Dr. Derrick Campbell has taken a real slating in the press this week. The holder of a Phd in Theology and ordained minister suggested that the young black men of London are "being left to die" as a result of neglect on behalf of the government, namely through a lack of funding. Many have been quick to criticise government advisor Campbell, citing a cultural trend as opposed to a financial black hole as the main reason for the huge increase in knife and gun crime in our capital.
Dr. Campbells comment, arguably sensationalised and appropriately angled specifically to grab the attention of the right people, might just have gone a bit awry. Many have accused Cambell of reverse racism, arguing that their white middle class daughter who attends non government funded cross stitching classes chooses not to go out and stab her peers to death. Others have said that as a career academic, Campbell has only his knowledge of ancient theology to label himself an expert, and ancient theology has nothing to do with knife crime and turf wars. Having worked both in an academic environment as an educator, and as a youth worker in a social enterprise, I can readily see how Campbells claims can be disjointed with reality. However, I am willing to place some faith in what Campbell has to say.
The critics are right when they say that the issue of knife and gun crime in London is a social problem. However, without the right kind of financial investment and infrastructure to support it nothing is going to change. A problem exists, it needs to be solved. That is what Dr. Campbell was trying to say, and we cannot deny that it is the young black men of London who are dying in gang related turf wars in London.
The outcry that Dr. Campbell has instigated originates in the collective opinion of our society that everyone should have access to a good level of provision for their young people, not just the trouble makers in London.
Within the last ten years the rural county of Cumbria has seen over 90% of its government funded non-formal education budget dissappear. Only a very small number of struggling, independently funded projects exist, and they are not enough to cater for the needs of that community. As a result of this, the majority of young people strive to leave the county for employment and education when they turn sixteen. This in turn affects the productivity and success of local business. Cumbria was the first county in the UK to go into economic recession this century.
The kind of funding that is required to tackle the social problems that exist in London, Cumbria and in all of our towns and cities is increasingly hard to come by. Winning grant or bursary approved money either from the government or other public funds often requires the commerical approach that a company would take to win a new business contract. You have to compete. This means that the large charities and NGO's are utilising money that the smaller and highly valuable projects do not have the professional ability to compete for. Instead, they rely on freelance, profit making fundraising professionals who will often take up to 30% of the money they bring in, which for a local group in need of £10,000 for a summer recreation project is a hugely substantial amount. There is a similar issue with private sector investors who offer support to the third sector as part of their corporate responsibility initiatives. Very often they will only support highly recognised, highly exposed charities, again leaving the smaller organisations making their applications in vein. Some of our own research last year showed us that up to 80% of the finance that goes through a large charity is spent on administration and human resources, meaning that the cold hard cash the community based initiatives see is actually just a fraction of the beneficiary charity's turnover. There are new formats of NGO that can kerb this trend, the arrival of social enterprises and Community Interest Companies for example. However, the use of these business formats is not yet rife enough to make any real sociological difference.
Dr. Campbell has a point, the black men of London are being left to die. However, so are countless NGO's, and third sector projects around the UK. There is a vast amount of money available to these causes, yet we have still to find a way to administer that money in a fashion which is sustainable and progressive.
2 comments:
So you think that with better funding for youth projects and such like, fewer young black men will be killed in gang related incidents on the streets of London? It is the naivety of that sort of idea that leads to the misuse of thousands upon thousands of pounds of public money. The overly simplistic views, upheld by legions of dogooders that the answer to all of society's problems lies in the provision of youth clubs. When will these people learn that in many instances, especially in inner city areas such as South London, we are not talking about good kids that are a bit bored and so end up indulging in a bit of youthful folly and hi-jinx. We are talking about bad people who commit murders. Those sort of problems can not be solved with a bit of ping pong and orange squash in a school hall. I'm sorry to burst your bubble but I feel compelled to break the news to you that Biker Grove was a fictional story. Real life is not like that. I was often bored as a child and as a teenager but I'm pleased to say that I never knifed anybody to keep myself entertained. Probably the only accurate point that make is that the problem is a cultural one. Would it surprise you to learn that more young black men have died in gang related incidents in our capital this year than soldiers have been killed in combat in Afghanistan? Would it further surprise you to learn that more than 80% of those murders have been at the hands of another young black man? Further to that, over 90% of the victims AND perpetrators were either first or second generation migrants from African nations. Now don't misunderstand, this commentary is not a racist one, but it is a fact that, culturally, the history of the countries of origin of the vast majority of the people involved in these incidents, is steeped in violence and murder. Culturally, life is cheap to these people. It doesn't matter how many youth projects you set up, you can not simply undo years of machete weilding history. The answer lies in the UK adopting much less of an open door policy on immigration and a much tougher stance on crime and punishment. The typical Brittish national has not grown up in a lawless society seeing people being hacked up with machetes or having burning tyres placed around their necks and would, quite rightly, not think that this was an acceptable way to behave. Many of the people at the route of the violence in London have. Until such time as they can adopt similar values and abandon such savagery, they should not be granted access to our country.
Interesting comments, for sure. However, had you actually absorbed what I said (or even looked at the tagline) you may have picked up on the whole point. Fair enough, its a cultural issue, agreed. Ping pong wont sort it out, agreed. What I am saying is that these people need to be engaged. When i say youth provision I dont mean a bit of ping pong on a weekend after sunday school. I mean a sustained, long term investment into our young that will contribute to the cultural intelligence of these young people that sits alongside and works with the formal education programme that already exists. A cradle to grave approach needs to be taken to guide these people through the stages of their life where they might otherwise be neglected by our society so that they can develop into non violent, progressive individuals.
Fantastic that you see it ideal to criticise my approach, yet i dont spot your solution to this issue other than to say "they are black and they kill each other and they just need locking up, stop letting them in and it will sort itself out". Im sorry to burst your bubble but "they" are here and this problem exists now. OK send them to prison for lesser offences, lets see what happens when they get out.
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