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The News Line: News Wednesday, 13 January 2016
MASSIVE JUNIOR DOCTORS ACTION! – shakes the Tories to their core
A 200-strong picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow
www.wrp.org.uk/images/photos/16-01-12-11688.jpg
MASS picket lines packed with enthusiastic doctors and supporters were the rule in every part of the country yesterday on the first day of the junior doctors strike action against the Tories’ attempt to dictate their contracts.
Commenting on the strike Dr Johann Malawana, BMA Junior Doctors Committee chair, said: ‘With junior doctors attending more than 150 pickets and ‘meet the doctor’ events up and down England, today’s action sends a clear message to Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron. Junior doctors in their thousands have made it quite clear what they think of the government’s plans to impose contracts in which junior doctors have no confidence.
‘Today’s action – one that the BMA has long sought to avoid – is a result of a fundamental breakdown in trust with junior doctors, for which the government is directly responsible. This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors, lawfully taking industrial action, back into work.’
He continued: ‘We want a contract that is safe for patients, fair for juniors and good for the NHS. This is not the view of a few – as the government would have the public believe, the unprecedented scale of today’s action by junior doctors clearly demonstrates this.’
Junior doctors were out picketing at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from 8.00am. They got a very warm response from NHS staff and patients. James Rowsen, the BMA representative and a first year junior doctor, told News Line: ‘Over the winter period the government and the BMA via ACAS met up regularly, to try and discuss a contract that would be safe and fair for junior doctors for the time to come.
‘However, the negotiations and the discussions were not concluded in the way we had anticipated or intended for the BMA. There were still elements of the negotiations regarding the safeguarding of hours and continuation of training, and annual increments of pay and annual incomes throughout the career. There’s still a lot to be worked on by those parties.
‘I think today’s demonstration should show the fact that we are very serious about what we mean, and the government would be stupid not to back down. It almost feels like the junior doctors are a trial run. No junior doctor wants to strike. Today we really need to strike, to be out here showing how serious, how important it is to the country and to the NHS as a whole, all of our patients in the future, to ourselves and our careers, to show we actually care about what’s going to happen to us next.
‘Other trade unions have been overwhelmingly supportive. Today we have got support from Unison. I know that there are others on board. We are overwhelmingly pleased that there are trade unions in support of us, and we fully support them as well.’
Over 50 doctors rallied outside Lewisham Hospital yesterday in a lively picket on the first of three days of strike action. Drivers tooted their horns as they drove by in support. News Line spoke to junior doctor Matthew Izett who said: ‘We want a contract that provides safe care and where we’re not overworked.
‘The proposed changes are unsafe for patients, doctors and the NHS as a whole. The contract amounts to an attack on all public sector workers. He added: ‘It will be junior doctors today, nurses tomorrow, and then all public sector workers.’
Dr Josh Cuddihy told News Line: ‘The NHS is stretched as it is. It needs more funding and additional resources. The NHS runs on the goodwill of staff and we need to look after the staff. The government’s proposed changes are unsafe and unfair. It means more unsociable hours and it is very short sighted. We already work long shifts and these changes will make things more dangerous for everyone.’
Junior doctors were also out in force outside the Royal Free Hospital. BMA Junior Doctors Committee member Tom Irwin told News Line: ‘We’re here because the government forced us into this position. A ballot of our members showed 98% of us support the action today. The government are taking risks to save money.
‘That will make it harder to do a good job in the NHS. It will damage the public perception of the NHS and affect patient safety. If the new contract goes through it will have a far worse effect on patient safety than any industrial action.’
BMA member Tom Palmer said: ‘One of the main sticking points of the contract issue is they want to remove safeguards against us working long, unsafe hours. Obviously, tired doctors make mistakes. You wouldn’t get on a plane flown by a pilot whose employer made him work unsafe hours. Us working long hours is just as dangerous.
‘The government are not listening, so we have to fight on behalf of everyone. This is one step in privatising the NHS. We can’t afford to lose the NHS. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors. Nurses are very supportive but we need all the unions on board.’
John, an anaesthetist, said: ‘We all support the strike. Every one of us is a bit concerned about the future. This is about patient safety, it’s about defending safe working conditions.’
Another picket, BMA member Sophie Tang, said: ‘I’m out today to oppose the imposition of the contract. It’s trying to spread a thin workforce even thinner. It’s not safe for the patients and it’s not fair for the doctors working. We’ve had a lot of support from the nurses and allied health professionals who work alongside us. A lot of junior doctors think behind this is the government’s intention to privatise the NHS.’
RCN student nurse member Andy Roy said: ‘I’m a classic bursary student. I’m nearly 40 and without the bursary scheme there is no way I could become a nurse. We’re supporting the junior doctors because they stand by us and we stand by them.
‘As has been put, we all need to stand together. This is an attack on the NHS as a whole. The fact that the government is targeting doctors and student nurses is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to make the NHS fail so they can privatise it.’
Natasha, a striking junior doctor at UCLH in Euston Road, told News Line: ‘In 2005 Hunt wrote a book in which he said the Health Service should not be free and this is part of his plan to sell off the Health Service. I don’t trust the government and Hunt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him talk to a junior doctor – he chooses to talk over Twitter and other social media.
‘We stood with the nurses in their demonstration to keep grants on Saturday and we have written support from the FBU firefighters’ union. On 10 February our strike will be full withdrawal of labour but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’
On the picket line at Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield junior doctor Sam Meadows said: ‘This is a strike that had to come, we have been headed into a corner – but it is for the benefit of the NHS. The government’s proposals are not safe for patients and not fair to the doctors. The support of the public has been overwhelming. It’s very heart-warming and we really appreciate it. Negotiations will start again tomorrow hopefully. But if it comes to more action we are prepared and we are ready.’
Mr Alex Rossdeutsch, a junior neuro surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘This proposed contract will cause many of my colleagues to leave the NHS. When that happens, the goverment will privatise the NHS and the public will have to pay for their health. I’m striking to prevent that, to prevent the government attacking the health service in the future.’
At Ealing Hospital, where junior doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket, workers spoke out in favour of an all-out general strike on the third junior doctors strike on February 10th. Bus driver and Unite member Sunny Patel said: ‘I support the junior doctors 100%. This government is taking liberties now in every way. A general strike to support them is what we need.’
Bus driver and Unite member Abdi Mohamed said: ‘I support everyone coming out on February 10th and I will fight for it at my garage. Everyone needs the National Health Service and the junior doctors are leading the fight to defend it.’
Striking junior doctor Sean Morris said: ‘Ealing Hospital must not close, or be downgraded, and maternity must be re-opened. There are three strike days and the duration and intensity will increase, the tube workers are taking strike action on our next strike date. This government is attacking public sector workers and everyone should take action to defend the Welfare State.’
Foodworker John Fernandez said: ‘My wife is a patient here, we need a general strike to win this fight.’ Striking doctor Alex Adams said: ‘The government are stretching the NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk, we must win this fight.’
Striking doctor Maira Hamed said: ‘Today’s action is not just for the junior doctors, it’s for the NHS as a whole and everyone should take action to defend it.’ Anna Martin, a GP who was coming in to provide emergency cover, stopped to drop off food at the picket line and said: ‘I’m so proud and with them 100%. This contract is incredibly unsafe and detrimental to patient care. I trained at Ealing Hospital and I feel particularly passionate about this hospital which is under threat. I support the call for a general strike on 10th February, it’s the only way to show we won’t accept what the government is doing.’
‘All anti-social hours payments are in jeopardy!’ Unison member Kirth Gerson, who works in Pathology, told News Line on the junior doctors picket of Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London. Unison and the NUT came down to join the junior doctors’ mass picket and to support their strike.
‘I am out here to support the junior doctors because they will be coming for us next,’ Gerson continued: ‘This is Agenda for Change. They want to extend our normal working hours from 6am until 10pm Monday to Sunday! This is why Unison have come down to the picket today and this is why there must be joint strike action.
‘They were going to build a new Pathology Lab at Homerton using a company called Longcross Construction. The contract went belly-up and is now in administration, the project has been abandoned. Private Canadian company Sonic Health Care now owns doctors’ laboratories within the NHS. They do tests for us here at Homerton and at the Royal Free in Hampstead and the UCLH in Euston.
‘The company want to introduce co-payment for the laboratory tests which would mean the patient would have to part pay for their own blood tests! This is totally unacceptable, the NHS must be free, we pay for it through our taxes anyway. We have to drive these private companies out of the NHS.’
Oliver Corke, of the NUT, who came down from Clapton Girls School to support the junior doctors said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the working conditions which uphold patient safety. That is why we support the strike. Patients need to be looked after and doctors need to be looked after as well.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, there was a mass picket with well over 50 supporters, members of other unions and junior doctors. Junior doctor Fiona Hansell said: ‘The massive support that we have had today just goes to show that we have gauged the mood very well. It is not just the medical unions that have come down to support us, but the non-medical unions are here as well. We have started the fight and the public will join the fight and so we have started a whole movement.’
Junior doctor Jessica Gale added: ‘The NHS staff are used to working in a multi-disciplinary fashion. We are all one NHS so we will all stand up for each other in support of the NHS. There has been no other option but to take strike action so that is what we are doing.’
Dr Hannah Marshal, working in Paediatrics, agreed. ‘This has been an absolutely last resort’ she said. We have to be united. This contract which the government is trying to impose on us is unsafe, it is not in the interests of patients, doctors or the NHS. Currently, if we work more than our rostered hours we flag it up and the Trust is fined. With the new contract this safeguard is removed.’
Aimay Mirdin, who is to become a Consultant in May, said: ‘I have been a junior doctor for the last 15 years. Essentially, I have been doing weekends and I have been doing nights. Junior doctors are the backbone of the NHS and a sure way to lose junior doctors is to make them work longer hours and to work harder. The number of times I have been on my fourth nightshift and I am so tired. I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel on my way home.’
There was a lively picket of junior doctors at Barnet Hospital. Dr Matteo De Martino, the BMA rep, told News Line: ‘I have been an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee doctor for four years and will be for a total of at least nine years. None of us wants to be here, it’s not something we feel 100% comfortable about but we recognise we have to do it.
‘If this contract is enforced then the only choice is to leave medicine or leave the country. No matter how much we love our job it is unfeasible and unsafe to provide a safe five-day, let alone seven-day service with extended hours, a 30% pay cut and no hours safeguards. The first line of attack is to drive doctors away, next create a vacuum for nurses and midwives by removing bursaries.
‘As the NHS becomes understaffed and overwhelmed the only workable option presented will be privatisation. It would be wonderful to have the support of other unions and many have already shown this.’
Simon Roth, a Consultant Paediatrician from the Baby Unit, came to give his support to the picket line. He told News Line. ‘I support the junior doctors’ action. The contract the government is seeking to impose is obscure and cynical, in keeping with their approach to undermining the NHS.’
Junior doctors held a very lively picket at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where passers-by queued to sign their petition of support. Junior doctor William Hall told News Line: ‘I never thought I would strike, I’ve just finished an 80-hour week, this is my day off but it is so important to be here.’ Another junior doctor, Laura McGowan, said: ‘We are being asked to compromise too much of patient safety with this imposed contract.''
''Patients are right behind us, everyone is stopping to sign our petition to show their support,’ said junior doctor Owen Dineen. ‘We also have a lot of junior doctors leafleting and meeting the public at South Kensington Tube station, he said.
Car horns beeped in support of the junior doctors picket line outside Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road. Desire Craneburough came to support the picket line and told News Line: ‘Junior doctors have been caring for patients since the start of the NHS and they’re not striking for money but for improved patient care.
‘They are here for us 365 days a year, day in day out, now I’m giving them my support. The Tories are breaking up the NHS with privatisation and we have to stop them.’
Doctors and supporters marched down Denmark Hill 50-strong, on the first day of the three days of strikes planned by the BMA to prevent Jeremy Hunt from imposing a contract which would destroy their conditions of work and the NHS.
Chris James, BMA Junior Doctors’ Representative at King’s College Hospital, said: ‘I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t come out on top in this struggle really. It’s a just cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for the future of the NHS. We are fighting against contracts that are unfair, unsafe and are starting to erode our NHS, which is free care for all and which is the right thing to happen.
‘We have the support of the public. They are behind us. We have to win this struggle, there isn’t any other option. The nurses are next. They led a magnificent march on Saturday, which I was at. The nurses are feeling it and I think that is going to filter through to the rest of the NHS as well.’
Asked if he thought that the rest of the unions should come out in a general strike in support of the junior doctors, James said: ‘I think if that is what it takes, and that is where it is going then “Yes”.’ Dr Fiona Humphries said: ‘We don’t want to strike for striking’s sake, but this government has shown its true colours, and that is something that we can’t stand for.
‘If that’s the route we have to go down ultimately – to essentially safeguard our society for future generations – then absolutely! We are here to fight contracts that are not safe and not fair. The government has got it wrong and has lost the trust of NHS employees.
‘We are here to protect the future of the NHS, because these contracts undermine the future of the NHS. I really hope Hunt capitulates. It is really sad that it has come to this that we have had to leave our patients’ in the capable hands of our consultants and come out here on strike. It’s a really difficult time’.
Dr Tom Pollak, Research Lecturer at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, which specialises in mental health, said: ‘I think this government has been showing a lot of disdain for the electorate, and the junior doctors contract is just one of the ways they have done that.’
Dr Roxanne Keynejad, also out on the picket line added: ‘We are all junior doctors employed by south London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We are all trainee psychiatrists and we, as one profession, are striking on a mandate by the whole junior doctor community in England over the contract that is threatened to be imposed on us in August of this year which is unsafe and unfair for patients.’
Pickets were out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where banners were brought by Wandsworth NUT and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Junior doctors went out to campaign at Tooting Broadway underground station where they received overwhelming support.
Dr Sophie Herbert told News Line: ‘We are here because the government has ignored what we have said in negotiations and are threatening to impose a dangerous contract on us. We are understaffed and overworked and are already at breaking point.
‘I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I fought to save the NHS. Joanne Harris, Unite Branch Secretary at Putney Bus Garage, who was there in support, told News Line: ‘Doctors deserve every bit of support they can get. The way the government is threatening them is appalling. The government has created this problem but then blames people when they go on strike.’
At St Thomas Hospital, by Westminster Bridge, there were 200 people picketing. A delegation of Nursing and Midwife students were there from Kings College. Mary Brown, a nursing student, told News Line: ‘We are here because we support the junior doctors. They have been very supportive of us in our struggles and, as professionals, we all work together.’ Dan Langley, another student, said: ‘If the Tories can upset some of the most conservative workers in the country, hopefully it will inspire others to fight against Tory austerity.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow there were 200 junior doctors on the picket lines.
Dr Attia Rehman said: ‘This new contract is completely unfair. If I was to do an on-call shift, I would get unsocial hours pay, but now they are treating it as an ordinary day which will mean a huge pay cut.’
Alex Thomson, a Northwick Park consultant, came to join the picket line. ‘I am fully behind the junior doctors. We also have a problem with our contract and the offer is going to a vote of the consultants. The future of the NHS is at stake.’
At North Middlesex Hospial about 40 docors and supporters picketed, and local junior doctor Jason said: ‘This is the first strike in 40 years, and of course doctors come from all political parties, and 98% of tens of thousands of doctors voted for this action. The contract on offer is unfair for doctors because it is asking them to work more unsocial hours for less pay, and it’s unfair for patients and public because the safeguards that stop us working long hours are being eroded. With the support of the public we will win!’
The News Line: News Wednesday, 13 January 2016
MASSIVE JUNIOR DOCTORS ACTION! – shakes the Tories to their core
A 200-strong picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow
www.wrp.org.uk/images/photos/16-01-12-11688.jpg
MASS picket lines packed with enthusiastic doctors and supporters were the rule in every part of the country yesterday on the first day of the junior doctors strike action against the Tories’ attempt to dictate their contracts.
Commenting on the strike Dr Johann Malawana, BMA Junior Doctors Committee chair, said: ‘With junior doctors attending more than 150 pickets and ‘meet the doctor’ events up and down England, today’s action sends a clear message to Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron. Junior doctors in their thousands have made it quite clear what they think of the government’s plans to impose contracts in which junior doctors have no confidence.
‘Today’s action – one that the BMA has long sought to avoid – is a result of a fundamental breakdown in trust with junior doctors, for which the government is directly responsible. This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors, lawfully taking industrial action, back into work.’
He continued: ‘We want a contract that is safe for patients, fair for juniors and good for the NHS. This is not the view of a few – as the government would have the public believe, the unprecedented scale of today’s action by junior doctors clearly demonstrates this.’
Junior doctors were out picketing at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from 8.00am. They got a very warm response from NHS staff and patients. James Rowsen, the BMA representative and a first year junior doctor, told News Line: ‘Over the winter period the government and the BMA via ACAS met up regularly, to try and discuss a contract that would be safe and fair for junior doctors for the time to come.
‘However, the negotiations and the discussions were not concluded in the way we had anticipated or intended for the BMA. There were still elements of the negotiations regarding the safeguarding of hours and continuation of training, and annual increments of pay and annual incomes throughout the career. There’s still a lot to be worked on by those parties.
‘I think today’s demonstration should show the fact that we are very serious about what we mean, and the government would be stupid not to back down. It almost feels like the junior doctors are a trial run. No junior doctor wants to strike. Today we really need to strike, to be out here showing how serious, how important it is to the country and to the NHS as a whole, all of our patients in the future, to ourselves and our careers, to show we actually care about what’s going to happen to us next.
‘Other trade unions have been overwhelmingly supportive. Today we have got support from Unison. I know that there are others on board. We are overwhelmingly pleased that there are trade unions in support of us, and we fully support them as well.’
Over 50 doctors rallied outside Lewisham Hospital yesterday in a lively picket on the first of three days of strike action. Drivers tooted their horns as they drove by in support. News Line spoke to junior doctor Matthew Izett who said: ‘We want a contract that provides safe care and where we’re not overworked.
‘The proposed changes are unsafe for patients, doctors and the NHS as a whole. The contract amounts to an attack on all public sector workers. He added: ‘It will be junior doctors today, nurses tomorrow, and then all public sector workers.’
Dr Josh Cuddihy told News Line: ‘The NHS is stretched as it is. It needs more funding and additional resources. The NHS runs on the goodwill of staff and we need to look after the staff. The government’s proposed changes are unsafe and unfair. It means more unsociable hours and it is very short sighted. We already work long shifts and these changes will make things more dangerous for everyone.’
Junior doctors were also out in force outside the Royal Free Hospital. BMA Junior Doctors Committee member Tom Irwin told News Line: ‘We’re here because the government forced us into this position. A ballot of our members showed 98% of us support the action today. The government are taking risks to save money.
‘That will make it harder to do a good job in the NHS. It will damage the public perception of the NHS and affect patient safety. If the new contract goes through it will have a far worse effect on patient safety than any industrial action.’
BMA member Tom Palmer said: ‘One of the main sticking points of the contract issue is they want to remove safeguards against us working long, unsafe hours. Obviously, tired doctors make mistakes. You wouldn’t get on a plane flown by a pilot whose employer made him work unsafe hours. Us working long hours is just as dangerous.
‘The government are not listening, so we have to fight on behalf of everyone. This is one step in privatising the NHS. We can’t afford to lose the NHS. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors. Nurses are very supportive but we need all the unions on board.’
John, an anaesthetist, said: ‘We all support the strike. Every one of us is a bit concerned about the future. This is about patient safety, it’s about defending safe working conditions.’
Another picket, BMA member Sophie Tang, said: ‘I’m out today to oppose the imposition of the contract. It’s trying to spread a thin workforce even thinner. It’s not safe for the patients and it’s not fair for the doctors working. We’ve had a lot of support from the nurses and allied health professionals who work alongside us. A lot of junior doctors think behind this is the government’s intention to privatise the NHS.’
RCN student nurse member Andy Roy said: ‘I’m a classic bursary student. I’m nearly 40 and without the bursary scheme there is no way I could become a nurse. We’re supporting the junior doctors because they stand by us and we stand by them.
‘As has been put, we all need to stand together. This is an attack on the NHS as a whole. The fact that the government is targeting doctors and student nurses is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to make the NHS fail so they can privatise it.’
Natasha, a striking junior doctor at UCLH in Euston Road, told News Line: ‘In 2005 Hunt wrote a book in which he said the Health Service should not be free and this is part of his plan to sell off the Health Service. I don’t trust the government and Hunt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him talk to a junior doctor – he chooses to talk over Twitter and other social media.
‘We stood with the nurses in their demonstration to keep grants on Saturday and we have written support from the FBU firefighters’ union. On 10 February our strike will be full withdrawal of labour but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’
On the picket line at Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield junior doctor Sam Meadows said: ‘This is a strike that had to come, we have been headed into a corner – but it is for the benefit of the NHS. The government’s proposals are not safe for patients and not fair to the doctors. The support of the public has been overwhelming. It’s very heart-warming and we really appreciate it. Negotiations will start again tomorrow hopefully. But if it comes to more action we are prepared and we are ready.’
Mr Alex Rossdeutsch, a junior neuro surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘This proposed contract will cause many of my colleagues to leave the NHS. When that happens, the goverment will privatise the NHS and the public will have to pay for their health. I’m striking to prevent that, to prevent the government attacking the health service in the future.’
At Ealing Hospital, where junior doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket, workers spoke out in favour of an all-out general strike on the third junior doctors strike on February 10th. Bus driver and Unite member Sunny Patel said: ‘I support the junior doctors 100%. This government is taking liberties now in every way. A general strike to support them is what we need.’
Bus driver and Unite member Abdi Mohamed said: ‘I support everyone coming out on February 10th and I will fight for it at my garage. Everyone needs the National Health Service and the junior doctors are leading the fight to defend it.’
Striking junior doctor Sean Morris said: ‘Ealing Hospital must not close, or be downgraded, and maternity must be re-opened. There are three strike days and the duration and intensity will increase, the tube workers are taking strike action on our next strike date. This government is attacking public sector workers and everyone should take action to defend the Welfare State.’
Foodworker John Fernandez said: ‘My wife is a patient here, we need a general strike to win this fight.’ Striking doctor Alex Adams said: ‘The government are stretching the NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk, we must win this fight.’
Striking doctor Maira Hamed said: ‘Today’s action is not just for the junior doctors, it’s for the NHS as a whole and everyone should take action to defend it.’ Anna Martin, a GP who was coming in to provide emergency cover, stopped to drop off food at the picket line and said: ‘I’m so proud and with them 100%. This contract is incredibly unsafe and detrimental to patient care. I trained at Ealing Hospital and I feel particularly passionate about this hospital which is under threat. I support the call for a general strike on 10th February, it’s the only way to show we won’t accept what the government is doing.’
‘All anti-social hours payments are in jeopardy!’ Unison member Kirth Gerson, who works in Pathology, told News Line on the junior doctors picket of Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London. Unison and the NUT came down to join the junior doctors’ mass picket and to support their strike.
‘I am out here to support the junior doctors because they will be coming for us next,’ Gerson continued: ‘This is Agenda for Change. They want to extend our normal working hours from 6am until 10pm Monday to Sunday! This is why Unison have come down to the picket today and this is why there must be joint strike action.
‘They were going to build a new Pathology Lab at Homerton using a company called Longcross Construction. The contract went belly-up and is now in administration, the project has been abandoned. Private Canadian company Sonic Health Care now owns doctors’ laboratories within the NHS. They do tests for us here at Homerton and at the Royal Free in Hampstead and the UCLH in Euston.
‘The company want to introduce co-payment for the laboratory tests which would mean the patient would have to part pay for their own blood tests! This is totally unacceptable, the NHS must be free, we pay for it through our taxes anyway. We have to drive these private companies out of the NHS.’
Oliver Corke, of the NUT, who came down from Clapton Girls School to support the junior doctors said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the working conditions which uphold patient safety. That is why we support the strike. Patients need to be looked after and doctors need to be looked after as well.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, there was a mass picket with well over 50 supporters, members of other unions and junior doctors. Junior doctor Fiona Hansell said: ‘The massive support that we have had today just goes to show that we have gauged the mood very well. It is not just the medical unions that have come down to support us, but the non-medical unions are here as well. We have started the fight and the public will join the fight and so we have started a whole movement.’
Junior doctor Jessica Gale added: ‘The NHS staff are used to working in a multi-disciplinary fashion. We are all one NHS so we will all stand up for each other in support of the NHS. There has been no other option but to take strike action so that is what we are doing.’
Dr Hannah Marshal, working in Paediatrics, agreed. ‘This has been an absolutely last resort’ she said. We have to be united. This contract which the government is trying to impose on us is unsafe, it is not in the interests of patients, doctors or the NHS. Currently, if we work more than our rostered hours we flag it up and the Trust is fined. With the new contract this safeguard is removed.’
Aimay Mirdin, who is to become a Consultant in May, said: ‘I have been a junior doctor for the last 15 years. Essentially, I have been doing weekends and I have been doing nights. Junior doctors are the backbone of the NHS and a sure way to lose junior doctors is to make them work longer hours and to work harder. The number of times I have been on my fourth nightshift and I am so tired. I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel on my way home.’
There was a lively picket of junior doctors at Barnet Hospital. Dr Matteo De Martino, the BMA rep, told News Line: ‘I have been an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee doctor for four years and will be for a total of at least nine years. None of us wants to be here, it’s not something we feel 100% comfortable about but we recognise we have to do it.
‘If this contract is enforced then the only choice is to leave medicine or leave the country. No matter how much we love our job it is unfeasible and unsafe to provide a safe five-day, let alone seven-day service with extended hours, a 30% pay cut and no hours safeguards. The first line of attack is to drive doctors away, next create a vacuum for nurses and midwives by removing bursaries.
‘As the NHS becomes understaffed and overwhelmed the only workable option presented will be privatisation. It would be wonderful to have the support of other unions and many have already shown this.’
Simon Roth, a Consultant Paediatrician from the Baby Unit, came to give his support to the picket line. He told News Line. ‘I support the junior doctors’ action. The contract the government is seeking to impose is obscure and cynical, in keeping with their approach to undermining the NHS.’
Junior doctors held a very lively picket at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where passers-by queued to sign their petition of support. Junior doctor William Hall told News Line: ‘I never thought I would strike, I’ve just finished an 80-hour week, this is my day off but it is so important to be here.’ Another junior doctor, Laura McGowan, said: ‘We are being asked to compromise too much of patient safety with this imposed contract.''
''Patients are right behind us, everyone is stopping to sign our petition to show their support,’ said junior doctor Owen Dineen. ‘We also have a lot of junior doctors leafleting and meeting the public at South Kensington Tube station, he said.
Car horns beeped in support of the junior doctors picket line outside Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road. Desire Craneburough came to support the picket line and told News Line: ‘Junior doctors have been caring for patients since the start of the NHS and they’re not striking for money but for improved patient care.
‘They are here for us 365 days a year, day in day out, now I’m giving them my support. The Tories are breaking up the NHS with privatisation and we have to stop them.’
Doctors and supporters marched down Denmark Hill 50-strong, on the first day of the three days of strikes planned by the BMA to prevent Jeremy Hunt from imposing a contract which would destroy their conditions of work and the NHS.
Chris James, BMA Junior Doctors’ Representative at King’s College Hospital, said: ‘I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t come out on top in this struggle really. It’s a just cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for the future of the NHS. We are fighting against contracts that are unfair, unsafe and are starting to erode our NHS, which is free care for all and which is the right thing to happen.
‘We have the support of the public. They are behind us. We have to win this struggle, there isn’t any other option. The nurses are next. They led a magnificent march on Saturday, which I was at. The nurses are feeling it and I think that is going to filter through to the rest of the NHS as well.’
Asked if he thought that the rest of the unions should come out in a general strike in support of the junior doctors, James said: ‘I think if that is what it takes, and that is where it is going then “Yes”.’ Dr Fiona Humphries said: ‘We don’t want to strike for striking’s sake, but this government has shown its true colours, and that is something that we can’t stand for.
‘If that’s the route we have to go down ultimately – to essentially safeguard our society for future generations – then absolutely! We are here to fight contracts that are not safe and not fair. The government has got it wrong and has lost the trust of NHS employees.
‘We are here to protect the future of the NHS, because these contracts undermine the future of the NHS. I really hope Hunt capitulates. It is really sad that it has come to this that we have had to leave our patients’ in the capable hands of our consultants and come out here on strike. It’s a really difficult time’.
