A pause for thought

[al_kaholik]

Being active on a number of forums, there are a huge number of stimulating threads being batted around based upon the current state of world affairs, but more closely those in Britain at this time.

I'd resisted quite a bit from posting in them because I know that sometimes I shoot my mouth off a little quickly, have confused political and social views and above all don't want to put someone out of kilter.

After my refresher training at work this week for incident management and yearly re-licencing for operational tasks, I'm in a little more of a position to reflect. This is mainly due to thinking much more about the incident control heirarchy; Gold, Silver and Bronze. Whereby Gold is taken at the highest level in the company and emergency services very hands off and more about PR, Silver denotes a hands off strategic incident manager, close to the issue but slightly detatched and Bronze is hands on and dirty. I was thinking how this could be applied in a much wider aspect of my life, similar to traffic light allocation where Gold is Red and Bronze is Green.

I've done Bronze whist in my sixth week in the job, a fresh faced 22 year old, I was hands on at an incident of a person under a train (incidentally not too far from this date a few years back). I distinctly remember taking the call, chaos erupting in the office and myself and my minder (a manager responsible for my actions and who would intervene if things weren't going right) sprinting down Tottenham Court Road. The things that followed were somewhat a blur until I'd digested it all a little while later. That day I was glad to get hands on, it taught me a lot about myself.

So fast forward and I'm looking to allocate G/S/B to some other aspects of life and the provocation of internet topics.

• Gay marriage - Definately a silver here. I think everyone should have equal rights, whatever we label the union of people.
• The EU. Again silver here, I am somewhat impartial. Though I do think perhaps we are being held back in some aspects...
• Deportion of terrorists/criminals. Bronze. I'm pretty passionate about justice and have some more radical views about our system, punishment and the like. Where possible I do push these views and am very vocal about it. Abu Qatanda should have gone a long time ago. Much like the story of a man who is being sentenced to 20 years for the killing of a pensioner. Free food, shelter and a champagne lifestyle before being deported as he was an illegal at the time of the crime.
• The ConDem government. Gold. I'll sit back and watch. Its doing nothing for me but what other option do we have at present. I'll pay it lip service and then go with whatever comes up next.
• The Woolwich Murder. As much as I'd love to be hands on here, I don't think I have it in me, so probably Silver. I give to the H4H and other military charties, they mean a lot to me and I've got family and friends in the services. All things taken into account, most of them aren't there to kill people. They have trades and are doing their jobs in 99% of cases. Even one of my best friends who has come back from Afganistan doing things he doesn't really talk about was a changed man. Whilst he didn't pull a trigger at someone, he was responsible for the death of a known militant and from the conversation we had, it was difficult for him despite knowing the atrocities the person had commited.
• Fuel prices. I used to be Bronze here, caring about every penny rise and getting animated about it. Now its Gold, I just fill the tank and pay. I see the issues we have with fossil fuels, and I buy into green and nuclear, but that is about as far as I go these days.
• The London Mayor. Silver. Currently the lesser of two evils, the man is a fool and I'll speak my mind but at present I'm on no quest to oust him.

A slight insight into the mind perhaps...

So if you had to allocate yourself to some things, what would it be?

[Ulfric M Douglas]

Re: A pause for thought

I don't think your description of your in-house gold, silver, bronze designations really matches up with your allocation of the same metals to the list of stuff underneath.

Gold doesn't mean hands off and watch what happens : it means manage from above.
Bronze doesn't mean thinking deporting Abu Quatada is good, it means grabbing the bloke and disappearing him yourself.

By the way I'm bronze in dealing with accidents and injured people in need : no training, plenty of good sense, willpower and ability. Training is obviously of little importance with some people : a proudly first-aid certificate-weilding woman came up to me and my brother aiding an old lady who'd fallen into the road due to her using one of those suicidal zimmer frame things. She told us to elevate the poor dear's cut leg and promptly wandered off ... muppet. Naturally we didn't elevate her leg as her dignity and comfort was far more important than the minisculely less amount of old-fogey blood that may have oozed out.