The best of the action from the second round of the 2011 County Championship. Updates thoughout the day and click here for scores

6.40pm: A round-up of scores before we close for the day, comments will be open over the weekend if you fancy carrying on discussing the games:

Leics 230 & 4/0 v Derbyshire 439/9d
Glamorgan 202 & 185/3 v Gloucs 188
Middlesex 277 v Essex 115 & 215 (f/o)
Kent 202 v Northants 429/7
Hampshire 218 v Notts 293/9
Warwickshire 642 v Somerset 147/6
Durham 327 & 64/3 v Yorkshire 149

5.08pm: Trent Bridge has brought some food for thought for the England selectors: a Samit Patel hundred, a somewhat slimmed-down Patel, too, yet again reviving hopes that he might address the fitness issues that have stalled his international career, writes David Hopps.
Patel's hundred had a large slice of fortune. He was dropped four times in the slips, three times by Neil McKenzie, the last of them off Friedel de Wet when he was in the 90s. He was not cowed by that in a second fifty that came at almost a run a ball and struck Danny Briggs for a straight six before hooking De Wet for another boundary and celebrating his hundred with a leap in the air that told of his new-found athleticism.
 
Cricket might never have taken root at Trent Bridge if William Clarke, who was later to become the founder of the All England XI, had not taken a shine to the widowed landlady of the Trent Bridge Inn, married her and decided that the spare land at the back of the pub would make a wonderful cricket ground.
 
Trent Bridge has become one of England's best-loved grounds, but in recent years The World Renowned Trent Bridge Inn, as it proclaims itself, had become an eyesore.  But better times lie ahead for one of cricket's most famous hostelries; it has been bought by Wetherspoons and will reopen as a cricket-themed pub in late May.
 
For once, the cries of "waiting" that could be heard on an overcast day came not just from batsmen contending with a difficult early-season pitch but from builders hauling equipment onto scaffolding. Nottinghamshire had toyed with the idea of trying to purchase the inn and demolish it, so removing a piece of history for the sake of another 1,000 on their ground's capacity. As enlightened as their development of Trent Bridge has been, William Clarke, described by John Arlott as "the first man to make a fortune out of cricket" would drink to that.

4.25pm: A (very) small amount of good news for Yorkshire: their total was revised upwards to 149, so Durham's lead was adjusted down to 178.

4.14pm: For the second time in as many Championship matches this season, Durham have earned the right to make their opponents follow on - and decided not to bother, writes Andy Wilson at Headingley. Just as at Hampshire last week, although this time under a different captain (Benkenstein rather than Mustard), they will first try to bat Yorkshire completely out of the game, and then hope to bowl them out for a second time - but this time, Durham regulars suggest, on a pitch that is already offering more help to messrs Blackwell and Borthwick than the Rose Bowl track that flattened into a shirt front.

It's funny to think that the afternoon session began with Yorkshire 93 for two, and apparently well set to make progress towards Durham's 327. But then their captain Andrew Gale played an appalling shot at Graham Onions to spark a collapse, with the last eight wickets falling for 47 - 16 of those from the last pair of Brophy and Ashraf.

Onions ended with five for 51 from 15 overs, an outstanding return after so long out, and was generously applauded to the pavilion by Yorkshire's players and members, as well as his own team-mates.

3.46pm: Warwickshire were finally dismissed for 642, 142 better than they have ever made at Taunton before, writes Mike Averis, and are now making about three appeals an over as their bowlers get the ball to do things Somerset found impossible.

With 10 on the board, Trescothick was still to score having played and missed or "left" either Woakes or Andrew Miller half a dozen times. After 21 balls the former England opener finally got off the mark with elegant boundaries either side of the wicket, before playing and missing again.

After eight overs Somerset are 31-0 with Arul Suppiah surviving a big appeal for caught behind.

2.59pm: Graham Onions has just taken his sweater with figures of four for 40, having seized the advantage for Durham in this absorbing northern battle, writes Andy Wilson at Headingley. Onions, playing his first senior game after 16 months of injury misery - full circumstances explained below, and yesterday, and in various previews over the last couple of weeks - fired out Andrew Gale, Jonathan Bairstow and Joe Root in consecutive overs as Yorkshire slipped from 100 for two to 113 for five.

It was high-class stuff in front of the watching England selector James Whitaker, especially considering Onions was obviously feeling his way back as he has so far bowled seven no-balls in his 11 overs.

He was given a big helping hand by Gale, just as he had been by Adam Lyth for his first wicket with his second ball of the season, as the Yorkshire captain top-edged a misguided pull to Ian Blackwell at mid on. But the next two scalps were earned not gifted, with Bairstow lbw and Root edging a late outswinger which the debutant wicket-keeper Michael Richardson did well to take.

Root had done more than enough to underline his promise by grafting to 45 with a couple of stylish boundaries, but Yorkshire are now looking to Gerard Brophy to rescue them for the second time in consecutive Championship matches.

2.38pm: Only 11 overs after lunch and the records keep coming, writes Mike Averis. A full toss from Mendis not only brought up Warwickshire's 600 – by 100 runs their best score at Taunton – but also the Sri Lankan spinner's worst figures in his first class career – 173 for two in 39 overs.

With Woakes making his third championship century, Trescothick's decision to ask Warwickshire to bat will take some explaining. The only good news for Somerset is that Woakes has gone for 129, mistiming a drive to mid-off.

1.57pm: Adeel Shafique, Notts' academy wicketkeeper, continues to keep wicket for Hampshire at the start of the afternoon session against Notts at Trent Bridge, writes David Hopps. This news goes under the classification of something I should have told you earlier if only I had found the time.

Hampshire's wicketkeeper Nic Pothas plays no further part after injuring a calf on the opening day and after clearance from the ECB Shafique gets a chance to step in until Hampshire's reserve keeper Michael Bates makes it to Nottingham from the south coast. Not the best time for the M1 to be closed and presumably clog up traffic in all directions.

Notts will have to negotiate a post-lunch spell from David Griffiths before they begin to feel settled. Griffiths bowled both Notts openers and had Samit Patel dropped in the slips on 0 and 9, firstly by Dominic Cork and then by Neil McKenzie. Alex Hales was also dropped by Cork, this time probably unnerved by the suggestion that McKenzie might go for the catch. That edge was forced by Freidel de Wet who then gave up the unequal struggle of bowling for slip catches and knocked out Hales's leg stump instead.

12.34pm: David Hopps writes: This is how hants_cricket told the story of the Trent Bridge morning so far on Twitter
 
BREAKING NEWS: David Griffiths has conceded a run, an Alex Hales single, after a succession of unplayable brilliance. (4-3-1-2). Notts 44-2
 
That sums it up really. Griffiths has produced an excellent morning's under thickening Trent Bridge cloud cover, bowling Nottinghamshire's experimental opening pair of Paul Franks and Mark Wagh and repeatedly passing the bat. He has also just had Samit Patel dropped at second slip by Neil McKenzie, a chance that he made look more difficult than it really was. Patel and Alex Hales are digging in for Nottinghamshire in the expectation that conditions will ease this afternoon. Griffiths' spell stands at 8-3-14-2 and Notts are 63-2 in reply to Hants' 218.

12.30pm: Ten overs into the day and Chopra went to his maiden double century, having added 26 to his overnight 174 in rapid time, writes Mike Averis at Taunton. He and Woakes were going along at just under seven an over when the opener, who managed only 409 runs in the entire championship last season, edged Hussain to third man for two.
The 200 took 330 deliveries, starting carefully but going on to add 30 boundaries, three of them sixes. Unfortunately the innings didn't last much longer.
Ajantha Mendis, so expensive and so obviously rusty yesterday, first baffled Woakes with balls that turned away from the right hander, then trapped Chopra lbw with one that came back. The stand had put on 123.

12.20pm: An unusual story from t'other side of the Pennines, in fact the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, about the Surrey opener Michael Brown taking over as chairman of Burnley CC, writes Andy Wilson at Headingley. Brown, who is one of six players in the last 15 years to make it into county cricket from the Turf Moor club - most famously James Anderson - hopes to tap into some of his former colleagues on the Stock Exchange to give the finances a boost.

"We are not talking a lot of money in the general scheme of things," said Brown. "But it is difficult for all clubs, not just cricket clubs. The culture is changing. People don't drink in the clubs any more and even the players' attitudes are changing. When I was coming through the ranks the players used to go into the bar after nets and have a couple of pints - you look now and the club is not even open. There needs to be a change, clubs need to be multi-purpose, not just a bar. You look at the likes of Rawtenstall where they have the clubhouse and the functions. You can't just rely on people to come in."

He has already sent Anderson advance notice that he'll be mithering for some practical support.

Yorkshire 46-2 here, Plunkett has taken over from Onions whose figures of 6-1-25-1 included six no-balls, which cost a total of 16 runs, for reasons explained by the anoraks who lurk below the line. Elsewhere Alastair Cook gone for 19 to Corey Collymore as Essex have slumped to 63-4 against Middlesex at Lord's, with no wickets yet for Steven Finn.

12.17pm: David Hopps has some news on New Zealand's latest appointment:

John Buchanan, a cricket coach variously described in his time as a genius or a charlatan. Buchanan has been confirmed as New Zealand's director of cricket and will take over the role in May. This new post puts him in charge of New Zealand's high-performance programme and he will also oversee the selection panel and implement a new system to identify emerging talent.

This is Buchanan's first major international job since he resigned as Australia's coach following the 2007 World Cup win, although he did have an unsuccessful stint in the IPL with Kolkata Knight Riders where he decided to implement a whole series of captains because of the fast nature of Twenty20. Suggesting to Soarav Ganguly, Lord High Everything in Kolkata, that he might like to limit his captaincy input to, say, setting the field in the first 10 overs, did not go down well. Shane Warne was among those who treated him with derision and that is putting it kindly.

 Despite this, nobody can question his record. He was in charge of a great Australian side that during his eight years that brought them three World Cups and a record 16 consecutive Test victories. He also coached Queensland to their first Sheffield Shield title.
"John's appointment is an exciting one for New Zealand Cricket," NZC's chief executive Justin Vaughan said. "He has a great cricketing pedigree and will provide outstanding leadership as NZC look to move forward."

One thing is certain: the ECB will no longer be calling up Buchanan for a summer brainstorming session.

11.52am: Day two started only 16 minutes late and with Somerset in an obvious hurry, writes Mike Averis at Taunton. Otherwise, how do you explain Marcus Trescothick helping to push the covers from the wicket and Craig Kieswetter driving the ground-staff tractor. Unfortunately Chopra had a similar mind set, taking nine off Charl Willoughby's first over - two off the first ball and a sweet cover-driven four to round things off.

Woakes twice played and missed against the South Africa, then after warming up with a few fours to third man off Gemaal Hussain, belted Willoughby through the covers to go to 50 from 46 balls with eight boundaries. The first seven overs have produced 40.

11.28am:Ten minutes before the start of the second day at Taunton the covers were back on and it's spitting with rain, writes Mike Averis. There was some heavy stuff early on, but we seemed set until the clouds rolled in. However, the umpires and the ground staff are in the middle suggesting that if there is a delay it will be a short and that Varun Chopra and Chris Woakes will soon be adding to the overnight score of 416 for six - 174 of them to Chopra.

11.26am: A dream return for Graham Onions, writes Andy Wilson at Headingley. He was given the new ball from the Kirkstall Lane end by the acting Durham captain, Dale Benkenstein, and after a sight-setter angled harmlessly across Yorkshire's left-handed opener Adam Lyth, the Whitby dasher tried to pull the next ball, got a bit tucked up, and picked out Ben Stokes just in front of square on the leg side. Joy unconfined for Onions and his team-mates. Yorkshire, replaying to Durham's total of 327, were 0-1.

Anthony McGrath has joined Joe Root, Yorkshire's bright batting hope for 2011 - aiming to replicate the impact Lyth made last year, no doubt - and Callum Thorp is sharing the new ball with Onions, leaving Liam Plunkett to come on first change.

10.51am: Another prompt start here, with the clouds a little higher than they were yesterday, writes Andy Wilson at Headingley, and Yorkshire and Durham staging some lengthy pre-match entertainment before Leeds face Huddersfield in the Super League on the other side of the Rugby Stand tonight. Graham Onions will start the day with his pads on, having picked up for Durham where he left off for England as a stubborn No11 as if the last 16 miserable months had never happened, but there will be much more interest in how he bowls. Talking of Durham seamers, and a quick word for Liam Plunkett – the new edition of Wisden provides a handy reminder of how badly his batting form fell away last season, but he's rediscovered his all-round ability with an excellent unbeaten 64 here.

Durham's overnight total of 326 for nine represents a fine recovery after their slipped to 134 for six shortly after lunch, and as well as Plunkett, their debutant wicket-keeper Michael Richardson deserves the lion's share of the credit. Richardson, the 24-year-old son of the former South Africa wicket keeper Dave, has been living in England for the best part of a decade, studying at Stonyhurst College near Blackburn then Nottingham University, and spending a couple of years at Lord's with the MCC Young Cricketers before joining the Durham staff last summer. When grilled last night, he confirmed that he intends to complete his residential qualification to play for England, which has been delayed after he spent one winter playing domestic cricket in South Africa, meaning he is relying on his mother's German heritage to play for the moment. Wonder how Richardson senior would feel about his boy 'keeping for England? And this morning's quiz question, how about fathers and sons who have represented different countries in international cricket?

Another quick quote from Wisden, and David Warner's Yorkshire review. "The more rounded a cricketer Adil Rashid becomes, the less interested England seem to show in him." Always a good read.

10.48am: We've got a press release through from the ECB on Paul Collingwood's fitness:

England and Durham all rounder Paul Collingwood has successfully undergone routine arthroscopic surgery on his left knee to remove 'loose bodies' and correct cartilage damage.

Collingwood will begin his recovery and rehabilitation period with Durham CCC and is expected to be available for Durham ahead of the NatWest International T20 and ODI series against Sri Lanka in June.

10.44am: There is the mouthwatering prospect of watching the new ever-so-slightly slimline Samit Patel have his first bat of the season for Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge today, writes David Hopps. He abounds with talent, was in great nick on Notts' pre-season jaunt to Abu Dhabi, and I'm looking forward to it.

Andy Wilson sounded convinced that Patel has slimmed down in his piece on Wednesday and he certainly does seem to have shed a few pounds. In an effort to find out exactly how much weight he had shed, I buttonholed Notts' chief executive Derek Brewer and media manager Michael Temple. "It's not something we want to quantify in pounds and ounces," said Temple, who has thereby become the early favourite in the Media Manager Quote Of The Year award.

Neither is there much quantifying going on from Notts in kilos, waist-size or indeed in litres of lost body fluids every time somebody utters the word "beep test." Suffice to say that Patel looks as if he has gone from woefully overweight to potentially not far from the range where he might begin to interest England again. But England's interest depends not just on weight but a minimum level of fitness and on that the situation is less clear. They did not call him up for the World Cup when Michael Yardy returned home with clinical depression, but opted for Adil Rashid instead. And Samit only had to make the four-hour hop from Abu Dhabi to Colombo.
 
Patel's weight readings have been a source of much amusement whenever the Cricketers' Who's Who comes round. He was officially recorded as 12st 7lbs in 2008 and then made a quite miraculous drop to 12st a year later when presumably he had one foot on the floor or there was a certain amount of PR involved in the reading. In 2010, I'm told, his weight was not recorded, presumably because by then it had become a source of national debate or because it was ballooning around dramatically depending on whether the ECB was due to make a visit. So if Who's Who records him at, say, 14st 7lbs next season, his slimming-down efforts will have been so successful that the figures available will actually suggest that he has put on two-and-a-half stone. He will then become the first cricketer ever to officially put on weight after a successful diet.
 
I must admit that I am wary of Patel dietary stories. I penned a "I've given up the chocolate for good" story two or three years ago, only for Samit to be discovered a few weeks later by the match umpires before start of play lurking in a dark corner of McDonalds, just across from the ground. He had said nothing about giving up cheeseburgers and milkshakes.
 
But even that did not match the day that I interviewed Freddie Flintoff in Cheshire on how he was going to cut back on the booze. Immediately after I had turned off the recorder, Freddie jumped into his car and roared out of the drive in the general direction of Manchester. He could feel a thirst coming on. At about 3am he was snapped by a News of the World photographer stumbling across a dance floor, somewhat the worst for wear. It was roughly four hours before anybody read his blithe assurances in the Guardian that he would never drink again. The News of the World told a different story 24 hours later.

10.15am: Some early reading for you before play gets under way: a Small Talk with Michael Holding, in which he discusses intimidating opponents, why there are few great fast bowlers these days, and Caribbean Christmases, among other things.

9.20am: The second round of County Championship games continues today:

Andy Wilson is at Headingley, David Hopps is at Trent Bridge and Mike Averis at Taunton.

A preview of all the counties can be found here.

You can find full fixture lists for the season here.

And you can follow the action throughout the season here.

And there's county cricket commentaries on BBC local radio here.

County tables can be found here: Division One and Division Two

You can follow our cricket team here and on Twitter: David Hopps, Andy Wilson, Andy Bull and Steve Busfield.

http://www.lockergnome.com/lumpy/2010/12/23/esa-releases-the-latest-map-of-world-land-cover/

Recency is a pretty important feature in maps and demographics. The image referred to in the article at the European Space Agency site was created with date collected from 12 months of images collected in 2009 by Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer. Software was used to do the rest. It is supposedly the best land cover map that can be created in such a period of time. It is called “Globcover”.

“ESA’s 2009 global land cover map has been released and is now available to the public online from the ‘GlobCover’ website. GlobCover 2009 proves the sharpest possible global land cover map can be created within a year.”

The map is basically showing what occupies that area of land. I think it geek enough to mention. To quote;

“These maps are useful for studying the effects of climate change, conserving biodiversity and managing natural resources.”

The legend uses the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Land Cover Classification System to describe what is where. I don’t know if I will get much into all the other data this project shares but this particular map is pretty neat.

If you click on the image in the article, it will take you to a page where you can download the map. There was a similar project in 2005 and it had over 8000 downloads. It would be interesting to see maps like these annually.

If you want to get real geeky you can go to the Ionia Globcover ESA Portal and download a zip file with all kinds of data and images.

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SharePoint Job Listings*
SharePoint Developer - Chantilly, VA
The SharePoint Developer/Architect will act as the primary technical resource for the office implementation of SharePoint (MOSS) 2007 collaboration and team sites. Provide SharePoint design work, and documentation. This position typically focuses on the design, implementation, and maintenance of SharePoint. The developer will work closely with office users.

SharePoint Project Lead - Hartford, CT
The Successful Candidate who wins this role will lead deployment of SharePoint Business Applications. He or she will leverage SharePoint technology to deliver value added business applications that can be customized for exciting new solutions that integrate with other existing web based applications. The SharePoint project lead will be responsible to communicate the benefits of SharePoint to Customers at all levels of the organization. Additional, the project lead will also deliver SharePoint application training to IT colleagues, content managers and customers.

 

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SharePoint Events*

• November 17, Online, Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• November 17, Online, Bamboo Workflow Conductor - Automating Business Processes Webinar
• November 17, Online, Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• November 17, Online, Bamboo PM Suite Webinar - Building Blocks for Implementing Your Own Project Management Solution
• November 17, Online, Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• November 17, Online, Putting Social Media to Work Inside of the Enterprise
• November 19, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Bob German: Developing High-Powered Solutions with Low-Trust code
• November 20, Online, SharePoint Saturday India
• November 22, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Susan Lennon: Dashboards for SharePoint
• November 29, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Jason Gallicchio: SharePoint 2010: Service Applications
• November 29-December 1, Sydney, Australia, Share2010
• 
  
  
• December 3, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Scott Jamison: Governance Best Practices in SharePoint 2010
• December 4, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida,  SharePoint Saturday
• December 4, Richmond, Virginia, SharePoint Saturday
• December 8, Online, The Intelligent Business: Using SharePoint to Deliver Unified Dashboards and Search
• December 10, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Nicholas Bisciotti: Implementing SharePoint for Enterprise Search
• December 11, Kansas City, Kansas, SharePoint Saturday
• December 11, Christchurch, New Zealand, SharePoint Saturday
• December 13, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Brittany Kwait: Project, Project Server, and SharePoint 2010: Which to Use When
• December 17, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Shai Petel: Advanced Development on the 2010 Ribbon
• 
  
  
• January 3, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Larry Concannon: Assuring Accessibility and Privacy Compliance in SharePoint...
• January 8, Virginia Beach, Virginia, SharePoint Saturday
• January 10, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Jeff Willinger: Get more Social with SharePoint
• January 14, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - David J. Pileggi, Jr.: SharePoint Security: Through the Looking Glass V2
• January 17, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Christian Buckley: 11 Strategic Considerations for SharePoint Migration
• January 21, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Talbott Crowell: Automating SharePoint with PowerShell
• January 24, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Andrew Babiec: Connecting SharePoint to the rest of the Enterprise using BizTalk
• January 28, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Russ Edelman: Traversing The Term Store
• January 29, Hartford, Connecticut, SharePoint Saturday
• January 31, Online, SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series - Miller & Weeks: SURVEY RESULTS: How is your company using SharePoint?
• 
  
  
• February 7-9, San Francisco, California, SPTechCon
• February 26, New Orleans, Louisiana, SharePoint Saturday
• February 26, San Diego, California, SharePoint Saturday
• 
  
  
• March 7-9, La Jolla, California, SharePoint Best Practices Conference

 

SharePoint Training*

• November, 15-19, Calgary, AB, Canada, SharePoint 2010 Core Technologies - Mindsharp
• November, 15-19, Online, SharePoint 2010 Core Technologies - Mindsharp
• November 17, Online, Organizing Your Information with SharePoint 2010 in Mind - Mindsharp

 

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I have been doing a lot of research on the concepts and applications of space-borne waveform LiDARs for terrestrial phenology monitoring and modeling. So far the results are very promising. I would want to share my list of references to those wanting to know more about phenology concepts and LiDAR applications on forest phenology. Most of these papers are free online. Find them using Google scholar.

You can leave comments if there are others resources you think may be helpful.

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:rollup: 　　SHANGHAI -- It's November, and in what is fast becoming pre-Thanksgiving protocol, the eyes of the golf world -- those that can manage to stay open, that is -- turn to China. This week, golf's annual World Cup begins its titanic 12-year stay at Mission Hills Golf Club in southern China's Guangdong Province. And a little more than a week ago, Phil Mickelson barely avoided disaster to emerge victorious at the star-studded HSBC Champions tournament in suburban Shanghai. 　　Both events, huge for a nation with such a limited golf pedigree, come with requisite amounts of hoopla and hubbub, and it is not difficult to stumble upon a quote from someone, somewhere, opining on the massive benefits such high-profile events can have on the growth of the game in a country that didn't open its first golf course until 1984. 　　[+] Enlarge China TourZhang Lianwei and Liang Wenchong were the only Chinese golfers to make the cut in the recent HSBC Champions tournament. 　　And golf, no doubt, is growing in China. Isn't everything? It's hard to pin down an official estimate on the number of golfers in China, but the current consensus -- around 1 million -- is more than double the number that was bandied about just two years ago. Golf courses, too, are being spawned at a startling pace. When ESPN.com last broached this topic in 2005, China was home to some 220 courses. Now, reliable sources put that number at well over 350, with another 100 or so set to open over the next two to three years -- never mind the Ministry of Land and Resources' supposed ban on golf course construction, due to land use concerns, that has been highly publicized and rarely enforced since 2004. (For all the talk of "Red China," the place remains one giant gray area.) 　　But while buckets of cash can build record-setting golf facilities -- at 216 holes, Mission Hills is the world's largest -- and bring in top-shelf talent -- the HSBC event boasted the strongest field ever assembled in Asia -- such achievements do little to advance China's domestic game. Golf talent can't be built like so many Shanghai skyscrapers. 　　Of the HSBC's $5 million purse, around $92,500 in winnings was spread out among the host country's nine pro participants, and 65 percent of that total was shared by Zhang Lianwei and Liang Wenchong, China's top two players, and the only ones in the group to make the cut. After the 89-player tournament's second round, the bottom of the leaderboard was awash with red Chinese flags. After Zhang and Liang, there they were: Nos. 68, 73, 84, 85, 86, 87 and 89. The names -- Li Chao, Zheng Wengen, Wu Kangchun, Wu Weihuang, Yuan Hao, Huang Mingjie, Yang Wenzhong -- read like a who's who of the players on the Omega China Tour, China's fledgling domestic circuit. 　　You are forgiven for never having heard of the China Tour. Very few people in China have heard of it, either. 　　"Really, the tour is no different from anything in China," explained Raymond Roessel, an executive with World Sport Group, the Singapore-based sports marketing and event management company that partnered with the China Golf Association to launch the tour in 2005. "It's all growing, it's all new, it's all raw." 　　And that describes Chinese golf in a nutshell. The sport in China is nine years younger than Tiger Woods. There wasn't a "pro golfer" designation in the country until 1994, and even then for most golfers the classification meant little more than a higher salary at the golf courses that employed them as instructors. At that time, golf tournaments were rare and the most "veteran" among the Chinese pros had been playing 10 years, at most. 　　There have been other attempts at starting golf circuits in China -- most notably the Volvo China Tour in the late 1990s -- but they all, for one reason or another, fizzled. Too soon. Not enough talent, interest or money. 　　The Chinese professional golf community, small though it may be, is hoping the current incarnation of the China Tour is the one that sticks. "The [Omega] China Tour was good news for Chinese golfers," said 27-year-old Li Chao, who topped the tour's money list in two of its first three seasons. "Tournaments in China for Chinese golfers had been getting fewer and fewer. Now the country's golfers have a reason to practice and a chance to win regular prize money." 　　The China Golf Association initially contacted World Sport Group about a potential domestic tour in late 2004. Nine months and a $1.6 million investment from WSG later, the China Tour was born. "We did four events in less than three months," remembered WSG regional president Nick Mould. "We just kind of threw them together." 　　Mould likens the China Tour -- which, in a multimillion-dollar, three-year deal, added Omega as title sponsor in 2006 -- to an "evolving beast." His company has signed on for seven years, with an agreement to expand the tour by two events every year, each tournament carrying with it a $100,000 prize fund. The eight-tournament third year just wrapped up in October. Next year, it's 10 tournaments … and the challenge of scheduling them around the Beijing Olympics. 　　[+] Enlarge China Tour"Now the country's golfers have a reason to practice," said Li Chao. 　　But challenges are nothing new to golf in China. It's an activity loaded with political implications; there's a reason why the sport, which earned the nickname "green opium," was nowhere to be found during the first 35 years of the Communist regime. Golf, the belief goes, is an aristocratic, individualistic, even capitalistic pursuit, linked to corruption in the minds of many. And in today's China, although it is slowly becoming more accessible, golf indeed remains a rich man's game. With virtually no public courses to choose from, 18 holes in China will cost around $60 on average, and that's a pretty big chunk of the monthly income for a typical Chinese farmer, a demographic that makes up close to half of the nation's population. 　　Thus, while a fair number of Chinese government officials enjoy hitting the links from time to time, rarely will they do so in public. In a country with an ever-widening gap between rich and poor, and lately an uncanny knack for toppling politicos on the take, to do so would be career suicide. 　　And so where does that leave the China Golf Association, itself a government body, part of something called the Small Ball Games Administrative Center, which includes cricket, lawn bowling, squash and a handful of other non-Olympic sports? With limited support from above, the CGA is expected to serve as the PGA of America, the PGA Tour and the USGA all rolled into one -- a single office responsible for nearly every aspect of golf in China. It's a system set up for failure, and, off the record, most onlookers will say that is just what it is doing. 　　But a lack of political support and direction aren't the China Tour's only obstacles. If 1 million Chinese are golfing, that means 1.299 billion are not. There are no lucrative television deals to be had. In fact, the opposite is true. The China Tour must pay CCTV-5, China Central Television's sports channel, to air its one-hour highlights program at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, eight days after the conclusion of an event. World Sport Group must also pay transportation, room and board for the members of the Chinese media, mostly golf specialty magazines and Web sites, who cover the tour. And the obligatory media gift bags are distributed upon arrival in the tournament media center. 　　Nailing down tour venues can also be a hassle. The final schedule for the 2007 season was not announced until three weeks prior to the opening event. And the tournament entitled the "Shanghai Leg" actually took place in neighboring Jiangsu Province -- most Shanghai courses did not want to forfeit a week of business for a tournament featuring no foreign stars. 　　But for all the growing pains, behind-the-scenes wrangling and wheeling and dealing, the end result, from a spectator's point of view, is really rather normal. China Tour events look and feel the way they should, like professional golf tournaments. The only things separating them from, say, Asian Tour events are the number of spectators -- the gallery following the lead group during the final round of a China Tour event will range anywhere from a couple dozen to a couple hundred -- and quality of play -- the average cut line heading into the weekend on the China Tour this year was 13-over-par. 　　(Note to readers who just said to themselves, "Hey, I could dominate the China Tour!": Don't pack your bags just yet. The tour is currently open only to golfers from mainland China, with the occasional golfer from Taiwan or Hong Kong getting a special invitation.) 　　While Mould says potential sponsors aren't beating down his door -- and the China Tour has yet to attract a Chinese sponsor -- those who have signed on at this early stage have expressed satisfaction with their investment. French luxury hotel chain Sofitel joined the tour this year in a three-year deal said to be "well into the six figures." The agreement included naming rights for the season-opening event, held at a Sofitel golf resort in Nanjing, a city two hours from Shanghai by train. 　　"We didn't have huge expectations, but our expectations were greatly exceeded," said Sofitel marketing executive Ray Stone, adding that the Nanjing resort saw an uptick in business after the tournament. "It's also pleasing that we are supporting golf in China at the grassroots level. That's a good feeling." 　　The China Tour is very much a developmental golf circuit. In a country where the sport is only 23 years old, it has to be. It's meant to be a platform from which the tour's best golfers can advance and compete on a grander stage, the Asian Tour being the next logical step. An American golf fan might compare the level of play among the top 20 or 30 golfers to a third- or fourth-tier regional tour in the U.S., something akin to the Hooters Tour. The talent level drops from there, and those are the golfers left wondering each week if they are going to be able to break even. 　　Only a handful of China Tour golfers actually earn a living from the tournaments themselves. The majority are still teaching pros. And there have been some rumblings among the golfers, perhaps with accelerated expectations based on what they see elsewhere in the pro golf world, that the China Tour prize money is no longer sufficient. Mould says he feels their pain, but everyone must deal with the current reality of the marketplace that is professional golf in China. 　　"If we have 10 events next year, there's a million [dollars] U.S. on offer for Chinese golfers that didn't exist 2½ years ago," Mould said. "We need to work harder to get that money in. They need to work harder to perform better so it becomes more attractive for people to put their name on it. People buy products. You are a product now, guys. How good is the product?"

Philippines' first fully-automated web GIS parcellary mapping service at www.mapsys.ph, has been launched. It was the project of the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Associations (CREBA). Now, locating and determining the classification or attributes of a piece of land anywhere in the Philippines would not be a problem.

Rodolfo G. Valencia, author of the landmark Abot-Kaya Pabahay Fund Law and other laws related to housing and real estate, a congressman and former Mindoro Oriental governor, hailed MapSys.ph as a revolutionary, potent tool not only for the private land sector but also for local government units (LGUs). The MapSys web service generates an accurate lot plan and information-packed vicinity map for any parcel of land in the country. The information can be downloadable via Internet.

Addressing real estate industry practitioners at the membership meeting of CREBA, Valencia said that the pioneering system used by MapSys.Ph may be adopted to help resolve, among others, decades-old contentious issues on land classification and conversion. The colourful and professionally laid-out map displays the parcel polygons plotted on a vicinity map that contains multi-layers of spatial information, such as the road networks, waterways networks, LGU-approved land use, Strategic Agriculture and Fisheries Development Zones (SAFDZ) and land cover.

The information also includes administrative boundaries from the provincial down to barangay level, elevation and slope, fault lines, banks, schools, churches, hospitals, commercial/industrial and tourist establishments, power/ water facilities and many others. Valencia said that with this information about the parcel and its vicinity, the map would serve many purposes, among them, determining the economic value of the land and its sustainability for either agricultural or non-agricultural purposes.

Valencia said that this particular issue has been a bone of contention among private land owners, LGUs and the Department of Agrarian Reform in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP). The MapSys map could provide a reasonable or factual basis in helping resolve such issue.

Visit the site here.

The twentieth anniversary of the revolt which swept the iron dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu from power in Romania in December 1989 passed with far less notice in the west than the comparable events in Poland, the Czech Republic and East Germany. This may have something to do with the timing; the burst of commemoration and celebration at the moment of the fall of the Berlin wall and the “velvet revolution” left little surplus energy for events further east (see David Hayes, “1989: moment, legacy, future”, 2 November 2009).

But perhaps it owes more to the outcome. For the extraordinary uprising that led the supposedly regimented crowds at a mass rally in Bucharest to turn on the great leader was quickly superseded by a putsch by second-ranking communists, who followed the capture of the tyrant Ceausescu and his equally domineering wife with a hasty trial and  execution. The subsequent road has been uneven and tough for millions of Romanians - but ever since those chaotic days of December 1989, those who took charge in that moment and their successors have never been far from power.

The wizard of Bucharest

The architect of much of this political achievement - perhaps indeed the only truly successful politician in Romania - is Ion Iliescu, who turned 80 years old on 3 March 2010. Iliescu, who served three terms as president (1990-92, 1992-96, 2000-04), designed the country’s hybrid post-Ceasuescu political system, one with outwardly democratic features but intended to foil any change that threatened the power of the new elite he sponsored. This was initially composed of former communists, primarily members of the youth movement and elements of the secret police who had controlled foreign trade; later it was broadened to include resourceful entrepreneurs, sometimes linked with nominal opposition forces, whose fortunes sprung from making profitable transactions with the state (see Theft of a Nation: Romania since Communism [Hurst & Co, 2005] / Modern Romania [New York University Press, 2005]).   

The core of Iliescu’s success was to preserve and upgrade aspects of the communist system that could become the basis of the ostensibly pluralist regime now in place. Iliescu and his team were hopeless administrators, and unable to accomplish Romania’s modernisation. But this was never really on their agenda. Instead they were skilful masters of manoeuvre at a time of transition when the rules for governing states and those for managing inter-state relations were changing as a result of the abrupt end of communism over almost half of Europe.

Even today, Iliescu remains a key voice in the Partidul Social Democrat (Social Democratic Party / PSD), the lineal successor  of the Communist Party. It has endured opposition and emerged stronger thanks to its weaker rivals’ failure to uproot its sources of influence within the state. It has adapted to situations that appeared to pose a mortal danger: large-scale privatisation of state business, entry into Nato, and engagement with the European Union. Indeed, its greatest achievement was arguably to drain  the process of Europeanisation of all nearly all progressive content and to force the EU to accept Romania as its twenty-seventh member in 2007 after implementing an extremely limited agenda of change (see “The European Union and Romania: consolidating backwardness?”, 26 September 2006).   

Iliescu, after three terms as Romania’s elected president, retired in 2004. He remains the best-known figure in a PSD which today is dominated by wealthy local bosses and a few powerful national figures (such as Adrian Nastase and Mircea Geoana) with backgrounds in diplomacy and law. Nastase and Geoana (respectively prime minister and foreign minister, 2000-04) - were the PSD’s successive candidates for president in 2004 and 2009; on each occasion Traian Basescu - representing the Partidul Democrat-Liberal [Democratic Liberals / PDL] - won a narrow victory. The most recent election, in November-December 2009, was surrounded by dispute over the integrity of the outcome; but Basescu, who in May 2007 survived an attempt to impeach him for alleged constitutional violations and abuse of power, was eventually confirmed and began his second term in February 2010.

The inside job

Traian Basescu enjoys important executive prerogatives. He has tried to reform the justice system which has continued to be a tool in the hands of the powerful ready to be used against rivals, or indeed ordinary citizens who get in their way. Basescu did not rise up through the communist elite; towards the end of the dictatorship he captained an oil-tanker. His motives for shaking the elite consensus in this way are unclear: it is debatable whether he wants to reduce Romania’s stark inequalities and return “the oligarchy” to some form of social accountability, or merely to insert his own protégés into the ranks of the privileged.

His own party appears ready to curb him if he seeks to challenge the powerful. The PDL’s narrow parliamentary majority has been reinforced by a stream of defections, mainly from the PSD. The group has set up an independents’ party whose aim appears to be to represent the interest of both the bureaucracy and strong economic forces; their influence would reinforce the tendency to use the state as private property. 

Iliescu worked hard to make sure that the state could be manipulated and pillaged in this way. He devised the constitution of 1991 (revised in 2004) which established a bicameral parliament that shared power with an elected head of state. There was care to ensure that parliament would not represent Romania’s 22 million citizens but rather be a forum where members of the new elite transacted their private business. Parties were composed of factions whose members often changed sides irrespective of ideologies, manifestos or programmes. The parties only showed discipline when there appeared a risk that the privileges they enjoyed before the law and in relation to the state budget might be cut.   

Romania’s media has become a powerful tool of depoliticisation and conformity. The major private television stations have been bought up by oligarchs  involved in politics; the coverage of politics has been trivialised, and independent voices are rarely heard. Real hardships, exceeding those in most other European Union states, continue to affect a large segment of the population. Many Romanians deeply resent the huge concentrations of wealth in what was (the privileged communist elite aside) a very egalitarian society before 1989. By 2008, the 300 wealthiest men in the country controlled at least one-third of gross domestic product; the parliamentary elections of that year saw only 39% of people voting.

The transition dance

The privileged position that even some of the most feared members of Nicolae Ceausescu’s secret police have continued to enjoy was shown at the funeral of Nicolae Plesita in October 2009. This unrepentant torturer  spent his final days in a hospital of the domestic intelligence service (SRI), though this institution was supposed to have no connection with its dictatorial predecessors (see Dennis Deletant, Ceausescu and the Securitate: Coercion and dissent in Romania, 1965-1989 [ME Sharpe, 1996]).

Amid such scenes, it is hard to argue that Romania has witnessed genuine de-communisation. The fate of just one such initiative illustrates the reluctance of the new elite to allow any kind of reckoning to be made with a dictatorial past. The National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS) ruled in 2007 that Dan Voiculescu - an MP who owns the most influential media trust in the country - was an informer before 1989. The response of parliament was effectively to disable the council.

Democracy-advocates from outside Romania had hoped that the post-communist system would build its legitimacy by acquiring broadly respected rules and institutions. If these democratic structures had proved capable of launching a reform process, then the integration of citizens into political life and the consolidation of a pluralist system would follow. Instead, the distribution of state assets among political players, their key economic allies and a retinue of clients was able to promote consensual behaviour among rival elite forces - and keep Romania’s citizens on the outside.

In June 1990, Iliescu consolidated his authority by mobilising an army of coalminers to Bucharest and launching them on street-protestors with considerable violence. The mineriada was a turning-point: since then, the elite has sought to strengthen the passive features of society. Most Romanians had become used to compliance in the face of the terror endured before 1989 - though in 1996 and again in 2004 they voted out Iliescu’s party. It was easier to oppose than to construct, however: for Romanians found that that most of Iliescu’s rivals had also embraced the view that politics essentially revolves around transferring state assets into private hands and building up a network of patron-client relations.  

The emigration of 10% of the adult labour force to work mainly in different parts of the EU also proved an important safety-valve that prevented any backlash against official misconduct. Across much of the country there was no pretence about who exercised power and for what ends. In districts and towns - particularly in the south and east - families or other kinds of tight-knit alliances enjoy a stranglehold over local decision-making. They often have members or well-wishers in strategic positions in the townhall, the police, the notary office and the courthouse. 

The justice system was released from executive control only in 2004. But Iliescu’s PSD ensured that the supreme council of magistrates, the supposedly independent body managing Romanian justice, was staffed by its own appointees. The European Union - in violation of its own principles - was prepared to endorse this bogus reform during the negotiations for membership (see “Romania: the death of reform”, 25 April 2007).

The European trick

The country’s accession to the European Union was the greatest triumph of Romania’s domestic power-networks. The official European version was that the projection of the EU’s values eastwards in the 2000s was transforming a peripheral country via the exercise of “soft power”. But the engagement with Romania exposed serious design flaws in the EU’s reform-drive. The ambition of a progressive reform of public institutions underpinned by a moral and humanising vision that would facilitate the emergence of an engaged citizenry, has proved to be a mirage (see Romania and the European Union: How the Weak Conquered the Strong (Manchester University Press, 2009).

The failure was preordained, in that the EU over seven years of consultations ended up engaging with the successors of the communist nomenklatura and secret police. Herta Müller, the Romanian-German writer who won the Nobel literature prize in 2009 for her fictional writings about life under the Ceausescu dictatorship, has frequently commented on the ability of old structures to mutate in order to retain their mastery (see Lyn Marven, “Lifewriting: Herta Müller’s journey”, 15 October 2009). A handful of alert EU officials also discovered that the people they were negotiating with were not those who wielded the real levers of power, and that those who did usually kept themselves well hidden.

The Brussels civil servants and their political masters in the European Council told Romania that the road to Europe lay through embracing free-market capitalism and a more transparent democracy. But their only real interest was to see Bucharest complying with the economic conditions; the political ones were of secondary concern.

The EU forgot, or chose to ignore, that the post-communist ruling elite had already been busy for years transferring state assets into private hands. A further contraction of the state and the consolidation of a tight-knit capitalist class based on cohesive power-groups - some with a pre-1989 lineage, others more recent - was presented it with no problems. The Bucharest oligarchy’s masterstroke was to induce major multinational firms to become informal advocates of early membership. The government of Adrian Nastase (2000-04) offered lucrative contracts to top firms, many of whom - in an era of declining political-party memberships - just happened to be a major source of funding for the some of the main parties in (for example) France, Germany, and Italy. These parties, on both the right and left, were prepared to lobby for Romanian membership of the EU even though at that stage it had delivered few reforms. 

The EU was at heart clueless about what it wanted from Romania, beyond the formalistic requirements of membership. By contrast, Romania’s domestic elite had a coherent vision  - the opportunity to entrench their networks of wealth and power at the heart of the world’s most successful regional political and economic entity. 

The circle of power

The success of this elite brings failures in its wake. A politicised and low-grade bureaucracy lacks the capacity to access the billions of structural funds set aside for it, with the incredible result that this poor country is a net contributor to the European Union’s budget. Much of its energy sector was at the EU’s insistence quickly offloaded to well-connected local capitalists who promptly resold it to Kazakhstan’s state oil company. Austrian firms dominate Romania’s financial-services sector, and have dismissed many Romanians with zero compensation; Austrian banks’ exposure in east-central Europe, though reduced in the second half of 2009, is equivalent to about 80% of the country’s entire GDP.

But if Austria will not be allowed to sink, Romania has more to fear. After a decade of EU intervention, it can boast only the garish high-rise headquarters of the financial companies (foreign and local) which have profited from the country’s privatisations. The public infrastructure, far from being modernised thanks to the injection of funds paid for by European taxpayers, has instead fuelled a real-estate boom that benefits only the privileged.      

Nicolae Ceausescu met a violent end. Ion IIiescu, his successor, looks destined to die peacefully in his bed. Both men conserved systems of personal power in which national wealth was first concentrated by the state and then after 1989 privatised and distributed among the state’s well-placed guardians. The result is to trap Romania in underdevelopment. The twenty-seventh member of the European Union is in a vicious circle. Traian Basescu will have a tough job breaking out of it, if indeed he wishes to.

Sideboxes

'Read On' Sidebox: 

Tom Gallaghar, Romania and the European Union: How the Weak Conquered the Strong (Manchester University Press, 2009)

Dennis Deletant, Ceausescu and the Securitate: Coercion and dissent in Romania, 1965-1989 (ME Sharpe, 1996)

Romanian Cultural Centre, London

Sidebox: 

Tom Gallagher is professor in the department of peace studies at the University of Bradford in northern England. His books include Outcast Europe: The Balkans, 1789-1999 (Routledge, 2001); The Balkans After the Cold War (Routledge (2003); Theft of a Nation: Romania since Communism (Hurst & Co, 2005) / Modern Romania (New York University Press, 2005); The Balkans in the New Millennium: In the Shadow of War and Peace (Routledge, 2007); The Illusion of Freedom: Scotland Under Nationalism (C Hurst, 2009); and Romania and the European Union: How the Weak Conquered the Strong (Manchester University Press, 2009)

Also by Tom Gallagher in openDemocracy:

“Understanding Slobodan Milosevic: between the cold war and Iraq” (13 March 2006)

“The European Union and Romania: consolidating backwardness?” (26 September 2006)

“Romania: the death of reform” (25 April 2007)

“Scotland’s nationalist-Muslim embrace” (9 August 2007)

“Scotland's politics of evasion” (11 December 2009)

Related stories: 

Europe’s other legitimacy crisis

Transdniestria: a family quarrel

Lifewriting: Herta Müller’s journey

The end and the beginning: lessons of 1989

One day of life: a Romanian odyssey

oD-wide classification

Country: 

Romania

Topics: 

Democracy and government

International politics

A paper I recently wrote on a critical issue in healthcare IT was rejected on first pass by the Medical Informatics academic community.