Dr Tom Pollak, Research Lecturer at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, which specialises in mental health, said: ‘I think this government has been showing a lot of disdain for the electorate, and the junior doctors contract is just one of the ways they have done that.’
Dr Roxanne Keynejad, also out on the picket line added: ‘We are all junior doctors employed by south London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We are all trainee psychiatrists and we, as one profession, are striking on a mandate by the whole junior doctor community in England over the contract that is threatened to be imposed on us in August of this year which is unsafe and unfair for patients.’
Pickets were out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where banners were brought by Wandsworth NUT and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Junior doctors went out to campaign at Tooting Broadway underground station where they received overwhelming support.
Dr Sophie Herbert told News Line: ‘We are here because the government has ignored what we have said in negotiations and are threatening to impose a dangerous contract on us. We are understaffed and overworked and are already at breaking point.
‘I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I fought to save the NHS. Joanne Harris, Unite Branch Secretary at Putney Bus Garage, who was there in support, told News Line: ‘Doctors deserve every bit of support they can get. The way the government is threatening them is appalling. The government has created this problem but then blames people when they go on strike.’
At St Thomas Hospital, by Westminster Bridge, there were 200 people picketing. A delegation of Nursing and Midwife students were there from Kings College. Mary Brown, a nursing student, told News Line: ‘We are here because we support the junior doctors. They have been very supportive of us in our struggles and, as professionals, we all work together.’ Dan Langley, another student, said: ‘If the Tories can upset some of the most conservative workers in the country, hopefully it will inspire others to fight against Tory austerity.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow there were 200 junior doctors on the picket lines.
Dr Attia Rehman said: ‘This new contract is completely unfair. If I was to do an on-call shift, I would get unsocial hours pay, but now they are treating it as an ordinary day which will mean a huge pay cut.’
Alex Thomson, a Northwick Park consultant, came to join the picket line. ‘I am fully behind the junior doctors. We also have a problem with our contract and the offer is going to a vote of the consultants. The future of the NHS is at stake.’
At North Middlesex Hospial about 40 docors and supporters picketed, and local junior doctor Jason said: ‘This is the first strike in 40 years, and of course doctors come from all political parties, and 98% of tens of thousands of doctors voted for this action. The contract on offer is unfair for doctors because it is asking them to work more unsocial hours for less pay, and it’s unfair for patients and public because the safeguards that stop us working long hours are being eroded. With the support of the public we will win!’
"Hello, I'm online?"
"Yes, go on!"
"...Ok...Hello and welcome back to Space-News! Here you can see our latest aquisition from the Federation. They send us two brand-new ships to explore the Universe of the floating Rocks we have entered last week. I have no idea how we send this ships through the Secret Transmitter but hey - they are looking dam cool!!!"
"More news about the Spacemen here on Classic Space Channel 47-WW486"
Secret Transmitter:
www.flickr.com/photos/toechsner/3183864559/in/set-7215760...
Universe of the floating Rocks:
www.flickr.com/photos/toechsner/3324401653/in/set-7215760...
I have overworked my Classic Space LL0812-10 Heavy Interceptor (no grey mix-up) and have changed the backside and the engine section. The arm and the rockets also brand-new. The biggest change to the old version was the adding of a tripple gun on the right side of the ship.
Old version:
www.flickr.com/photos/toechsner/3098991167/in/set-7215760...
Celebrating 30 Years of Classic Space in March - more info here:
Koala named Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey)
Sheep friend Eddie Noodleman (John C. Reilly)
Overworked pig named Rosita (Reese Witherspoon)
White mouse named Mike (Seth MacFarlane),
A punk-rock porcupine named Ash (Scarlett Johansson),
A timid teenage elephant named Meena (Tori Kelly),
British gorilla named Johnny (Taron Egerton),
Matilda Crawly ( Garth Jennings ), an elderly green iguana
My girlfriend and I had a delightful holiday dinner and discussions on all kinds of subjects. We talk about fashion, art, music, history, politics, travel, science, industry, food, and a host of other things that interest us. The tone of our discussions can be technical, serious, or downright silly.
The End Gun Violence sticker is one I got from Move On.org. The Santa Fe High School shooting took place May 18, 2018, just over a week before. I went to school in Alvin, a few miles to the west of there during the mid 1960's and again in the mid 1970's. There is no town called Santa Fe, Texas, but the small towns of Algoa, Alta Loma, and Hitchcock along the Santa Fe Railway west of Galveston have a consolidated school system by that name.
People in the Coastal Plains grow rice, raise cattle, or work in the many petrochemical plants in the area. Ground subsidence from pumping out oil and storm surge from hurricanes are major problems as is the nasty air and water pollution from the chemical plants. People who live downwind of the petrochemical plants have high cancer, respiratory illness, and learning disability rates. Sub-urban sprawl from Houston has encroached on a lot of the good rice farmland and coastal grasslands, and Hurricane Harvey proved in 2017 that a good bit of the land is vulnerable to flooding and should never have been built on. Many people keep guns for hunting game or shooting large, invasive coypu rats, alligators, rattlesnakes, water mocassins, and coyotes. All too many adults fail in their duty to keep their guns locked up and out of reach from their children. So far, this is the 22nd school shooting this year, and most RepUGLYcan politicians are trying to sweep it under the rug with nonsense about the design of school entrances and the supposed need to arm our underpaid, overworked teachers.
Thrash being the operative word. I rode this from Wolverhampton to Dudley on the 82 route, and it stayed in first gear all the way! The overworked engine made for a pleasantly warm journey on the back seat though!
sleep deprivation, an empty stomach, an open parking garage, and my Canon AE-1 in my Jansport backpack all somehow all came together to inspire this shot....
I don't know. A bit weird even for me.
It's been about a month now since I took it, never thinking it would make the "flickr grade"
but here I am.....
sleep deprived, a bit overworked, no film in my camera, and at a loss for what to post.
Here's a view of the sunset seen just over the tree line on Malloy Bridge Road near Seagoville, Tx. All along Malloy Bridge Road there are acres of farmland. This was a ploughed field covered in a rich, dark top soil. It made a wonderful contrast to the brightly lit sky. Texas sunsets are spectacular, and you can watch them every night and never see exact same thing twice!
When painting skies of any kind I find it useful to premix several colors on my palette. For this painting I mixed a few greenish blues, several tints of yellows, oranges, and reds, and a couple of violets. I like to start with a simple drawing indicating the horizon line and basic cloud formation. I started by loosely laying in the blues of the sky around the clouds. I tend to work towards the middle values initially, so I painted the dark tree line and stronger values of the clouds next. I finished with the vivid yellows and oranges and the small semi-cirle of almost-white for the sun. I touched up a few edges and a couple of highlights on the ground, but I didn't want to overwork this one. I like the loose and quick feeling of this painting. It's kind of like watching the sky itself. Everything seems to be constantly in motion.
This painting is 8" x 10" and is oil on canvas. Please visit paintdailytexas.blogspot.com or www.marknesmith.com to view more of my work.
This is kind of a late entry. But the way my work shifts have been running, my days are all blending together.
This photo reflects the overworked feeling that this morning brings.
Grave of Amasa Stone Mather at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland Ohio. He died of pneumonia from overwork.
He was the son of Flora Stone Mather, daughter of Amasa Stone -- the richest man in Cleveland and a railroader, bridge builder, investor, and presidential advisor. Amasa Stone Mather's father was Samuel Livingston Mather, Jr. (1851-1931), who founded the mining and shipping company of Pickands Mather.
His grandfather was Samuel Livingston Mather, Sr. (1817-1890), who moved to Cleveland in 1843 and later founded the Cleveland Iron Mining Company (later Cleveland-Cliffs). His great-grandfather was Samuel Mather, Jr. (1771-1854), who was a shareholder of the Connecticut Land Company. This is the company which controlled the Western Reserve (northeast Ohio), of which Cleveland was part. His great-great grandfather was Samuel Mather, Sr. (1745-1809), who was a member of the original board of directors of the Connecticut Land Company.
Published on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 by The Guardian/UK
Avatar and the Genocides We Will Not See
Cameron's blockbuster half-tells a story we would all prefer to forget
by George Monbiot
Avatar, James Cameron's blockbusting 3-D film, is both profoundly silly and profound. It's profound because, like most films about aliens, it is a metaphor for contact between different human cultures. But in this case the metaphor is conscious and precise: this is the story of European engagement with the native peoples of the Americas. It's profoundly silly because engineering a happy ending demands a plot so stupid and predictable that it rips the heart out of the film. The fate of the native Americans is much closer to the story told in another new film, The Road, in which a remnant population flees in terror as it is hunted to extinction.
But this is a story no one wants to hear, because of the challenge it presents to the way we choose to see ourselves. Europe was massively enriched by the genocides in the Americas; the American nations were founded on them. This is a history we cannot accept.
In his book American Holocaust, the US scholar David Stannard documents the greatest acts of genocide the world has ever experienced(1). In 1492, some 100m native peoples lived in the Americas. By the end of the 19th Century almost all of them had been exterminated. Many died as a result of disease. But the mass extinction was also engineered.
When the Spanish arrived in the Americas, they described a world which could scarcely have been more different from their own. Europe was ravaged by war, oppression, slavery, fanaticism, disease and starvation. The populations they encountered were healthy, well-nourished and mostly (with exceptions like the Aztecs and Incas) peacable, democratic and egalitarian. Throughout the Americas the earliest explorers, including Columbus, remarked on the natives' extraordinary hospitality. The conquistadores marvelled at the amazing roads, canals, buildings and art they found, which in some cases outstripped anything they had seen at home. None of this stopped them from destroying everything and everyone they encountered.
The butchery began with Columbus. He slaughtered the native people of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) by unimaginably brutal means. His soldiers tore babies from their mothers and dashed their heads against rocks. They fed their dogs on living children. On one occasion they hung 13 Indians in honour of Christ and the 12 disciples, on a gibbet just low enough for their toes to touch the ground, then disembowelled them and burnt them alive. Columbus ordered all the native people to deliver a certain amount of gold every three months; anyone who failed had his hands cut off. By 1535 the native population of Hispaniola had fallen from 8m to zero: partly as a result of disease, partly as a result of murder, overwork and starvation.
The conquistadores spread this civilising mission across central and south America. When they failed to reveal where their mythical treasures were hidden, the indigenous people were flogged, hanged, drowned, dismembered, ripped apart by dogs, buried alive or burnt. The soldiers cut off women's breasts, sent people back to their villages with their severed hands and noses hung round their necks and hunted Indians with their dogs for sport. But most were killed by enslavement and disease. The Spanish discovered that it was cheaper to work Indians to death and replace them than to keep them alive: the life expectancy in their mines and plantations was three to four months. Within a century of their arrival, around 95% of the population of South and Central America had been destroyed.
In California during the 18th Century the Spanish systematised this extermination. A Franciscan missionary called Junipero Serra set up a series of "missions": in reality concentration camps using slave labour. The native people were herded in under force of arms and made to work in the fields on one fifth of the calories fed to African-American slaves in the 19th century. They died from overwork, starvation and disease at astonishing rates, and were continually replaced, wiping out the indigenous populations. Junipero Serra, the Eichmann of California, was beatified by the Vatican in 1988. He now requires one more miracle to be pronounced a saint(2).
While the Spanish were mostly driven by the lust for gold, the British who colonised North America wanted land. In New England they surrounded the villages of the native Americans and murdered them as they slept. As genocide spread westwards, it was endorsed at the highest levels. George Washington ordered the total destruction of the homes and land of the Iroquois. Thomas Jefferson declared that his nation's wars with the Indians should be pursued until each tribe "is exterminated or is driven beyond the Mississippi". During the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, troops in Colorado slaughtered unarmed people gathered under a flag of peace, killing children and babies, mutilating all the corpses and keeping their victims' genitals to use as tobacco pouches or to wear on their hats. Theodore Roosevelt called this event "as rightful and beneficial a deed as ever took place on the frontier."
The butchery hasn't yet ended: last month the Guardian reported that Brazilian ranchers in the western Amazon, having slaughtered all the rest, tried to kill the last surviving member of a forest tribe(3). Yet the greatest acts of genocide in history scarcely ruffle our collective conscience. Perhaps this is what would have happened had the Nazis won the second world war: the Holocaust would have been denied, excused or minimised in the same way, even as it continued. The people of the nations responsible - Spain, Britain, the US and others - will tolerate no comparisons, but the final solutions pursued in the Americas were far more successful. Those who commissioned or endorsed them remain national or religious heroes. Those who seek to prompt our memories are ignored or condemned.
This is why the right hates Avatar. In the neocon Weekly Standard, John Podhoretz complains that the film resembles a "revisionist western" in which "the Indians became the good guys and the Americans the bad guys."(4) He says it asks the audience "to root for the defeat of American soldiers at the hands of an insurgency." Insurgency is an interesting word for an attempt to resist invasion: insurgent, like savage, is what you call someone who has something you want. L'Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Vatican, condemned the film as "just ... an anti-imperialistic, anti-militaristic parable"(5).
But at least the right knows what it is attacking. In the New York Times the liberal critic Adam Cohen praises Avatar for championing the need to see clearly(6). It reveals, he says, "a well-known principle of totalitarianism and genocide - that it is easiest to oppress those we cannot see". But in a marvellous unconscious irony, he bypasses the crashingly obvious metaphor and talks instead about the light it casts on Nazi and Soviet atrocities. We have all become skilled in the art of not seeing.
I agree with its rightwing critics that Avatar is crass, mawkish and cliched. But it speaks of a truth more important - and more dangerous - than those contained in a thousand arthouse movies.
Notes:
1. David E Stannard, 1992. American Holocaust. Oxford University Press. Unless stated otherwise, all the historical events mentioned in this column are sourced to the same book.
2. www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-miracle28-2009aug28,0,28...
3. www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/09/amazon-man-in-hole-a...
4. www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/01...
5. www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2802155/Vatican-hits-o...
6. www.nytimes.com/2009/12/26/opinion/26sat4.html
© 2010 Guardian News and Media Limited
George Monbiot is the author of the best selling books The Age of Consent: a manifesto for a new world order and Captive State: the corporate takeover of Britain. He writes a weekly column for the Guardian newspaper. Visit his website at www.monbiot.com
Another local scene that I get to take in everyday, well every day that I need to leave the house- LOL.
This is right behind the Post Office, and this shot was taken from the Post Office parking lot. Today was cloudy, windy and overall just plain BLAH. But I couldn't resist getting a shot of this and playing (heavily) with it in Photoshop. That is the one thing that I love about this season, overworked imaged are okay, well in my book. LOL!!
Rasa, me & mum. the family was part of the contingent of "Beautiful Balts" the then immigration minister Arthur Calwell encouraged to come to Australia, believing that the fair-haired, blue-eyed foreigners would be less likely to raise the anxiety level of the locals than more swarthy types. in general, the Zizis family experienced kindness and support, and i in particular remember my 5 years of childhood in Sale as the most idyllic time of my life. the photo, one of only two on the ship, is more damaged than me memory. what a shame that the many photos my dad took on the journey on the ship, of Napoli & Bagnoli beforehand, & of the Bathurst reception camp afterwards were, as he discovered when he tried to develop them later, done on defective film acquired in Napoli. nearly all had to be discarded. i have a clear memory of us boarding the ship moored @ the left side, as you look out to sea, of the main international pier in Napoli. for the following i'm relying on www.naa.gov.au/collection/search/: the 'Amarapoora' departed Naples on 5/9/49 (not long after i turned 8) and arrived in Sydney on 20/10/45 (just before my sister, Rasa, turned 6). it was carrying 598 DPs from all over europe (18 were disembarked @ Port Said & Colombo for medical reasons; also, i remember, the 'burial @ sea', which i find confirmed in the record, of Kristina Adamaitys, aged 19 months). "All other passengers proceeded to the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst per special trains which departed from No 13 Wharf, Pyrmont at 11pm and midnight [i have a clear memory of the night train trip through many tunnels before i fell asleep]". interestingly (probably only for me!), checking through the Amarapoora's passenger list (on another website) i find there were two other passengers aboard with the family name 'Zizis' - but they were greeks. it explains why greeks have a habit of claiming, knowing better than i do, that my name is of greek origin (for fuller explanation see @ flic.kr/p/8N6Xyk). on my certificate of australian citizenship which i applied for in 2003 my name is given as Arunas Zizis "I, the Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural affairs, hereby declare that the above named is an Australian citizen and that citizenship was acquired on 1st January 1984." i had required this document to renew my litho citizenship. now, i gather, my Oz citizenship can be revoked without my prior knowledge by Minister Dutton, should i be deemed to have misbehaved - ah well, par for the course, the jesuits pulled a stunt like so on me years ago @ flic.kr/p/8NnQ7Y. for the following i'm dependent on trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper. but first i note that despite it being almost impossible not to find evidence of yourself in the Trove collection now that it has been completed up to 2006 neither of the two other Zizis' have made it into there. they must have led very quiet lives seeing as Trove is a great way of checking whether your parents, grandparents, neighbours, or anyone else of interest to you has ever been newsworthy enough to make it into the press, however local. juicy court cases, a staple of the press, provide particularly rich grounds to mine for information. search a few names you know - you'll be surprised whose made the cut in small country courts in the regional rags; or in the major city ones for that. you have to have been almost invisible not to be in there somewhere. & @ this point i challenge the person in my own street who said to me "ah, so you've done time" to find evidence of it. i note, in the "Argus" (2nd Feb 1955) my father, calling himself "Simonas Zizis", lodged an intention to apply for citizenship. my mum makes it into the "Gippsland Times" (Thursday 5/11/53, page 6) for membership of a forum in "The New Settler" festival: "The main idea of the festival is to show old Australians something about the countries from which European migrants have come". quite a few things are reported re our family in the Gippsland Times that year. my sister Rasa (spelt "Rasa Zazis"), boarding @ the Notre Dame de Sion Convent school (@ flic.kr/p/8NmR4Y), won the grade 5 'Dr Ryan's prize' for Christian Doctrine (@ flic.kr/p/8NixER); also she got a credit for First Grade piano; i got a credit for Second Grade piano; "a daughter arrived at the Gippsland Hospital for Mr. and Mrs. S. Zizis of York street [Sale. presumably Egle hadn't been named yet]". now fast forward to The Biz, (Fairfield, NSW : 1928 - 1972), 21/1/71, page 2 where there is a very leggy full length shot of my youngest sister described as "Lithesome Egle Zizys (17). snapped by Richard Piorkowski at Merrylands last week is a star member of a Lithuanian dance group. Away from that, she likes reading and poetry and she wants to become a journalist [her son, Matt, now edits a paper in Alice Springs]. She has also written children's books [news to me!]." & you thought some things, e.g. your bank account number, are private......dream on. there are scores of perfectly legal sites, not to speak of the 'dark web', illegal access, authorised access by a variety of agencies, where your info can be browsed from an ordinary home computer. for some prison records you may need to go 'on location' but. finally, let's return via this circuitous path, to the photo above. i remember, with a kind of crystal clarity, the day we steamed through the Sydney heads. i don't remember what is obviously the stiff breeze evident in the photo. i spent most of the passage up the harbour on the opposite, port side, of the Amarapoora staring at mile after mile of red roofed houses passing by along the shore. it was the middle of a brilliant day without a cloud in the azure sky. next i remember pulling into the pier and people on the ship looking down from the rail at the greeting party of compatriots and some relatives waiting below. someone next to me remarked how healthy they looked....next memory is from the train in the middle of the night on the way to Bathurst. the only other photo on the Amarapoora is @ flic.kr/p/8NaYM4
*************
1/4/21. yesterday got this email from me sister Egle:
"Hi Arunas and Helen
I might have mentioned that in 2008 Mum wrote a memory manuscript for Matt [me journo nephew with the ABC in Darwin] about the first year in Australia - a kind of Elena's Journey 2 [or u could title it "Getting Established"]. Last year I transcribed the text (with a light edit) and gave it to Matt for a final polish and to decide what he wanted to do with it. This is still to be done, but in the meantime I thought you might be interested.
Much of the detail you have both read before in other texts, but some is new.
I forward it to you now as is.
see you both soon
love
E
Egle Garrick"
***********
the manuscript: -
"Elena’s Journey part 2"
1949-1951
ELENA JONAITIS
Sydney, 2008
INTRODUCTION (undated)
BATHURST
1.
October, 1949
‘Mum, do you know where we are going?’ asked my eight- year old son Arūnas looking from the slow train window at wide, sun-burnt slopes.
‘No, I don’t know,’ I answered somewhat impatiently and Vytautas, my husband, hastened to supply the required information:
‘It’s to a place called Bathurst’.
‘Is that a town?’
‘Yes, it is.’
‘It doesn’t look that this train is going to a town!’ chirped out not quite six-year old Rasa gazing at the huge shining emptiness through which we were travelling.
Our family of four was amongst six hundred other East-European newcomers to Australia who had landed in Sydney the previous day and now were being taken to the newly established migrant reception centre in Bathurst, New South Wales. The ship “Amarapoora” which had brought us from Naples had taken six weeks for the voyage, so the travellers had had time not only to relax after five post-war years spent in various camps in Germany, but also to be introduced to the country where we were going to settle. There were daily lessons of English for adults and for the children, lectures, talks, films, singing sessions, books, newspapers, all intended to provide information about Australia and to what the accompanying migration officers called ‘the Australian way of life’. Most people were anxious to absorb as much of it as possible, although the lack of English language made it difficult for many, and there were not enough people on board capable of interpreting.
As during the time in displaced persons’ camps in Germany, people of different nationalities on board this British ship tried to stay together in their own national groups. The majority were Balts: Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians. They organised activities in their own languages, produced news bulletins, staged concerts and sports’ competitions. Did we need to reassure ourselves that now with all the preparations for a very new and different existence we could preserve something of our fundamental values?
Our family, the Lithuanian Žižys (Ed‘s note – in English ‘Zizys’), could not participate in all these common activities. Vytautas was kept busy in other ways. He was one of those who could speak English, so was placed on a list of interpreters and was being called upon by the Australian officers any time language help was needed. He quite enjoyed it and felt that it was useful for some future occupation in the new country. He could find out for himself all the information provided in talks and lessons that he missed while interpreting for others.
I was sick during most of the journey. It was not sea-sickness but frequent debilitating attacks of pain in my side and back which started towards the end of our unexpected four months’ stay in Italy. We had left Germany as a family of five with our baby Saulutis who was born in Stuttgart. He was a big, healthy baby whom the health commission allowed to travel without raising any concerns. We left Stuttgart by train to go to Naples and expected after a day or two to board a ship to Australia. On arrival in Italy, however, we were told that the ship had been delayed and that we would have to wait a few weeks in a transit camp in Bagnoli near Naples. After four weeks of waiting, the Italian summer heat set in. Saulutis became sick. We could not leave and stayed in Bagnoli another desperate three months battling with supervisors, doctors, hospital authorities. There was no help for the baby: at first the official camp doctors refused to believe he was sick. When, at last he was sent to one city hospital and then to another, it was too late and he could not be saved.
Three days after Saulutis’ funeral, we had to board the ship and leave. During the whole voyage wherever my glance turned, I saw my dying baby’s small fleshless face with his parched mouth and enormous eyes, imploring, accusing. Every night, if I managed to fall asleep, I would be awakened by the sound of his exhausted painful crying, just like I heard him cry in those dreadful last days of his brief life.
So I could not be a fit traveller, or a member of society, or even a member of my own family. I spent long days on my bunk in the women and children’s dormitory below decks, mostly doubled in pain, ignoring the ship’s and my family’s activities. Vytautas was patient and understanding. Other travellers helped look after the children when such help was needed. Only towards the end of the voyage did I manage to get up, re-join the others and prepare for disembarking.
BATHURST
Bathurst migrant reception centre was a collection of close-standing identical wooden barracks with corrugated iron roofs. They were built in the middle of a great yellow plain bordered on the horizon by a chain of rounded hills. Coming by bus from the Bathurst railway station the newcomers wondered at the surprising colour of the landscape: there were no greens under the radiant blue sky. On both sides of the road the tall grass of the fields was pale yellow turning in the distance to white. The few isolated trees here and there looked mere outlines marked in grey and brown. For the greater part of the journey no human habitation could be seen. When the cluster of the roofs of the migrant centre came into view, they looked like an uninhabited island in a shining white sea, its ripples of pale gold the only movement.
TEXT ENDS HERE
NEXT PART, written 2008
1950
It was the first day of school in Sale’s school of Notre Dame de Sion. In fact it was not the first school day for all, only for the teachers and boarders arriving from outside town. The day pupils would all come tomorrow. I was introduced to the other teachers and the nuns. I had a talk with the Principal – Reverend Mother Julian. My teaching load would be forty periods a week, plus some boarders’ supervision in the evenings. It would be mostly French as the convent belonged to a French order. Besides French I was going to take some classes in…Needlework (everybody can do a little embroidery and such) and a class or two of…History!! Seeing my fright, Rev. Mother suggested postponing that for some weeks until my English became more fluent. Instead I was to go to Rev. Mother to practice in French conversation with her - which she was using with me until now anyway. I was to have lunch at the convent with Miss Daly, the other lay teacher. Seeing that my little son would be going to the public Catholic school at the other end of the town he’d take a cut lunch and his main meal would be kept warm from our lunch when he came back from school. Little Rasa would be a boarder like others here. Already she seemed happily absorbed by a group of other little girls, already dressed in uniform and happy with the world and herself. Poor child. I just had a glimpse of her with the others in the corridor. Smile on her dear little face, she gave me a little wave from the distance. I wonder how she would communicate in these early days? Arūnas would find it much harder to adjust all alone in a strange place and further away from me. As in general, it was very, very difficult to find a place to live in, Rev. Mother would let me have one of the little cottages belonging to the convent, just across the road. One of them was lived in by two Irish ladies, great friends of the convent: a Mrs Connelly and Sister (nursing sister, that is) McGregor, the other one would be ours. It had been used for storage for several years, so it wasn’t quite liveable yet. Some senior girls, who arrived a few days earlier, were given the task to clear and clean the cottage and to make it as presentable as possible. They promised to have it ready for next week. Meanwhile Arūnas and I would continue staying with the Henneberrys practically next door to St Mary’s, Arunas’ school. Rasa, as a boarder, would sleep at the school.
So, our settling in was all arranged. Rev. Mother had thought of everything. No, not quite yet. After inquiring after my husband and hearing that he had to stay in Bathurst, busily occupied interpreting for other new arrivals, Rev. Mother after a brief moment, suggested: ‘A little later, when the beginning of the school year is sorted out, I’ll speak to one of our pupil’s fathers who is an influential man here, to look into your situation and see how to get your husband to Sale on his company work contract.’
Now, that really was everything. We were surrounded by kindness from all sides. Almost drowning in it…Will my teaching repay it all? Will I manage to teach?
A moment by myself in the teachers’ room. It is on the second floor and looks out onto the back playground. It is quite a large area, but the playground is not big: it is a round cleared area, surrounded by decorative plants, opening onto a wide shaded avenue, with great trees on both sides, wide reaching branches meeting overhead, making a living green roof for people below. Beyond the avenue and on its both sides stretch the convent’s orchard and its kitchen garden. At the moment several small groups of little girls can be seen in the playground and the avenue. They seem to be talking or playing gentle games. All are in uniform. All black but bright blue play tunics over them, all looking very neat and very prim. A young sweet-faced nun stands in the shadowy opening of the avenue, obviously supervising the pupils.
A calm, peaceful scene with no marks of any past storms or wars, many miles away from wrecked Europe lying in ruins, licking its wounds.
Can it be real. Can it last? Will the past be forgotten, or completely ignored? Can strangers be accepted here and feel part of the peaceful scene.
After school, Arūnas was very quiet. Asked how the first day went he answered with one word (in Lithuanian of course): ‘all right, good’ and a little shrug as if there was nothing to be said about it, as if it was unavoidable and therefore has to be accepted. Only later, when he was ready to go to bed, he said: ‘I wonder what Dad is doing now? I wonder’…
Before meeting the classes, the Rev. Mother raised another problem: what would the pupils call me? My surname will be too difficult for them to pronounce with two ‘Z’s’ and a ‘Y’. Would I mind if they simply called me ‘Madame’? So let me be Madame. For the five years that we lived in Sale, I was ‘Madame’ not only for the pupils and teachers at school but also in the town at large.
