Go Lassie Go

Forgive the mass murderer but pillory the supermodel

Naomi Campbell is a silly, vain woman. She has retained her great beauty at forty, but her brain seems to have matured at the same rate as her skin. She is frozen in perpetual teenage self-absorbtion. How else to explain her "this is so inconvenient" remark at The Hague, then fleeing the court ordeal to go jet-setting.

But lest we forget, Naomi is no war criminal.  She has as much substance as a meringue and the sensitivity of grade four sandpaper. But her short comings do not include acts of mass murder and mutilation. 

We need to remind ourselves of this because the coverage of Campbell's appearance at the Charles Taylor war crimes trial this week suggests that it is the supermodel, not the warlord, who is the real baddie.  Sensible newspapers have devoted spreads questioning the veracity of her testimony. Instead of speculating about whether Taylor will be convicted, we lick our lips at the prospect of Naomi being charged with perjury or worse. 

But what exactly did she do wrong back in 1997?  She has admitted receiving the diamonds and, quite properly, handing them over to the Nelson Mandela Children's charity. Everybody who testified accepts that. There is no suggestion from anyone that she asked for the diamonds or personally gained from them. The only inconsistancy is whether she knew they were from Taylor.  But what if she did?  As a 27 year old model, perhaps even more daft than she is now, she could hardly be expected to know that the then recently elected President of Libera was Africa's answer to Pol Pot (she had almost certainly never heard of Pol Pot). And as any psychiatrist will tell you, psychopaths are often superficially charming.  At the time, the extent of Taylor's crimes was not widely publicised - though anyone who followed the events in West Africa should have given him a wide berth. Still, the UN declaration on conflict diamonds and the Kimberly agreement to outlaw them were several years away. The movie Blood Diamond would not be made for another 12 years and Kanye West, who wrote the anthemic Diamonds are from Sierra Leone, was just another college drop out trying to get a break..  

Campbell was probably the youngest and least well educated of the guests at the party given by Nelson Mandela. Why, in her eyes, would her saintly host endorse a war criminal? Why would the self-celebrated humanitarian Mia Farrow or the legendary music producer Quincy Jones break bread with Taylor?  If Mandela, Jones and Farrow were comfortable in the man's company, why is all the opprobrium heaped on the young model? 

Because she flirted with him, the hussy! Most men meeting the world's most famous black model would have chanced their arm with a bit of mild flirtation. A middle aged meglomaniac like Taylor was guaranteed to try it on. No doubt she was well used to such behaviour and responded with some harmless coquettish remarks. What else was she to do?  Embark on a Leninist analysis of The Scramble for Africa?

It is a sad reflection of our celebrity obsessed culture that we find it easier to pillory Naomi than Taylor, and the diamond companies who profited from his activites until human rights campaigners forced them to abide by agreements on the origins of the stones. Amnesty is campaigning for all the corporations who profitted from blood diamonds to face justice. 

But the fact is we don't really care about Taylor, his corporate customers, and the millions of lives he ruined. Unlike Naomi, it's just not that sexy.

Glasgow girl served deportation papers and told to board a plane this Saturday

Precious Mhango, the 10 year old who has spent most of her life in Glasgow has been served deportation orders along with her mother Florence. The pair, who have gathered unprecedented support across Scottish society, have been asked to board a plane to Malawi voluntarily on Saturday. If they do so the mother and child will be separated when they get to Malawi, as her estranged father's family have first claim to Precious even though they are strangers to her.  Anne McLaughlin MSP has drafted a new letter to Theresa May, the Home Secretary. She urges as many people as possible to send it - or their own letter - immediately, preferably by email. She asks if you could let her know when you do this.

The real price of oil

This is an Amnesty International advertisment that the Financial Times refused to print.  Royal Dutch Shell have a long, and some would say, not very illustrious history in Nigeria. The people of the Delta get very little payback from the oil in their region and are shot if they try to "steal" it. Pollution is endemic. Go to Amnesty site for more information.

