Laughing in the face of adversity
In my previous post, I looked at the increasingly decrepit state of the physical and digital infrastructure here in the UK: Collapse, metaphorical and literal 5.9.23. One of the main issues examined was the 'emerging' crisis about the use of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in schools and other public buildings.
It has 'emerged' that RAAC is prone to failure which could result in structural collapses. This is causing serious issues in many schools which are supposed to be starting the autumn term but are finding that at least part, if not all, of their buildings have to be closed for safety reasons. Head teachers are left scrabbling around for alternative accommodation or having to go back to the remote online 'learning' that was a feature of the lockdowns in 2020/2021. It's also causing issues with a number of other public buildings as well such as hospitals and courts amongst others.
It is indeed looking like a clusterf**k. The one thing the people of the UK do well in the face of such clustef**ks is take the piss. Despite this being a serious situation with as yet, a large number of unknown adverse consequences, I present the above selection of memes and cartoons as a way of providing some temporary relief from having to deal with this clusterf**k. Also, one thing the authorities do not like one bit is people taking the piss out of them!
A point to bear in mind about the RAAC crisis in buildings and other structures, it's not just years of neglect and underfunding that's the problem, it's also the hubris of choosing a fundamentally flawed building material all those decades ago...
The use of RAAC was stopped in the 1990s when it started to emerge that in the long term, buildings using this material were at risk of a structural collapse. The problems associated with the use of RAAC have been know for some while, as indicated in this piece: NHS trusts need hundreds of millions to stop hospitals’ roofs collapsing - Rob Hakimian | New Civil Engineer | 10.10.22. Not wanting to sound like a conspiracy theorist (stop sniggering at the back!) but, there are things about the way this crisis has suddenly 'emerged' that don't add up.
Suffice to say that in the next week, I intend to have a deeper look at the situation. This will take in the hubris of the architects, builders, planners and local and national government back in the 1960s, and onwards from there, who thought that using RAAC was a form of 'progress'. It will also look at how certain nefarious actors pushing the agenda of the fourth industrial revolution could very well find this a convenient crisis to exploit when it comes to digitising more aspects of our lives, remote learning being one such manifestation.