Category Archives: Equality

Sorry

Leave a reply

It has happened in Australia. “We are sorry” for the sufferings inflicted on the Aboriginee population. Ken Livingstone apologised for for slavery of African peoples on behalf of Londoners. Liverpool has set up a museum on behalf of the nation. A video of the Prime Minister’s address shows large numbers of people of all backgrounds inside and outside parliament looking deeply moved. (Source Guardian 14/2/2008).
Jesse Jackson visited Birmingham on his travels and very politely said it would be much appreciated from Birmingham, UK. Nothing happened so I issued an apology as a former councillor and cabinet member of Birmingham City Council. I challenged the present leaders to make a stand. The reaction? Adrian Goldberg raised it on “The Stirrer”. Since then the line has gone dead.

Continue reading →

City Hospital and Human Rights

Leave a reply

A claim is being made that the proposed plans for City Hospital in West Birmingham will put an ethically diverse area at a great disadvantage (the area is already high on many indices of deprivation).
I visited Handsworth Wood Ward Sub-Committee this week. Only two councillors were present while the turn out of residents was pitiful. There was a speaker from City Hospital speaking about the proposed new hospital in Grove Lane, Smethwick which is the next step in the merging of two hospitals, City and Sandwell. At present it seems that anyone from this part of Birmingham being taken by ambulance to hospital for emergency treatment will be ferried to Sandwell Hospital. This is highly inaccessible for Birmingham residents, greatly so if relatives and friends rely on public transport.
THe fact the the trust is called Sandwell and West Birmingham suggests which is the dominant partner, and as I pointed out before there have been no voices on the Trust from Birmingham Bill Thomas, Leader of Sandwell Council is a member. Bill and some of Sandwell’ MPs have close links with the New Labour leadership. including Gordon Brown.

Continue reading →

A 21 Drum Salute to Roi Kwabena

Leave a reply

A large gathering at The Drum in Birmingham tonight (2/2/2008) paid tribute to Roi Kwabena who died from cancer earlier this year. There were academics and entertainers who provided eloquent testimony to the contributions Roi had made to equality and justice.
Roi had a habit of sprinkling water on the ground at the start of his talks and performances. The African tradition of paying respects to ancestors took place at the start of the evening. Roi’s family were given a place of honour, including his mother and then a libation was made to remember Roi and others who paved the way for us benefiting or lives. A table was laid out as an alter and an elder performed the ceremony with the audience chanting “ashay” (be with us) after each name was said. The elder then took some of the water into his mouth and blew it into the air in every direction. Next he took white spirit “because it evaporates more quickly than water” invoking the spirits of those named. At this point all were asked to name someone they wished to be remembered. Family members and outstanding leaders were included. I mentioned Frantz Fanon. “Ashay” came the response.
A dancer then entered. Gracefully descending the steps she bowed before the alter and then acknowledged Roi’s family with blessings. Her dancing accompanied by the 21 drummers was an affecting experience. the mood ranged from calm, fluid, movement to twisting and turning becoming increasingly intense. Finally she picked up the scarf she had dropped earlier as if picking up a young child, holding it aloft as in a naming ceremony when presenting to the deity

Continue reading →

Single Status in Birmingham

Leave a reply

Very wet blustery weather gave way to sunshine as demonstrators – Birmingham City Council’s work force – gathered to protest about the huge cuts – many thousands of pounds that some are facing. Single Status, we thought, was to do with equality. Not so from the point of view of the Tory/Lib-Dem alliance that is now in charge. It’s a golden opportunity to restructure, and if you don’t like it you’ll make yourself redundant. Your jobs will go to those nice folk at Capita.
Between speakers Dave Rogers and a colleague from Banner Theatre gave rousing support. If Councillor Alan Rudge was somewhere in the city shopping he might hear. I’ve always thought of him as “Cllr Drudge” when I had to sit through long interminable speeches delivered in a monotone which no one understood anyway. Well this is what his policies and imagination look like in reality. The City Council coming out on strike to preserve not only jobs but half-decent services. Here he became known as “Cllr Grudge”, a Dickensian figure who while taking £45,000 himself without any assessment wanted to dock others and make them justify any future increment. Victoria Square and Council House had stood still in time, Victorian values intact.
Good to see the Labour opposition out in force in solidarity with Sir Albert Bore in the lead. He was the last speaker with a rallying cry to abandon the scheme. “There are so many anomalies that it can’t be sorted. Need to start again.” The assembled were pleased to hear this and hoped he would accompany them on the coach to London to persuade Gordon and New Labour to fund single status nation wide. (Birmingham, we are told, is being watched by other authorities. If they push through this travesty here then others will follow, cutting the costs of local government down and down).

