G20 Riots and the Summer of Rage

 

London prepares for the G20

 

 

Giant sand pits filled with children, a climate camp in the middle of the Square Mile and unattended packages on tubes are predicted to bring East London to a standstill next Wednesday, as leaders from around the world gather in London for the G20 summit.

But armed undercover police officers will mingle with the crowds on the streets, working with snipers on the rooftops of the City’s buildings in an effort to keep the capital moving.The operation will cost £10 million as the Metropolitan police force prepares for what could be some of the worst riots the city has seen, and the start of what senior Met police have labelled the ’summer of rage’.

In amongst the army of protestors will be hundreds of people from Hackney who live in one of the poorest areas of the country. De Beauvoir resident, and final year student, Suzanne Beishon, who will take to the streets in protests, says “Billions of pounds are being put into bail out the banks, but not into finding people jobs. It’s not fair.”

However, there are growing fears that the legitimate demonstrations will be marred by an outburst of violence from a growing anarchist community.

Commander Bob Broadhurst, who is in charge of the police operation, has warned that groups are planning to ‘stop the city’ on Wednesday with a series of demonstrations and stunts.

This would be a return to the late 1990s when the financial district was brought to a standstill by the international protest day ‘Carnival against Capitalism’ which unleashed a wave of destruction on the city. Chanting crowds of 5,000 people and samba bands weaved their way through the streets.

Hand to hand fighting broke out in the Cannon Bridge Building as protestors broke in to the reception, smashing it to pieces before trying to enter the trading floor.

On the streets graffiti was sprayed on to walls and CCTV cameras were disabled. Pepper spray was used to quell the rioters, but traffic ground to a halt as masses of cyclists joined the carnival.

Ten years on, radical protestors are planning to make giant sandpits and bring children to play in them so the police cannot respond with force. Climate change campaigners will create a mini-climate change camp in the Square Mile, and there are rumours that Stop the War campaigners will be driving a tank to the summit at the Docklands ExCel centre.

This won’t be the first time Hackney activists have taken to the street. This weekend campaigners fromHackney Stop the War Coalition demonstrated outside a new Army recruitment centre in Dalston’s Kingsland Shopping Centre. And at the beginning of the month Tony Benn was the star speaker at a Stop the War event in Stoke Newington.

“We had fantastic support at the event in Stoke Newington. There were between 300 and 400 people there and we’re expecting many of them to join the G20 marches,” said Lindsey German, a Stop the War convenor from Clapton Square.

Their chant “jobs not bombs” will undoubtedly rumble around the streets next week.

Stop the War organiser Chris Nineham, said: “The media and the police are being completely illegitimate. Thousands of people want to have a peaceful protest. We’re campaigning for a world without violence and that is what we will have a protest without violence.”

Nineham’s concerns come as a Joint Select Committee on Human Rights has criticised the police for being too heavy handed when dealing with protestors and that anti-terrorism laws need to be strengthened so they cannot be abused by the police.

Jane Holgate, from Hackney Trade Union Congress  has warned that an over-reaction by the police may cause a problem, “There needs to be a distinction between terrorist activity and legitimate protest. Over the last ten years we have seen a heavy police reaction to these events.”

But other protestors have pointed the finger of blame at the anarchists, saying that they will achieve nothing with their violent tactics. A Youth For jobs rally has already been rerouted by police after fears that militant action may cause problems.

George Solomou, a former soldier and Hackney based campaigner with Military Families Against War, warned: “History tells us that these specific demonstrations against the G20 have been quite boisterous, but I don’t think we are the enemy of the British people. The enemy are the leaders of the G20 .”

And with anarchists distributing fliers advertising the death of the it looks like the ‘summer of rage’ is all set to start in Spring.

Feature from www.hackneypost.co.uk

International Crisis Group report on Tajikistan

The International Crisis Group is warning that Barack Obama’s plans for a new troop supply route into Afghanistan could be under threat from a weak Tajikistan. 

The former Soviet Republic is facing severe security issues with nearly half the population working abroad, and issues of food security, infrastructure and energy provision needing attention.

NATO forces in Afghanistan are having to rethink supply routes in and out of the country following a series of attacks near the Khyber Pass.

