The Future is Unwritten

Efa Twm's blog - Social Issues. Music. Rants. Travel. Art. DIY. My Life. 'Sgwennu yng Nghymraeg weithiau.

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This is a video Betti and I made in first year, as part of our TV news day. This was just when we were learning about how to film and edit stuff, so it's not too bad considering. It was also the first exhibition that The Modern Alchemists (art collective in Cardiff) did, and they have since gone from strength to strength, so I guess this documents the beginning of their journey too.

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Cardiff City Council. Inspirational Mental Health Quote of The Day. Sponsered by Coca Cola.

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Nowhere, a fountain of youth for Jim the Carpenter.

The economic recession hit America in 2009, new construction was down by 90 per cent, and Jim, a 62 year old carpenter was about to have his house repossesed.     Old enough to get his pension, Jim decided to leave America, and with the little money he had, moved to Bologna in Italy. He lived modestly, and alone for two years, in a land whose language he spoke very little of. He thought his life was coming to a close, little did he know a new door was just opening, and a new life he’d never dreamt of was about to begin.     “I ended up at Nowhere festival puerly out of good fortune. One of the board members Alan and I had a common friend on Facebook, which neither of us knew. Miraculously he checked out my information, and my information says that I’m a master carpenter, and it says I’m both a leader and a follower… It says I’m willing to design the structure, or install the toilets.”     Later, when Alan told the story he said he’d read it as ‘will build the toilets’, because he had a nineteen page plan for building break-down toilet structures for Nowhere. “He asked me if I’d like to help, I’ve always liked to help people, so that’s what I did.”     Nowhere Festival is organised by the ‘Burner’ community which has grown out of Burning Man Festival, a yearly event held in the Nevada desert, where tens of thousands of people come together and build ‘Black Rock City’. Participants are dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. The city and the people disapear a week later, leaving no trace of having ever been there.     Nowhere is much smaller than Burning Man, and is held in the Spanish desert in the northen state of Aragon. Around 650 people participate in the event, which embraces the Burning Man principles. Everyone is expected to help in some way, everything from construction and set up, like Jim did; to art projects, entertainment, catering, councelling or clean up are handled by those attending the event. “The festival was so amazing, it definetly changed my life! It knocked out a lot of my anger, and even the people closest to me say, ‘you’ve changed so much!’” ‘Burner’ events are certainly unique, where most festivals have become commercial businesses, Nowhere prides itself in being non-commerce. You can’t buy anything there. You can’t even trade. When in the desert you have to take everything you’ll need to survive with you, you have to learn to be radically self-reliant. However the non-commerce aspect also encourages unconditional gifiting. Participants give what they can; be it a hug or a song, a drink or practical help. Workshops are held throughout events, where people’s skills are shared with one another. The non-commerce aspect means there is no rich, and no poor at these events, everyone is equal. Nowhere is a place where the old become younger, and the young, wiser. Jim says, “I started out as an old man in Nowhere last summer. I got to be there for the whole festival, doing the build and the take down, I left the desert 20 days later much, much younger, with a new lust for life.” Jim felt at home at Nowhere, he was able to share the carpentry skills he’d learnt over 40 years in the trade, “What’s the point of having all these skills, if I can’t share them with somebody? I mean I’m just gunna die anyway!” he says. The youngsters at Nowhere loved Jim’s professionalism, as well as his ability to build just about anything. Jim just loved making new friends.