The paper concerns the profound lack of publicly available data on unintended adverse consequences of healthcare IT and proposed steps that could be taken by ethical clinicians and others to remediate this gap.

I have decided not to make "revisions", feeling the "problems" with the paper were likely more about its topic than its substance or format, making the topic unpublishable in the medical informatics literature. I am therefore making the paper available publicly.

It is entitled "Remediating an Unintended Consequence of Healthcare IT: A Dearth of Data on Unintended Consequences of Healthcare IT." The full paper is available via Scribd at this link:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/28747771/
(MS Word .doc format).

Only this month has the FDA even acknowledged patient injury and deaths due to health IT problems, and admits their numbers are likely the "tip of the iceberg" (in a future essay I will explain my reasoning as to why I believe their numbers may be three orders of magnitude or more off the mark and perhaps four orders of magnitude off when HIT goes national).

About the paper:

Abstract:

Case reports, systematic statistical data and other information on unintended consequences (UC’s) of healthcare information technology (HIT) is relatively scarce despite ample literature on potential HIT benefits. This impedes optimal efforts at computerization of healthcare, and can and should be remediated.

Objectives: To illustrate the relative scarcity of information on HIT UC’s, suggest contributing factors, and recommend tactical measures for improvement such as better user reporting of HIT UC’s and better diffusion of existing literature on the phenomenon.

Methods: A number of recent indicators for scarcity of UC information were compiled and possible reasons described. Examples of suboptimal adverse results disclosures in related domains (e.g., the pharmaceutical industry) that may hold lessons for HIT were included.

Results: UC information on HIT is relatively scarce likely due to a variety of influences and complex interactions among and between medicine, informatics, government and industry that, left unaddressed, may lead to delays or other harm to good faith efforts to computerize informational aspects of healthcare delivery and research.

Conclusions: The relative scarcity of definitive information on the extent of HIT UC’s should be addressed in a responsible and ethical manner by clinicians, regulators and other stakeholders if this technology is to be successfully rolled out nationally.

While some reviewers commented on paper organization and formatting issues, which is fair, the most striking review comments received were these:

This paper addresses a potentially important issue but adds little that is new or that goes beyond what a reader might find in a major city newspaper.

and

Proposing a classification of sources of UC [unintended consequences - ed.] and analysis of reasons for undereporting of each type in the resulting classification could be a useful addition to the field.

I do not recall reading many, if any, articles about the covering up of healthcare IT dangers in major city newspapers. Further, it's hard to "classify UC's" when there is scant data available about them in the first place. I feel it's more important, as I did in the paper, to propose reasons for underreporting of unintended consequences in a global fashion and propose remediation steps, not perform a useless exercise of classifying that which is tightly suppressed.

I have the experience of being one of a very few medical informatics professionals to publicly challenge the HIT hysteria beginning over a decade ago at a website at this link and observing the reactions of the informatics community to that site. In addition to that experience, here are a few more points on why I think the paper unpublishable by the informatics community due to its controversial, HIT business-unfriendly topic:

One reviewer opined they'd recognized the writing style and:

... may have seen the paper prepublished on a blog somewhere.

Coming from supposed information experts who must be aware of search engines and their indexing of blogs (this blog's stories uniformly coming up very high in Google searches, for instance), this comment was remarkable.

It would seem the smart thing to have done would have been to prove their hypothesis false in a five-minute effort rather than slandering me to the editor. Further, if they'd recognized my writing, they'd surely have known I once ran a scientific library and was well aware of such publication issues, and write for this blog as well on the ethical issues concerning scientific publication. I propose the reason behind that comment was hostility.

Finally, a reviewer offered this gem:

Out of curiosity, I also wonder why all the web sites cited were accessed on the same date [the date of paper submission - ed.], if the date was noted at all.

Coming from a community of supposed computing and information experts regarding the stated dates when cited websites were "last accessed", I could only shake my head.

Peer review being somewhat of an echo chamber regarding controversial social issues in healthcare informatics (i.e., against the flow of the HIT business) , I turn the paper over to the court of public opinion.

Fortunately, the paper will likely get far more exposure where it matters - i.e., outside the academic informatics orthodoxy - via web based dissemination than via publication in rarified informatics journals.

-- SS

No I'm not thinking about doubling the size of my apartment.

It's more to do with the Walled Garden that surrounds Korea and it's internet and especially it's approach to software. 

I have been meaning to get on this one all week since my last little rant on Active X, as it is related to a greater or lesser extent.

LG has come out with, or as the newspapers like to say ''unveiled'' it's newest handset, a sexy little Android unit with slide out Landscape QWERTY keyboard.

As usual models sold separately. [Photo: JoongaAng Daily]

Called the "Androi-1" it shows Korea's lack of any sort of imagination when it comes to naming it's Android using handsets, but thats another story entirely. Like the original G1 from HTC it has a slide out Landscape keyboard, which I would like to see on an iPhone one day, personally, it has the usual compliment of Google related integration and will put you about W600,000 out of pocket on KT.

Ho Hum. Not a bad entry to the market, but Android has entered the Government's bad books this week, or specifically Korea's Games Rating Board:

Google Inc. may be barred from operating its mobile Android marketplace in Korea if it continues to circulate game content without approval from the country’s regulatory body, government officials said yesterday

Ro Row!

You see herein Korea anything that is considered a game must go before the Korean Games Rating Board (KGRB) for classification, and is the reason why you can't buy Games from Korea's version if the iTunes App store, except for a couple of lame Go Stop! and Sudoku games classified under and sold as "Entertainment"

“If Google does not take any measures, we may block the Android market here,” said Lee Jong-bae, a board official. Some 4,400 games not yet rated by the board are available to Korean users on the Android market, he said.

The market provides content and applications for smartphones that run on Google’s Android operating system. One Android model each from LG Electronics Inc. and Motorola Inc. have launched here in the last two months, with more coming over this year. 

The Ironic thing here being that the software in question is being purchased "illegally" as well, given that purchases on the Android Marketplace use Google Checkout - not requiring a single Active X control or public certificate to complete a purchase!

Indeed as a handset owner in Korea you have always been able to purchase and download software from overseas for use on your smartphone without it going before the government for classification. (I'm a vetren of the first Blackjack and WinMo 5 days!)

Apple it seems took the easy route - and instead of having to deal with Korean red-tape simply cut the games out of the iTunes App store completely, but of course there is an easy work around. Surely simply using a US based login into the Android Marketplace renders any hot air from the KGRB moot. However, Apple isn't out of the sight of the KSRB either by the sounds of things:

With the iPhone launching just three months ago, these application stores are a relatively new retail channel here, and other foreign operators have devised ways to deal with local regulations. Apple Inc., which runs the iPhone App Store, simply locks out Korean users from its game category.

“Apple perhaps thought it may be difficult to abide by the local law,” said the Korean official. “But Apple at least closed the game category. And we are monitoring the games that appear on its entertainment category.” 

And finally the JoonAng comes to the same conclusion as I do:

Korean game makers list their products in the App Store’s entertainment category. Many users also create accounts with addresses outside Korea to download iPhone games.

Go figure.

RoK Drop has more coverage with someone calling out "Trade Barrier" (a common meme over there...) but it's not really - given that it is (now) applied to all smartphones and games. I can see possibly three courses of action open to all the parties involved (KGRB, Google, Manufacturers/Carriers and consumers). 1. The KGRB accede to ratings issued by the ESRB, it's US counterpart, on the games in question 2. Google pulling a stunt like it did with YouTube and basically telling the authorities to go suck it while only crippling it's services to Koreans prima facie while still allowing them to access content or 3. The carriers bowing to the KGRB in fear of loosing prominence in the market at the expense of Consumers.

I have money it being 3. but Consumers turning around and doing their own thing anyway.

Speaking of which I am keen to get my hands on a Korean Android handset - anyone know if either the LG or Samsung models currently out have been "rooted" yet? (Get your mind out of the gutter!)

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Absurdity reigns, OK?

The saying «We have been put on earth to make Kafka come true» has been well known since Soviet times.  We have been so steeped in absurdity since childhood that we haven't even learnt to distinguish any of the rules that regulate it.  We are on the other side of the looking glass but somehow manage to function, work out what moves to make and make careers for ourselves. 

When Europeans first come to Russia they apply their boring rationalism to the situation, attempting to discover in it the logic to which they are accustomed. I remember English people from MAPS (Moscow Architecture Preservation Society), itself a kind of absurdity, talking about an 18th century mansion that was being knocked down in order to put up a pseudo-baroque restaurant «Turandot» in its place. They kept on exclaiming «It's absurd!  Absurd!»  Most of them eventually get used to things here and some even start obeying the rules of through the looking glass etiquette, where pies are handed out first and then cut up.

In this context events at the Russian branch of «IKEA» are revealing.  From the start the company announced that even in Russia it would be adhering to its clearly-formulated Swedish rules, based on the Protestant work ethic and unanswerable logic. As a result, Khimki officials turned off the electricity just before the first Moscow shop opened. There was no practical reason for this. They just wanted to «give them a hard time» for their excessively strict principles. By the time they opened in Petersburg, the Swedes already knew that they had to have their own generator in each of their Russian stores – just in case. A wise decision, as subsequently emerged. From that moment the Swedes did all they could to minimise their dependence on local authority whims, when building their stores in Russia. «We are pleased with our solution to the problem. Better hire a generator than stick our head into a noose,» said Krister Tordson, a company board member.

The victorious Swedish advance came to grief in Samara. You could say it was another Poltava [1709 defeat of Swedes by Peter the Great ed.]. Their store there was built three years ago, but its opening was postponed nine times. The company has opened 230 stores all over the world, but was unable to overcome the implacable cupidity of the Samara officials. Their last complaint was that the building was insufficiently hurricane-proofed. The Swedes were unable to obtain any information about destructive tornados wreaking havoc on the left bank of the Volga and took umbrage. IKEA's legendary founder Ingvar Kamprad announced that investment in Russia would be scaled down. But local officials were unlikely to be fazed by such trifles. Their actions are, after all, not dictated by narrow personal interest. They are supporting the normal functioning of an irrational system. 

A further blow was in store for Ingvar Kamprad (5th in Forbes Magazine Rich List) a couple of months later. It emerged that the company had overpaid 200 million USD for the use of their generators – IKEA's prize-winning idea – which virtually wiped out the profit from all their Eastern European stores for the last few years. The Swedes had seen themselves as Sir Lancelots cutting the head off the dragon of corruption. What they forgot was that through the looking glass the rules dictate that another head immediately grows in its place. Forensic investigation revealed that the Russian employee responsible for the hire of the generators was receiving kickbacks from the leasing company, so had been considerably inflating the service costs. The company tore up the contract with that firm and was fined 5 million euros by a Russian court for breach of contract. «We had come up against something way outside what we usually encounter,» said a puzzled Krister Tordson. 

But this was not the final blow to the convictions of 83 year-old Kamprad. A couple of weeks ago the Swedish tabloids revealed that the company director for Russia and Eastern Europe Per Kaufman, who was well known for his public criticism of Russian corruption, had been turning a blind eye to his contractors bribing local officials. When Kamprad was told about this he was devastated.  Eyewitnesses said he was crying like a child. Kamprad remained true to his principles, of course, and ordered that Kaufman, who had been his very close assistant for 20 years, should be sacked forthwith. Essentially this granite-hard old man was signing his own defeat.  Probably for the first time in his life. The Swedes had repeated the mistake of the surveyor K in Kafka's «The Castle», who tried to use the powers of reason to overcome the absurd. A fruitless attempt. Reason has limited possibilities, whereas the absurd knows no limits. I made the same mistake and was overly optimistic last summer when I wrote in a column dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava that IKEA had triumphed.  The victor was actually Kafka.

The operating system

Corruption is irrational:  its very existence is fatal for a state. This makes it an ideal accompaniment to the realm of the absurd, its operating system. You don't have to understand how it works, but it is has a very convenient function which any idiot can grasp. Press the button and you get a result.  Survival in such a state depends on not looking for sense. If you do, then any acquaintance with the news bulletins in the Russian internet soon turns into a psychedelic bad trip. You experience a veritable avalanche of negative emotions: fear, horror, shock, outrage but, try as you will, you cannot find a cause-effect link:

«Managers at the State Bank VTB have run a scam which has robbed the country and the shareholders of hundreds of millions of dollars. One person has been dismissed.» 

«Telman Ismailov, the disgraced 'king of pirated goods'  has returned to Russia. He 'got in' via President Kadyrov of Chechnya. A new 'Cherkizon' [Cherkizovsky market, site of a recent scandal ed.] is already under construction on the outskirts of Moscow».

«In the absence of a legally defined crime General Vladimir Shamanov, commander of the elite Russian Airborne Troops (VDV), will not be prosecuted. The general attempted to interfere with the work of the officer investigating the case against his son in law, a criminal boss with the nickname Boulder who is on the international wanted list.  The general brought in two detachments of his VDV special purpose forces to deal with the police officer.  The case has been closed, as Shamanov explained, because he himself subsequently cancelled the order for the arrest of the investigating officer.»

There are thousands of such reports.  It could be that they are all edited by one person – some  aged writer from the „Oberiuty”, Russian Absurdist school of the 1920s. The trance-like feeling engendered by the streams of such information is reinforced by the Orwellian oxymorons in the speeches of the higher echelons: «conservative modernisation», «sovereign democracy», «Parliament is not the place for discussions». These oxymorons regularly force their way into our consciousness, increasing the feeling of disorientation and existential weightlessness enabling one to accept without question the most fantastic and contradictory information from on high. Which is why no one is surprised to hear that «United Russia» received 102% of the votes?  How can anyone be surprised when the title of chief liberal democrat has been held for the last 20 years by Vladimir Zhirinovsky [leader of the Lib Dem Party of Russia ed.]? Another typical absurdist politician is the environmentalist Oleg Mitvol whose activities are a succession of paradoxes in the spirit of Lewis Carroll. The most sinister oxymoron of all is the term «law enforcement agencies». They are organised crime.

«This could be a Kafka story» is how the American businessman William (Bill) Browder begins his video message on YouTube. Some years ago 3 investigating officers from the Central Directorate of Internal Affairs embezzled 200 million USD from the State Budget.  They were assisted in this by several firms which had been illegally «seized» from the American, who was then denied entry into Russia. He hired the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky to state the case for fraud in the courts. «New Times» recounts how another pair of investigating officers used a bribe of 6 million USD to get Magnitsky put in prison. He was held there illegally for a year and died in agony in solitary confinement. There was an international outcry. Prison bosses were sacked. Browder, who is well known in the West, said on the BBC World programme Hard Talk: «I don't recommend anyone to invest in Russia» and many people with money probably heeded his words. The two investigating officers who arrested Magnitsky are still working for the good of their country. The journalist Olga Romanova told «New Times» that it was these same two who had been «contracted» to institute proceedings against her husband Alexei Kozlov. The client had, according to Romanova, spent 8 million dollars on it. One of the officers, a woman, personally demanded 1500 (USD naturally) from the journalist to ensure that her husband was not put away. He was sent down for 8 years, actually on the very day that the President called for a halt to the «terrorising» of businesses.

The man behind the contract should also be mentioned, though indirectly: he's a senator, whose name is better not said aloud. People who have done this too often are now six foot under or behind bars. But, to return to the officers who stole 200 million USD from the budget i.e. from you and me and are assumed to have been the paymasters in the Magnitsky case.  They are big time tough guys, Russian style – it's not for nothing that these men, like Russian folk heroes, come in threes. The magazine «Ogonyok» reminded us that four years ago all three (one for all and all for one) were named in an extortion case. The sum was 20 million dollars, a businessman was kidnapped and his wife and children threatened. A classic of the genre. The businessman was freed in a special operation.  He said that the criminal guarding him described his bosses as «the scourge of the Presidential Administration with the right to accept bribes of any size». The case was soon hushed up and the liberated businessman was sent to prison, indirectly confirming the truth of the guard's words. Last week «Vedomosti» published the news that this inseparable threesome had been promoted to the central management structure of the Ministry of the Interior. I shouldn't be at all surprised if they were awarded something like the «Scourges of Russia» there.

It's no longer just «absurd», but more like a really tough Dostoevsky trip. However, strange as it may seem, it's the limits of moral degeneration in the police that could save this country (not so sure about the state). At some point the absurd (something contradicting common sense) reaches a critical point and becomes arrant nonsense i.e. madness.

The state versus the people

The slaughter carried out by Major Denis Yevsyukov was one such turning point. Shooting harmless shoppers in a supermarket is not just a contradiction of common sense, but a complete abnegation of it. It was 100% schizophrenia, which is why it seemed so particularly horrific. As if in response to the command «Fire!», the passive stage of degeneration has moved to the active and a real war has been unleashed on the Russian people. Now we hear every day that people in uniform have killed someone, robbed them, run them down in a car or raped them.  For me personally the apotheosis was the statement from a court: «There followed the interrogation of Roman Potemkin, former CID officer of the Local Police Dept, who took part in the arrest of Denis Yevsyukov. The witness was brought to the court in handcuffs, as he himself has been under investigation for extortion since October.»  This is effectively the collapse of the law enforcement system.

As often happens, the individual madness of one man, Yevsyukov, contains the iron logic of a social process. The system should have gone ballistic. The uniformed services in a healthy state, as Lenin wrote all that time ago, are machines of oppression unquestioningly carrying out orders from above. As machines don't (and shouldn't) have a brain and the commands don't come in every day, their daily life is strictly regulated by instructions and rules. In any country these resemble the human robot technology rules of Isaac Asimov: «Law 1: a robot cannot harm a person or through his inaction permit harm to be caused to a person. Law 2: a robot must obey all orders from its master, except in cases when these orders contravene Law 1». The machine starts breaking down when the master's orders go dramatically against the laws of robot technology. There's a short blip, after which more than two million malfunctioning robocops embark on a reign of terror against the population of the country. Those very few who saw «Space Odyssey 2001» to the end will remember how sadly this duality ended for the commander of HAL-9000. The machine started killing people and had to be destroyed.
 
It's strange, but did the ruling elite really think the law could be broken selectively?  That while some representatives of the state are breaking things up, corporate raiding, racketeering and wrecking, others (like complete idiots) will be honestly fulfilling their part of the social contract?  Falsehood gone mad has infiltrated the machine of state from top to bottom, poisoning the minds of the junior and middle ranks. Our police today is a huge army of bad lieutenants, capable at any moment of turning into mad majors.

Incidentally, Yevgeni Chichvarkin's [founder of the largest Russian mobile phone retailer Yevroset ed.] blog carried a very convincing account of how Major Yevsyukov finally went completely mad. On the eve of the massacre the local police department «Tsaritsyno», of which Yevsyukov was in charge, was literally besieged by investigating officers from the «K» Directorate. That would be the same people that once confiscated a huge delivery of mobile phones and then tried to sell them on illegally. They got caught and now it was pay-back time.  These officers arrived at the police department to collect compromising documents relating to the case of Andrei Vlaskin, a Yevroset employee. They tried to force members of the local police department to confess that the Vlaskin case, which they were running, had been ordered by Chichvarkin. Yevsyukov was put under pressure. Then, on that unfortunate evening there was a ring at the door. The major went green and started staring into space.  Then he talked to his flowers, put on his coat, took his pistol and left. A short blip. We all know what followed.

The people versus the state

When the absurd transmogrified into the lunatic, the system activated the command to self-destruct. The Castle, impregnable from outside, starts collapsing from inside. Two eagle heads tear into each other, only feathers fly. But, strangely enough, the stronger the entropy in the state, the faster everything disintegrates and the easier it becomes to breathe. As if there's more air. I think that society has lost its fear: the people perceive the government's inability to keep control of itself as a sign of weakness. Such a state cannot have enough strength for repression. The animal nips of the enraged system have woken people from their hypnosis. Fear and apathy have been replaced by rage.

The 19th century anarchist Mikhail Bakunin wrote: «There is nothing more dangerous for personal morality than the habit of giving orders». When power degenerates one wants to be above it and to oppose cynicism with dignity, moral degeneration with composure and humanity. The libertarian philosopher Murray Bookchin called this the «organic renewal of society». The beginnings of the process are already in evidence. Before people only went to demonstrations when the bulldozer was getting near their house. Now it's almost become quite fashionable to express one's protest and people have started intervening on each other's behalf. Two weeks ago a drunken policeman in a Merc knocked down a woman at a bus stop.  Just one of the regular brainstorms among the uniformed services who have taken leave of their senses. How did these representatives of authority behave? The policeman at the wheel couldn't say a word and the uniformed man sitting next to him jumped out of the car and ran away. Then colleagues from the Basmanny district police station were called in. They and the traffic police tried to hush the whole matter up. How did people behave? Three senior bank managers, who had by chance witnessed the accident, gave the woman first aid and summoned an ambulance. When they noticed the police taking the number plates off their car, they rang the press. It was only because of the fuss made by the journalists that the Prosecutor's Office knew anything about the accident. A major row developed. Heads rolled again, as if new ones won't grow again just like the old ones. It was a small victory over the system. 

Now the internet is full of cross-postings about a car accident in Lenin Prospect. People are looking for witnesses so as to prove that the oil magnates are in cahoots with the traffic police, trying to offload the blame on to the victims of the horrific accident. The very next day the rapper Noize MC wrote an angry composition «Mercedes S666» in support of the protest.  And it worked: witnesses came forward. Just like last May when the computer programmer Alexei Shumm went on LiveJournal to find witnesses to his wife's death. She too was knocked down – on a pedestrian crossing by a police sergeant in a Subaru. She was six months pregnant. It was a hit and run. The police never stop. About a month ago a drunken police investigator knocked down and killed a woman on a zebra crossing. He tried to run away. The other day he was given a suspended (!!!) sentence. State madness can only be opposed when the critical faculties of its citizens have been awakened. Then, like Macmurphy in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, one can say with a clear conscience  «Well, I tried.»

That a people gets the government it deserves is an odious lie. At times of great difficulty simple people, who are not damaged by the «habit of giving orders» don't react in a dog eats dog way, they extend a helping hand. The further a person is away from power, the better he is. I have seen this for myself in far away Ural villages built by lumberjacks before the Revolution. These villages' link with civilisation was the only one-track railway in the country. Five years ago the authorities decided to tear down the villages and pull up the one-track railway. People who had been born and grown up in the forests were offered a flat in a high-rise block on the outskirts of the regional centre. First the trains stopped going there, so food and pensions were not able to get through. There were people in the villages who hadn't seen money for several years. They baked their bread, fed their cattle, shot game in the hunting season and wanted only one thing: for the state to leave them in peace.  When their electricity was turned off, they used locally improvised materials to build their own hydroelectric station on the river. I have travelled a fair amount around these villages. As a rule the spectacle of total degradation is depressing, but the people who lived in these autonomous forest villages were completely different. The men were strong – their children had grown up and they were determined to die in the place where they were born. In spite of the hard living conditions, their wives had somehow managed to remain neat and womanly.  Doors were not locked here, as there had been no thieving in these forests for many years.  People moved from one village to another in railcars, a cross between «Minsk» motorcyles and wagons, on a narrow gauge railway, a construction that was as exotic as it was dangerous.  I was told confidentially that one of the men was on probation. Representatives of the regional administration had come to take up the railway and he had fired a warning shot and then one at their feet. When we were getting ready to leave, this man said, as he stroked his double-barrelled shotgun, «Just let them try to poke their noses in here. We're hunters. We all have guns. And licences for them. We'll chase them into the taiga, like rabbits.» These people were full of dignity. You don't often see people like that in the cities.

Once the «repression machine» no longer inspires fear, the age old antipathy between the Russian and his government resurfaces. The philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev wrote that «Russia is the least governable country in the world. Anarchy is a manifestation of the Russian spirit and has been an essential part of the make up of our extremists, both left- and right-wing. The Slavophiles and Dostoevsky are essentially anarchists like Bakunin, Kropotkin or Tolstoy».   History has proved that all imperialists and supporters of Russian autocracy are the enemies of simple people. We have interests which are diametrically opposed: «the state becomes stronger, the people grow feeble». It was Vasily Klyuchevsky who established this reverse dependency and nothing has changed since then. The group Lumen, which is extremely popular among teenagers, sings «I love my country so much, but I hate the state.»  «Times a hundred», as lovers of this song would say. And you can't express it better than that.

What is most interesting is that people working in the public sector are also anti-state in their hearts.  If you talk to any policeman or civil servant off the record, you will find levels of resentment, disillusionment and Jacobinism that the classical anarchists could only have dreamed of.  The ruling elite, the masters of life, also think about the prosperity of the state, but it's not a high priority for them, as they hide behind patriotic rhetoric for the sake of carrying out the daily ritual of the absurd. When the time is right, they will scarper to their Antibes or Marbella. Apparently the prime minister's daughters live in Germany or Switzerland – wherever they are, they're certainly not in Russia. He is not, after all, the enemy of his own children.

Andrei Loshak is a Moscow-based TV and print journalist. In 2003 he was awarded TEFI, Russia’s most prestigious television award, in the category best TV reporter.

This article originally appeared on www.openspace.ru

Sideboxes

'Read On' Sidebox: 

Ikea Tries to Build Public Case Against Russian Corruption, by Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, Sept. 11, 2009

Related stories: 

In memoriam Nastya and Stas

IKEA in Russia: Now 'Everything is Possible'...for a price

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Civil society

Arthur Koestler’s centenary in 2005 was barely noticed in Britain. The man who was one of the first to understand the inhumanity  of communism and the danger of appeasing the Soviet Union, whose turbulent life seems to have touched all the major events of the 20th century and whose books were bestsellers in Europe and America has been as good as forgotten in the country which adopted him in 1940 and where he lived till his suicide in 1983.

Arthur Koestler’s centenary in 2005 was barely noticed in Britain

The reasons for this are complex. Koestler’s own break with politics in the 1950s, his shift from writing  novels to writing about science and his interest in the paranormal in later years are certainly among them.  Another factor is David Cesarani’s reputation-damaging biography “The Homeless Mind”, published in 1998, which caught the popular imagination and made readers think of Koestler  primarily as a serial rapist or worse. But, more importantly, the near oblivion of this remarkable figure seems to stem from an apparently universal reluctance to contemplate the intellectual battles of the 20th century and their consequences for our time.

Michael Scammell’s  600-page biography seeks to redress the balance. It is not polemical in tone, but his detailed and objective portrait of the man, writer and thinker, based on  two hundred interviews, previously unpublished  private letters and diaries and valuable material from the archives,  proves surprisingly convincing. 

A Way of Seeing

Koestler wrote  about the first 35 years of his life  in the two volumes of his autobiography, “The Arrow in the Blue” and “The Invisible Writing”. A lonely childhood in Budapest, where, aged 14, he witnessed  1919 communist revolution; his education at the Vienna Polytechnic; a passionate interest in Zionism stirred up by the writings of Vladimir Jabotinsky.  A trip to Palestine, the beginnings of journalism. Then disappointment with Zionism, and  return to Europe. A brilliant career as a science correspondent  in Berlin with the publishing tycoon Ullstein, which culminated in his reporting from the Graf Zeppelin  on its first flight to the North Pole.

Then came a passionate attraction to communism;  an eighteen month stay in the Soviet Union; anti-fascist propaganda work in Paris for the Comintern leader Willi Munzenberg, who sent him on assignments to  Spain several times  during the Civil War. An arrest and ninety days in Seville prison, which proved a life-changing event. Then his break with the Communist party, internment in France, and finally a narrow escape from the advancing Nazis via Casablanca and Lisbon to Britain.

The autobiography, which is among Koestler’s finest works, gives an honest account of how he saw his extraordinary life and himself in 1952. However,  a biographer armed with a wealth of documents is in a position to see more and  to analyse what is behind the narrative, especially when dealing with a writer, who, as Scammell remarks, “loved to see his life in terms of burned bridges and leaping off cliffs, blinding revelations and psychological revolutions”.

First of all, with the help of  numerous memoirs, he lets us look at the writer through other people’s eyes: an ambitious, adventurous, boisterous, courageous and often aggressive young man, perceived by a woman (Eva Striker) as ”romantic, charitable and loving”  and by a male friend, who managed to  see through him (Manes Sperber), as touchy  and painfully insecure. “ His lower lip invariably trembled after he had made an especially aggressive or deprecating remark about someone. There was a contradiction in his blue eyes as well: they reflected mockery and self-irony, and then, suddenly, an uncommon sensitivity and fear of deception and disappointment, fear that a pain one cannot prepare for could destroy one’s strength to bear it”.

Scammell also suggests that Koestler’s  life changes were not necessarily as swift as he describes, especially the most important one in his life – his  conversion to communism  and rejection of it.  Taking the decision to join the Communist party took Koestler about a year. He was drawn to it  by a group of Berlin friends gathered around his childhood friend from Budapest  and later – although no longer - his lover, Eva  Striker, and  also by reading the classics of Marxism –Leninism, which led him to experience a semi-mystical excitement, exactly the same as he felt when embracing Zionism.  His taste for black and white political solutions  prompted  an unequivocal answer to the popular question of the day “Germany - Fascist or Soviet?” And  after becoming a Party member  he was excited by its secretive world and “warm comradeship”, all of which, as Scammell puts it, “appealed to his romantic temperament”.

Koestler kept faith with the cause even on his trip to the Soviet Union. For a sharp-eyed journalist  it must have required a special effort not to notice the poverty and  hardships of the country in 1932-33, but, as Koestler was writing a propaganda work about the Soviet miracle, he developed a special vision which allowed him to ascribe anything good that he saw to the  achievements of the party and anything bad to lingering traces of the tsarist past. Unlike “ Winter in Moscow”, a book by the British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge  who was in the Soviet Union at  exactly the same time, Koestler’s “White Nights and Red Days”  did not touch on the famine in Ukraine  or any other subjects undesirable for his Soviet hosts. It is not that he did not see these things - he did and was able to remember them many years later - but in conversations with his  Berlin friends, the same  Eva Striker and  her husband, physicist Alexander  Weissberg, who  were now living in Kharkov, he, and they too, tried to justify the need to be loyal to the regime by fear of counterrevolution.

Parting with illusions.

His break with communism, a pivotal moment of his life, was described many times by Koestler himself, but Scammell manages to add vital details to this too. He stresses that although to the end of his stay in the Soviet Union Koestler outwardly kept to the party line, seeds of doubt had already been planted in the 28-year-old communist, whose book incidentally was rejected by Soviet publishers as” frivolous and light-hearted”. This is clear from the fact that in the last weeks of his stay in the USSR, and on the train back to Europe, he was furiously writing a play about the nature of utopia and a couple of years later was re-examining his arguments about communism in a forgotten novel for children.

The real turning point, however, came later after his “dialogue with death”, his three month imprisonment in Spain, when he was “an almost daily eyewitness  of the execution of his comrades and awaited his own execution at any moment”. It was then that Koestler suddenly fully understood the meaning of revolutionary violence and the value of human life.

This breakthrough received forceful support from an unexpected quarter: in September 1937 Eva Striker was expelled from the Soviet Union as an undesirable alien. Her miraculous escape, as she told Koestler when she saw him in London, had been preceded by her arrest, a charge of plotting to assassinate Stalin, and 18 months in solitary confinement, punctuated by interrogations. The uncanny similarity of their experiences, Koestler’s in a fascist cell, Eva’s in a communist one, was reflected in the opening pages of “Darkness at Noon”, where Rubashov on waking up can’t immediately understand what prison he is in. Scammell sensitively remarks that the affinity between the  two systems was first grasped by Koestler on an emotional level, because  when he was writing these pages he was not yet ready to acknowledge it consciously.

His letter of resignation from the German Communist party, which explained how disgusted he was with “the degradation” of the party and the immorality of the revolutionary ethics of “ the ends justify the means”, ended with the hope that “the  Soviet Union is  the foundation of the future”. The letter was written in April 1938, 16 months before the Soviet-Nazi pact, which crushed any remaining illusions.

The novel originated as a response to the confessions of improbable crimes made by old Bolsheviks 

A Lonely Fight

From that moment and for the next eleven years Koestler put  much of his energy into attempts to explain the dangers of communism. He wrote “The Vicious Circle“( the original title of “Darkness at Noon”) while awaiting arrest in France and  during his internment in the Le Vernet camp as an “undesirable alien”. The novel originated as a response to the confessions of improbable crimes made by old Bolsheviks (in particular Bukharin, whom Koestler knew) at Stalin’s show trials. It analyses thoroughly the psychological mechanisms which make a man convince himself  that he is wrong and the party is right and exposes the ultimate damage done by communist ideology. The book was translated from the original German into English at breakneck speed and sent to Britain, while its author had to flee from the approaching Nazis. His next book, “Scum of the Earth”, written immediately after his escape - and the first one written in English - combines an account of his internment and flight with his reflections on the capitulation of France and the Soviet-Nazi pact.

The books were well received, yet Koestler’s active nature demanded much more. Just as in 1944 he was ready to go to Budapest to save Hungarian Jews from the inevitable gas-chambers and went to Palestine trying to ensure that it would become a home for Jewish survivors, he wanted  practical measures to be taken against the Soviet threat which he began to perceive at  about the same time, before the war ended. However, and  Scammell makes a point of showing this, despite Koestler’s growing fame and his friendship with many influential people in Britain his warnings about it were not taken seriously. Moreover, the general tendency of the time was to admire the Russians for their valour and victories in the war and nobody  wished to remember either the brutality of their show-trials or even their alliance with Hitler, when they supplied the petrol for German planes to bomb British cities.

Koestler was outraged  when in 1944 the Soviet army did not come to the aid of the Warsaw uprising against the Nazis, but could not get an article about it published, because the newspaper owner did not want to offend the Russians.  He watched a debate in the House of Commons and was stunned to hear about plans to “reward” the Soviet Union with the post-war partition of Germany. Scammell gives his diary entry: “Nobody seemed aware that “the future frontiers of  Soviet Poland “ would run “only a few miles east of Berlin. In two years it will be a natural deduction. If I said it aloud today, nobody would believe me and I would probably be interned”. Feeling like a Cassandra whose predictions fell on deaf ears, Koestler could only  try yet again to explain what he meant by writing a series of essays: “Anatomy of a Myth”, “Soviet Myth and Reality” and “The End of an Illusion”, which were published in the collection “The Yogi and the Commissar” in 1945.

If one man in England was a natural ally of Koestler’s it was George Orwell, who at the same time was getting rejections from British publishers unwilling to print “Animal Farm” for the same fear of offending the Russians.  Scammell describes an unlikely friendship between the two difficult and completely different  men, based on a brutal honesty. The day after Orwell published  a very critical review of Koestler’s play “The Twilight Bar” he came to stay with him for a week. “Koestler wondered why Orwell hadn’t mitigated his harsh remarks with a single redeeming phrase and was expecting Orwell to say something in the car, but Orwell said nothing and they rode in silence. Finally Koestler blurted out: “That was a bloody awful review you wrote, wasn’t it?” “Yes” said Orwell, “and it’s a bloody awful play, isn’t it?” It was to Orwell that Koestler came to with a project to start a successor to the old League for the Rights of Man, which could allow intellectuals to have some influence on politics. Orwell enthusiastically wrote a manifesto, but their attempts to enlist others came to nothing in the end.

Gathering Forces

By the end of the 1940s, however, former communists in different countries had discovered each other. They realized they had knowledge that other people did not have and felt it was their duty to share it. As Koestler famously said to the Labour politician and author Richard Crossman: “You comfortable, insular, Anglo-Saxon anti-communists…hate our Cassandra cries and resent us as allies, but when all is said, we ex-communists are the only people on your side who know what it’s all about”. It was out of this sentiment that the volume “The God that Failed” originated. It carried the subtitle  “Six Studies in Communism”, was edited by Richard Crossman  and contained essays by Koestler, Andre Gide, Stephen Spender, Ignazio Silone, Richard Wright and Louis Fisher, who all told their stories of disillusionment with communism.

Communism meanwhile was gaining ground in the West. The Soviet propaganda machine wasted no time in mounting a huge ideological offensive, with the new Cominform agency  and peace conferences  and mass rallies, with Picasso’s dove as symbol, in New York and Paris. And they did not lack support among the intelligentsia, especially the French, gripped as they were by anti-Americanism. At this point it was not just Koestler, but  a number of American and European ex-communists - Sidney Hook, Ignazio Silone, Franz Borkenau  and others - who felt the urgent  need for  a counter-attack, and  their efforts  led to the creation of the Congress for Cultural Freedom.

The Congress, one of the most remarkable initiatives of the 20th century, a union of European and American intellectuals striving to preserve liberal values, was  discredited, particularly in Britain, years later when in 1967at the height of the Vietnam war, its CIA funding became a sensational  public discovery. Today, a favourable account of the Congress by Peter Coleman, ”The Liberal Conspiracy” (1989) is largely forgotten and a more recent hostile book by Francis Stonor Saunders, “Who Paid the Piper” (1999), further helped to block out a worldwide movement for the defence of human rights and  free exchange of ideas as an unpleasant historical blot. Michael Scammell’s biography  gives a completely new  picture of its origins and its influence on Koestler’s life.

Triumph  and Rejection

The Congress’s founding conference,  attended by about a hundred leading writers, scholars and scientists from different countries, was due to take place in West  Berlin at the end of June 1950. A copy of the programme made its way to Washington and the newly-founded CIA agreed to fund it. At this point very few people knew about the CIA connection, perhaps, as Scammell suggests, because the CIA was so new and little known, but they knew they were funded by some branch of the American government. However the paradox exposed by Scammell’s research was that the CIA was actually pleading for less overt anti-communism than the conference organisers seemed to desire.

Koestler, naturally, became heart and soul of it all. He actively participated in  the preparations, wrote several papers, including the main document of the Congress, a “Freedom Manifesto”, and  spoke at the conference several times. Its opening  coincided with news of the communist North Korean army’s invasion of  South Korea, and its participants felt they were on the eve of global conflict. This lent more urgency to proceedings and the Congress concluded with a public rally, attended by about fifteen thousand people. It was there that Koester read out his Manifesto and finished by shouting in German, “Friends, freedom has seized the initiative!”, to the delight of the audience. He was entirely in his element and it was acknowledged  that the conference  owed its success largely to him.

At this point Koestler thought he might take six months off from his writing and devote himself entirely to the new organisation. He was hoping to create a Radio network, which he nicknamed “Deminform” as opposed to the Soviet “Cominform”, and to send books to the  countries of the Eastern bloc. He was also thinking of establishing committees  in all the large provincial towns of France,  to put up anti-Communist posters and organize mass meetings on subjects like the Korean war and Yugoslavia. In short, he was eager to use all his energy and  experience to serve the cause he believed in passionately.

And suddenly all this was over. Just two months after the opening conference Koestler handed in his  resignation from the Congress. The mystery of what happened has never been solved. Scammell  does not offer an explanation, but  just  some known facts: Koestler’s nervous breakdown, which preceded his resignation;  his later confession  in a letter to Manes Sperber that he had not withdrawn from the Congress, but had been made to withdraw “in a very gentle and effective way”; and  a letter by his former  American friend and sponsor James Burnham to the CIA, where he explained that Koestler with his “neurotic personality” was more of a liability than an asset. The biographer suspects that CIA bureaucrats must have found Koestler too militant and too difficult to control for their comfort.  A hint from a Congress colleague that he was not welcome must have profoundly disappointed and hurt Koestler, and the nervous breakdown that followed was read by him as a “warning from fate” directing him – as it had happened before - to move to the next stage of his life.

The Right Decision?

It was just a couple of  years later - after writing his autobiography – that Koestler  announced: “Cassandra has grown hoarse” and retired  from politics altogether.

It could not have been easy for a man of his temperament and energy to suddenly stop all his activity. And he carried some of it on, only not in the sphere of international politics. The only thing that was a continuation of his previous initiatives was the fund he created, with the royalties from his play based on “Darkness at Noon”,  to help intellectuals who had fled  from Eastern Europe: the Romanian playwright  Eugene Ionesco, Polish poet Czeslav Milosz, Russian writers Bunin and Remizov  and the Russian émigré periodical “Literaturny Sovremennik” (“Literary Contemporary”) were among its beneficiaries. In the mid-fifties he started a campaign for the abolition of capital punishment in Britain and when it was finally abolished in 1970 it was widely acknowledged that it was Koestler’s efforts and his book “Reflections on Hanging” that helped to change public opinion.

But when the Hungarians revolted against Soviet rule in  Autumn 1956, Koestler, after an initial surge of energy which made him drive to the Hungarian embassy at night, advise the editor of “Encounter “on what needed to be done and help to organise a meeting of support for the uprising, refused to make any public speeches or sign any public protests. Scammell makes it unambiguously clear that this was “a rare tactical mistake on Koestler’s part which “deprived the Hungarians of a matchless powerful advocate”. Yet on seeing the western governments  distracted by the Suez crisis and Hungary forgotten, Koestler congratulated himself on the correctness of his decision to quit politics and remain silent.

The remaining nearly thirty years of Koestler’s life are carefully described by Scammell with his usual  remarkable  ability to blend the private and  public  domains. Koestler did not seem to have regretted his decision  and in his old age  used to get angry when he  was still greeted as the author of “Darkness at Noon”, claiming that his achievements of later years were no less important.

The Congress  for Cultural Freedom and other organisations  eventually implemented some of Koestler’s proposals on how to fight back the against communism, although without crediting him for them. Koestler, as Scammell repeatedly points out, was in most cases far ahead of his time – and his ideas  were put into practice only when public opinion became ready to accept them. What  was not appreciated at the time, and not  learnt from later, was Koestler’s unique capacity for seeing the political situation as it is was at a given  moment and for predicting its further development. Trapped within the conventional  notions of left- right, communism - anticommunism, anti-Russian  - anti-American, most western intellectuals failed to grasp what started happening after the collapse of the Soviet Union and missed the revival of old totalitarian ways in new incarnations.

Michael Scammell. “Koestler. The Indispensable Intellectual.” Faber and Faber.2010

Masha Karp is Russian born journalist based in London

Sideboxes

'Read On' Sidebox: 

Stephen Koch Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Munzenberg and the seduction of the intellectuals, NY: Free Press 1994

Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon, Vintage Classics, 1998

George Orwell, Animal Farm, Signet Classic, 1996

Malcolm Muggeridge, Winter in Moscow, Little Brown, 2002

Michael Scammell’s web site

A Life of Ignazio Silone by Stanislao G. Pugliese, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2009, 448 pages

The Liberal Conspiracy: The Congress For Cultural Freedom And The Struggle For The Mind Of Postwar Europe, by Peter Coleman, Free Press 1989, 333 pages

Related stories: 

Far Away from Moscow

The posthumous victory of socialist realism

The Embrace of Stalinism

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Civil society

Culture

Most political commentators concur that social democratic parties have been in decline over the past ten years or so. Is social democracy historically doomed? Is this terminal decline or simply a bit of a rough patch? We have been here before: in the 1920s, Communism was looking forward to a bright future and social democracy seemed destined for extinction. This gloomy prospect re-surfaced again in the 1940s and 1950s, when Communist parties in several European countries (notably France, Italy and Greece) took the ascendancy over weakened social democratic forces. Some spoke again of the death of social democracy in the aftermath of May ‘68. In the 1969 presidential election in France, Gaston Defferre, the socialist candidate, received a mere 5% of the votes, lagging considerably behind Jacques Duclos of the French Communist Party (21%). Each time, the most pessimistic predictions turned out to be wrong: each time social democratic parties in Europe proved to be extremely resilient and bounced back.

Given these precedents, it would seem unwise to argue yet again that the end is nigh for social democracy, however bad its current situation. This said, its electoral, ideological and programmatic prospects are today so uncertain that it looks as if social democracy is engaged in a battle for its survival.

A steady electoral decline

The electoral decline of social democracy is often overlooked. Despite a modest increase in the mid-1990s (average voting peaked at 29.7% in the EU 12, which excludes Spain, Portugal and Greece, countries that did not compete in democratic elections until the 1970s), social democracy has consistently lost votes over the past 50 years. The European average for the 1990s was below the 1980s average (31,1%), and well below the 1950s average (33,2%). Ironically, when social democracy dominated European politics in the 1990s, it was itself in retreat in electoral terms. This electoral weakness explains to some extent why the social democratic domination did not last. As for the 2000-09 period, the decline has steadily continued, with the average being 26.6%.

