Bill Brookman's Blog!

More on Perverts

2010-06-12T01:32:00.001-07:00

Dear Mrs A¬¬¬¬____,

You ask if she has any disabilities I know of. If I did know of any I would not be able to tell you under disability law and you are not able to ask her. In telling you she has no disabilities I may have committed an offence under discrimination law, and certainly against the spirit of the law, because I have unfairly discriminated in her favour against those with disabilities.

Either way your disclaimer suggests I write “No responsibility… can be accepted for any…inaccuracies … or damage that may result …”. This means I can and may be writing accurately or inaccurately without responsibility. Moreover you have stipulated the information given is confidential. Thus I expect you to talk to no one of what I write. If you have a similar disclaimer exonerating you from responsibility or accuracy and damage caused, you can go ahead. If your disclaimer is confidential, then so much the better; you don’t even need to inform me that your claim to confidentiality is not expected to be honoured.

You ask “Has the candidate been subject to any concerns, where the concern … was unfounded … If so, give details.” I won’t be obliged under law to do this, it is bad law. Moreover such concerns may have been covered by a similar confidentiality clause, similarly provisoed that they need not be accurate, so I would not have been able to give you the details you oblige me to give and may have made them up without the need to accept responsibility for the damage it would cause . But I tell you I have no cause for concern because I, as a decent human being, recommend K____; not because the law demands I tell you – and not – at the same time.

Yours sincerely,

Bill Brookman

Perverts

2010-06-12T00:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Mrs A___,

I am sorry I have not found time to reply to the questionnaire about the lovely K____, who, if you have met her, you will know is a wonderful person and excellent for the post.

However the point of the questionnaire is to take a roundabout way of asking do I think she is a paedophile and a pervert. Interestingly those words appear nowhere on the forms but are the only salient points the government has said you must discover. (For the record I am quite sure she is neither; if I thought otherwise I would have let you know without the need of a government law.)

You will be aware that you, I and K____ may be criminally liable if we get any of the form filling wrong. Thus it has a ridiculous disclaimer making it not worth the paper it is written on.

So now you have a dilemma and so does K____ and so do I because she does not deserve this.

I am sorry for this most unsatisfactory state of affairs. It will get better when laws, which largely miss the point (in that the great majority of paedophile cases occur within the family, or people known to the family - by males) hastily made and poorly thought through, to please a prurient press and public demanding instant no-risk fixes; which are enforced by the threat of criminalising those left with bureaucratic tasks which in no way should come within criminal jurisdiction for non-compliance, are found to be unworkable and are repealed.

Yours sincerely,

Bill Brookman

Greek Fable - the financial collapse

2010-05-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

If you drove through Southern Europe recently – over the past 15 years – you would have seen, in Greece, Portugal, etc., massive modern roads and infrastructure being built. All this in sleepy southern European Latin type countries who do things differently to Northern Europe.

It was a Stalinism by the back door, (but benign so we didn’t notice. So, not strictly Stalinism, but certainly his “command economy”). It was paid for by Northern Europe by commissars – oops, commissioners. And no one was going to say no – why should they? As all this cash and busyness was poured in, who cares that their sleepy way of laissez-faire is swept away? Why not ride the wave? And who could object? The German technicians will design it, we get to build it, the burgeoning bureaucracies in our own countries mean Poles, Greeks and Portuguese can get cushy jobs.

The problem was that, like in Russia, they didn’t really mean it. Only the North Europeans have all that work ethic stuff to fix and maintain the complexities they themselves create. The southern Europeans were bemusedly in it for the ride.

Well now the pack of cards has tumbled. The retirement they gave themselves at 45 has come to grief.

But it won’t come to grief in quite that cleaning out of the Stygian stable sort of way. The financiers screamed “don’t bail out Greece!” but they did – just as the west bails out the third world in unending, diluting, bloating aid, with all that accompanying disaster – which is another subject.

Should the Tories limit SureStart?

2010-03-26T02:07:00.000-07:00

To Andy Reed (MP)’s Facebook

Should the Tories limit SureStart?

SureStart may be a victim of its own success. In the same way that grammar schools were originally for poor boys and, because of their success became bourgeois, so SureStart is desired by many – including those in Andy’s Facebook stream – for whom it was not intended. For SureStart to be justifiably well-funded it must stick to its original brief: To stimulate brain development of those children who are statistically most likely to be the low-achieving, low-functioning and, yes, criminal, members of the next generation.

By stimulating them and supplanting the poor parenting skills that their parents are not giving them – and this should be the case if SureStart is recruiting correctly – these children have a better chance in society and society will get more in return.

In a comprehensive dream stimulated by Tony Blair, for which he is not given credit, these SureStart children are then picked up by schooling, Extended Schools and other initiatives (though Extended Schools was prompted by the Victoria Columbié scandal, not quite part of the original plan). From there they are passed on to Connexions (which hit problems from the start because of hostility from already established agencies).

