The petition was started by Tamsin Lloyd-James, girlfriend of Nathan Bagley
A petition for tougher sentencing laws reached its one thousand signature goal. The petition was started by Tamsin Lloyd-James, girlfriend of Nathan Bagley, who was killed outside DQ nightclub on October 17th, 2010.
Mr.Bagley, 31, of Brincliffe Edge Road, died from a fractured skull after a single punch from Adam Stott, 27, of Agbrigg Road, Wakefield. The blow caused Mr.Bagley to fall backwards and to hit his head. He died hours later in hospital.
Mr.Stott pled guilty to manslaughter and on November 10th, was sentenced to four years in prison.
The petition aims raise awareness about the length of sentences that can imposed and whether these sentences are too lenient. Ms.Lloyd-James described for JUS News how she felt following sentencing:
Andrew Bagley, Nathan’s father, described the pain of losing his son and the last few moments that he and his wife were able to spend with Nathan.
The petition will now be put forward to Secretary of State for Justice, Kenneth Clarke, to look into the sentencing guidelines, specifically the reduction in sentence for a guilty plea.
Since the secret footage filmed by Animal Defenders International (ADI), revealed the brutal mistreatment of Anne the elephant at Bobby Roberts Super Circus in Peterborough, animal activists have led heated protests against the circus and the issue has been thrust back onto the newspaper pages.
circus elephant performing
In the same week, Thurnscoe saw the visit from Circus Mondao whose travelling shows include a variety of local and exotic species of animals. Kami Kountcheva, an animal behaviour scientist, gives her opinion on the use of animals in circus shows.
The circus has always been something fascinating. At the age of seven my parents read me Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking, a book about an extraordinarily strong little girl who lived alone in a house called Villa Villekulla with her monkey, Mr. Nilsson, and her horse. In one memorable chapter, Pippi went to the circus where she rode horses and elephants, walked a tightrope and matched strength with The Strong Adolph. The circus sounded magical and incredible to my youthful ears, I wanted to go there and see these amazing people, but especially these incredible, wild animals. Boy, were my dreams and innocent fascinations shattered when I found out the grim truth about what happens when the lights aren’t beaming, the smoke isn’t rolling and the music isn’t ringing.
Unnatural
The truth of the matter is that none of the animals asked to be performers, neither local nor exotic animals. They were thrust into that role and now, that is their existence: cages, music, travelling, noises, whips and smoke. These are all completely unnatural noises and environments for the animals which they are neither used to nor designed to live in. Many circuses incorporated animals like lions and tigers into their acts – two species which today considered vulnerable to extinction. But in addition to this elephants, horses, llamas, camels and many others can often be seen as well. Tigers, for example are very territorial animals and each male requires a vast area to live a healthy life. A cage just won’t do. The UK has become more stringent on the use of wild animals in circuses and today there is only one UK circus which does still use large cats. That’s all very well, but what about the other animals that are used?
Camels, llamas and zebras are also very often seen in circuses. One of the first things you ask about a camel is “Why does it have humps?” And the simple answer is to conserve water. The camel is built to live in hot, dry environments where water is scarce. Hundreds of years of evolution have made the camel as close to perfect to survive in heat as possible, and yet UK circuses are carting these animals up and down the UK, where the climate is considerably cooler, so that people might “ooh” and “ah”, while circus music booms around the tent.
I have no idea how the animals at Bobby Roberts Super Circus and Circus Mondao are treated. Maybe they are unusual in pampering their animals, although the evidence in the case of Bobby’s suggests not. What I can say is that all animals, from huge elephants to tiny ponies, that are plucked out of their natural environments involuntarily and thrust into these stressful living conditions will suffer, the question is how much?. These stresses can result in complete mental instability in animals, leading to extreme stress and misery. Symptoms can range from continuous pacing and hair and weight loss to more serious behavioural changes like making themselves sick.