The beginning of the social democratic slump dates back to the 1970s and has been confirmed in the following decades. More worryingly for these parties, it has intensified since 2000. To sum up, since the 1970s, social democracy has, on average, lost votes, each decade proving less profitable than the previous one: – 1.5% in the 1970s, – 0.6% in the 1980s, – 1.9% in the 1990s and – 2.6% in the 2000s. Between the 1950s-1960s and now, social democratic parties in northern Europe have lost about 20% of their votes.

This electoral decline affected all parties, although some in the south tend to be less affected (the PASOK in Greece, the PSOE in Spain and the PS in Portugal). While the erosion is not linear (consider the electoral successes of the 1990s), the trend is confirmed over the long term. The parties which were hegemonic on the left and influential in national politics have been hit hardest (Labour party in the UK, the SPD in Germany, the SAP in Sweden, the PS in Belgium, the PvDA in the Netherlands, the SD in Norway, the DNA in Denmark).

The situation today looks pretty bleak for some parties which have fallen below a 20% threshold (PvDA received 12% of the share of the votes in the 2009 European elections). For these parties, their future as ‘natural governing party’ could be compromised in the long run.

This electoral trend was emphatically confirmed in the 2009 European elections. Social democratic parties were the main losers on this occasion despite harbouring high hopes of doing well after the debâcle of financial capitalism and market politics. These poor results are all the more surprising given that, almost everywhere in Europe, conservative forces are in decline. The main lesson of this election was that social democratic parties were severely rejected where they are traditionally strong (France, Germany, UK, Italy and Spain). One can note also that the slump in votes of social democratic forces benefited the radical left in several countries (France, Germany, Portugal and to some extent Greece). 

Ideological and cultural meltdown

The continuous electoral decline of social democracy is only one side of the coin. Over the past 25 years, social democracy has also seen dramatic transformations from a cultural and ideological viewpoint. What was ‘historic’ social democracy about? It was a reformist force which accepted capitalism on the condition that it be regulated by the state. Its ethos was egalitarian and it aimed to achieve social justice and economic redistribution through an interventionist state in socio-economic areas. Social democracy possessed two other essential features: a strong working-class base and a close relationship (and in some cases, solid organic links) with trade-union organisations. A number of political scientists have argued that what constituted the originality of social democracy was less a set of policies (e.g. Keynesianism) than its proximity with the working classes and a specific cultural and partisan tradition (party organisation, activism).

All aspects of social democratic life have been transformed: the nature of the party (from mass parties to catch-all or cartel parties; from parties of the salaried workers to parties of the more affluent fractions of the middle-classes), the party life, the leadership, the relationship with the unions, its membership, its electorate and, obviously, its policies and ideology.

Some commentators argue that social democracy’s problems today are essentially of an ideological nature. They point out that Third Way politics and its attempt at representing a ‘Thatcherism with a human face’ have failed. Others stress the poor performance in office of some social democratic leaders: Tony Blair and his manufacturing of an illegal war in Iraq, Gerhard Schröder’s dismantling of large chunks of the German Social State, Walter Veltroni’s and Massimo d’Alema’s destruction of the Italian left after entering in a coalition with right-wing parties and Gordon Brown’s enduring love for the financial markets. This is what the then Chancellor of the Exchequer was saying in 2006 in his annual speech at Mansion House:  

‘The message London's success sends out to the whole British economy is that we will succeed if like London we think globally (…) if we advance with light touch regulation, a competitive tax environment and flexibility. (…) And just as two years ago we promoted the action plan for liberalising financial services across Europe, I can tell you that the Treasury is now working with Charles McCreevy [European Commissioner for Internal Markets and Services] and with you to ensure that the forthcoming European financial services white paper signals a new wave of liberalisation. (…) In 2003, just at the time of a previous Mansion House speech, the Worldcom accounting scandal broke. And I will be honest with you, many who advised me including not a few newspapers, favoured a regulatory crackdown. (…) I believe that we were right not to go down that road which in the United States led to Sarbannes-Oxley, and we were right to build upon our light touch system through the leadership of Sir Callum McCarthy - fair, proportionate, predictable and increasingly risk based.’

This being said, to blame the more right-wing leaders for all social democratic ills is rather unconvincing as allegedly more left-wing social democrats (e.g. Lionel Jospin in France) have also embraced some of the Third Way narrative and implemented Blairite policies when they were in office (privatisation of public services, social dumping to attract foreign investors, tax cuts for the rich and cuts on social benefits for the poor, deregulation of markets and promotion of economic competition in the European Union, unconditional support of economic globalisation, harsh law and order policies as well as severe restrictions on immigration from poorer countries).

At home and in Europe, social democratic parties have consolidated the ‘neoliberal consensus’. Since the 1980s, social democrats have promoted free markets and turned a blind eye on income inequality. A recent study has shown that in advanced societies, unprecedented levels of wealth and comfort have been accompanied by mental and emotional suffering. In other words, there is a striking contrast between their material success and social failure. Recent social democrats (notably Tony Blair) have assumed that social problems bear little relationship to average incomes. In reality, evidence suggests that income differentials within populations matter a great deal. In the most unequal societies (the United States, Portugal, the United Kingdom and New Zealand), social relations deteriorate and levels of trust are lower. Social structures that create relationships based on inequality and social exclusion inflict social pain (health-related problems such as obesity, alcoholism and mental illness, poorer educational attainment, higher teenage birth rates and higher imprisonment rates).

With Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder, uncritical support of globalisation became the new mantra. Between 1997 and 2002, Lionel Jospin privatised more public utilities than any right-wing government during the same period. As a result, large sections of social democracy have done very little, if anything at all, to improve the lives of the millions of unemployed and poor people. In reality, the gap between rich and poor has significantly increased while social democrats have been in government. And the middle classes, who can no longer rely on effective and cheap public services, are also increasingly struggling. Peter Mandelson once famously said that he was ‘relaxed about people getting filthy rich’. His wish has come true. Today, Britain is still the Little America that Margaret Thatcher successfully established in the 1980s. It is a country where economic and cultural inequalities remain shockingly entrenched, where public services continue to be sparse and mediocre, where electoral turn outs are ridiculously low and where economic competition and consumerism are the cardinal values. So the problem with social democracy is much deeper and serious than a mere change of rhetoric or personnel.

A conservative force

In the 1990s, social democracy has become a conservative force, both politically and culturally. In June 2002, addressing a select group of ‘socialist’ luminaries including Bill Clinton, Peter Mandelson’s message was clear: ‘We are all Thatcherites now!’ Blair thought that adopting a tempered version of neoliberalism would make his party look young and modern. Quite the opposite. For the first time in its history, social democracy has borrowed the ideas and policies from its right-wing opponents. It has ceased to venture fresh and progressive ideas. Social democracy used to be clearly on the left; a political force that was fought by the right because of its progressive pedigree. Social democrats can be proud of their past achievements: the introduction of universal suffrage, the extension of political and social rights to the working class, the establishment of the welfare state and, after May ‘68, the adoption of post-materialist and anti-authoritarian policies. Has social democracy anything distinctive to say about many of the problems we currently face? No. Until the 1990s, every ideological modernisation and every policy innovation offered an alternative to the free market ideology of the right. This is not to say that these social democratic policies aimed at overthrowing capitalism. They aimed to tame it and make it acceptable to the worst-off in society by imposing redistributive policies when social democrats were in power. This was the meaning of the social democratic compromise with capitalism; a compromise between the interests of labour and those of capital. There was no such thing as the Third Way, essentially the rebranding of the Reaganomics of the 1980s. On the one hand, it claimed to ‘empower’ communities and individuals, on the other it methodically carried out the deregulation of market forces and pursued privatisations.

The Third Way model suffered from a deep democratic deficit. It professed a commitment to ‘people’s democracy’ but made sure that neither party members, nor voters would truly engage with politics when it mattered. Even worse, when they did get involved and opposed the decisions reached by social democratic governments, their opinions were ignored or dismissed altogether (in New Labour’s case, consider the Iraq war, the privatisation of the London tube, the PFI projects).

Turning things around

While studying the German SPD in the 1910s, Roberto Michels verified the existence of an ‘Iron law of oligarchy’. By this, Michels meant that the SPD was run by a coterie of professional politicians who made all the decisions. Things have further deteriorated since then. Today, party members and officials are mostly confined to rubber-stamping decisions and canvassing voters in the run-up to elections.

In order to be seen as a credible force to the public (and this includes their own members and traditional voters), social democratic parties will have to set themselves a twofold objective: Firstly, they have to rejuvenate their internal democracy. Party bureaucracies need to engage with their members, to consult them more often and to give them more responsibility. What is more, members have to be listened to and heard whenever they strongly disagree with the leadership (the example of the Iraq war springs to mind as far as the Labour party is concerned). In short, social democratic parties have to re-politicise their members. Party members should behave again as proper activists and cease to be mere supporters or cheerleaders.

Secondly, social democratic parties have to be far more committed to solving wealth inequalities between populations than they have been over the past twenty years. It follows that they have to be more concerned about the needs of their ‘own’ people (the hard working salariat) and less attentive to their opponents (the vested interests of the world of finance and beyond). This is not just a question of social justice, but also one of fighting for safer, healthier and more efficient societies.

Ironically, when they came to power in the late 1990s, Blair and his allies gave a new lease of life to much discredited neoliberal policies. The Third Way was a project in political submission to the ideas, policies and vested interests of the right. Unable to correct the growing inequalities (or unconcerned by the growing inequalities), the new social democrats have ended up losing their traditional supporters: the working and salaried classes. Today, so-called ‘disillusioned’ high earners are returning en masse to the conservatives. The bases of New Labour are crumbling.

It is undeniable that social democracy has also failed to propose a progressive future for the European Union. It is telling that important neoliberal policies were implemented between 1997 and 2002, while social democrats were running an overwhelming majority of member states in the EU (12 out of 15). What has the Party of European Socialists (PES) done for ‘Social Europe’? Next to nothing. Yet, every five years the same hollow social democratic chants ring out: ‘Social Europe! Social Europe!’ Whether as heads of governments, in the Commission, or in the European Parliament, social democrats have worked alongside reactionary forces to promote ‘unfettered markets’ (according to the words in title 3 of the Constitutional Treaty). Instead of developing concrete steps to promote solidarity and employment, they have voted in favour of policies that have fostered competition between member states. This in turn has created an incentive for some countries to practice social dumping. It has made the European Union a place of high unemployment, low wages and dismantled public services.

Back in the 1980s, social democrats believed that the Single European Market and later on the eurozone would enable them to launch the market-corrective policies that they could no longer implement nationally. In the end, it had the opposite effect: the neoliberal policies adopted by all member states (including social democratic ones) have further restricted redistributive policies nationally. These choices have facilitated economic and social policies which have gone against the interests of social democracy, i.e. its proclaimed social justice agenda. Today, social democracy faces two major constraints: free market globalization (an economic constraint) and the institutions of the European Union which support free market policies (a political constraint).

Casino capitalism is proving to be a disaster for humankind and for the environment. The financial crisis provides social democrats with a golden opportunity to dispense with their neoliberal frame of thought and action. For its own sake, social democracy urgently needs to ditch the insane idea that one can promote the ideals of social justice while using the economic dogmas of Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. In these troubled times, social democracy can only recapture a sense of purpose and make a useful contribution to progressive politics, if it rediscovers its egalitarian roots and shows empathy for the underdogs. It is not too late to do so, but social democracy has a long way to go.       

 

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UK

France

Germany

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Equality

 

Not long ago I went hunting with friends in a cemetery in West Hampstead. We were looking for the memorial to a man I had only just heard of, Sir William Randal Cremer. Why? Because he was the first Briton to be awarded, in 1903, the Nobel peace prize. We found his memorial at last, covered in bramble bushes. On the list of famous people at the entrance to the cemetery his name does not even appear.  A hero of peace, who spent much of his life promoting the notion that international disputes can and should be settled by arbitration not war, has been forgotten. The names of Douglas Bader, Leonard Cheshire, Earl Haig or General Montgomery for instance would ring bells at once with anyone of my generation and in the minds of much younger people too. Cremer’s, not at all.

 

I was reminded once again in that cemetery that ours is a culture of war and violence, not of peace. That this is so seems obvious. The males of our Royal family appear endlessly in uniform. Their rite of passage is service in the armed forces. Public events and processions are often dominated by the military. Remembrance Sunday, when we are all urged think of ‘our dead’, has become the next best thing to a national holy day of obligation. No TV presenter or politician would dream of appearing without a red poppy. Displays of military aircraft are ideal for family outings and picnics. Major cathedrals and churches are rich in military memorials. Military chaplains have military rank, salaries and pensions. War films and war stories are staple media diet. War toys are still acceptable gifts for children. School cadet corps are still normal in, but not only in, ‘public schools’. Recruiting teams make regular school visits. We are now even to have a national ‘armed forces day’ in order to promote greater respect for the Services. Gross media violence is now normal entertainment.

 

Cultures change and it ought to be our business to make ours one of peace, not war.  Without demeaning or disparaging the bravery of the military or their role in our society, how do we reduce their high significance in our national psyche and put peace in pride of place?

 

Accept that cultures do change, and the next thing we have to be convinced of is that we ourselves can promote such change. Racism and anti-semitism exist still, but are no longer respectable. Smoking was once so normal that non-smokers were made to feel wimpish.  Not now. Homophobia was open and almost normal. Not now. Cultures change, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. And we can help make it change for the better.

 

 

Where to start?                           

 

Public events and processions, for instance, do not have to have an exclusively military character. By all means let the military have a part to play, but if the qualification is bravery then why not representatives of other national services as well?  UN peacekeepers? The fire service? Coastguards? Lifeboat and ambulance crews? The police?  Perhaps we should just have one major National Bravery day on which we honour all those who have put their lives at risk in public service.

 

What of schools and colleges? My hope is that one day, as consciousness of global citizenship develops, every pupil moving into a secondary school will be given their own personal copy of both the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Citizenship is now on the curriculum, but it is rarely thought of as international citizenship. The Final Report of the 1978 first special UN Session of Disarmament called specifically for education on issues of peace and war. Most people have no idea that there ever was such a session or what it said about public education. The UN Charter itself is a largely unknown document.

 

School and college careers rooms should not only offer military job opportunities. Parents should be asked if jobs in firms exporting arms should be advertised at all. Careers rooms should also provide information about jobs, paid and voluntary, in the peace, justice and human rights fields, and information about peace-directed higher education. Too often today the study of foreign languages is neglected.

 

Perhaps every school should twin with another in a country where there is or could be violent conflict. Too often raising money for projects in poorer countries is the beginning and end of international understanding. Why do we have such an unequal world? is the question that needs to be put.

 

 There are some countries now promoting the idea of a Ministry of Peace. What a good idea. An official government body responsible for monitoring the ways in which policies across the board promote or damage peace prospects.  Such a body might challenge some of the dogmas which still dominate public thinking – for instance that WWII was the only way of stopping Hitler and the Bomb was the only way to end WWII. It is these myths which still dominate much thinking on war and peace.

 

National holidays could do with some additions. Perhaps we could add some specifically peaceful ones to our present list. May 15 is International Conscientious Objectors day. The UN Charter was signed on June 26, 1945. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted unanimously on the December 10, 1948. Those three additions would do for a start. Scrap Bank holidays and replace then with something more meaningful.

 

Place names are not sacred and some might well be changed. It is probably too late to do anything about Trafalgar Square or Waterloo Station. But what about Greenham Common park for the land left over after the Olympics or Douglas Home stadium in honour of the British officer who went to prison in WWII rather that open fire on civilians in 1944?

 

Many museums could also refocus. Some are already doing so. London’s Imperial War Museum for instance regularly hosts peace history conferences and has exhibitions which are far from warlike. The National Army museum not long ago had an exhibition of pictures of facial injuries inflicted in the First World War. No one looking at those pictures could be moved to think of anything but the horror, the futility and the pity of war.

 

Recently I visited the Hiroshima museum which records the disaster of August 6,1945. No one could ever talk casually about nuclear war who has seen such an exhibition.

 

So many other institutions could help to promote a culture of peace. Local authorities have their own independence. Some already have created and published peace trails around their towns and cities to locations with peace significance. The one in London starts with the Gandhi memorial in Tavistock Square. Mayors for Peace is a great initiative, coming as it did from the Mayor of Hiroshima. It has now become a worldwide movement of local authorities.

 

 

Peace is too important to be left to governments

 

This is a good time for change. It does not take a PhD to understand that globally we face threats to our real security to which there is no traditional military answer. Terrorism is not the only such threat. Security for most people means a supportive family, a safe place to live, employment, good health care, protection in old age and food on the table.

 

Yes we take reasonable precautions against burglars, but getting on well with the neighbours is far more important than arming each house with weapons which, if ever used, would destroy all the houses in the street. 

 

Perhaps every university course, arts or science, should have an essential international peace component. Scientists have to learn to be willing to refuse military research, especially when it is aimed at the development of weapons of mass destruction. Would-be lawyers and our courts should be able to develop and give force to international as well as national law to this end.

 

Churches might re-examine some of their language of liturgy, hymns and old testament partiality for one people. There could be a more internationalist perspective to Remembrance Day ceremonies. It is an ideal day to make the central message, ‘honour all those who have died in war  by working for the elimination of war itself ‘. Wars, whatever they tell you, are neither inevitable or compulsory.

 

Anti-poverty and environmental protection groups must make it clear that war is a major cause of poverty and of environmental damage. Global warming is in part a consequence of military activity.  In its turn it will also become a cause of war. Too often, development groups avoid foregrounding the fact that war is one of the greatest if not the greatest cause of world poverty.

 

The current struggle for essential resources like water will cause conflict and the flow of millions of refugees. Resource conflicts will lead to war unless nonviolent systems of law and justice are in place. The trillion and a quarter dollars spent every year on the world’s military is indeed what President Eisenhower once called ‘a theft from those who hunger…’.

 

There are 27000 nuclear weapons in the world today, each a possible Hiroshima, and every one of them accident prone. There have already been several major accidents, amongst dozens of lesser ones, which have taken the world to the very edge of nuclear disaster. This is the security of the mad house.

 

Lord Louis Mountbatten can have the last word. In 1979, describing the nuclear arms race, he recalled the old Roman precept, ’If you want peace prepare for war’ and described it as ‘absolute nuclear nonsense’. He broke with the culture of his own military past, risked unpopularity and had the courage to explore new directions. That is a task for all of us, if we are serious about building a culture of peace. Culture has to change. We are all part of the process of making that change happen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

oD-wide classification

Topics: 

Civil society

Conflict

Culture

Near midnight. Young Les Deerton hurries to a rendevous with the animator Willis H. O'Brien, and an eerie night's work. . .

Hallowe'en, 1931

Downtown with its art deco towers, its glazed sidewalks and noisy streetcars was left behind — here in Old Town — for amber street lamps and uneven, moss-grown brick, for lattice-iron footbridges creaking in the breeze, for the creosote and bird-dung reek of Grenton's neither grand nor famous canals.

Les Deerton walked uneasily, his battered Oxfords teasing at the brick. He mistrusted that brick. He had nightmares of tripping, sliding, otherwise stumbling into the brackish water. Tiles were loose, prone to buckling. Infrequently one kicked an edge and heard it skitter into the drink. Gophers in slimy granite perched on pilasters, waiting for the moment. He clutched his notebook and two of his best pencils. He wore his seersucker and Palm Beach cotton shirt with bow tie, a snazzy striped handkerchief in his breast pocket, and Oxford bag trousers with his threadbare union suit underneath. The day had been muggy, rainstorms until late in the afternoon when the first of the revelers took up their masks and drums near the First Avenue armory. Now the fog was brewing off the docks and slithering into Old Town. Deerton had been told to look for the radio tower atop the Soames Building but couldn't see more than three stories up. Seagulls hooked the breeze up there, brashly challenging one another. A foghorn boomed its lonely cry, seeking something in the twisted ruins of Old Town but leaving Deerton alone.

He was close to a teetotaler, favoring 7-Up over beer, Postum over caffeine, but he yearned for a shot of the Boss's illegal booze to calm his nerves. The Hallows' Eve atmosphere downtown — Mummers swarming down First Avenue, the ghoulish masks on the dockside workers, and even Mrs. Grubach his landlady decorating the hallways with black crepe and devils' heads amidst the pro-Union bunting — it all compounded the feeling that this, of all nights, was not the best for the Boss to unveil the product to their mysterious customer.

Cursed? Maybe. Or just too foggy and damp and dim for the gears and sockets to be rightly tested.

Deerton followed the Craeger Street canal. Or presumed he did. He'd passed two of the black-lattice bridges, relics of the last century and the fabled fire or earthquake or whatever it had been, and neither had offered a reassuring sign.

Here was a bum passed out along the sandstone quay — snoring beneath a Hoover blanket — but Deerton would never kick a guy awake to ask directions. Best to let him dream. Maybe, like the Boss's own film star Morpheus Mike, he was dreaming himself off to some prehistoric wonderland where the fur blankets were a tad bit warmer than yesterday's Grenton Observer pages A1 through A12.

Truth be told, Deerton hadn't seen a soul for six blocks, where the last of the apple sellers had been hawking his nickelware on the corner of Fifth and Taft. Of all nights, tonight had been busy for that somewhat doubtful trade: limousines floating up to curbside, the velveteen arms of ladies reaching out with a palmful of coins, procuring a bushel to suit the penthouse parties high in the Grenton stratosphere.




Truth be told, he should've gone with Tommy. On a mystical level — and Tommy certainly lived there at times — there was no telling what the kid might do with his beloved on the night of her nuptial departure. Deerton was the elder, an august twenty-five to Tommy's nineteen. On a practical level, there was the effort required to hoist that two-hundred-pound bronze wonder into the back of the pick-up truck and see it safely through the foggy streets. And four eyes were better than two, in this fog.

And there were always nefarious sorts you could encounter, who might be interested in her adamantine and her rubies, if not her scrap bronze. There were rumors — he had always heard them, in the armory mess hall, or at the soda fountain on Delmont Boulevard — rumors of wild animals that lived in the alleys and byways of Old Town, worse than the always-talked-about Grenton gophers, whose stone effigies dotted Old Town, plentiful as seagulls.

The cathedral tolled downtown, its grand bell delivering, diffuse through the fog, the eleventh hour. At each note shuddering across the sundered brick and over the slack water, Deerton hurried his step. He glanced at the hand-drawn map — the diminutive buildings of Old Town and the angled pathways of the main canals, the tall tower labeled Sand-Wich-O-Matic Shop, all of it drawn by the Boss in less than a minute the day before, using his ever-present black Wolf pencil on the smooth back of an exposed picture negative. Deerton was struck again by the mixture of draftsman's precision and whimsy, a quality the Boss brought to everything he drew, from rampaging saber-toothed tigers to soaring biplanes to a lovely girl in lace.

11:00 read a little signpost, beside the Sandwichomatic. Best not to be late, and therefore the rendezvous with Tommy and his burden at half-past. Nor the meeting with the mysterious customer at midnight.

Though Deerton had doubts about that.

At the eleventh and final toll, the foghorn sounded, an admirable trick of timing, the foghorn lingering, as though warning those of deviltries to come. Harder to detect was the foghorn's direction. Ahead? Left, right? It might be moving, might be a dinosaur as great as any Charles Knight had painted in his murals. Deerton pictured it, a Pleistocene head and swan-neck of some aquatic dinosaur swimming stately up the broad stretch of the Soames canal. Closer by, pigeons cooed, unseen at the water's edge. And footsteps? Or the echo of his own, coming back to him across the water. He glanced over his shoulder. His heart began thudding like the Mummers' drums downtown.

Sure, perhaps the Mummers, or a few Morpheus Mikes, out to frighten him.

Not that he was naïve enough to think there weren't sinister figures in the shadows. Gin was lucrative business these days. Rum-runners chose sleek, flat-bottomed boats of Indo-Chinese design and rode silent with their heads and their hop-loads hunkered close to the water. More dangerous, these waterways of the Gilded Age had fallen into disrepair. Not only the were the bricks crumbling and the quays riddled with cracks, but the footbridges had rusted through; they infrequently toppled with pedestrians in mid-span, folding deep in the slack green water to become insidious cages, food for the Grenton gophers. The torn bodies of pedestrians were fished out and the news hacks made sure to catch the surprise on the bloated, pasty-white faces.





Deerton reached another footbridge. Like them all, it possessed ornate handrails and a majestic maw reminiscent of the hoods of ebon baby promenades of the last century. Cradle to grave, or some such. The miniature sign poking up from the left-hand rail was rusted through. He discerned Soames Waterway 15, but that might have been his prodigious imagination loosed upon blotches of black and carmine.

He climbed the staircase, which rattled and chirruped first underfoot then along the entire length. He departed the embankment, his hand above the rail but not touching. Following the arch he gazed down into the water and found a naphtha-green glow. It shivered in the water, as though fog pressing down from above had changed the properties of gas and liquid. Deerton halted. He felt an itch along his pomaded part. His bow tie constricted as he leaned forward and studied the glow — it was merely a reflection of the street lamp, but he preferred it before the explanation. He leaned further forward and caught the shape of dusky white immobile in the currents. Not a pedestrian unlucky in his crossing, but a horse, surely. A white horse with wide, startled eyes and a mane the color of pomegranates.

A circus horse.

"Cripes," Deerton whispered and gazed up at the farther bank, wondering how it came to be here and knowing he had no time for such musings.

He pushed away from the rail, clutched his sketchbook closer to his chest, and continued on.

Deerton was no Grenton native. Six years of residence had worn down the country edges somewhat, though he still gawked at the soaring Heirothwait Tower, the Carlson Onion Dome and other art deco glories downtown. Grenton dazzled him, even in these dire times. Every Sunday he paid his nickel and hopped the elevator up to the Sunshine Deck in the Stokes tower, which until last April 21 had been the third-tallest building in the States. He adored candied figs from sidewalk vendors, rode the streetcars just for the fun of it, and every other Thursday he courted a Darlene Schnoerr at the Empire ballroom. And everywhere, he eyeballed the play of light and shadow, of positive and negative space, of texture and flow in all mediums and classifications.






Buildings shouldered close on either side. One was clearly abandoned, its windows soaped over. A bank, he guessed. On the other side stood a bowery building, its windows used for advertisements and one-sheets, this one urging him: TAKES THE OUCH OUT OF GROUCH. Below were pasted tracts by the miscreant Father Charles Coughlin, ranting about Jewish financiers, international bankers, and Communists. And nobody here to read them. This eerie emptiness, Deerton supposed, was one of the reasons the Customer had chosen this night of all nights. The parties were downtown, uptown, or points east. The gin-runners were busy supplying the booze, leaving only the bums and the seagulls and the foghorn. This was the perfect night for her delivery, their prospect these long six weeks, their debutante — stepping out into society, quite literally headless.

La Belle Dame sans Merci, the Boss called her. Two-oh-six pounds and five-foot eleven, with only the elegant narrow neck on top, per request. The Boss had designed her, producing dozens of drawings in his swift and immaculate hand, drawings he sent via courier to their mysterious Customer — in Hollywood parlance both "Producer" and "Front Office." Once the key drawing had been approved, the Boss passed it onto Tommy and Les.

Where Deerton was a practical design man -- blueprints for the armature, for the valves and the bladders — Tommy was sculptor and metalworker. He eyed it; he cast it, using for inspiration a 1756 book called Bizarie, all about automatons of fantastical variety. And it didn't take him long to fall in love with their fantastical Dame, though headless. An aluminum frame with solid-iron ball sockets and joints, and skin of bronze studded with ruby and mother-of-pearl and adamantine and metallic crepe. "Jeez," poor Tommy had said, "I ain't carved and cast anything prettier than she, anything with more vavoom, and she don't have a head." But La Belle had a cinched waistline you could nearly put your hands around and a prominent bustline. And truth was, Tommy was in love. For the last seven weeks, he had pursued his craft with the zealotry of Dr. Frankenstein. And vavoom, indeed. Head or no, she would have caused a scandal anywhere in Grenton, with her stanchion bosom, with her swelling hips, even in the seedy dives of downtown. And that's the idea, Deerton supposes. That's part of this Customer's requirement, an automaton for a vaudeville show. But poor Tommy. It was in his blood; he didn't want to give up on it. He had so wanted to give her a beautiful head. He sketched it again and again over the Boss's detailed drawings and blueprints. In the end, he asked if he could design a hat, at least, an Empress Eugenie soft-shell with a red feather for decoration, such as that worn by Greta Garbo in Romance.

"Sorry, son," the Boss had said, "but we're out of the loop when it comes to the neck up." So she ended at the hollow neck with veins of steel and a nervous system of wires and bladders all waiting for whatever was to go on top.

Poor Tommy.

He hurried his step. It was hopeless; he was going to be late. Yet damned if the fog didn't part like the great curtains in the Odeon. Damned if the street lamps didn't flare from amber to bright yellow against the unique outline of the thirteen-floor Soames Building, as sketched on the map in his pocket — its acme sprouting a Marconi antenna so ugly, so unlike the art deco of the day, that some had proclaimed it the loveliest in the city for not trying.

And damned if the entire first floor wasn't a weightless stretch of plate glass, brilliantly lit, labeled first Soames Building and beneath that Sand-Wich-O-Matic Shop. Who would build a Sand-Wich-O-Matic Shop in these dregs of Old Town? And why would it be open 24 hours a day, all neon and sodium bulbs, stainless steel, and miles of chrome? It reminded him of those clever insect traps hung at parties in the swankier districts, brilliantly lit yet ominously empty, eager to draw in the mosquitoes. And now they'd caught one in their bright buzzing lights.He slinked inside.





Only one booth was occupied.

Even tonight, on the biggest night of the project, the Boss wore his white shirt with striped suspenders — sleeves rolled up — and a black Windsor tie loosely knotted. His tweed suitcoat was draped across the table, the porkpie beside his hand. Unaware of Deerton approaching through the rotating doors, he slouched, one arm along the back of the booth, the other fiddling with well-worn envelopes and the letters he had extruded, letters in a feminine hand that he continually hid from sight and withdrew only when Les and Tommy were elsewhere; letters that Tommy, in a rare moment of snooping, had declared as postmarked Pasadena, from a wife named Hazel, betraying none of the scents of perfumes but more so those of hostility, with madness in the crimped penmanship. The Boss wasn't reading them, nor did he touch them. Instead, his pen flipped through them forensically, his moody brow beetling over blue, often sad eyes.

As Deerton approached, the Boss looked over, looked up, summoned a careworn smile. His eyes brightened from their sadness, and his aspect changed in the straightening of his shoulders and — most important of all — the lifting up and settling down of the porkpie hat atop those letters, shutting a door on such sadness.

Willis H. O'Brien, age forty-five, late of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation of Hollywood, half-rose from the seat and gently shook Deerton's hand, his own surely far too small to have been that of a boxer, which, according to Obie's own late night tales, he had been. "Howdy, Les." He smelled of gin and sweat. "Good to see you, son." He spoke softly, with an air of distraction. "Where's our Tommy?" From his sloughed-off coat, Obie retrieved an Elgin pocket watch, its cover decorated with a Charles Knight design of a Brontosaurus under a full moon, engraved by the Boss himself.

"He's bringing it direct from the warehouse, Mr. O'Brien. Obie." Deerton added, "He knows these backstreets hereabouts, said he'll meet us direct at the statue in a half-hour."

"Time for some chow, if you want." Obie reseated himself, glancing furtively at his hat, and took up the racing form instead.

Deerton dug into his trouser pocket, groped a few pennies and the nickel he had resolved to save until lunchtime tomorrow. What he retained of the $50 a week amounted to heaps of coins arrayed on his bedside table, and even that was not enough to pay Mrs. Grubach the surcharge in addition to the rent. That afternoon he'd snuck into the kitchen during the Linit Bathclub Revue and pried open the ice-box hoping for a heel of bologna; he had been prowling the contents when Fred Allen betrayed Deerton with a lame joke, it seemed, leaving his landlady with enough curiosity about strange noises to investigate her kitchen. He had looked up to find her standing in the entryway, arms folded, her eyes like a south-side Medusa's. She had given him the dirt in all directions, made threats about kicking him to the street, and luckily the laughter from the Linit Revue had grown uproarious, drawing her back to her radio and leaving Les with his hands empty, his soul chagrined.

"On me, I should've said." Obie rummaged in his vest pocket, he flipped a quarter through the air. Deerton caught it with both his own. "Try the egg salad."






Hallowe'en day. Nineteen-year-old Katie — runaway Will's temporary guardian — drives them to an out-of-the-way strip mall to buy Halloween masks.



October 31, 1977


In a morning already blustery, few people in Old Town took notice of the stir. Here and there, a six-pack ring, a rusty nail, a length of twine were caught in an eddy and carried down the alley. Razor wire skittered over the cobblestone, sounding like brittle leaves on an autumn day. A plastic straw, a drink lid, tumbling end over end along the canal. A ping-pong ball, shattered under a vagrant's shoe, rode the water like a little boat. Rain struck the pavement, drawing attention away from disparate movement that was, in fact, something gathering itself to itself.

It stalked the city unnoticed.

When able, it used the sewers.

The Hillcrest Civic Shopping Plaza is a pitiful strip mall of seven tiny stores, nestled among fir and majestic oak on a bluff overlooking the Sound. "It's been here forever," says Katie, steering them into the large, empty lot. "Longer than forever. I used to buy Charleston Chews here when I was in fifth grade. Can you believe that, Will?"

Hillcrest Costumes and Gifts sits next to a pet supplies emporium and a coin-operated laundromat. "STAR WARS COSTUMES STILL AVAILABLE," proclaims a banner in the window.

"Won't be three minutes." She zips up her jacket, tucks her hair under her macramé cap. "Okay?"

"Okay." The bowl of Cheerios and a mug of sugar-packed Taster's Choice hadn't been enough to warm him up, nor overturn the feeling of doom — the certainty that something has gone horribly wrong. The rain only makes it worse. "No rush." He touches the Pee-Chee's taped-up corner.

"Any requests, Will?" She slings her beaded purse over her shoulder, tugs on the door latch.

"Long as it's not Star Wars."

"I'll get you something dignified." As she climbs out, the wind sends her hair flying and sets the Scotty action figure dangling from the dome light to dance a jig. A leaf spirals in, sticks to the upholstery, mottled brown and gray, wet, trembling.

The Caprice's giant door slams shut, the change in air pressure tickling the hairs in his ears.

Through the window, he watches Katie growing smaller and smaller as she dashes across the empty lot. Rain drives silver highlights into the darkest of shadows. Evergreens thrash and churl, more black than green, and tinged with silver. To the left of the ramshackle stores they admit a glimpse of gray, wind-tossed water and the towers of downtown Grenton, toy-like, against dim clouds.

Scraps of newspaper sail past.

The Caprice shakes gently on its shocks.

Will sinks down into the seat. After a pause, he opens the Pee-Chee.

The rubber-banded set falls onto his stomach. Nudging it aside, he focuses on the right-hand pocket, where the multiplication table has been profaned by Jim's pen, altered by Mr. Bone's magic square — the Grand Cipher that Jim had copied from a book titled Kosmotheeoros, dated 1698.

First, he answers the ten questions, which include:

How many days since Star Wars seen?

How many more 'til Hallowe'en?

Are you alone?

He assigns the prescribed numerical values, drawing the numbers with his index finger, performs the multiplication and division, consults the multiplication table, and comes up with:

54.

He frowns. Same as yesterday. Shouldn't the number be higher? It's not only one day closer to Hallowe'en — it is Hallowe'en.

So are we cool? he remembers Katie saying. I mean, you checked your work twice?

No, he tells her, I haven't. More carefully, trying to ignore the shadows of raindrops swarming over the Pee-Chee, and the car creaking on its shocks, he runs the calculations again — looks outside for any marmosets, sniffs the air — and comes up with —

54.

"Checked it twice," he mumbles, then lifts the set of index cards, shucks the rubber band, and begins counting down, carefully. At fifty-four he lifts the bulk of cards, wraps the rubber-band around them, and sets it in the crook of his elbow. Then he straightens the remaining twenty or so. After a pause, he turns over the first of seven cards.

"Water underlies every modern city. They carry its lifeblood and its waste, water as underground rivers tamed by stone, in cisterns that wend beneath the surface of our modern world. They trace patterns both bold and occult through the flux of our days."

It's a clipping from Jim's copy of Megapolisomancy: A New Science of the Cities by Thibaut de Castries.






"Hydromancers aver that water is tamed or untamed, and in the city of Grenton the unfathomable canals partake of either state. Mr. A. Soames knew this, and he caused to be built the one city on Earth where this pattern is made apparent; indeed, is energized, by a pathway of water both tamed and untamed."

He and Katie have puzzled over de Castries's book, especially its single chapter dealing with the Soames lines, but Will doesn't think he can "aver" anything this morning. Except, of course, that water is all around him, drumming on the roof, streaming down the windshield. And it brings to mind the canals — the seat of Mordaunt's power.

Weird Underground. He remembers an episode focusing on Grenton's canals. They'd mentioned de Castries and his theories, and shown the original blueprints of the canals, all twisted up like Moebius strips.

A brown leaf twirls to the window, sticks there, trembling; another gust takes it away.

He turns to the second card, a listing from TV Guide.

6:00 11 TWILIGHT ZONE -- Science Fiction
A Martian husband (Laurence Harvey) fears his wife's prophetic
dreams spell doom for his planet in this adaptation of a Ray
Bradbury story. Features a haunting score by Bernard Herrmann.
Ylla: Yvette Mimieux. (30 min.)

He sits up slightly. The set falls between the seats.

Mr. K and his silver mask.

Yesterday — only yesterday — he'd drawn another TV Guide entry, another Twilight Zone —"The Third Expedition" — on the third card. Insidious illusion. And, like yesterday, here was a specific mention of Bernard Herrmann, who wrote the music for Dark Carnival.

"I'm freaking out over nothing," he whispers. His hand is admirably steady. After all, the set includes dozens of clippings from TV Guide, including Outer Limits and Star Trek and Time Tunnel, and That's Hollywood. So what if he got another Twilight Zone?

As if to prove him correct, the third card is another from TV Guide:

6:00 11 STAR TREK -- Science Fiction
Mortals battle an immortal when the Enterprise is
seized by the Greek God Apollo (Michael Forest).
Kirk: William Shatner. (60 min.)

A gust of wind drives rain across the windshield, drawing his eyes to the Union 76 ball, which stands as high as the pine trees, zinging back and forth. Hurry up, he tells himself, re-addressing the cards. Katie'll be back. Focusing on the card, he rereads: Mortals battle an immortal. That's the important part.

Insidious illusion.

Rain patters the windshield: drops of silver from the scudding gray clouds.

Leaves flick, sailing past, end over end.

Mortals battle an immortal. Mortals — me, Katie, Mr. Deerton.

Immortals: Mordaunt and the Sorciere.

Will, Willie, William. Do you want to see your own death?

His blood beats loudly in his ears. His face grows hot. He needs to feel that rain. He reaches for the chrome handle, gives it a turn. The window cracks open a few inches. He shuts his eyes, and the cold air and rain — welcomed — strike his forehead and eyelids and nose and chin.

Rain patters on the window, wind whistles through. He pulls back, rubs his sleeve across his eyes.



A branch skitters across the vast hood, catches on the windshield, squeaking against the glass.
Then sails away.

Katie'll be back p.d.q.

Hydromancies aver. Spell doom for his planet. Mortals battle an immortal.

A leaf twirls toward the window, sticks above another twig, trembling.

Comes a vague tapping, slightly louder than the rain. Another twig, larger, catching on the windshield wiper where it scrapes, back and forth. Sprig of wet leaf, mottled green and yellow, its edges chomped, perhaps by a caterpillar, pinwheeling down the glass.

A lid from a Styrofoam cup sails past. Will follows it down and down, until it's lost on the hood. Then he fumbles for the cards, most of which have spilled to the floor.

Twigs and branches, and now a torn plastic bag is rippling on the hood, tangling up. "Woolworth's," reads the side of it, "First Avenue, Grenton." And a length of metal twine, skittering over the hood.

tick. tick. tick.

Will sits up straighter.

A plastic straw, with red and blue stripes.

Something clacks against the side of his door. Will cranes his neck, presses back against the seat.
A six-pack ring clings to the windshield, then slowly climbs up and up, lost from sight. Something smacks the hood with a hollow thud -- a plastic bottle, rolling back and forth, with dregs of muddy water inside.

odds and ends.

Will unlatches his lap belt, sinks lower in the seat. Brushes aside the loose cards. He tries to swallow but his mouth is too dry. His forehead prickles with sweat. I'm protected. Protected.

Metal on metal: tick. tick. tick.

Schröpfer, Philidor, Robertson, Philipstal.

On the windshield -- a rusty razor blade shivers, pretending to be a leaf.

The wind drives a twig through the crack in the window. A single raindrop hangs at its tip, quivering. Will grabs the handle, turns it, but it jams on the twig. He reaches up. The raindrop falls, strikes his nose. A moment later with a whistling thrum, a second twig, then a third, slithers through. And he feels the window turning against him.

"Schröpfer, Philidor, Robertson, Philipstal!" He brushes away the quivering twigs. Around his necklace, mood rings glow fierce, yellow-white. A frantic clacking overhead: the mobile, spinning and kicking. A sheet of soiled newspaper flaps and flutters toward the car, adheres to the windshield all inky and gray, then another, and a third, blocking out cloud light. Will grabs the door handle, tugs hard, shoves his shoulder against the massive door.

Something slithers through the open window — a branch, like an endless gnarled finger, groping for his eyes.

Will throws himself across to the driver's seat, tugging the handle -- feeling it jam, and hearing a slithering in the steel of the door. The bat-wing newspaper shudders on the windshield. Something small and round and white rolls underneath, against the glass, nestling just over the wipers. A ping-pong ball, cracked open, with a dark and dim shape rattling in its center. Husk of a beetle, embedded inside, like a pupil.

The razor blade scrapes through the crack in the passenger window, falls onto the seat.

"Schröpfer, Philidor, Robertson, Philipstal," he whispers, heart pounding. "Ollivier, Starewicz, Melies, O'Brien, Delgado, Harryhausen!"

The dead insect eyeball rolls, taps against the window, looking this way and that, as rattlings and tappings and slitherings scrape at the Caprice's roof and something else struggles through the opening in his window; rusted razor wire, questing.

Protection!

Ahead: Tock-tick-tock-tick. Metal legs climb the steel hood. A shadow rises against the newspaper, clambers up the glass. The sound startles Will into motion — he turns, grabs the seat, hurls himself over the top into the cavernous back. His hand strikes Obie's illustration board, denting it as he falls to the side.

Ollivier, Starewicz, Melies, O'Brien, Delgado!

Across the rear window — whisper ssssh--stttt — another sheet of old newspaper adheres like a lamprey, darkening the car. In front, the beetle iris in the ping-pong eyeball observes the gathering odds and ends. Twang of steel and clack of wood, and the prickly, tinny sounds over the roof as the eyeballs turns this way and that.

Overhead, against the rainfall, metal legs: tock-tick-tock.

Will drops down to the axle hump, next to the fallen mobile a tangle of fishing line.

Near midnight, and Les Deerton hurries to a rendevous with Willis H. O'Brien, and an eerie night's work. . .

Forests exist on almost every part of the globe’s land. Forest complexity causes scientists to classify forests in more than one way, by location, the type of wood they produce, or their age. Sometimes these three classifications interconnect. Ecology uses a forest classification system based on climate, determined by precipitation and temperature. This classification system correlates to where on the globe the forests grow. Each of the three main classifications contain subcategories based on more detailed climatic conditions: tropical, subtropical, Mediterranean, temperate, coniferous, boreal, and montane (cloud forest). Some of these groups contain additional subtypes.

Forests also belong to categories according to the types of trees that predominate; for example, coniferous, mixed broadleaf, aspen, oak, or mangrove forest. Finally, forest age determines characteristics of this habitat, so forests may be identified as immature, secondary, primary, or old-growth.


The World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch program states on its Web site that the Earth has lost almost 50 percent of its forests in the last 8,000 years, the same time period in which civilization developed. The highest rates of today’s forest loss occur in Africa and South America; every five years Africa and South America lose 3.2 and 2.5 percent, respectively. These numbers can be deceptive because in some African nations the combined grassland and forest loss tops a rate of 10 percent annually. Grasslands have in fact undergone more drastic reductions than forests in some places, particularly Africa. If these current disappearance rates continue, many countries will lose all their forests within a few decades.