Organisations like mine www.Billbrookman.co.uk placed ourselves ready to take up structured (predominantly circus) provision with these young people 3 years ago. We could not persuade the powers-that-be to give us this mandate inspite of our clarity of purpose and comprehension of the programme. Perhaps our failure showed that already then the vision was becoming blurred.

Had SureStart/Extended Schools/Connexions et al been allowed to run for 20 years for whom it was intended then we might have been able to see if we had managed to create a country where a whole generation of society destined for the dust-bin would have pulled through.

I cannot give my support to SureStart if it is not true to its purpose. If it is, then I support it.

Compensation Culture

2009-11-02T02:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-06-05T00:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

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

Basic Security in the Field

2008-10-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

I’m off soon to work with young people affected by violence. (child soldiers). They wouldn’t let me go unless I complete the United Nations Advanced Security in the Field course. Well I’ve just done the basic course, with a certificate to prove it. Some interesting little tips when next you go shopping in Tesco’s and the unexpected happens: If shot-at and you have to leave your vehicle; hide behind the engine block. When shot at in the open drop down on the ground and crawl to cover. Generally don’t talk to kidnappers unless they talk to you and remember - it is preferable to spend two days sitting in a mine-field waiting for help than to unsuccessfully try to retrace your steps.

2 plane crashes (three if you include Africa) and more:

2007-11-25T11:31:00.000-08:00

I’m in Port-au-Prince for a few days clearing up the atelier. I will leave it come what may. I have given most of the furniture and fittings way to street-people and Faustin – my really devoted driver. The atelier is bare and bleak now and I am back to sitting on the floor.

Today will be an 8 – 15 hour drive to our fantastic beach-house hidden in Cormier. I am doing some creative writing, sorting out file-sharing and accountancy and preparing some concept papers and swimming a lot. Erratic internet takes its strain and my speakers packed up (Schumann Fantasiestücke cello sonata will have to wait.) so I am back to star-counting at night. Life is – in one sense – is a fantasy idyll: Odysseus in the land of the lotus eaters. I’ll tell some UNPOL Canadian policemen living nearby my address. I still have the heeby-jeebies after sharing an American Airways flight with an arrested drug-dealing ex-beneficière of one of our armed gang rehabilitation projects. I was in the front row club-class (Ho! Ho! - a rarity) and he was manacled between two of New York’s finest on the back row – but that plane was still not big enough for me…

The Cherokee Chief’s drive shaft has been out and laid out on the road so often we are like old friends. Toyota now put coils springs on their Hi-Lux 4WDs front wheels. That means that we may be spared any more 3 day waits as a crippled blacksmith makes us up a leaf-spring plate completely from scratch as happened in Sierra Leone collecting post-war weapons.

Drivers in Haiti know nothing about their vehicles. It is a point of pride that they don’t (‘that is the mechanic’s job to know’). Of twenty-one drivers I interviewed not one could tell me what system suspension a Land-Cruiser uses. One said ‘shock’ as in ‘shock absorbers’ were probably how it was done.

Progress with Fondation Avenir is frustratingly slow and frankly I am losing the will to ‘pick my self up dust my self down and start all over again’. (But I will find it again.) I am biding my time waiting for my flight home (Arr. UK 6 October). I still have faith in Vladimir (CEO Fondation Avenir), he is trying so hard. ******** is refusing to pay him a large tranche of his last project – he is lining up lawyers. Drama is ceaseless.

I tried to take a photograph from the top of the cathedral in Cap Haitien. Even I said “no’ the ladders look too rickety”. That must be a first.

I may be unable to use the return-portion of my pooty little cigar-plane Caribintair airflight from Cap Haitien to Port au Prince, as two of their planes crashed this month. So not only is the airline grounded but they have precious few planes to fly anyway. (Cessnas with Pratt and Whitney engines for the aficionados). Readers of this report may recall that Belleview went and crashed on us in Sierra Leone two years ago. How long will my luck last?

I have always worn “kickin’ boots” on my failed-state projects – I feel better that way to exit scrapes with extreme prejudice. I walked 3 miles with only flimsy sandals and $XXXX in my pockets today … Never again. I had to count it out in the bank. I didn’t realise that the huge wads were held together by a paper loop concealing a rubber band. Trying to pull a $100 bill out the paper loop ripped but the concealed rubber band held. The bill ripped – the bank won’t accept the bill. $100 down the toilet unless I can find a solution.

Everybody loves my architectural plans and artistic vision. But is there funding? Yes - but can we secure it? Yes - but will I bleach my bones before it comes through? Ah… there’s the rub…

If I don’t have a contract to return to Haiti when I leave Haiti on the 5^th Oct. I’ll stay in England and wonder what on earth to do next; hoping the blocu will un-block. But a ‘contract’ is not clear-cut here. A ‘contract’ really means an agreement on chasing a series of projects, none of which, individually, constitute a firm ‘contrat de service’.

Bang! Gunshot as I write.

Someone I admire got 8 bullets in his house frequently. I wrote a little tribute to him for friends in the UK. I copied him in - and offended him. The matter was to him very private – and I suppose I stepped over boundaries – and probably got the facts wrong. Mea culpa.

