To England

Emirates 039 to Birmingham: over the Low Countries

Lin met me at Birmingham New Street. I was home just after one in the afternoon - English winter time. I'm feeling as though it's 7.00am Saturday morning, when - as I wrote this - it's actually coming up to 8.00pm Friday evening. I'll take myself to bed soon, having stayed awake through the early dark of a chilly English November day. For the journey I'd finished Loaded, continued The Triumph of the Nomads, digesting Blainey's arguments eroding the view of a great Eden - static and innocent - before Europeans trod the fatal shore, snacked on the in-flight menus and , despite dubious sound, in-flight entertainment - The Time Traveller's Wife - and the passing view through plane's downward camera, and when this seemed too narrow and hazy, peering enviously down through one of the Boeing's small windows to the mountainous terrain along the Iraq-Iran border before our passage north took us over the winter cloud cover.

** ** **

I got an exit seat to Singapore and Dubai this time and another for the next flight onto to Birmingham leaving at 0802 local time. The difference it makes to be able to stretch my legs. News is bad about the economy of Dubai - a sort of Blackpool on the Arabian Gulf with more concrete, higher buildings, censorship, Victorian attitudes to sexuality and gender, dominated by cars and shopping malls, whose monarchical rulers have striven to create a Middle Eastern economy driven by tourism, real estate and financial services instead of oil. From February foreign debt has left each of the emirate's quarter of a million United Arab Emirate's citizens owing $400,000. As I passed through, Dubai World, the emirate's investment agency had just asked, in language clothed in incomprehensible euphemisms about 'restructuring', for six months delay in normal repayments. I guess this is an historically significant event which will impact on the rest of us, but I struggle to understand or feel compassion. [30/11/09 BBC on Dubai's economy and a fine piece of Swiftian prose from James Howard Kunstler] [New York Review of Books Aug-Sept 2010; 'Goodbye to Dubai' by Joshua Hammer]

Friday morning Dubai transit

I'm still contemplating the whirlwind tour of 20th century art at the National Gallery of Art at Melbourne. After dropping off Geoff's bike at the top of Collins I attached myself to a guide and started with impressionists, artists becoming more and more sophisticated about how colour worked, wanting viewer's eyes to do the seeing rather than using paint, however brilliantly, to show people what the artist thought they ought to see. When these painters first appeared people hardly knew what they were looking at. Now we are used to seeing as as impressionists, but struggle with other ways. We jumped to Mark Rothko, marking a movement from Paris and London, as artistic centres, to New York - and learned how things changed even more. "He's having a conversation with you." Thus did art vexingly become Socratic, and we know how much he irritated people who didn't want a conversation that challenged the reliability of their common sense, a shared understanding of wisdom and beauty and, even worse, their faith in an idea of goodness.

We - our guide, me and a couple from Newcastle, New South Wales - ran by a mixture of artists, Australian mixed with the rest of the world, finishing, more or less with Lee Bul, a Korean woman who's untitled construction hung beside Cell by Louise Bourgeois and Yayoi Kusama's Tender are the Stairs to Heaven a frail colour shifting ladder, reaching - up and down - to mirror-made infinity.

* * * An 'oh well' email from Jonathan Davies at Warwick picked up on my WiFi'd train into New Street:

Simon. I'm afraid the ESRC says no 'we'd like to fund it, but insufficient funds', which means we fell one step short. The reviews of the bid are generally good (I will copy them to you when I can). They liked us as a team and thought the approach was innovative, but felt the academic contribution was under-elaborated, which means we bent the stick too far towards the practitioner side - a bit of a surprise to me. There were a couple of criticisms, perhaps the most significant being what one reviewer called the 'lack of ambition' - a single case study in Birmingham rather than something comparative in the UK or abroad. In my view, it is probably worth repackaging and resubmitting - or perhaps going to a different funding body with the current offering. Realistically, I can't come back to it until next Autumn, but would be interested in giving it another go if you are. Sorry to be the bearer of disappointing news. If you can think of other ways we might get this moving in the mean time, let me know. Best Jonathan

* * * Sir Michael Rose has suggested to The Chilcot Enquiry into the invasion of Iraq that Tony Blair might suffer the fate of Admiral Byng to "encourage future prime ministers not to wage costly and unnecessary wars in times to come." At least this enquiry (official site) will allow 'the great and the good' to say publicly what loyalty to the state prevented then saying at the time - perhaps.

I still believe the centre holds...

The day before I took the train south from Scotland my mother made it to the iron gate across the old road along which we often stroll near Milton of Culloden. A fortnight earlier she'd been slow and exhausted long before we got there. This time she walked a mile there and back. We enjoyed naming flowers, trees, butterflies and seabirds foraging on the receding tide line. "We've done so many things!" We made a list - of meals at Brin Croft and the house at Croachy, the party organised by Mum's friends Christina and James Murray on the Friday of the Moy Fair at Farr Mains, our walks in Daviot School Woods, the drive to Cromarty, to Coignafearne and along the Culbin Sands at Nairn, my cycle ride via Drynachan to Shenachie and Ruthven beside the Findhorn, walks with the terriers beside the Farnack, and just sitting at Mum's home talking and remembering. Sharon, my mother's carer, has been a vital help and we've all taken a hand in washing up and tidying and other errands. The weather has been kinder than in the south but I like the wet and the dry.

