So with the enroachment of CCTV and overall obsession with security upon our lives becomes ever more apparent along with the further erosion of civil liberties. If your desire was ever to be part of the celluloid dream…now is your chance.

Just take a trip down to your local Odeon and quicker than you can say “Big Brother and 1984″, hey presto, you’re on film. Odeon and Vue are fitting CCTV cameras in 10 of their cinemas based on “customer and staff safety”…

The footage will be kept for 31 days, so if anyone is enjoying a fumble a la kissing in the back row on Saturday night will be on candid camera. This could either put people off going to the cinema or it could bring out the rampant extrovert..making sure the camera gets the good side. And who knows, the exploits of the moviegoers may even be more entertaining than the film.

And indeed, some budding voyeuristic Cecil B. DeMented who gets access to the CCTV film won’t be cutting and splicing with the end results on YouTube, will they?  You can can just see the award ceremonies….”best dramatic snoring”, “best dash to the loos before the films start”, “best fumbling and mumbling” and so on……

But as Liberty says, “Cameras in cinemas are meant to entertain, not turn film-buffs into suspects”… Them watching us watching the film….how mundane. But I still want to know why do they feel the need to impose this level of security on moviegoers? Are they after the film pirates?

I’m off to watch The Dark Knight film tomorrow. I wonder if I’ll feature on silver screen….? At over two hours, gawd knows how people will pass the time with this epic…I intend to watch the film.

Around 5 million people in the UK can’t read or write. And 100,000 teenagers leave school every year who can’t read or write. This is a damning indictment of the educational system. Teresa is 58, she went through school without learning to read or write. Instead being told she was “thick” and “dumb” by a succession of teachers ( I am sure these teachers get a power kick in humiliation!). She gave up and left school at 15.

Teresa, along with 8 other people who have different levels of literacy, are part of a Channel 4 series, Can’t Read, Can’t Write where teacher Phil Beadle has 6 mths to do something that the educational system failed to do. I don’t usually have a high opinion of these reality television programmes but this was different. I could kinda relate to many of their experiences of the educational system. Also the domination of words saturating their everyday life and their ways of coping. Teresa relies on her daughter to help with shopping lists. Linda loves books, but she can’t read any of the written words. She buys books that she hopes she will read one day. Her ambition is to read Shakespeare.

James, a plumber’s mate, relies on his mum to act as his guide through the myriad of words, also rather startlingly was his mum reading health and safety information he had been given about asbestos (he didn’t know whether he was working with it). He wants to read and write so he can pass his driving test. Many of these people try and keep their illiteracy a secret as they are too embarrassed to admit to it.

Phil Beadle, the teacher, visited an adult education college in London and was depressed by the government guidance on literacy. The person managing this college was utterly bureaucratised and spouted the line about it all being about “passing exams”. The guidance was described by Beadle as “impenetrable” and he believed learning was about infusing passion and engaging with ideas unfortunately this clashed with the government ethos and hidden curriculum about passing exams, rote learning. There was nothing in any of these provisions about adults learning to read and basic literacy. Instead, Beadle went back to basics by concentrating on phonetics and the sounds of letters.

Many of these people has been failed by an indifferent educational system and cast aside as worthless. I didn’t feel cynical watching this programme instead I felt pleased for Linda who was able to grasp the sounds of letters or Teresa becoming overwhelmed and overjoyed by being able to read her first book. You saw their confidence and self-esteem flourish. The series has been described as a cross between The Dead Poets Society and Educating Rita but I did feel a connection with these people.

Up until the age of 8-9 years old, I couldn’t read and barely could write. I was described by my teachers as “stupid” and regularly humiliated by them in the class. The result being was that I sat at the back of the class hoping to blend in with background and no eye contact with the teacher. My confidence was non existent, my mind would go blank when I was asked a question and the teachers gave up on me. I was left alone, given up on. I did internalise what they said and believed that if they think I am “thick and stupid” then I must be.

But miraculously my education was saved in the guise of this wonderful woman teacher who liberated my mind from this perpetual belief that I was “thick and stupid”. She spent time with me and unlocked the barriers that were stopping me from reading and writing. She gave me confidence and belief in myself. She treated all the kids in the class equally and she never wrote any of them off.

