Peshawar, Pakistan 1984 by Steve McCurry

Photographer Steve McCurry’s most famous photograph is a portrait of Sharbat Gula. Those piercing sea-green seem to drill into your very soul asking why? Why war?

In an interview with Phil Coomes for the BBC Steve McCurry said:

“I was doing a story on the Afghan-Pakistan border, this was a time when there were three million Afghans living in Pakistan. And one morning I was wandering through this refugee camp in Peshawar and heard these voices coming from this tent. I went over and looked in and I realised it was a girls school. These were girls around 12 years of age. I started to talk to the teacher to see what was going on, and as I was surveying the situation I noticed this one little girl sitting off in the corner with these amazing eyes, I’ve never seen anything like that.

“Eventually I asked the teacher if I could photograph her and for the next couple of minutes I made five or 10 frames of her. And for a brief moment the light was right, the composition was right, the background was right, everything was right and I made the picture.

“Once it was published on the cover of National Geographic we literally got thousands of letters. People willing to send her money, people wanted to adopt her, there were even men who wanted to find her and marry her. It just never let up over the 17 years.

“Many years later I went back to see I could find her. I was a little bit apprehensive because I thought is this going to be good for her? But then I thought this would be an opportunity if we could help her, give back to her, and actually compensate her for all the usage of that picture and make her life better. And I thought this would be the overriding, the most important thing we could do.

“We found her, and she was married to a baker and had three children. She was living in a small village in Afghanistan. She seems to have a pretty good life; although extremely poor, her husband was making only one dollar a day.

“Her big dream in life was to have her children educated and to perform Hajj. So National Geographic actually made that happen for her. Not only her but she brought 11 of her relatives and friends on this trip which was really and truly once in a lifetime experience for them. And then they organised a particular kind of compensation for her.

“I did of course photograph her again. Photographing her without her burqa was totally up to her and her husband. We had a lot of help from her community but somehow this thing came together and with this cooperation she was willing to be photographed.” Phil Coomes, BBC.

The Independent Schools Council says it wants a legal ruling to clarify the guidelines on charitable status for private schools.

Such a legal ruling could come a step closer if the independent schools group is successful in its bid for a judicial review of Charity Commission guidance. BBC.

Its easy private schools aren’t charitable there’s nothing charitable about teaching rich kids.

Still it will be a cold day in hell when our legal system recognises that fact – not least our judiciary is the product of private schools and their children are users of private schools – and that’s what the Independent Schools Council is banking on.

It has been a lousy three months for hedge funds.

I hope I didn’t hear you say “diddums” – because it is possible, you know, that a bit of your wealth is being managed by a hedge fund, via your pension scheme. Robert Peston, BBC.

Doesn’t Peston realise that some fucker ran off with our pension money long ago – probably a hedge fund manager – instead of pension contributions I’d have done better to have spent the money then at least I’d have had something to show for the fruits of my labour.

Am I the only one that lays the blame for the current pension crises at the feet of regulators when the allowed companies to take pension holidays because the funds were awash with money – oh those where the days – instead of pensions we’ve now got one of the largest wealth gaps in western Europe as the rich used our pensions to line their pockets and now they’re coming for public sector pensions.

No you don’t hear my say “diddums” – it’s not the first word that springs to mind – far too mild a word for what I’m thinking.

Over the decades John Prescott has become a champagne buffoon from his two jags to croquet on the Dorneywood lawn – but every clown has his day and Prescott’s having a bit of a blinder.

Nick Clegg has made much about his proposed referendum on AV next May.

And you can understand why. This was his pay off for what he’s agreed to so far.

He sold out his party and the near seven million people who voted Lib Dem by letting in a Tory-led Government that’s hit the poor with 20% VAT, slashed child tax credits and sanctioned the prospect of 40% cuts to Government budgets that will devastate public services and lead to more than 1.3 million job losses.

Now on the very day plans for more than 700 new state schools were axed, Clegg championed AV, a form of voting he once described as a ‘miserable little compromise.’

And on this occasion, I agree with Nick.

That’s exactly what it is – cover for the biggest gerrymandering of seats that I have ever seen in my 40 years in politics.

This is a poisonous package and Labour must fight against every single part of it.

So let’s make the May elections for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and local councils a proper referendum on this ConDem government and a set of savage and brutal policies that no-one would have voted for at the last General Election.

Update:

I’m indebted to Stephen Johnson who made a very important point in my comments section which really sums up Clegg’s inconsistency.

Clegg cancelled Labour’s £80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters, which would have built a new press to make parts for nuclear power stations, providing a sustainable future for the company and creating hundreds of new jobs at the plant and thousands more in the supply chain.

He defended the cancellation of the loan, saying: “We have to take difficult choices to make sure taxpayers’ money is spent as wisely as possible.”

