The delicate balance within eco-systems is the key to our future survival

Image: Bethan John @ Flickr

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Wildlife protection is much bigger than the cuddly panda, despite the limelight it occupies in headline conservation news. The diversity of the natural world sustains us, allows us to adapt and innovate – ultimately it enables our continuing survival.

We rely on the natural world for a huge amount of resources; from the clothes we wear for warmth, to the food and medicines we depend on. Yet this reliance on natural resources too often becomes commercial abuse. Over the last few years the environmental debate has increasingly topped the agenda, influencing government policy and controlling the development of businesses.

Yet with its rising status, “green issues” has also become a buzzword; it’s enabled companies to wear a thin sheath of environmental protection to hide their central agenda for commercial development and financial gain.

Where’s the media storm?

The UN meeting on biodiversity next month is set to put conservation back onto the central agenda, yet it seems to have fallen at its first hurdle as the event has barely been visible in the headlines compared to the media storm surrounding the Copenhagen Summit last year. Speaking to the Guardian, Dr Robert Bloomfield, co-ordinator for the UK response to the International Year of Biodiversity, suggests that one reason for the lack of coverage given to the Convention on Biological Awareness in Nagoya is because biodiversity, compared to climate change, is a complex narrative that people struggle to grasp.

It’s easy to empathise with the plight of the panda and to understand the devastation that will be caused by climate change. However, biodiversity is intrinsically linked to climate change, as well as sustaining the habitats of the largest animals to the smallest micro-organism. The near destruction of the green sea turtle in the Caribbean is an example of the wider environmental devastation that can be caused by destabilising eco-systems.

Predator v prey

Diversity within eco-systems ensures stability and this is key to why biodiversity matters. If you were to take a predator out of an eco-system, it’d be difficult to predict the knock-on effect it’d have within the food chain due to the complexities of the inter-relationship between organisms (known as the trophic cascade).

Research has suggested that diverse ecosystems are better at supplying amenities like clean water, while diversity in crops offer better protection from new diseases and pests thereby better ensuring food security. Diversity within the natural world also inspires, allowing for innovation within new technologies and medicines.

Therefore not only is conservation vital, but as is finding a narrative that enables the public to understand the complexities of the natural world and how changes within it could dramatically impact their everyday lives.

Along with this self-interested argument for wildlife protection, there is a much more fundamental debate about the human psyche; during our time on this planet we have done untold damage to the natural world, isn’t it about time we started to conserve rather than destroy?

The ethics of yesterdays' news

Image: Zarko Drincic @ Flickr

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Guido Fawkes, a very popular political blogger, in the last fortnight has highlighted the most critical problem facing the media industry – the lack of importance given to proof, evidence and ethics.

Guido has been blogging about the News of the World phone hacking story. This is the jist of his argument (all quotes are from his blog):  The BBC – spurred on by the “Labour spin machine” – is continuing to run this story, even though “there is nothing new to the the reheated and rehashed allegations in the New York Times“,  because of their left-wing agenda.

These are all arguments that can be made and I’m not concerned here with whether I agree with them. The problem isn’t necessarily with what Guido says, it is how he says it and why this is an example of poor journalistic skills – be it print, online, professional or citizen journalism.

Biased BBC?

At this point Guido has already argued  in a previous post – based on “proof” and “evidence” – that the BBC has a left-wing bias. He says: 

“When the BBC spends 86% of its recruitment advertising budget in the Guardian, we’re entitled to question the objectivity of the BBC’s editorial culture.”

What Guido fails to recognise is that this is opinion and comment, not proof. You can equally argue that the BBC advertises jobs in the Guardian because it’s media pages are widely read by journalists and they actively promote their jobs pages. If they therefore get more response from advertising in the Guardian then the BBC could be seen to be practising greater cost efficiency. Also, where’s the comparison to other broadcasters – is this unique to the BBC? Having said this you could argue that the BBC, as it’s funded by public money, shouldn’t be advertising anywhere other than their own media outlets as doing so presents commercial competition.

The point is that without examining all sides of the debate, the argument becomes a knee-jerk reaction, an example of poor journalism that cannot be described as based on evidence or proof.

This clarification between evidence based writing and opinion is extremely important, although increasingly within the media industry the line between them is being blurred.

Guido, Hague & who cares?

This can be seen in Guido’s argument for breaking the story of William Hague’s alleged relationship with Christopher Myers; Guido claims that Myers is too inexperienced and unqualified, therefore his appointment as Hague’s adviser was due to their apparent relationship. But where’s the evidence? Was Myers incompetent at his job? Without any proof the story became: “Is Hague gay?” The resounding response should have been: who cares.

In defence of the criticism he received for breaking this story Guido, referring to a Sunday Times poll, states:

“For those lining up to say this is a non-story, perhaps they should take on board that well over half of voters now have serious doubts about the man representing them on the global stage.“

Well that’s not entirely true – the statistics he failed to include in his blog are:

“The balance of opinion comes down strongly on Hague’s side on whether he is telling the truth or not (46% think he is, 12% think he isn’t)”

Instead Guido chose to focus on the stats that would support his argument, which were: “On the question of whether the initial decision to share a room with his advisor was an error of judgement, the public are more evenly divided – 43% think it was an error, 42% think it was not.”

Assuming the Sunday Times’ stats are drawn from an adequate sample size that is representative of the population, then they clearly show that less than half the public thought Hague should have booked into two rooms instead of one, and not that “well over half of voters now have serious doubts about the man representing them on the global stage.”

