Chris and Kris,
Welcome you to our monthly blog.
Comment
Where are we going in the UK.
I have always been proud to say my country is tolerant of other faiths and cultures. Not always, but it was something we aspired to. We proudly stated on the world stage that Britain was multicultural in nature and in accepting others into our society.
It wasn’t without pain or injustice for many. Even today many of our citizens suffer because of their colour, race or faith because of a minority of people who will always be racist bigots. Slowly, we were becoming a tolerant nation I was proud to belong to. I have served in the RAF alongside many different colors all calling themselves British and proud to serve their country.
I am no longer so proud of our society. Why?
Our country is built on immigration; just take a walk down any city street, Chinese, Malay, Asian, African, Greek, French, the list is endless, all the colours of the world living together in peace. Corner shops that would have been long closed now run by hard-working immigrants whose families are now proud British citizens. Our industry, our very way of life would not exist if it wasn’t for our policy of allowing others to come and live and work in the UK.
It is worth remembering that the vast majority of us are in fact immigrants to Britain. Our island was populated by various different races throughout our history; we are the result of many centuries of interbreeding with people coming to live here. So why is it that so many now cry out against it? Is it colour based, religion or something else? Why do we now apparently fear others coming to live and work on our Island? Do we perhaps blame them for our current economic crisis?
I’m not getting into listing the percentage of immigrants who work against those that don’t; very often figures quoted are distorted and biased to suit the argument of whoever is using them. What is generally accepted is that the cost of supporting non-working immigrants is far outweighed by the contribution made by the majority. If you want to look at it this way…UK Ltd makes a huge profit from immigration, financially and socially. I truly believe that if you do the research you will see that without our immigrant population we would be in a worse state than we are now. So what is going wrong?
Many people in the UK now fall through the once envied by the world social support system through no fault of their own to live in poverty. Social support has now been privatised into a profit making industry.
Losing your home because of debt is now common. I don’t mean debt by irresponsible spending but just losing your job can now wreck your life.
If you become unfit for work, as assessed by yet another profit motivated private company, you can no longer depend on the state to support you during your time of need, however long or short that may be. It’s as though we now consider the unemployed or disabled as ‘taking advantage of our good will’ and living a life of leisure on government money. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Poverty and Social Exclusion research project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, is the largest ever study of poverty conducted in the UK. The research identifies people falling below what the public agrees is a minimum standard of living and measures poverty and exclusion using a wide range of rigorous methods. The results show that:
• Over 30 million people (almost half the population) are suffering to some degree from financial insecurity.
• Almost 18 million in the UK today cannot afford adequate housing conditions.
• Roughly 14 million cannot afford one or more essential household goods.
• Almost 12 million people are too poor to engage in common social activities considered necessary by the majority of the population
• About 5.5 million adults go without essential clothing.
• Around 4 million children and adults are not properly fed by today’s standards.
• Almost 4 million children go without at least two of the things they need.
• Around 2.5 million children live in homes that are damp
• Around 1.5 million children live in households that cannot afford to heat their home Around one third of people in the UK suffer significant difficulties and about a quarter have an unacceptably low standard of living. Specifically, one in three people could not afford to adequately heat their homes last winter and 29% had to turn the heating down or off or only heat part of their homes. A third of adults considered themselves to be genuinely poor ‘all the time’ or ‘sometimes’. More than one in four adults (28%) skimped on their own food last year so that others in their households could eat. A quarter of adults said their incomes were below that needed to avoid poverty and 22% had felt embarrassed by their low income. More than one in five adults had to borrow money last year to pay for their day to day expenses and similar numbers find it a constant struggle to pay their bills or simply cannot keep up with their bill payments. The situation is worse today than it has been for the past thirty years.
• The number of people falling below the minimum standards of the day has doubled since 1983.
Is this all the fault of immigrants, the unemployed or the disabled! God help us if we start to believe that.
Food banks, unheard of 30yrs ago now desperately try to feed the neediest. homelessness is rising, decent hard working people condemned to a life on our streets. There are many people who care but often their voices are drowned out. Why won’t we listen?
