condition critical

Mishoka's Story - Condition Critical from duckrabbit on Vimeo.

Talented multimedia producers and all round good eggs duckrabbit have been doing some work lately for Condition Critical, a campaign being run by Medicins Sans Frontiers to highlight the brutal conflict going on in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It's officially the world's deadliest conflict since the second world war and yet few people have even heard of it. If DRC had oil fields or Islamic terrorists the story would be very different.
But as remote as a war in the deepest depths of central Africa may seem to us here in drizzly, damp Britain as the Christmas retail frenzy just gets going, it does actually have an impact.

Where I live in inner city Manchester, you can't get on a bus at the moment without hearing conversations in French African - a good chunk of speakers being recent refugees from DRC. As a journalist I've covered a number stories involving members of the campaign group Congo Support Project. And through my time spent with Sofia, a destitute asylum seeker who has become a friend, and even before then, I have met numerous Congolese asylum seekers and refugees - some of whom are also destitute, in constant fear of being deported and scraping by on charity handouts. As long as the conflict continues in their homeland, desperate Congolese people are going to keep turning up here - and being condemned to the miserable existence of an asylum seeker.

Anyway, duckrabbit have put together four very powerful, and very sensitive multimedia pieces that simply tell the stories of ordinary people caught up in a terrible situation. This is what Benjamin says about the project:

"According to the IRC at least at least 5m Congolese have died in more than a decade of conflict kicked off by the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda. Most of the deaths are linked to a lack of medical facilities as the ability to access medical care has crumbled. The four videos on the condition critical websites bear witness to the pain and trauma of those caught up in the conflict, but also their dignity and ability to move on and make a life for themselves.

"Told only in their own voices all the website asks you to do is send a message of support. At first that might sound a bit daft. I mean why send a message of support to people I know nothing of? Surely what they need is cash right? Well first off if you watch the videos you can find out about their lives, you can find out they're not that much different to you and me just that they've been caught up in an unforgiving conflict. Secondly messages of support do make a difference. I know this because last year I worked in camps in Kenya and the thing that people were most frightened of was being forgotten, the sense that no-one cares. That's what leads to depression and despair. Worse than that when no-one cares people can do what they like to you, with impunity.

"So the fact that MSF will take these messages and share them in the camp will make a difference. It will also give a huge moral boost to the MSF staff working in Eastern Congo.

"I'm not being paid to write this, I just think its important. I also think by doing something you're supporting NGO's to take a more journalistic approach to their work, rather then just asking for your cash."

To see all four videos and learn more about the campaign, visit the Condition Critical website. To get involved, leave a message on the website and spread the word about the project - through twitter, facebook, blogs or email.
We need more of this from charities. We should be moving away from the transparent spin and manipulated stories, and getting more of this - powerful, honest journalism that educates, shocks and pushes people into action. This is the kind of thing I'd like to do when I grow up.

taking control

If this blog is starting to read like a broken record, then sorry. Much of what I'm doing at the moment centres on housing regeneration so I'm a bit stuck for other things to write about. I'm pleased to report though that my attempt to visit, photograph and interview as many people as I can who have experienced disruption of some kind as a result of government-funded regeneration - and in many cases have fought either to save their homes or for a fairer deal - is going quite well, with 12 done and counting.

Today I was in Leeds, tomorrow I'm in the North East. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum and fulfill my aim, which is really just to spend the remainder of this year recording the impact large-scale housing renewal is having on some people's lives. I'm not claiming to be objective or scientific, but hopefully some will appreciate its value as a document. I can confidently predict that those working for regeneration bodies will not. I'll share some of the pieces shortly.....my website will soon be revamped and my blog will be moving, so all in good time.

One thing I can't help wondering when I visit these urban wastelands - many of which have been largely tinned-up for five years plus now - is what the future holds. These Housing Market Renewal or HMR-inspired projects rely on large chunks of taxpayers' money, as well as PFI involvement from volume housebuilders. Neither central government nor the building industry are exactly cash-rich at this point in the recession. Not to mention the fact that houses just aren't selling at the rate they were when Pathfinder was conceived. With people unable to get mortgages it begs the question, who are we building for .



Two things seem to be happening, from what I can tell. In some areas houses are just standing derelict and presumably will continue to do so until market conditions improve. In other areas vacant homes are being demolished and land banks created for future development...by developers known or unknown. Meanwhile, thousands of people are stuck on housing waiting lists in towns and cities across the country. It just doesn't make sense.

