He who destroys a child destroys all of humanity

By Kate Smith

Of all the victims of Israel’s assault on Gazan Palestinians, the suffering of the children is the most barbarous.  As the destruction and willful desecration of innocence, it is unacceptable brutalism.  Children, of all creeds, are powerless, they have no choice but to accept what the world gives them.  They are acted upon rather than actors.

This includes devastating violence.  Such as the use of chemical weapons like white phosphorous, which sticks to and burns the skin down to the bone.  Or being left to starve in the ruins of homes alongside their dead mothers as available humanitarian aid is denied.

The prolonged terror of indiscriminate bombing and the consequences and trauma of carnage of these last weeks will live with these children all their days.

The lack of intervention caused by the paralysis of the international community, the compound failure of intergovernmental and diplomatic action, is manifest in the unheeded terrified screams of these abandoned children of collective neglect.

With children as “collateral damage”, what has happened to the UN convention on the Rights of the Child? Where is the recognition of the human rights of these children? Lying in the ashes of the shelled safe house in Zeitoun perhaps?

The violence against the children of Gaza turns our existing human rights into mere rhetoric, the good intentions and drive for justice and equality simply empty high words hanging in the fog of war. 

2008: The year of global food crisis

By Kate Smith

The new face of hunger?

IT IS the new face of hunger. A perfect storm of food scarcity, global warming, rocketing oil prices and the world population explosion is plunging humanity into the biggest crisis of the 21st century by pushing up food prices and spreading hunger and poverty from rural areas into cities.

Political Children

By Kate Smith

IT IS not your average childhood experience. Dressed in your Sunday best, face scrubbed and told to be on your best behaviour by a finger-wagging parent and advisers, you are thrust on to a stage like a rock star in front of 84,000 fans.

Far from looking bewildered, nine-year-old Malia Ann Obama and her little sister Natasha, seven, bestrode the podium in Denver with all the confidence of two children oblivious to the nature, scale and significance of the situation. 

Times Higher opinion piece December 2010

Most of all beware ignorance

28 December 2010

Scotland must stand against tuition fees and preserve universal state-supported access to higher education or risk a return to Dickensian darkness, argues Kate Smith

“Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.” (A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens)

When the Scottish government set out its Green Paper on tuition fees two weeks ago, the rest of the UK watched with interest. Michael Russell, the Scottish National Party education secretary, told the Scottish Parliament that introducing tuition fees for Scottish students was “off the table”.

Russell said: “Our universities deliver tens of thousands of graduates into the world of work every year and carry out not just world-leading, but world-beating, research. It is because of this ‘greater good’ that we believe the state must bear the primary responsibility for funding our universities.”

The argument against upfront tuition fees in Scotland was successfully made when they were abolished 10 years ago. Instead, in a post-devolution context, the debate is about how to finance university education sans tuition fees.

Mother Courage?

Invisible mothers

Mothers and children will have to use the degrading vouchers during their asylum here

Published Date: 02 September 2002

By Kate Smith

Desperate for food, a young mother scavenges in a black bin bag looking for sustenance for her new-born baby. A common sight throughout the Third World, we might feel sympathy for her plight.

But this scene is not being played out in Bombay, San Salvador or Mombassa, this is Britain in 2002. Eva (not her real name) was initially refused support from social services because she took temporary private accommodation when she arrived at Heathrow Airport. She was turned out and while living rough, was raped on the streets.

“I was getting food from bins, in these black plastic bags,” said Eva. “I started begging. I begged a man, I asked him if I could do some work, some housework, if he could pay me. He just asked me to follow him. So when I followed him, he attacked me.”

Eva’s story is not uncommon. Pregnant asylum seekers in Britain, many of whom are rape victims, are being maltreated, their maternity needs ignored and have been subjected to inhumane treatment, according to a report published by the Maternity Alliance.

Pelted by cyber-tomatoes

The Guardian

When are online student comments about lecturers free expression, and when are they harassment?

There was a time when a gripe about a university lecturer went no further than a grumble over a pint in the union.

Now social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and Myspace have created a forum akin to public stocks for professors who, as their students would see it, do not cut the mustard.

