* An edited version of this posting (Yes, I've blogged about it before &; I'll continue to do so) was published in today's Independent.
Yesterday, a JP Morgan employee died after falling from the roof of the European headquarters in Canary Wharf. On Sunday, a former senior executive at Deutsche Bank was found dead in his home after an apparent suicide.
Last week, a communications director at Swiss Re died. The cause of death has not been made public. In August, a 21-year-old Bank of America intern died after reportedly working consecutive all-nighters at the bank's London office.
In the same month, the finance chief at Zurich Insurance Group committed suicide and it was reported that he left a note blaming the company's chairman for creating an unbearable work environment. It’s time we started joining up the dots. The City’s culture is killing people.
On a couple of occasions, whilst advising some of the UK’s largest organisations on ethics, I came across coded data I wasn’t supposed to see. There were secret budgets ring fenced for law suits in relation to discrimination (mostly sex and race). In amongst stats breaking down staff attrition along gender lines, I once came across a column marked “deaths”. In one of the organisations there were 6 in the past 12 months (globally). All of whom were men.
I was told the information was “classified” but gleaned that it related to deaths suspected to be work related. In one global behemoth I was told that an executive had committed suicide while on assignment overseas. Apparently he got extremely stressed before making presentations. Rather than ease up, his manager forced him to “man up”. Unable to cope with the stress, away from his family, the night before a presentation he threw himself off the balcony of his hotel room.
Elsewhere, I was told that an executive who worked notoriously long hours dropped dead of a heart attack. He was in his 30’s. The corporation’s response? Invest in a gym for employees to “de-stress in”. It was spun, by HR mind, as a fitness issue, completely unrelated to his being pushed by his employer to breaking point. It’s not HRs’ job to look after people, it’s their job to optimise their productivity. In my experience though, people are far more productive when they’re alive.
It was bonus week at JP Morgan last week. Men earn approximately £150,000 more than women on bonuses alone. Given most decisions about who should stay at home to take care of the kids, is finance driven, it’s hardly surprising it ends up being predominately women.
The career penalties for women relating to the gender pay gap are well documented, though little is spoken about the burden this puts on men. As primary bread winner, there is increasing pressure to work ever longer hours in order to garner favour with the boss. HR departments like to hold up stats to show it’s only women who avail of flexible working polices. Men, they say, love the cut and thrust of long hours. Really?
When I carried out research on the long hours culture, I asked men with small children (mostly in their 30’s) why they didn’t request flexible working arrangements to spend more time with their children. They all concurred that it would be career limiting. One said he took a promotion to compensate for the loss of his [more qualified yet less paid] wife’s income. He was promised his travel would only increase by 10%. It increased by 70%. He was struggling to cope with the stress and actively looking for a job elsewhere.
It’s detrimental to society and the economy to reduce fatherhood to a walk on part, whilst at the same time driving women out of the workforce when they become mothers. Families need fathers as well as mothers and UK plc needs women as well as men at the helm. After all, they’ve got plenty of practice cleaning up after other peoples’ mess.
Organisations are structured around the indoctrination of its workforce. The more malleable the better. Conscience and values to be left at the door. The Milgram (electric shock) experiment highlighted the power of blind obedience, which saw 80% of participants continue to administer the maximum shocks despite the screams of pain from those they believed to be genuine recipients. It’s in this context that decent people can be persuaded to make unethical decisions. Like sanctioning polices that discriminate against some employees, whilst working those who aren’t driven elsewhere, or off sick, to despair and sometimes death.
Despite working the longest hours in Europe, the UK has the lowest productivity rate. Not surprising, as all the studies show that, most people are not motivated by greed but by quality of life. Most people would rather sacrifice some pay than time with their family and friends. Most people think their wellbeing is too high a price for work. Most people, that is, except the testosterone charged dinosaurs that dominate the City and whose recklessness and depravity is unravelling the fabric of our society.
Thursday, 30 January 2014
Friday, 24 January 2014
There's Nothing Liberal or Democratic about a Party That Demeans Women
There’s nothing liberal or democratic about the Liberal Democrat party. A more representative name would be “The old Boys’ party”. Of course, that wouldn’t necessarily differentiate them from Labour or Tory. That moniker would be true for all of them.
By claiming democratic superiority, the Lib Dems should at least show willing when it comes to being a party representative of the people, 50% of whom are women. The branding machine, no doubt a testosterone charged power house, has missed the fact that there’s a stark disconnect between what the Lib Dems claim to be & what they are.
I knew Nick Clegg was struggling to connect with women when he plucked a woman, who makes porn films, from obscurity & put her forward as a parliamentary candidate in 2010. Despite Anna Arrowsmith having no political experience, Clegg obviously thought having a porn baroness in the party would be “liberal” & “edgy” & after all, she’s a “feminist”. At the time I wrote, “If Arrowsmith is successful (she wasn’t) jobs for porn “stars” & lap dancers will be advertised in your local job centre (oops they are already). Failure of girls to apply would result in benefits being removed. If she’s a feminist, I’m Jeremy Clarkson”.
The sex industry is dominated by men who profit from the degradation of women and young girls. They’re called pimps. The fact that Arrowsmith seemed to uphold the stereotypes assigned to a marginalised group in the interests of getting ahead in a dominant group, didn’t bode well. If she was a fundamentalist feminist banging on about mad extremist stuff like equal pay or the sexual stereotyping of young girls, she wouldn’t stand a chance in the so called Lib Dems.
Clegg’s confusion between the prostitution of women and feminism has contributed to a culture where women are more likely to be seen as sex objects as opposed to political players. Lord Rennard’s indignance at being suspended for refusing to apologise over sexual harassment claims indicates the extent to which sexism is endemic in the Lib Dem culture. This week another disgraced Lib Dem MP, Mike Hancock, was suspended from the party for alleged sexual misconduct against a female constituent with known mental health problems. In both cases Clegg has been criticised for being slow to act & ineffectual.
The lack of women MP’s in the party, a mere 12% (7 MPs), none of whom hold cabinet positions, is another damning indictment. Clegg’s failure to give some of his greatest female talent, such as Sarah Teather, key roles, will be his undoing. Instead, the hapless Danny Alexander, the right wing, disgraced, banker (David Laws) and the lacklustre, career (as opposed to conviction) politician, Simon Hughes take up seats at the Lib Dem top table.
The fact that one of the most principled and respected talent in the party, Sarah Teather, is stepping down at the next election, because of Clegg’s stance on immigration & welfare, is further evidence that the party has lost it’s way. Those within the party with moral compasses, it seems, are ditched in favour of self serving sycophants. Some say women need to toughen up & play the game. I disagree. As Alison Pearson said in The Telegraph this week, “It’s the game, not women, that needs to change”.
By claiming democratic superiority, the Lib Dems should at least show willing when it comes to being a party representative of the people, 50% of whom are women. The branding machine, no doubt a testosterone charged power house, has missed the fact that there’s a stark disconnect between what the Lib Dems claim to be & what they are.
I knew Nick Clegg was struggling to connect with women when he plucked a woman, who makes porn films, from obscurity & put her forward as a parliamentary candidate in 2010. Despite Anna Arrowsmith having no political experience, Clegg obviously thought having a porn baroness in the party would be “liberal” & “edgy” & after all, she’s a “feminist”. At the time I wrote, “If Arrowsmith is successful (she wasn’t) jobs for porn “stars” & lap dancers will be advertised in your local job centre (oops they are already). Failure of girls to apply would result in benefits being removed. If she’s a feminist, I’m Jeremy Clarkson”.
The sex industry is dominated by men who profit from the degradation of women and young girls. They’re called pimps. The fact that Arrowsmith seemed to uphold the stereotypes assigned to a marginalised group in the interests of getting ahead in a dominant group, didn’t bode well. If she was a fundamentalist feminist banging on about mad extremist stuff like equal pay or the sexual stereotyping of young girls, she wouldn’t stand a chance in the so called Lib Dems.
Clegg’s confusion between the prostitution of women and feminism has contributed to a culture where women are more likely to be seen as sex objects as opposed to political players. Lord Rennard’s indignance at being suspended for refusing to apologise over sexual harassment claims indicates the extent to which sexism is endemic in the Lib Dem culture. This week another disgraced Lib Dem MP, Mike Hancock, was suspended from the party for alleged sexual misconduct against a female constituent with known mental health problems. In both cases Clegg has been criticised for being slow to act & ineffectual.
The lack of women MP’s in the party, a mere 12% (7 MPs), none of whom hold cabinet positions, is another damning indictment. Clegg’s failure to give some of his greatest female talent, such as Sarah Teather, key roles, will be his undoing. Instead, the hapless Danny Alexander, the right wing, disgraced, banker (David Laws) and the lacklustre, career (as opposed to conviction) politician, Simon Hughes take up seats at the Lib Dem top table.
The fact that one of the most principled and respected talent in the party, Sarah Teather, is stepping down at the next election, because of Clegg’s stance on immigration & welfare, is further evidence that the party has lost it’s way. Those within the party with moral compasses, it seems, are ditched in favour of self serving sycophants. Some say women need to toughen up & play the game. I disagree. As Alison Pearson said in The Telegraph this week, “It’s the game, not women, that needs to change”.
Sunday, 19 January 2014
South Sudan Must Not Deflect from the Invisible Genocide in Darfur
* The below was published in today's Independent on Sunday under a different title.
Remember Darfur? It’s a country the size of France in the Western region of Sudan. In the last decade an estimated 500,000 civilians have been slaughtered with some 4 million forced into refugee camps.
Despite Sudan’s President, Al Bashir, being indicted by The Hague for crimes against humanity, the UN continues to treat this despot with deference. Despite their strategy of appeasement being proven to prolong the agony of Darfuri and Southerners alike, there has been no change in tack at UN HQ.
Those of us who have been involved in Sudan for a number of years will know that the ongoing violence in the South (it never stopped, the media just got bored) is the legacy of the botched Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005. After 20 years and an estimated 2 million killed, President Bashir was forced to concede the South’s right to self rule. The cost of so called peace in the South though, was silence on the oil rich region of Darfur.
This theory was confirmed by an Amnesty International representative. When I asked why Darfur seemed to be absent from their agenda, I was told that the UN had issued warnings to NGOs to be silent on Darfur. Why? So as not to upset Bashir, therein risking the derailment of the CPA. To which I replied, “How can a human rights organisation agree to turn a blind eye to genocide in one part of the country in order to secure a band aid peace agreement in another”? I never did get a reply.
The strategy was fundamentally, and fatally, flawed from the start. History tells us that you don’t do deals with despots. The cessation of the genocidal campaign in Darfur should have been one of the conditions of the CPA.
The truth is that the CPA was ill conceived and bereft of detail (in terms of land ownership involving coveted oil, infrastructure and constitution). Alas, as everyone (except UN diplomats) knows, the devil is in the detail and the devil has been reeking havoc in the region ever since.
Last month Aicha Elbasri, a former spokesperson for the UN/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) told the Dutch Newspaper Trouw of her dismay at the “lies” UNAMID tells about itself. She expressed frustration at the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon’s, willingness to perpetuate what she described as an inherent misrepresentation of the reality on the ground.
According to the renowned US academic Eric Reeves, who has spent 14 years as a Sudan researcher and analyst and has testified before congress, from the beginning of 2011 to May 2012, there were 100 eye witness accounts of aerial attacks on civilians in Darfur. Ban Ki-Moon’s UNAMID report documented 2. Despite rape and sexual violence against girls and women being systematically used as a weapon of war in Darfur, the epidemic is air brushed out of Ban Ki-moon’s report. Car jacking and kidnapping is diligently recorded but rape, known to be a sensitive issue with Bashir, is shamefully ignored.
In 2005 I attended a cross party International Development Committee hearing on Darfur. Listening to Dr Kapila, a previous UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in the region, give evidence, I was moved to tears.