We spend in the UK literally billions on a nuclear force that we must never use. A deterrent such as this immoral abomination will only act as such if it is believed we would ever use it. Using it would guarantee our own nuclear destruction. Without it we are told we would no longer be a ‘world power’. So? What does that really mean? The ability to kill millions is something to be proud of? sorry but I don’t believe for one second that to use such a weapon could ever be justified in the 21st century. Many developed countries shun these weapons, why can’t we? They are an immoral waste of money that could be far better used to help our people.
Our once great health service is grossly underfunded and over managed. And in my opinion it is because it has been farmed out to various private companies whose top priority is to make money, not run a health service, this is a huge mistake that the ordinary British people will pay for with lower and lower quality health care.
Our education system although rated 6th in the world is failing so many. Where you live in our country greatly affects how well you are educated. The inner city poor are far less likely to attend college or a university than a middle-class child with working parents.
If you are black the chances of being stopped by the police and searched are far higher. Overall, black people are twenty-six times as likely as white people to be stopped. Asians fall between the two.
Are we as a society becoming more intolerant and less caring of others? Less tolerant of difference?
Beware Britain, history will show anyone who cares to read that this situation leads to a right-wing resurgence. The idea of ‘blame the different’ becomes the norm. Violence in the streets against the scapegoats becomes common. Deportation and segregation centres (read camps) follow. History shows where that leads.
This is and never will be a solution to our problems. It simply breeds hatred and more intolerance.
How do we change this situation before it gets worse and we all descend into a right wing fascist regime? Ethnic cleansing, deportation of those we won’t give a home to, intolerance is not the way to go. The shame we would have to bear would last for generations.
We need a government dedicated to helping the needy in our society, a government that puts people first.
We, as a people need to start caring for those about us.
We need to start treating the cause of this situation not as we are now doing treating the symptoms and conveniently blaming some sections of our population for all our problems.
Sounds simple doesn’t it……….sadly it is not. Big business funds the politics of the UK, the rich on the whole don’t want to lose what they have by paying a fair tax on their income in our country, large buisnesses avoid tax completely or just wont pay. Many have stopped paying decent wages, do they even care that their employees are people, not just a workforce.
Many politicians won’t stand up for what is just, fear of losing their social standing, or perhaps their financial gain from politics? Not all but certainly some care little about social justice when they choose to follow the party line and not their own consciences in order to protect their political position. Those that stand up are ridiculed by the ‘free press’ as scare mongers or worse. The media must also carry the blame. Headlines sell papers (and air time). We have lost an impartial press; owners of media empires are only interested in profit, not truth. When did printing false articles and made up stories full of inflammatory lies become acceptable to the British public? When did we stop caring about newspapers lying to us, promoting hatred and violence to sell papers? How many innocent deaths before it is stopped? How much racial hatred and violence before it is condemned? Why are we silent on this subject? Why do we as a society allow it?
Too many people have a vested interest in keeping the poor where they are. Zero hours work contracts are a despicable example of that. Minimum wages often ignored, unsociable hours. People treated as a commodity to be used and then disposed of, driven into debt and poverty by profiteering companies who only see a profit / loss balance sheets and never the harm they do. Or is it that they just dont care?
How long before the people of our country cry enough and act. We used to be a country who set a world standard for tolerance and care, justice for all, sadly this is no longer true, and it is getting worse.
With a general election coming I ask you to consider carefully where your vote could do the most good for our country and start restoring the pride we all once felt. It won't be easy or without sacrifice from us all but somehow we have to change our society, recover what we are losing, learn to care again for all our citizens, if we don’t I truly believe the future is indeed bleak for our country and its people.