We'd had supper, one evening at Rhuallan at Croachy, with Sandra, my nephew's wife and she told us of a dream she'd had. Grandmothers she knew were talking with one another about each other's lives. They talked about the times through which - in different parts of Europe - they'd lived. As well as mum from England, there was a grandma from Norway; two from Austria. "They spoke of things that had happened during the war," she said. "Things I couldn't have known! They were talking abut how once they'd been strangers to one another, curious about their different perspectives, asking questions about 'how it looked?' They were so animated ... so interested ... reconciling their histories. How could I have dreamed such a conversation about so many things I never knew?"

The journey south through Drumochter on via Edinburgh on Thursday with Oscar seemed to pass quite quickly. By evening we were home in Birmingham, in Handsworth.

* * *

On Saturday Amy and me were cycling together and we dropped off at a Hockley Community Party for some food. Hector let me borrow the mike to announce details of how to apply for the Victoria Jubilee Allotments' short list. Amy's writing our contact details in the guest book.

* * *

LinkedIn

Simon Baddeley has sent you a message.

Date: 8/16/2009

Subject: Making my material accessible

Dear Tony

I thought these would interest you as one who did most to encourage me to increase the accessibility of my material via the web

http://democracystreet.blogspot.com/2008/11/ordinary-things.html

http://democracystreet.blogspot.com/2008/11/conversation-between-politicians-and.html

http://democracystreet.blogspot.com/2008/11/no-overall-control.html

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B425ifMGvdTtOWI1NDQxMmQtOWE0Yi00MzY2LWJkZDktM2ExMGE5MzQ0NzZh&hl=en_GB

For the tour I'm doing in Australia in Oct/Nov 09 we will be offering web access to participants both for film and texts.

I've also part of a joint small grants ESRC bid submitted by Jonathan Davies from Warwick Business School which will involve me filming working relations between city council and partner reps in Birmingham - "a multi-method qualitative inquiry to explore the dominant rationale of governing networks in the city of Birmingham. Our outputs will include an original dataset, academic articles, teaching and capacity building tools. " If the bid is accepted this will include publishing in an electronic journal articles combining text and film.

Best

Simon

Tony B has sent you a message.

Date: 8/16/2009

Subject: RE: Making my material accessible

Hi Simon

This is fantastic! Great progress and in a short period of time! If I can help in the research project in any way, just let me know. I know Jonathan Davies and he is a bright spark - I'm sure that what you do together will make a big impact.

Meanwhile, I'd like to meet Nick Booth in early September, if you're OK with that. There are a couple of things I'd like to talk about with him. I propose that we also meet together when you get back, but that's likely to be late October?

Best

Tony

Nick (top) Tony (foot) Jonathan

*** ***

It's a sign of the times that I thought a story about a competition to change the names of the towers of Lichfield Cathedral because the existing names 'ladies of the vale' had caused offence. PC - political correctness - is mainly about etiquette in changing times, hence the vexatious whinges of those unable to follow rapidly shifting conventions of the day and the shadenfreude of those who know the latest rules. As any fule kno the famous etiquette guides - the Sophists', about whose well-paid claims to teach wisdom to young Athenians, Socrates was so scathing, Baldassare's Il Cortegiano guide for renaissance gentlemen - l'uomo universale - through to Debrett's and Emily Post and the current plethora of syndicated columns on what to do when facing the latest contemporary dilemma - δίλημμα - are studied in times of great social change, even revolution (e.g. industrial, renaissance, post-war disruption and whatever you call today's global babel) but etiquette (e.g. PC) is all about 'tickets', 'qualifications'. Politeness is another thing altogether, being about never stopping thinking and puzzling abut the right thing to do to be kind to others. Etiquette guides are designed to simplify by linking, in the minds of apirants, a specific response to a specific situation - which knife to use, which greeting, what precedence. The principle is to reduce processing time. Etiquette is the computer equivalent of ROM. Politeness works on RAM. It requires a depthless capacity for deft processing of data - talented sensitivity, wisdom. The conventions some refer to as 'PC' are attempts - often absurd - aimed at helping people be polite - but as any fule kno it's impolite to tell people how to be polite.

** * ** *

Barbara and Lulu meet Cookie on Skype

* * * We've just seen some new panoramas on the excellent Ano Korakiana website (this page) and references to 'Baddeley' and a rough translation. In just a few days we shall be on Democracy Street - Οδός Δημοκρατίας - watching dawn over the mainland.