Suicide is not a sin, even on Glasgow's Red Road

Nowadays even the church urgues compassion towards those who take their own lives. People who kill themselves are likely confused, suffering from mental illness or so despairing and depressed that they cannot be judged as exercising free will. Christian burial is not denied them.  The secular world takes a similarly caring approach to the issue. Suicide is not an offence in Scots Law.  So why do we still constantly refer to people "committing" suicide in the same way they might "commit" a crime, or, indeed, a sin?

 

This point was made to me by my friend Rosie Kane, the former socialist MSP who is now a mental health outreach worker in Glasgow. 

 She was annoyed at the use of the phrase to describe the deaths of the Russian family of asylum seekers who apparently jumped from the 17th floor of Glasgow's Red Road flats. Having googled the term, "committed suicide" I must say the British media don't seem to use it any more - however it crops up frequently in conversation and in blogs and comments' sections. Tom Harris, the MP and blogger,  and Robina Qureshi of Positive Action in Housing, both used the term to describe the Red Road deaths, despite being on opposite sides in the argument about how asylum seekers are treated. 

"Committed suicide" sounds bit like something out of the Spanish Inquisition. The concept of suicide as a sin/crime in Christian theology began in the Middle Ages with St Thomas Aquinus. We have moved on since then. It's interesting the way different religions and cultures view the act. In Japan, it was traditionally a legitimate and honorable form of repentance. Buddhist monks in the Vietnam war period considered it an expression of dissent. Islam regards suicide as a crime, but not in the defence of Allah - something extremists interpret as justifying suicide bombing.

The Russian family were certainly in despair. I do wonder, however, whether a crime has not been"committed" in their case. How do we know the wife and son jumped willingly?  It is now emerging that the father had mental health problems and was delusional. Then again, his claim that he once worked for the Russian secret service - if true -  makes this paranoia more understandable. It is not so long ago that another Russian ex-agent , Alexander Litvinenko, was murdered in London when someone poisoned him with a radioactive substance.  

The issue here seems to be the lack of support given to the Red Road family. They must have been extremely isolated if the wife and adult son were drawn into the father's fantasies about the Canadians trying to kill him and The Queen. Then again, perhaps their experiences in Russia were so terrifying that this seemed quite plausible..Or was the relationship abusive?  Where they forced to jump by the father? We do not know because nobody seemed to be closely involved with them. 

We do know they had been told to leave their accomodation and their benefits were cut. This is a crisis point for such families, they should not be left to deal with such news unsupported.

Depression among asylum seekers is widespread. Much of this is because of the limbo in which the are forced to live for many years because of the length of time it takes the UK Border Agency to deal with their cases. This is particularly damaging to children - see the case of Precious Mhango - who become fully integrated and familiarised with British life then are told they have to return to a hostile country where they have no friends.

 

I have experience of the way the Border Agency operate because of trying to assist my friend, a foreign student. On completion of her third year, she needed to change the status of her visa in order to obtain work experience, which is compulsory for student architects. It ought to have been a straightforward matter, but the Agency sat on her passport and visa for almost two years. This meant she could not work, or even travel home to her family in Africa, unless she asked to be deported. When I tried to intervene in her case as a journalist, I was told that she was an "Illegal", even though I knew she had been a matriculated student at a very respectable institution. It was absolutely crazy. She was offered a job in an architect's office, but it was withdrawn when the UK Border Agency failed to give assurances about her status. Eventually, after the intervention of a Liberal Democrat peer, the Agency admitted that they had in fact lost her passport and papers. As a result of this, they got her mixed up with someone else. To save their blushes, they awarded her leave to remain - something she hadn't asked for and which allows her to claim benefits. So she still doesn't have the correct student visa, but is free to sign on. What a mess!

All the time my friend was in limbo, I could see how low it made her feel. The frustration of not being believed ground her down. She spent hours every day writing letters and trying to deal with what I can only describe as Kafkaesque bureacracy. You cannot phone, and emails get a standard reply. At one point she was told not to bother writing because her letters would go straight to the bottom of the pile as she was an "illegal" (something that wasn't true).

Now that the bizarre and complex details of the Red Road case emerge, government spokesmen dismiss refugee groups who insist the deaths are an indictment of our system. But while this tragic family may be atypical, their despair certainly is not.

If you have thoughts about suicide, click here

Where where you when Mandela walked free?

