On What Our Children Are Telling Us ~ the Government's report on tackling childhood obesity

Foodbank collection at All Souls', Cheriton's Harvest Festival, October 2019

I have decided to post a few pieces here that, like my article on Operation Christmas Child last week, contain my immediate reaction to happenings that mean a lot to me. They might be shorter than my usual sharings, less polished, and I'm sure not entirely complete ~ there is always more to say ~ but sometimes it feels important to say something, rather than nothing at all. I have quite a long list of beautiful blog posts I would like to share but I am struggling to find the space for writing & so I hope that you will forgive me, dear reader, for these occasional, less perfect, deviations.

Today, I want to write about the Government's strategy on childhood obesity.

When I first read Prof. Dame Sally Davies' ideas about tackling childhood obesity by, for instance, banning food & drink on public transport I was niggled, then I was angry. Now I am enraged.

You can read more about it here.

Whilst I agree with her that company profits are being put before people, & that that must change, there is clear evidence from a range of studies over decades that obesity is now linked to poverty; unlike in the past when the poor were starving & the children of the rich were obese.

These studies, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Wellcome Trust, concluded that the "powerful influence of the obesogenic environment [growing up in an environment that encourages, or at least facilitates, unhealthy eating] has disproportionately affected socioeconomically disadvantaged children", and that policies to prevent childhood obesity have been "ineffectually focused". Naturally when the Mail Online reported on this study in March 2018 they resorted, as ever, to 'victim shaming', suggesting that the report blamed rising childhood obesity on cheap junk food & declining activity levels. This, of course, is an oversimplification and it seems that today's Government report follows the same pattern.

Instead of tinkering around the edges, we must address the deeper issues affecting our children. Instead of reinforcing the age-old stereotype that the 'lower classes' need the kind, paternal hand of the 'upper classes' & Gvt to control ourselves, that we are some how more at the mercy of our baser instincts, maybe some thought needs to go into changing the fact that the well off are now growing 'fat' on the misery of the poor; if not physically then certainly in terms of wealth & power.

I have seen many people today, rightly, rejecting the recommendations in this new report whilst suggesting that parents need to be educated in how to feed their children healthy food, particularly on a budget. Whilst, I agree that we can all learn more about how best to care for our bodies, I reject the insidious and internalised blame masquerading as care which is thinly veiled beneath these, no doubt well meaning, comments.

In feeding ourselves and our children we cannot, and must not, discount the anxiety, lowering of self-esteem, and all-pervading depression, caused by decades of Conservative rule. The people feeding their own children now are the children of the children of Margaret Thatcher's brutal Government. So many of us knew that this would happen, have been screaming it into the wind. And depression spreads like poison in the blood. If adults are desperately unhappy, their children, through no fault of the parent or the child, live in a cloud of despair. Who wouldn't reach for a sugary or buttery treat?

And even without the depression, many parents are forced to take several jobs to make ends meet, working long hours, & so unable to cook for their children, sometimes even then compelled to use foodbanks.

Several years ago I read a horrifying report that food which needed to be cooked was being returned to foodbanks because some couldn't pay their gas/electricity bills & so were unable to cook at all. Whilst I accept that this may not affect large numbers of people (and it should be none at all), how easy would it be to make good & healthy food choices whilst living like that? And, of course, working long hours makes us desperately tired and more likely to reach for the quick energy-hit of sugar.

And then there is our disconnection from the outdoors, an issue which disproportionately affects children from low income and BAME households; so many playing fields sold off & built on, so much woodland and other open space lost to development in the name of greed. And we are encouraged not to care, to self-medicate with television and cheap snacks  ~ and, by the way, making the cheap snacks more expensive, as suggested in this report, only makes people poorer. There is no suggestion that healthy food should be made cheaper! ~ And, of course, even if children do have open spaces around them, their parents are often too tired or despairing, or just too busy working, to take them out, and we are so threaded through with fear by the media that many children never go out alone. 