When tall, straight Rev. Mother walked along the long, wide corridor, she never had to raise her hand to open the double doors in several places dividing the corridor into sections and she never slowed her pace. There were always two girls, each on either side of the door expertly curtseying and opening each wing of the door. Rev. Mother passed through without a glance at the girls and without a change of expression. It looked as if the doors just open automatically at her approach.
When Rev. Mother for some reason entered a class-room the girls rose in perfect unison, like a regiment of soldiers at attention before a general. Such was the discipline in the school intended for the daughters of well-to-do families of the town and especially of the wealthy farmers of the large properties widely scattered in the countryside.
Local papers describing some social event liked to mention: ‘Miss So-and-So, a former pupil of Notre Dame’, or: ‘Miss So-and-So, educated at Sale Notre Dame school…’ The level of that education or the results achieved never got a mention.
1950
Rev. Mother herself took me to each class where I was to teach: middle-sized to large junior classes, small senior classes, Matriculation French class – nine girls. Every class presented the same scene: perfectly uniformed girls standing by their desks without a sound or a whisper, replying in chorus to Rev. Mother’s greeting, remaining standing until after some words of introduction about myself, she invited them to sit down and turn their attention to me. They must have been told about the new teacher, for after my standard ‘Bonjour, mademoiselles’, the prefect chorus answered: ‘Bonjour, Madame’. A few more words in French from Rev. Mother and then she left the classroom. All eyes on me – sink or swim. Of course I had planned and memorised some words and phrases for the pupils to repeat, copy, illustrate (for juniors and a little fuller conversations for seniors), I was not at all sure that they were suitable and appropriate. However the attention did not seem to lessen to the end of each lesson. Or was it their well-schooled manners? There was no sign of protest. The girls, sitting in their desks straight-backed, hands joined on the desk, eyes on me, not showing any animosity, making an effort to understand, to repeat or answer what was asked. When the bell went at the end of the period, the pupils didn’t rush from the room, but continued sitting, only indicating that they were waiting for the teacher’s permission to stand and file out.
Of course, of course, that sort of perfect behaviour could not last forever and even would not be natural for children of their age. But what an unforgettable first day of school! Despite all my inadequacies, what a gift of sympathy, attention and friendliness!
1950
The Cottage
The senior girls had finished the task of preparing our new home. I was given the keys and accompanied by a nun went across the road to see it. From the street, the cottage was hidden from view by some trees, especially a huge old acacia, covered in white blooms, growing in the centre of the block. A long path (probably be newly swept) led to the cottage which looked very small amongst all the greenery. On one side, parallel to it, stood its twin – another cottage, looking exactly the same but somehow different, perhaps wearing a brighter coat – newly painted? On the other side a small shed and a large bare field beyond.
“That used to belong to the convent, but was sold a few years ago” explains the accompanying nun seeing me looking at the field. At a glance I see at some distance, a lone big gum tree. The nun, noticing my look, continues with her explanation; “This old tree is good for wood. Mrs Connelly and Sister McGregor use it for their fireplace. You probably will want to follow their example. Plenty of dead branches, excellent for fires.”
Stepping inside we stopped to take in the place.
It was shiny! Whitewashed walls, dark furniture shining with polish. That’s what the girls were doing here - making it not only liveable, but inviting and welcoming. A huge fireplace by the side wall, a door to the next room which was the main bedroom. All fully furnished: the sitting room had a big table in the middle with six chairs with straight backs around it. Obviously old convent furniture. A cross above the fireplace. In the next room two beds, similar to the boarders’ beds in the convent, all fully made-up with mattresses, blankets, pillows, white well pressed sheets. Above the beds there was a little framed picture of the Madonna. At the end of the room a wardrobe and a chest of drawers. Like the things in the main room: all of heavy, dark and now highly polished wood. No mirrors, same as the convent.
The sitting and bedroom made up half the cottage. The next half was also two rooms of similar size. The first was the kitchen. A wood burning stove instead of the open fireplace in the first room, a small table, a few stools, a tap with a hand basin, next to the smallish window looking out onto the backyard. On the other side of the window – there was an ice-chest. On the second wall a long shelf with crockery and cutlery already filled. Nothing forgotten!
On to the last room – a second bedroom with bunk beds and a small chest of drawers. The toilet was outside, and there was supposed to be a shower in the laundry, also outside. I could hardly take it all in. I was delighted. Our first home in Australia!
When Arūnas saw the place in the afternoon he too was delighted: not a camp, not a dormitory. This was a real house, a home! “Who is going to live with us?” he asked as if there was too much space for one family. “Well, you’ll have to share your room with Rasa when she comes for the weekends and the holidays”. That suited him as they never been separated. “And Dad will share with you when he comes, won’t he?” – “Of course,” I answer, not all that sure at all. Goodness knows where Vytautas would be sent for his contract work.
When Rasa saw the place she loved it too although not to the point of not wanting to go back to the dormitory with all the other little girls. A little later, when all the nuns knew about our arrangements, they would allow her to cross the road and come ‘home’ for the night.
We all loved the place despite some short-comings, mainly the absence of washing facilities. The laundry was supposed to serve as laundry and bathroom. The rusty tub was not connected to any heating and had been used for storing wood. The shower had only cold water. Bed linen had to be laundered in the convent’s laundry at agreed times, small things had to be washed by hand. The big fireplace in the house and the cooking stove were, at least for me, hard to light, so were not much used at all except in winter, when cutting winds from the Antarctic blew into Sale and it could be very cold. Still we did not worry about any of it at all. We loved the cottage and the lovely shaded block on which it stood, where the children could run around and play, where I could set up a garden and grow vegetables and a few flowers….hopefully there would be some free time?
1950
Classes
The last time I had faced a class of children or adolescents was in 1941 in Šiauliai, ten years ago. All my prior teaching experience had been two years earlier: 1939-40 in Pasvalys H.S. and 1940-41 in Šiauliai H.S. There I had been a totally unprepared temporary teacher with no plans of making school teaching my permanent vocation. Nor did I have any professional training. I had been good at languages at school, but then I had been good at most other subjects, especially maths. At that time I didn’t have any definite future plans, although in the family there was never any doubt of me and my two younger brothers undertaking tertiary education – that was a given. After high school (Aušra H.S. in Kaunas) I had enrolled in Kaunas University, Faculty of Arts and was still debating what subjects to choose when the results of an Alliance Francaise competition which I had participated in during the last school holidays came through and I won first prize: a course of French at the Sorbonne University in France.
Of course I had to go Paris, forgetting any other possible studies. Two years later, in 1939, I had completed the course set by Alliance Francaise and graduated with a ‘’Diplome de Preparation de Professeurs de Francais a l’Etranger’’ (Ed: Diploma for teachers of French as a foreign language). I had also done half of the course (Bachelier des Lettres) for a B.A. degree studying French literature and philology. Feeling pleased with myself I decided to go home to Kaunas for summer holidays. It was during these holidays that Germany invaded Poland and the second World War started. The northern and western borders of Lithuania closed. I was stuck at home.
Many other things happened at this time and I did not worry about being ‘temporarily’ unable to return to Paris. To fill in time ‘until the madness blows over’ I was offered a temporary teaching job in the country in Pasvalys. Now, all these years later, I was to resume it in Sale.
A newcomer stepping into an assembly of unfamiliar people may feel apprehensive. In those days long ago of my early teaching I always feared meeting my new class. Here though I had already been formally introduced to all classes, the next morning waiting in the corridor for the bell to go, I felt choked with dread. Not only was I totally unprepared, not really knowing what I was expected to do and how to behave in my only shabby, home-made dress and worn sandals on bare feet, but there before me was an enormous, perhaps insurmountable obstacle – my inability to speak everybody’s common language. I had already accumulated some elementary knowledge of words and structures on paper and perhaps would manage to make up little sentences but it was doubtful that anyone would understand my pronunciation of them. And probably, more importantly I could not understand what other people were saying.
I would have to rely on my still fluent French, but would the children tolerate it?
They did. Gracefully, beautifully. With the seniors, who had been very well taught by old Sister Eleanor, simple conversations could be held from the first day and then quickly grew more fluent and complicated.
In the junior classes I tried to talk all the time: gesticulating, indicating, grimacing. The children, baffled but curious, watched in silence. Very soon, though, here and there, lips could be seen moving in repetition of an understood or guessed word or expression.
Imperceptibly the routine began to change, loud repetition was introduced, co-operation started, a little dialogue introduced. As days and weeks went by, silent curiosity was replaced by lively participation, enjoyment, little games, bits of songs (the eternal “Frere Jacques”), and all the time the dear little girls did not abandon their perfect good manners and their patient generosity.
It was very hard work which exhausted me like heavy labour, I never stopped still for a moment even though I was still recovering from a major operation, never having a free period or coming home without school work. But – I was happy. I did love those children.
The pupils were learning and so was the teacher. I cannot exactly remember when I started speaking a sort of English. Very early, I think. I was surrounded by it all the time in the convent. Only Reverend Mother and old Sister Eleanor who was the only other teacher of French at the school (not French herself though) spoke to me in French. I shared the music room at school, which was allocated to us as our teachers’ room and where we had lunch and a corner desk to keep our things in, with Sheila. Sheila was an English, History and Geography teacher and was about my age. She was a devout Catholic and a former nun. She didn’t know any French, so from the first day spending lunch time together, we had to find ways to communicate somehow. At first it was only Sheila doing the talking with me only smiling, nodding, trying to understand, pretending to understand, nodding more, often at the wrong times. Dear old Sister Brigidene looking after us and serving lunch (always on a beautifully set table with a white starched tablecloth and with a little bouquet of flowers or greenery in a vase in the middle of the table which was freshly cut every day) loved to talk and reminisce about Ireland and daily asked for our news. I had to find some elementary words to reply to her. And of course, as I did with everybody out of school, the elderly ladies, Friends of the Convent, whom Rev. Mother had asked to look after us and who did it faithfully. In short, everybody around us was Australian and spoke English. By and by, I had to pick it up and did. At first it must have been a great source of amusement to the children at school that their teacher confused the meaning of words, mispronounced words, gave wrong instructions. Every day I could make a list of verbal mistakes I made in class. Still, it was more acceptable than waiting until the pupils were ready to speak French…
Thinking back, I still wonder at how the pupils never lost their decorum at their teacher’s blunderings. How innately kind and generous they were. Of course, almost always I was aware of making an error. I could read a sudden merriment passing through the children’s eyes, although not reaching their lips, not provoking a sound of laughter, but making me stop and often ask: “Was that wrong, did I make another mistake?” How funny it must have sounded when I wanted to say that pupils who didn’t do their homework would score NOUGHTS, I pronounced it NUTS. Or in a teenage girls’ class I asked them to explain the contents of the CURSE when I meant COURSE. We all, they and I, were progressing steadily, by leaps and bounds.
Did my own children find it as challenging as I did?
THE CHILDREN
Rasa was six, Arūnas eight. Until now, living mainly in mixed Baltic communities (camps in Germany, transition camp in Italy, on board the ship, in the collection camp at Bathurst) besides the family talking only in Lithuanian, they had heard mainly German. They did not speak it at all, but at least the sound of it must have been more or less familiar. Not so with English which was totally new and unfamiliar. Surprisingly they never mentioned any difficulties they experienced. Rasa did not seem to have any problems at all and Arunas refused to discuss it. During weekends which we three spent together, Rasa did not stop talking about her week at the convent. She had already made three new friends who were the only other foreign pupils at the school, all Hungarians in a similar situation to ourselves as recent refugees. But they were not her only friends. She mentioned other names, also the names of the nuns – her teachers. And quite often she would say: “And Sister said that she…” and I could not resist asking: “How do you know what she said?” and she would say as if self-evident: “I just know it”, or “Well, I heard it!”
Arūnas on the contrary, did not speak about school. Even when Rasa was not there, every working day, after homework, we did not talk about his school. It is not that he kept silent when we were together. When we were alone with nobody around us, he would talk all the time – about what he saw on the way to and from school, on the street, in the cottage and around about; his thoughts about everything in our daily life, news from Bathurst and his father, still quite fresh memories of that camp where we had gone straight from the ship and where we had stayed several months. There he and Rasa had had the freedom to wander in the sun-bleached fields of the surrounding area, while his father was busy interpreting for other newcomers, and while I was sick in hospital. He still clearly remembered our voyage and some of the ghastly time in Bagnoli camp. He did not appear to have yet moved on from the family’s past experience to the new life. He missed the family being together, permanently so. “When will Dad be coming?” was his daily question. As Vytautas himself was still waiting to be sent somewhere to a place of appointment and did not know when this would be as he was still needed at the camp as an interpreter of English and German, the boy’s question could not be answered.
Every day meeting him from school and asking about his day he would answer with one word: “Good”, offering nothing more.
When some months had passed since we arrived, I met his teacher and asked about him and she answered: “Oh, he’s a very good boy, very very quiet in class. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say a word. Does he speak at home?”.
Should I start worrying? Did he really not understand what was happening around him?
The problem solved itself. One day he came home pre-occupied. Before I could ask him what the matter was, he said: “I want to make a rug. There is one with a beautiful orange collie dog. I want to make it!” It took me a while to work out which dog he meant and what it was all about. It was a hooked rug pattern that his class was going to make for a competition in Sale’s agricultural show later that year. Arūnas only knew that his class was going to make hooked rugs and he saw one he wanted to make. The parents had to buy the painted canvas, the wool and the hook. I already had saved a little money and didn’t mind spending on what the child so wanted, and what was needed for school. I did not understand why he was so worried about it. I said to him: “Are worried that we don’t have the money for that? Don’t worry, it’s all right. Do you know how much it costs?”
"You’ll have to come and see the Sister”.
“You know that I can’t come myself. I can’t leave my classes, but I’ll give you the money”.
Arūnas was upset.
“You don’t understand! You have to come”.
“Surely you can do without my coming?”
“No, I can’t, I can’t”.
“Why?”
“I just can’t”.
The argument went backwards and forwards and it only stopped when I declared with finality:
“You can have the rug when you tell me how much it is and I’ll give you the money to take to Sister”.
The child started crying, turned his back on me, climbed onto his bunk and put his head under the pillow shaking with sobs. It did not occur to me as to where lay the reason for such heartbreak.
The next day we spent the evening in silence. I dared not ask and Arūnas did not ask again, but remained silent and miserable. So was I. A few days later the original argument was repeated with his request: “You must come”, with me answering: “If you so much want to do it, you must tell the Sister”.
Some time past in this unhappy way.
It looked as if he were giving up on the idea. Then one afternoon he came into the house declaring: “I need twelve shillings for my rug. I’m going to make that orange dog”. He went and spoke to his teacher, got his rug and to the nun’s surprise from then on, the silence was broken! He spoke and participated and played with the others!
Rev. Mother found Arūnas a job. Since his school was at the other end of the township and practically next door to the post office, he could help the convent by going to the post office after school to collect the convent’s mail. To make it even easier, he was given an old bicycle that had belonged to a former gardener. Arūnas was delighted with the offer of the bicycle and he did not mind collecting the mail daily. The bicycle was to be kept in the shed of our cottage and he could use it whenever he wanted. So my little son became not only a talking pupil of St Mary’s but also the Notre Dame convent’s postman. At the end of term, he was given a good report, with a comment that the principal was delighted with his progress of integration into the school. His collie dog rug was also progressing steadily and before the end of the school year it won first place in the competition in the town’s agricultural show.
GOOD NEIGHBOURS
Two Australian families contributed greatly to our learning and then practicing English. The first one was our neighbours next door: Mrs Connelly and Sister MacGregor. In the new little extension to their wood and chicken shed there was also said to live a Mr Connolly, but we never saw or met him. Mrs Connelly and Sister MacGregor were always together. Years ago they had come from Ireland, were staunch Catholics and official Friends of the Convent who had special front row seats in the convent’s chapel where we attended Mass every Sunday and every official feast-day. They were a strange couple. Mrs Connelly was the older, setting the tone, a middle-aged lady, all comfortably plump and round with greying hair set in a bun on her neck and a rosy cheeked face. Sister MacGregor was a younger woman, still working as a medical sister at Sale Hospital, well over six feet tall and slim with dark hair severely pulled back from her face. Her face had no distinguishing features, but she always had a serious, almost solemn, expression. The ladies had a car – rather Sister MacGregor had it and they shared it with Sister at the wheel and Mrs Connelly in the passenger seat.
Rev. Mother must have told them about us, for when she introduced us officially, they seemed to know all about us already and graciously promised to: “look after us and help us with anything we might need to know about our new country and the Australian way of life.”
They took their promise very seriously and from then on, we saw them very often. First of all, they wanted to show us the sights.
These were our first experiences of car rides, especially on those Saturdays when Sister did not have to be on duty in the hospital. At first, we did not venture far out of town as there was much to see and learn right there. Mrs Connolly liked to stop in the shopping centre and look at the window displays. This was in order to explain to us (again and again and again) how lucky we were to be here.
“You probably have never seen so many things available”.
“That is not what you were used to in the old world, is it?”
“You probably never had that at home, but….”
In the early days I couldn’t understand all her comments and certainly didn’t possess the vocabulary to reply, so I usually just nodded in agreement, smiled, showed appreciation and occasional delight. The important thing was the learning of English sounds, new words, ‘The Australian way of life’, but as time went on it all started to grate. Further excursions to the surrounding area were much more pleasant.
To both the children’s delight they took us to a small park which had swings, then to a big park that had a lake with black swans swimming in it. One special Saturday we even travelled about 20 kms to Seaspray beach.
Living so close to each other (the two cottages were separated by a narrow garden walk with a broken fence in between) meant that we spoke to each other nearly every day, usually Mrs Connelly advising me about something and me nodding in agreement: “Yes, yes...mmm…yes”.
Other early acquaintances and later great friends and benefactors were another family, also Friends of the Convent, the Henneberries. They were four middle-aged to elderly sisters and one brother, all unmarried and living together in a big stone house on the other side of town. They were part of a well-to-do squatter’s family. One other brother had a family of his own on a large cattle farm where he lived and worked with his wife and two daughters, while the older brother and sisters, except Hilda, the youngest, were retired and lived in Sale.
The two youngest Misses Henneberry were the two ladies who, at Rev. Mother’s asking, had met us on our arrival at Sale, when none of us could speak any English, and that was all they spoke. Miss Hilda Henneberry drove the shiny black family car that belonged to them all, but was only driven by her. They were not seen at the convent as much as Mrs Connelly and Sister MacGregor, as they attended Sunday mass at the Cathedral and were highly respected members not only of Sale’s Catholic community, but of the town’s ‘leading class’.
From the first day of our arrival and due to the obvious lack of means of verbal communication, unobtrusively but constantly, they took care of us and helped in many ways not only when they were asked by Rev. Mother. Already on our first Sunday in Sale, they established a custom which lasted five years, until we left Sale; they invited us for Sunday lunch with their family.
It was an almost formal occasion.
In the middle of the great family room stood a festive looking big oak table covered with a stiff white damask tablecloth, sparkling glasses for water, fine matching plates, three for each seat, silver cutlery.
Introductions were made first, as until then we had only met Hilda and Elizabeth Henneberry, the two youngest sisters. There was Miss Irene who seemed to be the manager and housekeeper of the family and Miss Mary, a frail looking elderly lady, who as we discovered later, had the role of the family decorator, a painter whose oil landscapes adorned the walls of this, and as we were shown later, other rooms of the house. Mr James Henneberry , the only man in the house, was a retired gentleman who on occasion went to their other brother’s property to help with the office work.
We all shook hands with the hosts, who seemed to welcome us with smiles and kind sounding words which we did not understand and then they invited us to the table. The meal was a baked lamb roast with potatoes and three hot vegetables, followed by sweets of fruit salad and ice-cream. Everything was very tasty, but with our worry about what the correct behaviour at the table should be and our lack of language we could not fully appreciate the meal. The children were exceedingly shy at first, especially Arūnas, but nobody seemed to mind and by the time the ice-cream came around, they managed to show that they liked it very much and tried to say a word or two of thanks. After the meal Miss Hilda and Miss Elizabeth cleared the table and Miss Irene served the tea and cake – clearly home-made, covered with cream and decorated with strawberries. Sheer delight! Even Arūnas became bolder and accepted a second slice.
That Sunday was an example of their established custom and we felt included in it. That first time, after the meal, we were shown the other rooms in the house, and the garden which at that time of the year was full of flowering shrubs and greenery. Back inside, Miss Hilda found some old picture books that had belonged to her now grown-up nieces and showed them to the children, speaking easily to them as if they understood perfectly what she was saying, and which they probably guessed correctly.
As time went on, some Sunday afternoons after lunch, we were taken in their car on excursions out of town, right into the country, the bush, the sea-side, from time to time even to their other brother’s property, where we met the family, and were shown how the large dairy-farm worked without a lot of hired labour, but with a lot of machinery. The country Henneberry family were as friendly and welcoming to us as the town ones, but they seemed much busier. I wondered if they ever had time to swim in their big swimming pool or play on the well-kept tennis courts. Perhaps these were left over from a previous more numerous generation.
I was learning, experiencing kindness, friendliness and generosity.
UNITED
Brief weekly letters came from Vytautas. He continued to be fully occupied in the Bathurst migration reception centre, interpreting for the administration and the newcomers from and into English, German and Lithuanian. The Australian officers of the camp seemed to appreciate him being there and didn’t want to send him anywhere else in a hurry, even though that was part of the migration contract.** (Ed’s note: ** The Australian government required of migrants that the head of the family (or single person) undertake a two year contract to work as and where requested to pay back the cost of travel to Australia).
He was not unhappy with what he was doing there and must have appreciated the satisfaction of being needed. However he mentioned in almost every letter that he missed his family and was worried about us.
I answered the letters briefly as well as there never seemed to be enough time to write longer ones.
Days were filled with schoolwork: teaching face-to-face forty periods a week and preparing for them. Marking pupils’ work in the evenings, followed by more preparation. Sundays were dedicated to the children and visits to the Henneberries, evenings to washing, ironing and mending Arūnas and my clothes, essential as we did not have enough clothes for frequent changes. Rasa was given second-hand uniforms, so I did not have to worry how to keep her clean and tidy. As she liked to spend Sunday nights with us, it was compulsory to tell the children a story in bed (reading their own stories came months later.) Only after the children went to sleep, did I have quiet time to write a letter but I was too tired myself. The letters had to be brief.
Rev. Mother did not forget her early promise to try and have Vytautas sent to Sale for his contract job with the help of some influential friends. As per our passports we were qualified as Labourer (male) and Domestic Help (female). Rev. Mother thought however, that as Vytautas was already working as an interpreter, he may be able to continue this occupation in Sale. There appeared to already be a number of foreign migrants in Sale, all having difficulties through lack of English language and needing an interpreter. Rev. Mother discussed the matter with the Henneberries, who shared her opinion and advised her to speak with the director of the Sale district hospital which was a very large establishment and already provided jobs to most of the foreign newcomers. The director agreed that there was a real need for an interpreter in the hospital and promised to make a special application to the migrant employment office. Rev. Mother felt sure that “Madame’s” husband could have that position. I felt excited and assured that our problem was solved and that we would soon be together again as a family.
The same evening – not waiting until Sunday – I wrote a brief note to Vytautas to share the news. He replied immediately that he too was excited and very happy and asked more about the hospital, the promised job and his future employer. I didn’t know all that much about it but I had high hopes. Being together again was the most important thing, surely?
A mid-term break came along allowing the boarders to visit their families for three whole days. There was no school on Monday. I took the opportunity to go ‘down the street’ with Rasa, perhaps to buy her an ice-cream and to look at the window displays. As we stopped to admire some hats in a shop window, I heard someone behind us say: “Devil take it, all the wrong dates…all in loud and clear Lithuanian! I pulled Rasa’s hand and caught up with two tall men.
“Gentlemen, you speak Lithuanian!”
“Is that forbidden?” one answered, laughing.
It felt like meeting close, but long-lost friends. Introductions on both sides followed; situations explained, worries shared; right there on the street.
They were Adolfas Eskirtas and Antanas Bikulčius. They were both in their thirties or early forties, married with no children and had come a year earlier than the Zizys family. It was the earlier period of post-war migration when only single people and families with no children were admitted. Both were working in Sale hospital in contract jobs and living in garages. When I mentioned that my husband was coming soon and had already been promised a job in the hospital as an interpreter, Bikulčius expressed some doubt.
“Why would they make an exception for him? Our papers are clearly marked ‘labourer’, not ‘office worker’. Anyway, there are a few amongst us already who have picked up enough English to help the rest of us. Everybody is trying to learn the language.”
I felt that I shouldn’t have said anything about Vytautas’ hope for an office job and asked them about something else. We exchanged addresses – the men promised to give mine to their wives – and said they wanted to meet my husband when he arrived.
It turned out there was already a whole group of Lithuanians in Sale and that they enjoyed getting together to share their own stories and as well as news from the larger group of compatriots in Melbourne.
Later the Eskirtas, Bikulčius and Zizys families became the nucleus of the Sale branch of the larger Lithuanian community in Victoria.
When he finished his work contract Bikulčius moved to Melbourne and joined various organisations, becoming a well-known member of the community. He sponsored two young boys through their studies, one through medicine, one through religious studies.
The Eskirtas family stayed on in Sale where they became farmers and owners of several houses in the town. They were well known and respected in the town and surrounding area, as well as being active members of the Catholic church and patriotic Lithuanians. They had a daughter who as a baby was left with her grandmother in Lithuania. From their first days in Australia they started a campaign which lasted seventeen years to get their daughter out of Soviet Lithuania and over to Australia. When at last their campaign was successful and the girl came out to Australia we were the first who went to Melbourne airport to meet her. By then Eskirtas also had a younger son born in Sale. We had become best friends with them especially me with Elena Eskirtas.
Soon Vytautas received his papers from the camp administration in Bathurst with an instruction to depart and to report for work to the Sale district hospital. When he arrived and went to the hospital, he was told that his job was to be the hospital’s boiler attendant. There was no mention of translating and interpreting. He was bitterly disappointed.
There was no-one to complain to. At home his family was overjoyed to finally have him with them after the long separation. New Lithuanian acquaintances in the town all had menial jobs and didn’t see any problem. He tried to speak to his superiors at the hospital who only reminded him:
“Before coming to this country, you signed a contract and knew what to expect. It’s not too difficult a job anyway and you are together with your family.”
It was all true and Vytautas knew it. Nevertheless, he thought that it was humiliating, demeaning and wasteful. The disappointment and bitterness which he felt on arriving lasted the whole two years of his contract. He avoided speaking about it and tried not to show his feelings even to his family, but there remained in him a sadness which at least at home, could not be hidden.
“A poor man” was a new expression that he used whenever there was talk about the general situation of migrants, those newcomers to a new country who had to adjust to new ways.
It took some time for me to understand his feelings. One evening when he came home later than usual and dead tired, I suggested to him that he try to rest more and not do so much overtime, which he took on from the first day, and he interrupted me angrily:
“It is not the work I am tired of. The work isn’t hard and I want to do all the overtime I can. After all it is paid and we need the money. What I hate about it is being at the beck and call of all and sundry, all those chits of nurses-aids ordering me around as though I was an illiterate idiot…”
“Darling, I didn’t know”.
“No, you wouldn’t.”
Later he apologised for his outburst and insisted he did not blame me for anything, it was just the general circumstance that for the first time in his life he felt useless and that he was going to make those two years as useful for the family as possible for our future.
The first thing we needed to do was to save money for that time when he would be free of the contract and be able to take his family away from here. That meant owning our own house first of all. Even though he heartily disliked the contract work it brought a regular income. A lot of overtime was available and he took almost as much as was offered, including double-paid work during the weekends. He saved most of it, spending only what was absolute necessary.
My weekly salary was 6 pounds, but out of that 2 pounds was for rent of the cottage, another 2 pounds went to Rasa’s boarding fees and 1 pound was the cost of lunches at the school. The leftover was not paid regularly fortnightly but only when it accumulated to some small sum at the end of term or even less frequently. In the first year I had managed with almost nothing in the way of cash. When Vytautas came, he gave me a little housekeeping money regularly, which was mine to manage and to spend. When he worked during the day, he ate at the hospital, so I only needed to get breakfast for us three and we didn’t need much as Arunas and I had a full cooked meal at the convent. We did not need – at least at the beginning – any new furniture for the cottage as everything had been provided. What we did acutely need was clothing, especially underwear. The children had grown out of theirs and mine was practically gone through wash and wear and needed to be supplemented. In winter I learnt where to find cheap wool and began knitting. I could make clothes for the children and even my own dresses (I had done a dress-making course at the camp in Germany), but I had to get access to a sewing machine. The first big outlay of money was required. The school was ordering new sewing machines for dress-making classes. So, I managed to save a minimum deposit for a new sewing machine from my house-keeping money. My order went with the common order for the school, with the same discount and we acquired our first furniture item: a new Singer sewing machine in a shiny dark wood cabinet! It would take two full years to pay off the debt, but that machine did serve me for a great part of my life.
