Ordinary people's extraordinary stories & Everyday Conversations Regarding Mental Health

The Tim Heale Podcasts S4 E4 Tim's Rant

September 07, 2021 Tim Heale Season 4 Episode 4
Ordinary people's extraordinary stories & Everyday Conversations Regarding Mental Health
The Tim Heale Podcasts S4 E4 Tim's Rant
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode I have a rant about the chaos that has unfolded in the last month and the reality of the issues we face in this country.

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0 (1s):
The Tim Heale podcasts, ordinary people's extraordinary stories.

1 (18s):
Welcome to share his three under Tim Heale podcasts in the last two shares. I've told you about my life. I've met many interesting people along the way who have become my friends and what they all have in common is they all have fascinating stories of their own, which they're happy to share with you now. Thank you for listening.

2 (44s):
Welcome to the Tim Heale podcasts. And this is series four in this series on talking about different stuff. And this particular episode on just going to go on about a bit of a rent, or can only apologize for that. But over the last few weeks, I've been unable to, to get people into, to record series three. So I was thought on over a couple of weeks break, and then I'll come back with the series four. And this is episode four. So I'm just going to go on about what's been going on just recently, some weeks ago, president Biden decided that he was going to just pull out of Afghanistan at the drop of a hat.

2 (1m 32s):
Yes, we know he's been coming. Yes. They said they were going to do it. However, the way that he did it, just beggars belief, the way he just went about saying, right, that's it, we're pulling out Bosch withdrew, all the supports and the Afghan national army, which unfortunately, without the support got overrun by the Taliban and they've had to have been paid for months and months on months on end. You can't blame the guys. I mean, they are tough. They are courageous and they are Savage fighters. I mean, they know how to have a punch up this look at Afghanistan over the years, nobody's actually managed to occupy it for any length of time.

2 (2m 21s):
The Russians got a bloody nose day. We've had a bloody nose back in the past. So Afghanistan knows how to fight. Unfortunately, this one, without the support, they just got overrun. Unfortunately, the Taliban have managed to capture all their kit and equipment. So I know it's going to cause us a problem in the future surely, but what it's done is all the guys that we had working for us. And now in danger of their lives, some have managed to get out.

2 (3m 1s):
Some are still there. Some have their family still there. The Taliban would be going around, knocking on doors. And they've been asking for people who they know work for us. And if they aren't there, then they beat up or kill their family. A friend of mine had his father and his brother killed by the Taliban because he has left the country. And now he's safe. Unfortunately for him, his family are not his mother, his sisters and a brother are still they're fearing for their lives because he worked for us.

2 (3m 43s):
And now they're on the run from the Taliban. Having had a brother and father killed. So what do they do? They were unable to get to, to Qubole in time to get airlifted out. And now they need to seek an alternative route out of Afghanistan with their lives while still being followed. And the Taliban are checking everybody and it's moving around the country. And if they find people that they're looking for, then the outcome for them is not great.

2 (4m 25s):
I have another friend who was up in Jalalabad that worked for me back in 2005, six, and again, in eight nine. And he's really good guy. He is up in, or he was in Jalalabad. I contact with him. He's trying to get him and his family out. His wife was killed by the Taliban. He has an adopted son and his mother and father and a sister, Diane are on the run. I haven't heard from them for a few weeks. He was, he got his letter of authorization to come to the UK.

2 (5m 7s):
It'd be giving him instructions to go today. The Baron hotel in cabal and the last I heard, they were about to leave Jalalabad to make that the powerless journey to Kabul. I haven't heard from him since I'm only hoping that he managed to make it and his phone been confiscated or it lost his phone. Something like that. I don't know on still white in to hear something from him to see whether we managed to get out. But unfortunately I'm fearing the worst. Maybe they were caught on the road, found out who they were because they had their passports with them.

2 (5m 52s):
Maybe they were detained. Maybe they were killed on the road. I don't know. I'm still waiting to hear the Taliban, still a brutal regime. People are saying that they were the Northern lines. They were never the Northern Alliance. The Northern Alliance were a different group altogether and the Taliban have coming and they've tried to overtake the country. Apparently they've taken over all the country. Now, I'm just wondering whether they'd managed to get in the patio valley. I suspect probably not. I think they're just putting out that I have as pure propaganda, they're stopping anybody going in and out of the patchy event valley at the moment.

2 (6m 37s):
So it is very difficult to be able to confirm or deny whether they've taken over that part of the country. I suspect that Massoud has managed to stave off the Taliban from taking over that particular area. They're surrounded. Yes, but it's such a remote area. It's such a mountainous area, the Northern Alliance guys under Massoud. Now the area like the back of their hand, the Russians weren't able to take over there. Nobody in history has managed to take over that area. It's such a remote area and their tactics that they use to stave off any inviting army work.

2 (7m 25s):
So good luck to Massoud and let's hope that the, they may get resistance going to the Taliban. So we wait with bated breath to see what happens. In 2006, I had the opportunity to get some women in from the women's center in Alaska gal to record an episode or two episodes of what we've called the Afghan arches. This was a, a radio program that we put out for the locals about local life in Afghanistan.

2 (8m 7s):
And each of the episodes that we put out, we're delivering a message of what was going on and trying to instill in the local population that we were there for the good, these women, one of these women I'd met previously in 2002 at the big lawyer. Jirga in Kabul. When I was serving up there, when we first went in in 2002, she's a very, very brave lady. She spoke to the lawyer jirga on women's rights and she was listened to. And after she came off of the stage, I had the opportunity to have a chat with her and interview her for a piece I was doing for the ICF news, which was a newspaper that we put together in three different languages, English, pasture, and dairy.