Such websites get to the heart of the row about the internet. On the one hand, it is heralded as a great democratising force where the voiceless can have a say. What greater way to tear down the ivory towers of academia than via the great leveller of the internet? Students view these sites as their domain, more so than a general public forum.

One in every four children in Scotland still living in poverty

By Kate Smith

CHILD poverty campaigners last night called on the chancellor to pledge an extra £4 billion in tax credits and benefits in this week’s Budget to get Labour’s targets on tackling impoverishment back on track.

Gap year for soldiers -army desperate to retain personnel

By Kate Smith

Work-life balance is difficult to attain in most careers, but with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq service personnel seldom see their families let alone find the time to start one.

Now top brass in the British armed forces are offering discretionary career breaks in a bid to combat the growing crisis in staff retention.

Organised crime in Scotland

By Kate Smith

Business is booming, profits are up and staff have never had it so good. The pay is high and there may even be a flash company car thrown in. The only setback is you might end up in concrete slippers at the bottom of the Clyde, or worse, the gaol.

While the rest of the economy may be cruising towards recession, the world of gangsters is on the up, prompting Glasgow University to set up a centre for the study of organised crime, the Institute for the Study of Serious Organised Crime (ISSOC).

Harry in Afghanistan – more spin than a chinook?

By Kate Smith

The news that Prince Harry was on active duty in Helmand province revealed more spin than a chinook. This was a masterclass in media control – where royal spin met war management. In a way, the subjects of Britain have got used to media management – as the saying goes, they pretend to tell us the truth and we pretend to believe it. An embargoed embedded royal soldier is an MOD press officer’s propaganda dream – and a boon to a royal household keen on rehabilitating the reputation of slightly wayward young prince. 

Is the pen mightier than the sword?

By Kate Smith

Against the might of the People’s Army the Dalai Lama’s only weapon is words and by choosing his words carefully the spiritual leader has put the West’s precarious relationship with China firmly in the spotlight. 

We are people too -give us a try

By Kate Smith

EDDIE Rogers has a simple ambition. He wants to be a guitar teacher. The talented 48-year-old hopes to turn his hobby into a career. But Rogers is visually impaired, and it is only now that he is training for employment at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) Scotland’s Employment and Learning Centre that he has dared to try to realise his potential as a teacher. 

Better deal for patients with disabilities

By Kate Smith

Florence McQuilter is coy about her ambition to meet Alex Salmond. She smiles sweetly and dreams of the day she can take her cause to the First Minister. At her home in Barlanark, Glasgow, McQuilter has helped to start a revolution in healthcare for patients who, like her, have learning difficulties.

Is Obama the fulfilment of Bobby Kennedy’s promise?

By Kate Smith

It is 40 years since Bobby Kennedy was shot at point blank range in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The assassination slayed the ‘last lion of Camelot’, the only remaining member of the Bostonian family capable of running for president. It also ended the dreams of millions of Americans. Like his brother President John F Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy was young, idealistic and a charismatic figure who innately understood the American liberal ideals of unity, liberty and equality.

Fifth anniversary of David Kelly’s death

Kate Smith

For all the casualties of the Iraq war the mysterious death of Dr David Kelly is the one that could be held up as an indictment of the government’s policies post 9/11.

It is almost five years since the British weapons expert was found dead in a wood near his home and a campaigning MP has called for the full inquest into the death to be reconvened.

Derry’s stone division

By Kate Smith

OF ALL the city walls that were breached in Europe last century, Derry’s was one of the last and one of the oldest. As I stand on the walls looking east across the River Foyle that flows between the old city and the affluent Waterside area beyond, I can imagine the incoming and outgoing mortars and petrol bombs, the figures running to and fro amid the smoke, weapons being reloaded and soaking rags lit. I do so as a peace-time visitor, fascinated and disturbed by this city’s bloody past; uplifted by its brighter future. For the first time, I feel that I understand the rubicon that has been crossed in the history of Northern Ireland.

The future of the past

Small independent museums keep local history alive.

By Kate Smith

Behind a glass cabinet in the centre of Ullapool Museum is a hand crafted model of the Hector, a ship that departed Lochbroom in 1773 taking with it a cargo of 170 souls on an ill-fated voyage to the New World.

