A week in the life of the world | Global edition

7 JULY 2023 | VOL .208 No.27 | £4.95 | €7.99 Turmoil in the West Bank 18

Can Britain’s NHS survive? 22

The fury of
France’s
left behind
SPECIAL REPORT
10
Eyewitness  Grain makers
Nepal Women play in mud as they plant rice samplings during National Paddy
PHOTOGRAPH:
Day, also called Asar Pandra, which marks the start of rice crop planting
MONIKA MALLA/REUTERS in paddy fields as monsoon season arrives in Kathmandu.

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 A week in the life of the world Inside
7 July 2023

Unrest in France,
Israel hits Jenin and
making condoms sexy
The police shooting of a 17-year-old boy near Paris last 4 -14 GLOBAL REPORT
week unleashed an outpouring of rage and violence that Headlines from the last
shocked France to its core. Over the course of several seven days
nights of unrest, more than 3,000 arrests were made – 10 France Protests rage after
with an average age of 17 – following damage and arson teenager’s death
caused to thousands of cars, businesses and properties
throughout the country. 15-33 SPOTLIGHT
Angelique Chrisafis reports from the eastern city In-depth reporting
of Metz, where a public library on a deprived housing and analysis
estate was burned to the ground. Then the French writer 15 Russia Putin’s opponents
Rokhaya Diallo argues the unrest is a symptom of the should expect vengeance
repeated failure to address deep issues of poverty, racial 18 Israel/Palestine Offensive
discrimination and police violence in French society. targets Jenin refugee camp
The big story Page 10  20 Uganda War on poachers
22 UK The ailing NHS at 75
Israel this week launched a major offensive in the West 24 Science Can energy from
Bank, its biggest military operation in the Palestinian the air plug power needs?
territory in years. Jerusalem correspondent Bethan 26 Ireland Unearthing tragic
McKernan reports for us from Jenin city. secrets
Spotlight Page 18  27 Spain Centenarian’s green
dream
Condoms may have improved markedly since their 30  Canada The global effort
earliest sheep-gut incarnations, but is there any more to tackle wildfires
room for innovation with a product that’s literally a barrier
to creation? Sophie Elmhirst meets the man from Durex on 34-44 F E AT U R E S
a mission to make sheaths sexy. Long reads, interviews
The rubber baron Page 34  and essays
34 The man on a mission
In Culture there’s a rare interview with the ever-inventive to make condoms sexy
British musician PJ Harvey, who opens up to Laura Snapes By Sophie Elmhirst
about doubt, desire and deepest darkest Dorset. 40 US schoolchildren caught
Remake, remodel, never repeat Page 51  in gun crime crossfire
By Abené Clayton

45-50 OPINION
45 Rebecca Solnit
Fighting back against the
US supreme court
47 Lucy Pearson
Finland’s reasons to
be cheerful
48 Mihir Bose
Cricket’s diversity problem

51-59 C U LT U R E
TV, film, music, theatre,
Join the community 7 JULY 2023 VOL Turmoil in the West Bank
Can Britain’s NHS survive?
On the cover art, architecture & more
Twitter: @guardianweekly Demonstrators run as French riot police use 51 Music
facebook.com/guardianweekly
Instagram: @guardian teargas in Paris last weekend, amid violent PJ Harvey opens up
scenes sparked by the killing of Nahel M, a 55 Screen
17-year-old boy of Moroccan and Algerian Streaming’s big switch-off
descent, by police in the western suburbs of the 57 Books
city. After several tumultuous days, the violence The birth of a mother
seemed to have largely subsided early this week.
The fury of
France’s
left behind

SPOT ILLUSTRATIONS:
Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty 60-61 LIFESTYLE
MATT BLEASE 60 Ask Annalisa
My daughter’s diet of junk
4

Global
2 BRAZIL 4 SWEDEN

Stockholm Qur’an burning

report complicates Nato accession

Turkey’s foreign minister
criticised burning of the Qur’an
outside a Stockholm mosque
in a demonstration that could
Headlines from the further complicate Sweden’s Nato
last seven days application. “I condemn the vile
protest in Sweden against our holy
book on the first day of the blessed
1 UKRAINE Bolsonaro banned from
Eid al-Adha,” the Turkish foreign
elected office until 2030 minister, Hakan Fidan, tweeted
Novelist among the dead in
The political future of former last Wednesday, after the incident
Kramatorsk missile attack president Jair Bolsonaro has been in which an Iraqi citizen living
Copyright © 2023 The award-winning Ukrainian cast into doubt after electoral in Sweden, Salwan Momika, 37,
GNM Ltd. All rights novelist, essayist and war judges banned him from running stamped on the Islamic holy book
reserved crimes researcher Victoria for office for eight years for and set several pages alight.
Amelina, who was wounded abusing his powers and peddling Sweden’s government also
Published weekly by last week in a Russian missile “immoral” and “appalling lies” condemned what it called an
Guardian News & strike on a restaurant, died from during last year’s acrimonious the “Islamophobic” act. The
Media Ltd, her injuries. election. condemnation came in response
Kings Place, Amelina, 37, won the Joseph Five of the superior electoral to a call for collective measures
90 York Way,
Conrad literary prize in 2021 for court’s seven judges voted to to avoid future Qur’an burnings
London, N1 9GU, UK
work’s including Dom’s Dream banish the far-right radical, from the Saudi-based Organisation
Printed in the UK, Kingdom and had been nominated who relentlessly vilified Brazil’s of Islamic Cooperation. Protests
Poland, the US, for awards including the European democratic institutions during in Sweden against Islam and in
Australia and Union Prize for Literature. She his unsuccessful battle to win a support of Kurdish rights have
New Zealand largely set aside her writing after second term in power. Two voted offended Turkey, which has held
the full-scale Russian invasion of against the decision. up the Nordic country’s accession
ISSN 0958-9996 2022, to focus on documenting The verdict means Bolsonaro, process, accusing Sweden of
war crimes and working with who lost last year’s election to harbouring people it considers
To advertise contact children on or near the frontline. his leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula terrorists and demanding their
advertising.
“Victoria Amelina was one da Silva, will only be able to seek extradition. Nato said diplomats
enquiries@
of kindest and most charitable elected office again in 2030, when from both countries were expected
theguardian.com
Ukrainian writers who did much he will be 75. to meet in Brussels this week.
To subscribe, visit more for others than for herself,”
theguardian.com/ said the novelist Andrey Kurkov
gw-subscribe on Twitter.
3 U N I T E D S TAT E S 5 U N I T E D S TAT E S
Her work included unearthing
Manage your the diary of Volodymyr Vakulenko,
subscription at
Yellen China visit expected Unesco ballot welcomes
which was buried in his garden
subscribe. and served as a real-time to further thaw relations Americans back to the fold
theguardian.com/ document of Russian atrocities. US Treasury secretary Janet The US will rejoin Unesco
manage
Activists say the attack on the Yellen was due to visit Beijing this after a four-year absence
crowded building in Kramatorsk, week, marking the second trip by from the global cultural and
USA and Canada
gwsubsus
which killed at least 13 people a cabinet official to China since educational body that the
@theguardian.com including 14-year-old twins and ties between the world’s top two country abandoned over what
Toll Free: injured at least 60 others, was economies deteriorated earlier the Trump administration called
+1-844-632-2010 a war crime. this year. The planned trip from “anti-Israeli bias”. The United
Spotlight Page 15  6-9 July was expected to include Nations Education, Scientific and
Australia and discussion over the importance Cultural Organization’s reunion
New Zealand for both countries “to responsibly with the US came after a two-day
apac.help manage our relationship, special session held at the body’s
@theguardian.com communicate directly about areas headquarters in Paris.
Toll Free:
of concern, and work together to Of Unesco’s 193 member states,
1 800 773 766
address global challenges”, said 142 participated in last Friday’s
UK, Europe and the Treasury Department. vote, with 10 against, including
Rest of World Yellen was also due to meet Russia and China, which had
gwsubs@ senior Chinese officials and become the biggest financial
theguardian.com leading US firms. backer during the US absence.
+44 (0) 330 333 6767

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

UK headlines p9
9 FINLAND

Government in strife after

minister is forced to quit
6 S PA I N
The new coalition government
People’s party signs second was plunged into crisis, after
a minister was forced to resign 4
pact with far-right Vox when it emerged he had called for
The prospect of a national Finland to support abortions in
coalition government between Africa to combat the climate crisis. 7
Spain’s conservative People’s Vilhelm Junnila, of the far-right
party (PP) and its far-right Vox Finns party, resigned after a week 8 1
party has increased after the PP of fiercely criticised revelations,
cut another deal with Vox. including that he made jokes
Although the opposition PP about “Heil Hitler” and had given 6
3,5
has attempted to portray itself a speech at an event attended
as a centrist party in the hope by neo-Nazis. He had initially
of unseating the Socialist-led survived a vote of no confidence
government of Pedro Sánchez, it but resigned last Friday, saying in
has refused to rule out a coalition a statement: “For the continuation
with Vox should it fall short of an of the government and the
absolute majority on 23 July. reputation of Finland, I see that it
The conservatives had entered is impossible for me to continue as
a coalition with Vox to rule the a minister in a satisfactory way.”
Valencia region and will now
jointly run the south-western
region of Extremadura – only days
after the PP’s leader denounced
Vox’s anti-immigrant stance,
among other policies. 10 S PA I N

7 NETHERLANDS

XR plugs holes on 10 golf

courses in water protest
8 AUSTRIA
Climate activists filled in holes on
Final print run for world’s 10 golf courses to draw attention
King apologises for Dutch to the huge amounts of water the
oldest newspaper “elitist leisure pursuit” uses.
role in slave trade
The world’s oldest national Members of Extinction
King Willem-Alexander apologised newspaper, Wiener Zeitung, Rebellion (XR) revealed their
for the Netherlands’ historical printed its last daily edition almost latest direct action campaign
involvement in slavery and the 320 years after it began. The in a video released last Sunday,
effects that it still has today. In an Vienna-based daily newspaper saying they had targeted courses
emotional speech in Amsterdam will no longer print daily editions in locations including Madrid,
on 1 July, the 160th anniversary of after a recent law change meant Barcelona, Valencia, the Basque
the legal abolition of slavery in the it had ceased to be profitable as a country, Navarre and Ibiza.
Netherlands, including in former print product. XR said it had carried out the
colonies in the Caribbean, he said: The law, which was passed in action to “denounce the wasting
“On this day that we remember April, ended a legal requirement of water by golf in the midst of one
the Dutch history of slavery, I ask for companies to pay to publish of the worst droughts in history”.
forgiveness for this crime against public announcements in the It said golf courses in Spain used
humanity.” He said racism in print edition of the newspaper, more water than the cities of
Dutch society was still a problem terminating Wiener Zeitung’s Madrid and Barcelona combined,
and not everyone would support role as an official gazette. This with each hole requiring more
his apology, which comes amid change resulted in an estimated than 100,000 litres of water a day.
reconsideration of the country’s €18m ($19.6m) loss of income for
colonial past. the publisher. It will continue to
publish online.

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

 12 B U R K I N A FA S O

‘Total war’ has killed 1,694

civilians so far this year
Civilians are being punished by
the “total war” the government is
waging against Islamist militant
groups, with both sides accused of
14 AUSTRALIA
war crimes.
The military has been accused
Female athlete diagnosed
of targeting the Fulani ethnic
group, while jihadists have sought with brain trauma disease
retribution against villagers they Researchers have for the
believe support the government. first time diagnosed a female
According to the Armed Conflict athlete with chronic traumatic
Location & Event Data Project, encephalopathy, a progressive
1,694 civilians have been killed degenerative brain disease caused
over the past year and almost 18 by repeated head injuries, in
2 million people displaced by the a finding that will have major
conflict, which spread from Mali implications for women’s sport.
in 2016. The Norwegian Refugee Australian rules footballer
Council ranked it as the world’s 16 15 and Adelaide premiership
most neglected crisis. Only a fifth player Heather Anderson died in
19
of the funding called for by aid November 2022, aged 28, with her
groups has been given. unexpected death the subject of
an ongoing coronial investigation.
12 She played rugby league and
then Australian rules football
during her contact sports career,
which spanned 18 years.
Her family donated her brain
to the Australian Sports Brain
13 SAUDI ARABIA Bank hoping to better understand
why she died.
11 SIERRA LEONE

Opposition party volunteer

killed by government forces
A woman died after government
forces fired shots and teargas
at the main opposition party’s
headquarters, as voters waited
to hear the official results of the
country’s general election. Hajj pilgrims suffer heat
President Julius Maada Bio
stress in 48C temperatures
was announced the winner of
the presidential vote on 24 June, More than 2,000 people suffered 14
but the opposition has disputed heat stress during the hajj
the count. Hawa Dumbuya, 64, pilgrimage, Saudi officials said
a nurse and party volunteer, was last week, after temperatures
shot in the head at the offices of soared to 48C.
the All People’s Congress in the More than 1.8 million Muslim
capital Freetown after police worshippers performed the days-
officers and the presidential guard long hajj, mostly held outdoors.
surrounded the building during a Many elderly were among
post-election press conference. the pilgrims after a Covid-era
maximum age limit was scrapped.
Officials did not provide a death
toll but at least 230 people – many
from Indonesia – died during the
pilgrimage, according to numbers
announced by various countries,
which did not list causes of death.

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 The big story p10 
Global report 7

15 INDIA 17 H O N G KO N G 19 VIETNAM D E AT H S

Arrest warrants issued for Barbie movie banned over

eight overseas activists map of disputed territory
Police issued arrest warrants A Warner Bros’s Barbie film has
for eight overseas activists days been banned from domestic
after the third anniversary of the distribution over a scene Julian Sands
introduction of a national security featuring a map showing China’s British actor who
law that granted authorities unilaterally claimed territory in had been missing
sweeping extraterritorial powers the South China Sea, state media since January
to prosecute acts or comments have reported. after going on a
made anywhere in the world that The U-shaped “nine-dash hike in California.
Rahul Gandhi visits
it deems criminal. Nathan Law, line” is used on Chinese maps to His remains were
violence-hit Manipur state Anna Kwok, Finn Lau, Dennis illustrate its claims over areas of found on 24 June;
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Kwok, Ted Hui, Kevin Yam, Mung the South China Sea, including he was 65.
main opposition Congress party, Siu-tat and Yuan Gong-yi, high- swathes of what Vietnam considers
visited a north-eastern state beset profile pro-democracy activists, its continental shelf, where it has Léon Gautier
by two months of violence as a former lawmakers and legal awarded oil concessions. Last surviving
shootout claimed two more lives. scholars, were accused by of Barbie is the latest movie to be French D-day
The shooting on the outskirts having “encouraged sanctions … banned in Vietnam for depicting commando. He
of Imphal, the state capital of to destroy Hong Kong”. China’s controversial nine-dash died on 3 July,
Manipur, also left four wounded. The eight, who are based in line, which was repudiated in an aged 100.
The party has accused the various places including the international arbitration ruling in
government of the prime minister, UK – where at least three of The Hague in 2016. China refuses Ann Leslie
Narendra Modi, of abject failure them are thought to be – the US to recognise the ruling. Other films Pioneering British
over the crisis in Manipur, which and Australia, are accused of and a Netflix drama series had journalist. She
has claimed more than 100 lives continuing to violate the national previously been banned. died on 25 June,
and displaced thousands since security law while in exile. aged 82.
clashes broke out in early May The charges carry a maximum
between members of the Kuki life sentence. Simon Crean
ethnic group, who mostly live in Meanwhile, the pro-democracy Australian former
Manipur’s hills, and the Meitei online Citizens’ Radio station Labor leader. He
people, the dominant community ceased operations on 30 June died on 25 June,
in the lowlands. owing to what its founder aged 74.
A visit to one of the worst- described as a “dangerous”
hit areas, Churachandpur, was political situation and the freezing John
temporarily blocked by protests. of its bank account. Goodenough
US scientist
who co-created
the lithium-ion
16 BANGLADESH 18 CHINA 20 PHILIPPINES battery. He died
on 25 June,
Trade union leader fatally Wind and solar power goal Tourism ad used stock
aged 100.
beaten in garment district five years ahead of target shots of other destinations
Police are investigating the China is set to double its capacity A tourism campaign backfired Sue Johanson
murder of a prominent trade and produce 1,200 gigawatts of after the creators of a video Canadian sex
union leader who was fatally energy through wind and solar promoting the Philippines as a educator. She died
beaten while trying to settle power by 2025, reaching its 2030 holiday destination said it had on 28 June,
a dispute between a garment goal five years ahead of time and used stock shots from other aged 93.
factory owner and workers over shoring up its position as the countries. Advertising agency
unpaid wages. world leader in renewable power. DDB Philippines apologised Christine King
Shahidul Islam, 45, a labour The report by Global Energy last Sunday for the “highly Farris
organiser for the Bangladesh Monitor, a San Francisco-based inappropriate” images, which US civil rights
Garment and Industrial Workers NGO that tracks operating utility- included rice terraces in Indonesia activist. She died
Federation, was attacked in scale wind and solar farms as well and sand dunes in Brazil. on 29 June,
Gazipur, a major garment industry as future projects in the country, is The video was for the aged 95.
hub on the outskirts of the capital, in line with previous reports and government’s $900,000 “Love the
Dhaka, after intervening on behalf government data, which predicted Philippines” tourism campaign, Bob Kerslake
of workers who had gathered to that China could easily surpass which launched on 27 June. The Former head
demand back pay. Ahmed Sharif, its target of supplying a third of tourism ministry said it had been of the UK civil
35, a union organiser, was also its power consumption through investigating “non-original shots” service. He died
wounded in the attack. renewable sources by 2030. in the video. on 1 July, aged 68.

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

8 Global report
United Kingdom

SCIENCE A N D EN V IRON M EN T
I M M I G R AT I O N

No 10 vows to fight court

objects are millions to billions times ruling on Rwanda plan
the mass of the sun and have played The bitter legal battle over
a profound role in shaping galaxies, the government’s flagship
but remain elusive because no light immigration policy carries on
can escape their vicelike grip. after Downing Street insisted it
“This is huge news,” said Dr would fight to overturn a ruling
Stephen Taylor, chair of the North that sending refugees to Rwanda
American Nanohertz Observatory  Every 60 was unlawful.
for Gravitational Waves (Nanograv) minutes or so, Charities and others were
consortium, which spearheaded the the octopuses jubilant last week after judges
discovery, and an astrophysicist at underwent rapid at the court of appeal ruled in
Vanderbilt University in Nashville. changes of skin favour of campaign groups and
The findings are outlined in a colour lasting 10 affected asylum seekers, while
set of papers published in the about one minute the opposition claimed the policy
Astrophysical Journal Letters. PREDRAG VUCKOVIC/
at heart of Rishi Sunak’s “Stop the
GETTY Boats” pledge was unravelling.
But the prime minister was
M A R INE BIOLOGY MEDICA L R ESE A RCH
quick to announce plans to
appeal at the supreme court as he
Changes in octopus skin Human gene a barrier to insisted that Rwanda was a safe
pattern may be due to dreams avian flu crossing from birds country for asylum seekers to
Researchers at the Okinawa Institute Scientists have discovered that have their claims processed – and
of Science and Technology in Japan a gene present in humans is said the court had agreed with
have added to growing evidence that preventing most avian flu viruses this. The home secretary, Suella
octopuses may dream while asleep. moving from birds to people. The Braverman, below, claimed in the
The cephalopods are thought to gene is present in all humans and aftermath of the ruling that the
undergo two stages of sleep: “quiet” can be found in the lungs and upper system was “rigged against the
and “active”, the latter of which respiratory tract, where flu viruses British people”.
involves rapid changes in the texture replicate. It was already known to The ruling came after a four-day
and patterning of the skin. scientists, but the gene’s antiviral hearing in April against last
Prof Sam Reiter, the senior author abilities are a new discovery. year’s high court decision that it
of the research published in the A study led by the MRC-University was lawful to send some asylum
journal Nature, said the results of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research seekers, including people arriving
of the study were consistent with and published in the journal Nature on small boats, to Rwanda to have
the idea, but did not prove, that found that the BTN3A3 gene is a their claims processed.
octopuses dream. “We can associate powerful barrier against most avian The court of appeal
certain skin patterns during flu viruses. The findings suggest that subsequently ruled that
wakefulness to certain situations: resistance to the gene could help deficiencies in the Rwandan
hunting, social displays, threat determine whether flu strains have asylum system meant there was
displays, camouflage to different human pandemic potential or not. a real risk that people would be
sorts of environments. We show returned to home countries where
that these patterns reappear during they face persecution or other
A RCH A EOLOGY
active sleep,” he said. inhumane treatment, when in fact
they had a good claim for asylum.
Fresco suggests ‘pizza’ first Its conclusion was that Rwanda

25
A ST RONOM Y cooked up in Pompeii was not a “safe third country”
A striking still life fresco resembling even though assurances by the
Cosmic bass note signals a pizza has been found among the Rwandan government were
ripples in fabric of spacetime ruins of Pompeii. The fresco, which Years worth provided in good faith.
Astronomers have detected a dates back 2,000 years, emerged of research
rumbling “cosmic bass note” of during excavations in the Regio IX destroyed by a
gravitational waves thought to area of Pompeii’s archaeological cleaner turning
be produced by the slow-motion park. The painting, on a wall in off a freezer
mergers of supermassive black holes what is believed to have been the at Rensselaer
across the universe. The observations hallway of a home that had a bakery Polytechnic
are the first detections of low- in its annexe, appears to depict a Institute in
frequency ripples in the fabric of round focaccia bread on a silver New York
spacetime and promise to open a new tray serving as a support for various state to mute
window on the monster black holes fruits, including a pomegranate and an ‘annoying
lying at the centres of galaxies. These possibly a date. alarm’

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 UK Spotlight p22
9

Eyewitness
 White lines
Groundstaff apply a final
coat to the court boundaries
before the first day of
play in the Wimbledon
Championships at the All
England Lawn Tennis and
Croquet Club in south-west
London. This year’s
tournament, which runs
until 16 July, began a week
later than usual so that
competitors could have more
time to adjust from the end
of the clay-court season to
playing on grass.

