Society Today by Society Today

Fi B fo rst rita r M in Hu ag ’s m az an in ity e

Vol 5, Issue 10, September 2009, Price £3.00 €5.00 $5.00

SOCIETY Today

For Peace, Progress & Humanity

www.society-today.com

Transition Towns: Time For A Change?

Dame Vera Lynn: The Forces’ Sweetheart Bob Crow: Q & A Alternative Guide to Indian Culture Paranoid Parenting: Frank Furedi Iain McWhirter on Media Inﬂuence Rahila Gupta on Violence Against Women Sally Ramage on Protestors Rights

Cartoonist Dave Lupton The Recession - What Have We Learnt? Jonathan Fryer on Democracy in Thailand

Poetry: Faber’s New Poets Iranian Democracy Tony McAleavy: The Unemployables

WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST Travel to make a difference Categories for 2010 - Closing Date 6th October 2009 Adventure, Exploration & Leaders of Expeditions Business & Finance Education & Vocational Training Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Support for Children Science, Engineering & Enterprise The Arts & Older People The Churchill Connection Treatment & Rehabilitation of Chronic Conditions Young People For more information and to Apply Online

wcmt.org.uk or call 020 7584 9315

Editor Hom Paribag

SOCIETY

Assistant Editor Joseph Reeves

Today

Copy Editor Sarah Ismail

Cartoons Alexei Talimonov

Contents

Design Adil Oliver Sharif

What We’re Saying

Letters to the Editor

Media Sales Steven Smith Publisher Michael Dickson Marketing & Distribution Eleanor d’Allaines Oﬃce (Admin & Subscription) Ramzi Bundu Web / IT Robin Dangol Subscriptions Jane Thomas - Webscribe Printers WPG Design and Print Ltd www.wpg-group.com

For Peace, Progress & Humanity

Vol 5, Issue 10, September 2009

Regular Columnists Jonathan Fryer Margaret Laird Sally Ramage Iain McWhirter

Head of Advertising Rockyie Shielsone

ISSN: 1744 - 2974 (web)

www.society-today.com

ISSN: 1744 - 2968 (hard)

News-in-Brief

6/35 Tony McLeavey

Guest Column

Rahila Gupta

Joseph Reeves

Current Issue Cover Story

Dame Vera Lynn

Interview

Regular Column Sally Ramage

Interaction

Editor

Frank Furedi

Society Catch Regular Column

Dave Lupton Iain McWhirter

Feature

Society Today Magazine 17 - 21 Wyfold Road London SW6 6SE T: 0845 257 2930 F: 020 7385 6137 e: office@society-today.com w: www.society-today.com

Reviews

Democracy in Iran

32 36

Poetry Page Author Introduction

Amit Rajp

37 38

Questions Answered Platform

Bob Crow

Plane Stupid

Photo Editorial

Dame Vera Lynn 16 Carole Dwyer speaks to ‘Forces’ Sweetheart’ Dame Vera Lynn about her wartime memories, the Royal family and her charity work.

Poetry Competition

Distribution Post Scriptom Unit G, OYO Busines Pack, Hindmans Way Dagenham, Essex RM9 6LN

Joseph Reeves looks into Transition Towns and their approach to tackling our impending oil and climate problems.

Regular Column Jonathan Fryer

Picture of Society

Transition Towns 10

Roller Marathon

Democracy in Iran 32

Hossein Abedini examines the current political situation in Iran and suggests a solution to the problems currently being faced by the nation.

43 46

FRONT COVER: Photograph by Isabelle Plasschaert from Transition Town Brixton, Blenheim Gardens Estate

Society Today Magazine wishes to thank the following organisations: Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, The Writers Bureau, Gaeia Investments, Wordsworth Editions, the Dame Vera Lynn Trust, Global Brand Forum, Human Rights Watch, Department of Health and Missing People Disclaimer: Whilst every care has been taken in the compilation of this publication, errors or omissions are not the responsibility of the publishers or the editorial staff. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the publishers or editorial staff. All rights reserved. Unless speciﬁcally stated, services or goods mentioned within the display advertisement sections are not formally endorsed by SOCIETY TODAY magazine, which does not guarantee or endorse or accept any liability for any services or goods highlighted within this publication.

SOCIETY Today Magazine 03

what we’re saying Let’s Rise Up And Deal With It!

cartoon

s our recession grows older, it seems that little progress is being made to ease the plight of ordinary people. For the young, the situation looks particularly grim. The hopes that they had taken into a job market they had been preparing for throughout their youths has been, for most, crushed by the same greed that spurred them on. Not everyone wanted to be a banker, but everyone wanted to drink from the ‘trickle’ that was supposed to fall from the gilded halls of the city. As the end of the summer approaches, the turbulence that marked the end of the last parliament looks to have grown through the recess into something of an epoch making environment. Change, in one way or another, appears inevitable. In the financial sector, the Governor of the Bank of England continues with his announcements of economic gloom. Holidaying politicians join the chorus from the sidelines while the next generation eagerly rip open their exam results to show that there are solutions waiting- and there is hope. Young people have always been underestimated, because they have ideas, but not skills. It is time for us to change this situation by actively trying to find solutions. We are all equal in this society, regardless of all differences. Now, however, we have an imminent problem to solve to improve our society for the future. If bankers and banking systems do not change, then there is only one way forward, and that is to take to the streets in unity to protest against not only bankers, but also a system that has proved once more that it supports only those who know it as a friend and treats those who scorn it as slaves. We must compel banks to provide loans to businesses that can provide support for people in society – everyone should be allowed the chance to work. Taxpayers have backed up the banks when they faltered. Now it is time for the banks to help the public when they are in trouble. What else are they there for? So why are bankers still receiving bonuses, when members of the public can’t get or keep jobs that pay the minimum wage? It would be our own mistake if we kept quiet and behaved like bystanders when their axe hovers over us. We must rise up and deal with these culprits of our time! For this issue, we have tried to stay away from the doom and gloom of the economy. After all, it is times such as these, when our problems seem so intractable, that people should start looking for solutions. In this month’s lead story, we look at the Transition Town movement, who are doing just that for the environment. They may seem like idealists, but we would argue that it is better than legions of sceptics and pessimists. It is tempting sometimes to let the problems of this world wash over you like a giant wave and comfort you in your insignificance. Not so for Dame Vera Lynn, our interviewee. She embodies something that often seems lost in this country, fighting spirit and a ‘chin up’ approach to life. After all, she has seen this country at its lowest and its highest in one lifetime, and as she says, “Us Brits are always better when our backs are against the wall.”

04 SOCIETY Today Magazine

Ukrainian born Alexei Talimonov is a successful and awardwinning cartoonist and illustrator. His work has been published in newspapers and magazines since 1978 in the UK, Russia, Ukraine, USA, Canada, Germany, Italy, Iran, China and other countries. Donate your Brain

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Do you have experience: In Business? In Professions? In Management? Volunteers with career experience are urgently needed both in charities and voluntary organizations throughout the UK Let reach Find you an interesting expenses paid opportunity in your local area Please call 020 7582 6543 or visit www.reachskills.org.uk

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letters to the editor

Follow This Lead

Back To Class

I fear that some readers may have found your feature on Pakistan slightly misleading, and there is enough racism faced by Muslims in the West without publications like yours giving the more liberal Islamic countries a negative reputation. I would just like to make it very clear to your readers that there are many well educated, liberal and open-minded Pakistanis around. We are not all terrorists, whatever the media might want people to believe.

Dr Nabil Khattab’s column took me back to my college days and Sociology lessons. Sadly, his findings are true. Ethnic minorities do lose out in the labour market, far too often. Even more sadly, this is a result of something that none of us can ever change, whether or not we want tohuman nature. However, if the world was perfect, we wouldn’t need Sociology, and he would have had nothing to study.

Rabia Khan, Bradford

We Do Care! Haunted? I don’t believe that No 10 Downing Street is haunted, because I don’t believe that ghosts exist. This was a well presented feature, but in my opinion, it was more than a little pointless. There is no such thing as the paranormal or the supernatural, and even if there was, the behaviour of politicians is scary enough. There is no need to scare your readers further with such features.

I was insulted by the suggestion that “some people feel more strongly about inheritance than good elder care.” I have been a willing carer for my elderly father for over 20 years, and he has nothing to pass on to me, which does not bother me in the slightest.

The Positive Side of the Internet

I notice that your slogan includes the word ‘Peace.’ However, many of your articles are about war. Could you consider including more articles about ways to achieve peace in Britain in future issues? World peace may be aiming far too high! LB, Birmingham

Anne Bretton, Norwich

Fir B fo st rita r M in Hu ag ’s m az an in ity e

Peace Please!

For Peace, Progress & Humanity

www.society-today.com

Transition Towns: Time For A Change? Dame Vera Lynn: The Forces’ Sweetheart Bob Crow: Q & A Alternative Guide to Indian Culture Paranoid Parenting: Frank Furedi Iain McWhirter on Media influence Rahila Gupta on Violence Against Women Sally Ramage on Protestors Rights

Cartoonist Dave Lupton The Recession - What Have We Learnt? Jonathan Fryer on Democracy in Thailand

Thank you for marking the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings with your interview with the documentary director Theo Kamecke, which was well written and very interesting. The feature would have been much better, however, if you had extended this interview slightly, rather than interviewing Dr Chris Riley, who was far less involved in the mission. Kate Coleman, London

No Sex Please, We’re Decent People! Thank you for your article about the blocking of Internet pornography in China. Personally, I do not see any need for Internet pornography to be available anywhere in the world. I would like nothing better than to see those countless filthy sites blocked by the British government as well. It is no wonder that your editor dislikes the Internet so deeply, if it makes such unnecessary filth available to people. James Keane, Oxford

WE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Vol 5, Issue 10, September 2009, Price £3.00 €5.00 $5.00

SOCIETY Today

Reach for the Moon!

KL, London

I was very sad to see that your editor clearly has a deep dislike of the Internet. It is, in my opinion, an amazing invention which allows people to communicate with each other in spite of great distances. It also allows people who cannot speak, who have as many talents as anyone else, to express themselves with complete clarity in writing. How can that possibly be a waste of time?

Dan O’Neal, Bristol

Vivian Land, London

Poetry: Faber’s New Poets Iranian Democracy Tony McAleavy: The Unemployables

We would like to invite our readers to send their feedback or suggestions surrounding the contents we’ve published.

Please send your letters with full postal address and contact number to:

Letters to the Editor, Society Today Magazine, 17-21 Wyfold Road, London SW6 6SE Readers can also send their letters to the Editor via email: writing@society-today.com (Letters sent via email must not be sent with attachments or hyperlinks)

SOCIETY Today

For Peace, Progress & Humanity

SOCIETY Today Magazine 05

news in brief

Poetry Prize Shortlist Revealed The shortlist for the 18th Forward Prize for Poetry has been announced. Respected poets Sharon Olds, Hugo Williams and Christopher Reid are in the running for best collection for the first time in the annual awards. Peter Porter, who won the award in 2002 for his Max Is Missing collection, is shortlisted for a second time with his 18th book of poems, Better Than God. The shortlist for the £10,000 prize, which will be presented on 7 October, is completed by Don Paterson and Glyn Maxwell. Paterson, nominated for Rain, won the prize for best first collection for Nil Nil in 1993. The Forward Prizes were founded in 1992 to raise the profile of contemporary poetry. Writer and producer Josephine Hart is chair of the judges for 2009.

said: “We believe it to be one of the strongest lists in recent memory.” It also features three first-time novelists, including James Lever for his debut novel, Me Cheeta - the purported autobiography of the chimpanzee Cheeta, who gained 1930s Hollywood stardom in Tarzan movies. The winner of the £50,000 award, which honours the best fiction written in English by an author from the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth, will be named in October. A shortlist of six will be revealed on 8 September.

Campaign To Highlight The Joys Of Caravanning Gives A Boost To Domestic Tourism

She is joined by poet and librettist David Harsent, poets Jean Sprackland and Tishani Doshi, and the Guardian’s poetry editor, Nicholas Wroe.

The 8ft (2.4m) tall work has only been publicly displayed once before, in 1983. The portrait will now be included in the gallery’s major exhibition of Lawrence’s work opening in autumn 2010.

Smuggling Items Sought

Bars of chocolate should be no larger than 40g, a draft consultation warns. The voluntary proposals also call for manufacturers to reduce the amount of saturated fat and added sugar in biscuits, cakes, pastries, chocolate confectionery and soft drinks.

A historic Cornish inn is scouring the country for smuggling artefacts. Jamaica Inn was a notorious centre for smuggling in the 18th and 19th centuries.

With more people looking to stay in Britain for their holidays, caravanning is becoming increasingly popular. In April this year The Caravan Club launched Discover Touring, a national marketing campaign highlighting and promoting the benefits and joys of touring in caravans and motorhomes.

Sarah Waters, Colm Tobin, JM Coetzee and AS Byatt have all been longlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. This year’s “exceptional” list of 13 titles is dominated by established writers, including two former winners, and four pastshortlisted authors.

Since the launch there have been over 8,000 requests for the Discover Touring magazine. The Caravan Club’s sites network had 30,000 more site night bookings in June this year compared with last year, advance bookings for the season are up by 40% and July bookings also increased–over 328,000 people stayed on Caravan Club sites during the month.

Coetzee, nominated for Summertime, previously won the prize in 1983 and 1999, while Byatt’s previous triumph was in 1990 with Possession. James Naughtie, chair of the judges,

The Discover Touring campaign, endorsed by television personality Carol Smillie, is proving to be of fantastic interest to those looking for a new, exciting holiday option.

06 SOCIETY Today Magazine

The National Portrait Gallery has acquired a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence which has been unseen by the public for more than 25 years. Sir Thomas’s 1812 painting of the 18th and 19th Century actor John Philip Kemble as Cato spent most of its life in private collections.

The portrait is now on public display in the Regency Collection in the Weldon Galleries of the gallery where it will remain until the autumn, when it will be removed for conservation prior to the gallery’s Lawrence exhibition next October.

Manufacturers are being asked to cut the size of chocolate bars, confectionery and cans of fizzy drink in an attempt to tackle rising rates of obesity. By 2012, the Food Standards Agency wants chocolate-based snacks to be no bigger than 50g, compared with the current 58g.

Booker Prize Longlist Revealed

Gallery Buys Rare Portrait

It was purchased for £178,500 with help from Gift Aid visitor ticket donations, gallery supporters and a grant of £55,000 from The Art Fund, the UK’s largest independent art charity.

Calls To Downsize Chocolate Bars

A report from the FSA said there had been some progress - such as moves by United Biscuits to cut saturated fat in Digestives, Hob Nobs and Rich Tea biscuits by 50%. Tesco was also highlighted for removing 110 tonnes of saturated fat from its cakes by the end of 2008. However, EU rules restrict sugar and fat reductions in chocolate bars, making reformulation difficult.

Carol comments, “As a lover of the great outdoors generally, and walking in particular, I know that touring with a caravan or motorhome is a brilliant way to explore the countryside. Nothing else offers such freedom, fun and flexibility.”

Now the Inn is to revamp its museum of smuggling and is looking for objects that illustrate this exciting period. “Smuggling played a large part in the British economy in years gone past,” said Managing Director Kevin Moore. “And, as tradition holds, it was all very exciting stuff with boats arriving in the dead of night and men with horses transporting goods over secret paths across the misty moors. There was great support from the public who saw many of the taxes as unjust and smuggling developed into a culture of the time.” If anyone has any artefacts or unusual information about smuggling in Britain, the Jamaica Inn would be delighted to hear about it. The Inn can be contacted on enquiry@jamaicainn. co.uk or 01935 842094.

For more News-in-brief turn to page 35

guest column

The Unemployables:

Tony McAleavy

How to help those in need of work “I asked for help when I was working for a public body. Despite promises they did nothing and it was very disappointing. Eventually they told me I could no longer do the job and I left. I think other staff complained.”

brunt of funding cuts – despite their added importance in these times. Schemes suffer from a low overall level of resources, the need to seek funding constantly and from more than one source, with much of the funding only obtainable for time-limited or what are considered to be “innovative” projects.