Yet as we’ll see with Guido’s response to the phone hacking story, he isn’t interested in these details and facts that are the backbone of ethical journalism because, as he states,  “everyone knows journalists break the law to get stories.”

In short, Guido’s arguing that ethics in journalism don’t matter, consequently proof and evidence don’t matter, because journalists are above the law. Is this really what we should accept from the media industry?

As Simon Goldie says on his blog:

“Guido’s view is that there are no new allegations here, that Coulson [the former editor of the News of the World when the phone hacking aparently took place] resigned so that makes it fine for the Prime Minister to employ him and that the Observer was at it too so why complain? I can’t remember the Observer being exposed but presumably they were if he says so. But surely they too should be under scrutiny, instead of both papers and the people involved being let off?”

Guido’s counter-argument on his blog is: “If newspaper investigations kept to the letter of the law more scandal would go uncovered.” The kind of ground-breaking scandal that Prince William pulled a tendon in his knee – one of many banal stories that the NOTW “unearthed” by hacking the royals’ phones – or yet again adding further rumours over Hague’s sexuality.

Scandal for scandal’s sake

If journalists focus solely on unearthing scandal for scandal’s sake, through any means possible, then all they achieve is to breed public distrust.

Public trust in journalism is already depressingly low: 10% of people trust tabloid journalists to tell the truth, 36% trust broadsheet journalists, and 46% trust TV news journalists. While politicians don’t fare much better, with 26% of the public trusting MPs generally to tell the truth and 46% trust their local MPs. (Committee on Standards in Public Life, survey 2008, sample of 968)

In a lecture at the end of last year by Charles Reiss, former political editor of the Evening Standard, he presented an interesting idea on the analysis of these statistics. He suggested that one possible reason why people are more likely to trust their local politicians is because the reality they experience through knowing their local MPs is different to the reality presented by journalists; through consistently presenting politicians as innately dishonest, journalists are creating a distorted picture that results in voter apathy.

He went on to say – very eloquently – that of course “we [journalists] need to hold the bastards [politicians] to account”, but if journalists don’t practice investigative journalism with proof, evidence and ethics at the forefront then they simply breed public contempt for both politicians and themselves – successfully undermining the entire media industry.

The power of intrinsically linking women with mental health problems

Image: LunaDiRimmel @ Flickr

There is a dizzying rise in mental health problems amongst young women. This is a statement that I recently read by Laurie Penny in the New Statesman, one I constantly hear used in order to prove that women are suffering due to the inequality within our society. Firstly, we don’t need any more proof – gender inequality within our society is a fact. Secondly, we certainly do not need it to be intrinsically linked to mental health problems to prove this fact.

Although I’m an avid reader of Penny’s blogs and agree with many of her arguments, this trend of connecting mental health problems exclusively to women is one that I find very worrying.  The comments board of her blog disintegrated into a bizarre gender competition, each person brandishing their conflicting statistics to prove the suicide success rate of men vs women.

We must move beyond these simplistic gender wars; feminist discourse needs to recognise that patriarchal values – the adherence to traditional gender roles and sexuality – is damaging to both women and men. Discourse that refuses to acknowledge this tends to reinforce the very categorisation of gender and sexuality that it’s trying to overturn.

A history of madness & control

Historically madness has always been linked to women; hysteria, an out-dated term for a psychological disorder, originates from the Latin “hustera” meaning “womb” suggesting that the essential difference between a woman and a man, their reproductive anatomy, causes madness. Mental illness is presented as forming part of what it is to be a woman therefore ensuring that the threat of the label of madness is ever present.

Witch-hunts are often cited as evidence that throughout history patriarchal society has used demeaning categorisations to oppress women:

“[t]he witch has come to symbolize female oppression…both the witch and the mad woman have been portrayed as women who have dared to question, who attempt to rebel.” (Ussher, 39).

Physiologist Jane Ussher is recognised as a leading expert in women’s health, gender and sexuality. In her book Women’s Madness: Misogyny or Mental illness? she connects the witch and the mad woman, implying that the witch label of earlier centuries has been replaced by the label of madness in the twentieth-century: “the female malady replaced the curse of the witch” (Ussher, 61). This shows the way in which labels enable patriarchal society to force “rebellious” women to the periphery of society, thereby silencing them.

With men out of the picture, stereotypes are reinforced

Image: koiart71 @ Flickr

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Yet, Ussher’s discussion on witches overlooks the fact that historical accounts of witch-hunts are partial and biased. Also, in viewing witch-hunts exclusively in terms of patriarchy’s marginalization of rebellious women the oppression of men is ignored. Although Ussher briefly acknowledges that men were also labelled witches, she refuses to explore the possible reasons for this and thereby denies the fact that men also suffer due to patriarchy. By implying that witches are solely female, Ussher reinforces the very categorisation that patriarchal society used to oppress women.

She argues: “Psychology has developed as a singularly male enterprise…thus it is time to redress the balance…I shall focus on women, with no apology!” (Ussher, 10).

Ussher doesn’t recognise that by disregarding men’s mental disorders she creates the impression that madness, like her depiction of witches, is solely a female condition. In doing so, she fails to challenge patriarchy’s repressive categorisation of women. It is this that I object to – if we continue to categorise gender in this manner we will never overturn the patriarchal values that are so damaging within our society.

Instead Ussher uses reverse discourse, accepting that women are more likely to develop mental illnesses:

“Misogynistic practices…lead to madness itself because they create a culture of incarceration and oppression with which madness is the inevitable outcome for women” (Ussher, 20).

