Compensation Culture

This blog first appeared as an article in Arts Professional magazine. It should not be copied without prior consent.

Abigail Cheverst’s recent article, ‘A world gone mad’, (AP183) argued that our risk-averse culture, fuelled by a scare-mongering press, was a driver for the misapplication of risk assessment. She had a good point but she should ultimately blame insurance companies and their clever clauses, which constrain the policy holder until action, quality of life and healthy risk are quashed. ‘Compensation culture’ is now the bed-fellow of the insurance claim. But is it largely myth-driven? Litigation does not occur as often as we might fear, but it occurs often enough to condition our actions disproportionately. As observers, we expect greed, cowardly capitulation or obstruction from plaintiffs.
Love a duck
An annual duck race was canceled because the organisers could not manage the costs of, amongst other things, fencing off the stream. The reason given by the organisers and press for the cancellation was risk-averse, barmy health and safety (H&S). I suggest the reason Abigail Cheverst might give would be the misapplication of a risk-assessment. However I believe that the real impetus behind both given reasons was the fear of litigation. This fear is fueled by the insurance company’s desire to safeguard against any mishap obliging them to pay-out. To avoid this, the insurance company sets clauses of such severity as to close the event. Let me make a vital modification to my argument: the reason why sensible event organisers have not resolved these H&S vexations is that, even if it could succeed against grim litigation culture, it has no defence against the specific insurance clause. Failing to adhere to a clause would render the organisers, to blame. Blame is enshrined in our laws and supported by our adversarial legal system.

“There is much emotional timidity but little informed debate about what ‘insurance’ means.”

Playing with fire
Does the string of problems from barmy H&S, through risk aversion, risk assessment, compensation culture and insurance clauses to blame, end up back again at barmy H&S? Yes. At a park, we wanted our Maypole dancers to arrive from the boating lake. “We don’t want them to arrive by boat in case something happens,” said the council, but would not say what that ‘something’ might be. It was slightly Kafka-esque. Genuine concern for health and safety was not an issue, but common sense could not prevail against the fear that litigation, frivolous or not, may uncover an insurance clause which went unheeded. A performer friend has insurance to eat fire which states that he must keep his equipment in a locked metal case. But his equipment is metal brands with asbestos-substitute wicks which are inflammable without paraffin. His puppets are more flammable. Obtaining a metal case has proved unfeasible. An old heavy gun-cartridge case fell apart, flight case padding soaks up paraffin and keeping track of keys with costume-changes and street-performance is a nightmare. The phrase ‘metal case’ is easily said but the object is harder to find. The box is impractical and contributes nothing to safety that he can see, so he uses a bucket. But should he tell a booker that he cannot perform because he is ‘uninsured’? Is he uninsured? Let’s say that the fire eater does his fire-eating act and sets a member of the public on fire. Will the insurance company not pay up even though the absence of a metal box was not material to the case? A booker could not risk it. They must say no to anything proscribed by the policy. But let us probe deeper. What exactly are we insuring against? This is not America; if you don’t have ‘insurance’ here, the ambulance will still take you to hospital. There is much emotional timidity but little informed debate about what ‘insurance’ means.

Package deal
My point is that I suspect that many colleagues don’t know if insurance is invalidated or not if certain clauses are not adhered to, nor are they articulate about what insurance is actually for. And that brings me to my next point: we limit activity, trusting that that protects us; but how protected are we if we miss something out? Because, for the insurance company to avoid paying out, it needs to write clauses that minimise – or do I mean eradicate? – risk of harm. But if something goes wrong, then something has not gone to plan, and that usually means the clauses have not been adhered to. That should mean no pay-out and thus the policy was a waste of time.

We were given funding to buy computers by the Arts Council England (ACE), which said we must upgrade our alarm and insurance. Soon, the cost of the insurance and burglar alarm equal the cost of the computers. But, you say, the insurance is in case something happens. What? What could go wrong? The house could burn down? How many buildings do you know of gutted by fire and all the computers destroyed? The computers depreciate so by now they are only worth a fraction of their purchase price. We will never get the value back unless the insurance pays for full replacement. But, as I say, the chance of a complete write-off is far less likely than what happens in real life: computers get slow, out of date, get viruses or lose data; none of which is covered by the policy. When the printer breaks or, as we found, our graphics tablets didn’t work properly, did we claim? No of course not: we abandoned the tablets. When a printer conks out we pop off to Dixons for a cheap replacement because it is urgent, and we would lose our no-claims bonus. One day I forgot to switch on the alarm and lock the door. The laptop was stolen. The clauses said that the door had to be locked and the alarm on. But that was exactly why it got stolen – because those conditions were not met! So what use was the insurance if it is not there when you need it – for life’s little accidents? And – hold on – that laptop was a replacement one we bought when the ACE one became faulty, so it wasn’t even part of the original insurance package! Boo-hoo!