And the cost of a referendum for a voting system he described as a “miserable little compromise?”

£80m. John Prescott.

Now I’m not against electoral reform – but AV isn’t a reform in fact it’s hard to see how AV will be any different from the first past the post system currently in use – if we’re to have a vote let’s make it worthwhile and have a referendum on a reform that makes a difference – I suggest the Single Transferable Vote for starters.

Still that’s a side issue what Prescott’s really worried about is

His description of the boundary changes and the way in which they are to be constructed as “cover for the biggest gerrymandering of seats that I have ever seen in my 40 years in politics,” was accurate and precise.

The Tories have grasped the opportunity to fiddle the voting profile of this country in such a way as to diminish the importance of Labour’s hold on the inner cities and rebalance the ballot profile of the country to enhance the chances of the Tories in seats where they were hitherto weak. Morning Star.

The reduction in the number of MPs will mean larger constituencies and as Scottish and Welsh constituencies tend to be smaller this will mean fewer Welsh and Scottish constituencies and more in the English Shires which will only mean one thing more Tories in Westminster – David Cameron’s motto seems to be – if you can’t win an election then fix the next so you will.

Polly Toynbee’s article The NHS may not survive this volcano of ideology points out that yet another re-organisation of the NHS isn’t going to save money or improve the service.

The NHS has a chronic disease – politicians’ obsessive compulsive disorder, compelling them to reorganise the whole machine. Ideologically “perfect” new systems require everyone to move places at the NHS Mad Hatter’s tea party. Distracted staff spend a year reapplying for their old jobs under new nameplates and settling into different hierarchies instead of focusing on what matters – good, clean, cost-effective care. Each time it happens good people quit. One public health director in the south-west had to reapply for his job seven times in Labour’s era.

At first David Cameron saw the time, effort, money, goodwill and political capital Labour wasted on NHS reorganisations. He and Andrew Lansley promised no more great structural change. The NHS breathed a sigh of relief: no more pointless mayhem. But that lesson is already forgotten and the reorganising virus is back with double virulence.

A new system will herald what Nigel Edwards of the NHS Confederation calls “potentially the biggest change in the history of the NHS”, though the radical nature of the plan has escaped much public scrutiny. Not for much longer. The big bang planned is the riskiest disruption yet, with foot hard down on the accelerator just as greater cutbacks hit than the NHS has ever known. Expect explosions. Not surprisingly, first the Treasury and now the coalition committee, designed to smooth over disputes, are trawling over the plan with alarm. Polly Toynbee, The Guardian.

This is a win-WIN situation for the Tories if the re-organisation works the they’ll be surprised and if it doesn’t the Tories will be even happier – and let’s be honest we all know that Cameron and Lansley’s reforms aren’t going to work.

David Cameron will have achieved something that arch privateer Margaret Thatcher didn’t dare attempt – he will have killed off the health service.

How the hell did we get here? Bankers fuck the country’s finances – we end up paying with the end of the NHS – bastard’s every last one of them.

To be honest I’ve not brought anything by Prince since the release of his greatest hits package – The Hits/The B-sides. When he released his last album Planet Earth as free giveaway in the Mail on Sunday – I assumed it to be an album of outtakes and the like – and to be honest nothing on earth would persuade me to buy the Mail on Sunday – I wouldn’t wipe my arse with it – so I ignored the whole thing.

Now however in an interview in the Daily Mirror we learn he’s to release his new album as a free giveaway on Saturday.

“You must come and listen to the album,” he says. “I hope you like it. It’s great that it will be free to readers of your newspaper. I really believe in finding new ways to distribute my music.”

He explains that he decided the album will be released in CD format only in the Mirror. There’ll be no downloads anywhere in the world because of his ongoing battles against internet abuses.

Unlike most other rock stars, he has banned YouTube and iTunes from using any of his music and has even closed down his own official website.

He says: “The internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.

“The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.

“They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.” Peter Willis, The Mirror.

So if you want the latest Prince album you’ll have to purchase Saturday’s Mirror – which isn’t as bad as the rest at least it supported Labour at the general election and not the Con-Dems like the rest – oh and I’ve completely forgotten the intervening Lotusflow3r – but maybe that’s an indication of Prince’s relevance these days – he made great music once but doesn’t now.

The BBC Trust has published its initial conclusions on the BBC’s director general Mark Thompson’s strategy proposals which include the closure of 6 Music –the Trust write:

We do not think a convincing case has been made, as presented, for the closure of 6 Music. The Trust does not agree that there is a consistent strategic rationale for closure on grounds either of promoting digital development or market impact. Nonetheless, the proposal has been helpful in highlighting the need for a further review of the BBC’s digital strategy.

