July Challenge - X - Xenophobic

Xenophobia - an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.

Certain sections of the media (for the purposes of portraying it photographically I have used the print media) have a tendency towards xenophobia. Headlines proclaiming bad news get tied to foreign nationals, pieces are written in such a way as to portray them in a bad light too.

Since we have a national culture that looks down on certain occupations as "dirty" or demeaning, even among the "Professions", our culture has become one where we discourage future generations from going into any career that does not mean sitting at a desk from 9-5 Monday to Friday. We then find we have a shortage of people willing to work as Doctors, Nurses, Midwives, Electricians, Plumbers without even thinking of cooks, cleaners, security etc. Hardly surprising then that people who are willing to do those jobs, work those "unsocial" hours, do those "not-nice" jobs have to be brought in from foreign shores. Don't blame them for being here when you raised your kids to avoid doing the jobs that these people are now doing.

It is a situation that we have encouraged, not least those who are now raising the "outcry", but today's letter is X not H, so Xenophobes it is, not hypocrites.

P.S. I have to apologise to those who suffered heavy rain and a thunderstorm while I was writing this - I decided to use the wind/solar powered drier (washing line) to dry my washing today, so I fully accept the blame for the downpour that ensured my washing was wetter now than when I put it out.