Despite his position of power, Dr Kapila’s absolute impotence resonated with me when he said, To me, the greatest regret to my dying day will be that we failed in Darfur. He told the committee that UN member states, including Britain, had exerted pressure on him to downplay the severity of the Darfur crisis, which he believed (since proven) amounted to genocide. When he refused to be silent, he was forced out of his job.
In order to understand the current crisis in the South, we must consider Sudan as a whole, as opposed to isolated regions and “complex ethnic tensions”. The elephant in the room, that the UN (which some Sudanese officials believe to be controlled by the US) refuses to address, is President Bashir. President Obama’s political sensitivity at being seen as anti- Muslim in the wake of Iraq and Afghanistan, takes precedence, it seems, over any moral obligation to the black African victims of genocide.
Before Salva Kiir took over as (democratically elected) President of South Sudan almost 3 years ago, the country had been pulverised by 2 decades of war. It bore the scars, physical and psychological, of its brutal battles. The task ahead of Kiir was mammoth and in order to succeed he needed as much support from the International Community as possible. Since secession Kiir has been plagued by attacks from his neighbouring tyrant, Bashir. None of which have been condemned by the UN.
My contacts on the ground, one of whom was involved in all the previous peace talks in Darfur are certain that Bashir is one of the architects behind rebel leader (previously Kiir’s Vice President) Machar's attempted coup. Yet another bid to destabilise the South whilst publicly claiming to support Kiir.
Having briefed David Cameron’s office ahead of a visit to Darfur in 2006, he returned protesting, This is ethnic cleansing and we cannot remain silent in the face of this horror.
Yet, with the reins of power firmly in his grip, Cameron’s righteous words evaporated into the ether, obliterating any vestiges of hope that sustained the souls of the persecuted. Not only had they been abandoned by those who promised to protect them, their cowardice has fuelled the genocidal campaign.
While the media, rightly documents the spiralling events in South Sudan, the world’s eyes are diverted, yet again from the very same, and worse, suffering, in Darfur.
Remember Darfur? It’s a country the size of France in the Western region of Sudan. In the last decade an estimated 500,000 civilians have been slaughtered with some 4 million forced into refugee camps.
Despite Sudan’s President, Al Bashir, being indicted by The Hague for crimes against humanity, the UN continues to treat this despot with deference. Despite their strategy of appeasement being proven to prolong the agony of Darfuri and Southerners alike, there has been no change in tack at UN HQ.
Those of us who have been involved in Sudan for a number of years will know that the ongoing violence in the South (it never stopped, the media just got bored) is the legacy of the botched Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005. After 20 years and an estimated 2 million killed, President Bashir was forced to concede the South’s right to self rule. The cost of so called peace in the South though, was silence on the oil rich region of Darfur.
This theory was confirmed by an Amnesty International representative. When I asked why Darfur seemed to be absent from their agenda, I was told that the UN had issued warnings to NGOs to be silent on Darfur. Why? So as not to upset Bashir, therein risking the derailment of the CPA. To which I replied, “How can a human rights organisation agree to turn a blind eye to genocide in one part of the country in order to secure a band aid peace agreement in another”? I never did get a reply.
The strategy was fundamentally, and fatally, flawed from the start. History tells us that you don’t do deals with despots. The cessation of the genocidal campaign in Darfur should have been one of the conditions of the CPA.
The truth is that the CPA was ill conceived and bereft of detail (in terms of land ownership involving coveted oil, infrastructure and constitution). Alas, as everyone (except UN diplomats) knows, the devil is in the detail and the devil has been reeking havoc in the region ever since.
Last month Aicha Elbasri, a former spokesperson for the UN/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) told the Dutch Newspaper Trouw of her dismay at the “lies” UNAMID tells about itself. She expressed frustration at the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon’s, willingness to perpetuate what she described as an inherent misrepresentation of the reality on the ground.
According to the renowned US academic Eric Reeves, who has spent 14 years as a Sudan researcher and analyst and has testified before congress, from the beginning of 2011 to May 2012, there were 100 eye witness accounts of aerial attacks on civilians in Darfur. Ban Ki-Moon’s UNAMID report documented 2. Despite rape and sexual violence against girls and women being systematically used as a weapon of war in Darfur, the epidemic is air brushed out of Ban Ki-moon’s report. Car jacking and kidnapping is diligently recorded but rape, known to be a sensitive issue with Bashir, is shamefully ignored.
In 2005 I attended a cross party International Development Committee hearing on Darfur. Listening to Dr Kapila, a previous UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in the region, give evidence, I was moved to tears.
Despite his position of power, Dr Kapila’s absolute impotence resonated with me when he said, To me, the greatest regret to my dying day will be that we failed in Darfur. He told the committee that UN member states, including Britain, had exerted pressure on him to downplay the severity of the Darfur crisis, which he believed (since proven) amounted to genocide. When he refused to be silent, he was forced out of his job.
In order to understand the current crisis in the South, we must consider Sudan as a whole, as opposed to isolated regions and “complex ethnic tensions”. The elephant in the room, that the UN (which some Sudanese officials believe to be controlled by the US) refuses to address, is President Bashir. President Obama’s political sensitivity at being seen as anti- Muslim in the wake of Iraq and Afghanistan, takes precedence, it seems, over any moral obligation to the black African victims of genocide.
Before Salva Kiir took over as (democratically elected) President of South Sudan almost 3 years ago, the country had been pulverised by 2 decades of war. It bore the scars, physical and psychological, of its brutal battles. The task ahead of Kiir was mammoth and in order to succeed he needed as much support from the International Community as possible. Since secession Kiir has been plagued by attacks from his neighbouring tyrant, Bashir. None of which have been condemned by the UN.
My contacts on the ground, one of whom was involved in all the previous peace talks in Darfur are certain that Bashir is one of the architects behind rebel leader (previously Kiir’s Vice President) Machar's attempted coup. Yet another bid to destabilise the South whilst publicly claiming to support Kiir.
Having briefed David Cameron’s office ahead of a visit to Darfur in 2006, he returned protesting, This is ethnic cleansing and we cannot remain silent in the face of this horror.
Yet, with the reins of power firmly in his grip, Cameron’s righteous words evaporated into the ether, obliterating any vestiges of hope that sustained the souls of the persecuted. Not only had they been abandoned by those who promised to protect them, their cowardice has fuelled the genocidal campaign.
While the media, rightly documents the spiralling events in South Sudan, the world’s eyes are diverted, yet again from the very same, and worse, suffering, in Darfur.
Friday, 10 January 2014
The Day Jesus Came into my Life: Part 2
* Scroll down to see Part 1 first (otherwise this will make no sense..)
In a trance like state I took a seat as near to the elderly gentleman as I could. “You can’t just get on a bus without paying” shouted the cantankerous bus driver. “Im sorry”, I said. “I don’t know where I’m going”. I looked at the kind man who said “you’re getting off at the next stop”. Having paid, I sat down in silence adjacent to my good Smaratin & after a few moments said, “You do know where I’m going”? He nodded sagely. “You know it’s an hour & a half round trip for you”? He nodded again before phoning his wife & asking her to take the car out of the garage. He proffered no explanation. It’s as if she was expecting me too.
We took the short walk from the bus stop to Mike’s house where I briefly met his wife. I started to explain my predicament & how Mike had saved the day but she just smiled serenely as though she was in on the whole thing. Once in the car & on our way, after thanking Mike for the umpteenth time, I said, “I know this may sound odd, but it feels like you & your wife were somehow expecting me? To which he replied, with a mischievous grin & a twinkle in his eye, “We were!”.
Mike explained that he & his wife, who are devout Christians, prayed over breakfast that morning & asked God/Jesus to send someone into their lives to help today. He said when I got on the bus in need of help, he knew it was me. Even I, a non Christian, was struck by the serendipitous sequence of events that led to our chance encounter. Mike wasn’t having any of it. It was meant to be. I agreed but whereas Mike believed it was the work of god, I believe it was fate. A spiritual, as opposed to religious, destiny. I promised I would at least think about the significance of this & I certainly have. Although Mike will no doubt be disappointed that I didn’t convert to Christianity, I was touched by his humanity & unconditional kindness.
Mike was a retired police officer from London. He became a Christian during the war and has remained devoted ever since. He & his wife have always reserved a bed in their home, “the lord’s bed”, for anyone who might need it. He told me tales of working the beat in Brixton, years ago, & coming across young girls abandoned at train stations & of others who took a wrong turn in life & ended up sleeping rough. With 2 small daughters of his own, Mike, wherever possible, would offer these young women some food & a bed in his family home until social services could either contact their family or find a more long term solution.
I asked if Mike ever worried for the safety of his children, taking random strangers into their house. He admitted that his job served as a useful deterrent, “Who’s going to rob a copper”?
“Weren’t you concerned about allegations, I mean, being accused of…”, I was struggling with this one. “Was it allowed, back then, for police officers to offer stranded girls beds for the night”? It wasn’t, & still isn’t allowed, but he risked his job for the well being of others “in the lord’s name”.
I’m glad it’s not allowed. I’ve worked in child protection so I know how easily less scrupulous colleagues could abuse their position of power to exploit vulnerable young girls and boys. At the same time I’m glad that people like Mike exist. People who are prepared to risk their jobs, reputations & their lives for the wellbeing of others.
Mike, for me, is the personification of Jesus. He lives & breathes his faith & I admire & respect that, as I would any individual who has a moral compass, irrespective of religion, even though it’s pointing in the opposite direction to mine. The problem is, I know lots of Christians who aren’t like Mike. People who go to church yet concomitantly worship at the alter of hate, avarice & prejudice. If more so called Christians did embody their faith, in the way that Mike & his wife do, I might be tempted. In reality, he’s one in a million & I had the privilege of meeting him.
He has made me take stock of my life & how much (or little) time I make for others. Yes, I’ve always got a smile for strangers, will help the person struggling with their pram up the steps & I volunteer some time to human rights campaigns, but there’s lots more I can, & should, do. There are things I’ve started to do since meeting Mike which, I hope, would make him feel that his time, energy & kindness wasn’t wasted on me. Under the radar things that are between me & the individuals concerned. Giving the time of day, to complete strangers, for the sake of it, is the most precious gift you can give. Mike, reminded me of that.
Contributing to food banks, if possible, helps but there are lots of things we can do that cost nothing. A kind word & a helping hand can go a long way in a world where we’ve become increasingly hardened & indifferent to the plight of others.
As for the stand off with my 6 year old (outside the food bank on Christmas Eve), I persuaded him to part with the coveted toy. When I say “persuaded”, I bribed him with sausage & chips in the local pub. What? I never claimed to be a perfect parent.
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
The Day Jesus Came into my Life: Part 1
Having a stand off with my 6 year old, outside the local food bank, wasn’t quite how I envisaged Christmas Eve. It had been brewing since before we left the house. He was having second thoughts about donating some of his toys, which were thrown in (by me) to make the box of food we had prepared look more joyous.
When I say “donated”, it was more a case of arm wrestling said child to the ground & when that failed (he eats his greens), good old fashioned emotional blackmail. “Think of all those children whose parents can’t afford to buy them toys this Christmas. Don’t you want them to have a soft toy to cuddle when they lie hungry & cold, as a direct result of savage government cuts, in bed? And, you’ve never even played with this one (holding up exhibit A)”. He thinks for a moment & replies, “Yes, I want them to have toys to cuddle but not mine & by the way I did play with that toy once when I was 5 & by the way, you said Santa brings presents to ALL children so it doesn’t matter if their parents can’t afford to buy them any does it?”. He’ll either grow up to be a prosecution lawyer or a serial killer.
In child development terms, he’s still at the id stage (world revolves around them) so guilt trips are futile. Realising this, I invoked straight forward blackmail (“Santa will be soooo disappointed with you if you don’t give those toys that you don’t play with anyway to less fortunate children”) to induce him into parting with the disputed toy & others, as well as a brand new designer outfit, bought by his guardian (& my, so called, best friend) on the basis that, “she only buys you boutique outfits to wind me up (she has never forgiven me for producing my library card when I was 5 & telling her it was “a licence to kill”).