And that disconnection; the loss of even wanting to be out, or being too afraid, of being tied to computer screens & televisions, of not knowing about the world of wonder, & messiness, & play to be found outside. I weep for our children and for all the 'Lost Words', whose loss has lessened the wonder.

I have worked as a counsellor with primary school children, mostly boys and mostly from poor families. They aren't lazy. They don't want to live on snacks. What they mostly want to do is play football or just run about. Instead, we make them sit still in classrooms, putting more and more pressure on them younger and younger to perform, to succeed, but only to succeed within the narrow parameters we have chosen for them to be of use in the world of work. No wonder that they eat.

This is the world that we have made. Looking at the most shallow level ~ the symptom, not the cure ~ won't mend it. We have to start thinking of ourselves, both as individuals & our society, as an ecosystem, a web of interconnections & relationships, & our ecosystem is dying. Our children are telling us that. It's up to us to make the system healthy again; but not with rules & petty blame, but with care, intelligence, and love.

And I am still in a rage. We all should be. How dare they talk about our children in this way!?

References:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/time-to-solve-childhood-obesity-cmo-special-report

https://theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/10/childrens-health-england-must-be-put-ahead-of-profits-says-chief-medic

https://www.nhs.uk/news/obesity/children-poorer-backgrounds-more-affected-rise-childhood-obesity/

https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2018/mar/01/improving-childrens-access-nature-addressing-inequality-bame-low-income-backgrounds

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/may/21/how-can-we-get-our-children-playing-outside-again

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/13/oxford-junior-dictionary-replacement-natural-words

https://heated.medium.com/weve-sold-the-definition-of-food-42062e6c4a14

On Operation Christmas Child; Colonialism Masquerading as Charity

Earlier today I met a stunning Ichneumon wasp & deep-hearted & wise Birch Moon Wisdom on Instagram commented that wasp medicine is afoot. I agree! On so many levels, now that I have almost recovered from how beautiful she was, my meeting with her was significant, but perhaps more of that soon. In the meantime, I am reminded that several times in my life I have been accused of being 'waspish', that insult which is so often cast at women who speak their minds. And this week I have had to speak my mind in a way which I'm sure was unwelcome, & that's where I come to the angel because this was about Christmas.

In the 1,000 year church last Sunday we were given a talk on Operation Christmas Child, whose parent organisation is Samaritan's Purse, a US Evangelical Christian group which provides disaster relief throughout the world.

Operation Christmas Child organises thousands upon thousands of shoeboxes to be filled with Christmas gifts by well meaning people, including in our schools and churches, & then distributed to children who have been affected by war, famine, poverty, disease, & natural disasters. Since 1990, more than 168 million children in over 160 countries have been given shoeboxes; an astounding feat. It sounds so lovely, so kind, & in this complex & bewildering world we so need things that are kind. But truly Operation Christmas Child isn't kind or lovely at all. 

Firstly, Operation Christmas Child is evangelical, hoping to convert children & their families to Christianity; the sort of Christianity that voted Donald Trump into the White House & believes him to be doing 'God's work'. Ironic then that this organisation which professes to care for children supports a man who has overseen the removal of migrant children from their families, the deportation of parents whilst their children were at school through ICE, & the incarceration of children at the border with Mexico. Whether evangelism itself is a good thing might be debated (I say not) but evangelism of this nature; fundamentalist & done by offering shiny gifts to vulnerable children who are first obliged to attend a 'prayer meeting' is beyond both religious & human decency. And it could so easily be argued that the inequality of power in that exchange makes it almost impossible for any conversion to be freely arrived at. As one commentator said, "You have desperate people and you have someone who has food in one hand and a Bible in the other."

In addition, the president of Samaritan's Purse is US evangelist, Franklin Graham who has been accused many times of hate speech & who was quoted in last Sunday's talk. Indeed it was that that made me investigate the organisation more deeply. 