Bill Brookman runs Bill Brookman Productions, a street arts company
www.billbrookman.co.uk
bill@billbrookman.co.uk

How to Run a Somali Brothel

I have rehearsed and organised theatre and musical events and rehearsals all my life in the UK. But I only need to run rehearsals for two weeks in Somaliland before I am accused of running a brothel.
We have hired a detached house surrounded by a wall and the obligatory guard with AK47 in which to rehearse our Somali cultural company Geediga Nabada (“Peace Caravan”).
The neighbours (I’m not sure where – we are quite detached) complained to the landlord that the new lodgers had opened a brothel and were chewing khat (the ubiquitous Middle-East narcotic plant). Understandably the landlord came round to investigate. But just as the idiotic neighbours displayed manifest stupidity by accusing a music rehearsal – singing pro-peace songs set to traditional instruments – of being a sex-fest; the landlord behaved like a complete plonker. He barged in on the rehearsal and, inspite of finding 16 middle-aged people sitting around singing songs to the traditional Arab lute, the ud, chose not to believe his ears or his eyes, trusting instead to believe his prejudice and attempted to bust up the "whore-house".
His vacuous morality was revealed when he realised he would not get his rent. Hypocrite. He was happy to throw “prostitutes” out but was happy for them to no longer be sex-workers and remain if his income was threatened.
It has worked out quite well for us. We are moving out anyway in high dudgeon to a better location: a proper stage and amphitheatre down the road.
Geediga Nabada is spreading a message to Somalis to try to not be foolish, violent, bigoted or idiotic with each other whenever they have a disagreement. Judging by our neighbours’ and landlord’s attitudes, we have our work cut out.

Death Below my Window

2009-09-22 Shooting Nairobi.doc

Last night I was awoken by gunshots outside my fourth floor window of my grubby hotel room in down-town Nairobi. I had just spent the evening discussing with Marie from the UN how on earth I was to get from Nairobi to Somaliland. Riots and death had occurred in Hargeisa; the capital of Somaliland, due to the President of that country – which is not recognised internationally – stalling the elections, provoking a fist-fight in his parliament.

I had learned in Haiti to count bullets as they are fired and thus to use the information to know when the shooter has emptied the magazine and I would have a chance to do what ever I thought best while he reloaded. (I’m guessing it will be a “he” doing the shooting as most brutish, stupid acts of armed violence are committed by men. This evening was no different.) But the plan never worked in Haiti and didn’t work here because I never know how many rounds any particular gun may hold. And of course I loose count. Never-the-less I calmly counted 15 shots (or was it 16?) over two periods of shooting separated by a brief pause.

My hotel window overlooks a narrow dark alley-cum-street with concrete buildings matching the height of my hotel and some scrappy yards opposite. There is no street-lighting in the alley, but light creeps in from elsewhere.

Much earlier I had unwisely thrown open all the windows to allow a through-draft in the heat. ‘Unwisely’ because that had already allowed the mosquitoes in and I had had to be quite elaborate with my mosquito net protection which the hotel, unusually, provided.

Far, far more important than trying to count bullets was the rule never, ever to peer out of a window, or even worse, stick one’s head out to get a better view. This, carefully, very carefully, I proceeded to do. Down below, directly below my window, was a young man walking around, seemingly in a daze and almost certainly shot. But his moves were more of a man unsteady and uncertain after perhaps receiving tragic news, stunned to silence and unsure what to do next, rather than in pain.

By climbing on top of the toilet I could look out of another window at another angle (I had opened this window to allow a through-draft of my domain). This was frightening as I could see a group of men at the corner of the street hiding in the shadows. Could they see me? My face felt so white and gleaming in the poor glare of the city night and I craved some blacking to put on my face. In hindsight this seems such an elaborate desire. At the time it seemed perfectly logical.

I recorded my thoughts in a whisper on my portable sound-recorder, only then realising what a massive, visible glare its electric control-panel made.

A police Land-Rover had arrived. No flashing blue lights or fuss. Then another. The ‘gang’ at the street corner morphed into onlookers. I could see the gleam of mobile phones in the street from the policemen.

At some point the man had died and was lying in a pool of blood below me. More courageous now, I took a photograph and was terrified as my flash went off, drawing attention to my position. (I have attached this photo) I was sure I had turned the flash off. Heart racing, I realised that it was the police photographer who was taking photographs. It was his flash, not mime. His flashes made the blood twinkle.

Now it was clear there were two bodies down there. Another was in the gutter below me so I had to lean out further to see him.

More standing around and talking, but still no fuss, the policemen took little notice of the bodies and kept their distance from them.

Eventually one police Land-Rover left and the other backed up to the bodies. Seemingly on-cue the onlookers/accomplices/friends, whoever they were, drifted off and the grisly work of taking the bodies was left to a man in a white coat and a policeman and his less-willing partner.

The bodies were dragged and carried and stuffed into the back of the Land-Rover, one leaving a slime-trail of blood. One of the policemen took off his white blood-stained rubber gloves and threw them in the gutter. Quietly they left. Two patches of blood and a blood-trail are still congealing below me as I write this the next morning. The gloves are still there.

More to follow.