South Africans are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's walk to freedom today. A number of news outlets have asked readers to remember where they were at that moment.  I can recall it vividly. I was a news reporter with The Scotsman, but enjoying a day off with Grace, my five month old baby.  We sat on a beanbag in front of the telly at our flat in Partick.  I'm afraid I actually talked her through the event...

It's hard to describe to young people born after Mandela's release what an iconic figure he was and how momentous his freedom felt to those of us who'd 

campaigned for his release. The world appeared frozen during the Cold War decades from the 1950s to the 1980s. Anyone who was politically active on the left at that time was used to being dismissed as an idealist. We campaigned for change more in hope than expectation. It will seem incredible to the Obama generation, but lots of people in those days defended the white suprematist apartheid regime in South Africa. Some things just WERE, and always would be. The Berlin Wall was solid. Nelson Mandela was in prison. A nuclear holocaust was imminent. By the time he left prison, holding his then wife Winnie's hand, the wall was down and glasnost had begun to transform the Soviet Union. Mandela's release was an incredible confidence boaster for a whole generation of young people who refused to accept the old world order. Impossible things could happen. Perhaps that is why, in Scotland, the 1990s was the decade when our parliament was reconvened after 300 years. Compared to all the other mould-breaking historical events, it no longer seemed like a pipe dream

By 1993 Mandela was in Glasgow, to receive the freedom of the city which had honoured him during his long incarceration. I watched him address an invited audience at The Royal Concert Hall.  Thousands of Glaswegians waited in the rain to hear him speak at George Square. The photographer Jeremy Sutton Hibbert has posted up some of his amazing images from that day.  

And what of the baby in on my lap? She was dragged along to the Concert Hall as well, by which time she was four and had heard Mandela's story many times. Did it sink in? She is now an engineering student and spent last month in Ghana - that's her in the photo -  working on a project run by MIT's D-Lab

The Lab aims to "Improve the quality of life of low-income households through the creation and implementation of low cost technologies."

D-Lab also uses technology to help students gain an optimistic and practical understanding of their roles in alleviating poverty.

Grace might not remember sitting on that beanbag the day Mr Mandela was released. But she's certainly living up to his ideals. (And, yes, her mother is just as doting as she was 20 years ago!)

Great news on Precious Mhango

Precious Mhango and her mother Florence, have won a judicial review of their case at the High Court in London. This means Precious, who has lived in this country for 7 of her 10 years, is closer to getting the right to remain in Scotland with all her friends. If she is returned to Malawi, she is at risk of being forcibly separated from her mother and handed to her father's family, who are strangers to her. Thanks to everyone who lobbied the Home Office on her behalf, I'm sure it made a difference. Thanks also to everyone who retweeted my posts on this case, which has stirred so much compassion in so many people. The campaign continues and the mother and daughter's supporters will need to raise more money for their legal fees. But right now they are celebrating.  For more on Precious, have a look at Indygal the blog of Anne McLaughlin  MSP, who is campaigning on her behalf.

Time is running out for Precious

Florence and Precious Mhango from Glasgow were released from detention in Yarlswood Immigration Centre last December because of public pressure.  But they are still at risk.  Precious is 10 and has spent seven years in this country. She is totally Glaswegian and much loved by all her friends and neighbours in Cranhill where she lives and goes to school. The authorities want to send her back to Malawi. But if that happens, she will be taken from her mother Florence, and given to the family of her father, whom she doesn't know. The law of Malawi awards custody to the father's family. But it gets worse, Precious may be at risk of forced early marriage and even genital mutilation if she is taken away from her mum. If she stays in Scotland, it's her ambition to go to university. She has already proved herself a talented and mature writer with her detention diary.

Florence and Precious failed to win a judicial review of their case in December. But they have won the right to appeal against that decision.

THE APPEAL IS HELD IN LONDON TOMORROW (Feb 10) 

There are 2 ways the Mhangos can be reprieved. They can win their appeal and then win their judicial review. But that will cost money. You can help by donating to their legal fund. 