For more than 200 years this fishing village in Wester Ross has borne witness to the changing life of the Highlands of Scotland, a story of population loss coupled with economic and demographic change.

How a team of Scots hopes to liberate Sierra Leone using the power of books

By Kate Smith

OLAUDAH EQUIANO knew the power of words; the power to free a people from slavery and to make amends for bloody conflict.

Unlike most West African slaves of the 19th century, Equiano was given the gift of literacy, and his autobiography depicting the horrors of slavery formed the basis of William Wilberforce’s abolition campaign.

Bhutto: a mother’s courage

By Kate Smith

IN DEATH, Benazir Bhutto is as much a divisive character as she was in life. While the means of her violent end is contested, the world has also been debating the meaning of her assassination. Was she the “daughter of the East and a darling of the West” who made the ultimate political sacrifice or “a kleptocrat in a Hermes scarf”? First and foremost, Bhutto was a woman, and the violence against her was violence against women.

Would like to meet … but not be judged

By Kate Smith

 

LIKE any other dating agency, clients of Dates n Mates are looking for fun, friendship, a trip to the cinema or perhaps even a partner. Most of the people on its books have a good sense of humour; others hope to be a parent some day; while one or two would describe themselves as a “cool guy”.

Companionship, friendship and good company are common themes, and the aspirations of the clients are like most on a dating agency’s database. But this is no ordinary lonely hearts club. Everyone on Dates n Mates’ books has learning difficulties.

Young team looking for the magic formula

Watch out Lewis Hamilton … a group of Scottish schoolchildren are heading to Malaysia to compete in their very own grand prix. By Kate Smith

TO WIN at Formula One racing is as much about technology and design as it about the skills of drivers such as Lewis Hamilton or Kimi Raikkonen. The competition is fierce and the international field will battle it out to see which team has the best car.

But instead of the high-pitched roar of Hamilton’s 1000-horsepower McLaren capable of hitting 60mph in two seconds, this a different world championship, one where cars go head-to-head powered on CO2 cylinders to thrust their balsa wood frame down a 20-metre course.

Local labels could aid consumers in beating the world food crisis

By Kate Smith

CLEAR LABELLING with the name and location of the producer should become the frontline in Scotland’s response to the global food crisis, according to industry experts.

Highly sophisticated consumer choices based on who produces food and its provenance will drive changes in the market, says Nicki Holmyard of industry group Seafood Scotland.

Houseproud husbands can help cut the divorce rate

The couple that cleans together, stays together, say researchers
By Kate Smith

 IT IS the season of goodwill to all men, but it’s also the time of year when relationships are most likely to buckle under the strain of domestic pressures to be the perfect host or have the perfect house.

Give your children an outside chance

Keeping kids away from the wild woods may be damaging to their health
By Kate Smith

SCARLETT IS an eight-year-old who loves getting her hands dirty. She mucks out the stables of her family’s horses in return for a chance to ride in the fields around her Stirlingshire home and for her, wildlife, woodlands and nature are there to be explored and enjoyed. It’s an attitude that has been cultivated by her mother, Elizabeth McQuillan, who has passed on her own love of horses and the outdoors to her daughter.

Dungavel set to close as new detention scheme piloted

By Kate Smith

THE PRACTICE of young children being held at Dungavel detention centre is set to come to an end. Scottish ministers are actively seeking to close the controversial secure facility. Young children are held there ahead of deportation.

Agencies recently met with the Scottish government and immigration officials and agreed to look at alternatives to locking up children at Dungavel.

Culture issue in the name game

By Kate Smith

WHEN THE first babies of 2008 are born this week, deciding on their names may prove difficult for the parents – especially if they’re from different cultural backgrounds.

The social minefield of not offending the in-laws is heightened for couples of different race, faiths or ethnicity, say researchers.

Reverse approach to spotting a liar

By Kate Smith

IN TELEVISION detective shows such as Rebus, Cracker and Life On Mars, they are the interview techniques designed to make a suspect “sing like a canary”. But new research says that, far from making them crack, traditional methods of distinguishing between truth and lies do not work.