[EXPAT VOICE] Save one for Stuart!

This was in fact my first night in what is the room in a ground floor flat that I managed to rent after a week of ducking and diving from one B&B to another. So Stuart went to prison and his girlfriend, living above us, stayed in the flat with her sister, two vicious little dogs and an assortment of children classified as “cousins.” All this at the taxpayer's expense, of course, because Stupid Stu is on Incapacity Benefit after, allegedly, being hit on the head by a shopping trolley launched from the fourth floor of a multi-storey car park.

This morning when I went out to retrieve the “wheelie” bins that are obligatory repositories of refuse here -- we have blue for recycling, black for general household and kitchen waste, brown for garden waste and a green box for bottles and jars -- Stu was leaning out of his first floor window and engaged me in conversation. I happened to mention that I had just returned from a long spell in Turkey and he proudly informed me of the quality of certain substances available in Turkey of which he was particularly keen. I was not surprised. What I suspect would have surprised him would have been the antics of his “girlfriend” while he was “inside.” 'Nuff said. The fact that my landlord and some of our neighbors had to call the police out on four separate occasions to respond to the shenanigans occurring in the flat above, as well as in the street and the issuance of a “final warning” prior to eviction from the council remains unknown to him. Wisely, I suspect. Nevertheless, he does his bit to keep his scrubland of a yard reasonably clean, occupies himself with odd jobs about the house, and, so far, has only rarely disturbed the neighborhood apart from falling on his face -- blind drunk -- in the driveway and leaving his front door keys somewhere under my landlord's car requiring our assistance to ensure his safe re-entry into his home.

Stupid Stuart qualifies as the kind of eternal benefit-dependent scrounger so beloved of the right-wing press, politicians and Colonel Blimps that just love to pontificate on the way that this country is going to the dogs -- often literally -- and the fact that the majority of the now 2.5 million unemployed are, according to them, simply feckless wastrels who should be returned to the workhouse or otherwise forced to justify their existence. My own as yet unsuccessful search for employment has already been mentioned on this page and I continue to apply daily for available work of any kind that I feel qualified for and capable of doing. My landlord owns a taxi firm, and has kindly forwarded an application for a “hackney” license, which legally permits you to drive a taxi here, so that I could do some part-time driving for him as he has more customers than cars and drivers. All well and good, and we await developments.

Unemployment climbing

Despite talk of “green shoots” and the end of the economic depression tunnel heaving into view, the number of unemployed continues to swell, the queues at the Job Centers lengthen, university graduates are desperately trying to find work at McDonalds and 200,000 more people probably became jobless today. While bankers are rejoicing that bonuses are back and former BSkyB executive Tony Ball is holding out for a £25 million pay, pension and privilege package to take over the job of CEO at the UK's main commercial TV station ITV, the likes of Stuart and I continue to struggle to make ends meet. But we are not in the same category. For supposed medical reasons, Stuart will never have to worry about working again. I, on the other hand, have to justify, on a weekly basis, my claim to benefit by showing evidence of my earnest activities to acquire gainful employment. And I have no problem with that. It just feels that, in some ways, the playing field is not level. Corporate corruption is on the rise, millions of pounds are being squandered in benefit fraud as well as on dodgy dealings in the construction industry, and there is, clearly, something most definitely rotten in the state of the UK. White-collar criminals seem to be getting away with it, apart from the Enron crowd and Bernard Madoff, of course, and as Big Brother extends his reach and ability to know what's going on, everywhere, maybe it is time to save a prison cell for the likes of Stuart; because, in the view of many, he deserves one. “Save one for Stuart,” could be the new battle cry of the dishonored, dispossessed and disadvantaged here, across Europe or, indeed, in Turkey. It could also apply to all those illegal asylum seekers evicted from “The Jungle” outside Calais, France.

Meanwhile, as Turkey proves again to be the conduit of choice for so many illegal immigrants trying to make it to European soil, yet more frequently preferring to stay in Turkey, it may be high time to face down the issues of imbalance in our societies today. Even so, an article in this newspaper by U Hakan Ari on Sept. 20 stated: “While we were not accustomed to seeing African immigrants in Turkey a few years ago, today they have become an essential part of local bazaars. They make a living by selling watches, perfumes, electric razors and cell phone accessories. Most of the African immigrants are from Rwanda, Uganda, Senegal, Sudan, Ethiopia, Mali and Eritrea. ... It is no longer surprising for Turks to see an African merchant holding a banknote up to the light to determine whether it is authentic or fake after having negotiated a sale with his broken Turkish. Instead it just makes us smile. As many African immigrants prefer to live near their countrymen, they have developed their own neighborhoods in certain parts of İstanbul. Turks are no strangers to seeing foreigners selling interesting electronic items on stands.”

Just so. But the difference between immigrants from the African continent trying to make a living on the streets of İstanbul selling contraband knock-offs, and the growing number of lead-swingers larging it on the UK's welfare system, is perceptively potent. Popular perception of those in receipt of State benefits is currently undergoing the kind of knee-jerk reaction that traditionally responds to economic downturns and puts the blame squarely on those who are perceived to be irresponsibly at the bottom of the fiscal food chain, regardless of any understanding of, or even the attempt to understand, how and why these people find themselves thus situated. Nonetheless, the Turkish system may just have a point.

Turks work harder

By minimizing the state-allocated social benefits available; by utilizing a socially advantageous public transport policy that sets minimum and maximum prices on buses and other transport vehicles that don't penalize the least well-off; by doing all that is possible to guarantee what is fast being acknowledged as a world-class health delivery system while at the same time falling back on the traditional family-orientated culture so familiar to Turks; pump-priming the economy in such a way as to at least, try to give some economic equilibrium, the Turkish government seems to be doing more than just containing the disaster. Turkish workers want to work; they are not, by any stretch of the imagination, work-shy. This is what differentiates them from many of their Western colleagues, more familiar with a welfare system that will always provide the ultimate safety net. You will not find “Selpak” sellers on the streets of Norwich or Nantes; there are no shoe-shiners to be seen on Western streets; but then there are no children begging either, so some thought might need to be given as to how Turkey addresses the underlying problems of poverty, while at the same time encouraging the upper-echelons on the road to (European) levels of prosperity.

The likes of Stupid Stuart are probably going to remain with us, as the poor always will, according to the prophet Jesus. The difference is that I am poor because I am unable to find work here, whereas Stuart is “poor” because he likes it like that. He would definitely not sell tissues or shine shoes and may not even know where to go in the event that his world caved in. On the other hand, folks like Stuart may have a justifiable point and need a boost to better their lives. They may need a helping hand. So, save one for Stuart; tomorrow it could be you or I.