Easter Rising

For any Government to call itself Democratic it must be prepared to

• Subject itself to scrutiny
• Hold itself to account
• Engage with its population, whether they are ‘Citizens’ or not  

​Organisations learn when their members have the time to share their learning.  Time though is not a trivial resource, and policy remains unimplemented without it.*
Furthermore, however much time is available, fear inhibits learning (see esp. page 16) and so, at this juncture, let’s remember and reflect on Marie Curie’s words: 

“Nothing in life is to be feared,  it is only to be understood.   Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”   Maybe Marie can help us to work out how we can minimise fear and maximise #healthandsafetyforall.

The ‘hostile environment’* was up and running  long before ‘COVID19’ developed.   And the Institutionalised Racism upon which the Hostile Environment rests was identified half a century ago. 

Yesterday, the New York Times carried a quote about this very issue from Professor Aneez Esmail.  He is the leader of our campaign for the Registration of Medical Professionals in the UK and you can read Professor Esmail’s comment, following the publication of  that NY Times article, here.

Hostility breeds fear: that’s exactly what it is intended to do.  How much fear is out there? And how quickly can the people and organisations who reject both institutionalised racism and the hostile environment learn? 

People who are Destitute + Documented + in the UK = DDUK = People…
who are denied the right to work legally and who the Government knows are in the UK, somewhere.  The Government knows they are in the UK somewhere because they are either:

• communicating with the Home Office and the Courts through their lawyers about asylum or human rights issues, visas, work permits etc.  

and/or

• in contact with specific Charities who feed and shelter them and share data with the Home Office about who and where they are.

Are You Destitute and Documented in the UK (DDUK)?
OR
Are you Destitute and Undocumented in the UK (DUUK)?
People who are Destitute + Undocumented + in UK = DUUK = British People and Anyone Else…
who has no address, which means that the Government does not know exactly where they are right now, there is no  lawyer currently on their case, and/or they don't have paper 'proofs' about who they are, like birth certificates or household bills.  If they are not British they have also been denied the right to work legally.  All of them have fallen through the cracks of either:

• the statutory and legal systems supposed to access them State support
• the statutory and legal systems that exist to
  • stop human trafficking or slave labour
  • process applications for refuge from political persecution
  • process work permits and visas

Currently, RAPAR’s Destitution Lead, Vitalis Mbah from Cameroon, is living with people in their house.  He is denied the right to work legally.  His shelter was found through our partnership work with Positive Action in Housing.  He is waiting for his lawyer to process more paperwork with the Home Office, he is DDUK.   Today, Vitalis sent this photo and writes: ​

​“With Covid19 our situation has worsened.  Some cases have been suspended altogether, and people cannot meet their lawyers to discuss issues relating to their cases. They are hoping for their cases to be treated and to be given the freedom they deserve but they are not getting this. They live with friends who are sharing their shelter with them or through charitable hosts set up to help destitute people.  Essentially, they are living with people who were strangers to them before they became destitute and who have offered them places to stay.
Very few people seeking asylum have phones and the few who do are unable to top up their phones so it is even more difficult for them to connect with their support networks. Some have laptops but cannot gain access to wifi.  This has greatly slowed down the support and advocacy activities the people had developed within our communities. It is a trying moment for most of us because we have no way of getting any money to buy top ups or wifi connection. Practically all the organisations that used to support us with bus fees to travel to get their food, or join in on their events, have now been closed down and, in fact, accessing food has become a very big problem. 
Many of the charitable organisations that people knew, that used to provide food or help us with food banks weekly, they are closed.  Worst of all is the fact that some people are on the verge of being thrown out of their homes and it will be even more difficult for them to survive on the street.”  

On Easter Sunday, RAPAR member Mary, Destitute and Undocumented in the UK, DUUK, sent this photo and writing:

---

Just i*
“RAPAR gave me good encouragement the other day, by saying to stay strong because the next day one of the lady that I work with she text me to come as she was missing seeing somebody. Then I call her she was crying as she was having some problem and I remember RAPAR said to be strong. So I had to be strong for other people and she was happy when she saw me she gave me food and some money. I keep remembering what you said. We have to be strong for each other. Some days I feel a bit low but I keep remembering what you said to me.  Before this, I worked in a shop in xxx.  Then I did caring and now I am working in family homes. I wasn't interested in working in people's home but out of it good came. I met good people who understand my situation and are helping me.” 