The connection between patriarchal oppression and women’s mental disorders is complex and it is far too simplistic to suggest that madness is an inevitable outcome for women suffering under patriarchal constraints or that only women are oppressed by patriarchy.

Bad boys

Since the 1970s there has been a growing recognition that men can also be oppressed by patriarchal values. Pauline Prior in Gender and Mental Health argues that the “health care structure [is] dominated by patriarchal values [that] define the problems of women as illness and those of men as deviance and therefore unrelated to health issues” (Prior, 47). This ensures that the traditional image of the “strong” man and “weak” woman is maintained.

Patriarchy oppresses individuals in a distinct manner in order to fortify patriarchal belief, in this instance the binary opposites that constitute masculinity and femininity. This means that often men are criminalized while women are labelled mad to ensure that patriarchy’s notion of gendered behaviour is not challenged: “whilst women are positioned within the psychiatric discourse, men are positioned within the criminal discourse” (Ussher, 10).

One of the difficulties in diagnosing mental disorders in men is due to the fact that strict notions of masculine identity ensure that “men’s own experience is left unconstruable because masculinity is based on repression” (Frosh, 73). Therefore, patriarchy’s insistence that individuals must conform to fixed notions of gender can be detrimental to the mental health of both men and women.

The criminal sexuality

 

Image: empirical_perception @ Flickr

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The criminalization of male deviant behaviour is also evident in society’s attitude to homosexuality. The increased discourse on homosexuality, due to the increasingly prevalent and vocal sexologists in the 19th and 20th century, ensured that a “norm of sexual development was defined and all possible deviations were carefully described” (Foucault, 36). This desire to categorise sexuality can be seen as instigated by a post-war fear of population decline: “[it is] motivated by one basic concern: to ensure population, to reproduce labor capacity…in short, to constitute a sexuality that is economically useful and politically conservative” (Foucault, 37).

The concern over homosexuality directly mirrors the fear of women’s changing role; after WW1 the government responded to the alarming population decline by actively encouraging women to return to their post-war domestic roles through a vigorous defence of conservative, family values – population growth is intrinsically linked to economic expansion and social stability.

This suggests that society viewed heterosexuality and traditional gender roles as intrinsic to social stability. Although Foucault questions whether this is the principal reason for the fear of homosexuality, it was a view seen expressed in society:

Sir Ernest Wild proclaimed that sex between women “saps the fundamental institutions of society, stops childbirth, produces neurasthenia and insanity and causes our race to decline.’’

This demonstrates society’s fear of population decline, whilst revealing that individuals’ challenge to patriarchy’s fixed notion of sexuality is construed differently depending on their gender; female homosexuality is linked to madness whereas male homosexuality is criminalized.

This is supported by the fact that it was not until 1967 that sex between men was made legal, yet sex between women was never regarded as criminal behaviour. Instead, it was considered an act of “degeneracy [and] loneliness [resulting in] suicide” (Ussher, Body Talk, 137). This once again ensures that patriarchy’s notion of gendered behaviour is not challenged.

The way our patriarchal society categorises sexuality became depressingly evident earlier this week in the statement William Hague made over his alleged relationship with his advisor Christopher Myers. Hague’s sexuality is of no interest to me, and has no consequence to this argument, yet his statement reveals that he is a victim of patriarchy and shows the traumatic lengths we will go to conform to these values. I find it devastating that any man would feel pressurised into giving intimate details of his and his wife’s miscarriages in order to prove they adhere to traditional family values and our socially-constructed ideas of sexual “norms”. This is a prime example of the damage that adherence to patriarchal values inflicts on both men and women.

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Bibliography

Foucault, Michel. The Will to Knowledge: The History of Sexuality. London: Penguin Books, 1998.

Frosh, Stephen. ‘Screaming under the bridge: masculinity, rationality and psychotherapy.’ Body Talk: The Material and Discursive Regulation of Sexuality, Madness and Reproduction. Ed. Jane M. Ussher. London: Routledge, 1997. 70-85

Prior, Pauline M. Gender and Mental Health. Ed. Jo Campling. London: Macmillan Press, 1999.

Ussher, Jane. ‘Framing the sexual ‘Other’: the regulation of lesbian and gay sexuality.’ Body Talk: The Material and Discursive Regulation of Sexuality, Madness and Reproduction. Ed. Jane M. Ussher. London: Routeledge, 1997. 131-159

- Women’s Madness: Misogyny or Mental illness? London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991.

Come on AMs, let's talk

Image: mnd.ctrl @ flickr

In the world of politics, May is looming: these local elections will include a vote on devolution, where the public will decide how they wish to see the future of Wales. Assembly members should be scrambling to connect directly with the Welsh people, to swing the debate wide open, and to incite voters. But where are these politicians?

They’re certainly not here – making there presence known in the blogosphere.

I’ve counted only 6 AMs (out of a total of 60) who blog about their political work and life; Bethan Jenkins, Jon Morgan, Leanne Wood, Peter Black, Nick Bourne, and Leighton Andrews (I’m sure there has to be more – let me know. I haven’t included the likes of Nerys Evans because her blog isn’t directly about her political work.)

The common argument for not having a blog is one of time constraint. But as a politician, if you don’t have time to talk to voters then you shouldn’t be in politics. Other reasons could be technophobia or the belief that it is an inefficient way to reach the public.

Technophobia: Blogging isn’t technical, it’s as simple as sending an email. There are loads of social media classes out there and the Assembly should be supporting its members to improve their IT skills and communication with voters.

