Tag Archives: soldiers

The Queens Award for Enterprise 2016 has been awarded to the fabulous charity Forces Support

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Logo for The Queen's Awards for Enterprise: International Trade 2010

A charity much admired by Frost is Forces Support which supports families who have lost a loved one in Afghanistan. The brilliant news is that to coincide with The Queen’s Birthday, they have been awarded with the prestigious Queens Award for Enterprise 2016 in the Innovation Category, for their innovative approach to supporting bereaved military families.

The Queens Award for Enterprise 2016 has been awarded to the fabulous charity Forces Support

Founded by father and son, Bill and Billy McCance, the charity has a national support team helping about 80 families a year, and is supported by 22 shops throughout Britain. It is such a simple idea, isn’t it, to provide families with Remembrance areas, children’s play areas, and playrooms, garden and household maintenance when they are reeling with grief. It is simple yes, but inspired.  Just imagine hearing the news that your husband or father has been killed and you need to move from a quarter into a new house when you are bereft and feeling helpless. Or if it is your son… Where can you go for solace?

The Queens Award for Enterprise 2016 has been awarded to the fabulous charity Forces Support 3
Forces Support helps to ease the way along the rocky path of grief and adjustment. It creates a peaceful area, or decorates  a house so that is fit to live in.

The charity funds the support they give through the profits from their furniture shops, making the charity self-sufficient and sustainable, and support also comes from donations.

This award is utterly deserved, and Bill and Billy, and all the builders, maintenance personnel and apprentices who help the families of service personnel should feel enormously proud of their efforts. Wonderful thought the Award is, work, of course, will continue unabated, as they have a waiting list of 8 months and more will be added to this, with each passing day.

There is no rest for Forces Support, because the need continues.

The Queens Award for Enterprise 2016 has been awarded to the fabulous charity Forces Support 4

www.forcessupport.org.uk

 

 

Words For The Wounded Writing Prize Closes On 11 March

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W4WLogoAlt3 Words for the Wounded writing prize closes on 11 March. two grannies Why on earth do three grannies (two shown above) throw themselves out of a plane, strapped to a fit young man, hoping their parachutes open? Well, OK, the fit young man is a bit of a clue. But seriously, why? pic2 janairborne The reasons lie in the past and the present. In the past, both my grandfathers survived the first world war, so just as there were thankful villages who had lost no men, so too there were thankful families. But life isn’t that simple, is it? Gentle Percy, my mother’s father survived but took his own life in 1923. War has long, relentless tentacles which reach out and destroy families, just as surely as bullets do. pic3 poppies Then, about four years ago I met a young  man and his wife. They were both under twenty five. She was pushing him in his wheelchair; his portable ventilator lay on his chest. He’d been shot through the neck in Helmand and is tetraplegic, (paralysed from the neck down). They were both smiling and cheerful but their hopes and dreams were very different now, and everyday life was a mountain in itself.   I decided that, as writers, my two granny friends and I could help not just the wounded, but also aspiring writers. We founded Words for the Wounded and were enormously lucky in our patrons, amongst whom are Julian Fellowes, Louis de Berniers, Katie Fforde, Paddy Ashdown and many others. Julian Fellowes   We decided also that we would earn our donations, not just appeal to the generosity of others; hence the skydive, and hence the Mud Challenge Obstacle Course in August, and hence the LitFest to be held at High Wycombe on 18th April  2015 with Katie Fforde and two Midsomer Murders writers amongst others.   katie-fforde Our main thread, however, is our writing prizes. We have the short category for poetry/fiction/memoir – up to 400 words, with prize money of £400. Entry fee £4.50   This year we are launching The Independent Author Book Award for fiction or memoir, with a 1st prize of a Palamedes PR professional press release. pic 6 palamedes.jpg And a biography and review in Frost Magazine.  Entry fee £12.50 pic7Frost The WforW grannies absorb ALL the costs themselves, so every penny raised goes to the wounded. Our troops put their lives on the line for us, some are killed, many, many,  more sustain life-changing injuries. To help them is the aim of Words for the Wounded. They deserve the best.

