Alpine weather conditions in Manchester, where the city has ground to a halt after an overnight dump of a few inches of the ‘wrong kind’ of snow. Buses and trams have been cancelled, schools shut, motorways are in chaos and lorries are apparently jack-knifing all over the shop.
My sister lives near Aviemore, in the Scottish highlands. They have had about 2ft of snow for weeks now….and you know what? Life goes on.
from today’s Big Issue in the North.
For more about the Solway haaf netters, check out my audio slideshow HERE
Yesterday was the anniversary of the first day of Gaza’s bombardment by Israel – a 23-day war which left more than 1,400 people dead, many of them children.
I never made it to Gaza during my time in Israel and Palestine, but heard from older people who knew it well how idyllic it used to be, in the years before and immediately after Israel’s creation – long before it was turned into the largest prison camp in the world.
Twelve months on from Operation Cast Lead the tiny enclave is still in tatters. Destroyed homes have not been repaired and the population is haunted by what happened during those weeks.
There’s some blame on both sides of course. Gaza’s leaders are not innocent in this, but Israel’s continued blockade of the territory – and its apparently indiscriminate bombing – is not what you could call a proportionate response.
There’s an interesting programme on YouTube that anyone with an interest in this conflict should watch. Unreported World explains some of the tensions between the growing Haredi – or Orthodox – population and the more secular Jewish Israelis. The Orthodox wield great political power, which will increase enormously over the coming years.
Among the responses to this post which touched upon a Liverpool regeneration saga – that of Toxteth’s Welsh Streets renewal zone – one stood out. It was from an unnamed resident who was putting across an alternative point of view from that of the anti-demolition group that I know better. This is what he or she said:
I lived in one of the Welsh Streets for 67 years until I moved into a newly built home just around the corner, nearly 2 years ago, together with neighbours from the Welsh Streets.So the community has not been split, as even those who moved into better housing nearby are still within the area and still neighbours.
One of the arguments, put forward by Nina’s drastically reduced opposition group, being that the community would suffer.Those opposed to plans are people who do not involve themselves with the wider community or even live in one of the smaller houses and do not speak for the community.The “conspiracy” theory was their invention. The Welsh Street housing was beyond repair. Many of us had had refurbishment grant work done in the late 70’s on our homes,to give them another 30 years of useful life, which failed to solve ongoing problems of subsidence and damp. The water table being inches below the properties, water 10 inches deep at least.Owners could not sell the properties even for £20,000 a few years ago, had they wished to move. Contrary to what the press has been told, owners were given current Market Value for their properties.
The Opposition group misinformed the media time & time again.For example the Heritage study concluded that the properties had no significant heritage value and keeping any of them would be detrimental to the proposed regeneration of the area.
One side of Kelvin Grove is to be retained, as are the remaining Welsh Streets on the other side of High Park Street, being in better condition.
I think the Welsh Streets residents have made it clear over the past 6 years,particularly by lobbying the Town Hall “en masse” that they are in favour of and support demolition.
We can do without people who do not & would not live here causing any further delay to the process,as residents remaining in the third phase are anxious for work to commence that they may access better housing.
As I wrote in response, I would love to hear this view in person – as I’m well aware than none of these situations are ever black and white and I’m always interested in representing differing points of view.
Over the past few months I’ve visited people in almost 20 different communities affected by regeneration of one kind or another. I’ve recorded people’s experiences and edited all of them down to audio files of a few minutes long. I’ve photographed everyone outside their current or former home or on their street. The photos aren’t necessarily very exciting – but coupled with the audio they are a worthwhile record.
This is an ongoing project. I intend to visit more people and don’t only want people who have had negative experiences, or with one kind of viewpoint. These will form the basis of features and hopefully a special report of some kind in 2010, as well as being published one by one on my blog.
profile of Professor Ray Tallis, neurologist, humanist and “philosophical anthropologist”.
From the Big Issue in the North.
Just a quick introduction to a newish website that I’ve started contributing to, A Developing Story. It’s a not-for-profit venture that aims to celebrate and share the best examples of reporting and multimedia about and from the developing world. The aim is to give development communications a life beyond a single use. Check it out.
I’ve been thinking a lot this year about the moral responsibilities that go hand in hand with picking up a camera, an audio recorder or indeed a pen and paper with the intention of telling other people’s stories.
I like to think I do my job for the right reasons, but it’s healthy I think to question oneself. I’m certain that many journalists cover certain gritty issues – like war and poverty for example – with the wrong intentions (although who I am to judge).