Besides doing frequent overtime and saving money, Vytautas looked for something useful to study, “so as not to become a professional illiterate”. I don’t know exactly where and when he found an advertisement about various correspondence courses at the Melbourne technical college. He wrote for more information and applied to be admitted to a radio technician’s course. He was accepted and became a student, although he avoided speaking about it at home to me and never mentioned
it to any of our new acquaintances. I really never knew how and at what times he studied; this was somehow his separate private life. He never seemed to have any books or notes. But in two years’ time, when he finished his contract work, he was able to straight away get a job as a technician in a radio station and then he applied for another correspondence course in radio engineering - again at Melbourne technical college – and eventually graduated as a radio engineer.
Looking back, I still wonder how he managed to achieve it all and how little I knew about it at the time. I must have been too absorbed in my own teaching job (as, I am ashamed to say, I must always have been and probably still am, even in my old age and doing practically nothing).
In fact, as long as he lived, he never stopped studying and his family were hardly aware of it. He never took time off his daily work and we never saw him studying at home. Coming home from work he seemed to leave behind not just his daily occupation, but also study and reading. What books could be seen at home were my books, my work, and books for my studies later on. I must have neglected my husband so much.
After Vytautas came, the cottage we were now both living in started to gradually change and became more lived in, not just occupied. He started doing work on it. First of all, he roughly repaired the bath in the laundry shed, emptying the kindling out of the tub where it had been stored and cleaning it thoroughly. Then he fixed the roof of the shed and made the shower usable even if it still only had cold water. He made a lean-to from the tumble down woodshed against the back fence and put in there the things taken out of the laundry and whatever was lying around the backyard; a few garden tools, briquettes for the fireplace and kindling wood, small bits of cut wood and anything else that didn’t have a special place to go. The whole backyard became empty, a place to bring out a stool and sit in the sun.
He decided to make the large front yard into a grassed area with garden around it. There was plenty of hard labour in the plan and this he loved.
The first person to talk to him outside the hospital was, of course, Mrs Connelly. Curious to see the new member of the family next-door, she did not wait long to come and introduce herself and was most impressed to find a stranger with such a good command of English. Immediately she overflowed with advice on how to do this, that and the other. Vytautas smiled politely but did not show great interest.
From the first Sunday he came to visit the Henneberries with us and unless he was working overtime from then became a constant Sunday lunch guest there.
The Henneberries were, as always, beautifully tactful and with them Vytautas relaxed and was attentive and interested in everything they said, especially when the older Mr Henneberry spoke about his childhood on the farm.
I introduced my husband to Rev. Mother in the first days of his arrival and he thanked her for making the effort to bring him to Sale, without mentioning his disappointment. I sensed a definite coldness in his attitude to her though and could not help but notice that he avoided going into the convent, even just to mass in the chapel on Sundays.
On one occasion he made his feelings perfectly clear to me. Rev. Mother noticed him digging up the ground around the cottage and asked me what we were planning to grow there. I explained. She said:
“Mr Zizys seems to be really interested in the land. I just thought – maybe he could come and help our gardener from time to time? The old gardener is getting too tired and I am sure he would appreciate someone young and strong to give him a hand…”
When I mentioned her suggestion to Vytautas, he exploded:
“Tell your beloved Rev. Mother that I am not here for her service! She already overworks you without proper pay, she has turned Arūnas into the convent’s messenger boy, she sees me and already thinks how to make use of an extra pair of hands. No, thank you! I already have a full-time job and try to do things around the cottage to make it more comfortable for us and am not here to improve the convent’s property value!”
I started to remind him I did not teach without pay, but was actually paying for the cottage and Rasa’s school and that Arūnas had got a bicycle from bringing in the convent’s mail. But he did not listen.
“All right, all right. You must enjoy being exploited. But please don’t involve me.”
Vytautas very early made contact with all the Lithuanians working and living in Sale. Most of them were our generation and very friendly people. They met often, most worked at the hospital. They visited one another at their places even if only one family had bought a house of their own. So, we too met with them and often had visitors coming after work to our cottage. When Adolfas Eskirtas bought a truck on Saturdays we went as a group to explore the area outside Sale, to have a picnic, talk, sing together well-known Lithuanian songs, watched the children play together. It was the early life of a national community abroad.
THE THREAT
I was called to Rev. Mother’s one lunch hour.
“Sorry to interrupt your lunch, Madame, but I thought you should know. The school is getting ready next month for its yearly inspection. It is quite important for us to maintain our rank in the system of secondary private schools. Please think about it and prepare to impress!”
“Reverend Mother, what should I do to impress? I thought I was doing my best, spending a lot of time preparing my lessons, learning them by heart…I know I haven’t much English yet, but I am trying so hard and the pupils are very attentive and very well-behaved. What can I do more?”.
“Well, I hope we pass the inspection. Keep up the good work.”
I held back tears because lunch hour was ending and I had a class waiting. It was a small year eleven class with whom we were studying a French poem. The girls read it beautifully, the conversation flowed in French, my inadequate English was hardly needed. Let them listen to that! I thought with pride.
Vytautas had an early shift and was already changed and had rested for a few hours when I got home after school. He listened patiently to all the details of my conversation with the Superior and commented:
“So, why are you worried? Think of the results you are getting from your pupils! How could you do anything more or better?”
“What if the inspectors fail me and they fire me?”
“They won’t fire you! It was so difficult for them to find a teacher before the beginning of the school year. Where would they find one now in the middle of the year? Don’t even think about it.
“But, what if…”
“It’s not a death sentence is it? You would find another place, you are getting experience, your English is coming along very well and quickly…”
“I’ll never get another place…”
“The we would survive without it. You are a free person without a contract. You could look for a different job.”
“Where would we live?”
“We would find something, like everybody else who is new here”
“What would I do?”
“Be a lady of leisure for a change. Look after your family.”
End of conversation. I did not add: “But I love teaching, I love doing what I am good at, I love the pupils…”
Next Sunday I decided to spend at home and work on preparing something different and interesting for each of my classes keeping in mind the inspectors. I had apologised to the Henneberries from the school phone a few days earlier, Vytautas took the children to the lake to see the black swans and left me to have time to myself.
From that time on this pattern repeated itself and so we removed ourselves a little from Henneberries although our relationship with them remained as warm as before except that we visited them less frequently. Perhaps, it was time anyway as we could not possibly return their hospitality and I began to feel that we were exploiting them. They found ways to show their support and friendship which did not diminish as long as we lived in Sale and Hilda, the youngest remained close even after we left Sale. ........ (2b cont) .....
After months of overwork I'm glad to get a chance to get out and take some photos with Jorin Arriola. You have to check out Kerry Park atleast once right?
202/365
(Press L!)
As Americans, we are the most overworking people in the world. We have too many distractions and worries and stresses and things to do. I hate it. This world is so fast paced, and I am not. I can't quite keep up with society. We have too many things to do.
"Does filling our lives make our lives more fulfilling?" -the lead question of my churches current series, "Making Room for Life."
Throughout the talk, something that pastor Eric said that caught my attention was that you need to "stop once in a while and sharpen your ax." Kind of as in we need to stop once in a while and relax, and reboot ourselves. The brain can only function at about half capacity when we're so stressed out and busy all of the time.
It inspired me to take this photograph.
The gorgeous model is of course, Brandie Bass. (We both go to the same church. )
It was wonderful to see her again.
OK, I was tired and disappointed when I first completed this, so I didn't comment on it originally. The foliage on the tree in the center was the last thing added, and it sucks. However, I need to keep in mind that this might well be something that one would use masking fluid for, and I'm somewhat against the use of masking fluid. So, I have to put up with some less than great results sometimes.
Looking at it with fresh eye, though, I actually think it came off pretty well.
One thing that disappointed me is that I spent over an hour on the watercolor portion. Something this small and simple should go pretty quickly. I know it's not a race, but when it takes me a long time, I figure I'm overworking things.
I did the brush pen sketch on site, but ran out of time to do the watercolor, so I did that at home with a photo for reference.
Pentel brush pen and watercolor in a 7x10" Arches watercolor sketchbook (140lb CP). Pigments used: yellow ochre, raw sienna, phthalo green (in mixes), ultramarine, sepia, neutral tint, just a touch of quinacridone magenta.
I also posted the original pen sketch.
Best Scone Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter1/2 cup dried currants or raisins
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
DIRECTIONS:
1.Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2.Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or rubbing between your fingers until it is in pea sized lumps. Stir in the currants. Mix together 1/2 cup milk and sour cream in a measuring cup. Pour all at once into the dry ingredients, and stir gently until well blended. Overworking the dough results in terrible scones!
3.With floured hands, pat scone dough into balls 2 to 3 inches across, depending on what size you want. Place onto a greased baking sheet, and flatten lightly. Let the scones barely touch each other. Whisk together the egg and 1 tablespoon of milk. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash. Let them rest for about 10 minutes.
4.Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the tops are golden brown, not deep brown. Break each scone apart, or slice in half. Serve with butter or clotted cream and a selection of jams - or even plain.
A coolie (alternatively spelled cooli, cooly, quli, koelie, and other such variations), during the 19th and early 20th century, was a term for a locally sourced unskilled labourer hired by a company, mainly from the Indian subcontinent or Southern China.
Today, it is used varyingly as a legal inoffensive word (for example, in India for helpers carrying luggage in railway stations) and also used as a racial slur in Africa for certain people from Asia, particularly in South Africa
ETYMOLOGY
The origins of the word are uncertain but it is thought to have originated from the name of a Gujarati sect (the Kolī, who worked as day labourers) or perhaps from the Tamil word for a payment for work, kuli (கூலி). An alternative etymological explanation is that the word came from the Urdu qulī (क़ुली, قلی), which itself could be from the Turkish word for slave, qul. The word was used in this sense for labourers from India. In 1727, Dr. Engelbert Kämpfer described "coolies" as dock labourers who would unload Dutch merchant ships at Nagasaki in Japan.
The Chinese word 苦力 (pinyin: kǔlì) literally means "bitterly hard (use of) strength", in the Mandarin pronunciation.
HISTORY OF THE COOLIE TRADE
An early trade in Asian labourers is believed to have begun sometime in or around the 16th century. Social and political pressure led to the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire in 1807, with other European nations following suit. Labour-intensive industries, such as cotton and sugar plantations, mines and railway construction, in the colonies were left without a cheap source of manpower. As a consequence, a large scale slavery-like trade in Asian (primarily Indian and Chinese) indentured labourers began in the 1820s to fill this vacuum. Some of these labourers signed contracts based on misleading promises, some were kidnapped and sold into the trade, some were victims of clan violence whose captors sold them to coolie brokers, while others sold themselves to pay off gambling debts. British companies were the first to experiment with this potential new form of cheap labour in 1807, when they imported 200 Chinese men to work in Trinidad.
The coolie trade was often compared to the earlier slave trade and they accomplished very similar things.
Although there are reports of ships for Asian coolies carrying women and children, the great majority of them were men. Finally, regulations were put in place, as early as 1837 by the British authorities in India to safeguard these principles of voluntary, contractual work and safe and sanitary transportation although in practice this rarely occurred especially during examples such as the Pacific Passage or the Guano Pits of Peru. The Chinese government also made efforts to secure the well-being of their nation's workers, with representations being made to relevant governments around the world.
CHINESE COOLIES
Workers from China were mainly transported to work in Peru and Cuba, but they also worked in British colonies such as Jamaica, British Guiana (now Guyana), British Malaya, Trinidad and Tobago, British Honduras (now Belize) and in the Dutch colonies Dutch East Indies and Suriname. The first shipment of Chinese labourers was to the British colony of Trinidad in 1806.
In 1847 two ships from Cuba transported workers to Havana to work in the sugar cane fields from the port of Xiamen, one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened to the British by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The trade soon spread to other ports in Guangdong province and demand became particularly strong in Peru for workers in the silver mines and the guano collecting industry. Australia began importing workers in 1848 and the United States began using them in 1865 on the First Transcontinental Railroad construction. These workers were deceived about their terms of employment to a much greater extent than their Indian counterparts, and consequently, there was a much higher level of Chinese emigration during this period.
The trade flourished from 1847 to 1854 without incident, until reports began to surface of the mistreatment of the workers in Cuba and Peru. As the British government had political and legal responsibility for many of the ports involved, including Amoy, the trade was shut down at these places. However, the trade simply shifted to the more accommodating port in the Portuguese enclave of Macau.
Many coolies were first deceived or kidnapped and then kept in barracoons (detention centres) or loading vessels in the ports of departure, as were African slaves. In 1875, British commissioners estimated that approximately eighty percent of the workers had been abducted. Their voyages, which are sometimes called the Pacific Passage, were as inhumane and dangerous as the notorious Middle Passage of the Atlantic slave trade. Mortality was very high. For example, it is estimated that from 1847 to 1859, the average mortality for coolies aboard ships to Cuba was 15.2 percent, and losses among those aboard ships to Peru were 40 percent in the 1850s and 30.44 percent from 1860 to 1863.
They were sold and were taken to work in plantations or mines with very bad living and working conditions. The duration of a contract was typically five to eight years, but many coolies did not live out their term of service because of the hard labour and mistreatment. Those who did live were often forced to remain in servitude beyond the contracted period. The coolies who worked on the sugar plantations in Cuba and in the guano beds of the Chincha Islands (the islands of Hell) of Peru were treated brutally. Seventy-five percent of the Chinese coolies in Cuba died before fulfilling their contracts. More than two-thirds of the Chinese coolies who arrived in Peru between 1849 and 1874 died within the contract period. In 1860 it was calculated that of the 4000 coolies brought to the Chinchas since the trade began, not one had survived.
Because of these unbearable conditions, Chinese coolies often revolted against their Ko-Hung bosses and foreign company bosses at ports of departure, on ships, and in foreign lands. The coolies were put in the same neighbourhoods as Africans and, since most were unable to return to their homeland or have their wives come to the New World, many married African women. The coolies' interracial relationships and marriages with Africans, Europeans and Indigenous peoples, formed some of the modern world's Afro-Asian and Asian Latin American populations.
Chinese immigration to the United States was almost entirely voluntary, but working and social conditions were still harsh. In 1868, the Burlingame Treaty allowed unrestricted Chinese immigration into the country. Within a decade significant levels of anti-Chinese sentiment had built up, stoked by populists such as Denis Kearney with racist slogans - "To an American, death is preferable to life on a par with the Chinese."
Although Chinese workers contributed to the building of the first Transcontinental Railroad in the United States and of the Canadian Pacific Railway in western Canada, Chinese settlement was discouraged after completion of the construction. California's Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 and the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 contributed to the curtailment of Chinese immigration to the United States.
Notwithstanding such attempts to restrict the influx of cheap labour from China, beginning in the 1870s Chinese workers helped construct a vast network of levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. These levees made thousands of acres of fertile marshlands available for agricultural production.
The 1879 Constitution of the State of California declared that "Asiatic coolieism is a form of human slavery, and is forever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for coolie labour shall be void."
Colonos asiáticos is a Spanish term for coolies. The Spanish colony of Cuba feared slavery uprisings such as those that took place in Haiti and used coolies as a transition between slaves and free labor. They were neither free nor slaves. Indentured Chinese servants also labored in the sugarcane fields of Cuba well after the 1884 abolition of slavery in that country. Two scholars of Chinese labor in Cuba, Juan Pastrana and Juan Perez de la Riva, substantiated horrific conditions of Chinese coolies in Cuba and stated that coolies were slaves in all but name. Denise Helly is one researcher who believes that despite their slave-like treatment, the free and legal status of the Asian laborers in Cuba separated them from slaves. The coolies could challenge their superiors, run away, petition government officials, and rebel according to Rodriguez Pastor and Trazegnies Granda. Once they had fulfilled their contracts the colonos asiáticos integrated into the countries of Peru, The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Cuba. They adopted cultural traditions from the natives and also welcomed in non-Chinese to experience and participate into their own traditions. Before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Havana had Latin America's largest Chinatown.
In South America, Chinese indentured labourers worked in Peru's silver mines and coastal industries (i.e., guano, sugar, and cotton) from the early 1850s to the mid-1870s; about 100,000 people immigrated as indentured workers. They participated in the War of the Pacific, looting and burning down the haciendas where they worked, after the capture of Lima by the invading Chilean army in January 1880. Some 2000 coolies even joined the Chilean Army in Peru, taking care of the wounded and burying the dead. Others were sent by Chileans to work in the newly conquered nitrate fields.
The Chinese Engineering and Mining Corporation, of which later U.S. president Herbert Hoover was a director, was instrumental in supplying Chinese coolie labour to South African mines from c.1902 to c.1910 at the request of mine owners, who considered such labour cheaper than native African and white labour. The horrendous conditions suffered by the coolie labourers led to questions in the British parliament as recorded in Hansard.
In 1866, the British, French and Chinese governments agreed to mitigate the abuse by requiring all traders to pay for the return of all workers after their contract ended. The employers in the British West Indies declined these conditions, bringing the trade there to an end. Until the trade was finally abolished in 1875, over 150,000 coolies had been sold to Cuba alone, the majority having been shipped from Macau. These labourers endured conditions far worse than those experienced by their Indian counterparts. Even after the 1866 reforms, the scale of abuse and conditions of near slavery did not get any better - if anything they deteriorated. In the early 1870s increased media exposure of the trade led to a public outcry, and the British, as well as the Qing government, put pressure on the Portuguese authorities to bring the trade at Macau to an end; this was ultimately achieved in 1874. By that time, a total of up to half a million Chinese workers had been exported.
The term coolie was also applied to Chinese workers recruited for contracts on cacao plantations in German Samoa. German planters went to great lengths to secure access to their "coolie" labour supply from China. In 1908 a Chinese commissioner, Lin Shu Fen, reported on the cruel treatment of coolie workers on German plantations in the western Samoan Islands. The trade began largely after the establishment of colonial German Samoa in 1900 and lasted until the arrival of New Zealand forces in 1914. More than 2000 Chinese "coolies" were present in the islands in 1914 and most were eventually repatriated by the New Zealand administration.
INDIAN COOLIES
By the 1820s, many Indians were voluntarily enlisting to go abroad for work, in the hopes of a better life. European merchants and businessmen quickly took advantage of this and began recruiting them for work as a cheap source of labour. The British began shipping Indians to colonies around the world, including Mauritius, Fiji, Natal, British East Africa, and British Malaya. The Dutch also shipped workers to labour on the plantations on Suriname and the Dutch East Indies. A system of agents was used to infiltrate the rural villages of India and recruit labourers. They would often deceive the credulous workers about the great opportunities that awaited them for their own material betterment abroad. The Indians primarily came from the Indo-Gangetic Plain, but also from Tamil Nadu and other areas to the south of the country.
Without permission from the British authorities, the French attempted to illegally transport Indian workers to their sugar producing colony, the Reunion Island, from as early as 1826. By 1830, over 3000 labourers had been transported. After this trade was discovered, the French successfully negotiated with the British in 1860 for permission to transport over 6,000 workers annually, on condition that the trade would be suspended if abuses were discovered to be taking place.
The British began to transport Indians to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, starting in 1829. Slavery had been abolished with the planters receiving two million pounds sterling in compensation for the loss of their slaves. The planters turned to bringing in a large number of indentured labourers from India to work in the sugar cane fields. Between 1834 and 1921, around half a million indentured labourers were present on the island. They worked on sugar estates, factories, in transport and on construction sites.
In 1837, the Raj issued a set of regulations for the trade. The rules provided for each labourer to be personally authorised for transportation by an officer designated by the Government, it limited the length of service to five years subject to voluntary renewal, it made the contractor responsible for returning the worker after the contract elapsed and required the vessels to conform to basic health standards
Despite this, conditions on the ships were often extremely crowded, with rampant disease and malnutrition. The workers were paid a pittance for their labour, and were expected to work in often awful and harsh conditions. Although there were no large scale scandals involving coolie abuse in British colonies, workers often ended up being forced to work, and manipulated in such a way that they became dependent on the plantation owners so that in practice they remained there long after their contracts expired; possibly as little as 10% of the coolies actually returned to their original country of origin. Colonial legislation was also passed to severely limit their freedoms; in Mauritius a compulsory pass system was instituted to enable their movements to be easily tracked. Conditions were much worse in the French colonies of Reunion and Guadeloupe and Martinique, where workers were 'systematically overworked' and abnormally high mortality rates were recorded for those working in the mines.
However, there were also attempts by the British authorities to regulate and mitigate the worst abuses. Workers were regularly checked up on by health inspectors, and they were vetted before transportation to ensure that they were suitably healthy and fit to be able to endure the rigours of labour. Children under the age of 15 were not allowed to be transported from their parents under any circumstances.
The first campaign against the 'coolie' trade in England likened the system of indentured labour to the slavery of the past. In response to this pressure, the labour export was temporarily stopped in 1839 by the authorities when the scale of the abuses became known, but it was soon renewed due to its growing economic importance. A more rigorous regulatory framework was put into place and severe penalties were imposed for infractions in 1842. In that year, almost 35,000 people were shipped to Mauritius.
In 1844, the trade was expanded to the colonies in the West Indies, including Jamaica, Trinidad and Demerara, where the Asian population was soon a major component of the island demographic.
Starting in 1879, many Indians were transported to Fiji to work on the sugar cane plantations. Many of them chose to stay after their term of indenture elapsed and today they number about 40% of the total population. Indian workers were also imported into the Dutch colony of Suriname after the Dutch signed a treaty with the United Kingdom on the recruitment of contract workers in 1870. In Mauritius, the Indian population are now demographically dominant, with Indian festivals being celebrated as national holidays.
This system prevailed until the early twentieth century. Increasing focus on the brutalities and abuses of the trade by the sensationalist media of the time, incited public outrage and lead to the official ending of the coolie trade in 1916 by the British government. By that time tens of thousands of Chinese workers were being used along the Western Front by the allied forces (see Chinese Labour Corps).
SEX RATIOS AND INTERMARRIAGE AMONG COOLIES
A major difference between the Chinese coolie trade and the Indian coolie trade was that the Chinese coolies were all male, while East Indian women (from India) were brought alongside men as coolies. This led to a high rate of Chinese men marrying women of other ethnicities like Indian women and mixed race Creole women. Indian women and children were brought alongside Indian men as coolies while Chinese men made up 99% of Chinese colonies. The contrast with the female to male ratio among Indian and Chinese immigrants has been compared by historians. In Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies just 18,731 Chinese women and 92,985 Chinese men served as coolies on plantations. Chinese women migrated less than Javanese and Indian women as indentured coolies. The number of Chinese women as coolies was "very small" while Chinese men were easily taken into the coolie trade. In Cuba men made up the vast majority of Chinese indentured servants on sugar plantations and in Peru non-Chinese women married the mostly male Chinese coolies.
Chinese women were scarce in every place where Chinese indentured laborers were brought, the migration was dominated by Chinese men. Up to the 1940s men made up the vast majority of the Costa Rican Chinese community. Males made up the majority of the original Chinese community in Mexico and they married Mexican women.
In the early 1900s, the Chinese communities in Manila, Singapore, Mauritius, New Zealand, Victoria in Australia, the United States, and Victoria in British Columbia in Canada were all male dominated.
WIKIPEDIA
It's only 11:30 in the afternoon when Jen (friend and translator) and I arrive at the Medecins Sans Frontieres office in the heart of Remera. There we were, waiting for Virgini to appear...and appear she did, arms flung out wide in exuberance. As she moved in for a warm embrace, I saw the big bold hearts cut out of her dress sleeves. I was having a rough day, 3 hours of sleep, overworked, and totally exhausted...But the moment Virgini flashed that smile, and I saw those hearts, the tic-tac-toe print, and little Gigi slurping in her mother's arms, I forgot my grumpy mood and let this crazy sister take me in.
That's Mama Gigi for you, encouraging us all to see the light! One second with her and you know you're in the presence of a shining spirit.
This photograph is very important to me. It's proof that one woman can take the lessons of a painful past and do something constructive with them. What is Virgini doing behind the gates of this NGO? Well, this afternoon, she's teaching other women about AIDS prevention. Gigi in her arms, Virgini will share her wisdom with 4 women from Kinombe, a village a few kilometers from Remera. Her students are lucky to get the message from a woman who's been there in the past, but is determined to point herself, her family, and her sisters in a different direction.
After I snapped this photo, Virgini, Gigi, Jen, and I spent an hour together laughing and taking more photographs of her walking through her neighborhood. That's Virgini for you, generous, inspiring, all heart--sans frontieres.
This image was taken for a not-for-profit that has changed its named, focus, and mission to KEZA.
Official Statement on Name Change
"Sisters of Rwanda has been in operation in Rwanda for 2.5 years. Our original mission was to “ensure justice, equality and economic opportunities for Rwanda’s most vulnerable women”. Over the years we have learned better how to serve this amazing country and the people that dwell within it. We came here to listen and to learn, and as part of the natural maturation of our organization, we have grown into KEZA. Simply put, KEZA is the result of a 2.5 year pilot project called Sisters of Rwanda. “KEZA is a people-inspired luxury fashion house based in Rwanda. We buy top quality fashion goods from non-profit development organizations, generate income for the poor and help to establish Africa’s position in the luxury fashion industry.”
We still work with the very same 43 women that helped build Sisters of Rwanda. And our vision has only strengthened and become more strategic. Sisters of Rwanda has grown up, and we are proud to present KEZA to the world. Welcome to KEZA, “Where ‘they’ become ‘we’”. "
Remera, Kigali.
Rwanda. Central Africa.
October 2, 2006.
For Sisters of Rwanda
"Sisters of Rwanda is a non-profit organization focused on women who make their living as a commercial sex worker, and/or have been sexually abused. Our purpose is to provide these vulnerable girls with a sustainable income and life/business skills that will ensure a better quality of life for them and their families."
Please do not blog or use any of the photographs from the Sisters of Rwanda series. Thank you.
Overworked and overlooked. She waited night and day, waiting, waiting, for a kind word or gesture. Soon she couldn’t hide her anguish for it made its home on her freckled cheek: a single alabaster tear that shone night and day. Her moments alone only made the hurt sting a little more. Her hapless life as an unappreciated housewife was barely a life at all.
Sam and I really loved the idea for a sad and hopeless housewife after Sam brought this dress to our shoot yesterday. I actually got some great images while we worked through a story line and this image is part of series that I will be posting in the next few days.
And yes, I stole Brooke Shaden's glue tear idea. It was so lovely and perfect for this shoot, I just had to. Plus, I love the fact that is almost like a tattoo on her, forever there to remind her of her grief and pain.
model, wardrobe: Sam
photography,hair, makeup, retouching: me
glue tear: Brooke Shaden!!
A coolie (alternatively spelled cooli, cooly, quli, koelie, and other such variations), during the 19th and early 20th century, was a term for a locally sourced unskilled labourer hired by a company, mainly from the Indian subcontinent or Southern China.
Today, it is used varyingly as a legal inoffensive word (for example, in India for helpers carrying luggage in railway stations) and also used as a racial slur in Africa for certain people from Asia, particularly in South Africa
ETYMOLOGY
The origins of the word are uncertain but it is thought to have originated from the name of a Gujarati sect (the Kolī, who worked as day labourers) or perhaps from the Tamil word for a payment for work, kuli (கூலி). An alternative etymological explanation is that the word came from the Urdu qulī (क़ुली, قلی), which itself could be from the Turkish word for slave, qul. The word was used in this sense for labourers from India. In 1727, Dr. Engelbert Kämpfer described "coolies" as dock labourers who would unload Dutch merchant ships at Nagasaki in Japan.
The Chinese word 苦力 (pinyin: kǔlì) literally means "bitterly hard (use of) strength", in the Mandarin pronunciation.