Training
The performances, which they are made to do, also take a lot of time and effort to perfect. In television, it is popularly said that presenters never want to work with children or animals because of their unpredictable nature. So, circuses have had to overcome this by making absolutely sure that the animals perform to the ringmaster’s satisfaction – training. This is effectively breaking the spirit of these wild animals and leaving them broken and submissive. In the olden days, that was frequently done by beating, but today, many circuses claim to use “positive reinforcement” to train their animals, meaning praise when they behave appropriately, not punishment when they don’t. That is definitely a step in the right direction, but whether all circuses practise positive reinforcement is not certain.
The Animal Welfare Act of 2006 is set to protect the animals used in shows, and making sure their conditions are as good as they can be. But whether it is a good thing to train wild animals in the first place is still hugely controversial. Is it really a good thing to take an animal adapted to living in certain conditions and environments, and taming it and changing its behaviour? Evolution has spent hundreds of years perfecting the way these animals act so they survive in their environments. Changing their behaviour means not only that we are defying what these animals have evolved to do and where they have evolved to be, but it also means that they can never be released into the wild – they wouldn’t last a month.
Once the animal is sufficiently submissive, the ringmaster, usually draped in a red, sequined coat and capped off with a black top hat, cracks a whip and points a stick and the animal jumps through hoops, climbs on podiums and stands on two feet to regale and entertain the masses.
the bright lights of the circus
Cruelty
The story of the Anne the elephant seems to me to be a prime example of mistreating animals which live in the circus and angry animal activist groups, and a sea of newspaper readers who were alerted to the shocking and sickening punching, kicking and stabbing of the animal are already protesting on the Anne’s behalf. The circus called occurrences like these “isolated incidents” when Bobby Roberts was away for a period of time and stated that he was deeply saddened by the event.
This led to protesters boycotting Circus Mondao this Wednesday, when they set up camp at the Rotherham dog racing ring, and opened up the show for the weekend. This circus said that their animals are not caged or chained, but live in pens and stables. This is a much better way of treating their animals, even though Rotherham still isn’t quite the East Asian desert for the camels or the African Savannah for the zebras.
Exploitation
Conservationists throughout the country will agree that something which is often neglected by people is that animals aren’t a human commodity. Each animal has a right to exist happily and healthily without being “useful” to a human. Places like circuses view their animals like dressy, feathery, sequined performers, or worse, attractions, to make money and draw in a crowd. And sadly, the crowds start to see these animals in the same way.
For the people who read Pippi Longstocking as little boys and girls, and dreamed of the wondrous circus performances, I have to say, there is nothing wonderful or magical about the animals in the circus. Ringmasters claim that they live a happy, healthy life, but taking animals out of their natural environment, taming them and using them is not healthy in any way. But the magic doesn’t have to end, there are many circuses throughout the UK, and ones as famous as “le Cirque de Soleil”, don’t use animals, but the magic is about the trapeze acts, the contortionists, the acrobats and the tightrope walkers.
Think of the words ‘Sheffield’ and ‘metal’ and you automatically conjure images of industrial wastelands paved with broken glass, in the shadows of disused chimneys that used to spew the smoke of the city’s produce. Think again.
Imagine a metre long metal grasshopper lurking in the tropical undergrowth of the city’s Winter Gardens. Imagine 136 steel balls reflecting the early spring sunshine as it filters through the high glass ceilings. Now sit on them.
“It’s more comfortable than it looks. This year we’ve got high end, contemporary styling. I’d like one in my garden but it’s not big enough, and I couldn’t afford it!” says Festival Manager Sara Unwin as she admires the result of months of planning.
The bench she is sitting on is the centrepiece of the exhibition which showcases a selection of contemporary blacksmithing work by members of the British Artist Blacksmiths Association. It has been designed and made by local artist Darren Richardson and not only looks spectacular, the innovative design encourages interaction with the public and generates interest in the exhibition titled ‘Something for the garden’.
Galvanize festival is re-inventing the common misconception of Sheffield as a grim, industrial city in a month long celebration of contemporary metal design. Despite the decline of the traditional metal trade that gives Sheffield its title of Steel City, exhibitions and events throughout the city aim to raise awareness of cutting edge research in manufacturing and celebrate innovative art.