For more information: www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk 

Bowe Bergdahl And Robert Bergdahl Are A Disaster For Obama But He Can Recover

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bergdahls-praises-Allah-at-white-house-obama-not-happy

A lot has been said about the video of Bowe Bergdahl’s father praising Allah at the White House. Frankly, most of it is wrong. Obama was not smiling. Anyone who knows body language and looks at the video will see that, actually, that was a grimace. President was also obviously angry, he knew how much political damage had just been done to him. I don’t know who is advising Obama at the moment, or why he let five terrorists go for one man but whoever is advising him needs to either be fired or given the worst job in politics somewhere far away from the President to make a strong point. American Ambassador of Outer Mongolia or Siberia sounds good.

I don’t know if Obama knew what the Arabic meant at the time, but he knew it was enough to damage him in the eyes of his enemies, most of whom constantly try to make the President out as not a true American.

Robert Bergdahl said at the press conference of his son’s release, “Bism allah alrahman alraheem,” which translates from Arabic to English as “in the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate.” It is said before every chapter in the Koran except the 9th (the chapter of the sword). The level of stupidity in quoting the Koran at the White House, even more than ten years after 9/11 is insurmountable. Not to mention insensitive. He may have meant it in a well-meaning way, but it was not that he spoke in Arabic, it was the praise of Allah, the same Allah whose name the pilots flew into the World Trade Centre for. The beard didn’t help. Robert Bergdahl grew it out of ‘solidarity’ for his captured son but we live in a visual world. How things look matter, and it looks bad.

Bowe Bergdahl allegedly left a note saying he wanted to renounce his citizenship before he went AWOL. Then six American soldiers lost their lives trying to rescue him from the Taliban. This is the biggest crisis of Obama’s career and the shades of Homeland (incidentally one of the President’s favourite shows) does not help. The President did not know what Robert Bergdahl was going to say, and he clearly didn’t like what he did say. No man left behind is very American. Even if the man is controversial and not liked within the armed forces because of his desertion.

To rub salt into the wound, the Taliban have released a video of the release of Bowe Bergdahl. Despite all of this, I believe the President can still recover. He just needs to surround himself with the right people.

What do you think?

 

The Moratorium: Homeless Veterans

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Not often, but every-so-often subjects are broached and the country unifies in their opinion and it is such that the powers that be have to act accordingly. The problem is, is that it happens so rarely that the people to blame get away with it more often than is actually acknowledged!

The Moratorium is here to air those topics and the first one starts with one that is close to my heart and one that is a hot topic at the moment for kinds of reasons. The Armed Forces! Now it’s not them that is taboo, but aspects of how they are treated, so I think that the treatment of Veterans should be the key point of topic, as they appear to have disappeared from the lives of so many until a scandal hits the headlines and then it’s all up for a week, or two then it disappears from the eyes of the public once more.

Most people know that many of the homeless in London are veterans and as many as 70% of the males that are homeless in London are Vets, or have served in one of the forces. On leaving the forces they either fall by the wayside, or don’t know where to look for help, or even who to ask when they need direction, as many doors are shut when leaving.

The “Us” and “Them” attitude extends further than most people understand, as the mannerisms are very loyal and willing, so when all those realities are shattered on the “outside” it becomes a stigma to trust people, or even comprehend why civilians have little trust and camaraderie amongst themselves. Most of the problems stem from the fact you cannot untrained the trained! It’s that which plays the biggest factor in military veterans becoming a forgotten statistic and considered a nuisance at best.

When you’re representing the country for what it stands for and you get shot at, spat on and are alone in a strange place, the only difference from serving and being homeless is location! I have seen people urinate on people as they sleep in any space they can find and then the same people who do it run off when the victim wakes up! Granted, no person should be submitted to that regardless. This doesn’t detract from the fact that the veteran paid their taxes, accommodation and council tax like any other worker and is left fend without preparation after their service has ended.

