Rant about the situation 'On The Ground'
Mon, Feb 15th 2010, 11:57
Has anyone else noticed lately that most of our news is happening 'On the ground'. "So what's happening on the ground?" "On the ground things look different." "We've been hearing from our man on the ground."
As opposed to what?
Our man in the clouds? Our woman in a tunnel? Our soldier hovering a few feet above the ground?
These words or phrases seem to crop up from time to time. During the floods of 2007/8 hundreds of houses had no water, and soon every other word on the news was 'Bowser'. And after the tragedy of 9/11 (or 11/9 as surely it must be) it was all anyone to do to stop themselves from saying 'Ground Zero' over and over and over again.
But now it's "On The Ground". There are people On The Ground in Afghanistan. There are civil servants On The Ground in Westminster. There were quite a lot of people On The Ground at the Copenhagen Screw-The-Earth Summit. They are probably also On The Ground in the International Space Station. There's stuff happening On The Ground on ships, in submarines and possibly even on some ground somewhere.
What's so special about being On The Ground? Surely most human activities apart from a few hinted at already qualify as being On The Ground? Walking. Eating. Sleeping. Having a poo. And most of these aren't that exciting enough to report on. But of course I'm being facetious (again) and On The Ground really means the place where something is actually happening as opposed to the place where it isn't (i.e. everywhere else... which may or may not be places with some 'ground' as well).
On the plus side it makes a change from being At The Coalface, On the Frontline or On The Shop Floor (presumably after an accident with a rogue tin of baked beans). And of course the ground is very useful for keeping one's feet on, and for hitting it in a running type way. Apparently.
In future rants... the BBC phrase 'Are you ACROSS this?' that is leaking out into public usage and the infuriating 'step up to the plate' which is used all over the UK when surely we should be 'stepping up to the crease' or maybe the non-metaphorical but perfectly functional 'taking responsibility'. Grrrrr!
