Just Boris by Sonia Purnell – a digested read

Gosh, um, well, where to start? At the beginning I guess, with the birth of our protagonist. Any good Classical play needs a hero, and in this instance, that will be me; Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

My legacy and contribution will probably be painting over serious political issues with my brush of Dionysian joviality and mirth, by jove! But hold your whinnying horse dear reader, for we are merely pony-trekking in the foothills of my life-mountain.

I obtain my distinctive platinum pudding bowl hair from Turkish ancestors and don’t trade imperial “Alexander” for bumbling “Boris” until my scholarship at Eton. Here I start to make fine contacts with the great, good and disreputable as well as concocting the rumbustious, deceptively slip-shod, Bertie Woosterish mannerisms and Latinate inclinations that make me so popular today. Crede quod habes, et habes, as they say on the mean streets of Walford.

After a splendid education I wangle my way into Balliol College, Oxford to indulge my cravings for Literae Humaniores (that’s Classics to you) alongside a fledgling political career and Bullingdon Club binges. As president of the Oxford Union I hone my debating style in much the same way as Leonardo once whittled his trusty sketching pencil in sixteenth century Florence and I also meet my first wife, Oxford’s very own Venus of Abingdon; Allegra Mostyn Owen.

I get a spot of ruddy good luck with my first job on The Times but after, well, umm, aarrgh, indiscretions – some utter rot about making things up, I move to The Telegraph. They pack me off to Europe where I see off Eurocrats right, left and centre in a not dissimilar fashion to Hannibal on his journey over the Pyrenees, through my “Johnsonian Brand Euro Hand Grenades of Truth”. I lob these over the wall into the Garden of Earthly Delights, aka the European Parliament, but some of these may have been, umm, slightly, gggrrrr, economical with the old veritas, crikey.

I’m a bit of a Tory hero by now and have a bash at some journalism and politics – combined honours – back over in Blightly. Now onto my long-suffering second wife Marina, I dabble in a couple of affairs during my time as Spectator Ed and Henley MP but grrr, crikey, most of this is an inverted pyramid of piffle. Anyway, classical literature ought to be replete with the munificent involvement of Eros, plus someone who is literally busting with as much spunk as I am should probably be given a little leeway. Carpe diem, or Carpe posh bird, as any East end resident can relate to. Vox populi, vox dei and vote Boris for London Mayor!

I knuckle down a bit under pressure from the Tory high-emperors but haven’t really achieved very much, if you must ask. Boris Bikes are a good wheeze though aren’t they? I’d quite like to be PM one day because it still rankles that man-of-the-people Dave got a first in PPE and I bally well wrung out my socks and got an Upper Second. In my quest for power I might have to sit through a few more years of TFL meetings but as long as I can nosh out a book on the Roman Empire every so often and substantiate my “chickenfeed” wages with a national newspaper column and comedy TV appearances I suppose it could be jolly tolerable. Vulpem pilum mutat, non mores.

Driving in Delhi

“Good brakes, good horn, good luck”

I am allowing myself to start a description of this incredibly diverse, religious, historically rich and philosophically important country with a hackneyed spiritual phrase: The journey in India is as important as the destination.

My first, rather unrealistic, impressions of India occur after we land in Delhi in the middle of the night. After a ten hour plane journey we emerge tired but excited from the newly completed Indira Gandhi airport, India’s busiest.

Delhi’s dusty, thick, smoggy air is given an orange glow by streetlamps on the roads and dual carriageways that take us on the ten mile trip to our city hotel. The main inhabitants of the streets at 4am are stray dogs, palely loitering and searching for scraps of food. A few Tuk-tuks chug the streets, transporting those employed to serve different time zones. This is the quietest this place will ever be.

Driving in India is spectacular. Our guide tells me they have a saying in India. To survive the roads, you need “good brakes, good horn and good luck”. He then shows me a knowing smile, like an estate agent about to take a young family round a crack den. After two weeks in the country I had seen one recently sidelined car, watched a near accident and almost been involved in one. Our car had to swerve onto an embankment as a Tata truck thundered towards us, overtaking on the wrong side of the road as we drove from Amritsar to Rishikesh.