The festival celebrates the metal industry from the past to the present with work from artists and blacksmiths as well as paving the way for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the invention of stainless steel in 2013. Festival Manager Sara Unwin said that the festival is “about celebrating contemporary metal design but also innovation in the city.”
Mark Jenkins, 36, from Hillsborough illustrates the importance of the industrial heritage of the city. “It’s exciting to see things like Galvanize and although it’s on a smaller scale, the artisan, craft steelwork and sculpture that you get now. It would be great if things like Galvanize can help to keep steel making a part of Sheffield’s future.”
Project Co-ordinator and Silversmith Duncan Edwards said “We are throwing the spotlight on what’s happening in the city, be that an exhibition of silverware or an exhibition telling people more about the research side in the University. That’s the message: Sheffield and quality still go side by side.”
History
The steel industry was in steep decline in the 1970’s when a considerable amount of the metal industry died, reinforcing the image of Sheffield as a city plagued by industrial collapse and degeneration. However, Sheffield’s history and legacy were transformed in the 1980’s as the industry began to produce top quality products. Galvanize Festival’s Project Co-ordinator and Silversmith Duncan Edwards insists that the stereotypical, dirty image of the Steel City is no longer applicable. “Sheffield is famous but it has been in the background. It’s really beginning to re-emerge. We just need to tell everyone.” said Mr Edwards.
The festival’s funding partner Sheffield City Council are keen to promote a positive view of the city and said, “Sheffield is a city synonymous with the metal trades, famed for its production of fine cutlery and heavy engineering that shaped the world – a city of endeavour, creativity and craftsmanship.”
Behind the scenes
From guided tours of a scissor maker’s factory to experiencing the skill of craftspeople producing silverware and cutlery, the festival offers the general public a first hand chance to see expert craftsmen at work. Sara Unwin said “It’s a really popular side of the festival; people want to see behind the scenes. They want to talk to artists about their techniques and how they do what they do. They want to go into factories and see the traditional skills that Sheffield has got and is still using.”
Cutting edge research
The festival is working with Sheffield University’s Engineering Department who are leaders in global research into Super Alloys. The Crucible Theatre is showcasing some of their work in an exhibition titled ‘Hidden Jewels of Sheffield’ and includes work using titanium and cobalt alloys as well as advanced techniques such as electronic beam deposition. Duncan Edwards said “The University works with companies all over the world, from aircraft manufacturers to formula one manufacturers.”
Galvanize Festival is not only bringing innovative art and cutting edge research to the city, it is celebrating Sheffield’s past and present contribution to the metal industry in a way that shatters the stereotype of the city’s industrial decline.
Many people in the UK misunderstand what it means to be an asylum seeker.
An asylum seeker is someone seeking protection after fleeing their own country to escape persecution: to be granted asylum, an asylum seeker must prove there is a real risk of torture, inhuman treatment or severe punishment if they return to their home country.
If the government feels an application isn’t genuine, they will refuse asylum, however in 2003, research by a group of MPs found that over half of those refused were genuine. This number is increasing due to a lack of adequate legal help available for those seeking asylum.
Refused asylum seekers are not allowed to work, or register themselves as homeless, and they are denied places in local authority night shelters. With no legal way of supporting themselves, many become destitute – without food, accommodation or clothing. There are an estimated 1000 destitute asylum seekers in and around Sheffield.
Do they get benefits?
Asylum seekers don’t get large handouts from the state: despite wanting to work to support themselves, they are not allowed. Instead, many do voluntary work while their application is being processed. They aren’t eligible for income support, and instead receive only state support, which is 30% less.
Asylum seekers are not given priority council housing, and they cannot choose where they live. In fact, their accommodation is not paid for by the local council, and they are usually forced to live in ‘hard to let’ properties – houses no-one else wants to live in.
How easy is it to get asylum in the UK?
The UK’s asylum system is tough – since 2005, many people recognised as refugees are only allowed to stay in the UK for five years. Immigration officers have the power to detain asylum seekers – even if they have not committed a crime – and around 2000 children are detained with their families each year.