Building work on the resort opposite
 |
| Work has started |
 |
| View from our roof |
 |
| There was a bath tub where this man is working it fell off the wall into our road, we put it in jeep and returned it to them |
 |
| Still no idea what they are building |
 |
| A very good friend just bought this super 4x4 jeep. great car, |
 |
| Kunal, the proud owner. |
 |
| Local resident checking out our wall |
 |
| Garden shrubs looking good. |
 |
| View of our front lawn and kitchen garden |
 |
| we planted all these when we moved in. Note the yellow planter in the background! |
 |
| WHO DID THIS!! was it you? |
 |
| Might have been. |
 |
| This is one of our local stores, lovely family |
 |
| Local street this road is great, tarmac and its wide |
 |
| Main road on outskirts of city very bumpy, muddy and narrow |
 |
| Caught on camera as we were returning home |
 |
| Local village on the outskirts of the city |
 |
| What no other traffic thats unusual |
Kris has been cooking
 |
| Now thats a proper Pasty |
 |
| Sunday Lunch, Lamb with veg from our garden. |
Comments from Kris
Scooter
I have been having difficulty recently with my scooter battery, I have to kick start it and it is a pain. The battery definitely needs renewing and that is something I intend to do very soon as its embarrassing when strangers have to kick start my scooter as I don’t have enough power in my legs. However it is nice that people here are so helpful and never make me feel stupid, Indians are generally very hospitable and helpful and feel it is their duty to help others, I wish more people in the world held the same attitude.
Work
 |
| Students putting castings out in sun to dry |
 |
| Castings all set to dry ready for carving |
 |
| Oh no not another photo shoot |
 |
| No this is how you do it |
Next semester we are requesting a change of day for workshops. The first years are really enthusiastic and have really bonded well as a group, full of fun and enthusiasm to learn new skills.
Chickens
 |
| Yippee weve escaped |
At night they just return to the coup without any help from me, the last chickens we had were not so cooperative or friendly. The girls as we call them love to get treats and especially like sliced bread and pieces of fresh fruit and vegetables and come to the back door in the hope they are to be rewarded with treats. They are extremely friendly and often follow me around the garden. We have ten chickens and a cockerel at the back of the house so regularly through the day I count them just to make sure a stray animal has not got in and harmed them. The other day I was counting them and every time I counted ten in total not the eleven there should be, it took me a while to realise that one of the chickens was behind me and every time I turned she did too so she was always out of line of sight. Funny but a relief she was safe, Chris and I feel we should let them roam free in the garden even though there is always a risk one of them could be killed by a predator, we feel it would be cruel to just keep them in the cage area although it's big, they do enjoy investigating the garden and they eat the weeds which is a bonus.
Tomatoes
 |
| This years tomatoes growing well, this year we are using plastic over the soil to conserve moisture and reduce weeding. |
Our tomatoes are doing very well in the kitchen garden and were trying a new technique allowing them to grow up a support to about five feet before pinching out to make them bushy, I’ll let you know if it’s a success, so far so good. When we first came to India the locals told us we could never grow tomatoes, ahh how wrong they were we have had many kilos of tomatoes over the last four years and they taste so much better than those you buy locally.
Warm Aid 2016
Well clothes have started to come in thick and fast and we have had superb support from the staff and students at our college “Buddha Group of Institutions”, well done guys. The students have also helped to distribute flyers and posters to promote the initiative. We have just today met two young men from URCreator who want to work with us in collecting and distributing the clothes and they already have a large stock of clothes they wish to donate to the scheme which is excellent. Look at our Facebook page Warm Aid 2016 for up to date information. We aim to start distributing in second week of next month so busy busy time ahead sorting out the clothes ready for distribution. I can feel the need for some takeaways and the odd glass of lager to help with the organisation and sorting.
 |
| Receiving clothes from Lions club members |
Winter
Yes winter is coming; it’s getting colder in the evenings and at night, will have to get the socks and jumpers out soon. The great thing is that we now have the wood burner we built and the few test fires we have done have proved it is extremely effective and very cost effecient. We build it up and light it with a few sticks, charcoal and dry waste paper and a small waste bin of charcoal lasts till the next day. It’s so warm we sometimes have to have the house door open as even closed down it retains the heat very well, brilliantly designed by Chris. It has 'plugs' to control the air in and a valve in the chimney to control air out. This is fitted just before the chimney passes through the wall to keep as much heat as possible inside the room. The fins on top increase the radiator area by over 100% extracting an extimated 4/5kw from very little fuel. Normally we have the stove door closed but in the evenings its so nice to see an open fire that we often leave it open.
At night we close it down to concerve fuel. In the morning the rooms are still warm and opening the air in/out soon brings it back to blazing.
Visa renewal
Well it’s that time of year again, time to apply for our visa extension with the FRO (Foreign Registration Office).