Extract from Crisis Group report - 

“Tajikistan’s leaders clearly feel that any reform will destroy their grip on power”, says Paul Quinn-Judge, Crisis Group’s Central Asia Project Director. “Significant improvement is highly unlikely under President Rakhmon”.

Until recently, half of Tajikistan’s workforce has been working abroad. Migrant labour has served not only as an easy way out for the country’s largely do-nothing leadership. It has also created a political safety valve providing jobs for the young, more energetic members of the population who might otherwise have taken their protests to the street. Now work in Russia, Kazakhstan and elsewhere is drying up with the deepening of the world economic crisis. The migrants are coming home.

The country’s Soviet-era infrastructure is crumbling due to neglect, and its leadership appears to have no idea how to confront a series of major economic and social crises. For the second winter in a row the country is largely without electricity.

The international community’s ability to effect change, however, is limited by its lack of unity and an absence of interest or even awareness of Tajikistan’s problems in international capitals. Yet unity in their approach to this small country could produce big dividends and avoid even bigger problems.

Despite the fragility of both regime and its infrastructure, the new U.S. administration clearly views Tajikistan as possible major participant in its plans to create a new supply line for coalition troops in Afghanistan. But Western security priorities in the region will not be reliably served by an incompetent, venal state near collapse. 

Scarlett Johansson, Hugh Jackman and Woody Allen get the scoop

Thank goodness for the BBC and its iplayer service now showing feature films because otherwise I would never have come across Woody Allen’s Scoop. With the dark clouds of a declining newspaper industry hanging over every student journalist there is hardly a better film to motivate and inspire us for the final few months of our courses. 

The story shares nothing in common with Evelyn Waugh’s brilliant novel of the same name, except that both portray a rather brilliant, if not haphazard journalist.

In Allen’s Scoop, which he also stars in, the gorgeous Scarlett Johansson plays a student journalist who is given a tip off from beyond the grave by fellow reporter, and him off of Lovejoy, Ian McShane, about the identity of a serial killer. 

Johansson’s character then sets off on an undercover escapade to achieve her big scoop, spending more time rolling around in bed with the dashing Hugh Jackman, than can be healthy, to secure the splash. 

The film received poor reviews when it was released in the States in 2006, and it never made it to the big screen in this country. But it is brilliant comedy that takes a light hearted look at not only journalism, but also the cultural divide between the US and the UK, and it’s a pleasure to see some great stars relaxing into their roles. 

I’m sure many of the girls on my course will wish that they were Johansson, scoring both Jackman and the scoop of a life-time, and for the guys a full 90 minutes of FHM’s 2006 sexiest star can’t be bad. And to top it off Allen is his usual hilarious self. 

Student deploys to Afghanistan

A student from the University of Teeside is proving she is more than a match for any of her male uni mates – a deployment to Afghanistan. 

Territorial Army Officer Captain Rachael Davies, a student in Post Conflict Reconstruction, is based in Helmand province with 3 Commando.

The following is taken from the MOD website 

Captain Davies is deployed to Helmand province with 3 Commando Brigade. Based in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, she works for the Civil-Military Co-operation group (CIMIC), which links the military effort out on the ground to the wider provincial strategy delivering reconstruction and development.

The effort to stabilise Helmand province is led by the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) – a multi-national, civilian and military partnership to which CIMIC contributes.

Captain Davies, aged 23, has been in the TA for six years and, although she still has a year left before completing her degree at the University of Teeside, she took a year out when the opportunity to deploy to Afghanistan with the CIMIC group arose:

“It has always been part of my plan, what with my degree and future career aspirations, to work within the CIMIC group, their work obviously fits,” she said. “I have only just been promoted into this role so there is a lot of expectation on me. Just three years ago I was still a cadet, now I am a captain amongst those with much more age and experience than me, but I am relishing the challenge.

Generation Kill on HBO

The latest offering from The Wire’s David Simon and Ed Burns is a miniseries based on journalist Evan Wright’s book Generation Kill. It’s based on his time embedded with the US Marine’s First Recon team in Iraq, 2003. 

Some have said the book is already a ‘classic of war reportage’. Could Evan Wright be the new Ernie Pyle? He certainly seems to be loved by the troops, but that may have more to do with his background – he once wrote porno films. 