There are funds, which people know as charities, that all military people pay into whilst serving. However, trying to get help from them when times are hard is like getting a piggyback ride from a Hippopotamus… Highly unlikely! I know that those that work in the likes of Royal British Legion (RBL), Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA), Benevolent Fund AND whichever service charity is relevant will all have their side of the story to put across, but the stats speak for themselves and the money is still in their accounts whilst Vets are still on the street!

So why are there so many Vets on the streets and not being tended to? The answer is simple! Even more simple than it is to explain. The people that were once security cleared, numbered, monitored and trusted to die for their country get lost in the outside world and the outside system! Once a person comes out of the military, their rights change and they become a different number. No ID and uniform to show who they are, they are swallowed up and left to fend in civilian life.

Many of the Vets that turn to crime are not delinquents, but people who have no focus and are frustrated. They want to be somewhere where they can work, be appreciated and not have to worry where they will be sleeping come night time. A simple thing that eludes many of them and they are considered a profile for police and hostels to look out for. Sadly it’s not to guide them in the right direction, as many of the Veterans do not make it to an ex-military hostel for appropriate help.

The current government put out an announcement for a Covenant for Armed personnel, Veterans and their family, which may take around 2 years to be finalised, let alone implemented. In the time it takes to get that to any kind of working mandate, it may take as long as 10 years. And I wish it was an exaggeration. The amount that will be homeless, dead, or imprisoned after service between now and then will not make for good statistics.
On the fallout of the News Of The World scandal, many service families will be put through the trauma of going through losing their loved ones all over again and many of those families have more than one family member serving; so that will be something that will take its toll in the homeless stakes as many serving/veteran siblings go off the rails and end up being a statistic with all the other homeless. It is considered the tour of duty that no medal is awarded for and none will be relevant for the type of conflicts that are endured.

What Price Feminism?

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Is feminism a dirty word? You would think so by how some people respond to the word.

Feminism is not an easy subject to write about. It has so many connotations. So many people have an opinion on it. It brings up images of women burning bras and hating men. Losing the entire point of it: equality.

What I started writing this article I put out a twitter and Facebook plea for comments about feminism. Tamsin Omond came up with a fabulous quote from J.Winterstone on lesbians: ‘they have a confidence about them that doesn’t depend on the male view. that is sexy and it is new.’

Then came the obvious,

Forbes KB: ‘Right after you finished the washing up and the ironing I hope!’ Luckily, I know he is joking.

Darren Errol Clarke did much better: ‘I dislike the word “Feminism”! It conjures up so many wrong images. Everything should be about sharing and equality, but the name doesn’t depict that!

A warrior from the Amazon once said that she was shocked that Western women were so …weak and that they were referred to as “Flowers”! She was upset that she couldn’t “See” the flowers that they were talking about. She said, “Flowers are strong, adapting, versatile and beyond the visual. A flower can be destroyed, yet come back as beautiful as before and more than before. The humans I see before more me represent nothing more than a shadow of their true potential.”

Whilst man has a lot to answer for in history, women have come through and stamped their individuality through out. I think that when women were striving to be better than the men that suppressed them they were irrepressible, but now they have joined in the drunken madness that is today’s civilization. I hope that the mantle isn’t totally buried, as it would be nice to see more women bring true equality to the world and not the fallacy that is the modern world.’ Good points there.

Lynn Burgess: ‘It’s not about pushing a female agenda. It’s about equality.’

Caroline Gold: ‘Look to the working class women and you will see there is still disparity and it’s about more than legislature. We are not a minority. Feminism is just humanism for all. Go girl!

