Posted on Apr 29, 2003
On the train journey back from London last Sunday, I read in the Observer that apparently the UK’s appetite for prawns is fed by brutality abroad.
The article says,
Now a pressure group, Environmental Justice Foundation, is calling for an embargo of prawns from Bangladesh. It claims that at least 150 people have been killed and thousands injured in clashes linked to prawn production after it was transformed into a major export industry to meet growing international demand.
The article goes on to say, that this problem is a result of the lack of regulation in the Bangladesh prawn farming industry, which is in no way helped, it is further alleged, by collusion between the illegal prawn farming gangs and authorities.
Bangladesh is the world’s fifth-largest producer of farmed prawns, exporting ??210 million worth in 2000, providing an estimated 6.5 million kilos to the UK annually, about a tenth of all prawns eaten in Britain. Globally, the prawn trade is thought to be worth nearly ??6 billion a year.
The article further goes on to name names of individuals and companies that import the Bangladeshi prawns into Britain and then quotes Steve Trent, the Director of the Foundation,
“Until there is total reform of the prawn industry it is unacceptable for any Western seafood company to be doing business there.”
I don’t condone the illegal occupation of land by these gangs and am certainly against the attacks on the poor farmers, (pictures and statements from the victims were available in the paper edition which were, rather conveniently, supplied by the Foundation), but I wonder if a call for a total boycott of the Bangladeshi prawn industry is a ‘just’ response.
Unless the Environmental Justice Foundation thinks that all 13,000 prawn farms are run by illegal gangs then such a boycott would lead to even more suffering for genuine prawn farmers.
The fact is, though, that this is hardly mentioned in any of the Bangladeshi press, (at least not the online versions), and I can only conclude that either the problem is being totally overlooked by them, (not likely as they’re quite good at hi-lighting foreign reports of Bangladeshi human rights abuse), or that it’s just another example of sensational news reporting.
I’m proud of the fact Bangladesh is trying to diversify it’s exports and seems to be succeeding to some extent but am disappointed that it’s just the same old ‘Human Right’s Violation’ horse being flogged yet again by the British Press.
That’s not to dismiss the claims out of hand but what research on the ground, (i.e. in Bangladesh), have they done to verify the claims of yet another ‘independent environmental agency’?
Posted on Apr 28, 2003
Top Ten quotes from the most powerful man on the planet…
10. “That’s a chapter, the last chapter of the 20th, 20th, 21st century that most of us would rather forget. The last chapter of the 20th century. This is the first chapter of the 21st century.”
9. “Marijuana? Cocaine? I’m not going to talk about what I did as a child”
8. “This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It’s what you do when you run for president. You gotta preserve.”
7. “I don’t remember debates. I don’t think we spent a lot of time debating it. Maybe we did, but I don’t remember.”
6. “It’s time to get some plain-spoken folks in the nation’s capital.”
5. “It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.”
4. “We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbour like you like to be liked yourself.”
3. “When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world and you knew exactly who they were. It was us versus them, and it was clear who them was. Today we are not so sure who they are, but we know they’re there.”
2. “This is still a dangerous world. It’s a world of madmen and uncertainity and potential mental losses.”
1. “I think we agree, the past is over.”
Copied these gems from a link on the AOL login splash page… I think I detect the influence of Fukuyama …. or maybe it’s Foghorn Leghorn!
Posted on Apr 27, 2003
I went down to London for the weekend and met up with a few friends. One of whom was Sue who along with her partner Karl, had recently cut short a backpacking trip through South America because they felt unsafe.
I was surprised at this since my own trip (quite a number of years ago, now) through Bolivia and Brazil had been full of incident but I hadn’t felt particularly unsafe. What struck me about Sue and Karl’s experience was that she cited being mistaken for [North] Americans as the reason for the hostility. Coincidentally, I was chatting with a few people in “The Mason’s Arms” near the Edgware Road yesterday and one bloke called Gary, who happened to be a weblogger, said that the most comments he ever got for any of his blogs, was when a number of Brazilians left some indicating their intense joy at the events of 9-11!
Is South America popping up onto the anti-American radar screens? Probably not, I mean it was just a weekend in London.