This was the experience of one of the many people we spoke with for research into the support being provided for disadvantaged adults trying to get into work. In this instance they were suffering from a visual impairment, but others were dealing with mental health problems, disabilities, learning difficulties and low levels of skill.

Another issue is that funding is often linked to targets, which are sometimes unrealistic or don’t fit with the aims or spirit of the organization itself.

While the recession may be a blip for some young people, an opportunity for travelling, voluntary or undemanding low paid work, it is having far more serious consequences for those who were already facing problems building any kind of career. Some of the first casualties of the downturn have been employment schemes helping disadvantaged adults, which have seen funding cutbacks and have been unable to find any new sources of funding.

“

”

Services of this kind are particularly vulnerable in a recession because they may take the

“

Funding is often linked to targets, which are sometimes unrealistic or don’t fit with the aims or spirit of the organization itself

We found that what matters to adults using these kinds of schemes is the long-term personal relationships and trust which can develop, how staff are able to speak their “language” (not just in terms of foreign languages, but showing they understand the world people have come from). “It’s very important to have someone with you, one-to-one, every step of the way,” said one service-user, “until they are no longer needed. They are always there if something crops up, as needed. It’s their strong point and I think it’s unique. It was clear from the beginning that it was about getting to independence. That’s what I want really.” Another said: “Other organisations are not really able to understand...they don’t take people with mental health problems seriously. They were very hurtful and made me feel very small.”

”“

Funding is just one of the issues highlighted in the newly published report Smoothing the path: Advice about learning and work for disadvantaged adults from the City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development and CfBT Education Trust. The report offers important evidence for policymakers in their plans for the launch of the national Adult Advancement and Careers Service (AACS) in 2010 – in particular, what can be achieved by helping disadvantaged adults into fulfilling and useful work. This is a tough area for getting results and some of the most important outcomes are the “soft” ones, the increased confidence and sense of direction which people gain.

Action for Blind People runs regional teams to provide careers advice, helping around 500 people each year. A project at Havering College, ROSE (Realistic Opportunities for Supported Employment) has placed 37 people with disabilities into long-term work since it was launched. Every year the Richmond Fellowship helps 300 people with mental health problems to get, and most importantly, keep, career jobs.

What matters to adults using these kinds of schemes is the long-term personal relationships and trust which can develop

”

When the economic climate is good, unemployment is a minor issue and disadvantaged adults struggle. The tragedy is that when unemployment is headline news, the situation is even worse. The new AACS needs to learn from the outstanding work already being undertaken in difficult circumstances – and the value for society as a whole of a network of mutually supportive schemes with a sustainable funding regime.

Tony McAleavy, Director of Education, CfBT Education Trust. SOCIETY Today Magazine 07

current issue

Rahila Gupta

magining a world without violence against women sounds deceptively simple but the act of imagination is, in fact, quite revolutionary. Especially for women. Because before we imagine, we must question. And that is a habit that has not been encouraged in us. So weighed down are we from the moment of birth by preconceptions about our role in the so-called natural harmonies of this world, that to question is nothing short of revolutionary. To imagine is to see beyond the status quo the possibility of a new world, a new reality. Starvation does not allow the hungry to imagine food. Our censors – cultural traditions and lack of power – click into place, lock down our imagination and so it becomes our secret garden. To share it we need courage and hope.

“

”

To imagine is to see beyond the status quo the possibility of a new world, a new reality

I have spent the last 20 years opening up this secret garden to public access through my work with Southall Black Sisters, a women’s group set up in 1979 to help Asian and African-Caribbean women escape violence. I have written at length about domestic violence. However this article is not an analysis of the issues but a personal perspective on how violence and casual neglect pervade the lives of women. In a dark, airless barn filled with bales of straw and smelling of dried buffalo dung, an old woman scraped the black carbon grime off a wedding carriage with a hardened fingernail. A 12 year old girl watched as the silver struggled to shine through and glint in the small shaft of light that had entered through a hole in the barn door. She looked up in wonder at this near-sighted woman with the pendulous breasts and gnarled hands and

08 SOCIETY Today Magazine

An Imaginary Revolution A world without violence against women

tried to imagine her as a young bride about the same age as herself, removed from her mother and being pulled by bullock cart to her new home – with a 16 year old boy whose temper was yet to leave its imprint on her.

after my grandfather when they were both in their eighties. And so began the process of burying the truth; the years of violence that she had endured were lost in the family myth that theirs had been a great love.

The woman was my grandmother and the little girl was me.

My father asked me to travel 7000 miles, from London to their village in Haryana, to attend my grandfather’s funeral but said not a word when she died a few months later. She didn’t matter. She didn’t enter into the scheme of things. Neither her life nor her death was mourned.

I had heard stories, the stuff of legend, about her life, which I dared not ask her about. Not because she would get angry- that had been beaten out of her a long time ago- but because there are silences that pad out the fabric of all family life. If you poke at the silences, you are in danger of puncturing the fabric. If the walls could speak, they would have told me how she had to make hot chapattis for my grandfather, one by one, run down the spiral staircase from the kitchen to the men’s quarters where he ate, run back up again, make the next one and make sure it reached him before he had finished the last one – or else he would throw the iron bucket at her, the same bucket in which buffalo milk was delivered in the mornings. She had thirteen children and only five survived. Her deep physical and emotional loss that no one talked about, least of all her, was another one of those silences which shrouded the violation of her body. My mother told me how once she had worn her best clothes – a skirt made of 40 yards of material - to vote in the elections. My grandmother voted? She believed she could change the government but not the situation at home? And in the scrum that is so typical of Indian elections, she gave her sister-inlaw the slip and tried to jump into the local well. But the sister-in-law caught up with her and stopped her from putting an end to the misery of it all. As she got older and needed glasses, they were often without lenses and we children laughed at her empty frames as she burnt her fingers or stepped blindly into mud. She died a few

I offer you this skeleton, this anatomy of a life, and ask you which of these single acts you would most condemn. The truth is that wherever they fall on the scale of cruelty, they all arise out of one single thing – the lack of value that is attached to a woman’s life. That translates into low self-esteem and allows us to tolerate ways of being, of living, that do us harm.

“

The truth is that wherever they fall on the scale of cruelty, they all arise out of one single thing – the lack of value that is attached to a woman’s life

”

Of course much has changed. Not to acknowledge that would be to negate all that women’s actions have achieved and the pressure for change and protection of women that they have demanded from government and community. There are a number of UN, EU and national laws dealing with the elimination of violence against women. In Britain, we have a battery of laws to protect women against domestic violence, forced marriage, rape and trafficking, to name but some of the issues, backed up by a network of refuges and women’s centres. Of course these need to be better resourced, the police better trained and the rate of convictions in rape higher. We need to end patriarchy.

But meanwhile we need to build a society that nourishes the development of the unassailable self. We need to develop a sense of self that cannot be eroded, a sense of self that is rounded and whole. And it isn’t something that can be easily rescued if it has been so utterly crushed in children. It is what saves a woman in the final analysis. Let me give you an example. I remember talking to Kiranjit Ahluwalia shortly after she came out of prison in 1992 where she had served three years for killing her brutal husband, after experiencing ten years of violence from him. And how troubled she was by the women she met at Southall Black Sisters. Had they sustained a deeper cut, a bigger bruise, more broken limbs, she would ask me, guiltridden, and yet they had not resorted to her ultimate act of survival? Was she somehow weaker or more evil?

We need to guard against all those tiny invisible ways in which we erode that sense of self. Every time we tell a young girl to dress modestly and not attract attention to herself in manner or make-up. Every time we praise one body image over another. Every time we elevate certain ideas of beauty above others. Every time we blame her behaviour for being raped or assaulted, for being drunk, for being promiscuous, for being out at night – in short for doing any of the things that would be acceptable for men. We need to guard against all those many ways in which we condition young girls to accept violence as the cost of their gender: when they have to assume the responsibility of keeping families together no matter what, of submitting to marriages that benefit the wider family, of carrying the family honour, of having their genitals mutilated in order to keep virtue intact.

“ ” WRITER?

They all lived in a country that offered some protection, they were all to a lesser or greater degree constrained by religion, culture, gender and race and yet there were some women who escaped and some who didn’t. Although I could offer her no reassurance, no answers, on reflection I realised that a tentative answer lay in her childhood. She was the youngest in a family of nine, she was orphaned at the age of 16 and was the favourite ‘spoiled’ child of the family. The security and attention that Kiranjit as a young1 child gave her 09:47 AU 123received x 190:Layout 17/7/09 that sense of self that allowed her one day

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to stand up and say no more, I will take no more.

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Violence against women knows no boundaries, taking place to a greater or lesser degree across community, culture, religion and Page 1 class

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Most of all, we need to make sure that we do not take the blame for the violence that is visited upon us. I have worked with young Bengali girls in the East End of London for whom to lift their heads and eyes to the horizon was an act of rebellion. Every young girl should be able to raise her head and look beyond the horizon.

Violence against women knows no boundaries, taking place to a greater or lesser degree across community, culture, religion and class. In Britain alone, almost two women on average are killed by violent men every week. One of the earliest cases in which Southall Black Sisters became involved was that of Balwant Kaur, an Asian woman who was brutally stabbed to death in the 80s by her husband in front of her children at the refuge to which she had escaped. We must remind ourselves when the question arises in our minds – why didn’t she leave – that women are most at risk when they are leaving a violent relationship or shortly afterwards.

Rahila Gupta is a campaigner and a freelance writer. She is on the management committee of Southall Black Sisters, who support women escaping violence and Clean Break Theatre Company which works with women ex-offenders.

AWARD WINNING WRITER Christina Jones, Oxfordshire ‘So far, I have had sixteen novels published! The Writers Bureau helped make this possible for me. Within six months of enrolling on my course I was having work commissioned by editors and I still work regularly for magazines.’ Keith Gregson, Sunderland ‘In the last three years I have had almost 250 features published in national and regional magazines and newspapers. I have also had books and booklets published at the request of recognised publishers and payment has contributed considerably to my general income. Thanks to you all.’ Beate Allerton, Aberdeenshire ‘Five months into the course my first article was published, soon followed by others. My commissioned features to date are worth £3040, completely exceeding all of my expectations. With the help of the course I have begun to realise my lifetime ambition which seemed completely unimaginable this time last year.’ Please send me free details on how to become a successful, frelance writer:

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SOCIETY Today Magazine 09

cover story

Transition Towns: Time to make a change? W

At the Guinness Trust Estate’s community garden in Brixton, residents work on the crops which include the ubiquitous potato, six varieties of tomato, runner and French beans, beetroot, cabbages, raspberries, peppers, aubergines, courgettes, rocket, and in the foreground, flowering globe artichokes.

ith Climate Change and Peak Oil increasingly making their way onto the agendas of governments across the world, Joseph Reeves looks at an environmental movement that is attempting to make the transition to a culture that says less is more, instead of more, more, more.

Transition Town (TT) is an environmental movement with a difference. It is not centered around protesting, marching or petition signing. It is, instead, about tackling the looming problems of climate change and peak oil through inclusive, community based action. While it may involve some hard work, none of it is likely to get you arrested. Started through a Permaculture course at Kinsale College, Ireland, in 2004 by Louise

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Rooney, and propagated since by Rob Hopkins, it came to the UK in 2005 through the latter’s efforts in Totnes, Devon. Since then, over 200 ‘towns’ have started around the globe. From Oregon in the USA to Fujino in Japan, the movement has struck a chord with both seasoned environmental campaigners and those that have only recently become aware of our impending environmental problems.

At its most basic level, it is about getting ordinary people to reassess their priorities. Instead of relying on food and energy systems that are strained and corruptible, it approaches the dual challenges of climate change and peak oil in places that ordinary people know and can affect, as Hopkins himself states, “We don’t claim to come in with all the answers. Maybe in some of the questions there aren’t actually any answers. It is about coming in with the questions. Rather than breezing in with lots of

experts who will design everything for everybody, it is really a question of unleashing the collective genius of the community.” The movement is a-political, and as the ‘cheerful disclaimer’ on their website states, “If we wait for government, it will be too little, too late…If we act as individuals, it will be too little…If we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.”

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While the Transition Town movement may have grown exponentially in the few years that it has existed, it is, in the context of the problems faced, still small fry. Its members are for the most part white, middle class, educated and of a ‘green’ persuasion. However, it is still extremely young, and as such the above are to be expected; after all, who else has the time, energy or knowledge to want to volunteer? Attempting to paint a crude stereotype of the movement is, though, ignoring its central purpose; namely, that it exists as a network to offer support, expertise and time to people who come to them looking for help. Whilst raising awareness of the issues is a key aspect of Transition Towns, the scale of the problems that climate change and peak oil present are still, for most, inconceivable, and for others, too large to feel that they can have any kind of tangible positive effect on the matter.

A young resident of the Blenheim gardens estate in Brixton turns earth for the first time

Despite having a figurehead in Hopkins and a staffed office in Totnes, the movement is not hierarchical and as such it relies heavily on the sharing of information and advice through an Internet based ‘Wiki’ approach. This provides access to a wealth of knowledge on both the scientific evidence that helped spawn the movement and practical steps for starting a ‘town.’ The approach is humble, uncomplicated and informative, as their online strategy document suggests,

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“We focus on telling people the closest version of the truth that we know in times when the information available is deeply contradictory.”

What am I supposed to do about it? Don’t we elect governments to deal with this sort of thing? Can I not just recycle? Coming round to the idea of being forced into a different life by something you appear to have no control over is a daunting and confusing task. Especially at a time when business seems to be running, if not smoothly, then at least as usual. The confusion about the overall state of the environment and any form that change to it is likely to take is to a great degree understandable. We in the West have lived a charmed existence for many, many years, and whilst we have had problems, none of them appear to measure up to the challenges that climate change poses.

And it is extremely difficult, even for those educated and versed in the science of the matter, to stand up and say ‘This is what is wrong and this is what we need to do’ with a degree of certainty and authority that can convince a world wrapped up in other problems, distractions, and, in many cases, wanton ignorance. This is not to say that empirical evidence about the severity of the matter does not exist. Bodies as universally recognized as the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have stated that it is “unequivocal” and will bring about “abrupt and irreversible” impacts to the planet.

Everyone has in some way come across the issue, and many people have made changes – even minor ones – that a few years ago would not have crossed their minds. But even as evidence mounts, treaties are debated and glaciers melt, it seems as if we, as a species, are waiting for something to happen that proves irrefutably that it is time for collective action on the matter. On an individual level, the question of ‘What can I do about it?’ is a confusing one. For the most part, environmental movements – in their various manifestations – are stigmatized as awkward and irrationally against the prevailing notion of ‘progress.’ There are governmental, intergovernmental and local government initiatives in place that promote alternative lifestyle choices or habit changes, but, for most people, taking direct action such as marching on Westminster or chaining themselves to power plant gates is a step too far. A palpable sense of change lingers, and yet the will to do so remains for the most part passive.

