Women in Scottish Policing: the first 100 years

from Women's History Scotland (blog) Women in Scottish Policing: the first 100 years

English Buildings: Somewhere in London

English Buildings: Somewhere in London: A question of viewpoint I’m don’t normally do new year’s resolutions, but if I did, they might be contrarian ones: get drunk more, read l...



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Locking the Gate?

Dreadfully sad news in Australia's anti-fracking community this week - Queensland farmer George Bender, longterm frontline fighter against the CSG multinationals, has taken his life. Testimony to the terrible impact of the fight, against fracking, on people in the front line. This is a global front line of course and the story of government-sanctioned bullying by the miners takes one's breath away. In response people are now holding vigils in the cities and the towns, remembering George Bender and expressing their anger at the actions of big mining and the complicit state. Please, read Drew Hutton's words about his friend. http://www.lockthegate.org.au/never_again #fracking #csg #lockthegate #GeorgeBender

Australia and refugees: the cruel saga continues with the cancellation of planned visit to detention centres by the UNHCR: "It’s extraordinary that the Australian Government couldn’t assure the UN expert that people he spoke to wouldn’t be exposed to prosecution under the Border Force Act” http://hrlc.org.au/un-official-visit-to-australia-cancelled-due-to-risk-of-reprisals-on-asylum-seeker-issues/

The artist: paint, love, cat and justice.

 

And the soul of the artist, did he but know it. A man who should have lived somewhere on the Mediterranean, with his love and his watercolours. Maybe he'd have been quite at home on this Andalucian hill. This was my father: he painted.

 

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Workshopping journalism - notes.

Link: http://ideas.ted.com/since-the-ted-talk-the-guardians-paul…/ Just for interest. I've followed Paul Lewis on Twitter for several years - It's how I first learned about the death of Jimmy Mubenga in October 2010 (see my earlier post). Lewis sought comment from followers, having heard that a person being deported had died. His investigation insisted that this death not be disappeared. He also first broke social media news on the 2011 London riots ('hearing that something was happening in Tottenham', heading up there). And then there's his award-winning work on the death of Paul Tomlinson at the 2009 G20 in London. If you care about journalism, and citizen journalism, he's one of many committed reporters whose work is worth following. A long list of course. Across cultures.

Dying for your Device

It must be said Apple has defended itself as a good global citizen and has disputed the allegations in this BBC Panorama program, aired on ABC 4 Corners tonight. But this program must be watched by anyone who owns an Apple (or other) device and/or is concerned about global worker safety and corporate ethics. And I out myself right now as a 25 year devotee of the Macintosh/ Apple brand. But face it: there is plenty of evidence that safety crimes and abuses have existed within the enterprises which have manufactured our phones and tablets. The question is raised here is whether Apple as a corporation has successfully addressed them in companies contracted to make Apple products. Evidently workers have died, including children, this seems to be continuing, and it looks like Apple's targeted safety regulations are being ignored. Add to this bundle of knowledge the findings of SACOM, the Hong Kong based Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehaviour, who amongst other actions have publicised the notorious and heart-breaking suicides of FoxConn workers in the communications devices industry - workers producing devices for example for Apple and Hewlett Packard. So the plea is, don't only think before you knee-jerk upgrade; act to protect workers and their families: lobby your global corporate icons about their actions to protect the workers who labour for their profit, and for your technological indulgence. Who died so that you could tweet? [ cross-posted from rose webb at http://northcoastlabourhistory.typepad.com/north_coast_ohs_and_safety/]