'the thistle for wheat'

'I have taught pale Artifice to spread his nets upon the morning' wrote William Blake in the 1800s - railing against the imperial impulse in men, rending the veil of Newtonian appearance with radical visions - the exquisite form of the house fly, the rat's civility, the lark's song - a shriek of protest at human cruelty. The distinction between Whigs and Tories in British political history had the Tories, their faith grounded in common-sense recognition of crown and nation, mocking their Whig opponents for their preoccupation with ideas and counter-intuitive statements of principal. For the Tories what was right was self-evidently lodged in faith and inherited trust. "I refute it thus" (the philosophy of Bishop Berkeley) said Samuel Johnson to Boswell, kicking a large stone on a Dover beach. Tory bedrock was Whig quicksand. This opposition is as familiar today. What for those of a Tory disposition is no-nonsense crime to be treated accordingly, is for the Whig a symptom. Blair tried to coin a middle ground phrase with his slogan "I'm tough on crime and on the causes of crime" but its success in bridging different ways of understanding the world was partial. Close linked to politics as this piece by Costas Douzinas shows, there's an enduring philosophical tussle over the nature of reality, emerging in the street in squabbles (see Brabant for BBC on arguments over the shooting of Diamantis Matzounis) about what can be seen by anyone with a pair of eyes in their head, and in current culture in the image of the choice between a red pill or a blue pill in that initially clever sequence of sci-fi films the Matrix Franchise - the red pill Whig, the blue Tory. Costas Douzinas, Law Professor and Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London, has written a piece 'What we can learn from the Greek riots' in this morning's Guardian. This interesting voice from the Greek diaspora comes to me, even as I sit in a lecture by my colleague Andrew C, on Local Area Agreements and external scrutiny. Andrew's running through a taxonomy of governance structures and the means by which they may be scrutinised. To understand why this article attracts my attention, especially during Andrew's talk, I need to explain my growing interest in arguments challenging the frameworks within which I've been understanding modern government.

Douzinas: Contemporary politics aims at marginal (re)distributions of benefits, rewards and positions without challenging the established order. In this sense, politics resembles the marketplace or a town hall debate where rational consensus about public goods can be reached. Conflict has been pronounced finished, passé, impossible. The convergence of political parties in the centre ground exemplifies this 'conflict-free' approach. But conflict does not disappear. Neo-liberal capitalism increases inequality and fuels conflict. When social conflict cannot be expressed politically, it becomes criminality and xenophobia, terrorism and intolerance. Or a reactive violence, the emotional response of those invisible to the political system. In the Greek case, antagonism resulted from the tension between the structured social body with its political representatives and groups, causes and interests radically excluded from the political order. Huge numbers of people cannot formulate their demands in the language of politics. The protesters do not say, "I want this or that" but simply, "Here we are, we stand against"...

We all see the world through theory that becomes common sense, becoming no more aware of the underpinning of that common sense than a snake of its skin - until its sloughed - or a fish of water - until its on the bank. Theory disappeared under the cloak of TINA. Discredited theories - Newtonian, Marxist, Keynesian - have remained visible and the efforts of creationists to get intelligent design into the science curriculum requires us to do more than rely on received wisdom about the probability of evolution. We must understand a theory to rebut its detractors. I don't understand current theories of government well enough to defend, refine or abandon what I've taken for granted.

Douzinas: No political organisation directed the insurrection, no single ideology motivated it, no overwhelming demand was put forward. The persistent question, "What do the kids want?" often led to the conclusion that the events were not political because they could not be integrated into existing analytical frameworks. What seemed to unite the protesters was a refusal: "No more, enough is enough." A stubborn negativity characterised the insurrection. Is this a new type of politics after the decay of democracy?

Jonathan Davies, Associate Professor (Reader) of Public Policy Public Management and Policy Group at Warwick Business School has been asking question about the ‘network orthodoxy’, developing and refining criticisms of the 'regime-theoretical conception' of governance. J sees matters of class being ignored or reduced to a taxonomy of types familiar to marketing analysts. He's been picking through what he sees as the dysfunctional dynamics of networked urban governance in the UK. He speaks of the almost triumphal way social theorists have celebrated the network society where hierarchy has been succeeded by heterarchy with power dispersed across interdependent agencies, and interests, rather than being held by a dominant class. In so far as anyone is left out of this social arrangement, they can be saved - it is perhaps far too casually assumed - by various assimilative measures. My comment on Douzinas' article:

"The possibility of changing the rules of what counts as political". This strikes me as the key point you are leading to - also changing our understanding of what we are seeing in Greece and if you are right, elsewhere. Comments shuttle between keyboard colonels and keyboard liberals, between vexation and venom and, as you observe, 'incredulity'. incomprehension and puzzlement as to what is demanded, wanted, desired? Where I've been asking are the politics? It looks too much like street therapy. You argue that 'these events were not political because they could not be integrated into existing analytical frameworks; and ask if "this (is) a new type of politics after the decay of democracy?". That intrigues me. Are you saying that the powers that be within our current polity have become so skilled at assimilating, diffusing, dispersing, tranquilising, co-opting, and suppressing demands that can't be met, that what we are seeing is a form of political expression that evades articulating demands that can be absorbed? This sounds counter-intuitive - but then most new ideas are. Please elaborate. Take us through your reasons for thinking democracy has 'decayed', rather than being the familiar flawed form of government that just about survives because we can't invent anything better. Perhaps, as recession familiarises more here with the enormous and widening rift between rich and poor in other places, the expressions we see in Greece will spread, a new spectre demonstrating your thesis that there's something rotten rather than merely flawed in our present condition. Are we struggling to manage the symptoms of a political illness current expertise has, as yet, failed to diagnose?