If, as part of that review, the Executive wants to put together a different proposal for the overall shape of its music radio stations that they think could further increase the distinctiveness of the output, we would consider it. However, we would not expect to see a further proposal to make changes to 6 Music unless the Executive could provide:

A clear link between a new future strategy for music radio and the strategy for digital development.

Evidence that the changes we have already requested to Radio 1 and Radio 2 are under way.

An explanation of how the distinctiveness of those stations could be further increased as part of a new music radio strategy.

Reassurance that there would be long-term protection for the type of distinctive content currently available uniquely on 6 Music. Strategy Review.

And further state

Since the publication of Putting Quality First in March and the announcement of the Executive’s plan to close the service there has been a significant show of public support for the service. 78% of the 47,933 online consultation responses place specific focus on 6 Music as do more than 25,054 separate emails and 242 letters – in each case the great majority of responses oppose any plans for closure.

The service’s reach has also risen substantially since then to 1 million listeners a week. We think it is likely that the next quarter’s figures (April to June) which will be published in August will also show strong reach. This suggests that it may be possible to grow the audience without losing any distinctiveness, although we will need to look at longer-term trends before being absolutely sure of that.

Arguments advanced by respondents to our consultation who oppose the service’s closure include the view that its programming is unavailable elsewhere and that the commercial sector would be unlikely to fill the space vacated by it; the difficulty of transferring its programming onto other BBC networks; the removal of an outlet for new and emerging artists to get their music heard; and the station’s potential role in driving digital, particularly given the recent increase in its reach.

We recognise that any proposal to close a BBC service is unlikely to be popular with those who use it. However, we do need to consider the question of whether the future growth of the service would significantly impact the market. We note that throughout the period of our consultation we have received no evidence from the commercial radio sector to suggest that 6 Music presents any kind of threat either now or in the future so long as it remains true to its distinctive remit. We also note the strong view expressed by many in the music industry that 6 Music plays a very valuable role in the cultural life of the UK that would not be easily replaced and that would not be filled by the commercial sector.

We do not think that the station is a threat to the commercial sector so long as it remains true to its remit, but we do acknowledge that the risk – identified by the BBC Executive – that in the absence of effective safeguards efforts to broaden the station’s appeal could cause it to drift closer to the mainstream. Strategy Review.

As good as this is for 6 Music – the Trust hasn’t ruled out closure if these four criteria are met – I again repeat those criteria.

A clear link between a new strategy for music radio and the strategy for digital development.

Evidence that changes to increase the distinctiveness of Radio 1 and Radio 2 were already under way in line with our recent service reviews.

A very clear explanation of the potential for further increases in the distinctiveness of Radio 1 and Radio 2 – in particular how 6 Music content could be put into those revised schedules and what the audience impact would be.

Reassurance that there would be long-term protection for the type of distinctive content currently available uniquely on 6 Music. Strategy Review.

So the immediate future of 6 Music is bright but don’t be complacent – Mark Thompson might well be back in 6 months time with another strategic review that includes 6 Music’s closure.

For a copy of the full report click here.

To play Gopher Studios’ Entanglement simply

Create the longest line possible. The more segments your line has, the higher the score you can achieve.

Use the arrow keys or the mouse scroll-wheel to rotate your tile. Click with the mouse or press the spacebar to place your tile and watch your line grow.

Avoid the walls for as long as you can. Once you have placed as many tiles as you are able, your game will end.

A terribly addictive game.

Hat Tip: Very Short List.

Remember the food crisis of 2008 when prices of staple foods rose inexplicably – rice by a an unbelievable 320 per cent – no like me you’ve probably forgotten – but between 120 and 200 million people around the world couldn’t afford to buy food anymore – those that survived haven’t forgotten.

At the time we were told it was just supply and demand too many mouths and too little food plus we’d started diverting arable land from food production to producing crops to make bio-fuels to burn in our cars – we were all to blame – I bet the oil companies loved that one – guilt of burning fuel in our cars certainly made many of us conclude that maybe it was better to burn oil instead.

However, nothing was further from the truth. Peter Wahl at the German policy Unit WEED argues that food speculation played a decisive role in the price bubble in 2008.

The factors governing the pricing of agricultural commodities are complex. No single factor alone determines the price.

Firstly, one must distinguish between long-term and short-term factors.

The long-term factors include:

A. Increasing demand, predominantly through the economic rise of emerging economies, especially through the adoption of western consumption habits by the middle classes. The Chinese, for example, are increasingly consuming dairy products.

B. Agricultural productivity. The trend in productivity is stagnating in many developing countries. This is due to under-investment and structural adjustment programmes which have imposed a priority of export orientation instead of national food security, as well as the liberalisation pressure due to the WTO and bilateral trade agreements or the decline by half in the ODA (official development aid) for agricultural promotion between the 1980s and the present day.