She developed my love of reading and writing. The idea of being able to pick up a book and read its contents is something I take for granted same with reading signs, recipes, shopping lists, from the exciting to the mundane. Letter and words engulf our lives and watching this programme made me forget how our lives revolve around them and how the educational system fails, neglects and instils feelings of worthlessness on people who are cast aside. A system that shamefully shrugs its shoulders.

Had a mooch around the Wallace Collection yesterday. Wasn’t terribly impressed as it is cluttered, badly lit and positioned. Seems like this was the traditonal way in which pictures were hung and all very 18th century ruling class…utterly bourgeois bad taste. It was one visual overload. Where’s the curator..?

Anyway, I saw an engraving of Hogarth’s Marriage A-la-Mode and that sorta made up for the disappointment.

Iris Robinson is beyond contempt. And her latest homophobic outburst is no different even with her so-called u-turn (she said what she said and meant it and now tries to recant).

Sorry, but I am going to dispense with the usual political analysis and critique of why she is a hideous homophobe and instead be blunt and say….

Shut the f*ck up Iris!

Hat tip: Splintered Sunrise

“Our proposals are based on a simple deal: more support in return for greater responsibility”  (James Purnell, No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility).

Incapacity Benefit and Income Support will be abolished by 2013. Welcome to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) which will be brought in for new claimants October this year.

New and existing claimants will be medically assessed on what they can do as opposed what they can’t. If you qualify for ESA people will be told that it will be a temporary stop gap whilst being bullied and cajoled into finding work.

Lone parents with children under seven will be moved onto Job Seekers’ Allowance but won’t be expected to look for work but the green paper proposes measures that will include financial incentives in the form of “skills for work” premium (around £40 extra a week). No mention of universal free childcare….

The green paper includes more conditionality, stricter rules, compulsion and sanctions. And of course, community work if you have been unemployed for 2 years. And this process actually criminalises the unemployed, the languages blends in with phrases like “community service”. Being on the dole automatically makes you “dishonest”.

Programmes like the BBC one, last Thursday, on benefit fraud where the undercurrent was that unemployed people were essentially portrayed as cheats and liars. Further fanning the flames of stigma and vilification and the media, dishonestly, regurgitating and perpetuating the lies and myths peddled by NL. I would like to see James Purnell exist (cos that is all what he will do, exist) on IB or IS. I would like to see Purnell go through the various forms, go to the medicals, get knocked back, appeal the decision and so on.

The unrelenting misery and the obstacles that are put in your way just to get a meagre benefit, basic subsistence where you kinda just exist. Not the stereotypes perpetuated by NL and the media about the unemployed living the “good life” “scrounging off state benefits” while ordinary workers work hard. This is a typical divide and rule tactic, rather like deserving/underserving poor. It is meant to pit one group of people against another.

Essentially, the underlying message is about blaming the poor for their own predicament, the ideology of the culture of dependency, rights and responsibilities, worshipping the private sector and profit. We shouldn’t underestimate the sheer nastiness of NL in their attacks. NL have around 18 mths until the next election and once the Tories are, probably, elected then they will do pretty much the same.

I attended the conference that I mentioned yesterday in regards to the statement.

Instead of giving a brief description of the day, I will highlight some of the discussions.

In the first session, Haifa Zangana spoke about the position of women in Iraqi society since the invasion and occupation.

And that Iraqi women have a history of struggling against imperialism and colonialism. The lack of education (around 350 academics have been assassinated since the invasion) and health services, due to the occupation, also impact upon women. UNICEF report that 74% Iraqi girls don’t attend school. In her book, City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman’s Account of War and Resistance, she says:

“Women who struggled for many decades against the dictatorship report that today is worse than yesterday, which is worse than the day before. They are outraged to see their counytry’s resources robbed while they live in slums, and they lack the slightest say in the political process. They despair at the uncertainty in their lives”. (page 107).

The infrastructure of Iraq is devastated every aspect of that society has been affected by the occupation. And now the imperialists are gung-ho in desperately wanting to steal the natural resource….oil. Greg Muttit gave a detailed introduction about the draft oil law.

How  Bush/Cheney are putting pressure on the Iraqi government to pass this law before they leave office.