Again the first step is to check in at the FRO office in Udaipur to confirm the procedure, for many foreigners this is a stressful and anxious time as they fear the FRO, however we have always had a good relationship with the staff in the FRO. It is simply that we have nothing to fear as we have been honest about our intentions since we arrived in India four years ago. I personally enjoy my visits to the FRO, I find them very pleasant and extremely helpful. So off to the FRO I went, I was given the instructions to apply online as we did last year, I just hoped it would be straightforward and that there would be no glitches in the online process. Oh how wrong I was I tried for hours to get the information accepted and be able to move onto uploading the relevant documents and then make the appointment for the face to face interview in the FRO. I could not get it to work so thinking I must be doing something wrong I went to a local internet café and got them to complete the form for me, alas they too could not get any further. So with a sigh I picked up my documents paid for the man’s time and headed to the FRO office.
Help I’m having problems was greeted with no problem let’s do it here, so I spent a long time completing the form for myself with one of the FRO officers, it was reasonably straightforward typical made me feel a little incompetent but now done documents uploaded and an appointment made for the following day. Now for Chris form, not so straightforward every problem I had surfaced and many more, we had a power cut half way through and after the third attempt and a little circumventing of the programme by the FRO officer (my hero) we got all the info in and documents uploaded, it took over two hours and I had missed the bank to pay the visa fee via bank draft. Mind you they did offer me a cup of chai but I had to decline as I am lactose intolerant but I did accept the offer of water as it’s so hot still. So the following day we went to the bank to get the bankers drafts which normally takes anything from three to five hours and we were stunned to be told they would be ready in five minutes, unheard of. Then back to the FRO office for them to check our documents and application again, success all was well and complete and we were as we were expecting asked to return later that day for the final interview with the senior officer at the FRO. When we returned it was busy so had a bit of a wait but then into the office for the final interview and given documents to say our visa extension was being processed and sent to Jaipur for final approval. We know that there are no objections from Udaipur and that we will get confirmation of renewal in about a month. Although its stressful getting the documents and application to work online it is not stressful in any other way and the FRO couldn’t have been more pleasant and helpful. My advice to any foreigner going to the FRO just be honest and they will be fair with you and help if needed. We will get a phone call when the paperwork comes back from Jaipur and we will have to go into the office again to get the official Visa Stay Approval.
Annual tour on the bike
 |
| A cartoon drawn by a member of IBRMC, our bike club. |
 |
| Getting the bullet ready for this years club meet. this year Delhi. We are riding from here, Udaipur to Jaipur then onto Delhi, Bikaner, Jodhpur and back home. About 1600km, twelve days of just me and Kris riding and unwinding on our annual tour. Bikaner is surrounded by desert so we are hoping for camel rides! |
Another workshop this time Bamboo, the brief was using only traditional joints and string make a lamp. the results are really very good considering they have never worked with Bamboo before.
 |
| Who says workshop is not fun |
 |
| We always have time for a photo opportunity |
 |
| Yeah it lights up, brilliant |
 |
| Students working very hard on there designs for lamp |
We teach them the joints in an earlier session, the wiring was checked by Chris before they switched on. Some great designs.
 |
| Very proud students with their table lamp |
Traditional Rajasthan drummer and piper playing at our gate to welcome Diwali.
Diwali, one of the biggest holidays in Indian culture, is a five-day festival of lights celebrated worldwide by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains. This year, the traditional day of Diwali falls on Oct. 30, though celebrations span the entire week leading up to and following the holiday, which marks the triumph of good over evil.
Diwali has a host of legends to explain its origin, but the most popular one recounts the tale of Lord Rama and his wife Sita, who returned to the city of Ayodhya after 14 years in exile. In the Indian epic poem Ramayana, Lord Rama defeats the evil 10-headed king Ravana and rescues Sita, whom Ravana had kidnapped. According to the legend, Lord Rama’s devotees in Ayodhya filled the city with flowers and lit rows of clay lamps to welcome him and Sita back, signifying good vanquishing evil.
To celebrate Diwali, Indians across the world light fireworks and candles and decorate their homes with rangoli—patterns made out of colored rice or powder. Families clean their houses, buy new clothes, eat sweets and share presents.
Well thats it for this month, we hope you enjoyed our blog.
God bless
Chris and Kris Rajasthan India
