Taking Out The Trash

Women lead the charge as Cambodians resist

Tribune magazine has published my interview with Cambodian MP Mu Sochua

 

Mu Sochua. Picture by Cattleya Jaruthavee

Tens of thousands of people in Cambodia have been forcibly evicted from their homes as powerful companies and individuals take advantage of land concessions.

 

Those grabbing the land are often linked to Cambodia’s ruling People’s Party, and are supported by a corrupt and ineffective policing and judicial system.

But Cambodians are not standing idly by. They are fighting back and often those leading the fightback are women.

Mu Sochua is a prominent Cambodian MP who has championed those evicted from their land – and faced threats and intimidation from the government in return. In 2009, she sued Prime Minster Hun Sen for defamation but lost. He counter-sued and won. As a result, Sochua lost her parliamentary immunity and was fined $4,000. The fine was eventually paid by her party. She now faces further legal action as a result of her activities to highlight the plight of the dispossessed.

Speaking on the phone from Cambodia, Sochua sounds upbeat despite an arduous day touring affected areas and then a four-hour drive back home.

You can read the rest of the article on the Tribune website.

Listen again to the Childhood and the Media conference

The Childhood and the Media Conference which took place at Bath Spa University (and which led to the Daily Mail story detailed in the earlier blog post),was organised by David Niven Associates in association with the university.

It featured a range of speakers looking at issues around the representation of young people and the media. You can open a PDF about the conference by clicking here.

I've clipped some of the talks from the conference and you can listen to them below. I've not kept in the Q&As because the quality is not good enough.

First up is Simon Milner who is UK Policy Director for Facebook with an 11 minute talk covering its safety policy and young people.

Milner

Then there is Naomi Gummer who is UK Public Policy Analyst at Google with an 11 minute talk on protecting people online.

Gummer

After Naomi comes Mike Jempson, director of MediaWise and a fellow journalism lecturer at the University of the West of England, with a 15 minute talk about representations of young people in the media.

Jempson

Then there is a series of short talks totalling 25 minutes from Charlotte Dewar, head of complaints at the Press Complaints Commission, followed by Dr Fleur Fisher, chair of the Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel, and finally Sue Steel who is the co-ordinator of the Anti-Bullying Alliance.

First panel

They 30 minute keynote talk was given by Jim Gamble who resigned as head of Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre after a row with Home Secretary Theresa May over its future.

Gamble

Finally, David Niven (click here for a pdf outlining his wealth of experience in child protection and parenting) wrapped up events on the day over 9 minutes.

Niven

 

Protecting young people online

Update 26/4/12: In his evidence to the Leveson inquiry this morning, Murdoch talks about the Google story in the Daily Mail outlined below. This from the Guardian live blog.

Murdoch is sidetracked on to the Daily Mail's front page story on Tuesday, which attacked Google for not filtering out pornography on its search engine.

He says:

"Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I happen to agree with every single word of it. But that was a very, very strong attack. If a company is doing wrong, I think it's fair to debate it and debate in strong terms".

Update 25/4/12: Australia's Herald Sun pick up on the story, as did The Telegraph over here and Daily News & Analysis from India. Chris Matyszczyk comments on the story in an article for CNet . He highlights Gummer's content lite Google+ entry. It is interesting that someone working in the social media field has (as far I as I can tell) no twitter or Facebook account and this bare Google entry.

Meanwhile The Observer this Sunday is carrying a debate on the issue in the Review section.

******

The Daily Mail is carrying an article by myself and Daniel Martin on a talk given by Facebook's head of public policy Simon Milner and senior Google analyst Naomi Gummer at the Childhood and Media Conference held at Bath Spa University and organised by David Niven Associates.

A Google executive says it is a ‘myth’ that laws can protect children from internet pornography.

Naomi Gummer insisted it was up to parents to keep their children safe from disturbing material.

She told a conference that legislation would be a blunt instrument because of the pace of technological advance.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134148/Google-says-parents-blame-children-view-porn-Online-giant-attacks-legal-curbs.html#ixzz1sueFwukX

 

Lessons from the Barbed project

Some time ago the Guardian agreed to take an article on an innovative prison work scheme which was sabotaged by the Prison Service. It was a follow-up to a series of articles I had done with a colleague on prison labour. The paper eventually decided not to run the piece and, as sometimes happens, I moved on to the next job and never developed it. Then an email from Solidarity Magazine reminded me. So below is the piece...

