as the book was originally published in 1956, that puts you a
few years ahead of our war so yes, any writer can make a mistake which
obviously you did. Lighten up and stop attacking the US, huh? Everybody
spells things oddly to other cultures.
As far as “corruption” goes, my offering of A Woman Of Bangkok to read still
holds for either Lang Reid or yourself (just so long as I do get the book
back - it’s a true classic!) whether or not he’ll review my books but seeing
as I’ve previously e-mailed him to politely request him to review my novels
and got zero responses, zero results, I thought I’d try another approach.
And please don’t compare me with Toxic; he was listed as the 16th wealthiest
man in Southeast Asia by Forbes; I’m a poor man trying to get a career going
as a writer since I love to write, would love to stay permanently in
Thailand and have readers who enjoy my work, as Jason Schoonover did. Please
give me an address where I can bring the novel or mail it once I get home to
Chiang Mai in four weeks and both of you can read it (and likely enjoy it).
By the way, what kind of champers would you prefer? Regarding my name being
spelt correctly, why wouldn’t it be? “Sean” is the only correct way to spell
my name and seeing as I’m Irish, neither of my parents wanted it done any
other way. As far as all the snakes coming to the States to become
policemen, that’s not entirely true, either: one of them went on to become a
largely useless politician - Teddy Kennedy.
Please keep your very entertaining columns going but can you lose the ethnic
snubs? Otherwise I believe our term for you will have to be “Poison Ivy” not
“Petal”. Cheers!
Sean
Dear Sean,
Congratulations, my Petal! You actually managed to misspell “misspell”! That
takes some doing, but then of course, you are a writer so you believe that
excuses you. Not by Ms. Hillary, it doesn’t Petal! And to think that you
expected Hillary to totter across the busy roads to go to Bookazine to check
the spellings on the cover of your own books! I concur that “Everybody
spells things oddly to other cultures,” but I have checked both the US
“English” and the UK English and both of them spell “misspell” as
“misspell”. Anything else I can do for you while I’m out doing your errands?
However, I am big enough to own up to my own mistakes. I did write that A
Woman of Bangkok describes the Vietnam war era. My only excuse was that
there wasn’t a copy in the local Bookazine for me to ascertain that fact
while I was over there in the shop checking your spelling and grammar, so
you’ll forgive me I am sure. But I have to refute your assertion that I am
attacking the US. From memory (I’m getting old so I may be imagining this),
the US attacked Vietnam, not Vietnam attacking the US. But please correct me
on this too.
Now then, correctly spelled Sean, what’s this about “ethnic snubs”? Really?
I suppose in your list there’s Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and now Hillary!
(I’ll ignore George W Bush.) Dearie me! What have I let myself in for now?
By the way, I spoke to Lang Reid who denies having received any emails from
you, but he did say that if writers want books reviewed they should drop
them in to the newspaper’s office, clearly marked as for Lang Reid, and the
staff will make sure he gets them. The same goes for champagne (or ‘methode
champenoise’), clearly marked for Ms. Hillary! (Dry or Brut, just as I like
my letter writers!)
How I see things
by Boxer
Well my first attempt at journalism in Pattaya was printed and the
editor has agreed ‘for the time being to continue’. What has he let himself
and you the readers in for? It must have been due to you the readers,
quality not quantative responses. To Brian, Diolch yn fawr, (thank you).
Brian emailed me to say what a wonderful time he had in Pattaya, no
muggings, no baht bus problems and wonders if he was lucky. No Brian, there
is always some luck in life but I believe you came here with an open mind to
enjoy yourself, not try to change things, and smile a lot. You avoided the
obvious, i.e., late night walks on your own in dark spots, and so remained
safe. A true recipe of how to get off to a good start and it carried on.
Brian had a great hotel and emailed them to say ‘Thank you’, next visit he
has been offered a special. Makes sense but how many of us praise when good
service yet we always moan if not up to standard? Oh by the way the sand
lorries are going to a government site for low income housing, told three
more weeks to go - I hope.
Hello Hans, my dog wants to meet yours, but seriously sounds if you have a
real handful, cross Rottweiler - German Shepherd! How long have you had him,
all of his 3 years? Well at this moment I cannot suggest any dog training in
the area so come on readers if you can help Hans train his 55kg dog please
email me and will forward on. In the mean time try watching UBC’s Channel 64
(Adventure 1) program called “The Dog Whisperer”. I am told it is very
useful.