Watching people navigate through Delhi during the daytime is fascinating. Cars share the road with rickshaws regularly cramming more than eight passengers into a small three wheel vehicle.

The ubiquitous Tata truck shares the road with the scooters and motorbikes. The driver of the scooter is usually the only helmeted passenger, if they feel like it. Clinging on behind the driver might be a woman in traditional dress with a colourful blue, pink, brown, orange or green sari streaming behind as the bike dodges and weaves through traffic. A scooter can provide transport for all the family, all at once.

India doesn’t really do pavements, and as the lowest in the road hierarchy, cyclists and pedestrians wander blithely along the road side/dirt bit as vehicles hurtle past them, honking their horn if they felt the pedestrian was in danger of making a dent in their car.

Road laws are pretty limited. There are traffic lights but little in the way of lane markings and if drivers spot a gap they usually attempt it. Overtaking, undertaking, through-taking, casually pulling your cart along the wrong side of the road because you’ve missed a junction, it all seems fine. And the horn. The horn means anything you want it to: hello, move out my way, I’m about to overtake you, you’re going to hit me, you’re driving dangerously – it’s an all-purpose noise – a versatile instrument in a horrible horn section.

But this all means that Indian drivers are incredibly alert. They know exactly how wide their car is and driving is a full sensory emersion experience. Journeys between cities in the UK are safe, hypnotic and monotonous. In America it’s even worse, epitomised by “cruise control”. Drivers tune out, fall asleep, send text messages and have multi-car pile-ups.

Indian accidents are different, involving cliff plunges and brake failures. And more frequent. The annual death toll in India has now passed 135,000, or 14 per hour. To put this into perspective, in Britain, just over 30,000 people died in road accidents over the last decade. India accounts for ten per cent of worldwide road deaths every year. And in a country of 1.2 billion people, only one percent of the population owns a driving license, which means that road safety rules and infrastructure will need to improve to match economic growth and car ownership.

Journeys between cities in India are also much more interesting. As you get more rural, the likelihood of seeing something amazing or odd increases.

Deity in transit

On the eight hour drive between Shimla and Dharamsala in northern India we encounter a local god being transported between villages. The deity is being carried on a board of wood like a stretcher, borne on the shoulders of two men, draped with red, orange and gold cloth and serenaded by musicians.

You might see huge farm loads carted by trucks quite happily straddling two lanes, for which the adjective “wide” just won’t cut it.

You will definitely see someone engaged in some kind of entrepreneurial venture, anything from fixing cars to selling deeply unnecessary objects.

I travelled almost 2,000 km in visiting seven different places, learning much about the country while in transit. My appropriation of a well-known spiritual quote was justified as it gave me insight about the busy, over-crowded, haphazard and hard-working nature of the country.

Dharma drama in Dharamsala

“I climbed to Dharamsala … I met the highest Lama, his accent sounded fine to me” – Vampire Weekend, Oxford Comma

“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” – HH Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama

“China! Get out of Tibet!” – Russell Brand

Living next door in McLeod Ganj is His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, the world’s most influential Buddhist teacher (plus Nobel Prize winner). He’s been living in this small suburb of Dharamsala since he fled Tibet in 1959 and the Indian government granted him asylum in their country, the birthplace of Buddhism.

Tenzin Gyatso inhabits a house with a sturdy gate opposite a simple but charming temple (although it’s no Potala Palace) where he teaches in the centre of McLeod Ganj.

Stepping out onto the walkway surrounding the temple provides dramatic views of this multi-level city in the Outer Himalayas. Lower Dharamsala starts in the Kangra valley before climbing steeply with the Dhaladhar range to Upper Dharamsala, where McLeod Ganj sits.

Ganj means “market” and the incongruous McLeod part was named after a former Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab in the 1850s, David McLeod.