HISTORY OF THE COOLIE TRADE
An early trade in Asian labourers is believed to have begun sometime in or around the 16th century. Social and political pressure led to the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire in 1807, with other European nations following suit. Labour-intensive industries, such as cotton and sugar plantations, mines and railway construction, in the colonies were left without a cheap source of manpower. As a consequence, a large scale slavery-like trade in Asian (primarily Indian and Chinese) indentured labourers began in the 1820s to fill this vacuum. Some of these labourers signed contracts based on misleading promises, some were kidnapped and sold into the trade, some were victims of clan violence whose captors sold them to coolie brokers, while others sold themselves to pay off gambling debts. British companies were the first to experiment with this potential new form of cheap labour in 1807, when they imported 200 Chinese men to work in Trinidad.
The coolie trade was often compared to the earlier slave trade and they accomplished very similar things.
Although there are reports of ships for Asian coolies carrying women and children, the great majority of them were men. Finally, regulations were put in place, as early as 1837 by the British authorities in India to safeguard these principles of voluntary, contractual work and safe and sanitary transportation although in practice this rarely occurred especially during examples such as the Pacific Passage or the Guano Pits of Peru. The Chinese government also made efforts to secure the well-being of their nation's workers, with representations being made to relevant governments around the world.
CHINESE COOLIES
Workers from China were mainly transported to work in Peru and Cuba, but they also worked in British colonies such as Jamaica, British Guiana (now Guyana), British Malaya, Trinidad and Tobago, British Honduras (now Belize) and in the Dutch colonies Dutch East Indies and Suriname. The first shipment of Chinese labourers was to the British colony of Trinidad in 1806.
In 1847 two ships from Cuba transported workers to Havana to work in the sugar cane fields from the port of Xiamen, one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened to the British by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The trade soon spread to other ports in Guangdong province and demand became particularly strong in Peru for workers in the silver mines and the guano collecting industry. Australia began importing workers in 1848 and the United States began using them in 1865 on the First Transcontinental Railroad construction. These workers were deceived about their terms of employment to a much greater extent than their Indian counterparts, and consequently, there was a much higher level of Chinese emigration during this period.
The trade flourished from 1847 to 1854 without incident, until reports began to surface of the mistreatment of the workers in Cuba and Peru. As the British government had political and legal responsibility for many of the ports involved, including Amoy, the trade was shut down at these places. However, the trade simply shifted to the more accommodating port in the Portuguese enclave of Macau.
Many coolies were first deceived or kidnapped and then kept in barracoons (detention centres) or loading vessels in the ports of departure, as were African slaves. In 1875, British commissioners estimated that approximately eighty percent of the workers had been abducted. Their voyages, which are sometimes called the Pacific Passage, were as inhumane and dangerous as the notorious Middle Passage of the Atlantic slave trade. Mortality was very high. For example, it is estimated that from 1847 to 1859, the average mortality for coolies aboard ships to Cuba was 15.2 percent, and losses among those aboard ships to Peru were 40 percent in the 1850s and 30.44 percent from 1860 to 1863.
They were sold and were taken to work in plantations or mines with very bad living and working conditions. The duration of a contract was typically five to eight years, but many coolies did not live out their term of service because of the hard labour and mistreatment. Those who did live were often forced to remain in servitude beyond the contracted period. The coolies who worked on the sugar plantations in Cuba and in the guano beds of the Chincha Islands (the islands of Hell) of Peru were treated brutally. Seventy-five percent of the Chinese coolies in Cuba died before fulfilling their contracts. More than two-thirds of the Chinese coolies who arrived in Peru between 1849 and 1874 died within the contract period. In 1860 it was calculated that of the 4000 coolies brought to the Chinchas since the trade began, not one had survived.
Because of these unbearable conditions, Chinese coolies often revolted against their Ko-Hung bosses and foreign company bosses at ports of departure, on ships, and in foreign lands. The coolies were put in the same neighbourhoods as Africans and, since most were unable to return to their homeland or have their wives come to the New World, many married African women. The coolies' interracial relationships and marriages with Africans, Europeans and Indigenous peoples, formed some of the modern world's Afro-Asian and Asian Latin American populations.
Chinese immigration to the United States was almost entirely voluntary, but working and social conditions were still harsh. In 1868, the Burlingame Treaty allowed unrestricted Chinese immigration into the country. Within a decade significant levels of anti-Chinese sentiment had built up, stoked by populists such as Denis Kearney with racist slogans - "To an American, death is preferable to life on a par with the Chinese."
Although Chinese workers contributed to the building of the first Transcontinental Railroad in the United States and of the Canadian Pacific Railway in western Canada, Chinese settlement was discouraged after completion of the construction. California's Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 and the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 contributed to the curtailment of Chinese immigration to the United States.
Notwithstanding such attempts to restrict the influx of cheap labour from China, beginning in the 1870s Chinese workers helped construct a vast network of levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. These levees made thousands of acres of fertile marshlands available for agricultural production.
The 1879 Constitution of the State of California declared that "Asiatic coolieism is a form of human slavery, and is forever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for coolie labour shall be void."
Colonos asiáticos is a Spanish term for coolies. The Spanish colony of Cuba feared slavery uprisings such as those that took place in Haiti and used coolies as a transition between slaves and free labor. They were neither free nor slaves. Indentured Chinese servants also labored in the sugarcane fields of Cuba well after the 1884 abolition of slavery in that country. Two scholars of Chinese labor in Cuba, Juan Pastrana and Juan Perez de la Riva, substantiated horrific conditions of Chinese coolies in Cuba and stated that coolies were slaves in all but name. Denise Helly is one researcher who believes that despite their slave-like treatment, the free and legal status of the Asian laborers in Cuba separated them from slaves. The coolies could challenge their superiors, run away, petition government officials, and rebel according to Rodriguez Pastor and Trazegnies Granda. Once they had fulfilled their contracts the colonos asiáticos integrated into the countries of Peru, The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Cuba. They adopted cultural traditions from the natives and also welcomed in non-Chinese to experience and participate into their own traditions. Before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Havana had Latin America's largest Chinatown.
In South America, Chinese indentured labourers worked in Peru's silver mines and coastal industries (i.e., guano, sugar, and cotton) from the early 1850s to the mid-1870s; about 100,000 people immigrated as indentured workers. They participated in the War of the Pacific, looting and burning down the haciendas where they worked, after the capture of Lima by the invading Chilean army in January 1880. Some 2000 coolies even joined the Chilean Army in Peru, taking care of the wounded and burying the dead. Others were sent by Chileans to work in the newly conquered nitrate fields.
The Chinese Engineering and Mining Corporation, of which later U.S. president Herbert Hoover was a director, was instrumental in supplying Chinese coolie labour to South African mines from c.1902 to c.1910 at the request of mine owners, who considered such labour cheaper than native African and white labour. The horrendous conditions suffered by the coolie labourers led to questions in the British parliament as recorded in Hansard.
In 1866, the British, French and Chinese governments agreed to mitigate the abuse by requiring all traders to pay for the return of all workers after their contract ended. The employers in the British West Indies declined these conditions, bringing the trade there to an end. Until the trade was finally abolished in 1875, over 150,000 coolies had been sold to Cuba alone, the majority having been shipped from Macau. These labourers endured conditions far worse than those experienced by their Indian counterparts. Even after the 1866 reforms, the scale of abuse and conditions of near slavery did not get any better - if anything they deteriorated. In the early 1870s increased media exposure of the trade led to a public outcry, and the British, as well as the Qing government, put pressure on the Portuguese authorities to bring the trade at Macau to an end; this was ultimately achieved in 1874. By that time, a total of up to half a million Chinese workers had been exported.
The term coolie was also applied to Chinese workers recruited for contracts on cacao plantations in German Samoa. German planters went to great lengths to secure access to their "coolie" labour supply from China. In 1908 a Chinese commissioner, Lin Shu Fen, reported on the cruel treatment of coolie workers on German plantations in the western Samoan Islands. The trade began largely after the establishment of colonial German Samoa in 1900 and lasted until the arrival of New Zealand forces in 1914. More than 2000 Chinese "coolies" were present in the islands in 1914 and most were eventually repatriated by the New Zealand administration.
INDIAN COOLIES
By the 1820s, many Indians were voluntarily enlisting to go abroad for work, in the hopes of a better life. European merchants and businessmen quickly took advantage of this and began recruiting them for work as a cheap source of labour. The British began shipping Indians to colonies around the world, including Mauritius, Fiji, Natal, British East Africa, and British Malaya. The Dutch also shipped workers to labour on the plantations on Suriname and the Dutch East Indies. A system of agents was used to infiltrate the rural villages of India and recruit labourers. They would often deceive the credulous workers about the great opportunities that awaited them for their own material betterment abroad. The Indians primarily came from the Indo-Gangetic Plain, but also from Tamil Nadu and other areas to the south of the country.
Without permission from the British authorities, the French attempted to illegally transport Indian workers to their sugar producing colony, the Reunion Island, from as early as 1826. By 1830, over 3000 labourers had been transported. After this trade was discovered, the French successfully negotiated with the British in 1860 for permission to transport over 6,000 workers annually, on condition that the trade would be suspended if abuses were discovered to be taking place.
The British began to transport Indians to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, starting in 1829. Slavery had been abolished with the planters receiving two million pounds sterling in compensation for the loss of their slaves. The planters turned to bringing in a large number of indentured labourers from India to work in the sugar cane fields. Between 1834 and 1921, around half a million indentured labourers were present on the island. They worked on sugar estates, factories, in transport and on construction sites.
In 1837, the Raj issued a set of regulations for the trade. The rules provided for each labourer to be personally authorised for transportation by an officer designated by the Government, it limited the length of service to five years subject to voluntary renewal, it made the contractor responsible for returning the worker after the contract elapsed and required the vessels to conform to basic health standards
Despite this, conditions on the ships were often extremely crowded, with rampant disease and malnutrition. The workers were paid a pittance for their labour, and were expected to work in often awful and harsh conditions. Although there were no large scale scandals involving coolie abuse in British colonies, workers often ended up being forced to work, and manipulated in such a way that they became dependent on the plantation owners so that in practice they remained there long after their contracts expired; possibly as little as 10% of the coolies actually returned to their original country of origin. Colonial legislation was also passed to severely limit their freedoms; in Mauritius a compulsory pass system was instituted to enable their movements to be easily tracked. Conditions were much worse in the French colonies of Reunion and Guadeloupe and Martinique, where workers were 'systematically overworked' and abnormally high mortality rates were recorded for those working in the mines.
However, there were also attempts by the British authorities to regulate and mitigate the worst abuses. Workers were regularly checked up on by health inspectors, and they were vetted before transportation to ensure that they were suitably healthy and fit to be able to endure the rigours of labour. Children under the age of 15 were not allowed to be transported from their parents under any circumstances.
The first campaign against the 'coolie' trade in England likened the system of indentured labour to the slavery of the past. In response to this pressure, the labour export was temporarily stopped in 1839 by the authorities when the scale of the abuses became known, but it was soon renewed due to its growing economic importance. A more rigorous regulatory framework was put into place and severe penalties were imposed for infractions in 1842. In that year, almost 35,000 people were shipped to Mauritius.
In 1844, the trade was expanded to the colonies in the West Indies, including Jamaica, Trinidad and Demerara, where the Asian population was soon a major component of the island demographic.
Starting in 1879, many Indians were transported to Fiji to work on the sugar cane plantations. Many of them chose to stay after their term of indenture elapsed and today they number about 40% of the total population. Indian workers were also imported into the Dutch colony of Suriname after the Dutch signed a treaty with the United Kingdom on the recruitment of contract workers in 1870. In Mauritius, the Indian population are now demographically dominant, with Indian festivals being celebrated as national holidays.
This system prevailed until the early twentieth century. Increasing focus on the brutalities and abuses of the trade by the sensationalist media of the time, incited public outrage and lead to the official ending of the coolie trade in 1916 by the British government. By that time tens of thousands of Chinese workers were being used along the Western Front by the allied forces (see Chinese Labour Corps).
SEX RATIOS AND INTERMARRIAGE AMONG COOLIES
A major difference between the Chinese coolie trade and the Indian coolie trade was that the Chinese coolies were all male, while East Indian women (from India) were brought alongside men as coolies. This led to a high rate of Chinese men marrying women of other ethnicities like Indian women and mixed race Creole women. Indian women and children were brought alongside Indian men as coolies while Chinese men made up 99% of Chinese colonies. The contrast with the female to male ratio among Indian and Chinese immigrants has been compared by historians. In Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies just 18,731 Chinese women and 92,985 Chinese men served as coolies on plantations. Chinese women migrated less than Javanese and Indian women as indentured coolies. The number of Chinese women as coolies was "very small" while Chinese men were easily taken into the coolie trade. In Cuba men made up the vast majority of Chinese indentured servants on sugar plantations and in Peru non-Chinese women married the mostly male Chinese coolies.
Chinese women were scarce in every place where Chinese indentured laborers were brought, the migration was dominated by Chinese men. Up to the 1940s men made up the vast majority of the Costa Rican Chinese community. Males made up the majority of the original Chinese community in Mexico and they married Mexican women.
In the early 1900s, the Chinese communities in Manila, Singapore, Mauritius, New Zealand, Victoria in Australia, the United States, and Victoria in British Columbia in Canada were all male dominated.
WIKIPEDIA
From: www.artic.edu/artexplorer/search.php?tab=2&resource=376:
An examination of van Gogh's powerful portrait of the local postman's wife.
In December 1888, shortly before suffering the breakdown that precipitated Paul Gauguin's departure from Arles, Vincent van Gogh began a portrait of Madame Roulin, the wife of a "Socratic" local postman—the artist's own characterization—with whom he had become friends. Van Gogh completed the first of an eventual five versions of the portrait in January 1889, during his recuperation (the Art Institute's painting is the second in the series). His letters reveal that by then the work had acquired multiple connotations for him. He told one correspondent that he had named it La Berceuse, which means both "lullaby" and "woman rocking a cradle," wondering playfully whether the color did not sing a lullaby of its own. He suggested to Gauguin that its visual music would comfort lonely Icelandic fishermen at sea, and noted how wonderful it would be "to achieve in painting what the music of Berlioz and Wagner has already done." And he advised his brother Theo to place it between two of his sunflower paintings to form a kind of triptych, a "decoration" suitable "for the end wall of a ship's cabin."
Analogies between color and music, common since the Romantic period, assumed a new importance in the late 1880s thanks to the Symbolists, who valued subjective expression, poetic association, and formalist ingenuity over mimetic literalism. Here, van Gogh merged divergent aesthetic currents. He began Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle (La Berceuse) as a portrait rooted in the Realist tradition. But the extraordinary flowered wallpaper, whose forms teem with a vitalist energy, and the addition of a cradle rope—clearly an afterthought—transform the work into something richer and more allusive, an arresting paean to motherhood, the life force, and the mysterious power of color.
An introduction to van Gogh and Gauguin's relationship and an examination of three of their paintings completed in Arles.
VAN GOGH AND GAUGUIN IN ARLES Vincent van Gogh journeyed to Arles in February 1888 with the expressed desire to create a new colony of artists in the temperate climate of southern France. In the summer of 1888, he secured a small house on the outskirts of the city and just across from the public garden. His letters are filled with descriptions of domestic activity, as he bought furniture and utensils and made decorations for what he called "The Studio of the South." Always his aim was to share his life with others, and he constantly exhorted his brother, Theo, as well as his friends Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard to join him in Arles.
Bedroom at Arles, made in the months immediately prior to the arrival of Gauguin in Arles, was part of van Gogh's scheme to decorate the walls of his home and studio. He painted great bunches of sunflowers, portraits of his friends, views of the public garden, and other Arlesian scenes to please the ever critical Gauguin. Yet, it was van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles that most moved Gauguin when he saw it shortly after its completion in October 1888. Van Gogh had painted it after a period of nervous collapse and exhaustion from overwork, and to him it represented "inviolable rest" and harmony.
The painting occupies a complex and significant place in the psychological history of the artist, since we know that his dreams of creating an enduring art colony in this house were quickly to be dashed. It is, thus, easy to read the "quiet" (a word the artist used to describe his bedroom) here as the calm before the storm. Indeed, the uneasy harmony of the intense palette of colors, the dramatic perspective of the floor and bed, and the very emptiness of the room create a tension at odds with the artist's stated purpose in executing the picture. And yet, what one must remember in considering the Bedroom is that, for its maker, art integrated dream and reality. Van Gogh's actual bedroom at Arles was never so clean, or so restful. The painting resembles a miniature room, so real does the furniture seem, so palpable the space. The tactility of the paint allows us to feel in our minds the surface of each object. We revel in the emptiness and warmth of the room, and, like van Gogh, each of us fills it with ourselves and our dreams.
Shortly after the arrival of Gauguin on October 20, van Gogh's work entered a confused, inchoate stage, certainly brought on by Gauguin's response to his art. He was critical of the rapidity with which van Gogh worked and with what he considered to be the younger artist's sloppiness and his overdependence on nature. Gauguin himself painted slowly and deliberately, thinking through each portion of his compositions and reworking them until he achieved a total pictorial harmony. Gauguin's considered methods and desire for pictorial unity and symbolic content are everywhere apparent in Old Women of Arles. Here, Gauguin created a world in which everything is flat and ambiguous. Did he intend us to know that the yellow pyramids to the right of the old women are straw coverings to protect delicate plants in the chilly autumn weather? Why do the women cover their mouths and look away from the viewer? Is the face hidden in the large bush to the lower left some-thing Gauguin intended to include, and, if so, why? What is the ultimate purpose of the two pictorial barriers — the shrub and the gate — that separate the inside of the garden from the world of the viewer? These and many other questions tumble forth as one absorbs this masterpiece from Arles. It has been suggested that Gauguin did this painting in reaction to van Gogh's many representations of the public garden of Arles to demonstrate the evocative power and complex associations with which he could infuse a theme by working from the depths of his imagination. As he stated, "The women here, with their elegant headdresses, have a Greek beauty; their shawls create folds like primitive paintings and make them look like a Greek procession." For all its deliberateness and care of composition, Old Women of Arles is much more mysterious and ultimately disturbing than any picture painted in Arles by van Gogh.
After van Gogh's tragic self-mutilation on December 24, he was placed under the care of a physician in the large public hospital in Arles, where he painted several versions of his famous canvas The Cradler (La Berceuse). It represents Madame Roulin, the wife of the artist's friend the postman, but the painting was never intended to function strictly as a portrait. Van Gogh himself called the picture La Berceuse shortly after it was finished and during the period in which he made the four surviving replicas of it. The Chicago canvas is undoubtedly one of those replicas. Van Gogh wished to hang all the versions together and in combination with his Sunflower canvases to create a composite decoration whose subject was consolation and joy. The many passages in his letters referring to La Berceuse suggest that he conceived of the pictures as allegories of motherhood. In one, he spoke of the fact that he intended the painting for sailors at sea — "sailors, who are at once children and martyrs, seeing it in the cabin of their boat should feel the old sense of cradling come over them and remember their own lullabies." When considered in this way, the boat in which the sailors toss and turn becomes a cradle moved not by the sea, but by their mothers. When one remembers that van Gogh himself was alone in what was for him a foreign hospital, far from his family, the fact that he replicated this soothing image four times is scarcely surprising.
The above ' Chambers Family at Haggs Farm ' photograph of June 29th 1899 is reproduced here by courtesy of Haggs Farm Preservation Society member , Mrs.Ann Howard , a niece of Jessie Chambers . The family members pictured that day are : -
Rear : Edmund Chambers ( father - wearing hat. ) [born 1863 ]
All others - left to right : May [ born 1883 ] ;
Bernard [ b.1890 ] ;
Molly - little girl [ b.1896 ] ;
Sarah Ann - mother holding baby [ b. 1859 ] ;
David - baby on Mother's knee.[ b.1898 } ;
Jessie - kneeling [ b.1887 ] ;
Hubert - boy [ b.1888 ] ;
Allen - at extreme right [ b.1882 ]
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The Chambers Haggs Farm Tenancy - by Clive Leivers .
D.H.Lawrence Quote : " a tiny red farm on he edge of a wood.That was Miriam's farm - where I got my first incentive to write . . . "
Note : Miriam Leivers is a major fictional character of D.H.Lawrence's novel "Sons and Lovers" . As became his life-long habit Lawrence based his character accurately upon a person he had knowledge of. The person used as his model for Miriam was Jessie Chambers of Haggs Farm , the young woman he knew better than any other.
"This Chambers Family at Haggs Farm " text was previously on-line at the now defunct Geocities dhltohaggs website .
In 1898 when John Leivers had decided to end his tenancy of Haggs Farm there were six applications to take it up.They included men from Hucknall,Blidworth and Awsworth.The successful applicant was Edmund Chambers of Breach Road , Eastwood and it was during his tenacy,that lasted until 1910 , that the farm's association with D H Lawrence developed. Edmund Chambers had been born on Breach Road in 1863 where both his father Jonathon and grandfather William had been in business as grocers and pawnbrokers.One of Edmund's first jobs appears to have been as a grocery assistant in Nottingham,where the 1881 census records him as an eighteen years old boarder with Henry Hunt at Penrhyon Terrace.His employment as a provision merchant's assistant was at Burton's of Smithy Row,a high-class Nottingham grocery. On December 4th that same year he married Sarah Oates a twenty-two years old lace hand who at the date of the census had been living with her parents David and Jane at Ortgen Street,Nottingham.On the marriage certificate,Edmund is described as a "provision merchant" and his father as a "gentleman"! The first two children by the marriage,Alan and May,were born in Mapperly near Nottingham in 1882 and 1883, but by the time daughter Jessie was born in January 1887 the family were living in Netherfield on the eastern fringe of the city where Edmund was running a grocery shop. In 1890 the family were in Caythorpe in Lincolnshire but their stay there was short for the 1891 census shows Edmund back in Eastwood and living in the Breach near his widowed mother Elizabeth who was still running the grocery store.Edmund's occupation is recorded as general labourer though at some time before the the move to the Haggs he had established a milk round in Eastwood.It was with financial support from his his mother - "in anticipation of of his inheritance" - that he began farming. Some while previous to his 1898 successful application for the Haggs Farm tenancy he had failed in an application for the neighbouring Felley Farm.In that application he was described as living at the Breach,being a dairyman,was young(he was near thirty)and that he was married.Among his referees he included Dr.Barber,Henry Saxton and Mr.Brentnall of Eastwood.Another(surviving)child had born to to the couple whilst in Eastwood,Molly,born in 1895.On October 13th 1898,six months after the move to the Haggs the birth of another child,Jonathon David,completed the Chambers family.
A rental document dated shortly after the commencement of the Haggs Farm tenancy shows Edmund Chambers holding just more than twenty acres in Greasley,a little more than John Leivers' eventual final rented acreage.( The Greasley land was two fields opposite Greasley church where Lawrence helped with hay making.)
Estate records suggest that initially at least Mr.Chambers had problems regarding his land.He complained that his land was over-run with rabbits and gave notice to quit with effect from Lady day 1903 - a notice subseqently withdrawn.About the same time he again applied for the tenancy of Felley Farm and also for that of another unspecified farm that had been previously in the occupation of John Bentley. Towards the end of 1903 he had written to the Melbourne Estate's agent complaining about his rent relative to the (low)quality of his land.He also had acknowledged a promise of a supply of "basic Slag" that he required as a fertiliser.He had previously written,"the grass requires something more than yard manure to pull it round".A further request of his landlord was the replacement of his farmhouse kitchen copper,for his wife Sarah judged it "worn through".Years later,confirming the poor quality of his land,his daughter Jessie in one of her letters referred to "the unwilling and stinted growth ... and the meagre crops of the stiff clay of the Haggs". After that apparent crisis time Edmund Chambers tenancy seemed more settled.However he finally ended his tenancy in 1910 and moved to the Swinehouse farm in Arno Vale,Woodthorpe,on the outskirts of Nottingham.
During their time at the Haggs the two eldest Chambers daughters were baptised in the then recently built(1890) church at Underwood - first May at the age of sixteen on December 11th,1899 and then Jessie( when almost 14 years)on December 1st of 1901.The younger Chambers children attended Underwood school.
The Underwood school logbook of 1902 records that Jessie Chambers , who was then aged 15 , was a monitress in the mixed school . However , In November she is recorded as being a pupil teacher . The school's headmaster was George Stringfellow . Miss Chambers soon found her duties stressful , though , as two months later ( January 1903 ) the Head noted in his log that Miss Chambers had been obliged to return home ill through being overworked with a large Standard 3 class . Appropriately , In the October of 1903 Miss Chambers was transferred to the infants' school " - where she was better able to cope with the work . .
In May of 1906 she passed the King's Scholarship examination . However after her achievement , she did not advance to University as she could have . In the autumn of 1903 she continued teaching in the Underwood mixed school , where she remained until her family moved to Arno Vale.
For link Insert . . .
www.flickr.com/photos/lenton_sands/2201023222/
Underwood School in 1909.
Miss Chambers is at the left of the picture as viewed .
[ Photograph by courtesy of Mr.George Hardy of Eastwood . ]
Concerning the Chambers children other than Jessie : -
Bernard , Hubert , May and Molly all emigrated to Canada .
The eldest son , Alan , remained in England to run a dairy situated close
by his fathers farm on Breck Hill Road , Mapperley , Nottingham .
The youngest son , David Chambers , had a distinguished academic career ,
ultimately becoming Professor of Economic History at Nottingham University .
Clive Leivers
German postcard with Dutch imprint by Verlag Ross, Berlin, nr. 36/11. Emelka Konzern. Bayern Films.
The translation of the Dutch text on the back of this postcard reads: “Seeta Devis plays in the new Indian film by Emelka: ‘Boeddha, De roeping van een koningszoon’, the role of Princess Gopa. Like all the other actors in the film she is not a professional, but was especially for this part discovered by director Franz Osten. When Osten heard that she would be the perfect type he was looking for, he traveled for 56 hours by train through burning hot India. And he made this beautiful, only 16 year old Indian girl a film star.” In fact the birth name of Seeta Devi (1921) is Renee Smith. She made her film debut in this film, officially called Prem Sanyas (or Die Leuchte Asiens, 1925). This German production was co-directed by Franz Osten and by the other actor on the postcard, Himansu Rai. Seeta Devi would act in ten more films.
Himansu Rai (1895-1940) was born into a wealthy Bengali family. While training as a lawyer in London in the early 1920s, he began acting in plays. In London he met his later wife Devika Rani who designed film sets and who continued to work with him. In 1933 he joined forces with IBP of England and wholly produced Karma (1933), a bilingual in English and Hindi. But the Nazi seizure of power in Germany caused Rai to abandon international co-productions and so he decided to concentrate on the domestic film market in India.In 1934, he formed Bombay Talkies Ltd. and built a studio. Under his painstaking supervision, it purchased the most modern equipment from Germany. Franz Osten and a handful of technicians came down from England and Germany to work with him. By 1935, a stream of Hindi productions had begun to emerge from the studio. The advent of World War II meant that the studio's German technicians as well as director Franz Osten were interned by the British, which crippled the studio. Overwork and mental strain eventually took its toll on Rai, who suffered a nervous breakdown which he never recovered from, and he died in 1940.
Sources: IMDb and postcard.
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) was an Italian artist of Jewish heritage, practicing both painting and sculpture, who pursued his career for the most part in France. Modigliani was born in Livorno (historically referred to in English as Leghorn), in northwestern Italy and began his artistic studies in Italy before moving to Paris in 1906. Influenced by the artists in his circle of friends and associates, by a range of genres and art movements, and by primitive art, Modigliani's œuvre was nonetheless unique and idiosyncratic. He died in Paris of tubercular meningitis, exacerbated by poverty, overworking, and an excessive use of alcohol and narcotics, at the age of 35.
The Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp (Dutch: Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten van Antwerpen), founded in 1810, houses a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries. This collection is representative of the artistic production and the taste of art enthusiasts in Antwerp, Belgium and the Northern and Southern Netherlands since the fifteenth century.
The neoclassical building housing the collection is one of the primary landmarks of the Zuid district of Antwerp, and stands in gardens bounded by the Leopold de Waalplaats, the Schildersstraat, the Plaatsnijdersstraat, and the Beeldhouwersstraat. It was completed in 1894.
Naughty nurse cake for an overworked doctor's birthday. Chocolate cake with fondant icing and hand made nurse model on removable base - interchangeable with stethoscope model!