I am not sure that you realise how lucky we are here in Thailand with the
cost of living. Yes, there are increases but let me recall my experience in
June on a visit to the UK. Petrol at 105p per litre just outside London. My
wife and I visited a coffee shop in Llandudno North Wales - two fruit scones
and butter, jam extra and two milk shakes cost £12.50; equivalent to two
hours twenty minutes at the normal Welsh wage. What annoys me most are the
‘stealth’ taxes being imposed all the time, the government is now trying to
introduce a bedroom tax on all hotels, B& B’s, etc; not sure of the % as
yet. Another one is ‘The Planning Gain Supplement’ (PGS), a tax on anyone
who obtains planning permission and increases the sale value of their
property. This is on top of the normal capital gains and profit tax! Oh, and
finally look at gas prices, up by about 70% in the last twelve months. So
good old Thailand. I am not sure how the rest of Europe is fairing but it is
the back door taxes that are quietest and worst including airport taxes a
lot more than the 200 baht to be imposed next year.
The dog wants to clear up some questions that have arisen: she is really a
Boxer and was rescued by Boxer Rescue when about 3 years old. I took her on
and must admit it took a couple of years to get her settled, an unusually
long time for a Boxer (used to run Boxer rescue so have some experience).
Anyway, my responsibility, so as we now live in Thailand I thought she ought
to come here in spite of the heat. We arranged for kennels/shipping agent
and as we were both here my cousin took her to them in the UK. Arranged a
direct flight to arrive first thing in the morning and the wife and I
arrived at Don Muang Customs. My wife had already met a Mr Fixit to get us
through the paperwork and things started off well. Then we were introduced
to another Mr Fixit and his cronies who said he could get a special
reduction on import duty, the special rate 90,000 baht. My reaction was ‘No
Way’, so meeting with Customs direct, ‘She has no real value, no kennel club
papers as she is a rescue dog, been spayed and about 6 years old’. Shrugging
of shoulders as they new that Mr Fixit was on to something so best if farang
leaves the scene but not before making sure she had arrived safely.
Up to then I, as would most owners be, was very concerned at how their poor
‘little’ dog had managed the flight. Well with a special permit to enter the
bonded warehouse I was escorted into a large hall. This room was air
conditioned and seemed the only place to be. One crate in the middle and one
very much full off beans Boxer looking none the worst for wear.
Anyway, wife did some negotiating and result all the fees (except Mr Fixit)
came to 1,200 baht. With her entry visa (for life so coming as a dog has
some advantages) we made our escape from the Mr Fixits. I soon realised that
the Thais think she is a dangerous dog as they kept their distance and saved
even more money. I have told her that if we return I will send her packaged,
i.e., stuffed as the normal cost is about £3,000 including quarantine -
somehow I don’t think she believes me and she is right.
Woof for now
[email protected]
A Female Perspective: The downside
of shopping
with Sharona Watson
It may come as some surprise to you to learn - it certainly does to me -
that shopping isn’t all pleasure. Of course there are downsides to
everything in life but somehow the disappointment is much more profound when
you experience something negative in something that you love. Oh, and by the
way, I’m not talking about my husband, for once. But whilst I’m on that
subject, when he does disappoint me, which is far too often for my liking, I
can promise you, he pays the price. Just so you know.
What really gets under my skin is when you buy something expensive and it
tears, rots or stops working sooner than it should. Then you have to go back
to the place you bought the thing from and try and get the person or company
to fix it for you, either for nothing, if you still have a guarantee or
warranty, or for money if your guarantee has run out. Either way, it’s a
massive pain in the backside.
What is even worse and is something that really makes my blood boil, is when
people either try and refuse to honour their agreements or avoid your
attempts to call them and basically try and cheat you out of your hard
earned money. Too many times I have experienced all three. You want to see
me angry?
First, you try and call the company. They don’t answer the phone. It’s like
no-one’s in! That alone says so much about how companies view individuals,
despite the fact that we are their customers! I think at this point we
should distinguish between private individuals in places like the market,
and companies. In my experience, companies are always far more difficult to
deal with, more frustrating and actually often quite nasty to deal with.
