Communities, and Death in Football

When did we start using the word 'communities?  And why do we use such words?

Back in the 80s 'Community' became the word to use when talking about 'people.'  We had 'Black communities,' 'Asian Communities,' and various other 'communities,' we never had 'people!'  

These expressions forced individuals into pigeon holes making them one of a particular type of person, at least according to the listener.  No longer were people individuals, good or bad, bright or dim, acceptable or not, they were limited into being what they were told they were.

Therefore very easy to accept or dismiss them as 'one of those.'

This morning I read a local paper talking about 'tributes across our communities.'

What can they mean?

Do they mean our 'towns and villages,' if so, why not use 'town and villages?'  

Town, village, hamlet, area, district are words that cover a lot of ground, why not use them?  Simplifying things might make it easier to create a misleading headline (and all headlines are misleading) but it does not reflect reality.  We need to return to better expessions regarding people and the areas they inhabit.  Facts not easy expressions are required. 

In the Spanish second division a serious accident has occurred.

The Terenife forward Jesus de Miguel chased a long ball into the centre circle, a break away fron an attack by the Andorra opposition.  The Andorra goalkeeper, playing a high defence line as his team attacked the opposition goalmouth, also attemopted to get the high ball.  

This led to both players colliding at high speed, not an unknown situation for any goalkeeper, and the goalies knee, raised in the normal manner, connected with the Tenerife forward and saw him crash to the ground.

The TV evidence shows the referee arrive quickly, raise a red card high sending the goalkeeper from the field.  All correct so far.  However, the Andorra man turned back as he realised there was a serious injury to his opponent.  And it was very serious.

Medical staff worked hard to support the forward Miguel and an ambulance was called.  During the journey to hospital Miguel suffered a heart attack but was treated by the medical staff on board.  Later that night he was said to be 'stable, in spite of the severity of his condition.'

However, his condition worsened during the night and by 8 am he was declared dead.

Now opinion is divided regarding the action of the goalkeeper.  Was his conduct dangerous play?  Some now call hima  murderer.  Most are convinced this was a football accident, the kind we see all to often yet in this case a sad outcomb has resulted.

Can Jesus Owono be blamed for the death?  I say no.  He risked injury himself attempting to collect the ball, all goalies would have done the same in my opinion.  Now his real problem is how to handle this situation.  Can he continue to play football?  Certainly not, because if he does cries of 'Murderer,' or 'Killer,' will follow him wherever he goes.  It is a step into quiet areas for him from now on.  That is, if he can contnue himself.  He is broken by the situation, his family surround him, while only family mourn the dead, the other will mourn the nearly dead also.

A terrible sad situation.

Artemis II

Wired

Artemis II flew around the moon recently, the media everywhere was full of praise.

Why?

I saw them fly around the moon many years ago, and then I sat up late at night watching a man or two walk around on the moon itself.  Unless it was staged in Arizona of course.

Several US men walked across the moon, the Chinese, who years before had photographed the back side of the moon have also been landing things there.  NASA have machines crawling across Mars so why all the excitement about a well chosen crew, political correctness enforced, flying around it once again while sending back more photographs similar to those we already had 70 years ago?

Now such activities are difficult, much easier with today's computers in comparison with the ones from the past.  Those were less powerful than my calculator, but they made it there and back again.  

Could it be that this was another excellent opportunity to praise the power of the United States while avoiding talking about the child rapist in the White House and the war he lost while following Bibi's orders?  Flying around the moon is not easy, but propaganda has always been easy, and we have some here in front of us.

'Communities,'  what does this mean?

Every day and everywhere you go this word crops up.  Governments and councils talk about 'Helping our communities,' what?  What communities?  This town has around 40,000, how many 'communities' are there within?  

There are the old and the young, those working and those disabled, shops and shoppers, transport links and users, what communities can they mean?  People get involved with the gym, or the pub, kids work or libraries, volunteering or mini cabbing, what do they mean by communities unless they mean people living and doing what they do in town?  

The word 'communities,' implies lots of different communities.  In a town there is only one, the people living there, and many of them we do not wish to have near us, is this a 'community?'  Various colours can be seen, is communities a word used to integrate or divide?  Tell me!   I once heard a London police officer, under stress from the press, say "We are in the community to help the community for the sake of the community."  Whatever that is supposed to mean I fail to comprehend.  

There are no 'communities, only people.  These live in cities, towns and villages, those are their community, but they do not always like one another, so is it a community, or just people living near one another?  

Language changes constantly, sometimes the words used ought to be dropped in my view.