“I always thought ‘happy’ was just a word in the dictionary. I thought it was just a concept, but since Nowhere I really understand that word. I’ve really been happy, to be happy, which is kind of amazing! Part of it is just having so many great friends all around the world right now, it’s special!” “This was the first time I’d been to a festival like this, and it came at the right time in my life. Having raised three kids, having been married twice and having been in another relationship, I was finally free to do pretty much what I wanted to do and put the time I wanted to put into it.”   Luckily so, as becoming a part of the ‘Burner’ community has taken over Jim’s life. The simple, but strong ethos of Burning Man has seen the community expanding into a year-round culture, with events following its ethos held all around the globe in New Zealand, South Africa and Italy to name but a few. In the 8 months since Nowhere finished Jim has travelled all over Italy to Sicaly, Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan, and further to Paris, Cardiff, London, New York, Los Angeles to name but a few. Jim is part of a big, international circle of friends now, and is always moved when people let him into their normal lives, so he can participate in whatever their doing. He says, “It’s just like what you did in high school – it’s not that what you’re doing is particularly special… It’s just being with people, living life with people. It’s something so simple which is missing in the world, particularly in America, where people only get together on a holiday. It’s always very superficial, and its over a big meal, and everyone talks dribble.” “Working with people, and spending time with people, that’s just the most special thing.” Jim’s life is that of a young man, living like there’s no tomorrow, feeling as many sensations as humanly possible, and not letting anyone or anything from his past stop him. Jim has tickets to this year’s Burning Man in Nevada, but thinks he might be in conflict with it, because of his feelings towards America, which he believes has become superficial. But, he also has tickets to Nowhere, the place where he is known as ‘maestro’. He explains, “There is almost no way that you could keep me from going back there… For the amount of fun I had, for the amount of people I met, for the amount of good aspects it places upon my personality, I can’t imagine why I wouldn’t go back!” “I made a seesaw last year. This year I think I’ll make a slide for the kids area, but you know, really it’s just for everybody!”

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Mother calls for her son to be released from unjust IPP sentence

In second year, we were required to write a long-form article. I had a few different ideas about what to write about, but during that month I met Shirley, who told me about her son Shaun who was serving an "IPP sentence". I knew it was a story that needed telling, this was the first of many articles I have written about Shirley, Shaun and the IPP. After this many other people spoke to Shirley, and since the story has appeared on the BBC, South Wales Echo, Radio Cardiff & more!