So let us just imagine that I’m dealing with say, a large chain which sells
household goods, like washing machines and fitted kitchens. There are a few
examples around in central Pattaya; huge places, selling every conceivable
household appliance, brand new. Sometimes I think ‘Cash Converters’ nearby
would be a better bet. So when you’re trying to track down someone to deal
with your issue, finally you get through to somebody on the telephone, you
explain the problem to them and then what? You get passed on to somebody
else and you end up repeating the same thing ten times. And then, they hang
up!
I’ve learned to get names at every stage and after a certain period of time,
to ask to speak to the manager. Even so, two weeks ago I tried this and I
was hung up on three times. It was just unbelievable. Then, when I got
through and for once I wasn’t hung up on and I could explain the problem
again (my washing machine had broken down) I was informed that even
though my washing machine was still under warranty, I would have to pay for
someone to come and fix it. Well, you can imagine how furious this made me.
I was very direct. I wanted to know why they called it a ‘warranty’ if they
were going to try and swindle money from someone before they would come and
fix it. I wanted to know why they thought they could charge what I viewed as
‘extra’ cash for fixing an expensive item already paid for. They couldn’t
tell me. I think they were a bit shocked. Perhaps as a ‘Farang’ they thought
I’d just say, “OK, well that’s fine. Thanks”.
Er … no! They wanted 300 baht to come and mend the machine. It might not
sound like very much to you, indeed it doesn’t really sound like much to me,
but that’s not the point. It’s the principle. I hate, just hate, the idea
that I’m being cheated. This guy on the phone told me that there was a
‘policy’ that anywhere outside seventy kilometres from Pattaya and you
needed to pay for their service. Well that’s an easy one; I don’t live
seventy kilometres from Pattaya; therefore I don’t pay, right? Inevitably,
in a terrible ‘jobs worth’ way, the discussion we had just had was suddenly
rendered irrelevant. The goalposts were immediately moved and I was informed
(when I called back of course) that miraculously, the 300 baht fee
had now become a ‘policy’. (Notwithstanding the fact that I paid
thousands of baht for the washing machine in the first place.)
At this point of a possible conflict, some people retreat. I don’t. My
commitment to social justice is so well embedded that I’m not prepared to
let even the smallest issue go, as many (men in particular) have
found to their cost. I called again. Finally, I was put through to a person
who seemed to understand my situation. She might not have cared, but at
least she understood. At least I was being listened to for the first time. I
tried explaining that this meant a lot to me; it’s a week’s dinner money for
a child at school. You can’t just take this from me. I had started to sound
like my husband when we lived in England, who was absolutely relentless in
his pursuit of justice. He still is, actually. But then again, I need to be
able to respect him for something! (Just joking!)
So what happened? Was I satisfied? Not at all. Some guys came around about
ten days after I had originally asked them to come and they charged me 300
baht for the privilege of fixing my guaranteed machine. Because I’m the
person I am, I gave them 400 baht. I needed my washing machine fixed; they
had conned me and they knew it. I knew it and there was nothing I could do
about it. I had refused to lower myself to asking my husband to step in and
get angry, although he offered. But what did I learn? I know I will never go
shopping in this store again and I know that if ever someone from there
should ask for my help, there’ll be a fee.
Next week: Burglary!
[email protected]
Learn to Live to Learn: Pragmatism or Idealism?
by Andrew Watson
At the centre of my passion for education, lies my ideology. Simply, I
believe that the function, purpose and duty of education is to make a
positive difference to the world. It is not a new idea and is one which has
been shared by gurus from Mahatma Ghandi to George Walker, former director
general of the International Baccalaureate Organisation. However, in the
global reality of the 21st century, where communications systems such as the
internet as well as aircraft are hijacked by perpetrators of prejudice and
purveyors of filth, ignorance, greed and hatred, perhaps time is running
out. Whilst the new ease with which 'Good Work' (Gardener, 2005) can be
carried out is something to be celebrated, it is tempered by contemplation
of its state of constant conflagration with protagonists of evil and the
propagators of cultures of spying and lying.
