B2B in TW2

Last month the Best of Richmond, a marketing, advertising, networking and reviewing firm, hosted a business exposition at Twickenham Stadium, as it has done for years.  The event featured a presentation by business guru and owner of Watertight Marketing, Bryony Thomas, as well as 80+ stalls in which local businesses displayed, demonstrated and explained their goods and services.  I had the great privilege of being asked to photograph the event and I had a fantastic time.  The atmosphere was one of high energy and a positive outlook about the future.  I really do feel fortunate to be a small business owner myself in this patch of London – filled with other serious, hard-working professionals who love what they do.

During the morning, I also got to meet and photograph Twickenham's new MP, Dr. Tania Matthias and made a collage for her to display in her office (whether at Westminster or locally). Despite the fact that I'm not a Tory, Tania is impressive - and has great fashion sense. 

Golden Barbarians at the Gate

I recently had the opportunity to accompany a group of photographers to the Thames Barrier located just downstream from the O2 in London.  The outing was organised by, in my opinion, two of London’s finest photographers, Umbreen Hafez and Arpad Lukac.  The view of the Thames Barrier with Canary Wharf in the background is probably one of my very favourite cityscapes in London.  I’m not exactly sure why, but perhaps it’s to do with my fascination for the intersection of nature, the built environment and beauty.  This gigantic series of gates is the second largest in the world (after one located in Holland) and its importance to the safety and welfare of London is immeasurable.  I learned a lot in this project by just looking online and also discovered that 2014 was, unsurprisingly, a spike year for tidal and fluvial flooding and therefore the closing of the gates.  In comparison, in the 1980s there were four closures, in the 1990s there were 35 and in the first decade of this century there were 75.  According to the Environment Agency, the rate of closures is above that predicted and is increasing rapidly.

 

Now getting back to the aesthetics of this structure, I’m so struck by how the piers that control the opening and closing of the gates appear at night.  They’re like beautiful golden beacons or turrets guarding the city and its inhabitants behind them  I’ve personally never seen anything like the Thames Barrier anywhere I’ve been to in the world.  And the fact that it’s beautiful but also technologically complex and a vital component of London’s infrastructure make it all that more fantastic to me.

Pushing Through Ideological Change by Stealth

Since the Health and Social Care Act was passed in 2012, it has significantly grown the role of private companies in delivering health care services in the UK.  Today Clinical Commissioning Groups are responsible for purchasing NHS services for patients in England.  As such, they may commission services from any qualified provider via commercial contracts subject to competition law.  But because certain private services operate under the NHS logo, it’s difficult for a patient to know whether their treatment is provided by the actual NHS or a private company.

Why does it matter? Cost and coverage.  Estimates of regulating and administering the market range from £4.5bn - £10bn per year.  Administration costs have risen from 5% of the NHS budget in 1979 to over 14% in 2010. Furthermore, the Act removes the obligation to provide comprehensive and universal health care. 

My daughter and I participated in the enormous demonstration back in September 2014 and more recently I assisted 38 Degrees’ efforts locally on George Street in Richmond.  For every person that walked past, there was another – often with children – who signed the petition on the spot.  I applaud the wonderful 38 Degrees activists who have gone out every weekend since the end of February.  They’re highly inspiring.

Remember, Remember on the 5th of November: Inequality is Unjust

What better day that the 5th of November to stage a protest at the Houses of Parliament. Well, not so much day as night and not just Westminster, but Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and No. 10 Downing Street as well. This march was organised by the Occupy/Anonymous Movement and it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up for many reasons including socioeconomic, political, historical and photographic. I have great sympathy for sense of outrage that fomented this global cause. I appreciate how these activists have brought the injustice and unsustainability of inequality to light and I earnestly hope that we see real change in the near future – for the sake of young people and generations to come.

Scientology: The Art of Obfuscating and Marketing

A few weeks ago we received through the letterbox a questionnaire calling itself the Oxford Capacity Analysis.  It contained well over a hundred questions concerning personality as well as mental, emotional and behavioural disorders.  When I looked carefully at the small print I noticed that the organisation which had devised this had nothing whatsoever to do with Oxford University, but had come from the London-based Church of Scientology.  The flyer invited me to complete the questionnaire, whereupon it would be analysed and the results presented to me at no charge at its London centre on Queen Victoria Street.  So as part of my personal project into investigating as many places of worship in my area as I can, I thought this was an opportunity not to be missed.  I filled out the form and within a few days was invited to meet a Scientologist to discuss my problems – as this is what the Oxford Capacity Analysis inevitably finds out about participants.  She was a lovely person – very professional and in a centre that seemed like a cross between a hotel and a mausoleum.  I saw no other human beings in the centre besides my “analyst” and the receptionist.  It was a little creepy.  As a way of introduction I was given a video to watch from which the only memory I have is a slideshow of all the stunning Scientology Churches around the world – most photos taken at night and positively glowing.  Then it showed people reading books in what looked like Scientology libraries.  Oh, and there were lots of smiling faces in the film. 

So back to the Oxford Capacity Analysis.  It’s set up to look at 10 categories of emotions & personality traits with a sliding scale between the”desirable state” and the “undesirable state”.  For example, based on how you answer some of the questions, you’re ranked between stable and unstable.  Okay, is that straight forward?  Here are the other categories:

Happy | Depressed

Composed | Nervous

Certainty | Uncertainty

Active | Inactive

Aggressive | Inhibited

Responsible | Irresponsible

Correct Estimation | Critical

Appreciative | Lack of Accord

Communicative | Withdrawn

So in presenting my results, it was pretty clear that I had some major issues to deal with. Now, keep in mind, this is the primary way that the Church of Scientology has presented itself – its beliefs, teaching and methods - to me for the first time.  The message is:

1. You’ve got some serious problems that we’ve uncovered with our “scientifically” developed analysis. 
2. Don’t you want to free yourself from these in order to be successful and reach your full potential?
3. We can help you do this.
4. Will that be cash or card for your first course? 

I asked the woman giving me my analysis to tell me what Scientology is about; I wanted to understand what the philosophical basis of it was.  Most religions and philosophies try to answer these four basic questions:  Why are we here?  What’s wrong with us?  What can be done about it?  And how’s it all going to turn out in the end?  I mean, even atheists can answer those questions.   But she just skirted around these, repeating over and over that the only way to get to the heart of Scientology was to practise it immediately – by reading the L Ron Hubbard books and enrolling in a class.  It was as though the fundamental beliefs of Scientology could not be understood until you were well and truly neck deep in it.  And that was something I was completely unwilling to do.  This reminded me of some of the practices of New Age Spirituality, like meditation, yoga, crystals, tarot cards and such.  So many don’t really explain the basis upon which their practices are built, but rather give the message:  you have a problem; do this; you’ll get enlightenment when you’ve made sufficient progress.  

I can also understand tithing to places of worship in order that they provide for the less fortunate and other worthy causes.  But it really wasn’t clear to me why Scientology considers itself to be a church.  It seemed more like expensive self-help in a tax-free hotel.  It’s not that I’m cynical; rather I think people are actually being duped into believing that ultimate reality is about being a person with Scientology-determined characteristics and without Scientology-determined flaws; there really wasn’t much discussion in the area of ethics in those posh halls.  Yes, we all have problems, some of which can be lessened with psychological counselling.  But I strongly urge people not to base their entire worldview on a “religion” that can’t even reveal what it really believes in an hour and a half.