We’re over half way through January but the Christmas tree and decorations are still up in Shirley’s council house in Adamsdown. Whilst most of us subscribe to superstition and take down our decorations on the Twelfth Night of Christmas, Shirley has more to worry about, than an old custom provoking fear. “Every year, I think to myself, Shaun will be home by next Christmas… But the Christmases just keep going by, one after an other, and the stress gets worse and worse, then the illnesses get worse and worse,” she says. Shirley doesn’t want to take down her Christmas decorations, not yet anyway. There’s only one thing she wants - for her son to be out of jail, and given the chance to put his life back on track. Since 2005 Shaun Lloyd has been serving an IPP sentence for robbery. He was sentenced at the age of 18 and has spent the best part of his adult life in a cell, but neither Shaun nor his family realised what the sentence, holding a five-year tariff, meant when it was given. “Because it was a new sentence, we didn’t know what he was facing. I don’t think the judges even knew the implications of this sentence when they gave it to him. It’s an inhumane and unjust sentence,” says Shirley. The IPP or “Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection” is similar to a life sentence. The sentence was only implemented in 2005, and the aim was to create a sentence that would allow for the indefinite imprisonment of offenders deemed dangerous, but whose offence was not serious enough to get a life sentence. With an IPP, offenders receive a minimum punishment period, or tariff, to be served in custody. After this they can be released, but only after persuading the parole board they no longer represent a serious risk to the public. The problem is, the parole board doesn’t like to take risks and prisoners are simply not being let out, despite the serious offending rate of released prisoners remaining stable at 1-2% for many years. Shaun committed the robbery he was sentenced for, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, whilst suffering addiction. Since being in jail he has completed a number of different substance abuse awareness courses, and passed every single drug and alcohol test he’s taken inside. His mother says Shaun has vowed never to touch alcohol again, and has met a girl whilst on open conditions, which he hopes he can build a future with. The Prison Reform Trust has described the IPP sentence as, “one of the least carefully planned and implemented pieces of legislation in the history of British sentencing”, so why hasn’t it been abolished yet? Of the total 6,550 IPP prisoners, over half have passed their tariff dates, yet remain in jail. Each prisoner costs the taxpayer over £40,000 a year. The post-tariff prisoners are certainly a factor in our overcrowded prisons, which cost over £300million in total. MP Kenneth Clark has been campaigning for the abolishment of the IPP sentence, and the government are talking about the possibility of a reform; however the web is riddled with blogs, comments and campaigns by hundreds of mothers and wives desperate to know when their men will be home. And just as we all know, time is something we can never get back. “When I put myself in his shoes, it really hurts me. I just imagine him there, sat in his cell, thinking when am I ever gunna breathe fresh air? When am I gunna see my family again? When am I going to have a life? When are they gunna give my life back to me?” Shirley spends her days worrying about Shaun, and suffers from physical and mental illnesses because of the severe stress brought on by the uncertainty surrounding her son’s sentence. Clinical psychologist Robin Owen comments on IPP sentences, “It’s likely to be a very stressful experience and very hard to tolerate, for both prisoners and their families. This emotional distress could manifest itself in just about any conceivable manner, anything from psychosis to depression to suicidal behaviour.” He says, “One advantage of the IPP sentence is that it is a substantial and aversive deterrent, which would be likely to discourage persistent serious offending, and thereby helping the offender avoid re offending and giving them the opportunity to get on with their lives.”  Robin says that proof of rehabilitation is only possible in hindsight, and the IPP should only be used in very serious cases, where offenders cause serious emotional trauma to victims, such as in rape cases. “Arguably a more helpful way to assist criminals to avoid committing crimes again would be to develop an individuated formulation. This would take into account the individual variables, which were integral to precipitating criminal behaviour in that individual.” Shaun’s mother believes that had he committed the same crime these days, he would have been given a five year sentence with a date at the end. She says, “I don’t condone what Shaun’s done, Shaun did deserve to go to prison for five years. But the system would be better to Shaun, and to society, if they’d let him out after five years, and let him slowly get rehabilitated back into normal life and show he can work on the outside as well as on the inside.” Whilst in prison Shaun has completed a number of courses, including health & safety, first aid, maths, literacy, anger management and a Level 2 NVQ. When taking into consideration the fact that those on ordinary prison sentences, can reduce their sentences by 50% if they show good behaviour, the decisions of the justice system seem inconsistent and unfair. When we look at young men like Shaun, vital years of his youth are being taken away just because there isn’t anyone whose sure what’s going on with IPP prisoners. “They get courses thrown at them, they don’t get a parole hearing on time because there’s not enough parole boards to go around, and it’s just a nightmare. It’s just hard for ‘em to prove that they’re safe to be let out into the community again. It’s just one big hard fight.” These stories of injustice are spreading rapidly down groups of prisoners, their families and the communities they come from. The legitimacy of the system is eroding in their eyes. Shirley and her son have a long way to go yet, “There’s just no light at the end of the tunnel” she says, as her eyes and her head sink.

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Ex-policeman jailed for tipping off drug ringleader who fled UK before arrest

During my first year of university, I decided to go to Cardiff Crown Court to try and find a story for our weekly ‘news day’. I ended up at a fascinating court case, and I was the only journalist in court. I followed the story and attended the sentencing of the police officer. Edited versions of this story appeared in The Sun, The Daily Mirror, The Telegraph, Western Mail and on the front page of the South Wales Echo – not bad for a first year student!

A corrupt cop who leaked secret information about a massive undercover drugs probe has been jailed for 15 months.

Detective Constable Matthew Reed, 32, pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to four charges of misconduct in public office, after he was caught passing on vital information on a huge heroin investigation.

The leaked information on secret drugs investigation ‘Operation Jackson’, may have caused a man under surveillance by police to flee the country.

In a statement issued by South Wales Police ACC Nick Croft said, “Matthew Reed’s conduct was totally unacceptable; he has badly let down the public that he served and his colleagues who will no doubt be embarrassed and even angered by his corrupt actions which led to his prosecution.”

His Honour Judge David Wynn Morgan slammed Reed for his “gross breach of trust”. He said: “Police officers who break the law go to prison, they are to be treated no differently. As a former and now disgraced police officer, prison will be a more unpleasant experience than for most first time offenders”.