Professor Douzinas has also argued that human rights, rather than providing a moral and legal framework for challenging and regulating the actions of the powerful, have become their ideological tool. * * * The Birmingham Mainline was iced up completely. At Gas Street and along the Birmingham Worcester the ice was broken by a few narrow boats on the move, but I had the towpath to myself this morning. * * * Finally saw This is England just before Christmas - the most honourable film I've seen in the year, talented acting, intrepid plot, ghastly and cruel, yet worth all for its writer's and actors' integrity. At last people I recognise and Lin used to teach - and a document of the consequences of certain policies and attitudes in the 1980s; effects whose trajectory I experience and see every day - the pity and the waste.

‘Depravity in the oppressed is no apology for the oppressor; but rather an additional stigma to him, as being in large degree, the effect, and not the cause and justification of oppression’ Herman Melville, Chapter 14 White Jacket

[In a roundabout way I stumbled on this reaction to This is England as well as a link to a portal to more on urban food growing - thanks to Nick Booth, Podnosh]

"the horror" - how corruption works

...the principle of 'anti-kinship' present in the ‘theoretical’ contrast between 'universalistic' (that is rational) and particularistic (non-rational) systems reflects the horror of nepotism that once held together a part of the British flag of empire. It is still held by some industrial observers to distinguish between ‘developed’ and ‘underdeveloped’ countries. (Leyton,E.(ed) (1974) 'The Compact: Selected Dimensions of Friendship', Newfoundland Social and Economic Papers No.3, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland (University of Toronto) p.111, 112) quoted in a paper I wrote on trust in government in 1996.

Horror will do. It's my view. Though he didn't call it that, I was taught about corruption by my Philhellene dad on my first visit to Greece when I was 16. After he'd explained the differences between Greek and Turkish coffee - one's called 'Greek' and the other 'Turkish' and "while your here, don't ever forget which is which". "Here's some local wine fermented in pine barrels. Try a sip. You'll love it or hate it." He explained that what makes the music so so so... is that you can't tell whether it's eastern or western; Islamic or Christian..."and it was often forbidden." "Greece has been enriched by being uncertain whether it's east or west for centuries." He respected the ruins and sent me on a week's minibus tour I'll never forget, but it was modern Greece that held his heart and mind. "You'll be at the custom house to get a parcel from abroad. An amiable man at the steps outside will ask if he can help with 'paperwork' and as you hesitate offers to have your parcel with you in 20 minutes - for a small fee. This is easily and openly paid by a foreigner, unsure of the local bureaucracy and the language. You depart with your parcel - after a grateful handshake and relaxed wait in the foyer, well apart from the milling crowd. Corruption is so nice and easy. Some would call it "ethnic" now. You can fool yourself it's a win-win situation. It's really queue jumping. (See Annex 5: Case Study - Greece)

[Back to the future 12/01/09: I just came across an op-ed (now disappeared) by Mark Dragoumis in Athens News of Friday 5th December 08 which led me to the famous blog of the late Amalia Kalyvinou - probably the most influential agent for potential good in the Hellenic health 'system - English version. (see also and also) Writes Dragoumis: 'Ruling without rules should, at long last, be ruled out' ~ Many Greeks do know from experience that there is no better fuel to make the state run smoothly than the 'fakellaki' (Φακελάκι fakelaki = little envelope, or bag, containing the requisite bribe). What this columnist has found to his amazement, though, is that this situation has led to the emergence of informal 'networks of honesty and efficiency' in Greece - profound irony. See also. Note on 31 May 2010 - some of these links have been deleted or restricted at source - Search for Amalia Kalyvinou and/or Αμαλία Καλυβίνου. Example of how the web can be made indelible despite efforts]