In 2008, there were only 25,760 asylum applications to the UK – five years ago, the number was almost double this.
Whilst many people think that Britain is home to a lot of asylum seekers, the majority live in developing countries in Africa and Asia: in total, the UK is home to less than 2% of the world’s refugees.
ASSIST is a Sheffield based charity helping destitute asylum seekers – yesterday we caught up with the volunteers at a Ceilidh fundraiser held in the Broomhall Community Centre.
In a community hall in the heart of Sheffield, Moses Lutakome is asking people “Have you signed my petition?” He will ask this question around a hundred times tonight – not an easy task when you’re weaving in and out of Ceilidh dancers who are already in full swing.
Tonight’s Ceilidh is a fundraiser organised by the Sheffield based charity Assist, an organisation which works with destitute asylum seekers. It’s difficult to think of a time when I’ve seen so many people of different ages and nationalities come together and dance, but everyone makes sure they take time to sign the petition. Originally from Uganda, Moses now lives in Sheffield with his partner and two children, and is facing deportation back to Uganda after his asylum case was refused. Everyone wants to sign the petition and a new page is needed every 15 minutes as lists of names are rapidly compiling, but only a week ago Moses wasn’t sure he even wanted to start a petition. “I saw comments on the internet calling asylum seekers things like scroungers and parasites, and I thought ‘Is that how people really see me?’ It was so negative that I didn’t even want to put my petition out, because what was the point? There is a lot of negative publicity about asylum seekers, but my partner said, ‘Moses that is why we have places like Assist, to help and inform people’. I came back from that and I said I have to be strong and actually, everyone has been really positive about signing it.”
Meeting Moses, the words scrounger and parasite couldn’t be further from the truth. Forbidden by the British government to work for a living, Moses spends all of his free time volunteering at charities such as Assist, the Northern Refugee Centre and Voluntary Action Sheffield. “By doing volunteer work you occupy your mind. What I’ve learned to appreciate is that despite all the worrying realities, there are things we can do to keep us positive and strong,” explained Moses. “When I work with Assist I see these people who are even worse off than me. Sat at home I thought it was only me going through hard times but going out and seeing these destitute asylum seekers sleeping in night shelters and other people having to support them I realise I am not the worst off, and actually there’s hope – maybe something can change. You feel happy by making someone happy and changing their life – providing a service which people appreciate is very satisfying psychologically. It helps me to go on.”
Success Stories
Whilst the outcome of Moses’ case for asylum is still unsure, there are many cases where Assist has helped to secure other asylum seekers the right to remain in the UK. Robert Spooner, an Assist volunteer, shares one woman’s story: “There was a lady from Zimbabwe. She had suffered being raped and attacked at the hands of government forces, who had also killed her husband. It was too dangerous to remain in Zimbabwe so she fled to England. She had no money and was living rough on the streets, where she was raped again. Eventually she managed to find work as a care worker, and her two daughters flew from Zimbabwe to England, but the government realised she had not gone through the correct legal process to gain the right to work in Britain, and was in fact working illegally.” After being detained and imprisoned for six months, the woman approached Assist for help with her case, and they were able to provide legal help. “It took many months and was a harrowingly tough time for this woman and her family, but eventually they were told they had permission to stay in Sheffield and their asylum case was granted,” Robert recalls. “Now, the eldest daughter is studying law at university, and her sister is hoping to also start university in September to study medicine. It’s truly amazing how this woman’s situation turned around and she was able to provide a life of security for her children.”
Volunteering in Sheffield
Whilst there are many more stories with successful outcomes, Assist still need all the help they can get to ensure they can carry on doing their work, and provide help for more people. “I encourage everyone out there to do some volunteering. Students give us one or 2 hours, and it really helps,” Moses commented. At a time when unemployment is the highest it’s been since 1994, now is the perfect time to get involved in an organisation within your local community. “There are people out there with no job and they’re going through really difficult times. Volunteer work is something positive for them to do,” explained Moses. “You sit at home and you feel depressed if you have nothing to do, but you can go to an organisation near your home, it doesn’t have to be Assist. You can make a difference. You can contribute. It’s an experience that you can present if you are looking for a job – you can put it on your cv and show people what you’ve been doing.” Parasite? This is one man who is definitely not “scrounging” off society, but devoting his time to giving back to those in need.