Unfortunately, Tibetan Buddhism’s head honcho is not in town when I visit as he is attending the 2011 Global Buddhist Congregation in Delhi. If you want to converse about karma then a session can be requested four months in advance by writing. However, you’d better have a good reason to meet, as his secretary receives hundreds of letters every day. Perhaps a more achievable goal would be visiting the rather good pizza restaurant underneath his temple, where the temptation to ask “can you make me one with everything?” should be avoided at all costs.

The Tibetan government in exile is a popular pilgrimage destination for a variety of groups. Mixing with the maroon monks in the Ganj are religious pilgrims, dreadlocked hippies, a Japanese tourist who’s styled himself entirely on Liam Gallagher, backpacked Gap Yah wanderers and Western human-rights tourists, metaphorical Guardian tucked under the arm.

The Tibet Museum, next to the Dalai Lama’s residence, reveals the deeply sad reason that this out of the way ex-hill station, almost 200 km from the closest large settlement, Amritsar, welcomes so many visitors each year.

A sombre stone monument outside the museum is dedicated to the monks who have self-immolated in protest against Chinese occupation of Tibet since 1950. Anguished faces cry out in sculpted stone behind the black monolith.

Inside the museum there are tales of Tibetans’ frozen journeys across the Himalayas, accompanied by frost-bite and amputations. Stories of arrest for peaceful protests, torture and long prison sentences are shared in the museum, free from Chinese silencing.

Postage stamps and passport pages tell of Tibet’s independence, now a country falsely labelled the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The Chinese government has attempted to develop the economy in the Western part of its empire, or alternatively, is exploiting the area’s abundant natural resources and beautiful geography. Hydro-electric power and rich mineral resources are tempting to a country hungrily consuming power like China.

The Chinese have built rail networks, transport infrastructure and claim to have improved healthcare and education in the region, all of which intertwine positive outcomes with negative. Han Chinese influx, made possible by improved rail links, has diluted the indigenous population and aids the gradual erosion of Tibetan culture. Infrastructure and healthcare improvements may be good, but our guide thought the local Tibetan population didn’t have enough money to see any benefit from Chinese reforms. Chinese schools built in Tibet also force their pupils to wear Chinese uniforms and teach a typically Chinese brand of history, weakening the cultural and historical autonomy of Tibet.

While the costs and benefits of Chinese development in the area can be debated, Chinese influence on Tibetan Buddhism cannot be defended. The government’s dislike of the Dalai Lama was evident during my time in India. The Global Buddhist Congregation in New Delhi at the end of November coincided with the visit of a senior Chinese politician for border talks with India, and the Chinese government demanded that India cancel talks by the Dalai Lama at the Congregation. They view him as a separatist, anti-Chinese politician. In a typically unfathomable pronouncement they accused him of inciting Tibetan self-immolations in China.

The present incarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second highest position of authority in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama, is also a matter of controversy. In 1995, a six-year old boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, was nominated as the 11th incarnation by the Dalai Lama and abducted by the Chinese authorities within three days. In a deeply impressive display of red-washing, the Chinese government say he has been taken into “protective custody” for his own safety. They then installed their own choice in the position…

With China’s growing influence it seems unlikely that this sad situation will be resolved quickly. However, India is very diverse and with religious tolerance established in the country by law, it seems a good base for the Tibetan government in exile to raise awareness of the difficulties their faith faces.

BFI’s new archive film store sets reel-y high environmental standards

Travelling to the British Film Institute’s Master Film Store, new state-of-the-art sustainable storage for Britain’s film archives, there’s a definite sense of the past.

The coach winds it way around neatly ploughed rolling hills and fields in the Midlands, far from urban development. The location doesn’t have a postcode, increasing the history and mystery of the journey, because the area used to be a top secret nuclear defence installation and the former site of RAF Gaydon in Warwickshire.

This nostalgic location seems an appropriate one as the new home for the BFI’s National Archive. The Archive is the largest collection of film and television in the world and was founded in 1935. It contains important records of historical actuality, including the Mitchell and Kenyon collection, the largest surviving collection of early non-fiction films in the world. Some of the films are cultural records of such importance that they have been given UNESCO Memory of the World status.