Tweetminster, twitter, tweeting MPs

Andy Reed the Labour MP for Loughborough has a new wii, and Kerry McCarthy the Labour MP for Bristol East has got the log fire working. Sounds like some kind of political reality show, but this is just another step for media savvy politicians. 

Twitter has met Westminster with the creation of Tweetminster. It is the brainchild of Alberto Nardelli of Unlitworld and was created in collaboration with MP Tom Watson, and the concept is simple: MPs tweet and their constituents follow them in the virtual world. 

It is hoped that the service will provide a new and direct way of politicians and citizens conversing, creating a unique form of open democracy. 

No doubt the inspiration has come from the president of new media and politics, President-Elect Obama, but so far the service appears to be working. 

 

Twitter logo mash-up

 

 

Labour have monopolised the idea with 58% of the sites activity, and Tom Watson MP is the most active member with 1156 tweets. And the sites creators have high hopes for its future. They are even urging constituents to invite their MPs to use the service. 

To see if your MP is a tweeter checkout tweetminster.co.uk where you can use an online postcode search to find or invite them to the service.

Human Vs. Technology

 

Blogging, tweeting and podcasting all seem to be the new tools of the journalist. The typewriter was replaced by the computer, the computer was replaced by the laptop and now the mobile phone, combining all of these, allows the journalist to exploit his or her new tools on the go. Liveblogging in real time, tweeting from the mobile or vodcasting straight to qik. But as student journalists have we all gone a little too far? Have we made the new technology the focus of our work, at the cost of the human story? 

Web 2.0 the future of journalism, or just a delivery platform?

During the first twelve weeks of our course at City we have spent many hours hearing about the decline of the newspaper industry from Roy Greenslade, and having rousing sermons delivered by Chris Brauer, the high clergyman of online journalism. But I am worried that with all of this we have overlooked the core element of the journalist’s work: the human. Where are the lectures on building and maintaing contacts? The time spent in the bar or in the corridors of power developing and nurturing stories. In the evenings we all rush home to blog, not to hang around the town hall or the police station waiting for that scoop. 

And having just come back from work experience this worries me. The top reporters at the Manchester Evening News do not appear to be those who are computer wizards, or those who are constantly updating their blogs. Far from it, they are the reporters who have the most contacts in the police, the council or business. News doesn’t come from our blogs, our tweets don’t get us scoops, they are just ways of delivering our stories. I can understand that we need to know how to exploit the latest technologies, but is it coming at the cost of being on the ground, listening to people and finding out their worries and concerns? Could this be they key to increasing newspaper sales or saving journalism? Or at least to making our name as aspiring reporters?

However, for the opposite side of the argument check out my fellow student Michael Haddon. 

Zimbabwe Terror Plot

Less than a week after world leaders called for urgent action to be taken against Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe reports have spread that the opposition MDC party and Botswana are training militia forces to overthrow the government. 

But the MDC and the Botswana government have both denied this. The MDC has gone further, saying that ZANU-PF will use this claim to declare a national emergency, handing Mugabe and his henchmen a free reign of power. Potentially to purge anyone and anything they see as a threat. 

The accusations come as a report in today’s Herald newspaper, a state owned media outlet, claim that there was an assassination attempt on the country’s head of Air Force Perence Shiri, who was shot in the arm while visiting a farm on Saturday.

The paper claims that the government has ‘compelling’ evidence that there is a plot to overthrow Mugabe and has called Botswana a ‘surrogate’ of western power.  

Zimbabwean intelligence forces have been operating inside Botswana in an attempt to prove the allegations. 

Terrorists or Freedom Fighters

Air Marshall Shiri (yawning): Shot in suspected assassination attempt

The Zimbabwean government has labelled the attempt a terror plot, saying:”The attack on Air Marshal Shiri appears to be a build-up of terror attacks targeting high-profile persons, government officials, government establishments and public transportation systems.”

There have been a series of explosions at police stations in Harare, as well as a bridge on the outskirts of the capital.

But in a decade where the rhetoric of terrorism has become so heavily loaded could this be the classic “one man’s terrorist, is another’s freedom fighter”? 

If there was ever a country where direct action was needed surely it is Zimbabwe? Action in the UN security Council is being blocked by South Africa, China and Russia and Mugabe continues to deny the existence of a Cholera epidemic. 