It was a chance encounter with a complete stranger, days earlier that touched me so profoundly that I felt I had to raise my game this Christmas.
Being a one car family in a rural area where public transport is practically non existent, can be tricky. Having finished a hospital appointment early, I had a 3 hour wait for the next (& last) bus to take me the 45 minute journey home. Despite the torrential rain, I got to the bus stop 30 minutes early, just in case. When the bus arrived, on time, it sped right past leaving me standing there with my arm out & mouth open. Realising that was the last bus, I chased after it, waving my arms like a maniac, hoping I’d catch it up at the traffic lights. I didn’t. I arrived sodden & forlorn at the next bus stop & without thinking hailed the next bus down, even though I knew it wouldn’t get me home.
I jumped on &, still panting, blurted out that I’d just missed my last bus & asked the driver if this bus was by any chance taking the same route, at least part of the way, so that we could catch it up & I’d be able to get home in time to put the crib up for my little boy like I promised.
The crib was made by my father (complete with original straw on the roof) for us when we were children. It’s the only thing I wanted when he died, at Christmas time, a couple of years ago. It was our first Christmas to have the crib & I wanted to mark the occasion by passing on stories about my childhood Christmases, which centred around this crib, and my much adored father & son’s grandfather. I realised later just how emotional I felt about the prospects of missing this event & disappointing my son.
I don’t actually remember saying “help” but apparently it featured somewhere in my opening monologue to the captive, if reluctant, audience of passengers on the number 1 something, the destination of which I never did discover. Mike (as I came to know him), who was sitting behind the grumpy bus driver, for whom empathy did not feature in his job description (who can blame him, he probably gets paid sod all, works longer than his required hours for no extra pay & if he complains gets threatened with redundancy. Either that or he’s a gob shite) assured me later that the word “help” was uttered by me & that was his call to action (more on this in part 2). “Get on the bus”, he said, at once calmly and authoritatively, “I’ll get you home”. I looked at the stranger’s serene, knowing, advanced in years face, which indicated no compulsion to qualify his statement, & I complied. I had no idea who he was or where I was going but I somehow knew, he would get me home safely.
Log in on Friday for Part 2, where you can find out more about Mike, my encounter with Jesus & how the stand off with my 6 year old outside the food bank ended. It’s not that I’m gratuitously building an air of suspense to this story, I’ve just run out of time. Hasta Friday.
When I say “donated”, it was more a case of arm wrestling said child to the ground & when that failed (he eats his greens), good old fashioned emotional blackmail. “Think of all those children whose parents can’t afford to buy them toys this Christmas. Don’t you want them to have a soft toy to cuddle when they lie hungry & cold, as a direct result of savage government cuts, in bed? And, you’ve never even played with this one (holding up exhibit A)”. He thinks for a moment & replies, “Yes, I want them to have toys to cuddle but not mine & by the way I did play with that toy once when I was 5 & by the way, you said Santa brings presents to ALL children so it doesn’t matter if their parents can’t afford to buy them any does it?”. He’ll either grow up to be a prosecution lawyer or a serial killer.
In child development terms, he’s still at the id stage (world revolves around them) so guilt trips are futile. Realising this, I invoked straight forward blackmail (“Santa will be soooo disappointed with you if you don’t give those toys that you don’t play with anyway to less fortunate children”) to induce him into parting with the disputed toy & others, as well as a brand new designer outfit, bought by his guardian (& my, so called, best friend) on the basis that, “she only buys you boutique outfits to wind me up (she has never forgiven me for producing my library card when I was 5 & telling her it was “a licence to kill”).
It was a chance encounter with a complete stranger, days earlier that touched me so profoundly that I felt I had to raise my game this Christmas.
Being a one car family in a rural area where public transport is practically non existent, can be tricky. Having finished a hospital appointment early, I had a 3 hour wait for the next (& last) bus to take me the 45 minute journey home. Despite the torrential rain, I got to the bus stop 30 minutes early, just in case. When the bus arrived, on time, it sped right past leaving me standing there with my arm out & mouth open. Realising that was the last bus, I chased after it, waving my arms like a maniac, hoping I’d catch it up at the traffic lights. I didn’t. I arrived sodden & forlorn at the next bus stop & without thinking hailed the next bus down, even though I knew it wouldn’t get me home.
I jumped on &, still panting, blurted out that I’d just missed my last bus & asked the driver if this bus was by any chance taking the same route, at least part of the way, so that we could catch it up & I’d be able to get home in time to put the crib up for my little boy like I promised.
The crib was made by my father (complete with original straw on the roof) for us when we were children. It’s the only thing I wanted when he died, at Christmas time, a couple of years ago. It was our first Christmas to have the crib & I wanted to mark the occasion by passing on stories about my childhood Christmases, which centred around this crib, and my much adored father & son’s grandfather. I realised later just how emotional I felt about the prospects of missing this event & disappointing my son.
I don’t actually remember saying “help” but apparently it featured somewhere in my opening monologue to the captive, if reluctant, audience of passengers on the number 1 something, the destination of which I never did discover. Mike (as I came to know him), who was sitting behind the grumpy bus driver, for whom empathy did not feature in his job description (who can blame him, he probably gets paid sod all, works longer than his required hours for no extra pay & if he complains gets threatened with redundancy. Either that or he’s a gob shite) assured me later that the word “help” was uttered by me & that was his call to action (more on this in part 2). “Get on the bus”, he said, at once calmly and authoritatively, “I’ll get you home”. I looked at the stranger’s serene, knowing, advanced in years face, which indicated no compulsion to qualify his statement, & I complied. I had no idea who he was or where I was going but I somehow knew, he would get me home safely.
Log in on Friday for Part 2, where you can find out more about Mike, my encounter with Jesus & how the stand off with my 6 year old outside the food bank ended. It’s not that I’m gratuitously building an air of suspense to this story, I’ve just run out of time. Hasta Friday.
Monday, 23 December 2013
Wishing You a Gadget, Internet & Guilt Free Christmas!
As someone who lives & breathes ethics, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. In any given week there are innumerable ethical transgressions reported in the press (not to mention those that I witness in my work/life). Choosing which one to write about, or rather, to omit, is an ethical minefield in itself. The guilt of an Irish (ex catholic) should never be underestimated.
Sometime during middle childhood, when most children's super-ego (a Freudism), or consciences to you & me, are developing, Irish children are rounded up & taken to an undisclosed destination. Whilst heavily sedated (Guinness, Poitin, or in my case, home brew) an incendiary device is implanted in their heads. Said thingymajig is programmed to detonate at the mere thought of breaking any of the 10-150 commandments (my parents added a few, such as “thou shalt not forget your mother's birthday or wear skirts above the knee, especially whilst donning a pair of patent shoes - they reflect your knickers). Thinking about kissing someone of the opposite, or worse, same sex, before the age of 21 has been known to result in spontaneous detonation.
I’m riven, daily, by an irrational fear that I will self destruct if I press the wrong ethical button. In the same week that Nelson Mandela died, other stories were vying for my attention. It was International Violence against Women Week, Amazon was accused of potentially exploitative employee practices & the BBC’s Panorama exposed the Military Reaction Force (MRF), alleged to be an unofficial wing of the British army which operated in Northern Ireland at the height of “the troubles”. The BBC reported that the MRF gunned down unarmed, innocent catholic civilians. Shooting & killing with impunity.
Inevitably, I choose one story and wait for the hook for the others to re-emerge. The guilt I often experience for neglecting the others can be all consuming.
The editor of the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington, a woman who knows all about tough choices, has announced she’s unplugging for christmas. She’s urging others to join her. For one week she won’t be accessing email or social networking sites or using her mobile phone. That’s brave for a journalist, let alone the editor a respected international, online news outlet.
Yet, if we never extricate ourselves from the constant noise that pollutes our lives with internet connection, there’s a danger our minds & souls will become scrambled & full of spam. There’s a thin line between technology being an enabler & a catatonia inducing disabler. An energy vampire sucking the life blood out of us. Distracting us from the things that really matter. Family, friends, having time to stand & stare. To think, to breathe & to be present in the moment.
I started this blog in April as an outlet to publish some of my work that the malestream media considers too “controversial” to print. I didn’t think anyone would actually read it, though obviously I hoped they would. I’ve been overwhelmed by the reaction, which was pretty much instant. I have followers all over the world & am often inundated with responses to issues I tackle on the blog.
Whilst I’m humbled by the response this blog has generated, it brings with it a certain pressure. To generate regular content that is topical & insightful & to be constantly available.
In order to do my family, friends, you (my readers) & myself justice, I need to recharge my batteries from time to time &, to do that, I need an internet detox (otherwise I'm a gadget free gal). I’m going to accept Arianna Huffington’s challenge by unplugging today until January 8th. As I write I’m racked by guilt. The unfolding events in South Sudan serve to undermine my resolve. Just one more story before I press the off button. But the reality is, I’ve said it all before. The piece I wrote on South Sudan last year predicted the descent into anarchy if the UN continued to neglect its International human rights obligations (see press section of my website www.tessfinchlees.com) for the piece I wrote in The Independent, “South Sudan Needs Our Help, Not our Silence”.
From today, I’m going to trade my computer in for snakes and ladders, charades, baking biscuits (something I did for the first time yesterday!), foraging and taking “midnight” walks (anytime after dark) with my 6 year old, whereupon we will rendezvous, as per, with Mr Badger in the woods. I’ll be swapping Newsnight & The Moral Maze for repeats of The Wizard of Oz, The Snowman & The Railway Children. I’m going to unashamedly bask in the warmth & laughter of the people in my life that inspire me & make me want to be a better person.
Whether or not you join the burgeoning band of unpluggers, wherever you are in the world, I wish you a gadget, internet & guilt free christmas. Peace & joy will surely follow…
Sometime during middle childhood, when most children's super-ego (a Freudism), or consciences to you & me, are developing, Irish children are rounded up & taken to an undisclosed destination. Whilst heavily sedated (Guinness, Poitin, or in my case, home brew) an incendiary device is implanted in their heads. Said thingymajig is programmed to detonate at the mere thought of breaking any of the 10-150 commandments (my parents added a few, such as “thou shalt not forget your mother's birthday or wear skirts above the knee, especially whilst donning a pair of patent shoes - they reflect your knickers). Thinking about kissing someone of the opposite, or worse, same sex, before the age of 21 has been known to result in spontaneous detonation.
I’m riven, daily, by an irrational fear that I will self destruct if I press the wrong ethical button. In the same week that Nelson Mandela died, other stories were vying for my attention. It was International Violence against Women Week, Amazon was accused of potentially exploitative employee practices & the BBC’s Panorama exposed the Military Reaction Force (MRF), alleged to be an unofficial wing of the British army which operated in Northern Ireland at the height of “the troubles”. The BBC reported that the MRF gunned down unarmed, innocent catholic civilians. Shooting & killing with impunity.
Inevitably, I choose one story and wait for the hook for the others to re-emerge. The guilt I often experience for neglecting the others can be all consuming.
The editor of the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington, a woman who knows all about tough choices, has announced she’s unplugging for christmas. She’s urging others to join her. For one week she won’t be accessing email or social networking sites or using her mobile phone. That’s brave for a journalist, let alone the editor a respected international, online news outlet.
Yet, if we never extricate ourselves from the constant noise that pollutes our lives with internet connection, there’s a danger our minds & souls will become scrambled & full of spam. There’s a thin line between technology being an enabler & a catatonia inducing disabler. An energy vampire sucking the life blood out of us. Distracting us from the things that really matter. Family, friends, having time to stand & stare. To think, to breathe & to be present in the moment.
I started this blog in April as an outlet to publish some of my work that the malestream media considers too “controversial” to print. I didn’t think anyone would actually read it, though obviously I hoped they would. I’ve been overwhelmed by the reaction, which was pretty much instant. I have followers all over the world & am often inundated with responses to issues I tackle on the blog.