Early twentieth-century Mitchell and Kenyon film footage

However, there is nothing backwards-looking about the BFI’s new Master Film Store, designed by Edward Cullinan Architects and funded by £23m of government investment plus input from regional film archives. The project sets the bar high for future archiving facilities and sustainable development.

A significant percentage of the collection is volatile nitrocellulose or cellulose acetate 35mm films. These organic materials, unless stored in careful conditions, gradually break down, reacting with the metal of containers and eventually turning into dusty and cracked remnants.

Nitrate film in a late stage of decomposition

The rate of decomposition before this facility was built was faster than the copying process, meaning that the race was on to save the national collection. Nitrate film is also highly inflammable and difficult to extinguish. It generates its own oxygen in burning, and needs to be stored very carefully. An archive film shown to us on the day displayed a nitrate fire in a tower, thrusting flames into the air like an angry dragon.

The Master Film Store is the biggest nitrate collection in the world so there was no test case for the architects. The building is comprised of six large acetate film stores and 30 smaller nitrate stores. 27 km of racking shelves will hold 450,000 cans of films.

In order to stop decomposition and ensure safety, the vaults need to be kept at -5 degrees Centigrade and 35 per cent relative humidity. Despite this demand the new building saves over £330,000 in energy costs per year, or 1,500 tonnes of carbon, when compared to the 10 separate buildings previously used to store the films.

This has largely been accomplished through significant achievements in the air tightness of the building. Regulations for new buildings stipulate that the air permeability of the building should allow no more than 10 metres squared per hour of air to leak out. The Master Film Store greatly surpasses this target, allowing only 0.28 metres squared per hour to escape. This is equivalent to the edge of a five pence coin, leading to high levels of energy efficiency and the stabilisation of interior conditions.

The building recycles waste heat from the refrigeration process and has achieved an “Excellent” rating from the UK’s Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM).

Inside the Master Film Store

The architects have also taken steps to minimise the impact of the development on the landscape, previously largely Greenfield and Brownfield sites. Badgers, bats and newts were relocated and accommodated to minimise habitat disturbance. The green roof has a soil layer seeded with a wildflower mix of 21 different species of plants to reintroduce diversity in the area following development.

This roof and the surrounding swales mitigate the effect of the development on the local drainage system.

The architects surpassed their BREEAM targets for the project and the high level of sustainability, particularly the level of air tightness achieved in this building, will surely prove inspiring to other architects and engineers keen to improve the energy efficiency of future buildings.

Edinburgh Fringe review #1 – Adam Riches

Bring Me the Head of Adam Riches

*****

4:45 pm

Pleasance Courtyard >> Upstairs

Until 29 August

Adam Riches careers through a funny and high energy chaotic character comedy show with the force of his personality.

Among the loudest and most enthralling performers I’ve seen this year at the Fringe, Riches thoroughly engages the audience throughout this manic hour with characters such as Pedro Azul, Spanish Swingball champion and O’Hara the intrepid explorer.

Riches bursts onto the stage and starts the laughter with his first character, Ian Dustry, Entertainment Agent, who signs up audience members, lighting, curtains and the stage floor to his talent agency, wildly flinging out business cards, compliments and trite sayings like a hilarious, self-centred tornado.

Audience members are also regularly physically engaged throughout the show and forcibly charmed into joining Riches’ mad scenarios. These include being encouraged to shout like Daniel Day-Lewis (“the best actor to appear in nobody’s favourite films”), race on skateboards against the Lizard People of Peru and feed Riches’ blind game-show host “like starlings do”, a compellingly disgusting moment.

One whirlwind hour of comedy featuring un-likeable characters made likeable, uproarious audience involvement and tight scripting.

Hobb-nobbing with Mary Anne

Here’s an interview I did a while back with the Queen of Dubstep, Xfm’s Mary Anne Hobbs. She’s an inspiring character and a really good sport. 

Catch her show on Xfm, 7pm-10pm, Saturday night.