You can do this through the bank to CRANHILL WORLD CAFÉ, Sort Code: 83 21 27 Account Number: 10015466 Royal Bank of Scotland 1304 Duke Street, Glasgow G31 5PZ or by sending a cheque to Cranhill Church, 109 Bellrock Street, Cranhill G33 3HE. 

Campaigners are still asking supporters to write to the  Home Secretary Alan Johnson. He can use his discretion, drop the legal objections and grant them leave to remain. They have lived here for 7 years, since Precious was a toddler of 3. Many more families are rightly granted leave to remain after a far shorter time period.

Florence has asked that all correspondence supporting them is respectful. Here is a sample letter drafted by the campaign.

Send it to Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP, Home Secretary, Home Office, Direct Communications Unit, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF 

For more information on Florence and Precious go to Anne McLaughlin's blog. Or read these articles in The Sunday Times .

Remember there isn't much time.  

Cheer up Precious with a card

  

Precious Mhango,  the little Glaswegian girl I blogged about here  is pretty  low   after being incarcerated in Yarlswood Detention Centre for almost a  fortnight.     Anne MacLaughlin would like us to drop her a wee line. Here is Anne's update on   Precious and her mum  Florence.

Something you can do for Precious

To members of URGENT ACTION: Release Florence and Precious Mhango from Detention!!

Anne McLaughlin December 7 at 7:40pm Reply

Dear All

There's been no news today and it looks like the judge will decide tomorrow - unless Alan Johnson agrees to intervene. And who knows, maybe he's already done that. Time will tell.

Meantime, the politics and campaigning aside, I want to ask you to do something for Precious.

I don't want to go into too much detail because we're talking about a wee girl's feelings and it hurts me to think that in order to try and save her we've had to put her in the public eye so much when she's really quite a shy wee girl. I can tell you that she's not doing too great right now. Put it this way, her frame of mind is not what a ten year old's should be (I am clearly understating it) and I'm very worried about her.

Some of you have asked about sending gifts and you can do that if you like (although you can't send food) but what I'm going to suggest (and I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it earlier) is that we all send her and her mum a wee card just to say hello and let them know we're thinking of them.

Funny cards, cute cards, religious cards - any of them will appeal to Precious. And maybe just tell her a bit about yourself eg if you have a child her age, if you ARE her age, if you just want her to know that you're part of the campaign to get her home to Glasgow. 

I think she's feeling a little bit isolated. I speak to her mum every day and Precious some days and she's managed to get a couple of calls with her best friend Maria, but I think she would benefit tremendously from hearing from the outside world. She's been locked up for nearly 3 weeks and it's taking its toll.

You can send cards to:

Florence and Precious Mhango

Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre

Twinwoods Road

Clapham

Bedfordshire

MK41 6HL

There is an outside chance that they may only be there for a day or two more but PLEASE don't let that stop you because we have no way of knowing and she really needs something to boost her now.

Thank you.

Anne

Good news on Precious - but more needs to be done

Good news on Precious Mhango, the little girl I blogged about yesterday. She and her mother Florence were taken off the plane today at the very last minute. They remain behind the wire at Yarls Wood Detention Centre and will still have to fight to stay here.  But thanks to the fantastic support from people of EVERY POLITICAL AFFILIATION AND NONE, they have some kind of temporary reprieve. And quite right too. A child who has spent nearly all her life in Scotland was being sent to a strange country and separated from her mother, the only parent she knows.

Chris Mercer of Cranhill Project, a community organisation from the part of Glasgow where Precious and her mother live, reports that there is a big vigil tonight by their many friends and supporters in the neighbourhood.

They still need your emails to support their case, which is ongoing. So if you haven't done so already, email [email protected] and make it for the attention of Phil Woolas in the subject line. Plead for the humanitarian release of Florence and Precious. If you have written already, write back to Mr Woolas and thank him for his consideration and this temporary stay, and ask again for release. Please keep the language respecful and non-partisan.

Paul Chen QC, a crusading lawyer and deportation specialist in England, has been working on the case since midnight last night and has won a judicial review. But he is a private advocate and costs money. The Cranhill Community Project has offered the use of one of its bank accounts to collect funds. Campaigners for the Mhangos have asked supporters who can afford to do so to send money to the following account:

CRANHILL WORLD CAFE
sort code: 83 21 27
account number: 10015466

Royal Bank of Scotland
1304 Duke Street
Glasgow G31 5PZ

Leann Gear is the account signatory.