Forest loss has a devastating impact on biodiversity because forests, especially the tropical rain forests near the equator, make a great contribution to the world’s plant and animal diversity. These tropical rain forests account for at least half of all the Earth’s biodiversity even though they cover only about 2 percent of the Earth’s surface. These forests have also become the most threatened by deforestation.

Deforestation refers to any removal of trees without replacement, and it threatens forests in direct and indirect ways. Direct deforestation comes from four main causes: clearing of tropical forests for crops, livestock, and timber; clearing of temperate deciduous forests for timber, crops, and urban development; clearing of evergreen coniferous forests for timber; and conversion of forests to monoculture (vineyards, commercial tree farms). Illegal logging makes up part of the deforestation problem, much as exotic animal poaching decimates protected wildlife populations. Logging is the process of cutting and removing logs from the forest.

Indirect causes affect forests similarly to how they affect animal species. Three important indirect threats to forests are roads, climate change, and habitat fragmentation. Indirectly, off-road vehicles used to build roads damage seedlings and new growth, increase soil erosion, and fragment habitat. Climate change affects environment by shifting the optimal temperature range in habitats. Wildlife can migrate to a different elevation or latitude to find the ideal temperature. Trees, however, do not possess the luxury of moving; entire species can slowly die as a result of continuous temperature changes. Climate change also makes conditions suitable for invasive species to enter a habitat and may additionally open the door to increased incidence of disease or pest infestation. Habitat fragmentation from urban growth or agriculture reduces the ability of tree populations to propagate and lessens their genetic diversity.

All of these effects caused the world to lose 3 percent of its forests in a 15-year period from 1990 to 2005, a rate of 0.2 percent a year. At present, the world’s forested areas continue to decrease but the disappearance rate has been slowing; Europe and North America have now reversed centuries of forest loss. The most threatened forests reside in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Fortunately, national governments in Africa have started cooperative programs for forest conservation, and individual nations have adapted new forest policies and forest laws. New forestry management programs help save forests to some extent, but fires, regional conflicts, and legal and illegal industries have continued the deforestation crisis. The table on the next page provides details on today’s major threats to forests and their primary location, though all of these threats can be found to some degree in almost every part of the world.

Many people may assume forest fires pose the greatest threat to forests. In the United States, the Smokey Bear campaign began in the 1940s to remind people of the dangers of forest fires. Illegal campsite fires, arson, and blazes cause damage each year in dry areas of the United States that have dense human populations. But fires in general, natural or human-caused, do not threaten the overall population of forests, and fire management makes up an important sector of overall forest management. Fires actually contribute to the health of forests and plant communities by
• enhancing nutrient recycling
• allowing for small plants to spread
• regulating the succession of new tree growth
• developing new habitat
• reducing biomass buildup
• enriching soils
• reducing parasites and disease-causing organisms

In North America and Europe, forestry programs work in conjunction with the government. The success of slowing forest loss in these places varies, however. Forest area stabilized in Canada and the United States in the mid-2000s, but forest area continues to shrink in Mexico, although fortunately the rate has slowed. In Europe, lands set aside for protected forests have increased slightly in the past five to 10 years. Asia and the Pacific have halted an alarming trend of forest loss that took place during the past 30 years, and in these places forested land may now be increasing in area. However, part of East Asia’s statistics may be misleading. China has planted large forest plantations, and while these plantations add to the total amount of land that forests cover, such monocultures do little to improve biodiversity.

Trees in the forest interact with other living things in ecosystems just as plants, animals, and microbes do. An imbalanced ecosystem can therefore harm trees. For example, if a predator were to disappear, other animals may grow to higher population numbers and graze all the young seedlings needed to regenerate the forest in 100 years. An alteration to a plant community in the forest likely alters the birds and reptiles living there, which can affect populations of tree pests and parasites. Trees weakened by a parasite become more vulnerable to infection by disease-causing microbes.

Climate change holds paramount importance in forest health because it affects seasons, normal temperature ranges, and tree reproduction. Climate change has also influenced the world’s availability of clean water. Like all living things, trees cannot survive long without water, but equally important, trees play a crucial role in the Earth’s water cycle.

Source of Information : Green Technology Conservation Protecting Our Plant Resources

The articles in this series try to throw light on recent or current developments in international security. Just occasionally an element of personal experience creeps in. This is one of those.

The last weeks of 2009 were difficult for the public face of scientific research into global warming. The failure of the climate-change conference in Copenhagen, the identification of minor flaws in the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC’s) published documentation, and the exposure of email exchanges centred on the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at England’s University of East Anglia - all raised doubts about those charged with presenting scientific evidence about climate change and renewing efforts to address the phenomenon. In the case of the email affair - given an extra conspiratorial frisson by being called “climategate” - the careful selection of damaging details by an evidently well-resourced group made it possible to erect a narrative of deception that found an uncritical welcome among climate “sceptics” and “deniers”.

Soon after the furore, Associated Press tasked a team to examine 1,073 emails from the CRU material in order to provide an independent view of what had happened. The result showed no evidence that climate change was faked (see “’ClimateGate' Doesn't Show Global Warming Was Faked, AP Reports”, Huffington Post, 12 December 2009); but amid a deluge of negative comment this attracted little attention, and the impression persists that the whole case for human-induced climate change has been severely hit.

For many of the researchers involved, the period of late 2009-early 2010 has been traumatic; they may have had to contend with controversy over the years, but this is something outside their experience.

The intensity of the coverage, and the zealotry of many sceptics in pressing their case, stem in part from changing global circumstances. There has long been deep opposition to any international move towards a low-carbon economy, from reasons both ideological (free-market true-believers) and commercial (the more retrograde transnational corporations, especially fossil-fuel companies). There was no great risk of such a move as long as George W Bush was in the White House; but the election of Barack Obama and the prospect of Copenhagen agreeing a successor to the Kyoto protocol made 2009 potentially a dangerous year. In this context, “climategate” has been a gift.

The peace benefit

The lesson of my own experience in the 1980s suggests that the longer-term impact might be rather different from what the architects of this affair intend. I got into working in the field of international security from teaching environmental science and resource-conflict at Huddersfield Polytechnic, west Yorkshire, in the early 1970s (and recently came across some of my thirty-five-year-old lecture notes dealing with rising atmospheric CO² levels!). I moved to Bradford’s department of peace studies at the end of the decade, just as the cold war was entering a particularly tense period; from around 1980 onwards, several of us there saw the need for independent research and writing on nuclear issues.

An early outcome (with co-authors Malcolm Dando and Peter van den Dungen) was a book about the risks and consequences of nuclear war: As Lambs to the Slaughter: The Facts About Nuclear War (1981). It struck a chord; 25,000 copies were sold in a few weeks, and that year around 500,000 people purchased an accompanying leaflet published by the environment group Ecoropa.

As Lambs... was part of a wider body of writings, much of it for an academic rather a general readership. This was the case with A Guide to Nuclear Weapons (1981) which ran to several editions and led eventually to a reference work: The Directory of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms and Disarmament 1990. The core purpose of this writing was to be as accurate as possible; this meant (for example) always analysing Soviet as well as western systems and postures, and having a particular focus on the actual consequences of a nuclear war.

What strikes me in retrospect - and when thinking about the problems that climate scientists now face - is how widely varied were the reactions to our work. Military officers, for example, were actually very interested in it and very ready to engage in intensive debates. I was first invited to lecture at the Royal Air Force staff college in 1982 and have continued frequently to lecture at defence colleges to the present day. Senior civil servants in Britain’s ministry of defence were also willing to discuss our work.

The reaction on the political right - then very much in the ascendancy during Margaret Thatcher’s long premiership (1979-1990) - was very different; it was bitter and sustained opposition to what we were doing. In the Thatcherite view of the world, peace studies was “appeasement studies”, indulgent to official enemies and undermining of the nation’s moral fibre. Many articles and pamphlets were written about the Bradford department’s dangerous and subversive nature; one noble member of the House of Lords (the upper chamber of Britain’s parliament) even described us as a “rest home for urban guerrillas”. Some critics preferred a more personal touch: I was called “Dr Death”, and we regularly got abusive mail (which, on one or two occasions, went as far as death-threats).

It was known that Margaret Thatcher wished “something to be done” about peace studies; but this was politically difficult, since universities still retaine considerable independence (a situation that subsequent governments have done much to redress). than now. But the University Grants Committee (UGC) came under pressure to investigate us and to its credit agreed to do so only if Bradford’s vice-chancellor allowed it; he too was prepared to say yes, but - also to his credit - only if the peace-studies staff gave their consent. We certainly would! What followed was the equivalent of today’s “subject review”. It was thorough and exacting, and the UGC made public its verdict - that the department was maintaining high standards.

That outcome lifted the pressure off peace studies for the rest of the 1980s. With the end of the cold war by the end of the decade, much of the other work our staff and research students already did - on peacekeeping, environmental conflict, and mediation, among other issues - came to the fore; this created the foundation for an expansion of our work in the 1990s.

The landscape after battle

How does this relate to “climategate”? A key factor is that we were exposed to intensive criticism and persistent scrutiny of our work virtually from day one, and this in direct consequence made us hugely aware of the need for very high levels of accuracy and impeccable referencing of sources. Access to a wide range of military and defence journals, and a huge amount of information in the public domain, meant that this was actually not so difficult; but under so much external pressure we learned to be very cautious in our analysis at a time when exaggeration on the issues we addressed was common enough.

Many of us now think that the experience made us better academics. If almost everything you write is going to be exposed to detailed examination by relentless and often politically-motivated critics, then you have to set unusually exacting standards for your work. The likely - and beneficial - implication is that climate researchers who have gone through their own test-by-fire will in future take even greater care over published assessments and analyses.

In many ways we were luckier than today’s climate researchers: for there was an intense focus on our peace-studies work from the very beginning - whereas critics of climate science are able to retrieve work published a decade and more ago, when the issue was far less controversial, in order to pinpoint a minor laxity and use it to great effect to damn the whole enterprise.

The overall effect of the setbacks to climate-science’s public face may amount to the loss of a year in the transition to a low-carbon future, but the good work being done in this area offers many grounds for optimism. The New Economic Foundation’s The Great Transition project, and Tim Jackson’s book Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet (Earthscan 2009) are but two examples. Alongside the evidence that continues to emerge about the accelerating impact of climate change, the flow of impressive research and compelling argument based on even more rigorous standards will ensure that the refusenik stance will in future become harder to make.

In the end, peace studies was made stronger by those who sought to expose it. In a similar way, the travails of climate researchers may well end up reinforcing the integrity of the science and the necessity of the low-carbon transition.

Sideboxes

'Read On' Sidebox: 

Department of peace studies, Bradford University

Sustainable Security

Tim Jackson, Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet (Earthscan 2009)

New Economics Foundation, The Great Transition

Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia

Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Climate Action Network 

Policy Network / Centre for the Study of Global Socety - research programme / politics of climate change 

Mike Hulme, Why We Disagree About Climate Change (Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Sidebox: 

Paul Rogers is professor in the department of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. He has been writing a weekly column on global security on openDemocracy since 26 September 2001 

Bradford’s peace-studies department now broadcasts regular podcasts on its work, including a regular commentary from Paul Rogers on international-security issues. Listen/watch here 

In addition to his weekly openDemocracy column, Paul Rogers writes an international security monthly briefing for the Oxford Research Group; for details, click here

Paul Rogers’s books include Why We’re Losing the War on Terror (Polity, 2007) - an analysis of the strategic misjudgments of the post-9/11 era and why a new security paradigm is needed; and Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st Century (Pluto Press, 3rd edition, 2010)

Paul Rogers's report Global Security after the War on Terror is published by the Oxford Research Group (November 2009)

Related stories: 

A new security paradigm: the military-climate link

The climate peril: a race against time

Climate change and global security

A world in need: the case for sustainable security

Climate protest: rock the state, save the planet

The politics of security: beyond militarism

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...according to this Labour attack ad:

So much for the right having a monopoly on anti-crime populism. As for the actual merits of the attack - where to start? Well...

1) 'Even the Daily Mail' concedes that "just one in 350, or 0.3 per cent, of the 1.3 million crimes solved by police" can be credited to the DNA database.

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2) It goes without saying that the burglar into whose mouth Labour puts the arguments of its opponents is a straw man - there can rarely have been so definitive an example of one! Would the advert have been so persuasive had it featured a stronger opponent, such as Henry Porter or for that matter the European Court of Human Rights?

3) Criminals aren't necessarily the only ones worried about the new system, either. Yesterday's Metro reported that fears of being added to the database are reducing organ and blood donations.

4) Last but not least, the attack dishonestly suggests that Labour's DNA database covers only criminals, whereas it in fact includes 850,000 people who should still be presumed innocent as Guy Aitchison eloquently explained ;here at OurKingdom:

Their new campaign site offers six reasons why we should stick to nurse, one of which is the "Tories on DNA". It quotes Chris Sims,  ACPO lead on forensic science and West Midlands Chief Constable, who is "absolutely certain" there are cases where removing "un-convicted people" from the DNA database would have meant there would be "quiet serious crimes that weren't saved by police and offenders who could still be out there committing further serious offences."

That the Labour party should so loudly trumpet its contempt for personal privacy and the presumption of innocence, parading its violation of the European Court on Human Rights ruling on DNA retention as one of the top six reasons to vote for it, tells you everything you need to know about its attitude to civil liberties and the rule of law. If the Tories were in power, we are told, nasty horrible "un-convicted" people would be running around everywhere committing crimes. 

Un-convicted. Un-con-vic-ted. Didn't we use to have another word for that at one time before we became suspects to be tagged, tracked and monitored? And did it not underpin some legal principle of one kind or another generally thought essential to a free society? Clearly I'm getting muddled up. Un-convicted people are just people who haven't been convicted. Yet. They will be. Just so long as the Tories aren't there to give them back their DNA.

(Credit due to the invaluable Big Brother Watch for pointing to several of these facts.)

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On Monday, Burma’s military government approved legislation regulating future elections. State-controlled media announced details for the election commission law, the first in a series of five new laws. A date has yet to be set for the long-awaited polls, which are widely suspected of being a ploy by the ruling generals to consolidate their stranglehold on power.

Under the terms of the new law, the junta will handpick the five-person commission that will have the final say over the country’s first elections in twenty years. Each of the commission’s members must be at least 50 years old, cannot hold membership of a political party, and must be deemed by the military to have “integrity and experience”, and to “be loyal to the state and its citizens”. The commission will have exceptional powers, such as the ability to postpone voting in individual constituencies in cases of “natural disaster or due to the local security situation”. Details of the other four laws will be made public over the next few days, which relate to the organization of the two houses of parliament, and the polls for state and regional elections.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, yesterday said that he wrote a request for credible elections to Burma’s top general. Ban stated that in his letter he “expressed concern about this lack of progress” on democratic reforms. He also told reporters that all political prisoners, like opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, should be released as soon as possible so that they can participate in the elections.

The openSecurity verdict: Critics around the world fear the new elections are an attempt by the generals to throw up a facade of democratic government to insulate the country from international criticism. The military government is unlikely to give up any real power willingly, and might be aiming to install a civilian puppet-government behind which it can continue to pull the strings. The published law seems to confirm this view, since under its provisions the new election commission can easily be filled with junta loyalists. Burma Campaign UK, an NGO pushing for human rights and democracy, has already stated that “this demonstrates the generals will dominate the entire process”.

Burma, officially called the Union of Myanmar, has been ruled by the military since 1962. The last democratic elections took place in 1990, when the party of pro-democracy politician and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi gained a landslide victory. However, the military government refused to hand over power and promptly annulled the elections, keeping Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for most of the time since.

States such as the US, the EU, Japan, Australia, and Canada have imposed sanctions against Burma with a view to pressuring the government into moderating its stance. So far, the ruling generals have remained relatively impervious to outside demands for change. However, the proposed polls might be an attempt to recover some international standing in the hope of sanctions being lifted. As long as no substantial progress is made on pro-democratic reforms (a sine qua non condition being the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and her participation in the elections), all sanctions should be maintained. Lifting them would send the wrong signal to the military government, and other instruments like foreign aid programmes are available to reward smaller steps in the right direction.

While the US and EU have long been trying to exert influence through sanctions, the key player to hold sway over Burma’s elite is China. China is Burma’s biggest neighbour, and as a permanent member of the UN Security Council has helped the military government to limit its diplomatic isolation. The Chinese leadership has cultivated strong ties with the ruling generals because of its strategic interests in the region. Burma occupies a key geopolitical spot, lying at the crossroads between China, India, south-east Asia, and the Indian Ocean. In addition, Burma’s abundant energy resources (oil and off-shore gas) render it very attractive for the voracious Chinese economy. For the same reason, India and Russia have also tried to curry favour with the Burmese government, but China remains its principal partner.

Accordingly, true change in the junta’s behaviour will likely require Beijing to take a tougher line with its unsavoury friends in Yangon. Even if only in private, a few words from Chinese diplomats might go a long way towards pushing the military government into a more moderate position on democracy and human rights. And if, as they say, the Chinese leaders are seriously concerned with long-term regional peace and stability in south-east Asia, they would do well to remind the generals that their intransigence is sustaining prolonged civil conflict in the country, with a high cost to the region.

French navy captures 35 suspected pirates

The French frigate Nivose, operating off the coast of Somalia, has captured 35 suspected pirates in three days. In a statement on Sunday, the French defence ministry claimed “the biggest seizure” so far since EU ships began patrolling the Gulf of Aden in 2008.

French officials claimed that four pirate ‘mother ships’ and six skiffs were seized in various sweeps over the weekend, with Spanish aerial support identifying and tracking down the pirates. In the most successful episode of the EU’s ‘operation Atlanta’ yet, EU forces used helicopters and fired warning shorts to capture the pirates. “The pirates are learning that we are not a soft touch”, a spokesperson in Paris said.

The prisoners will likely be flown to the neighbouring country of Kenya, which is prosecuting around a hundred previously captured pirates. However, very few have yet been convicted and most are wasting away in prison due to Kenya’s overburdened legal system. A handful of pirates have been sent off for trial in European countries and in the US, but jurisdiction over suspects captured on the high seas remains unclear.

The naval operations have not prevented new assaults by the pirates, who conttinue to launch attacks hundreds of miles to the south of the Gulf of Aden, striking as far as the Seychelles and Madagascar. On Friday, pirates got hold of the UBT Ocean, a Norwegian oil tanker, off the coast of Madagascar. The risk of being caught does not stop the pirates, who can get enormously rich through the ransoms of just a few successful attacks.

Bali bombing mastermind ‘killed in shoot-out with Indonesian police’

Indonesian police sources claim that Dulmatin, an explosives expert, was shot dead along with two other militants of the Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah today. The shoot-out occurred in a morning raid near the capital of Jakarta, and was said to be linked to police actions against militants after last month’s discovery of an Islamic terrorist training camp in Aceh.

Dulmatin is wanted in relation to the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people. He is alleged to have set off one of the Bali bombs with a mobile phone, and to have helped make a massive car bomb used in the attacks. While there has been no confirmation of the shot man’s identity yet, the police are due to hold a press conference later today. The counter-terrorism operations come just two weeks before US President Barack Obama is due to visit the country, where he spent his childhood.

Iran calls for China to withstand sanctions pressure

On Tuesday, Iran urged China not to give in to pressure from the United States and its allies for new sanctions against Tehran. The US, Germany, France, Britain, Israel, and other "bullying powers" have been pushing for a new package of UN sanctions in response to Iran’s nuclear development. “We are hopeful that China will not be affected by other’s demands and will have its own foreign policy”, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.

China, which is one of the five veto-wielding powers in the UN Security Council, has traditionally supported Iran and maintains close economic ties with the country. The US and, latterly, Europe have been trying to convince China and Russia of the need for a fourth sanctions package because of Iran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment. While Russia now seems willing to go along with the US and the Europeans to a certain extent, China has downplayed the likelihood of new sanctions, emphasizing the importance of continued diplomacy instead. Chinese firms have large investments in Iran’s energy and commercial sectors.

On Monday, Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom intensified pressure on Iran, calling for “crippling” sanctions during a visit to the United Nations. Shalom met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and told reporters he had asked Ban to “use his moral voice to ask the Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran”.

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Jakarta

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International politics

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, standing alongside his counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, made a notable remark at a news-conference in Damascus on 25 February 2010 where the deepening of the two countries’ relations was celebrated. "We hope others will not give us lessons when it comes to our region and history...We know what is our interest...We thank them for their advice."

The reference to the Barack Obama administration's attempt to lure Syria from its alliance with Iran - reaffirmed only the day before by secretary of state Hillary Clinton at a Senate hearing - was unmistakable. For his part, Ahmadinejad addressed the backdrop of escalating rhetoric between Israel on one side and Syria and Hizbollah on the other; he warned the "Zionist regime"  against any military operation, which would spell out "its end forever." Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah’s secretary-general soon joined the two leaders in a show of solidarity, which in the Arabic world was referred to as "the nuclear meeting".  

The strategy

These statements and displays of solidarity should extinguish any wishful hope that Damascus is prepared to steer away from Iran in return for peace with Israel and recovery of the Golan heights. This, however, does not mean that efforts at peacemaking are stillborn. Rather, they reflect the near-completion of the Iranian strategy to realign the forces in the middle east, especially those confronting Israel. Lebanon and Syria are the main pillars of this ambitious and dangerous strategy whose real objective is the disruption of the Arab-Israeli politico-military balance in favour of an Islamist-nationalist resistance led by Iran and spearheaded in action by Hizbollah.

The Iranians appear to believe that by transforming the longstanding Arab-Israeli balance of power in the region into an asymmetrical balance of “deterrence-by-terror”, they can deepen the impotence of the Arab moderate countries of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan into a complete paralysis - and thus press their claim to lead the Muslim populations of the region. This belief carries the implicit assumption that these Arab states will avoid becoming  complicity with any attempt by Washington or Jerusalem to punish Tehran (militarily or economically) for its alleged pursuit of an armed nuclear capability.

The roots of this Iranian strategy lie in the events of 2000, a seminal year in the region’s history. Three events - the collapse of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, the military withdrawal of Israel from Lebanon, and the death of Syrian president Hafez al-Assad - changed the political dynamics. Damascus came under pressure to redeploy in Lebanon and Hizbollah moved to become the real supporter of the Syrian regional order.

This shift in regional dynamics intensified with the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the reluctant evacuation of Syrian troops from Lebanon in 2005. These events deepened Damascus's embrace of Tehran and Hizbollah as a means to bolster the Syrian regime at a time of domestic and regional uncertainty. It was under these conditions that the Syrian regime parted from its policy of circumscribing Hizbollah's power and conversely began to act both as a conduit and supplier of sophisticated weaponry to the Islamist party. The elite contingents in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards - the Jerusalem Force - trained Hizbollah's militants (then commanded by Imad Mughniyeh, assassinated by Israel on 12 February 2008) in preparation for a future war with Israel (see Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, “The Hizbollah project: last war, next war”, 17 August 2009).

This war took place in July-August 2006, following a Hizbollah raid across the “blue line” into Israel's territory. Despite the heavy damage (human and infrastructural) Israel inflicted on Lebanon in the thirty-three-day war, Hizbollah proclaimed the conflict its “divine victory” (see Zaid Al-Ali, “'Whatever happens, Hizbollah has already won'” (9 August 2006). The sheer fact that Jerusalem was unable to cripple Hizbollah or stop it from firing rockets into Israel proper only hardened the will of Hizbollah and its Iranian sponsor to forge ahead with their plan to change the balance of power in the region (see Nadim Shehadi, “Riviera vs Citadel: the battle for Lebanon”, 22 August 2006).

Lebanon was a focal point in this strategy.

The shift

In the aftermath of the war, Hizbollah - shrewdly, gradually but forcefully - reduced the power of the opposition March 14 forces in Lebanon. In May 2008, the movement effected a military takeover of Beirut; this led the March 14 leaders and vocal anti-Syrian figures, Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblatt, to rethink their position regarding Damascus and Hizbollah (see Zaid Al-Ali, “Lebanon: chronicles of an attempted suicide”, 20 May 2009).

Saudi Arabia had set an example for Hariri by beginning a rapprochement with Syria, which culminated in a visit by King Abdullah to Damascus. The Saudi initiative - itself following diplomatic outreach to Syria in September 2008 by France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy - paved the way for Hariri's own visit. The end of the Washington-led policy towards Syria was reflected in the remark of the state department official Jeffrey Feltman: "It was no longer Syria being isolated. It was the United States that was being isolated" (see “Israel and Syria Threaten War”, Middle East Alliance, 4 February 2010).    

The dramatic political realignment of Walid Jumblatt - from staunch opponent to defender of the Syrian regime and Hizbollah, all in the name of Arab nationalism - was a further severe blow to the March 14 forces. The Druze leader’s shift was a mark of his disillusionment and disappointment with the west as well as with March 14.

Jumblatt had overestimated both the George W Bush administration's eagerness to remove the Assad regime from power, and its readiness to use force to aid Lebanon’s anti-Hizbollah, anti-Syrian political alliance. His bitter volte-face was catalysed during Hizbollah’s seizure of Beirut, when militants of the movement put him under house-arrest. The response was resounding by its absence: no American jet whizzed over his palace, no allied force came near his doorstep, no Lebanese Christians mobilised in a show of support. Jumblatt’s frantic calls to the Lebanese-American lobby were followed by a realisation that his political survival (and that of his son and political heir Taymour) necessitated a complete reversal of roles.

In this decisive moment, Hizbollah both acquired a veto in Saad Hariri’s cabinet and managed in the accompanying ministerial statement to have its role (and weapons) legitimised as a "resistance".

Hizbollah's evolving project was expressed by Hassan Nasrallah in a speech commemorating Hizbollah's “martyrs” on 16 February 2010, which drew the qualifying framework for any future confrontation with Israel. He introduced the deterrent equation where Hizbollah would retaliate proportionally to any Israeli aggression: "Tel Aviv for Beirut, and Ben Gurion international airport for Beirut international airport”.

The purpose of this strategic-parity deterrence - or deterrence-by-terror - goes beyond altering the balance of power between Hizbollah (and by extension Iran and Syria) and Israel. It widens the theatre of operations between Israel and Hizbollah, highlighting the effectiveness of retaliation and including Syria in the potential calculus of destruction. It is significant here that Syria’s foreign minister Walid al-Moallem has confirmed that in the event Lebanon was attacked, Syria would not stand by.

The choice

The retired Lebanese brigadier-general Amin Hoteit, commenting on Hizbollah's new strategy in the party's newspaper, stated that it faces Israel with two options: either use force and commit suicide, or don't use force and lose the military spinal-column. Hizbollah, it seems, is confident about withstanding Israel's initial strike, trapping Israel in Lebanon and launching destructive missiles throughout Israel (see David Hirst, Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East, Faber 2010).

What Iran and Hizbollah - and by extension Syria - are excluding is a pre-emptive devastating Israeli strike on all three of them. And if Iran is using Hizbollah as a deterrent-force against Israel, then, given the heightened tension in the region against a backdrop of failed peace negotiations and frustrated talks with Tehran to resolve the nuclear standoff, Israel would have more incentive to strike at Iran (see Paul Rogers, “Israel’s shadow over Iran”, 14 January 2010).

More specifically, the Iranian strategy - as embodied in Hizbollah's deterrence-by-terror - is a recipe for a regional conflagration. In this respect, it would be foolish to think that Israel would either commit suicide by using force or relinquish its defence strategy and appear weak. That is why a clash between Israel and Hizbollah is inevitable. 

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'Read On' Sidebox: 

Robert G Rabil is assistant professor of middle-east politics and director of graduate studies in the political-science department at Florida Atlantic University. He is the author of Embattled Neighbors: Syria, Israel and Lebanon (Lynne Rienner, 2003) and Robert G Rabil, Syria, United States and the War on Terror in the Middle East (Praeger, 2006)

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David Hirst, Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East (Faber, 2010)

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Hizb'ullah: Politics and Religion  (Pluto Press, 2001)

YaLibnan

Augustus Richard Norton, Hezbollah: A Short History (Princeton University Press, 2007)

Alex Klaushofer, Paradise Divided: A Portrait of Lebanon (Signal Books, 2007)

A Nizar Hamzeh, In the Path of Hizbullah (Syracuse University Press, 2004)

Sidebox: 

openDemocracy writers analyse Lebanon’s politics and conflicts:

Hazem Saghieh, "Rafiq al-Hariri's murder: why do Lebanese blame Syria?" (21 February 2005)

Roger Scruton, "Lebanon before and after Syria" (9 March 2005)      

Zaid Al-Ali, "Lebanon's pre-election hangover" (27 May 2005)

Hazem Saghieh, "Lebanon's election, no solution" (20 June 2005)            

Roger Scruton, "Lebanon: the missing perspective" (20 July 2006)

Paul Rogers, "Lebanon in the wider war" (25 July 2006)     

Zaid Al-Ali, “'Whatever happens, Hizbollah has already won'” (9 August 2006)
                                         
Nadim Shehadi, “Riviera vs Citadel: the battle for Lebanon” (22 August 2006)

Paul Rogers, "Lebanon on the edge" (31 August 2006)     

                    
Paul Rogers, "Lebanon: the war after the war" (12 October 2006)

Carsten Wieland, “Syria's quagmire, al-Assad's tunnel” (9 November 2006)

Alex Klaushofer, “Lebanon’s two futures” (11 December 2006)

Hazem Saghieh, “Lebanon's internal struggle: two logics in combat” (19 December 2006)

Mai Ghoussoub, “Beirut and contradiction: reading the World Press Photo award” (13 February 2007)

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, “Washington in Lebanon and Palestine: fatal manipulation” (6 August 2007)

Zaid Al-Ali, “Lebanon’s Palestinian shame” (19 June 2007)

Fred Halliday, “Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq: three crises” (22 June 2007)

Vicken Cheterian, “Lebanon: short memory, system failure” (25 September 2007)

Hazem Saghieh, "Lebanon's '14 March': from protest to leadership" (1 April 2008) 

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, "The Israel-Hizbollah prisoner-deal" (14 July 2008)

Zaid Al-Ali, “Lebanon: chronicles of an attempted suicide” (20 May 2009)

Hazem Saghieh, "Hizbollah's ‘divine victory': three years on" (20 July 2009)

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, “The Hizbollah project: last war, next war” (17 August 2009)

oD-wide classification

Country: 

Lebanon

Israel

Topics: 

Conflict

International politics

They're shell-shocked when they discover that, unless they're considered "chronically homeless"....hold it, let me give you the official definition, since this is what they're held to: (1) an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who has been continuously homeless for a year or more, OR (2) an unaccompanied individual with a disabling condition who has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years." they've really got nothing coming in the way of resources or assistance.  

And they are beyond frustrated that they cannot find a job with pay adequate enough to allow them to survive.  And I'm not talking here about luxury living, or even middle class stability.  Just enough to pay all the bills each month, have food every day and be able to fill the gas tank or purchase a 31-day bus pass to get back and forth to work.

When some people find themselves in these predicaments, they begin acting in ways many of us find offensive and/or disturbing.  Scapegoating, suicides, domestic violence, alcoholism and/or drug abuse, mental illness, crimes of desperation, all end up on the table of human response possibilities. 


And it's a vicious cycle; money from the state and federal coffers that could be used to increase wages, improve training, and/or provide housing subsidies to assist end up being funneled to law enforcement, mental health and emergency services, since the demand for these services all seems to increase as a result.


I'm not really going anywhere with this post, I guess I'm just venting my own frustration that I'm unable to grab someone who can help change things by the arm, look em in the eye, and use the psychology technique perfected by Bob Newhart......

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Stuttgart, Germany, Mar 08, 2010

Tradition: Cabriolets from Mercedes- Benz: Cavorting and cutting a caper

- Etymology: the French origins of the word 'cabriolet'
- Chronology: the Mercedes cabriolet alphabet in the pre-war years
- Genealogy: W111/112 and A 124 as direct ancestors of the E-Class

Like many other body forms, the cabriolet concept is derived from the age of the horse-drawn carriage: 'cabriolet' was the word used to describe a lightweight, open carriage pulled by two horses. This 2-hp vehicle was reserved primarily for pleasure rides in good weather. This is also where the name comes from: in French, the verb 'cabrioler' means 'to cavort' or 'to cut a caper'. However, in the early years of the automobile, a special body form was not needed in order to enjoy open-top driving, since practically all cars built in the period from 1886 to 1920 were open-top models.


The onset of the closed body form in the first third of the 20th century lead to the development of the landaulet (in which only the driver sits under the roof) alongside the saloon and coupé – and the cabriolet with a soft top that could be opened in its entirety. Even back in the 1920s, this type of car boasted a sporty and elegant silhouette. And it could be opened fully above the upper edges of the doors.

From A to F: the cabriolet alphabet

It wasn't long before numerous different types of cabriolet model were developed. To make the range of options easier to understand, Daimler-Benz introduced a classification system for six common cabriolet types using the letters A to F:

- Cabriolet A is a two-door car, generally with two seats. Its soft top actually touches the doors.
- Cabriolet B also has two doors; however, it has four seats and side windows for the rear passengers.
- Cabriolet C has the same number of doors and seats as Cabriolet B, the only difference being the absence of the rear side windows.
- Cabriolet D is a four-door car with four or five seats and a heavier soft top.
- The rare Cabriolet E has six seats and the heavier soft top.
- Cabriolet F is similar to Cabriolet E; however it has additional side windows behind the rear doors. Both these types have four doors.

Open-top models at the time of the merger

Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft had already introduced the 15/70/100 hp and 24/100/140 hp Mercedes models from 1924 as four-seater cabriolets and open-top touring cars. These models continued to be offered as Mercedes-Benz models following the merger with Benz & Cie. – leading to the formation of Daimler-Benz AG – in 1926. With their steep windscreens, they did not yet exude the charm of elegant sportiness. In fact, the only differences between them and the pure touring-car versions were the voluminous folds of the soft top at the rear.

However, the cabriolet versions of the 8/38 hp (W 02) model had already started to develop their own design idiom – above all the two-seater Cabriolet A, which combined stylish sportiness with practicality, the latter thanks to its good weather protection. Whereas this model was also available as a two-door cabriolet with four seats, Mercedes-Benz offered the 12/55 hp (W 03) model and its direct successors with a choice of three different cabriolet body shapes straight from the factory.

The legendary S, SS and SSK models were touring sports cars. Mercedes-Benz
itself offered the S and SS models as two-door, four-seater sports cabriolets between 1926 and 1934. Were it not for the breathtakingly long bonnet that distinguished this car from its contemporaries, it would have been easy to talk about a Cabriolet C version of this model series, which was custom-designed for motorsport and sporty refinement. The open-top-touring-car segment was covered by the 15/70/100, 24/100/140 and K models.

Cabriolets in all dimensions

In the years leading up to World War II, Mercedes-Benz offered a cabriolet variant for practically all of its model series. The Stuttgart 200 model was available in A, B or C format, while the Stuttgart 260 model was additionally available in Cabriolet D guise. The Mannheim model could be purchased as a Cabriolet C or D variant, while the extremely sporty two-seater Cabriolet A was offered as a 'sports cabriolet'.

Mercedes-Benz chronicler Werner Oswald highlights the aesthetics in his history of the brand: "These cars were in no way particularly fast or powerful, and getting into them when the roof was closed required acrobatic dexterity, But the lines were so captivatingly beautiful that a great many people were happily prepared to forego this and many other comforts."

Even the "large Mercedes" 770 (W 07) models were available in Cabriolet B, C, D or F guise. Then there were special versions such as the two-seater cabriolet by Auer. In the case of the 150 model series, the second version of the 770 model, Mercedes-Benz then restricted itself to the purely prestigious variants in the shape of Cabriolets D and F in the years from 1938 onwards. The latter was the most expensive version of the W 150 – with a price tag of 47,500 reichsmarks.

The cabriolet enters the era of the economic miracle

From 1936 onwards, the Stuttgart manufacturer also offered the 170 V (W 136) model as a Cabriolet A or B version, as well as a cabriolet-saloon and a roadster. No further 170 V cabriolets were produced in Sindelfingen, however, when production of this largely unchanged model recommenced after the end of World War II. This body shape had ultimately become the special version, while the saloon became the standard version.

From 1949 onwards, only the 170 S (W 136 IV) model was available in Cabriolet A or B guise. These open-top cars with a new body were the epitome of sporty, luxurious driving in the fledgling FRG. Looking back today, their elegant lines were like a sneak preview of the economic miracle of the 1950s. After just two years, however, the 170 S was superseded by the cabriolet versions of the 220 (W 187) model. Even at this time, the prestige associated with these exceptional, luxurious cars was clearly reflected in the pricing: Mercedes-‑Benz offered the saloon for 11,935 marks, while the Cabriolet B cost 15,150 marks and the fine two-seater model (Cabriolet A) was available for 18,850 marks. The classic cabriolet culture of the pre-war years returned once again when Mercedes-‑Benz introduced its new prestigious saloon – the 300 model – in 1951. This model was also available with a soft top, namely as a Cabriolet D, and it was an extremely imposing vehicle. The 300 S (W 188) model, meanwhile, was available in Coupé, Cabriolet A or Roadster format.

The cabriolet concept in the 20th century

The W 180 model series saw the Mercedes-Benz cabriolets enter a new era from 1954 onwards: the self-supporting body signalled the end of the need to offer numerous different cabriolet versions. Instead, the designers aimed to create an open-top touring car with an elegant design, able to compete with its saloon counterparts in this model series in terms of both comfort and vehicle safety.

Above all, this shift in emphasis required design measures in order to improve the stiffness of the 220 S (W 180) and 220 SE (W 128) cabriolet bodies, whose floor assembly was 120 millimetres shorter than that of their saloon counterparts. The design of the folding soft top was also new: whereas the first post-war cabriolet versions of the 170 S, 220, 300 and 300 S models still had the typical, exterior landau bars, the Cabriolet A/C unveiled at the 1955 International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt am Main featured a soft top with a smooth exterior; it was designed to cover two body variants, hence the designation A/C. On the outside, the cabriolet roof therefore looked similar to the roadster roof. The once so clear distinction between the two body types still existed to an extent, but the two variants were growing closer together.

Luxury cabriolets

The cabriolet's position as an exclusive body form was further underlined when Mercedes-‑Benz introduced the 111 and 112 model series between 1961 and 1971: the 220 SEb and 300 SE models were based on the coupé body and generated huge excitement with their interpretation of a luxury cabriolet. The lines of this open-top model, a precursor to the S-‑Class, were such a success that the cabriolets continued to be built on the basis of the W 111 and W 112, even after the launch of the W 108 model series.

In this ten-year production period, Mercedes-Benz offered five different cabriolet models in these model series – 220 SEb, 250 SE, 300 SE, 280 SE and 280 SE 3.5 – with a total of 7013 of these five cabriolet models being built in Sindelfingen during this time. Initially, there was no luxury open-top model to follow this generation in the Mercedes-Benz line-up. Rather, it was the new SL – the 107 model series – which came to represent the culture of open-top driving for the Stuttgart manufacturer from 1971 onwards.

The classic fabric soft top lives on

The next classic cabriolet did not appear until September 1991 – after an intermission of some 20 years – when an open-top four-seater based on the coupé from the 124 model series was launched. As well as having to be reinforced for the open-top version, the original coupé body also featured a complex series of design measures to enhance protection against vibrations.

The result was a classic cabriolet in the best sense of the word, which succeeded in appealing to a new audience outside of the target group for the open-top SL‑sports car. The A 124 model series has long been in demand among enthusiasts of more recent classic cars. The tradition of this E-Class‑Cabriolet continued after production of the 124 model series ceased, in the shape of the open-top versions of the CLK-Class – the A 208 (1998 to 2003) and the A 209 (2003 to 2009).

Copyright © 2010, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.

The current crisis of the British state, politics and democracy should be a golden moment for radicals, constitutional reformers and campaigners. It should also be an era in which left and liberal publications have the opportunity to engage and involve a wider audience about the state of the nation and democracy.

One of those publications is the ‘London Review of Books’, which sees itself as urbane, cosmopolitan, liberal minded, addressing British concerns and global issues in a challenging and open-minded way. In particular, LRB has made a name for itself addressing such issues as the nature of the Israeli state and power of the Israel lobby, which most mainstream media would not touch. It is all the more interesting that the one area in which it has consistently failed to find an authentic radical voice is in its coverage of contemporary British politics.

LRB’s coverage of British politics often entails what are presented as thoughtful essays by Ross McKibbon, but there is always something missing in them, a lack of forensic detail, or more acutely, what case the analysis presented is meant to be building towards. Most pieces on Britain feel like a liberal dinner table conversation of the sort you would find parodied on ‘Bremner, Bird and Fortune’.

Then along comes a piece which excels in going well beyond this bar in missing the main arguments. So it is with Peter Mair’s ‘The Parliamentary Peloton’, a supposed review of Martin Bell’s ‘A Very British Revolution’. Mair is an Irish-born academic who works in Florence, Italy, who uses some of his European wide experience to tell us that while everything is not all well in the British body politic, it is in reality a comparative fuss over nothing.

We get a mini-Oliver James like short tour of Mair’s globetrotting speaking to students and ear wigging conversations. He draws on the work of Transparency International, putting in its latest rankings New Zealand first in the world, Denmark second and Singapore third. After acknowledging that scandals can be found even in ‘a model of good governance’ such as the Netherlands (no. 6 in the ratings), Mair writes:

By most standards, the levels of corruption exposed by the expenses scandal in the UK (in joint 17th place, with Japan) are relatively modest.

Mair leaves untouched that the UK along with Norway has fallen down its rankings in recent years, and that the Transparency International Index is only one measurement, and a narrow one addressing ‘perceived levels of public sector corruption’. Nor does he acknowledge wider measures such as the Democracy Index, in which the UK and US have fallen due to enacting legislation and regulation associated with ‘the war on terror’.

In the space of two sentences Mair writes of MPs that, ‘Nor is the job very well paid’ and then concedes that with expenses and allowances, ‘MPs fare among the top earners in the country’. Mair’s sentiment is in the first point, as he parades a number of examples to show how relatively ungenerous our parliamentary remuneration is, and then states about MPs:

… since they spend most of their time mixing with the great and the good, and with ministers, financiers, journalists and TV personalities, all of whom earn substantially more than they do, it is easy to understand their sense of relative deprivation.

This is special pleading for an elite by establishing normative values elite by elite, the doggy, disastrous thinking which has got the UK and the world in the economic mess it is in. This thinking is always about the super-remunerated examples in each group as in the telling phrase, ‘all of whom earn substantially more’, thus making a general case out of the examples of a tiny group of journalists, TV personalities, etc.

While we can acknowledge the lack of ‘secure’ employment for some MPs, most British parliamentary seats never change hands, and our politicians have much more security than many of their constituents. Mair never mentions that the mean wage in Britain is a mere £23,000, one-third of MP pay.

He talks with a shade of wistfulness of a ‘distant past’ when ‘the profession of politics and MPs had more status and the salary had more purchasing power’. He quotes from research showing that post-war Conservative MPs accumulated more wealth from outside interests than Labour ones; surely a case of academic research on the ‘bloody obvious’.

This is a build up to Mair’s take on the expenses scandal, which he introduces by acknowledging that some of the financial figures involved are quite large, but then goes on to say about the disgraced politicians of this sorry episode:

… the long term cost of losing office will in most cases outweigh any short-term gains.

He then uses examples from the previous age of Tory sleaze, Neil Hamilton who gained £10,000 from Mobil and a week at the Paris Ritz, and Tim Smith, who received payments of between £18,000 and £23,000 from al-Fayed, and as a result of their short-term greed, lost their parliamentary careers, status and monies. I am not sure what point Mair is trying to make here. Parliamentary corruption clearly isn’t always an objective, dispassionate accounting equation, and if the MPs had got away with it they would have kept all their parliamentary rights and pocketed the extra monies.

Then comes Mair’s clarion call on the above:

In this sense, and for all Bell’s righteous anger, British MPs seem relatively uncorrupt.

Ecclestone and cash for honours are recognised as serious and then comes the qualification:

But these cases are few and far between, and it is easy to find more serious instances of corruption and electoral manipulation in Europe.

Mair brings out the example of Italy and the ad personam laws used to protect Berlusconi from prosecution, and the rise of a partisan, rotten political system and a populist, manipulated democracy. This is a strange kind of analysis, which excuses the inadequacies and fraudulent character of the British system by citing the most flawed state and politics in Western Europe. And of course, there are similarities between Berlusconi’s ‘vision’ and that of the Blairites.