Reforestation and economic growth in Africa

International carbon markets can fuel economic development in poor, rural African communities through reforestation, according to a World Bank report.

The report was released at the Africa Carbon Forum in Marrakesh, Morocco. The conference, which ends today (6 July), is intended to promote the benefits of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), part of the Kyoto Protocol.

The conference also acts as a knowledge sharing and matchmaking service for African countries and investors keen to be involved with CDM in the country.

The CDM allows countries to gain certified emission reduction credits (CER), which count towards meeting Kyoto CO₂ emissions targets. The credits can also be sold after starting emission-reduction projects in developing countries.

The World Bank say that afforestation or reforestation (A/R), examples of emission-reduction projects, can mitigate climate change. New forests store carbon and can improve rural livelihoods in developing countries. Those involved hope that economic activity and biodiversity will be improved by restoring areas that have been destroyed.

The first A/R project was registered in China in November 2006. 27 are now registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change with four of these in Africa.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ibi Batéké reforestation project is predicted to absorb close to 1.6 million tonnes of CO₂ between 2008 and 2037.

The Batéké Plateau region is said to be benefiting from CDM schemes after creating a company called Novacel. The company employs around 400 full and part-time staff in the reforestation process. It generates revenue through fuelwood production, which is then sold in local Kinshasa. On a larger scale, the resulting carbon credits can be sold on the global market by the World Bank’s BioCarbon Fund and private sector carbon trading companies.

A primary school for 200 children and a basic healthcare clinic have been built through the income gained through the scheme so far.

However, CDM is not always easy to implement. Land ownership is not always easy to establish and there is also the issue of non-permanence with forests. Trees are often burnt down; losing their carbon stocks, making it difficult to account for carbon investments.

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said: “The event is an important part of efforts to scale up and extend the benefits of the CDM to the African continent. Interest in CDM projects in Africa is growing. It is extremely important that we build on that interest and growth, for the good of communities and the climate.”

Hailu Tefera, Manager of Climate Change Programs at World Vision Ethiopia said: “It took four years to get to CDM registration but it was well worth the effort. We now hope that others can implement similar projects – maybe even scaled up – all across our continent”.

Joëlle Chassard, Manager of the Carbon Finance Unit of the World Bank said: “When analyzing the most efficient mitigation opportunities in developing countries, it is important to look toward the future while taking stock of what has worked and what has not. This report provides lessons for all involved – project developers, validators, regulators, and national authorities”

Image: Erik Cleves Kristensen | Flickr

Alternative careers for Andy Murray

If tennis doesn’t work out, there are plenty of other opportunities out there, Andy.

Click on the link to hear the clip!

(I wrote and recorded these for BBC Three Counties Radio)

Andy could try writing some poetry.

He could go into the hospitality business.

Murray could become a motivational speaker!

Or he could retrain as a counsellor…

Obama displays mettle over Steelworkers’ subsidy dispute with China

North America’s United Steelworkers (USW) has praised the Obama Administration for ending China’s prohibited wind power subsidies.

The American government had been working to terminate Chinese government subsidies for Chinese clean tech companies that produced their own parts instead of importing the same parts from abroad.

China’s “Special Fund” programme is not allowed under World Trade Organisation rules.

The practice was uncovered by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) who launched an investigation in October 2010 following a 5,800 page petition from the Steelworkers Union.

The government subsidies took the form of grants to Chinese wind turbine manufacturers that agreed to use key parts and components made in China rather than purchasing imports.

The US estimated that Chinese companies could have made several hundred million dollars from the grants since 2008. Individual grants ranged in size between $6.7 m and $22.5 m according to USTR assessments.

The US told China that the subsidies provided by China’s Special Fund programme were prohibited during a WTO meeting in February of this year. Following this, China took action, formally revoking the legal measure that had created the Special Fund program and ending the subsidies.

USW President Leo W. Gerard said: “Termination of this programme is one less distortion in the marketplace for clean energy technology products. Our union membership, American workers and our nation face many more distortions and other clear WTO violations of obligations by the Chinese.

