Leaves caution behind

And here it is: a tornado. Is it thrusting its brute way across the plains of the Midwest, is it rearing from an African plain, is it playinguploaded to YouTube by New Scientist (my first ever credit as a cameraman!).
extreme reality weather in Indonesia? Nope, this is Devon. In an England where even the weather is now less genteel. My brother spotted this from the veranda of our holiday accommodation at Flears Farm, near Goveton (half an hour from Totnes), a week ago, round about 6.30pm in the evening. We dashed about furiously trying to capture it on video and memory card: you can see the results
Other climate havoc — submarine England — somewhat reduced our chances of getting it into the news.

Comments on my earlier post justly accused me of having done little research about the private company Serco, which runs four UK prisons, and, it turns out, detention centres for immigrants.

So I’ve done a little research.

Dovegate prison’s 200 bed theraputic community (TC) was “a very safe place” according to a recent report by the chief inspector of prisons for England and Wales. However, the chief inspector also stated that “it was of concern that selection [of prisoners] was apparently being skewed by commercial imperatives. This was neither appropriate nor fair, and it mitigated against the integrity of therapy…”

Not exactly encouraging but, I acknowledge, hardly a resounding condemnation either.

Far more disturbing are the reports on how Serco runs detention centres.

A 2006 Legal Action for Women (LAW) investigation into Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre, before SERCO took over, found that: 70% of women had reported rape, nearly half had been detained for over three months, a staggering 57% had no legal representation, and 20% had lawyers who demanded cash before taking action. Women reported sexual and racial intimidation by guards.”[1] LAW’s Self-Help Guide is now being confiscated by guards depriving women of information about their rights.

Since SERCO took over conditions have deteriorated.

What’s perhaps most disturbing is that I could find no mainstream news reports, besides one article in the New Statesman, even mentioning the May hunger strike by women detainees at Yarl’s Wood. A hunger strike is a pretty desperate course of action to take. Those who are cynical about the motives of those participating would do well to sample the living conditions of the strikers before dismissing them.

Alice O’Keeffe concludes her article in the New Stateman:

I entered thinking I belonged to a civilised and fair society; I left feeling very differently.

A reaction not too far removed from my feelings on that sunny section of Fleet Street where I encountered prisoners being anonymously transported. We should know who we’re locking up.

Further required reading on the subject must be this article in the Guardian describing the work of the Medical Justice network.

Update (5/10/07): The Independent reports that “British guards ‘assault and racially abuse’ deportees”. More details emerged a few days later, as anger built against airlines involved in forcible deportation of refugees.

Yesterday, I had a deeply sinister and disturbing experience. Walking down Fleet Street in central London, on a beautiful, sunny day, I stopped to cross at an intersection. A large, immaculate white van pulled up alongside me. There were loud, repeated banging sounds coming from within the van. But no sign of any face, no sound of any voice. The row of almost aircraft-shaped, vertically rectangular windows were smoked-black and impassive.

On the side of the van was just one name and logo: Serco.

Serco’s website tells us that it is an “international service company which combines commercial know-how with a deep public service ethos”. Explicit reference to the fact that it runs four UK prisons is only to be found once one digs below the blandly euphemistic, “home affairs” moniker.

Surely it is simply evil to make money out of imprisoning people, if this absolutely has to be done? How can we give private companies the right to benefit from the numbers of people handed over to their care, when this creates an incentive for them to keep more, rather than fewer people in their facilities? How can a company that makes money out of holding prisoners have any interest in their rehabilitation?

I little suspected, when watching the film Taking Liberties on the flight from Cape Town to London, that I would encounter some evidence of the erosion of a civil society it describes. A civil society does not hide the fact that it takes prisoners, if it has to take them.

I have written to Serco, asking how one can contact prisoners in their care.

Update: There was never any response to my request lodged with Serco.

‘A dead Iraqi is just another dead Iraqi… You know, so what?’ – Independent Online Edition

This article from the UK Independent reports on a investigation in the US publication, the Nation, which reveals what anyone with anyone with imagination and understanding of human nature, military institutions and warfare knew all along: that the war in Iraq has been waged with a monumental contempt for Iraqi life that gives the lie to all claims that the war was intended to establish democracy. Here’s the original piece by The Nation.

Workers in mining companies are coming down with AIDS – International Herald Tribune

LONDON: From Africa to Russia, from Peru to China, mining companies face a problem: The workers who haul up the earths riches are coming down with AIDS, and it is hampering operations at a time of booming demand for minerals.
“The epidemic is extremely severe, it’s worse than any of us admit to, there are a lot of undiagnosed cases that dont get reported,” Brian Brink, medical senior vice president at Anglo Americans South Africa operations, said.

First posted on a Guardian CIF forum:

(Mac user speaks)

Macs are ridiculously expensive and far from perfect, and service pretty shoddy here in SA (but then most service is here) – but every time I use a win machine for even a few minutes I’m glad I switched. mostly, on a mac, I can forget about the computer, and focus on the work. Linux I used extensively a few years back, but felt too much time was spent in enforced geekery. might go back, tho, if mac prices don’t drop.

my specific gripe though, is Word. I have to use this program for editing work for two reasons: a) it’s the standard b) track changes. Yes, there’s Open Office, but it’s slow and unstable on the Mac. Read the rest of this entry »