Since coming more into contact with the photography/photojournalism world over the past year I can’t help but think a certain glamourisation of the dark side of life is far, far more prevalent among them than it is with writers.
It makes me wonder to what end are we telling people’s stories – is it to add powerful pictures to a portfolio, to have stories to tell down the pub, or out of some rubber-necking kind of voyeurism. Maybe I’m being unfair, possibly not.
I like to think I do it to shine a light on certain undercovered issues, and to give a voice to groups who often tend to have other – often misinformed – people speaking for them.
Anyway, a concern that goes hand in hand with this is the fear of becoming desensitised to people’s suffering, to people’s ill luck, to the tales of abuse or sight of lives destroyed, of violence, tears and pain. Surely it’s natural that a mind closes itself off to such sights, to such tales, as a way of self-preservation.
An extreme and perhaps ridiculous thing to preoccupy someone who doesn’t work in war zones, admittedly, but I do tend to think problems around from all angles and to the Nth degree.
Anyway, maybe that’s why this wonderful clip from the show This American Life resonated with me so much. I saw it a couple of months back, lost the link and then took ages to seek it out again (I couldn’t even remember the programme’s name).
I’ve written here a couple of times before about India’s shocking record on women’s rights, and particularly its cultural bias which means – thanks to female infanticide and now, increasingly, selective abortion – that up to 5o MILLION women could be missing from its population.
This was also the subject of my feature that almost won me a place in the Guardian’s international development journalism comp, a couple of months ago. (I was longlisted).
Anyway, Rita Banerji, an Indian campaigner and friend who works ceaselessly to highlight this very pressing issue, has been in touch with me to update me on the situation of Dr Mitu Khurana, a doctor I met last year in Delhi who is taking her husband and in-laws to court. (I last wrote about her HERE).
It’s a brave step. When they found out she was carrying twin daughters, Mitu’s in-laws tried to force her to have an abortion. When she refused, she alleges she suffered physical and mental abuse which forced her to eventually flee and return to her parents’ home.
This case is I think unusual for several reasons. As an educated, professional Indian, perhaps Mitu has more independence than many women who find themselves in her situation. Also though, she has a supportive family. Often the cultural pressures can be so great that women’s own families won’t support them in their choices.
What’s also interesting about Mitu’s case though is that it highlights that the preference for boy children is not a simple thing. Her in-laws are middle class professionals…exactly the group which Banerji says are now often choosing to abort female foetuses. Such is the problem in India that hospitals are not meant to reveal the gender of an unborn child – a minor detail that a baksheesh, or bribe, will often overcome.
Banerji writes: “Mitu’s husband who has not yet been booked, I think is trying to put pressure for a divorce. He has now filed for custody of the girls. And NDTV India’s largest english TV news channel covered it recently but there’s no action from the goverment yet.
“We want to put pressure on the Indian gov. through the UK government to act on the PNDT law [1994 Act, one of whose aims is “the prevention of the misuse of such techniques for the purpose of pre-natal sex determination leading to female foeticide”]
“We want this really to impact on India certainly, but also on the expat Indians who just fly into Delhi for sex selected abortions when they can’t do it in the UK.”
Mitu’s plight has recently been covered on the UK blog Pickled Politics and was touched on last year in the Observer.
A couple of interesting emails have recently arrived in my inbox looking forward to spring 2010 and I can’t help but contrast them.
The first was from Nina Edge, of Liverpool’s Welsh Streets Home Group – a crew of residents fighting to save their houses demolition under the city’s bulldozer-happy Housing Market Renewal scheme. Their six-year battle (more of which at a later date) has just cranked up again after a few years of relative quiet and the council is threatening to move forward with the scheme in February.
She writes: “Down in the Welsh Streets we have just learnt that the consultants advising on the sustainability of the streets have recommended the demolition of the whole site – including Kelvin Grove, High Park Street and Admiral Street. This is despite previous advice from a heritage assessment that these three streets should be retained, despite the credit crunch, and despite the known interest in the existing houses.
“The Welsh Streets Home Group continues to oppose the proposals to demolish and welcomes any support any of our supporters would like to offer. We are told to expect the council to make a planning application as early as February next year so time is short and the job-sheet is long.”
Spring is going to be a busy period for Liverpool’s regeneration bods. Because, it transpires, a bunch of them will be jetting to the beautiful town of Cannes, in France, to sit on a yacht, networking with – and offering what they call some ‘traditional Liverpool hospitality’ to – a slew of developers hoping to get their hands on interesting sites and contracts across the world.