One of the best came from film director Richard Wright: ‘Ultimately its not about pushing a female agenda or pushing a male agenda its about pushing an agenda of tolerance and understanding no matter who it is. It’s about equality across the board not the positive discrimination of one over another, that doesn’t work because it’s still discrimination. The argument should be about how we, together as a society, create a better tomorrow and where we all fit in no matter who we are.’

Amen to that.

The London Underground is never a nice place at rush hour. A few million Londoners trying to get home means stress is high and manners non- existent. Spending a 20 minute journey with your face in some strangers armpit is common. This did not prepare me for being shoved out of the way by a man so he could sit in the last seat however. That’s right: actually pushed out out the way. Not only are manners dead, but so is chivalry.

This got me thinking about equality. I always offer to pay on dates. While discussing this with a male friend he mentioned that he thought women should always pay for themselves, after all, wasn’t that what feminism was all about? What we were fighting for all these years? Well, no. It’s not. We seem to have got the worst of both worlds. No chivalry and no equality either.

I recently read an article by James Delingpole in which he claimed, because times are tough, that only boys should be sent to public school, because his daughter could just marry a rich man. Which was more funny than offensive until I read Mary Dudley’s response that she would be sending her daughter to public school instead…so she could marry a rich man. Apparently Kate Middleton wouldn’t have had a look in if she had not been to Marlborough. Doors to manual indeed. What century is this? How Jane Austen.

We were fighting for equal pay: which we haven’t got. To have any career we want without hitting a glass ceiling. To not be though of as the weaker sex. Not better than men, just equal. With different strengths. This is all low rumbling compared to some countries. Although there is a female Prime Minister in Australia and female president in Finland, in Britain we have 126 female MPs, out of 646 members of British Parliament. Where have all the women gone?

Then there is the other thing that is holding us back: other women. I have lost count of how many times I have had another actress try and sabotage me or overheard a women bitching about me. On a set recently an older actress came up to me and said; ‘You will be just like me one day. You will lose your beauty, you will have nothing left. It all goes.’

Can we really reach our true potential if we are wasting energy stabbing each other in the back? I have an amazing group of female friends now, but it took years to find them.

Then comes all of the depressing statistics. 1 in 4 women have experienced rape or attempted rape, 95% of cases are never reported, 23% of reported cases are ‘no crimed, ‘ or thrown out, by the police. Over 66% of reported cases never make it to court and the conviction rate is a depressing 6.5% for reported cases. It seems rape is the easiest crime to get away with.

In Afghanistan the female soldiers were more afraid of their colleagues than the front line. 30 percent of female US soldiers have been raped, 71% sexually assaulted and 90% sexually harassed. Four out of five cases go unreported. Helen Benedict, author of ‘The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of women serving in Iraq’, believe rapes occur not because the soldiers are sex starved, but because they enjoy humiliating female colleagues. ‘A lot of men think women shouldn’t be in the military and feel threatened. I think a lot of sexual predators sign up because of the power they’ll wield.’ Helen goes on to say that, ‘There is a culture of sexism on the military and women are seen as sex objects.’

Then there is gendercide. 100 Million girls have disappeared. In China and Northern India 120 being born for every 100 girls. Most girls are aborted. In Iraq they stone women to death and have to be covered from head to toe. They cannot even leave the house without their male relatives. Even if they are younger than them.

So am I a feminist? I don’t care about what people think of the word, or of me for using it, as long as women are stoned to death, sold into slavery or aborted just because of their gender, the answer is yes. My name is Catherine Balavage and I am a feminist.

Facts and Figures.

3 Million women and girls are slaves in the sex trade.

An estimates 18,000 women (some as young as 14) are working as sex slaves in the UK.

Women aged 15-44 are more likely to be killed by men than cancer, malaria, car crashes and war combined.

130 million women worldwide have had their genitals mutilated.

In the past 50 years, more women have been killed because of their gender than all the men in all the wars of the 20th century.

And a beautiful quote.

Mao Zedong said “women hold up half the sky.” So don’t let it come crashing down.

http://www.unwomen.org/