It was no accident that Tony and Silvio were best buddies, and they both saw their political parties and systems as vehicles for their advancement and placing their nations at the forefront of a new age of accumulation, inequality and pro-Americanism. Paradoxically, while Berlusconi seems the more objectionable, reactionary figure, he has had only limited impact in much of Italian domestic politics, whereas Blair and Brown, comprehensively recast British politics and in particular, the Labour Party (and through its success the Cameroon Conservatives).

There is another interesting passage in this piece when Mair writes:

The UK has generously provisioned local parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Apart from the terminology of ‘local parliaments’ when we have one Parliament and two Assemblies, there is the phrase ‘generously provisioned’ which shows little understanding of devolution. Little powers have been transferred from Westminster to the devolved bodies – the ending of direct rule apart. Scottish and Welsh devolution gave a democratic scrutiny to powers that were already devolved.

What is missing in Mair’s extended essay is any recognition or understanding of the transformation Britain has underwent in the last thirty years. Nowhere in this essay of several thousand words, does Mair pause and address how and what the British state has become and how a political order which was known for its gentlemanly clubland rules with all the pros and cons that implies, has become a vanguard of the new establishment and class.

Mair does note the hollowing out of our political parties, and the professionalisation and privatisation of many of their activities. Yet, this is never put in the wider context, of what our politics has become about, what the realm of the possible has evolved into, and how the values, codes and behaviour of politicians, civil service and Westminster have become corrupted.

The expenses crisis in the UK, which Mair so belittles and diminishes, has to be placed in the context of the economic transformation of Britain, with rights, benefits and supports to millions of people withdrawn, made conditional, or cut, while parliamentarians created a self-protection system for themselves. While they diminished and made more punitive the welfare state, in secret, they built and allocated the funds for their own private parallel system of support; this isn’t that far from the actions of a nomenclature in a dictatorship or authoritarian regime.

The role of politicians, civil servants and the Westminster village has been changed by the Thatcher and Blair eras. Once upon a time politicians took great pride from the fact that they never stole from the state and had an air of being above being bought. Civil servants had a code of behaviour which while stuffy, ossifying and resistant to new ideas or groups, did give Britain a culture of statecraft.

The new political environment has changed all of this for good. Politicians are commodities just like everything else in life. The civil service is now filled with new entrants from the corporate world at a senior level and the last decade has seen the heart of government including No. 10 filled with people from Accenture and McKinsey. There is now a lack of continuity in senior posts with only 23% of senior civil servants having been in their posts for four years or more, with an average time in post of only 2.9 years, resulting in a ‘limited remembrance’ of the past and ‘hazy organisational memory’.

This leads to a situation Steve Robson, then a Treasury official, who had guided through British Rail and London Underground privatisation, in evidence to the House of Commons Public Administration Committee commented:

… the public sector ethos is a bit of a fantasy, it is rather like middle-aged men, who fantasise that beautiful, young women find them very attractive. (Anthony Sampson, Who Runs this Place? An Anatomy of Britain in the 21st Century, John Murray 2004, p. 120)

Surprisingly when he left government, Robson like many of the new mandarins found himself a pile of lucrative corporate directorships including Royal Bank of Scotland and JP Morgan; Andrew Turnbull, Head of the Civil Service before Gus O’Donnell took up directorships with the Arup Group and Prudential along with paid advice work with Booz and Co.

This new culture is shaped by money, deals, status and not surprisingly corruption and manipulation of the democratic process. From cash for honours, to Lord Ashcroft’s role in the Conservatives while his tax status is unclear, BAE Systems and the Saudi connections, the disastrous story of PFI/PPP and the debts it will inflict on us for decades to come, the British state and polity now operates in the interests of the globalising class, its networks and apologists. No political force in the British Parliament sits and speaks outside this consensus, and gives voice to a different set of values.

It is a shame that Peter Mair didn’t get any of this, instead spending three pages of the ‘London Review of Books’ to tell us that the UK isn’t as bad as Italy, and that Martin Bell and others worried and anxious about the state of democracy, need not get so animated. That’s hardly a message worthy of a journal that sees its mission as enlightenment, education and aiding an informed, active citizenry. There surely never has been a better time to get angry, whether you are in Britain, Italy or elsewhere.

oD-wide classification

Topics: 

Democracy and government

I am suffering a thought crime. I am paying for democracy to be beamed to me and I know it is distorted.

“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget...”

We are told that the whole of Great Britain is in fervour at the prospect of Nick Clegg finally being given the platform he deserves. I don’t know anyone who could pick him out of a line-up. The three 90-minute debates, featuring Brown, Cameron and Clegg, will begin by focusing on domestic policies, international affairs and the economy. They will be recorded in England and broadcast throughout the UK. This is a serious distortion of our understanding of process, politics. As Isobel Lindsay writes in the Herald today: “Will we get guarantees from the broadcasting companies that every question asked will make it clear whether it is relevant to England only?” We will surely not get this.

She continues: “Any discussion of education, the health service, social care, crime and punishment, planning, the arts, agriculture, most environmental, energy, housing and transport policies will have no relevance to Scotland or, for the most part, to Wales or Northern Ireland. So we are going to be presented in at least one of these debates with a crude English-centred perspective which will be seriously misleading unless it is made explicit on each question whether Westminster has any competence in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.”

The Guardian reported: “The first programme, to be presented by ITN's Alistair Stewart, will cover domestic affairs and come from the north-west.” Assynt?  “The second show, presented by Sky's Adam Boulton, will cover foreign affairs and come from the south-west.” Kirkudbright? No.

Yesterday the SNP said it was unacceptable for the licence fee-funded BBC to exclude Scotland's most popular political party from the leader debates.

"This is a matter of basic fairness in the run up to a general election and the BBC has decided to give an hour-and-a-half of exposure to the leaders of the three UK political parties each in the run up to the election - and has made not a single proposal to give balance to the SNP in the run-up to polling day," he continued.

What is a fundamental issue of democracy is being presented as a technical issue of media management. ITN's Alistair Stewart, Sky's Adam Boulton, and the BBC's David Dimbleby, are the vanguards of UK democracy. The tortuously negotiated agreement states: "There will be no close-up cutaways of a single individual audience member while the leaders are speaking. However if [a] leader directly addresses an individual audience member, a close-up shot of that individual can be shown."

So what’s wrong with this?

It's not that it substantially shift the general public's perception of the various parties status at the next general election. Nor that it orients the entire sorry edifice of Westminster as essentially an English parliament and an English election. Nor is it essentially a matter of licence-fee fraud, we are used to paying the same as everyone else in the UK and getting an anglicised world beamed back to us.

No, the exclusion of Alex Salmond is really about re-packaging parliamentary politics as a presidential race. Here three titans of public realm will battle it out, the charisma of Brown pitted against the authenticity of Cameron, that is if either of them can manage to shield themselves against the oratorical whirlwind that is Nick Clegg when he gets going. Really. Please.

Three carefully groomed Unionist politicians will contrive to disagree about some petty details while all will be terminally agreed about all basic fiscal, constitutional, and environmental issues. The constitution has been excluded from the debate.

There will be some quibbling about social policy, with individuals clambering over each other slavishly to be seen to be 'tougher on crime' or more right-wing on immigration or pandering to whatever wheeze the tabloids have dreamt up that week. It will not motivate people to vote. There will be no Obama effect. We are told that the audience are not allowed to make a noise, this is no 'town hall meet' to continue the disgraceful Americanisation of our political culture. We know now that these people will walk on stage with the script of safety first embedded in their heads.

Labour and Tory apologists for this televisual gerrymandering have been bleating about how the SNP are a tiny party in UK terms. Former Scotland office minister David Cairns dismissed the issue saying: "In the UK parliament, which has got 650 seats, the SNP hold seven. In the UK parliament, the SNP are a fringe, minority party." The problem is that if Scotland is considered unimportant to Westminster then Westminster will become unimportant to Scotland.

As if criteria for media inclusion can be made up on a whim and isn’t enshrined in law. So what else could they have done? Is it all so hopelessly complex?

There are two problems: 1) this is a UK General Election - why should Giles in the Cotswolds have to listen to Alex carping about Calman? And Alex, as is pointed out ad nauseam, isn’t running for Westminster. 2) While it’s a two party contest in England (the Liberals are tagged on to this for a laugh) it’s a four party (if you’re feeling very generous) system in Scotland. So, what to do?

They could have just had the three ‘main’ parties plus the governing parties of the devolved assemblies, parliaments, so that would have included the DUP, Sinn Fein, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Fein. This is intolerable as it would be a tacit admission if what has happened and what is happening: change. The brutal truth is that all of these polished immaculate inert professional politicians are running on a change ticket. Brown is running that he is changing, and can cope with the change of the collapse of western capitalist economies better than most, largely because he wrote the cheques that brought it about. Cameron is running on the ticket that he – as an Etonian thoroughbred – is the heir to Blair’s classless society. Clegg is running on – God, I have no idea what Clegg is running on. No doubt it has something to do with PR. I’m sure it’s all very sensible. The problem is it’s presented as all very reasonable and of course there was no other option. But this is Orwellian and our acquiescence and mute deference in it all is worrying. Nobody cares. The media in Scotland, mired in unacknowledged and short-sighted prejudice see this purely as an SNP issue.

Lets assume that actually acknowledging devolution is not an option, and the simple formula of going round the 'Nations and Regions' (sic) is an intolerable affront to the British establishment of the BBC, Sky, and the Unionist political media managers.

Here's a less threatening option that would have better served democracy.

They could have had two debates in England (London and Manchester, Newcastle or Liverpool), then one in Northern Ireland, one in Cardiff and one in Edinburgh. They could have included each of the leaders of the governing parties, plus the other players in England - presumably Caroline Lucas, Nigel Farage and Nick Griffin.

Alternatively - the obvious compromise on this issue is that the proposed debate on domestic policy questions is only shown in England.

There are other criteria the BBC have used about representation, such as: offer space to political parties who are contesting every seat, or who have over a certain percentage of the popular vote. The case is dismissed on three flimsy arguments. Firstly that Salmond is not running for Westminster. No but his party is, and Angus Robertson could stand. Secondly, that the SNP have no chance of forming a govt. No, but neither do the Liberal Democrats. Thirdly, that the SNP are a tiny marginal force when taken in UK terms. True but the Tories are a tiny and marginal force in Scottish terms. They have one MP in Scotland and may have none in two months time.    

The entire affair is dressed up as if it's some sort of psephologist's wet dream, a weird constitutional conundrum. It's not, it's called democracy and it's about representing fairly the options open to people. If the SNP don't sue I think the wider independence movement should consider a mass boycott of the licence fee in protest.

No television without representation.

oD-wide classification

Country: 

Scotland

Lincoln Child Center enables vulnerable and emotionally troubled children and their families to lead independent and fulfilling lives.


The Quality Improvement/Assurance Assistant has primary responsibility for maintenance of client records for Lincoln’s Residential and Day Treatment programs; may be required to support other QA staff with TBS and ALC-BOA programs. Such responsibility includes, but is not limited to clerical duties, data entry and assisting the QA Analyst with Utilization Review coordination, staff training in documentation and database use. Additionally the QI/QA Assistant tracks, faxes and mails copies of Incident Reports and JV220s to external stakeholders.


Qualifications:



· Demonstrated awareness of, sensitivity to, and competence in dealing with cultural and socioeconomic diversity of client and employee population

· Excellent organizational skills with an emphasis on detailed work

· Excellent office skills including use of faxes, copiers, email

· Excellent computer skills, including database use/management and proficiency in Microsoft Office applications

· Good oral and written communication skills

· Experience performing quality assurance functions

· Strong interpersonal skills

· Two years college education or equivalent education/training/experience

· Valid California driver’s license, a clear driving record and personal vehicle insurance coverage


Essential Duties and Responsibilities:


· Monitors case records for compliance with regulatory, statutory, and contracting requirements and standards. (Medi-Cal, CCL, Mental Health, etc.)

· Participates in the clinical record audit processes, which ensure that documentation, authorizations, and consents are current and accurate

· Responsible for data entry into the internal data collection systems

· Files all paperwork in each client record in an accurate and timely fashion

· Participates in the clinical record audit processes, which ensure that documentation, authorizations, and consents are current and accurate

· Ensure that internal and external stakeholders are notified daily of Incident Reports which includes copying, faxing and mailing

· Maintain active and closed client records, fulfill outside records requests

· Work effectively and as a team member with all QI and QA personnel

· Performs other duties as assigned


Classification: Non-bargaining unit, Non-Exempt, Full-time, Benefited

Compensation: Commensurate with background and experience


Benefits: Competitive benefits package is available


Contact info: Please submit resumes with SALARY EXPECTATIONS AND COVER LETTER to lccjobs@lincolncc.org or fax: 510.531.0258. Resumes without salary expectations and cover letters will not be considered. ABSOLUTELY NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE!!

Lincoln Child Center is an EOE

m/f/v/d

This week we are reporting from RSA, the security conference in San Francisco. We've seen hackers, threats, and industry leaders roaming these halls - and among these we found leaders of the identity community, people who are thought leaders focused on creating a safe Internet for all individuals.

This includes folks who in the Identity Commons and OASIS workgroups, and the 1-year-old Kantara Initiative. The latter was announced to the public at RSA 2009, and this year it hosted an all-day workshop that brought cloud computing into the forefront of the dialog.

Sponsor

Diverse Community of Interests Coming Together

Today's all-day workshop offered by the Kantara Initiative focused almost exclusively on identity services and included viewpoints from several perspectives: enterprises (CA, Ping Identity, Aetna, Oracle, HP), service providers (NTT), consumer applications (Paypal, Google), and government agencies (NIH).

The room was packed - standing room only. After the kickoff we had a chance to ask Trent Adams, chair of the Kantara leadership council, to share his thoughts about identity, cloud computing and year one of the new organization.

He talked about the potential big win that existed for the organization because of its involvment in preparing standards for federal government approval. These are in historic times, he said, and embracing openness at the federal level was an opportunity the organization decided was valuable for the community. We're keeping our ears open to learn more about how identity services will be enabled and approved through the government.

Landscape Change: Cloud Computing Invigorates Identity Efforts

One thing that is clear is that things get more complicated when combining identity services with cloud computing. We were reminded that many of the technologies that have been developed, including things like OpenID and SAML were designed around the same scenarios of sharing across domains. Identity can be solved in a multi-vendor, multi-protocol, and multiple-infrastructure world.

Matthew Gardiner of CA summed the importance of the link between identity solutions and cloud computing in his talk, "Identity as Security Glue for the Cloud":

"I want to say the phrase cloud security in the first few moments of my talk because you'll be hearing it a thousand times before the end of the conference. Cloud security can be viewed as a Rubik's cube of security implications, when identity services and combining them within the vectors of Iaas, PaaS, and SasS combined with private, public, and hybrid clouds."

The West Coast Perspective on Health Care

RSA and HIMSS fall on the same week this year. While nearly all of the healthcare IT leadership headed to Atlanta, several companies also came to San Francisco.

Yesterday, MEDecision presented their solution and connections to different Web applications and health care records and systems, and gave a very tangible set of scenarios showing how cloud computing and identity meet around sharing information about a person who is a patient.

At the same time on the East Cost, MEDecision was also at HIMSS demonstrating open exchange of health information in a HIE product offering that helps connect services across providers in order to aggregate a view of an individual. The company offers software and services to insurers to negotiate their cloud-based work flow, including moving private data across pharmacy, doctors, insurers, and the entire health care landscape.

No Passwords in the Cloud

Patrick Waring of Ping Identity spoke about his company has learn about cloud computing in this session, "How the Cloud is Changing Federated Identity Requirements". A few of his observations:

• Software is no longer build vs. buy. It now includes subscribe, which by definition is a shorter term relationship.
• Cloud computing is an evolution of architecture. It arrives after Web services, which evolved from Web, client server, and mainframe.
• Complexity of the identity layer is harder than ever for the simple reason that there are more apps per user than ever before.
• Services are becoming any-to-any, where internal (employee) and external (customer) classifications don't matter nearly as much as before. Because of this firewalls are losing their usefulness.
• Audit is no longer an afterthought. Auditors don't care how or where applications hosted, but hey do need their reports! This includes Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, Gramm-Leach, Bliley, and more.

A core theme of this session was how the consumer mindset is driving requirements for application experience. Consumers expect it to work on any device, be secure, and be portable. To deliver on this, it must be easy to use. At the same time, password risk must be reduced.

A key trend that Waring pointed out is moving identity systems from "push" models into "pull" models. Instead of updating partners and directories by batch services, companies need to be building real-time identity resolution in applications.

We asked Waring if he had any predictions for where that type of service will come from. His response led us to the conclusion that the leader will be a brand and service that people trust and understand the motivations of. It will likely enter the market from a higher realm of credentials than Twitter or Facebook - perhaps from financial services.

Context is Fundamental: Person, Father, Employee, All of the Above

One thing we learned today is that Google's App Engine is worth watching as this space evolves. Several interesting things are being done in this sandbox that haven't been accomplished other places, including how to connect consumer services to enterprise login discovery using domain.

Google has inserted itself into the sweet spot by getting consumers and enterprises alike hooked on their applications, giving the company a unique view of the challenges and solutions in joining identity with cloud computing. We'll be taking a closer look at these offerings and where Google is headed.

Another thing we observed is the power of the network. NTT gave a demonstration of the power of mixing identity protocols (SAML and OpenID) for the purpose of connecting social, information, and financial transactions in the browser with one login. It starts to show how the next generation Internet might work, where the application requests profile from the cloud rather than a user typing it in.

A summary of overlapping-world-multi-protocol integration has been shared on Google's site.

Discuss

Posted by randfish

We've been getting a lot of questions in Q+A and on the road at events like last week's Miva Merchant conference, Online Marketing Summit and the YCombinator conference about how to properly paginate results for search engines. In this post, we'll cover the dangers, opportunities and optimization tactics that can best ensure success. The best part? These practices aren't just good for SEO, they're great for usability and user experience too!

Why is Pagination an SEO Issue?

Pagination, the practice of segmenting links to content on multiple pages, affects two critical elements of search engine accessibility.

• Crawl Depth: Best practices demand that the search engine spiders reach content-rich pages in as few "clicks" as possible (turns out, users like this, too). This also impacts calculations like Google's PageRank (or Bing's StaticRank), which determine the raw popularity of a URL and are an element of the overall algorithmic ranking system.
• Duplicate Content: Search engines take duplication very seriously and attempt to show only a single URL that contains any given piece of content. When pagination is implemented improperly, it can cause duplicate content problems, both for individual articles and the landing pages that allow browsing access to them.

When is Pagination Necessary?

When a site grows beyond a few dozen pages of content in a specific category or subcategory, listing all of the links on a single page of results can make for unwieldly, hard-to-use pages that seem to scroll indefinitely (and can cause long load times as well).

Clearly, I need to log into Facebook more often...

But, usability isn't the only reason pagination exists. For many years, Google's recommended that pages contain no more than 100 links (internal or external) in order to make it easy for spiders to reach down deep into a site's architecture. Many SEOs have found that this "limit" isn't hard and fast, but staying within that general range remains a best practice. Hence, pages that contain many hundreds or thousands of links may inadvertently be hurting the access of search engines to the content-rich pages in the list making pagination essential.

Numbers of Links & Pages

We know that sometimes pagination is essential - one page of results just doesn't cut it in every situation. But just how many links to content should the average category/results page show? And how many pages of results should display in the pagination?

There are a lot of options here, but there's serious danger in using the wrong structures. Let's take a look at the right (and wrong) ways to determine link numbers.

In some cases, there's simply too many pages of results to list them all. When this happens, the very best thing you can do is to work around the problem by... creating more subcategories! It may seem challenging or even counter-intuitive, but adding either an extra layer of classification or a greater number of subcategories can have a dramatically positive impact on both SEO and usability.

There are times, however, when even the creation of many deep subcategories isn't enough. If your site is big enough, you may need to have extensive pagination such that not every page of results can be reached in once click. In these cases, there are a few clear dos and don'ts.

Do:

• Try to link to as many pages of the pagination structure as possible without breaking the 100(ish) links per page limit
• Show newer content at the top of the results list when possible, as this means the most link juice will flow to newer articles that need it (and are temporally relevant)
• Use and link to relevant/related categories & subcategories to help keep link juice flowing throughout the site
• Link back to the top results from each of the paginated URLs

Don't:

• Show only a few surrounding paginated links from paginated URLs - you want the engines to be able to crawl deeper from inside the structure
• Link to only the pages at the front and end of the paginated listings; this will flow all the juice to the start and end of results, ingoring the middle
• Try to randomize the paginated results shown in an effort to distribute link juice; you want a static site architecture the engines can crawl
• Try to use AJAX to get deeper in the results sets - engines follow small snippets of Javascript (sometimes), but they're not at a point where this is an SEO best practice
• Go over the top trying to get every paginated result linked-to, as this can appear both spammy and unusably ugly

When in doubt, consider the directives you're optimizing toward - the need for fewer extra pages of pagination, the desire to make the browsing experience usable (many webmasters mistakenly think users will simply give up and search, forgetting that some of us can't recall the name of the piece we're looking for!) and the importance of maintaining a reasonable count of links per page. Also note that although I've illustrated using 5-10 listings (for graphical space requirements), a normal listings set could be 30-90 links per page, depending on the situation.

Titles & Meta Descriptions for Paginated Results

In most cases, the title and meta description of paginated results are copied from the top page. This isn't ideal, as it can potentially cause duplicate content issues. Instead, you can employ a number of tactics to help solve the problem.

Example of results page titles & descriptions:

Top Page Title: Theatres & Playhouses in Princeton, New Jersey
Top Page Meta Description: Listings of 368 theatres, playhouses and performance venues in the Princeton, NJ region (including surrounding cities).

Page 4 Title: Page 4 of 7 for Princeton, New Jersey Theatres & Playhouses
Page 4 Meta Description: Listings 201-250 (out of 368) theatres, playhouses and performance venues in the Princeton, NJ region (inclusing surrounding cities).

Alternate Page 4 Title: Results Page 4/7 for Princeton, New Jersey Theatres & Playhouses
Alternate Page 4: Description: -

Yes, you can use no meta description at all, and in fact, if I were setting up a CMS today, this is how I'd do it. A missing meta description reduces complexity and potential mis-casting of URLs as duplicates. Also notce that I've made the titles on results pages sub-optimal to help dissuade the engines from sending traffic to these URLs, rather than the top page (which is made to be the better "landing" experience for users).

Nofollows. Rel=Canonicals and Conditional Redirects

Some SEOs and website owners have, unfortunately, received or interpreted advice incorrectly about employing directives like the nofollow tag, canonical URL tag or even conditional redirects to help control bot activity in relation to pagination. These are almost always a bad idea.

Whatever you do, DO NOT:

• Put a rel=canonical directive on paginated results pointing back to the top page in an attempt to flow link juice to that URL. You'll either misdirect the engines into thinking you have only a single page of results or convince them that your directives aren't worth following (as they find clearly unique content on those pages).
• Add nofollow to the paginated links on the results pages. This tells the engines not to flow link juice/votes/authority down into the results pages that desperately need those votes to help them get indexed and pass value to the deeper pages.
• Create a conditional redirect so that when search engines request paginated results, they 301 redirect or meta refresh back to the top page of results.

The only time I recommend using any of these is when pagination exists in multiple formats. For example, if you let users re-sort by a number of different metrics (in a restaurant list, for example, it might be by star rating, distance, name, price, etc.), you may want to either perform this re-sort using javascript (and employ the hash tag in the URL) or make those separately segmented paginated results rel=canonical back to a single sorting format.

Letting Users Display More/Less Results

From a usability perspective, this can make good sense, allowing users with faster connections or a greater desire to browse large numbers of results at once to achieve these goals. However, it can cause big duplicate problems for search engines, and add complexity and useless pages to the engines' indices. If/when you create these systems, employ javascript/AJAX (either with or without the hash tag) to make the pages reload without creating a separate URL.

(the Google Analytics interface allows users to choose the number of rows shown, though they don't have to worry much about crawlability or search-friendliness)

Also remember that the "default" number of results shown is what the search engines will see; so make that count match your goals for usability and SEO.

Additional Resources

• A Gallery of Pagination Examples and Recommendations from Smashing Magazine
• A Farewell to Pagination from SEOmoz's Whiteboard Friday series
• The SEO Pager Plugin for Wordpress is a highly customizable set of options that allows you to create search-engine friendly pagination in Wordpress's CMS from SEO Egghead

If you have any thoughts or recommendations to share in the comments, we'd love to hear from you!

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Colin McGuire’s collection of poems and prose pieces, Riddled with Errors, is exactly the kind of book I would have expected him to produce. I’ve been following his blog, Notes from a Glaswegian Immaturity, for some time and I have become quite taken with his no frills approach to writing. It’s a very Glaswegian attitude. We expect people to take us as they find us even if they happen to find us lying in the gutter staring at the stars (to misquote Wilde).

These are Scottish poems both in attitude and language. A number of them use colloquialisms and slang expressions along with non-standard spellings of English words. Without a doubt non-Scots will struggle with some of his expressions. The same goes for the aggressive language. The first poem I read by McGuire, and one that’s included in this collection, was this one:

Pancakes

‘Yir a wee puke'

That's whit ma Granny
used to say tae me.

'Yir a wee puke'

And, ah think whit she meant was,
ah was a wee bit soft in the heed,
a wee bit sensitive and dependant,
a mammies boy like, daft wae it tae.

'Yir mammy and daddy,
see only the Angel's Halo
above your heed, Boy.'

She didn't mean it nasty.
Maybe she was a bit jealous.
Bit she meant it in a way
that was just a wee observation.

'That boy, he's as saft
as a Caramel Sundae.'

Ma gran used to make
pancakes every Saturday.
A large tray of them,
and ah wid watch her make
the mix up, wae eggs
and flour and sugar,
then she'd spoon some out
and pour it ontae the hot pan,
in a wee cirlce it wid form,
and it wid cook,
then she wid flip it over
and it would be all golden broon.
And she'd do that and make about 30
pancakes, fir the whole family
to eat wae thur tea or coffee.

And ah wid just stand beside her,
and watch the pancakes being made.
And ah wid smell them like a wee prayer.
The sweet baked smell clung tae my 
nostrils.

And ah loved that,
watching her make the pancakes,
wee circular pancakes,
wee, saft halos
that we all ate.

Whose grandmother calls their grandson “a wee puke”? Well this one and I dare say if this wasn’t McGuire’s own grandmother it was one he knew. Expressions like this need to be taken with a pinch of salt. It’s not the words you need to pay attention to; it’s the tone and the context. So, on an initial read it’ll be quite possible to misunderstand what McGuire is getting at but once you know what’s coming that shouldn’t be such a problem.

I love the way the characters come to life instantaneously. All we need is that first line and to know who is speaking and she leaps fully formed off the page. I can picture her in her pinny, probably a wee, small woman with her sleeves rolled up and a “face like a badger’s bum” as Billy Connolly might well put it. But she’s still your granny. It’s an evocative piece. I especially like how he describes the pancakes – “saft halos” (soft halos) – and that says everything. The fact is all we’re talking about is some fried batter but as my American cousins rightly know it’s not just an emulsion of flour, egg, leavening, milk, oil, salt and sugar.

The language is rough. At times it can even appear like a foreign language as this excerpt from one of the prose pieces aptly demonstrates:

from Albion Street

A ran like fuck, sprintin back doon Alba Street, away hame. Leaving them aw behind. Couple ay thum chased us fir a bit, shouting, but my adrenlin was pumpin - a bolted faster than a dug. They burds will probly go away with the big cunts, and probly went tae the park. Pricks! Fuckin useless.

I went on hame tae build a few joints and watch the tele, which wiz pish, but I couldnay be fucked going tae Jo-Jo's now. Fuck getting hassled. They probably hink am a shite bag. But fuck thum. I fuckin HATE Glasga! It's filled wae fuckin drunks mentals jakies, and nae cunt gives a fuck aboot anycunt. A get hame, slamm the fuckin door, an jump intae ma room. i was out of breath and red in the face. i sat down and took a wee breather, clapst on ma bed, and started tae txt jo-jo and build a healthy joint, ma ma and da wir oot so i could smoke it in ma room as well. i txt jojo: 'cannae come round yet, go huckled by crowd a' fuckin’ luneballs. txt yee latur.' and a lay back and sparked up the joint, took a few meaty draws and relaxed bak intae the covers, and just as ah wiz smoking, ma big bra came intae the room, he wiz fucken rubbered oot his nut to, and he asks:

'uryegauntaethegemmewayusthemorra, Aldo?'

'Aye...' I says. 'Aye...amgauntaethegemmethemorra.'

And a lay back, let out a big exhale of smoke, relaxed man.

Having lived all of my life in Scotland I can attest to the accuracy of the language. The big problem is that although Scottish dictionaries exist in many cases there is no definitive spelling. Take the first person pronoun ‘I’. In this piece sometimes it’s represented by ‘a’ and other times by ‘ah’ or ‘I’. Sometimes the letter ‘g’ is dropped from present participles but not always. Sometimes he says ‘was’ but mostly it’s ‘wiz’ and so on. You could argue that this is just sloppy editing but since most of the spellings are phonetic the simple fact is that a single word can have several pronunciations and the more heated people get the more variety you’ll find. Personally I aim to be consistent and not try and reproduce the sounds too precisely. McGuire’s writing style at times tends to veer towards that of Irvine Welsh as opposed to James Kelman and will make life very hard for non-Scots.

This is where a poem like ‘Pancakes’ wins over ‘Albion Street’ because it only strives to evoke and not replicate. Thankfully not all of McGuire’s poetry requires a Ph.D in Scotticisms to get. For some a working knowledge of English will do just fine:

Wooden Chairs

God,
I've been sitting on this chair for ages:
simple egg in a cup.
But chairs grow uncomfortable
rigid, un-bendable and suddenly
a large duvet would do,
or several large friendly pillows.

Wooden chairs do not attend funerals
but they should,
they are stern watchers
objective
stony men
stalwart,
sitting there,
carrying us
laughably upon
their frames.

But what does a chair want
with the luxury of
our grief?

Scotsmen die. Englishmen die. Men die the world over. And women. And children, cats, dogs, budgies. And for every one of them that dies there’s someone left to mourn their loss. And mourning doesn’t finish when the funeral service ends or when the coffin is lowered into the grave. Mourning happens unexpectedly, inconveniently, in the midst of eating a boiled egg even. Whereas the two previous examples of McGuire’s writing lean heavily on the personalities of the narrator and those being described this poem could have anyone doing the talking which makes it so much easier for the reader to insert him or herself into the narrative.

I have a particular fondness for poems about poetry. It’s a question that all young poets have to come up against eventually especially when we look at what we’ve just written and know we’re no Auden or Pound or Eliot. Are we really a poet or is this just self-indulgent crap we need to get out of our systems before we get on with our lives? Nowhere in the collection is this position expressed more clearly than in this poem:

from Commander Poetry

Commander Poetry marches around the squad hall,
sternly lecturing all the amateur soldiers in the discipline
of form and convention, the rigorous of the Sonnet, The Ode,
Triolet, Villanelle, War Epic, Paradelle and many more.

Commander Poetry slanders the troops into submission,
determined to educate them, rescue them from formless verse
Bring them to their senses; tune the ear to the metric line,
Train with the utmost vigour of skill and tool required,
but they are despondent, lethargic, and sloppy,
they don't want to hear a word of it.
They simply want to pick up their neurotic pens pencils
and create large spontaneous scribbles, write dodgy whim,
Lines that don’t come through, a few poles short, of some scaffolding.

If there’s one thing a true poet needs to be able to do is see himself for what he is, warts and all. McGuire knows he’s no Eliot but doesn’t pretend to be anything else. I think that’s one reason why writing in dialect matters. It puts truth in the mouth of the man in the street. Tom Leonard was doing this years ago – most famously with ‘The Six O’Clock News’ – but you don’t need qualifications to be able to articulate the truth.

All writers are driven to answer a single question: What if? Even non-fiction writers have to struggle to be objective and most of the time they have to pass comment on what they see and wonder if things could have been different. I think one of the most delightful what ifs in the collection is the opening to this poem:

The Poems Gather

In a spacious auditorium
one quiet Wednesday evening
some poems have gathered
to discuss each other

[...]

One poem is not a poem,
sits awkwardly on the floor,
all messy odd all over the place;
rather self-conscious and neurotic,
Probably left-wing...

Which bring us to politics – and sex actually. I’m one of those who holds the opinion that there’s nothing that you can’t joke about and there’s nothing you can’t write a poem about. Personally I write very little about sex and next-to-nothing about politics. Not so McGuire:

Sex Politics:

One Nation is Submissive
One Nation is Dominant
- They meet in the bedroom.

America is screwing Britain tonight!
Russia is backward and perverted!
China brings the dildo, and pantyhose!
Israel, doesn't have sex, it has affairs!
Pakistan keeps everything under cover!

One Nation is Submissive
One Nation is Dominant
One Nation wears the gimp suit.

They fuck the world relentless and strategic.

This is exactly what poetry does best; it helps you understand one thing by talking about something else completely. It’s not a pretty poem and the language isn’t pretty. But it’s sincere. Just because a drunk man leans over to his girlfriend and says, “Y’know whit? Ah fuckin love you,” doesn’t make it untrue or any less true or any less romantic.

This is a sweeping collection; some poems are trivial whereas others are deadly serious. He really does have something to say about life, death and most everything in between, even love. How many of us poets have not had a crack at the ‘Love is...’ poem? McGuire’s isn’t half-bad. It’s not the best poem in the book but it has a few cracking lines. I especially liked the ending:

from A History of Invisible Love (The detached view)

(And finally,
Love poems do not love.
We can but record
The shifting facts of our care.)

These are early poem and prose pieces. He actually calls them “juvenilia” but don’t let that put you off. Many people read the word ‘juvenile’ and hear ‘trivial’ and that’s not fair. They are unpolished, diamonds in the rough. Am I saying this is not great poetry then? I’d have to define ‘great poetry’ first and every definition I can think of could really be called ‘clever poetry’, technically brilliant. These poems are not that but that doesn’t mean that McGuire isn’t clever. He’s also writing from a culture where ‘clever’ is used as an insult more than a compliment: “Hey! Don’t you be clever wi me.” You can see from the subjects he covers that he has a broad knowledge. He asks more questions than he answers but I think the best poetry does that. We don’t want to be told, we want to be encouraged to think about stuff for ourselves. That he does. He leads us into poems where stuff is happening and lets us watch that stuff from a safe distance.

Is he saying anything new? Not especially. There’s not that much hasn’t been said before. It’s the way he says it that makes the difference. He could have written, “War is a bad idea,” and left it at that but what he tries to do is get people who understand that war is a bad idea to believe it’s a bad idea. That’s a challenge worth rising to.

I thought we could end this piece with a few questions:

Your collection is called Riddled with Errors and yet the cover you show on your blog says ‘Important Nonsense’ – how did that happen?

In error...got a hold of the first 30 copies, and was happy with the title Important Nonsense then after a while thought, nah, it’s too much of a headline, I’m not selling the news. I decided on Riddled with Errors because it was more in the spirit of how it was written – deliberate chaos. The first title was – Reductio ad absurdum.

On your blog and on the cover of your book you call yourself simply ‘McGuire’ – so what’s wrong with the name Colin?

I like McGuire. Simple – direct – a branding – no three barrel tongue twister. Mind you, Colin means ‘young wolf’ but I am nothing like a wolf, except for the hair on my neck, and two incisors. Colin sounds like such a soft name, don’t you think? Two soft syllables, a wee softy, like Nicol or something like that. Maybe it’s a strange formality using only the second name, like a title.

You have a tendency to post works on your blog in very rough states sometimes with typos and spelling mistakes. The collection also has many of these. Is this simply sloppy editing or do you have a point to make here? I’m thinking that the whole collection could be viewed as a metaphor.

I’m happy to put things up in any condition – error, mistake, nonsense; the process in plain sight. I edit things – here and there – on a constant basis. But then some things come out as I want them and never get touched. I’m still framing my mind, you see, finding out who or what I am writing exactly, waiting for things to crystallise, so no harm in putting up the bits and pieces, the dross and doggerel – after all, who am I? No one, just a wild card doing the thing...

Riddled with Errors contains the errors of writing in my 20’s. It’s not so much a metaphor as bloody true – life is full of failure, mistake, error, stupidity, idiocy, the ridiculous; I contain all these qualities too. Most of it was written in a spirit of impatience, nervous energy, and purges of drivel, honesty, reflection, self-doubt, and experimentation.

Is it just another example of post-literate, egotistic, formless, sloppy, ego? Maybe I’ll look back at it when I’m 50 (if I’m lucky enough to get there) and think – God – what chaos lurked within me back then. Thing is, I’ve re-written so much of the work in that book; so it serves as a marker – the raw beginning – what could be more interesting than reading the raw workings of a mind? Apart from sex...and food, and church going.

We learn a lot from our mistakes, I’ve made as many as possible.

I note that one of the quotes at the beginning of the book is by Charles Bukowski. Is he a big influence?

Influence, I don’t write under the influence ;) There are writers I have read, that have encouraged me to keep on writing, despite the fact, it’s so easy to see it all as pure bullshit. Work through it, keep at it, and get it down!

I quote Tristan Tzara too – a monkey of Dada – basically pretentious Europeans, subverting, writing drivel, being playful, cunning, comic, anti-artist fools. And, I was drawn to that, that spirit of impatient creativity, provocateur, reactionary ... containing all the energy of a house on fire.

Maybe we should revive classical standards, maybe we are being dumbed down, but some of us remain lovers of illiterature – unpolished truth, laughing at seriousness. I mean, if you don’t train classically, in art or literature, and finger painting is all you’re good at, and all you want, then finger paint; be the Michelangelo of finger painting. Be the great dyslexic! Be Don Quixote! ;)

As for Bukowski – no, never heard of the man; who’s he? I’m a scholar, don’t read riff-raff. Quite frankly: he’s honest and vulnerable to a beautiful fault, straight to the bone, lines clear as light, who can deny a man does not hide behind the page? I have never read someone with more honesty and cunning simplicity, and apparent throwaway ease – yet there is a real logic and fire in his method. He reminds me not to be a completely pretentious fool. A person first, a writer somewhere down the line; let real life make a man out of you. He reminds me how easy it is to be a sycophant, literally or life wise. He reminds me that most people have a psychological closet full of baggage and private turmoil – and there is gold in writing about this, one to another. He shared the prejudice of his experience with us; he turns anything into something worthy of observation.

Italo Calvino is another guy I read. Real chess player with writing – simple and complex strategies, clear and precise moves – check mate: story wins.

I hope that explains a few things. I have a cheek to talk really. I’m a nothing, a non-entity, 27. I have experienced little physical hardship in my life. I have a lot to endure yet:

a lot to learn – a lot to write = a lot to learn about writing.

I’ll only fail if I seek too much or delude myself into thinking I think I deserve more. Something like that...

This is unusually a mixed bag, some poetry, some prose. Is there a clear distinction in your mind between what one is and what’s the other or is it all just ‘writing’?

This ‘collection’ has a lot of the ingredients that I will later cook a meal with – a bad cooking metaphor, excuse me. It keeps you interested; a nice assortment of chaos, poems, stories, notes.

There is a clear distinction between poetry and prose, but wasn’t particularly concerned about it. The stories are obvious. The poems are too. I suppose in some ways it is all just writing. I’m making these distinctions as I write with more focus, more understanding of what I’m doing. I wrote a lot of these when I was nearly 20, maybe even one or two earlier than that, so it is a kind of malformed, and half-baked – what’s wrong with that? I’m not seeking perfection. I like warts and all. I’m focusing more – shaping up the way I write, how I write. Not so much that I kill the spur of the moment bursting forth from me; I don’t want to call the fire brigade to put out my spirit.

A lot of the pieces, like ‘Pancakes’ and ‘Albion Street’ are quintessentially Scottish using the kind of street slang that will be almost unintelligible to anyone outside of Glasgow. What do you think is to be gained by this? Is it simply a matter of preserving a culture or do you have a different agenda?

I love the Glasgow dialect – harsh, guttural; I imagine it sounds almost like Russian to those who hear us speaking and don’t understand it. Not that there is anything wrong with Russian, far from it, but it has a certain harshness in its tone.

Leonard and Kelman wrote something about the sovereignty of your own dialect/language/slang – and in a small way, I’m of a similar thought. Of course, the Queen’s English, Received Pronunciation, is no longer the monotheistic tongue, we see all sorts of accents/dialects/languages being expressed. But we still see certain languages sidelined or seen as primitive or as a classification. I see why, and I don’t know what it all means exactly, linguistic oppression. I don’t want to get into all that here, because I’ll expose the half-baked potato of my mind. The politics of language is a meaty subject – go read Orwell, for that

Playing with Glasgow dialect/slang is so enjoyable. You have open reign on word play, misspelling of words by using phonetic play, which I think can make language more interesting. Not a static thing. I like the challenge of spelling a word as outlandishly as possible, yet still being able to read it – for example: Are you to going to the game with us tomorrow? Becomes: uryegauntaethegemmewayusthemorra? – There is something just so playful, something that undermines, something creative, not simply the way it’s spoken, but they way you can mess about with it on the page, to express it. Reminds me, of Dada play, or Buk the trend realism, turn things upside down, and inside out...

What’s a ‘note poem’ when it’s at home?

A note poem is a wee conceit on my part. It’s basically a wee idea, image, thought or exclamation that you don’t wish to develop or leave as it is, at that moment. Like the plum poem by William Carlos Williams. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but it’s definitely a note poem. I mean, I also have a thing called – paragraph stories or page stories. Some people think it’s horrible, it’s horribly post-modern – yuck – but it’s not, look at Aesop’s Fables, Nietzsche’s Aphorisms, Biblical rhetoric. Brevity, being concise (God knows I can be long-winded) is basically what all these things become. The note poem is perhaps the cheekiest form, for example, this note poem is in Riddled with Errors:

chaos wrapped inside a book
Wrapped inside a bag,
later held by a mad hand.

It’s nothing special, it’s curious, it’s an idea, it’s an autumn leaf blown down the road. You know what but, I think (too much) that, maybe, just maybe, I’ve just thought of it, I think note poems, could get a lot of folk (particularly younger folk) into writing, reading, playing about with language. They have a swiftness, an ease, that might well inspire or loosen people up around the idea of the seriousness and sacredness of language.

Anyway, you’ve caught me in a nursery, I’m still growing up. Embarrassing myself here, as though I’ve actually achieved something; I wouldn’t even say I’m a writer yet. Anyway, I’m away to eat a Clementine. Cheers for taking the time to consider me.

***

Colin McGuire is, in his own words, “A thin 25 year old Glaswegian man, touch giddy in the head, sometimes poet of mangled form and dirty prose, sporadic drummer, drunk grammarian, waffler, painter using crayons, lover, pedestrian, provocateur, confronter of shadows, irritating whine.” I think that about hits the nail on the head.

You can buy Riddled with Errors from the author’s website for the princely sum of £5.50. There’s no extra charge for all the errors.

To mark the publication of The Convention on Modern Liberty: The British debate on fundamental rights and freedoms, one year on, OurKingdom is featuring extracts from the book. The first is a foreword by Guy Aitchison discussing the build up to the Convention and its impact on the wider public debate on rights and liberties.

One year on from the Convention on Modern Liberty and the political situation is at once familiar and profoundly altered. The attack on rights and liberties continues apace alongside the construction of a hyper-intrusive database state. In the last 12 months alone we’ve seen: measures to allow secret inquests in cases which may embarrass the state; the creation of a new body to vet every adult who has regular contact with children outside the home; plans to hand government arbitrary powers to punish copyright infringement; the criminalisation of protesters as “domestic extremists”; the appearance of new “super-injunctions" to protect the wealthy from free speech and the Government’s refusal to abide by the rule of law when it comes to innocent people on the DNA database and the attempt to cover up the UK’s complicity in torture. And that’s just the start of a very long list. 

But the last 12 months has also seen a shift in the waters. An issue macho Home Secretaries could once confidently dismiss as the preserve of the “airy fairy” chattering classes is now the object of general concern and attention. From tabloid campaigns against hectoring “Big Brother Britain”, to prime-time documentaries on police use of surveillance, anxiety at the condition of liberty in this country has entered the mainstream. Culturally, this can be seen in the popularity of near-future dystopian thrillers, like V for Vendetta, or the huge queues outside Bristol Museum to see Banksy’s artistic subversion of the all-seeing authoritarian state. Together they point to a growing malaise at the direction in which our society is heading.  