A few local donors have raised the initial retainer for the lawyer, even though some are on benefits themselves. Cranhill, remember, is part of Greater Easterhouse, one of the poorest urban areas in the UK.  Precious and Florence will need much more money to fund the judicial review. I will donate £200 now. I am sure those who can, and who were moved by Precious's own words - see previous blog post - will want to help.

You can read immediate updates on Florence and Precious at the blog kept by Anne McLaughlin the MSP most closely involved in their case. If you are on Facebook, there is a campaign group there with regular updates. It is URGENT ACTION: Please release Florence and Precious Mhango from detention

Thanks again to all Facebook friends, Twitter followers and blog readers who cared enough to write to Mr Woolas and who offered help to campaigners and spread the word to their own friends. Don't give up, you have made a difference!

Precious belongs to Glasgow - let her stay

This beautiful little girl is called Precious. She is 10 years old and has lived in Glasgow since she was four. This is what she wrote when she was detained in Dungavel Dentention Centre by the immigration authorities. 

 "I couldn't stop thinking about my best friend ever Maria, I was going to miss her forever. I was so excited to go back to school and start primary 6 as the summer holiday was about to finish. I felt very upset for being disturbed from school because I knew I wouldn't be able to fulfill my dreams.

"How I wish I could go to high school then go to Cambridge or Oxford University. That's what I always dream about. I wished that I could change my mum's life after school.

"I started praying in my heart 'Please God, help me'."   

Precious goes to school in Cranhill, where she excells and is very popular. Right now, however, she is held in Yarls Wood Detention Centre and will be forcibly sent to her parents' home country of Malwai by tomorrow (Monday 23 November) unless her deportation can be stopped on humanitarian grounds. Precious's estranged father is allegedly violent, yet he has been granted refugee status in the UK while the child and her mother have been refused. The law of Malawi gives rights over children to the father's family. Apparently Precious's paternal relations have staked their claim, so on return to Malawi she will be forcibly taken from her mother to live with strangers in a strange land. Her mother believes they will force her to undergo genital mutilation. 

Anne McLaughlin, the MSP for Glasgow, has been campaigning for the girl and saw her in Dungavel at the weekend where she was absolutely petrified. Anne writes movingly in her IndyGal blog about the encounter here. You can also read more of Precious's own writing on Anne's blog, where I got the above extract.

I do not know the details of their asylum application. But I do know that a right to family life is legitimate grounds for staying in the UK as is the danger that a child will come to harm. This child is in danger of losing her mother and suffering the trauma of being separated from all the people who know and love her. Precious's entire world revolves around school and church in Cranhill where the mother and daughter have made friends and are active in the community.   

It seems all these arguments have been rejected by the UK Border Agency.  That leaves only the humanitarian one. Surely this terrified child deserves compassion? The UK government has until 7pm tomorrow to demonstrate that compassion. After that Precious will be lost.

This child's wellbeing should not be used as a political football.  So if as many people as possible could email the immigration minister, Phil Woolas, without making points that are political or abusive, that could a difference. If enough people email, the civil servants might take notice and alert him. 

It's best if you use your own words. Here's a draft for guidance.

email to [email protected]

Re: Florence and Precious Mhango

Dear Civil Servant, 

I know that there will far too many emails for Mr Woolas to read personally. I would, however, urge you to make representation to him that there is an overwhelming concern in Scotland about the treatment of this child, who is currently in Yarlswood and faces deportation at 7pm on Monday November 23 2009.

This little girl faces being separated from her mother on return to Malawi and given to her estranged father's family. She will not be educated there and will, in all likelihood, suffer genital mutilation. She has spent all her formative years in Glasgow where she is loved by many people. This is a child who deserves an opportunity to remain with her mother and adopted family and friends in the friendly city.

Her violent father has leave to remain in London, yet mother and daughter are deemed too dangerous to live in Glasgow.

Please, look beyond the rules and regulations and show some compassion to Precious before 7pm Monday.


Kind regards