Save the Cambodian Rainforest - stop buying rosewood furniture!

This was my intervention at the United Nations on the illegal export of Cambodian rainforest timber to the USA and Europe. This is till going on even now and we have to try and stop this trade continuing.

Bolsonaro of South America is fuelling the burning of the South American forests.

President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, South America, is fuelling the burning of the South American forests. How can we stop him doing this? He is putting the whole of humanity at risk at a time when this virus is at large. The wildlife can't escape a lot of the endangered species will be wiped out. Many tribes are endangered as they are living in harmony with the animals. There are many things we haven't even discovered in that unexplored part of the universe. It is very exciting in this crammed world that there is a part that not everyone has discovered!We look forward to those places we have not been to and we may discover things that are yet unknown!

Picture of Amazon Indians by Hans Schwarzkopf

The Uighur women

I heard on the BBC world service at 12.45 last night that the Uighur women were routinely having to have their children aborted if they were pregnant. This seems to have been a policy designed by the Government to destroy the tribe of the Uighur race and the Secretary General of the UN said that it was a crime against humanity to carry out these draconian measures.
Had this gone out at a time when there were more listeners, there would have been a major outcry at these horrifying details and our government would have reacted to this!
It is all those places which you don't hear much about, like Kashmir and Sudan, where women are being persecuted and raped.
There is so much wrong in the World as we say "The Healing of the Nations" is needed - which is the title of our Conference at the beginning of August.  

Simon Reeve was on BBC 2 on the 20th of May last night and you felt that he was very adamant that Climate change was happening as they were waiting for the rains to come.
There were places the animals needed water for the water holes and some species only breed when there is enough water in the surrounding area.
There are those Islands in the Pacific Ocean that have been submersed and disappeared completely and the inhabitants have nowhere to live. If it had happened to one of us the whole world would have heard about it. Hopefully he will be heard and the world will take notice.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Sophie and Sudan

I was moved by an article I saw written about Sophie Wessex, wife of Prince Edward, who has travelled to Juba in South Sudan. Not since Princess Diana visited Angola has a Royal wife visited a war zone which is a really very dangerous and she named a rape center, in that new country.
Christina Lamb was accompanying her on this trip as the work she is doing on sexual violence - she has met victims of this neglected war crime. Christina reported that since she became aware that 20,000 women were raped by the Serb forces in the Yugoslav war, but there have been no convictions: This issue has become her mission for life.

Image by David Peterson from Pixabay

Release Princess Basma for Eid!

We hear with horror our dear friend HRH Princess Basma with her daughter is imprisoned in Saudi Arabia.
She is a great friend and supporter of The Next Century Foundation, and was able to help enable the Media Awards to take place, which was a great event, she always rang me at the start of Ramadam and gave me her best wishes. I met her when we were in London.and we stopped and she bought me a coffee, with her daughter a couple of times. This seems a travesty for a peace loving individual. Why has this been done?
Princess Basma with her daughter are still there, this is not just a detention but a Prison which at her age sounds like a one up man ship from the cousin! Will she survive the incarceration. Please do join me and ask for her release! It is going to be Eid this weekend so a gesture of peace do let her be released!

Where are we going? What's happening?

The world is a very different place from week to week we are told one thing by Boris and that changes from day to day. It was Mothers day recently and I am lucky enough to have three children and heard from each of them, one in a London flat in isolation with his partner, one in Berlin with a dog called Mish Mish, and one in Dubai with three children of his own, schools having closed over there so they were at home and they had lessons to do from Monday; they are lucky enough to have a large garden with a swimming pool in it! The Climate is changing as they have had rain unusually today. They have been there for 20 years. A lovely place to stay in, the other grandparents are there with them, and as there are no flights home they have decided to stay. I hear this morning, things are difficult in Britain, we are getting mixed messages from the Government!

What would my mother, whom the children called Granny Owl, say were she alive - as someone totally computer illiterate she would be bemused! as I am!

I feel that we have left an uncertain future for the world as we know it. Perhaps people will stop rushing about and get to know the people next door and will slow down. There is a song to go with this. I am sure whatever music you enjoy will be the last thing to go! Today we hear that Boris and the Foreign Secretary have it as well. I listened today to "Thought for today," and we can hear a Dawn Chorus which couldn't be heard before as there was too much noise in the world! Maybe some will be seduced into realising that there is more to the world outside that they thought; maybe we'll all learn something more from this experience than we thought! When you see David Attenborough's Blue Planet and see the amount of Plastics left in the Oceans you think what have we done to this very fragile planet and is it all going to be too late! For many of the small islands yes it is too late.
Or is it?

Prince Fosu

Neglect contributed to the death of an immigration detainee died naked and emaciated in ‘strip cell’ – others remain at risk

I was concerned about this story, having moved out of London to Cornwall, and aware that those looking after those vulnerable inmates, didn't have the time to spend with those inmates. As my mother in law who is in a hospital finds, those who are in at night are much more pressurised. and staff do not have the time to be concerned about those patients. I feel that we need to take responsibility for this, how many people will remember his name:

Prince Fosu died on 30th October 2012, 6 days after being detained at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre (IRC). He suffered undiagnosed, untreated psychosis and related bizarre behaviour, dehydration, malnourishment and hypothermia. He died alone, on the concrete floor of a ‘strip cell’ in segregation with no mattress, having had little if any food, fluid or sleep.  He was naked, emaciated, and covered in debris.
Prince Fosu had been found running down a street with no clothes on. He was arrested and sent to Harmondsworth IRC.  There was a complete failure by guards and doctors contracted by the Home Office to recognise that Prince was mentally ill, to follow immigration detention policies and to properly document and monitor his wellbeing. Where they existed, records included noting Prince Fosu’s “non-compliant” behaviour and that he “declined” food, fresh air, showers and to see doctors. 
The scale of the collapse of all ‘safeguards’ cannot be overstated. It happened at every turn, within Harmondsworth, the Home Office, healthcare, and the Independent Monitoring Board who acknowledge that Prince Fosu died “in plain sight”. None took purposeful steps to prevent Prince Fosu dying “in plain sight”. During the inquest many were unable to explain why they acted as they did; others gave explanations that were difficult to fathom.  3 doctors working for Harmondsworth have been reported to the General Medical Council for review.
Had proper assessment been undertaken and appropriate treatment provided, Prince Fosu may have lived.
Record Of Inquest For Prince Fosu
Verdict / Cause of death
Record of death :
"Sudden death following hypothermia, dehydration and malnourishment in a man with psychotic illness”
Further findings :
“The failure of Primecare staff to effectively see, assess and provide healthcare to Mr Fosu is inexplicable … Doctors contracted by the Jersey Practice showed insufficient professional curiosity throughout Mr Fosu’s detention.  This lacking in professional curiosity resulted in an absence of any kind of medical intervention which in turn contributed to Mr Fosu’s deterioration … GP  record keeping was inconsistent where notes did appear, there was a failure to record anything meaningful … there was gross failure across all agencies to recognise the need for an provide appropriate care in a person who was unable to look after himself or change his circumstances … this was in part due to the failure to address, recognise, monitor and respond to Mr Fosu’s deteriorating condition.  Neglect contributed to the cause of death.”
Emma Ginn, Director of Medical Justice said :
“Prince Fosu was dehumanised. The failure of individual professional responsibility in this case was staggering. IRC doctors, Home Office officials and guards treated Prince Fosu’s life with casual contempt and effectively watched him die right in front of them.  There is nothing to prevent it happening again tomorrow.
Policies were clearly not protective enough, and the training and supervision of staff was wholly ineffective.  On top of this the culture of disbelief pervading immigration detention had a fatal consequence.
One IRC doctor said they did not regard detainees in segregation as patients and that they were only there to ‘fulfil a Home Office legal obligation’. It seemed they stopped acting like doctors when they stepped into the IRC.
7 years on from Prince Fosu’s death, lessons have not been learned ; our independent volunteer doctors still see mentally ill detainees held in segregation who have become psychotic, suicidal, stopped eating and drinking, and lost mental capacity.  Furthermore, the Home Office argued to the end of the inquest that Prince Fosu may have died of natural causes.
Many detainees experience a potentially lethal cocktail of medical mistreatment, severe deterioration of their already vulnerable health, and dangerous conditions. Since Prince Fosu’s death, some Home Office policy changes have made detention more harmful and 30 immigration detainees have died, including 4 at Harmondsworth.   
 Immigration removal centres should be closed before another detainee dies.”  
Mr V (detained in 2019 and previously held in segregation in Harmonsworth IRC) said : 
“The inquest into Prince's death just brings back the feelings of neglect, lack of empathy, lack of care and the sheer practice of brutality in the most open form with no repercussions. Having experienced this myself first hand I feel like Fosu's death could easily have been my death."

Too many Prawns!

I was watching (on Brexit day) with Simon Reeve who was travelling round the coast of India and how their catch had changed and how they realised that they were aware that the amount they had in their nets showed that the cheapness of their catch, showed that the boats with dredgers which brought all the catch from the seabed all the young fish that were caught. There were all the young fish and the young fish discarded before they had time to develop and they scrape all the fish off the seabed and it is Prawns that have become so valuable and for the fishermen in the area they are not that so prolific as they were, the Oceans are now being raped by endless dredgers and our Oceans are unable to sustain our appetites!
We are managing to renew the different types of Plankton that has been destroyed by the big boats being dragged over them. There are so many areas we have made difficult for the indigenous people to live and make a living from. The look of the fishermen as they realised they had not caught what they expected, the prawns weren't there, where had they gone? All these huge dredgers had scooped them all up and as I say the oceans are being raped. Every programme on the TV has the presenter cooking delicious prawns with a delicious recipe!

Sultan Qaboos of Oman

Camels in Salalah, Sultanate of Oman

I was so saddened to hear of the death of the Sultan, which was expected but came to his people as a bit of a shock.
Tales are told that the Sultan yearly did a “meet the people” tour and people would present their petitions to the ministers. The ministers some of whom were fairly overweight and had to run up the sand dunes and come back and listen to their problems. Everyone had the chance to speak.
We were living in Oman for 6 years and those years were a highlight of our lives and I would like to thank the Sultan for the opportunity it gave us. I was teaching while I was there, and got the school I was with to start an Arabic class after school once a week, as I thought that was such a
an opportunity to learn the language!

It is such a difficult language I am still learning! The fireworks in Oman were amazing and I believe that is due to the Sultan. May he rest in peace.

And Happy New Year Again

Just wishing everyone a Very Happy New Year, difficult to do so with parts of the world being destroyed by fires in the Amazon Jungle remedies that have not been discovered yet but are there in the Jungle and like the indigenous people there have lived in harmony with the special plants.
I have written a piece on Orangutans and the Pangolins which are on the verge of extinction unless  we can break the habit of using palm oil and destroying the jungle by doing so.
One thinks that there are so many creatures that are endangered one's that were very common but mow are rare to see. So a Very Happy New Year to you All!
From Veronica, I do hope that it is a Peaceful one

Happy New Year!

All my friends and family all over the world have a very joyous and Peaceful new year a new decade and a new start for all of us. I am sure we all pray for peace all over the world, whether you believe in God or not Psalm 91 is very comforting "in you I will trust He will cover you with his wings you will be safe in his care" That is a lovely thought to carry with you all, a Very Happy New Year to you all.