I recall a first mate on an oil tanker, on which I studied, saying that by the time you realise you are getting bribed you've already been long paid. It usually happens when you dock. Customs and immigration complete their paperwork on board. You repair for a drink with the skipper. The conversation lingers as you enjoy the refills, instead of doing what the first officer should be doing, after docking, which is keeping an eagle eye on the deck as your crew and shore workers merge at the quay. "Do you have any idea of the value of a 10 metres of cable or the other stuff that lies loose on a ship's deck? It's better now with off-shore loading and roll-on roll-off and container cargoes. There's less access. Now the crime's inside the boxes. In those day's you'd depart and then open a drawer in your cabin and find an envelope. To whom do you give it back? The skipper will say 'what the hell are you doing with that you idiot?' No giving it back, no convincing explanation. You're at sea. So so easy and no-one seems to be getting hurt." On our second visit to Corfu in November 2006 we stayed overnight at the welcoming Carpe Diem hostel in Brindisi - a good point of transit for many British travellers going regularly to Corfu by train, plane and ferry. We met an English Corfu hotellier heading home, who told us she was selling up. "You'll love Corfu" she said. "People will be good, welcoming, generous - all the things you could hope for on top of the beautiful landscape. You're harvest. But if ever, like me, you decide to have a go at harvesting, you'll see a whole other side of things in Paradise." She listed the ways officials could and had made her life difficult - an exhausting escalation of obfuscation; of laws enforced that weren't enforced on others, and laws not enforced in her case while being used to protect others. "My problem is simple. I won't pay to make my life easier. I've struggled for ten years and done quite well but I'm giving up now and my daughter needs me in England. It's not a Greek-English thing, don't get me wrong. It's who pays and who doesn't. Greeks are as much victims as foreigners." My closest encounter with this kind of crime was the Birmingham vote-rigging scandal, in which I seemed to know a great number of those involved, both those like Raghib Ahsan who helped initiate the enquiry that led to the electoral court, and my neighbour, two houses up, Mohammed Afzal, who was implicated by the electoral court and cleared on appeal. Apart from attending sessions at Richard Mawrey's electoral court, I watched this rot filtering through the area's labour party and felt rather useless. You can do so much door to door leafleting, sending letters to the press, signing petitions, supporting your beleagured friends - but its worse than wading through chilled treacle to pin down the attitude of mind that doesn't feel the shame or 'the horror'. For me corruption is on a par with crimes that attract greater attention - akin to rape, child abuse, theft with violence, especially as it's not disconnected from these loathsome acts. So there, I've moved from a cheery memory of my dad telling me about speeding up procedures at the Athens custom house to Marcellus' words on the ramparts at Helsingor "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. What Shakespeare does incomparably in Hamlet - most famously - is to show corruption begun in the domestic polity and metastasising to the state. Hamlet's despair and passion is directed evenly at what's happened in his family as well as in his country. It astonishes me that he should be seen as gloomy rather than justifiably angry - almost incoherently so - at the havoc wrought by the corruption whose full range only emerges as the play proceeds. Shakespeare knew. So did Pinter whose choler at political crime, Private Eye so enjoyed mocking.

Scroll down this link to see Political culture and corruption in Greece: A synergistic relationship by Chronis Polychroniou professor and head of Academic Affairs at Mediterranean University College, University of Teesside (UK) in Athens (see back in the blog; see 13th International Anti-Corruption conference in Athens in November 2008) (See also several reflections on the Greek phenomenon of yearning-burning-earning)

Reading the Barber Institute description of that Nativity scene by Jan de Beer I learn something else about the angel...

... in the foreground with a golden brocade cloak has peacock wings which stand out against his striking auburn hair. The peacock is a traditional symbol of immortality and may point to Christ’s reign on earth. Alternatively, this angel, different to the others, could represent Lucifer, who was at times depicted in the form of an angel with peacock wings...the Devil bears witness to the birth of the child that will bring his downfall.

I've recognised the view in Christian theology that the devil doesn't waste time with those doing evil, but gets close to those most righteous. Does Islam have this view of the intimacy of good and evil? I've asked Dhiaa. It's taken for granted in atheism - no need of a Fall. Corruption and probity in government - far from being in opposition are proximate. I've seen it in an inability - or refusal - to see the importance of distinguishing between being friendly and having a friendship. Codes of conduct in constitutions are written in language too blunt to mark the subtle distinctions between right and wrong where a significant proportion of what passes is wordless. Formal language falters in trying to describe the judgement needed to navigate the moral danger zone where politics and administration overlap, sometimes falling back on that weasel word 'appropriate' or setting rules that may keep a lawyer safe but ignore the art in government. * * * E-mail from home:

Yes - I was at Jill's. Didn't get back till 2.45. Rich. Alice & R's friend came in at about 4.00. They're not up yet! I'm watching Arabian Nights - repeat of the one we saw before. Just got into it and Jo came over for a coffee and a chat. She's not long gone, so I've missed most of it. It's freezing here. I'm keeping the heating on all day - spending your winter fuel allowance. However, I've at last managed to find out rules for home office claim, so that'll save you £40 income tax. L x

* * *
From the Greek eco-forum blog - "In 2009 please fight decadence" - which I take to be another term for corruption...