Efficient: The Welsh political scene on social media is thriving (For just a tiny handful see:  Cardiff Blogger; Welsh political twins; Welsh ramblings; Cambria politico; Peter Cox). If you’re not engaging with their debates, especially if you disagree, it demonstrates that you’re not willing to directly engage with the issues that face Wales and its people.

Scared to be wrong

Yet, these arguments don’t address why AM’s aren’t blogging. There is a simple answer – fear. Blogging about real issues – rather than spouting PR – makes politicians vulnerable to direct debate, direct criticism and real engagement. Just as journalists feared social media, so do politicians.

The trouble is that like journalists, many politicians are not experts. There will always be people that have more expertise on a given topic and they are ready to challenge and debate – engage with them, learn from them, and improve your policies.

As Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC’s technology correspondent, said about his time as a trainee journalist:

“People who complained were ignored and treated like mad men!”

Journalism is moving on from this attitude, it’s time politics did too.

Statistics show that in the UK 46% of the public said they trusted local MPs, compared to 26% when asked about MPs  generally. (Committee on Standards in Public Life, survey 2008). This suggests that personal knowledge of a politician makes people respond favourably to them – why aren’t AM’s capitalising on this?

I’m tired of hearing politicians moan about voter apathy and how the media skews the issues. Solve this problem and directly engage with the people.

Come on – you’re politicians, you should be the first to join the debate.

Pakistan’s worst flooding in its history has now affected more than 14 million people and left at least 1,600 dead.

Image: REUTERS/Adrees Latif, courtesy of alertnet.org @ Flickr: Oxfam

The British public has so far donated £10.5m to help the victims of Pakistan floods. Hard-hitting and emotive media reports have galvanised viewers to donate generously, as UK charities plead with the international community for support.

Yet this is only one side of the story.

If you find yourself stumbling into a Sky News comments board – which unfortunately I did while rubbing my eyes struck-dumb with disbelief – then like me you’ll find compassion and empathy replaced with outright racism and bigotry. In reaction to the aid being given to Pakistan by the UK government, comments began with “Enough is enough!!!” and “I’m not a racist, but…” (a phrase which is a particular favourite of mine).

Here are some examples of genuine comments:

• “Use your own money Pakistan – stop scrounging.”  – Brought to you by the aptly titled Voice of Sanity
• “I’m sick to death of our country handing money out at the drop of a hat.”
• “One day their burning our flag the next they are screaming for aid and food. Why are people giving money to these people, we need it here!”
• “Sorry but wouldn’t give them a penny, at least it may slow the cross border Taliban attacks on out brave soldiers”

…And so it goes on. These comments would be horrifying, if they weren’t so commonplace.  A quick squint at numerous comment boards and you’ll find that similar racism, bigotry, misunderstandings and plain stupidity is rife.

A man evacuates his children through waist-deep waters: It’s estimated that 6 million children – that’s almost double the entire population of Wales/New Zealand – will contract severe illnesses due to the floods

Image: REUTERS/Adrees Latif, courtesy of alertnet.org @ Flickr: Oxfam

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So who do you blame, the readers or the media?

Poor quality and inaccuracy does plague the British media’s reporting of international news. Although this example from Sky is a straight news report, their coverage of international news has been severely criticised in the past.

With typical witticisms Charlie Brooker‘s Newswipe (below) highlighted the appalling quality of certain reporting of the Haiti earthquake earlier this year.

Video: xthemusic

In June I interviewed journalist John Owen, founding member of the International News Safety Institute,  on the current problems facing international news coverage. He said:

“The fact that news agencies are closing their foreign bureaus is one of the most dramatic issues that is happening in the industry.”

Owen is concerned that newsgroups no longer encourage reporters to go to foreign countries, to live in them and to understand the language and the culture. This means that when journalists report crises they don’t have any real grasp of the background. “All you get now is quick, parachute-in and parachute-out, crisis reporting”, he said. “It really is a great lose.”

The media’s self-fulfilling prophecy

Owen recognised that newsgroups are driven, in a very difficult time financially, by the need to produce popular material, stating that stories about celebrities for example will get a lot more interest than the difficulties in Sri Lanka. Yet he added:

“It’s a bit of a chicken or egg situation, and a self-fulfilling prophecy. You are not going to make people interested in complicated parts of the world unless you have a really good storyteller who is given the opportunity to find characters, and to find ways of connecting their lives to your country and your culture.”

The fact that many media groups only cover international news when there’s a crisis means that both their journalists and readers are unable to relate to the situation. Owen said:

“If it has some connection to their own country, like 9/11 or the London bombings or a big oil spill, then people will be interested because it affects them – if it’s more abstract then they won’t.”

Yet Owen believes that not all media agencies are the same. “I’ve been working for the last four months with Al Jazeera“, he said, “and one of the things that is most impressive is that they have reporters all over the world. So you get a textured, fully rounded reporting that you’re just not getting from other news agencies, with maybe the exception of the BBC.”

As the media industry’s purse strings continue to tighten and the public becomes even more disengaged with foreign affairs, there is the risk that Britain will simply turn off to world news.

The invasion of Gaza by artist Osi Osmond. A section of a much larger drawing, detailing a chaotic and horrifying scene

Image: Osi Osmond

“Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.” Cameron’s statement in Turkey earlier this week has been seen as a dramatic assertion – further than any British minister had gone before in their assessment of the situation.

The BBC cited it as an example of Cameron’s refreshing candour, stating:

“David Cameron often pitches himself as a realist, a pragmatic politician more interested in solving problems than being hitched to ideology [...] He prides himself on being straight with people – refreshing, perhaps, for a Westminster politician.”

