Monday 4 May 2020

Archaeology Film: "Lockdown is for Mugs, not for Me"


Britain and Poland are under lockdown to curb the spread of CV SARS-2. In Poland we take this pretty seriously, in England....
Pete Savin @pete_savin 3 g.
I’ve been for a lockdown wander find the roman road around #Kendal if anyone has a spare 4 minutes? https://youtu.be/cSSSvUCVfPI #RomanRoads #Lockdown
.

Posted on You Tube by Pete Savin 4 May 2020

That's Pete Savin "Photography, Archaeology and co author Hadrians Wall a Journey through Time". And yes, the photography is nice, the Roman road such as is left of it, interesting (could have done with a map in the video) but this is not the time to be filming yourself wandering around the countryside without a face mask and then putting it out where it can be seen all over the world. To call it "lockdown" is just a poke in the eye to people in countries where lockdown means lockdown. When the term in the video's title was challenged the guy lamely replied:
Pete Savin @pete_savin · 55 min
We are allowed out for limited exercise daily 
and later adding:
I have been taken to task for going out, can I say I adhere to government advice and walk from my front door and practice safe distancing. I’m sorry if that upsets people but I was hoping it would inspire that we can stay safe and learn.
First of all, note the me-me-me "(we can) stay safe[ourselves]". The whole point about the measures put in place is not to protect individuals but to curb the spread of this nasty disease throughout society (so the opposite of what the Johnson government first intended).  The problem with sticking to "government advice" is that it is still too little too late and the UK "rules" are not working (28,734 dead already). So what is the responsible response, shrug shoulders and just carry on selfishly doing what you feel like doing if it's not illegal (shades of the antiquities trade arguments there), or do you consider that "StayHomeSaveLives" means... er... staying at home and not wandering round making archaeological videos where and when you feel like it?

On the day this numpty released this "lockdown" video, the U.K. has one of the highest death counts of the coronavirus pandemic in the world. The government seems not really to have this under control and this guy is still wandering around with no face mask on making videos. Because he says he is "lucky to live in Kendal" where he can do this. I am lucky I live in a country where social responsibility is seen a bit differently than the self-centred myopic individuals of Brexitland, which is why today (although when I was in the UK at the end of February Poland and the UK were in much the same situation), we have 177000 fewer cases and 28000 deaths fewer than Britain. And he'd be fined for that video/ no mask here. So yeah, 'lucky'.

And of course like the metal detectorists, he thinks this is about "his" (me-me-me) safety, sarcastically posting:
Pete Savin@pete_savin·46 min
Thanks for your concern #staysafe
My concern is not for him, but for the fact that half my family, colleagues and friends are stuck in the same country as egotistical myopic individuals like this who think only of their own comfort, and think that respecting the current measures is for other people to do, while they are an exception (this also is linked to the selfish attitudes of antiquities collectors).

Also perhaps it is time some in the UK woke up to the notion that this pandemic is not just a local, Kendal/lake District/ British problem, it is one simultaneously being experienced by people all over the world. I think that imposes some responsibilities on archaeological filmmakers, even British ones,  to have some consideration.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Do yourself a favour and take this spiteful post down. So many wrong things I can’t spare you the time to list them. Just delete.

Paul Barford said...

"Myself a favour"? A threat from an anonymous poster? My text is not spiteful. The guy who posted this film up on the internet was thoughtless and irresponsible.

In the UK,the government has a policy 'stay home save lives' (that it anyway instituted much too late in the stage of development of the pandemic than many EU countries, so the situation there is tragic).

All over Europe, people are doing exactly that. Even UK metal detectorists are by and large heeding a NCMD directive [top dozen or so posts here: http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/search?q=NCMD&max-results=20&by-date=true] People's livelihoods are being damaged by adhering to this policy, kids' education disrupted, a lot of people are making huge sacrifices for the common good. But most people see why this policy exists and responsibly buckle down. By it, some countries have already flattened the curve and reduced the deaths. Italy ended its lockdown on the day this video went up after an enormous struggle with the disease with a lot of people suffering privations doing what needed to be done to curb its spread.

That some individualist in the UK thinks this does not apply to HIM, because "HE" can "stay safe", and that it is appropriate to FILM himself going out unmasked, pointing out bits of field, and posting it online for everyone to see as a "lockdown wander" is just crass.

It makes it look like he is treating lockdown as just a bit of fun, an extended public holiday, like those asinine Floridans who flocked to the beach last week. A UK metal detectorist just did it [https://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2020/04/another-uk-metal-detectorist-being.html].

That this purports to be an archaeology film just makes it worse as far as I am concerned (and is why I discussed it). It is Mr Savin who needs to rethink his attitudes, priorities and responsibilities.

Note the number of people both sides of the Atlantic who joined in on Twitter to support Savin's "right" to flaunt the StayHomeSaveLives ethos. How many more imitators will this archaeological film maker encourage?

[Mr Savin is perfectly at liberty for himself to explain the "wrongs" of my posts on the anti-Covid response in the UK, as long as we keep it to the bits affected by/affecting the heritage aspects.

The post is staying pour encourager les autres.

Unknown said...

Unfortunately you're wrong. Our rules for lockdown are clear and includes daily exercise, as long as you maintain social distancing. Our guidance also currently discourages face masks. So I suggest you take this attack down.

Paul Barford said...

I am not "wrong", I am expressing my opinion about what I see. I see what I see and I say what I think about what I see. He's not going out for "exercise' he's gone out to make a film about his "lockdown wander" (sic)

Mr Savin posted a video up on the World Wide Web where it is seen outside the UK including here in Europe where "lockdown" means "lockdown" and where Bonkers Britain and its toytown government's "rules" don't apply. We actually stay at home to save lives, don't mess about and masks are mandatory. I see it from that perspective.

Those British rules are seen here (40 million population, 14,740 cases, 730 deaths) as nothing to be proud of (see the story "‘Complacent’ UK draws global criticism for Covid-19 response" in the Guardian today). Mr Savin's filmed antics reek of that complacency.

The UK has a population of 66.7 million, but 194,990 cases and 29,427+ DEAD (look that's more than the number of cases in Poland, two thirds the population). With those figures, you can't tell me that you and the "government rules" you put such faith in are getting it "right". Quite obviously they are not enough.

And Mr Savin's filmed himself prancing around pointing at bits of field saying he's "in lockdown" (right at the beginning of the film).

Paul Barford said...

As for UK "discouraging facemasks" - the pee meme seems not to have been understood over there: https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/gaj2a3/wear_your_mask_the_urine_test/

Paul Barford said...

https://twitter.com/SherineT/status/1258218260513861632/photo/2

 
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