Society's moral defences are being tested in Greece and in other countries in the world by many ways but mainly through media coverage. Historically and physicaly the biggest defences are in the young minds, which are not yet amalgamated through the modern society mechanisms and finally being passive to accept the destiny that has been imposed to by others. In many periods of the human history, people had revolted or at least protested against the implicit order to accept the destiny as it is. Many religions has exploited that feeling and tried to find good grounds to make their dogma respectable. Metaphysics and human norms are constantly interchanging sources of belief that in the end reflects to the human behaviour. However, morality remained constant as an idea and as a social movement by adapting social and economic changes. Moral issues are correlated with the social cohesion and the society's resistance in change. Some would argue that young people are more ethical than the older ones and that argument is supported by the fact that young ones are adopting the ideal view of how society should exist and operate and not with what means - the means are left for the more experienced ones. With that in mind, the recent protests in France and in Greece, have common characteristics, both are trying to express the older generation that something in the society is not working properly, there is a big problem and they are desperate to see their voices heard. Justice, Respect and Equality are ideas of the older French revolution and centuries ago of Greek Culture but it is the only way to bridge the gap between the generations and work out together a way out of this social crisis. The state of the environment is the reflection of how important society thinks the next generation is. The current situation is the Ultimum Bottom Line. There is only one way up by working hard all of us together...I wish 2009 will be the start of the new era in the global society with a lot of understanding, cooperation and applying solutions.

* * *
Iason Athanasiades writes more - date 2 January 2009 - sour at his generation's spinelessness: 'Democracy is a Greek word. And so too is apathy…and chaos and tragedy: rather more fitting epithets for the instability churning Greece' (Max Andersson cartoon) but he quotes Jonathan Davies' view that strikes across Greece 'seemingly confound the received wisdom that class struggle is dead.' JD, who I've quoted earlier, sees what's been filmed as the least significant dimension of what's happening, and Athens as a cinematic riot zone has indeed slipped into the past tense, displaced by the shift of media attention to Gaza - the baited bear (CSM Sara Roy 2/01/09)
 * * *
See especially Fouskas:

The future generations that will build the Fourth Hellenic Republic should remember that the Third did not suffer from authoritarianism, but from a lack of institutional norms and rules that are the requisites of every modern polity.

* * *
Back to the future - 10/01/2009: Example of corruption in Norwich City Council. A senior housing officer involved in evicting frail elderly from the their homes allegedly went with other staff to live at preferential rents in accomodation she'd emptied.
* * *
Quote from comments on deviousdiva's blog This is not my Country - 21 November 2007: Greek laws are incomplete and have holes in them so that the authorities can be bribed and so that the politicians can do what is known as “rousfeti”. (The word comes from turkish “rüsvet” and means “favor”, especially favor by a politician in return for a promise to vote them.) And the entire public sector is organized in such a way that anything can be accomplished by “rousfeti”: If something in the law is unclear, it can be made clear by an “order from above”. If an order “from above” violates the law or the regulations, it is the “order from above” which always takes precedence. If the cogs of the bureaucratic machine are rusty, an order “from above” will always oil them and get them to move on. This is, by the way, how the greek term “Λάδωμα” (ladoma) meaning “oiling” was coined to mean “bribery”. So, the politicians see no reason to fix the laws when any deficiencies can be taken care of at any time by means of “rousfeti”. Ha! You thought you knew how a corrupt state works? You really know nothing until you begin to understand how the government and the public sector works in Greece! [Back to the future - 26 March 2009: Corruption uncovered in Brussels by German reporter Hans-Martin Tillack, see 9 Jan '09 story appearing in First Post]

[YouTube clip from July 2009 Leandros Rakintzis, (Λέανδρος Ρακιντζής ) Greece's general inspector of public administration, has identified town-planning offices and state hospitals, followed by municipalities, as the areas of the public sector where corruption is most rife. “The fight against corruption is long, hard and has many obstacles such as the bureaucratic attitude of public servants, various petty interests and the lack of know-how in thwarting techniques used to cover up corrupt practices."

Ο Γενικός Επιθεωρητής Δημόσιας Διοίκησης Λέανδρος Ρακιντζής μιλάει για περιπτώσεις διαφθοράς

[Back to the future: Piece in the Washington Times on 4 January 2010 about the farce playing in Athens called Mother Greece co-written by Giannis Sarakatsanis

"We're lazy, nouveau riche and constantly complaining. Everyone is looking for someone to blame just in order to get it over with, whereas I see a vicious circle that only ends with us."

[Back to the future 31 May 2010: Kathimerini's editorial 'In Corruption's Labyrinth' - a confession to a Parliamentary Select Committee by ex-Transport Minister Tasos Mantelis that he took money from Siemens as a bribe - formally described as election sponsorship - to award them a major IT contract in 1997 while a member of Costas Simitis’s PASOK government, in part to fund his son's studies at Columbia University]

[Back to the future 20 July 2010: Story in The Telegraph 8 July 2010 about Sotirios Hatzigakis, ex-Minister of Justice of the Hellenic Republic]

[10 August 2010: A miscellany of synonyms in the New York Times for 'creative accounting' ]
[7 Nov'11: A Channel 4 programme called Go Greek: Three British families try out the tax, pensions and work practices that caused Greece's economic crisis and brought on the austerity measures aimed at cutting the deficit and qualifying for EU bailouts. A 54-year-old British hairdresser discovers the generosity of the Greek pensions system, which still allows hairdressers, pastry chefs, radio continuity announcers and people in almost 600 other jobs to retire aged 53 at 90% of their final salary because their jobs are defined as hazardous. A bus driver reaps the rewards of the Greek approach to state-run services, where bus drivers could be paid up to almost double the national average salary and receive extra bonuses for arriving at work early and for checking bus tickets. And a British surgeon is delighted to discover how paying income tax the Greek way will transform his disposable income. The personal experiences of the three main characters are supported by expert interviews that establish the patterns of tax evasion, corruption and mismanagement that have helped to sink the Greek economy.]
[Back to the future - 1 Jan 2012: 'Debt-pushing' to a whole nation via the corruption of its upper echelons]