Yet however refreshing you may find this, it is little more than empty words with no policy to support the people of Gaza who have suffered devastating crimes against humanity – I suspect they would find his “refreshing” words less than reassuring.

The invasion of Gaza at the end of 2008 sent shockwaves throughout the world, not least because of devastating number of civilian casualties. The media bombarded us with graphic images of the victims; for many of us these images have been carved into our consciousness and continue to haunt us.

Bringing the conflict home

A year later and the artist Osi  Osmond brought the horrors of the conflict quite literally onto my doorstep, in an exhibition that questions our cultural acceptance of war and violence.

Artist Osi Osmond, in front of his drawing of a war-torn Llansteffan beach, challenges our cultural acceptance of war and violence

Image: Osi Osmond

Osi and I live in a small coastal village in west Wales called Llansteffan; in his highly emotive exhibition there were three large drawings depicting terrifying, chaotic scenes of war on Llansteffan beach.  “When they started bombing Gaza I realised that the Gaza strip is about the same size as the coastline and water that I see from my garden in Llansteffan,” explained Osi, “so I was struck by the image of a million and a half people down there with bombs and rockets falling on them.” This vision was further reinforced by the constant sound of bombing and machine gunning, which drifts over the water to Llansteffan from the military base in Pembrey.

Over the years the fact that the Welsh coastline is being used for military practice is something that has gnawed away at Osi. He said:

“I wanted people to begin to understand that our coastline, as beautiful as it is, is used as an instrument of war.”

This really struck home for Osi a few summers ago when his three grandsons were on the beach playing in the water. “There were bombs dropping behind them”,  said Osi. “They didn’t take any notice but I was thinking, ‘God if we were in a different part of the world those bombs could be dropping on them – they’d be dead, they’d be in bits’.”

The exhibition, which consists of a body of paintings, three large drawings and several watercolours, takes the viewer on a series of emotional journeys and reflects the artist’s great love of poetry; engraved within three of the drawings are the words of the poets Waldo Williams, Mahmoud Darwish and Frank Bidart.

Image: Osi Osmond

Pacifist Osi, who has travelled extensively throughout the Middle East  spending time in war-torn areas such as Palestine and Sudan, demonstrates that this cultural acceptance of violence and war is not only devastating for the victims but also for those carrying out the atrocities. One area of the exhibition, The Soldiers’ Wall, depicts young men gripped by terror.  “Often soldiers go in to war looking gung-ho and heroic, and they end up terrified”, said Osi. “They become victims themselves, damaged through psychological trauma.”

A soldier looks on in horror. Osi is interested in the human image, especially when people are in moments of tension or peril. He tries to capture and freeze those moments

Image: Osi Osmond

Lying just around the corner from The Soldiers’ Wall is the Dead Children’s Wall. Osi said:

“When people discover that those six images are of dead children they are often disgusted, but we need to face that reality. We need to be more vigilant, to question what our culture, our society, and our politics are doing. The atrocities that are carried out in our name is something that people don’t really think about, and they need to.”

Image from the "Dead Children's Wall"

Image: Osi Osmond

Osi is not only concerned about how our politics and culture affects other nations, but also how it curbs our own freedoms. Talking of the anti-terrorism laws Osi said: “Our governments, along with the American and most European governments, are keen to instil fear within us. They want us to be afraid so they can get away with whatever they like. I’m as equally afraid of the governments reaction to terrorists, as I am of the terrorists themselves.”

Evoking the Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times”, Osi’s work is a response to the very interesting times that we are living in.

Before the BBC state that any politician is  “more interested in solving problems than being hitched to ideology”, maybe they should think a little harder about our cultural and political ideologies that accept war as a means of control.

There are 6 million unpaid carers in the UK, while under 1% of the UK’s population receives Carer’s Allowance.

Image: Michael Summers @ Flickr

They have already suffered an ominous sign. Earlier this week, Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of Council at the BMA (British Medical Association), said that despite the government’s best assurances that front-line services will be protected, cuts are already having an impact on doctors’ ability to care for their patients.

Ahead of the elections, I covered a story that highlighted the need for a fully comprehensive Care Strategy to protect and support unpaid carers. Despite the urgent need for reform, the attempts by the three main parties to work together on an effective health care policy broke down into inter-party bickering.

Will a coalition government prove any better at supporting the six million unpaid carers in the UK?

At the steering wheel, will Clegg and Cameron show their support for unpaid carers

Image: Andy Martini @Flickr

Unpaid carers save the economy £87 billion every year; they give so much to society yet as a consequence of caring they’re twice as likely to suffer from ill health, as well as facing isolation, poverty and discrimination.

In March I met three people that will be directly affected by the carers debate on July 1. Here’s their story.

My life as a carer

Mary Pearson, 66, was an unpaid carer for seven years. Her mother Lily broke both her legs and was left unable to walk and became completely dependent on her daughter who provided her with 24-hour care. The strain of caring meant that Mary’s health seriously suffered; the day came when Mary couldn’t cope any more and had to put her mother into a nursing home. That evening, Mary was admitted to hospital with a leaking heart valve.

“The situation for carers at the moment is very difficult,” says Mary.

“We simply don’t get the back up or support. When my mother came home from hospital they promised me all the help I could get but when I tried to find it, it simply wasn’t there.”