For more information and the facts about asylum seekers in Britain, click here.
Record Collector, one of the last independent record shops left in Sheffield is closed. It’s not Sunday, it’s Monday afternoon and the streets are bustling outside. One-man even stops to eye up vinyl in the window, a tease as the dull grey of the closed shutters affirms he won’t be buying anything here today.
HMV announced the closure of 60 of its stores in January
The manager it seems is ill. So the whole shop is closed? Ahhh, so this is why no one buys records, all the shops are closed, got it panic over, there’s no crisis for independent shops, they just don’t open on time apparently. Like Black Books or High Fidelity we all like to imagine the independent shopkeeper living life by his rules, down with the man and all that, I’m going to open a record shop, sorry mum.
Asking at the CD shop joined next door, the reason the shop is closed is due to sales, at best Record Collector opens for a couple of hours a day. ‘There’s not that many people desperate for it’ says shop assistant Richard Loughridge. We walk back outside and peer through the murky window ‘analogue guys in a digital world’ I tweet, somewhat ironically outside the closed store.
The decline of physical sales in music industry is an oft-discussed topic. Everyone has an opinion; from Lily Allen to David Cameron celebs have never been afraid to chime in with their two cents. There is however no clear solution, no medicine to subscribe to an ailing industry.
Last year the closure of infamous independent record shop ‘Jacks Records’ came as a cultural blow to Sheffield. Since 1990 the famously angsty trader had taken shop on division street providing the city with one of few independent music outlets. Now trading only online, the small store may be ahead of the curve in predicting sales trends. In the last 20 years the number of independent record shops has fallen from over 2,000 to 269, comparatively, online retailers are booming.
Record Collector in Broomhill is one of the last independent record shops in Sheffield. Next door in the CD section of Record Collector Richard recognises there is a change in social trends that is out of retailers hands and offering the public new ways to get hold of music, ‘With the rise of Amazon and play.com it is easier to get them (records) delivered to your door than go to your local record shop, people are used to getting things from the internet rather than going to a record shop and browsing through…high street shops like us will continue declining. Hundreds are closing every year but it will just shift onto the Internet.’
Although illegal downloads are twisting the sword into the already bloody arm of the industry it is amiss to blame the decline solely on pirating. Legitimate digital sales counted for 30% of Global music revenue last year, and sales have doubled in the last four years. 161.8 million digital singles were sold in 2008 alone where as physical copies of singles only make up 1% of the music market. Surely no surprises then when Mercury announced it would stop selling singles both on CD and vinyl, although the silver lining being fewer U2 releases every year.
Music sales are still healthy just in digital forms, I-tunes, Amazon and Spotify now take a cut of the cash, and unfortunately this is where your friendly neighbourhood record shop misses out. Even diehard vinyl junkies who want to purchase a physical copy are lured online, while small shops like Record collector boast 20,000 copies, Internet giant Amazon stocks over 250,000. Sheffield DJ, Don Limon, believes that ‘Vinyl wont die…I’m not sure about the stores, honestly the majority of records I own were purchased online, the stores just don’t cut it’, something Richard agrees with, ‘I’d say there is a future in vinyl because there are plenty of people buying the stuff’.
As Richard said this on a sunny Monday afternoon, Record Collector was closed, only the CD shop attached next door was open to accommodate a couple of customers. As the demand for record shops dwindle so does the need to keep them open, Saturday is the only day committed for full opening hours, ‘as far as shops go its highly possible CD shops will go too’ he concedes.