Whilst I’m humbled by the response this blog has generated, it brings with it a certain pressure. To generate regular content that is topical & insightful & to be constantly available.
In order to do my family, friends, you (my readers) & myself justice, I need to recharge my batteries from time to time &, to do that, I need an internet detox (otherwise I'm a gadget free gal). I’m going to accept Arianna Huffington’s challenge by unplugging today until January 8th. As I write I’m racked by guilt. The unfolding events in South Sudan serve to undermine my resolve. Just one more story before I press the off button. But the reality is, I’ve said it all before. The piece I wrote on South Sudan last year predicted the descent into anarchy if the UN continued to neglect its International human rights obligations (see press section of my website www.tessfinchlees.com) for the piece I wrote in The Independent, “South Sudan Needs Our Help, Not our Silence”.
From today, I’m going to trade my computer in for snakes and ladders, charades, baking biscuits (something I did for the first time yesterday!), foraging and taking “midnight” walks (anytime after dark) with my 6 year old, whereupon we will rendezvous, as per, with Mr Badger in the woods. I’ll be swapping Newsnight & The Moral Maze for repeats of The Wizard of Oz, The Snowman & The Railway Children. I’m going to unashamedly bask in the warmth & laughter of the people in my life that inspire me & make me want to be a better person.
Whether or not you join the burgeoning band of unpluggers, wherever you are in the world, I wish you a gadget, internet & guilt free christmas. Peace & joy will surely follow…
Friday, 13 December 2013
Nelson Mandela's Death Leaves a Vacuum of Moral Leadership
A edited version of this posting was published in the Huffington Post.
Margaret Thatcher’s steadfast dismissal of Nelson Mandela as a terrorist exposed one of her (many) great shortcomings. Her failure to engage with the psychology of oppression. Be it the ANC, the IRA or the PLO, they had to be beaten. Mandela, on the other hand, understood that, when generational injustice prevails and in the absence of hope, otherwise peaceable people will fight back.
As world leaders queue up to pay tribute to Mandela, the absence of successors of his caliber is plain. We have lost the only world leader that was driven by principle, not privilege, morality, not political expedience and compassion for the oppressed, not deference for the oppressors. There is a situation vacant for visionary, ethical leadership but no obvious candidates in the wings.
Tony Blair started off with such potential. His role brokering peace in Northern Ireland is irrefutable, though the real (unsung) hero of the day was Mo Mowlam. But his achievements in Northern Ireland were soon to be overshadowed by his failings in Iraq and Palestine. His empathy for the historical injustices visited upon Catholics in Northern Ireland did not extend to oppressed Muslims throughout the world.
The ongoing trial of the Woolwich killings should serve to shine a spotlight on the psychology of oppression and the legacy it bequeaths. My heart goes out to the family of Lee Rigby who was brutally murdered in May and my thoughts are with them as they’re forced to relive his last moments.
When the story first broke it was hijacked by Islamaphobic media coverage sparking revenge attacks on Mosques and Muslims throughout the country. The media’s propensity to conflate Islam with terrorism is not new. Shortly after 7/11 I was running a seminar when a participant arrived late. He had been jumped on by a gang of “skin heads” who shouted Islamaphobic obscenities while beating the crap out of him, ending with “Go home Paki”.
He was a cockney atheist but he was flaunting a deep tan at the time, which, under the circumstances (media whipping up hatred of any one “foreign looking”), was foolhardy. Tanning booths in Dale Winton’s neighbourhood were on the brink of bankruptcy for a fortnight.
Blair and Bush lost the plot, pursuing their deluded "war on terror" that effectively equated to an indefensible war on Muslims. They acted in defiance of public outrage and as a consequence, I believe, they systematically destabilised the world.
Foreign policy that sanctions torture abroad, such as Guantanamo, will always come back to bite. There is no greater recruiting sergeant for terrorism than torturing innocent civilians. We know from history that if we oppress and deny people their right to self determination, abuse them and deprive them recourse to justice, they will eventually retaliate.
Austerity measures (a euphemism for stealing from the poor to give to the rich) seems to escape media scrutiny in all this. Even before the recession, minority ethnic young men, such as the Woolwich defendants, were more likely to be excluded from school and be over represented in prison, social and psychiatric services, and twice as likely to be unemployed as their white counterparts. A recent report showed that, although this has been known for decades, nothing has been done to stem the crisis.
A generation of young people are faced with the prospect of long term unemployment, alienation and anger. Inequality and injustice on this scale is a recipe for social unrest. Terrorists are filling a position made vacant in the minds of some of our most disaffected young men by a society that will bail out miscreants in suits but starve our youth of investment, care and any hope for the future. Nelson Mandela inherently knew what his contemporaries fail to grasp, if you have nothing, there’s nothing left to lose.
Margaret Thatcher’s steadfast dismissal of Nelson Mandela as a terrorist exposed one of her (many) great shortcomings. Her failure to engage with the psychology of oppression. Be it the ANC, the IRA or the PLO, they had to be beaten. Mandela, on the other hand, understood that, when generational injustice prevails and in the absence of hope, otherwise peaceable people will fight back.
As world leaders queue up to pay tribute to Mandela, the absence of successors of his caliber is plain. We have lost the only world leader that was driven by principle, not privilege, morality, not political expedience and compassion for the oppressed, not deference for the oppressors. There is a situation vacant for visionary, ethical leadership but no obvious candidates in the wings.
Tony Blair started off with such potential. His role brokering peace in Northern Ireland is irrefutable, though the real (unsung) hero of the day was Mo Mowlam. But his achievements in Northern Ireland were soon to be overshadowed by his failings in Iraq and Palestine. His empathy for the historical injustices visited upon Catholics in Northern Ireland did not extend to oppressed Muslims throughout the world.
The ongoing trial of the Woolwich killings should serve to shine a spotlight on the psychology of oppression and the legacy it bequeaths. My heart goes out to the family of Lee Rigby who was brutally murdered in May and my thoughts are with them as they’re forced to relive his last moments.
When the story first broke it was hijacked by Islamaphobic media coverage sparking revenge attacks on Mosques and Muslims throughout the country. The media’s propensity to conflate Islam with terrorism is not new. Shortly after 7/11 I was running a seminar when a participant arrived late. He had been jumped on by a gang of “skin heads” who shouted Islamaphobic obscenities while beating the crap out of him, ending with “Go home Paki”.
He was a cockney atheist but he was flaunting a deep tan at the time, which, under the circumstances (media whipping up hatred of any one “foreign looking”), was foolhardy. Tanning booths in Dale Winton’s neighbourhood were on the brink of bankruptcy for a fortnight.
Blair and Bush lost the plot, pursuing their deluded "war on terror" that effectively equated to an indefensible war on Muslims. They acted in defiance of public outrage and as a consequence, I believe, they systematically destabilised the world.
Foreign policy that sanctions torture abroad, such as Guantanamo, will always come back to bite. There is no greater recruiting sergeant for terrorism than torturing innocent civilians. We know from history that if we oppress and deny people their right to self determination, abuse them and deprive them recourse to justice, they will eventually retaliate.
Austerity measures (a euphemism for stealing from the poor to give to the rich) seems to escape media scrutiny in all this. Even before the recession, minority ethnic young men, such as the Woolwich defendants, were more likely to be excluded from school and be over represented in prison, social and psychiatric services, and twice as likely to be unemployed as their white counterparts. A recent report showed that, although this has been known for decades, nothing has been done to stem the crisis.
A generation of young people are faced with the prospect of long term unemployment, alienation and anger. Inequality and injustice on this scale is a recipe for social unrest. Terrorists are filling a position made vacant in the minds of some of our most disaffected young men by a society that will bail out miscreants in suits but starve our youth of investment, care and any hope for the future. Nelson Mandela inherently knew what his contemporaries fail to grasp, if you have nothing, there’s nothing left to lose.
Wednesday, 4 December 2013
Temporarily Out of Action
No-one is born better or worse than any-one else. What makes us better is not status, wealth, power or titles. It's how we treat other people. That's what I told the doctor earlier this week who berated me for dragging her into hospital (she was on-call) to examine me.
The fact that my GP had dispatched me there immediately on grounds of having a potentially dangerous eye infection ("& one doesn't mess with the eyes Tess", he said when I moaned "Can't you just hit me with some heavy duty narcotics & send me home in a taxi?") & that she was merely being asked to do her job (as opposed to contravene the Geneva Convention) failed to stem her flow of righteous indignance.
I have bigger fish to fry & I held my own (even though I was in excrutiating pain) so I wouldn't have taken it any further. Unfortunately for the doctor there were 2 nurses just outside the consult room who heard her rant. One was a senior manager & both are lodging a complaint. I protested that although they couldn't hear me I had dealt with it. They pointed out, quite rightly that, if a nurse spoke like that to a patient they would be sacked on the spot. The doctor deserves feedback but not a complaint. I hope my argument prevails.
Because this doctor is young, there's time for her to take stock of what her role involves. Treating patients (who have a habit of becoming very ill at the most inconvenient times) with dignity & respect should be paramount. I can hold my own, even when poorly, but as my kindly Mary Seacole (the black Florence nightingale that history forgot) said, "you shouldn't have to". A doctor patient relationship is based on trust. Being told off before you even begin doesn't inspire confidence & crucial information can be lost because you just don't want to engage with this scary, angry ogre.
This doctor was in a position of power & she abused it. The incident didn't traumatise me (though it wasn't pleasant), for others her actions could have had devastating emotional, psychological anf physical consequences. On behalf of other vulnerable patients with more serious illnesses, I will offer some constructive feedback. We all have bad days but there's a line that must never be crossed, whatever your profession, but never moreso when vulnerable people put their lives in your hands.
Forgive any typos or ramblings. I've got blurred vision & am heavily medicated. I've been banned from using the computer, driving heavy machinery or handling delicate/valuable objects for the next week at least. Until then my friends.
Tess
The fact that my GP had dispatched me there immediately on grounds of having a potentially dangerous eye infection ("& one doesn't mess with the eyes Tess", he said when I moaned "Can't you just hit me with some heavy duty narcotics & send me home in a taxi?") & that she was merely being asked to do her job (as opposed to contravene the Geneva Convention) failed to stem her flow of righteous indignance.
I have bigger fish to fry & I held my own (even though I was in excrutiating pain) so I wouldn't have taken it any further. Unfortunately for the doctor there were 2 nurses just outside the consult room who heard her rant. One was a senior manager & both are lodging a complaint. I protested that although they couldn't hear me I had dealt with it. They pointed out, quite rightly that, if a nurse spoke like that to a patient they would be sacked on the spot. The doctor deserves feedback but not a complaint. I hope my argument prevails.
Because this doctor is young, there's time for her to take stock of what her role involves. Treating patients (who have a habit of becoming very ill at the most inconvenient times) with dignity & respect should be paramount. I can hold my own, even when poorly, but as my kindly Mary Seacole (the black Florence nightingale that history forgot) said, "you shouldn't have to". A doctor patient relationship is based on trust. Being told off before you even begin doesn't inspire confidence & crucial information can be lost because you just don't want to engage with this scary, angry ogre.
This doctor was in a position of power & she abused it. The incident didn't traumatise me (though it wasn't pleasant), for others her actions could have had devastating emotional, psychological anf physical consequences. On behalf of other vulnerable patients with more serious illnesses, I will offer some constructive feedback. We all have bad days but there's a line that must never be crossed, whatever your profession, but never moreso when vulnerable people put their lives in your hands.
Forgive any typos or ramblings. I've got blurred vision & am heavily medicated. I've been banned from using the computer, driving heavy machinery or handling delicate/valuable objects for the next week at least. Until then my friends.
Tess
Saturday, 23 November 2013
Say No to Bullying
Daniel Perrey, Thomas Thompson, Karl Peat, Jessica O’Connell, Hannah Smith, Izzy Dix and Gemma Dimmick.
