Been thinking about Joe's accident, and how, talking to him, it was obvious that he had a complete blind spot about the safety of what he was doing. I was talking to Mum about it and she said that she'd heard somewhere that a teenager's brain changes so rapidly that certain parts of the brain (like the areas that assess danger) shut down for a while to allow other parts to grow, that it was a normal (though alarming) part of being a teenager.
And then this morning I saw a headline and felt my stomach turn as I read the details. This man had died being deported to Angola leaving a wife and five children aged sixteen to seven months. It was clear from the witness reports that he had been 'heavily restrained' on the plane and had lost consciousness and died. I turned on a news channel hoping to find out more but it wasn't mentioned. As the morning passed by I realised that it wasn't going to come up.
Almost every day I pass a road sign pointing the way to Yarls Wood IDC, and I wondered if he had been held there before being taken to the airport. IDC stands for Immigration Detention Centre, but its not spelt out. The acronym points to an ominous blind spot where immigration is concerned, in the media, in our lives. People are trying their best to find a safe place for themselves and their children and are ending up losing their lives. Down the road. In the depths of the Bedfordshire countryside.
Our brains have grown up. We've got no excuse.
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