Could this action be the answer? Or will it just create a greater power struggle? Only time will tell, but what the West must not do is stop piling the pressure in the UN, in the hope that one day this dead lock will be broken. 

Pressure Mounts on Mugabe

Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have all called for increased action against Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe this week. Nick Clegg and Archbishop Tutu have gone the furthest, both calling for military action against Mugabe’s regime. Clegg urged the UN to justify the use of force saying: “The world has sat idly by for too long. Economic recession in the West has led the world to avert its gaze from the suffering in Zimbabwe. Further international inaction would be inexcusable.” Meanwhile, Archbishop Tutu, talking on Dutch TV, said that it was time for Mugabe to step down or be removed ‘by force’.

Pressure mounts on Zimbabwe's Mugabe

But is the use of force justified, and if so by whom, and with whose support?

The notion of ‘humanitarian intervention’ has been an increasingly contentious issue, especially since the disaster in Somalia and the catastrophe that was the failure to intervene in Rwanda.

Any consideration of intervention into Zimbabwe is going to meet with a great deal of opposition, not least in the security council. The rules of sovereignty and non intervention have a sacred place in international politics, in a system that has so few rules state leaders are inclined to protect the ones they do have.

China remains the biggest threat to any action in the security council, as a permanent member it has the right of veto on any decision taken. And it remains one of the few supporters of Mugabe. In November Chinese officials said they were prepared to help Zimbabwe’s agricultural production in an effort to circumvent the sanctions imposed by the West. With this solidarity it would be a huge leap to expect the Chinese to support any intervention into Zimbabwe.

Unilateral intervention may be an option, but this is fraught with even more worries than intervention supported by the UN Security Council. The term refers to any intervention without the consent of the UN, be it by one country, or a coalition. Not only is its legitimacy at stake but so is its legality. Kosovo, Iraq and action taken after the first Gulf War have all been severely criticised as illegal. But it is not impossible and if this was to be the only option the bigger question then opened up is who would be in the coalition? The US and UK are bogged down in the protracted ‘War on Terror’ overstretched in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and other NATO members have shown little willingness to initiate unilateral intervention. That leaves the countries of the African Union. An AU force would have the benefit of legitimacy, there is a big consensus that advocates indigenous forces. But there a few stumbling blocks this option will have to overcome. South Africa has so far been reluctant to engage in any concrete action against its neighbour. Although with the increasing tide of refugees and the threat of Cholera, this may change. Increasingly likely to have an impact on the situation are the crises in the Congo and Darfur. Little has been achieved through intervention in these countries and the Congo is certainly becoming a more serious threat to stability on the continent.

So where does this leave Zimbabwe? Increasing pressure must continue, it can only help to highlight the problems faced by the population and with rumours of a mutiny by the army maybe Mugabe’s downfall may come from his strongest supporters.

The Economist: Setting the benchmark?

 

With an online presence becoming increasingly important for papers, and Guardian.co.uk and Daily Telegraph racing ahead in the user polls, I was amazed by how good economist.com has integrated the magazine with new media. 

Flicking through this week’s magazine I stumbled across a signpost on page 22 directing the reader to the website. A clever bit of self advertising. With a slight cynicism I logged on and headed for the site. 

The advert was for a videographic providing the background to the current conflict in the Congo. A graphic which proved to be an intelligent, analytical and well made piece. I have yet to discover a more effective way of portraying the complexities of any conflict situation. 

Be under no illusions, this is not a flashy human interest piece, but a visual which provides an ideal four minute briefing on the Congo. 

 

I was struck by the effectiveness of superimposing the map of the Congo onto Europe, allowing you to gauge just how vast the country is. Initial you begin to wonder why anyone would be interested in trying to keep a country of this size united, especially when the capital is virtually as far west as you can get. But this becomes clear when the visual displays the mineral deposits. Gold, copper, coltan and cobalt are all found in the east. The timeline of recent history, and the relations to the surrounding countries also makes for an effective brief, and the commentary isn’t bad either.  

On the whole I think The Economist may have set a new bench mark for online media. Hard news and in-depth analysis presented in the finest traditions of multimedia journalism. Surely this is the proof that online journalism doesn’t mean the same old 24 hour news cycle of instant captions and quick soundbites? 

http://audiovideo.economist.com/