Strolling with my mother

We've been on favourite walks - to Dunlichity, to the head of the Nairn near Dog Rose and along the shore of the Moray Firth, on the remains of the old Inverness to Aberdeen Road and to Cromarty in the rain

* * *

E-mail from my colleague Tony Bovaird re Paper on National Indicators for a Thriving Third Sector:

I'm delivering a paper at APPAM in November on some research we recently did on developing a national performance indicator for local authorities, which attempts to assess their contribution to the environment of local third sector organisations. It's a complex issue and I think it raises some important issues for those of us who work at the interface of public sector and third sector issues. I'm attaching a draft of the paper and would be delighted if you had any comments. I'm taking this chance to circulate you on the old School of Public Policy list server, as I notice that, peculiarly, it still lives on, after 1 August! Best, Tony

My reply:

Dear T. A bold piece of pioneering methodology. I wonder if it would pick up any of the diverse ways Birmingham City Council people have helped or hindered endeavours with which I've been associated as member or initiator over the past 30 years living in Handsworth? I see it as both a practitioner and as a part-anthropologist, part-historian, in terms of myriad incidents, some pivotal, and personalities, often near infathomable. The end results are measurable in cash for projects on the ground. Something happened because the LA or someone or some group in it exercised agency. I worry that the performance management approach keeps us, in this area, in the world of getting better at knowing the costs but no closer to knowing the values, better at assessing quantity but no closer to understanding let alone measuring things to do with quality. How would your method add to our understanding of what made the Good Friday Agreement look and feel like a success and other peace making initiatives not? Best S

Tony's reply:

Hi Simon. Interesting. I think that such indicators are not really very suitable for mega-authorities like Birmingham - they depend on a close relationship between the local authority and the local third sector (in general), which in a city of 1m is never going to happen. So, it's not a surprise that Birmingham has NOT chosen this to be one of its 35 target indicators! (Although it has chosen it to be one of its local priorities, which will feature much less strongly in the CAA judgement). You mention the influence of "myriad incidents, some pivotal, and personalities, often near infathomable" - that sounds very much like the kind of context in which complexity theory becomes an interesting approach - have you explored that? It's something I've been interested in for some time - it gives a very different flavour to evaluation activities! "The end results are measurable in cash for projects on the ground". In the case of Birmingham - but it's true of many, if not most LAs (though rarely so true as in Brum!) - the end results are MATCHED FUNDED projects on the ground but not normally major changes to mainstream budget allocations. This is one of the greatest puzzles - I think 'scandals' would be better - of modern UK local government. I'd love to find a way of exploring it further. "I worry that the performance management approach keeps us, in this area, in the world of getting better at knowing the costs but no closer to knowing the values, better at assessing quantity but no closer to understanding let alone measuring things to do with quality" I think this was true up to the 1990s but has long since not been the case. Actually, I think the opposite is now becoming a real worry - so many of our evaluations focus on quality, and few have any real handle on costs - this has been a major source of embarrassment for the 20 odd evaluations carried out in recent years for CLG under the LGMA Evaluation Partnership. I find it's less surprising to me now that the guy who first came to fame promoting Activity Based Costing is now the Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Bus School! "How would you method add to our understanding of what made the Good Friday Agreement look and feel like a success and other peace making initiatives not?" The approach outlined in this paper is not designed to do that, nor would I be very comfortable with a PI approach that looked at specific cases. The strength of PI-based approaches lies partly in the protection given by the 'law of large numbers' - major variations between 149 LAAs are generally unintended and therefore they are interesting to observe and explore. (Of course, when intended, that's fine - but then it's interesting to ask if they are generally as LARGE as was originally intended!). In exploring the narratives thrown up by such questioning, good explanations will often come emerge, from which we learn. But often it is a case of "fair cop, we should have been more careful/thoughtful/imaginative ... we will now attempt to influence the behaviour of our staff and partners to get this indicator back onto a more desirable trajectory". Looking at something like the Good Friday Agreement, we are dealing with specific cases and comparative performance indicators are of no interest. Of course, if we were to look at the ending of colonialism in Latin America in the 19th century or in Africa in the 1950s and1960s, there would be enough cases to make some comparisons interesting. Although I'm a bit sceptical of cliometrics (and I always regarded the Fogel-Fishlow dispute about pork barrels leaving New Orleans in the 1840s as the nearest Economic History ever gets to slapstick), I have been impressed by those historians who can use some statistics very tellingly - e.g. Braudel, Andre Gunder Frank, Putnam). Now, as far as quality goes, I'm enjoying reading Sennett's latest book - The Craftsman - but I'm a bit distressed that he never mentions Pirsig, whose ideas are so similar to his. What approach do you normally take to quality. Best from a sunny Tuebingen, after a super bike ride through the forest! Tony