The scale of the problems that climate change and peak oil present are still, for most, inconceivable, and for others, too large to feel that they can have any kind of tangible positive effect on the matter

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Rob Hokpins, co-founder of the movement

The children’s garden at the Blenheim gardens estate

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Something that may alter the status quo is high on the Transition Town movement’s agenda - peak oil. It is generally referred to as peak oil ‘theory’ and this is because it is not an exact science. The waters on the issue are muddied by the most obvious party, the oil industry; again, for obvious reasons. In a recent interview with the Independent, Dr Faith Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency - an intergovernmental body set up in the wake of the 1974 oil crisis to monitor global production and supply revealed that more than 800 of the world’s major oil fields have passed their peak of production, “One day we will run out of oil.... We have to leave oil before oil leaves us, and we have to prepare ourselves for that day. The earlier we start, the better, because all our economic and social system is based on oil, so to change from that will take a lot of time and money and we should take this issue very seriously.” The issue hits home when you consider the everyday lives of people in the Western world. Our economic model is based on continuous growth, growth that is theoretically linked to the improvement of lives. However, this growth is intrinsically linked to a natural resource that is both worryingly finite and damaging to the environment. Whilst it is extremely difficult to put an exact date on the point where oil production begins its inexorable and inevitable decline, the firm data that does exist suggests that we have either reached the ‘peak’ or are likely to do so in the next decade. In the past 200 years, the population of Earth has ballooned from under 1 billion people to over 6.5 billion and, as American ecological journalist Richard Heinberg has declared, “There are between 2-4 billion people alive today who wouldn’t be if it weren’t for fossil fuels.” With the global population forecast to reach 9 billion by 2040, and with almost 80% predicted to be urban dwellers inside the same decade, questions that have for the last few decades been off the radar, such as ‘Where does my food actually come from?’ are becoming increasingly pertinent. In the past month, the government revealed its ‘Food Security Assessment,’ a document that, in line with UN food production targets

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of increasing global food production 70% by 2050, aims to reduce the UK’s reliance on imports and instead invest in the future of a sustainable, home produced food supply. The situation we live in now is one of cheap abundance. Supermarket shelves groan under the weight of products sourced from far flung corners to meet the demands of globalised palates that pay no heed to the distances their food has traveled, who grows it and whether or not it is in season. Part of the problem with this is that we rely heavily on a transport system that in turn relies on a profusion of cheap fossil fuels. The title of a recent New Economics Foundation paper investigating the “chronic vulnerability” of our oil dependent society, Nine Meals from Anarchy, highlights this problem well.

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When climate change and prohibitively expensive oil force people to look for alternatives to supermarkets, they hope to be a model that communities around the world can adopt

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Facing up to problems like these is an immense task, but it is something that the Transition Town movement feels does not have to involve simply sitting back and saying ‘This is too big – there is nothing I can do about it.’ Instead, the homespun practical solutions on offer by the movement can, they hope, set people on a course, one community at a time, to being more ‘resilient’ in their ability to cope with the potential for oil and climate related problems. The key strategy for going about this is based around what the Transition Town movement calls an ‘Energy Descent Action Plan’ or ‘EDAP.’ The purpose of this is to look into the needs of the community, be it in terms of food, energy, transport or medicine, and to determine how the community would cope in a situation in which the means of sustaining these things disappeared. They use the model of post Soviet supported Cuba as an example. When the USSR, Cuba’s primary sponsor, collapsed, they were left with a situation in which the systems that they relied on to support the population – all linked to the supply of cheap oil – faltered and then failed. After

a period of immense upheaval and hunger, 60% of Havana’s vegetables are now grown in the city. Whilst around 60% of the food we eat is from Britain, our tastes have meant that we now import 95% of our fruit and 40% of our vegetables. A recent Oxfam survey on the origins of our fruit and veg noted that on average, growers in places like South Africa often take only 4% of the profits, and in the UK on average 10% of incomes are spent on food as opposed to almost 70% in most of the developing world. This situation is only set to get worse as the climate gets warmer and viable agricultural land becomes scarcer. Considering facts such as this, it appears to be not only a matter of food security, but almost a moral obligation to mitigate the potential effects of a changed climate by taking as much of the burden off developing nations as possible by looking for solutions at home. For countries such as Britain, it is difficult to envisage a series of events such as those in Cuba. However, during the lorry driver’s dispute over fuel prices in 2000, the UK economy was brought to the brink of collapse. It is situations like this that help focus people’s minds on the things that they take for granted but have little power over. For Hopkins, it is about getting people thinking about the potential for positive outcomes, “Transition Town is about creating stories and helping people visualize a different future. As a culture, we don’t have those stories, stories about what happens when a community responds compassionately and creatively and does something brilliant.” One example of a story currently being authored is Transition Town Brixton. Set in the heart of South London, Brixton is typical of inner city Britain. Whilst there are allotments and people engaged in environmental activities, for the most part, it is difficult for people to envisage a tomorrow that does not look like a carbon copy of today. Central Brixton has a dirge of food outlets - from fast food shops to supermarkets - and it is a prime example of somewhere, when oil becomes prohibitively expensive and the sources of many of our imports dry up (in some cases literally), that will be at a loss to feed itself. Bonnie Hewson, who runs TT Brixton’s ‘Food’ arm, puts the matter in simple terms,

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At the Guinness Trust Estate, getting residents involved is hard, but as member Louise Jordan says ‘The happiness of eating a meal that you’ve grown entirely yourself is beyond compare’

“When it comes down to it, you need to know where your food comes from. It is what we used to spend our entire lives doing – finding our food, and now we have no purpose. Our whole evolutionary history has been that, and all of a sudden it is no longer a priority.”

taking place in their community, it will help create a vision of an alternative future where people have more of input in where the most basic elements essential to their existence come from.

Transition Town Brixton is made up of a range of sub-groups, all filtered through the movement’s collective knowledge and localized focus. These include food, transport, local government, energy and economics. All of these are planned around the community’s needs which are laid out in the EDAP drawn up as part of the process of becoming a ‘town.’ As such, they offer a combined and locally specific strategy that aims to prepare the community by putting in place alternatives to the hyper consumptive, oil-addicted culture that has seemed so natural for the last 50 years.

Facts about your food:

Because the movement is in its infancy, many of the initiatives that are already running look at best, optimistic, and at worst, like screaming into a gale. This, however, is part of the ‘story’ idea emphasized by Hopkins. The idea is simple. However much people cannot fathom making changes to ingrained, addictive behaviour, it is hoped that if they see something positive, visible and accessible

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When it comes down to it, you need to know where your food comes from. It is what we used to spend our entire lives doing – finding our food, and now we have no purpose

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• Food creates 40% of CO2 emissions in the UK • On average UK households waste 1/3 of food bought • UK spends average of 10% income on food, in 1984 it was 16% • UK orchards reduced by 1/3 in the last decade • 1 billion people globally undernourished • 1.6 billion people, mainly in West, overweight • In UK, independant stores close at a rate of 2,000 per day • April 2009 Tesco set record turnover of £1bn per week

One of the elements behind the ‘story’ for Brixton is the introduction of a local currency, the ‘Brixton Pound.’ The scheme has so far worked successfully in Totnes, and in Lewes, East Sussex. Its main purpose is to minimize people’s impact on the environment through keeping their consumption local where possible and to build up ‘resilience’ within their community. By taking the emphasis away from reliance on a supply chain that extends well beyond

our borders, and in some cases our moral horizons, it is hoped that the ‘Pound’ can provide people with more of a connection to the sources of their everyday needs. So far over 50 independent local stores have signed up to the scheme, which begins in September, and it is hoped that the idea catches on and becomes part of other aspects of the movement’s work. One of the most important of these is food. There are several established allotments throughout Brixton, but next to these several projects have started that aim to introduce the growing of food to urban spaces that are at best decorative, and at worst redundant. The projects taking place at Blenheim Gardens and Guinness Trust estates in Brixton are embryonic examples of what the Transition Town movement hope will at first be an example of what can be done to grow food locally. And eventually, when climate change and prohibitively expensive oil force people to look for alternatives to supermarkets, they hope to be a model that communities around the world can adopt. These projects appear idealistic in some ways. However, the reactions from local residents have suggested that there is a growing awareness of the distance between farm and plate, and many have begun to grow basics in their own gardens, or in the converted flower beds and surplus green spaces around the estates. While it is unrealistic to expect these to yield enough to feed a family, it offers both a useful cultural education and a workable model that, mothered by necessity, could become more and more prevalent in the coming years. Grifen Hope, from Transition Town El Manzano in Chile, puts this well, SOCIETY Today Magazine 13

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“We really don’t have a lot of time to keep looking for evidence, it’s time for action. Our critical challenge is to mobilise our people to engage in the design of their own communities as there is nothing more practical to be doing at this point in time than organising your own family and community to build resilience into its daily life.” This sentiment is echoed by groups across the world - from Chile to Japan, Australia, Italy, Ireland, South Korea, Germany New Zealand, the USA and the UK. Each of them have come to the same conclusions about the steps that

need to be taken in the face of problems that our current economic and social model by its very nature only exacerbates. They are doing something that on the surface seems radical, but has in reality has roots in the most fundamental of human endeavors. And in doing so they are taking a step that mounting scientific evidence suggests is a necessary one. It does not involve fighting against anything, it does not involve preaching, proselytizing or pushing against an immovable object, instead, it is doing what you can,

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where you can and when you can – surely the environmental movement for the 21st century consumer?

A fitting slogan on a young helper’s t-shirt

Joseph B Reeves is assistant editor of Society Today

The Brixton Pound - What do local shop owners think?

Patrick Kelly, Bookmongers, Bookshop

Leon Rothera, Honest Foods, Café

Sue Davies, Mango Landin’, Bar

I’ve been here 17 years and I decided to get involved for a couple of reasons. I know Duncan Law from Transition Town, but most of all if nothing else I think it’s a positive thing to try and bring the community together. The traders in Brixton market said that they would all take it on as long as Lambeth council, who talk the green talk, would accept it as rent. It’s hard to say if it will really work, but I can’t make any financial contribution to it beyond setting aside a few hours a day where it’s quiet and ‘Pound’ holders can get a 10% discount. I don’t see what there is to lose.

I’ve been involved in various ways with Transition Town for a while. Everything we serve here is organic and sourced as locally as possible. I think anything that encourages local production and consumption is a good idea.

I try to sell as much Organic produce as possible and get as much as I can locally, but it is very difficult.

Transition Town has its heart in the right place and I think the scheme could do well. A change does need to be made, it seems so strange to be importing things from around the world. When you look at the amount of agricultural land we have it seems absurd to import so much food.

On the practical side, I’m not sure how well it will work. I think it could tap into a growing ‘trend’ of people doing things like this for moral reasons, but I am mainly doing it to do my ‘bit.’ I think there is a core of people in Brixton who will engage with it and use it, but if that will be substantial to make a difference I don’t know. It is direct and definite and as a tool for raising awareness I think it’s great. It doesn’t alienate people and it isn’t tokenism or vagueness.

The Transition Town group has had meetings here and I think that they can encourage people to make it work. People who want to do so will make things happen. I think, however, that when it comes down to it, for most people it is a matter of convenience. Practically, on my side I can see problems. I really want to make it work but I don’t want to turn into a bank for the currency! I will support it though, because I think the Transition Town movement is fantastic. It really shouldn’t be so hard for us to make changes in our lives, because, as far as I can see it is not a case of ‘if ’ but rather ‘when.’

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interview

hen you enter the beautiful Sussex home of Dame Vera Lynn, she and her daughter Virginia immediately make you feel welcome. At 93 years of age, Dame Vera has lost none of her vitality and enthusiasm for life. Born in East Ham, she was hospitalised aged two with diphtheric croup and it was believed she was not going to live. She survived, and started performing onstage at the tender age of seven. Forever remembered as the ‘Forces’ Sweetheart’ for her morale-building role in Burma during the Second World War, the rest, as they say, is history.

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Her work hasn’t stopped. She’s currently president of the British Cancer Research Trust and patron of the London Taxi Benevolent Association for War Disabled. Here she talks to Carole Dwyer about how she believes the recession is bringing back the community spirit experienced during the Second World War, her views on the young of today and her major involvement with another charity, the Dame Vera Lynn Cerebral Palsy Trust.

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“Us Brits are always better when our backs are against the wall ” - Dame Vera Lynn How did you feel about your very first performance? Were you nervous? When I performed on stage, I was always nervous before I went on. I wasn’t nervous in front of the troops though. It was a different kind of performance. What do you think has happened to the spirit of the community we had during the Second Word War?

But it depends on the people themselves and whether they’re willing and able to do something about it, such as bettering themselves or changing their jobs. Then, there were 1 million people unemployed and we thought that was terrible. Do you think people today are prepared to take on any job?

I don’t know, but I think it’s better now than it was a few years ago because people make more of an effort today. Councils are much more interested in getting people together. There are so many things that one can get involved with. Anyone who’s on their own with nobody really doesn’t have a reason to be lonely if they can get out. I think there’s much more community spirit now.

But all you seem to hear about is young people not working, teenagers becoming pregnant, stabbings…. There wasn’t that in your time, was there?

That did happen during the war and, as you said in your first book (Vocal Refrain), we were all fighting the common enemy. Do you think we need something like that today?

Oh yes, I remember the 1920s and 30s because my father was involved with it. He was out of work for a year and just took any jobs he could get. Everybody was in the same boat. They couldn’t fulfil what they were capable of. They took what was there.

Well no. because the ones who are involved in the war are more isolated. It’s only the immediate families. I’m sure they get together and talk because their boys are away. I don’t know whether they have an organisation or something where the parents and wives can get together and talk. But, of course, it’s not on such a large scale as it was during the Second World War. When our war was on you didn’t have to be in the forces, you were brought into the forces. You either volunteered or you were brought in anyway.

Well, I don’t know. I don’t quite agree with that. I mean there’s a lot of youth work going on. Far more than there was before the war.

I think there’s been much more of that since things have got a bit tougher. It’s like the war, when things are tough, people do get together more.

Pre Second World War we had a depression in Britain too, the 1930s?

We’re involved in a war in Afghanistan, but it doesn’t seem to have brought us together as a nation, does it?

Looking at society today generally, what do you think is the solution? Young people today don’t seem to have any motivation.

You say you think the pulling together of society has got better in the last few years. Do you think that has anything to do with the recession?

Well, I think the recession is helping actually. Us Brits are always better when our backs are against the wall.

I don’t know. It depends on how drastic you want to get. People today have had it pretty easy, most of them, for many years.

I think people are coming round to it a bit more. After the war they were so pleased it was all over and everybody had an interest in building everything up again. The 50s was the best period, I think. Business was beginning to pick up and jobs were easier to get. Do you think we need something like another war to make us appreciate what we have?

No, but there were girls getting pregnant and in the East End there were fights and things. It’s not expected today. We kid ourselves that we’re better educated and more fulfilled, that the need is there to have a go at somebody. Why are we like that? It’s not we. It’s not a general thing. There’s always been ruffians in the East End and not just the East End, anywhere. There’s always been villains. I just suppose everybody thinks it should be so different now with the way of living so changed and so much for people to have and to enjoy so they can’t see the reason why there should be the problems. SOCIETY Today Magazine 17

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Do you think we have too much in society nowadays compared to when you were growing up? What isn’t there, you don’t crave for. It just wasn’t there in those days. It’s because it’s there, everybody wants it. What motivates you? What keeps you going? The Dunkirk spirit I suppose, or the Burma spirit, shall I say. When you’ve been in a situation like that and you’ve been among the conditions, whatever you have is better. If you live in a grass hut for a few months and have nothing but buckets and water if it was dropped in, anything’s better than that.. The things we put up with during the war were incredible. How did being awarded the DBE change your life?

No. She’s still fit and capable, so why should she? How did you get on with the Queen Mother when you met her? We were real chums. We were involved with the same charities. We always used to sit together and when Virginia was young we used to talk about her and Prince Charles. Your music brought the troops together during the war. Have we got anything today to bring us together in the same way? Not really. There were a lot of good songs written in the war period like ‘We’ll Meet Again.’ Just good, morale boosting songs. There were some old fogies from the Houses of Parliament who thought the songs should be more military. I had thousands of letters from fans and you can only go by the reaction you get from the majority.