A coolie (alternatively spelled cooli, cooly, quli, koelie, and other such variations), during the 19th and early 20th century, was a term for a locally sourced unskilled labourer hired by a company, mainly from the Indian subcontinent or Southern China.
Today, it is used varyingly as a legal inoffensive word (for example, in India for helpers carrying luggage in railway stations) and also used as a racial slur in Africa for certain people from Asia, particularly in South Africa
ETYMOLOGY
The origins of the word are uncertain but it is thought to have originated from the name of a Gujarati sect (the Kolī, who worked as day labourers) or perhaps from the Tamil word for a payment for work, kuli (கூலி). An alternative etymological explanation is that the word came from the Urdu qulī (क़ुली, قلی), which itself could be from the Turkish word for slave, qul. The word was used in this sense for labourers from India. In 1727, Dr. Engelbert Kämpfer described "coolies" as dock labourers who would unload Dutch merchant ships at Nagasaki in Japan.
The Chinese word 苦力 (pinyin: kǔlì) literally means "bitterly hard (use of) strength", in the Mandarin pronunciation.
HISTORY OF THE COOLIE TRADE
An early trade in Asian labourers is believed to have begun sometime in or around the 16th century. Social and political pressure led to the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire in 1807, with other European nations following suit. Labour-intensive industries, such as cotton and sugar plantations, mines and railway construction, in the colonies were left without a cheap source of manpower. As a consequence, a large scale slavery-like trade in Asian (primarily Indian and Chinese) indentured labourers began in the 1820s to fill this vacuum. Some of these labourers signed contracts based on misleading promises, some were kidnapped and sold into the trade, some were victims of clan violence whose captors sold them to coolie brokers, while others sold themselves to pay off gambling debts. British companies were the first to experiment with this potential new form of cheap labour in 1807, when they imported 200 Chinese men to work in Trinidad.
The coolie trade was often compared to the earlier slave trade and they accomplished very similar things.
Although there are reports of ships for Asian coolies carrying women and children, the great majority of them were men. Finally, regulations were put in place, as early as 1837 by the British authorities in India to safeguard these principles of voluntary, contractual work and safe and sanitary transportation although in practice this rarely occurred especially during examples such as the Pacific Passage or the Guano Pits of Peru. The Chinese government also made efforts to secure the well-being of their nation's workers, with representations being made to relevant governments around the world.
CHINESE COOLIES
Workers from China were mainly transported to work in Peru and Cuba, but they also worked in British colonies such as Jamaica, British Guiana (now Guyana), British Malaya, Trinidad and Tobago, British Honduras (now Belize) and in the Dutch colonies Dutch East Indies and Suriname. The first shipment of Chinese labourers was to the British colony of Trinidad in 1806.
In 1847 two ships from Cuba transported workers to Havana to work in the sugar cane fields from the port of Xiamen, one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened to the British by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The trade soon spread to other ports in Guangdong province and demand became particularly strong in Peru for workers in the silver mines and the guano collecting industry. Australia began importing workers in 1848 and the United States began using them in 1865 on the First Transcontinental Railroad construction. These workers were deceived about their terms of employment to a much greater extent than their Indian counterparts, and consequently, there was a much higher level of Chinese emigration during this period.
The trade flourished from 1847 to 1854 without incident, until reports began to surface of the mistreatment of the workers in Cuba and Peru. As the British government had political and legal responsibility for many of the ports involved, including Amoy, the trade was shut down at these places. However, the trade simply shifted to the more accommodating port in the Portuguese enclave of Macau.
Many coolies were first deceived or kidnapped and then kept in barracoons (detention centres) or loading vessels in the ports of departure, as were African slaves. In 1875, British commissioners estimated that approximately eighty percent of the workers had been abducted. Their voyages, which are sometimes called the Pacific Passage, were as inhumane and dangerous as the notorious Middle Passage of the Atlantic slave trade. Mortality was very high. For example, it is estimated that from 1847 to 1859, the average mortality for coolies aboard ships to Cuba was 15.2 percent, and losses among those aboard ships to Peru were 40 percent in the 1850s and 30.44 percent from 1860 to 1863.
They were sold and were taken to work in plantations or mines with very bad living and working conditions. The duration of a contract was typically five to eight years, but many coolies did not live out their term of service because of the hard labour and mistreatment. Those who did live were often forced to remain in servitude beyond the contracted period. The coolies who worked on the sugar plantations in Cuba and in the guano beds of the Chincha Islands (the islands of Hell) of Peru were treated brutally. Seventy-five percent of the Chinese coolies in Cuba died before fulfilling their contracts. More than two-thirds of the Chinese coolies who arrived in Peru between 1849 and 1874 died within the contract period. In 1860 it was calculated that of the 4000 coolies brought to the Chinchas since the trade began, not one had survived.
Because of these unbearable conditions, Chinese coolies often revolted against their Ko-Hung bosses and foreign company bosses at ports of departure, on ships, and in foreign lands. The coolies were put in the same neighbourhoods as Africans and, since most were unable to return to their homeland or have their wives come to the New World, many married African women. The coolies' interracial relationships and marriages with Africans, Europeans and Indigenous peoples, formed some of the modern world's Afro-Asian and Asian Latin American populations.
Chinese immigration to the United States was almost entirely voluntary, but working and social conditions were still harsh. In 1868, the Burlingame Treaty allowed unrestricted Chinese immigration into the country. Within a decade significant levels of anti-Chinese sentiment had built up, stoked by populists such as Denis Kearney with racist slogans - "To an American, death is preferable to life on a par with the Chinese."
Although Chinese workers contributed to the building of the first Transcontinental Railroad in the United States and of the Canadian Pacific Railway in western Canada, Chinese settlement was discouraged after completion of the construction. California's Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 and the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 contributed to the curtailment of Chinese immigration to the United States.
Notwithstanding such attempts to restrict the influx of cheap labour from China, beginning in the 1870s Chinese workers helped construct a vast network of levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. These levees made thousands of acres of fertile marshlands available for agricultural production.
The 1879 Constitution of the State of California declared that "Asiatic coolieism is a form of human slavery, and is forever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for coolie labour shall be void."
Colonos asiáticos is a Spanish term for coolies. The Spanish colony of Cuba feared slavery uprisings such as those that took place in Haiti and used coolies as a transition between slaves and free labor. They were neither free nor slaves. Indentured Chinese servants also labored in the sugarcane fields of Cuba well after the 1884 abolition of slavery in that country. Two scholars of Chinese labor in Cuba, Juan Pastrana and Juan Perez de la Riva, substantiated horrific conditions of Chinese coolies in Cuba and stated that coolies were slaves in all but name. Denise Helly is one researcher who believes that despite their slave-like treatment, the free and legal status of the Asian laborers in Cuba separated them from slaves. The coolies could challenge their superiors, run away, petition government officials, and rebel according to Rodriguez Pastor and Trazegnies Granda. Once they had fulfilled their contracts the colonos asiáticos integrated into the countries of Peru, The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Cuba. They adopted cultural traditions from the natives and also welcomed in non-Chinese to experience and participate into their own traditions. Before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Havana had Latin America's largest Chinatown.
In South America, Chinese indentured labourers worked in Peru's silver mines and coastal industries (i.e., guano, sugar, and cotton) from the early 1850s to the mid-1870s; about 100,000 people immigrated as indentured workers. They participated in the War of the Pacific, looting and burning down the haciendas where they worked, after the capture of Lima by the invading Chilean army in January 1880. Some 2000 coolies even joined the Chilean Army in Peru, taking care of the wounded and burying the dead. Others were sent by Chileans to work in the newly conquered nitrate fields.
The Chinese Engineering and Mining Corporation, of which later U.S. president Herbert Hoover was a director, was instrumental in supplying Chinese coolie labour to South African mines from c.1902 to c.1910 at the request of mine owners, who considered such labour cheaper than native African and white labour. The horrendous conditions suffered by the coolie labourers led to questions in the British parliament as recorded in Hansard.
In 1866, the British, French and Chinese governments agreed to mitigate the abuse by requiring all traders to pay for the return of all workers after their contract ended. The employers in the British West Indies declined these conditions, bringing the trade there to an end. Until the trade was finally abolished in 1875, over 150,000 coolies had been sold to Cuba alone, the majority having been shipped from Macau. These labourers endured conditions far worse than those experienced by their Indian counterparts. Even after the 1866 reforms, the scale of abuse and conditions of near slavery did not get any better - if anything they deteriorated. In the early 1870s increased media exposure of the trade led to a public outcry, and the British, as well as the Qing government, put pressure on the Portuguese authorities to bring the trade at Macau to an end; this was ultimately achieved in 1874. By that time, a total of up to half a million Chinese workers had been exported.
The term coolie was also applied to Chinese workers recruited for contracts on cacao plantations in German Samoa. German planters went to great lengths to secure access to their "coolie" labour supply from China. In 1908 a Chinese commissioner, Lin Shu Fen, reported on the cruel treatment of coolie workers on German plantations in the western Samoan Islands. The trade began largely after the establishment of colonial German Samoa in 1900 and lasted until the arrival of New Zealand forces in 1914. More than 2000 Chinese "coolies" were present in the islands in 1914 and most were eventually repatriated by the New Zealand administration.
INDIAN COOLIES
By the 1820s, many Indians were voluntarily enlisting to go abroad for work, in the hopes of a better life. European merchants and businessmen quickly took advantage of this and began recruiting them for work as a cheap source of labour. The British began shipping Indians to colonies around the world, including Mauritius, Fiji, Natal, British East Africa, and British Malaya. The Dutch also shipped workers to labour on the plantations on Suriname and the Dutch East Indies. A system of agents was used to infiltrate the rural villages of India and recruit labourers. They would often deceive the credulous workers about the great opportunities that awaited them for their own material betterment abroad. The Indians primarily came from the Indo-Gangetic Plain, but also from Tamil Nadu and other areas to the south of the country.
Without permission from the British authorities, the French attempted to illegally transport Indian workers to their sugar producing colony, the Reunion Island, from as early as 1826. By 1830, over 3000 labourers had been transported. After this trade was discovered, the French successfully negotiated with the British in 1860 for permission to transport over 6,000 workers annually, on condition that the trade would be suspended if abuses were discovered to be taking place.
The British began to transport Indians to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, starting in 1829. Slavery had been abolished with the planters receiving two million pounds sterling in compensation for the loss of their slaves. The planters turned to bringing in a large number of indentured labourers from India to work in the sugar cane fields. Between 1834 and 1921, around half a million indentured labourers were present on the island. They worked on sugar estates, factories, in transport and on construction sites.
In 1837, the Raj issued a set of regulations for the trade. The rules provided for each labourer to be personally authorised for transportation by an officer designated by the Government, it limited the length of service to five years subject to voluntary renewal, it made the contractor responsible for returning the worker after the contract elapsed and required the vessels to conform to basic health standards
Despite this, conditions on the ships were often extremely crowded, with rampant disease and malnutrition. The workers were paid a pittance for their labour, and were expected to work in often awful and harsh conditions. Although there were no large scale scandals involving coolie abuse in British colonies, workers often ended up being forced to work, and manipulated in such a way that they became dependent on the plantation owners so that in practice they remained there long after their contracts expired; possibly as little as 10% of the coolies actually returned to their original country of origin. Colonial legislation was also passed to severely limit their freedoms; in Mauritius a compulsory pass system was instituted to enable their movements to be easily tracked. Conditions were much worse in the French colonies of Reunion and Guadeloupe and Martinique, where workers were 'systematically overworked' and abnormally high mortality rates were recorded for those working in the mines.
However, there were also attempts by the British authorities to regulate and mitigate the worst abuses. Workers were regularly checked up on by health inspectors, and they were vetted before transportation to ensure that they were suitably healthy and fit to be able to endure the rigours of labour. Children under the age of 15 were not allowed to be transported from their parents under any circumstances.
The first campaign against the 'coolie' trade in England likened the system of indentured labour to the slavery of the past. In response to this pressure, the labour export was temporarily stopped in 1839 by the authorities when the scale of the abuses became known, but it was soon renewed due to its growing economic importance. A more rigorous regulatory framework was put into place and severe penalties were imposed for infractions in 1842. In that year, almost 35,000 people were shipped to Mauritius.
In 1844, the trade was expanded to the colonies in the West Indies, including Jamaica, Trinidad and Demerara, where the Asian population was soon a major component of the island demographic.
Starting in 1879, many Indians were transported to Fiji to work on the sugar cane plantations. Many of them chose to stay after their term of indenture elapsed and today they number about 40% of the total population. Indian workers were also imported into the Dutch colony of Suriname after the Dutch signed a treaty with the United Kingdom on the recruitment of contract workers in 1870. In Mauritius, the Indian population are now demographically dominant, with Indian festivals being celebrated as national holidays.
This system prevailed until the early twentieth century. Increasing focus on the brutalities and abuses of the trade by the sensationalist media of the time, incited public outrage and lead to the official ending of the coolie trade in 1916 by the British government. By that time tens of thousands of Chinese workers were being used along the Western Front by the allied forces (see Chinese Labour Corps).
SEX RATIOS AND INTERMARRIAGE AMONG COOLIES
A major difference between the Chinese coolie trade and the Indian coolie trade was that the Chinese coolies were all male, while East Indian women (from India) were brought alongside men as coolies. This led to a high rate of Chinese men marrying women of other ethnicities like Indian women and mixed race Creole women. Indian women and children were brought alongside Indian men as coolies while Chinese men made up 99% of Chinese colonies. The contrast with the female to male ratio among Indian and Chinese immigrants has been compared by historians. In Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies just 18,731 Chinese women and 92,985 Chinese men served as coolies on plantations. Chinese women migrated less than Javanese and Indian women as indentured coolies. The number of Chinese women as coolies was "very small" while Chinese men were easily taken into the coolie trade. In Cuba men made up the vast majority of Chinese indentured servants on sugar plantations and in Peru non-Chinese women married the mostly male Chinese coolies.
Chinese women were scarce in every place where Chinese indentured laborers were brought, the migration was dominated by Chinese men. Up to the 1940s men made up the vast majority of the Costa Rican Chinese community. Males made up the majority of the original Chinese community in Mexico and they married Mexican women.
In the early 1900s, the Chinese communities in Manila, Singapore, Mauritius, New Zealand, Victoria in Australia, the United States, and Victoria in British Columbia in Canada were all male dominated.
WIKIPEDIA
A golden sunset marks the end of another working day in a big city. One more trainload of overworked, underpaid humanity is redistributed back to their nests. Just beneath this frequent urban scene, a Telecom billboard reminds us we should talk to each other and I presume, suggests the way how to.
Does the all-together-but-still-alone lifestyle scream some irony here?
Sunset off the lanai.
I really cranked up the contrast and saturation on this one. It was a pretty colorful display even without the overworking...
Date of Birth
6 July 1951, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
Birth Name
Geoffrey Roy Rush
Height
6' (1.83 m)
Mini Biography
Born on July 6, 1951, in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, but raised in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia after his parents (he an accountant, she a sales clerk) split up, actor Geoffrey Rush attended Everton Park State High School during his formative years. His early interest in the theatre led to his 1971 stage debut at age 20 in "Wrong Side of the Moon" with the Queensland Theatre Company.
Known for his classical repertory work over the years, he scored an unexpected hit with his Queensland role as Snoopy in the musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown". A few years later he moved to France to study but subsequently returned to his homeland within a short time and continued work as both actor and director with the Queensland company ("June and the Paycock," "Aladdin," "Godspell," "Present Laughter," "The Rivals"). In the 1980s Rush became a vital member of the State Theatre Company of South Australia and showed an equally strong range there in such productions as "Revenger's Tragedy," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Mother Courage...and Her Children," "Blood Wedding," "Pal Joey," "Twelfth Night" and as The Fool in "King Lear".
Rush made an inauspicious debut in films with the feature Hoodwink (1981), having little more than a bit part, and didn't carry off his first major role until playing Sir Andrew Aguecheek in a movie production of Twelfth Night (1987). Yet, he remained a durable presence on stage with acclaimed productions in "The Diary of a Madman" in 1989 and "The Government Inspector" in 1991.
Rush suffered a temporary nervous breakdown in 1992 due to overwork and anguish over his lack of career advancement. Resting for a time, he eventually to the stage. Within a few years filmgoers finally began taking notice of Geoffrey after his performance in Children of the Revolution (1996). This led to THE role of a lifetime as the highly dysfunctional piano prodigy David Helfgott in Shine (1996). Rush's astonishing tour-de-force performance won him every conceivable award imaginable, including the Oscar, Golden Globe, British Film Award and Australian Film Institute Award.
"Shine" not only put Rush on the international film map, but atypically on the Hollywood "A" list as well. His rather homely mug was made fascinating by a completely charming, confident and captivating demeanor; better yet, it allowed him to more easily dissolve into a number of transfixing historical portrayals, notably his Walsingham in Elizabeth (1998), Marquis de Sade in Quills (2000), and Leon Trotsky in Frida (2002). He's also allowed himself to have a bit of hammy fun in such box office escapism as Mystery Men (1999), House on Haunted Hill (1999), The Banger Sisters (2002), Finding Nemo (2003) and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). More than validating his early film success, two more Oscar nominations came his way in the same year for Quills (2000) (best actor) and Shakespeare in Love (1998) (support actor) in 2000. Geoffrey's amazing versatility continues to impress, more recently as the manic, volatile comedy genius Peter Sellers in the biopic The Life & Death of Peter Sellers (2004).
Rush's intermittent returns to the stage have included productions of "Marat-Sade," "Uncle Vanya," "Oleanna," "Hamlet" and "The Small Poppies". In 2009 he made his Broadway debut in "Exit the King" co-starring Susan Sarandon. His marriage (since 1988) to Aussie classical actress Jane Menelaus produced daughter Angelica (1992) and son James (1995). Menelaus, who has also performed with the State Theatre of South Australia, has co-starred on stage with Rush in "The Winter's Tale" (1987), "Troilus and Cressida" (1989) and "The Importance of Being Earnest" (as Gwendolyn to his Jack Worthing). She also had a featured role in his film Quills (2000).
IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
Spouse
Jane Menelaus (20 November 1988 - present) 2 children
Trade Mark
Soft, raspy voice
Trivia
He adapted Beaumarchais's play "The Marriage of Figaro", with Neil Armfield, for the inaugural production in the new Optus Playhouse in the Queensland Performing Arts Complex, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, in September, 1998. He also played the title role of Figaro in the same production.
Children: Angelica (1992) and James (1995)
Once lived with Mel Gibson while they were in college.
He began his acting career with the Queensland Theatre Company in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Has an Arts Degree from the University of Queensland.
Awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Queensland, in Australia.
Attended the Jacques Lecoq School of Mime, Movement and Theater.
Actively involved with Melbourne Community Groups in preserving historical landscapes from adverse development; particularly in regard to Camberwell Railway Station where he organized a protest march, attended by Barry Humphries amongst other luminaries (2004).
He was named Alumnus of the Year by the University of Queensland (Australia) in 1998.
He won an Oscar for playing David Helfgott in Shine (1996), making him one of 12 actors to win the Award for playing a real person who was still alive at the evening of the Award ceremony (as of 2007).
He was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in the 2001 Queen's New Years Honours List for his services to the arts especially through a distinguished acting career.
Is one of 8 actors to have won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics' Choice Award, Golden Globe Award and SAG Award for the same performance. The others in chronological order are Jamie Foxx for Ray (2004/I), Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote (2005), Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland (2006), Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men (2007), Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007), Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight (2008), and Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (2009).
He was awarded the 2009 Tony Award for Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in the play, "Exit the King" on Broadway in New York City.
Became the 19th actor to win the triple crown of acting: In 2009 won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play (Exit the King) to go with his Oscar for Shine (1997) and his Emmy for Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004).
His favorite film is City Lights (1931) and often shows it at parties to people who have never seen the film before. Other favorites include Zelig (1983), War and Peace (1967), Persona (1966) and Amarcord (1973).
Became the fourth actor to appear in 2 films to gross $1 billion with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), and _Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011). He is the first actor from the southern hemisphere to achieve this feat.
Personal Quotes
[Regarding he and Joseph Fiennes appearing in both Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Elizabeth (1998)] "He got to make love to Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett. All I got was an Oscar nomination".
"My career has been in theatre for 23 years, with spits and coughs in bits and pieces of films. Scott [Hicks] very nicely said my entire career had been my audition [for the role in Shine (1996)]".
[about Quills] When you get to tongue kiss Kate Winslet and get paid for it, you say: I'll sign!
[on accepting the role of Lionel Logue in The King's Speech]: I first got the script in a fairly unorthodox way. It was in a brown paper package at my front door, like an orphaned child. A neighbour of mine knew this woman in London who wanted to produce it as a play, and on the coverlet it said, "Please forgive me Mr. Rush for sending this to your home, blah blah blah", and I read it and I went wow, great story.
[on performing with Colin Firth] [He] made me better. I didn't have to act listening. I was mesmerized by the hidden areas of truth he was uncovering.
[on accepting roles that might be considered risky] Occasionally you need to jump off a cliff and do things you know are not immediately within your grasp.
[on replaying the role of 'Barbossa' to Johnny Depp's 'Captain Jack Sparrow'] It's become an imaginative metaphor for me and Johnny as actors. It feels like we've been married for a long time and there are certain things that are never going to resolve themselves within the marriage. It's an interesting way for us to find the context for this kind of constant spat.
Where Are They Now
(May 2004) Currently lives in Melbourne, Australia
(January 2009) Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
Starring Pat Boone, James Mason, Arlene Dahl, Diane Baker, Thayer David, Peter Ronson, Alan Napier, and Gertrude the Duck. Directed by Henry Levin.
It's 1880, and Oliver Lindenbrook (James Mason), a distinguished professor of geology at the University of Edinburgh, has just been knighted. He arrives at his lecture hall to be greeted by a gathering of staff and students. They present him with an elaborate inkwell as a token of their esteem, and the Dean declares a holiday in honor of the occasion. As the others leave, one student, Alec McKuen (Pat Boone), remains behind. He offers Lindenbrook a curiosity as an extra token: a lump of lava, strangely heavy, although lava is usually very light. Pleased with the offering, Lindenbrook invites him to dinner at his home that evening. As Alec leaves, Lindenbrook turns his attention back to the unusual rock.
Alec arrives at the professor's house later that evening to find that he never came home, and his niece, Jenny (Diane Baker), is both angry and worried. Alec and Jenny go to his laboratory at the University, and find him and his assistant, Paisley (Ben Wright), feverishly engaged in experiments on that same piece of lava. Lindenbrook shows Alec that he has chipped away a fragment of the lava and uncovered a manmade object inside, marked with three grooves or notches. He is about to melt off the rest of the lava to discover what it might be. Tired and distracted, Paisley pours in too much fuel, and the stove explodes. In the aftermath, Lindenbrook finds that the lava has been blasted free, and the object is revealed to be a surveyor's plumb bob with a few Nordic words painfully scratched on it. Lindenbrook and Alec recognize the signature with wonder: Arne Saknussem, a brilliant but eccentric Icelandic scientist, who had disappeared many years earlier while exploring the volcanoes of his homeland.
Two weeks later, the Dean (Alan Napier) and the Rector (Alan Caillou) of the University arrive at Lindenbrook's home to ask why he's neglecting his teaching duties. He shows them the plumb bob, and the translation he had made of its message: "I am dying but my life's work must not be lost. Whoever descends into the crater of Snefels Yokul can reach the center of the earth. At sunrise on the last day of May, the Mountain Scartaris will point the path." Lindenbrook explains that Snefels Yokul is an extinct volcano in Iceland, and Scartaris a nearby mountain peak. He has written a paper, and sent it to the eminent Professor Goteborg of Sweden for review, and plans to mount an expedition to Iceland as soon as Goteborg confirms its feasibility.
But Goteborg's reply is overdue, although Lindenbrooke has written twice. Instead, a letter arrives from the University of Sweden, saying Goteborg has disappeared. Lindenbrook immediately suspects that Goteborg intends to mount an expedition of his own. He and Alec decide to leave for Iceland at once.
In Iceland, a visit to the volcanic crater shows that Goteborg has indeed been surveying there. Lindenbrook sends Alec back to town to acquire the equipment and supplies they will need while he makes his own observations of the crater. Goteborg (Ivan Triesault) has watched their arrival, and desperate to delay them, arranges for them to be abducted and imprisoned in a remote eider down storage shed. Fortunately, they are quickly discovered there by a tall, young Icelandic man, Hans Belker (Peter Ronson), and his pet duck, Gertrude. He releases them and takes them back to Reykjavik.
Goteborg is also staying at their hotel. They ask for him at the desk, but the hotel proprietress (Edith Evanson) is uneasy and evasive, saying he cannot be disturbed. Lindenbrook hands his card to her, asking her to put it in Goteborg's mailbox, and they watch as she does so, learning his room number. They knock and shout at Goteborg's door, but he doesn't answer. Hans picks the lock, and they go inside to wait for his return. As they look enviously over the supplies and equipment he has stockpiled there, they find his lifeless body, neatly laid out, covered by a blanket...and also discover he was poisoned by a person or persons unknown.
Meanwhile, Goteborg's wife, Karla (Arlene Dahl), arrives from Sweden. The proprietress shows her into her office, and breaks the news to her of her husband's death. Lindenbrook, coming downstairs to talk to the proprietress, overhears the conversation, and steps in to inform them both that the professor's death was murder. The proprietress discloses that the last person to see him alive was Count Saknussem (Thayer David), a descendant of Arne Saknussem, and a scientist in his own right. She goes off to inform the police. Lindenbrook asks Madame Goteborg to sell him the professor's equipment. She is too distraught to discuss the matter, and a desperate Lindenbrook demands that she sell him the equipment, blurting out that he has a right to it as her husband had been trying to cheat him of credit for his discovery. Outraged, she flatly refuses. But later, reading her husband's diary, she learns that Lindenbrook told the truth. She agrees to sell him the equipment on condition he allows her to join the expedition. He is reluctant, but must relent: He needs the equipment, and since Hans is also going, and she speaks Icelandic, she will be useful in helping them all to communicate.
Hans decides on his own to bring along his duck, Gertrude.
Dawn finds them on the rim of the volcanic crater, waiting for Saknussem's sign. A single ray of light from the rising sun peeks through the crags of Scartaris, marking their gateway. The Lindenbrook Expedition sets off...unaware that Count Saknussem (Thayer David) and his servant have been watching them--and will follow. They soon discover that Arne Saknussem marked his pathway at regular intervals with his three notches signature, and they need only look for these to keep on the right trail. One night, the Count and his servant creep past them as they sleep. At the next set of notches, he chisels new marks in the rock that point a different direction, while his servant conceals the real marks. The Lindenbrook party is led astray by the false marks and Alec is nearly killed in a fall. Backtracking, they discover where and why they went wrong. Now they know they are in a race with a dangerous enemy.
They are separated at one of their campsites, a spectacular crystalline rock formation and mineral spring. At one point, off by himself, Alec drops his lantern through a hole in the rock, and when he goes to retrieve it he misses the correct corridor back. Meanwhile, Lindenbrook chisels off a sample of the unique rock formation, and as he does so, the whole wall collapses, flooding the chamber with water. Lindenbrook, Madam Goteborg, and Hans must scramble to escape. They don't notice Alec is not with them until they are out of the flooded chamber.
Alec and the rest of the party wander separately for days, looking for each other. Alec eventually stumbles upon Count Saknussem, whose servant has died of heat, overwork and fear, leaving the Count stranded. The Count tries to force Alec to pick up the servant's burden. Alec refuses, and begins to walk away. Count Saknussem shoots him in the arm with his revolver. The noise brings Lindenbrook, Hans and Madam Goteborg on the run, but the happy reunion is short-lived, with the Count holding a gun on them all. He tells the others to go back, leaving Hans behind to serve him. Lindenbrook pretends to agree, then tricks and disarms him. They debate on what to do with him: They all agree he is guilty of murder and mayhem, but they are all too civilized to do away with him or leave him behind to die. They reluctantly allow him to join their group.
They continue on their journey for many weeks, growing ragged and weary, running short of supplies. One day Alec finds a forest of mushrooms. Some are as large as trees, but there are also smaller, edible mushrooms, and all are relieved and grateful for the dietary change. While the others rest, Count Saknussem goes exploring beyond the forest. He comes back long enough to order Hans to fell some of the giant mushrooms and build a raft. Lindenbrook follows him, and finds that Saknussem has discovered a vast underground sea. To continue their journey, they must cross this sea, hence the raft. When they try to launch it, however, they are attacked by giant fin-backed lizards. Hans manages to kill one of them with a spear. The others immediately turn to devour it, and the party escapes onto the underground sea.