GLYN KIRK/AFP/GETTY

C O N S E RVA T I V E S SCOTLAND BUSINESS

Sunak urged to heed peer’s Orkney to consider Industry turmoil as Thames

parting shot on climate leaving UK for Norway Water delays its accounts
Rishi Sunak became embroiled Orkney could leave the UK to Thames Water refused to say
in a standoff with Tory peer become a self-governing territory when it would publish its annual
Zac Goldsmith, who quit the of Norway after its council opted report and accounts, which had
government and accused the to explore “alternative forms of been expected by investors this
prime minister of being “simply governance”. The archipelago week, as concerns mounted over
uninterested” in the environment. off the north coast of Scotland, the company’s financial viability.
Goldsmith, a close ally of Boris which was under Norwegian The risk of delay added to the
Johnson, said his position had and Danish control until 1472, turmoil engulfing England’s 11
become untenable after Sunak will also consider changing its privatised water companies as
dropped a key animal welfare bill, legal status within Britain as it board directors, ministers and
broke a promise on environmental seeks to provide more economic regulators scrambled to restore
aid spending and went to a party opportunities. A motion was put calm while discussions continued
hosted by Rupert Murdoch rather forward by the Orkney Islands over a potential temporary
than to a climate summit. council leader, James Stockan, to nationalisation of Thames Water.
In a letter, Sunak suggested explore its “Nordic connections”. The Guardian revealed last
Goldsmith’s departure was linked He said Orkney had been “failed week that England’s largest water

30
to being asked to apologise for dreadfully” , with government company, which serves 15 million
undermining a recent privileges funding less per capita than customers, may have to spend
committee inquiry into Johnson. Shetland and the Western Isles. £10bn ($13bn) improving its pipes p
Goldsmith said he had been and treatment works to meet legal Price paid for a
willing to acknowledge his error minimums required by regulators. first edition of
and insisted that his resignation Meanwhile, the Environment Harry Potter and
was linked the government’s Agency revealed it was stepping the Philosopher’s
“lethargic” approach to the up an investigation into illegal Stone (38c) from
environment. sewage dumping after uncovering a library sale in
Environmental groups and what it says is potentially Wolverhampton
leading opposition MPs urged widespread non-compliance with and now
the prime minister listen to rules on sewage treatment across expected to fetch
Goldsmith’s criticisms. 10 water companies. up to £5,000
at auction

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

The police killing of a 17-year-old boy of Algerian and Moroccan
descent provoked fury from sections of French society who feel
trapped by segregation, social inequality, racism and poverty

A parallel world

The big story

French riots
By Angelique Chrisafis METZ

H
anifa Guermiti cried incineration of the state-of-the-art bins were set alight and youths
as she surveyed the library in this neighbourhood of the clashed with police. A McDonald’s
charred remains of city of Metz was one of the biggest was burned down, a kebab shop set on
the public library, attacks on French state infrastructure fire, a police station attacked and a
which for years had in several nights of rioting that spread school damaged.
provided books, across the country. Borny, with a population of 17,000,
comics and a quiet homework space The police shooting of Nahel M, a above average unemployment and
for children living in the housing 17-year-old boy of Algerian and Moroc- more than half of its residents living
estates of Borny, a neighbourhood can descent, at a traffic stop outside below the poverty line, is like many of
in eastern France that is one of the Paris last week led to sustained unrest the neighbourhoods that have clashed
country’s most deprived. “My heart nationwide: more than 2,000 cars with police. It lies only 3km from the
is broken,” she said, remembering the burned, 700 businesses damaged and  People watch
vibrant centre of Metz, which boasts
children she had helped there. at least 3,000 people arrested, with an as tyres burn in
Michelin-rated restaurants and an out-
With damage estimated at about average age of 17. Beyond Borny, across a Bordeaux street
post of the Pompidou arts centre. But
€12m ($13m) and more than 110,000 to the former mining towns along the PHILIPPE LOPEZ/
many residents said that teenagers of
books and documents destroyed, the German border, cars were torched, AFP/GETTY black or of north African descent felt

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 A president
under pressure
Why Macron
faces a challenge
to his authority
Page 13 

A country in
open revolt
The price of
looking away
from oppression
Page 14 

shut off from state services, racially in France, it has had millions of euros authorities had attempted to address
profiled in police identity checks, dis- of public investment in urban renewal young people’s feeling of social
criminated against for jobs and in the in recent years. Yet the demolition and exclusion with building projects and
education system, and that simmer- reconstruction of certain tower-blocks ‘In 40 infrastructure – including extending
ing anger had been ready to erupt over hasn’t stemmed the long-running years, the now ruined library. A local town
racial injustice and the latest police social problems or the deep-rooted hall building was also added, but it too
shooting. Metz’s rightwing mayor, sense of injustice. nothing was torched last week. A new public
François Grosdidier, said the contrast In 2005, when France declared has transport network was created – but
between quiet areas of central Metz a state of national emergency over the bus stops have also been smashed.
and neighbourhoods that have been weeks of unrest on housing estates changed. Mothers kept watch last weekend in
rising up against police was like “being after the death of two young boys Teenagers front of Borny’s school to stop that
in two parallel worlds”. hiding from police in an electricity being torched as well.
The government is particularly substation in Clichy-sous-Bois out- of colour “Since 2005, things have actually
concerned about places such as Borny side Paris, Borny was among the many got considerably worse,” said Guer-
erupting into violence because, like places where youths torched cars
are still miti, who has lived on an estate 
many other crisis-hit neighbourhoods and threw projectiles at police. Local dying’ in Borny for 31 years, raised her

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

12 The big story
French riots

The government has focused on

the age of those who are out hurling
fireworks at police. Macron, who
argued that some teenagers “relive in
the streets the video games that have
intoxicated them”, said parents must
keep their children home.
But estates such as those in Borny
have such a high percentage of young
people aged under 18 that those
▲ The Borny district town hall on the taking part in night-time unrest are a
eastern edge of Metz was set alight small minority.
RADIO FRANCE “If there are 200 kids outside at
night, it means that at least 8,000
children there, served as a Socialist others are at home,” said Charlotte
councillor and currently cares for refu- Picard, a high school teacher in Metz.
gees. She took part in France’s famous

T
1983 march for equality and against he inequalities of the
racism. “But in the 40 years since then, French education sys-
nothing has changed,” she said. “Teen- tem are seen to under-
agers of colour are still dying. Racism pin teenagers’ sense
has got worse and is centre-stage in of segregation and
politics. Once, it was limited to the abandonment. A child
far right, now it has filtered into the born and schooled in a deprived neigh-
traditional right and even the govern- bourhood in France has less chance of
ment. Poverty has been worsened by escaping their socioeconomic back-
Covid, inflation and the rise in energy ground than in most other developed
costs. Discrimination is rife, equal nations, according to the Organisation
opportunities are not happening. The for Economic Co-operation and Devel-
same cliches are still applied to people opment (OECD). France’s remains one
from here. There is no hope, that is the of the most unequal school systems in
problem. People have no hope of ever the developed world.
escaping being stigmatised for where After the 2005 unrest, black and
they live and their skin colour.” north African origin teenagers on ▲ A crowd of the police, who asked for their identity
Charity workers, and many local housing estates in banlieues around demonstrators papers several times a day just because
politicians, have long argued that Paris said one of the greatest injustices clash with police they were standing outside.”
the building projects across French they faced, was, at the age of 14, being in Paris She felt society had become more
estates have papered over cracks but pushed into technical high schools to AMEER ALHALBI/GETTY violent in general – with clashes
not curbed the segregation, social train for manual labour or lower-paid between protesters and police during
inequality, racism and poverty that jobs instead of lycées that prepare ▼ Unrest on the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) anti-
residents still face daily. pupils for university. the streets of government protests of 2018 and 2019,
When Emmanuel Macron was first Picard teaches at a technical high Marseille by the and an increase in deaths of black and
elected president in 2017, he said he school with a majority of black and Porte d’Aix Arab men at police traffic stops in
would both liberalise the economy north African origin children. “The key CHRISTOPHE SIMON/ recent years, which had created anger
AFP/GETTY
and end the persistent inequality word is humiliation,” she said. “In a and fear.
that he said “imprisoned” people. But recent class discussion, the boys said Picard said: “You hear some people
the poverty trap has become one of that they felt humiliated constantly by saying of the current unrest: ‘The drug
France’s most enduring problems and dealers will manage to calm things
hasn’t been solved. Young people’s down, they won’t want their business
relationship with police has deterio- damaged.’ That is horrible, it’s such
rated amid high-profile cases of black a terrible sense of the absence of the
or north African men shot by police. state that people talk about dealers
Noura, 21, had watched from her being in control.”
window as flames engulfed the library. Danièle Bori had been up at
“Only recently I was revising for my night with other women protect-
exams there because it was such a ing Borny’s school. Residents were
calm place to work,” she said. “My little unclear whether it was local teenagers
brothers now won’t be able to borrow setting fire to cars or gangs from other
books and it’s too expensive to buy towns who had torched the library. A
them. There has always been a lot of former psychiatric nurse and Com-
anger round here at daily injustices munist councillor living in Borny,
and discrimination. I understand that, she said: “There has to be a process of
but destroying the neighbourhood is dialogue and listening so this never
not the way to get justice.” happens again. Yes, there was building

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 EXPLAINER 13

How violence for attending an Elton

John concert in Paris last
Are the French police
to blame?
was stoked Wednesday while the
country burned.
Nahel’s mother, Mounia,
said she was angry at the
Macron Last Sunday, the officer, but not the police
government held a crisis in general. “A police
government meeting. A specialist officer cannot take his gun
riot police unit was and fire at our children,
faces biggest sent to Lyon, where the take our children’s lives,”
challenge of mayor, Grégory Doucet,
described the violence,
she told French television.
But two of the country’s
its authority vandalism and looting as
“unprecedented”.
biggest police unions,
Alliance and Unsa,
issued an inflammatory
By Kim Willsher PARIS What is the background statement describing
to the violence? protesters as “savage
What happened last week? Nahel’s killing sparked a hordes” and “pests”, and
Nahel M, a 17-year-old radicalisation of opposing warning the government:
French citizen of Algerian positions in France. The “Today the police are in
and Moroccan descent, country’s police have combat because we are at
was shot dead in the Paris come under increasing war. Tomorrow we will be
suburb of Nanterre by a criticism for their heavy- in resistance.”
police officer last Tuesday handed and occasionally Valentin Gendrot, a
after being stopped fatal use of various journalist who infiltrated
by police. The killing weapons, including the French police and
sparked France’s worst flashballs and rubber described a “culture of
social unrest for 18 years. bullets, and accusations of racism and violence” in
Several days of violence endemic racism. his 2020 book Flic (Cop),
and looting saw hundreds His death was the third said there was a “sense of
of official and private fatal shooting by police impunity” among officers.
buildings targeted, along during traffic stops in “The majority of police
with buses, sports centres France in 2023, and the officers do the job the best
and schools. 21st since 2020. Most they can, but there’s a
renovation and new public transport Nahel’s funeral took victims have been black or minority who do whatever
here – a lot of investment was decided place last weekend, after of north African origin. they like. Unfortunately,
from on high – but that hasn’t brought which it appeared the Last week, the office of what happened in
the results we needed. People have worst of the violence the UN high commissioner Nanterre proves nothing
stayed in poverty and unemployment. might have begun to ease. for human rights criticised has changed since I wrote
The solution isn’t more police, it has French policing, saying my book,” Gendrot said.
to be investment in humans, not just What was the official the shooting was a The arrested officer’s
buildings, a human presence.” response? “moment for the country lawyer, Laurent-Franck
With voter turnout very low on A 38-year-old police to seriously address the Lienard, told BFMTV the
housing estates, many felt the only officer was officially put deep issues of racism and brigadier (sergeant) had
political party that would benefit under investigation – the racial discrimination in not fired his gun on duty
across France would be Le Pen’s far- equivalent in France law enforcement”. before and had not set out
right movement. Laurent Jacobelli, a of being charged – for to kill anyone. He said the
far-right MP for a Moselle constituency voluntary homicide. What efforts were made officer’s priority had been
north of Metz, said last week he did President Emmanuel to restore order? to immobilise the vehicle
not believe there was such a thing as Macron, facing the biggest Last Sunday, Nahel’s “to avoid anyone else’s
police racism. challenge of his centrist grandmother, named as life being put in danger”.
Marie-Claire, 57, who lives in a government’s authority, Nadia, urged an end to the He disputed claims that
Borny apartment building with her cancelled a planned violence. “Stop rioting, the officer had threatened
daughter and seven-year-old grand- two-day visit to Germany. stop destroying,” she to shoot the driver in the
daughter, worried that if her car was The decision came after told BFMTV. “I say this head before firing.
torched, she would not be able to get to Macron was criticised to those who are rioting: An Elysée spokesperson
her night shifts as a cleaner at a medi- do not smash windows, denied that the shooting
cal clinic. She said: “The estate has attack schools and buses. was racially motivated,
changed a bit with the renovation, but Stop. It’s mothers who saying “nothing
we still struggle to make ends meet. take those buses.” The indicated” the police
The anger is still here. The misery too. rioters, mostly minors, officer had opened fire
I’m worried, things could burn again were “using Nahel as an “because the victim was
at any moment.” excuse”, she said. foreign”. Observer
ANGELIQUE CHRISAFIS IS THE France’s football team KIM WILLSHER IS A
GUARDIAN’S PARIS CORRESPONDENT also appealed for calm. JOURNALIST BASED IN PARIS

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

14 The big story
French riots

fancy their chances of making it” were the chilling words

spoken by one of the watching police officers.
France was ablaze for weeks with the rioting that
followed – the worst in years. But just as now, with the
death of Nahel, the initial media and political reaction in
2005 was to criminalise the victims, to scrutinise their
past, as if any of it could justify their atrocious deaths.
The numbers of cases of police brutality grow
relentlessly every year. In France, according to the
Defender of Rights, young men perceived to be black
or of north African origin are 20 times more likely to be
subjected to police identity checks than the rest of the
population. Why would we not feel scared of the police?
In 1999, our country was condemned by the European Cars on fire in
court of human rights for torture, following the sexual Nanterre, where
abuse by police of a young man of north African origin. Nahel M was
Now, a UN rights body has urged France to address shot by police
“profound problems of racism and racial discrimination” ZAKARIA ABDELKAFI/
AFP/GETTY
within its law enforcement agencies.
OPINION Even our own courts have condemned the French
FR ANCE state for “gross negligence”, ruling in 2016 that “the
practice of racial profiling was a daily reality in France
denounced by all international, European and domestic

Voice of the unheard

institutions and that for all that, despite commitments
made by the French authorities at the highest level, this
finding had not led to any positive measures”.

This is the price of Despite this, our president, Emmanuel Macron

(above), still considers the use of the term “police
violence” to be unacceptable. This time, Macron
ignoring decades of has unequivocally condemned an act that he called
“unacceptable” – which is significant. Yet I fear that

racist police violence the focus is being placed on an individual police officer
instead of questioning entrenched attitudes and
structures within the police that are perpetuating racism.
A law passed in 2017 made it easier for police to shoot
without even having to justify it on the grounds of self-
By Rokhaya Diallo defence. Since this change, according to the researcher
Sebastian Roché, the number of fatal shootings against
ince the video went viral of the brutal moving vehicles has increased fivefold. Last year, 13 Without
killing by a police officer of Nahel M, people were shot dead in their vehicles.
a 17-year-old shot dead at point-blank Nahel’s death is another chapter in a long and so many
range, the streets and housing estates of traumatic story. Whatever our age, many of us French uprisings
many poorer French neighbourhoods who are descended from postcolonial immigration carry
have been in a state of open revolt. this fear combined with rage, the result of decades of
across
“France faces George Floyd moment,” accumulated injustice. This year, we commemorate the France,
I read in the international media, as if 40th anniversary of a seminal event. In 1983, Toumi would
we were suddenly waking up to the issue of racist police Djaïdja, a 19-year-old from a Lyon banlieue, became the
violence. This naive comparison itself reflects a denial victim of police violence that left him in a coma for two Nahel’s
of the systemic racist violence that for decades has been weeks. This was the genesis of the March for Equality death have
inherent to French policing. and Against Racism, the first antiracist demonstration on
I first became involved in antiracist campaigning after a national scale, in which 100,000 people took part.
garnered
a 2005 event that had many parallels with the killing For 40 years this movement has not stopped calling so much
of Nahel. Three teenagers aged between 15 and 17 were out the violence we see targeted at working-class attention?
heading home one afternoon after playing football neighbourhoods and more broadly black people and
with friends when they were suddenly pursued by people of north African origin. The crimes of the police
police. Although they had done nothing wrong, these are at the root of many of the uprisings in France’s most
terrified youngsters, these children, hid in an electricity impoverished urban areas. After years of marches,
substation. Two of them, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré, petitions, open letters and public requests, a disaffected
were electrocuted. The third, Muhittin Altun, suffered youth finds no other way to be heard than by rioting. It is
appalling burns and life-changing injuries. difficult to avoid asking if, without so many uprisings in
Those boys could have been my little brothers, or my cities across France, Nahel’s death would have garnered
younger cousins. I remember the sense of incredulity: the attention it has. And as Martin Luther King rightly
how could they simply lose their lives to such terrible said: “A riot is the language of the unheard.”
injustice? “If they go in there [to the power plant], I don’t ROKHAYA DIALLO IS A FRENCH JOURNALIST AND ACTIVIST

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 15
In-depth reporting and analysis

UNITED KINGDOM
At 75, can the
NHS be saved
from collapse?
Page 22 

RUSSI A

After the rebellion

What will the wrath
of a weakened
Putin look like?

By Shaun Walker, Andrew Roth still fresh in people’s minds. Putin, who was present at the meeting. “He ▲ Vladimir Putin
and Pjotr Sauer who had disappeared from public view is starting to investigate and will ask was rumoured
for nearly two days as the crisis came every question, find everything out to have fled to

F
our days after Vladimir Putin to a head, was now holding meetings and draw the necessary conclusions.” St Petersburg
faced the most serious chal- with various key players, including the As the shock of last month’s drama during the
lenge to his 23-year leader- editors of loyal media outlets, to pro- starts to wear off and those in the challenge to his
ship, the Russian president ject an image of calm control. political elite begin to digest events, leadership
called in the country’s top media “The main message was that he which Putin himself claimed almost SERGEI GUNEYEV/
SPUTNIK/PA
figures for a briefing in the Kremlin. is dealing with the situation,” said spilled into “civil war”, there are many
The panic of 24 June, as the troops of Konstantin Remchukov, editor-in- questions hanging in the air.
renegade warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin chief of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, a Why did Putin allow Prigozhin,
Continued 
seemed set to march into Moscow, was newspaper with Kremlin connections, whose outspoken tirades hardly made
 Sergei Shoigu,
the Russian
16 Spotlight defence minister,
Europe was blamed
by Yevgeny
Prigozhin for
him an under-the-radar threat, to grow starting the war
powerful enough to launch such a seri- in Ukraine.
ous mutiny? Why was Putin so absent
during the critical moments? And if it is
apparently so easy to launch an armed
attack on the centre of power, what is
to stop others from doing so in future?
A senior western diplomat in
Moscow said: “The atmosphere is even
more surreal than usual. On the one
hand, life goes on and everyone pre-
tends nothing is wrong; on the other,
everyone realises that something may
have broken permanently.”
The Kremlin line, transmitted by
state television channels and empha-
sised by Putin in public appearances,
With the FSB
is that society at large came together
having dropped
to ensure the mutiny was defeated.
its case against
“The message now is that even a him, the Wagner
weak Putin is better than civil war,” chief Yevgeny
said Alexandra Prokopenko, a former Prigozhin is now
adviser to the Russian central bank. thought to be
Remchukov said he had spoken to The top Russian in Belarus
leading political and business figures, commander in
and believed that the elites had indeed Ukraine, Gen
Sergei Surovikin,
consolidated around Putin.
“These people have had a serious has close ties
“Many people close to the Krem-
lin and in the Kremlin were sure that
‘I assume that in a year
scare,” he said. “They saw Prigozhin’s
to Yevgeny
Prigozhin; his
Prigozhin was under control and that or so, novichok will
angry eyes, heard how he swears, the there were people who manage him,”
rough language he uses. People who
location was last
said Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of
catch up with Prigozhin
week unclear.
may have had political grievances, the R.Politik political analysis firm. - he won’t be forgiven’
were angry about the economy, it’s “Now, you discover it was all a total
like they all hit the delete key, and mess. It means that you start asking faces: they are sitting there looking like
from all the people I have seen this some questions yourself, about what all their close relatives have just died
week, they’re saying one thing: ‘We’re is under control in this country and at the same time,” said the political
together, we’re moving forward.’” what isn’t,” she added. insider. However, the source does not
However, not everyone agreed with Popular memes made unfavour- expect the Prigozhin mutiny to prompt
Remchukov’s spin on the fallout. able comparisons between Putin and others in Putin’s inner circle to have
Many were alarmed that Putin had the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr similar thoughts.
allowed the situation to reach such a Zelenskiy, who remained in Kyiv and One of the biggest mysteries last
point, and were confused by his dis- ▼ Vladimir made a powerful video address when week was how Prigozhin is still alive.
appearance as events unfolded. The Putin on a visit
under attack from the Russian army The Russian president has frequently
crisis served as an “emperor’s new to Derbent in
last February. Putin was rumoured to made harsh statements about the
clothes” moment for the elite, with Dagestan have fled to St Petersburg. grisly ends those he considers to
the system revealed to be much more GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/
“For nearly two whole days he’s be traitors should face. However,
fragile than people believed. SPUTNIK/EPA silent, then he comes out and talks a Prigozhin has apparently been allowed
load of nonsense and platitudes. I had to move, together with some of his
dozens of people calling me asking: Wagner fighters, to Belarus, while the
‘What the hell was that?’” said one FSB has dropped its case against him.
political insider in Moscow. One theory doing the rounds inside
“For now, I think the crisis has the defence ministry is that Prigozhin,
been averted … but of course, Putin’s who spent years servicing the very
reputation is damaged. Now they have top of the Russian elite, has amassed
gone into full damage control mode,” enough damaging material to use as
said one serving senior official. an insurance policy.
At a meeting Putin held last Tuesday, “Many in the ministry believe
with top security officials including Prigozhin has kompromat on every-
the maligned defence minister Sergei one,” said a former senior defence
Shoigu, the main target of Prigozhin’s ministry official.
ire, televised footage of the opening “This would make it unlikely that
discussion did not do much to dispel he would be liquidated, since the kom-
the feeling of gloom. promat staying secret would be tied
“Look at the expressions on people’s to him remaining alive. Otherwise,

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 The Guardian View p49
17

I don’t know how he would still be BE L A RUS Pavel Latushka, a former Belarusian
alive. It doesn’t make much sense.” culture minister who is an opposition
Others see Putin agreeing to let leader, said people had been “ready
Prigozhin leave for Belarus as a sign and waiting to go to the streets”.
of temporary weakness, but expect the
Russian president to act later.
“I assume that in half a year or a
Diplomacy Then, on the evening of Saturday
24 June, an unexpected announce-
ment put an end to the Day X excite-
year, novichok will catch up with
Prigozhin,” said the source in the
may yet cost ment, just as it was building. Prigozhin
turned his troops back after a deal
political elite. “I don’t think he will
be easily forgiven, maybe not imme- Lukashenko’s negotiated by the unlikeliest of brokers
– Lukashenko himself.
diately but in some time, in the best He announced he had spent the day
traditions, novichok will come to visit
him. He should probably watch out
leadership talking to Prigozhin, and claimed he
had persuaded the warlord to call off
for his underpants,” the source added, his march on Moscow in exchange for
referencing the 2020 poisoning of By Shaun Walker WARSAW safe passage to exile in Belarus.
opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in The announcement initially met

F
which an FSB hit squad apparently or a few hours on 24 June, as with widespread scepticism. But after
smeared the nerve agent on the inside troops loyal to the renegade Kremlin confirmation, it amounted
of his underwear. warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin to a remarkable political coup for the
Another question is what will hap- marched on Moscow, the Belarusian leader.
pen to those deemed to have sup- Belarusian opposition in exile believed Last Tuesday in Minsk, Lukashenko
ported Prigozhin, or who tried to Day X had arrived. gathered his top security officials for a
remain neutral and quiet as events That is how the democratic forces televised all-day boasting session, dur-
unfolded. Rumours have swirled that coalesce around Sviatlana Tsikha- ing which he spun lengthy anecdotes
about the whereabouts of Sergei nouskaya, who fled Belarus in 2020 about the negotiations. At one point,
Surovikin, a key army general who was after Alexander Lukashenko rigged a he even suggested he had talked Putin
Prigozhin’s main ally in the ministry of presidential vote and then ruthlessly out of killing Prigozhin.
defence. The New York Times cited US crushed massive protests, refer to The Belarusian president is an unre-
intelligence reports suggesting Suro- the day they hope to overthrow the liable narrator – he once claimed his
vikin had been detained. It may merely Moscow-backed dictator. father was killed in the second world
be routine questioning rather than an As the news of Prigozhin’s extra- war, which ended nine years before
arrest, but there is a sense that purges ordinary mutiny broke, Tsikhanous- Lukashenko was born. It pays not to
could be on the way. kaya convened a video call of her take all his claims at face value, but it
“We believe the president will look “transitional cabinet”, half based in is clear he did play a significant role in
to punish those he sees as not loyal Vilnius and half in Warsaw, to begin defusing the Russian crisis.
enough. We expect purges. It might implementing the plan for Day X. Lukashenko, who has been in
not come immediately, but it will “We were preparing for the storm- power since 1994, has long been an
come,” said the western diplomat. ing of the Kremlin by Prigozhin’s ally of Russia but looking to cement
Remchukov said it was clear from troops and [subsequently] instability alliances in the west while taking
the meeting with editors that Putin’s inside Belarus,” Tsikhanouskaya said Moscow’s money. That balancing act
priority now is trying to find out who in a telephone interview. ended in 2020 when Moscow helped
else may have backed Prigozhin, either Her cabinet had made contact with crush mass unrest. Since then, Belarus
openly or tacitly: “I understood that a Belarusian regiment fighting as part has in effect been a vassal state, and
he’s seriously involved in the attempt of the Ukrainian army and readied a the Kremlin used Belarusian territory
to find out what happened, how, plan to activate partisan groups. to launch its invasion of Ukraine and
whether Prigozhin was acting alone, as a base for troops and equipment.
whose money was involved and so on.” Putin has even promised to transfer
How Putin will act when he receives Russian nuclear weapons to Belarus
this information is harder to predict. this summer, which many fear would
Those in the Moscow elite paint a pic- provide a pretext for Russia to intro-
ture of a leader who is increasingly ‘We were duce troops at any moment, ostensibly
isolated and erratic. to protect the weapons.
“To understand what comes next preparing The Russian president is unlikely to
you should probably ask psychologists, for the thank Lukashenko for making public
not political scientists,” said the Mos- storming details of the bargaining. “Lukashenko
cow insider. “It’s clear that we are deal- humiliated Putin and Putin will never
of the
JOHANNA GERON/REUTERS

ing with someone who is not making forgive this,” Latushka said.
rational decisions at the moment.” Kremlin’ If Prigozhin’s aborted coup proves
to be just the start of a turbulent period
SHAUN WALKER IS THE GUARDIAN’S  Sviatlana for the Kremlin, Lukashenko’s rule will
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
CORRESPONDENT; ANDREW ROTH IS Tsikhanouskaya also become harder to sustain.
MOSCOW CORRESPONDENT; PJOTR Belarusian “He wouldn’t last a single day
SAUER IS A RUSSIAN AFFAIRS REPORTER politician without Putin,” Tsikhanouskaya said.

