Britains manufacturing prowess!

Many of us when thinking about Britain's manufacturing power remember the days of old, back to the days of British Leyland at its peak.  I realise i may not have been there at the peak but i remember how people talk of it and the pride once found in our country.
My dad often remembers his Rover V8 with enthusiasm.  If I've been to a car show or museum he'll ask about the rovers.  I must admit the old rovers do have a nice look to them and the V8's did and do go like stink.  But in latter years, my years, rover fell flat.  Working as a mechanic when a Rover came in you'd do what you could not to work on it.  They fell apart.  Don't mention a Rover head Gasket to me or i think I'll cry.  On one car, the 25, we had to do a head gasket several times because the replacement gaskets would break near immediately.  Thankfully they did finally fix that problem developing a new one!
But that's just how people come to think so poorly of British manufacturing in this country.  Hence British Leyland crumbled and ask most people and they'll say manufacturing is dead in our once great country.

However, that's not exactly true.  Depending on statistics we're about 7th in the world for manufacturing.  We may not believe it but our country as it stands is being helped back to its financial feet by our manufacturing sector.  The service sector is struggling to remain above the water but we are still building things.  Not the big parts anymore maybe, but the little bits, the difficult small parts, chip boards.  But we still have the car makers.  We''ve still got BMW mini, it may be German owned but they're built in Oxford.  The Honda plant in Swindon, they've struggled at points, especially more recently as they struggle to get parts from the now earthquake stricken Japan, nonetheless it is still there.  Along with the makes of old, Morgan, Caterham, Aston Martin, Jaguar as well as introducing the new batteries of Nissan (by no means do i condone electric cars however) and the supercars of Noble and Lotus.
Engineering is right there in the heart of our country and will remain so if we expect to survive through our economic struggles.

Poor Kids (BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011vnls
If you haven't watched it yet I urge you to do so on Iplayer as soon as you can.
Despite its peculiar time slot at 10:35pm it shines a light on our own problems in this country.
We focus our time, adverts, charities on third world countries, ignoring the plight of many people at risk in our own country.  We have an estimated 3.5 million people living in Poverty right now in the UK.  It's time we stopped being ignorant and faced the truth!
Poor Kids shows the stark realities for a lot of kids living in poverty.  Some people still will refuse to believe that kids actually live like this, that this program like any other twists the truth to suit its ratings.  But i have met Kids like these and it is often all too true.  You can keep doubting but that won't help anyone.
The program focuses on several kids, one who lives in mold, a problem bought on by constant damp, often created by lack of heating, which they just can't afford.  One who dreams of holidays, a playground which isn't falling apart and littered from drug users.  To one boy who finds himself bullied because of the state of his clothes.
Sam who's 11 years old sums it up quite well.  He tells life in his house as controlled by the money coming in from one day to the next.  How the lights or heating will switch off as the meter clicks over and everything just... stops.
“Until dad gets a job we don’t have any money and sometimes I don’t get lunch and I have to save my hunger for when dinner comes and I eat it all,” Sam says.
He is made to wear his sisters old shirts which are specially marked to show that they're girls, old trousers which don't reach his shoes and a mop top hair style cut by his fathers unskilled hands.  Needless to say the bullying hits him hard.  He points out that it doesn't matter what you look like or the clothes you wear, its who you are and what you do that counts.  Come his Birthday he receives a first trip to the barber, which he finds fantastic!  The idea that it will help him fit in even a little bit better makes him feel great.  Such a simple joy.
Courtney is found talking about holidays at one point.  Her friend has been to several other countries but Courtney never had the chance.  She questions why she doesn't get to go on holidays but it all comes down to being too poor.
The amount of Kids in our country that need help is horrific.  But we can do things about it.  We can give them a better chance.  Look up charities like save the children, lets start asking these charities and the government what they're really doing and help push them forwards to sort this out.
With CHICKS we can give them the holiday they need, it may not seem an important part to you but it helps a child's self-esteem no end.  Lets not let these kids think that they're not as good as any other, that they're bound to find themselves in the same position as their parents.  This program shows that it's not their fault and they are by no means stupid!
I'm going to do what i can, what will you do?