For almost 20 years, since it first began to systematically evict people failed by the migration system into destitution the British State has stoked a fire. But, thankfully, no human being is an island,  including the human beings who live in countries that also happen to be islands.  A ‘fog of war’*** surrounds us ALL. With each other’s help, can we clear our vision sufficiently to enable ourselves and each other to think out loud, reach rational decisions together and act accordingly?  

At this juncture, the only actions that are any use are those based in truthful information: concrete and real, coming from comprehensive, accurate, valid and reliable information sources that are as near to ‘objective’ reality as possible i.e. not intrinsically biased because of the way in which their ‘facts’ have been created.

In the 1990’s, Patricia Hill Collins explained to us :  'For any body of knowledge, new knowledge claims must be consistent with an existing body of knowledge that the group controlling the interpretive context accepts as true.’  She went on to say, ‘The methods used to validate knowledge claims must be acceptable to the group controlling the knowledge validation process.'   Her truth invites us to walk in the footsteps of the sociolinquistic theorist Volosinov, who developed a theory of 'language creation from below'.  We’ll come back, another day, to retrace those footsteps but, in the meantime, here’s a pdf of his book .

On Easter Sunday, one mainstream press article advised us, statistics wise, about what can we trust and what should we ignore.  It began with the assertion that statistics about ‘the number of people who have actually become infected… depend[s] crucially on the testing regime.’  

Of course, it’s a massive challenge to decide what to publish on the internet but, if it’s going to be of real use for the overwhelming majority of people, then whatever is published must be precise. 

In a Journal of Advanced Nursing website blog about problems with the government lockdown, its first point ‘There might be a real increase in cases but there is a form of categorization occurring in the NHS where deaths with the non-specific symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 (the presumed viral agent)(Covid19 is the disease) are being attributed to SARS-CoV-2 without serological or laboratory (tissue culture) confirmation.’ prompts many questions. As does its third point: The tests for Covid19 are not yet calibrated to different populations like those without symptoms. ‘Died after testing positive for Covid19’ (what we hear daily in the media) is not the same as ‘died due to Covid19’ which is an evidence-based statement of disease causation.   This Easter Rising blog began with a Clinical Governance-based reference to how organisations learn.  Just in is this early release (due out May 2020) paper from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention about Emerging Infectious Diseases. Public Health England, the UK Department of Health and the medical Royal Colleges must take the time to respond to all the points being raised through these scientific critiques from JAN and CDC. 

And while we’re on the subject of timely responses…

As yet, the Office of the UK Prime Minister has neither acknowledged, nor responded to our Open Letter sent to Downing Street on 27th March and now platformed as a petition for anyone to sign.   The Office of the Irish Taoiseach has advised us that he referred our letter to the Minister for Justice and Equality , but that Minister received his own copy of our Open letter at the same time as the Taoiseach and, like Number 10, his Office hasn’t responded, as yet. 

It isn’t the first time:   See Channel 4  in the spring of 2016 in News from Calais.

While we wait, and rest assured we’re not holding our breath, our Filipino Sisters and Brothers are preparing shrines to honour their dead, and  our Congolese Sisters and Brothers who continue to mourn their deaths, are also asserting are lives. 

For any Government to call itself Democratic it must be prepared to subject itself to scrutiny, hold itself to account and engage with its population, whether they are ‘Citizens’ or not. 

For those of you who’ve arrived here… we hope you enjoy this.
______
*Moran RA, (2003).  Clinical Governance: An International Journal. Volume 8 Number 1 pp. 46-56

**Also see Forthcoming, McMahon G. and Moran R.A. (2020) Young people seeking asylum: voice and activism in a ‘hostile environment’.  In Young people’s participation, Revisiting youth and inequalities, editors, Maria Bruselius-Jensen, Ilaria Pitti and Kay Tisda.  Bristol, Policy Press

***According to Wikipedia, the first known use of the exact phrase "fog of war" in text only dates to 1896, described as "the state of ignorance in which commanders frequently find themselves as regards the real strength and position, not only of their foes, but also of their friends." “The fog of war”  by Col. Lonsdale Hale, Royal Engineers (retired), Aldershot Military Academy, March 24, 1896.