Reed leaves behind his new born baby and wife to serve his time in jail. He admitted passing on the information to his friend Neil John Lewis, who then tipped off Ritesh Patel, telling him he was under police surveillance.

Prosecutor Tom Crowther told the court: “the prosecution cannot confirm that the information Reed passed to Mr Lewis caused Patel’s flight to Ibiza”. But Operation Jackson was suspended soon after he left the country.

The judge told the court: “Any detective constable will know that surveillance operations are very expensive”. It is not known exactly how much public money was spent on operation Jackson.

Police were also investigating another heroin operation connected to Patel, called ‘Operation Texas’ which admitted 60 kilos of heroin into the South Wales area. Operation Jackson and Texas combined saw police seize around 23 kilos of heroin, with a street value of £2.3million.

Reed said he would not have passed on this information to Lewis had he have known he was connected with Patel, but the judge said, “You did not query why he wanted the information or what he intended to do with it”

Croft from South Wales Police said, “The professionalism of staff is of the upmost importance to South Wales Police, and as a workforce we are proud that the overwhelming majority of our staff act with admirable integrity both on and off duty.

“The public can be reassured that South Wales Police will always fully and thoroughly investigate allegations of misconduct by staff.”

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Welsh-language activists on bail after breaking into Tory offices

This is an article I wrote for a ‘news day’ during my first year of university (2010/2011)

Two Welsh language activists were released on bail last Monday after breaking into Tory offices in Whitchurch. The break-in coincided with the Conservative Party’s spring conference held in the Swalec Stadium in Cardiff last weekend.

Heledd Williams, 20 and Jamie Bevan, 34, are members of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society) and broke into the offices in protest against cuts being made to S4C, the only Welsh language television channel. The protestors informed the police themselves of the non-violent direct action and took full responsibility for their actions.

The proposed government cuts would see S4C’s funding slashed by 40% and being run by the BBC in London. The campaign group have warned they will continue campaigning until they have secured S4C’s independence and funding.

Jonathan Morgan AM, who shares the office in Whitchurch with Cardiff MP Jonathan Evans posted on his Twitter account, “my constituency office has been broken into and wrecked by Welsh language protesters. I am shocked that people behave this way.”

He also tweeted to the protesters “are you people thick? You broke into my constituency office, not Tory HQ. Jeopardising my constituency role is irresponsible.”

Heledd Williams said, “Tory offices are a legitimate target. We did target the right place but he (Jonathan Morgan) was misleading telling the media we had broken into the wrong place, and trying to make us look like wreckless idiots. This wasn’t an easy decision to make and it wasn’t an idiotic, spur of the moment thing.”

Her reaction to the ‘Tweets’ was, “I think what’s really irresponsible is how the Tory party are carrying out these cuts when it was the bankers that caused the crisis. They’re letting the most vulnerable people suffer. The Welsh language, a minority language, is going to pay quite heavily if the cuts to S4C happen. They are irresponsible in telling the people of Wales that S4C is safe with them when in fact it’s not.”

The campaign group are planning a mass lobby outside Westminster on March 30th to show the government they “say no” to their plans to slash S4C’s funding.

Jamie is expected to face a jail sentence for the break-in, as he had already been sentenced to a six month conditional discharge in February for criminal damage, also as part of the campaign to save S4C. Heledd and Jamie are set to appear in Cardiff Crown Court on April 4th to be sentenced.

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Tescopoly

I co-wrote this piece in March 2011, with another student on my course Betti Hunter. It was one of our first longer pieces of journalism on the course.

As Tesco’s profits continue to rise despite the ongoing recession, we ask what the future holds for our traditional independent retailers?

Tesco recently reported a rise in half year sales, despite sales in the UK falling. “Excellent growth” in Europe and Asia was reported, and 3,000 price reductions in the UK were made by Tesco to try and attract new customers. With trading profits at £1.3bn, the global supermarket doesn’t seem to be struggling. But are Cardiff’s independent retailers struggling at the cost of Tesco’s profit?

Gareth Johnson, a member of co-op Hungry Planet on Clifton Street says, “It’s constantly challenging running a shop so close to Tesco because of the price differences. We cannot compete.”