I entered the teaching profession having come to the conclusion that any
hope in solving conflict and the associated cancers of ignorance, prejudice,
greed and hatred, rests with education. What particularly interested me then
and fascinates me even more now is how the 'big picture' of ideals can be
translated through the detail of day-to-day classroom instruction. Schools
write "Mission Statements" for themselves, which are essentially a statement
of values and belief in the role of education in their particular
institution and beyond. They are necessarily evolving statements which
should be reviewed periodically and adjusted accordingly, as the school
grows and matures as an organisation. They are often formed as a result of
dialogue between representative stakeholders in the school community;
parents, teachers, managers and a Board.
I have deliberately missed out one group; the students. How many schools, I
wonder, have involved students, the reason they exist at all, in the
formation or review process of their mission statement? I have known just a
few. Herein, I perceive a disparity between rhetoric and action, between
theory and practice. Similarly, if it is possible to identify weaknesses in
interpretation or implementation of mission statements, then I can also ask,
"What can be done about it?" As Bhaskar (1986) maintains, "If false
understandings, and actions based on them, can be identified then this
provides an impetus for change."
However, I think it is an obvious point that most people would prefer to
avoid change. (Walker, 2002) You might think that those who have leadership
responsibility would actually enjoy the prospect of change whilst those
being led would, on the whole, rather be left alone. I am afraid that this
assumption needs to be challenged. It is quite possible that the reverse may
be true. Whilst an educational manager is the person who might be expected
to lead interpretation and implementation of mission statements, whether
they are interested in doing so is by no means certain. I've known more than
a few who by obsequiousness and hoodwinking have arrived in senior positions
and have little interest in anything other than self satisfaction and self
aggrandisement. Happily, nay reassuringly, their façade has always crumbled
as the truth oozes through the lies (Ghandi again).
If embarking on a life in education requires commitment to a strong sense of
idealism (which I think it should) then it also surely requires unswerving
and determined devotion to a whole life's work. It would perhaps be easy,
when life brings material rewards, to become complacent and blasé about an
idea which you once believed in and to begin paying lip-service only, to a
mission which once excited an almost revolutionary zeal within.
The word 'mission' is extremely important, for it is with something
approaching an evangelical sense of duty that many chart a course in
education. So what happens when things become easier? When it's preferable
to lie by the pool rather than see students at work or play? Does personal
financial comfort mean that you can or should stop fighting for your belief
system? Does luxurious living mean that you necessarily compromise your
level of commitment to a cause you once held dear? Does pragmatism
necessarily overcome idealism?
Involvement in education surely requires a commitment to ideals greater than
the self, so that when you have achieved some kind of personal and
professional security by working in the field, you don't stop. You do more.
This kind of devotion is different to say, the struggle of the Palestinians,
where I would hope that if (and I appreciate it's a massive 'if') and when
they achieve their national aspirations and their people are allowed to
retrieve their self respect; when their dignity is returned to them and they
can recover their love for life, when they are allowed to live and work
without fear and towards prosperity, when their hope for their children is
restored, then perhaps their struggle will be at an end. In education, the
struggle never ends.
One of the world's perpetual excuses is, "I would have done that but…" or "I
was going to do this but… " and "I was just too busy and …" Self serving
justifications that obviate the need for action; conscience breakers that
allow you to sleep soundly at night. Perhaps it's a natural reaction to
close our eyes and ears to what is going on around us, to deliberately limit
ourselves to our day to day immediate environment, without looking 'beyond
our beach'? We could perhaps be forgiven for thinking that for the majority
of the world's population, the biting reality of the condition of their
daily lives means that they are not afforded the luxury of thinking about
something other than their own survival.
Yet what do you sense when you pass a slum? What do you feel when you enter
a favela? What does working in a place of economic dereliction do to you?
Well for those of us who have such experience, it does the opposite to what
you might otherwise expect. It is in the poorest, most deprived areas, where
I have met people who have been the most humble, the most caring and the
most courageous. In such places, where daily existence is the most
difficult, a sense of common suffering and daily drudgery may be very
strong, but an overwhelming sense of camaraderie, determination and
resilience is far stronger. People are able to see through the commercial
and fiscal facades that encase their physical existence to the central
importance of human relationships in life. It would be reassuring to think
that the same sense of humanity, the same idealism, permeated education.
Next week: Sunshine on a rainy day
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