2007 a Calamity of Failures

Due to recent circumstances the previous two blogs were more venting than actually commenting on child welfare. I have no experience in the field and was recently presented with a situation that drew me back to deal with matters I had long since thought were in a state of statuesque. I do not usually put personal stuff into my blogging but the Father Riley interview happened close to the time of said events and made me think, if this man is exasperated at his inability, then what chance do I have with what I was presented with.

I will not go into details but suffice to say it did involve child welfare. The result of which, saw me having to conduct myself in a way that I have not had too for such a long time. I had to revisit people and use old skills that I really do not want anymore. These skills make you live in a constant state of paranoia and show you things that you are really better off not knowing.

2007 was a destructive year for me. So this year I am breaking free again and trying to look for the harmony I found at the end of 2006. I was a person that saw positives in nearly everything then and am finding it hard to find them in the events of 2007. To its credit, it did put me in a position that saw me grow as a person, find a retreat, and gave me a long forgotten drive I once so enjoyed.

2007 was a calamity of failures and I am taking time to recognize them. 2008 has begun as a wash up year that sees me as a cleaning maid to events in 2007. As I awake form a horrible night I find that one job is done with so much more to do.

“Chipping at an Iceberg with a Fork”

I am taking the points given form the comments form my last post, which lead to the discussion on certain aspects. I will admit that I tried to cover a broad rang of topics, while trying to express my reaction to a fifteen minute radio interview. With that, I concede that each point is a topic within its own right and I really just glossed over them. I thank the thoughtful comments, By Kate and Devil’s advocate, for pointing out that my passions on the agreement at hand, could be clouding my representation of the situation.

To that end I will address one topic which I quoted in my title. Subsequent conversations, on what I had written, exposed a though by Kate, who works in the field of child welfare. She said, “It’s like chipping away at an iceberg with a fork” (in reference to her experiences in welfare). I have seen first hand, the mental and physical drain on people who undertake this noble work. I think, to that end, that I am justified in saying that if that is the case then you have to start chipping and keep chipping at some point. I was not suggesting that banning alcoholic adverting or mediation is a cure, other, it is a point worthy of consideration. I am under no illusions that the topic has a “quick fix” but , if I may refer to Father Riley, find that if an impassioned plea is given to someone that has worked in this field for so long, isn’t it something worthy of consideration? Isn’t experience worth more than hypothesizing? I will agree that that is a separate topic within itself.

Back to the situation at hand, I feel that there are similarities between a welfare worker and a mechanic. If a mechanic is presented with a vehicle, they will toil to do the best they can to repair a car with the resources available to them. When the car leaves their care, no matter what advice is given to the owner, some will return with the same afflictions due to the way the car is treated by the owner. The mechanic is then repairing the same faults that could have been averted if their advice was adhered to; it then becomes a frustrating and repetitive process for the owner and the mechanic. If equated to child welfare, once a worker has done what they can, with the resources available to them, who is responsible for any subsequent improvement? I was once told, “The best administrator for your own affairs is you!” If I can use that in relation to my slimily, If the owner of a vehicle doesn’t take responsibility for it, how good can a mechanic actually be? In the same way, if the guardians of a child, if they have any, don’t take due care, what help can a welfare worker give? If the “client” is older and don’t take responsibility for their own actions, the same applies. “Action and consequence” is again another topic.

I cannot give any solutions to the welfare question as I do not work in the field. I can only offer my opinion and, hopefully, productive and healthy debate on the issue.