Oh, it didn’t change my life at all. I had the MBE first and I just went on as normal. A title does help my charity work, because it brings your name to the fore. The bigger your name is, the more the charity is helped. When did you first become involved with work for people with cerebral palsy? I got involved in the 1950s. I belonged to an association called SOS (The Stars Organisation for Spastics) supporting cerebral palsy. I just carried on through, helping raise money, and because I helped to raise enough money to buy the school they named it after me. (The Dame Vera Lynn School for Parents, in Billingshurst). It’s in the same grounds as the ordinary school for children with cerebral palsy. It started off with a small handful of children in one room in the main school. We had a holiday home in Bexhill which we found because when we first started it, hotels and boarding houses wouldn’t take the children with cerebral palsy because they thought they were strange. So, the SOS raised enough money to buy a building that had been used as a cookery school and we equipped it out and were able to have children there. It was more for a break for the parents than it was for the children. We had that for quite a few years but then cerebral palsy was being acknowledged by the general public and they were beginning to understand what it was all about. The children were being allowed in hotels and on airplanes which they weren’t before, which meant the holiday home wasn’t used as much as it had been so we decided to sell it. Do you think the Queen should step down and hand over to Prince Charles or Prince William?

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for political purposes. I’m non-political.

If you were a young person today, as you were pre-war, what would you do? I’d do the same thing. What I have, I’d want to utilise it. It just happened to be singing. Today, it would depend on where I’d be allowed to go. Mind you, I wasn’t allowed to go where I went during the Second World War because ENSA (The Entertainment National Services Association) only took me to Chittagong in India. They left me at the mercy of the army because after Chittagong they weren’t responsible for me. The army was going to Burma and they encouraged me. They nearly got me into Kohima, where a big battle was going on, until the authorities stopped them. I was at the bottom of the road that led up to Kohima where the battle was and Dickie Sharp, a BBC war correspondent, said it would be great if I’d come up in the dawn and sing. He had his sound recording machine to record me singing with the battle going on in the background. He asked if I was ‘game for it’ and I said I had to think about this. I thought about it and said: ‘Okay, we’ll take a chance.’ But the adjutant in charge of the camp where I was heard about it and said: ‘No way. She’s a national institution.’ Your new book must bring back many memories. Are they happy or sad? A bit of both. There were two soldiers that I went and sang to in a tent. They were too ill to get out of bed and go into the concert. I visited them in their tent and sang to them. One of them turned up on This Is Your Life, (BBC, October 1957). How they found him, I don’t know. Somebody must’ve traced him. The other soldier died. He didn’t get home, he was too badly wounded. What’s your secret to such a long life?

Do you still have those letters? There was a paper drive and everyone was asked to give in as much paper as they could save and I thought it was wrong for me to keep all those letters in a case underneath the bed when paper was needed. I sacrificed them all. I’m sorry about that. I keep some of the modern ones though. How did you feel about the BNP hijacking ‘We’ll Meet Again?’ I was angry about someone utilising my song

As long as you stay fit and able. I suppose it’s just doing things and getting out of the house. I swim in my pool when it’s warm enough. I went in yesterday. I’ve never smoked. I eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. I don’t eat red meat. And I always say you should never, ever go to bed with your make up on. When I was younger and in cabaret, I used to come home when the milkman started his round and I still always took my make-up off. I still feel capable and will ‘Keep Right on Until the End of the Road,’ (breaks into song).

Carole Dwyer has been a journalist for nearly 30 years and has worked as an editor, sub-editor and reporter for newspapers, magazines and radio, both in the UK and the US. SOCIETY Today Magazine 19

A special night, a special era

Join Dame Vera Lynn at a prestigious “Black Tie” Gala Evening at the

Imperial War Museum, London on Saturday October 10th 2009

The evening will commence with a Champagne Reception in the dramatic surroundings of the WWII Galleries followed by a three course “Best of British” dinner amongst the unique backdrop of the permanent displays in the Large Exhibits Gallery. Guests will then enjoy live entertainment following a charity auction in aid of the Dame Vera Lynn Trust.

Please contact the Trust Office on 01403 780444 for further details.

Visit our website at www.dvltrust.org.uk

regular column

Democracy Thai-style: Horses for courses in the spreading of democracy

emocracy comes in many forms. Neither the bipolar US presidential system nor the adversarial Westminster parliamentary model is a global template, nor should it be. Even in Western Europe, the nature of democratic politics and the institutions at their heart varies widely. Yet the presumption that some form of popular mandate gives legitimacy to political leadership is increasingly the norm around the world, which is why numerous NGOs and quangos exist to share the best democratic practices transnationally. The Electoral Reform Society, for example, not only campaigns for a fairer voting system in Britain but also helps monitor elections abroad and provides expert advice. Similarly, the British government-funded Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) works with the UK’s mainstream political parties to encourage collaboration between them and sister parties in other countries, notably in former Communist states that are coming to terms with the realities of multi-party democracy as well as in developing countries that are in transition away from dictatorship or one-party rule. That is why over the past decade I have found myself (courtesy of WFD and the Liberal Democrats) working on projects in countries as varied as Angola, Egypt, Indonesia and Moldova, and most recently in Thailand. Thailand is a fascinating case of a country that is grappling with conflicting traditions and expectations as its democracy matures. Political passions often spill out onto the streets, with the supporters of different factions helpfully wearing different coloured T-shirts, so no one is in any doubt as to where their loyalties lie. When I was in Bangkok last December, thousands of Yellow Shirts from the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) brought normal life to a standstill by blockading the international airport, calling for the downfall of the then government and the replacement of one-man-one-vote democracy by a sectorial representation system. In Thailand,

Jonathan Fryer

each colour signifies a day of the week and yellow stands for Monday, the birth day of the octogenarian King Bhumibol, who is still considered semi-divine by many Thais. Various members of the royal family were rumoured to be sympathetic to the PAD, as were some retired generals and other establishment figures.

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Thailand is a fascinating case of a country that is grappling with conflicting traditions and expectations as its democracy matures

”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in town, thousands of Red Shirts were agitating for the return of the ousted, exiled multi-millionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was nursing his political wounds in Dubai. If he did return, he would almost certainly be arrested to face corruption charges. But in the event, it was neither the Yellows nor the Reds that carried the day last December. By the time I left, the Blue-shirted supporters of Thailand’s venerable Democrat Party were in the ascendancy and the youthful UK-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva was catapulted into the premiership, thanks to the defection of some formerly pro-Thakisn MPs, giving a new Democrat-led administration a working majority in parliament. The Red Shirts have continued to cry foul ever since and not all the Yellow Shirts are happy either. However, the Blue Shirts are busy trying to consolidate their position and to challenge the political polarisation that characterises Thailand’s political map: Red in the North and Blue in the South. This is quite a challenge for a party whose leadership is almost entirely drawn from the urban elite, the aristocracy and the intelligentsia. Hence my return to Bangkok this August with a colleague from the UK Liberal Democrats to assess how we might work with the Democrat Party of Thailand in areas such as developing campaigning

techniques, enhancing communication (especially through new media) and outreach to youth. This does not mean that the peasant farmers of north-east Thailand are suddenly going to get bombarded with Focus leaflets of the kind British voters are familiar with in areas where the Liberal Democrats are active. The principle of ‘horses for courses’ operates strongly in such collaborative exercises. When one shares experiences and techniques, there is a healthy balance of reactions between ‘Wow, that’s a great idea!’ and ‘that couldn’t possibly work here!’ And of course, the learning process is two-way. Moreover, in Thailand there are certain red lines one cannot cross – and I don’t just mean the ranks of Red Shirts who still turn out from time to time, shouting for Vejjajiva’s demise and Thaksin’s return. One of the central taboos is any criticism of the King. Lese majesté is still a serious crime in Thailand, even resulting in some foreigners getting sent to jail. Anyone can file a police complaint if they think the King’s name has been sullied in any way and there are plenty of people among the Yellow Shirts, in particular, who are in a permanent state of vigilance. Similarly, there are traditional political practices that are difficult to overcome, because they are ingrained in the public consciousness. The Democrat Party is unusual in having any kind of political ideology. Most Thai parties are essentially support systems for very rich individuals who want a share of power and therefore access to making even more money and bestowing patronage. Thailand is by no means unique in that way. Moreover, if we look at past and present political realities in Britain and the USA, we see that pork barrel politics is not just a South East Asian speciality. But as a Western journalist and politician, I am savouring learning more about the particular flavour of democracy Thai-style.

Jonathan Fryer is a writer, lecturer and UK Liberal Democrat politician. SOCIETY Today Magazine 21

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column

The Right to Protest: There are two sides to every story

Security planning for the G20 Summit on 1 April 2009, in London, at the Excel Centre, was a massive drain on Metropolitan Police finances. Their Commander had to make an educated guess as to how many police officers would be needed for thousands of protesters, and how many arrests could be safely and fairly processed in the courts. Police plans were highly secretive and in flux as intelligence and other factors changed. No doubt, a police specialist on crowd control and demonstrations was consulted because police must always remember people’s rights to protest, balanced with the need for security. It became apparent that police weren’t mentally prepared for violence, despite problems at similar demonstrations. Demonstrators’ violence is viewed worldwide as a European phenomenon. Campaigns in Austria in January 1907 resulted in a Bill that extended suffrage to all males aged 20 or over. In October 1907, demonstrations and strikes were held in support of full adult suffrage in Budapest. In November 1970, the Gay Liberation Front held its first public demonstration in Britain. On 21 February 1972, anti-British demonstrators burnt down the British embassy in Dublin. On 26 July 1972, five British Dockers were sentenced to prison terms for contempt of court after refusing to stop the blacking of a container depot at Hackney, London, though they were released on 26 July and on 2 May 1979, riots broke out in Longwy, France, over the proposed closure of steel plants. This catalogue forms only a portion of the instances in which people have used protests to achieve political or other aims. Officers get into trouble at civil demonstrations because they don’t understand subtle physical control techniques. During the G20 protests, line officers and administrators confronted with a major public protest fell short of professional perfection because they didn’t understand the legal demands of this special challenge. The British citizen has protection for free expression and police must safeguard the right to peaceful assembly, but they can place restrictions on demonstrators, i.e. a limit to public speech, and the correlative

right to protest and demonstrate, to a reasonable time, place and manner. Any restrictions placed on demonstrating must be contentneutral, meaning that the restrictions must not only apply to those groups whose message police disagree with. In enforcing a quiet zone around a hospital, for example, police aren’t trying to control the message put forth by demonstrators, but the noise that interferes with people getting well. Any such limitation must be tailored to serve an important interest. The imposition of a restriction has to closely match the reason for it. Limitations must allow for alternatives and if a person or group is restricted from protesting in one place, they should have ample opportunity to demonstrate at another place nearby. The size of a protest group can still be limited by police. If a group of 500 wants to demonstrate in a park that can legitimately accommodate 100, police can stop that demonstration from happening. Police can prohibit a group from focusing on particular residents, and can stop groups from marching through residential neighbourhoods in the middle of the night when the noise would disrupt privacy.

A false arrest is an arrest without probable cause. This can happen easily in a confusing demonstration situation, where there are many people engaged in various types of behaviour and struggling with police. Documenting who in the crowd actually did what is important for police. CCTV is very useful in this instance. The practice of ‘kettling’ at demonstrations arguably deprives protestors of their civil liberties by imposing limitations that make their protest ineffective. The police’s argument is that they are ‘keeping the peace’ whilst the media and the protestors see it as ‘use of force.’ Protestors

Sally Ramage might make an accusation of ‘failure to protect.’ Here the court will look for evidence of a ‘special relationship’ between police and the protesters that gives police an exceptional need to protect. The HMIC report ‘Adapting to Protest’ stated that vulnerable persons should have been allowed to leave the ‘kettling’ pen. Alternatively, police officers at the demonstration might make a claim of ‘failure to protect the employee’ by sending untrained officers to police these protests without proper support, communications or equipment to handle the job, knowing full well that there was potential for harm to these officers. Legally, the media doesn’t have any right of access to any area of public property or to police briefings or planning sessions that the public doesn’t have. If police set up a ‘no-person zone,’ with access barred by a police line, for example, the media has no legal right to cross the line. Sometimes, to cover big events, such as this G20 protest, news helicopters fly over areas where police don’t want them to be. Police may declare the area in question a restricted zone and news pilots who don’t retreat may lose their licenses. Police can charge a group of demonstrators for the cost of policing that demonstration. For instance, if there are 50 National Front men wanting to march down the middle of a High Street in London, say, crossing several intersections, it’s possible to charge them for the service provided by police. These charges would include traffic control officers at each intersection, or the cost of cleaning up after the protest. Police in the past have refused to provide full cover of certain protests. There’s no easy solution to allowing protests to continue. Importantly, police must organise ‘kettling’ or containment, and implement a release plan to allow vulnerable, distressed or innocent persons to exit. There must be basic facilities for the contained crowd and good information available continuously, notwithstanding the recognition of journalists.

Sally Ramage, BA (Hons); MBA; LLM; MPhil; FFA; DA and Editor of “The Criminal Laywer” Tottel. SOCIETY Today Magazine 23

picture of society

Cheap Wheat, Internet and the Russian Freedom!

n 1992, the elder brother of a very good friend of mine in a mountain village in the Himalayas came home from Moscow, Russia. He was tall, dark and handsome and wore a very Russian suit and tie that gave him both pride and prejudice, because they made him very different from anyone he’d come to visit in his motherland. My friend and I talked to him with the great curiosity of little brothers. We asked him lots of questions about his beautiful Russian wife, their mixed race son, and his container of Russian goods- fridge, hairdryers, watches, pens and much more, which looked fascinating for a while, but soon began to seem boring, dull and above all, difficult and inconvenient to use. Before he began selling the items for a much lower price than he’d bought them for back in Russia, in the evenings we asked a lot of questions about Russia, Gorbachev, and the most popular themes of the time “Perestroika” and “Glastnost.” As young minds, my friend and I asked him about why Russian politics, economy and society on the whole failed. He replied that he, as an engineer of hydro-electricity, didn’t know much about politics, though everyone in Russia then had to be a politician. However, he mumbled that the true reason why Russia failed lay in the way Kruschev dealt with the wheat market. According to him, Kruschev, in order to make the farmers happy, bought the wheat for 8 Rubles per kg, in bulk, and sold it to the market for 2 Rubles per kg. The wheat was so cheap that even pigs didn’t eat it properly. This kept going on until Gorbachev came to power. Then, there was no money or resources to deal with the mighty alliance of Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, with their highly productive people in the capitalistic West. The issue I’m outlining here is not only about how all Western States are prototyping the wastefulness in their economic lifestyle these days, but the way the Internet is becoming

24 SOCIETY Today Magazine

like the cheap wheat that held the Russian pride high in the Eighties.

simple benefits bankrupted the whole politics and society of Russia at that time.

In reality, it is extremely costly to maintain, write, produce and publish anything that you would like to do with or on the Internet. Just recently I told an Eton educated IT professional friend of mine why the world is not ready to cope with the technical demands that the Internet puts on people, in proportion to the time it took the world to produce doctors, accountants, engineers, bankers, teachers, businesspeople, artists and writers. To see all these professional people in our society today it has taken hundreds of years and a lot of dedication through thoughts, institutions, experiments and vigorous training in universities. Even after all this, things have gone wrong, and so wrong.

I think Rupert Murdoch has understood the true face of ‘Perestroika’ and ‘Glastnost’ of the Internet jungle now here in the West. He’s declared that he is now charging money to people who would like to read the ‘quality’ contents in his newspapers. He knows these freedom to our determination of Internet ‘Perestroika’ or ‘Glastnost’ have gradually emptied us- for, in the name of fun and joy, we’re consuming cheap Russian wheat of Freedom and then have lost values of everything we hold dear, one after another. Just think, pausing for a minute, getting away from your computer screen, and you will know why I am saying all this.