Which brings me to email number two. A couple of weeks ago, a housing contact told me about an event that I’ve never heard of before, but which he is disgusted by. MIPIM [Marché International des Professionnels d’Immobilier] is billed as “a market for international property trade”.
He wrote: “By the way, while I’ve (hopefully!) got your attention, one thing that really should get critical coverage is the international real estate shindig that is held in Cannes every year.
“I find something distasteful in the way councils and developers get together on yachts and do deals to carve up our cities for profit. While people in L7 lose their homes, Liverpool Council have a yacht there every year.
“Housing/development professionals might be aware of MIPIM but in my experience not many academics or community-minded people know about it. It usually happens in March about the time of year when the new council tax bills are being sent out…! Anyway enough ranting for now.”
I must stress here that this is NOT just a Liverpool thing – cities across the UK, and the world, get involved. (Neither is it connected, as such, with Housing Market Renewal or other similar regeneration schemes). My contact’s ire was particularly reserved for the Scousers though as that just happens to be where he knows.
Other UK cities that get involved include Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham.
Liverpool MIPIM has its own dedicated website which allows companies to sponsor its delegation. It explains: “Liverpool has attended MIPIM since 2001 and during this time has successfully showcased the city’s resurgence and rich cultural heritage, promoted investment opportunities and helped to drive future developments.”
Julian Dobson, editorial director of New Start, a magazine I contribute to quite a bit, had some interesting thoughts about MIPIM when it was taking place earlier this year. Check out his blog post on the subject HERE. His two top thoughts are especially pertinent:
I’d be really interested in knowing what other people think about this….
I spent all of this morning standing outside Dallas Court, a reporting centre for asylum seekers, with supporters of a Cameroonian teacher and activist named Lydia Besong, who had been detained by immigration officers inside.
It wasn’t meant to be like this. A week ago I went to watch the debut performance of a very moving play written by Lydia, called How I Became an Asylum Seeker. Sofia, another asylum seeker who has generously let me into her life, [Sofia is in the blue dress, above] was playing a leading role and I went to support her.
Anyway, that evening when I heard Lydia get up and speak about her personal situation I knew she would be ideal as a second subject in my asylum series, if she and her husband Bernard were willing to help. The couple have been extremely active within their community since arriving in the UK three years ago, but at the end of October they learned their cases had been rejected and that they could be detained at any point.
I was told they had ok-ed the idea and so off went to Dallas Court early this morning, hoping to explain myself properly, get their consent and get to work as soon as possible, since time was of the essence.
I got there just 15 minutes after people started reporting, but Lydia must have already been in and got immediately arrested. The couple sign separately in case of this happening, and he’s now refusing to attend.
(Lydia in the play)
While Lydia’s supporters, MP and lawyer work to get her released and secure a judicial review or lodge a fresh asylum claim, her deportation to Cameroon has been scheduled for 21 December.
For me, this has presented some conflicting emotions. For one it reinforces the reality of this whole situation and helps me understand the terror felt by many people within the asylum system. Their fate – will they be detained this week, next or the following week – is entirely out of their control, which must be horrible.
Today also brought into sharp focus some of the conflicts I feel – and to some extent have always felt – as a journalist. My professional instincts told me to turn the situation today into something – that I could perhaps try to record a audio and/or photographic account of their now quite dramatic battle to stay in the country, then turning it into a different kind of piece to my previous one.
I didn’t though. With no outlet I can think of that would take such a piece, it felt somehow gratuitous to encroach upon a busy campaign, and on Lydia’s husband, at such a difficult time.
I’m kind of cross with myself about that but this to me is one of the endless frustrations about my job. The stories I want to cover are not what people want to publish or what people want to read, and that pisses me off a lot at times.
Equally though, most potential interviewees or subjects – for all they may moan about the mainstream media and may be computer/internet savvy – simply don’t see the value of self-published work.
In some ways I agree but it’s something I feel quite confused about at the moment. I feel I may have missed an opportunity to tell a story here but I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by both the mess in my industry and the fact that my news values seem so at odds with everyone else’s.
(To support Lydia’s campaign, please contact the Home Office urging for her immediate release and Quoting HO Ref: B1236372. You should fax the Home Office on 0208-760-3132 or email CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk, UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk, external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk and cc admin@rapar.org.uk )