Franklin Graham has spoken out against LGBT rights & in favour of conversion therapy, he supported the Iraq war & most definitely supports Donald Trump. Furthermore, he considers Islam to be "evil and wicked" & has said that Muslims should not be allowed to enter the US. It is ironic that his own organisation is named after the parable of the Good Samaritan, a story about overcoming bigotry towards those we consider 'other'. That is certainly not something that Franklin Graham is able to do. And, in addition, he is the highest paid CEO in the charity sector in the US. It must be hard indeed to consider the opinions of others when you can't hear them over the rattling of your own money.

In short, Operation Christmas Child benefits financially & otherwise from the continuation of war & injustice; a worldly system of greed openly supported by their president. You cannot provide 'relief' to the victims of war with one hand whilst cheerleading for it with the other. 

And this is certainly not the teaching of Jesus, a radical preacher in an occupied land who spoke out against injustice in all its forms. We must remember that he was murdered by the forces of Imperialism, and Operation Christmas Child is Imperialism in action; self-soothing by offering shallow charity, whilst ignoring, feeding, & even benefitting from, the deeper roots of injustice. Chillingly, Revd. Giles Fraser points out that US evangelism "systematically confuses the kingdom of God with the US's burgeoning empire. It is no coincidence that the mission fields most favoured by US evangelicals are also the targets of neo-conservative military ambition." And, of course, the more children and adults in distress, the more money Franklin Graham & Samaritan's Purse makes, and the more opportunities they have to create compliant & reliant Christians. This is the most terrible face of Christianity, and of any religion. 

Indeed, this is not truly Christianity at all. To follow Christ is to be counter-cultural, to demand the 'world turned upside down', to 'do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly' (Micah 6:8), or to do our best to at least. Operation Christmas Child/Samaritan's Purse is none of these. It is thinly disguised Colonialism by another name, and it preys on well meaning people, including my kind friend at church, who wish to share their prosperity with those who are less fortunate to spread its poison.

I am pleased to say that several organisations in the UK no longer support Operation Christmas Child by allowing their premises to be used as collection points. These include, Oxfam, the South Wales Fire Service, DHL, the Inland Revenue, & the Co-op. Surely our churches and our schools must do the same.

If we are to survive these times we must be better than this. We have to have difficult conversations, look and think more deeply, speak out; even if that means being considered 'waspish', be willing to listen and to change, sometimes to give up what we had held as good and precious and kind. And we have to transcend the attitude that tells us that a few plastic gifts in a shoebox makes up for hundreds upon hundreds of years of systematic exploitation and oppression. Then we might truly be doing God's work.

But, until we do, Christ have mercy.

There are several fine, Christian and otherwise, alternatives to Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. Here are a few that I've been told about. Please let me know if you know of others.

https://linktohope.co.uk/shoebox-appeal-2019 ~ provides shoeboxes to families & the elderly to those in need in Eastern Europe

https://www.msrm.org.uk/liab.html ~ a Mustard Seed Initiative supporting children in Eastern Europe 

https://www.marysmeals.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/the-backpack-project ~ a year round initiative to fill a backpack with everything children in Malawi need for school; clothes, art materials etc

References:

http://emilyjoypoetry.com/7-reasons-not-to-participate-in-operation-christmas-child-this-year   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan%27s_Purse#Controversy   http://humanistlife.org.uk/2015/10/14/why-parents-shouldnt-support-operation-christmas-child/   https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/news-opinion/truth-behind-your-childs-operation-854545   https://baptistnews.com/article/10-alternatives-operation-christmas-child/   https://baptistnews.com/article/stuffing-shoe-boxes-for-the-worlds-poor-maybe-you-should-reconsider/#.WbXydbJ96M8   https://humanism.org.uk/humanism/humanism-today/humanists-doing/good-causes-and-charities/samaritans-purse/   https://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/jan/15/fundraising.guardiansocietysupplement   https://sites.google.com/site/occalert/   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/nov/10/religion.society   https://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2013/10/operation-christmas-childs-shoebox-campaign-just-propaganda-tool-christianity   http://www.inminds.com/occ.html   https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/news-opinion/wont-donating-christmas-charity-shoebox-13796645   https://www.secularism.org.uk/charities/operation-christmas-child.html   https://www.secularism.org.uk/opinion/2014/11/