What role did the Convention play in this awakening? It’s a hazard for any deputy director writing a personal reflection such as this, one year on, that one assigns a certain neatness and inevitability to events which they never actually possessed. As Co-Director Anthony Barnett notes (in his account of making the Convention on Modern Liberty) - from the very start it was marked by a high degree of uncertainty and the lingering worry that the financial crisis would overshadow what might be seen as a “luxury” issue. 

That’s certainly how it felt from my perspective, relatively new to this kind of organising. It the summer of 2008 when I first spoke with Anthony Barnett, Henry Porter and Stuart Weir about working on a “teach-in” they were planning, with the backing of the Rowntree trusts, to sound an alarm at the threats to civil liberties and discuss what could be done to counter them. David Davis’s spectacular resignation and by-election campaign had brought 42 days and the threat of growing state authoritarianism to public attention in a way which the media had signally failed to do. Opinion on the liberal-left, however, was divided over how to respond to Davis’s cross-party call. Some questioned his sincerity and pointed to his own party’s dubious record on civil liberties; the Greens stood a candidate in the by-election on a more pro-liberty platform than Davis, and the Lib Dem decision not to stand a candidate was controversial within the party.  

I shared the view of Barnett and Weir, writing on OurKingdom, that the constitutional and ethical importance of the issues required that they be treated in a non-partisan fashion: the left would need to make common cause with the libertarian right if the last twenty years of illiberal legislation was to be successfully challenged and reversed. This analysis would inform the Convention’s approach and the distinctive way in which it brought the civil liberties and human rights communities together. 

The alliance of people and organisations that would ultimately head up the Convention first came together at a meeting at the Guardian in September. The headline sponsors, it was agreed, would be openDemocracy, Liberty and the Rowntree Trusts with the Guardian as media partner – NO2ID would later join them. A team was put in place. Clare Coatman, whom Anthony had met campaigning for David Davis, was brought on board to oversee the ticketing system, the email database and to provide general administrative assistance. Claire Preston, working from Cambridge, was Production Manager dealing with accounts. From the start, Porter’s energy, enthusiasm, and unrivalled knowledge of the issues, made his input invaluable. When he agreed to become Co-Director of the Convention alongside Barnett the core-team was complete: organisation could begin.  

My work involved conceiving the different sessions, and inviting speakers. Each session was to be supported by a different organisation. These included organisations actively involved in the civil liberties sector, such as the British Institute of Human Rights or Open Rights Group, but also organisations not traditionally associated with the cause, such as the Citizens Organising Foundation and the Football Supporters’ Federation. The idea was to get an interesting and surprising mix which reflected the spectrum of political opinion and the breadth of opposition to the loss of privacy and freedom. Some choices proved controversial. The Countryside Alliance’s inclusion, for example, provoked many emails and blog comments claiming that their support for hunting precluded them from a campaign for civil liberties. After concerned emails from two of our speakers, who had been pressured by one especially vocal animal rights activist not to attend, we issued a formal statement on the website defending their inclusion and justifying the need for broad-based civil society support. 

Nearly everyone we asked to speak accepted the invitation enthusiastically, saying that this was an event whose time had come. Between the Convention team and the supporters of the sessions we decided who would speak on the panel and who would chair them, the only rule being that there had to be at least one woman. As well as organisation, my role involved providing strategic and political input. If ever there was a case of serious disagreement within the team this would usually be resolved at one of the strategic meetings which took place roughly once every fortnight. Alongside the core team, regular attendees of these meetings included Stuart Weir, Phil Booth, of NO2ID, John Jackson, Sabina Frediani of Liberty,Tony Curzon Price of openDemocracy and Stephen Taylor who assumed charge of logistical planning for the day itself. Also in attendance were some of the Convention’s partners and volunteers, people like Christina Zaba or Georgina Henry from the Guardian, who had an interest in various aspects of our agenda. Meetings grew over time, with the increasing difficulty of fitting everyone into our small conference room more than compensated for by the feeling of being part of a growing movement. 

At all times there was an extraordinary level of creativity and excitement at these meetings, assisted by some able chairing by Barnett. In addition to practicalities, the meetings would look at the tone of the Convention and how to make its message effective. What does “modern liberty” mean? What exactly is ‘a Convention’? It was during a session of group editing, for example, that we agreed that the Convention should be a “Call to all concerned with attacks on our fundamental rights and freedoms under pressure from counter-terrorism, financial breakdown and the database state.” The idea was to have a strong message with a clear narrative whilst being open to debate and not dogmatic. 

On January 15, the Convention launched publicly with a party hosted by Vanity Fair at the Foreign Press Association. It was a great success with an impressive turnout, graced by such luminaries as Bob Geldoff, actor Sam West and Channel 4’s Jon Snow. Our media presence was boosted by the Guardian’s “modern liberty” series which launched at the beginning of 2009 alongside their fantastic liberty central site and Porter’s blog. On February 11, we were able to purchase the full backpage of the Guardian at a reduced rate and fill it with a wonderful image of the full Convention programme designed for us by Leon Harris – an image which became his design theme for the Convention. 

From the outset, the project had become steadily more ambitious. Now, we were determined that the Convention should not be London-only, but take place across the nations and regions of the UK. Booth turned his formidable organising prowess to making this a reality, energising his NO2ID network into organising parallel Conventions in Bristol, Cambridge, Glasgow and Manchester. In Belfast, Amnesty Northern Ireland’s Patrick Corrigan did a fantastic job organising a strong programme which included its own civil liberties discussions specific to the situation there. In Wales, Caroline Oag of UNA Wales: Vale of Glamorgan responded to our call for an area organiser, stepping in at the last minute to put together a great event in Cardiff. These parallel meetings took the webcast of the London plenaries and held their own sessions. In so many ways they were vital to the body language of the event, bringing people from across the country together in one virtual Convention as a visible demonstration that, contrary to the self-serving myths of the political class, rights and liberties are not solely a metropolitan concern but common to all of us. 

The most inspiring thing about being part of the organising process was witnessing the talent and energy of the many volunteers who offered their time and commitment to a cause they believed in. As well as the parallel convention organisers, there was Dan Collier who designed the website, Ellen Velacott who organised the camera-crews, and Portia Barnett-Herrin and her crew who shot the wonderful talking heads videos which you can still watch on the website. Plenty of the people who pitched in were members of the public, many of them new to political activism, who had felt inspired by the Convention and wanted to help.  

One such offer came from Jonny Butterworth of the UCL Student Human Rights Programme. Under Porter’s guidance, Butterworth’s team of bright young lawyers produced “What we’ve lost:  The Abolition of Freedom Act 2009” which catalogued all the rights-violating legislation introduced in recent years. The document won great media coverage for the Convention, raising our profile, and a copy was placed in every speaker’s pack. It remains a useful reference document for anyone who needs to see the legislation set out in detail. 

In the final few months our team expanded to include Matthew Brian and Miranda Porter who researched for the series of press briefings, followed by Alice Dyke and Phoebe Dickerson who provided vital support as the workload mounted and nerves started to kick in. Rosemary Bechler, editor of this collection, was also brought on board to take care of partner outreach, which with over fifty partners had become a full-time job. 

The day itself was a stunning success. Apart from a few very minor hiccups, the technology went smoothly; all but two of the 150 speakers turned up and every single session was packed with a lively and engaged audience.  Perhaps the true significance of the Convention lay in crystallising a feeling that was already there, bringing it to the surface and giving it voice and form. Over 1,500 people participated in London, hundreds in the parallel conventions at venues across the UK, and many more via the web, leading the Observer to dub it “by far the largest civil liberties convention ever held in Britain”.  They came together from all different walks of life and political backgrounds in a spirit of mutual concern and understanding. Talking to people who were there on the day and reading the many blogs and responses, perhaps the most important reaction this mobilisation stirred in people was the feeling that they were weren’t alone; that concern at the state of liberty doesn’t mark them out as strange or paranoid, that others feel the same way. As one gentlemen put it on the Voices of the Crowdvideo on the Convention website, “Over the past ten years or so I found rights being drip-drip, slowly taken away from us, which is why I came here today, to find a sense of not being alone in that.” 

The Convention did not start a movement but it was an important “line in the sand” moment, which helped raise awareness and shift opinion. Sources in Downing Street privately credited the Convention for the reversal of Clause 152 in the Coroner's and Justice Bill which would have quietly reversed data protection legislation allowing people’s data to be shared across government departments without their consent. The Tories took on board some of the arguments they heard at the Convention from the likes of Lord Bingham, Philip Pullman, Helena Kennedy and Brian Eno. Dominic Grieve has promised to scrap ID cards and the National Identity Register, cut back the “database state”, adopt the Scottish system of limited DNA retention and review the vetting system for adults who have contact with children. These commitments don’t quite amount to a Freedom Bill, equivalent to Chris Huhne’s, which Grieve hinted may be on the cards during the Convention, and the rumour that Cameron agreed to replace the dovish Grieve as Home Secretary with Chris “less rights, more wrongs” Grayling in return for support from the Sun and the Murdoch clan does not bode well.

But these commitments nevertheless reflect the British public’s growing concern at the creation of a highly controlled society; a concern which means that civil liberty is now an electoral issue. Measures which invoke terrorism, crime and the protection of children as their justification are no longer unanswered or unanswerable.  

Looking back at 2009, future historians will also no doubt wish to emphasise the role of events - none of which we could have foreseen or predicted at the start of the year - in shifting the terrain of debate. Two in particular stand out: the policing of the G20 protests in April and the tragic death of Iain Tomlinson as a result of police violence; and the parliamentary expenses scandal, and its exposure of the political system as venal and dishonest. 

The first of these showed in the most dramatic way possible the dangers of raw unchecked state power. The release of amateur footage, obtained by the Guardian, showing Iain Tomlinson being pushed and beaten by a Territorial Support Group officer as he walked away, hands in pockets, provoked an outpouring of public anger and disgust prompting the media to switch editorial lines faster than you could shout “police cover up”. Newspapers, like the Evening Standard, that had initially parroted the Met’s spin that police medics had been attacked by a mob of braying anarchists whilst aiding Tomlinson now condemned the police action and called for a review of training and tactics. Ultimately, the backlash led to a critical review by the police watchdog, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. Although it did not call for an end to “kettling” (the tactic of penning protesters in with lines of police) it dubbed the Met’s approach unlawful and made a number of recommendations for reform.  

The arbitrary violence directed at Tomlinson by the young TSG officer and the cold indifference of his colleagues seemed to signal that no-one, not even an “innocent” member of the public, was safe. Along with football supporters, minorities, and others, protesters have, of course, always known that police will act like thugs given half the chance. But it took the tragic death of a passer-by to alert the wider public to the dangers of a semi-militarised and unaccountable police force possessed of an ever-growing armoury of sweeping anti-terror powers. 

Hot on the heels of the G20 came the Daily Telegraph’s revelations of MPs’ abuse of expenses. The scandal sent shock waves through the system, exposing the central institutions of the state as corrupt and dysfunctional and highlighting the need for thoroughgoing reform and new checks and balances. The party leaders scrambled to respond. Gordon Brown informed us that he was a long-time fan of constitutional campaign group Charter 88 and made noises about “a written constitution”; David Cameron called for giving “power to the powerless” and Nick Clegg pointed out that he had long distinguished himself with calls for reform of a “rotten” Westminster system.  

Finally, it felt like a breakthrough. Opponents of draconian government laws from across the political spectrum had consistently drawn attention to the failure of Parliament, a “Bazaar” in Diane Abbott’s memorable phrase. Following the expenses scandal this was now the orthodoxy, with polls reporting a record 75% of voters in support of serious changes to the system. 

In their own different ways, the G20 and the expenses scandal drew attention to the true nature of key institutions in British public life, contributing to a mood, heightened by the banking crisis, of inchoate anger and distrust. In response to this crisis of legitimacy the Rowntree Trusts came together, once again, to launch POWER2010, a unique campaign to renew democracy and defend civil liberties that gives everyone a chance to have a say in how this country should be run. Clare Coatman and I from the Convention team are involved in the organisation and implementation of the campaign.  

As many pointed out at the Convention, on the panels and from the floor, there is now an overwhelming case for having a democratic written constitution which entrenches, beyond the reach of the state, the rights we have as citizens. The old order, which has permitted government to ride roughshod over liberty through its control of a supine and semi-corrupt Parliament, is bust beyond repair.  

Key to any successful movement for better democracy and liberty will be public education and open discussion. This book brings together many of the inspiring speeches and talks from the Convention on Modern Liberty with photos from the day. Alongside the videos and podcasts on the CML website, it is hoped the collection will provide an ongoing educational resource and an encouragement. 

The battle against arbitrary state power is one that needs to be continually re-fought. It is clear that whatever shifts in attitude have been achieved, these are elusive, sometimes effanescent,sp? and vulnerable to easy reversal. As I write this, at the end of the decade, the 24 hour news media is abuzz with news of a foiled “Al Qaida” attack on a US airplane. Photos of a Nigerian student who studied at UCL are played endlessly on 24 hour news networks. As fragments of his past are pieced together various pundits are wheeled out to say how an intervention here or there in the young man’s life could have prevented this from happening. Unfailingly, when politicians respond, it is not to defiantly re-assert our values or refuse to be cowed by this botched attack but to call for ever-more intrusive measures of dubious value in enhancing security. 

Without doubt the decade ahead will see more battles fought to protect rights and liberties against the creation of a hi-tech authoritarian state, battles which we cannot yet conceive of. It is hoped that this collection will play a modest part in this battle by re-asserting the values of liberty and privacy and setting out the issues at stake. 

Guy Aitchison  (with thanks to Clare Coatman)  Christmas 2009 

oD-wide classification

Topics: 

Democracy and government

Lincoln Child Center enables vulnerable and emotionally troubled children and their families to lead independent and fulfilling lives.

Job Summary: The Team Leader will provide overall team leadership, direction, and accountability for quality services and adherence to wraparound principles for program, clinical, and case management functions of assigned Family Specialists, Wrap Facilitator, Parent Partner, and Community Liaisons.

Qualifications:
· LCSW or MFT, licensed in the state of California
· Two years of supervisory experience in flexible case management and clinical services
· Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a diverse multidisciplinary setting
· Knowledge and experience in individual, group, and family therapy methods
· Experience with Medi-CAL documentation requirements
· Experience in delivery of wraparound services
· Demonstrated awareness of, strength based sensitivity to and competence in dealing with cultural and socioeconomic diversity of client population.
· Knowledge of provider systems
· Excellent verbal and written communication skills
· Valid California driver’s license, a clear driving record, availability of personal vehicle and personal vehicle insurance coverage.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:
· Responsible for recruitment, retention strategies, hiring, supervision, evaluation of assigned facilitator, parent partner, family specialist, and family specialists.
· Insure staff compliance with all internal and external reporting and documentation requirements.
· Monitor and support staff documentation for quality, productivity, and timeliness.
· Monitor program finances in relationship to established guidelines, procedures and policies.
· Responsible for regular scheduled weekly individual and group supervision with supervisees.
· Develop systems and processes to maintain and monitor CQI activities for program, clinical, and case management functions
· Coordinate and conduct external and internal UR for chart compliance, quality, and appropriateness of clinical and case management services.
· Participate and directly observe program, clinical, and case management delivery of services through regular and frequent interface with program staff
· Oversee the provision, quality, and on-going development of Child and Family Team meetings.
· Collaborate with outside providers, clinical staff and other LCC agency staff to insure seamless integration of Project Permanence services with other agency programs and services.
· Participate in Project Permanence on-call
· Participate on all Project Permanence program and administrative meetings as indicated.
· Represent agency at public and assigned functions
· Instruct staff concerning all LCC safety policies, procedures, and rules, and enforcing these within work group. Ensure that staff attends all required safety training sessions. Require immediate reporting of all workplace hazards, safety rule violations, near misses, and work related injuries.
· Perform other duties as assigned.

Classification: Regular, full-time, exempt, benefited position.
Schedule: Flexible schedule based on program and client needs. Generally weekdays from 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM. Weekends as needed
Affiliation: Non-Bargaining.
Compensation: Commensurate with experience and salary scale.
Benefits: Competitive benefits package available.

CONTACT INFO: Please submit cover letters and resumes to lccjobs@lincolncc.org, or fax: 510.531.0258. Please mention in subject line or cover letter that you are applying for the Team Leader. ABSOLUTELY NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE!!!
Lincoln Child Center is an E.O.E
m/f/d/v

Lincoln Child Center enables vulnerable and emotionally troubled children and their families to lead independent and fulfilling lives.

Job Summary: The School Engagement Program Manager is responsible for assisting and planning, developing, coordinating and implementing all aspects of the School Engagement Program. It is the responsibility of the School Engagement Program Manager to provide overall team leadership, direction, and accountability for quality services and adherence of principles for the program.

Qualifications:
· Master’s degree in social work, educational or counseling psychology, or related field required
· Knowledge of principles and practices of social work as applicable to truant minors, high-risk adolescents, and their families
· Two years of supervisory experience in flexible case management and clinical services
· Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a diverse multidisciplinary setting
· Knowledge and experience in individual, group, and family therapy methods
· Experience with Medi-CAL documentation requirements
· Demonstrated awareness of strength based sensitivity to and competence in dealing with cultural and socioeconomic diversity of client population
· Knowledge of provider systems
· Excellent verbal and written communication skills
· Valid California driver’s license, a clear driving record, availability of personal vehicle and personal vehicle insurance coverage.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
· Responsible for recruitment, retention strategies, hiring, supervision, evaluation of assigned staff
· Ensure staff adherence to all internal and external reporting and documentation requirements
· Oversee and ensure quality of service for the program
· Monitor and support staff documentation for quality, productivity, and timeliness
· Monitor program finances in relationship to established guidelines, procedures and policies
· Responsible for regular scheduled weekly individual and group supervision with supervisees
· Develop systems and processes to maintain and monitor continuous quality improvement (CQI) activities for program, clinical, and case management functions
· Carry a caseload of up to 8 cases, and providing intensive case management, individual, family and group work as clinically indicated
· Participate and directly observe program, clinical, and case management delivery of services through regular and frequent interface with program staff
· Collaborate with outside providers, clinical staff and other LCC agency staff to ensure seamless integration of the School Engagement Program services with other agency programs and services
· Participate in all School Engagement Program administrative meetings as indicated.
· Work collaboratively with court officials, parents and school officials
· Represent agency at public and assigned functions
· Instruct staff concerning all LCC safety policies, procedures, and rules, and enforcing these within work group. Ensure that staff attends all required safety training sessions. Require immediate reporting of all workplace hazards, safety rule violations, near misses, and work-related injuries.
· Perform other duties as assigned.

Classification: Regular, full-time, exempt, benefited position.
Schedule: Flexible schedule based on program and client needs. Generally weekdays from 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM. Weekends as needed
Affiliation: Non-Bargaining.
Compensation: Commensurate with experience and salary scale.
Benefits: Competitive benefits package available.

CONTACT INFO: Please submit cover letters and resumes to lccjobs@lincolncc.org, or fax: 510.531.0258. Please mention in subject line or cover letter that you are applying for the School Engagement Program Manager. ABSOLUTELY NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE!!!

Over the last two years Amur tigers have been frequent guests on television and the pages of newspapers. Strangely enough, this is partly due to the efforts of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In September 2008 the “national leader”, who loves posing for the cameras, took part in a publicity stunt in the Ussurian taiga. In front of journalists, he put a tigress to sleep with a shot to the shoulder, and then hung a collar with a radio transmitter round her neck. In this way Putin became the “best friend” of ecologists and tigers, and the deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Ecology and Evolution Vyacheslav Rozhnov, who was accompanying him, received an annual grant of $1 million from the Prime Minister to save the Amur tiger.   Putin’s next step is to hold the International Forum on Tiger Conservation in Vladivostok. The summit, which will be held in the autumn, will be attended by 13 heads of state and one of the authors of the Global Tiger Initiative, the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick.

Ecologists all over the world have been sounding the alarm for a long time: tigers have completely disappeared in a number of regions – in Transcaucasia, Central Asia and on the islands of Bali and Java. Russia today has the largest population in a single area (over 450 tigers, or around 11% of the world population). This was made possible by conservation measures taken in the 1950s-1980s: the authorities prohibited hunting tigers, introduced the criminal article “five years for poaching” and set up sanctuaries. By the end of the 1980s, the population had grown to 350-400. 

The problems began in the 1990s, when the borders with China were opened up and trade became more active.  The animal’s skeleton, fangs, claws and whiskers were in demand. In those hungry post-Soviet years the shooting of tigers reached unprecedented proportions. “Traditional Chinese medicine manufactures medicine using the organs of animals,” says the head of the Russian office of the International Fund for Animal Welfare Maria Vorontsova. “For this purpose, they breed tigers in the thousands on special farms, but the internal organs of a wild tiger are more valuable than those of a tiger bred in captivity.”

Specialists have calculated that in the early 1990s poachers killed 70 tigers a year. In China itself, shooting a tiger is an offence attracting the death penalty, but for some reason the local authorities close their eyes to smuggled goods from Russia. The Chinese themselves have paid a high price for poaching, as the South China Tiger that once lived there has disappeared from the country completely. The Amur sub-species is now a rare visitor in the north of China. Local farmers built farms on the shores of the Amur and the Ussuri, and the wild animals had to leave to make room for the domestic animals. The lack of food has driven deer, Siberian stags and wild boars from their habitat. If there are no cloven-hoofed mammals in the forests, the tigers cannot survive. The only places they can live are the national parks of Primorie and the Khabarovsk Krai, where they can find food.

The population of tigers started declining at the end of last century and the authorities reacted by taking measures. In 1996 Russia developed the First National Strategy for preserving the largest wild cat on the planet. In the Far East anti-poaching brigades were set up, customs services were given training, laws were toughened and the fine for poaching rose from $50 to $16,000. But it’s not easy to put a poacher in jail. “You need to catch a person with a smoking rifle over the corpse of a tiger, or even better at the moment the shot is fired,” Maria Vorontsova says. “If they come to your home and find a tiger skin, then nothing will happen to you.”

But “Strategy 1996” did actually yield some results. In the mid 2000s, the number of tigers in the Far East increased, reaching just over 500. The ecologists didn’t have very long to celebrate:  a few years ago it was discovered that the tiger population was once more in decline.   In 2009 selective monitoring by scientists recorded tiger tracks in the snow in some areas.  Analysis of these tracks revealed that the tiger population had fallen by 40%.  Ecologists were horrified and the authorities initially tried to conceal the figures.  The Vladivostok Global Tiger Summit was not far away, after all, and in recent years the image of Russia had been of a country which successfully cared for its tigers. But the information leaked out to the press.  The head of the Russian office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Igor Chestin confirmed that the population of tigers was in decline.   This had been brought about by poaching and the reduction of the habitat area. On the Khabarovsk Krai the habitat of one tiger – about 40 hectares – is destroyed by fire every five years and another is cut down every three years.  Experts also concluded that over the last few years the system for monitoring national parks and sanctuaries in the Far East had become noticeably less efficient. It had been deteriorating for many years.  In 1996 the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources was reduced in status to the State Committee for Environmental Protection, which itself was disbanded in 2000.  The Ministry of Natural Resources came into being in 1996.  The word ‘ecology’ was shamefacedly tacked on in the spring of 2008.

 “The structures responsible for monitoring have been paralysed by administrative reform” complains Igor Chestin. “In the past the smugglers’ activities were to a certain extent curtailed. Then the centre transferred the supervisory functions to regional governors, who turned out to be unprepared for the changes: the new regional conservation services weren’t ready.” As a result, the famous “Tiger” inspection service, which had been supported by international NGOs, automatically passed out of federal jurisdiction, that is to say it lost all its powers. It still had money, machines and equipment, but it couldn’t function. Inspectors couldn’t file reports or stop the poachers and, to the distress of ecologists, the organisation began to collapse. But ecologists are convinced the problem is more than unwieldy bureaucracy. They say that the forests in the Far East need to be saved or, to be more precise, the cedars, which are being taken into China by the trainload. In 2007, with the introduction of the new Forestry Code, the ban on felling this valuable timber was lifted, and legal and illegal felling began. A reduction in the forest areas means the rapid disappearance of cloven-hoofed mammals, who feed on cedar nuts. When the deer, Siberian stag and wild boar disappear, the tiger and its cubs die from starvation. Almost every schoolchild in the Far East knows this.

Many experts and specialists have come up with proposals for saving the tigers. The head of the Russian office of the WWF, Igor Chestin, proposes establishing several more parks and sanctuaries in the Far East, and banning the felling of cedars. Maria Vorontsova believes that a tough law is required which would make it possible to bring to justice not only the poachers, but also the traders and owners of skins.

Animal activists are also in favour of creating rehabilitation centres, where tiger cubs can be looked after. When they lose their mothers, the cubs usually die in the forest and putting them back there is no simple task. It has to be said that ecologists are also not angels and often get into conflict situations. As the Global Summit approaches, relations have become very strained. It isn’t just about money, which is always short, but influence too. WWF is clearly trying to dominate the information sphere, often ignoring the interests of colleagues and other organisations. Everyone admits that the financial help from Chestin’s office makes a difference and his publicity work is noticed, but the question arises: why stamp on other people’s feet when everyone has a common goal?  There are also complaints about Putin’s “friend”, Vyacheslav Rozhnov. When he was asked at a press conference what he had spent “Putin’s” million on, he gave a most disappointing reply. It turned out that in one and a half years he and his employees had only put collars on three tigers. All the claims that significant funds were being spent on satellite communications, molecular genetic research and buying radio transmitters failed to convince many of the experts. No one is talking about embezzlement, but the situation leaves an unpleasant aftertaste, as it were. 

Nevertheless scientists and ecologists are managing to overcome the administrative barriers and internal contradictions and trying to do their jobs. Besides the WWF, there are a dozen international NGOs in the Far East working with the tigers, including regional organisations. For example, the International Fund for Animal Welfare helps the local organisation “Phoenix”, whose main objectives are combating poaching, creating rehabilitation centres for tiger cubs, and developing educational programmes. Scientists and ecologists are brought together by an event called “Day of the Tiger”, which is held every autumn in Vladivostok. The programme is spectacular: there’s a parade and a carnival march; students, dressed in orange and black costumes with the words “Save and Protect” written on them, songs and poems about caring for nature. “We’re not naïve, of course,” laughs Maria Vorontsova. “These publicity campaigns aren’t aimed at poachers and traders of skins, but their children and grandchildren may grow up to be different people”.

Animal activists in Russia spend about $2.5 million a year on saving and studying Amur tigers. The next goal is to bring the population of Amur tigers back up to the 2006 figure of 550-600. The latest monitoring results are to be published in March.  According to the integrated data of the Global Tiger Initiative, the world tiger population is now around 3,200. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 100,000 living on our planet. Despite the enormous area they inhabit, including 13 countries such as China, India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Bhutan, tigers have become the rarest of the great cats.   The current (Chinese) Year of the Tiger is considered by many to be a sign that it’s now or never to save them.

Mumin Shakirov is Moscow based journalist and film director

Photos: courtesy of the Moscow office of the International Fund for Animal Welfare

Sideboxes

'Read On' Sidebox: 

The Russian Far East, Conservation of the Amur Tiger, WWF report

Web site of Phoenix, Russian ecological organization

Protecting the Amur Tiger, Russia’s prime minister Vladimir Putin web site

Building a Future for Wild Tigers, World Bank web site

Related stories: 

Saving baby seals: one woman’s crusade

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Violence continues to rock the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of Bangladesh, six days after a clash between indigenous villagers and Bengali settlers in Rangamati district resulted in the torching of several indigenous villages, the injury of twenty people, and an unknown number of deaths.

A curfew was imposed in Khagrachari town for the second night running yesterday, despite relative calm during the day. Local sources report that further violence and police raids on indigenous houses took place last night. A transport blockade was declared this morning by a Bengali settler students’ group, Parbatya Chattagram Bengali Chattra Parishad. Further demonstrations from both sides are expected in Rangamati and Khagrachari today.

The unrest began on 19 February with a land dispute between local indigenous people and Bengali settlers in Baghaichari, a remote area of Rangamati district. Clashes between the two groups were followed by the suspected burning of indigenous villages by security forces and Bengalis overnight. The bodies of two indigenous villagers were recovered the following morning, believed to have been killed by state security forces. Although many national media outlets report this is the total death toll of the incident, local sources suggest that the actual total is much higher.

The openSecurity verdict: The CHT has long been seen as the most volatile region of Bangladesh. Local indigenous communities have suffered violent repression at the hands of Bengali settlers, backed by the state and its security forces, for several decades. Since its independence in 1971, the government has treated the CHT as empty land where it can resettle poor Bengalis. It has also systematically denied the indigenous peoples an autonomous identity, insisting that they identify as Bengali. Successive governments actively encouraged Bengalis to move to the hill tracts, migrations that displaced thousands of indigenous people from their lands. Today, Bengalis outnumber the indigenous peoples in the CHT.

The influx of Bengali settlers into the hill tracts not only displaced thousands of indigenous peoples, it also brought with it a campaign of repression, murder and rape. Several indigenous political organisations, some of which had military wings, were formed to push the political demands of the hill peoples. From 1977, an armed insurgency was waged against the Bangladeshi government presence in the CHT.

Although the conflict was officially brought to an end in 1997 by an accord signed between the government and the dominant indigenous political organisation in 1997, more than ten years later many of the terms of the accord are yet to be implemented. Although the government committed to removing army camps from the CHT and ending the seizure of indigenous land, the camps remain and land continues to be taken by Bengali settlers.

This latest incident is widely believed to be the worst violence seen in the hill tracts since 1997. Violence spread to Khagrachari town when opposing groups staged protests on Tuesday about the events in Baghaichari. The United Peoples’ Democratic Front (UPDF), an indigenous peoples’ organisation which was calling on the CHT authorities to respond to the incident in Baghaichari, clashed with members of the Bengali Chattra Parishad, a Bengali settler students’ group. The government imposed a legal clause, referred to as section 144,  banning all public gatherings and demonstrations, and imposed nighttime curfews for the last two nights. Troops were also deployed on Tuesday afternoon as the protests spiraled out of control.

According to national media sources, at least one person was killed, several houses torched, and twenty people injured in the first day of violence. However, the true extent of the impact of this violence remains difficult to establish at this stage. Mobile telephone networks are being periodically switched off, and journalists report harassment and intimidation. Journalists attempting to visit remote areas that have experienced violence have been denied access by security forces or armed groups of settlers, particularly in Baghaichari where the original incident took place. Furthermore, much of the national press is seen as partisan in its reporting of events in the CHT.

Despite these difficulties, The Daily Star newspaper estimates that over the last six days around 500 houses have been burned down, 80% of which were the property of indigenous people. Eyewitnesses also report seeing indigenous families moving their possessions out of their homes, fearing that their houses will be set alight. The paper also reports that over 3,000 indigenous people and 500 Bengalis have been displaced by the violence. Many of the displaced indigenous people are thought to be hiding in nearby forests. More worryingly, local sources report that state security forces conducted house to house arrests of indigenous young men on Wednesday morning. The indiscriminate nature of these arrests has only created more fear and tension in Khagrachari.

Several ministers of state visited Khagrachari yesterday, hoping to bring calm to the town. Despite pledges of aid and commitments to bring Baghaichari justice, visits did not noticeably improve the situation. While the government’s CHT Commission, alongside international and national non-government organisations, has called upon the government to take action, the government’s response has so far been fairly limited, relying on the security forces already in the CHT to restore order.

Commentators are divided about the impact this latest episode of violence will have on the CHT. State minister for home, Shamsul Haque Tuku, yesterday blamed the country’s main opposition party, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), and its ally, Jamaat-e-Islami, for stirring up ethnic tensions in a effort to destabilise the country.

Other analysts suspect that initiatives  to implement the provisions of the Peace Accord launched after Tuku's party came to power a year ago – including steps to reduce the army presence in the CHT – have caused consternation among the Bengali community. There are suggestions that vested interests in the region, including settlers and security forces, are seeking to destabilise it in order to justify a continued army presence there. Such interpretations are supported by unconfirmed reports that Bengali settlers from outside Khagrachari town were bussed into the town in order to intensify the violence.

The events of the last week certainly do not bode well for the CHT. Whatever their implications for the future, the intensity of the violence that is currently gripping Khagrachari demonstrates the slow pace of progress over the last thirteen years. The government needs to take more meaningful initiatives to implement the 1997 Peace Accord. It also needs to ensure that, if rumours of BNP agitation are true, the situation in the CHT does not again become a party political one, in which successive governments either oppose or support the implementation of the accord.

India and Pakistan take first steps to rebuild relationship

During talks held today between the Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries, Nirupama Rao and Salman Bashir, Pakistan handed over three dossiers to the Indian government. The dossiers, relating to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Kashmir, and Indian fugitives in hiding in Pakistan, were described by the Indian foreign secretary as a vital step in rebuilding the Indo-Pakistani relationship.

In the aftermath of the Mumbai assault, India blamed the attacks on Pakistan, while Pakistani authorities have admitted that the attacks were at least partly planned on their soil. But while symbolic gestures such as this will do much to heal the wounds caused by the Mumbai attack, much more ingrained conflicts of interest remain, not least in Jammu and Kashmir.

Niger coup leaders rule themselves out of elections

A spokesman for the leaders of the recent coup in Niger, Abdul Karim Goukoye, announced today that the interim administration would not participate in forthcoming elections. Goukoye emphasised that the junta’s aims were to hold transparent elections and establish democracy. Mahamadou Danda was named interim prime minister earlier this week. Despite its alleged commitment to democracy, the coup leaders have yet to set a date for upcoming elections.

Deposed president Mamadou Tandja remains under house arrest since the coup occurred last week. The coup leaders’ claim that they ousted the president because of his decision last year to extend his term as president, a move which has been fiercely opposed by rival political parties.

Darfur rebel groups say war not over

A rebel group in Darfur today claimed that they were attacked by the Sudanese military yesterday, the same day that the president announced that the war was over in the western region of the country. According to the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), the attacks took place in mountainous Jabel Marra region. Aid agencies are also reporting that up to 100 000 people have fled fresh fighting in the area.

These allegations raise questions about the government’s recent initiatives to end the seven-year old conflict in Darfur. In particular, it calls into question President Omar al-Bashir’s statement on Wednesday that the conflict was ‘over’. On Tuesday, Bashir signed an agreement in Doha with the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), one of the biggest rebel groups in the region, committing Khartoum to reaching a final peace deal with the JEM by mid-March.

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International politics

There is talk these days of the eclipse of America and Europe and the rise of the East, the coming commanding influence of Beijing, the economic vitality of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China). Much of it is overdone. The underlying logic is not. Observing how change is perceived, Bill Gates once said that when a major innovation appears the headlines shout about how big the change will be. A year later little has happened and everyone says that it was all completely overblown. Ten years later, however, the difference is indeed huge. 

Something similar is happening as China and India complete their take-off. These vast countries have now accumulated the internal markets, the skills and the institutions to grow economically and culturally to levels that equal Japan and the West with populations that far outnumber them. It has not happened yet but it is happening. The result has to be – and in the name of equality, and of the moral values the West itself trumpets - the result should be a re-centering of the forces that shape the human planet. 

Will it be confirmed by the use of force, following the hard side of the West’s model of predominance? Or might a different kind of world emerge?

The possibility of the latter will depend on ‘democracy’. Without democracy, in its most fundamental sense of permitting the peaceful change of government based on people’s wishes, the world will otherwise be changed through force and war – less war of conquest than war as an ongoing “mutual enterprise” in which different sides organize their own people with coercion, as Mary Kaldor outlines in her brilliant reconceptualisation of Clausewitz. With democracy peace and legitimate change can accompany each other.

Such a happy outcome sounds unlikely, but you never know.

 * * * * *

I went to India for a second Global Conversation on Democracy organized by CSDS, Delhi’s Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. One of its themes was that democracy could not be imposed by force.

I arrived in time for the launch of two volumes of essays by its Director, and openDemocracy contributor Rajeev Bhargarva, published by Oxford University Press. We squeezed into a packed hall in the International Centre to listen to five panelists, including Christophe Jaffrelot, the leading French field researcher on Hindu nationalism and India's 'other backward classes', a term for India's shudras (the lowest rung in the caste ladder just above the outcasts or former ‘untouchables’). Jaffrelot said “Rajeev is not writing just for India, but for all countries where secularism is at stake”. The report in the Mail Today was headlined “No Chief Guest at the Book Release Event”. The organizers, it reported, had “deviated from the standard book release ritual”. Instead of a star speaker they had “got together some of the finest minds in academia”.

In the introduction to the first volume, The Promise of India’s Secular Democracy Rajeev describes how he turned away from the social theory of Marxist style explanation to the normative arguments of a liberal tradition he had originally scorned. In large part this was because he found the need to defend the Indian state and constitution from the assault of Hindu rightists. 

As he has argued in openDemocracy, in a widely read article, the Indian constitution pioneered multi-culturalism and laid the basis for a more sophisticated secular state than the American constitution with its crude ‘separation’ of church and state. I was reminded of his arguments by the recent judgment of the UK’s new Supreme Court that a pious Jewish child with believing parents could not be excluded from the Jewish Free School just because his mother was not born Jewish. The Court ruling is a fascinating one in terms of what constitutes discrimination. There is a good overview here linking to the judgment. The judges unease at their role is openly admitted. Should they permit the toleration of a sincerely held religious belief, even if they think it odious? But what if its practice is discriminatory in terms of human rights? Is it the state’s role to intervene? I think it is, and they took the right decision. But we can also see Britain catching up with India, learning that the state must consider ancient religious doctrines in a secular context and adjudicate how faiths behave.

In the second volume of his essays What is Political Theory and Why do We Need it? Rajeev takes his pluralism further, inquiring into the possibility of alternative modernities. One of his themes that I found both attractive and discomforting is his celebration of compromise (he himself is uncompromising although always understanding). He embraces and in his own way claims to be Liberal and Marxist, secular and religious, a Kantian and Hegelian; “I refuse to be pigeon-holed, to be tied by one body of thought when we can be part of many”.  In the discussion one of the speakers said of Rajeev that he demonstrated a belief in the power of reason to achieve ‘moderation’. Rather than, as I was taught to believe, the whole point of reason being to win arguments.

 * * * * *

A European visiting India is enthralled not just by its scale and vitality but also the strangely confident calmness of its hustle-bustle. It is growing fast. We drove westwards out of Delhi to the seminar in Sohna, through the winter fog. The route was National Highway 8 via Haryana’s Gurgaon, along an express motorway with glistening pyramids of call centres and shopping malls looming through the mist. We went through a 32 lane toll gate, apparently Asia’s largest, after which the traffic itself swirled crazily across the biggest spread of tarmac I’ve ever seen free of any lines or markings.

Later Antara Dev Sen and Pratik Kanjilal of the wonderful Little Magazine told me that Gurgaon development is unsustainable. Each complex contains its own power system, water supply and even waste disposal, fortifying it against the dirt and unreliability outside.  

But India’s absolute poverty condemns a now wealthy, modern society. It has to be willed not just regretted or blamed on ‘neo-liberalism’ to have lasted so extensively. A debate was taking place about whether convicted criminals should be allowed to stand for the Lok Sabha, the Indian parliament. Apparently a quarter of its MPs have criminal records. In the state assemblies I was told it is even worse with some of them having more than 50 per cent of the members with a criminal record: in India a democratic assembly may, literally, be a den of thieves.

One of the participants at the seminar organises rural workers and annoyed the logging companies. When she moved temporarily to Mumbai she was assaulted, stabbed and had her throat cut by an assassin, who got away almost certainly with police connivance. She just escaped with her life. Is this democracy and the rule of law?

What is true of India internally holds for us all on a world scale. The pleasure, excitement and promise of a more profound and successful advance towards democracy of the kind we were discussing can’t proceed without acknowledging that the destitute still have no claim a basic livelihood and this is a result of wickedness and power not fate.

* * * * *

The seminar – it was the second of three - is described as a “global” conversation and half the participants had come from around the world. But despite brilliant interventions, for example from Hulan Hashbat of Mongolia, the other half all shared India as their starting point. It was in fact an Indian conversation in a world context.

I found this made it all the more challenging. How can I put this diplomatically? For the first time I found myself at an international seminar without an American participant. I love the States, its rhythms and preoccupations are part of my imaginative make up (as is its current preoccupation with what Obama faces). But Americans assume, naturally, that the crises of their democracy matters to everyone. They pose their problems as the centre of the debate. Without this presumption another, more interesting one filled the room: what is the future of Indian democracy as a world example?

The organizers want the conversation to issue some kind of statement after it holds a final session. A draft read to us by Yogendra Yadev said among many things:

• We need to start enriching our democratic imagination as democracy expands, to accommodate diverse languages, multiple histories and traditions … Reimagining democracy along these lines is one of the most salient and urgent ethical and political tasks of our times.
• We should reject the approach that defines “threshold conditions” and promotes binary, democracy/non-democracy distinctions: “A fresh approach is required, rooted in the recognition that democratic practices may exist in apparently non-democratic regimes and that established democratic states can hide huge concentrations of non-democratic practices”.

You can sense Rajeev’s influence of combination here. It took on a further dimension, an attack on the unilinear definition of the development of democracy. The Western model of the slow expansion of the franchise under the principles of the rule of law that marked the US and the UK and Scandinavia is now an exceptional not the exemplary route to democracy. Therefore we should:

• Rediscover multiple democratic traditions: sangha, islamic traditions, Ganatantra, as well as the contribution of anti-colonial struggles and movements for democracy.
• Move away from a teleological view that thinks in terms of stages and pre-conditions in favour of multiple sequences within which the western model is but one possible sequence.
• Recognise that prosperity and homogeneity are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions of democracy.
• Move away from a romantic, instrumental and deterministic view of democracy – it can be compatible with rule of experts, dominance of corporates, control by private networks and decline of citizen participation. The dysfunctions of democracy need to be made a part of the story of democracy.

This is just a taste of some of the arguments on the table. There were counter views. One of these was put eloquently by Han Sang-jin from South Korea. He welcomed a reimagining of democracy but not the idea of “alternatives” if this was the implication. “We have seen many cases of self-rule, but they can be undemocratic and perhaps authoritarian, as in aspects of tribal ways of life. Can we really call them democratic?” Tribal versions of self-rule, he felt, were not so attractive in East Asia where modernisation is progressing very rapidly and successfully. We need innovation to challenge western perspectives; rather than multi-pathways, a global discourse on modernity is what will be appealing.

I strongly supported him on the issue of not being ‘alternative’ (something that openDemocracy’s David Hayes has waxed eloquently against). D. L Sheth, one of the founders of the CSDS in the sixties, captured the point I was trying to make. Being ‘alternative’ he agreed could lead people into “inadvertent self-marginalisation”. While the seminar was seeking to reimagine democracy, Han dispelled any doubt that we might be looking for an alternative to it - on the contrary we were claiming it.

Sheth took the argument further. “Democracy comes to an ordinary person as a doctrine of individual freedom”. We celebrate its liberalism, he continued, as something that frees people from status and oppressive structures. But at the same time you cannot escape the nation state as the force that shapes this. (His praise of liberalism was opposed, “there are irreducible collective aspects to freedom” it was claimed, I thought of the argument that has started in OurKingdom between Rosemary Bechler and Jeremy Gilbert as to whether liberalism and democracy are in opposition to one another).

Everyone was aware of a paradox that marks our epoch: there is a palpable, growing demand for democracy from people everywhere around the world, yet at the same time there is a widespread sense that democracy as we know it is suffering from exhaustion.  How to explain this paradox? One answer came from Ganesh Devy “It is becoming increasingly difficult for people to combine together in a struggle and hope to succeed. This is why we see democracies as dictatorships. If we can redefine democracy a politics not of representation but of voice we can develop a new form of democracy. And this will also bring in qualitative respect for diversity”.

This argument seemed to come from the heart of the Indian experience. When MPs constituencies have between 600,000 and a million voters, what voter has ‘voice’? Vipul Mudgal emphasized the impact of “rights based democracy”. He described how the right to information was allowing villagers to know what the budget of their village is, and can prevent their being ripped off. By being able to hear what the books say they are being paid, and then being able to say what they are in fact getting, they start to obtain their legal due. In this way rights deepening politics - rather than standing as a juridical alternative to it. And while you could feel the earth below the peasant sandals in this example, it also linked to Han Sang-Jin’s call to embrace the transparency offered by the internet.