Pact with the Devil

In, say, Haiti, violence stems largely from criminal activity. In Somalia violence might be justified as an extreme manifestation of clan loyalty. Violence can be perpetrated by those who consider themselves “good patriots”; sadly it is also perpetrated by those who consider themselves “good Muslims”. There is a danger that the UN promotion of peace building is conceived as “Western” “Christian” or “anti-Muslim”. I suggest that there is a pattern to sectarian, clan, or revolutionary violence, that, as in the case of the IRA in Ireland and Pol Pot and many other examples, it degenerates into simple criminality after about 8 years, using the original cause as a flag of convenience. It is at this point that the majority of the population are so sickened that they wish for peace at any price. The story of the Queen of Sheba’s response to King Solomon is a marvellous example of this. (As Muslims will know better than me, this is a story from the Koran where she proposes capitulation as superior to the horror of war. It is an example of the wisdom of women over the arrogance of men) Somehow I must piggy-back on this anti-violence reaction to engender a community level, possibly women-lead, popular anti-violence ground-swell. This is my central task. But the intransigent clan system will not help. Power-sharing is working, to a degree, in Nepal with the admittance of the rebel Maoists to government. Power-sharing has worked in Ireland with the Good Friday agreement.

There is a diabolical technique that could be used to speed this revulsion from violence: If possible, forces of law and order can deny “hard” targets (police stations, military barracks, and government offices) to the gangs, militias or terrorists. They are then obliged to attack “soft” targets (market places, meetings, religious centres). The atrocities caused will hasten popular revulsion to, and increasing criminalisation of the so-called “freedom fighters”. This makes combatting them easier. But this is a pact with the devil.

Somalia Newsletter No 1.

Bill Brookman has been invited to advance the peace agenda in Somalia by the United Nations Development Project (UNDP). He will train, and possibly lead, a team of Somalis who will organise cultural events, form pro-peace groups, educate, support and advance the wishes of beleaguered and decent Somalis who wish to see Somalia restored to stability.
The situation in Somalia is unstable and, it appears, worsening; and the capital Mogadishu is unsafe. Consequently Bill Brookman’s exact brief is fluid at present. The UNDP HQ in Hargeisa, (sometimes spelt Hargeysa) northern Somalia was bombed in October 2008 and two staff were killed. As a result UNDP staff there are restricted to two personnel but the town is now regarded as safe. Bill will join this staff and train the national team there.
This team has yet to be recruited and will be part of a national non-government organisation (NGO) which will then operate in Mogadishu .
This project will be a challenge to Bill compared to his previous similar project in Haiti. His brief then was to recruit and lead a Haitian NGO, Caravane de la Paix, which successfully operated within the capital Port-au-Prince’s five notorious slums closed to UN staff. In these slums the teams negotiated directly with the gang leaders. The situation in Mogadishu is worse with the whole city a no-go area. Culturally the project is challenging. Somali culture is predominantly poetry. Visual representation can inflame Muslim fundamentalism. Solutions have to be found. Inspite of this, street events, football championships, music, art, photography, public meetings, posters, bill-boards, radio, television, school visits, the strengthening of local peace and cultural groups and, of course, poetry will need to be considered. Bill will also use the methodology developed in his recent project writing a manual enabling children affected by armed forces and groups, so-called “child soldiers”, to resist recruitment and successfully rehabilitate.. This was commissioned by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2008.
The plan is for Bill to spend 2 to 3 weeks in Hargeisa in July 2009, and then return there in the autumn spending a total of about 3 months in the region. The UN does not have a mission in Somalia but 16 UN agencies, projects and programmes comprise the UN in Somalia, many operating from Nairobi, Kenya. Bill may work there though this is 2,000 miles from northern Somalia.
Bill will be supported by Bill Brookman Projects, comprising administrative and technological assistance from Bill Brookman Productions Ltd.; The Bill Brookman Foundation which will assist with logistics, public information, research, financial monitoring and security; and the Young Foundation Group, young people who will monitor and learn from the project as well as disseminate information.
Bill Brookman Productions has recruited extra staff to remain operational and of course the splendid team of staff, free-lancers, young people and volunteers will make sure we continue our efforts unabated. We hope we will not lessen our commitment to Extended Schools, the UK government initiative promoting accessibility and arts in schools.
The latest plans can be found by clicking on the Bill Brookman Foundation website www.billbrookman.co.uk/foundation > Present Projects > Somalia.

A response to watching "Inside Afghanistan" with Ben Anderson

See Ben Anderson's documentaries on http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1832267517

The British have not been proud of their empire since the 1950s. Thus we, the British, stopped studying it. Three generations have now emerged without a collective knowledge of the many and chronic failures of “The Great Game”, Russia and Britain’s tussle to control Afghanistan through the 19th century. UK general reporting of the Russian failure to control Afghanistan, 1979-88, was sporadic and rarely analytical. It was primarily of the ‘human interest’ kind, for example the tragedy of young Russian soldiers and the effects of their deaths on families back in the motherland.

The result has been that, apart from a general revulsion from war making by Western electorates, there is little factual knowledge to reinforce popular support for non-embroilment in Afghanistan. The facts are there, they are just not part of shared common knowledge.

The West should have known that war in Afghanistan is folly. There is no example of a successful invasion I can think of except Alexander the Great’s brief expedition over the Hindu Kush, and even he did not stay.

Bill Brookman, The Bill Brookman Foundation