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

18 Spotlight
Middle East
battles and aircraft overhead could be
heard as the day wore on.
In an escalation of the violence,
Israel bombed near a mosque that it
said was being used by Palestinian
gunmen to target Israeli forces.
The incursion into Jenin is the first
since the 2002 battle of Jenin during
the second intifada, when more
than 50 Palestinians and 23 Israeli
soldiers were killed.
Events brought the death toll of
Palestinians killed this year in the West
Bank to 135. At dawn on Monday, thick
black smoke from burning tyres set
alight by residents swirled through the
streets, and half a dozen Israeli drones
flew above the city. As explosions
echoed, calls to support the fighters
rang out from loudspeakers in mosques
and every entrance to the camp was
surrounded by Israeli soldiers.
“There is bombing from the air and
an invasion from the ground,” said
PA L E S T I N I A N Mahmoud al-Saadi, the director of
TER R ITOR IES the Palestine Red Crescent Society in
Jenin. “Several houses and sites have
been bombed … smoke is rising from

Assault on
on buildings, a brigade of Israeli troops ▲ A Jenin street everywhere.”
– suggesting between 1,000 and 2,000 after air raids A Palestinian ambulance driver,
soldiers – backed by armoured bull- by the Israeli Khaled Alahmad, said: “What is

Jenin carries dozers and snipers on rooftops, entered

the city and its refugee camp, encoun-
tering fire from Palestinians, after Israel
Defence Forces
ISSAM RIMAWI/ANADOLU/
GETTY
going on in the refugee camp is real
war. There were strikes from the sky.
Every time we drive in around five to
hallmarks informed the White House of its plans.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian
seven ambulances and we come back
full with injured people.”

of second president, Mahmoud Abbas, called the

operation “a new war crime against
our defenceless people”, while the
The incursion came at a time of
growing pressure within Israel for a
tough response to attacks on settlers,

intifada Gaza-based militant group Hamas

called on young men in the West Bank
including a shooting last month that
killed four people.
to join the fighting. Electricity was cut off in some
In a joint statement, the Israel
Violence escalates to a level Defence Forces (IDF) and the domestic Mediterranean
intelligence service, Shin Bet, said Battle ground Sea
that marked uprising and
they had attacked a command centre The IDF said its
subsequent crackdown that in the Jenin refugee camp that was mission was to
Jenin
Major Israeli aerial and Jenin
erupted a generation ago used by a militant group. bring the refugee ground offensive began
By Tuesday, thousands of people camp in Jenin about 1am on Monday
By Bethan McKernan JENIN were reported to have fled the camp. under control Nablus
and Peter Beaumont “There are about 3,000 people who West Bank
Tel Aviv
have left the camp so far,” Jenin deputy

I
srael launched a major offensive governor Kamal Abu al-Roub told the Fully Israeli-con
ontrolled
on Ramallah
into the West Bank city of Jenin, AFP news agency, adding that arrange- territory insid
de the
d
its biggest military operation in ments were being made to house them West Bank
Jericho
Jerusalem
the Palestinian territory in years, in schools and other shelters in the city
in what it described as an “extensive of Jenin. He said about 18,000 Pales- Israel Bethlehem
Gaza
counter-terrorism effort”. tinians normally reside in the camp.
At least 10 Palestinians were killed On Monday, images from Jenin Hebron
and 100 injured, 20 seriously, in the showed armed and masked Pales- Gaza
attack that began at about 1am on tinian fighters on the streets as gun Strip
Monday, according to the Palestinian battles and explosions continued. At a 20 km
health ministry. checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, 20 miles
Launching at least 10 drone strikes the sound of increasingly heavy gun

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 19

parts of Jenin and military bulldozers A N A LY S I S Authority, which has given way to
ploughed through narrow streets. The PA L E S T I N I A N a new generation of militants who
operation led to protests across the TER R ITOR IES cannot be controlled.
West Bank, including at a checkpoint Israeli officials said this week’s
near the city of Ramallah, in which a
Palestinian man died after being shot History repeats assault, with 2,000 troops deployed,
was expected to last for days.
in the head by soldiers. Israel’s air If it seems familiar that’s
defence systems were put on alert for
potential retaliatory rocket fire from
At the end of the because it is. Once again armoured
bulldozers are pushing their way
the blockaded Gaza Strip.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an IDF
day, violence in into the camp, with snipers on
rooftops. Then, as now, Jenin’s
spokesperson, said the operation was
a focused, brigade-sized raid that was
the West Bank refugee camp was a place where the
writ of Palestinian security forces
expected to last one to three days, and
Israel did not intend to hold ground. solves nothing was considered weak.
The assault in 2002 occurred
One Israeli official said the raid was a few days after a Palestinian suicide
intended to “break the safe-haven bombing during a large gathering for
mindset of the camp, which has By Peter Beaumont the Jewish holiday of Passover killed
become a hornets’ nest”. 30 people. Monday’s raid came
A senior Hamas official called on Jenin 21 years ago. two weeks after another violent
young men in the West Bank to join the Jenin today. In 2002, it confrontation in Jenin and after the
fighting. Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy was attack helicopters military said a rocket had been fired
head of the organisation’s political hovering above the West from the area last week.
bureau, said: “This is your day, young Bank city’s refugee camp over a week If there is a difference, it is
men. Fight with all the weapons, of fighting. The new offensive has that, during the second intifada,
all your anger and with any means been led by drone strikes as Israeli Palestinian security forces and
possible to defend our honour in Jenin.” soldiers entered the city, reducing the fighters associated with senior
A statement from the Iranian- centre of the camp to rubble. Palestinian figures were drawn in.
backed Islamic Jihad group in Gaza When the smoke cleared in what In this cycle of violence, it has been
said: “All options are open to strike became known as the Battle of Jenin the absence of Palestinian security
the enemy and respond to its aggres- in 2002, more than 50 Palestinians forces that has contributed to the
sion on Jenin.” and 23 Israeli soldiers were dead, recent escalation.
The Israeli defence minister, Yoav 13 of them killed in a single ambush. The level of armed resistance
Gallant, said his forces were “closely The current Israeli military during the last major Israeli raid
monitoring the conduct of our ene- operation was being described as in June caught Israel unaware,
mies. The defence establishment is the biggest in the West Bank since with videos showing an explosion
ready for all scenarios.” Israeli troops went into Palestinian that wounded seven of its soldiers
The camp on the outskirts of the cities during the second intifada, and helicopters and drone strikes
city was set up in the 1950s and has surrounding Yasser Arafat’s deployed to rescue injured troops.
long been viewed as a hotbed of what compound in Ramallah, and putting That led to pressure from Israeli
Palestinians consider armed resist- the Church of the Nativity in politicians on Benjamin Netanyahu,
ance and Israelis see as terrorism. Bethlehem under siege. Those were whose government is dominated
Hundreds of armed fighters from violent days in the West Bank, when by West Bank settlers and their
militant groups including Hamas, Israeli tanks were on streets noisy supporters for a “large-scale
Islamic Jihad and Fatah are based with gun battles and angry funerals operation” across the occupied
there, and the semi-autonomous that would follow. West Bank. It was an incident that
Palestinian Authority has next to But Jenin and the wider West underlined Netanyahu’s weakness.
no  presence. The Jenin Brigades, Bank have changed in the past But the prime minister has
made up of armed men from different two decades, with the steady been weakened in other ways,
factions, has been blamed for several marginalisation by Israel of the perhaps explaining the timing of
terror attacks against Israeli citizens as western-backed Palestinian this offensive. Facing large-scale
the security situation has deteriorated protests over his controversial
over the past 18 months. judicial reform bill, he might
Jenin and nearby Nablus have
been the main targets of Operation
Breakwater, which has involved near-
nightly raids and some of the fiercest
18k
Number of
have hoped for a show of strength
as a distraction.
One thing is clear, however.
Revisiting large-scale violence on
fighting in the West Bank since the sec- people who live Jenin and other Palestinian cities
ond intifada ended in 2005. Vigilante in the refugee – as the experience of Gaza has
attacks by Israeli settlers against Pales- camp at Jenin. amply demonstrated – will not solve
tinian villages are also growing. The camp has the long-term and toxic issues of
BETHAN MCKERNAN IS THE GUARDIAN’S
a reputation occupation and settlement building.
JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT; PETER as a home
BEAUMONT IS A SENIOR REPORTER to militants

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

Eyewitness
Uganda

 Out of the traps

“Over the past 10 years, we’ve
removed about 47 tonnes of
snares and bear traps,” said
Michael Keigwin, the founder of
Uganda Conservation Foundation,
a charity that works with the
country’s wildlife authorities.
Speaking from the capital,
Kampala, Keigwin was referring
to a set of photographs showing
a 12-tonne pile of tangled snares
and metal traps. The images,
showing Ugandan government
rangers posing with the traps,
illustrate an African success story
and a world of pain, say those who
helped create it.
The pile, nicknamed “snare
mountain”, was collected over
12 months as part of continuing
conservation efforts at Uganda’s
Murchison Falls national park.
At the bottom are so-called bear
traps, used by poachers to catch
elephants, hippos and lions. At
the top are wire snares used for
smaller animals.
The 5,000 sq km park and its
Nile River waterfalls once lent
cover to the Joseph Kony-led
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA),
one of the world’s most notorious
militant groups. By 2010, the
LRA’s power had dwindled and
almost as soon as the park was
considered free of fighters, the
Ugandan government’s wildlife
authority began restoration work.
For Jeff Morgan, the founder
of Global Conservation, an NGO
working with Keigwin and the
rangers to restore and protect
the park, the snare mountain
photos show the risk of animals,
rangers and villagers “being
maimed and killed”.
To put the traps beyond the
reach of poachers for good,
the pile is being buried in the
foundations of the park’s new
buildings.
“The battle for wildlife is in full
swing,” said Keigwin. “To win, we
need to support wildlife tourism,
Uganda’s largest foreign currency
earner, which employs over a
million people, and we need to
create more jobs and more wages.”
Sophie Kevany
PAUL HILTON/GLOBAL CONSERVATION/UGANDA
CONSERVATION FOUNDATION/TUSK/SWNS
21
22 Spotlight
Europe
UNITED KINGDOM

NHS at 75 How Britain’s

health service wound
up in intensive care
Squeezed budgets, staff shortages and an ageing population
have pushed hospitals to the brink. But is there cause for hope?

By Denis Campbell

D
r Nick Scriven can pinpoint been unacceptable five to 10 years
the exact day he realised the ago and until recently would have
NHS could no longer cope. been reported to NHS England as an
“I first noticed it when I ‘adverse incident’. Unfortunately, we
was on call on New Year’s Day 2012. are in the position where dire circum-
We ran out of beds in our hospital. As a stances, such as ‘corridor care’ … have
result, medical patients had to occupy in fact been normalised.”
the beds in a surgical ward meant for The chief executive of one acute
people with broken bones waiting to hospital trust in England gave an even
have planned orthopaedic surgery. bleaker assessment as the NHS marked
“We’d always had ‘outliers’; the a milestone anniversary of its creation
occasional medical patient who’d this week: “It feels like the NHS, on
ended up in a surgical bed. But this its 75th birthday, is in an utter mess.”
was the first time cases like that had Wes Streeting, the shadow health
ended up taking over almost all the secretary, regularly points out that
30 beds on the orthopaedic ward. This when Labour was in government it
went on for a month and was a massive “delivered the shortest waiting times
stress for everyone as we’d never had and the highest patient satisfaction in
to cope with this amount of patients history”. While both are true, it would
being looked after elsewhere before. be wrong to suggest the NHS was in
I hoped it was an anomaly but sadly the perfect shape under Labour – almost
same thing happened every year after 2.6 million were on the waiting list for
that,” recalled Scriven, who works at hospital care as the party left office in
a hospital in Yorkshire. May 2010 and that total had been as
However, in his experience it was high as 4.2 million. However, health
not until 2015 that the NHS went experts point out it took Labour time
from struggling with a temporary to get on top of the NHS problems
overload in the cold months to “eternal it inherited in May 1997, and that it
winter”: the same difficulties almost needed years of sustained increases
all year round. in the service’s budget and staffing.
Scriven was talking about England. It is instructive to compare the
But the trajectory of the health service performance the NHS’s “referral to
in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ire- treatment” (RTT) programme – the
land has followed the same pattern of longstanding aspiration to treat 92%
dramatic, relentless decline. of everyone on the waiting list within
Scriven – a doctor for 32 years – 18 weeks and a key metric of judging
believes the NHS is in the worst state its overall ability to cope – when
he has ever seen. It was in a “down- Labour lost power and after 13 years
ward spiral”, he said. “Care is in some of Conservative government.
respects dire. The target used to be to
treat 95% of A&E patients within four  Staff shortages, a lack of funding and
hours. Now it’s just 74%. Patients face the effects of Covid are all taking a toll
delays all year round that would have RICHARD SAKER

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 23

When Gordon Brown left Downing patients aren’t getting timely care
Street, the median wait for treatment The doctor will see you now and staff are suffering the moral injury
under RTT was 5.5 weeks. Today, it is Median waiting time from referral to of not being able to do what they’re
14.1 weeks. While 2.6 million people non–urgent treatment, in weeks trained to do,” she said. “So by fail-
were waiting then, today that num- ing to invest in the capacity the NHS
ber is 7.33 million. Back then, 92.1% 13.8 weeks needs, we’re failing patients, we’re
April 2023
of patients were seen within 18 weeks 20 failing staff and we’re failing the
– the key 92% target was met. NHS Covid-19 pandemic taxpayer, because a productive and
England’s last set of monthly perfor- efficient NHS is also really important
mance statistics showed 46% were 15 for economic growth.”
seen within a target that most hospital In May, Richard Taunt, a former
trusts used to hit. 10
deputy director at the Department of
Countless international studies Health, published an essay setting out
have found that the effective perfor- “the five reasons the NHS won’t live
mance of any health system depends 5 to see 100”. They included its highly
on two things: money and staff. Analy- centralised structures, a shortage of
sis by the Health Foundation think- younger people available to become
0
tank shows that the NHS received 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022
NHS staff when the ageing population
annual budget rises of 3% during Mar- increases demand further, and the
garet Thatcher and John Major’s Tory Source: NHS England persistent mistake of treating illness
governments between 1979 and 1997. rather than preventing it.
Under Tony Blair and Brown (1997- the same time as a cost of living crisis. Back at the NHS frontline, the trust
2010) the average soared to 6.7%. It’s the combination of those factors chief executive is surprisingly positive
But during the Tory/Liberal Demo- that makes this so challenging.” about its future. They hope that the
crat coalition (2010-15) it plummeted The evidence about patient harm next government quietly dismantles
to just 1.1% with the austerity imposed caused by care delays is growing. The the 42 new “integrated care systems”
on the entire public sector. David Royal College of Emergency Medi- – regional groupings of NHS trusts that
Cameron and Theresa May’s admin- cine, which represents A&E doctors, work with local councils and voluntary
istrations (2015-18) gave the NHS only estimates that 23,000 people – 442 organisations to improve care – that
a little more – 1.7%. NHS funding only a week – died during 2022 as a direct they see as “an expensive failure”; and
recovered to the 4%-a-year average result of having to wait too long in an that ministers can somehow end the
that health economists say is the emergency department. Similarly, debilitating wave of NHS pay strikes.
minimum investment to maintain a Association of Ambulance Chief Execu- “While there are many reasons to
high-performing system under Boris tives data shows that 57,000 patients feel anxious and the short-term future
Johnson, Liz Truss and now Rishi were put at risk last December because is ... more challenging than the recent
Sunak (2018-23). of delays in ambulance crews handing past, if we refocus on patient care and
them over to A&E staff, and 6,000 were not just money, if we take difficult

O
n staffing, the picture under exposed to “severe harm” as a result. decisions and if we give people hope
the Tories is just as sober- Charlesworth denies that the NHS and belief, the NHS may survive to see
ing. In March 2010, the NHS is slowly imploding. “I don’t think the its 100th birthday,” they said.
had 21,351 empty posts – a NHS is failing. I think the NHS is being And despite laying bare the health
vacancy rate of 2.1%. At the end of failed – failed by policy that is ineffec- service’s many problems, Charles-
March this year, that had risen to tive,” referring to the neglect of the worth is also hopeful. “I’m profoundly
112,498 vacancies – 8% of the work- workforce shortages, a short-sighted optimistic about the NHS’s future.
force. In 2010, the service was short approach to funding, and failure to First, public commitment to the NHS
of 2,113 doctors and dentists, and 8,153 build hospitals and other new NHS remains absolutely rock-solid. Sec-
nurses and midwives. Today, it needs buildings that have characterised all ond, all the evidence is that tearing
8,549 medical staff and 40,096 nurses. governments since 2010. up our tax-funded free at the point of
Anita Charlesworth, the Health “In human terms, that means use model of healthcare and moving
Foundation’s head of research, said the wholesale to another system wouldn’t

112,498
NHS’s sorry state was due to “a colli- deliver benefits to patients or the tax-
sion between rising demand over the payer. And third, we have the funda-
long period, with the ageing popula- mental building blocks of an effective
tion and people having more long-term Staff vacancies in March this year, or healthcare system: strong primary
health conditions”. Covid’s arrival in 8% of the NHS workforce. In 2010, care, a good focus on public health
early 2020 meant a system that was “on there were 21,351 empty posts (2.1%) and a great science base.
the edge” of its ability to cope had since “But for the NHS to recover and

71%
then “fallen off a cliff ”, she added. survive and prosper, if we want a
“What’s striking about the current high-quality NHS, it has to be properly
situation is that, while previously indi- funded and have enough capacity.
vidual NHS services have struggled, Proportion of Britons who think free That is an enduring truth that no
now it’s every area of the NHS which NHS care will end within the next government should ignore.”
is struggling at the same time as the decade, according to a survey for DENIS CAMPBELL IS THE GUARDIAN’S
social care system is struggling and at the Health Foundation HEALTH POLICY EDITOR

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

 The team’s work may
take years, but if it is
successful, the benefits
24 Spotlight are clear. Unlike solar
Science or wind, hygroelectric
generators could work
day and night, indoors
and out, in many places

From thin air

The race to draw energy
from the atmosphere

I
ENERGY
Scientists have n the early 20th century, Serbian
inventor Nikola Tesla dreamed of
published a paper declaring it had
successfully generated a small but con-
generated electricity pulling limitless free electricity tinuous electric current from humidity
from the air. He was thinking on in the air. It’s a claim that will probably
from the humidity in a vast scale, effectively looking at the raise a few eyebrows, and when the
the air – but can we Earth and upper atmosphere as two team made the discovery that inspired
ends of a giant battery. His dreams were this new research in 2018, it did.
ever make enough to never realised, but the promise of air- “To be frank, it was an accident,”
power our homes? derived electricity – hygroelectricity said the study’s lead author, Prof Jun
– is capturing researchers’ imagina- Yao. “We were actually interested in
tions again. The difference: they’re making a simple sensor for humidity in
not thinking big, but very, very small. the air. But the student who was work-
In May, a team at the University ing on that forgot to plug in the power.”
By Ned Carter Miles of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst The UMass Amherst researchers were

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 25

surprised to find that the device, which measuring 4cm across. According to ‘The The UMass Amherst team is working
comprised an array of microscopic the Lyubchyks, one of these devices with organic materials, which can the-
tubes, or nanowires, was producing an can generate 1.5 volts and 10 milliamps. existence of oretically be produced with relative
electrical signal regardless. But 20,000 of them stacked together, this type of ease, but the Catcher team achieved
Each nanowire was less than one- they say, could generate 10- kilowatt energy isn’t superior results using zirconium
thousandth the diameter of a human hours of power a day – roughly the con- oxide. The Lyubchyks had hoped to
hair, wide enough that an airborne sumption of an average UK household. in doubt. establish a supply from their native
water molecule could enter, but so They plan to have a prototype ready for It’s about Ukraine, but Russia’s invasion of the
narrow it would bump around inside demonstration in 2024. country has forced them to work with
the tube. Each bump, the team real- A device that can generate usable
how we relatively small amounts from China.
ised, lent the material a small charge, electricity from thin (or somewhat collect it’ The team accepts that it may take
and as the frequency of bumps muggy) air may sound too good to be years to optimise a prototype and scale
increased, one end of the tube became true, but Peter Dobson, emeritus pro- up production, but if it is successful,
differently charged from the other. fessor of engineering science at Oxford the benefits are clear. Unlike solar or
“So it’s really like a battery,” said University, has been following both wind, hygroelectric generators could
Yao. “You have a positive pull and a teams’ research, and he’s optimistic. work day and night, indoors and out,
negative pull, and when you connect “When I first heard about it, I and in many places. The team even
them the charge is going to flow.” thought: ‘Oh yes, another one of hopes one day to make construction
For its new study, Yao’s team moved those.’ But no, it’s got legs, this one materials from the devices.
on from nanowires, instead punching has,” said Dobson. “If you can engi- It may all seem like blue-sky
materials with millions of tiny holes, neer and scale it, and avoid the thing thinking, and Tesla’s dreams of limitless
or nanopores. The device it has come getting contaminated by atmospheric electricity from the air are still a long
up with is the size of a thumbnail, microbes, it should work.” way off, but Yao suggests we may find
one-fifth the width of a human hair, He suggested that preventing ▼ Serbian grounds for optimism among cloudier
and capable of generating roughly one microbial contamination is more an inventor skies. “Lots of energy is stored in water
microwatt – enough to light a single “exciting engineering challenge” than Nikola Tesla molecules in the air,” he said. “That’s
pixel on a large LED screen. a terminal flaw, but there are greater experimented where we get the lightning effect during
problems to overcome before this with capturing a thunderstorm. The existence of this

