Saturday, 6 October 2012

Maybe Replicants Already Walk Among Us..?

Kehren Sajid, of Handsworth in Birmingham, was today sentenced to a 12-month community order for five charges of common assault on four toddlers in the Winnie the Pooh playroom of the city's Small Talk Nursery last year.
Yup, that’s right. Toddlers. That she handled with all the care and delicacy of abattoir workers unloading pigs…
Judge Elizabeth Fisher told the 31-year-old: 'By virtue of their age, the children were vulnerable victims.'
She added: 'It is not surprising to learn that one of the mothers of the children concerned is angry at the way in which her child had been treated by you. '
I think it’s ‘surprising’ that only one was!
'Nevertheless it is clear you are remorseful for what occurred, for the way in which you treated these young victims, your lack of nurture and care. 'It is clear you need assistance as far as victim awareness is concerned. '
Ummm, what?

Is that a pretty clumsy way of saying it would be nice if nursery workers didn't view their charges as ‘victims’ at all? I thought these judges were all about the eloquence?
Sophie Murray, defending, said: 'She is sorry for the distress caused to the parents of these children.'
What about the distress of the children? Doesn't she even recognise that?
She added the treatment was 'rough handling' and it was unlikely Sajid, who is NVQ-qualified, would ever be employed looking after children again.
Oh, I don’t know. I rather doubt that’ll be the bar to future employment that you seem to think it might be. 

So we have qualified child carers hauling around toddlers as if they were sacks of spuds, while in care homes for pensioners, you can die of cardiac arrest because the nurses employed to prevent this don’t feel much like bending down to save you…

Rather than NVQs and positive CRB vetting, perhaps we’d be better off relying on a Voight-Kampf test?

5 comments:

  1. Oh I dont know,If you can make a replicant to be a fearless member of an off world murder squad I think you could make one to be a compassionate nurse or babysitter?

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  2. Ah, the wonders of nuspeak, where H&S has nothing to do with being healthy or safe. Where "care" certainly does not involve caring about or for others.

    Where remorse means "sorry I was caught".

    No need to be sorry about the distress caused to the toddlers, they are no threat. Parents might arrive in the night with pitchforks so best to say sorry to them you know...

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  3. Oh, I don’t know. I rather doubt that’ll be the bar to future employment that you seem to think it might be.

    Precisely - in fact it might almost be added to the CV.

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  4. More nonsense out last week. We are supposed to worry that "2/3 nursery workers in the private sector (ie baby-minders) do not have any A levels"

    So what? since when did baby-minding require A levels rather than the right attitude? If baby-minders become overqualified they will, like nurses, come to believe that wiping someones arse is beneath their station.

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  5. "Ah, the wonders of nuspeak, where H&S has nothing to do with being healthy or safe."

    Quite so!

    "If baby-minders become overqualified they will, like nurses, come to believe that wiping someones arse is beneath their station."

    And then who will do it? Not parents, that's for sure!

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