These are just some of the names of Britain’s children and teenagers who have been driven over the edge by bullying, in the last few months. All took their lives, according to their loved ones, as a result of persistent bullying.
Last week was anti-bullying week, though you’d be forgiven for not knowing. The dearth of media coverage is symptomatic of the extent to which we’ve come to accept this vile contagion as “normal”. Or, in the case of the BBC which, according to the National Union of Journalists, is subject to 140 live bullying investigations, it would be like asking Jimmy Carr to be the spokesperson for “Anti-Tax Avoidance” day.
Ten years ago, I was brought in to roll out a national dignity at work programme for Royal Mail. An investigation confirmed that one of the organisation’s employees, Jermaine Lee, was driven to suicide as a result of relentless racist bullying. His suicide note left no doubt as to the abuse he had endured, even after reporting his ordeal to management, who were accused in the report as being complicit.
As I travelled up & down the country, instructing senior managers in how to embed ethical values and behaviours, I made a point of using Jermaine’s name constantly. Bullying is personal & yet the perpetrators do it by dehumanising their “victims”. They zone in on something about a person that’s different. It can be skin colour, sex, sexuality, age or disability, or it could be an accent, personal style, background or visual appearance. Whatever it is, that person is labelled as “other”, seen as a threat to “us” & therefore, fair game.
Bullying can only happen in cultures that enable it. Often the hallmark of insecure, incompetent leadership. Strong, competent leaders inspire, engage & challenge. Unfortunately, there’s not much of that about. If there was, the global economy wouldn’t be in tatters.
I’ve seen good people make bad decisions as a result of bullying. People keeping their heads down, hoping to hold onto their jobs. In times of recession bullying (along with alcoholism, domestic violence, depression and suicide) increases significantly. This climate of fear (for jobs, family, security) is serially exploited by unscrupulous employers and indeed government.
How else can human beings cut off the gas supply of a family resulting in a baby being hospitalised for lung disease?, how else could Job Centre Plus staff trick claimants (as reported in The Guardian) into being sanctioned (which means losing benefits for 6 months)? How else could a human being evict vulnerable people for not being able to afford the bedroom tax (a government policy which has resulted in at least one reported suicide)? How else could human beings in the ConDem government remain silent when cases of severe malnutrition, resulting in hospitalisation, have doubled on their watch?
Let’s not kid ourselves. Whether it’s someone being sidelined, ganged up on or ridiculed in the work environment, or knowing that vulnerable people in your community are being bullied into fuel poverty, eviction or hospitalised because of hunger & malnutrition. If we stand by & do nothing, we too are complicit.
If it’s in the workplace, speak up on behalf of colleagues being bullied. If its people in your community, or another vulnerable group in society, make a stand, mobilise, take action. As human beings and citizens, we have a responsibility to stand up to the bullies, whether they reside in Westminster, the City or in our own communities.
If anyone reading this is a victim of bullying or knows of anyone that is & needs advice, please do get in touch.
These are just some of the names of Britain’s children and teenagers who have been driven over the edge by bullying, in the last few months. All took their lives, according to their loved ones, as a result of persistent bullying.
Last week was anti-bullying week, though you’d be forgiven for not knowing. The dearth of media coverage is symptomatic of the extent to which we’ve come to accept this vile contagion as “normal”. Or, in the case of the BBC which, according to the National Union of Journalists, is subject to 140 live bullying investigations, it would be like asking Jimmy Carr to be the spokesperson for “Anti-Tax Avoidance” day.
Ten years ago, I was brought in to roll out a national dignity at work programme for Royal Mail. An investigation confirmed that one of the organisation’s employees, Jermaine Lee, was driven to suicide as a result of relentless racist bullying. His suicide note left no doubt as to the abuse he had endured, even after reporting his ordeal to management, who were accused in the report as being complicit.
As I travelled up & down the country, instructing senior managers in how to embed ethical values and behaviours, I made a point of using Jermaine’s name constantly. Bullying is personal & yet the perpetrators do it by dehumanising their “victims”. They zone in on something about a person that’s different. It can be skin colour, sex, sexuality, age or disability, or it could be an accent, personal style, background or visual appearance. Whatever it is, that person is labelled as “other”, seen as a threat to “us” & therefore, fair game.
Bullying can only happen in cultures that enable it. Often the hallmark of insecure, incompetent leadership. Strong, competent leaders inspire, engage & challenge. Unfortunately, there’s not much of that about. If there was, the global economy wouldn’t be in tatters.
I’ve seen good people make bad decisions as a result of bullying. People keeping their heads down, hoping to hold onto their jobs. In times of recession bullying (along with alcoholism, domestic violence, depression and suicide) increases significantly. This climate of fear (for jobs, family, security) is serially exploited by unscrupulous employers and indeed government.
How else can human beings cut off the gas supply of a family resulting in a baby being hospitalised for lung disease?, how else could Job Centre Plus staff trick claimants (as reported in The Guardian) into being sanctioned (which means losing benefits for 6 months)? How else could a human being evict vulnerable people for not being able to afford the bedroom tax (a government policy which has resulted in at least one reported suicide)? How else could human beings in the ConDem government remain silent when cases of severe malnutrition, resulting in hospitalisation, have doubled on their watch?
Let’s not kid ourselves. Whether it’s someone being sidelined, ganged up on or ridiculed in the work environment, or knowing that vulnerable people in your community are being bullied into fuel poverty, eviction or hospitalised because of hunger & malnutrition. If we stand by & do nothing, we too are complicit.
If it’s in the workplace, speak up on behalf of colleagues being bullied. If its people in your community, or another vulnerable group in society, make a stand, mobilise, take action. As human beings and citizens, we have a responsibility to stand up to the bullies, whether they reside in Westminster, the City or in our own communities.
If anyone reading this is a victim of bullying or knows of anyone that is & needs advice, please do get in touch.
Thursday, 14 November 2013
Whether it’s Typhoon Haiyan, Rana Plaza or Rwanda, Why Are Some Victims Deemed More Worthy Than Others?
An edited version of this posting was published in todays Independent.
The Daily Mail headline a couple of days ago read: "Two Americans among 1700 killed in Philippines Typhoon". An estimated two thousand Filipinos have perished but it’s the loss of two Western lives that may trigger the deployment of expensive DNA technology to the region.
Forensic identification is required to identify those bodies that have been destroyed beyond recognition by any other means.
A recent study by Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburgh highlights the human rights incongruity in access to vital DNA technology. Researchers exposed an unofficial, unspoken, global hierarchy, wherein some human remains are deemed more worthy than others when it comes to investing in DNA identification.
The technology was deployed, for example, in Bosnia and in the aftermath of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, but not in Rwanda or Haiti. The authors highlight the fact that, in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, DNA technology was employed to identify victims in Thailand. The area with the highest proportion of Western tourists. Non Western victims in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other areas were not, it seems, deemed worthy of such investment.
The CMU study calls for international structures to be put in place to promote more equal access to forensic identification, ensure their fair and efficient use, and provide uniform protections to participants following large-scale conflict and disaster.
In April the collapse of the Rana Plaza Factory in Bangladesh made international headlines. More than 1,130 workers, mainly women, were killed as a result, some would argue, of corporate manslaughter.
Despite allegations of overcrowding and human rights abuses, the owners of Rana Plaza are unlikely to pay the price. Killing one person in Bangladesh is punishable by hanging. Incarcerating poor workers in a dilapidated building which collapses and causes hundreds of needless deaths however, can be done with impunity.
A few weeks ago Primark announced that it had authorized a second wave of payments to victims and their families. The first installment came to the princely sum of £130 per victim. Those who received the paltry compensation said it ran out within weeks, others say they have received nothing. Matalan, Benetton and Bonmarche were also reportedly operating sweat shops out of Rana Plaza. Apparently these companies have not offered any compensation.
It seems the life of a sweat shop worker is worth even less than the cheap garments over which they tediously toil.
According to Action Aid, six months on, 94% of Rana Plaza victims are still awaiting compensation, 92% of survivors have not gone back to work, with 63% of those reporting physical injuries including amputations, paralysis and severe pain.
Exacerbating the families’ battle for justice is the lack of bodies, which if presented, would trigger their compensation. Although the technology has been made available to identify Rana Plaza victims, problems with incompatible software have plagued the process.
Apart from the obvious emotional implications of this in relation to the grieving process, there are also legal, social and economical ramifications. Death benefits are being withheld on the grounds that the government has not been able to formally identify all the victims.
For the victims of conflict and disaster, the nightmare doesn’t end when the world’s media averts its gaze. For the survivors and the destitute, despairing families of the deceased, the cost of being a third class global citizen is never ending. Human rights are for all, not just those who can afford to buy them.
* The excellent CMU paper cited above was published in "Science Magazine" & was written by Alex London, Lisa Parker & Jay Aronson. A big thanks to CMU's Shilo Rea for making me aware of it.
The Daily Mail headline a couple of days ago read: "Two Americans among 1700 killed in Philippines Typhoon". An estimated two thousand Filipinos have perished but it’s the loss of two Western lives that may trigger the deployment of expensive DNA technology to the region.
Forensic identification is required to identify those bodies that have been destroyed beyond recognition by any other means.
A recent study by Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburgh highlights the human rights incongruity in access to vital DNA technology. Researchers exposed an unofficial, unspoken, global hierarchy, wherein some human remains are deemed more worthy than others when it comes to investing in DNA identification.
The technology was deployed, for example, in Bosnia and in the aftermath of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, but not in Rwanda or Haiti. The authors highlight the fact that, in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, DNA technology was employed to identify victims in Thailand. The area with the highest proportion of Western tourists. Non Western victims in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other areas were not, it seems, deemed worthy of such investment.
The CMU study calls for international structures to be put in place to promote more equal access to forensic identification, ensure their fair and efficient use, and provide uniform protections to participants following large-scale conflict and disaster.
In April the collapse of the Rana Plaza Factory in Bangladesh made international headlines. More than 1,130 workers, mainly women, were killed as a result, some would argue, of corporate manslaughter.
Despite allegations of overcrowding and human rights abuses, the owners of Rana Plaza are unlikely to pay the price. Killing one person in Bangladesh is punishable by hanging. Incarcerating poor workers in a dilapidated building which collapses and causes hundreds of needless deaths however, can be done with impunity.
A few weeks ago Primark announced that it had authorized a second wave of payments to victims and their families. The first installment came to the princely sum of £130 per victim. Those who received the paltry compensation said it ran out within weeks, others say they have received nothing. Matalan, Benetton and Bonmarche were also reportedly operating sweat shops out of Rana Plaza. Apparently these companies have not offered any compensation.
It seems the life of a sweat shop worker is worth even less than the cheap garments over which they tediously toil.
According to Action Aid, six months on, 94% of Rana Plaza victims are still awaiting compensation, 92% of survivors have not gone back to work, with 63% of those reporting physical injuries including amputations, paralysis and severe pain.
Exacerbating the families’ battle for justice is the lack of bodies, which if presented, would trigger their compensation. Although the technology has been made available to identify Rana Plaza victims, problems with incompatible software have plagued the process.
Apart from the obvious emotional implications of this in relation to the grieving process, there are also legal, social and economical ramifications. Death benefits are being withheld on the grounds that the government has not been able to formally identify all the victims.
For the victims of conflict and disaster, the nightmare doesn’t end when the world’s media averts its gaze. For the survivors and the destitute, despairing families of the deceased, the cost of being a third class global citizen is never ending. Human rights are for all, not just those who can afford to buy them.
* The excellent CMU paper cited above was published in "Science Magazine" & was written by Alex London, Lisa Parker & Jay Aronson. A big thanks to CMU's Shilo Rea for making me aware of it.
Friday, 8 November 2013
Britain's Approach to FGM Doesn't Cut it.
This was published in today's Independent.
If a parent cut off their 6 year old daughter’s arm they’d be arrested for child abuse. “Cultural” reasons would not constitute a defence. Yet, girls are having their vaginas mutilated everyday in this country, with impunity.