S
o what would it take to power technology is powering our homes. energy from type of energy isn’t in doubt. It’s about
the rest of the screen, or a “How do these devices get the air in the how we collect it.” Observer
whole house? “The beauty manufactured?” asked Anna Korre, early 1900s NED CARTER MILES IS A WRITER AND
is that the air is everywhere,” professor of environmental engi- PICTORIAL PRESS/ALAMY
AUDIO PRODUCER
said Yao. “Even though a thin sheet of neering at Imperial College London.
the device gives out a very tiny amount “Sourcing raw materials, costing,
of electricity or power, in principle, we assessing the environmental footprint,
can stack multiple layers in vertical and scaling them up for implementa-
space to increase the power.” tion takes time and conviction.”
That’s exactly what another team, Even once the challenge of
Prof Svitlana Lyubchyk and her connecting thousands of these
twin sons, Profs Andriy and Sergiy devices together has been overcome,
Lyubchyk, is trying to do. Svitlana cost remains a significant issue. “All
and Andriy are part of the Lisbon- new technologies for energy need to
based Catcher project, whose aim is think of the ‘green premium’,” said
“changing atmospheric humidity into Colin Price, a professor of geophysics
renewable power”, and along with at Tel Aviv University, referring to the
Sergiy they have founded Cascata- cost of choosing a clean technology
Chuva, aiming to commercialise the over one that emits more greenhouse
research. Work on the idea began in gases. “The green premiums are huge
2015. “We were considered the freaks,” at the moment for this technology, but
said Andriy. “The guys who were say- hopefully would be reduced by R&D
ing something completely impossible.” [research and development], invest-
Demonstrating an early proof-of- ments, tax breaks for clean energies
concept at conferences had them and levies on dirty energies.”
literally red in the face. He said: “The The Lyubchyks estimate that the
signal was not stable and it was low. We cost of electricity generation for a
were able to generate 300 milliwatts, generator over its lifetime from these
but you had to put all your effort into devices will be high at first, but by
your lungs in order to breathe enough moving into mass production, they Tesla was thinking on a
humidity into the samples.” hope to lower it significantly, ulti- vast scale, effectively
They’ve come a long way since mately making this hygroelectric looking at the Earth and
then, with Catcher and related pro- power competitive with solar and upper atmosphere as two
jects receiving nearly €5.5m ($6m) in wind. For that to work, they’ll need ends of a giant battery.
funding from the European Innovation investment, access to raw materials Today’s researchers are
not thinking big, but
Council. The result is a thin grey disc and the equipment to process them.
very, very small

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

26 Spotlight
Europe
stone wrapped in a sweet paper. The
girl grabbed it, expecting a treat. The
memory haunts Corless. “Those kids
had absolutely nothing. I remember
the actual hurt on her face.”
The home closed in 1961, was
demolished and replaced with a
housing estate. In 1975 two boys forag-
ing for apples stumbled across human
bones in the septic tank. Authorities
took no action. Some suggested they
were remains from the 1840s famine.
Corless, a former secretary with an
 Human bones interest in local history, began investi-
were discovered gating the site. The Bon Secours order
in 1975, the site of and local authorities fobbed her off
the mass grave is but she amassed death certificates
now a memorial and information. National and inter-
CLODAGH KILCOYNE/ national media seized on her research
GETTY
in 2014, prompting an official inves-
IRELAND but there were no burial records. Now tigation. DNA samples taken in 2016
a team of forensic investigators led by confirmed the remains dated from the
Daniel Mac Sweeney, a former Inter- Bon Secours occupancy of the site.
national Committee of the Red Cross Hunger and neglect afflicted the chil-

Excavation
envoy, has been tasked with exhuming, dren, said Corless. “The children were
analysing and identifying the remains. treated as commodities. The prettier
“There has been nothing on this babies were set up for adoption – it was

hopes to find scale before in Ireland,” Roderic

O’Gorman, the children’s minister,
said in an interview. “This will be one
a money-making racket. The sicker
ones were put away and allowed to die.”
Corless, a mother of four adult
identities of of the most complex operations of its
kind in the world.”
children, resisted efforts to leave the
remains in place and to memorialise

children in The age of the remains, the fact they

are children and have been exposed
to water will complicate analysis and
the site with a plaque. “Let them rest
in peace? It was a sewage facility – get
them out of there. Let’s expose the raw

mass grave identification. The excavation team

will be independent but is legally
truth of what happened. You have to
unearth the whole place to undo the
obliged to use advanced techniques damage. The people of Ireland need
to match DNA samples with living rela- to know what happened.”
By Rory Carroll TUAM tives, said O’Gorman. “Anything that She hopes the excavation will shed
can be done will be done.” light on how many were placed in the

O 796
n a summer day, the site of The goal is to give a respectful septic tank and the causes of death,
the children’s mass grave in burial to all the remains, he said. “I’ve and also lead to DNA matches with rela-
Tuam appears deceptively always regarded Tuam as a stain on tives and former residents of the home,
bucolic. There are no crosses our national conscience. The fact that Number of paving the way for proper burials.
or tombstones in the walled patch of infant remains were treated so callously children who Mac Sweeney, who was appointed
grass. Butterflies flit over shrubs. Robins even in death is deeply disturbing.” died at St Mary’s in May, recently met Corless at the site
cheep from branches. It’s peaceful. The home in Tuam was part of a mother and baby but has not disclosed when the excava-
“They are two-feet down from network of institutions for unmarried home between tion will begin.
where we are standing,” Catherine mothers and their children that 1925 and 1961, Corless has received multiple
Corless said. “The bones have mingled doubled as orphanages and adoption according to awards and featured in documenta-
together and water got in and thrashed agencies for much of the 20th century. local historian ries. Actor Liam Neeson visited her and
them around. But they’re there.” They were run by religious orders with Catherine is to make a dramatised film about her
Corless is the local historian who sanction by the state, which overlooked Corless. Many investigation.
a decade ago alerted Ireland, and the deprivation, misogyny, stigma and are believed In lieu of tombstones at the site,
world, to a shocking truth about this high infant mortality rates. The govern- to have been locals have erected a number, 796. PJ
Galway town: for decades an institu- ment made a formal state apology in dumped in a Haverty, a former resident of the home,
tion for unmarried mothers put the 2021 after a judicial commission report. septic tank also posted a note: “This is what Catho-
remains of dead babies and children Corless, 68, remembers encoun- lic Ireland did. Took the babies away
in a disused subterranean septic tank. tering children from the home when from their mothers and when they
Corless found that, between 1925 she was a child. They were consid- passed away dumped their little bodies
and 1961, 796 children died at the ered embodiments of sin and looked into a dirty tank. My God.” Observer
St Mary’s mother and baby home, run down upon. As a trick Corless, aged RORY CARROLL IS THE GUARDIAN’S
by nuns from the Bon Secours order – around seven, gave one of them a IRELAND CORRESPONDENT

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 27

S PA I N “They used animal and vegetable when Juneda was bombed and strafed ▼ Juan Carulla in
waste and straw. We lived a frugal life. by fascist warplanes. Carulla speaks his roof garden
We didn’t go hungry, we just lived.” with sorrow of the 117 people killed in Barcelona
Like his forebears, Carulla makes in the village and how the reprisals PAOLA DE GRENET

Green peace
compost from everything, including carried out by both sides at the end of
magazines and wooden fruit boxes. the war broke his father’s spirit and
“There’s almost nothing we don’t use, drove his mother to an early grave.

Centenarian everything decomposes eventually.”

With his family and builders from
Juneda, he spent 14 years building
“She was one of the war’s silent
victims,” he said. “I think she died
from pain and suffering.”
who built an the block of flats that he jokingly calls
“our Sagrada Família”, after Barce-
He also talks about how at 10 he had
an epiphany when he vowed to become

‘allotment lona’s celebrated basilica, which took

decades to build and is still incomplete.
They strengthened the terrace with
un generador de amor (someone who
generates love). “I don’t know where
this phrase came from, but I decided

in the sky’ a double layer of tiles and sheets of

impermeable material, and installed
that what I had to do was to create love
in everyone, universal love.”
an undersoil drainage network to cope He attributes his longevity to never
with 70 tonnes of soil, 25cm deep. having smoked or drunk alcohol, as well
Stephen Burgen BARCELONA They created a system for collecting as to a vegetarian diet and “because
and storing 9,500 litres of rainwater I have always enjoyed my work, as

W
hen Joan Carulla so there are reserves in dry periods, a small businessman and farmer, in
Figueres turned the though this has barely sufficed during daily contact with my beloved plants,
roof terrace of his Catalonia’s drought, which has lasted and because I have banished envy and
Barcelona apartment for nearly three years. hatred from my mind”.
into a garden, it was out of nostalgia During his long life, Carulla has “I’ve lived in the city for almost 70
for his rural origins. Sixty-five years been recording his thoughts on a years but I’ve got farmer’s hands, and ‘There’s
later, the ecological concepts he has manual typewriter. These musings I’m proud of that,” he said, “although it almost
long followed have become common- have been collected in a book, Mi siglo seems that, after so many years work-
place, and he is acclaimed as a pioneer verde (My Green Century) by Carlos ing the soil, my hands weren’t made nothing we
of organic farming. Fresneda, the London correspondent for scrolling on a mobile phone.” don’t use,
Carulla, who turned 100 this year, of El Mundo newspaper. In it, Carulla One of his great joys is when schools
is credited with creating the city’s ranges over topics including vegetari- visit his garden. “Over the past 15
everything
first roof garden. However, his “allot- anism, what makes a good potato, the years, dozens of children have passed will
ment in the sky” boasts far more than agrochemical giant Monsanto and through here. It was a dream of mine decompose
the usual tomato plants and pots of Spain’s civil war. He also tells his story when I started this allotment, to create
geraniums. It is home to more than 40 in a video made by a Barcelona docu- a slice of the countryside in the city
eventually’
fruit trees, vines that produce 100kg mentary company, Otoxo Productions. to teach children how to love plants.”
of grapes a year, olives, peaches, figs, If the war made him a vegetarian, STEPHEN BURGEN IS A WRITER BASED Joan Carulla
garlic, aubergines and even potatoes. it also made him a pacifist. He was 15 IN BARCELONA Environmentalist
He is passionate about potatoes.
“The civil war [in Spain in the
1930s] made me a vegetarian, through
necessity, then conviction, potato by
potato,” he said. “For breakfast we ate
potatoes, at lunchtime more potatoes
with an egg I shared with my father. In
the evening, potatoes with vegetables.”
Sitting beneath a grapevine on an
upturned beer crate – his eyes bright
and his hearing and memory aston-
ishingly sharp – he reminisces about
the world he grew up in and how he
became interested in vegetarianism
in the 1950s, when he moved to Bar-
celona from Juneda, a village with a
harsh climate in the Catalan interior.
His approach to agriculture is what
today we call organic, but Carulla insists
he is not doing anything new and that
poor farmers have always practised
organic farming out of necessity.
“My grandparents had little land
and no money for fertiliser,” he said.
28 Spotlight
Africa

 Exploring the
medieval ruins of
Great Zimbabwe, a
world heritage site

 Posing at Cape
Agulhas, the
southernmost
point in Africa

 Maletsunyane
Falls in Lesotho,
one of Africa’s
highest waterfalls

‘Tourism has been painted

UGA N DA fund their 22,000km journey through
Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, South
Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana,

white on the continent’ Malawi, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Mozam-

bique and Angola.
For Agena, who works in develop-
ment communications, the trip was
By Caroline A couple hope their five-month journey through 12 countries an overdue career break. She also
Kimeu wanted to discover what it would be
will inspire other black Africans to follow in their footsteps
like to travel on her own continent,
after experiences with racism during

W
hen Maureen Agena Africans to travel the continent, her work-related trips in Europe.
and Edward Echwalu compared with Europeans or North Agena and Echwalu began their
arrived at the Lesotho Americans. Leisure and safari tourism travels in December 2022. Being
border during their five- in Africa is still largely dominated by black and African meant they could
month road trip across east and south- western travellers. pass as locals in most countries, which
ern Africa, the immigration officer did Agena and Echwalu are among allowed them to go deep into rural
a double-take. “I’ve been at this post the limited but growing number of areas or eat at roadside restaurants
for eight years and no Ugandan has Africans embarking on longer-term without them becoming a spectacle.
ever crossed through,” the official leisure travel within the continent. They were surprised to find most
told the pair, as she checked whether It took the couple, who describe people they met knew little about
travellers from the east African themselves as lower-middle class, Uganda. Few asked about the country’s
country were allowed entry visa-free. several years to save the $25,000 to attractions. Instead, it was obscure
“For most of the places that we have quirks that drew most interest.
been to, that has been the comment,” The couple did visit popular tourist
the couple tweeted, as they chronicled ‘People found it difficult attractions. They crossed the tropic
their trip on social media.
High costs and visa restrictions
to believe we’d tour of capricorn, and tried quad-biking
in the Namib desert. Inevitably, there
EDWARD ECHWALU have historically made it harder for without a purpose’ were hiccups along the way: they

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 29

spent nights at border points because SOUTH AFRICA revolved around food – because my
of unexplained delays, weathered sister says I would only remember
damp nights in their tent, talked their things if there was food involved,”
way past corrupt police at checkpoints said Molefe.
and drove along many rough, unlit
roads. Extreme weather events also
threw a few curveballs. Their entry
Homestyle To varying extents, the dishes have
been reimagined for a wider audi-
ence. One is inspired by a sumptuous
into Malawi coincided with Cyclone
Freddy, prompting them to join the
Zulu flavours chicken-neck stew she remembers
her mother making but, as she did not
relief effort.
But “blending in” meant they were star on chef’s want to “put an entire chicken neck
on a plate”, it has been reworked as
not perceived as tourists, which came a dainty tartlet, the gelatinous bones
with its own set of challenges.
“Tourism has been painted white
London menu ground into a “light, meaty mousse”.
Molefe’s Cape Town restaurant
on the continent,” said Echwalu, 40. Emazulwini only opened in 2020 –
“People found it so difficult to believe By Lizzy Davies and had to close three weeks later
that we could take time and tour with- because of Covid restrictions. But in

W
out ‘a purpose’. We told them we just hen Mmabatho Molefe that time she has made a name as a
wanted to travel across the continent was growing up in the talented, playful champion of indig-
and know more about their countries South African province enous staples and so-called “peasant
but they would insist: ‘but why?’ of KwaZulu-Natal , dishes” that have long faced prejudice.
“It became difficult to answer at Friday was a special day when her Molefe dropped out of a politics,
some point because we could under- parents would give her pocket money philosophy and law course (“I spent
stand them,” said the couple, adding to buy food rather than take a packed more time cooking than studying,” she
that the “black tax” – the financial bur- lunch to school. On a good day, she said). But there is a fire to her cooking
den shouldered by more successful would spend it all on a vetkoek – trad- that is indisputably political. By bring-
Africans providing for their immediate itional doughnut-like fried bread ing the food of rural South Africa to the
and extended families – means even stuffed, in her case, with chicken. fine dining tables of Cape Town – and
those who are upwardly mobile may “For me, it just represents a really London – she is “fight[ing] prejudices
commit finances to other priorities. good Friday afternoon,” said the and misconceptions”, she added.
Sometimes the suspicion, surprise 28-year-old chef. Molefe is keen to It is not just on the plate that
or shock turned into a pleasant con- bring the food she grew up eating at her Molefe’s politics come through. A
versation but, at other times, it led to mother’s table to the rest of the world. “lifetime goal” is to create a recrea-
excessive policing by authorities. In And at Carousel in London, where tional centre for homeless people in
one remote Tanzanian town, police more than 300 guest chefs have taken Cape Town, and to help them retrain
painstakingly searched their luggage. up residencies since 2014, she has been for work in the hospitality industry.
Echwalu described the experience as serving a seven-course romp through Moreover, she recognises that, in
humiliating, adding: “It’s like they the Zulu diet over 12 days, taking in the culinary industry of South Africa,
could not believe we were tourists.” dishes such as sweetcorn custard with still largely “dominated by white
For Agena, experiencing racism on chickpea shoots and mealie bread, males”, the decision to hire an all-
the continent was most dishearten- seared scallops with corned beef black and, for a time, all-female staff
ing. At a predominantly white South tongue and spicy tomato broth, and to run Emazulwini has been vital.
African campsite, the couple recalled: ending with a fermented maize por- As the restaurant has expanded, she
“You could almost feel the coldness.” ridge and lemon verbena ice-cream. has hired some men – but, she said,
Yet, they also experienced incred- “The idea behind the menu was only those who “have learned how to
ible hospitality. As their budget dwin- to represent memories of my child- respect women”.
dled on the second half of the trip, they hood, and that’s just based on dishes If there is one dish featuring on
put out a call for hosts on social media. that my mom would prepare for me Molefe’s Carousel menu that embodies
“People opened their homes, or instances in my childhood that her desire to revalidate the food of
families and lives to us,” said Agena. her youth, it is the ipapa neklabishi:
“We talk about the spirit of Ubuntu ‘My sister braised beef heart, maize and cabbage
[humanity towards others] and there says I with sweetbread.
was no better expression of that than In South Africa, cabbage is con-
the outpouring of willingness from would only sidered “a low-income household
people to host us.” remember staple”, she said. “So to be able to
Now back home, the couple plan to fully represent it and cook it interna-
produce a book about their journey.
things tionally and have people say, ‘OK, I’d
Agena hopes it will encourage other if there be willing to pay this much to try it,’
travellers. “We said that whichever was food when normally it wouldn’t be seen as
way we did it, we would document something worthy. That says, ‘this is
[our trip]” she said.
involved’ me, this is who I am, and this is where
CAROLINE KIMEU IS THE GUARDIAN’S Mmabatho I come from.’”
EAST AFRICA GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT Molefe LIZZY DAVIES WRITES ABOUT GLOBAL
CORRESPONDENT BASED IN NAIROBI Chef DEVELOPMENT FOR THE GUARDIAN

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

30 Spotlight
Environment
C A NA DA US crews have been deployed stretched emergency resources to the towns and communities are tucked
limit – with months of the season left. into the most vulnerable forested can-
to help Canada tackle record
Across Canada last week, 161 fires yons, a layered matrix of agencies act
wildfires – prompting were burning, with 78 of them con- quickly. The “initial-attack phase” is
questions about best practice sidered to be out of control. And the seen as essential to stop ignitions turn-
effects of these large fires aren’t just ing into infernos. But Mueller and his

D
By Gabrielle ustan Mueller had come to local: thick smoke blanketed swathes team found that in Canada, far fewer
Canon expect the unexpected. The of the US in early June while last week, firefighters were sent in early.
SAN FRANCISCO US Forest Service (USFS) Chicago and Detroit briefly had the “With so many fires across the
Leyland Cecco deputy fire chief had been most unhealthy air in the world as a whole country, resources are scarce,”
TORONTO deployed thousands of kilometres new wave of ashen air drifted south. he said. With a system under pressure,
from home to battle an out-of-control The choking haze reflected a stark different priorities were set. Some
blaze in the wooded bogs and swamp- reality: wildfires are immune to blazes – especially those considered
land of Alberta, Canada. borders – and in turn, the response too difficult or dangerous to contain
In the dry forests of northern has been international. US, Australian, – are left to run their course.
California he was used to, a rainstorm New Zealand, South African, French, Firefighters in California are also
would probably mean an end to the Spanish, Portuguese, Mexican, tasked with protecting assets, which
fire. But in this terrain, even a late- Chilean and Costa Rican firefighters range from private property to highly
spring storm could do little to slow the have joined the struggle in Canada, valuable timber forests.
flames: two days after being doused, highlighting how countries around the “[Canada’s] main values at risk are
the conflagration roared back to life. world are contending with shared and a lot different than what ours are,” said
“It is nothing like what we have in intensifying catastrophes fuelled by Mueller. “Down here, after human life,
California,” said Mueller, now back in the climate crisis. trees are a valuable resource because
the US after leading an American team But differences in approach have they are worth a lot of money.”
of federal wildland firefighters to tag prompted questions about best prac- Fire is a natural part of ecosystem in
▼ Smoke billows in on one of the 2,765 fires that have tices in the face of a global challenge. the US west, where trees have evolved
from a planned erupted in Canada this year. “The trees US firefighters in Canada have encoun- to thrive with slow-burning flames that
burn by fire- are like little matchsticks – and just as tered different techniques in the early clear the undergrowth and renew the
fighters tackling flammable.” stages of a burn, a new set of safety soil. But crowded stands, left vulner-
a blaze in British Canada is in the midst of a record- protocols and contrasting require- able to the effects of drought, disease,
Columbia shattering fire season that has left ments for protective equipment. and insect infestations, are littered
BC WILDFIRE SERVICE/
REUTERS more than 5.7 m hectares charred and In California, where mountain with dead and drying trees.