“With this first green technology issue behind us, we encourage the Administration to continue to work to level the playing field for clean technology companies and American workers to grow sustained employment and good job opportunities.”

US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said: “We challenged these subsidies so that American manufacturers can produce wind turbine components here in the United States and sell them in China. That supports well-paying jobs here at home.”

This is the third such challenge on China that the United States has brought about through the WTO over government subsidies.

In 2007, the US and Mexico challenged several tax-related subsidies benefiting a range of China’s manufactured goods over imports from the US. In 2008 the US, Mexico and Guatemala challenged funding programmes promoting worldwide sales of famous Chinese brands

China is required to submit subsidy programme information to the WTO on a regular basis but has only submitted one subsidy notification since joining the WTO in 2001. The wind power financial support was one such notification along with the other subsidy challenges mentioned above.

This could seem either understandable in the face of regular challenge from the US or as a lack of transparency. Ambassador Kirk thinks it is the latter. He said: “China is the second largest trader at the WTO, and it is simply not acceptable that China continues to evade its transparency commitments”

“This lack of transparency hinders the efforts of WTO Members to collectively ensure that each government is playing by the rules.”

“The United States would prefer not to resort to WTO challenges but we will do so to hold China accountable and to enforce the rules on illegal subsidies.”

Image: Paolo Dala | flickr

Read the article at its original home here

United Steelworkers Union

United States Trade Representative

Can wind-powered Ion Horse charge to break TT record?

The Ion Horse, a new wind-charged electric motorbike, aims to win £10,000 at the Isle of Man’s historic TT race on Wednesday.

The International Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) Race launched a Clean Emissions Motorcycle Race three years ago as part of its international festival, called TT Zero.

The first electric bike to complete a lap at an average speed of 100mph will receive a £10,000 prize from the Isle of Man Government. Nobody has won this since the race began in 2009.

In last year’s TT Zero, Mark Miller came close with the Moto Czysz team, averaging a speed around the track of 96.82mph.

The Ion Horse, developed by a team at Kingston University London (KUL) and funded by the green-energy company Ecotricity, hopes to break the record this year.

The bike can go from 0 – 60mph in three seconds and has a top speed of 140mph, all powered by energy from Ecotricity’s fleet of 52 wind turbines in Britain.

A five hour charge up from the wind turbines allows the bike to race for around 40 miles and it can go for 120 miles when confined to legal speed limits.

George Spence, Ion Horse’s rider, will hope that there is more in the lithium polymer cobalt cell, after the bike averaged 80.4mph around the track in qualifying on Monday (June 6). Spence came fifth in 2010 on a bike also created by KUL.

The race starts and ends at the Isle of Man’s capital, Douglas. The track rises and falls in altitude and winds around over 200 bends and corners with each lap just under 38 miles.

The bike is the latest non-petrolhead invention from entrepreneur and Ecotricity founder Dale Vince. Last October (2010), Mr Vince unleashed a wind-powered sports car that would impress even Jeremy Clarkson. The Nemesis has a none-too sluggish top speed of 170mph and can do 0 – 100mph in 8.5 seconds.

Dale Vince said: “The guys at Kingston have built an amazing machine and we expect it to take the TT by storm.  It’s another great demonstration of how transport of the very near future will be – powered by renewable energy, made in Green Britain – and with zero pollution.”

Ion Horse team manager Paul Brandon said: “The Ion Horse is the culmination of years of cutting-edge technology coming together for one purpose – to take the TT’s 100mph lap record. But it’s also a design showcase for what electric bikes could be like.”

The Isle of Man is hoping the TT Zero will be a good advertisement for its growing clean technology sector. The Island currently has over 40 clean-tech companies with a collective valuation of over £800 million (from 2009).

Allan Bell MHK, Minister, Department of Economic Development, said: “Running the electric bike race as part of the TT Races has given us an excellent platform to demonstrate the Isle of Man’s clean tech capabilities.

“This event continues to put the Island at the heart of innovative design and groundbreaking technology.”

Image: Ecotricity – The Ion Horse