Continue reading →

Dr Roi Kwabena

Leave a reply

I was deeply shocked to read of Roi’s death at 51 from cancer. He has been a friend for over 20 years. I first met Roi when I was chair of All Faiths For One Race (AFFOR) in Lozells in the mid eighties. Roi wanted help in publishing materials, one on African Caribbean history, which we did, and a more controversial one on recognising botanical species. I still have the document.
Although Roi had some recognition as Birmingham’s Poet Laureate it didn’t make him rich, and he found working for departments of the City Council hard work. Not an unfamiliar feeling.
Birmingham has a number of local celebrities – Vanley Burke, Pogus Caesar amongst them, who get grudging recognition here in Birmingham compared with elsewhere.
I think it was just last year that Roi gave an illustrated lecture at the Library Theatre. It did raise controversy with some material which I felt detracted from what he was about and knew from personal experience. He spent time in Nubia which in history was the precursor of Egypt (Kemet). When w elost track of him in Birmingham we found out hat he had been acting as a senator in Trinidad. One of the things Roi always did at the beginning of any sessions he led was to pour a libation (of water) onto the ground. He was deeply attached to his African roots and was able to get us to share that feeling.
Actually you did a lot for Birmingham and education in the City and it should be very grateful. Thank you Roi.

Continue reading →

Al Sharpton’s Year

1 Reply

The Washington Post (26.12.2007) outlines Rev Al Sharpton’s year of battle over Civil Rights issues. I was present when Sharpton visited Birmingham’s Afro-Caribbean Millenium Centre a couple of years back when he, like Jesse Jackson earlier this year, had a rallying call to the City’s an nation’s Black population.
Why necessary? Well see the article to see why in the U.S., but the Black population is at risk in the UK too. Mikey Powell’s case is well-publicised since he died while in the hands of the police in Birmingham, yet with no one taking responsibility and no clear reason why he died. A few weeks back the Kuumba Centre in Sandwell were dealing with a case in Ilford, Essex, where a young man with mental health issues had been reportedly beaten up by police. His mother had been roughly pushed out of the room when she complained, knocking her mobile phone to the floor. I don’t know if or where this incident has been reported. I don’t know how many other cases there are. I do know since the David (Rocky) Bennett report precious little progress has been made on dealing appropriately with need in the African Caribbean community in particular,
which has been high profile. Other groups at risk, such as young Asian women, or refugee groups who have witnessed atrocities in genocidal wars across the globe, don’t stand much chance getting health care. Prisons are full up, many it seems are from groups suffering poor mental health. A disproportion, as in the U.S. are from B.M.E. communities.

Continue reading →

Routine abuse of detainees

Leave a reply

As a Briton I have been brought up in a climate of indignation and outrage at stories of abuse by “foreign” regimes. Such stories have been legion in the media and countless books. The persistent stories of abuse and worse by people supposedly “on your own side” in consequence gives an initial reaction of disbelief. Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, an over-stuffed prison system and ejection of those already persecuted has dealt with that.
I call on my MP, Khalid Mahmood, to support an Early Day Motion to make significant changes to practices, procedures and approaches to people detained and open to abuse by all and sundry put in their charge. Many of these “guards” are part of the privatisation that New Labour indulges itself in.

Airline refuses to co-operate with enforced removals

Leave a reply

I find it heartening to find that an airline is refusing to play a part in enforcing removals of those who have probably endured endless catastrophe in their lives. Gordon Brown spent his time prior to his elevation going round the world proclaiming the need to help the poor. We had hoped for better following the abject record of his predecessor who is now now has a job of sorting out problems of the dispossessed in Palestine.
After Blackwater and Haliburton it is heartening to find a business which won’t put people before its corporate interests. While no one expects businesses to do this governments are supposed to look after their peoples. Burma, Israel and others with depressing records on human rights? Have no expectation of the UK either. Tax payers’ money goes into paying for privatisation, never cheap, and propping up now even the banks. But who came to the rescue of the savers who lost out when Farepak went to the wall?

Continue reading →

Racism is felt at a high level

Leave a reply

The Guardian (15.9.2007) reports on supermodels mounting a demonstration with the claim that racism has reached its highest point since the sixties.
There is a smugness in society that we have gone through a period of “multiculturism” (the acceptable term for the more radical antiracist movement) and have come out on top. If you’ve been on the receiving end of racism you may not see it that way.
Black people I’ve spoken to recently seem to have taken an air of resignation that discrimination is an inbuilt feature of existence. Just at a time we’re looking at 200 years since abolition, the result has been the view that that was then. Don’t blame the current generation for what happened a long time ago. If you consider the story about the supermodels it looks as if the consequences haven’t gone away at all.
My apology and challenge on behalf of Birmingham has fallen on deaf ears. Only the Stirrer took notice, but the responses were dominated by a very racist contributor called “headless chicken” I think.

Continue reading →

The Birmingham Carnival

Leave a reply

The sun shone and everyone was out to enjoy the Birmingham Carnival with its spectacular costumes, many designed by Professor Black who has worked on the event for many years now. We watched as the the floats and dancers passed by Chris Khamis and Brenda Addison’s house on Church Lane. There a stall had been set out to give prominence to the Palestinian struggle for freedom of oppression which carnival too represents,
This year the procession started in Handsworth Park instead of Holyhead Road which made the rout rather shorter than usual. Handsworth Park used to be the venue but after objections from the police the event moved to Perry Park.