‘The trees
are like
matchsticks’
A global
approach
to wildfires
 31

The climate crisis has turned up the  The half-moon hairstreak butterfly
dial, producing a new kind of wildfire COURTESY OF WILDER INSTITUTE
that burns hotter, faster, and leaves
little in its wake. Wildfire has long functioned as a
While there’s been a slow shift to restorative mechanism in forest eco-
bring heathy fires back to the forests, systems. The immense heat of a blaze
experts have criticised US agencies is often needed to burst open pine
for causing more devastation by not cones for seeds to spread.
letting enough land burn. But across Canada, nearly 700
Canadian crews also have different species are considered at risk, largely
requirements when it comes to protec- the result of human actions on the
tive equipment, and aren’t required to landscape and within water systems.
carry fire shelters – small aluminium In recent years, widespread fires push-
foil-lined sacks designed to reflect ing into areas unaccustomed to searing
radiant heat, that a firefighter can blazes have only increased the threat.
climb inside when there are no other As well as the half-moon hairstreak
options for escape. C A NA DA butterfly, McCabe worries about the
While the tool is considered an prospects of burrowing owls that nest
essential “last-resort” protection by in prairie grasslands. In both cases,
American agencies, Canadian strat- conservation groups are weighing cap-
egies focus on ensuring firefighters
aren’t put in situations where they
might have to rely on the devices.
Blazes push tive breeding programmes as a way
of reducing the chance that an entire
population is wiped out during a fire.
“The overall goal is to save human
life – and that includes their own fire-
threatened “Fires are a part of climate change
and habitats like forests are not as
fighters,” Mueller said.
wildlife to resistant to fires as they once were,”
said Emily Giles of World Wildlife Fund

T
hat ethos is also applied to Canada. “We’re seeing altered rainfall
working conditions. “We
were used to operating in
the brink cycles and warmer, drier conditions
that are just leading to more intense
a 24-hour environment,” and more frequent fires.”
Mueller said, but he and his crew had By Leyland Cecco TORONTO In Canada’s boreal regions, fires
to head out after a 12-hour mark, in are burning hotter and larger than

I
order to abide by Alberta rules, which n late August 2017, a bolt of previous years. In British Columbia,
mandate periods of rest to protect lightning struck Kenow Moun- the Donnie Creek fire is now the larg-
against stress and fatigue. Up in flames tain in eastern British Columbia. est in the province’s history: 5.7m
The increasingly international Canada’s 2023 In less than two weeks, the ensu- hectares have burned so far this year.
nature of firefighting efforts reflect ing smouldering had transformed into Much of the spring fire season has
fire season
how threats are growing for the public a large forest fire, tearing through the overlapped with the breeding season
around the world – and not just for rugged landscape and quickly spread- for many species, said Giles, present-
those who live in high-risk areas.
“Even if you might not have a fire near
you, you are going to feel the effects of
2,765
The number of
ing into Waterton Lakes national park.
The blaze consumed 19,303
hectares and while many animals fled,
ing a clear danger to newborns.
Experts also worry about the effects
of the smoke on vulnerable species.
fire,” said Riva Duncan, a retired USFS wildfires that the endangered half-moon hairstreak In northern Alberta, whooping
fire staff officer and the vice-president have erupted butterflies could not. A large portion cranes have been pulled back from
of the advocacy group Grassroots of the species was lost after nearly half extinction, but migrating birds are
Wildland Firefighters, which is push-
ing for legislation to increase pay and 5.7m its habitat was destroyed.
A record wildfire season has burned
particularly vulnerable to the harmful
effects of wildfire smoke. “A wildfire
essential benefits for federal wildland The area of vast swathes of Canada and choked would be absolutely devastating for
firefighters. land in hectares major cities with smoke. Biologists are that population,” said McCabe.
So far, the US fire season has been already charred increasingly concerned that threat- Fire crews prioritise protecting
quieter, thanks to an incredibly wet ened and endangered species could be human lives and communities when
winter in the American west. But con-
ditions are expected to change. Soon, 600m pushed further to the brink as hotter,
faster fires reshape the landscape.
blazes pose a threat – leaving fires to
burn naturally on the landscape where
there may not be as many crews avail- The amount in “We’re most worried about those possible. But this strategy means con-
able to go north. And the US will then tonnes of CO2 species that have really restricted servation groups need to strengthen
welcome help from around the world. generated by the ranges or are living in a specialised the populations of at-risk species, said
“It truly is a global problem,” fires, equivalent habitat, like a small forest patch McCabe.
Duncan said. to 88% of the or a small grassland patch, like the “Increasingly, our focus is on
country’s 2021 half-moon hairstreak,” said Gráinne making sure that we can bolster these
GABRIELLE CANON IS CLIMATE McCabe, chief conservation officer populations to a healthy level so that
REPORTER AND EXTREME WEATHER greenhouse gas
CORRESPONDENT FOR GUARDIAN US; emissions from of the Wilder Institute. “With a bad should a fire come through, maybe
LEYLAND CECCO COVERS CANADA FOR all sources fire, we could lose an entire species if it’s less impactful for the species as
THE GUARDIAN they’re only found in one small area.” a whole.”

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

 Opinion p45
32 Spotlight
North America

63%
U N I T E D S TAT E S Last Friday, the last day of term, the Lia Epperson, a constitutional law
six conservatives wielded their sword professor at American University’s
over LGBTQ+ rights. In another 6 to 3 Washington College of Law, said a
ruling, they slashed anti-discrimi- Portion of clear pattern was emerging. “We see

Torn down
nation protections to allow a devout Americans the court willing to go places it has not
Christian web designer to turn away who support gone so quickly in the past, eviscerat-
same-sex couples. affirmative ing precedent and disrupting social

Rightwing The case, 303 Creative v Elenis, was

instigated by the Alliance Defending
Freedom, a rightwing Christian group
action. The
supreme court
ruled 6-3 in
norms in ways that are so far reaching.”
The decision to end race-conscious
admissions puts a halt to 40 years of
justices axe that has been classed as an extremist
group by the Southern Poverty Law
favour of barring
the practice at
established practice in public and
private colleges.

decades of Center. Its legal arguments were based

on questionable evidence.
The icing on the conservative cake,
Harvard and
the University of
North Carolina,
The court’s most seismic decisions
also swim against the tide of public
opinion. The five men and one

settled law also delivered by a 6 to 3 margin,

struck down the Biden administra-
but it will affect
almost every
woman who compose the Trump-
created supermajority – unelected
tion’s student debt forgiveness plan. selective higher and appointed for life – are dramati-
Buried with it were the financial hopes education cally impacting the lives of millions
By Ed Pilkington of 40 million Americans. institution of Americans.
These moves come at the end The right to an abortion is supported

A
nother momentous term has of a judicial term in which, in other by 61% of Americans. The court’s block
ended at the US supreme respects, the chief justice John Roberts on Biden’s student loan forgiveness
court in which the right- had made notable efforts to keep the plan goes against the views of 62%.
wing supermajority crafted court more attuned to rest of the The decision to tear down affirma-
by Donald Trump applied its blueprint nation. In rulings over voting rights tive action flies in the face of 63% of
for the radical overhaul of vast swathes and Native American protections he Americans who want the practice to
of American public life to new areas, had steered a middle course, much to continue. Seventy-one per cent think
including race and LGBTQ+ rights. the relief of progressives who had been same-sex marriages should be recog-
In a repeat of the shockwaves of a expecting the worst. nised by law and entitled to the same
year ago, when they overturned the But the 2022-23 term will most be rights as traditional marriages.
right to an abortion, the six rightwing remembered for the decisions on race, “The court system has become
justices – three appointed by Trump – LGBTQ+ rights and student debt. The so independent of American public
saved their biggest explosions until the willingness of the rightwing justices to opinion and desires – and certainly
end. Last Thursday’s 6 to 3 ruling bar- stamp their mark on essential spheres ▼ Protesters our understanding of the constitu-
ring affirmative action at Harvard and of American life, shredding up to half in Washington tion – that it risks damaging demo-
the University of North Carolina will a century of settled law in the process, for and against cracy in a significant way,” said Caro-
affect virtually every selective higher confirmed the exceptional nature of affirmative action
line Fredrickson, a law professor at
education institution in the US, with the current bench. Joe Biden put it EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/
Georgetown University.
potential ramifications far beyond. pithily: “This is not a normal court.” REUTERS Anger towards the court is rising,
and confidence in it at an historic low.
The backlash is already gathering
speed. Within hours of the affirmative
action ruling, Hank Johnson, a Demo-
cratic congressman from Georgia,
denounced it as the work of “Maga”
justices, after Trump’s Make America
Great Again slogan. He is sponsoring a
bill that would expand the court from
nine to 13 justices as a means of loos-
ening the hard right’s grip on power.
Calls to the barricades threaten
the supreme court’s reputation and
stability. The standing of one justice
is especially imperilled: chief justice
Roberts. The court’s sharp shift to the
right has led observers to question
whether Roberts has ceded leadership
to his most extreme peer, Clarence
Thomas. “Roberts has lost control of
the supreme court,” warned the New
York Times opinion pages.
ED PILKINGTON IS CHIEF REPORTER FOR
GUARDIAN US
 Spotlight 33
Americas
 Migrants wade Wandermut said it has learned of
through a river the plight of migrants in the Darién
during as they since it began offering its tours there in
cross the Darién recent years and that it takes its Euro-
Gap from Colom- pean clients through the Pacific side
bia to Panama of the Darién, not the Caribbean side,
IVAN VALENCIA/AP which is more trodden by migrants.
“We don’t holiday where people
suffer,” the company’s founders, Tom
Schinker and Martin Druschel, said.
Panama’s tourist authority
defended the tours, saying there was
no connection between “legitimate
tourism operations in southern Darién
[and] the catastrophic humanitarian
crisis that is migration through the
northern part of Darién territory”.
The agency also said local commu-
nities in Darién benefit from tourism.
But even if tourists steer away from
migrant trails, marketing the dangers
COLOMBIA/ jungle between en Colombia and Panama, Danger area of the Darién is in bad taste, MSF said.
PA N A M A is home to cascading
a waterfalls, myr- Giuseppe Loprete, While migrants pay a couple of hun-
iad species and
a crystal-clear streams. the IOM’s chief of dred dollars to “coyotes” for passage
But its inaccessibility
n and lack of mission in Panama, and trek with no more than the bag

Travel firm
development n have also turned it into described the on their backs, holidaymakers on the
a haven for d drug trafficking militias, Darién jungle as “survival tour” pay €3,500 ($3,800)
armed bandits it and one of the world’s “a notoriously to cross with the luxury of satellite

criticised most desperate migrant crossings.

Tourism in the Darién is reckless
due to the treacherous terrain, lack
remote region of
swampland and
dense rainforest
phones, local guides – and the option
of an emergency airlift if necessary.
“Migrants do not have any of this
for tour to of state presence and organised crime,
said Giuseppe Loprete, the Interna-
spanning 100km
of the border
equipment, they often get severe
diarrhoea from the rivers as they

notorious tional Organization for Migration’s between Colombia cannot afford drinking water,” said
(IOM) chief of mission in Panama. and Panama. There Luis Eguiluz, head of MSF’s mission
“Today ... there are privileged are no roads, the in Colombia and Panama. “Any ini-

jungle zone people from the first world travelling

to Colombia to an area full of migrant
access is very
dangerous for
border authorities
tiative that trivialises the suffering of
migrants is unacceptable. We need to
corpses to live out an adventure in the show the public the suffering of these
and even more
jungle. If that does not make you want people, not make light of it.”
so for workers
By Luke Taylor and Kate Connolly to vomit, I don’t know what will,” com- Migrants often fall prey to the drug
for humanitarian
mented one Twitter user. cartels who have become a growing

‘W
groups. Even fully
e go where no one A record 250,000 migrants – mostly threat. They are frequently robbed,
equipped and
goes,” is Wander- Latin Americans but also a growing trained border women raped and young children have
mut’s tagline, but number of people from as far afield authorities such as been shot dead by armed bandits.
one of the German as Afghanistan and China – trekked Panama’s national Wandermut says its tours are safe
tour agency’s packages has left people through the Darién in 2022 in the border service due to the experience of its guides and
asking whether some places are better hopes of eventually reaching the US. … can access the it informs Panamanian border officials
left unexplored. As the number of people fleeing Darién jungle of its activities. Though the company
The startup’s 10-day Panama Jungle economic strife and persecution has [only] to a certain “cannot rule out every risk” the com-
Tour is facing criticism across Latin risen, the migrants making the trek point, just on the pany’s founders said, “so far there has
America for offering treks in a region are increasingly poorly equipped and Panama side.” not been a critical incident”.
that is home to one of the world’s most weak, say NGOs tending to sick people Officials at civil society groups
dangerous migration routes. emerging from the jungle in Panama. familiar with the Darién have raised
The agency markets its tour through Doctors without Borders (MSF) says concerns that tour agencies could be
the Darién Gap as a chance to see the it is seeing a growing number of fami- paying armed groups for access to their
natural beauties of one of the world’s lies with small children, malnourished tourist routes.
most pristine tropical forests – and the people and diabetics who are at higher Wandermut did not comment on
ultimate survival test for the intrepid. risk of being lost to the jungle. whether it paid any criminal organisa-
“Reaching our destination and the At least 36 people did not survive tions for passage.
course of the entire tour are uncer- the crossing in 2022 – though that is a
LUKE TAYLOR IS A JOURNALIST
tain,” Wandermut says in its edgy “small fraction” of the number of lives COVERING LATIN AMERICA; KATE
promotional material. lost as many of the bodies were left to CONNOLLY IS THE GUARDIAN’S BERLIN
The Darién, a 160km swathe of decay in the jungle, said the IOM. CORRESPONDENT

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

It has been said that condoms share marketing
characteristics with napalm and funerals.
But it is Ben Wilson’s mission to make them sexy.
By Sophie Elmhirst

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 SHUTTERSTOCK/GETTY/GRAEME ROBERTSON/GUARDIAN/GUARDIAN DESIGN

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7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

36 The rubber baron

T IS IMP ORTANT TO BEN which are generally on the rise. (The US reported a 32% rise in syphilis
WILSON, the man in charge of the infections from 2020 to 2021, and in 2022 England recorded the highest
condom brand Durex, that he level of syphilis in 75 years and a 50% rise in gonorrhoea diagnoses.)
chews the condoms he sells. He At the same time, according to population surveys, condom use
likes to consider their flavour, has been declining in recent years. The pandemic didn’t help: people
to know the sensory experience had less casual sex. Even in 2022, Reckitt reported “weaker demand”
of a customer engaged in oral for intimate wellness products in China due to ongoing lockdowns.
sex, and to think about how it According to a BMJ Global Health report, access to sexual health ser-
could be bettered. He makes vices also fell globally, and then there’s the ongoing competition, in
other people sample them, the form of other types of contraception, and alternative STI protec-
too. In a car on the way to the tion such as the HIV-prevention medication, PrEP. A US government
Durex condom factory on the survey found the percentage of high-schoolers who said they used a
outskirts of Bangkok, he told condom the last time they had sex fell from 63% in 2003 to 54% in 2019.
me about the time he had laid Wilson’s professional challenge is that condoms remain a tough
out rows of bananas and condoms for a gathering of senior executives sell: a Harvard Business Review article once declared the condom
at Reckitt, Durex’s parent company. “I said: ‘If you want to work on shared “marketing characteristics with napalm, drugs for terminal
condoms you need to put a condom on that banana and taste it.’” illnesses and funeral arranging”. People don’t want to talk about
Freshly promoted, Wilson is Reckitt’s global category director for them. Worse, as Wilson put it: “No one wants to use a condom.” They
intimate wellness, overseeing all the company’s sex-related products, interrupt the moment; they get in the way. People loathe them. It’s
including Durex condoms, lubes and toys. Sandy-haired, rosy- not hard to understand why. For centuries, they were made from the
cheeked, nearing 50, he has a kind of renegade energy, consciously lining of sheep guts, and there is still something distinctly intestinal
uncorporate. He spikes his hair, never wears a suit and zones out to about them now. Open the foil packet and you discover an object that
DJs Paul van Dyk and David Guetta while travelling. He practises seems to ooze. Martin Amis once called it “a greased wafer”. And that’s
for his fortnightly DJ lessons for up to 12 hours a week in a specially before you reach the hurdle of getting the thing on, or “donning”,
designated room in his house on the south coast of England, where he as they call it in the trade. Amis: “You seem to need three hands.”
lives with his wife and two children. (Wilson’s retirement plan is fully Donning, a five-second task that can seem to take an eternity, is a
formed: a second home in Ibiza, already bought. He would die happy, delicate act, easily bungled. For Wilson, perfecting that five-second
he told me, if he could play a set at the EDM festival Tomorrowland.) window – making it not just easy but an enjoyable part of what those
In conversation, Wilson doesn’t even slightly adjust his upbeat tone working in intimate wellness insist on calling “the sex occasion” – is
when discussing the problems of anal lubrication. He’s spent most the key to encouraging more people to use condoms. His challenge
of his professional life talking about sex. He started out at Johnson is to convince people that condoms are about pleasure as much as
& Johnson in the 90s, working on K-Y, then moved to Reckitt in 2007, protection. He has a way to go. It is difficult, in the presence of the
headed up Durex in China for eight years, became the brand’s head of crumpled ick of a condom, to find anything appealing about it apart
innovation and now finds himself perched at the top of the intimate
wellness ladder. Over his career, he’s noticed how the conversation
around sex has changed. At Johnson & Johnson, he recalled standing
up in front of an all-male sales force and being met by nervous laughter.
‘No one wants to use a
Now, he said, there is an openness in talking about sex, “right up to
the CEO”. Early in our visit to the Durex factory, he warned me that we
condom,’ says Wilson.
would be discussing sex often and candidly: “I hope you don’t mind.”
Wilson’s immersion in Durex is total. He’s been offered other jobs at They get in the way.
Reckitt, which also owns Strepsils, Gaviscon, Nurofen and Dettol, but
always turned them down. Condoms mean more to him than Strepsils
ever could. In his spare time, he scours eBay for vintage condoms.
People loathe them
He recently paid £2 ($2.50) for a specimen from the 1970s that had
been discovered in a binoculars case in a charity shop. (He would
not recommend using it: “It would be like putting on a 50-year-old
sock.”) With the heroic participation of his wife, he tries out all kinds
of condoms and lubes, as well as alternative forms of contraception
to compare. At dinner parties, he likes to share titbits from the Durex
sex survey, a research project the brand conducts every few years,
exploring global sexual habits. Russians, for example, are the world
leaders in anal bleaching. “People are like, ‘Wow!’”
Not long ago, in one of his regular archive trawls, Wilson found an
old Durex press release from 1976, defending the brand’s sponsorship
of a Formula One team, which caused the BBC to pull the broadcast of
a race. Durex went into sport, the release explained, to destigmatise
and modernise condoms: “We’d like to be seen in the human hap-
piness business.” Wilson describes his mission similarly. He wants
to “normalise” the brand: to make the use of sex products open and
universal. He also fervently believes that each of the nearly 3bn Durex
condoms sold (and hopefully worn) every year is doing good. After
all, as he reminded me, the condom is the only form of protection that
prevents unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections,

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 37

from what it represents, which is a barrier between you and a baby in China was an extreme version of the one he still faces: how to make
you don’t want, or a disease. And yet that is precisely Wilson’s task: condoms something people want.
to make sexy the most unsexy item imaginable. In the Reckitt meeting room, Wilson framed the task in terms
On a recent morning in a beige monolith, Wilson gave a presentation of cultural relevance. He harked back to Durex in the 90s when it
on the history of Durex to a team of European Reckitt executives. He partnered with MTV, ran a magazine advert of men dressed as sperm
delivered the presentation with the energy of a children’s entertainer holding guns to their heads (“for an incredible bang”), and launched
equipped with a box of tricks: a golden box containing a 1940s Durex its first website in 1996, just a year after Amazon.
reusable condom, a tiny model of the Durex-sponsored Formula One
car and a 90s Durex keyring (“Don’t be silly, cover that willy”). U R E X, A F T E R A L L , C A N
The history of the condom is really a history of gradually diminish- CLAIM A CERTAIN GLOBAL
ing pain. Rubber condoms started replacing sheep’s guts from around STATURE. Thanks to the sex
1855, after Charles Goodyear (of the tyres) had discovered the process survey, it knows more about
of vulcanisation, when rubber is heated to make it more malleable. In the world’s sexual habits than
1877, mass production began of “vulcanised crepe rubber sheaths”, as anyone. The survey is not made
Jessica Borge unappetisingly describes them in her history of condom public but Wilson let me peek
manufacturing, Protective Practices. The earliest rubber condoms at a couple of slides. Who’s
were impressively awful, made from sheets of latex rolled around a having the most sex? Colom-
mandrel (a large tube) and then stitched together, creating a seam bians and Indonesians (86%
that must have been agonising for “user and receiver”, as Wilson of respondents said they had
sometimes calls people having sex. it once a week). And the least?
By the end of the 19th century, condoms were being made by The Japanese (26%). Wilson
“cement-dipping”, a process where the mandrel was dipped into proudly recalled the time he’d
rubber heated with petrol solvent. This got rid of the seam, but the told a conference in Thailand
factories occasionally blew up due to the petrol, and the resulting about the anal sex habits of different countries. As he put it: “There’s
condom was thick, heavy and designed to be reused. During his pres- not a lot of people who go around collecting anal sex data.”
entation, Wilson brought out his 1940s specimen, bought on eBay for Armed with such data, Wilson’s ambition is “category penetration”.
£300. Inside was a brown rubber sheath, as thick as a verruca sock, (Innuendo is never far away.) That is, to make condoms available
and a set of instructions: after use the condom should be washed and where they’ve never been before. Back in the 90s, Durex convinced
then dusted with “French chalk”, whose dry residue you imagine had Cardiff city council to let it put a vending machine in the central
a certain chafing effect on any genitalia that encountered it. bus station. (Wilson, inevitably, has a massive 70s condom vending
The brand Durex was registered in 1929 by brothers Lionel and machine in his home office; his wife despairs.) Now, Durex runs sex
Elkan Jackson, founders of the London Rubber Company. Durex education programmes in schools in India and South Africa. In Italy,
– standing for durability, reliability and excellence – used new latex- it has worked with regulators to soften the rules around advertising.
dipping technology developed by a 17-year-old Polish immigrant, Still, it’s not enough. To his mind, it should be possible to find a Durex
Lucian Landau, who had studied rubber at the Polytechnic of North condom in stores in every corner of Earth, its packet as reassuringly
London. The Jacksons had previously been selling imported condoms familiar as a can of Coke.
in their hairdresser-tobacconist shop (the barbershop was apparently Condoms are like wine. It is one of Wilson’s many maxims. Most
the birthplace of the phrase: “Something for the weekend, sir?”). Durex condoms are made from “natural rubber latex” extracted from
By 1952, London Rubber reported a 95% market share for condoms. rubber trees, mostly in Thailand, the world’s largest producer of
With the 1957 introduction of the “Gossamer” condom – the first rubber. As with wine, the quality of the latex is affected by the climate
to be pre-lubricated – consumers discovered that using a condom and soil conditions. A few hours south of Bangkok, in the wooded,
didn’t have to be appalling. Durex Gossamer soon made up 70% of rural region of Surat Thani, we visited the vineyard equivalents: rubber
the business. After that, London Rubber began to expand globally, plantations where latex, a milky sap, is extracted in the darkest hours
becoming London International, before it was taken over first by SSL of the night, when it flows most freely.
International, then Reckitt Benckiser in 2010. Pre-dawn, I watched a farmer, Nittaya Kongsri, make her way from
Now, Durex occupies about 40% of the global condom market – a tree to tree. At each tree, she carefully cut a 30cm ribbon of bark away
market worth an estimated $4.6bn. It is the leading brand in Europe from the trunk with a curved knife. Immediately, the creamy fluid
and much of Asia, including China. A handful of other brands have began to flow down the newly cut channel and into a small black
a significant presence in certain regions, such as Okamoto in Japan bucket hanging below. It is called rubber-tapping, this process, but
and Trojan in the US. (The latter is not the only testosterone-fuelled it looked more like the tree was being bled in a medieval ritual, each
name of Durex’s rivals: there is also Jissbon in China, apparently a drop of white the fundamental ingredient for a condom.
phonetic rendering of James Bond). Despite Durex’s pre-eminence, Once the tapping is complete, vats of latex are loaded into a
however, there remains the significant problem of all those people motorbike sidecar, taken to a nearby collection centre and weighed.
having sex who will do anything not to buy or use condoms. A sample of the liquid latex is put in a microwave to dry out the water
Wilson isn’t easily deterred. When he moved to China in 2010, Durex it contains, leaving behind a small strip of dry latex. By working out
had a negligible presence. He had to figure out how to sell condoms in the proportion of “dry rubber content” in the sample, the collection
a place where you couldn’t mention them on TV or in print. Initially, centre manager can calculate how much the farmer should be paid
this involved finding out how the Chinese had sex. Mutual pleasure for the full quantity of latex in the vats.
and technique, he told me, were both important (which you would On this occasion it was 42 bhat ($1.20) per kg of dry rubber – not
hope might apply anywhere), as was Japanese porn, because of the enough, said the farmers I met, many of whom are in debt. (In col-
lack of a porn industry in China. Due diligence complete, Wilson got laboration with an NGO, Earthworm, Reckitt pays the farmers a pre-
creative. “We did some crazy shit,” as he put it, including putting a mium of €0.50 per kilo on top of the fluctuating collection
condom in space, and roping in a blogger couple to travel around centre price, and supports their efforts to introduce modern 
China and trade sex toys for food and accommodation. The challenge agronomy techniques, such as crop diversification.)