Posted on Apr 24, 2003
I should have been writing up my notes from yesterday’s recce for “Whips, Chains and Rubber Tips” but ended up spending most of the afternoon in email debates with a couple of friends.
The first revolved around an article by George Monbiot where he suggests that, “There is only one way to check American power and that is to support the euro”. A proposition that, in my mind, seems calculated to undermine the US (thereby the World) economy, which may not actually lead to a reduction of American hegemonistic tendancies but would almost certainly lead to greater world instability.
I am all for some sort of checks and balances to American geo-political ambitions but through diplomatic means, anyway the point of the debate with my friend wasn’t about how to achieve this it was about George Monbiot’s about face as regards the Euro.
He’s such a staunch anti-globalisation pundit yet thinks nothing of suggesting that [East] Europeans should consider relinquishing some of their newly-found sovereignity to the EU in order to oppose the US. I mean, that’s not anti-globalisation, that’s just sour grapes!
I just don’t like inconsistency in my pundits.
The second debate was about Muslim block-voting in up-coming Scottish Parliamentary elections from an article in the Mirror;
Mark Smith
24th April 2003
MUSLIM leaders have urged followers to reject the Labour Party in the
Scottish election in a major break with tradition.
Muslims have been asked to vote tactically to remove Labour MSPs who
supported the war against Iraq.
A new Muslim political group, the Lothian Muslim Voting Committee, says
they should back the SNP with their first vote and the Scottish Socialist Party
with the second.
More than 100 Muslims also turned out to support the tactical voting strategy
at a meeting in Edinburgh’s Central Mosque on Tuesday. Committee chairman
Abdul Ibrahim said: “We want people to vote for any party that is likely to
oust Labour or the Tories.”
SNP campaign co-ordinator Nicola Sturgeon was pleased of the new votes.
She said: “Like so many they obviously have a sense of failure at the direction
of Labour.”
(Which I provide in full as I can’t find a link to it.)
My friend felt that this was the beginnings of a political cohesiveness amongst the Muslims. Perhaps so, I could see his point, but asked what he would advise a prospective voter to do in the case of a good constituancy MP who has served his community well but who belongs to a party, (say Labour), which he [the voter] wants to ‘hold to account’?
The upshot of this debate was that Muslim voters have to raise their ‘political game’ in order to voice their concerns, perhaps by tactical voting but not when these tactics damage a good MP or allow the likes of the BNP in ‘through the back door’.
What I found interesting about the two (albeit unrigourous) debates was that they took place at all. Prior to the War in Iraq, there was never any such debate amongst my friends – Politics being almost taboo but the war has changed that.
Perhaps reflecting the socio-political inclinations of my 2nd Gen. South Asian peers, the war was preceded by a flurry of political musings – all anti-war. Immediately after the fall of Baghdad there was silence for a number of days and I thought that normal service had been resumed but today seems to show that something has changed.
I’m almost hesitant to say it but it seems to be some kind of liberation. Pandora’s box has been opened and who know’s what kind of ills have been let loose as a consequence [of war] but whether in Karbala, Edinburgh or Birmingham people are talking politics.
Posted on Apr 23, 2003
As usual St. George’s day underwhelms the nation even as some are still recovering from the effects of St. Patrick’s day over a month ago, (okay I exaggerate but everyone knew about St. Patrick’s day well in advance of it and many celebrated it).
I’m ambivalent about the day, afterall St George and his cross are often, (perhaps unfairly), associated with the right wing of the British political spectrum. And the Left have often been complicit in promoting that association perhaps seeing it as a nationalist, (therefore an anti-internationalist), symbol.
But St. George is a curious choice for England’s Patron Saint, unlike St. Patrick who was Irish or St. David who was Welsh, St. George was by all accounts a Turk! What’s more his mother was from the Palestine and the virgin he famously saved from the dragon was Libyan!