Me:

This is a lovely reply. You touch on things I know and things I don't - and for the latter I'm grateful. Yes you reminded me of someone I did know of, but had not read for ages - Braudel. And yes, he does use loads of fascinating quantitative material to explain things about social and economic life that would have been passed over by narrative histories. I first came across this approach with Giedion's work 'Mechanisation takes Command'. I feel reproached that I had for a moment there suggested you put quantity before quality. You are way outside that old debate. Sorry. I have just come across - in Borders - amid biographies of Hitler and Kathy Price - a fascinating book about the work of the Audit Commission by Duncan Campbell-Smith. My mum had to drag me away to supper (I'm staying with her in the Highlands but we make forays into Tesco land for provendor). This isn't quite the scholarship we are discussing but it runs parallel to the efforts needed to sustain our understanding of what works and worked and what doesn't and didn't. Its esoteric unless you are in our area, but reading its last chapter (I have bought a cheaper used copy off the internet) I felt a buzz of excitement at the project of place shaping, of decentralisation and empowerment that went beyond the words and ideas sprinkled around so liberally by Hazel Blears and her people. Much of my early life my narrative histories taught me about the good that attaches to accruing power into the hands of competent government; the domesday book and Norman governance and the crowns control over wayward church courts, before that the Romans ('what have they ever done for us') with their great public projects, roads , aqueducts, city planning; the work of Henry VIII with Star Chamber, and then our (not yours?) Empire growing to protect our trade monopolies but accompanied by works even grander than the Romans. This is all from my Ladybird Books of history, right? Then I learned how often attempts to give away power were fraught with peril - among these was Gladstone's destruction of the Liberal Party over Home Rule and then - god help us - Partition. Against this we can balance rather poignant flag lowering ceremonies over numerous colonies that in many cases chose to remain in a Commonwealth, the spread of the franchise, and most recently the Scottish, Welsh and N.Irish Parliaments and Assembly - for which, but for Iraq - Blair would be most remembered. My point is that devolution and empowerment are projects fraught with hazard and risk. Delegation spares no delegator responsibility for its consequences. I now realise that allowing and encouraging greater choice at local level feels incredibly dangerous to our leaders. The Japanese taught me this when I was in Tokyo the other day and dared to give a talk (long planned) on 'England, its own last colony'. Of course Chris G had sensibly advised me not to use that title, so I spoke about the Challenge of Central-Local Relations in the UK, or something like this, and got a round of applause and lots of lovely chat after, from a group of high- flying civil servants. Of course decentralisation permeates modern democracies - but how do you prevent local choice exacerbating the gaps between rich and poor? I thought about depravity and deprivation and the US civil rights movement and the lurking 'folkish layer' that Thomas Mann describes underlying fascism, and the Balkans and the 'many headed monster', the mob. Is this something in my genes -this lack of trust in 'the people'? My great great grandfather Sir Henry Maine said 'Democracy is just another form of government', 'stop worshipping the people with the same fervour that royalists worship the king - as though they are the source of some divine right and have some innate wisdom'. He argued that democracy can only be made to work by the constant and ingenious application of well informed interventions to keep it working properly (Persig? Zen and the art of democracy maintenance?). 'Worst form of government - except for all the others' etc. Your research is in line with and supportive of the continuing work of the Audit Commission. It need not be the hammer of localism, but it can play a vital role in showing what works and what doesn't. It can hold the balance, especially when supported by endeavours like yours to measure the quality and quantity of support for third sector activity. These are methodologies for empowerment, inventions for the next stage of democracy. I sound like a Victorian believer in progress. Well yes I am! If that ex-market trader Lyons can come up with prescriptions for 'place shaping' he's a hero in this fragmented messy world! This is a fascinating journey and there's plenty of room for academics preoccupied with the minutiae. I guess this is why I subtitle my blog 'Democracy Street' - the banality of good (written in Greek). I'm back-referencing to Arendt's brilliant phrase for which she took so much flack - the banality of evil. I so want your research to pick up the gods of small things, small acts and connections, some recovery of Yeats' 'ceremonies of innocence', though we musn't - and can't - be innocent any more. Ceremonies of good governance at the level of the street, the neighbourhood, the village, the allotment, the bowling club, is what we need to invent. Peter W said everyone would have to work out their own Barnett Principle at local level before you could make a Local Income Tax work, and since we don't trust it at national level I do wonder ... Enjoy your holiday. Thanks for the chance to be confused aloud. Best, Simon (Scotland until 12 August)

Note: Much can be learned on the subject of giving away, receiving and taking power by study of the abandonment by Great Britain of the Corfu Protectorate in 1864. How I wish I could discuss this with Theotokis. or Gladstone.

[back to thr future: 1/01/09 I'm going to have to start digesting Jonathan Davies' thinking about hegemony vs. governance]