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

38 The rubber baron

The raw latex is then taken to the Durex factory in Bang Pakong, through the mandrel: if it short-circuited, it meant there was a hole
an industrial suburb of Bangkok. As we pulled up outside the row of and the condom was rejected. The rotation happened so fast that
hulking white buildings, Wilson warned me against taking photos. the condom-donning seemed to occur in a kind of rhythmic blur. In
The technology inside was proprietary. “Mike would kill me,” he said. one 10.5-hour shift, one worker will test more than 22,000 condoms.
On cue, site director Mike Evans emerged. “This is one of the biggest I wondered why there were only women in the room. “Dexterity,”
factories in the company,” he told me. “One of the best.” said Evans. “We’ve had guys come in to do it, but women are better.”
Back on its journey, the hole-free condom is rolled up, lubricated,
ROUND HALF THE WORLD’S closed into its foil case, joined into a pair, then packed into a box – Sur-
DUREX CONDOMS are made at prise Me, Pleasure Me, Intense Ribbed and Dotted, Mutual Climax and
this factory, built in the early so on. Even the packaging has to be tested. In a room containing what
90s, once condom manufac- looked like mechanical torture instruments, sample packs of condoms
turing left the UK for good. A are dropped and exposed to heat and vibration, to simulate ocean-
billion a year, shipped all over crossings and lorry journeys. “This one’s a simple squasher,” said
the globe. (The other half are Wilson, pointing to a machine that crushes the box, a re-enactment of
made in China, mostly for what might befall it on a pallet. If a condom can survive all that, you’d
the Chinese market.) A work- think it could survive anything. But then, it hasn’t met a human yet.
force of 1,000 people is spread In isolation, said Christian Fiala, gynaecologist and founder of
among research and develop- Vienna’s Museum of Contraception and Abortion, a condom is like
ment, a testing laboratory and a motorbike – well-designed and perfectly safe. Accidents happen
production lines capable of when someone goes for a ride. Friends have told me stories of mis-
operating 24 hours a day and handled condoms breaking during sex, or, in their misguided youth,
spitting out more than 200,000 condoms in an hour. trying to use the same condom twice. One, still aghast 20 years later,
The first stop was the tanks: 51 vast cylinders into which raw latex recalled the time he discovered on withdrawal that the condom had
is pumped and then combined with other ingredients. “It’s like KFC,” disappeared, presumably somewhere inside his girlfriend. “There
said Evans. “There’s a secret recipe.” After a week of mixing, the com- is nothing worse,” he said solemnly, “than taking your dick out and
pound is then piped to the automated production line. Evans, I sensed, finding there’s no condom on there.”
was excited to open the door to the factory’s piece de resistance: a Stories like this drive Wilson crazy. You have to get the fit right! But
large room containing colossal machines that operate night and day, people make mistakes. During a discussion of ways to make condoms
shuttling a procession of glass “formers” – essentially overlarge glass cool, I mentioned men ripping open the foil packet with their teeth.
penises – along the line to be dipped into the latex mixture below. As “Never do it with your teeth!” said Wilson.
the former rises out of the latex, a thin layer of white remains on the Even getting condom-donning right can involve a sobering dose of
glass: the first iteration of the condom. The formers then whirl over a logistics. It’s this wrangle that most preoccupies Wilson. It needs to be,
low metal barrier like a row of cabaret dancers’ legs, rise into an upper as he put it, a “multi-sensorial experience”. The condom has to smell
chamber to be dried, and are then lowered, dipped and dried again. good, taste good, feel good. “It needs to be sexy to put on, part of the
The cycle takes about 15 minutes, before the condom is rolled off the foreplay,” he said, “like having a tickling feather or a spanking paddle.”
former and sent to be washed in a giant laundry machine. The condom as tickling feather might still be a remote concept,
Given the safety standards required of condoms, the testing regime but over the years, there have been many attempts at re-invention. In
is elaborate. The thing has to work, and fundamentally, “it’s about 2006, a German entrepreneur launched a spray-on condom, but was
a penis going into a hole”, said Wilson, “where there’s quite a lot stopped short by EU regulation – and the fact it took two moment-
of force and friction”. The condom has to be able to withstand the ruining minutes to dry on the penis. In 2012, US inventors came up
most vigorous sex, having survived a six-week journey on a shipping with a product called the Galactic Cap, intended to cover the tip of
container from Thailand, a five-year shelf life in all possible climates, the penis, leaving the shaft exposed to improve sensation.
and the likelihood of being stuffed into the back of a sock drawer for In the UK, startups such as Hanx and Roam are trying to dent Durex’s
an indefinite period of time. dominance. As Alex Griffiths of Roam put it, “there has been almost
In the research and development laboratory, run by Panadda Kati- zero innovation” in condom production for decades. But the startups’
kawong, a sample of 200,000 condoms a year are checked to ensure efforts to reimagine the form have mostly equated to alterations in
they meet regulatory standards for length and thickness, softness, packaging. Hanx, founded in 2017 by two women tired of male-centric
burst pressure and strength. Katikawong demonstrated the test, inflat- marketing, packs its condoms in elegant white-and-gold foil and
ing a trio of condoms – latex and non-latex – in a row of glass cases. The claims an ingredient mix that is more sensitive to women’s bodies.
condoms filled with air, passed the prize-winning marrow stage and Roam, meanwhile, recently launched a range of “skin tone” condoms
turned into something resembling a missile before they eventually in four colour shades to cater to a diverse population it felt were
burst in a thunderclap. A tensile machine nearby then demonstrated underserved by the “legacy” brand. But as Farah Kabir, co-founder
how far it was possible to stretch a condom before it ripped. To avoid of Hanx, put it: “It’s difficult to innovate without a shit-ton of cash.”
the doomsday scenario of a hole in a condom requires the testing of Durex, even with a shit-ton of cash, has only managed modest
every single condom destined to leave the factory. changes. In the US condoms are classified as a type 2 (higher-risk)
One pinprick and you’ve got an unwanted pregnancy and a funda- medical devices, and they are intensively regulated in most countries.
mental failure of the brand. After washing, the condoms are taken to Durex’s condoms have become slimmer. There are also non-latex
a large room where dozens of women sit in front of testing machines alternatives, and ribbed, dotted and flavoured condoms. But these
made up of a circle of rotating metal mandrels. Their task was a little are cosmetic changes, and not always popular. A friend remembered
like playing the piano, involving both hands working independently buying a colourful quartet in his teens: chocolate, banana, strawberry,
while they kept their gaze fixed on the mandrel in front of them. One mint. The chocolate, well, it had the wrong connotations, so near the
hand would sort and pluck a condom from a pile on the table while anus. He tried the mint, and the burning sensation began immediately.
the other, in a rapid wrist-flick, unrolled a condom on to the mandrel. “I was like: ‘Woah, something very weird is happening to my dick.’”
An electric pad then touched the condom while a current passed He never made it to strawberry or banana.

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 39

oral sex, gay sex, any kind of sex. Sex, after all, has changed. Durex
now finds itself in a sexual world where images of choking and gang
bangs swarm across people’s phones.
Porn, inevitably, has “changed the landscape”, said Wilson. To
make condoms appealing to young people means occupying a delicate
space between dull responsibility on one hand and the frenzied churn
of porn on the other. Hence the strategy of “normalisation”: Durex’s
online shop states that it stands for “real sex”. If you’re trying to sell
as many condoms as possible to young people, it helps to remind
them that sex is whatever they want it to be.

Wilson is charged with My friend who had the mint catastrophe texted me after we spoke.
He’d decided to have a vasectomy. His doctor warned him it was
one of the routine operations that resulted in the most complaints.
shifting perceptions of the Afterwards, men could suffer from bruising, blood clots inside the
scrotum, infection, even long-term chronic pain. And yet, as my friend

condom from a necessity put it: “I elected to put my dick under the knife to avoid condoms.”
Wilson is sometimes known as The Navigator, for his ability to

to a lifestyle product steer round commercial obstacles, even, perhaps, that of people
hating condoms. For all those who will never be won over, he has
another offering: lube. Lube is the future, Wilson insists, its growth
potential greater than that of condoms. “We’re still barely scratching
the surface,” he said.
ONDOMS ARE LIKE WINE, Recently, Wilson was examining new designs for lube packaging
remember. Pour out a glass or in China. There had been a major innovation: no more penis-shaped
open the foil and you get “an receptacles. For years, Durex’s lubes have come in bottles whose
olfactory moment”. In their shape Wilson conceded had “phallic connotations”. (Griffiths from
natural form, they emit the Roam summed up the problem: “I don’t want a big, blue, dildo-shaped
smell of latex, a whiff of tyres lubricant anywhere near me!”) These, however, were slim and rec-
and post-apocalyptic land- tangular, aspiring to look like a beauty product, something you might
scapes. Even when the smell leave on a bedside table without feeling embarrassed, said Wilson.
is masked by scented lube, Though in reality, he added, “It still goes in the drawer because kids
the slippery eel of the condom will ask, ‘What’s that, Mum? What’s that, Dad?’”
remains. “Most people want After the designers presented their work, Wilson offered his
to forget everything during congratulations and a few minor comments. “The strawberry does
sex,” said Christian Fiala, who not look delicious,” he said, pointing to the bottle of strawberry lube.
believes the best forms of con- “It’s got to look delicious!” He gave the designer full creative licence
traception are those, like the coil, divorced from the act itself. “They to make the strawberry look as delicious as possible, not just to sell
certainly don’t want to bother with some rubber in between them.” more, but because it deserved to look delicious: “Honestly, it’s better
Though it is the rubber, of course, that stops them getting syphilis. on ice-cream than the sauces you can buy. It’s fantastic.”
Stuck with the condom as it is, marketing the greased wafer requires And yet at the heart of the Durex business remains the condom,
some sleight of hand. (Until recently, this responsibility fell to the essential and unlovable. At one point, I realised that in all our con-
brand manager, known as Head of the House of Durex.) In his new versations about sex, as open and frank as they’d been, Wilson had
position, Wilson is charged with steering Durex through a transforma- never quite articulated what his perfect condom experience would
tion, seeking to shift the perception of the condom from a functional actually be like. “It would be a couple in bed, in the throes of passion,”
necessity to a lifestyle product, with links to music and fashion. he said dreamily, “having something they want to introduce as much
The target audience for Durex is clear. The people who buy condoms as a sex toy, because they know it will intensify the orgasm.”
the most, and could be buying them a lot more, are what Durex call And what about the condom itself? The ideal condom; no limits
the “open and curious”: typically under 35, experimental and having to the fantasy. I couldn’t help offering some suggestions. A condom
spontaneous sex, so most in need of multifaceted protection. “If you that vibrates? He shook his head. Durex already made a vibrating cock
talk to most young males,” said Wilson, with the weary look of a man ring, but for now it wouldn’t work with a condom: where would the
who has sat in on a lot of focus groups, “they think they’re invincible”. battery go? We winced. What about a bespoke condom, made accord-
To attract the open and curious to condoms requires a tonal shift. ing to the wearer and receiver’s exact specifications? It would hardly
“Historically,” said Wilson, “it’s been about how do you make [sex] be cost-effective, though, to make a billion couture condoms a year.
safe.” Not sexy. Now it’s about pleasure, and culture. So far the revamp We imagined, together, a condom being made on demand on a 3D
has involved “artist integrations” with Lil Nas X and Sam Smith, a re- printer in the bedroom, flying across the room before self-donning,
energised TikTok presence and a partnership with the fashion brand somehow magnetised to the penis in a flourish of sensual
Diesel. During Milan fashion week in February, models stomped bliss without anyone noticing. After all, as Wilson once
around a heap of boxes of Durex condoms while a soundtrack of sex put it: “The ultimate condom is a condom that feels like
noises played in the background. “Jesus,” said a commenter on the it’s not there.” And there, somehow, is the fundamental
YouTube livestream. “Bro,” replied another. contradiction of the condom: its ideal form is a negation off
There has also been a change in language: Durex has removed any its presence. “Ting!” said Wilson, grinning, as this perfect
references to gender from its packaging. No more “speeds her up, and impossible product clicked into place •
slows him down”. As Wilson put it, when he grew up, “the defini- SOPHIE ELMHIRST IS A REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR TO THE
tion of sex was penis and vagina sex”. Now, it needs to talk about GUARDIAN’S LONG READS SERIES

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

Thousands of children in the US city of Richmond hear or see shootings near their schools each year,
yet there is little support to help them navigate the stress caused by exposure to day-to-day violence
SPECIAL REPORT PHOTOGRAPHS
Abené Clayton Felix Uribe Jr

CAUGHT IN THE
CROSSFIRE

I
T WAS JUST BEFORE 11AM ON A FRIDAY AND THE HALLWAYS Some of those shootings were homicides, some were armed
OF STEGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in Richmond, California, were robberies, some happened during the school day and some outside
quiet save for the muffled sound of children’s voices coming it. The campuses with the most incidents nearby were those in neigh-
through the classroom doors. bourhoods with lower median incomes than the rest of the city, census
Behind the heavy doors of Hannah Geitner’s fifth-grade classroom, data showed. This means that for the past decade, thousands of
26 students were seated at small tables and on a cosy green rug. It was Richmond kids, many of whom are Black and Latino, were exposed
sunny and warm out, but inside, it was impossible to tell; the room’s to a violent incident before they turned 13.
windows had yellowed over the years. Chronic exposure to gun violence like what some young kids in
I was there to talk to the 10- and 11-year-olds about gun violence, Richmond face can create a “war-zone” mentality among affected
a topic I suspected many of them had been personally affected by. youth, James Garbarino, a psychology professor at Loyola Univer-
“How many of you have heard a real gunshot by your house?” I sity Chicago who specialises in child and adolescent development,
asked. Twenty-four arms went up in the air. argues in a 2022 New England Journal of Medicine article, resulting
“How many of you know someone – a family member or friend – in a worldview in which community violence is normal.
who has been shot?” Eighteen students raised their hands. Yet few American school districts, including Richmond’s, have
For more than six months, I had been researching gun violence consistent programming for K-12 students to help them navigate
near elementary schools in my home town of Richmond. By analysing the emotions, stress and anxiety that come with being exposed to
police department data, I found that 41% of the 2,300 shots fired in day-to-day gun violence. Most efforts in schools are centred on mass
the city over the past decade happened within 800 metres, or about shootings, and the few initiatives focused on community gun violence
a 10-minute walk, of one of the city’s 33 public schools. More than that do exist are tailored towards high-schoolers.
80% of the shootings that took place near schools occurred within When I asked Geitner’s fifth-graders how many had had
800 metres of an elementary school. Stege elementary has seen an someone at school – other than Geitner – talk to them about 
average of six shootings nearby each year since the beginning of 2013. guns and violence, some raised their hands and began pointing

2,351
 Early inequalities RICHMOND
In the US, Black and CALIFORNIA
Latino youth are more
likely to have a gun
homicide near their The number of shooting incidents recorded by police
home than white peers
in Richmond between 2013 and 2022

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

42 Caught in the crossfire

became her home, and the kids and their caregivers her family. When
she finished the programme, she took a permanent job at Stege as a
special education teacher, helping kids in all grades with maths and
reading. Last year, she taught fourth grade (nine-and 10-year-olds),
and in the 2022 school year she began teaching fifth-graders.
Geitner recalled a day last year when one of her fourth-grade
students wasn’t acting like himself. “He takes his education so
seriously, but something was off and I saw him
 Hard to learn outside at recess and he wasn’t playing.” Eventu-
Trauma due to ally, the boy opened up: the night before, he and
gun violence can his older brother – a high school senior– had been
leave children robbed at gunpoint after buying snacks from a
vulnerable mini-mart near their home. The assailant had made
and unable to them empty their backpacks.
concentrate on “He was in fourth grade so he only had paper in
studies his bag, and they gave them all the money and he
had no idea how to process it,” Geitner recalled.
to their peers. But when I clarified that I meant teachers and school The next day, the boy brought a BB [ball-bearing] gun to school. “He
staff, all of the hands came down. got nervous and put it in his younger cousin’s backpack before school
After the class conversation, Geitner said she believed all the started, so there was a first-grader with a gun in the backpack.” When
children in her class had been exposed to gun violence, either near Geitner asked the boy why he had brought the BB gun, he said he
campus or near their homes. Several of the children who didn’t raise no longer felt safe. The incident made clear the emotional ramifica-
their hands at the beginning were still learning English. Three of tions of gun violence. Often, the clues are more subtle, several Stege
them, two from Nicaragua and one from El Salvador, told me through teachers said.
another student that they had heard gunfire when living in Central “If something happened in the neighbourhood, students come to
America. One of the students from Nicaragua said he’d heard gun- school upset. Even a pencil breaking sets them off,” said Sonia Perez,
shots since being in the US, and had been upset after gunfire had a first-grade teacher and Richmond native. “And sometimes their
interrupted his sleep. responses, because they’re coming with trauma, are preventing them
Located about 30km north of San Francisco, Richmond is known from learning because their minds are somewhere else.”
for its struggles with gun violence and the programmes that have

M
become nationally renowned for fighting it. ICHAELA, A STUDENT IN GEITNER’S FIFTH-GRADE
The city’s Black population boomed during the second world war, CLASS, SAID SHE OFTEN THOUGHT ABOUT GUN VIO-
when its shipyards built many of the US’s warships and attracted LENCE. She’s heard gunshots in each apartment complex
people from southern states. But in the decades after, it was hit by she’s lived in, and several of her cousins and uncles have
economic challenges, housing segregation, and the crack epidemic. been shot or killed. These memories, and fears such shootings may
Now, it’s a city where low-income Black and Latino residents are happen again, could make her “extra sensitive” at times, she said, and
less likely to have access to healthy foods and more likely to live in in those moments, she didn’t want to participate in class or be talked
neighbourhoods affected by pollution caused by hazardous waste to or touched. Before Geitner became her teacher, Michaela would
sites and factory emissions. ready herself on these “extra sensitive” days to be sent to the princi-
Richmond developed a reputation as one of the most danger- pal’s office. Instead, Geitner lets students go for a walk or run outside
ous places in the US: with fewer than 100,000 residents, homicides or have a moment to themselves. They can even nap if they need to.
reached a high of 61 in 1991. The rate fluctuated when I was growing “All behaviour is a form of communication,” Geitner said. “If
up there in the early 2000s and 2010s, reaching a low in 2001 and a Michaela comes in and is a little grumpy, I know she’s not mad at me
decade high in 2007, when 47 people were killed. Over the next several so it has to be something else. I don’t think disciplining her is going to
years, several pioneering community programmes were founded solve the problem. If you’re grumpy, or you can’t sleep, or you have
that helped lead to a dramatic reduction in homicides over the next hard feelings, you can’t learn.”
decade. But though lower than in years before, gun violence has not Perez, the first-grade teacher, said she offered the students
been eliminated. Eighteen people were killed in 2021 and 2022, the strategies. “We have a break spot – they have noise cancellation
majority of them with guns. headphones and a sound machine that relaxes them.” But those
Geitner, an energetic, raspy-voiced millennial with dark blond hair, techniques weren’t addressing the deeper issues they face. “We’re
moved to Richmond from a small town near Syracuse, New York, to just putting a bandage on it for that moment and we’re not actually
work at Stege through Teach for America, a national non-profit that targeting how they feel.”
sends young educators to the US’s most underserved schools. She In the US, Black youth are nine times more likely than white peers
arrived in California hardly knowing anyone. The school quickly to have a gun homicide happen near their home each year, according

33
The number of K-12, kindergarten through to
secondary, public schools in Richmond
41%
Ratio of Richmond shootings in the past decade
that happened within 800 metres of a school

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 43

to a 2022 study by the University of California, Davis. Latino youth are “We like to emphasise that the experiences [with gun violence]
seven times more likely to have this experience than white children. that people have directly are just the tip of the iceberg and that’s
It’s a disparity seen in Richmond. Less than 800 metres away from most visible,” she said. “But in terms of impacting a larger number of
Stege is the border of El Cerrito, a middle-class, majority white and kids, it’s the secondary layer of exposure that [is] more far-reaching.”
Asian city. Yet residents of El Cerrito face far less gun violence: in While schools are quick to arrange mental health services and
2018, the most recent year for which police have full crime data, there interventions after a mass shooting, many kids who are chronically
were 107 shootings, two of which were homicides. The same year in exposed to community gun violence struggle to access such services,
Richmond, there were 1,137 shootings, more than 90 were homicides. according to Garbarino, the Loyola professor. And yet, he said, inter-
Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, assistant professor at UC Davis’s violence vention during elementary school could go a long way. “Elementary
prevention research programme who led the study, said repeated school is a time when [children] are vulnerable and they are also
exposure to gun violence could lead to persistent fear and depres- malleable to prevention. It’s a context that’s ripe for intervention
sion, feelings that can lead kids to detach from their schools and local and preventive programmes,” he said.
communities and carry weapons to feel protected. Districts’ lack of sustained programming in elementary schools
Kravitz-Wirtz is part of a growing chorus of researchers imploring was not due to a lack of information, but rather
their peers to broaden their ideas about gun violence exposure. It’s not  Lack of help was a failure by government officials and school
just about seeing or hearing gunshots, she said, but also about bearing Children can leadership across the US, said Dr David Schonfeld,
witness to the ways day-to-day gun violence changes communities. become cut off director of the National Center for School Crisis
Parents become hesitant to let them play outside or having a police and end up and Bereavement at Children’s Hospital
officer sitting outside their campus is a type of exposure that affects carrying weapons in Los Angeles. 
more students than the sound of gunfire does, Kravitz-Wirtz said. to feel safe While conversations about trauma and

80%
Ratio of shootings occurring within 800 metres
of a school that were near elementary schools
6
The average number of shootings near Stege
elementary each year since the start of 2013

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

44 Caught in the crossfire

“The resources need to be there all the time,” said Leslie Reckler,
a district board trustee who represents schools in both Richmond
and El Cerrito. “We need full-time counselling and we are still short
of the resources to provide that.”
Dr Kenneth Hurst, the district superintendent, described WCCUSD
as a “tough district” where academics have suffered for years and
financial solvency has been elusive. But he’s hopeful that the recent
infusion of millions in state grant funding will alleviate that strain so
administrators can create and sustain programming to help elemen-
tary school kids cope with their trauma.
“They can’t focus on the learning until we focus on the trauma.
That’s what we are trying to do with the community schools,” said
Hurst, who has been with the district for two years.
Richmond is a unique place to think about solutions to gun violence.
For the last four years as a reporter covering gun violence, I’ve been
writing about the city’s long and successful history of community
organising. I’ve seen organisations go from local groups to national
gun violence had become more common, action was still lagging, he models in gun violence prevention, honoured at the White House
said. “The bottom line is that kids are aware of what’s going on, even and by members of Congress.
if they’re in elementary school. When we don’t talk to children about In 2016, Richmond native DeVone Boggan founded the intensive
these things, we don’t help them cope with it.” violence intervention programme Advance Peace, which deploys
Left to fill the gap left by the lack of school programming at services and mentorship to the small number of people involved in
elementary schools are community programmes, local advocates most of the city’s violence. Boggan has seen that traumatic childhood
and individual teachers and school administrators. experiences often shape the lives of people who become perpetrators
of gun violence. Elementary schools, he said, could and should be a