Anyone (with or without a vagina), watching Channel 4’s documentary about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), will have squirmed in their seats on Wednesday night. That’s the point. Change doesn’t happen in comfort zones. The programme followed the inspired campaign of the Daughters of Eve, many of whom are survivors of FGM.
There were moments of hilarity (the resplendent vagina booth in central London), hope (young British Somali men once defending the “tradition”, denouncing it as barbaric) and, despair. Women recounting graphic details of the cutting process, as well as the emotional and physical scars that are indelible.
It’s estimated that more than 20,000 girls in the UK are at risk of FGM. Despite being classed as a serious criminal offence in the UK since 1985, there have been no prosecutions. This highlights a marked disparity with France where there have been 100. A recent NSPCC survey also revealed that 1 in 6 teachers weren’t aware that FGM is illegal and didn’t consider it to be child abuse.
Nimko Ali, one of the co-founders of Daughters of Eve told me she is bent on changing these statistics. When she was 7 years old she was taken overseas during school holidays to be cut. When she returned she confided in her teacher, who ignored her cry for help.
The FGM campaign is calling for a joined up political approach. They want the police, social workers, teachers and medical practitioners to have mandatory FGM awareness training. For example, in France, hospitals routinely check children admitted from “high risk communities” for FGM and a reporting system is in place. This makes it easier to record and prosecute FGM, which is the ultimate deterrent.
Since making the programme, Nimko has met with Jeremy Hunt. It seems he has committed to putting similar procedures in place here in the UK. Theresa May has made analogous noises at the home office. The pugnacious Michael (the child hater) Gove, however, refuses to make FGM mandatory in child protection. There’s a surprise.
FGM is gender-based violence. It perpetuates inequities between men and women and compromises the health and dignity of its victims. It is also child abuse and illegal. Prosecutions are unlikely to happen without multi agency training. That requires government investment and commitment. Anything less just won’t cut it.
If a parent cut off their 6 year old daughter’s arm they’d be arrested for child abuse. “Cultural” reasons would not constitute a defence. Yet, girls are having their vaginas mutilated everyday in this country, with impunity.
Anyone (with or without a vagina), watching Channel 4’s documentary about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), will have squirmed in their seats on Wednesday night. That’s the point. Change doesn’t happen in comfort zones. The programme followed the inspired campaign of the Daughters of Eve, many of whom are survivors of FGM.
There were moments of hilarity (the resplendent vagina booth in central London), hope (young British Somali men once defending the “tradition”, denouncing it as barbaric) and, despair. Women recounting graphic details of the cutting process, as well as the emotional and physical scars that are indelible.
It’s estimated that more than 20,000 girls in the UK are at risk of FGM. Despite being classed as a serious criminal offence in the UK since 1985, there have been no prosecutions. This highlights a marked disparity with France where there have been 100. A recent NSPCC survey also revealed that 1 in 6 teachers weren’t aware that FGM is illegal and didn’t consider it to be child abuse.
Nimko Ali, one of the co-founders of Daughters of Eve told me she is bent on changing these statistics. When she was 7 years old she was taken overseas during school holidays to be cut. When she returned she confided in her teacher, who ignored her cry for help.
The FGM campaign is calling for a joined up political approach. They want the police, social workers, teachers and medical practitioners to have mandatory FGM awareness training. For example, in France, hospitals routinely check children admitted from “high risk communities” for FGM and a reporting system is in place. This makes it easier to record and prosecute FGM, which is the ultimate deterrent.
Since making the programme, Nimko has met with Jeremy Hunt. It seems he has committed to putting similar procedures in place here in the UK. Theresa May has made analogous noises at the home office. The pugnacious Michael (the child hater) Gove, however, refuses to make FGM mandatory in child protection. There’s a surprise.
FGM is gender-based violence. It perpetuates inequities between men and women and compromises the health and dignity of its victims. It is also child abuse and illegal. Prosecutions are unlikely to happen without multi agency training. That requires government investment and commitment. Anything less just won’t cut it.
Sunday, 3 November 2013
The Feminist Times Launch Party!
These are exciting times. When Charlotte Raven launched The Feminist Times just weeks ago, she asked the question “Where are all the interesting women”? Three dimensional women whose appetite for political rigour & gender scrutiny isn’t sated by Vanity Fair.
At the launch of The Feminist Times membership party last night, I had the pleasure of tracking down a number of interesting women, as well as men, who were keen to declare their feminist credentials. Being in north London you’d expect a broad constituency in terms of diversity. Feminists came from far & wide, of all ages & classes, to have three dimensional conversations. Some were funny, some were intellectuals, some were inspiring.
Amongst the many interesting people I met last night (hovering around the "bar" in Charlotte's kitchen), the young women from The Daughters of Eve deserve a special mention. They’ve made an incredibly powerful documentary about female genital mutilation (FGM). It’s to be aired on Channel 4 on Wed night at 10.45 pm. They set out to challenge our stereotypes about what’s culturally acceptable & are filmed putting our ministers on the spot. It’s disheartening to hear that, despite the evidence to suggest FGM is rampant in this country, Michael Gove (Secretary of State for Education) refuses to include it as a mandatory part of safeguarding in schools training.
I wish Charlotte & all the team at The Feminist Times every success.
At the launch of The Feminist Times membership party last night, I had the pleasure of tracking down a number of interesting women, as well as men, who were keen to declare their feminist credentials. Being in north London you’d expect a broad constituency in terms of diversity. Feminists came from far & wide, of all ages & classes, to have three dimensional conversations. Some were funny, some were intellectuals, some were inspiring.
Amongst the many interesting people I met last night (hovering around the "bar" in Charlotte's kitchen), the young women from The Daughters of Eve deserve a special mention. They’ve made an incredibly powerful documentary about female genital mutilation (FGM). It’s to be aired on Channel 4 on Wed night at 10.45 pm. They set out to challenge our stereotypes about what’s culturally acceptable & are filmed putting our ministers on the spot. It’s disheartening to hear that, despite the evidence to suggest FGM is rampant in this country, Michael Gove (Secretary of State for Education) refuses to include it as a mandatory part of safeguarding in schools training.
I wish Charlotte & all the team at The Feminist Times every success.
Thursday, 24 October 2013
Syria Talks End in Deadlock While Sudan Makes Audacious IMF Bid
It should come as no surprise that yesterday’s talks in London ended in deadlock. The template for the Syria crisis is not new.
The Syrian National Coalition (SNC), the main opposition group, is right to be reticent about entering into peace talks with Assad. After ten years of genocide, Darfuris have grown weary of so called peace talks. President Al Bashir has signed every one of them and reneged on every one of them.
The SNC knows that when the media’s gaze is deflected by peace talks, violence on the ground will intensify (as it did in Rwanda, Bosnia and still does in Sudan). They will know too that, although “peace talks” and “dictator” is an oxymoron, the opposition contingent that refuses to participate will be labelled “obstructive”. They’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Hague and Kerry’s “what can we do” routine is disingenuous. Adopting a piggy in the middle routine won’t wash. The UN’s Responsibility to Protect Mandate bestows upon them a duty to act when civilians are being slaughtered by a brutal dictator. Not that UN mandates count for anything anymore.
This month the IMF is considering wiping clean US$42 Billion of Sudan’s external debt. Much of this debt was given over to profligate military expenditures used in a sustained and prolonged genocidal campaign. More again was squandered on the regime’s self enrichment.
The international community must deal with economic and human rights issues simultaneously. The Save Darfur Coalition is arguing for the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and significant structural reforms, which would fundamentally change the repressive systems in Sudan.
To provide debt relief in the absence of these conditions being met, would confer legitimacy, and financial resources, for the regime to continue its campaign of rape, starvation, murder and displacement.
If they are to be considered credible moderators of peace, Hague and Kerry must veto Sudan's IMF bid. And, at some point, they will have to stand up to the other elephant in the room. Assad. The question is, how many innocent lives will be lost while they gather splinters sitting on that jaded, fragile fence.
The Syrian National Coalition (SNC), the main opposition group, is right to be reticent about entering into peace talks with Assad. After ten years of genocide, Darfuris have grown weary of so called peace talks. President Al Bashir has signed every one of them and reneged on every one of them.
The SNC knows that when the media’s gaze is deflected by peace talks, violence on the ground will intensify (as it did in Rwanda, Bosnia and still does in Sudan). They will know too that, although “peace talks” and “dictator” is an oxymoron, the opposition contingent that refuses to participate will be labelled “obstructive”. They’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Hague and Kerry’s “what can we do” routine is disingenuous. Adopting a piggy in the middle routine won’t wash. The UN’s Responsibility to Protect Mandate bestows upon them a duty to act when civilians are being slaughtered by a brutal dictator. Not that UN mandates count for anything anymore.
This month the IMF is considering wiping clean US$42 Billion of Sudan’s external debt. Much of this debt was given over to profligate military expenditures used in a sustained and prolonged genocidal campaign. More again was squandered on the regime’s self enrichment.
The international community must deal with economic and human rights issues simultaneously. The Save Darfur Coalition is arguing for the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and significant structural reforms, which would fundamentally change the repressive systems in Sudan.
To provide debt relief in the absence of these conditions being met, would confer legitimacy, and financial resources, for the regime to continue its campaign of rape, starvation, murder and displacement.
If they are to be considered credible moderators of peace, Hague and Kerry must veto Sudan's IMF bid. And, at some point, they will have to stand up to the other elephant in the room. Assad. The question is, how many innocent lives will be lost while they gather splinters sitting on that jaded, fragile fence.
Saturday, 19 October 2013
It's not Gloria De Piero's Boobs That Are Controversial. It's Her Brain
On Thursday Labour MP, Gloria De Piero, made the news. Not because of her policies but because of her boobs. It seems a national newspaper offered thousands of pounds to unearth topless pictures taken when she was 15. Days earlier her appointment as shadow minister for women and equalities was announced. That’ll teach a working class woman to have notions above her station.
On Tuesday representatives from Lose the Lad’s mags campaign, including actress Ramola Garai, spoke at a sold out event in parliament. They argued that, having lad’s mags on sale in family spaces, such as Tesco, was contributing to a culture wherein the sexualisation of women and young girls, is considered normal.
Glamour models are ubiquitous. Women, like De Piero, who dare to make a bid for power, using their brains rather than their bodies, however, are either invisible or pilloried by the press. The two stories are inextricably linked.
Initially, the press wasn’t that interested in the Lose the Lad’s Mags story. Then Dominic Smith, grandiloquent editor of Nuts, entered the fray. There’s nothing like a bit of agro to prick the malestream media’s interest.
In an interview with Green MP Caroline Lucas, on Radio 5 Live, Smith seemed flummoxed by Lucas’ use of “big” words, like “culture” and “objectification”. I can see how such vocabulary, coming from a woman, can be discombobulating (gratuitous big word alert) to a man who surrounds himself with compliant teenagers whose brains are sadly often surplus to other anatomical requirements. Smith then used Lucas’ linguistic dexterity to accuse her, and the entire campaign, of being middle class, therefore irrelevant.
I’m a feminist, from a working class background, with a penchant for big words myself (I collected them as a child). I grew up on the “wrong” side of the Liffey and, whilst there were many things we couldn’t afford (hence collecting words as opposed to dolls), education wasn’t one of them. That was free.
It’s because of my education that I can intellectually deconstruct the propaganda peddled by Smith and other purveyors of porn. It’s not just patronising to imply that the only choice open to girls from working class backgrounds, is to get their kit off for male titillation, it’s also cods wallop.
By refusing to engage with the intellectual discourse on the grounds that it’s “middle class”, lad’s mags’ apologists are copping out. When surveys produce data indicating that 63% of teenagers aspire to be glamour models as opposed to doctors, teachers, or, God forbid (in the non denominational sense), politicians, like De Piero, alarm bells should be ringing.