The Internet has only been around for about 20 years and its eating us all away one after another. These days, whatever our age, we’re hooked on it. The more we’ve relied on it the more shallow we’ve gradually become and the more we’ve lost our plot in life. One of many simple lessons is that we as humans are not ready to ne half sunny, half rainy weekend recently, a friend of mine deal with it the way took me to see the wonderful Lake District from nearby Keswe think we are. It wick, pronounced Kezick. is almost dangerous to think that we’ve On the way we stopped at Windermere Lake and near there the small, benefited from it, beautiful stone cottage where the 18th Century poet William Wordthough it should sworth lived, initially with his sister, Mary, and later with his wife, only have been Anne. left in the hands of professional people. You might have already been to see the cottage as a tourist. When I saw Tell me, how has it, it was instantly clear to me that the place inspired Wordsworth to it benefited you? I write all the great literature he wrote. ask this question to my friends and Firstly, Wordsworth didn’t write his poetry on a computer or a laptop. foes alike. I do see He didn’t even write it in ball pen, which would have been faster than how the Russian what he did use- ink pens or feather pens. farmers who sold their wheat for 8 At that time, there was no electricity or central heating. They have Rubles per kg were none of the modern comforts that people, and writers, are so lucky to benefiting then, have today. Yet Wordsworth wrote so much wonderful poetry. even though their

Dove Cottage or

picture of society

Recession, Recession, Recession, Education, Education, Educationwhat have we learnt? Recession, Recession, Recession! These three words, I find, are almost irksome, similar to the way Tony Blair used Education, Education, Education before he came to power. Just as Tony Blair failed to make us understand the true meaning of his utterance of those three words then, Recession, Recession, Recession! has almost become a simple thing to hear, but a difficult thing to deal with. My question here is not about how good and positive the meanings of ‘Education’ would have been in contrast to the word ‘Recession’ that we’ve become so familiar with, but we’ve lost the true meaning of it by taking it literally. Now, it looks as if there is no way forward to deal with it. While the Government introduced the slogan for Swine Flu- “Catch it, bin it” and we can get some awareness and benefit out of it, they should have been doing the same thing for the Recession a long time ago. We should have been able to bin it a long time before it became a chronic or complicated illness, like Swine Flu when it is not diagnosed on time.

The sneezes of the Recession were taking place in people’s pockets, mortgages and credit card transactions while the City bankers were enjoying feasts and festivals of our financial anomalies. London’s financial centre has been the magnet of greed, bonuses, plumped success and recreation for bankers for decades. The problems lie with the ‘wishy-washy’ executives of the FSA who have unholy infatuations with the bankers and the guzzlers of the bonuses. And the government doesn’t do anything. My question is, what were we, the people, doing when we were beginning to see the declining quality of living and the decline of the productivity required to supplement quality of life. As a society we had lost the plot ages ago when our social and political systems were going loose on the surface and almost ‘communistic’ behind the curtain.

Hom Paribag

I personally don’t blame the people who were losing the plot in terms of quality of life, thoughts and results. We as a society have become far too lazy and less productive because we find the way our state systems and our political affairs are run extraordinarily cumbersome. Our politicians have done nothing substantial to ease our lives in the ways they talk about to the media. They say something in public and seem to forget all about it in the privacy of their offices. Maybe the reason for this is that they are too busy filling in forms in their ministerial departments or even in Parliamentexamples of which come before us often. Maybe we could do better if we, the people, can somehow make sure that our politicians do what they say they’re doing. In this way, we will hit hard those who have stolen our money and productivity.

Hom Paribag is editor and founder of Society Today Magazine

Love Cottage ?

The beautiful, green and serene mountains facing South of his home must definitely have inspired him. They could look like an old witch in disguise when covered by the Cumbrian clouds. He could go near the mountains, ponder and write even when they were bathed in bright sunlight, as if he was awash with Divine inspiration. I wondered how he could write in the cottage, in the cold and dark, without any manmade facilities. Then I realised that the house must have been full of love, since he lived there with his beautiful wife in the divine solitude. His sister, Mary, wrote essays as powerfully as Wordsworth wrote poetry, suggesting that they were all inspired by each other. They all loved nature, the Divine spirit and each other. Not to mention Wordsworth’s friends, who visited constantly, and included Sir Walter Scott and William Beckett. My question is, why is it that we can’t write quality literature, even with everything we need around us? Why can’t we dedicate ourselves to finding our one talent and becoming famous for it? I have found the answer, and that is that we don’t have the spirit when we have everything. I would like you to find your own answers in your solitude and let me know what they are if you want! SOCIETY Today Magazine 25

interaction

Paranoid Parenting: Professor Frank Furedi

n 21st century Britain parenting has become disassociated from childrearing. Increasingly parenting is represented as a skill that is best understood by experts and policy makers and very rarely by mothers and fathers. Nevertheless parents are constantly informed that what they do not only matters but also determines just about every dimension of their children’s lives. The principle feature of Britain’s parenting culture is its embrace of parental determinism. The idea that a child’s life is causally determined by the quality of parenting they receive is regularly communicated by politicians, child professionals and the media. ‘As a parent, you’re a very powerful person’ observes a government publication, Every Parent Matters, before reminding you that ‘how you raise your child will have a profound effect on their whole life.’ In case you missed the point, the report insists that children get better academic results and have fewer behavioural problems when their parents get involved in their schooling. Potentially errant fathers are told that a dad’s interest in his child’s schooling is strongly linked to academic success. Advocates of parental determinism tend to overlook the influence of socio-economic and cultural factors on the well-being and life chances of children. From this perspective, good parenting mediates the effects of poverty and other difficult circumstances. And if recent policy documents are to be believed, parenting is, even causally, deterministically related to a variety of outcomes for children. There is a perceptible trend towards displacing socio-economic based explanations for people’s life-course by a highly individualised focus on parenting behaviour. So whereas previously differential educational outcomes were explained through pointing to the significance of class or differential access to 26 SOCIETY Today Magazine

Is the institutionalisation of a basic human relationship creating more problems than solutions?

social and cultural capital, the emphasis has shifted towards upholding the significance of the quality of parenting as the key variable. So it is not being poor, but poor parenting that is held to account for why children are ill prepared for school. Take a study published last year by Professor Jane Waldfogel from Columbia University. The study accepts that children from poor families are less well prepared for school than those from better circumstances, but then goes on to conclude that up to half of these differences in the US and the UK were due to poor parenting and home environments. Waldfogel claimed that ‘what surprised her the most’ was the extent to which the quality of parenting had an impact on the ability to learn. It is worth noting that the displacement of socially linked causation by that of parental behaviour represents a fundamental shift from a sociological to a moralistic explanation of developments. Typically, the Waldfogel study was reported under the headline ‘Bad parents “widen ability gap”’ by BBC News. The category of the ‘bad parent’ is invariably detached from any specific socially comprehensible context. Parental deficits are depicted as moral failures that are not confined to any particular class of adults. So a Cambridge University study commissioned by the NUT discovered that ‘bad behaviour in schools is being fuelled by “overindulgent” parents who don’t know how to say no to their children.’ The main accomplishment of this moralising imperative is the normalisation of the state of parenting deficit. A powerful illustration of the project to normalise the idea of parental incompetence is provided by ‘A Good Childhood; Searching for Values In A Competitive Age,’ a report commissioned by the Children’s Society and produced by the Good Childhood Inquiry earlier this year. This report offers a very dark representation of the state of childhood in contemporary Britain. It states that the ‘UK fares exceptionally badly in bringing about the wellbeing of its children’ and suggests that this has little to do with social and economic factors. ‘While elsewhere in Europe

there seems to be some correlation between a nation’s wealth and the wellbeing of its children, the UK is a notable exception,’ it concludes. Inevitably the finger of blame is pointed at the parent. Apparently parents are either too incompetent or too selfish to give children enough attention. The tendency to inflate the problem of the parenting deficit is the inevitable consequence of the dogma of parental determinism. Once parenting is conceptualised as unimaginably important and incalculably so significant that it requires special skills and qualities, it is unlikely that normal mothers and fathers could possiibly possess the resources to perform this job.

“

Government Ministers continually tell us that parenting is no longer a no-go area for government and opposition party leaders echo this sentiment

”

The ideology of parental determinism is actively promoted by both experts and policy makers and underpins one of the most disturbing developments in the realm of social policy – the politicisation of parenting. Parenting is no longer an activity that is informally practiced by mothers and fathers. It has become an issue for public deliberation and policy innovation. Judging by recent comments by politicians and policy initiatives announced by the New Labour Government virtually every social problem can be solved through the institutionalisation of good parenting. Government Ministers continually tell us that ‘parenting is no longer a no-go area for government’ and opposition party leaders echo this sentiment.

interaction

“

The quality of children’s lives and their future prospects is influenced by many variables other than the behaviour of their parents

illustration by Zanc © 2009 Parent blaming has become a popular pursuit of the political class. Their policy failures – particularly in the domain of education – are frequently blamed on the slothful parent. ‘It’s no good blaming schools for deteriorating behaviour among young people when parents all too often set such an appalling example themselves,’ stated Tim Collins, a former Conservative spokesman on education. In this case, censuring parents appears a sensible alternative to blaming schools. Ed Balls, the Labour Government’s Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, takes a similar view, stating that ‘parents should face up to their responsibilities’ and be penalised if they don’t.

”

One final point. The very concept of parenting skills obscures the essence of a child-parent relationship. The main objective of recasting the conduct of human relationships as sets of skills is to encourage the professionalising of parenting. Once a unique relationship between child and parent is recycled as a skill, it becomes a suitable target for formulaic intervention. But at a high price, for one of the main outcomes of the intervention of professional experts into the domain of childrearing is to impair the confidence of mothers and fathers. Worse still it empowers the expert and policy maker at the expense of the authority of the parent. Experience shows that sharing authority with experts is actually a disincentive to responsible parenting. And that is definitely not good for our children.

The association of parenting with such omnipotent and grave consequences has the perverse consequence of disorienting family life. It breeds parental insecurity and leads to a situation where mothers and fathers lose faith in their ability to do what’s right for their children. That parents exercise enormous influence over their children is not in doubt – but they do so not simply through their so-called parenting skills but as members of a distinct cultural, social and ethnic community. The quality of children’s lives and their future prospects is influenced by many variables other than the behaviour of their parents.

Frank Furedi is a Professor of Sociology at the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent. He has published widely about controversies surrounding issues such as health, children, food and new technology. In recent years Professor Furedi has been exploring the way that fear has come to dominate public discussions in Western societies. His Politics of Fear: Beyond Left and Right, published in September 2005, explores the crisis of meaning afflicting the West. His next book – Wasted: Why Education Isn’t Educating - questions the way society educates children and young people. It will be published on 29 September by Continuum. SOCIETY Today Magazine 27

society catch

Cartoonist Dave Lupton

artooning is becoming an increasingly popular form of artistic expression. According to cartoonist Dave Lupton, this is because “people relate to the simplicity of cartooning. Cartoons can also seem less threatening than any other medium and you can often get a serious message across by wrapping it in a humorous drawing.” Here, Dave speaks to Society Today about his colourful career and the creation of his two alter egos.

Dave has created two very different alter egos for himself. One of these is known as ‘Crippen-Disabled Cartoonist.’ Dave first created Crippen “after a car accident about 20 years ago which resulted in my becoming a wheelchair user.” Although Dave has now, literally, found his feet again, Crippen still regularly creates cartoons based on Disability Rights issues. Dave says the highlight of Crippen’s career so far has been the inclusion of his weekly blog on a website called Disability Arts Online. However, he feels “a sadness” because he says he will never be able to make a living by focusing on creating cartoons based on disability, as the groups and organisations for which he usually creates such cartoons do not usually have much money. He remembers using his favourite cartoon by Crippen (left) during a presentation he gave to fellow disabled people and medical professionals. He says “The other disabled people in the audience just howled with laughter whilst the professionals didn’t know quite what to do.”

Dave was born, 62 years ago, in Ryde on the Isle of Wight. He now lives in a far more exotic location, “a lovely little village called Tijola which is in the foothills of the Alpujarra Mountains in Southern Spain.” He has “always” created cartoons, ever since his schooldays, when his creations were included in school magazines. As an adult, he created cartoons for local newspapers and magazines at first, then eventually began submitting ideas to national papers. He says that he still receives more rejections than acceptances. 28 SOCIETY Today Magazine

Dave’s second alter ego, Sox, creates cartoons based on issues which are more relevant to able bodied people. Sox, says Dave, “just happened” about 25 years ago while Dave was creating cartoons for London Zoo. He “was probably thinking about something else at the time,” he recalls, because instead of signing the cartoons with his original signature, ‘Del,’ he wrote Sox. He says “it just slipped out.” One of Sox’ career highlights so far has been a collaboration with Helen, Dave’s daughter, in the production of an anti-drug book that she now uses as part of drug awareness lectures to schoolchildren. Dave’s favourite cartoon by Sox (below right) is included in this book. Dave thinks this cartoon “carries quite a

powerful message for young people who are considering experimenting with drugs.” As Sox, Dave says, “I sometimes have a problem accepting work from bigger organisations who might not be as ethical as I would like.’ However, he says, he usually rationalises this by using the money he earns to support his work as Crippen. Currently, Crippen is working on a cartoon story of the Social Model of disability, and Sox is developing some ideas for the UK Green Party. In five years, Dave would like to see “the Crippen side” of his career grow enough to allow him to create more free work for groups and organisations of disabled people. Dave has two favourite cartoonists: Steve Bell from the Guardian newspaper and Eddie Freeman, a disabled cartoonist living in the UK whose work appears in the monthly magazine Disability Now. Away from cartooning, Dave has a busy social life with his wife, Jeni, and their family and friends in both Spain and the UK. He plays “an assortment of percussion instruments” and takes lots of photographs. And, he says, his grandchildren keep him feeling young at heart.

words by Sarah Ismail

regular column

Respect!

The media needs to know its own power

s a trustee of an organisation that holds an annual conference for sixth form students on a wide range of topics relating to “the rule of law,” it is a challenge to find speakers with whom a young audience can relate. I have taken to casually asking teenagers who they admire, who they might regard as role models? Invariably the answer is some “personality” from popular culture; a sportsperson, a fashion designer, a musician or an actor or media presenter. Not once has it been a politician, a philanthropist, a teacher or, sadly, a parent. I did get quite excited when my thirteen-year-old daughter said “My older sister,” but then, after a pause she added, “for her fashion sense!” It is not an easy question - ask it of yourself. We are bombarded with information from multiple forms of media, competing for our attention, and feeding us with up to the minute trivia about what the “personalities of the moment” are up to. It has now got to the stage that these people, not content with the saturation coverage they receive from the paparazzi, have taken to twittering their followers directly. It is a sad fact that there are millions of people who are interested to know that a soap star is shopping for groceries – right now, at this very moment. Not only has the soap become an integral part of our lives but the actors have, too.

We are bombarded with information from multiple forms of media, competing for our attention, and feeding us with up to the minute trivia about what the ‘personalities of the moment’ are up to Such close involvement in the lives of such people leads to empathy, and then it is only a short step to adopting their attitudes and opinions – they have become our role models.

It is not that genuine selfless acts of courage or good citizenship of the type that might attract admiration go unreported. Rather it is the sensationalist saturation media coverage of celebrities that has diluted our awareness of such acts that would otherwise provide us with worthy role models. When such deeds do attract media coverage they often capture public interest and a groundswell of support can result. It is this that has encouraged “ordinary people,” who, often through chance, find themselves the focal point of a campaign with full media support. Many charities have been born from such circumstances, and much good has been done by them. We live in an age of unprecedented personal freedom and a free press is not just a symptom but also a principal cause. Never has the media been more powerful than it is today. The authority of the Anglican Church has been undermined by an, albeit uncoordinated, three pronged attack. Weakened by a more sceptical and questioning public, distracted by material aspirations, and presented with a wide variety of choice – from new age mysticism to Islamic fundamentalism, or just plain atheism – the Church’s, or any church’s, moral authority has become significantly diluted.