I would be paid a lot of money if I could come up with a solution in this column, and if I could I probably wouldn’t share it with you, I’d start my own shop, Branson style. There are no answers to this problem, long has the industry ignored the signs and long have they waived on action, suing Napster with Lars Ulrich the mini Danish drummer is hardly an effective response, and now even the big brands HMV, FOP and Virgin have paid the price. HMV announced the closure of 60 of its stores in January. Instead of discouraging piracy, record labels and shops need to encourage sales and provide incentives to buy. Record Store Day (RSD) is one such incentive.
An event still in its infancy, starting in 2007 the mission of RSD is a simple one. An international annual event for one day only, RSD creates so much hype around record releases that people flood to the stores. Limited edition Vinyl is released at selected independent record shops from the world biggest and most successful artists. Within one hour of shops opening last year a rare Blur 7-inch single was sold on ebay for £250. By limited edition we’re talking about as rare as a horny panda (or an honest Lib Dem).
This years RSD falls on April 16th, it’s the one-day a year to relieve your guilt from downloading anything and everything you want to hear. The only participating store in Sheffield is Record Collector, although the day may be akin to applying a plaster if your legs have fallen off it will help small independent shops keep the Amazon and Spotify at bay for a little longer. Never will you see your record shop so busy, and its fun, after all what’s playing in your local download store?
On April 6th this year, British fathers will get one step closer to parenting equality, with new regulations providing Dads with the option to take up to six months paternity leave from their partners entitlement.
While this might seem to be a milestone for UK parents, statistics from price comparison website uSwitch show that 41% of men wouldn’t take advantage of the law, citing financial and career worries as major drawbacks to the scheme. Here we talk to three Yorkshire dads about their own experiences; Continue reading →
In the wake of the Health Protection Agency revealing a rise in HIV diagnosis rates, Sheffield-based charity worker Zoe Davies says it’s not only gay men and black Africans who need to worry about safer sex.
Mary is 38 and lives in Rotherham. She got married at eighteen, had kids and made a home for herself. But when things went wrong with her husband, she decided it was time to move on. Now she’s divorced and looking for someone new.
Eyes opened to new possibilities, she’s already met a bloke she likes. She’s not promiscuous, and she isn’t worried about pregnancy: she’s had her kids and she’s on the pill. So as she gets closer to her new partner she never thinks about using a condom.
But without knowing it, Mary has become part of a new high-risk group for contracting HIV.
Last week, Health Protection Agency (HPA) figures revealed that the number of people diagnosed with HIV since 2001 has doubled. Zoe Davies (29) wasn’t surprised by the news. As Strategic Director of Sheffield-based HIV charity Shield, she is responsible for helping more than 200 people living with or affected by the condition in South Yorkshire. And not all of them are from the backgrounds you might expect.
Zoe Davies, Strategic Director of HIV charity Shield.
“We get more people registering every week,” she tells me, as we chat in Shield’s smart city-centre building, a space which doubles as a meeting-place for her clients. “There is a presumption that it’s only because of asylum and immigration, but it’s not.”
She points out that while the media often focus on the risks to black Africans or gay men, this is often at the expense of raising awareness of the dangers of HIV in other communities.
Older women at risk
One group she’s particularly concerned about is older white women who have already had children, become divorced and stopped using condoms as their main method of contraception. ‘Mary’ may not be real, but women like her are. And with media attention focused on other groups, they could easily become complacent to the risk of HIV.
“Our eldest client is a 70 year-old white British woman who became positive five years ago,” Zoe points out. Later she tells me that STI’s are on the increase in care homes, citing Viagra as the cause.
Zoe explains that the groups we tend to associate with HIV “come into contact with health agencies more and are offered HIV tests.” Both she and the HPA note that higher testing rates may well contribute to the higher rates of diagnosis seen in gay men, for example. But for other communities the disease can often remain hidden.
“It is a big problem within the gay men community and it is a problem within the black African community. However, it is also within all the heterosexual community, but they don’t always find out. “
Zoe’s not shy about how frustrating it is to face an apparently one-sided media picture, as director of a charity that works to spread awareness of HIV in South Yorkshire. “A fifteen year old British boy in Maltby, which is a small mining town in Rotherham, ain’t gonna be bothered if all you do is mention black Africans.”