S
TEGE HAS TWO PSYCHOLOGISTS WHO COME ON CAMPUS crucial point of intervention to divert kids from interpersonal conflicts
TWICE A WEEK, and the West Contra Costa Unified school that can turn deadly.
district (WCCUSD), which Stege is a part of, has a partnership Advance Peace has become a national model, replicated in cities
with an outside mental health organisation. across the US. It was recently tapped by high
The district is considered a “full-service schools district”, where  Violent impact schools in Richmond to work with students who
schools are meant to be hubs for education, family engagement and Repeated are involved in neighbourhood confl icts. And
mental and behavioural health services. The state of California has exposure to the city’s office of neighbourhood safety (ONS),
dedicated more than $3bn in funding for other campuses to follow shootings can which Boggan used to direct, is working with the
this model. In 2022, the district received $30m of that money to be leave children district to provide on-campus support to middle
spread across 22 campuses, including Stege. feeling fearful and high schools.
“We know that a shooting near a school is going to impact students’ and depressed But, Boggan said, schools were hesitant to work
success academically and socially, but there are ways that we can with violence interrupters, many of whom were
offset that,” said Tony Thurmond, California’s state superintendent previously incarcerated for committing violence. “That’s the com-
of public instruction. “Even with training, these are difficult things munity expertise you’ve got to be able to tap into. And often the only
and we have to work to find ways to help children express, be sup- expertise comes from the trenches.”
ported and address the fears that they hold.” Sam Vaughn, who currently leads ONS, echoed Boggan’s view:
Still, teachers at Stege are struggling. They want to see more “Every time something firearm-related happens at the school, they
coordination between local police, the district and Stege staff, so they call on us and it’s an emergency. But what about some prevention?”
can be better informed about shootings and look out for signs of trauma. Elana Bolds is another longtime Richmond gun violence preven-
Rashelle Rew, a fourth-grade teacher in her third year at Stege, tion worker and has loved generations of Stege students. She runs an
recalled two shootings last year at the park across from campus during active shooter drill for young kids that teaches them how to respond
an after-school programme. Students heard the gunshots and were when a neighbourhood shooting breaks out in their community.
brought into the cafeteria to shelter. Since the shootings didn’t happen Bolds has recently taken a new job with the district overseeing after-
on school grounds or during official school hours, the district never school programmes, which she hopes will help her bring inspiring
sent a notice to other staff or families. stories about Black and Latino activists and creators to students.
Teachers also said they needed more training in what to say to Geitner too believes that success will come from grassroots
children who have been affected by gun violence. “I’ve had a student initiatives like these. “The people at the top, they’re really out of
come and say his dad threatened to kill his mom. I don’t know if we touch with what kids are experiencing,” she said.
as teachers always know what to do with that,” said Josh Miller, a Geitner now has six godchildren in the community. In the four
28-year-old second-grade teacher who recently moved to Richmond years she’s been in Richmond, she has gone to students’ homes for
from Kansas with his wife, who is also a teacher at Stege. And, some dinner, taken them to play at their basketball tournaments and made
said, the district should work harder to gain the trust of parents. it a point to meet community leaders like Bolds. As her fifth-graders
School board trustees emphasised that city homicide rates had prepared for summer, several said they would like her to be their
decreased dramatically in the past 15 years and the district contracted teacher next year as well. For many of the students, it seems, Geitner
with non-profits to bring arts and wellness programming to students. has become an ally and source of acceptance they hadn’t experienced
They also pointed at funding shortages, noting the district had gone in in school before.
and out of solvency in recent years, leading to staffing and programme “Ms Hannah doesn’t let anybody give up,” Michaela told me •
cuts. This school year, the district had a $27m deficit, contributing to ABENÉ CLAYTON IS A REPORTER ON GUARDIAN US’S GUNS AND LIES IN
high instructor and administrator turnover. AMERICA PROJECT

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 45
Comment is free, facts are sacred CP Scott 1918

MIHIR BOSE
English cricket
lacks a level
playing field
Page 48 

The supreme court has done

U N I T E D S TAT E S

its worst, but we can fight back

Rebecca Solnit
PATRICK SEMANSKY/AP

„
7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly
46 Opinion

he first thing to remember about the through the specifics of campaigns to change legislation
damage done by the US supreme but also through changing the public imagination. The
court this June and the June before is supreme court can dismantle the legislation but cannot
that each majority decision overturns touch the beliefs and values. If you didn’t believe that
a right that we had won. We had equal access and rights were wrong yesterday or last
won a measure of student debt relief year, you don’t have to believe it now. Not just because
thanks to the heroic efforts of debt those rights were denied by six justices, the legitimacy of
activists since 2011. We had won some of whose appointments to the supreme court and
reproductive rights protection 50 years ago with Roe v decisions whilst in the court have been questioned.
Wade, and we won wetlands protection with the Clean
Water Act around the same time. We had implemented Last year’s attack on reproductive rights has produced
affirmative action, AKA a redress of centuries of its own backlash, with many states working to protect
institutionalised inequality, step by step, in many ways those rights and many elections seemingly pivoting on
over the past 60-plus years. We had won rights for voter outrage about the Republican party’s brutality
same-sex couples and queer people. towards women, and Republicans scurrying away from
What this means is that the right wing of the US their own achievement and its hideous impacts.
supreme court is part of a gang of reactionaries engaging The building up of an illicit rightwing supreme court
in backlash. It also means we can win these things back. took many years, and took fundamentalist Christians
It will not be easy, but difficult is not impossible. This holding their noses to vote for Donald Trump because
does not mean that the decisions are not devastating, they understood that meant getting the justices to
and that we should not feel the pain. The old saying overturn Roe v Wade. It meant building power from
“don’t mourn, organise” has always worked better for the ground up to take state legislatures to gerrymander
me as “mourn, but also organise”. Defeat is no reason electoral maps and sticking vicious clowns like Jim
to stop. Neither is victory a reason to stop when victory Jordan into bizarrely tailored districts. It meant chipping
is partial or needs to be defended. You can celebrate away at voting rights, achieved in part by the supreme
victories, mourn defeats and keep going. court’s attack on the Voting Rights Act in 2013 and its
Each of those victories was hard-won, often by people 2010 Citizens United decision that let a filthy tsunami of
who began when the rights and protections they sought corporate dark money into electoral politics.
seemed inconceivable, then unlikely, then remote. To While each of the issues under attack need their own
win environmental protections, the public had to be campaigns, voting rights and free and fair elections are
awakened to the interconnectedness, the vulnerability crucial to all of them. Don’t forget that the only reason
and value of a healthy natural world. To win marriage we have such a conservative government, including
equality for same-sex couples and equal protection the supreme court, is voter suppression. If we truly had
for queer people involved changing beliefs, which equal access to the ballot, American voters would choose
was achieved not just by campaigns but by countless more progressive candidates and pass more progressive
LGBTQ+ people courageously making themselves visible legislation. That’s why what the public wants, believes
and audible in their communities. and values so often differs from what the politicians
To recognise the power of this change requires a chosen by dark money and voter suppression give us.
historical memory. A memory of rivers catching fire and One of the striking features of recent years is the
toxic products being dumped freely in the 1960s. Of baldfaced Republican effort to prevent Black people
laws and guidelines treating queer people as criminal in particular, but also young, poor and other non-
or mentally ill or both. Of women dying of or damaged white demographics, from voting. Baldfaced because
by illegal abortions or leading the bleak lives to which it acknowledges that they are unpopular and that
unwanted pregnancies consigned them. Of the way the they’ve given up the goal of being in power because
Ivy League universities in particular were virtually all they represent the majority. As they become more
white and all male into the 1970s. All that changed – not marginalised through extreme and
enough, of course, but a lot.  Rebecca unpopular views, they have to use
Memory is a superpower, because memory of how Solnit is a more extreme means – now including
these situations changed is a memory of our victories Guardian US trying to steal and overturn elections –
and our power. Each of these victories happened both columnist to hold on to power.
This is as true of climate action
as anything else: a new Yale 360 poll shows that “57%
of registered voters support a US president declaring
global warming a national emergency if Congress does
When we come together not take further action” and “74% support regulating
carbon dioxide as a pollutant”. The problem isn’t the
with commitment to a people. It’s the power, and history shows that when we
come together with commitment to a shared goal we can
shared goal we can be be more powerful than institutions and governments.
more powerful than The right would like us to feel defeated and powerless.
We can feel devastated and still feel powerful or find our
governments power. This is not a time to quit. It’s a time to fight 

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 47

FINLAND behind the US, Israel, New Zealand and Luxembourg,

Are Finns the happiest but mercifully ahead of the likes of Afghanistan and
Lebanon – currently the two least happy countries in the
world. This persistent decline in British contentment
because they keep is concerning.
To find out what we miserable Britons can learn from
the Finns, I went to Lake Saimaa – a three-and-a-half-
expectations in check? hour drive from Helsinki – to take part in a masterclass
in happiness. It is a resort designed around taking things
slowly. Each villa has its own sauna, set in a fragrant pine
Lucy Pearson forest. As many friends rightly pointed out, how could
anyone not be happy here?
In many ways, though, my admittedly luxurious stay
revealed to me how the Finns approach happiness for
everyone. There’s no doubt they have got a lot of things
right – their love of saunas, for one. Known for their
health benefits, saunas are fantastic for calming the
mind. And with an estimated 3m saunas for a population
of just over 5.5 million, they are certainly integrated into
everyday life.

The Finns also have an inclination for spending time

in nature, which is something I can get behind. Some
studies suggest that spending just 15 minutes among
trees can lower blood pressure and improve physical and
mental health. The accessibility of nature surely plays
a part for the Finns: they have 41 national parks, all of
them free to enter, 647 rivers and a
 Lucy Pearson shoreline that stretches over 1,100km,
is a writer and not even including the country’s tens
book blogger of thousands of islands.
Of course, Finland scores well on
e Britons have about 60 indexes that are considered in global happiness tables:
words for happiness: GDP, equality, social support, healthy life expectancy,
blissfulness, ecstasy, freedom, generosity, lack of corruption. The Finns face
pleasure, delight … The many of the same challenges we do, but their response
list is as varied as it is has been underpinned by three key elements: equality,
surprising, given that we education and transparency. But more than this,
only just scraped into the there is an attitude among the Finns: a sense of being
top 20 happiest countries grateful for their lot. It’s a notion echoed in the Finnish
in the world this year. Finns, who have been named the proverb onnellisuus on se paikka puuttuvaisuuden ja
happiest nation for the sixth year running, are either yltäkylläisyyden välillä, which means “happiness is a
onnellinen or iloinen. The latter roughly translates as place between too little and too much”.
joyful or glad: you might be iloinen that you’re heading Perhaps my biggest takeaway from the trip is the
off on holiday. Onnellinen, on the other hand, speaks to Finnish focus on contentment over joy. Timo Auvinen,
the notion of being content with your life, rather than who leads guided walks around Lake Saimaa, told me
describing a fleeting feeling. that Finns have several sayings about their quest for
In the decade since the first World Happiness Report happiness. They include, “the pessimist will never be
was released in 2012, four countries have held the top disappointed” and “happiness always ends in tears”,
position: Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now but also, “nothing is so bad that there’s nothing good in
Finland. It’s based on an evaluation called the Cantril it”. He noted that Finns’ lower expectations leave far
ladder, in which respondents are asked to assess the less room for disappointment, meaning that a feeling of
overall happiness of their current lives on a scale of contentment is – more often than not – well within reach.
one to 10. The report looks at several factors that could All of which made me think the Finns may be on to
influence a population’s happiness, including generosity, something. Instead of striving to have it all, should we
freedom and trust. be trying to make the most of what we already have: hot
For the fourth year running, the UK has slipped coffee, acts of kindness to strangers, free parks, beautiful
down the global happiness rankings, dropping two trees? I wonder if we’re missing a trick by focusing
places to number 19. Even more worryingly, however, on a never-ending search for happiness. That instead
the 2022 global Oracle happiness report for the UK of striving for joy – our most highly coveted emotion
specifically found that nearly half of Britons (49%) have – we should be satisfied with good old-fashioned
ALEX SEGRE/ALAMY not felt true happiness in two years. We’re currently contentment. And the occasional walk in a park •

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

48 Opinion

SPORT damning Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket

Cricket faces an uphill (ICEC) report. It found the English game blighted by
“widespread and deep-rooted” racism, sexism, elitism
and class-based discrimination at all levels.
battle to rid itself of its In cricket, more than any other game, what happens
off the field is as important as what happens on it. In
football and rugby, both teams contest the same ball.
exclusionary face In tennis, rivals volley over a shared net using the same
equipment. And yet, cricket sees players act in uniquely
opposing ways. Eleven teammates gather with a leather
Mihir Bose ball to stop two batters from scampering 22 yards
(20 metres) to score runs. The objective is inherently
hat do they know of cricket exclusionary – to make sure the batters are forced off the
who only cricket know, field of play and relegated to the sidelines.
asked the great CLR James. Cricket has long reeked of the English obsession
He talked of cricket as a with class. Until the 1960s, two tiers of cricketers
prism through which we existed: amateurs, who were called gentlemen, and
might view society, and professionals, who were called players. There were even
that remains as true now separate changing rooms. In such a stratified game,
as in 1963, when Beyond a social mingling in a match acquires a huge significance.
Boundary, his masterwork, was published. But despite There is a dance of human interaction and social norms.
the lofty claims those of us who love the game make for But this integration does not exist in any meaningful
it, cricket cannot offer a true reflection of life or of sport sense in English cricket today, a truth laid bare by the
in general. Cricket stands apart. Cricket is different. 317-page report, which drew evidence from more than
That’s the first thing to know as we consider an 4,000 players, coaches, administrators and fans.
exhilarating Ashes contest, but also the cloud of the Few players highlight this problem of exclusion and

Illustration Thomas Pullin

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 Founded 1821 Independently owned by the Scott Trust

othering better than the England all-rounder Moeen

Ali. He is one of two Asian players in the English team,
despite South Asians accounting for 26-29% of cricket’s
How can we mourn the
adult recreational population in England and Wales.
In 2018, when I wrote his autobiography, he spoke of
the shock on his teammates’ faces when he told them his
lives unlived because of
grandmother’s name was Betty Cox (his grandfather, an
immigrant from Mirpur, Pakistan, had married a widow
from Birmingham). “I realise when people look at me
the conflict in Ukraine?

L
and think of my origins they would never think I have ight Perpetual, Francis names Russia among the
a family tree which is a bridge between England and Spufford’s 2021 novel, worst violators of rights. The
Pakistan. At times I do feel boxed in.” begins with a V-2 international criminal court
attack on a department has issued arrest warrants
Three years ago, the revelations of another Asian store in London – inspired for Vladimir Putin and his
player, Azeem Rafiq, about the racist abuse he received by the real-life bombing of children’s rights commissioner
at Yorkshire cricket club sent shock waves through the a Woolworths in 1944. Five over the forced deportation
sport. And yet little seems to have changed. He was young lives are destroyed in of Ukrainian children to
called the P-word but people “didn’t think it was wrong”, an instant, which the author Russia, where many have
he said at the time of the racist “banter” directed at him. describes in a few short pages. been adopted.
The commission is right to take aim at this culture “What has gone is not When children are killed,
of minimising discrimination – “it’s not banter or just a just the children’s present the sense of something being
few bad apples”, the report reads. For too long, senior existence,” he observes. “It’s stolen is particularly visceral
leaders in cricket have been in denial about race. When I all the futures they won’t get, and compelling. Yet so much
interviewed the veteran cricket administrator Tim Lamb too. All the would-be’s, might- has been lost in Ukraine,
for my book on creating a non-racial sports world, he be’s, could-be’s of the decades even as many away from the
said he had found no evidence of racism in the game. to come. How can that loss frontline try to live somewhat
When I asked him about Yorkshire having a separate be measured … ?” Spufford as they did before the war,
cricket league run by Asian Muslims, he did not see it as attempts that greater reckoning and as Ukrainian culture
a problem. “The fact of the matter is, rightly or wrongly, by writing the lives they might has flourished in defiance of
there are Asian cricketers and Asian clubs that feel more have lived. What might have Russian aggression. A world of
comfortable playing with their own seemed a literary conceit possibilities has disappeared:
 Mihir Bose is kind,” he said. “I mean there are reminds us what is lost when a problems are unresearched,
a British Indian cultural differences.” life is cut short. parties unhosted; businesses
journalist and Then he said: “We’ve talked about More than 550 children have will not be established, babies
author racist behaviour on the part of white died since Russia launched its never conceived.
people against black people, but I’m full-scale invasion of Ukraine Flourishing lives have been
sure you wouldn’t deny that there is reverse racism by in February last year: more struck down or stunted, and
non-white people towards white people.” than one a day. Hundreds more those already struggling have
Of course, racism isn’t the only deep-rooted issue have been injured. Mourning lost footholds that might have
that needs to be stamped out if the game is to move into the dead, the country’s seen them on to surer ground
the 21st century. The England women’s team are yet to president, Volodymyr – an estimated one in four
play a Test at Lord’s – where men’s teams from Eton and Zelenskiy, has written of what Ukrainians are at risk of severe
Harrow play annual matches. When in 2017 England’s might have been: “Many of mental health conditions
women won the World Cup against India, the pavilion at them could have become because of the conflict,
Lord’s was not packed out as it was two years later when famous scholars, artists, sports according to the World Health
the men’s team won the World Cup. Within women’s champions, contributing to Organization. Some losses will
cricket, racism is also evident. Of the 161 female players Ukraine’s history.” be felt elsewhere. Farmland
at professional level, players are disproportionately Last Tuesday, more names strewn with mines lies untilled:
white, with only two Black British, four mixed/multiple were added to the horrifying the crops that would have been
ethnicity and eight South Asian female players. tally, with the attack on a pizza grown might have sustained
Perhaps now, things will change. The England and restaurant in a busy shopping families far away.
Wales Cricket Board has called the report’s findings a area in the eastern city of The cost of reconstruction
“seminal moment”, and has apologised unreservedly. Kramatorsk, in Donetsk. Four has already been estimated
It promised to respond to 44 recommendations within of the 10 confirmed deaths at $411bn. Whenever this war
three months. It has a huge task. were children; at least 56 comes to an end, Ukraine
It may be too much to ask English cricket’s senior people were injured, some will need support for years to
leaders to make changes overnight, but there is an critically. In Ukraine, Russian come. But it is impossible to
opportunity to improve things for the better and create forces frequently appear to calculate what is lost when tens
an inclusive culture that shuns the attitudes of old. have targeted civilians – as they of millions are under assault,
What do we know of cricket? That it lifts the human have in other wars. The UN and so many must be mourned.
spirit in so many ways; but also, that it could be so secretary general’s latest report How does one account for what
much better  on children and armed conflict could have been? 

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

50 Opinion
Letters

WRITE Two worlds collide in (except in a few incidents). manufacturers, food That Suella Braverman’s
TO US two marine tragedies It highlights the fragility producers and, crucially, announcement that it is
The horror and of refugee human rights. banks themselves are time to “move on” was
desperation of the Those countries that gouging prices for all made in the very week of
refugees who drowned signed the 1951 Refugee they’re worth. This the 75th anniversary of the
Letters for in the Mediterranean Convention must reflect free-for-all is happening Empire Windrush’s arrival
publication last month have been on whether they are behind the dense at Tilbury Docks rubs salt
weekly.letters@ joined by the horror upholding its principles. smokescreen of Putin’s into the wounds.
theguardian.com and desperation of the Judith Morrison war and the consequences Jill Westby
—
billionaires and others Nunawading, Victoria, of Brexit. In reality, banks Nottingham, England, UK
Please include a
who died in the Atlantic Australia that for a decade have
full postal address
and a reference
(Opinion, 30 June). seen their ability to coin it • I was shocked but not
to the article. The desperation of Too early to declare end in curtailed by low interest surprised to read your
We may edit letters. the refugees fleeing of the Boris bandwagon rates are making hay. article. If the reports are
Submission and poverty, oppression Re “End of Boris Paul Greer correct, the Home Office
publication of all and war is joined with bandwagon” (Cover, Southampton, England, UK will be abdicating its
letters is subject the desperation of the 23 June). Is it? responsibility to right
to our terms and rich seeking the thrill of Surely a premature No ‘moving on’ for victims the wrongs done to the
conditions, see: exclusivity, status and conclusion. Whatever of Windrush scandal Windrush generation
THEGUARDIAN.COM/
LET TERS-TERMS
one-upmanship. antics Boris Johnson has I am the widow of one of and protect future
The social and in store, a great many UK the Windrush generation generations from its cruel
economic inequalities voters will for ever be who worked tirelessly, and and discredited “hostile
Editorial
and injustices drive grateful to him for ending voluntarily, to help mainly environment” strategy.
Editor: Graham
Snowdon the desperation of their Brexit nightmare. Black people establish If only those who lost
Guardian Weekly, the refugees, while As politicians go he is their legal rights in the UK. their livelihoods and
Kings Place, the alienations and still young. We dismiss I was appalled to read that citizenship, detained and,
90 York Way, meaninglessness at our peril his eventual this unit is to be disbanded in some cases, deported,
London N1 9GU, of wealth drive the return to what he has (Home secretary disbands could so easily “move on”.
UK desperation of the rich. described as the best job in Windrush reform team, Dr Wanda Wyporska
It is a tale of two the world. He seems well UK news, 23 June). My CEO, Black Equity
To contact the boats sinking and of two capable of seizing the reins husband, George Powe, Organisation, London,
editor directly: worlds colliding. to restore his bandwagon. would have been aghast at England, UK
editorial.feedback
Stewart Sweeney Ron Willis this move.
@theguardian.com
Adelaide, South Australia City Beach, Research shows Black Set your timer for the
Corrections Western Australia people in this country are perfect power nap
Our policy is to • There are so many overrepresented as being As a longstanding fan of
correct significant different reasons and Brutal interest rate rises disadvantaged in many a daily nap, I’m delighted
errors as soon as tragedies that make won’t curb soaring prices respects. A review was to see that it gets the
possible. Please most people to seek I’m no economist, but I’m set up to define the issues thumbs-up (Report,
write to guardian. asylum. The sinking of also not a complete fool. raised by the oppression 30 June). One piece of
readers@ the overcrowded boat The idea that what we and disadvantage advice to those who fancy
theguardian.com in the Mediterranean is are seeing is an economy experienced by the a go: make sure your nap
or the readers’
unconscionable. Sadly that’s overheating and Windrush generation only lasts 10 minutes.
editor, Kings Place,
drownings have become needs lassoing with and their descendants, Longer than that and it’s
90 York Way,
London N1 9GU,
a routine crisis. The mass brutal interest rate rises and to recommend not nearly as invigorating
UK drownings of refugees (Spotlight, 30 June) is measures to ensure they and adds weight to the rest
seems to have leapt from simply nonsense. Prices should be addressed. of my day.
being a humanitarian here in the UK are soaring It was approved by the Sam White
issue to a political one because companies, government of the day. Lewes, England, UK

A WEEK
IN VENN
DI AGR A MS
Edith Pritchett

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 51
Film, music, art, books & more

SCREEN
Is streaming
facing a big
switch-off ?
Page 55 

INTERVIEW
PJ Harvey

Remake

remodel

never

repeat

For more than 30 years, the songwriter’s creative output has always been as
distinctly varied as her many guises. How does she constantly reinvent herself ?
7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly
52 Culture
Music
INTERVIEW When we order tea and the waiter apologises that she
By Laura Snapes only has triple-mint, not bog-standard peppermint, I sug-
PORTRAITS gest throwing a strop, and discover that Harvey is quick to
Steve Gullick laugh. Her posture is immaculate. She never gesticulates:
the emotion is all given (and later withheld) in her striking
features. “That looks like a nice recorder,” she says of my
machine. Harvey used one just like it to capture some of the
field recordings on her new, beguilingly strange 10th album,
I Inside the Old Year Dying, where sounds like demob-
happy kids and fizzing power lines are twisted around her
pastoral post-punk and heretical hymns. Others came from
sound designers she met while making music for theatre.
She asked one “for really specific noises, and he had every
single one of them!” she enthuses, her Dorset accent worn
and comforting. Like what? “Like: ‘Can I have wind blowing
through a barbed wire fence in November?’ And he’d go,
‘Yeah, here you are!’”
You get the impression she would rather talk about
things like this all day. She has grown more enigmatic

TAR POWER IS A RARE THING in

music today, stripped away by social media overexposure
and a heritage industry that trades on former glories.
But PJ Harvey has an otherworldly air as she walks into
a restaurant at the Barbican in London for one of her
first interviews about her music in more than a decade.
A thunderstorm has broken the June heatwave and Harvey,
53, had to shelter under a ledge to keep dry on her way here.
Still, she looks pristine in a black vest and tiny black leather
shorts, her dark hair in soft, shoulder-length curls, a fine
gold chain bearing two rings around her neck.
As a musician and performer, PJ Harvey rivals David
Bowie for reinvention. Her fans can plot the moment they
fell for her by era-specific archetypes and sounds: was it
the austere bun of her debut, 1992’s Dry? Or perhaps the
lurid drag of 1993’s Rid of Me? For me, it was the white suit,
red lipstick and gleeful strut of This Is Love from 2000’s
Mercury prize-winning Stories From the City, Stories From
the Sea, leering out of MTV2 and suddenly making pop
music look wan.
For 30 years, Harvey’s only constant has been her dogged
refusal to repeat herself. She set the bar high from day one:
she was a budding art student from a farm in rural Dorset,
but with her ribald, violent songs about sex and subjuga-
tion, the issue of where she had come from felt like another
matter entirely. Harvey’s brawny early 90s albums sati-
rised femininity as a burdensome form of drag (though she
refused associations with the burgeoning feminist punk
scene) and were intended, she said then, “to humiliate
myself and make the listener feel uncomfortable”. Annie
Clark, AKA St Vincent, tells me she found salvation in
Harvey’s refusal of dogma. “She said: I am an artist, not
a mouthpiece for whatever mercurial musings, sympathy
Olympics, cause du jour. She rejected your moral purity
for her own ritual obliteration.”
Nor could anyone have guessed then where she was
going. After the 2011 album Let England Shake, she was
acclaimed as a stately war laureate, making nerve-jangling
rock from first world war history. It made Harvey the only
double Mercury prize winner. In between came haunted
trip-hop, petulant punk and spectral balladry. Pinning down
Harvey’s own story on those records was a tall order: she’s
always defied autobiographical readings, yet none of her
music could have been made by anyone else.