After days on the ocean, they suddenly encounter a magnetic force so powerful it rips away everything made of metal...even Madam Goteborg's wedding ring and Hans's gold tooth! They have reached the center of the earth! But they're caught up in a maelstrom, and it wrecks their frail craft. They make it to the beach exhausted, no food or equipment, only the rags on their backs, and fall asleep. Gertrude wriggles free of Hans's arms and strolls down the beach. The Count, also wakeful, sees her and begins to follow. When Hans wakes, he follows her tracks, calling for her. He finds a lone white feather at the mouth of a cave...he finds more inside, stained with blood. Furious, he begins to climb toward the Count, who is using a rock to scratch something on a rock wall. He tries to strangle the Count, but Lindenbrook and Alec drag him away. Angry and frightened, the Count rages at them all, accusing them of being ungrateful fools. He steps backward and stumbles into the wall on which he was pounding earlier. It collapses on top of him, killing him.
The others move up to the place where he fell, and see in the chamber beyond the ruins of an ancient city, which Lindenbrook speculates may have been part of the Lost City of Atlantis. Exploring, they find the skeleton of Arne Saknussem...with a broken leg to explain why he never returned, his only remaining possession a knapsack full of gunpowder. Madam Goteborg notes that his hand seems to be pointing, and they turn to see a volcanic shaft, with a tremendous updraft, indicating it could be a direct path to the earth's surface. But it is blocked by a massive boulder. Lindenbrook suggests they use the gunpowder in Arne Saknussem's knapsack to dislodge it. They forage through the city, and find flint and iron (to make fire), and a few crude tools. They set their charge and twist together a fuse. Lindenbrook lights it, and they take shelter in a bowl-shaped altar stone. The force of the blast does dislodge the boulder, but also triggers a volcanic eruption. The altar stone (fortunately made from an ancient form of asbestos!) is borne up by the hot lava into the shaft, and propelled at a terrific speed to the surface. They are ejected from a dead volcano, now activated by the blast, into the Mediterranean Sea, where all but Alec are rescued by fishermen. Alec was thrown early from the altar stone, and is rescued (trouser-less!) from a tree by a group of nuns.
Back in Edinburgh, the expedition is greeted enthusiastically by a crowd of students at the University. Lindenbrook thanks them, but says that all his notes and samples were lost and he would never embarrass the University by claiming credit for an accomplishment he couldn't prove.
Alec is there, with Jenny, in a wheelchair with a cast on his leg. It develops that he was in such a hurry to leave the church after their wedding that he fell and broke his leg. Nevertheless, they are clearly happy. Hans is also there, but leaving shortly for Iceland. Lindenbrook offers his heartfelt thanks, and Hans replies in a few laboriously learned English words that if the professor ever decides to go down there again, Hans will go too. They shake hands and say goodbye. Madam Goteborg tells Lindenbrook she is leaving, too, to return to Sweden. Lindenbrook protests, saying she must stay and help him with his memoirs. As they argue about the terms on which she will stay, they both finally realize that they care for each other, and want to be together. They kiss, and the crowd cheers.
Text continued from Page 2SR
SPECIAL REPORT: WHAT WENT WRONG
FAILURE OF DESIGN AND DISCIPLINE
JEFF LEEN, STEPHEN K. DOIG and LISA GETTER Herald Staff Writers
Section: SPECIAL SECTION
Edition: FINAL
Page: 3SR
-- lasting up to 15 or 20 seconds and cutting tiny swaths roughly 50 feet wide and 200 feet long.
"We don't want people to think that the whole area was swept by 175 mile per hour winds," Black said. "It's just in the streaks where you get winds that high."
From the peak wind, scientists like Black are able to calculate an equivalent maximum sustained wind in Naranja Lakes of above 133 miles per hour. A fatal design flaw compounded the wind's havoc for much of Naranja Lakes: missing were vertical steel rods that would have greatly strengthened hundreds of concrete-block condo units.
Another of the high-damage areas, the section off Old Cutler Road, was near the high point of the 16-foot storm surge that hit Dade County, where the storm's winds hit South Florida's coastline with their greatest energy. The highest confirmed wind reading occurred here -- 177 mph for 2.5 seconds -- just before the anemometer atop a 33-foot pole collapsed at a private home near SW 162 Street and 85th Court.
The Old Cutler Road area, like most of the region in the storm's eyewall path -- the swath of South Florida that took the hardest hit -- was rated F-1, peak winds up to 151 mph and sustained winds equivalent to 97 to 114 mph.
COUNTRY WALK
Why was Country Walk devastated, while some nearby homes weren't?
But in devastated Country Walk, the winds were even weaker, rated F-0 by the scientists: sustained from 64 to 96 and gusts to 127 mph.
Yet here the damage was the second greatest of any area in South Dade, according to the computer analysis.
Why?
Some residents looked at Country Walk after the storm and immediately thought the houses, nearly all of which had extensive roof damage, had been hit by tornadoes. But the NOAA scientists, who are experts at spotting the paths of tornadoes in wreckage, found no such evidence.
"In a tornado, these kind of houses would just be flattened," Black said. "If there had been any tornado features here, you would see some kind of departure, some curvature to the debris paths. What you should be able to see is a curved path of destruction, and the debris from the houses flung out at an angle from the wind."
Since Country Walk is largely a collection of wood-frame houses, some have speculated that the destruction there came, if not from a tornado, then from hard wind hitting weak wood.
The NOAA scientists who visited Country Walk did not see any evidence of extremely high wind like the streaks that devastated Naranja Lakes, though an unconfirmed anemometer report of 144 miles per hour did emerge from the area after the storm.
Black carefully studied an aerial photograph of Country Walk and estimated the peak winds at no higher than 100 to 110.
"There are some older Florida-style houses in that area out there that are just as exposed as Country Walk," Black said. "And they're not totally devastated like Country Walk was."
The Herald hired an engineer, Eugenio Santiago, to inspect four houses in Country Walk. He found them especially ill- equipped to fight off the hurricane. The weak point was the "storm bracing" -- two-by-fours that strengthen the gable ends, the sides at either end of a pitched roof that provide an extremely exposed flat face to the wind.
A chronic lack of bracing allowed head-on and suction winds to rip apart the towering gable ends in Country Walk. The few braces found were often sloppily attached. Entire rows of nails missed trusses on the roofs.
Despite mounting evidence of structural weakness, others continue to blame the wind. They point to the severe damage to Homestead Air Force Base and the Turkey Point nuclear power plant, as well as the reinforced concrete utility poles that broke in the storm.
"In some cases, the wind was so bad, even if the house was built perfectly it would be the same result," said Roberto Pineiro, Dade's chief building inspector. "You see outside Country Walk huge Florida Power & Light poles snapped in half. That's reality. That's for everyone to see."
But tall and slender light poles are exposed to higher winds than houses, and they lack the ability to efficiently distribute wind forces throughout their structure, like houses do.
MAKING HOUSES SOLID
Study: Materials to strengthen houses would have cost $200 to $300
Built correctly, lower-profile houses can resist high wind forces, as box-like concrete-block-style 1960-era houses demonstrated all over South Dade after Andrew.
"What you've got to do is transmit those forces into the ground," said Crane Miller, a Washington lawyer who did a study of Hurricane Hugo for NOAA. "The only way to do it is to make sure everything is tied securely together. It is easy.
"To me, the catastrophe is the materials you would need to strengthen those houses would have cost about $200 to $300 per building and are insignificant in the total capital cost."
The Air Force base and Turkey Point also have much higher wind profiles than houses. And they were exposed to the full force of unobstructed winds along the coastline.
Most houses further inland faced weaker winds because wind generates friction and slows down after it hits land. Open fields and lakes might allow the wind to speed up a bit, but trees slow it down.
"Having trees in the neighborhood creates a little boundary layer," Black said. "It's like having a shock absorber for the wind."
Country Walk was perched at the edge of open fields, but it was also thick with trees. And the computer analysis shows that the interior areas of Country Walk fared just as badly as the edges that were more exposed to the wind.
Some comparisons are worthwhile to put Country Walk in context.
In the computer analysis, 18 Country Walk subdivisions and condos encompassing 936 units were rated 98.2 percent uninhabitable with 90 percent of the inspections completed. South Miami Heights Manor, a subdivision of 765 concrete-block houses built in the early 1960s, was only 2.5 percent uninhabitable with 68 percent inspected. And the NOAA scientist rated the wind higher in South Miami Heights.
Another comparison lies in the number of destroyed houses per subdivision. A house was rated destroyed if the damage was so extensive that the remnants had to be bulldozed and the house totally rebuilt.
The two-square-mile area containing Naranja Lakes, an area known as "Ground Zero" centered roughly on Southwest 280th Street and 145th Avenue, had the most destroyed houses -- 368.
The square mile containing most of Country Walk had 70 destroyed houses -- by far the most of any area north of Southwest 260th Street.
South Miami Heights Manor had six.
The large uninhabitable area off Old Cutler Road, where the homes were built in the early 1970s and are assessed at about $170,000, had only three destroyed houses.
NARANJA LAKES
3 died here, but damage was much lighter at nearby Sunny Haven
Naranja Lakes had by far the worst damage of any area in South Dade. It was the site of both the worst wind and perhaps the worst design flaw, according to an engineer hired by The Herald to study the hurricane damage.
Naranja Lakes was built in the early 1970s by a Mafia- associated builder who put up concrete-block condominiums with large, overhanging flat roofs. The one-ton concrete tie- beams that braced the walls and connected the roofs to the houses were not anchored to the foundation by vertical steel rods.
The result: the normally wind-resistant concrete-box design became a deathtrap. When the wind streaks hit Naranja Lakes, the roofs took off, tie beams in tow, like flying wings. Three people died as the heavy beams toppled walls and drove through roofs like giant javelins.
One subdivision near Naranja Lakes fared much better: Sunny Haven, a late-1950s development of 99 houses with an average assessed value of $29,000. Barely 1,000 feet from the utter devastation of Ground Zero, Sunny Haven rated only 26 percent uninhabitable.
"They're all very small houses with pitches about what they're supposed to be in Dade County, as opposed to the large, flat roofs of Naranja Lakes," Black said. "I don't see any reason why those places didn't experience the same kind of winds that Naranja Lakes did."
Black, the NOAA scientest, has studied several concrete- block houses that lost their roofs and tie-beams in similar ways during Andrew. The common link: none had vertical steel holding the tie-beams down.
"All the houses that I've looked at that were destroyed had that problem," Black said. "It appears that no matter how high these winds were, a lot of these houses would have survived if they had these vertical columns."
County-wide, flying concrete tie-beams were a relatively small problem, restricted to Naranja Lakes and a few isolated areas.
The bigger problems were the smaller-scale failures that proliferated in Country Walk and other neighborhoods in weaker winds zones: garage and double doors that blew in and staples and gables that gave way.
"Those shingles are stapled on with a staple that didn't hold," said Marks, the engineer. "The felt that was stapled on didn't hold. The (particle board) and the plywood didn't hold."
When the shingles, felt and particle board or plywood went, the roof went. When the roof went, the house became uninhabitable. And the high-pitched gable ends that were all the architectural rage in the 1980s helped the roofs go.
"The lack of understanding of how to build a gable caused as much damage as the staple problem," Marks said.
At the heart of the roof failures was confusion among truss manufacturers, architects and contractors about who was responsible for the complex engineering involved in bracing the gable ends.
"If you look at the building code, it's deficient," Dade Building and Zoning Chief Carlos Bonzon said. "It's not clear who's responsible. The engineer for the truss manufacturer or the architect of record?"
Bonzon admitted that his building inspectors had to rely on the contractors to build the gable ends correctly because the inspectors "didn't have training in wind-resistant construction. There is a deficiency in all levels in wind-resistant construction."
UNMISTAKABLE LESSON
Scientist: Damage was 'proportional to the kind of construction used'
The Country Walk area provides one of the starkest contrasts in the entire hurricane-ravaged landscape. Seen from an aerial photograph, like the one on the cover of this special section, the lesson is unmistakable. The aerial shows five neighborhoods, all constructed differently.
"The damage is directly proportional to the kind of construction used," said Black. "It was astounding for me to see that."
The northernmost neighborhood in the photograph, Country Walk Section 2, was the hardest hit area of Country Walk. The 184-home development, built in the early 1980s, had 100 percent of its inspected homes rated uninhabitable and 33 houses destroyed.
But the destruction immediately south of it was even worse. Here, the Dadeland Mobile Home Park, was a shredded mass of total devastation.
Next to the park, Roger Homes, a 38-home development put up in the late 1980s, was also heavily damaged, 100 percent uninhabitable.
Below the park, Mediterranea, a 111-home subdivision built in the late 1980s, was rated 99 percent uninhabitable. It did poorly, but not quite as badly as Country Walk.
Next to Mediterranea and about a third of a mile south of Country Walk sits a success story: The 71-home Munne Estates project, built in 1989 and 1990.
The red-tiled-roofed, concrete block houses look almost pristine in the aerial photograph.
"Maybe the storm went around my project," said Raul Munne, 51. "Either that or we did something right."
He did a lot right. In stunning contrast with the surrounding subdivisions, nearly all of the roofs held on the $80,000 to $95,000 Munne homes. Munne built his roofs with plywood, not the weaker particle board, and he used thicker plywood than the code allowed. Then he used nails driven in by hand, not staples, to hold it down.
"Munne should definitely get credit for building good houses," said Dawn Mareno, a resident of Munne Estates. "All we lost were tiles."
LONG DRY SPELL
Avino: Long spell between storms helped foster complacency
How did things get so bad that homes built with pride and craftsmanship can become a cause for celebration -- instead of the rightful expectation of any home buyer?
Many blame the long dry spell between serious hurricanes in South Florida. By the 1980s, builders could put up houses with no memory of what it is like to be tested by 120 mile per hour winds.
"I think people got very complacent," said Santiago, the veteran engineer hired by The Herald. "People were just
oblivious to things, as if they thought we never were going to have a hurricane in this area."
"Without a doubt, complacency plays a role in it," said County Manager Joaquin Avino, who ran Dade's Building and Zoning Department in the early 1980s. "Look back in the '60s, '50s, and 40s. Materials tended to be heavier."
Adds Flesner: "I think it's just the cost pressure that builders find themselves under. I think you see it more with the large tract builder. If they can save $100 to $200 a house, that's big dollars when you're putting up a lot of houses."
To save money, builders pushed for the acceptance of cheaper materials, like staples, thinner plywood and particle board. The 1980s homes that did so poorly in the hurricane were built during a period when the South Florida Building Code was weakened to allow for the inferior materials and techniques.
"To reduce costs and maximize profits, they were able to get certain building materials approved by using attorneys," said Andrew Allocco, an engineer who inspects homes for prospective buyers.
The Herald found that Dade's builders had a considerable influence in the department that inspected them. At the height of the building boom, the building industry contributed one of every three dollars to Metro commission campaigns.
"Lo and behold, the argument that these contractors and developers used will work in the long run against them," Allocco said. "They had to prove to the board (of Rules and Appeals) that products would withstand a hurricane. Lo and behold, they didn't."
The board was warned twice -- in 1983 and again by roofers in 1984 -- that staples weren't working, but did nothing to change the code.
INSPECTIONS
System broke down as new construction proliferated
At the same time that the building materials were becoming cheaper and construction was increasing, the county's building inspection system was failing to enforce the South Florida Building Code. Through overwork, oversight or outright corruption, county building inspectors allowed the flaws to proliferate.
The number of inspectors did not keep up with the pace of construction. Inspectors were pressured to perform up to four times the number of inspections that could properly be done in a day. A computer analysis of building inspections revealed 194 times since 1987 in which inspectors were sent out on more than 50 inspections in one day, more than double the 20 inspection- limit recommended by a grand jury.
"It's one of the toughest codes, but so what if you don't enforce it or if people don't build to it," said lawyer Miller.
State Farm's Flesner concurs: "There are things in the code that need to be fixed. But the bigger concern is enforcement."
Grand juries exposed inspectors who didn't get up on roofs and took time off work to go to a bowling alley. A 1986 police investigation found widespread bribery of inspectors.
"I had a concern about whether or not they were doing a totally honest job in the field," said Ray Goode, who was Dade's county manager in the 1970s.
"Always in the back of your mind you worry because you have this small army of people out in the field every day checking houses. Do you know or not know if someone is giving them an envelope? Or passing along a case of Coors?"
Sergio Pereira, Metro's manager from 1986 until 1988, said it was impossible for inspectors to spot every construction problem.
"That's very hard to police," Pereira said. "I don't think you can blame government for it. When you had the kind of building boom you had, what are you going to do? Leave an inspector at the building site forever?"
After Andrew, Metro-Dade officials swiftly took action in what was in effect a telling admission of the deep flaws in the system.
In short order, the county banned staples and particle board and required building inspectors to start checking whether gable-ended roofs are properly braced.
Nonetheless, the county can only do so much.
"I do believe inspection is the second line of defense in this industry," said Ronald Zollo, an engineering professor at the University of Miami. "You may blame it all you want, but it's supposed to be built right in the first place."
Herald Staff Writers Luis Feldstein Soto and Don Finefrock contributed to this report.
Copyright 1992 Miami Herald
The News Line: News Wednesday, 13 January 2016
MASSIVE JUNIOR DOCTORS ACTION! – shakes the Tories to their core
A 200-strong picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow
www.wrp.org.uk/images/photos/16-01-12-11688.jpg
MASS picket lines packed with enthusiastic doctors and supporters were the rule in every part of the country yesterday on the first day of the junior doctors strike action against the Tories’ attempt to dictate their contracts.
Commenting on the strike Dr Johann Malawana, BMA Junior Doctors Committee chair, said: ‘With junior doctors attending more than 150 pickets and ‘meet the doctor’ events up and down England, today’s action sends a clear message to Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron. Junior doctors in their thousands have made it quite clear what they think of the government’s plans to impose contracts in which junior doctors have no confidence.
‘Today’s action – one that the BMA has long sought to avoid – is a result of a fundamental breakdown in trust with junior doctors, for which the government is directly responsible. This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors, lawfully taking industrial action, back into work.’
He continued: ‘We want a contract that is safe for patients, fair for juniors and good for the NHS. This is not the view of a few – as the government would have the public believe, the unprecedented scale of today’s action by junior doctors clearly demonstrates this.’
Junior doctors were out picketing at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from 8.00am. They got a very warm response from NHS staff and patients. James Rowsen, the BMA representative and a first year junior doctor, told News Line: ‘Over the winter period the government and the BMA via ACAS met up regularly, to try and discuss a contract that would be safe and fair for junior doctors for the time to come.
‘However, the negotiations and the discussions were not concluded in the way we had anticipated or intended for the BMA. There were still elements of the negotiations regarding the safeguarding of hours and continuation of training, and annual increments of pay and annual incomes throughout the career. There’s still a lot to be worked on by those parties.
‘I think today’s demonstration should show the fact that we are very serious about what we mean, and the government would be stupid not to back down. It almost feels like the junior doctors are a trial run. No junior doctor wants to strike. Today we really need to strike, to be out here showing how serious, how important it is to the country and to the NHS as a whole, all of our patients in the future, to ourselves and our careers, to show we actually care about what’s going to happen to us next.
‘Other trade unions have been overwhelmingly supportive. Today we have got support from Unison. I know that there are others on board. We are overwhelmingly pleased that there are trade unions in support of us, and we fully support them as well.’
Over 50 doctors rallied outside Lewisham Hospital yesterday in a lively picket on the first of three days of strike action. Drivers tooted their horns as they drove by in support. News Line spoke to junior doctor Matthew Izett who said: ‘We want a contract that provides safe care and where we’re not overworked.
‘The proposed changes are unsafe for patients, doctors and the NHS as a whole. The contract amounts to an attack on all public sector workers. He added: ‘It will be junior doctors today, nurses tomorrow, and then all public sector workers.’
Dr Josh Cuddihy told News Line: ‘The NHS is stretched as it is. It needs more funding and additional resources. The NHS runs on the goodwill of staff and we need to look after the staff. The government’s proposed changes are unsafe and unfair. It means more unsociable hours and it is very short sighted. We already work long shifts and these changes will make things more dangerous for everyone.’
Junior doctors were also out in force outside the Royal Free Hospital. BMA Junior Doctors Committee member Tom Irwin told News Line: ‘We’re here because the government forced us into this position. A ballot of our members showed 98% of us support the action today. The government are taking risks to save money.
‘That will make it harder to do a good job in the NHS. It will damage the public perception of the NHS and affect patient safety. If the new contract goes through it will have a far worse effect on patient safety than any industrial action.’
BMA member Tom Palmer said: ‘One of the main sticking points of the contract issue is they want to remove safeguards against us working long, unsafe hours. Obviously, tired doctors make mistakes. You wouldn’t get on a plane flown by a pilot whose employer made him work unsafe hours. Us working long hours is just as dangerous.
‘The government are not listening, so we have to fight on behalf of everyone. This is one step in privatising the NHS. We can’t afford to lose the NHS. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors. Nurses are very supportive but we need all the unions on board.’
John, an anaesthetist, said: ‘We all support the strike. Every one of us is a bit concerned about the future. This is about patient safety, it’s about defending safe working conditions.’
Another picket, BMA member Sophie Tang, said: ‘I’m out today to oppose the imposition of the contract. It’s trying to spread a thin workforce even thinner. It’s not safe for the patients and it’s not fair for the doctors working. We’ve had a lot of support from the nurses and allied health professionals who work alongside us. A lot of junior doctors think behind this is the government’s intention to privatise the NHS.’
RCN student nurse member Andy Roy said: ‘I’m a classic bursary student. I’m nearly 40 and without the bursary scheme there is no way I could become a nurse. We’re supporting the junior doctors because they stand by us and we stand by them.
‘As has been put, we all need to stand together. This is an attack on the NHS as a whole. The fact that the government is targeting doctors and student nurses is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to make the NHS fail so they can privatise it.’
Natasha, a striking junior doctor at UCLH in Euston Road, told News Line: ‘In 2005 Hunt wrote a book in which he said the Health Service should not be free and this is part of his plan to sell off the Health Service. I don’t trust the government and Hunt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him talk to a junior doctor – he chooses to talk over Twitter and other social media.
‘We stood with the nurses in their demonstration to keep grants on Saturday and we have written support from the FBU firefighters’ union. On 10 February our strike will be full withdrawal of labour but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’
On the picket line at Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield junior doctor Sam Meadows said: ‘This is a strike that had to come, we have been headed into a corner – but it is for the benefit of the NHS. The government’s proposals are not safe for patients and not fair to the doctors. The support of the public has been overwhelming. It’s very heart-warming and we really appreciate it. Negotiations will start again tomorrow hopefully. But if it comes to more action we are prepared and we are ready.’
Mr Alex Rossdeutsch, a junior neuro surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘This proposed contract will cause many of my colleagues to leave the NHS. When that happens, the goverment will privatise the NHS and the public will have to pay for their health. I’m striking to prevent that, to prevent the government attacking the health service in the future.’
At Ealing Hospital, where junior doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket, workers spoke out in favour of an all-out general strike on the third junior doctors strike on February 10th. Bus driver and Unite member Sunny Patel said: ‘I support the junior doctors 100%. This government is taking liberties now in every way. A general strike to support them is what we need.’
Bus driver and Unite member Abdi Mohamed said: ‘I support everyone coming out on February 10th and I will fight for it at my garage. Everyone needs the National Health Service and the junior doctors are leading the fight to defend it.’
Striking junior doctor Sean Morris said: ‘Ealing Hospital must not close, or be downgraded, and maternity must be re-opened. There are three strike days and the duration and intensity will increase, the tube workers are taking strike action on our next strike date. This government is attacking public sector workers and everyone should take action to defend the Welfare State.’
Foodworker John Fernandez said: ‘My wife is a patient here, we need a general strike to win this fight.’ Striking doctor Alex Adams said: ‘The government are stretching the NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk, we must win this fight.’
Striking doctor Maira Hamed said: ‘Today’s action is not just for the junior doctors, it’s for the NHS as a whole and everyone should take action to defend it.’ Anna Martin, a GP who was coming in to provide emergency cover, stopped to drop off food at the picket line and said: ‘I’m so proud and with them 100%. This contract is incredibly unsafe and detrimental to patient care. I trained at Ealing Hospital and I feel particularly passionate about this hospital which is under threat. I support the call for a general strike on 10th February, it’s the only way to show we won’t accept what the government is doing.’
‘All anti-social hours payments are in jeopardy!’ Unison member Kirth Gerson, who works in Pathology, told News Line on the junior doctors picket of Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London. Unison and the NUT came down to join the junior doctors’ mass picket and to support their strike.
‘I am out here to support the junior doctors because they will be coming for us next,’ Gerson continued: ‘This is Agenda for Change. They want to extend our normal working hours from 6am until 10pm Monday to Sunday! This is why Unison have come down to the picket today and this is why there must be joint strike action.
‘They were going to build a new Pathology Lab at Homerton using a company called Longcross Construction. The contract went belly-up and is now in administration, the project has been abandoned. Private Canadian company Sonic Health Care now owns doctors’ laboratories within the NHS. They do tests for us here at Homerton and at the Royal Free in Hampstead and the UCLH in Euston.
‘The company want to introduce co-payment for the laboratory tests which would mean the patient would have to part pay for their own blood tests! This is totally unacceptable, the NHS must be free, we pay for it through our taxes anyway. We have to drive these private companies out of the NHS.’
Oliver Corke, of the NUT, who came down from Clapton Girls School to support the junior doctors said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the working conditions which uphold patient safety. That is why we support the strike. Patients need to be looked after and doctors need to be looked after as well.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, there was a mass picket with well over 50 supporters, members of other unions and junior doctors. Junior doctor Fiona Hansell said: ‘The massive support that we have had today just goes to show that we have gauged the mood very well. It is not just the medical unions that have come down to support us, but the non-medical unions are here as well. We have started the fight and the public will join the fight and so we have started a whole movement.’
Junior doctor Jessica Gale added: ‘The NHS staff are used to working in a multi-disciplinary fashion. We are all one NHS so we will all stand up for each other in support of the NHS. There has been no other option but to take strike action so that is what we are doing.’
Dr Hannah Marshal, working in Paediatrics, agreed. ‘This has been an absolutely last resort’ she said. We have to be united. This contract which the government is trying to impose on us is unsafe, it is not in the interests of patients, doctors or the NHS. Currently, if we work more than our rostered hours we flag it up and the Trust is fined. With the new contract this safeguard is removed.’
Aimay Mirdin, who is to become a Consultant in May, said: ‘I have been a junior doctor for the last 15 years. Essentially, I have been doing weekends and I have been doing nights. Junior doctors are the backbone of the NHS and a sure way to lose junior doctors is to make them work longer hours and to work harder. The number of times I have been on my fourth nightshift and I am so tired. I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel on my way home.’
There was a lively picket of junior doctors at Barnet Hospital. Dr Matteo De Martino, the BMA rep, told News Line: ‘I have been an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee doctor for four years and will be for a total of at least nine years. None of us wants to be here, it’s not something we feel 100% comfortable about but we recognise we have to do it.
‘If this contract is enforced then the only choice is to leave medicine or leave the country. No matter how much we love our job it is unfeasible and unsafe to provide a safe five-day, let alone seven-day service with extended hours, a 30% pay cut and no hours safeguards. The first line of attack is to drive doctors away, next create a vacuum for nurses and midwives by removing bursaries.
‘As the NHS becomes understaffed and overwhelmed the only workable option presented will be privatisation. It would be wonderful to have the support of other unions and many have already shown this.’
Simon Roth, a Consultant Paediatrician from the Baby Unit, came to give his support to the picket line. He told News Line. ‘I support the junior doctors’ action. The contract the government is seeking to impose is obscure and cynical, in keeping with their approach to undermining the NHS.’
Junior doctors held a very lively picket at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where passers-by queued to sign their petition of support. Junior doctor William Hall told News Line: ‘I never thought I would strike, I’ve just finished an 80-hour week, this is my day off but it is so important to be here.’ Another junior doctor, Laura McGowan, said: ‘We are being asked to compromise too much of patient safety with this imposed contract.''