C. Production of agro fuels. Over the last ten years, the US and the EU, but also Brazil, have started to cultivate renewable agricultural commodities (among others, rape, sugar cane) to produce ethanol and diesels on a large scale in the search for alternatives to mineral oil. The cultivation of agro fuels absorbs agriculturally productive land, and this can lead to a substitution effect and therefore to a reduction in food production.

D. The reduction of food stocks, particularly in the EU.

The short-term factors include

E. The increase in the oil price in 2007/2008 as well as fertilizer prices.

F. Bad harvests in 2006 and 2007 in Australia, one of the world’s biggest grain exporters.

G. The U.S. dollar exchange rate fluctuations, the lead currency in international trade; or changes in the value of national currencies, such as the temporary decrease in the dollar exchange rate as a result of the financial crisis.

H. Export restrictions on food by governments which want to guarantee food self- sufficiency for their own countries due to the explosion in food prices. However, this well-intentioned measure also contributes to the food supply shortage on the world market and consequently increases prices.

I. Finally, speculation.

When the food prices sky-rocketed in 2007, the role of speculation was mentioned as an afterthought or completely ignored by mainstream economists. Instead, mainly long-term factors such as the increase in demand and the production of biogas were made responsible for the drastic price increases. A World Bank study even claimed that agro fuels contributed a proportion of 70% to the food price increase.

In a study on the food crisis, even before the food price reversal, UNCTAD pointed out that this factor could not be so important in prices increasing to more than double in such a short time period. For example, the price of rice increased by 165% between April 2007 and April 2008, and rice cannot be used for biogas, and there is no substitution of acreage in the countries where it is grown, either.

It has become incontestably clear since the decrease in food prices from July 2008 at the latest, that neither increasing demand in the emerging economies nor agro fuel production caused the food price trend. It cannot be that the Chinese suddenly start to eat much more yoghurt only to stop again just a few months later. Neither has agro fuel cultivation risen so sharply only to decrease again just as abruptly. Short term factors, such as poor harvests, did not play a role in the price upswing either.

Moreover, speculation in connection with the financial crisis is the decisive factor. We are dealing with the classic case of a speculative bubble which was built up in the second half of 2007. The crisis in the mortgage sector in the US, which was also the result of a huge speculative bubble, started to spread across the whole financial sector. People in the financial market sought alternatives in the commodity sector and the bubble started to form. It reached its maximum in Summer 2008 and then burst.

Meanwhile, even mainstream economists no longer deny that speculation at least contributed to this bubble. Thus, the BMZ describes speculation as one of the reasons for high food prices in April 2008: “the international capital markets have become aware of the agricultural markets again in their search for lucrative and relatively safe investment areas of the future. This causes more volatility, especially when participants act in a strongly speculative way.” UNCTAD also identifies speculation as a factor for the agricultural commodities price bubble. In the meantime, even the World Bank acknowledges that speculation shares the responsibility for the price increases even if it considers speculation as a subordinate factor. And even the IMF can no longer ignore the facts when writing very vaguely that pure financial factors, including the mood of the markets, can have short term effects on the price of oil and other commodities. Read Peter Wahl’s Full Report.

So what do the speculators have to say for themselves?

The hedge fund manager Michael Masters estimated that even on the regulated exchanges in the US – which take up a small part of the business – 64 percent of all wheat contracts were held by speculators with no interest whatever in real wheat. They owned it solely to inflate the price and sell it on. Even George Soros said this was “just like secretly hoarding food during a hunger crisis in order to make profits from increasing prices.” The bubble only burst in March 2008 when the situation got so bad in the US that the speculators had to slash their spending to cover their losses back home.

When asked to comment on the charge of causing mass hunger, Merrill Lynch’s spokesman said: “Huh. I didn’t know about that.” He later emailed to say: “I am going to decline comment.” Deutsche Bank also refused to comment. Goldman Sachs were a little more detailed in their response: they said “serious analyses… have concluded index funds did not cause a bubble in commodity futures prices”, offering as evidence a single statement by the OECD. Johann Hari.

Every last investment banker is nothing but a self-centred cunt and don’t let anyone tell you different they don’t give a shit how they make a profit – who suffers or dies – whatever their protestations to the contrary.

And we need theses bastards? Why? It’s time we stopped this madness otherwise it’s going to happen again. Trouble is the Con-Dems aren’t going to be interested in upsetting their friends and donors in the city. What a lovely world we’ve created!

I suggest we all visit the World Development Movement’s website and take some action.

Xteriors II & Xteriors VI

Dutch photographer Desiree Dolron’s combines traditional photography with digital manipulation to produce painterly pictures that echo the great traditional Flemish artworks – something I find pleasingly compelling when done well.

Xteriors XII & Xteriors VII

Hat Tip: bumbumbum.