With developers left, right and centre putting projects on ice until market conditions get better - and a likely change of government around the corner - it makes me wonder what is going to come over the next year. These are not areas with potential Tory voters, and given the huge spending cuts on the horizon, surely it's unlikely HMR will continue in its present form if (when?) David Cameron wins the next election. What will that mean for Anfield, Oldham, Salford and the like? I can't quite see how this is going to have a tidy ending....perhaps we are seeing, for all the good intentions of some of the regenerators, a return to the dereliction and social blight that marred many of these neighbourhoods during the 70s and 80s.

Those left behind in these areas aren't always happy to put up with the rot. The residents of the Granby Triangle, in Liverpool's Toxteth neighbourhood, are a case in point. They have joined forces to - as they put it - "take control of" their environment. The streets are a mess, with the frontages of some of the vacant houses having collapsed onto the pavement. But local people, sick of looking at horrible tinned up properties all the time, have painted the metal grilles that cover their windows and doors and planted colourful flowers and tubs full of vegetables in front of the voids. From the shit they have to face every day they have found an amazing community spirit. I wish them the best as it's no doubt going to be many more years before something actually happens.

Born free

As anyone who looks at this blog may know, I've spent some time over the past few months getting to know Sofia, an African lady whose asylum claim was turned down by the Home Office earlier this year. She is currently destitute and survives with the support of charities in Manchester.
I've put together a short piece about her life, which I've now had the go-ahead to show to people and which can be seen by clicking on the picture above.
I'm not quite sure what I'll end up doing with it...asylum is not a subject that the media likes to touch, unless it's to bash asylum seekers. But I would like to find a way to get it 'out there' and seen by people.
It's just one story, obviously, and not necessarily representative of other people's experiences. But I'd like to find a way to expand this into a larger project on asylum and destitution...

murphy's porridge

I'm having computer problems at the moment and am only able to access the internet from my phone. I'm having to take my computer in for a check-up later this week and typically, it has come at a time when I could really do without it. Murphy's Law, my mother would say. Annoying but worse things happen.

Over the coming weeks though I should - all being well - be launching a new, more up-to-date website and blog and putting together pieces on subjects as diverse as gypsies and travellers, fishing and porridge...

Yes, porridge.  

end of the road - Derker

I paid a visit to Derker the other day...an area of Oldham that is undergoing a controversial regeneration process funded by central government.
I last visited the community over two years ago, not long after a public inquiry that was triggered by objections to the council's plans to bulldoze almost 500 homes. Inevitably, the locals lost and the compulsory purchase order (CPO) was granted - clearing the way for demolition. [Actually, I can't actually think of any community that has won at public inquiry under this particular regeneration scheme, which will see the clearance of anything between 100,000 and 400,000 mainly Victorian terraces across the North of England. Hardly surprising considering the authorities have access to the finest solicitors and barristers, whereas homeowners are left to represent themselves, unless someone happens to qualify for Legal Aid].
ANYWAY...some Derker residents challenged the CPO in the high court on various grounds where they believed mistakes had been made. To cut a long story short, they reached the end of the road on Thursday when their case was rejected. They must now start looking for places to move to, but many - especially those who have paid off their mortgages and are now retired and on a fixed income - complain that low compensation payments will put them back in debt, or into social housing. This is a common complaint: why can't we get a house for a house.

Over the past few weeks I've visited eight different communities affected by this kind of regeneration/demolition scheme for a portrait project I aim to have finished by the end of the year. So far they've all been in Liverpool, Manchester/Salford and Oldham but I'm now going to start branching out.
Over the next weeks I'll be travelling to Yorkshire, the east coast and up to the North East to try and move this forward. The intention is to put human faces on some of these stories and to record their own words, as an alternative way of telling the impact of regeneration on people's lives.
There is a problem here though and it's one I'm well aware of. There are winners and losers in every regeneration process, and even within one community there are a variety of viewpoints and experiences. Inevitably, it's the people who aren't happy with the process who I am most aware of - they are the people whose campaigns I've covered or been told about over the past few years. The question of how to go about this in a balanced way and without focusing only on the negative is something that is bothering me...because there are indeed many people who are pleased with how it's worked out for them.
Going to regeneration company press offices for something that is at this moment a personal project - although I'm sure I'll manage to get spin-off stories published - is potentially a problem. I'm not at all sure how to get around this one.