Our Society places too much emphasis on achievement and not enough on learning

So that time of year again has come and gone. The time of year where we hear there are record numbers of people excelling in their GCSEs and A-levels. Where some extraordinary 5 year old with obviously pushy and deluded parents passes a Maths GCSE. Where workaholic individuals who spent their whole school life locked up in their bedroom slaving away at their homework achieve 6 or more A*s at A-level in a bid to prove just how bloody brilliant they are, whilst they fail to realize that they lack the sufficient social skills, common sense and experience that will actually get them somewhere in life.

And whilst I do come from an advanced educational background, I do find it absolutely ludicrous how we place so much value on a couple of slips of paper with our name and some grades on that apparently prove our worth to people and employers. My achievements in life summed up by a few letters of the alphabet and a ratio (2:1). Great.

Why don’t we teach students instead of training them to jump through hoops in exams. It seems as though schools just want to achieve higher amounts of A grades so they can get that magical lump of money that allows them to purchase new desks and projectors that aren’t covered in obscene graffiti about how shit their supposed great achieving school is.

Children and adolescents are no longer learning any useful in life. Most of these individuals finish school having no idea of how to manage their finances, write a CV, apply for job and generally not be a cunt in a professional setting. No wonder we have a growing underclass that we love to point and laugh and label as chavs, whilst we slowly come to realize that a good proportion of the population of Britain will soon be made up of these job seeker’s allowance claiming scumbags.

There are too many clueless people around whilst the government sits on its fat Tory arse (with a slight hint of Lib Dem) and pats itself on the back for the record number of high grades, whilst they fail to do anything about the thousands of students who can’t get into university or attain a job despite their grades. What good is a qualification if it gets you nowhere?

How many of you have worked diligently at your exams only to come out of the hall afterwards and realize that the information you have spent the past month or so cramming into your overloaded brain has been instantly forgotten?

Exams are a poor, poor way of assessing people. They are tests of memory where those can remember bits of information the best are the ones that succeed. Not a real test of your abilities.

We should stop deluding ourselves into thinking our system is still the best in the world and realize that without reform, we will continue to have these problems.

How not to handle a hostage situation

Hong Kong, a special administrative region in South-East China that usually takes a position of neutrality in international affairs, was caught up in a horrifying incident that has sent shockwaves throughout the Far East and most of the rest of the world.

A coach load of Hong Kong tourists, who were travelling through Manila in the Philippines, was hijacked by an armed former policeman who was angry at his unfair dismissal from the police force. Dubbed the ‘Manila Siege’, the incident dragged on for many hours before concluding with a bloody gunfight between the suspect and the police as they stormed the coach. The resulting fatalities were eight Hong Kong tourists. Two survivors were identified as British nationals.

What has shocked people, is not just the act of terrorism, but the level of incompetence shown by the supposedly highly trained Filipino SWAT team whose strategy to rescue the tourists was filmed entirely by the media and seen by most of the world.

The anger amongst the Hong Kong people is understandable. Watching the team carry out their mission was like watching a bunch of unruly children trying to smash up a dilapidated car with bricks and cricket bats. I have seen better tactics and strategies employed by people at paint balling events. Had it not been for the tragic deaths of 8 people, the whole incident would have been laughable.

I’m no expert on hostage situations, but even I know that attempting to smash the windows of a coach open with sledgehammers whilst an irrational armed gunman inside is rapidly panicking is not a good idea at all. What was even more aggravating was learning that several times during the incident, the gunman actually walked right to the door of the bus, with his gun by his side, to talk to the police. Where were the close combat police ready to take him out? Or even better, where was the marksman ready to take a shot?! Don’t let him get back on the bus with the hostages!

And even if it wasn’t possible to take him out there and then, surely it would have been better to simply give in to his demands! After all, he was one man and one man only. Not a terrorist group. Give him what he wants, draw him out into the open and arrest him.

I think the one piece of footage that really summed up the whole farce was that of a Filipino SWAT team member attempting to throw some sort of smoke grenade through a hole in the window – only for it to fall back out again resulting in him having to do it a second time.

Utter shambles, utter incompetence and sadly, a tragic end to a situation that could have been solved without any loss of life.

Even worse is how the Philippine government now acts as if they handled the situation in the best possible manner.

Understandably now, the relations between Hong Kong and the Philippines are strained.

But there is another thing we have to remember and I hope that all people who feel some sort of anger towards the incident remember. You are angry at the decisions and actions of the Filipino Police and government – not the Filipino people. It has been astounding how, over the past few days, some Hong Kong citizens have expressed their fury at the Filipinos particularly the sizeable Filipino community that resides in the region. Some Filipinos have even lost their jobs as housekeepers in Hong Kong households as a result of this. We must remember that this amounts to pure racism and misdirected anger.