Never has the media been more powerful than it is today Respect for politicians is at a particularly low ebb. Many schoolteachers, however able and dedicated they may be, face a daily battle to command the respect that would have been automatic in any other age. The cumulative effect over more than one generation of the breakdown of the “nuclear family,” leading to often complex relationships between parent effect over more than one generation of the breakdown of the “nuclear family,” leading to often complex relationships between parents and children, has undermined parental authority,

Iain McWhirter in many cases. Technology, particularly the mobile phone and the Internet, has allowed the rising generation an enormous degree of independence. Children today, from an increasingly young age, are subject to a vast, broad and varied bombardment of opinions and influences. It is intense and it is relentless. How can a parent compete for the attention of their children against this multi-media onslaught? What chance do they have of instilling their values over such a deafening noise?

As the media matures into its current role as the most powerful influence on setting our collective values, it would surely be doing us a great service if it acknowledged that responsibility So, it is the media that has grown stronger as other sources of influence have grown weaker. With that power comes responsibility. As the media matures into its current role as the most powerful influence on setting our collective values, it would surely be doing us a great service if it acknowledged that responsibility. The media can discover and promote a new generation of role models for our children, for all of us. Let us see more sportsmen and women who play by the rules rather than try and circumvent them; more teachers and communicators that radiate infectious enthusiasm for knowledge; more parents who have succeeded in guiding their children to become successful parents themselves, and more heroes who have fought adversity and triumphed. Let’s have more positive role models to inspire us. They are all there, they always have been. We just need the media to bring them into focus.

Iain McWhirter is a trustee of The McWhirter Foundation SOCIETY Today Magazine 29

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competition

WIN! Poet of the month

ords can paint the pictures of our imaginations. They form our ideas. Ideas influence the way we think. Thinking determines our personalities and our personality determines who we are and how we live - so say many great philosophers of humanity.

Please have a look at this picture - look at it in detail. Pause for a moment, reflect on how it affects you and try to gather yourself creatively. Now express your thoughts in a poem of up to 10 lines If you are satisfied with your poem, send it to Society Today Magazine’s ‘Poet of the Month’ competition at the postal address below. The Editor’s favourate poem will be published in the magazine next month with the winner receiving a copy of either Strangled Silence by Oisin McGann, published by Piatkus or Disconnected by Nick Barham, published by Telegram

Please send your entries to: Poetry Competition, Societ Today Magazine 17 - 21 Wyfold Road, London, SW6 6SE Alternatively ,you can email us at: editing@society-today.com Please state your name, address and which of the two books you would prefer. Entries must be received by 17th September

The winner of last month’s competition is Suchitra Chatterjee from Brighton who wins Nawal El Saadawi – The Fall of the Imam published by Telegram books for this poem entitled ‘A Rose’s Kiss’

A Rose’s Kiss When Amina Mir is offered work experience at a newspaper, she thinks she‘ll just be making the coffee. But things get interesting when she’s sent to interview Ivor MacMorris.

What lies behind The roses in our lives Sweet scents, fragile petals Hidden thorns to make you bleed Such beauty as held in the eye of the beholder Which can deceive with a beguiling kiss of ethereal beauty What is delicate can endure

Nick Barham spent a year travelling the UK talking to British kids. If you want an idea of where the next generation is going, Disconnected is essential reading.

What endures has strength For good, for evil, for love, for hate In what lies behind the secrets in all our lives…

SOCIETY Today Magazine 31

feature

Iranian demonstrators gather behind democratic hope: Camp Ashraf and the exiled opposition

As a generation calls for democratic change on the streets of Tehran, Hossein Abedini looks at the problems faced by exiled opposition group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, in their temporary home in Iraq.

ran’s Presidential elections in June of this year, and the subsequent mass protests, demonstrated a society much divided. These divisions have centred on a population, of whom 70% are under the age of 30, growing dissatisfied with a regime which does not provide them with the most basic of freedoms. At the front line of this dissatisfaction undoubtedly lies the female population of Iran, who have since the 1979 revolution been at the receiving end of the regime’s brutality. An Iranian Presidential campaign is a lengthy exercise of jumping through hoops to satisfy the strict requirements expected of any Presidential candidate. Having at the outset started with over 4,000 candidates, the unelected Guardian Council vetted each one, dwindling the tally down to just a few. Soon after start of the elections, it became clear that this was a direct battle between the ordinary Iranian people, who want freedom, and the totality of this regime. The world community has seen all too vividly, through images such as that of the death of the young girl Neda Agha Soltan, shot dead by Bassij forces at an Iranian demonstration, that Iranians are now laying their lives on the line for freedom and democracy. Such images and such deaths are now the inspiration for a new generation of Iranians.

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At the front line of this dissatisfaction undoubtedly lies the female population of Iran, who have since the 1979 revolution been at thereceiving end of the regime’s brutality

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The demonstrations within Iran have entered their second month and there is little sign that the Iranian people are going to let up on their calls for democratic change. 32 SOCIETY Today Magazine

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feature

The demonstrations within Iran have entered their second month and there is little sign that the Iranian people are going to let up on their calls for democratic change

Slynn of Hadley QC, former Lord of Appeal and judge at the European Court of Justice, Lord Waddington QC, former Home Secretary and Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, Chairman of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom, took the UK government to court in an unprecedented legal battle, which brought about a historic victory for the PMOI. Former UK Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, alongside a Court of Appeal panel, labelled the ban on the PMOI “perverse.”

Although the demonstrators have been attacked by the Iranian regime’s notorious Bassij force as well as the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (IRGC), the demonstrations have continued and the stance of those has grown more forceful by the day. Although initial chants at the protests were “Where is my vote?” these quickly developed to “Down with the dictator.”

Having failed to maintain the ban on the PMOI and with the regime’s misinformation campaign now dead in the water, the regime once again resorted to targeting Camp Ashraf with direct violence. In February of this year, Ayatollah Khamenei, in a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, demanded that Iraq immediately close down the Camp and return the residents to Iran.

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The Iranian regime, baffled by the growing intensity and force of the protestors, has struggled to find a solution. As it has done throughout its recent history, when this Iranian regime was faced with massive internal dissent it turned its attentions to the largest Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI), based at Camp Ashraf, Iraq. The Iranian regime’s attacks on the PMOI have taken many forms over the years, including misinformation campaigns alongside direct assaults against the group. Some of the accusations made against the PMOI have included allegations that the group supported Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war as well as the suppression of Kurds and Shias within Iraq. Further accusations have included human rights abuses at Camp Ashraf. However, all of these have been proven false in the courts of the UK and the EU. This legal battle centred on an unjust terror label against the PMOI. For a number of years the Iranian regime had used this tag to justify the torture and execution of scores of Iranians. However following a lengthy legal battle, this justification was annulled by a group of 35 MPs and Lords. The PMOI had initially been labelled as terrorist by the UK and EU governments in a vain attempt to curry favour with the Iranian regime. The 35 MPs and Lords, which included the late Lord

With 120,000 members and supporters of this regime having already been executed by them, there can be little doubt that, were this action to take place, the Camp’s residents would face similar reprisals in Iran’s notorious prisons.

Ashraf. In an assault which involved over 2,000 Iraqi soldiers, the residents were attacked with axes, chains, machetes, water cannons, planks of wood containing embedded nails and live ammunition. The prolonged attack left 9 residents dead, over 500 injured and 36 detained, facing an unknown fate in Iraqi prisons.

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The Iranian regime failed to note one major point when it ordered this attack: that the death of one martyr creates a thousand more martyrs

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Although the attack was carried out in a public and aggressive manner, it seems to have done little to quell the Iranian people’s democratic ambitions and seems to have in fact unified the Iranian people behind the Camp Ashraf residents and their hope of a free and democratic Iran. It quickly became clear that the safety and security of Camp Ashraf was intertwined with Iran’s democratic hopes. The Iranian regime failed to note one major point when it ordered this attack: that the death of one martyr creates a thousand more martyrs.

Camp Ashraf has, for over 20 years, been home to members of the PMOI who have dedicated their entire lives to bringing freedom and democracy to their homeland. The 3,500 residents have long been a thorn in the side of this Iranian regime, as the democracy and freedom which Camp Ashraf embodies is the greatest threat to this regime’s existence. However, on 28 July 2009, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, seeing his Iranian backed Shiite party losing by a landslide in council elections, in a faint hope to regain his votes in the next elections, answered the calls of Ayatollah Khomenei of Iran by ordering an attack against the unarmed residents of Camp SOCIETY Today Magazine 33

feature

Whether blood has been spilt on the streets of Iran or on the streets of Camp Ashraf, these actions will do nothing but increase the Iranian people’s devotion towards establishing a democratic Iran where equality and freedom prevails ahead of dictatorial control. Across the world Iranians gathered in support of the Camp’s residents, demanding the immediate intervention of the US authorities as well as the UK government and international human rights organisations. Many of the demonstrators who had family and friends at Camp Ashraf went on hunger strikes which lasted for several weeks. The US authorities have a direct responsibility under international law to protect the residents of Camp Ashraf, as each and every resident has “protected persons” status under the Fourth Geneva Convention. This legislation demands that the US authorities guarantee the safety and security of the Camp’s residents.

It is clear that the Iranian people’s democratic movement is well and truly in full flow, and led by the charismatic Maryam Rajavi, presidentelect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, (NCRI), there can be little doubt that freedom and democracy will soon become a reality rather than the distant dream that it once was. Mrs Rajavi has for a number of years now been the greatest inspiration for a generation of women who have had to suffer under the gender inequalities inherent to the current regime. A woman leading their opposition movement for democratic change gives them hope for what Iran can look like in the future. The NCRI is a parliament in exile which contains groups and individuals from all spectrums of political and religious belief as well as ethnic backgrounds, the greatest embodiment of what a true democracy should look like. With the leadership of Rajavi the organisation has now become a viable option for solving the crisis surrounding the Iranian regime.

As the world searches for a solution to the developing crisis surrounding the Iranian regime, its support for terrorism and its nuclear weapons programme, they would do well to look no further than the streets of Camp Ashraf and those of Tehran which have in recent weeks become so intertwined. Neither war nor continued appeasement will achieve the democracy that the Iranian people desire. Therefore, the international community must support the recent uprising in Iran and the first step in doing so is the protection of Camp Ashraf, which has for so many years been the hope of a people savaged by their leaders. Mrs Rajavi’s third option of democratic change by Iranians, for Iranians is the solution that the international community must now put its weight behind.

Hossein Abedini is a freelance journalist from the UK

Facts about Iran • Population of 72 million • Became an Islamic Republic in 1979 • 1/2 of population under 25, 2/3 under 30 • GDP $842 billion (2008) • Oil accounts for 80% of export earnings • Produces 10th of the world’s oil • Universal Suffrage from 18 years old • Literacy rate of 79% •Average life expectancy of 69

34 SOCIETY Today Magazine

Lecture To Be Held In Memory of Murdered GP An annual lecture for doctors who are in training to become GPs has been organised in memory of a woman who was murdered on honeymoon with her husband. Just over a year since Ben and Catherine Mullany, both 31, were shot in Antigua, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust, which she worked for, has arranged the talk along with the Neath Port Talbot GP vocational training scheme. The first Dr Catherine Mullany Annual Memorial Lecture will be delivered by recently retired consultant paediatrician Dr Dewi Evans. He said: “Catherine was working in our paediatric department when she died, and we wanted to do something positive in her memory. Following discussions with the GP training scheme at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, we agreed to launch an annual lecture in her name.” The lecture will take place at Neath Port Talbot hospital post-graduate centre lecture hall on Tuesday, 15 September, at 4pm.

Reporting in the journal Nature, the researchers said that marine animals of many shapes and sizes contributed to ocean turbulence. Charles Darwin, grandson of the famous British naturalist, first discovered that animals stir up the oceans over 50 years ago. The influence of this “biogenic” or “Darwinian” mixing on the ocean environment has been under debate since then. The wind and tides play a big part in mixing the oceans, but this study suggests that the role of biogenic mixing could be more significant than previously thought.

However, the exhibit, part of an exhibition about sexuality at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art, was the subject of protest. Christian groups complained that visitors were writing obscene messages. The Bible will remain on display in a glass case and the public will be able to write their comments in another book alongside. Sheets from this book will then be inserted in the Bible by curatorial staff. Ms Clarke, who devised the exhibit, is a minister with the Metropolitan Community Church, which has a specific outreach to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.

Jellyfish Help To Stir The Ocean

Researchers John Dabiri and Kakani Kaija from the California Institute of Technology have found that jellyfish help to stir up the ocean as they move. Using a green dye, they showed how the animals’ umbrella-shaped bodies were a key factor in this mixing. The distribution of heat, nutrients and chemicals helps maintain the marine environment and has an important influence on global climate.

The £110m Ridley Scott remake of Robin Hood also stars Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian and is to be released in 2010.

Get Cracking With The Great Gap Year Charity Workers Nut Hunt! Urged To Stay At Home To Prevent Swine Flu

Young Britons should stop doing charity work in developing countries in case they take swine flu with them, a Department of Health adviser on the virus has urged. Idealistic young people may want to do good by building schools and teaching children in places like sub-Saharan Africa but it is their moral duty to stay at home, says Professor Robert Dingwall. “What’s the point of going to a village and helping to build a school if the child population of the village is decimated by swine flu because you have brought it with you?”

Invite To Deface The Bible Withdrawn An artist who created a piece of art in which visitors were encouraged to deface a copy of the Bible has asked for it to be put in a glass case. Jane Clarke, who is herself a Christian, had said she wanted people who felt marginalised to be able to write their stories back into the Bible.

news in brief

The actor, 45, then chatted to staff inside while on a break from shooting.Manager Julia Deane told the BBC: “He comes to the cafe next door because he’s filming nearby.” She said: “He just came into the shop and the lady at the till was serving someone else at the till. “She didn’t recognise him. He asked if we took donations and she told him that we do in the back of the shop.“She gave him the book to fill in his name and he wrote Russell Crowe.”

The rare hazel dormouse – easy to miss if you aren’t looking This October, members of the public are being asked to help save the rare hazel dormouse by taking part in a nationwide survey of woodlands around the country. The Great Nut Hunt enlists the help of the public to ferret out gnawed nuts to determine the distribution and numbers of this rare woodland mammal. It is run by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and supported by Natural England. To encourage would-be ‘nutters’ to participate, PTES has hidden 21 specially-commissioned nuts, 20 in silver and one in gold, across England and Wales. PTES Chief Executive Jill Nelson said: “The survey uses simple techniques requiring no specialised skills, making the Great Nut Hunt a fun activity for young and old ‘nutters’ alike as well as an ideal. amily expedition.” To take part in the Great Nut Hunt 2009, which runs from October 2009 until March 2010, register online at www.ptes.org/greatnuthunt.

Crowe Cares Hollywood star Russell Crowe visited a Berkshire charity shop where he made a £1,000 donation.The Oscar-winning actor, who is filming Robin Hood, walked into the Cancer Research UK shop in Sunningdale, near Ascot and joined a queue.

Poorer health among locals, especially those with immune systems weakened by HIV and Aids, meant that many people might die if the pandemic was brought into their community, says Dingwall, a member of the Department of Health’s committee on ethical aspects of pandemic influenza. Britain has one of the highest recorded rates of swine flu worldwide.

Government Advice Urges ‘Tweeting’ New government guidance has been published urging civil servants to use the social networking site Twitter. Launched on the Cabinet Office website, the 20-page document calls on departments to “tweet” on “issues of relevance or upcoming events.” The website is already used by Downing Street, the Foreign Office and many MPs. Neil Williams, of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, published the “template” strategy. Writing on the Cabinet Office’s digital engagement blog, Mr Williams- BIS’s head of corporate digital channels - conceded that 20 pages was “a bit over the top for a tool like Twitter” but added: “I was surprised by just how much there is to say - and quite how worth saying it is.” The advice says BIS should produce between two and 10 tweets per day, excluding live coverage of a crisis or event.More than one million people follow Downing Street’s business via Twitter. SOCIETY Today Magazine 35

poetry

Jack Underwood

Fiona Benson

Weasel

The Calm

So Weasel, it has come to this;

We should have known, the dogs all gone,

to your thighs like tall glasses of milk,

and the cats, and the sea sucked back like that,

your biscuit hair, eyes that are like any kind of deep water. It has come to those coiled, snaking guts

holding its breath… but, hung-over and at a loose end we were messing around,

we had when we were younger still –

prodding at the bellies of the bloat ﬁsh that had beached

those balled-up sock guts of an afternoon

to make them inﬂate; there were ﬂeets of them,

stolen back from college.

liver and tan, their taut skins shimmering, blown.