Give Kids a break

At CHICKS i found out about how the other half live. Not to say I'm well off but in comparison to some peoples lives, mine has been perfect. The CHICKs respite breaks give those kids a time to have fun and get away from the problems in their lives. None of them are to blame for the situations they're in, they deserve a break.
So when they arrive the smiles start. As with most things, when you share them with others the joy multiplies. So the Kids arrive and make friends with the other 15 children on camp and they all somehow get on. Everyone comes from different places and few know anyone else before camp. But there's an innocent thing about young people that means that somehow, when it comes to having fun, they make friends instantaneously.
Although it's somehow more then just smiles. As the week goes on they conquer their fears and really learn to trust people once again. For some that means everything. It shows that people do care, and the people at CHICKs really do, whether that's the people in the office, the supervisors or the volunteers who all just want to give kids a childhood to remember rather then forget.
With swimming, games and adventure the weeks are consistently exciting with so much to do.  Not to mention the surroundings to the two centres in Devon and Cornwall.  Deep in the countryside with fields for miles around.  For these children from built up areas across the country it's a vast contrast to life back home.  Some may never have seen the sea.
Overall they go home at the end of the six days with a new lust for life and that new found hope which they've been given by CHICKs and all that goes on within their breaks.
Check them out at:  www.chicks.org.uk

Behind the bully

As a child I was bullied, that's just how it is.  Lots of people get bullied especially if they're short and ginger, a bad mix.  I can't complain that badly, my bullies got to me but were not nearly as bad as the stories I've heard.  Not to say it didn't matter.
So when I see bullying I hate it.  So when one of the kids at camp was loud mouthed about people I did not like him.  He summed up the people from my experiences and made me despise him.
He was placed in my group on the wednesday when we were given free roam of crealy theme park.  Great.
We went round several rides and he was having fun, we shared some jokes and ran round like crazy.  However it came to the swinging ship and they all wanted to go on except him, the bold, loud kid was now the nervous little boy.  I tried to quell his fears but to no avail.  So I stood off with him and we talked about stuff before racing each other to the toilets, jumping a fence!  It seemed like he'd expected me to put him down and when I didn't he realised he could sort of trust me.
Then we all went off to the flumes where he refused to go down on his own, scared, but there was a 2 man donut and he decided he'd be alright if i came down with him.  By the bottom the fear had gone.  I had however seen him for who he really was.  Which became even more prevalent that night.
I settled down to read them a story which so far had been difficult every night, it was still difficult.  But he butted in to talk about his life, his dad was in jail and he lived with his grandma.  What a way to live.
You see he's just like any bully, they're not essentially bad, a lot of the time its just the way they've been treated.  It's to protect themselves, they often have low self-esteem and by putting the Target on someone else people don't focus on their faults.
I'd like to say that he didn't bully anyone for the rest of the week but I'd be lying.  He had gotten better though but it takes more then 6 days to fix some issues, you just have to do what you can.
To be honest you'll never stop bullying, but some people need to be told that its not acceptable and others might just be lacking someone to care.  Most of all no matter how bad someone is I believe that if you give them enough chances they'll show their good side.

Dare to Dream!

I spoke to the Boys' Brigade juniors about dreams the other night.  What they wanted to be.  There were a lot of answers!

• Bus Drivers
• Policemen
• Engineers
• To be strong
• Teacher
• Actor
• Firemen
• Paramedic

The list goes on...  But one kid said astronaut, only one, but what a cool dream.  He's a clever kid and i hope he gets there.  If i can help i will but it got me thinking about my dreams and my ongoing dream of doing something incredible as an engineer.
How much better can you get then engineering something to go into space.  I hadn't really though about it before but what a cool dream!
I stumbled one day after and it found a video on spaceflight.  That was almost feted.  It talked about the steps we're making in commercial space travel.  Although I'd caught it before it just meant more this time.  The main runners are of course Virgin Galactic.  They've already started to build a space port and made it into space several times testing the original Spaceship 1 and now the updated Spaceship 2.  The first to make a commercial space shuttle that made it to space.  Not only that but completely reusable.
Incredible.  A massive jump in technology from the days of Apollo for which we all think when we dream of space flight.  It's become possible.  Not only that but how much easier will it be for our junior to achieve that dream.  At $200,000 it's still out of the price range of most of us but it's there for the taking nonetheless.  Something i would love to be a part of.  A whole new sector that needs engineers. A reason to get up and get going!
We'll see the first commercial flight in the next year or two.  It's no longer a dream, it has become reality!
http://www.virgingalactic.com