Tuesday 12 May 2009

Real Time and Real Kinship

Miriam Patel faces being sent to prison for giving her mother's address when applying for a school place for her son. From her surname it is possible to imagine that her notions of family, kinship, residence might not fit the nuclear family definitions used by her local authority persecutors.

In any case, if she ends up doing time her son will live with his maternal grandmother anyway, or any of his aunties who doubtless live nearby.

2 comments:

dearieme said...

Come off it, HG. She cheated; she was caught. It's true that the rules shine a harsh light on the barbarisation of our schools. It's true that the idea that she might go to jail when violent scum get a slap on the wrist is revolting. But playing the multicultural card is feeble.

hatfield girl said...

Lots of children live with their grans during the week, particularly if their parents work all hours. Though I agree, I did put it in multiculti terms.

The Italian government has just declared that Italy is not a multicultural country, nor do Italians wish it to be. Anyone who asks to settle in Italy is expected to live, work and behave as if they are in Italy. (which does make living with your gran while your parent's work the norm, of course), but hearing this said on the Eight O'clock Evening News does make one jump.