Ham for Heroes

I bought a packet of ham at the shops yesterday, and when I came to open the packet this morning, I found it was 'endorsed by Help for Heroes' - and all of the company's [Red Lion Foods] post-tax profits go to UK armed forces charities. In many ways, I think that this is a fantastic example of corporate behaviour, and that our society would be unrecognizably improved if more businesses did it (although British Farmers may disagree with Red Lion's use of foreign pork). On the other hand, why have we had this recent wave of media-led eulogising about the armed forces? 'Help for Heroes'? I don't think so.

First of all, let me make this very clear - I am not a hero - and nor would I ever claim to be. Second of all, if our government is going to pay people a pittance to fight and die on foreign soil (or sand), then the very least they can do is to equip them properly, and to look after them when they suffer injuries and trauma in the course of their day-to-day work. But now that's out of the way...

I really oppose this implication that soldiers are heroes by definition. I know there are soldiers who who are heroes, but just signing up does not suddenly make you heroic - it doesn't even necessarily make you a good person.

I know that there are many people out there who hold up nurses, firemen and even teachers as examples of 'everyday heroes', but I don't think there are enough of them. In many respects, anyone who choses a life of public service - especially at this time of cutbacks in pensions and salaries is doing a good deed. To me, there's a case that most public servants - even bin men - are more heroic than soldiers.

Bin men? Yes, bin men. "How is it heroic to collect other people's rubbish?" well, firstly: would you do it? For the paltry wage that bin men receive? Secondly, and most significantly: "How is it heroic to kill people for money?" because that's what regular soldiers do. It wouldn't be such a tough job if they hit each other with foam pugil sticks, and went home bruised but content after a hard day's work. Soldiers are paid killers. The fact of being a soldier is not particularly heroic in my eyes. As I said, some are heroes, but not just by virtue of being a soldier.

For me, a real hero is someone who gets out of bed and says 'you know what, I'm not concerned with my own gain today, I am going to put my energy in to helping other people'. That's heroism - not doing your job, but doing more, and sacrificing yourself to help people.

For those reasons, I see people who volunteer to join the army when their country (and family) is under threat as a different matter - that in itself is an act of heroism, but there's a big difference between your family being under threat, and your way of life being under threat. Our way of life is to consume prodigiously - and we fight wars to preserve our ability to do so - and for the ability of 'our' private companies to profit from it - but we are not under any military threat, and our soldiers are not sent to war in order to help people or protect their human rights - even though that is something that they may do in the course of their duties. Regardless of what the government say, the army is deployed to protect and secure our interests - and that rarely ever includes the well-being of foreign citizens.

Muammar Qaddafi had threatened to nationalise Lybia's oil industry. Of course, that may be a co-incidence at a time when peak oil may already have passed and oil companies are making record profits. It's no secret that Saddam Hussein kicked out the major oil companies and nationalised Iraq's oil industry, before being subjected to sanctions and subsequently abusing the Oil-for-Food Programme. And it may also be a coincidence that the regime in Afghanistan refused to allow the construction of a certain pipeline - before our heroes invaded, that is - although the Taliban are still a spanner in the works as far as that project goes. Good thing we are working hard to bring our Heroes home, eh?

So Red Lion Foods - why not give some of those profits to real heroes: our teachers, firemen, nurses and even our bin men - or better still, be a hero and give ham to the needy, the homeless and the hungry.