Weekend Warriors in Harlow

There is a fun item in the Harlow Herald about the Weekend Warriors programme. The idea is that it gives “35 to 60-year-old lapsed musicians the opportunity to rejoin a band and relieve [sic] their musical youth”.

Apparently, the idea has been imported from the US and Australia where it has proved very popular. Any money raised is to go towards providing oportunities for local young people to perform live. The Music Industry Association carries a list of Weekend Warrior programmes in other areas.

I’m fascinated by the resources and imagination that people constantly demonstrate. This sounds like the sort of creative activity that will make a considerable difference to some people's happiness levels.

Copyright 2006, Tony Plant Happystance Project

Making Harlow Happy

I live in Harlow. Recently there has been a lot of correspondence in the local papers about our image and the quality of life here. Harlow has even been labelled Grief City in response to some strikingly violent incidents and anti-social activities that look to be out of control in some areas.

Can Harlow be saved? In the absence of the sort of elaborate conspiracy theories discussed by Frank Furedi there is no conscious plan to let the town rot so that we accept an anonymous future as part of the sprawl of London. It looks like our present condition owes more to the existence of the sort of wicked problems that affect much of the UK, causing honest paralysis over difficult questions. Wicked problems arose in the area of public policy and are described as "a set of problems that cannot be resolved with traditional analytical approaches".

However, it looks like some of the recent correspondents believe that the moment has come for one of the flagship post-war New Towns to give up its identity and hope.

Is there any reason for this not to happen?

It is the nature of wicked problems that unanswered questions and chronic issues can take years to work out or never be satisfactorily resolved. One is make-or-break and needs to be dealt with immediately. It concerns hope in our future. People get involved in their neighbourhoods and work their fingers to the bone to maintain their families, homes and lives, but they find it harder when they believe that their community has failed them. We need to believe that our community is willing to protect and support our efforts. Citizens of all ages, businesses and social enterprises all need to believe that there is a commitment before they continue to spend their resources and stake their futures in Harlow.