By a curious coincidence, April the 23rd is William Shakespeare’s birthday, (it’s also his death date!). I expect that if England were to have a national day then William Shakespeare’s birthdate wouldn’t be a bad one – and one that everyone would be quite happy to celebrate, afterall…
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”
(–Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet”, 1595)
Posted on Apr 21, 2003
Went back to Barrocco on Friday but was with Deep and my sister Pam this time. Much better night, (better company I guess!). We ended up in The Green Rooms, a pre-show Bar/Restaurant opposite the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre. It’s sort of my local and apart from chatting to an intelligent and attractive schoolteacher named Satnam, (although she called herself ‘Nik’), I bumped into Simon, a guy I went to school with many, (too many!), years ago.
Of course I was too crap to get her number but I regret, even more, not getting his. When we were at school, Simon was a unique individual, intelligent, sensitive, principled, fat, funny, just a little bit weird and he suffered from creeping alopeatia. Being an outsider myself I think we naturally gravitated towards each other, (along with other nerds/geeks/foreigners), and he was someone I should have kept in touch with. In particular I remember that he would stick up for victims of bullies irrespective of the inevitable pummelling he would receive by putting himself ‘in harms way’. He was also an ardent fan of a punk band called the ‘Four Skins’…(go figure!).
Anyway, it’s Easter weekend which means that I’m constipated as a result of eating at least half a kilogram of chocolate but while I poured copious amounts of coffee into my straining digestive system this morning I got a chance to watch ‘The Time Machine’ again.
This was the 1960 version, starring Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux and not the 2002 version starring Guy Pearce and Samantha Mumba. I know quite a lot has been written about the underlying themes of the original H.G. Wells novel and I don’t have the inclination nor the intellect to go into it myself but I know it’s one of my favourite movies. I take something different out of it every time I see it and this occasion was no exception.
Whereas the 2002 version have the Elloi portrayed as a ‘coffee coloured’ peoples – possibly representing a future in which we’re all blended into beautiful Samantha Mumba types, (hmmmm!), the 1960 version’s Elloi were all beautiful Nordic visions of perfection. I always found that a little disconcerting – a future were perfection is represented in such glowing ‘Aryan’ terms and in their lotus-eating state they’re being exploited by the blue ape-like Morlocks. I think I identified with the H.G. Wells character, (Rod Taylor), in a strange way.
I remember growing up in England, equipped with my budding anglocentric consciousness wondering why all the sundar manush (Bengali: fair people) appeared to be so oblivious to other people’s pains.
I don’t think that anymore, I’ve met plenty of individuals of all types who display compassion and humanity and I am hopeful for our long term future but still, there is in me a residual echo of past doubts as I remember the words of Frantz Fanon:
“I have no wish to be the victim of the Fraud of a black world.
My life should not be devoted to drawing up the balance sheet of Negro values.
There is no white world, there is no white ethic, any more than there is a white intelligence.
There are in every part of the world men who search.
I am not a prisoner of history. I should not seek there for the meaning of my destiny.
I should constantly remind myself that the real leap consists in introduction invention into existence.
In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself.”
(–Fanon “Black Skin, White Masks”, 1952)
Posted on Apr 18, 2003
I went to Wolverhampton today, (well, yesterday to be pedantic), to work as camera assistant on Matt’s First Cut production – “Things to do in Wolverhampton when you’re Dead”.
As usual on Matt’s productions, it was weird! It’s not that we started the day by filming in a graveyard, nor that we were filming a set of twins at that morbid location. Nor did the fact that the twins claimed to be psychics phase me, (afterall this was Wolverhampton).
What really freaked me out was Blue Mountain. He is the spirit of a dead Cherokee native American who is channelled by one of the twins!
I was relieved to end the day’s filming with a shoot of a man called Gerald and his wife. There was nothing bizarre about him… well I say nothing but there was his habit of sketching dead people in the local community hall.
Matt joked that at the next shoot I would have to dress up as Bette Davis. I’m worried!
Posted on Apr 16, 2003
It’s such a beautiful, warm day in Birmingham, apparantly it’s got something to do with the weather coming up from the Sahara, at least that’s it according to Bacon, Cheese and Oatcakes.