* * * * *

Four years ago I wrote an article with Isabel Hilton called Democracy and openDemocracy. In it we argued that there are three related fronts in the struggle for democracy:

• First, that being waged by those who live without its classic provisions such as freedom of speech, the rule of law and free and fair elections, in countries as different as Saudi Arabia, China, Palestine and Burma, and the need for solidarity and support for these struggles.
• Second, the need to rescue and develop democracy in the societies that enjoy the basic principles but where representative systems have in effect stolen influence from citizens and where new forms of participation and deliberation are essential.
• Third, as power and decision making migrate away from nation states to the international level where voting has little or no meaning for individuals, we need appropriate instruments of democracy in terms of accountability and transparency to ensure legitimacy.

At the seminar I added a fourth point. The State itself in its current, pre-emptive passion is more than aware of the ‘threat’ of democratic warming and is creating an apparatus of surveillance and control under various guises (fear of terrorism, immigration) to put in place a database state. This in turn is now forcing democrats back to re-think and secure the historic fundamentals of free citizenship with the principles of modern liberty.

But despite this I was still thinking in tick-boxes. (For another example see James Fishkin’s description of the four theories of democracy in his pioneering When the People Speak, where he sets out the case for the wisdom of deliberation.)

The abiding image that I took back with me is that democracy needs to be seen as something like a tree of life. It has roots, which head off in different directions. It can grow new branches. Strange beasts and distinct species, some that fly others of claw and cunning, can inhabit its branches. Only one of these – old and gnarled – is western parliamentary democracy. The trunk is the people themselves. 

Or as Sheth put it, “The universality of democracy lies in its continuous opening up of possibilities for human groups. It is a long-term process. It happened historically but its possibilities are realised in different ways by different people. It need not lead to the same kind of outcomes. Like a Jain concept it is one in the beginning and then becomes many.”

* * * * *

In the land of Gandhi you’d expect skepticism about the wonders of corporate capitalism. Rajni Bakshi was an energetic participant in the seminar and has just published Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom backed up by a website. She is for the market and its democracy but against a market society and market state. The book has a chapter on “Competing Compassionately”. Her influence may still be marginal in an India hypnotized by consumerism, but what strikes me reading her book back in London is that here is an attractive, 450 page paperback well produced by Penguin India, clearly more sweeping and thorough that the debate about ‘mutualism’ that has just started in the UK, in the dog days of New Labour.

In Mumbai, Rajni and Gulan Kripalani organized a meeting where I was questioned about openDemocracy, its origins and future under the auspices of Citizens for Peace. We compared web pages in the apartment of Dilip D’Souza who had himself just published Roadrunner with Harper Collins India – an attractive and personable account of his trips through the depths of America in the months before Obama’s election. “I’m not leftist, I’m not rightist, I’m a typist” is his moniker on his blog. What is boasted in the shallow glitz of Bollywood, that Indians can be at home across the world, from London to Idaho, in a way that is genuinely cosmopolitan, is true. Thanks to the extraordinary diversity of their own society, the world is their oyster and they leave most of us feeling definitely parochial.

* * * * *

Except that for India China looms large in a way that is all too familiar. I was in Mumbai on 26 January which is India’s National Day. A huge parade takes place in Delhi, opened by a ceremony for India’s dead in the wars with Pakistan, where the line up of troops carefully displays the country’s integration of different ethnic and religious traditions. I watched it on television. The capital was still swathed in exceptionally dense fog, the fly-past was cancelled, and one could barely see the new military kit trundling past. The next day there was a package on how China seeded the clouds to ensure fine weather for its 60th National Day parade. We Indians do not waste money in this way and respect the environment, went the commentary. It also alleged that massive snowstorms that later engulfed Beijing were caused by the same cloud seeding, which I’m not sure was true. I detected a note of envy behind the report, shouldn’t India also seek to control the weather like its competitor?

 * * * * *

The night before I left for London I went to see the famous Shabana Azmi in Broken Images, a play by Girish Karnad directed by Alyque Padamsee. It’s a one-woman show about a writer who has rocketed to world fame and is asked to talk about herself to camera. We also see her image on the screen. Then the image takes on a life of its own and the two start a ‘conversation’ with themselves in what becomes a sophisticated and shocking takeover.

I had assumed that it would be a meditation on the loss of identity thanks to the electronic media, the splitting of self and the weird narcissism of fame thanks to the autonomous power of the image. But this was already presumed. I am not sure there has been a play in the west that has been so advanced in its integration of the forces of the modern media into the dramatic form on stage. This was not the use of ‘special effects’ but a play about the penetrating impact of the media torrent as it plays with our souls.

What took place on stage and finally within the world of the screen was a brutal battle over who speaks for India. Who is authentic, or rather, who is not authentic: the English speaking or the Hindu; the crippled or the whole; the traditional or the electronic; useless husbands or true love? In his playwright’s note, Karnad refers to T. S. Eliot’s line in The Waste Land, “a heap of broken images”. But I found Robert Grave’s poem In Broken Images closer to the play: he who is “slow, thinking in broken images” finds a “new understanding of my confusion”.

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Clinica la Luna y el Sol is a family practice located in the Fruitvale district of Oakland. The clinic currently has an opening for Medical Assistant for an immediate start. Prefer one year experience but encourage new graduates to apply. The successful applicant must be bilingual English/Spanish. The clinic is open Monday to Saturday and you must be available to work Saturdays.
Submit your resume together with a cover letter to clinicalaluna@gmail.com. The cover letter should outline details of why you would be a qualified candidate for this position.

Job Summary:
The medical assistant will have a dual function at Clinica la Luna y el Sol. The medical assistant performs duties in both the front and back office and works closely with the medical providers.

Job Duties:
The medical assistant will perform the following functions. The medical assistant is restricted to work within there scope of practice.
a. Prepare and file medical records and patients charts
b. Maintain medical records using standard filing systems
c. Perform inventory control and ordering supplies
d. Maintain and adjust medical office equipment
e. Manage a petty cash drawer
f. Post service charges and payments
g. Gather community resources
h. Prepare and maintain appointment books
i. Sterilize, wrap, and label instruments
j. Prepare the examination room
k. Record body measurements and vital signs
l. Prepare patients for their physical examinations
m. Assist with therapeutic procedures
n. Assist during simple surgical procedures
o. Administer medications and injections as ordered
p. Collect and preserve specimens (blood, urine, sputum, wound scrapings, throat cultures, etc.)
q. Answer phones, and relay patient's requests and questions
r. Review and explain doctor's instructions (patient education)
s. Respond to medical office emergencies.

Qualification, Education and Experience:
1. High school graduate or equivalent. Graduate of an accredited Medical Assistant program.
2. Ability to work with people and multi task under pressure.
3. Possess excellent customer service, reception and telephone skills.
4. Ability to speak, read and write in Spanish is essential.
5. Familiar with medical terminology, and be able to understand it.
6. Must be well organized and a self starter.

Responsible to: Lead Medical Assistant, Administrator and Medical Director
Classification: Full or Part-time, Non – exempt

Went to hear David Miliband speak at at Demos yesterday. He got lavish praise from James at the Statesman for his leaderly attack on Cameron, and a positive appraisal from Sunder at Fabians, who also praised his blend of 'progressive fusion' - which Sunder laid out for us in OK in 2008. Sundar banged the drum too for:

David Miliband's repeated advocacy of a reset referendum, including fixed election dates, could provide a foundational moment for a full constitutional settlement.

I'm not sure either of them was there. There was little sense of a potential new leader setting out a case or being foundational. It was friendly and polite. No one asked about covering up our complicty in torture. There were classic Miliband phrases that catch the vapours of our time:

we will not restore trust in politics unless we bring the public into the decision making tent at local as well as national level

and

We should start with the assumption that the individual should have power, but never forget that government needs to have enough power to stop the individual being overpowered.

As knockabout with the Tories it wasn't bad. But I questioned the premise of this kind of exercise, which assumes we are facing a 'normal' election in a two party system - whereas the issue of the day is that voters despise both parties, see the system as a racket, and it is this that needs to be addressed. His call for a "Reset Referendum", a term I'd not heard before, suggested that the country faced a software problem whereas the public, rightly, are fed up with the hardware.

The Foreign Secretary was generous enough to reply "I'm with you 90 per cent of the way". He just did not accept the term "racket" was appropriate. Otherwise he agreed that there were huge problems with our Victorian institutions like parliament and announced that, "We are a third of the way through a revolution".

Which is interesting. What is the revolution? What are the other two-thirds going to be like? Will they take twenty-six more years of Labour government?

Questions for another day. There was a distinctly unrevolutionary answer to the reporter from Sky who asked about the Falklands, now the whole of Latin America objects to the UK exploring for oil in the South Atlantic. Miliband's reply was classic, unimaginative Foreign Office intransigence. You could hear bones breaking. This is how he got sucked into covering up what happened to Binyam Mohamed.  Just imagine, he could have reached an agreement for joint exploration to public acclaim.

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The Indian government has plans for large-scale electricity generation projects, and is moving to allow an increased role for private companies, domestic and foreign, in the nuclear energy industry. But it is doing so without strengthening the legal framework covering compensation, liability, classaction and the ability to deal complex tort cases. The failure of litigation attempts properly to call Union Carbide to account for the gas tragedy at Bhopal suggests lessons that need to be learned if a legal framework is to be created which will be able to address the possible eventualities arising out of the use of nuclear energy. 

India originally used nuclear energy for various social applications including energy generation through the framework provided by the Atomic Energy Act, 1962. Initially, the Atomic Energy Act provided exclusive government control. The concept of public participation was introduced later, and there are now plans gradually to open up the nuclear energy generation sector to full private participation.

Implementation of the Indo-US Joint Statement of July 18, 2005 ended India's isolation over the peaceful use of nuclear energy. It also served to turn the spotlight away from major loopholes in the Indian legal system such as environmental protection, rehabilitation, liability and compensation and transparency.

Now the Indian government has decided to introduce in the Union Parliament’s Budget Session a piecemeal legislation called “Nuclear Liability Bill’ to cap the liability from potential accident. This article examines the legal issues raised by the Indo-US Nuclear Cooperation Agreement and the ability of the Indian legal system to address the issues associated with nuclear energy in the light of the experience gained from the Union Carbide (Dow Chemicals) Disaster at Bhopal.

Why Legal Framework?

A legal framework is important for the following reasons

1)      Domestically a well developed legal framework covering the peaceful use of nuclear energy will foster development as well as address the problems raised by the industry especially those affecting the public.

2)      Internationally it is a prerequisite for engaging in nuclear cooperation and technology transfer.

It will be beneficial to analyse the legal framework in United States and France with which India entered into Nuclear Co-operation Agreements. The gradual operationalisation of the agreements allows nuclear firms from these countries to operate without an adequate legal framework in India, while their activities are highly controlled in their home state. This brings about a situation akin to that which opened up for multinational corporations when the World Trade Organisation was established to exploit the availability of cheap labour, rich resources and inefficient legislative, legal, administrative and enforcement mechanisms. The impact of any potential hazard from the nuclear industry to the public and environment will be much higher. This in itself highlight the need to provide a legal framework covering all aspects of peaceful use of nuclear energy.

The legal framework in the US and France, unlike that in India, covers all aspects of the peaceful use of nuclear energy, especially through liability and compensation, public participation and transparency. The Price Anderson Act, for example, which was an amendment to the Atomic Energy Act, 1954 provides a unique system of nuclear liability coverage for power plants as well as for the transportation of nuclear materials to and from such facilities. It covers all losses of third party bodily injury and property damage off the site of the nuclear installations. Beyond the insurance cover and irrespective of fault, Congress, as insurer of last resort, can decide how compensation is provided in the event of a major accident. The 1966 Amendment to the Act provided for the establishment of an Extraordinary Nuclear Occurrence (ENO) for liability and also the concept of precautionary evacuation. The National Environment Policy Act (NEPA) and the Alien Torts Act further strengthens the legal framework.

The French Nuclear Programme, unlike that of the United States, is based on substantial involvement by the government in both the development and production of nuclear power. It has a liability cap and uses a single reactor system design for uniform safety systems. The liability constraints in France are based on a variety of international treaties. France adopted and modified both the Paris and Brussels Conventions in its Law on Third Party Liability in pursuant to the Paris Convention, Brussels Convention and Additional Protocols of 1964 and 1982. The major areas covered by the Act include summary procedure for getting compensation and a special tribunal with power given for emergency measures to the Public Prosecutors and The Examining Magistrates.

Another peculiar legislation is that concerning the democratisation of public enquiries and environmental protection to inform the public and obtain its comments, suggestions and counter proposals. The 1987 Act clarifies the pre-existing system of assistance, organisation plans and emergency plans to introduce more information about major risk with increased obligation to the operator for safety and risk. Article 1384.1 of the Code Civil provides an escape from liability only if the accident occurred due to force majeur or unforeseeable circumstances.

Legal Framework for the Use of Nuclear Energy in India

The Constitution of India includes the subject of atomic energy and its mineral resources in the Union List providing the Central Government exclusive control over nuclear energy. The Atomic Energy Act was enacted in 1948 and replaced in 1962 with an Act which empowers the Central Government and in turn to the Atomic Energy Commission, to do all things associated with the use of nuclear energy.

The Atomic Energy Act does not specifically deal with the question of compensating nuclear damage. Section 29 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1962 provides that; “No suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie against the Government or any person or authority in respect of anything done by it or him in good faith in pursuance of this Act or of any rule or order made under.”

This provision seems to confer immunity from legal action. In the case of a nuclear incident causing radiation exposure to the public and environment the Government will resist a claim of compensation and liability. With the approval of private firms in this area, the present legal framework’s ability to address these issues becomes yet more important.

Rhetorically it can be said that judicial activism in the field of Article 21, Constitution of India has expanded the concept of right to life and personal liberty. The Indian judiciary was able to develop compensatory jurisprudence based on Article 21 and principles like the absolute liability principle.

Developments related to Article 21 of the Constitution of India will limit the application of section 29 of the Atomic Energy Act conferring immunity on the government. But this must be considered in the light of the justice rendered to the victims of the Union Carbide Tragedy at Bhopal. This highlight the weakness of the present legal framework to provide liability, damages and even to bring those responsible for trial. Under the present legal framework, the impact of a major nuclear incident will be catastrophic. It will raise complex tort litigation which could take decades.

Union Carbide Gas Tragedy: Unsettled Issues

The Union Carbide tragedy at Bhopal remains an outstanding example of the failure of the judiciary, government machinery and certain sections of the civil society to provide justice to the victims as well as to future generations due to inefficiency and the lack of a proper legal framework.

The experience gained from the aftermath of Union Carbide Tragedy becomes increasingly important as India enters the nuclear foray without a proper legal framework and with an underdeveloped compensation and liability regime.

Union Carbide opened its Bhopal Plant in 1968. On the night of December 2nd -3rd 1984, methyl isocyante, hydrogen cynide and other toxic gases began to leak in substantial quantities from the pesticide factory of Union Carbide India Limited (“UCIL”) in Bhopal, India. Though government figures are lower, it was estimated that around 8,000 people died in the course of 3 days of leakage. The effects were profound on the surviving population.

The Indian government passed the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act, 1985 making itself the exclusive representative of the Bhopal victims and filed "unprecedented" claim in the United States Court against Union Carbide Corporation, the majority shareholder in UCIL. The case was unique, since India; a sovereign republic representing thousands of indigent victims was asking the United States judiciary to determine the liability of a Multinational Corporation. The Indian claim was to hold the parent corporation absolutely liable for foreign harms regardless of whether it was a subsidiary or head office that caused the harm, since the Multinational Corporation was in the best position to prevent those harms in its profit making enterprises.

Moreover India also argued that its laws were not developed to handle this mass tort litigation and the legal argument was based on three situations. Namely that 1) Indian legal system is inadequate for the litigation, 2) Union Carbide by its control of UCIL was responsible for the acts of its subsidiary and 3) there is overwhelming American interest in encouraging American multinational corporations to protect the health and well being of peoples throughout the world.

Union Carbide requested the US court to dismiss the action on the ground of Forum Non Conveniens, pleading that India was the appropriate forum.    The district court hearing the consolidated action resulting from these suits ultimately dismissed the case under the doctrine of forum non conveniens. This was upheld by the second circuit, which effectively denied the plaintiffs an opportunity to vindicate their legal rights in the U.S. federal courts. The decision by Justice Keenan reasoned that the dismissal would best serve US public interest factors.

After the case was dismissed in the U.S, the Government of India brought a $ 3 billion claim against Union Carbide in India. In the mean time the assets in India were sold and the money donated to build a hospital to treat victims. With regard to the liability of Multinational Corporations for the actions of its subsidiary, the interim order reached by the Bhopal District Court and the Madhya Pradesh High Court needs special emphasis, as it deviated from the perceptions held in Judge Keenan’s decision.

When the issue came before the Supreme Court of India, it failed to acknowledge the established legal principles. It also failed to pick up on the novel concept of treating businesses tightly interconnected as a single entity by piercing the corporate veil which was advanced by Judge Seth of Madhya Pradesh High Court. The Indian government agreed to an out-of-court settlement of $470 million USD in February 1989 as the full and final settlement of all civil liability.

There were cases challenging the constitutional validity of the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act 1985, which gave the Indian central government exclusive power to represent the victims in all legal proceedings on the grounds that it made no provision for a hearing violating natural justice. Even though the Court upheld the constitutional validity of the Act, it does not clearly distinguished the validity of the Act and the settlement judgement.

The settlement order was challenged in a review petition. On review, the Supreme Court upheld the settlement but reinstated the criminal charges against UCC, UCIL and several officers including UCC Chief Executive Officer Warren Anderson. None of the accused appeared before the Bhopal courts to face criminal trial, even though before the US District Court the UCC showed its submission to Indian Jurisdiction.  The court declared UCC, UCIL, Warren Anderson and other indicated officers as absconders from justice. But no creative step like extradition proceedings were initiated, as was the case with the extradition of the "Natwest Three" from England to face charges in the US  regarding the collapse of Enron. This demonstrates the inability of the Indian Judiciary and Government to deliver justice to the victims.

The Union Carbide never provided the information regarding the composition of the leaked gases or its impact on human and environment. The factory was abandoned leaving behind large quantities of toxic waste causing health hazards to the population around it, birth defects to even second generation of children and groundwater pollution. In 2001 Union Carbide merged with Dow Chemical making Dow Chemical the largest chemical company in the world. Dow has refused to accept the moral responsibility for the actions of Union Carbide in Bhopal. In the US there are cases still ongoing regarding its legal responsibilities. Meanwhile, the local population of Bhopal continue to suffer the contamination left behind by the disaster.

Recently the Bhopal District Court has issued an order asking U.S.-based Dow Chemical Corporation to explain why it should not be required to have its subsidiary, Union Carbide, appear to face pending charges in a criminal case relating to the 1984 gas explosion which killed thousands of Bhopal residents. To escape from the issues of legal liability the Dow Company is now trying for an out of court settlement regarding the cleaning up the UCC’s abandoned Bhopal plant, while at the same time distancing itself from the UCC’s liability.

The leakage at Bhopal provides three points namely 1) the absence of legal framework for dealing multinational corporations as it was not subject to the law of its home state (United States) or its host state (India) or to international law 2) the inability of the Indian judiciary and legal profession to handle complex tort cases and 3) the extreme delay in providing justice (in its fullest sense). Moreover it also highlights the ability of the multinational corporation to escape civil and criminal liability and at the same time its ability to lobby the government machinery for escaping from cleanup costs and to continue its business. .

Conclusion

Currently it is difficult to bring class actions under civil law and the law of torts is underdeveloped when compared with position in other states using nuclear energy. Moreover together with other issues like delay in deciding cases, restrictive approach of courts towards compensation amount, ability of the Indian legal profession to handle complex tort cases, difficulty in access to the Indian Judicial System and the need for scientific and medical evidence makes litigation in the area of nuclear damages virtually impossible for an average Indian.         

The Indian government’s approach presently focuses only on maximalising the use of nuclear energy through commercialisation. Private firms are being added into the equation without any legal framework to deal the eventualities arising out of the use of nuclear energy.

An updated legislative framework is required to accompany the policy change regarding the increased use of nuclear energy together with the entry of private companies, both domestic and international. The present plans to introduce a bill in parliament to cap the liability from potential accident does not address the other issues connected with the peaceful use of atomic energy. 

The only way the government can allay public fear regarding the use of nuclear energy is for it to introduce a comprehensive legal framework relating to the use of nuclear energy. This must meet issues of liability regime, compensation, public participation in decision making, waste disposal and environmental protection and relief and rehabilitation. Other wise the common man will be left to suffer the consequences. In the long term, the result would be violence and the kind of collapse of law and order which has resulted from opposition to mining and industrialisation in the eastern states of India.

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The Senate: Washington's cooling saucer or Washington's walk-in freezer with a sticky door that's hard to open from the inside?

It's a question FP's excellent researcher Andrew Young and I asked when he sent me this Hill article on the 290 bills that have passed the House but not the Senate this legislative session -- a list compiled and sent out by the House leadership. (After the jump, find them all, with bills with relevance to foreign policy and security in bold.)

The list is stocked with a number of important legislative provisions requiring careful consideration and debate -- most notably, the climate change bill. Foreign policy and security-wise, big bills include the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 (currently being reviewed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) and the TSA Authorizations Act.   

But the list is also chock full with bills that seem silly to require the Senate to pass, given the dearth of floor time. There are scores of measures relating to Native Americans, for instance -- not because the Senate is neglecting that minority group, but because so much legislation relating to tribal lands and funds goes through the Senate. There are more than a dozen acts naming post offices and federal courts; measures like H.R. 1442, allowing the federal government to sell its interest in 60 acres near Salt Lake; one about a "collapsed drainage tunnel in Leadville, Colorado"; and tons of bills, sigh, regarding animals, like sea otters.

Then again, it only seems like too much to ask the Senate to rubber stamp such measures because everything is too much for a Senate these days. Even non-controversial motions (say, approving career service officers as ambassadors to small countries) are subject to holds, filibusters, and other procedural delays -- meaning relatively little legislation is taken up.

[[BREAK]]

1. H.R. 12: The Paycheck Fairness Act

2. H.R. 20: The Melanie Blocker Stokes Mom's Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act

3. H.R. 22: The U.S. Postal Service Financial Relief Act

4. H.R. 23: The Belated Thank You to the Merchant Mariners of World War II Act

5. H.R. 31: The Lumbee Recognition Act

6. H.R. 35: The Presidential Records Act Amendments

7. H.R. 36: The Presidential Library Donation Reform Act

8. H.R. 44: The Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act

9. H.R. 46: The Family Self Sufficiency Act

10. H.R. 80: The Captive Primate Safety Act

11. H.R. 81: The Shark Conservation Act

12. H.R. 86: The Regarding California Coastal National Monument

13. H.R. 118: The Regarding Morristown National Historical Park

14. H.R. 129: The Conveying Certain National Forest System Lands in Los Padres National Forest in California

15. H.R. 151: The Daniel Webster Congressional Clerkship Act

16. H.R. 174: The Establishing a national cemetery for veterans in the southern Colorado region

17. H.R. 310: The HALE Scouts Act

18. H.R. 320: The CJ's Home Protection Act

19. H.R. 324: The Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area Act

20. H.R. 325: The Avra/Black Wash Reclamation and Riparian Restoration Project

21. H.R. 326: The Cocopah Lands Act

22. H.R. 347: The Congressional Gold Medal for 100th Infantry Battalion in World War II

23. H.R. 384: The TARP Reform and Accountability Act

24. H.R. 388: The Crane Conservation Act

25. H.R. 402: The Naming William C. Tallent Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic

26. H.R. 403: The Homes for Heroes Act

27. H.R. 409: The Conveying Land to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway

28. H.R. 411: The Great Cats and Rare Canids Act

29. H.R. 445: The Heavy Duty Hybrid Vehicle Research: The Development and Demonstration Act

30. H.R. 448: The Elder Abuse Victims Act

31. H.R. 466: The Wounded Veteran Job Security Act

32. H.R. 469: The Produced Water Utilization Act

33. H.R. 479: The Wakefield Act

34. H.R. 509: The Marine Turtle Conservation Reauthorization Act

35. H.R. 511: Terminating Certain Easements in Caseyville, Illinois

36. H.R. 515: The Radioactive Import Deterrence Act

37. H.R. 548: The Civil War Battlefield Preservation Act

38. H.R. 549: The National Bombing Prevention Act

39. H.R. 553: The Reducing Over-Classification Act

40. H.R. 554: The National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act

41. H.R. 556: The Southern Sea Otter Recovery and Research Act

42. H.R. 559: Fair, Accurate, Secure, and Timely Redress Act

43. H.R. 577: The Vision Care for Kids Act

44. H.R. 601: The Box Elder Utah Land Conveyance Act

45. H.R. 603: The Utah National Guard Readiness Act

46. H.R. 626: The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act

47. H.R. 628: Encouraging enhancement of expertise in patent cases among district judges

48. H.R. 631: The Water Use Efficiency and Conservation Research Act

49. H.R. 632: Encouraging Silver Alert Plans

50. H.R. 637: The South Orange County Recycled Water Enhancement Act

51. H.R. 685: The United States Civil Rights Trail Special Resource Study Act

52. H.R. 689: Interchange administrative jurisdiction of certain federal lands between Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management

53. H.R. 714: Authorizing lease of certain lands in Virgin Islands National Park

54. H.R. 725: The Indian Arts and Crafts Amendments Act

55. H.R. 729: The Phylicia's Law

56. H.R. 738: The Death in Custody Reporting Act

57. H.R. 748: The CAMPUS Safety Act

58. H.R. 749: The Technical Amendment to Federal Election Campaign Act

59. H.R. 756: The National Pain Care Policy Act

60. H.R. 762: Validating a final patent number

61. H.R. 780: The Student Internet Safety Act

62. H.R. 842: Naming R. Jess Brown U.S. Courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi

63. H.R. 844: The Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Amendments

64. H.R. 860: The Coral Reef Conservation Act Reauthorization

65. H.R. 869: Naming Scott Reed Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Lexington, Kentucky

66. H.R. 885: The Improved Financial and Commodity Markets Oversight and Accountability Act

67. H.R. 887: Naming James A. Leach U.S. Courthouse in Davenport, Iowa

68. H.R. 905: The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve Boundary Modification Act

69. H.R. 908: The Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program Reauthorization

70. H.R. 911: The Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act

71. H.R. 915: The FAA Reauthorization Act

72. H.R. 934: Conveying certain submerged lands to Commonwealth of Mariana Islands

73. H.R. 940: Conveyance of certain National Forest System land in Louisiana

74. H.R. 957: The Green Energy Education Act

75. H.R. 965: The Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network Continuing Authorization Act

76. H.R. 985: The Free Flow of Information Act

77. H.R. 1002: The Pisgah National Forest Boundary Adjustment Act

78. H.R. 1018: The Restore Our American Mustangs Act

79. H.R. 1029: The Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act

80. H.R. 1043: The Deafy Glade Land Exchange Act

81. H.R. 1044: The Port Chicago Naval Magazine

82. H.R. 1053: The Chesapeake Bay Accountability and Recovery Act

83. H.R. 1065: The White Mountain Apache Tribe Water Rights Quantification Act

84. H.R. 1080: Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Enforcement Act

85. H.R. 1084: The CALM Act

86. H.R. 1088: The Mandatory Veteran Specialist Training Act

87. H.R. 1089: The Veterans Employment Rights Realignment Act

88. H.R. 1107: Relating to certain public contracts

89. H.R. 1110: The PHONE Act

90. H.R. 1120: The Central Texas Water Recycling Act

91. H.R. 1121: The Blue Ridge Parkway and Town of Blowing Rock Land Exchange Act

92. H.R. 1129: Authorizing iron working training program for Native Americans

93. H.R. 1139: The COPS Improvements Act

94. H.R. 1145: The National Water Research and Development Initiative Act

95. H.R. 1147: The Local Community Radio Act

96. H.R. 1148: Conducting a program in the maritime environment for the mobile biometric identification of suspected individuals to enhance border security

97. H.R. 1168: The Veterans Retraining Act

98. H.R. 1170: The New Assistive Technologies for Specially Adapted Housing

99. H.R. 1171: Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Reauthorization

100. H.R. 1172: Requiring List on VA Website of Organizations Providing Scholarships for Veterans

101. H.R. 1178: Requiring a study on the use of Civil Air Patrol personnel and resources to support homeland security missions

102. H.R. 1211: The Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act

103. H.R. 1216: Naming Lance Corporal Matthew P. Pathenos Post Office in Chesterfield, Missouri

104. H.R. 1217: Naming Specialist Peter J. Navarro Post Office in Ballwin, Missouri

105. H.R. 1218: Naming Lance Corporal Drew W. Weaver Post Office in Saint Charles, Missouri

106. H.R. 1219: The Lake Hodges Surface Water Improvement and Reclamation Act

107. H.R. 1242: Providing for additional monitoring and accountability of the TARP

108. H.R. 1246: The Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act

109. H.R. 1253: The Health Insurance Restrictions and Limitations Clarification Act

110. H.R. 1259: The Dextromethorphan Distribution Act

111. H.R. 1262: The Water Quality Investment Act

112. H.R. 1280: Modifying a Land Grant Issued by the Secretary of the Interior

113. H.R. 1287: The Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center Partnership Act

114. H.R. 1293: The Disabled Veterans Home Improvement and Structural Alteration Grant Increase Act

115. H.R. 1319: The Informed P2P User Act

116. H.R. 1323: The Reducing Information Control Designations Act

117. H.R. 1327: The Iran Sanctions Enabling Act

118. H.R. 1333: Regarding shipment of certain explosive materials to federally recognized Indian tribes

119. H.R. 1345: The District of Columbia Hatch Act Reform

120. H.R. 1376: The Waco Mammoth National Monument Establishment Act

121. H.R. 1380: The Josh Miller HEARTS Act

122. H.R. 1385: The Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act

123. H.R. 1393: The Lower Rio Grande Valley Water Resources Conservation and Improvement Act

124. H.R. 1404: The Federal Land Assistance: The Management and Enhancement (FLAME. Act

125. H.R. 1429: The Stop AIDS in Prison Act

126. H.R. 1442: Providing for sale of federal government's interest in 60 acres of land in Salt Lake City, Utah

127. H.R. 1454: The Multinational Species Conservation Funds Semipostal Stamp Act

128. H.R. 1471: Designating Jimmy Carter National Historic Site as a National Historical Park

129. H.R. 1511: The Torture Victims Relief Reauthorization Act

130. H.R. 1517: Relating to certain U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees

131. H.R. 1580: The Electronic Waste Research and Development Act

132. H.R. 1586: To impose an additional tax on bonuses received from certain TARP recipients

133. H.R. 1593: Adding a segment of Illabot Creek in State of Washington to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System

134. H.R. 1617: Department of Homeland Security Component Privacy Officer Act

135. H.R. 1622: R&D on Natural Gas Vehicles

136. H.R. 1641: The Cascadia Marine Trail Study Act

137. H.R. 1662: The Anthony DeJuan Boatwright Act

138. H.R. 1664: Regarding executive compensation practices of companies receiving TARP funds

139. H.R. l665: Coast Guard Acquisition Reform

140. H.R. 1672: The Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Initiative Reauthorization

141. H.R. 1674: The National Consumer Cooperative Bank Act Amendments

142. H.R. 1675: The Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act

143. H.R. 1676: The PACT Act

144. H.R. 1679: The House Reservists Pay Adjustment Act

145. H.R. 1694: The Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Battlefield Protection Act

146. H.R. 1700: The National Women's History Museum Act

147. H.R. 1709: The STEM Education Coordination Act

148. H.R. 1727: The Managing Arson Through Criminal History (MATCH) Act

149. H.R. 1728: The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act

150. H.R. 1736: The International Science and Technology Cooperation Act

151. H.R. 1741: The Witness Security and Protection Grant Program Act

152. H.R. 1746: The Pre-Disaster Mitigation Act

153. H.R. 1747: The Great Lakes Icebreaker Replacement Act

154. H.R. 1771: The Chesapeake Bay Science Education and Ecosystem Enhancement Act

155. H.R. 1803: The Veterans Business Center Act

156. H.R. 1804: The Federal Retirement Reform Act

157. H.R. 1807: The Educating Entrepreneurs through Today's Technology Act

158. H.R. 1824: The Best Buddies Empowerment for People with Intellectual Disabilities Act

159. H.R. 1834: The Native American Business Development Enhancement Act

160. H.R. 1838: The Amending Small Business Act to modify certain provisions regarding women's business centers

161. H.R. 1839: To amend the Small Business Act to improve SCORE

162. H.R. 1842: The Expanding Entrepreneurship Act

163. H.R. 1845: The Small Business Development Centers Modernization Act

164. H.R. 1849: The Medal of Honor Commemorative Coin Act

165. H.R. 1854: Modifying an environmental infrastructure project for Big Bear Lake, California

166. H.R. 1858: Providing for a boundary adjustment for Roosevelt National Forest in Colorado

167. H.R. 1933: The A Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act

168. H.R. 1945: The Tule River Tribe Water Development Act

169. H.R. 2020: The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act

170. H.R. 2034: The Rural Homeowners Protection Act

171. H.R. 2062: The Migratory Bird Treaty Act Penalty and Enforcement Act

172. H.R. 2092: The Kingman and Heritage Islands Act

173. H.R. 2093: The Clean Coastal Environment and Public Health Act

174. H.R. 2097: The Star-Spangled Banner Bicentennial Commemorative Coin Act

175. H.R. 2134: The Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission Act

176. H.R. 2173: Naming Carl B. Smith Post Office in Island Falls, Maine

177. H.R. 2174: Naming Clyde Hichborn Post Office in Howland, Maine

178. H.R. 2182: The Enhanced Oversight of State and Local Economic Recovery Act

179. H.R. 2187: The 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act

180. H.R. 2188: The Joint Ventures for Bird Habitat Conservation Act

181. H.R. 2200: The Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act

182. H.R. 2221: The Data Accountability and Trust Act

183. H.R. 2247: The Congressional Review Act Improvement Act

184. H.R. 2265: The Magna Water District Water Reuse and Groundwater Recharge Act

185. H.R. 2278: Directing President to submit a report to Congress a report on anti-American incitement to violence in the Middle East

186. H.R. 2330: The Camp Hale Study Act

187. H.R. 2352: The Job Creation Through Entrepreneurship Act

188. H.R. 2410: The Foreign Relations Authorization Act FY 2010 and FY 2011

189. H.R. 2423: The Naming George P. Kazen Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Laredo, Texas

190. H.R. 2430: Directing the Secretary of Interior to continue stocking fish in certain lakes

191. H.R. 2442: The Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program Expansion

192. H.R. 2454: The American Clean Energy and Security Act

193. H.R. 2489: The National Land Remote Sensing Outreach Act

194. H.R. 2510: Absentee Ballot Track Receive and Confirm Act

195. H.R. 2522: Regarding Calleguas Municipal Water District Recycling Project

196. H.R. 2529: The Neighborhood Preservation Act

197. H.R. 2571: The Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act

198. H.R. 2611: Authorizing the Securing the Cities Initiative of the Department of Homeland Security

199. H.R. 2623: Clarifying and expanding the definition of certain persons under the federal securities law

200. H.R. 2646: The Government Accountability Office Improvement Act

201. H.R. 2651: The Maritime Workforce Development Act

202. H.R. 2661: The Court Security Act

203. H.R. 2664: The Promoting Transparency in Financial Reporting Act

204. H.R. 2711: The Special Agent Samuel Hicks Families of Fallen Heroes Act

205. H.R. 2728: The William Orton Law Library Improvement and Modernization Act

206. H.R. 2729: Authorizing designation of National Environmental Research Parks

207. H.R. 2741: Regarding water recycling and reuse project in Hermiston, Oregon

208. H.R. 2749: The Food Safety Enhancement Act

209. H.R. 2751: The Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act

210. H.R. 2765: Prohibiting enforcement of foreign defamation judgments against the providers of interactive computer services

211. H.R. 2770: The Veterans Nonprofit Research and Education Corporations Enhancement Act

212. H.R. 2781: Designating segment of Molalla River in Oregon as part of National Wild and Scenic Rivers System

213. H.R. 2802: Regarding the Adams Memorial Foundation

214. H.R. 2806: Adjusting border of Stephen Mather Wilderness and the North Cascades National Park

215. H.R. 2843: The Architect of the Capitol Appointment Act

216. H.R. 2847: The Jobs for Main Street Act

217. H.R. 2868: The Chemical and Water Security Act

218. H.R. 2873: The Enhanced SEC Enforcement Authority Act

219. H.R. 2947: The Securities Law Technical Corrections Act

220. H.R. 2950: Regarding prepayment of contracts between U.S. and Uintah Water Conservancy District

221. H.R. 2971: Naming Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Post Office in Portland, Oregon

222. H.R. 2990: The Disabled Military Retiree Relief Act

223. H.R. 3014: The Small Business Health Information Technology Financing Act

224. H.R. 3029: Improving Efficiency of Gas Turbines

225. H.R. 3113: The Upper Elk River Wild and Scenic Study Act

226. H.R. 3123: Regarding collapsed drainage tunnel in Leadville, Colorado

227. H.R. 3137: Regarding authority of U.S. Postal Service to accept donations as an additional source of funding for commemorative plaques

228. H.R. 3157: Naming Max J. Beilke Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Alexandria, Minnesota

229. H.R. 3165: The Wind Energy Research and Development Act

230. H.R. 3175: The Conveying to Miami-Dade County certain federally owned land in Florida

231. H.R. 3179: The SIG TARP Small Business Awareness Act

232. H.R. 3193: Naming Alto Lee Adams U.S. Courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida

233. H.R. 3219: The Veterans' Insurance and Health Care Improvements Act

234. H.R. 3221: The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act

235. H.R. 3224: Building a vehicle maintenance building for Smithsonian Institution

236. H.R. 3237: Enacting certain laws relating to national and commercial space programs

237. H.R. 3246: The Advanced Vehicle Technology Act

238. H.R. 3250: Naming Private First Class Garfield M. Langhorn Post Office in Riverhead, New York

239. H.R. 3254: The Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act

240. H.R. 3269: The Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act

241. H.R. 3276: The American Medical Isotopes Production Act

242. H.R. 3305: Naming H. Dale Cook Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Tulsa, Oklahoma

243. H.R. 3330: The Improved Oversight by Financial Inspectors General Act

244. H.R. 3342: The Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act

245. H.R. 3360: The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act

246. H.R. 3371: The Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act

247. H.R. 3388: The Petersburg National Battlefield Boundary Modification Act

248. H.R. 3433: Regarding payment of non-federal share of costs of wetland conservation projects in Canada

249. H.R. 3476: The Reauthorizing the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Citizen Advisory Commission

250. H.R. 3527: The FHA Multifamily Loan Limit Adjustment Act

251. H.R. 3537: The Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program Reauthorization Act

252. H.R. 3570: The Satellite Home Viewer Reauthorization Act

253. H.R. 3585: The Solar Technology Roadmap Act

254. H.R. 3598: The Energy and Water Research Integration Act

255. H.R. 3603: The Renaming the Ocmulgee National Monument

256. H.R. 3618: The Clean Hull Act

257. H.R. 3619: The Coast Guard Authorization Act

258. H.R. 3631: The Medicare Premium Fairness Act

259. H.R. 3632: The Federal Judiciary Administrative Improvements Act

260. H.R. 3634: Naming George Kell Post Office in Swifton, Arkansas

261. H.R. 3639: The Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act

261. H.R. 3689: Extending legislative authority of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

262. H.R. 3714: The Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act

263. H.R. 3726: The Castle Nugent National Historic Site Establishment Act

264. H.R. 3737: The Small Business Microlending Expansion Act

265. H.R. 3738: The Small Business Early-Stage Investment Act

266. H.R. 3743: The Small Business Disaster Readiness and Reform Act

267. H.R. 3759: The BLM Contract Extension Act

268. H.R. 3763: Certain amendments to Fair Credit Reporting Act

269. H.R. 3791: The Fire Grants Reauthorization Act

270. H.R. 3804: The National Park Service Authorities and Corrections Act

271. H.R. 3854: The Small Business Financing and Investment Act

272. H.R. 3892: Naming E.V. Wilkins Post Office in Roper, North Carolina

273. H.R. 3940: Facilitating public education programs in the non-self-governing territories of the United States

274. H.R. 3949: The Veterans' Small Business Assistance and Servicemembers Protection Act

275. H.R. 3951: Naming Roy Rondeno Sr. Post Office in New Orleans, Louisiana

276. H.R. 3961: The Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act

277. H.R. 3963: The Criminal Investigative Training Restoration Act

278. H.R. 3978: The First Responder Anti-Terrorism Training Resources Act

279. H.R. 3980: The Redundancy Elimination and Enhanced Performance for Preparedness Grants Act

280. H.R. 4017: Naming Ann Marie Blute Post Office in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts

281. H.R. 4061: The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act

282. H.R. 4095: Naming Congresswoman Jan Meyers Post Office in Overland, Kansas

283. H.R. 4139: Naming Sergeant Matthew L. Ingram Post Office in Hickory, Mississippi

284. H.R. 4154: The Permanent Estate Tax Relief for Families, Farmers, and Small Businesses Act

285. H.R. 4173: The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

286. H.R. 4194: The Law Student Clinic Participation Act

287. H.R. 4213: The Tax Extenders Act

288. H.R. 4474: The Idaho Wilderness Water Facilities Act

289. H.R. 4495: Naming Jim Kolbe Post Office in Patagonia, Arizona

290. H.R.4532: The Social Security Disability Applicant's Access to Professional Representation Act

Just watched Rawnsley on Newsnight, with John Prescott, David Steele, Roy Hatterslea and Danny Finklestein. The politicians were just awful, pompous and attempting to be dismissive. "What matters to voters are the issues, not how politicians behave!" Bah. 

Bullygate matters in at least two respects, political and personal. The political question concerns Labour's calculation to play the personality card in the first place. The personal one is whether or not Brown is becoming disqualified from continuing in office

1. It was the Labour spin doctors who decided to play Brown's character card. They put him onto television to talk about the death of his daughter and show what a nice person he is. They decided to project him as the kind of person you would like to know personally and feel good about having as Prime Minister. Perhaps he wanted to be admired in the way that Blair could be. Bad mistake. When Mandelson complains that the story of Brown's bullying is "politics" you have to laugh. What Labour should have done was spin Brown as being worse than he is. "God, he is tough to work for, you certainly don't want him on a personality show!" should have been their line. The Thatcher approach: he is a monster but he's our monster, full of conviction and self-belief would have been a far better approach. The problem with this, however, is the conviction question: Brown's U turn on regulation of the city, his responsibility for the Banking crisis, his dithering and his inability to take decisions.

2. The personal question is not whether Brown has a temper or can be a bully (who hasn't hurled a glass across a room when under stress?). The question is whether or not he is going somewhat mad. Downing Street does this to people. I've written about this issue before. Blair was clearly filled with delusion. Thatcher is said to have gone balmy towards the end, in her "No, No, No" days. In Strange Days Indeed Francis Wheen describes how Sir William Armstrong when head of the civil service in 1974, "stripped off his clothes and lay on the floor, chain-smoking and expostulating widly about the collapse of democracy and the end of the world." The next day, after he told a meeting of the permanent secrataries to "prepare for Armageddon", he was taken off to a mental asylum.

All ended well, however, Wheen observes, "after a decent interval, he became chairman of the Midland Bank." People are human. They can recover from the effect of extreme stress and the delusions of running 'Great Britain'. Delusions that I hinted at in my post on Mandelson's claim that he and Brown are "running the country".

Only last week Brown speaking to the Progressive Governance Conference Brown said:

so here are my proposals;

I believe first of all that we now need nothing short of a world constitution for the global financial system

It must be, to say the least, disturbing, to advocate this without a scintilla of modesty and then find that the papers are asking whether or not you throw staplers at your staff.

oD-wide classification

Country: 

UK

Topics: 

Democracy and government

The goal for the United States District Court for the District of Oregon is to strengthen its information
technology team by hiring a desktop systems administrator to support all aspects of end-user
computing. This position requires a computer expert with strong technical and interpersonal skills.
This position is located in the clerk's office in Portland, Oregon. The information technology team
supports more than 150 staff in 3 offices, with a suite of computer tools that includes Linux, NetWare
and Windows servers, Informix and MySQL data base management, TCP/IP local- and wide-area
networking, Microsoft Windows workstations, Lotus Notes E-mail, Corel WordPerfect, and a wide
variety of other hardware and software. The team also supports telecommunications, extensive A/V
systems, and various office equipment.
The incumbent must: (1) have a thorough knowledge of networked Microsoft Windows workstations
and have accumulated extensive experience in testing, configuration, troubleshooting, and repairing
the full range of end-user computing devices; (2) be comfortable and highly skilled in working with
computer users, learning what matters to them, and helping them make optimal use of computing tools;
and (3) be able to document solutions to problems and share knowledge with other technical staff.
The Court requires strength in the following areas:

Software
Windows XP/Vista/7
Lotus Notes
Corel WordPerfect
Mozilla Firefox
Adobe Acrobat

Hardware
Intel and AMD workstations
Laser and label printers
Monitors, keyboards, mice
Cable management

Systems Skills
User Support
Training
Troubleshooting
Documenting

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Plans and implements desktop system configuration design and updates. Ensures that
desktop systems smoothly interoperate with all relevant judiciary and external systems
and services.
Analyzes user needs. Researches alternatives, and proposes solutions. Coordinates
hardware and software system installation and monitors equipment functioning to ensure
specifications are met.
Responds to help desk calls and e-mails, and logs computer problems. Providing both
primary and, in some cases, second-tier support, resolves routine and unusually tough
problems, including those that have been referred/escalated by peers. Provides
information and assistance to users of common applications such as E-mail, word
processing and data entry, as well as the full range of other application software.
Develops and delivers training programs to assist court staff in improving computer
skills and learning how to make best use of new or upgraded application and operating
software, working both one-on-one and for groups. Creates quick-reference guides to
reinforce learning.
Maintains contact with other information technology court personnel at different
locations and levels for the purpose of keeping abreast of developments, techniques, and
user programs. Monitors day-to-day operations of the equipment and systems. Acts as
the technical expert in solving computer system problems.
Occasional travel and after-hours work is required.