“There’s all this talk about whether we need another national campaign, which I think we do, which needs to hit everybody because if you’re having unprotected sex, everybody’s at risk.”
However, she suggests that even well-known initiatives like World AIDS Day aren’t always as useful as they could be. “They try and get the publicity round that. But if you noticed it doesn’t feature in the papers that much. There’ll be a little column somewhere about Africa, but that’s it. And usually it’s scaring people and it’s all about black Africans and gay men.”
That’s why her charity aims to put people in touch with HIV positive locals, to give them a direct reminder that the disease isn’t a distant fairy tale, but something which could easily affect them.
“The best way to make awareness is for somebody with a local accent, someone from Sheffield, stood there saying ‘it can happen to you, it happened to me.’ Not somebody from London, not somebody from America.”
The gay community
Still, it’s important to point out that gay and bisexual men (the unflatteringly labelled ‘Men Who Have Sex with Men’ or ‘MSM’) have shown a particularly steep increase in their diagnosis rate, according to the HPA. Zoe admits there are specific problems for this group, too.
“The new population of MSM weren’t around in the 80’s, this is the whole thing. We’ve had one young man say to our worker ‘oh, I don’t need to worry about that, I don’t sleep with older gay men.’ Now if they’re saying that they’ve got this presumption that as long as they don’t sleep with people forty years old and plus they’re fine. Well it’s stupidity, but somehow they now believe that.”
As a group, gay men can also be hard to find and offer help to, especially in places like Rotherham where, Zoe suggests, just admitting to sleeping with a man could be problematic.
Whatever your race or sexuality, most of us are aware of the advice on how to stay safe: wear a condom (sentiments echoed by the HPA). Zoe realises that this is sometimes more easily said than done, but she has little time for people who don’t take the message seriously: “If you can’t talk about sex, why are you doing it?” she demands. “It’s an intimate act, and if you can’t say ‘don’t you think we should wear a condom?’, why are you sleeping with them? Why are you doing such an intimate thing with them?”
“The only person that’s going to look after you is you. And you don’t know who they’ve slept with.”
Problems with funding
Given everything she’s said – and the HPA’s figures and recommendations – what Zoe has to tell me about Shield’s funding comes as a jolt, though perhaps not a surprise.
“If you’re a UK HIV charity there’s no point public fund-raising, because no one will give to you,” she says flatly. “We do a little bit. We have tins in Poundland and things like that. We’re always actually amazed that people put stuff in because it is quite difficult sometimes. I know there was a case a few years ago… where we had a stall [and] somebody put money in, realised who we were and took it back out.
“Not everybody’s like that. But we’ve had clients [who’ve had] dead animals put on their doorstep and [been] hounded out. So I don’t particularly, as an agency, spend too much time public fund-raising.”
Instead, Shield’s work is founded on money from local councils and the NHS, among other sources. But even this has become scarcer recently.
“The AIDS Support Grant was set up years ago, which was given to councils, which was a specific grant to be ring-fenced and spent on HIV,” Zoe says. “That’s gone now. So we don’t have that designated amount of money.”
As a charity, raising money is also the focus of Shield’s future. But Zoe adds, somewhat pessimistically, that the future is never certain. “I don’t want to create dependency on the support team, because we could go at any point. Charities can come and go.”
Instead she wants to concentrate on providing clients with the skills to live fulfilling lives and “to make sure that we support people by creating independent nature. That they go back to work, that they get the skills, that they take control of their lives. Because HIV diagnosis can take away anyone’s control.”
“I’d also like to expand into training sessions for companies, because they’re going to have an obligation regarding the Disabilities Discrimination Act, to make sure that they can accommodate HIV” she adds.
“That would be a good way to generate money, because I’m not relying on funding contracts, we can charge them. And hopefully make somebody’s life a bit easier if they work there.”
Zoe Davies talks to us about the new generation of people who are at risk of becoming HIV positive.