A report on an axed prison work scheme says it offers a valuable case study on how such projects might help rehabilitate offenders.

The Barbed project was set up at HMP Coldingley in 2005 by the Howard League for Penal Reform. The graphic design studio employed outside professionals to train and manage prisoners to carry out work for outside clients. Employees were paid a wage with tax and national insurance deducted.

It was praised by various people and organisations interested in prison reform and rehabilitation including Cherie Blair (pictured below visiting the project) and Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice.

In 2008 Barbed folded after the Howard League said that the constant movement of prisoners and the decision by Revenue and Customs that prisoners could not pay tax made it impossible to continue.

Prof Penny Green, from Kings College London, was asked by the League to track what happened to the prisoners and trainers in the time since.

Her report found that of the 11 prisoners employed by the studio the League maintained contact with nine and seven gave evidence to the report. Two have been released and are now working as graphic designers. A third was deported to Albania and is apparently hoping to continue his design career in that country. Of those who remain inside, four have been transferred to other prisons and have used their skills to develop projects there. The rest have been unable to carry on with design work.

One employee was Stewie (not his real name), 36, from London, who joined Barbed in October 2005 until he was transferred to an open prison in November 2006. He is now employed as a graphic designer by the Howard League.

For him the one thing that stood out was a very personal memory.

“When I talked to my son and he’d ask me what I’d been doing usually I’d make up some bullshit because I’d mopped the landing or something,” he said. “Instead I could explain what I had learnt at work that day and talk to him about that.”

The report by Prof Green (pictured left) says that alongside practical skills such as using design software and managing budgets and projects Barbed gave prisoners a sense of achievement, self-belief, patience and tolerance.

Another prisoner, Terry, who was still inside when the report was written, said: “Barbed gave me a way to provide for my family and contribute in their lives positively. I was able to help pay bills, provide in new ways and support myself. I felt I was less of a burden to my family financially and this has had a great impact on all our relationships.”

Dominic, who has gone on to higher education, said: “It’s not a single skill but the whole experience that I had I take with me.”

Barbed employees, recruited after passing two interviews, would turn up for work between 8am and 8.30am. The day would start with a team meeting and then it was down to business.

Visitors to the light and vibrant room would immediately notice the difference from the dour sign-making shop next door.

Stewie said: “It was a bit like a zoo. If there were any important people visiting then the governor would bring them down and they would stare at us through the door windows.

“We put things up on the wall so that it was like any other workplace. The prison staff thought of it as that funny project going on in the corner.”

Nicci Shepherd, one of the trainers, called the Barbed studio “a little bubble of creativity” at Coldingley.

“These were the most committed people I ever worked with,” she said. “They gave 100%. In the end we became quite a close knit team.”

Like other trainers Shepherd said she was very much affected by her experience.

Much as Barbed attempted to run as a normal business the report says the prison regime made that difficult.

There were mandatory two-hour lunch breaks and the prison week ended on Friday lunchtime. Barbed employees talk about the frustration at being locked away until Monday morning. More problematic were the sudden lock downs, transfers or prisoners called for drug tests which.

Coldingley’s Independent Monitoring Board said that Barbed needn’t be a single experiment. It’s a view Prof Green’s report supports.

“It really is the way forward if you are serious about reducing re-offending,” she said. “Engagement in meaningful work is good for prisoners, good for prisoners and good for society. It is a no-brainer.”

Lording it in Wiltshire

Evidence that breeding, good schooling and an early career ordering soldiers about doesn't necessarily lead to noblesse oblige comes with two stories from Wiltshire's upper classes.

Sir James Fuller, right, has just won permission to re-open a stone mine on his huge country estate in Neston, about eight miles from Bath. However he has been adamant that the lorries serving it not travel past his house. Instead they will go on a longer rout via narrow country lanes thus affecting his neighbours. A spokesman for Ham and Doulting Stone Ltd, which has the licence to quarry and will be resonsible transporting the stone, said that the route would only be used by a couple of HGVs a day.