2 (8m 59s):
And I gave her side of the story, what she was all about. And, and that was put into the AF the ICF news. Then I met her in 2006 and what a brave lady, she was still standing up for, for women's rights in Afghanistan, in <inaudible>. And she was part of the council in Laska guard. At that time, I don't know what has happened to her since I didn't get the opportunity to get in touch with her. When I went back in 2008 nine, because my role has changed slightly. And I spent that tour bouncing around Helmand, installing and training people on the radio in a box, which is a commercial radio station in a box.

2 (9m 50s):
It's a transmitter with some media and their laptop and a couple of microphones. And I try and guys the Afghan interpreters to be radio presenters and the guys that were controlling them to be producers, to be able to produce some radio programs for the local area, which enabled us to push out messages. And basically do we influence the local population to change their attitudes and their behaviors towards us and people in general, and try to make things better for the country.

2 (10m 36s):
Some of the messages we were putting out was to report any Taliban activities in the country, because if we can identify those guys, we can deal with them. We can arrest them, bring them to justice and that sort of thing. So we're in a position now where local councils have been asked to house and help these genuine asylum, because most of the guys that have come over didn't want to come. They want to stay in their own country, but for fear of their own lives, they have been forced.

2 (11m 16s):
Their hands been forced, and they've had to seek shelter and asylum in our country. Unlike the masses that are crossing the channel at the moment, these are illegal migrants, they are economic migrants. They are being trafficked. Boy, these unscrupulous bastards taking vast amounts of money off them and sticking them in dinghies. And the French are actually escorting them away from French coast and our border force taxi service.

2 (11m 59s):
Ron and I are also being a taxi service. My thinking is instead of landing them in, in Dover land domain, Kalay, simple as that, pick them up, take them back, drop him off in Cali. This will stop that problem overnight. Apparently legally, we're not allowed to do that or legally I can stop it. That's what I need to do. And that will stem the flow. If they can't bring them in through that route, if we're just picking them up in the channel and taking them back and dropping them in, they will stop that route.

2 (12m 42s):
Simple as that, it stands to reason. If you stop them coming here, protect our borders, drop them back in France, where they come from, then they will stop coming. And by that route, they may find other routes. The, the routes that they used to come in, a traditional routes in the back lorries and stuff in Florida, then that is also stopped for the time. Bam, because it's easier to jump on a thingy and get picked up and brought in rather than trying to sneak in the back of a lorry. One of the big issues that we've got in this country is over the last few decades.

2 (13m 22s):
Every single year, we've had immigration in the room agent over around about 250,000 April a year, coming into this country legally and illegally, the country is full. This is putting a massive, massive strain on our infrastructure. Not only do we not have the housing for them, but we don't have the capacity in the NHS and our schools and our transport infrastructure. The whole piece that is putting under utter strain because of the amount of people calling on the services that we need, just to support all these people.

2 (14m 11s):
What is happening now is not sustainable. The amount of people that we have vastly outweighs them. Th th this country is one of the most populated countries in the world. We have more people per square kilometer than anywhere else in Europe. And that is the big issue that we've got. We cannot sustain this amount of people coming in the 15,000 or 20,000 Afghans that were to rescue at the present moment. And time is just a tiny drop in the ocean compared with the amount of people that have been coming in over the last few decades.

2 (15m 1s):
This has just been going on and on and on. There are more people coming in than leaving, and that is the problem. So where do we go? How do we solve this problem? The government is on about now increasing national insurance to pay for for care. Well, that's kind of an unfair tax. What I should do is put up income tax by a penny. And that way it's a fair attacks and it will generate more money to be able to fund these projects that they're looking at doing in social care. The NHS has to be reformed.

2 (15m 44s):
The NHS is now not fit for purpose. It needs reforming from a top down. There are far too many managers that basically don't have a job to do. They were advertising the other day for diversity and inclusion offices, some ridiculous amount of money. Why did I need to have diversity and inclusion officers in the NHS? The NHS is a multi ethnic organization. There is so many different ethnicities in the NHS.

2 (16m 28s):
It doesn't need to have the diversity and inclusion officers to tell people how to act. People generally respect people that work in the NHS. If you mentioned that the NHS is not fit for purpose needs reforming, then you're cast as a no. I mean, it's like slaughtering a sacred cow. It's got to be done. It cannot go on the way it is. It's just not fit for purpose. And until people realize that, then the situation is just going to get worse and worse.

2 (17m 14s):
Anyway, I think I'm going to warm this little rant up now. I think I've gone on for court long enough. So if you've managed to get this far, thank you for listening and wait for the next one. If you'd like to be part of series three, until your story for your ancestors and your story for your children and grandchildren, that I have a reference to listen back to in the years to come of your life on what you, they have. Please get in touch with me and we can sit down and I'll can record your story.

2 (17m 57s):
So in the meantime,

1 (17m 58s):
Thanks for listening. I look forward to the next one. Thank you for listening to my podcasts. If you have enjoyed them and your podcast app allows, please leave a comment and share it with your friends. The reason I got into this podcast malarkey is so I could leave a legacy for my children and my grandchildren in the years to come. So they will know what I did with my life. I wish my grandparents had done the same for me. Unfortunately, they didn't in my latest series on giving people the opportunity to leave their own legacy for their children and families for the future.

1 (18m 43s):
If you have any criticism, positive or negative, and you wish to get in touch with me direct, you can email me at timheale@hotmail.com. That's timheale@hotmail.com. I thank you for your time and thank you for listening.