For Suzie*, a 31 year-old marketing consultant from Leeds, HIV was something that just didn’t happen to women like her. Here, she tells her story.
"I was like an ostrich with my head in the sand..."
I was like an ostrich with my head in the sand to the entire subject before it sort of reared its head, and came along and bit us, and it was just something that was never going to happen to me – not something that happened to white heterosexual working class women in their twenties or thirties like me.
“it was just something that was never going to happen to white heterosexual women like me”
Obviously when my partner got infected there was the initial shock, and then the worry and then the learning. He told me that he had HIV, and then I sort of took it upon myself to tell his parents because he was still in such a bad way, and got myself tested the following day, and they rushed my test results through. I actually met really helpful staff and came across people who were really supportive
20, 55 and 200. This is the death toll in the Syrian district of Dar’a, depending on whom you speak to, the Syrian government, Amnesty International or Eyewitnesses – respectively.
The carnage is a result of attempts by the Syrian army to quash the unprecedented nationwide outbreak of protests and dissent with the aim of changing the regime.
But whatever the figure is, the murder and unrest leaves Sheffield Student, Haidar Mousawi* both worried and resolute on wanting change.
Mousawi, 22, a Syrian medical student at the University of Sheffield said: “People in Sheffield are worried about their families in Syria, but most of us prefer that they demonstrate and not worry about personal security.”
Mousawi explains that the demonstrations are for the purpose of bringing democracy, and an end to the Emergency Law and allowing a multi-party system.
If those changes are met, this would mean an end to Ba’thist monopoly of power for almost five decades.
Revolution
The Ba’athist party initially came into power through their own revolution in 1963.
When the Ba’ath party came into power, they immediately imposed an emergency law (martial law). This law stripped the Syrian people of many constitutional human rights and gave the government and it’s security apparatuses the power to arrest and detain anyone, under the guise of terrorism and national security.
In the majority of cases, those arrested are not given access to a lawyer, or are given a lawyer employed by the government. Those arrested under the emergency law are trialed in a military court with no jury, in what can be classed as an “open and shut case” with no chance of a fair trial, or re-trial.
Many people have suffered under this law, and it is a big source of fear within Syria, as anyone who dared to speak out against the president or government will immediately be arrested under the emergency law.
Throughout Hafez Al-Assad’s tenure, the promotion of secularism was widespread, as was a crackdown on religious groups, especially the Muslim Brotherhood.
Massacres
The regime is known to have committed many massacres against their own people. The most famous massacres are the Tadmur Prison massacre in July 1980 when Rifaat Assad (then vice-president and Hafez brother) ordered the army to enter the prison and kill Islamist prisoners. More than 1000 people were executed. The names and bodies were never released, and a database of the dead was compiled in later years from testimonies of other prisoners.
In Feb 1980, Hama, a focal point in the fight against the Muslim Brotherhood was attacked by the army and bombed for 4 continuous weeks in a massacre that claimed the lives of more than 25,000 people. Some estimates claim there were closer to 40,000.
For this reason, Mousawi argues that “people are worried in case the revolution dies out as it did in the 80s where those who dared to revolt against the government were dealt with heavy-handedly.
“People fear the lashback from the government if the revolution does not succeed.”
Solidarity
In so far as solidarity with the people of Syria, Mousawi himself did not attend a protest called for in Sheffield last week out of fear of informants embedded amongst the Syrian and Arab community, even in the UK.
“The only people who are open about the issue and speak out are those who are already in political exile and have no hope to return to Syria – these tend to be linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. A lot of Syrians have been talking about the situation in secret nonetheless.”
Mousawi speaks pessimistically about the changes to be achieved, which he believes will be shallow. The emergency law is one such example; he believes that if it was to be called off, it will be replaced with anti-terror law which has the exact same effect.
Ultimately, Mousawi remains concerned about his family in Aleppo where – in an attempt to instate a media blackout – phone lines are only on for four hours a day.
___________________________
*Mousawi: This is not the real name of the interview who had to change his name for security and safety purposes.