Mary stresses the importance of providing respite for families, so they can have a complete break secure in the knowledge that their loved ones are being looked after properly. “This is really, really necessary,” says Mary. “I used to have to get up two or three times a night to take my mother to the bathroom. It was a 24-hour caring situation. I don’t think the government realises how much carers take on.”

Having struggled to find respite care for her mother, Mary says the government needs a policy that would give carers a break. “They need to put the money in the right place,’ says Mary. “Unless they provide people to sit with your mother when you need to leave her, then just throwing money at the problem isn’t going to help.”

Ways to improve the care system

Hameed Mohamed owned a residential home for 10 years and is about to set up a new care agency. He believes carers don’t get enough help from government resources, and stresses the importance of providing carers with practical skills accrued on training courses. “People often find that they’ve taken on a role of carer with no training in handling, bathing and that sort of thing,” he says. “They’re just expected to know but really they need support.”

Hameed also expressed his concern that there aren’t enough quality care agencies out there. He says:

“Social services contract agencies based on price rather than quality. I don’t feel that they investigate care agencies thoroughly enough. They often wait for something to happen before they act. Yet it’s not social services fault; they themselves are limited and suffer under government cutbacks.”

Hameed would like to see the three major parties working together to decide on one policy to support unpaid carers. “Every time there’s a new party elected there’s a whole set of new policies,” he says. “If they worked together it would benefit everyone; carers, older people and social services.”

The expert advice to politicians

Professor Baroness Ilora Finlay is a leading expert on palliative care in the UK and is a consultant at a cancer centre in Cardiff, Wales. She argued that Westminster politicians could learn a lot from what the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has achieved in the management of Wales’ health service.

There have been strategies introduced in Wales that nowhere else in the UK has put in place, such as the seven-day nursing care service. “By June we’ll have specialist nurses across the whole of Wales available seven days a week,” said Baroness Finlay, “as well as consultant advice available 24-hours a day, seven days a week, throughout the whole year.”

She explained that the organisation of the health service in Wales is now very different to England. She says:

“We’re working with very different processes and we have a lot less policy change. Because of this we have a much more stable NHS.”

Baroness Finlay believes that the dramatic improvement in Wales’ health care system proves that comprehensive reform across the UK can be achieved, but only if politicians commit to a single, substantial policy.

The Future

Gordon Conochie, joint policy and parliamentary officer at The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, asks on his blog what has happened to pledges for carers. I simply echo his words: “The election is passed, new ministers are appointed and the waiting must end – it’s time for change.”

Terry Pratchett is ready to be a test case for a euthanasia tribunal

Image: Robin Zebr0wski @ Flickr

This week Dr Michael Irwin, dubbed “Dr Death”, hit the headlines once again; he avoided prosecution after accompanying a cancer sufferer to Dignitas where he later ended his life.

Many argue that the current legal situation surrounding assisted suicide offers no safeguards; it does not protect those who do not wish to die, or provide any guidance to doctors and family members who have been asked to assist in voluntary suicide. It also results in many ending their life prematurely, while they are still capable of doing so.

Yet the fear that legalising assisted suicide will put pressure on a very vulnerable group of people, many of whom already feel like a burden, is a very real concern. Simply by making assisted suicide legal and therefore socially acceptable could be enough to make some people feel duty bound to take their own life, this is an issue that cannot be ignored.

Simon Stevens, an active campaigner for disability rights, speaks out against assisted suicide

Image: Simon Stevens

Simon Stevens is a leading independent disability consultant and trainer with vast experience in disability equality. He is an active campaigner for disability rights and over the last 15 years has worked for organisations including Scope, Warwick University, the BBC and the Council of Europe to help improve the situation for disabled people.

Born in 1974, Simon has cerebral palsy. He says it affects his speech, balance, hand control, and even his sense of humour – in a good way. Despite his difficulties and the everyday discrimination he faces because of his disability, Simon is rightly proud of his achievements; winner of a 2004 Enterprising Young Brit award and a 2008 UK Catalyst Award, he proves that cerebral palsy doesn’t have to get in the way of running a successful business or two.

Although Simon says that he’s tried to stay open minded about assisted suicide he has decided to speak out. He’s worried that recent support for euthanasia, that’s been extensively covered by the media, has already made it socially acceptable. “I realised that increasingly the media would portray the death of disabled people in ‘mercy killings’ as acceptable”, he said. “It appears that when a parent kills a non disabled person they are deemed evil while when a parent kills a disabled child they are presented as a hero.” Simon believes that this is because disabled people are treated as second-rate citizens, as though their lives are not worth as much.

“When a parent kills a disabled child they are presented as a hero”

By legalising assisted suicide it will make people with disabilities and terminal illnesses feel like a burden and there will be increased pressure, however indirect, to commit suicide out of a sense of duty, says Simon. “Society will increase the pressure until it becomes a duty imposed upon the family. I worry that a situation will occur whereby society will assume that terminal illness should lead to suicide.”

“Society will assume that terminal illness should lead to suicide”

Speaking from his own experience, Simon is fearful of the impact that legalising assisted suicide could have on those who are struggling to cope. Last March, at the peak of his paralysis, Simon wanted to end his own life. “There was a point when I did want to die, and indeed it was not the first time I considered suicide”, he explained. “But both times it was because I was unhappy with my environment and the lack of certainty. Once I knew what was happening and regained control I became happy; it was never about the illness. People may argue that it is different for me because I knew I would get better, but that was not the case. The hospital had written me off and sent me home; I had no desire to improve my situation and I didn’t believe it would improve.”

