November 6th 2023.
Why don't more men specialise in care? This is a question many people are asking, especially in the UK where there are so few men entering the caring professions. Ike Robin, a reader, says that the UK lags behind where Sweden was 50 years ago. He recalls seeing male nannies in parks as they trained to be nannies and nursery nurses. But it seems different in the UK today. Is it stigma, low pay, lack of interest, or a societal perception that men aren’t seen as caregivers?
At the same time, readers are debating the dark side of artificial intelligence (AI). AI can be taught to save or take lives, and a simple code error can turn a good robot bad.
The conversation has also shifted to consider whether or not rough sleeping is a lifestyle choice. Home Secretary Suella Braverman doesn't even want them to have the option of a warm bed over a cold tent.
Ike Robin trained as a 'manny' at the prestigious Norland College for nannies and loves it. His experience has made me reflect on how slow Britain is in recognising the importance of males in the caring professions, and the importance of fathers in bringing up their children.
I have spent 40 years as a social worker and 30 years as a psychologist and, in both, I was always in a significant minority. When my own two older boys were in a nursery in the early 1990s, having a male nursery worker was so rare that when one appeared for a month from an agency, the boys in the nursery were still talking about him six months later.
As a father of four boys, I chose to share care with my wife and while seeing fathers at the school gates is better than when my children were small, fathers still often find themselves isolated. I even had to take an employer to court who was trying to force me to work full-time when I said no because I wanted to look after my children.
Britain still has a long way to go to recognise the importance of fathers – they often still have to fight hard within the family courts to gain even 50 percent custody. Males, generally, as carers are still not being valued as they were in Scandinavia more than 50 years ago.
On the other hand, conversations are taking place within the armed forces and governments of the most stable countries about the morality of an armed robot with facial recognition software. While it could save soldiers from dangerous missions, it only takes an error in the code for there to be an uncontrollable killer robot on the loose.
Santa also suggests that rising sea levels will help to stop wars, but this is not the case. In fact, shortages of basic necessities and mass displacement of people due to flooding and drought will cause many more wars and with much greater severity. We are already seeing the effects of these factors in Ukraine and Gaza.
Businesses want to bring in more immigrants to do jobs, but the UK population says there is a shortage of housing, which has made the price of housing go up too much and people can’t make ends meet. So when more migrants enter the UK, that will make the housing shortage worse.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s suggestion that rough sleepers are making a ‘lifestyle choice’ is nonsensical. Where are those migrants supposed to live and how are they supposed to make ends meet here if many existing UK people can’t do that?
Atrocities were committed on both sides during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. Kenyan nationalist leader Jomo Kenyatta described the uprising as a civil conflict rather than a straightforward rebellion.
My brother-in-law, a young photographer, had to take photos of the atrocities committed by the Mau Mau. It affected him for life and he was never the same afterwards. This is just one example of the trauma experienced by people who witnessed these events.
There is still much to be done to recognise the importance of males in the caring professions, and the importance of fathers in bringing up their children. AI in the military raises moral questions, but society also needs to consider the implications of bringing in more immigrants to do jobs and the effect that this will have on the housing shortage. There is also an urgent need to address the issue of rough sleepers and the trauma caused by the Mau Mau Uprising. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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