However residents have accused Fuller of not caring about the fact that HGVs will bring noise, pollution and congestion in his efforts to extract profit from the mine and peace for his country pile. (There's a good map in this Daily Mail report). A petition signed by 450 residents was met with seemingly arrogant disdain according this report from campaigners. Wiltshire Council's cabinet member for transport is against the plan, as is MP Duncan Hames. Probably the only neighbour not to object was the owner of the Great Chalfield Manor estate - but then that's another member of the Fuller clan.

Fuller, a baronet, was schooled privately at Milton Abbey in Dorset and, aged 21, joined the Life Guards (just like his grandfather) serving for seven years. He then walked into a job on the board of the family brewing firm and remains a non-executive director. However his main interest is the family's 4,700 acre estate. It has a profitable organic farm shop and shoots for the well-heeled. He has also been accused of using cruel and inhumane methods of animal control - a charge Fuller denies. 

A short drive away from Neston, just before you get to Calne, is another large and profitable country estate - Bowood House. It is owned by the 9th Marquis of Lansdowne (pictured left). After a period of soldiering followed by winning local authority seats as a Tory he now runs the family business.

One of the big issues dominating Calne is a proposal by local waste disposal firm Hills to increase the size of its established waste management facility on the outskirts of the town. Hills needs to handle a lot more waste because it is the contractor for Wiltshire Council which is collecting a lot more from residents.

This application has sparked protests because Calne residents fear that it will increase the number of  HGVs going through the town which has no bypass but a key trunk road running through it.One of the leading lights in the campaign – and who chaired the main public meeting against it – is Lord Lansdowne.

He has other interests, though, beyond fighting for the civic good and running a very profitable estate.

He has put in an application to build 154 homes in Calne (currently being appealed) and one would think this would surely generate quite a bit of traffic both in the building and from homeowners.

Lord Lansdowne has tried several times to build here without success. Interestingly, Hills has a home builder division which put in an application for 200 homes on the outskirts of Calne. One of the seven people to originally object to that scheme was…Lord Lansdowne.

Surely he couldn’t be so vociferous in his role with the A4 Say No More group because a rival builder might threaten his development proposals?

Full disclosure: I have provided public relations advice in the past to Hills.

Blacklisted construction workers prepare IPCC complaint

I've a piece in Union News revealing that blacklisted construction workers are putting together a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. They want an investigation into alleged collusions between the police and the industry blacklisters. It follows a letter from Home Secretary Theresa May (right) to John McDonnell MP refusing a public inquiry and suggesting a police complaint instead.
You can read the full article here.

Meanwhile Tribune carries an article on how an employment tribunal has criticised the law which offers little protection to agency workers. The judgement was made in a case brought by blacklisted engineer Dave Smith.

Employment judges have criticised the lack of legal protection for an engineer blacklisted because of his trade union activities. Dave Smith, 46, took construction giant Carillion to an employment tribunal after he discovered his name was on the secret blacklist.

Carillion admitted that two of its subsidiaries had used the blacklisting services of the now defunct – and discredited – Consulting Association. But it argued it was not liable because Mr Smith was employed by an agency.

This argument was accepted by the tribunal at a hearing in January. But now, in a damning full judgement just released, the tribunal chair explained why they had to disallow Mr Smith’s claim.

You can read the full story here.

And finally, a quote from the Blacklist Support Group re the IPCC complaint arrived after I'd already filed, but is below:

"The blacklisting scandal is a festering sore in the construcion industry. The directors and senior managers of the supposedly most respectable blue chip firms have been involved in the sysematic breach of human rights for decades. Now we have the evidence that the state security services and the police are also involved.

"We demand answers:
How has confidential persoanl sensative information and operational surveillance material collected by the state ended up on an illegal blacklist operated by private companies?
Which officers were involved in the collusion?
What sanctions will they suffer for this abuse of power?

"Leverson has shone a light on the hidden links between the media and the police but we have been denied a similar investigation. Theresa May has forced us to go down the IPCC route but we will continue to demand a full public inquiry until we discover the truth about the web of the corruption between the state and big business."
ENDS