It has come to the spastic, ticking urges rising through skin at the simplest repositioning of your weasel hips,

Jellyﬁsh lay, blistering in the sun. Translucent crabs surged inland.

or the one in twenty-seven kisses

About a mile on, that ﬁnal sign:

I might land about your mouth,

Sea-urchins nesting in their own dropped spines.

of the right temperature and diction. Was I even hungry once for eating? Were you ever not the end to all fasts?

Jack Underwood

was born in Norwich in 1984. He graduated from Norwich School of Art and Design in 2005 and is currently studying towards a PhD in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College, where he also teaches English Literature. He is a librettist, musician and co-edits the anthology series Stop Sharpening Your Knives. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 2007. He lives in Hackney.

Fiona Benson

is an Anglo-Scottish writer currently living in Exeter with her husband James. She was educated at Trinity College Oxford and then St Andrews University, where she completed the MLitt in Creative Writing and a PhD on Ophelia as a dramatic type in early modern drama. She received an Eric Gregory award in 2006 and is working on her first book of poems.

Funded by Arts Council England, the Faber New Poets programme is an exciting new venture whose aim is to create a culture of support for select new poets at pre-first collection stage. By offering a tri-partite package of financial assistance, mentorship and pamphlet publication by Faber, the scheme intends to provide care and direction to four talented new stars in 2009, with four similar awards to be made in 2010. In 2009, the awarded poets are Fiona Benson, Heather Phillipson, Toby Martinez de las Rivas and Jack Underwood. The Faber New Poets Pamphlets are published on 8th October, National Poetry Day, £5 each. For more details visit www.faber.co.uk

36 SOCIETY Today Magazine

author introduction

The Alternative Guide to Indian Culture

his, my first foray into writing, is a sarcastic yet nostalgic look at British Asian life. I have referenced my own childhood memories in describing classic elements of Asian culture by way of short, sharp and very slightly sweet theories.

vibrant. Each theory is laced with a degree of lateral sarcasm which displays a real affection for British Asian culture. My personal thoughts are meant to enable Asian readers to identify with me and embrace Asian culture with a reminiscent smile.

Some theories, such as why some Asians say ‘racialist’ instead of ‘racist,’ are left unexplained. It is clear that some cannot be deciphered, but my observations will hopefully make you celebrate the very nuances that make British Asian culture extremely rich and

How difficult is it? I can’t possibly imagine an English guy saying ‘Bal—, b—, erm is it alright if I call you Dave? We have another Asian guy called Dave on the shop floor. We can call him Dave One and you Dave Two. Sorted!’ I love listening to first generation Asian relatives speak English. Everyone has relatives who use singular terms instead of plural and vice versa. Imagine an uncle asking his two kids before ordering drinks at a restaurant, ‘Hey, Bunti, you want Cokes? Moona, you want Cokes? That’s two Coke thanks.’

The book is humorous because it describes not only the stereotypical aspects of Asian life- arranged marriages, Bollywood and the high academic expectations of parents-but also explains why Asian women collect, store and deal in plastic Tupperware boxes as if they are high-risk narcotics. Comparing the inner sanctum of the ‘Tupperware cupboard’ present in every Asian woman’s kitchen to that of a temple, and how such Tupperware transit between families is similar to that of drug dealing is fascinating. I even delve into discussing Asian fashion by describing Shell Suits as the cornerstone of Asian family life, given that “every member of your family could wear one, at the same time.” I don’t hold back in reminding you of someone in your family who wore flip-flops or Brogues with their snot-green nasty nylon waterproofs. Some of the other ‘alternative’ topics I enjoy discussing are why Asians are so fixated on building palatial extensions to their homes and why “saag” (curry) tastes better the next day. I just wanted to sarcastically unravel some mysteries of British Asian life that have baffled and frustrated me for some time. I wanted to add my own thought provoking ‘masala’ into theories which Asians clearly recognise and celebrate. Using analogies that cross over between British and Asian life is what I find most amusing, for example affectionately comparing the monetary donation from a brother to his sister on Raksha Bandhan to that of an annual tax discussed in the Chancellor’s budget. I hold British Asian culture close to my heart in this book.

Amit Rajp

What really gets me going is when Asian people ‘Asianise’ everyday English vocabulary. I always thought my uncle referred to IKEA (pronounced ‘ee-kee-aa’) as a country in the Indian subcontinent where you could purchase a wide range of flat-pack wooden furniture at affordable prices. Our beloved ‘racialism/racialist’ example rears its ugly head yet again. I still can’t figure that one out. Nothing beats the many phrases that Asian men say to describe how well they’re doing. A Ravi Shankar–like upward wrist movement normally accompanies these phrases: ‘firstclass,’ ‘tip-top,’ and ‘set.’ Classic or what?

I have never understood why Asian people give themselves English names that are nowhere near linked to their own. ‘My name is Baljit, but everybody calls me Gary.’ Who decides on these names? Is it by non-Asians that can’t pronounce the name ‘Baljit’, or is there a new pseudo religion called ‘Indoenglish.’ where Asians with unpronounceable names get baptised in a font of Indian cooking oil and given a surreal English alternative? I think Asians do this to make life easier for English people who always seem to mispronounce and mess up their names.

Finally, why can’t Asians pronounce words beginning with the letter ‘Y’? Common words include ‘yeah’ (pronounced as ‘jeh’) and ‘you’ (pronounced as ‘juu’). What’s that all about? The translated word ‘jungesters’ for ‘youngsters’ is my favourite. Some Asians originating from East Africa can’t pronounce any word which includes the letter ‘V.’ I don’t understand. To see if you are one of these Asians, read this sentence out aloud: ‘Vol au Vents are vivacious, voluptuously velvet and very vibrant said Venkatesh Vivavarty whilst driving his Volkswagen.’ Dr Amit Rajp is a first time author. He has previously completed Medical School and taught at a grammar school in Birmingham. ‘My Name Is Baljit But You Can Call Me Gary: The Alternative Guide To Indian Culture’ is available for purchase online and at all good bookstores. SOCIETY Today Magazine 37

books

reviews

God’s Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science By James Hannam Published by Icon Books, ISBN: 9781848310704 £11.00 06.08.09

he author of a non-fiction book should not just be aiming to pass on information, but also to encourage curiosity about their subject. Some topics are more likely than others to inspire immediately. A book with such an esoteric title as God’s Philosophers would not, on the face of it, be attractive to a large readership. However, because of its lucid, jargon-free style, this history of the advance of human understanding of the functioning of the natural world is readily accessible to most readers. Hannam restores to the stage characters known today only to interested historians. The love affair of the pathetic Abelard and the tragic Heloise is set amongst Cecco D’Ascoli, who was burnt at the stake, the travails of William of Conches and Adelard of Bath,

of heretics, inquisitors, popes and cosmologists, all of whom in small ways contributed to the advance of science. In rescuing them from obscurity he asks readers to respect their efforts and to view the Middle Ages in a different light, for in his view we have neglected to see the period as one “of enormous advances in science, technology and culture.” He wants us to cease regarding the period between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, and the beginning of the Renaissance in the 14th century as one when nothing important happened. Indeed, as far as he’s concerned, “if any period deserves the label of ‘renaissance’ it’s the 12th century,” while the 13th saw the invention of spectacles, the windmill and the mechanical clock. Overall, Hannam regards history as an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, process. This view isn’t made explicit until the very last page. But even then the butt of his criticism, Thomas Kuhn, isn’t named; instead, he says that a few “lonely voices” are now challenging the ‘hegemony’ of the idea that a ‘scientific revolution’ occurred between Copernicus (1473-1543) and Newton (1642-1727). While Hannam doesn’t deny the impact of scientific

advances made in Arabic speaking countries or China, he sees the real causes of the European Renaissance as coming mainly from within Christendom. His case is that individual scholars during the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ were chipping away at the inconsistencies, fallacies and logical flaws in existing ideas about the natural world. Also, the Catholic Church wasn’t the malign, obscurantist institutional force that it’s conventionally portrayed as. Essentially, according to Hannam, church authorities weren’t hostile to new technologies as long as the theories behind them didn’t challenge the foundational principles of the church itself. There are grounds for suspecting that this view is partly conditioned by the fact that as a Christian he doesn’t consider science and religious belief to be incompatible. To return to my theatrical metaphor: the book and its characters can be enjoyed, but when the curtain comes down you’ll start thinking about what wasn’t said. This book is a worthy contribution to the necessary tasks of bringing science to a broader public, and explaining how medieval scholars laid the foundations of modern science. review by Gregory Andrusz

Globalisation Laid Bare: Lessons in International Business By various authors

Published by Gibson Square, ISBN: 9781906142193 £11.99 17.09.09

ou will hate the cover of this book – a grinning, familiarly self-satisfied Richard Branson. Luckily, he is only supplying the introduction. So, get past that face these essays are timely. For ten years we have reaped the benefits of unprecedented globalization, but now the current worldwide recession brings doubt, worries about domestic markets, and fear about jobs. But these writers, among them, Alan Greenspan, Nobel prizewinner Amartya Sen, Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs, Peter Mandelson, Vincent Cable, MP, Subi Rangan of Insead, and Harold Chee of Ashridge set out to put globalization in context. For example, Subi Rangan of the prestigious Insead uses the “Jedi way” – peace and justice – to offer a 38 SOCIETY Today Magazine

thoughtful coverage of why employing these principles will “keep the fire in the kitchen and burning longer than untrammeled globalization.” He points up the classic dilemma: merit (cheaper production in one place) versus need (requirement for employment in another), and suggests that “implicit contracts” between employers and workers are important, not just the explicit ones we all know. He shows that if firms disregard the justice principle and focus solely on efficiency, they are unintentionally making the system called globalization more fragile, because systems that are argued to be efficient but unjust tend not to be sustained (for example, slavery). Thus, business needs to convene with government to understand the best practices in structural adjustment and to deal fairly with excess workers. Another writer, Jim O’Neill, covers the “BRICs” – the growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. He provides a riveting analysis of the Goldman Sachs 2050 projections, which are posited upon two key long-term economic

variables, and which chart how the combined GDP of the BRICs could rival that of the G6 by 2041. All this is heady stuff, but fascinating, and, of course, it’s what we all need to understand. Not all contributions keep the pages turning. For example, the coverage of Marks & Spencer’s Plan A on business and sustainability by Stuart Rose sits less comfortably with the wider-ranging and deeper topics of others. Nonetheless, this is a good book, highly readable, totally relevant and encouraging in its intelligence and realistic grasp of globalization, whether it be the long-term effects of demographic riches in India, demographic challenges in Japan and Italy or over-reliance on energy resources in Russia. Peter Mandelson’s concluding piece ends with an acknowledgement of the difficulties facing successful globalization, but also with an endorsement of wellmanaged open markets as the way forward. You may not agree, but you do need to know what these decision-makers and decision-influencers are thinking. review by Margaret Laird

books

reviews

Turbulence: A Novel of the Atmosphere By Giles Foden

Faber and Faber, ISBN: 9780571205226 £16.99 04.06.09

ustly famous for blending fact and fiction in his novels (Last King of Scotland, Ladysmith), Giles Foden brings this technique to Turbulence: A Novel of the Atmosphere. This is a fictionalization of the desperate debates between meteorologists and the military about weather forecasting that preceded the crucial D-Day landings. The fact that Eisenhower needed five days warning of the optimum date for the implementation of Overlord, made predictions almost impossible for weather specialists unused to such a timescale. This dilemma, upon which the fates of 2.5 million men and 3,000 landing craft rested, and how it was resolved, drives the action. Wallace Ryman, the Grand Old Man of meteorology

in the novel, is based upon the real scientist Lewis Fry Richardson, distinguished as a meteorologist, mathematician and pacifist. At least two other distinguished meteorologists, James Stagg of the RAF and the Norwegian Sverre Petterssen, are also fictionalized. The “true” characters are joined by the fictional narrator, Henry Meadows, a young forecaster who is charged with eliciting the secret of the “Ryman Number” (a dimensionless parameter in the theory of turbulence) from its inventor, to help expedite the forecasting work for Operation Overlord. Sent to Scotland under cover, he finds Ryman now living a private life as a pacifist. He fails in a spectacular manner, inadvertently bringing about Ryman’s gruesome death in a wonderful scene. Later reinstated, he works furiously with Ryman’s papers and devices to compute the timing of a small temporary pressure block in the Channel which would be sufficient to launch Overlord before bad weather reappears. He succeeds, and D-Day takes place on 6 June. The strengths of the novel are the characterizations, the excellent depictions of place, and its ability to bring an authentic whiff of the patient, persistent passion driving scientific observation and discovery to the reader. The underlying metaphorical resonances of the whole issue of turbulence

are well handled. But its weaknesses are those often attendant on books which blend fact and fiction. Where does one begin and the other end? Does history suffer in the service of fiction? Here, it seems to me that the real Ryman was much more interesting than the fictional character we meet in these pages. A particular case is the depiction of Ryman’s wife and a clumsy relationship issue with the narrator, Henry Meadows. This subplot about the childlessness of Ryman and his wife and the way in which Meadows might provide the solution, seemed irrelevant and almost tasteless precisely because it was based on the real couple. Also, there is a certain blimpish and almost comic aspect to some scenes, for example, the telephone conferences and meetings with War Office types. Another complication in a narrative already challenging in technical detail for the reader is the way in which two framing devices were employed: that is, Meadows as an old man on an expedition, whose objective is entirely unnecessarily described, looks back at his story; and the ending, with a scientific paper given in 1984, the 40th anniversary of the invasion, to round things up. Sometimes novelization can blur history and people. This is basically a really good history book into which a not so good novel has been inserted. M.L.

Eating Air

By Pauline Melville Telegram Books, ISBN: 9781846590764 £12.99 14.09.9

auline Melville has terrific form. She has won the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Macmillan Silver Pen Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Prize for The Ventriloquist’s Tale and has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize. This, her second novel, is clever, densely textured and distracting – and not easy to categorise. She acknowledges in a postscript, “my loose reworking of themes from The Bacchae with her story of the beautiful dancer, Ella and the Dionysian free spirit Donny, lovers who meet in the 70s, and become enmeshed with political radicals of all stripes - ludicrous, banal, fervent and sinister, and are drawn almost casually into extremism. When

Special Branch infiltrates the group, Ella is responsible for engineering a car crash in which the traitor is beheaded (a direct allusion to a key incident in The Bacchae). She flees to Brazil, only returning 30 years later, while Donny embarks upon his wandering, self-determining life. Over time, their bond endures, although their meetings are few but charged. They each exemplify the flouting of Cadmus’s plea from the play, “Dwell within the temple of our beliefs, not in the wilderness that lies beyond.” The rest of the cast of this complex comedy-tragedy includes futile idealist Victor Skynnard (who frequents “The Head in the Sand” café), the wonderfully amoral Hetty, ambiguous Felix, stalwart Hector, and Mark, attempting action, blackmailed into treachery. Melville captures the spirit of the 70s, protest, direct action, idealism, and shows, too, how it darkens and disappoints as the century moves on. Ella’s world of dance, her dual racial heritage and the way in which her own version of free spirit echoes the traditions

of the bacchae are well-drawn. The culminating episode, where Mark’s and his terrorist group’s fictional, carefully-plotted terrorist attack on an Amsterdam bank is frustrated by the real Boeing 747 crash on working class flats, is further complicated by Melville putting Felix in the pilot’s seat. This mix of reality and fiction is startling – almost confusing. Other aspects of the novel arouse surprise too – for example, the way in which one character meets his death, by being savaged by a wild boar – more allusions to the literary canon (almost like a literary test). You may find the first-person narrator who tops and tails the book irksome, but as he says, “A work of fiction is a way of confessing a crime, getting away with it, and then boasting about it afterwards.” Intriguing. M.L.