QUALIFICATIONS
Minimum Qualifications: To be eligible for appointment, a candidate must be a high school
graduate or equivalent and have one of the following:
Three years of specialized experience*, including at least one year equivalent to work at the
CL-24 level
or
Completion of the requirements for a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or
university and one of the following superior academic achievement requirements:

An overall "B" college grade point average equaling 2.9 or better out of a
possible 4.0.

Standing in the upper third of the class.

3.5 average or better in the major field of study.

Election to membership in Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi or one of the National
Honorary Scholastic Societies meeting the minimum requirements of the
Association of College Honor Societies, other than Freshman Honor Societies.
or
Completion of one academic year (18 semester or 27 quarter hours) of graduate study in an
accredited university in computer science or another field closely related to the subject matter
of the position.

Desirable Qualifications: Completion of a bachelor's degree in computer science, information
technology, or a related field.

*Specialized experience is defined as progressively responsible experience designing, implementing
or maintaining computer systems that included the completion of computer project assignments
involving systems analysis, computer programming, systems integration, and information technology
project management.

Candidates must also demonstrate:
Experience in dealing with routine and complex assignments and a demonstrated ability to
think through, analyze, and interpret written communications, together with skill in
prioritizing tasks and work assignments;

Superior oral and written communications skills;

Strong inter-personal skills;

A professional demeanor and appearance appropriate for a professional office environment;
and
A consistent attendance record.

SALARY RANGE
CL 25 - 27 ($39,998 - $78,674), with a starting range depending upon the qualifications and
experience of the successful applicant. Employees of the United States Courts are not included in the government's Civil Service
classification. They are, however, entitled to the same benefits as other federal government
employees. Some of these benefits are:
• Full-time employees accrue 13 days of paid vacation per year for the first 3 years of
employment up to a maximum of 26 days per year at the 15-year anniversary.
• Participation in a retirement program with optional participation in the federal government's
deferred compensation program, the Thrift Savings Plan.
• Optional participation in a federal health insurance plan of your choice.
• Optional participation in supplemental insurance programs, including group long-term care,
group long-term disability insurance program, dental, and vision insurance programs.
• Optional participation in the flexible spending account program for unreimbursed medical,
dental, and vision expenses, dependent care expenses, and commuter expenses.
• A minimum of 10 paid holidays per year.
• Time-in-service credit for employees of other federal agencies, as well as time for those with
prior military service, for determining leave accrual and retirement benefits.

HOW TO APPLY
To apply, submit a letter of interest and chronological résumé, together with an Application for
Federal Employment and a list of three references to the address below or E-mail these items,
all in PDF format, to hr2@ord.uscourts.gov. These items must arrive at the Court no later than
4:30 p.m. PST on Monday, March 8, 2010. Application forms are available on the court's
website at ord.uscourts.gov in fillable format. These forms are also available at the Portland
Clerk's Office (see address below). Please type or print all information and sign and date forms
where indicated. Incomplete packets and those submitted after the deadline date will not be
considered. Verification of employment, education, and reference checks will be made prior to
any offer of employment.

Address for U.S. Mail applications:
DESKTOP SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR
Office of the Clerk
Human Resources Division
United States District Court
1000 SW Third Avenue, Suite 740
Portland, Oregon 97204

The court provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities. If you need
reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process, please notify the
Human Resources Division of the Clerk's Office at 503/326-8165. Determinations on requests
for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
Employees of the United States Courts serve under “Excepted Appointments” and are
considered “at will” employees. As such, employment can be terminated at any time.
Furthermore, Federal Civil Service classifications do not apply.
Duty station assignments are at the sole discretion of the Clerk of Court.
This position is subject to mandatory participation in electronic funds transfer (EFT) for
payment of net pay (i.e., direct deposit). (Limited exceptions are available upon request.)
Pursuant to the Immigration Reform Act of 1986, federal government employees must be
citizens of the United States or citizens of countries with whom the United States has treaty
relations, as defined by the United States Department of State. Appointment is contingent
upon providing proof of being legally eligible to work in and for the United States.
The following conditions apply to candidates for positions with the United States District Court:
False statements or omissions of information on any application materials or the inability to
meet conditions of employment may be grounds for non-selection, withdrawal of an offer of
employment, or dismissal after being employed.
An FBI background check is required for all individuals appointed to positions in the Clerk's
Office. New employees are considered "provisional hires" pending the successful completion
of the FBI background check.
The Court reserves the right to modify the conditions of this job announcement or to
withdraw the announcement entirely, either of which may occur without prior written or other
notice.
All information is subject to verification and background investigation.
If selected for a first-time appointment to a position in the District of Oregon, you may be
required to complete a probationary period of employment. Failure to successfully complete
the probationary period may result in termination of employment.
In the event a position becomes vacant in a similar classification within a reasonable time of
the original announcement, the Clerk of Court may select an appointee from the candidates
who responded to the initial announcement without posting the vacancy.

U.S. DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF OREGON
The United States District Court for the District of Oregon is a federal trial court within the
Judicial Branch of the federal government. The District's geographic jurisdiction covers an area
in excess of 96,000 square miles and encompasses the state of Oregon.
The District Court consists of six district judgeships, six senior district judges, six magistrate
judgeships, three recalled magistrate judges, and one part-time magistrate judgeship; the Office
of the Clerk of Court; the U.S. Probation Office; the U.S. Pretrial Services Office; and the U.S.
Public Defender's Office. The headquarters for the Court are located in Portland with additional staffed offices in Eugene
and Medford. The Clerk's Office, under the direction of the Clerk of Court, serves as the primary
administrative office for the District and employs a staff of approximately 65 deputy clerks. The
Clerk's Office is responsible for a wide variety of administrative functions including: case
administration, courtroom and juror services, record management, appeals processing, human
resources and development, budgetary and financial operations, space and facilities
management, information technology; and property and procurement.
THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF OREGON
IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

     Salt runs in the veins of language. There are reminders everywhere of salt’s former glory. The word “salary” is derived from salt (Roman soldiers were paid in salt), and salt is at the root of “sauce”, “salsa” and “salad”.

     Ancient wars were waged over the control of salt.

     Today, a modern war on salt—salt reduction—is looming in the horizon. And for good reason.

     While salt is a dietary mineral we can’t live without, most of us take in two or three times the daily recommended upper limit of salt. Extra salt is typically sneaking into our meals unnoticed through processed and restaurant foods—and too much salt threatens the health of many people.

     Recently, New York City’s mayor Michael Bloomberg announced an initiative encouraging food manufacturers and restaurant chains to reduce salt in their products by 25 percent over the next five years.     His call joins the voices of many health advocates: For example, in 2007, the American Medical Association (AMA) published a report calling for a major reduction in the salt content of processed and restaurant foods. They’ve been urging the FDA to revoke salt’s “generally recognized as safe” classification and to develop regulatory measures that limit the amount of sodium used in processed and restaurant foods.

      But let’s start with a few words of respect for salt, because I’d hate to see salt described as the new villain, on par with cigarettes and trans-fats.

In defense of salt

     Like anyone who loves food and spends lots of time cooking, salt is one of my (little) friends. Salt is the primordial condiment—it is absolutely essential to cooking and flavoring. Salt enhances and modifies other flavors and is indispensable in the traditional preparation of many foods, including bread, cheese and pickles.

     Salt also is an essential mineral that our body absolutely needs to function properly, albeit in very small amounts. Sodium is needed for fluid balance, nerve transmission and muscle function; it helps many organs work properly.

     Our fondness of salt is probably innate, and has served us well as a species. Salt is an essential nutrient that was very rare until modern times, so having a biological cue to seek salt was a good thing. However, the preference for certain levels of saltiness is acquired and isn’t fixed. Repeated exposure to higher levels of salt habituates our taste receptors to seek saltier foods.

How much salt do we need?

     Chemistry time: Table salt is sodium chloride, a combination of one chlorine atom for each atom of sodium. Every gram of salt is 40 percent sodium. (The conversion formula of sodium to salt is milligrams of sodium X 2.5 = milligrams of salt.)

     The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends we consume “less than 2,300 mg (approximately 1 teaspoon of salt) of sodium per day.” For African Americans, older people or people with hypertension the advice is to consume no more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day.

     But in terms of what our bodies require, there’s a far lower limit: unless we’re running in sweltering heat we need only about 500 mg of sodium daily, which is very, very little.

     Contrast this with what you’ll get in a Burger King Whopper with cheese: 1,450 mg of sodium. And that’s in just one part of one meal.     A Caesar salad with grilled chicken at McDonalds packs 1,390 mg of sodium. Dunkin’ Donuts’ breakfast egg and cheese on a bagel gives you 1,120 mg sodium when your day has hardly begun.

     Science in the Public Interest paints a worrisome picture with their sodium chart.

Where’s all the extra salt coming from?

     Roughly 10 percent of the salt in our diet comes from the salt we add ourselves (the salt we season with while cooking or sprinkle at the table) and 10 percent is naturally occurring. The vast majority of salt—amounting to about 80 percent of daily intake—comes from processed foods.

     Salt is added to processed foods to achieve a (very salty) taste profile. In many situations adding salt is what makes cheap, un-tasty food palatable. Salt also is added for stability and preservation reasons. But the amount of salt added is clearly above and beyond what’s required for the safety and function of the food supply.

     The simple math leads to the conclusion that going easy with the salt shaker is hardly going to put a dent in the unhealthy amount of salt in the typical American diet.

     It’s also hard to trust our taste buds when salt is involved. Some foods taste quite salty because the salt is on the surface, while other sodium-saturated dishes don’t taste salty at all because other flavors and textures (namely, lots of fat and sugars) cover up the salt.

The health risks of excessive salt

     The amount of salt in modern diets is having a profound effect on our collective health.

     Our kidneys generally excrete extra sodium, but this mechanism isn’t perfect; too much sodium can cause or aggravate hypertension in some people. Roughly a quarter of Americans have hypertension.

     The evidence connecting higher intakes of salt to higher blood pressure is pretty strong, and relies on many types of studies, including studies that neatly take away the possibility that people who eat lots of salt might have other lifestyle and diet variables that cause blood pressure to rise. Studies comparing two Nigerian rural communities, identical in all but the fact that one community had access to a salt lake and the other community did not, showed that higher intakes of salt tend to result in higher blood pressure. Similar studies of the Iranian Qash’qai and Pacific Island communities showed similar results. Several treatment trials have shown that a reduction in salt reduced blood pressure.     High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. It therefore makes sense to assume that high salt intakes will increase the risk of stroke and heart disease, and studies support this link.

     A new paper in the New England Journal of Medicine used computer models to predict the effect of relatively small reductions in salt intake on Americans’ health and found that if everyone consumed half a teaspoon less salt per day, there would be between 54,000 and 99,000 fewer heart attacks each year, between 32,000 and 66,000 fewer strokes and between 44,000 and 92,000 fewer deaths. This small change could save from $10 billion to $24 billion in health care costs annually!

A call to reduce salt in processed food--worldwide

     Since 80 percent of the salt in the American diet comes from processed food, the effective way to reduce salt consumption is by reducing the—really high—salt content of restaurant and processed foods.

     In fact, a program quite similar to New York City’s proposed one was initiated by the British government in 2003-2004, and has already achieved a 20-30 percent reduction in the sodium content of processed foods, and further gradual reductions are on the way. Finland has a systematic approach for salt reduction, and foods high in salt carry a high salt warning. Portugal recently approved a law restricting the sodium content of processed foods. The European Union has salt-reduction initiatives underway with reformulation of processed foods as a major priority.

     These public health initiatives are a sensible idea, and it’s good to see similar efforts finally underway in the US.

     An editorial accompanying the NEJM article calls for implementing policies to reduce the salt content of processed food, describing these actions as “inexpensive, yet highly effective public health intervention for the prevention of disease.”

     We can take simple steps to monitor and limit our own salt consumption:

• Select processed foods with less sodium. This could be painful; keeping count of sodium isn’t a practical or enjoyable way to eat. But we can pay attention to the amount of salt in processed foods and make low-sodium choices whenever possible.

• Reduce the amount of prepared and highly processed food we eat (as if we needed another reason to do just that). The best way to control our salt content is by preparing our own food.  

     Kudos to New York City for—once again—being the trailblazer in public health; I think we’ll be hearing a lot more about salt very soon!

Allrecipes, the world’s largest social network of food and entertaining enthusiasts, receives more than 35 million annual unique visits from users who share and download recipes, reviews, photos, personal profiles, and meal ideas.

For more than 10 years, the Seattle-based site has served as a dynamic, indispensable resource for cooks of all skill levels seeking trusted recipes, entertaining ideas, everyday and holiday meal solutions, practical cooking tips and food advice. As the fastest-growing independent food Internet site, and part of the Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. Food & Entertaining Division, Allrecipes provides insights into the kitchens and cooking passions of home cooks everywhere. For additional information regarding Allrecipes, please visit www.Allrecipes.com

To apply, please send cover letter and resume via email to jobs@allrecipes.com

Summary

Allrecipes.com is seeking a creative, detail-oriented technical writer with a passion for food and in-depth knowledge of Polish food and culture.

Responsibilities include:
• Editing community submitted and professional recipes;
• Writing email newsletters.
• Selecting featured content for Allrecipes Poland site.
• Help to localize product updates.
• Translating recipes and other content.

Required Skills and Experience

• Bilingual in Polish and English
• Extensive Polish food knowledge including familiarity with cooking styles, measuring systems, ingredients, and holidays and seasons
• Minimum of 7 years living and cooking in Poland.
• Excellent researching, writing, and editing skills
• Experience with SEO and classification systems
• High degree of proficiency with Web-based applications, MS Word, MS Excel, and Outlook
• Previous experience in the food industry – e.g. food writing, restaurant, bakery or product development preferred
• Lawfully permitted to work in the U.S

Bay Area Community Services is a non-profit, community-based agency servicing primarily Alameda County by providing a comprehensive array of mental health and older adult services. Meals on Wheels, and Senior Nutrition Services, provide hot, nutritious meals to seniors 60 or older who reside in Oakland, Alameda and Piedmont. Meals are delivered to congregate dining sites and to the home bound frail elderly who are unable to cook or shop for themselves. These meals are delivered by caring drivers who are often the only social contact the senior has on a daily basis. Meals meet one third of the recommended daily allowances, helping seniors to stay healthy and independent.

POSITION OVERVIEW:
Under the supervision of the Assessment Supervisor, the Assessment Coordinator is responsible for assessments of new participants, reassessment of current participants, receiving telephone referrals, and maintaining all records as required by the Senior Nutrition Program.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: (*Essential Functions)
*A. Visit new participants in their homes to assess their initial eligibility. Complete Initial Assessment Form within ten (10) days of receiving in-home meals.
*B. Schedule and make reassessment home visits with current participants to determine their continued eligibility for the home delivery meal service as required by Senior Nutrition Program.
*C. Receive telephone referrals from potential home delivery clients, complete intake forms, maintain and update intake form files on computer database.
*D. Complete all paperwork as mandated by Title III, Local Area Agency on Aging, and BACS. Maintain filing system for the home delivery office.
*E. Review, organize, and maintain home delivery client folders.
*F. Maintain and update client database in WeCare system.
*G. Follow procedures for 3- and 9-month assessments by drivers.
*H. Refer clients to other meal programs, congregate sites, BACS' services and/or other appropriate services.
*I. Meal delivery to clients as required.
*J. Other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS:
BSW or Associate Degree in Social Service related field plus two years of experience or training with the frail elderly. Knowledge of home delivery programs and services available in Alameda County desirable. Must have good writing skills. Interest in and understanding of the needs and problems of the elderly are essential. Bilingual in Spanish, Cantonese, or Mandarin preferred.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENT:
Must have a valid California driver’s license, proof of personal vehicle insurance coverage and a good driving record acceptable to the employer’s insurance carrier.

CLASSIFICATION: Non-Exempt, Hourly, Full Time at 37.5 hours/week.

COMPENSATION: Wage $15.00-$15.50/hour. Benefits include 10 days paid annual leave, 12 days sick leave, 10 paid holidays, 2.b personal days, fully paid health, dental, vision, long term disability, life insurance and voluntary optional 403(b) salary deferral retirement plan.

San Francisco AIDS Foundation

Job Title: Non-Medical Case Manager
Reports To: Client Service Director
Status: Regular Full time
Starting Salary: Commensurate with Experience

GENERAL SUMMARY

A Non-Medical Case Manager (NMCM) provides assistance to multicultural and multidiagnosed HIV/AIDS clients to find and maintain transitional/stable housing; to get and stay connected with health care and social support services; and to identify and track prevention, health care, social and housing objectives, seeking the highest level of independence and quality of life consistent with their functional capacity and preference of care.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

• Conduct eligibility screenings, intakes and information and referrals to new and/or returning clients during scheduled and drop-in appointments.
• Complete psychosocial assessment during clients’ admission and annual re-certifications.
• Assist clients to develop, coordinate and implement an ongoing service plan to meet immediate, short and/or long term prevention, health care, social and housing objectives.
• Monitor and coordinate the clients’ Service Plan involving other providers and clients, ensuring that client received most appropriate combination of services and avoiding unnecessary and expensive duplication.
• Conduct reassessments and recertification of client needs, as necessary to determine appropriate for the client’s condition, and that care among care providers continue to be coordinated.
• Complete housing annual re-certification process.
• Transferring and discharging client as appropriate.
• Assist client to access to SFAF and SF HIV or Non-HIV services and resources.
• Assist HIV positive clients and their families and/or partners to deal with access to housing and related services.
• Provide counseling and practical support in housing, prevention, treatment advocacy (HIV, Medical and Psychiatric Care), and social service support
• Conduct Non-violent crisis (de-escalation) interventions
• Provide education and advocacy in regards to Tenants and Landlord rights and responsibilities.
• Conduct and document housing inspection as needed, following Federal Standards.
• Execute “Office of the day” duties.
• Provide client assistance with ADAP applications and re-certification process.
• Attend departments and inter-agency meetings.
• Participate in individual and group supervision.
• Assist to in identifying trends, barriers, demand, changes in clients and systems of care
• Follow program requirements: eligibility, admissions, rent calculations, conduct updates/re-certifications and document every intervention with and/or in behalf of clients
• Enter and maintain reliable/consistent data in electronic records
• Complete monthly (or as required) reports to keep track of deliverables and contract objectives
• Adhere to San Francisco’s Making the Connection: Standard of Care for Client Centered Services.
• Provide consultation to staff regarding housing issues
• Review and complete housing EPR
• Review and update housing policies and procedures in collaboration with CS managers
• Perform other related duties as assigned by immediate supervisor

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Knowledge and experience working with San Francisco’s Systems of care
• Knowledge and experience working with HIV, Mental Health, and Substance Use populations.
• Knowledge and experience working with disfranchised Populations (homeless, forensic, youth, etc)
• Knowledge and experience using Harm Reduction and Motivational Interviewing skills
• Knowledge and experience working in multicultural and multidisciplinary staff
• Have strong and sound interpersonal skill
• Possess sensitivity and knowledge working with multi-ethnic and LGBT populations
• Knowledge and experience conducting general office procedures
• Demonstrate strong written and verbal communication
• Demonstrate good organizational skill, engaging multiple projects, meeting all objectives
• Experience in working with Microsoft Office and other database applications
• Skill in operating office equipment, such as PC and other telecommunication apparatus
• Ability to perform and adhere to all ethical requirements in a social service agency
• Demonstrate commitment to quality assurance and improvement in all activities
• Ability to meet basic corporal demands, such as bending, stooping while filling, twisting/reaching, walking and standing during the course of the day
• Have strong skills and knowledge base necessary for carrying out complex tasks (e.g., intake, preliminary assessment, and giving immediate referrals) involved in provision of effective case management services.


EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

Preferred: Masters degree in social work, counseling, nursing, or other appropriate field, including clinical training; or a Bachelors degree plus appropriate experience in human services; or a high school degree or GED plus three years experience in human services which may include work as an intern or volunteer.

The Statements herein are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified.

HIV AND AIDS AT THE SAN FRANCISCO AIDS FOUNDATION

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation recognizes the value of having significant representation of people living with HIV infection and AIDS in all departments and at all levels of staff and management. For this reason, the Foundation strongly encourages applications for employment from people with HIV/AIDS. The Foundation provides several health care coverage options including HOM plan with no-preexisting conditions clause for employment working 20 hours or more per week. All employees with disabilities, including people living with HIV infection, may request reasonable accommodation (as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act and California Department of Fair Employment and Housing Act.)

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNUTY STATEMENT

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation is an equal Opportunity Employer. We actively seek applications from people living with HIV/AIDS, and other disabilities, women, gay men, lesbian, and people of color.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Submit résumé and cover letter explaining experience with HIV and AIDS to:

Human Resources ATTN: CAS. JD To: Human Resources ATTN: CASC. JD
San Francisco AIDS Foundation (415) 487-3019
P.O. BOX 426182 EMAIL TO: jobs@sfaf.org
San Francisco, CA 94142-6182
Timeline: Open until filled

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT
Full Time VISTA Position
Program Operations Coordinator

POSITION SUMMARY
Portland YouthBuilders (PYB) is a two year alternative high school and job training program with the mission to support low-income young adults, ages 17-24, who are committed to changing their lives to become self-sufficient, contributing members of the workforce and their community. At PYB, students complete high school with a GED or diploma and develop marketable employment skills by learning to build affordable housing from the ground up or learning to refurbish computers and develop websites for non-profits and low-income families. All PYB students have the opportunity to serve as part-time AmeriCorps members and earn an AmeriCorps Education Award.

The Program Operations Coordinator position is a full-time VISTA volunteer position in the Education and Student Support Departments. We are seeking someone who is committed to educational equity and inspired by working with young men and women who are transforming their lives through learning and service.

The Program Operations Coordinator will work closely with the Education Manager and the Student Support Manager to enhance the quality of services to students through the provision of administrative support and the development of systems to increase operational effectiveness.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Reports to: Education Manager and Student Support Manager
Position Starts: April 2010 – March 2011
Length of position: 12 months
Compensation: In return for their service, AmeriCorps VISTA members receive a modest living allowance ($865/month in Portland, OR), which is related to the local poverty level, a monthly bus pass, and health benefits during their service. VISTA
members also have the option of receiving a $4,725 Segal AmeriCorps Education Award or a $1,200 stipend after completing their term of service. There are a variety of other benefits such as childcare assistance, relocation allowances, and federal non-competitive status.

REQUIREMENTS


1. Bachelors Degree or equivalent experience
2. Demonstrated ability to simultaneously manage multiple projects and meet tight deadlines
3. Strong Technology skills
4. Excellent verbal and written communication skills
5. Valid Driver’s License + good driving record (for the purposes of insurance coverage)
6. Must be a United States citizen or permanent resident

JOB DUTIES

1. Provide administrative support to the Education Manager and Student Support Manager
2. Perform registrar duties for the school
3. Design and implement student file system
4. Oversee student transcripts including assignment of high school credits and diploma attainment
5. Communicate with and report to partner school districts
6. Schedule and oversee GED and TABE testing
7. Assist in the preparation of reports to oversight agencies and funders
8. Help design, produce, and analyze student evaluation and performance reports
9. Help fill in for staff absences
10. Monitor student attendance and analyze performance trends
11. Staff the front desk and reception area
12. Manage the drug testing program for students
13. Assist with office management duties including ordering supplies and scheduling office
equipment repairs

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

Email a cover letter and resume IMMEDIATELY to Michael Burch at michael_b@pybpdx.org

No phone calls or drop-ins please.

PYB is an equal opportunity employer/organization and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual
orientation, age, religion, creed, marital status, national origin, political affiliation, disability, veteran status, or any
other classifications applicable by law.

Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities.

Job Title: Assistant Chief Property Engineer

Octopus Holdings portfolio consists primarily of private residences located in California. Octopus Holdings strives to expand the dimensions of estate management by providing exceptional customer service to the client.

General Summary: The Assistant Chief Property Engineer will be responsible for the supervision of maintenance and engineering property operations of multiple buildings and grounds. Primary responsibilities will include the directions; coordination and control of activities and personnel in order to deliver superior customer service, provide safe and stable operation of the property and to optimize engineering efforts to keep operating expenses as low as possible. This is a “working” managerial position, where the assistant chief is expected to be actively involved in working with tools and in repair and maintenance operations.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBLITIES/DUTIES:
• Provide support to Chief Engineer with organizing and scheduling maintenance and directing maintenance technicians in regards to job assignments and projects.
• Directly responsible for maintaining a preventive maintenance program within the restrictions of an annual budget. This includes all heating, air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical as well as maintenance and repair of buildings and equipment.
• Responsible for HVAC maintenance and repair including chillers, air handlers, pump repair, motor replacement, and water treatment to related equipment.
• Responsible for plumbing maintenance to include; garbage disposals, P-traps, general sewer line on property and faucet repairs.
• Responsible for generator testing and reporting, as well as vendor coordination and refueling of Gen-Set.
• Develops best practices and maintenance management measures including the review and update of standards on a routine basis.
• Directly responsible for the preparation of an annual budget and operating within that budget with regard to the expenses for production supplies, operating supplies, electricity, gas, water and sewer.
• Maintain plan for fire evacuation and disaster response. Serves as facility Emergency Response Coordinator.
• Conducts engineering feasibility, economic studies and prepares reports on findings. Advises executive management on facility acquition issues regarding structural components.
• Maintain up to date records and compliance for applicable local, state and insurance semi-annual and annual inspections.
• Coordinate necessary property access with Estate Manager and Clients personal assistant.
• Maintain blueprint inventory, operation manuals, stock supplies, and specifications as they apply to primary duties.
• Develops and implements a process of periodic structural inspection and evaluations of property facilities.
• Participates in and contributes to the development of a response program, particularly in the areas related to response during and after seismic events.
• Provides training to new and existing employees.
• Maintain daily work order tracking.
• Keep up on technological changes such as retrofitting machinery to meet today’s new laws and efficiency standards.
• Responsible for mechanical maintenance and repair of all Pond systems, pool systems and water features.
• Responsible for the maintenance of all Pond Systems, including Fish Stocking and feeding.

Budget Responsibility:
• Maintain inventory management and monthly invoice and expense reporting.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

Related Skills:
• Ability to relate and interpret documents such as safety roles, operating and maintance instructions and procedure manuals.
• Ability to write routine reports and correspondence.
• Ability to complete problem identification and resolution.
• Ability to speak with contractors and employees effectively. Must have strong telephone skills.
• The ability to recognize potentially dangerous or hazardous conditions.
• Relates well with employees, vendors, customers and others.
• Demonstrate good personal control and judgment under normal and stressful conditions.
• Able to understand the needs of others and able to offer viable cost effective solutions to diverse problems.
• Must possess valid Driver’s License and maintain a satisfactory CA DMV record and be in possession of auto insurance policy.
• Personal vehicle use is required to travel between property locations. Mileage reimbursement through Octopus Holdings.
• Ability to be on-call and participate in 24-hour radio/pager rotations.

Education:
• High School degree or equivalent. Prefer college degree in related field.
• EPA Technician certification required, preferably Universal Classification.
• Highest-level state/local license for stationary engineer and/or HVAC plus universal level refrigerant recovery license. BOMA courses desirable.
• SMA designation preferred.
• Intermediate computer skills and building automation systems experience required.

Experience:
• The qualified applicant will have combined 5-10 years commercial building engineering, Construction Management or Facilities Management experience.
• Requires 3+ years of supervisory experience as senior or equivalent lead role.
• Requires 5+ years of facilities operational experience over multiple buildings.
• Experience in construction and maintenance cost estimating practices.
• Extensive experience in reading complex architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, communications and landscaping plans.
• In-depth knowledge of general maintenance practices for structural, mechanical, electrical and landscaping components. Working knowledge on the functioning of HVAC units.

Physical Requirements:
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand; walk, use hands to finger, handle or free objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; climb or balance; kneel, crouch or crawl; as well as speak and hear. The employee is occasional required to sit.
• The employee must frequently lift and or move up to 20 pounds and occasionally lift and or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.

Other:
• Travel and percentage of time away: Up to 10%
• Lifting and maximum weight of objects to be lifted: Up to 50lbs.
• Hazardous chemicals: Pool and gardening equipment

Desired Competencies:
• Change and innovation
• Dependability
• Interpersonal skills
• Job knowledge
• Problem solving
• Productivity
• Quality
• Teamwork
• Client focus
• Communication

Job Complexity: Semi-routine and requires recognition of deviation from accepted practice. Exercise judgment within generally defined practices to resolve problems and make routine recommendations.

Degree of Independent Action: Determine methods and procedure to new assignments and exercises considerable latitude in determining objects of assignment within broadly defined practices and policies.

Supervision Required: Receives no instructions on routine work and general instructions on new work.

Please email send a cover letter with your resume attached. Please include "Assistant Chief Property Engineer" in the Subject Line.

Job Title: Property Engineer

Octopus Holdings portfolio consists primarily of private residences located in California. Octopus Holdings strives to expand the dimensions of estate management by providing exceptional customer service to the client.

General Summary: The Property Engineer will be responsible for the maintenance of multiple buildings and grounds. Primary responsibilities will include the coordination and control of mechanical activities in order to deliver superior customer service, provide safe and stable operation of the property and to optimize engineering efforts to keep operating expenses as low as possible. This is a “working” position, where the property engineer is expected to be actively involved in working with tools and in repair and maintenance operations.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBLITIES/DUTIES:
• Provide support to Chief Engineer with organizing and scheduling maintenance.
• Directly responsible for maintaining a preventive maintenance program within the restrictions of an annual budget. This includes all heating, air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical as well as maintenance and repair of buildings and equipment.
• Responsible for HVAC maintenance and repair including chillers, air handlers, pump repair, motor replacement, and water treatment to related equipment.
• Responsible for electrical repairs including; breaker replacement, general wiring, lighting ballast replacement, incandescent and fluorescent light bulb and tube replacement.
• Responsible for plumbing maintenance to include; garbage disposals, P-traps, general sewer line on property and faucet repairs.
• Responsible for generator testing and reporting, as well as vendor coordination and refueling of Gen-Set.
• Coordinate necessary property access with Assistant Chief or Chief Engineer.
• Assist in maintaining blueprint inventory, operation manuals, stock supplies, and specifications as they apply to primary duties.
• Assists in periodic structural inspection and evaluations of property facilities.
• Participates in and contributes to the development of a response program, particularly in the areas related to response during and after seismic events.
• Provides training to new and existing employees.
• Maintain daily work order tracking.
• Keep up on technological changes such as retrofitting machinery to meet today’s new laws and efficiency standards.

Budget Responsibility:
• Maintain inventory management and monthly invoice and expense reporting.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

Related Skills:
• Ability to relate and interpret documents such as safety roles, operating and maintance instructions and procedure manuals.
• Ability to write routine reports and correspondence.
• Ability to complete problem identification and resolution.
• Ability to speak with contractors and employees effectively. Must have strong telephone skills.
• The ability to recognize potentially dangerous or hazardous conditions.
• Relates well with employees, vendors, customers and others.
• Demonstrate good personal control and judgment under normal and stressful conditions.
• Able to understand the needs of others and able to offer viable cost effective solutions to diverse problems.
• Must possess valid Driver’s License and maintain a satisfactory CA DMV record and be in possession of auto insurance policy.
• Personal vehicle use is required to travel between property locations. Mileage reimbursement through Octopus Holdings.
• Ability to be on-call and participate in 24-hour radio/pager rotations.

Education:
• High School degree or equivalent.
• Equivalent time in another Building Trade is acceptable.
• EPA Technician certification required, preferably Universal Classification.
• Highest-level state/local license for stationary engineer and/or HVAC plus universal level refrigerant recovery license. BOMA courses desirable.
• SMA designation preferred.
• Intermediate computer skills and building automation systems experience required.

Experience:
• The qualified applicant will have combined 5-10 years commercial building engineering, Construction Management or Facilities Management experience.
• Requires 5+ years of facilities operational experience over multiple buildings.
• Strong HVAC, plumbing or electrical required.
• Extensive experience in reading complex architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, communications and landscaping plans.
• In-depth knowledge of general maintenance practices for structural, mechanical, electrical and landscaping components. Working knowledge on the functioning of HVAC units.

Physical Requirements:
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand; walk, use hands to finger, handle or free objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; climb or balance; kneel, crouch or crawl; as well as speak and hear. The employee is occasional required to sit.
• The employee must frequently lift and or move up to 20 pounds and occasionally lift and or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.

Other:
• Travel and percentage of time away: Up to 10%
• Lifting and maximum weight of objects to be lifted: Up to 50lbs.
• Hazardous chemicals: Pool and gardening equipment

Desired Competencies:
• Change and innovation
• Dependability
• Interpersonal skills
• Job knowledge
• Problem solving
• Productivity
• Quality
• Teamwork
• Client focus
• Communication

Job Complexity: Semi-routine and requires recognition of deviation from accepted practice. Exercise judgment within generally defined practices to resolve problems and make routine recommendations.

Degree of Independent Action: Determine methods and procedure to new assignments and exercises considerable latitude in determining objects of assignment within broadly defined practices and policies.

Supervision Required: Receives no instructions on routine work and general instructions on new work.

Lane Community College

EMT/Paramedic Program Coordinator

Department:
Health Professions

Posting Number:
0600547

Classification:
Faculty


DIVERSITY RECRUITMENT
As a vibrant educational institution, Lane is continuing to attract and retain a diverse student population. We are seeking qualified staff and educators to meet this need. Preferred candidates will be able to demonstrate active dedication to enhancing diversity and the role-modeling of cultural competency. Bilingual skills in Asian and Spanish languages are strongly desired.

__________

THE COLLEGE
Lane Community College, a comprehensive community college in beautiful Eugene, Oregon, has begun the search for a Faculty EMT/Paramedic Program Coordinator in the Health Professions division.

The college offers a wide variety of instructional programs including transfer credit programs, professional technical degree and certificate programs, continuing education noncredit courses, programs in English as a Second Language and International ESL, GED programs, and customized training for local businesses. Lane has experienced more than a 25% enrollment increase in the past two years. Lane serves a 4,600 square mile area from the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean (this is an area larger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined).

Lane's main campus is in Eugene, a city known for its quality of life and for being the home of the University of Oregon. Eugene (population 148,000) and neighboring Springfield (population 56,000) comprise the second largest population center in the state. Eugene and Springfield are nestled in the Willamette Valley between the Pacific Ocean and the Cascade Mountains. The area's scenic mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, and coastline offer many opportunities for outdoor adventures or for just sitting back and enjoying the view.

__________

Selected Candidate:
Must be a certified paramedic in good standing with the Statem of Oregon Department of Human Services: Emergency Medical Services and Truama Systems Division or Nationally Registered Paramedic and meet Oregon EMT reciprocity requirements by hire date.

Successful applicants for this assignment shall be required to pass a pre-employment background check.
______________________________

Work Days & Hours:
Full time. Some evenings, weekend and summer hours

Anticipated Start Date:
On or about September 1st, 2010

Salary/Wage:
Annual

Salary/Wage Range:
$45,247 - $60,743 per academic year

Salary/Compensation Statement:
In addition to salary, Excellent Benefits Package visit www.lanecc.edu/hr/benefits for more information. All employees are compensated through electronic direct deposit.

Hours Statement:
Successful applicants for this assignment shall be required to pass a pre-employment background check.

FLSA:
Exempt

Position Type:
Contracted Faculty

Position Status:
Permanent

Annual Schedule:
260 Day (12 Month)

To apply, please visit: http://jobs.lanecc.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=51372

Closing Date:
03-08-2010

Applicant Pool:
No

EDUCATION MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

REQUIRED EDUCATION
A) Bachelors degree required in health, biology, EMS or related field required.

B) Must be certified in the following:
1. Advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) -instructor certification
2. Prehospital trauma life support (PHTLS)-instructor certification
3. AHA or equivalent basic life support instructor

C) Must be a certified paramedic in good standing with the State of Oregon Department of Human Services: Emergency Medical Services and Truama Systems Division OR Nationally Registered Paramedic and meet Oregon EMT reciprocity requirements by hire date.

PREFERRED EDUCATION
Masters degree or degree in Emergency Medical Services preferred

EXPERIENCE MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
3 years pre-hospital emergency and non-emergency medical care experience as a paramedic.

AND

Must have completed or in process of completing prior to hire date one of the following:
a)National Standard Curriculum for EMT Instructors, US Department of Transportation, 1986 edition;
b) National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Fire Instructor II program
c) Instructor Development Program (40 hours) as provided by the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training
OR
d) a minimum of 3 college credits in adult or vocational education theory and practice presented by an accredited institution of higher learning; Experience with EMS electronic data management coupled with quality assurance / improvement experience.

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE
*Teaching experience in Emergency Medical Services is preferred.
*Community college or University teaching experience preferred.
*Experience with online or electronic learning also preferred.
*Preferred certifications
1. Pediatric advanced life support instructor certification
2. Emergency Pediatric course instructor certification
3. Advanced medical life support instructor certification

Bilingual/Multicultural Statement:
A demonstrated commitment to promote and enhance diversity is expected. Multicultural and/or Spanish/Asian bilingual ability are preferred.

Equivalency Statement:
Applicants are responsible to show how their personal training and experience would qualify them for the position. Provide documentation of required certifications following the instructions below.

POSITION PURPOSE
The EMT program coordinator will provide the coordination and instruction for the EMT/Paramedic programs in a safe learning environment that ensure optimal student success.

EMS FUNCTIONS
*Interact with students in clinical and small group settings, maintain current knowledge of EMT and Paramedic theory
* Pro-actively assess program needs and solutions
*Act as liaison to build relationships in the community with diverse personnel at clinical sites, ensuring optimal student learning experiences
*Operate and oversee technology equipment; including current working knowledge
*Safely operate, oversee and maintain current working knowledge of technology and instructional equipment

LEADERSHIP ACCOUNTABILITIES
*Provide leadership within the program, division, college, and community
*Assess needs of program and be proactive toward solutions
* Establish strong community relationships with EMS community, Lane County and Oregon EMS and Fire services, and non-credit education providing access to training within Lane county

STUDENT SUCCESS/LEARNING
Support student learning through activities that include:
*Sustain currency in discipline and innovation in teaching including online and hybrid models of delivery
*collegial participation in faculty performance evaluation process
*maintain and post teaching schedule, regular meetings and office hours
*maintain physical campus presence for instruction and daily needs of students, departments, college and community, as specified in the College Operations Policies and Procedures: http://www.lanecc.edu/cops/index.htm
*exhibit compliance with College policies and procedures, accountability for leave time, time sheet completion, release time, text book ordering and related functions
*maintain requirements for student records, attendance, grades, and/or other documentation; ensure a safe, quality classroom or lab, including equipment, supplies, and inventory
*Work one on one with a diverse population of students through office hours and in other settings to promote student centered learning and success
* Recommend resources and referrals to students who may have academic and nonacademic difficulties

CURRICULUM DELIVERY
*provide high quality classroom instruction;
*create course content, develops and revises course content and materials
*establish learning outcomes consistent with core ability outcomes, assesses outcomes using appropriate assessment tools, and uses assessment results to inform improvements at a program and course level
*incorporate college values into curriculum and promotes a respectful learning environment; Promote and facilitate awareness in developing multicultural and diversity-based curricula.
*teach and develop all class syllabi and course materials, in a form that can be directly delivered to, and used by, students
*confer with students on course materials
*review written examination and papers; keeps students informed of progress through prompt grading of papers and other work
*in partnership with library and information resources personnel, ensures that the use of these resources is integrated into the learning process (NWCCU Standard 2.A.8)
*develop learning strategies and processes that will promote successful teaching
*develop skills and commit to evaluation of emerging technologies for use with instructional delivery methods
*use methods that engage students and encourage retention and persistence

CULTURAL COMPETENCY
Demonstrate Lane's core value of Diversity by modeling and ensuring diversity and cultural competency (respect, inclusiveness, reflecting, valuing and welcoming of cultural differences) in all position responsibilities regardless of age, color, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, social class, marital status, national origin, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, veteran's status, nationality, age, language, origin or employment status.

Other duties as assigned

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

Demonstrated excellence in teaching and possession of the skills necessary to create and maintain an atmosphere conducive to learning.

Knowledge of the community college mission, the diversity of the community college population and a commitment to wellness and the promotion of lifelong learning.

Knowledge of office management principles and procedures: planning and scheduling techniques: current and emerging trends in technologies, techniques, issues and approaches in area of expertise.

Knowledge of the differences among learning styles, current teaching methods and uses of technology in education. Ability to integrate these elements into curricula and teaching that enhances learner success.

Skill in demonstrating an active concern for meeting the needs of students, staff and the public. Proven skill working effectively as a team member.

Skill in providing positive reinforcement and encouragement; must possess leadership and customer relation skills.

Skill in word processing, spreadsheets, data entry and instructional software.

Skill in interpersonal communications; supervising, teaching, hiring, training and evaluating.

Ability to express ideas through clear and precise writing, develop effective written materials, and verbally communicate in a clear and effective manner.

Ability to organize resources and establish priorities.

Ability to identify, communicate and demonstrate appropriate safety practices.

Physical Demands:
Work Safely and must be able to transport and maneuver instructional lab equipment and manikins.

Supervision Statement:
Reports to Division Dean of Health Professions.

Required Documents
To be considered for this position provide all documents as requested.
Cover Letter
Curriculum Vitae
Teaching Philosophy

Additional Required Documents - Attachment Preferred
Accepted by mail, in-person or fax; see instructions below
Other #1 (see instructions below)
Transcripts #1
Transcripts #2
Transcripts #3
Certification(s) or License(s)

APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS
To be considered a candidate for this position, all of the following must be included in the application package:
1. Cover Letter: Describe how you meet the minimum qualifications.
2. CV: Detail the experience and education that qualifies you to perform the essential functions of the position.
3.Teaching Philosophy (Word or PDF)
(1 page maximum. size 12 font, 1.5 spacing)
Describe your teaching philosophy and how it supports
a) student success
b) emerging technology in the classroom
c) leadership style
4. Certifications:
(Use Other #1 and Certification(s) field for attachments)
Provide copies of all certifications and licenses. Electronic attachments strongly preferred or follow the instructions below.
4. Transcripts -
Submit an electronic copy (strongly preferred) of all post-secondary institutions; may also fax or mail in at the time you apply. [Official, sealed transcripts may be required of those candidates who are granted an interview.]
5. Names, contact information, and relationship of 5 work related references.

Note: As part of the application you may be asked to complete supplemental questions to provide additional information on your relevant skills and abilities.

No paper applications, resume or letters of reference accepted. If you are selected for an interview, you may bring additional materials at that time, including reference letters.

Transcript Instructions:
TRANSCRIPT/CERTIFICATION INSTRUCTIONS:
Electronic attachment preferred; Mail, fax or bring to Lane Community College Human Resources, Bldg 3. Official or unofficial transcripts are required to be considered for this position. Original transcripts are required for the selected candidate by date of hire.

Lane Community College
Human Resources
Attn: LynnMarie
4000 E 30th Ave
Eugene OR 97405
541.463.3970 fax

For assistance contact Human Resources at recruitment@lanecc.edu.

AA/EEO Statement:
Lane Community College is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity / ADA Institution embracing diversity. Women and Minority Candidates are Encouraged to Apply.