Up till now I have been adhering to a regime of not mentioning other blogs but am starting to realise that that is going against the spirit of the blogosphere. I suppose I’m just becoming used to the ettiquette of it all and till now had been using my own blog simply as a journal of my thoughts. But I think I will modify my unwritten rule regarding this because there are an amazing number of fascinating people who are sharing their thoughts.
I’m used to trawling the blogosphere and encountering blog after blog of US based bloggers saying the most thought provoking things I’ve heard in a long time. Real thoughts, real people and although I don’t agree with some, with others I find myself nodding furiously in agreement. Had it not been for this direct access to the thoughts and feelings of real people I feel that I may have fallen victim to the prevailing Anti-Americanism, (at least amongst nearly everybody I know).
Having said that, I’ve recently joined a webring: <#Blogging Brits?> which, unsurprisingly, is a ring of Brit Bloggers. I’ve got to say that I’ve spent the last hour or so just looping through these blogs and it’s been really great, somehow more intimate than the US ones.
I’m looking forward to the time when the technology is so pervasive and accessible that it becomes impossible to wage a war. Anyway, I’m going off to enjoy the the sun while it lasts. Peace be upon you.
* The BBC’s motto, ‘Nation shall speak peace unto nation’, was based on biblical verses from the Book of Micah (chapter 4, verse 3) and Book of Isaiah (chapter 2, verse 4): ‘Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.’
– Mind Streaming – John Coxon’s Online Journal
Posted on Apr 15, 2003
It looks as if the SARS pandemic may have claimed it’s 140th victim and that it’s mutated into a more virulent form that is now attacking fit young victims.
As if that wasn’t worrying enough, Bangladesh fears Sars case; a situation that should be alarming given the massive population, the density of it and the ill-equiped medical facilities in Bangladesh.
It’s ironic then, (but hopeful too), that today, (the fiftieth aniversary of the discovery of DNA), is when the Human Genome is officially declared as mapped.
At the moment though, I think SARS is worrisome rather than panic inducing, it has a fatality rate of 4%. At any other time the SARS virus would have been the big news. Plus, I can’t believe, (even with the Iraqi war), that the Genome mapping news isn’t being heralded as the monumental breakthrough that it undoubtedly is.
Maybe the project should have had a few ‘embed’ reporters on board!
Posted on Apr 14, 2003
I read an excellent op-ed in The Daily Star, (an english language daily newspaper from Bangladesh).
The writer, MJ Akbar is Chief Editor of the Asian Age and in this article, “The conflict has just begun”, draws historical parallels between the Mongol invasion of Iraq in 1258 and Dubya’s [current] great adventure. (I love this sort of thing!)
He begins by restating the question asked by the victorious Mongol conquerer of the Iraqi ulema.
“Which man is better as a sovereign? An unbeliever who is just, or a Muslim who is unjust?”
to which one of them eventually replied,
“The unbeliever who is just should be preferred to the unjust believer.”
Of course, there’s a lot more to this article but as if it were a message directed towards me, with my habit of citing history as precedent, Akbar says at one point:
History, of course does not repeat itself. There may be parallels, but nothing is ever a replica.
Even so, he writes,
The consequences are familiar to those who read history. A crisis has eliminated the pretender, and the future waits to see who will fill this vacuum.
The Americans want this space to be occupied by a favourite like Ahmad Chalabi. But all they will succeed in doing is setting up an administration. There is a difference between administration and control. A figurehead may sit in Baghdad, but George Bush will be in power. This was precisely the situation after the First World War, when a British-Indian army ‘liberated’ Iraq from the Ottomans and imposed first direct, and then indirect rule. The British foreign secretary in 1918, Sir Arthur Balfour, was not concerned about niceties. He said: “I do not care under what system we keep the oil. But I am quite clear that it is all-important for us that this oil should be available.”
Iraqi nationalism, supported by Arab anger, will also seek to fill that vacuum.
Now I know it’s been pointed out many many times, (to the point where it’s mantra-like invocation threatens to hide the essential fact), but it’s worth restating who stands to derive financial gains from this adventure. And Terry Jones, (he of Monty Python fame), does just that in his article, Welcome aboard the Iraqi gravy train in today’s Observer. This is the grist to the [Iraqi nationalism] mill.