SOCIETY Today Magazine 39

reviews The Selfish Genius: How Richard Dawkins Rewrote Darwin’s Legacy By Fern Elsdon-Baker Icon Books, ISBN: 978-1848310490 £8.99 02.07.09

009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of the Species, and Fern ElsdonBaker, who is head of the British Council’s “Darwin Now” international project, is an expert in the history and philosophy of evolutionary theory. Having caught our attention with her play on words vis a vis Richard Dawkins (a self-confessed “bit of mischief ”), she provides her true objective in her subtitle. Because the topic is hot, we need to be grateful to Elsdon-Baker for offering this academic historical coverage of the ways in which Darwin’s own understanding of evolution came about

and for the meticulous coverage she provides of the development of scientific thought on evolution, while also correcting a number of misconceptions. However, at the same time, Elsdon-Baker believes “… that Dawkins has effectively hijacked Darwin and distorted his legacy to champion an inflexible approach that gives the public a very one-sided view of what’s really going on in evolutionary science,” despite being on his side as a pro-science atheist herself. Unfortunately, this otherwise excellent and informative scientific history, which, sadly, lacks an index, does not sit so easily with the way in which the book moves latterly into a sustained attack on Dawkins, who, of course, is really famous more for his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, the basic premise of which was that genes are the drivers of natural selection, not groups or individuals. The fact that Dawkins is now a controversial, high-profile atheist who harnesses his neo-Darwinism to his atheistic arguments, is presented as a weakness by the writer, although it is hard to see why a scientist should not be able to use his genius for splendid vituperation in the service of his crusade against religious fundamentalists.

It is fair to say, though, that Elson-Baker does score more convincingly when she accuses him of appearing fundamentalist himself - and theoretically dogmatic in his opposition, in particular, to creationism (“organized ignorance”). In the end, this book suffers from being academic and over-neutral in its emphasis on respect for all ideas, whilst maintaining that Dawkins has used popular science to silence narratives other than his own - it is hard to get away from the vociferous Dawkins! But do read it, because it is full of fascinating material about the development of scientific thought and experiment, and very much to be recommended for demonstrating how ideas and theory move in, among, across and over each other in the scientific community. I particularly relished gaining insight into the work of famous names like Mendel, Lamarck, Thomas Huxley and thoroughly enjoyed some wonderfully bizarre examples used (the midwife toad, the blind watchmaker) to illustrate new theories. M.L.

Celebrity: How Entertainers Took over the World and Why We Need an Exit Strategy By Marina Hyde

Harvill Secker, ISBN:978-1846552595 £11.99 02.04.09

arina Hyde has a multitude of admirers of her columns in The Guardian. Count me in. I love Marina’s style and especially her invective.

The title says it all. Here is an excoriating, but immensely witty, examination of the ghastly incursion of vain celebs into the more serious aspects of life – for example, world politics, the Palestinian question, state borders, world peace, starving children. Writhe with irritation, scream with rage, along with Marina as she: dissects Lindsay Lohan on rebuilding Iraq; shows Angelina and Brad dictating border policy in Namibia as they awaited the birth of their twins; describes the spoutings of Charlie Sheen (who?) on what actually happened on 9/11; covers 40 SOCIETY Today Magazine

Jude Law pontificating on the Taliban; and so on …. Wait a minute, don’t let’s forget those statespersons Richard Gere and Sharon Stone. And, hang on, Paris is in there too – no, not Paris, France - the other one. Clearly, Marina has found a way of bringing her sharpest columns into a book. The pace is slightly jumpy at first, but by the time she gets to Madonna and her delusions of grandeur about her Kabbalah Centre, her world leader-contact, her mission in Africa, and her fund-raiser on the UN lawn, irritation begins to turn to horror. Why would it ever be appropriate for Madonna to be allowed to use the UN lawn in New York to hold a “Raising Malawi” fundraiser in 2008? Why would she “share” the event with Gucci? What are the murky finances that might link benefits to her Kaballah Centre? Here are the divine Marina’s own words: “What’s more troubling for the UN – a rogue dictator parking his tanks on its lawn, or Madonna and Gucci parking their starhumping It bag on its lawn.” And, here is her even sassier footnote, “If you answered, ‘I don’t know – how big are the tanks?’ you may continue reading.” The nadir of celeb vanity is encapsulated by Marina

as she explains that it is not uncommon for celebs to be called to discuss issues with Senate Committees. That Gerri Halliwell is a UN Ambassador of some kind. Her description of the “race for Africa” taking place right now between Brangelina and Madonna as they annex whole countries, sorry, colonies (along with a baby each), is terrifyingly funny. No one is better at exposing someone like Bono (suffering from terminal self-satisfaction) than Marina. But here’s the rub – it’s wonderful to see the spurious philanthropy and self-aggrandizing of these “public figures” exposed with such verve. But what does it tell us about the world we live in? Nothing admirable. We only have the writer’s rapier wit to help us. Maybe that’s enough – laughter is a great medicine. And many a knave has been laughed out of court. All power to this writer. I have one criticism. Where were our homegrown Jordan and Peter? What about Jade Goody? We need to know. Perish the thought that other countries may not have heard of them and that this may affect US sales. M.L.

q&a

Your questions answered by leader of the RMT

Bob Crow

When you have your back against the wall, who do you look to for inspiration and why? Alan Prior, Teddington The trade union movement was built by people who made great personal sacrifices. People who in some cases gave everything so that the rest of us could enjoy decent working conditions, paid holidays, sick leave, pensions, health, education and workplace rights. I take strength and inspiration from all of those who’ve had the guts to stand up and be counted in the on-going fight for workers rights.

Do you think that transport is something that should go back to being state owned? And do you think this would stop all the strikes? Kathryn Howell, Bishop’s Stortford There’s no question that transport services should be publicly owned. Privatisation has been an expensive disaster and the chaos of the failure of National Express on the East Coast line is only the latest example. Free from the dash for profits, a publicly owned railway should be able to look after staff properly and no doubt that would improve industrial relations.

Do you think that your approach, which comes across as militant at best, is the most practical method? Is there not an alternative to striking? Suroosh Patel, Harlow I’m elected by my members to do the best that I can for them and that’s all that myself and the rest of the RMT organisation seek to do. We are a militant organisation and that’s the way that we deliver results for our rank and file. We only strike when there’s no other option and when we’ve balloted our members.

We also campaign through a range of other channels but there are times when the only option is to strike.

Considering the profile that you have in the media, do you find it hard to get out and about without taking stick on the street? Brian Carney, Greenwich I get stopped a lot by black cabbies who want to talk about football, boxing and the state of their trade. I was getting pulled up by them so often that we set up their own section in the RMT and we are recruiting cab drivers like nobody’s business. It’s the fastest growing section in the union.

What do you say to those workers of other unions who reject strike action because of the damage it can cause and whose own livelihoods are damaged through the strikes of the RMT? Geraldine Middleton, E16 I don’t know of any unions that rule out strike action. The whole idea cuts across what a union is there for. If a union isn’t going to fight for you it’s not worth joining. Of course we regret any disruption to fellow workers from any action we might be involved in but we’ve never come across any objections and we pull in stacks of messages of support but that doesn’t get reported in the media as it doesn’t fit their agenda.

What is the most frequent obstacle to the RMT getting the deal it is looking for? And by that I mean in the wider context, not just certain people in positions of power. I commute from Cambridge to the city and I’m not very happy with the RMT at the moment.

The usual obstacle is the company’s drive for profits. Whenever they put that above a fair deal for the staff who make them the money in the first place we run into problems. National Express are a classic example and sometimes the only way to get them round the table to talk seriously is by taking action.

Would the RMT ever strike in support of another union? Pauline Fournier, Ashford, Ken The anti-union laws in this country rule against secondary action. That is a deliberate and calculated attack on the rights of trade unionists to take solidarity action with their brothers and sisters in other industries and is an assault on our basic rights. We would always look to co-ordinate action where possible and we always use whatever methods we can to register our support for fellow workers in struggle – not just in the UK but all over the world.

You come across in the media as an angry man; do you think there may be something in your personality that thrives on confrontation? Anthony Hirsch, Barnet No. At the end of the day I’m a negotiator and an elected representative of the RMT membership and you couldn’t do my job properly without staying calm and focussed under pressure. Of course I get angry when I see blatant injustices, like the sacking of our members at Vestas turbines on the Isle of Wight, but you need to channel that anger into a strategy that will get those workers a result.

continues overleaf.....

Gareth Trigwell, Fulborn, Cambs SOCIETY Today Magazine 41

q&a

Bus drivers are in the RMT and they earn much less than train or tube drivers. Why haven’t they gone on strike yet, when train and tube drivers seem to do so frequently? Sarah I, Hounslow We do organise bus workers and in some parts of the country they have been involved in industrial action. I think that bus drivers, and other bus staff, get a lousy deal and RMT fights for them just as hard as we fight for any

other group of members. The bus companies just happen to be some of the worst employers in the transport industry.

Do you think considering the proven agenda of the ‘New’ Labour party, and the lack of a credible mainstream left wing alternative, that there needs to be a debate about what it means to be on the left?

Well I know what it means to be on the left – it’s all those Labour politicians who got elected on the back of working class voters who have forgotten. I think there does need to be a debate about political representation of the working class as the collapse of the Labour Party leaves a dangerous vacuum that the far right are moving in to fill.

Dan Armitage, Slough

editing@society-today.com

Address your questions to

CHRISTINE BLOWER NUT General Secretary

Christine Blower was elected as Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers in January 2005. On 5 April 2008 she became Acting General Secretary and on 5 May 2009 became the General Secretary of the NUT. Christine joined the Union as a student and has been a career-long NUT member. She has held the post of President and Secretary of the NUT in Hammersmith and Fulham. Christine was born and educated in Kingston-upon-Thames and started teaching in 1973 at Holland Park School, then part of the Inner London Education Authority. She became Head of Modern Languages at St Edmunds Secondary School in Fulham in 1980, and moved to Quintin Kynaston School in Westminster in 1983. Christine changed the direction of her career in 1990 and began working with

children at risk of care or custody. She worked as a member of Hammersmith and Fulham’s Primary Behaviour Support team working with children with challenging and unsettled behaviour. Should the government be able to ‘update’ head teachers by email? Why don’t parents today understand Science? How do the young people of today really feel about education?

Please send questions to: Society Today Magazine 17-21 Wyfold Road London SW6 6SE Alternatively, you can email your questions to:

editing@society-today.com

Opinions expressed in Q&A do not represent those of Society Today Magazine. We select and combine the best of the reader questions we accumulate. We often reword questions but never take them out of context. Visit www.society-today.com to ﬁnd out how to participate or suggest a panelist. To make a complaint or give an opinion about Q&A, write to editor@society-today.com

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platform

Plane Stupid: Speaking uncomfortable truths or just plain stupid?

n late 2005, three climate activists walked into the lobby of the Waldorf Hilton Hotel on the Strand. One was blocked by security, one made a run for it, but was rugby tackled to the ground, and one managed to dash through to the conference hall, where the CEOs of most of the world’s major airlines were gathered. According to witness statements provided to Marylebone magistrate’s court, this third activist was ‘brandishing a bunch of balloons.’ A security guard pursued the man with the balloons into the hall and apprehended him, but failed to apprehend the balloons, which drifted gently up to the high ceiling, carrying a small but extremely loud rape alarm. Up until this moment, aviation hadn’t been a major part of the climate change debate. Campaigners and researchers knew that aviation was the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, and that these emissions had a far greater impact on our atmosphere than those emitted at ground level, but there were good reasons to leave the issue alone. There are no viable alternatives to Kerosene as an aviation fuel, and very little scope for efficiency gains in aircraft design. The only way to reduce the emissions from aviation is to fly less. It’s one thing to call for increased investment in wind farms or electric cars, but quite another to tell people they’ll just have to stop going abroad for their holidays. When you’ve got a thousand causes of climate change to campaign on, why go for the one that’s guaranteed to make you unpopular? The climate activists who formed Plane Stupid decided to do just that. The government’s 2003 white paper on aviation followed the discredited ‘predict and provide’ planning approach. They were predicting massive, sustained growth, and their plans to provide the capacity for this growth would, as with road building, ensure the growth occurred. This, in turn, would ensure that the UK’s emissions reduction targets were impossible to reach. Within a few decades, aviation would be producing more than the UK’s entire carbon budget.

If you want to stop climate change, you need to stop aviation growth. If we could get the issue into the media and the public’s consciousness, then it would be worth a bit of public vilification. Other, more mainstream environmental groups would hopefully follow where we had led, and eventually people would get used to the idea that we would soon be flying less – either as a necessary sacrifice to preserve our climate, or from the consequences of our inability to make that sacrifice.

Graham Thompson

“

We try to use humour and creativity, and we’re always strictly non-violent, but we will get right in people’s faces and tell them uncomfortable truths. Weekend breaks in Tuscany, or grandchildren? You can’t have both

”

of emissions by preventing planes from taking off, but that’s just a drop in the carbon ocean.

Since we announced our arrival at the Waldorf, Plane Stupid have closed runways from the South of England to the North of Scotland, occupied and blockaded the offices of airlines, travel agents, government departments and airport operators, locked on to planes, scaled parliaments, inspired aviation campaigners around the world, and brought the issue directly to the people responsible in ways they can’t ignore. We try to use humour and creativity, and we’re always strictly nonviolent, but we will get right in people’s faces and tell them uncomfortable truths. Weekend breaks in Tuscany, or grandchildren? You can’t have both. Back in 2005, most people didn’t know that aviation was a significant factor in climate change. Now, when a newspaper wants to quantify the climate impact of anything, they measure it by the equivalent number of flights. In terms of raising public awareness we’ve been far more successful than we ever expected, but highlighting a problem isn’t solving it. We’ve stopped thousands of tonnes

Over the last few years I’ve received thousands of pounds of fines, and spent half of my holidays in court and half of my weekends doing community service. Some of my friends in the movement have had it much worse. Are we, as many newspapers in the UK have repeatedly claimed, just plain stupid? There’s really only one measure of our success or failure - runways. Two years ago, new runways at Heathrow, Stansted and elsewhere were viewed as inevitable. Now, thanks to the work of dedicated campaigners and activists from a dozen different campaign groups and NGOs, there are serious doubts over all of them. When the IPCC released its Fourth Assessment Report in 2007, Harvard University oceanographer James McCarthy said “The worst stuff is not going to happen, because we can’t be that stupid.” Six out of ten climatologists think we could still stop climate change before it becomes truly catastrophic. Only about one in ten thinks we will. Having spent years trying to persuade the public that nine out of ten climatologists can’t be wrong, we now have to do the opposite.

Graham Thompson is an activist with Plane Stupid – www.planestupid.com SOCIETY Today Magazine 43

picture editorial

On 9th August 2009, a group of skaters called CSkate, from Camberley in Surrey, got together to organize the fourth Goodwood Roller Marathon at the prestigious Goodwood Motor Circuit near Chichester, to raise money for the NSPCC. The event brought amateurs and professionals together to have a bit of summer fun for a good cause. The participants could choose one of four distances, 2, 5, 11 or 22 laps of the track. Those who could not use roller skates were invited to use long boards, roller skis or Trikkes. With some great support and equally great weather, the race was one of the best so far. More money was raised than in previous years and as donations continue to ‘roll’ in, the enthusiasm for the next event is building already. For more information on how to take part visit www.cskate.co.uk

The short shorts society fielded a number of competitors

The camp fairy crowd are renowned for their fundraising prowess 46 SOCIETY Today Magazine

Wheels are a must. Apart from that, anyone or thing goes

Impromptu conga lines optional, but welcome

Not the most practical form of transport, but he got there in the end

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