''Patients are right behind us, everyone is stopping to sign our petition to show their support,’ said junior doctor Owen Dineen. ‘We also have a lot of junior doctors leafleting and meeting the public at South Kensington Tube station, he said.
Car horns beeped in support of the junior doctors picket line outside Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road. Desire Craneburough came to support the picket line and told News Line: ‘Junior doctors have been caring for patients since the start of the NHS and they’re not striking for money but for improved patient care.
‘They are here for us 365 days a year, day in day out, now I’m giving them my support. The Tories are breaking up the NHS with privatisation and we have to stop them.’
Doctors and supporters marched down Denmark Hill 50-strong, on the first day of the three days of strikes planned by the BMA to prevent Jeremy Hunt from imposing a contract which would destroy their conditions of work and the NHS.
Chris James, BMA Junior Doctors’ Representative at King’s College Hospital, said: ‘I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t come out on top in this struggle really. It’s a just cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for the future of the NHS. We are fighting against contracts that are unfair, unsafe and are starting to erode our NHS, which is free care for all and which is the right thing to happen.
‘We have the support of the public. They are behind us. We have to win this struggle, there isn’t any other option. The nurses are next. They led a magnificent march on Saturday, which I was at. The nurses are feeling it and I think that is going to filter through to the rest of the NHS as well.’
Asked if he thought that the rest of the unions should come out in a general strike in support of the junior doctors, James said: ‘I think if that is what it takes, and that is where it is going then “Yes”.’ Dr Fiona Humphries said: ‘We don’t want to strike for striking’s sake, but this government has shown its true colours, and that is something that we can’t stand for.
‘If that’s the route we have to go down ultimately – to essentially safeguard our society for future generations – then absolutely! We are here to fight contracts that are not safe and not fair. The government has got it wrong and has lost the trust of NHS employees.
‘We are here to protect the future of the NHS, because these contracts undermine the future of the NHS. I really hope Hunt capitulates. It is really sad that it has come to this that we have had to leave our patients’ in the capable hands of our consultants and come out here on strike. It’s a really difficult time’.
Dr Tom Pollak, Research Lecturer at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, which specialises in mental health, said: ‘I think this government has been showing a lot of disdain for the electorate, and the junior doctors contract is just one of the ways they have done that.’
Dr Roxanne Keynejad, also out on the picket line added: ‘We are all junior doctors employed by south London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We are all trainee psychiatrists and we, as one profession, are striking on a mandate by the whole junior doctor community in England over the contract that is threatened to be imposed on us in August of this year which is unsafe and unfair for patients.’
Pickets were out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where banners were brought by Wandsworth NUT and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Junior doctors went out to campaign at Tooting Broadway underground station where they received overwhelming support.
Dr Sophie Herbert told News Line: ‘We are here because the government has ignored what we have said in negotiations and are threatening to impose a dangerous contract on us. We are understaffed and overworked and are already at breaking point.
‘I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I fought to save the NHS. Joanne Harris, Unite Branch Secretary at Putney Bus Garage, who was there in support, told News Line: ‘Doctors deserve every bit of support they can get. The way the government is threatening them is appalling. The government has created this problem but then blames people when they go on strike.’
At St Thomas Hospital, by Westminster Bridge, there were 200 people picketing. A delegation of Nursing and Midwife students were there from Kings College. Mary Brown, a nursing student, told News Line: ‘We are here because we support the junior doctors. They have been very supportive of us in our struggles and, as professionals, we all work together.’ Dan Langley, another student, said: ‘If the Tories can upset some of the most conservative workers in the country, hopefully it will inspire others to fight against Tory austerity.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow there were 200 junior doctors on the picket lines.
Dr Attia Rehman said: ‘This new contract is completely unfair. If I was to do an on-call shift, I would get unsocial hours pay, but now they are treating it as an ordinary day which will mean a huge pay cut.’
Alex Thomson, a Northwick Park consultant, came to join the picket line. ‘I am fully behind the junior doctors. We also have a problem with our contract and the offer is going to a vote of the consultants. The future of the NHS is at stake.’
At North Middlesex Hospial about 40 docors and supporters picketed, and local junior doctor Jason said: ‘This is the first strike in 40 years, and of course doctors come from all political parties, and 98% of tens of thousands of doctors voted for this action. The contract on offer is unfair for doctors because it is asking them to work more unsocial hours for less pay, and it’s unfair for patients and public because the safeguards that stop us working long hours are being eroded. With the support of the public we will win!’
The old Cass foundry and repair shop, built in 1922 and burned down in 1972.
Cass, Pocahontas County, West Virginia
The history of the town of Cass follows the evolution of the lumber companies that inhabited the valley and operated the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Mill. Once a symbol of the economic power that drove this valley, the mill building has been victim of two major fires in 1978 and 1982. Now only twisted steel and rusted machinery remain amid the cracking cement. Trees and vines grow in a place where humans once toiled among the machines of lumber and fine wood products production.
The mill operation was enormous during its heyday 1908 to 1922. It ran two 11-hour shifts six days per week, cutting 125,000 board feet of lumber each shift, an impressive 1.5 million feet of lumber per week. The Cass mill also had drying kilns using 11 miles of steam pipe to dry 360,000 board feet of lumber on each run.
The adjoining planing mill was three stories high, measuring 96 by 224 feet. Massive elevators carried up to 5,000 feet of lumber to the separate floors and machines. Some of the flooring machines were so big that it took 15 men to operate them. There were two resaws here that could accommodate boards up to 35 feet long. The large surfacing machines finished all four sides of a board in one operation.
Roy Clarkson, in Tumult on the Mountain, estimated that in 40 years the Cass mill and the mill at Spruce turned more than 2-14 billion feet of timber into pulp or lumber. The town of Cass was named for Joseph K Cass (left picture), Chairman of the Board of W.Va. Pulp & Paper Co. Each morning the C&O dispatched a 44-car pulpwood train for the paper mill at Covington. At its peak, West Virginia Pulp and Paper employed between 2,500 and 3,000 men. In an average week six to 10 carloads of food and supplies traveled over the railroad to 12 logging camps. Indeed, the ruined mill is a symbol and a reminder of a past resplendent with human achievement. But the story of the mill is also a story of the rails that linked that mill with the timber in the nearby mountains.
At the turn of the century lumbermen eyeing the large tracts of virgin timber on Cheat Mountain, west of Cass, decided to route the timber east through a mountain gap and down the steep grade to the planned mill. An interchange between the Greenbrier and Elk River Railroad at Cass and the C&O was most economical but it called for the building of a difficult mountain railroad.
In 1900 Samuel Slaymaker, a timber broker, set up a construction camp at the mouth of Leatherbark Creek (the present site of the Cass shops). He and his hardy men pushed the rails up and along Leatherbark Creek, and gained altitude by constructing two switchbacks. Tracks were laid around the face of the promontory -- up and up along the ridge, winding until at last the rails reached the gap between the mountains. Here a camp named Old Spruce was established.
Around 1904, 1-1/4 miles of track were laid from Old Spruce to Spruce, a new town on the Shavers Fork on the Cheat River. At 3,853 feet, Spruce became the highest town in the eastern United States. From Spruce, the track eventually ran 35 miles south into the Elk River Basin to the town of Bergoo and 65 miles north, along Shavers Fork of Cheat River. Spruce became the hub of the rail empire. The main lines (Cass to Spruce, Spruce to Bergoo and Spruce to Cheat Junction) were 82 miles long. During the 1920s there were many miles of branches in use at once, but the total length was probably about 140 miles at maximum. Altogether the logging railroad built about 250 miles of track. At Spruce a large pulp peeling rossing mill was constructed. Billions of board feet of logs passed through Spruce and eventually went over the mountain behind the tanks of big 4 ton Shays like Number 12.
The Town of Cass after 1905
After 1905 the railroad went through a succession of name changes. The Greenbrier & Elk River became the Greenbrier, Elk & Valley Railroad in 1909, only to become the Greenbrier, Cheat & Elk Railroad (GC&E) in 1910. This quick succession of names reflects the early permutations so characteristic of a young and booming logging empire. Actually, all these names changes are a bit misleading because West Virginia Pulp and Paper (WVP&P) owned and operated the entire lumber operation from its beginnings. The original lumber company was West Virginia Spruce Lumber, set up by West Virginia Pulp and Paper to develop Cass property. WV&P bought (on paper) its West Virginia Spruce operation in 1910. At that time the railroad became a common carrier.
In 1926 merger negotiations were conducted between GC&E and the Western Maryland, which wanted to tap the rich coal reserves of the region. March 3, 1927 saw an agreement reached, and the Western Maryland purchased the 74 miles of north-south mainline between Cheat Junction to Bergoo. Shays were used to pull coal until the line could be renovated to accommodate the massive WM H-8 2-8-0's. Up to 10 locomotives were required to boost the coal loads up the steep grade.
The town of Spruce began to die when the peeling mill ceased operations in 1925. In the early 1930s the town became an isolated helper station on the Western Maryland. With the coming of diesels, all locomotives serving Cass were transferred to Laurel Bank and Spruce became a ghost town; all that is left now is crumbling concrete slabs, rubble and a two-track horseshoe curve of railroad track.
Mower Lumber Company acquired the Cass operation in 1942 to cut second growth timber on Cheat and Back Allegheny. Track was re-laid into old logging areas. Huge steam skidding machines were rigged on the hillsides and knobs, bringing saw logs for the mill on the rail lines. But second growth could not feed the mighty mill for long. By 1950 the operation was in decline. The sawmill worked only one shift; the big four-truck shays languished on sidings while three overworked and tired three-truck Shays, Number 1, 4, and 5, were assigned to the hill.
With Edwin Mower's death in late 1955 family members were unable to keep the operation going. The rail-haul logging operation and bandsaw mill ceased operation abruptly July 1, 1960. Employees were not notified until their shift ended on June 30. That night gloom and despair hung heavy over the town of Cass; it seemed likely that the town would go the way of Spruce. Three months after the mill closed, Walworth Farms (controlled by Peter Grace, a principal of W.R. Grace Co. of New York) purchased all the landholdings and acquired Mower Lumber Company. The town of Cass and railroad was retained by real-estate-oriented offshoot, The Don Mower Lumber Co. A scrap dealer, the Midwest Raleigh Corporation, was subcontracted to dismantle the line. It seemed that the life cycle of the logging town and its railroad had reached its bitter end.
But other forces were at work this time. In late September 1960, a rail fan, Russel Baum of Sunbury, Pa., initiated an effort to save the railroad. Baum reasoned that the Shays and the old logging track could become a big tourist attraction. A small number of local businessmen formed the Cass Planning Commission and state legislators were approached. Skeptical officials initially declined to participate. But when the state legislature's prestigious Joint Committee on Government and Finance took an inspection trip over the former Mower Lumber "railroad to the sky," to Bald Knob, the bureaucratic wheels were set in motion.
During the State Legislature's regular session in early 1961 an appropriation was approved and the governor of West Virginia signed a bill bringing Cass into the state parks system. The Midwest Raleigh Steel Corporation received $125,000 for seven miles of "main line" track from Cass to Old Spruce and four miles of branch line from Old Spruce to Bald Knob. Also included in the agreement were three locomotives, 10 flat cars, four camp cars, three motor cars and other equipment. Work began almost immediately, but an old logging railroad doesn't turn into a tourist line overnight. It wasn't until 1963 that Shays Nos. 1 and 4 were put in working order and safety rails and benches were installed on a few flat cars. Trains went about halfway up Back Allegheny Mountain, above the switchbacks to a pleasant pasture that has since come to be known as Whittaker Station. At that time there was not enough money to fix the tracks the remaining distance to Bald Knob.
The first year of operation was all that was needed to prove the skeptics wrong. Twenty-three thousand people flocked to this remote mountain town and its former back woods logging railroad.
Expansion of Cass continued. The shop, initially leased, was purchased from Mower Lumber Company. In 1966, $800,000 was invested in rehabilitating the line to Bald Knob; the total line was opened in 1968. In 1977, the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources acquired the former logging Company properties in Cass. Buildings were repaired and repainted. And by 2010, twenty of the former company houses have been restored and are rented to the public as park cottages. People now have the opportunity to spend their vacation in Cass.
Since 1985, the West Virginia Department of Commerce has proceeded with plans to further develop the historic town. More company houses are being restored for use as cottages. Replica plank walkways have been constructed throughout the town, and white picket fences now surround the cottages.
Possibilities for development for the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park are limitless. The future will bring additional recreational facilities for park visitors, including a campground, hiking trails, and additional interpretive programs.
The people of Cass and West Virginia are deeply rooted in their own expansive and fascinating history -- the history of bold, pioneering men and women who settled this country and built a magnificent logging empire under very difficult circumstances. The spirits of the past were reincarnated in the original visionary and determined supporters of the Cass Scenic Railroad who engaged in the lonely, tough struggle of transforming a tired, worn-out and about-to-be-scrapped logging railroad into a first-rate living museum. Today the spirits of past achievement live on in the men and women who keep a priceless collection of antique steam locomotives running much longer than ever intended, on a railroad that is surely one of the most interesting and challenging in the world.
The News Line: News Wednesday, 13 January 2016
MASSIVE JUNIOR DOCTORS ACTION! – shakes the Tories to their core
A 200-strong picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow
www.wrp.org.uk/images/photos/16-01-12-11688.jpg
MASS picket lines packed with enthusiastic doctors and supporters were the rule in every part of the country yesterday on the first day of the junior doctors strike action against the Tories’ attempt to dictate their contracts.
Commenting on the strike Dr Johann Malawana, BMA Junior Doctors Committee chair, said: ‘With junior doctors attending more than 150 pickets and ‘meet the doctor’ events up and down England, today’s action sends a clear message to Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron. Junior doctors in their thousands have made it quite clear what they think of the government’s plans to impose contracts in which junior doctors have no confidence.
‘Today’s action – one that the BMA has long sought to avoid – is a result of a fundamental breakdown in trust with junior doctors, for which the government is directly responsible. This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors, lawfully taking industrial action, back into work.’
He continued: ‘We want a contract that is safe for patients, fair for juniors and good for the NHS. This is not the view of a few – as the government would have the public believe, the unprecedented scale of today’s action by junior doctors clearly demonstrates this.’
Junior doctors were out picketing at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from 8.00am. They got a very warm response from NHS staff and patients. James Rowsen, the BMA representative and a first year junior doctor, told News Line: ‘Over the winter period the government and the BMA via ACAS met up regularly, to try and discuss a contract that would be safe and fair for junior doctors for the time to come.
‘However, the negotiations and the discussions were not concluded in the way we had anticipated or intended for the BMA. There were still elements of the negotiations regarding the safeguarding of hours and continuation of training, and annual increments of pay and annual incomes throughout the career. There’s still a lot to be worked on by those parties.
‘I think today’s demonstration should show the fact that we are very serious about what we mean, and the government would be stupid not to back down. It almost feels like the junior doctors are a trial run. No junior doctor wants to strike. Today we really need to strike, to be out here showing how serious, how important it is to the country and to the NHS as a whole, all of our patients in the future, to ourselves and our careers, to show we actually care about what’s going to happen to us next.
‘Other trade unions have been overwhelmingly supportive. Today we have got support from Unison. I know that there are others on board. We are overwhelmingly pleased that there are trade unions in support of us, and we fully support them as well.’
Over 50 doctors rallied outside Lewisham Hospital yesterday in a lively picket on the first of three days of strike action. Drivers tooted their horns as they drove by in support. News Line spoke to junior doctor Matthew Izett who said: ‘We want a contract that provides safe care and where we’re not overworked.
‘The proposed changes are unsafe for patients, doctors and the NHS as a whole. The contract amounts to an attack on all public sector workers. He added: ‘It will be junior doctors today, nurses tomorrow, and then all public sector workers.’
Dr Josh Cuddihy told News Line: ‘The NHS is stretched as it is. It needs more funding and additional resources. The NHS runs on the goodwill of staff and we need to look after the staff. The government’s proposed changes are unsafe and unfair. It means more unsociable hours and it is very short sighted. We already work long shifts and these changes will make things more dangerous for everyone.’
Junior doctors were also out in force outside the Royal Free Hospital. BMA Junior Doctors Committee member Tom Irwin told News Line: ‘We’re here because the government forced us into this position. A ballot of our members showed 98% of us support the action today. The government are taking risks to save money.
‘That will make it harder to do a good job in the NHS. It will damage the public perception of the NHS and affect patient safety. If the new contract goes through it will have a far worse effect on patient safety than any industrial action.’
BMA member Tom Palmer said: ‘One of the main sticking points of the contract issue is they want to remove safeguards against us working long, unsafe hours. Obviously, tired doctors make mistakes. You wouldn’t get on a plane flown by a pilot whose employer made him work unsafe hours. Us working long hours is just as dangerous.
‘The government are not listening, so we have to fight on behalf of everyone. This is one step in privatising the NHS. We can’t afford to lose the NHS. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors. Nurses are very supportive but we need all the unions on board.’
John, an anaesthetist, said: ‘We all support the strike. Every one of us is a bit concerned about the future. This is about patient safety, it’s about defending safe working conditions.’
Another picket, BMA member Sophie Tang, said: ‘I’m out today to oppose the imposition of the contract. It’s trying to spread a thin workforce even thinner. It’s not safe for the patients and it’s not fair for the doctors working. We’ve had a lot of support from the nurses and allied health professionals who work alongside us. A lot of junior doctors think behind this is the government’s intention to privatise the NHS.’
RCN student nurse member Andy Roy said: ‘I’m a classic bursary student. I’m nearly 40 and without the bursary scheme there is no way I could become a nurse. We’re supporting the junior doctors because they stand by us and we stand by them.
‘As has been put, we all need to stand together. This is an attack on the NHS as a whole. The fact that the government is targeting doctors and student nurses is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to make the NHS fail so they can privatise it.’
Natasha, a striking junior doctor at UCLH in Euston Road, told News Line: ‘In 2005 Hunt wrote a book in which he said the Health Service should not be free and this is part of his plan to sell off the Health Service. I don’t trust the government and Hunt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him talk to a junior doctor – he chooses to talk over Twitter and other social media.
‘We stood with the nurses in their demonstration to keep grants on Saturday and we have written support from the FBU firefighters’ union. On 10 February our strike will be full withdrawal of labour but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’
On the picket line at Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield junior doctor Sam Meadows said: ‘This is a strike that had to come, we have been headed into a corner – but it is for the benefit of the NHS. The government’s proposals are not safe for patients and not fair to the doctors. The support of the public has been overwhelming. It’s very heart-warming and we really appreciate it. Negotiations will start again tomorrow hopefully. But if it comes to more action we are prepared and we are ready.’
Mr Alex Rossdeutsch, a junior neuro surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘This proposed contract will cause many of my colleagues to leave the NHS. When that happens, the goverment will privatise the NHS and the public will have to pay for their health. I’m striking to prevent that, to prevent the government attacking the health service in the future.’
At Ealing Hospital, where junior doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket, workers spoke out in favour of an all-out general strike on the third junior doctors strike on February 10th. Bus driver and Unite member Sunny Patel said: ‘I support the junior doctors 100%. This government is taking liberties now in every way. A general strike to support them is what we need.’
Bus driver and Unite member Abdi Mohamed said: ‘I support everyone coming out on February 10th and I will fight for it at my garage. Everyone needs the National Health Service and the junior doctors are leading the fight to defend it.’
Striking junior doctor Sean Morris said: ‘Ealing Hospital must not close, or be downgraded, and maternity must be re-opened. There are three strike days and the duration and intensity will increase, the tube workers are taking strike action on our next strike date. This government is attacking public sector workers and everyone should take action to defend the Welfare State.’
Foodworker John Fernandez said: ‘My wife is a patient here, we need a general strike to win this fight.’ Striking doctor Alex Adams said: ‘The government are stretching the NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk, we must win this fight.’
Striking doctor Maira Hamed said: ‘Today’s action is not just for the junior doctors, it’s for the NHS as a whole and everyone should take action to defend it.’ Anna Martin, a GP who was coming in to provide emergency cover, stopped to drop off food at the picket line and said: ‘I’m so proud and with them 100%. This contract is incredibly unsafe and detrimental to patient care. I trained at Ealing Hospital and I feel particularly passionate about this hospital which is under threat. I support the call for a general strike on 10th February, it’s the only way to show we won’t accept what the government is doing.’
‘All anti-social hours payments are in jeopardy!’ Unison member Kirth Gerson, who works in Pathology, told News Line on the junior doctors picket of Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London. Unison and the NUT came down to join the junior doctors’ mass picket and to support their strike.
‘I am out here to support the junior doctors because they will be coming for us next,’ Gerson continued: ‘This is Agenda for Change. They want to extend our normal working hours from 6am until 10pm Monday to Sunday! This is why Unison have come down to the picket today and this is why there must be joint strike action.
‘They were going to build a new Pathology Lab at Homerton using a company called Longcross Construction. The contract went belly-up and is now in administration, the project has been abandoned. Private Canadian company Sonic Health Care now owns doctors’ laboratories within the NHS. They do tests for us here at Homerton and at the Royal Free in Hampstead and the UCLH in Euston.
‘The company want to introduce co-payment for the laboratory tests which would mean the patient would have to part pay for their own blood tests! This is totally unacceptable, the NHS must be free, we pay for it through our taxes anyway. We have to drive these private companies out of the NHS.’
Oliver Corke, of the NUT, who came down from Clapton Girls School to support the junior doctors said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the working conditions which uphold patient safety. That is why we support the strike. Patients need to be looked after and doctors need to be looked after as well.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, there was a mass picket with well over 50 supporters, members of other unions and junior doctors. Junior doctor Fiona Hansell said: ‘The massive support that we have had today just goes to show that we have gauged the mood very well. It is not just the medical unions that have come down to support us, but the non-medical unions are here as well. We have started the fight and the public will join the fight and so we have started a whole movement.’
Junior doctor Jessica Gale added: ‘The NHS staff are used to working in a multi-disciplinary fashion. We are all one NHS so we will all stand up for each other in support of the NHS. There has been no other option but to take strike action so that is what we are doing.’
Dr Hannah Marshal, working in Paediatrics, agreed. ‘This has been an absolutely last resort’ she said. We have to be united. This contract which the government is trying to impose on us is unsafe, it is not in the interests of patients, doctors or the NHS. Currently, if we work more than our rostered hours we flag it up and the Trust is fined. With the new contract this safeguard is removed.’
Aimay Mirdin, who is to become a Consultant in May, said: ‘I have been a junior doctor for the last 15 years. Essentially, I have been doing weekends and I have been doing nights. Junior doctors are the backbone of the NHS and a sure way to lose junior doctors is to make them work longer hours and to work harder. The number of times I have been on my fourth nightshift and I am so tired. I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel on my way home.’
There was a lively picket of junior doctors at Barnet Hospital. Dr Matteo De Martino, the BMA rep, told News Line: ‘I have been an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee doctor for four years and will be for a total of at least nine years. None of us wants to be here, it’s not something we feel 100% comfortable about but we recognise we have to do it.
‘If this contract is enforced then the only choice is to leave medicine or leave the country. No matter how much we love our job it is unfeasible and unsafe to provide a safe five-day, let alone seven-day service with extended hours, a 30% pay cut and no hours safeguards. The first line of attack is to drive doctors away, next create a vacuum for nurses and midwives by removing bursaries.
‘As the NHS becomes understaffed and overwhelmed the only workable option presented will be privatisation. It would be wonderful to have the support of other unions and many have already shown this.’
Simon Roth, a Consultant Paediatrician from the Baby Unit, came to give his support to the picket line. He told News Line. ‘I support the junior doctors’ action. The contract the government is seeking to impose is obscure and cynical, in keeping with their approach to undermining the NHS.’
Junior doctors held a very lively picket at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where passers-by queued to sign their petition of support. Junior doctor William Hall told News Line: ‘I never thought I would strike, I’ve just finished an 80-hour week, this is my day off but it is so important to be here.’ Another junior doctor, Laura McGowan, said: ‘We are being asked to compromise too much of patient safety with this imposed contract.''
''Patients are right behind us, everyone is stopping to sign our petition to show their support,’ said junior doctor Owen Dineen. ‘We also have a lot of junior doctors leafleting and meeting the public at South Kensington Tube station, he said.
Car horns beeped in support of the junior doctors picket line outside Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road. Desire Craneburough came to support the picket line and told News Line: ‘Junior doctors have been caring for patients since the start of the NHS and they’re not striking for money but for improved patient care.
‘They are here for us 365 days a year, day in day out, now I’m giving them my support. The Tories are breaking up the NHS with privatisation and we have to stop them.’
Doctors and supporters marched down Denmark Hill 50-strong, on the first day of the three days of strikes planned by the BMA to prevent Jeremy Hunt from imposing a contract which would destroy their conditions of work and the NHS.
Chris James, BMA Junior Doctors’ Representative at King’s College Hospital, said: ‘I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t come out on top in this struggle really. It’s a just cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for the future of the NHS. We are fighting against contracts that are unfair, unsafe and are starting to erode our NHS, which is free care for all and which is the right thing to happen.
‘We have the support of the public. They are behind us. We have to win this struggle, there isn’t any other option. The nurses are next. They led a magnificent march on Saturday, which I was at. The nurses are feeling it and I think that is going to filter through to the rest of the NHS as well.’
Asked if he thought that the rest of the unions should come out in a general strike in support of the junior doctors, James said: ‘I think if that is what it takes, and that is where it is going then “Yes”.’ Dr Fiona Humphries said: ‘We don’t want to strike for striking’s sake, but this government has shown its true colours, and that is something that we can’t stand for.
‘If that’s the route we have to go down ultimately – to essentially safeguard our society for future generations – then absolutely! We are here to fight contracts that are not safe and not fair. The government has got it wrong and has lost the trust of NHS employees.
‘We are here to protect the future of the NHS, because these contracts undermine the future of the NHS. I really hope Hunt capitulates. It is really sad that it has come to this that we have had to leave our patients’ in the capable hands of our consultants and come out here on strike. It’s a really difficult time’.
Dr Tom Pollak, Research Lecturer at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, which specialises in mental health, said: ‘I think this government has been showing a lot of disdain for the electorate, and the junior doctors contract is just one of the ways they have done that.’
Dr Roxanne Keynejad, also out on the picket line added: ‘We are all junior doctors employed by south London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We are all trainee psychiatrists and we, as one profession, are striking on a mandate by the whole junior doctor community in England over the contract that is threatened to be imposed on us in August of this year which is unsafe and unfair for patients.’
Pickets were out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where banners were brought by Wandsworth NUT and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Junior doctors went out to campaign at Tooting Broadway underground station where they received overwhelming support.
Dr Sophie Herbert told News Line: ‘We are here because the government has ignored what we have said in negotiations and are threatening to impose a dangerous contract on us. We are understaffed and overworked and are already at breaking point.
‘I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I fought to save the NHS. Joanne Harris, Unite Branch Secretary at Putney Bus Garage, who was there in support, told News Line: ‘Doctors deserve every bit of support they can get. The way the government is threatening them is appalling. The government has created this problem but then blames people when they go on strike.’
At St Thomas Hospital, by Westminster Bridge, there were 200 people picketing. A delegation of Nursing and Midwife students were there from Kings College. Mary Brown, a nursing student, told News Line: ‘We are here because we support the junior doctors. They have been very supportive of us in our struggles and, as professionals, we all work together.’ Dan Langley, another student, said: ‘If the Tories can upset some of the most conservative workers in the country, hopefully it will inspire others to fight against Tory austerity.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow there were 200 junior doctors on the picket lines.
Dr Attia Rehman said: ‘This new contract is completely unfair. If I was to do an on-call shift, I would get unsocial hours pay, but now they are treating it as an ordinary day which will mean a huge pay cut.’
Alex Thomson, a Northwick Park consultant, came to join the picket line. ‘I am fully behind the junior doctors. We also have a problem with our contract and the offer is going to a vote of the consultants. The future of the NHS is at stake.’
At North Middlesex Hospial about 40 docors and supporters picketed, and local junior doctor Jason said: ‘This is the first strike in 40 years, and of course doctors come from all political parties, and 98% of tens of thousands of doctors voted for this action. The contract on offer is unfair for doctors because it is asking them to work more unsocial hours for less pay, and it’s unfair for patients and public because the safeguards that stop us working long hours are being eroded. With the support of the public we will win!’