*******

The worst fears seem to becoming true. The govt. dept is insisting that they hold the budget and dole out sums on a weekly basis. This is not surprisingly unacceptable to the staff who are trying to take over as the national NGO running my old project. Budgeting and timing of accounts payable and receivable will be a nightmare. My old pal who was at the forefront of talking to the gangs is quite convinced that the govt. wishes to hold the purse-strings in order to siphon-off any money they can. The will achieve this by accusing my old project of being disqualified for receiving money on any trumped-up excuse. The govt. will then keep the money.

Thus the govt. seems to be building in back-handers into the system. My old project has been without funding (or computers, office space or vehicles which are presumably being driven around by the govt. as they build their private empires – as prophesied by another old hand) for nearly two months now.

I am planning a little muck-raking, but first must invite the govt. to right to reply…

Violence

Kidnapping is back up high on the agenda. The US embassy told a US citizen wanting to come here: Don’t: There were 60 US citizens kidnapped last year. The country is NOT safe.

But if pleasure is removing a painful stone from one’s mouth then I would describe my state as pleasurable.

Taking photographs in public toilets

2007-11-24T13:25:00.000-08:00

Some public toilets are great places to take photographs. Actually I tell a lie, it’s not council administered public toilets I favour, but hotel, restaurant and smart institutional public toilets. They have wonderful downward pointing lights that emphasise the bone-structure for a portrait and a big mirror.

I love this result from the toilet in Ickfield House, National Trust property, Suffolk. UK. It’s a self-portrait as I’m about to go onstage to take part in a Hallowe’en fire-show, October 2007. Unfortunately it can look I have a gun to my head.

How to get shot:

2007-11-24T13:13:00.000-08:00

How to get shot:

Try to get out of the capital city, Pourt-au-Prince, Haiti, in a beat-up Cherokee Jeep. Inevitably it breaks down. No fuel getting to the engine: Distributor: Filthy, clean it up.

Fuel lead: Press the nipple; fuel all over fingers – OK. Fuse box: Aha! It is loose on its mountings so the box bounces around under the bonnet (hood). Clean up the fuses. No good. Test circuits, inconclusive. Get mechanic – no joy, get electrician and 4 hangers on along for the ride – no good.

Consider flying – no good – airline grounded due to crashes. Night coming on. Dangerous to be out. Get a tow back to city. Lorry (truck) arrives. He produces a chain and really stupid fixing technique: modified reef knots. No good. Crazy tow. Now dark. Getting robbed getting more likely. We are on edged of city, the huge city dump: Continual fires of hell burn and gone-wild horses skit around. The stinking rotting dead horse has gone from last week.

The tow into town will be like Walpurgis-Nacht and Lutzow’s wild hunt and that Terminator 16 wheeler chase scene all in one. When you are being towed SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) is for the towed driver to act as the breaks for both vehicles. They don’t know this and I lack the determination to tell them. Abandon tow.

Consider local hotel. Opt to drive all the way back to city, abandoning vehicle with armed guard (shotgun and 10 rounds) who will guard it all night.

Route National 1 passes the Cité Soleil slum. This route is totally utterly off limits to UN staff and anyone not wanting to be shot. Madam H had her nephew tragically shot in crossfire here. He died. She has been really kind to me as an outsider because I am working against the violence. Madame M lost he husband in exactly the same way same road. She is a feisty woman, lots of bourgeois bling. Mulatto, keeps the blacks down I reckon. Canadian UNPOL shot here. Bullet came through side of Land-Cruiser door. (Windows are always up for security, occasionally a bullet will not go through a door because the windows are down and the combined door panelling and window may slow bullet down enough. But the window was up…)

The bullet was low enough to penetrate his leg and sever the main artery. The UN sent an APC (armoured personnel carrier) to rescue him. He was loaded up and the APC set off as fast as possible to the UN hospital – fortunately not far. But it was rush-hour. London taxis get stuck in London traffic and this was a third-word dysfunctional megalopolis. The APC crashed. The young Brazilian driver was probably scared out of his wits and the Canadian would already be grey in the back. He died.

It is night and I am standing in the back of an open lorry the wind in my hair, and – God almighty, we are not turning left at the airport, but carrying on straight up the very same route National 1.

Vladimir said when I climbed down after the ride I was like something deranged with a wild look in my eye.

Kill the werewolf.

2007-11-24T13:09:00.001-08:00

I don’t need to embellish this story. I’ll just tell it.

A couple of weeks ago, outside our office in Haiti, a young man accused a 20 year-old girl of being a loup-garou – a werewolf. She had, he said, been flying around the rooftops of Carrefour-Feuilles the off-limits inner-city area where no whites are seen, well, except me.

The accusation of being a loup-garou was enough and the locals went to work. At about 9.00 in the evening in a capital city they tortured her by ripping out her entrails. Then they ‘necklaced’ her: The pushed a tyre over her and set it on fire.

Next morning the smouldering remains were out in the street for all to see. The guts were strung around also.