The argument about whether or not large supermarket chains have a direct adverse effect on local businesses is not a new one. It seems everyone has an opinion on the reasons behind the apparent ‘death of the traditional high street’ and the startling decline in the amount of quality independent retailers. As little as 20 years ago the average Britons shopping experience sat in stark contrast to today’s current conveyor-belt culture.

Whereas previous generations were used to popping into a variety of shops selling speciality wares with a personal touch, supermarkets are increasingly turning to self-service machines and reducing human contact to a minimum. It’s an epidemic that’s being observed across the UK, and Cardiff is just one of many cities witnessing local shopping streets being transformed by the supermarket giants.

A Wellfield Road greengrocer, who wished to remain unnamed, believes the changes are for the worse. “It’s not good for local businesses, in fact, it affects everybody. They’re wiping all the small people off the face of the earth.” But is this shift in how we shop genuinely forcing Cardiff’s local shopkeepers out?

Gareth Johnson certainly thinks so. “This street used to be thriving. I’ve been living on the street for about 11 years, it’s been a thriving street and then all of a sudden it just crashed. Tesco opened up around the same time, so they certainly have an effect on independent retailers.”

Coincidence? Perhaps, but it does seem to be a recurring trend in Cardiff that as soon as Tesco moves in, so do a multitude of other chains. The number of Tesco stores in the Roath area is a case in point – four stores within a mile of each other, and all but one opened in the last five years. Since then, residents have watched as shops such as Greggs, Subway and Sainsburys have steadily replaced the family-run businesses that have characterised the main shopping streets for almost a century.

The sheer amount of convenience supermarkets opening in such a small area is worrying, and it’s something Gareth is only too aware of. “We’re kind of lucky because we have a sort of niche market because of our speciality stuff but to be fair, I think Tesco is in competition with every single person in the country, ranging from the individual house owner down to the shopkeepers. “

It’s not all bad news, however. Homemade frozen food specialists Cook have recently opened a small shop on Wellfield Road and believe that business is steadily increasing. Joint owner Karen Purchase isn’t convinced that Tesco’s expansion is having negative effects.

“I don’t think Tesco has any effect on local businesses, it’s just one of those shops isn’t it? Where everybody goes just to get their staples I don’t think it has any effect on my business. We are close to Tesco but we’re not in competition, we’re completely different, so if people want to shop in Tesco that’s fine, but people would choose to come here instead of Tesco.”

The evidence seems to suggest that the way for an independent retailer to keep their head above water in the current sea of change is to corner a niche market, offering a variety of choice in speciality products. Gareth agrees, and says “There are much better choice in independent retailers, much, much better choice in fact. Even things as simple as rice, the difference in quality between what you get in Tesco and what you get in proper shops is just phenomenal. And their vegetables, it took me a while to actually eat a carrot after eating supermarket carrots, because I didn’t realise that carrots actually had a flavour! It’s extraordinary how much difference there is in quality.”

And he doesn’t think it stops there. “By shopping independently you’re supporting your local community, every single penny that comes in here, the people who earn the money then spend the money in this community. Whereas if you spend the money in Tesco, then that money just get siphoned off to someone else, so it doesn’t sustain the local area at all.”

So what does the future hold for our nations independent shop owners? Both shopkeepers are remaining optimistic, and seem to think that adapting to the changes currently affecting the nation is the key to keeping local trade alive. Karen says “I hope the future for independent retailers is bright. One of the things that people complain about here the most is that the parking is difficult. So, maybe retailers have to start doing home deliveries or things like that. I think we are a nation of shop keepers, and I think we’ll probably end up remaining a nation of shopkeepers.”

Gareth’s potential solution is rather more radical; “I think the whole entire country is taking a bit of a shift at the moment, and I think we’ll slowly be moving away from the traditional business model and moving more towards smaller community-run businesses.” Essentially, he believes it will be more about creating a new kind of shopping experience, as opposed to returning to the pre-supermarket heyday, “I can see supermarkets always being around, because it’s difficult to kill a parasite.”