Supporters of lad’s mags say they’re not pornographic (and Tetley isn’t tea). That they’re no worse than women’s magazines. I loathe most women’s magazines. Many are guilty of multitudinous crimes against women, but they’re not porn. Lad’s mags offer free videos of women dressed like schoolgirls, stripping, they contain adverts that lead into hardcore porn and the back pages are awash with numbers for sex chat lines.
Also worth noting, women’s magazines tend to put other women on the front cover. If they serially featured teenage boys in tongs (or naked), leaving nothing to the imagination, with splayed legs and fondling his bits, there would be a public outcry. Sexualised images of women and girls are so pervasive now that we’ve become desensitised to them (see Porn on the High Street? It’s Just a Bit of Harmless Fun!).
It’s reported that half of school girls are considering plastic surgery to make themselves thinner and prettier, 90% of eating disorders are amongst females, teenage gang rape is on the increase and 1 in 3 girls have reported unwelcome sexual touching at school. Camden Girls School made similar points in a documentary, which persuaded their local Tesco to remove lad’s mags.
Portraying women as sex objects perpetuates gender inequalities. Objectification is dehumanising. That’s the point. It’s much easier to abuse (or discriminate against) a non person reduced to mere body parts. Tits and ass usually. The sex industry, which includes lad’s rags, has vested interests in normalising the objectification of women. To them women, and girls, are just commodities. To be bought and sold - in your local Tesco.
On Tuesday representatives from Lose the Lad’s mags campaign, including actress Ramola Garai, spoke at a sold out event in parliament. They argued that, having lad’s mags on sale in family spaces, such as Tesco, was contributing to a culture wherein the sexualisation of women and young girls, is considered normal.
Glamour models are ubiquitous. Women, like De Piero, who dare to make a bid for power, using their brains rather than their bodies, however, are either invisible or pilloried by the press. The two stories are inextricably linked.
Initially, the press wasn’t that interested in the Lose the Lad’s Mags story. Then Dominic Smith, grandiloquent editor of Nuts, entered the fray. There’s nothing like a bit of agro to prick the malestream media’s interest.
In an interview with Green MP Caroline Lucas, on Radio 5 Live, Smith seemed flummoxed by Lucas’ use of “big” words, like “culture” and “objectification”. I can see how such vocabulary, coming from a woman, can be discombobulating (gratuitous big word alert) to a man who surrounds himself with compliant teenagers whose brains are sadly often surplus to other anatomical requirements. Smith then used Lucas’ linguistic dexterity to accuse her, and the entire campaign, of being middle class, therefore irrelevant.
I’m a feminist, from a working class background, with a penchant for big words myself (I collected them as a child). I grew up on the “wrong” side of the Liffey and, whilst there were many things we couldn’t afford (hence collecting words as opposed to dolls), education wasn’t one of them. That was free.
It’s because of my education that I can intellectually deconstruct the propaganda peddled by Smith and other purveyors of porn. It’s not just patronising to imply that the only choice open to girls from working class backgrounds, is to get their kit off for male titillation, it’s also cods wallop.
By refusing to engage with the intellectual discourse on the grounds that it’s “middle class”, lad’s mags’ apologists are copping out. When surveys produce data indicating that 63% of teenagers aspire to be glamour models as opposed to doctors, teachers, or, God forbid (in the non denominational sense), politicians, like De Piero, alarm bells should be ringing.
Supporters of lad’s mags say they’re not pornographic (and Tetley isn’t tea). That they’re no worse than women’s magazines. I loathe most women’s magazines. Many are guilty of multitudinous crimes against women, but they’re not porn. Lad’s mags offer free videos of women dressed like schoolgirls, stripping, they contain adverts that lead into hardcore porn and the back pages are awash with numbers for sex chat lines.
Also worth noting, women’s magazines tend to put other women on the front cover. If they serially featured teenage boys in tongs (or naked), leaving nothing to the imagination, with splayed legs and fondling his bits, there would be a public outcry. Sexualised images of women and girls are so pervasive now that we’ve become desensitised to them (see Porn on the High Street? It’s Just a Bit of Harmless Fun!).
It’s reported that half of school girls are considering plastic surgery to make themselves thinner and prettier, 90% of eating disorders are amongst females, teenage gang rape is on the increase and 1 in 3 girls have reported unwelcome sexual touching at school. Camden Girls School made similar points in a documentary, which persuaded their local Tesco to remove lad’s mags.
Portraying women as sex objects perpetuates gender inequalities. Objectification is dehumanising. That’s the point. It’s much easier to abuse (or discriminate against) a non person reduced to mere body parts. Tits and ass usually. The sex industry, which includes lad’s rags, has vested interests in normalising the objectification of women. To them women, and girls, are just commodities. To be bought and sold - in your local Tesco.
Friday, 11 October 2013
Another Slap in the Face for Struggling Families
* This piece was published today in Open Democracy. Link will soon be uploaded to "Press" section of my website.
On Sunday morning, I sat bleary eyed in the Sunday Morning Live studios alongside Peter Hitchens and Yvonne Ridley. The topic we discussed was marriage and whether it provides better outcomes for children. Within moments of coming off air, I was bombarded with messages. Apart from one person fulminating about my going to hell in a hand basket, along with Sinead O’Connor and Madonna, the rest were vehemently opposed to the idea of incentivising people to get married.
In reality, only 1/3 of married couples would be eligible for the marriage tax allowance, at a cost of £700m to tax payers. Households with a traditional 1950’s breadwinner and homemaker stand to gain the most. According to the campaign group Don’t Judge my Family, this policy would discriminate against widows and widowers, people leaving abusive relationships, working parents, people who choose not to marry and the 1 in 4 children growing up in single parent families.
Ian Duncan Smith pontificates about children born to married couples having better outcomes. That’s true, not because of marriage itself, but rather because married couples tend to be better educated and enjoy higher incomes. He’s conflating correlation with causation.
A far more relevant, detrimental, determinant of children’s outcomes is poverty. According to Barnardos there are 3.6m children in Britain living in poverty and 2.5m families in fuel poverty. Crippling benefits cuts are condemning Britain’s poorest children to growing up in a cycle of poverty, with increased risk of chronic illness, malnutrition and poor educational attainment.
Freezing child benefit for the third year running will do nothing to help these children. Nor will this government’s decision to break the link between benefits and inflation. Energy prices alone are set to increase by 10% this year, that’s three times the rate of inflation. Meanwhile, one of the big 6 energy companies SSE awarded 4 executives £5 million in bonuses this year, despite being fined a record £105 million for prolonged and extreme mis-selling. To add insult to injury, SSE announced an excruciating price hike yesterday.
Austerity measures, targeting the most vulnerable in society, have left families, on average, £900 worse off a year. Bribing these couples with the chance to recoup £200 (of the £900 stolen from them), in exchange for getting married, is like stealing someone’s car and offering them a bus pass as compensation.
While the poor get poorer, government policies ensure the rich get richer. Cutting the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p has made millionaires in this country hundreds of thousands of pounds better off. Big businesses are still exploiting tax loopholes which the government has neglected to close, at a loss of billions to the exchequer annually.
I was in Greece recently to speak at an international women’s summit hosted by the European Sustainability Academy. It emerged that the biggest barrier to women achieving their potential, was not the pay gap, quotas in favour of men, or even child care. It was domestic violence. Despite Greece having one of the lowest divorce rates in Europe, domestic violence is rampant.
I grew up in Ireland, where divorce has only been legal since 1997. For many, family life wasn’t so much The Waltons as Psycho. Domestic violence always existed. The only difference is, historically, there were no women’s refuges. There were however, lots of Tupperware parties, which was a 1970’s version of the Irish Women’s Movement.
Children who are exposed to abuse are more likely to repeat the cycle in adulthood. We must teach children that it’s not OK to be abused or humiliated, especially by someone claiming to love them. And, that sometimes the right thing to do is walk away.
There’s a Greek saying, When poverty comes in the front door, happiness goes out the window. Families around the country are struggling to feed their children, unable to pay heating bills and living in fear of eviction. Headlines about marriage couldn’t be more disconnected from their reality. Hasn’t anyone at Tory HQ ever heard of Mazlow’s hierarchy of needs?
On Sunday morning, I sat bleary eyed in the Sunday Morning Live studios alongside Peter Hitchens and Yvonne Ridley. The topic we discussed was marriage and whether it provides better outcomes for children. Within moments of coming off air, I was bombarded with messages. Apart from one person fulminating about my going to hell in a hand basket, along with Sinead O’Connor and Madonna, the rest were vehemently opposed to the idea of incentivising people to get married.
In reality, only 1/3 of married couples would be eligible for the marriage tax allowance, at a cost of £700m to tax payers. Households with a traditional 1950’s breadwinner and homemaker stand to gain the most. According to the campaign group Don’t Judge my Family, this policy would discriminate against widows and widowers, people leaving abusive relationships, working parents, people who choose not to marry and the 1 in 4 children growing up in single parent families.
Ian Duncan Smith pontificates about children born to married couples having better outcomes. That’s true, not because of marriage itself, but rather because married couples tend to be better educated and enjoy higher incomes. He’s conflating correlation with causation.
A far more relevant, detrimental, determinant of children’s outcomes is poverty. According to Barnardos there are 3.6m children in Britain living in poverty and 2.5m families in fuel poverty. Crippling benefits cuts are condemning Britain’s poorest children to growing up in a cycle of poverty, with increased risk of chronic illness, malnutrition and poor educational attainment.
Freezing child benefit for the third year running will do nothing to help these children. Nor will this government’s decision to break the link between benefits and inflation. Energy prices alone are set to increase by 10% this year, that’s three times the rate of inflation. Meanwhile, one of the big 6 energy companies SSE awarded 4 executives £5 million in bonuses this year, despite being fined a record £105 million for prolonged and extreme mis-selling. To add insult to injury, SSE announced an excruciating price hike yesterday.
Austerity measures, targeting the most vulnerable in society, have left families, on average, £900 worse off a year. Bribing these couples with the chance to recoup £200 (of the £900 stolen from them), in exchange for getting married, is like stealing someone’s car and offering them a bus pass as compensation.
While the poor get poorer, government policies ensure the rich get richer. Cutting the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p has made millionaires in this country hundreds of thousands of pounds better off. Big businesses are still exploiting tax loopholes which the government has neglected to close, at a loss of billions to the exchequer annually.
I was in Greece recently to speak at an international women’s summit hosted by the European Sustainability Academy. It emerged that the biggest barrier to women achieving their potential, was not the pay gap, quotas in favour of men, or even child care. It was domestic violence. Despite Greece having one of the lowest divorce rates in Europe, domestic violence is rampant.
I grew up in Ireland, where divorce has only been legal since 1997. For many, family life wasn’t so much The Waltons as Psycho. Domestic violence always existed. The only difference is, historically, there were no women’s refuges. There were however, lots of Tupperware parties, which was a 1970’s version of the Irish Women’s Movement.
Children who are exposed to abuse are more likely to repeat the cycle in adulthood. We must teach children that it’s not OK to be abused or humiliated, especially by someone claiming to love them. And, that sometimes the right thing to do is walk away.
There’s a Greek saying, When poverty comes in the front door, happiness goes out the window. Families around the country are struggling to feed their children, unable to pay heating bills and living in fear of eviction. Headlines about marriage couldn’t be more disconnected from their reality. Hasn’t anyone at Tory HQ ever heard of Mazlow’s hierarchy of needs?
Monday, 7 October 2013
The Marriage Tax Allowance is a Red Herring
I was a guest on the BBC’s Sunday Morning Live yesterday. Pitched against The Daily Mail columnist, Peter Hitchens, & lived to tell the tale. Although our moral compasses are diametrically opposed, I have to admire the fact that he has one. A moral compass that is. Thoroughly enjoyed the sparring. Seems like an affable man underneath all that moral indignation.
The topic we discussed was marriage & whether it provides better outcomes for children. It was spurred largely by the Tory’s ill conceived marriage tax allowance which, in my opinion, is a red herring. It keeps us from talking about the real issues, such as, the fact that poverty is a far greater determinant of children’s outcomes.
