Mothers' Union scores own goal

Readers will know that I am passionately against the commercialisation and premature sexualisation of childhood. You will also know that Mothers' Union is pledged to do something about it. So the news item on page 7 of the latest issue of Families First is good news: the Bye Buy Baby Campaign will be launched this month to "raise awareness of this issue, empower families to counter harmful effects of commercialisation, encourage industry to apply ethical standards, and lobby politicians to take action where they can."

I look forward to the launch with some interest and excitement, and will certainly be downloading the resources.

But meanwhile: 

Why do babies need bras? Mothers' Union certainly doesn't think they do:  look at this Mothers' Union's ethical gift for Mothers' Day:

Childhood is going bust £40

Help us ban bras for seven year olds

We believe the sexualiation [sic] of pre-teen girls is wrong. End of story. This gift will help resource Mothers' Union as it brings pressure to bear on government and the advertising industry who ruthlessly target children with marketing campaigns.

End of story? I am sad to tell you that the picture above of two bikini-ed babies is one of the greetings cards on offer in the latest MUenterprises catalogue (page 11, item A).

Perhaps they could spend a little of that £40 actually talking to each other at Mary Sumner House.

Venting spleen... Sue Kennedy again

It's me again - why can't I shut up??  I usually try to go to bed with a laugh.  Tonight was impossible as was last night.  I carelessly chose to first watch an BBC3 programme about a little girl aged 9 whose ambition is to be a glamour model and to look like Katie Price.  Her mother is doing the best she can to help her achieve this ambition, and her 3 y/o sister is going the same way with her own makeup bag, spray tan etc.

This I followed with 'Children of Zimbabwe' on BBC2.  So I came upstairs on the edge of tears...... The appalling waste of money on those 2 small girls' makeup alone would feed and educate a village of starving, diseased and oppressed children, desperate but unable to scrape 2 Zim dollars a term for school fees, for several years, I reckon. 

Somebody reassure me there is a God! 

And don't get me on families who can't be bothered to get their kids to school or those who 'wag it' and don't think their education is important. I really must try to get a laugh tomorrow night before I go to bed!

Sorry, spleen vented again, SueK

Trafficking: by Sue Kennedy

Sue Kennedy writes:

Did anyone see the Channel 4 evening programmes last night (Monday 30th Aug) about the terrible situation with regard to trafficking of children and young people from Africa, the Philippines and other poorest areas of our world?   There was a documentary first following the work of people and organisations in this country trying to do their best to help such situations. 

The way the corrupt employers try to keep their victims in slavery against the laws of this country, the traumatisation and terrible abuse of the women and men involved, was utterly sickening. It was stated clearly towards the end of the documentary that many foreign diplomats with apparent immunity to prosecution are heavily involved in appalling abuses of their enslaved employees.  A government spokesman did acknowledge this and said that it is doing all it can to try to alleviate the situation with regard to the breaking of our laws in this way.

This documentary was followed by a drama doc based on fact, 'I am Slave' about a young woman from Sudan snatched literally from the arms of her father, at the age of 12 and taken via a Middle Eastern country where she was abused by her employer, to London where a ME family (related to the first employer) enslaved her.  By her extreme courage she managed to escape against all odds and returned to her beloved father who had been searching for ever since her snatching 6 years before.   We were updated at the end of the drama as to the more recent circumstances of this girl.

It would have been good to hear the Mothers' Union involvement in the work to support and succour the slaves in this country.   Surely without transgressing any MU rules, there must be a way of at least supporting the small organisations working in this field.   I wonder whether London branches know more about this, although enslavement is clearly not confined to the capital.

With Jenny and the others who were at the last Council meeting I was shocked at the casual somewhat impatient answer to her (Jenny's) question to the Diocesan President about what is being done in the Mothers' Union about trafficking. 

Political correctness?

Once upon a time Mothers’ Union had Five Objects. They became the Five Objectives. Now we have a Mission statement with Five Bullet Points.

Along the way the first two have been subtly changed:

Previously:  To uphold Christ's teaching on the nature of marriage and to promote its wider understanding
Now: To promote and support married life

Previously:  To encourage parents to bring up their children in the faith and life of the Church.
Now: To encourage parents in their role to develop the faith of their children

I suggest that these changes are significant and worrying. Mothers’ Union is a Christian organisation: so why has Mothers’ Union removed any mention of Christ and the Church from its mission statement? Who made those changes?

And does anyone else think that the changes subtly changes not just the words but also our attitudes - a creeping erosion of our Christian values? I would value your comments.

What's happening? Not a lot, it seems.

As I've said in a recent email to Deanery MU Branch Leaders, and through them to all MU members in the Deanery, many people and organisations have found evidence of the commercialisation of childhood. A very quick search on Google (try +commercialisation +childhood site:uk) produces over 5,000 hits. Here are some of them:

•  a study by the University of Loughborough
•  a report by The Children's Society; 
•  a charter launched by Helen Goodman, MP; 
• and the text of an interview given by The Archbishop of Canterbury on Radio 1's Breakfast programme.

But I haven't been able to find any actual action taken as a result of any of these well meaning initiatives. And don't get me started on sex: most if not all of the premature sexualisation of childhood happens in the promotion of commerce and profit...

You might know of something which is actually being done to protect our children and grandchildren from this pernicious and cynical onslaught, in which case please let me know: add a comment to this post, or get in touch with me directly, or through your MU Branch Leader.

Buy Buy Baby!

Those of us of a certain age will remember that song! Here's the version by the Bay City Rollers! But we have adapted it to read 'buy buy baby' to highlight the commercial exploitation of children, and the premature sexualisation of children. It's a campaign which Mothers Union has been working on for some years (remember the conference Jenny Deakin organised for the Archdeaconry?) but so far with little noticeable effect.

So the Deanery has decided to gather as much evidence as possible to encourage Mothers Union and others to fight this pernicious, wicked practice.

So please look out for anything which seems to exploit children for commercial gain: advertisements aimed at children, for example. Or anything which prematurely sexualises young children. Children should be free to enjoy their childhood - some of us would say, for as long as possible! Send us the evidence, whether a newspaper or magazine cutting or article, notes on a television or radio programme and so on.

And please watch this space for more on this very important project.

Out of sight!

But not, I hope, out of mind! Jenny & I are going away for a few days, so you won't be able to get in touch with us. But I hope to come back to a flood of emails, phone messages, letters or even carrier pigeons detailing - with photos where applicable! - all you are doing, have done or plan to do so I can finally add some content to the Deanery MU web site!

Phew! MU web site finally up and running

SINCE MY LAST POST about the proposed Scarborough Deanery Mothers Union web site I have been very busy - and very frustrated - trying to learn a new computer program to allow me to do it in a 21st century way. I have failed, so here I am, back in the 20th century...
I won't bore you with the technical details here, but the new web site is up and running at www.mu.scarboroughdeanery.org. It's taken on board most of your suggestions and I hope you both like it and will find it interesting and useful.
If possible I will continue to explore the possibilities of using newer technology to run the web site: it will be to my benefit as well as the members'. But I promised to deliver by the end of July so here it is: just in time!
So now please contribute - you'll see where. But above all - enjoy!