It was meant to have been passed nearly 2 years ago without discussion and in secret. But the contents were leaked and Iraqis campaigned against this impending law. The oil unions led a pivotal role in this courageous struggle and with international support and solidarity.

The reaction against this campaign has been brutal. Oil union leaders have had arrest warrants taken out against them, workplaces have been militarised, and activists threatened. In their attempt to crush resistance, around 6 wks ago, 8 oil workers have been sent from Basra to Baghdad.

This will inevitably endanger the lives of these activists yet New Labour has endorsed the forcible removal of these people. The Kurdistan Regional Government have started signing contracts without any discussion about their constitutional authority to do so.

And now the Iraqi government is expecting to sign 1-year service contracts for 6 of Iraq’s largest fields.

They have been offered to BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Total. These 1-year contracts will act as a springboard for more longer term contracts. The US administration are now pushing for a 3-part strategy to pass the oil law. 

They want to broker a deal between the Kurdish and some Shi’a parties; neutralise opposition; and offer inducements for more Iraqi MPs to vote for the law.

Bush and Cheney have a limited time in passing this oil law. This will mean that the total privatisation of the oil and further economic undermining and plundering of the Iraq. They came, they saw, they conquered and stole the oil. Multinational companies could have contracts for 30 years. There is no allowance for transparency or accountability. The sovereignty of the oil will be handed over to foreign private companies.

Hands off Iraqi Oil are hoping to organise a day of action on the 11 October to mark the last 100 days of the Bush administration and to show solidarity with the Iraqi oil workers who, along with other civil society groups, have made a brave stand against the theft of the oil.

There’s another report of the day at Jim’s blog.

So the eagerly awaited green paper into welfare reform has been leaked….Instead the usual fanfare and anticipation for the Monday launch has turned into a damp squib as Purnell’s brainchild ended up on Sky News website. And its contents predictable.

“Repeat claimants of jobseekers’ allowance and anyone on JSA for two years or more work for their dole They will be required to undertake community work.”

Along with a war on drug users cos it is all about being tough, tough, tough and robust on the “workshy”. And voluntary and private organisations will get a big share of the employment services contracts (snouts in the trough there). Though, interestingly, only 2 out of the 15 Pathways to Work contracts have been awarded to the voluntary sector the rest to the private sector, cos it is all about profit, profit, profit.

At the core of NL’s authoritarian ideology is grinding the poor into the ground. More robbing the poor to pay the rich, cos it is all about the corporate interests.

Next stop…workhouse.

Justice for Iraq was organised by Iraq Occupation Focus (IOF) and unamended statement at the end (which I support). They hope other orgs/individuals will back it. I will write more tomorrow about the overall day but this is what the statement contains:

We call on those states responsible for the invasion and occupation of Iraq to terminate their illegal and immoral war and express our solidarity with the Iraqis people in their struggle for peace, justice and self-determination.

In particular we demand:

1. An immediate end to the US and UK-led occupation of Iraq;

2. Urgent action to fully address the current humanitarian crises facing Iraq’s people, including help for the more than three million refugees and displaced persons;

3. An end to all foreign interference in Iraq’s affairs, including its oil industry, so that Iraqis can exercise their rights to self-determination;

4. Compensation and reparations from those countries responsible for war and sanctions on Iraq;

5. Prosecution of all those responsible for war crimes, human rights abuses, and the theft of Iraq’s resources.

We demand justice for Iraq

More can be seen on blog.

Hooray!! Victory for SBS

SBS have won their battle against Ealing Council:

(From the Ealing Times) Ealing Council has conceded defeat in a landmark hearing brought by a number of women helped by Southall Black Sisters (SBS), which supports victims from ethnic minority groups.

Speaking outside the courtroom, Pragna Patel, the organisation’s chairman, said: “We feel vindicated because we feel the council has accepted that they made numerous errors”.

I am so pleased SBS have won as they are such a grounding breaking organisation. It would have been devastating if Ealing had won.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get to the High Court today which was a shame as I would have liked to have heard the decision but I was there yesterday showing my support and solidarity. 

Placard from Southwark council picket line.

Outside High Court as Southall Black Sisters took on Ealing Council.

More on my Flickr account.