The Tory's austerity measures, together with their refusal to rein in energy companies, has driven 2.5m families into fuel poverty, when there are already 3m children living in poverty in the UK. That's the story this sound bite is designed to obfuscate.
You can see Peter & I lock horns on BBC iplayer. It will also be uploaded on my website within the next few days.
* Samira Ahmed is effortlessly personable & inclusive. A veritable mistress of her craft.
The topic we discussed was marriage & whether it provides better outcomes for children. It was spurred largely by the Tory’s ill conceived marriage tax allowance which, in my opinion, is a red herring. It keeps us from talking about the real issues, such as, the fact that poverty is a far greater determinant of children’s outcomes.
The Tory's austerity measures, together with their refusal to rein in energy companies, has driven 2.5m families into fuel poverty, when there are already 3m children living in poverty in the UK. That's the story this sound bite is designed to obfuscate.
You can see Peter & I lock horns on BBC iplayer. It will also be uploaded on my website within the next few days.
* Samira Ahmed is effortlessly personable & inclusive. A veritable mistress of her craft.
Thursday, 3 October 2013
Britain is Failing Victims of Female Genital Mutilation
Betty Makoni is the kind of woman I want to be when I grow up. She is fearless, wise and funny. Her heart is as big as the continent she hails from. Africa.
I met Betty last week at an International Women’s Empowerment Summit, hosted by the European Sustainability Academy in Crete. Dispensing with the usual formalities of speech making, Betty stood up and announced, “I was raped when I was 6, my mother died after being beaten by my father when I was 9. I shouldn’t be here”.
The fact that Betty survived her childhood is a miracle. Her story though, is not about her abuse, but what she did about it.
She channelled her anger into creating a charity, the “Girl child network”, that has to date rescued in excess of 450,000 girls, across 6 African countries, from sexual violence. Providing a safe place to heal, become educated and empowered.
She came to international attention when she won a CNN hero award (presented by Nicole Kidman) for her work, which originated in her native Zimbabwe. Betty used her global platform to draw the world’s attention to the fact that rape is strategically employed as a weapon of war. Despite this being recognised by the UN as a crime against humanity since 2008, the numbers of prosecutions are negligible.
A strong, unapologetic woman who won’t be silenced is a threat anywhere in the world, but even more so in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. Death threats forced Betty to live in exile in the UK, where she continues fund raising for her pan African charity. She is now a gender based violence expert for the Foreign Office and campaigns against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Although the British government recently pledged £35 million to combating FGM abroad, there is a crisis much closer to home.
A few weeks ago, Betty caused controversy by speaking out about the disturbing prevalence of FGM in the UK. She maintains that it’s not uncommon for babies and young girls to be taken overseas to be “stitched up” or attend “cutting parties” in the UK, where group rates are offered to reduce costs.
She also highlighted another type of FGM which doesn’t involve cutting or stitching but rather pulling the labia and clitoris out, or “elongating”. A torturous process she herself was subjected to as a child. According to Betty, this form of FGM, although prevalent in the UK, is considered unpalatable for publication in the British media.
It’s estimated that more than 20,000 girls in the UK are at risk of FGM. Despite the fact that it has been classed as a serious criminal offence in the UK since 1985, there have been no prosecutions. This contrasts with France where there have been 100. A recent NSPCC survey also indicated that 1 in 6 teachers weren’t aware that FGM is illegal and didn’t consider it to be child abuse.
Whilst I welcome the government’s investment in tackling FGM overseas, we must do much more to combat this form of child abuse in the UK. Betty Makoni is not a victim, she’s a survivor. It’s thanks to her that FGM is even on the political agenda. It’s up to the rest of us to make sure it stays there.
I met Betty last week at an International Women’s Empowerment Summit, hosted by the European Sustainability Academy in Crete. Dispensing with the usual formalities of speech making, Betty stood up and announced, “I was raped when I was 6, my mother died after being beaten by my father when I was 9. I shouldn’t be here”.
The fact that Betty survived her childhood is a miracle. Her story though, is not about her abuse, but what she did about it.
She channelled her anger into creating a charity, the “Girl child network”, that has to date rescued in excess of 450,000 girls, across 6 African countries, from sexual violence. Providing a safe place to heal, become educated and empowered.
She came to international attention when she won a CNN hero award (presented by Nicole Kidman) for her work, which originated in her native Zimbabwe. Betty used her global platform to draw the world’s attention to the fact that rape is strategically employed as a weapon of war. Despite this being recognised by the UN as a crime against humanity since 2008, the numbers of prosecutions are negligible.
A strong, unapologetic woman who won’t be silenced is a threat anywhere in the world, but even more so in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. Death threats forced Betty to live in exile in the UK, where she continues fund raising for her pan African charity. She is now a gender based violence expert for the Foreign Office and campaigns against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Although the British government recently pledged £35 million to combating FGM abroad, there is a crisis much closer to home.
A few weeks ago, Betty caused controversy by speaking out about the disturbing prevalence of FGM in the UK. She maintains that it’s not uncommon for babies and young girls to be taken overseas to be “stitched up” or attend “cutting parties” in the UK, where group rates are offered to reduce costs.
She also highlighted another type of FGM which doesn’t involve cutting or stitching but rather pulling the labia and clitoris out, or “elongating”. A torturous process she herself was subjected to as a child. According to Betty, this form of FGM, although prevalent in the UK, is considered unpalatable for publication in the British media.
It’s estimated that more than 20,000 girls in the UK are at risk of FGM. Despite the fact that it has been classed as a serious criminal offence in the UK since 1985, there have been no prosecutions. This contrasts with France where there have been 100. A recent NSPCC survey also indicated that 1 in 6 teachers weren’t aware that FGM is illegal and didn’t consider it to be child abuse.
Whilst I welcome the government’s investment in tackling FGM overseas, we must do much more to combat this form of child abuse in the UK. Betty Makoni is not a victim, she’s a survivor. It’s thanks to her that FGM is even on the political agenda. It’s up to the rest of us to make sure it stays there.
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
The UN’s Failure to Confront Despots is Breeding Monsters
Arms dealer to tyrants around the world, Russia’s new moniker of peace broker is incongruous. It’s like inviting a tax dodging Irish rock star (you know who you are) to the G8 summit to discuss ways of clamping down on, well, tax dodging rock stars. Turkeys, on the whole, don’t vote for Christmas.
As the UN Security Council meets this week, Russia will veto a resolution that would trigger punitive measures against the Assad regime. The “trigger” would be his failure to comply with the Geneva peace agreement. Basic human psychology dictates that all carrot and no stick is futile and, history tells us it’s a fatal strategy when dealing with ruthless despots. Have we learned nothing from Rwanda, Bosnia and Sudan?
The template for the Syria crisis is not new. The plot, script and supporting cast are the same. A brutal regime subjugates its own people for years. The oppressed, with nothing left to lose, engage in minor acts of rebellion (public demonstrations, graffiti on walls). The indignant dictator quashes any dissent with disproportionate force (mass murder and torture) and when the country descends into chaos, the international media tag it civil war (which implies moral equivalence). Cue public protestations of, “it’s none of our business”, let them fight it out amongst themselves”.
As the story unfolds, attempts to report it accurately are hampered (“foreign reporters” are banned). Mortality rates, news of torture, rape and civilians casualties are best guesses. The truth gets lost in the fog of government propaganda. Inevitably, eventually, someone gains access and evidence of the regimes’ crimes against humanity become impossible, even for the UN to ignore. In Bosnia it was Srebrenica.
At last the media spotlight will shine a light on the faces of the dead and disfigured children. The lens will penetrate the toxic haze and show the world the eyes behind which lie an abyss of broken hearts and minds. Then the world will look away.
Not immediately perhaps but slowly, surely, we will abandon the children of Syria just as we abandoned the children of Rwanda, Bosnia, Palestine and Sudan. Threats of sanctions, UN resolutions and chapter 7 mandates, all serve to reassure us the UN is on the case. The children will be safe at last. But after 10 years of tough talk, securing a chapter 7 mandate (despite Russia and China’s attempts at sabotage) and passing 16 resolutions (none of which have been implemented), children continue to be slaughtered and starved to death on a daily basis in Sudan.
As presidential candidate in 2007, Obama said, When you see a genocide in Rwanda, Bosnia or in Darfur [Sudan], that is a stain on all of us…We can’t say ‘never again’ and then allow it to happen again, and as a president of the United States I don’t intend to abandon people or turn a blind eye to slaughter.”
Having briefed David Cameron’s office ahead of a visit to Darfur in 2006, he returned protesting, “This is ethnic cleansing and we cannot remain silent in the face of this horror."
Yet, with the reins of power firmly in their grip,political expediency trumps the genocide of black Africans. Again.
So, when Obama warned that backing down on despots who slaughter their own people emboldens tyrants everywhere, he was right. It was arguably his and the UN’s failure to stand up to the genocidaire in Khartoum that created the monster in Damascus.
As the UN meets this week to decide the fate of Syria, world leaders must also be reminded of their obligations under the Genocide Convention (1948) to the beleaguered, depleting civilians of Sudan. Their lives are no less worthy of protection, are they?
As the UN Security Council meets this week, Russia will veto a resolution that would trigger punitive measures against the Assad regime. The “trigger” would be his failure to comply with the Geneva peace agreement. Basic human psychology dictates that all carrot and no stick is futile and, history tells us it’s a fatal strategy when dealing with ruthless despots. Have we learned nothing from Rwanda, Bosnia and Sudan?
The template for the Syria crisis is not new. The plot, script and supporting cast are the same. A brutal regime subjugates its own people for years. The oppressed, with nothing left to lose, engage in minor acts of rebellion (public demonstrations, graffiti on walls). The indignant dictator quashes any dissent with disproportionate force (mass murder and torture) and when the country descends into chaos, the international media tag it civil war (which implies moral equivalence). Cue public protestations of, “it’s none of our business”, let them fight it out amongst themselves”.
As the story unfolds, attempts to report it accurately are hampered (“foreign reporters” are banned). Mortality rates, news of torture, rape and civilians casualties are best guesses. The truth gets lost in the fog of government propaganda. Inevitably, eventually, someone gains access and evidence of the regimes’ crimes against humanity become impossible, even for the UN to ignore. In Bosnia it was Srebrenica.
At last the media spotlight will shine a light on the faces of the dead and disfigured children. The lens will penetrate the toxic haze and show the world the eyes behind which lie an abyss of broken hearts and minds. Then the world will look away.
Not immediately perhaps but slowly, surely, we will abandon the children of Syria just as we abandoned the children of Rwanda, Bosnia, Palestine and Sudan. Threats of sanctions, UN resolutions and chapter 7 mandates, all serve to reassure us the UN is on the case. The children will be safe at last. But after 10 years of tough talk, securing a chapter 7 mandate (despite Russia and China’s attempts at sabotage) and passing 16 resolutions (none of which have been implemented), children continue to be slaughtered and starved to death on a daily basis in Sudan.
As presidential candidate in 2007, Obama said, When you see a genocide in Rwanda, Bosnia or in Darfur [Sudan], that is a stain on all of us…We can’t say ‘never again’ and then allow it to happen again, and as a president of the United States I don’t intend to abandon people or turn a blind eye to slaughter.”
Having briefed David Cameron’s office ahead of a visit to Darfur in 2006, he returned protesting, “This is ethnic cleansing and we cannot remain silent in the face of this horror."
Yet, with the reins of power firmly in their grip,political expediency trumps the genocide of black Africans. Again.
So, when Obama warned that backing down on despots who slaughter their own people emboldens tyrants everywhere, he was right. It was arguably his and the UN’s failure to stand up to the genocidaire in Khartoum that created the monster in Damascus.
As the UN meets this week to decide the fate of Syria, world leaders must also be reminded of their obligations under the Genocide Convention (1948) to the beleaguered, depleting civilians of Sudan. Their lives are no less worthy of protection, are they?
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