This is why Simon is adamant that improvements in the health service and social services would reduce the number of people thinking about assisted suicide. “If people have good quality support and healthcare they can manage their conditions better”, he said. “I would like to see a legal guarantee to appropriate and responsive rehab in a speedy, coordinated, and informed manner.”

Failing to work closely together to provide effective healthcare for chronic or terminal conditions is a criticism that the NHS and social services often faces. This is an issue that both pro and anti euthanasia campaigners seem to agree on. Jo Cartwright, campaigns officer for Dignity in Dying, said, “We believe assisted dying should be a choice for people who are terminally ill and mentally competent. For this to be a real choice the individual should have had full access to palliative care. At the moment not all people have access to good quality palliative care, so this needs to be addressed.”

Yet, Dignity in Dying state that even the highest quality of palliative care cannot alleviate all suffering, and it’s for these people that they campaign for assisted suicide legislation.  Jo said.

“At the moment assisted dying is going on, either by people travelling abroad to die or being helped to die here in the UK, with or without success. There are currently no safeguards, and retrospective prosecutions don’t help the individual who has died if there was coercion.”

Jo argued that assisted suicide legislation with upfront safeguards would protect people who do not want to die. While also protecting those who want that choice; they would not longer have to travel abroad to die earlier than they would want, while they physically can.

Former chairman of Dignity in Dying, Dr Irwin, hit the headlines this week as he avoided prosecution after taking a cancer sufferer to the euthanasia group Dignitas in Switzerland where he later ended his life. His was the first assisted suicide case not involving family members or friends to be considered by the Crown Prosecution Service since the landmark guidelines were set out by the director of public prosecutions (DPP) in February, and has prompted fresh claims that the crime is being effectively legalised by the back door.

Yet an interview I conducted in March with Baroness Ilora Finlay, a world authority on the care of terminally ill cancer patients, saw her defend the guidelines. Ilora, a consultant doctor at the cancer centre in Cardiff, Wales, shares her own story of sickness and suffering and reveals her passionate views on assisted suicide.

(Note: This interview was conducted in March 2010 and is therefore not a reaction to Dr Irwin avoiding prosecution)

Mother and baby visiting doctor's surgery in Lesotho. Image: Goronwy Jones

The BBC News story on Lesotho tonight (June 17) was the worse piece of reporting I’ve seen for some time. One in five of the population in Lesotho are infected with HIV and about 50 people die from AIDS each day. Compare this fact to the sound bite that the BBC chose to use from Prince William: “seeing the smile on the children’s faces was…errrr…made you smile.” Well done, really powerful stuff BBC.

I was saddened to read, in the Guardian article on June 6, that hundreds of people from the independent country of Lesotho petitioned the parliament and the South African High Commission requesting that their country be integrated into South Africa, which completely surrounds it.

I  met Price Seeiso of Lesotho two years ago, as he visited a Welsh charity – Dolen Cymru – that works to offer its support to the country. He said: “it has been an inspiration to me that in a small corner of the British Isles there are people who want us to find a way out of our difficulties.” Yet despite the 23 years of dedicated support that Dolen Cymru has offered, the  situation in Lesotho is devastating.

As the Guardian states:

“In 1980, Lesotho produced 80% of the cereals it consumed. Now it imports 70%. The only real cash crop is marijuana, grown between rows of maize and smuggled to South Africa on donkeys. Drug cultivation is such a lifeline that the children clothed and fed with its proceeds have a name: bana bamatekoane (children of marijuana).”

To add to their server economic problems, the nation is experiencing a dramatic escalation in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Due to the sheer amount of people affected by disease, Lesotho hospitals are extremely understaffed; in one day a single doctor must care for 70 to 100 people.

Some mothers would have walked several miles to reach the landing strip and receive vital medical attention for their babies. Image: Goronwy Jones

Dr Goronwy Jones, who has worked for over 25 years, has recently returned from a voluntary placement in the country. He spent eight weeks as a Flying Doctor in Lesotho; when he wasn’t flying, Dr Jones was in the operating theatre standing in as an anaesthetist. He said:

“The hospital conditions were horrendous and extremely basic. Despite this I was extremely impressed by the outstanding work that was being achieve in such conditions. It is quite incredible how highly skilled the nurses are and the sheer amount of work that they undertake is simply mind-boggling.”

Dr Jones with Mrs Mohapi, a general surgeon, after she had just removed a bullet from a young man's abdomen. She was the only specialist born and bred in Lesotho. Image: Goronwy Jones

When a country is fighting for survival the BBC, as the most powerful news corporation in Britain, has a duty to ensure that they create reports that engage and galvanise viewers. Images of bumbling princes simply are not good enough.

Image: etiennecoutu

As BP are faced with paying $2bn in compensation to victims of the Gulf oil spill, this environmental disaster is yet another horrifying signifier of the problems associated with oil. Yet could this be an energy Sputnik moment? Two important developing technology trends, that could point the way to the end of this oil dependency, are the drop in the cost of solar power and the downward cost curve in electric storage – car batteries. Battery-electric vehicles (EVs) are five times more energy-efficient than petrol-powered ones, while being five times cheaper to operate and maintain. The main problem with EVs is that their batteries, which account for 50 percent of the cost, are expensive. Lithium-ion battery costs about $1,000 (£690) per kilowatt-hour of electricity storage when fully installed.

Yet it seems that the fastest growing Chinese vehicle manufacturer, BYD Auto, has an affordable solution. Following the launch of its e6 electric car at Detroit auto show at the beginning of the year, on May 19 BYD’s public relations manager Du Guozhong announced that the model had passed all US safety tests including battery-related assessments. The electric car, with a 48-kilowatt-hour battery, is set to go on sale in the US by the end on the year, priced at $40,000. This means the battery would cost about $500 per kilowatt-hour, putting BYD years ahead of the downward cost curve.

