Images of Innocence (3) – Knives
- sole purpose – sharpening pencils and cutting paper
As I write, highly civilised human beings are stabbing each other. In the UK stabbings are a regular occurrence and in 2010 19 youths were stabbed to death in London alone (Guardian UK). In 2007, 322 fatal stabbings (Guardian UK) were recorded marking the highest number of knife related deaths since records began in 1977. As the focus of media attention and political concern, definitions change and competing theories are forwarded, some related to the weather, others to disadvantage. Anti-stabbing kitchen knives are now available as are stab proof school uniforms made from kevlar and one of my local schools has installed metal detectors through which students have to pass on their way into school.
Stanley blades - every student has one
an assortment of blades
While Britain is plagued with knife related crimes, one currently being covered by the media as I write, Korean kids of all ages carry the equivalent of a stanley knife in their pencil cases and do so not to protect themselves, look cool, or as part of gang defense plans, but simply to sharpen pencils and cut paper.
as harmless as its owner
and then there are the scissors...
© 林東哲 2011 Creative Commons Licence.
Elwood 5566 
Knives at our school are taken off the kids, maybe it’s because of where we are and the sort of kids we teach. These kids can’t even hold a pencil most of the time without stabbing something.