Image: Jochen Siegle/MotorShowNetwork

Who are BYD?

The company BYD (Build Your Dreams) started in 1995 as a battery manufacturer, and led the way in green technology by producing 100% recyclable batteries made from non-toxic electrolyte fluid. In 2003 it expanded into the automotive business; going on to launch eight models the company has enjoyed rapid growth. When they announced that they aimed to sell 800,000 units in the Chinese car market in 2010, after selling only 400,000 in 2009, many saw them as being unrealistically ambitious. Yet sales figures released for the first quarter of 2010 show that they’re on track; they sold 68,129 cars in March alone, a 99.3% increase on the same period last year, pushing them into third place on the Chinese car market sales board just below Shanghai VW and Shanghai GM.

In China, BYD cars are appealing as they have a good cost-benefit ratio; seen as being of better quality than other Chinese cars and cheaper than cars made by foreign manufacturers. Their expertise in battery technology awarded them the support of legendry American investor Warren Buffet, who brought 10 percent of the BYD Company in 2008. The CEO of the company, Wang Chuan-Fu, was so keen to prove his green credentials to Buffet’s business partner that he drank his own battery fluid. His point was if they were going to help solve green issues, they couldn’t create new environmental problems with their technology.

BYD successfully married their battery expertise with efficient manufacturing processes. Wang Chuan-Fu keeps manufacturing costs down in several ways: by employing a cheaper manual workforce rather than investing in machines; manufacturing all the various components in-house, from the seatbelts to the air conditioning; and granting himself a very modest wage that sees him living alongside his employees in the company’s purpose-built compound.

Safety at Stake

It was these efficiency savings that became BYD’s biggest hurdle as it tried to expand into the global market. Jim Federico, vehicle line engineer for Buick, has argued that while Chinese engineers are capable in single-skill areas like brakes, suspensions and wheels, they struggle when it comes to integrating all the systems in a complete vehicle. This has resulted in BYD’s failure to meet Euro NCAP crash tests.

Image: femaletrumpet02

Therefore, the news that BYD has passed the US safety test would suggest that there is nothing stopping the company expanding globally; this will come as much awaited good news for the Australian car dealer Denzel, which was so impressed by the company’s electric cars that for that last two years they have been eager to start importing them.

However, sceptics say that BYD’s battery cannot both be more powerful and cheaper than those made by competitors, and question the credibility of this announcement. Motoring journalist Eric Loveday said:

“Nearly everyone has been sceptical of the claims put forth by BYD from day one; from outrages range estimates, to production dates that simply couldn’t be met, and prices that seemed far too low to be reasonable. We don’t have any validation that points to actual test results, so needless to say, take BYD’s claim with a bit of caution and a shaker full of salt.”

Although BYD’s announcement is yet to be verified, sceptical or not no one can question their ambition; they are determined to become China’s largest automaker by 2015 and the world’s largest by 2025. An extremely important part of realising this ambition is to establish themselves as a world leader in the fast-growing solar power industry.

Can the sun suffice?

Using electric cars while their power comes from coal or nuclear means all this is achieving is shifting the pollution and the risk of industrial accidents onto other dirty energy sources. Luckily, the other key technology trend that could move us away from oil dependency is the rapid drop in the cost of solar power. Solar costs are projected to drop 80% over the next decade. This means that by 2020, unsubsidised solar power will be cheaper than subsidised coal, oil and nuclear.

As a result of the BP oil spill, a group of Florida businessmen created a website Solar Spill, to educate energy consumers about the potential of solar. They state:

“The sun ‘spills’ enough energy onto the Earth every four minutes to provide enough electricity to meet the needs of the world’s current population. This is not to say that 100% of the electricity should be from solar energy, but to advocate that a significant role can and should be played by solar power.”

Photovoltaic (PV) solar technology is improving fast, in terms of cost and efficiency. Dow Chemical Company, a global leader in sustainable chemical manufacture, announced in January that it would launch a line of solar PV shingle that would be widely available in 2011. They state that just by replacing old roofs with solar shingles instead of the asphalt ones, you could soon be generating solar power for less than 1 cent per kilowatt-hour. With the average American paying 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, they claim you’d be able to “fill up” your electric car for 53 cents.

In March, BYD demonstrated its commitment to become leaders in the field of solar panel technology when it started marketing the world’s first mass-produced dual mode electric vehicle, the F3DM, to private customers at the reduced price of 169,800 RMB ($24,800). The model has a solar panel charging system on the roof that transforms the solar power into electric power and stores it in a Fe battery.

This year, the Chinese government has stepped up its efforts to make electric cars a viable option for its populate; from announcing the introduction of state subsidies for those who pick green vehicles, to their plan to increase the number of electric charging stations across the country. Promoting electric car development is a way to curb surging demand for imported oil, which communist leaders see as a strategic weakness. David Sandalow, the assistant energy secretary for the US government has said:

“The Chinese are well positioned to be global leaders in the electric vehicle industry. I believe that we’ve got a lot to learn from each other, and that the world would benefit from us challenging each other in this industry.”

As Obama declared to end the “cosy relationship” between oil companies and US regulators, China challenges the US to become global leaders in EV technology. Is this the moment renewable energy campaigners have been waiting for? A move away from oil, as two superpowers battle to be green.