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

over the past decade, producing more music for theatre
and TV than solo albums; her once-ferocious gigs became
precisely choreographed. She is so private that the tiniest
scrap of information becomes outsized: she tells me that
she loved The White Lotus, hasn’t finished Succession yet,
adores soundtracks, and, surprisingly, calls Ricky Gervais
a favourite comedian (he just makes her laugh).
I Inside … is Harvey’s latest pivot – a musical setting of 12
poems from her acclaimed 2022 collection Orlam. Set in the
Dorset woods, it chronicles the year in which her heroine,
Ira-Abel, loses her innocence as the pressures and perils
of girlhood intensify. Harvey wrote the poems in an old
Dorset dialect (“drisk” is mist; “twanketen”, melancholy;
“scratching”, writing). She sings it in startling, uncanny
tones: sometimes naive and girlish, other times sharp
and bitter.
It might be Harvey’s slipperiest record, one she describes
as a “sonic netherworld”. It sounds like a sort of timeless
folk music, I suggest. “I definitely hoped that I could sort of
be in every era and no era all at the same time,” says Harvey,
pleased by the idea. Given her allergy to repetition, it seems ▲ Mood shifts Doesn’t trying not to sound like PJ Harvey ever lead to
surprising that she revisited Orlam in a different medium. Clockwise from an identity crisis? “It does,” she admits. “I definitely go
“I’ve stopped trying to compartmentalise what I do.” Songs, above: on stage through times where I wonder if I still have the ability to
poems, drawings used to be kept separate. “But now I’m in 1992; a TV write the songs I dream of writing. Am I still any good?
quite comfortable letting them all blur into one.” appearance with Have I still got it? But I’ll keep having a go. And usually, if I
Nick Cave in persevere, I can get there.” Sometimes it feels like “climbing
HARVEY DIDN’T INTEND TO MAKE A NEW ALBUM: it crept 1996; live in 1995 uphill through mud”, even in pursuit of songs she knows
up on her during her daily piano and guitar practice. “I don’t EBET ROBERTS/ aren’t good enough. “In some ways, I’d be a bit scared if
REDFERNS; PATRICK
feel I’m a natural musician,” she says. “I have to really work FORD/REDFERNS; DAVID I lost that doubt because then I would maybe feel a bit too
at it.” Sometimes she recited other people’s songs – Nina CORIO/REDFERNS
comfortable, and not really be able to see clearly what I’m
Simone, the Stranglers – but sometimes she just needed doing any more.”
words for a new melody. While writing Orlam, “I’d grab The creation of Harvey’s previous album, The Hope Six
at a poem because it was the easiest thing I had to hand.” Demolition Project, was an uphill slog through mud. It
During the pandemic, she took the sketches to her oldest focused on modern foreign and domestic policy; Harvey’s
collaborators, musician John Parish and producer Flood. reportage-style lyrics drew from research trips to Kosovo,
Harvey and Parish started collaborating when she joined Afghanistan and Washington DC. She offered unprecedented
his band, Automatic Dlamini, aged 18. “She started giving access into its creation, setting up a studio in Somerset House
me tapes of really early songs, and I saw straight away she in London for the public to watch her record through one-
had a brilliant voice,” Parish recalls. “I asked her to join as way glass, and published an accompanying poetry book, The
soon as she left school.” Flood first produced 1995’s lethal Hollow of the Hand. Yet she never talked about the intentions
To Bring You My Love, blown away by a demo that others behind these works. “I wanted to leave everything that I had
had warned him was “a bit out there”, he says. to say within the lyrics, and not have to put them inside some
Harvey wanted a marriage of human-made and natural sort of framework,” she says now.
sounds. “It was always a bit homemade, and I love that,” Harvey was accused of poverty tourism, with DC
she says, beaming. “To get some of those sounds, it really councillors criticising one song for portraying a deprived
was like four hands each doing different things to ancient neighbourhood as “drug town, just zombies”. (“PJ Harvey
equipment that might break at any time. It felt very human is to music what Piers Morgan is to cable news,” said one.)
and very of the moment.” But they were still prepared to It’s easily her least beloved record but – she says, becoming
junk everything if it didn’t meet their high standards. It was terse – she “didn’t pay too much attention to the response”.
the eternal challenge, says Harvey: avoiding repetition. But, during a gruelling year-long tour for the album,
“None of us are interested in treading over the same ground, “I felt as though I was watching myself from a distance
and the more you’ve worked together, the harder that is,” ‘performing’ my work, trying to unravel who and what
she says. “The more songs I’ve written, it’s harder to write I definitely I was at that moment in my life”. After the tour, she took
songs because I so often start something and think, well, hoped that time off, even stopping her daily practising. Her enthusiasm
mm, that’s a bit like that song I wrote in 1996.” was revived by being asked to do soundtracks by theatre
Harvey was also determined to avoid what they called I could director Ian Rickson, and TV showrunners Sharon Horgan
her “PJ Harvey voice”. It echoes a scribble in the liner notes sort of be and Shane Meadows. “That was a way I could really enjoy
to 2004’s barbed, beautiful Uh Huh Her, in which she ques- in every music without it having to become a Polly Harvey album.”
tioned: “too PJ H?”. Harvey describes it as “a particular way Poetry was another salvation. She began a formal men-
of projecting my voice – even down to that. Flood would era and torship with the Scottish poet Don Paterson. Their first
stop me straight away if he heard me singing in a way I’d no era all lesson was at her house. “I was so excited and nervous,”
sung before, and help me find emotional ways to access she remembers. “And Don said, ‘Right, I thought today we
a different voice.” (Flood insists he wouldn’t dare: “I might at the won’t do any theory. We’re just going to talk about why 
get the withering eyebrow.”) same time you want to write poetry.’ That was it!” She gulps with

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

54 Culture
Music
trepidation. Three hours of probing later, she had cast back there local movements against it? She thinks so. “I think
to herself as a tiny child, writing and drawing under a tree it’s really difficult for everyone in that area for all sorts of
I get very in woods near her house, and was in tears. “I seemed to different reasons, isn’t it?” Does she have an opinion? “I do,
have been completely regressed to a child of five weeping but I’m not going to talk about that,” she says. Defeated by
affected under a fir tree at the bottom of the garden!” her stonewalling, I move on.
and upset Paterson told her: write about that. Harvey wasn’t sure; I Inside ... is the latest iteration of Harvey’s need to
The Hollow of the Hand had been a journalistic endeavour. remove herself from her work. As a younger woman, she
by things “Don encouraged me to be as bold in my poetry as I am in my achieved it through self-destruction; this album feels as
happening songs, which I hadn’t done,” she says. “I’d felt a bit like I was though she’s trying to attain it through transcendence.
in the not worthy to write poetry, so I trod very carefully around She doesn’t often listen back to her albums, she says, but
it.” Poets are her greatest inspiration, she explains later by calls this one a comfort. “It always makes me feel better.”
world, email. “There seems to be a magic and magnificence in their A recent lavish reissue campaign of all her albums traces
then feel words that conjure the very meaning of life. To even begin how Polly Jean Harvey became PJ Harvey, though Harvey
to try and enter that world felt a goal beyond my capability.” says the release was just a practical matter: many of her
the need Harvey also took poetry courses in London, and claims albums were out of print on vinyl. The idea grew to include
to write no one recognised her. “If you’re going about your life like old demos and rarities. “It’s been a lovely project for me,
about it a normal person, people only see what you’re there to do,” and for me to have,” she says. “It’s made it much easier to
she says. She loved being a student “because I always felt reference things while I’m looking for something.”
a bit sad that I missed out on going on to further learning”. One of the best parts, I thought, was the archival photos:
In the early 90s, Harvey turned down studying sculpture a goth reading Flannery O’Connor; looking uncertain at
at St Martin’s College to pursue music. college; the tender Polaroid of her and lover Nick Cave in
Harvey’s fans know how fiercely she rejects a mid-90s collage she made for him (last year Cave described
autobiographical interpretations of her work, though she them as “each too self-absorbed to ever be able to inhabit the
also welcomed the misconceptions as they only made her same space in any truly meaningful way”). I wondered how
more elusive. But there are startling things in common she felt looking at them – who she felt close to, distant from?
between the protagonist of her new songs and poems and “I didn’t feel any of those things, no,” she says, perplexed.
the young Harvey. Both are farm girls who cropped their hair
and exclusively befriended boys. Ira-Abel describes herself HARVEY LIVES IN THE MOMENT, she says. “Not even that
as a “not-girl, a bogus boy”; as a child, Harvey loathed girl- far in the future – only in terms of creative ideas I’m slowly
hood, went by the name Paul and peed standing up to fit growing.” Her past selves feel a healthy distance away,
in. I try to draw what seem like clear lines between them, though she won’t perform some songs from Dry any more.
but Harvey stridently resists. “Like I said, it’s not an auto- She was 17 when she wrote it. “I’m too far away from that
biographical work,” she says. (Though one associate lets as a 53-year-old woman.” She’s always written from the
slip that it’s “kind of like an origin story, autobiographical perspective of various characters – why is this different?
but oblique”, then tells me, “Don’t dob me in!”) “It’d be like you reading from your diary aged 16 and really
Her last three albums all consider the human capacity having to inhabit that now – like on that funny radio pro-
for cruelty. What keeps bringing her back to that theme? gramme [Radio 4’s My Teenage Diary], which I love. It’s
“I wouldn’t say they’re just that,” she says. “There’s also hilarious. But hilarity is not what we’re after.” I assume
a lot of looking at positivity and love. You can only look at she would never write a memoir. “I wouldn’t, really,” she
that with the other side. Then that is really an exploration says. “I’ve seen some beautiful films made as people reach
of how it feels to be alive.” their older years,” she says, mentioning Nina Simone: La
She’s said she can become grievously upset by current Légende from 1992. “Maybe when I can see my end in sight,
events: is it a strike against terrible things being normalised, I maybe, might do a film,” she says.
or her innate empathy? “I’m naturally like that,” she says. Harvey is happy to have a foot in the past, in some
“I get very affected and upset by things on a daily basis that respects. Music consumption has changed a lot even since
we hear are happening in the world, then feel the need to her previous album. She worries about how music is valued,
write about it.” The government plans to house refugees even by herself. “If I don’t like it after a minute, I might
in a barge off the coast near where Harvey grew up. Are go to something else, and I keep pulling myself back on
that: Polly! Just sit and listen!” she says. As a songwriter
Later stage who emerged decades before streaming, she was “lucky
Harvey performs enough to have had a good grounding when things weren’t
at a festival in like that. I’ve been able to grow confidence in my process.
Italy in 2017 But I wonder how it affects the younger generation that is
during the tour having to write in this new climate?”
for The Hope She’s been listening to conversations about AI and crea-
Six Demolition tivity. “But,” she says, “I can’t imagine that the imperfection
Project of the human touch will be outridden by the perfection
ALESSANDRO BOSIO/ of a computer. I think there’s something beautiful about
PACIFIC PRESS/
LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY imperfections and failings of us as human beings.” She
comes back to the making of I Inside … “I believe people will
still want that homemade-ness of it – going full circle to us
holding things together with bits of tape to make a sound.”•
LAURA SNAPES IS THE GUARDIAN’S DEPUTY MUSIC EDITOR
I Inside the Old Year Dying by PJ Harvey is out now

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 Culture 55
Screen
glorious new age, where viewers would have blue-
chip content available whenever they wanted it
(with no ads!). The streaming era had arrived and
everyone was invited for $8 a month. A decade
later, much of the gleam of that era has faded.
And streaming has failed to live up to its poten-
tial. In 2023 it’s a model that is malfunctioning,
without an easy way of fixing it.
A model that once looked to only have upsides
– inexpensiveness, variety, instant accessibility
– has become bloated, expensive and confusing.
Where once streaming was bunched around a
handful of platforms (Netflix, Amazon, BBC
iPlayer in the UK, Hulu in the US) now that num-
ber has ballooned into the double digits, meaning
that viewers have to fork out big sums if they
want to try to keep up with the continual churn
of buzzy, often overhyped, shows.
“People are very dissatisfied by streaming,”
says Mattias Frey, head of media, culture and
creative industries at City, University of London
and the author of Netflix Recommends: Algo-
rithms, Film Choice, and the History of Taste.
“Audiences like the end of appointment viewing
… but it has produced new complications.”
Streaming is malfunctioning for the creatives
making the shows, too: it’s why the members of
the Writers Guild of America, the union repre-

Broken
senting Hollywood’s screenwriters, are on strike
over their pay and working conditions, with the
Screen Actors Guild mulling a strike of its own.
While streaming has handsomely paid some of

streams
TV’s biggest-name creators, writers at the lower
end of the food chain subsist on relative crumbs
while being expected to churn out more shows
than ever in an age of peak TV.
And streaming is malfunctioning for many
of the companies doing the streaming. Disney’s
streaming arm, Disney+, posted an operating loss
of more than $1bn in the first quarter of this year.

J
ust over 10 years ago, a TV series debuted Peacock, the streaming arm of US network NBC,
Netflix and its rivals could that would help set in train a revolution is expecting to post losses of $3bn this year as it
not deliver on the future in the industry. Although to call House of expands its library. Netflix has turned a profit this
they promised. Now, Cards a “TV” series feels a little off. Yes, the year but remains saddled with historic debts of
Kevin Spacey-starring political drama did appear around $14bn.
viewers are defecting, on people’s TV screens, and it was serialised, but Perhaps more alarmingly for these companies
writers are on strike and TV in other ways it was something entirely new. It is the fact that Wall Street seems to have cooled its
wouldn’t be scheduled to air in weekly chunks on interest in recent times. A Deloitte report on the
execs are looking elsewhere an existing channel, but instead would be avail- future of the industry from earlier this year notes
able to be streamed in one go, without commercial that “investors and executives have accepted
By Gwilym Mumford breaks and over high-speed internet to the sub- that streaming is, in fact, not a good business – at
scribers of the online video platform of a mail- least not compared to what came before”.
order DVD subscription company called Netflix. What came before was a combination of free-
▲ Watch list The novelty didn’t just end with that delivery to-air and cable – or satellite TV in the UK – that at
Clockwise from top method. Netflix, in bidding for House of Cards, least had a certain logic to it: what Brian Steinberg,
left: Succession; committed to funding two full seasons of the senior TV editor at Variety, calls “a triple revenue
Lord of the Rings: show, an unprecedented move at a time where stream of advertising, distribution and syndica-
the Rings of Power; sitcoms and dramas would routinely be cancelled tion”, that seemed to satisfy the studios producing
Squid Game; after a handful of episodes. And Netflix had man- and selling the shows, the networks broadcasting
Severance; aged to coax Spacey and a Hollywood auteur – in them and the talent working on them. But then
The Bear; Beef the show’s director and executive producer David Netflix arrived in 2007 to disrupt everything.
ANDREW COOPER/NETFLIX; Fincher – on to its platform, and it had given them The result of this arms race was “peak TV”, a
AP; FRANK OCKENFELS/FX;
AMAZON PRIME STUDIO;
creative freedom to make what they wanted. period of seemingly unceasing content: last 
NETFLIX; HBO House of Cards then was the promise of a year saw 599 scripted English-language TV

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

56 Culture Reviews
Screen
shows being released in the US. For many it has MUSIC
been a bewildering era, where it has been impos-
sible to keep up with the amount of programming
on offer, creating what cultural critic Anne Helen Chaos for the Fly
Petersen described as “a mix of resentment and Grian Chatten, Partisan
paralysis” in viewers.
★★★★☆
Just figuring out where and when to watch
these many, many series is a challenge. And,
unlike appointment viewing, there’s no guar- “What’s normal for the spider,”
antee that you know anyone who is watching it the Addams family’s Morticia
at the same time or pace, if at all. once noted, “is chaos for the fly.”
All this may be tolerable if most of the Fontaines DC’s frontman Grian
programming was good, but much of it isn’t. TV Chatten, meanwhile, has described
in the 2020s has been overrun by superheroes, his debut solo album as “a horror
sequels and shows that have what a savage New movie with a hyperreal colour FILM
York magazine piece on the state of streaming palette”. Which is to say: the
calls the “expensive signifiers of prestige TV”, rollicking post-punk of the Dublin
without any of the quality to band has been dialled down on Indiana Jones and the Dial
▼ Write off underpin it. Of course there are this suite of haunted, intimate of Destiny
Members of the still exemplary shows – Succes- songs, where the prevailing vibe is
Writers Guild of
Dir. James Mangold
sion, The Bear, Severance – but a rapidly sinking feeling.
America dem- the proportion of them seems Despite calling on Fontaines ★★★☆☆
onstrate outside barely any higher than a decade drummer Tom Coll and go-to
Netflix’s Los ago, despite the huge upswing producer Dan Carey, Chatten felt So the boulder of intellectual
Angeles office in total shows being made. that his bleak storytelling – about property and franchise brand
ETIENNE LAURENT/EPA This recalibration has stuck lives in seaside towns – and identity rolls on … bringing us
come at a time when Netflix personal takes on human failings Indiana Jones and the Dial of
has had to contend with its first small crisis. Last needed total creative control outside Destiny, the fifth film for the
summer the streamer’s share price plummeted by the band democracy. legendary archaeologist. He is, of
35% after 200,000 of its subscribers jumped ship Chatten’s fiancée, Georgie Jesson, course, played by the legendary
amid the cost of living crisis. Financially vulner- contributes guest vocals; fans Harrison Ford, now 80 years young.
able and at risk of losing viewers, how long can should note, though: FDC LP4 is It’s the first Indiana Jones film not
this current roster of streamers last? in the works. directed by Steven Spielberg – James
There is perhaps a less bruising solution: On Chaos for the Fly, Chatten’s Mangold is at the helm – but despite
consolidation, with streamers merging, or even manner sometimes recalls those that, this one has quite a bit of zip
coming together under one platform. That seems great critics of human nature and fun and narrative ingenuity.
unlikely: as Frey points out, rights licensing in Leonard Cohen and Elliott Smith. Phoebe Waller-Bridge has
film and TV is complicated, and besides these are The music wanders from tinny a tremendous turn as Indy’s roguish
big companies – with big egos in the boardrooms. loungecore (Bob’s Casino) to slinky goddaughter Helena Shaw, and it is
Just imagine: all these streamers as channels tension (the excellent closing track, a pleasure to see Toby Jones.
on one platform, some with ads, some without. Season for Pain). There are plenty of jolly chases,
It sounds great, doesn’t it? And a lot like … TV. These are not alienating leaps, including a tuk-tuk vs classic Jag
GWILYM MUMFORD IS CULTURE EDITOR OF THE though. Fairlies could be a event in the narrow streets of
GUARDIAN SATURDAY MAGAZINE Fontaines tune; Chatten’s vocals Tangier and for the Indy purists,
aand writerly voice are instantly creepy encounters with insects
rrecognisable – declamatory on and an underground tomb whose
tthe three-legged wooze of Last passages open with a grinding noise.
TTime Every Time Forever, or The finale is wildly silly and
ffolk-adjacent on The Score. All of entertaining, and that Dial of
tthe People, meanwhile, is a bitter Destiny is put to an audacious use
bbroadside against the kind of that makes light of the question of
ffalse friends whom the singer in defying ageing. Indiana Jones still
aa successful rock band might have has a certain old-school class.
tto contend with. Observer Peter Bradshaw
KKitty Empire On general release

P
Podcast of the week The Covenant of Water Podcast
““It’s one of the most gripping, exquisite novels I have ever read.”
Oprah chose Abraham Verghese’s 2023 book, The Covenant of
O
Water, for her 100th book club. In this series, she speaks to the au-
W
tthor and fans to dig into its themes of “adventure, family secrets and
tthe shimmering resilience of the human spirit”. Hollie Richardson
 Culture 57
Books
eat their own mothers, and found her desire
to place matrescence within the context of a
wider ecology, and her emphasis on “the psychic
and corporeal reality of our interdependence
and interconnectedness with other species”,
admirable. I also respect her absolute refusal to
pander to the “enjoy every minute” brigade. As
she writes in the introduction, “my children (she
has three, all born close together) have brought
me joy, contentment, fulfilment, wonder, and
delight in staggering abundance. But that’s just
part of the story. This is the rest.”
There is a trap for any critic reviewing books
about motherhood who is also a mother: the trap
of “this is not how it was for me”. It’s one I almost
fell into, at times, as Jones laid out her experience
of the “major, traumatic life crisis” that saw her
confronted with her own “fundamental lack of
control”, battling with feelings of guilt and “inter-
nal badness”, and experiencing “the loneliest time
of my adult life”. The cultural myths of mother-
hood hold strong, and at times I found myself
craving more delight, particularly because Jones’s

M
PA R E N T I N G otherhood changes a person. We all writing on this aspect of motherhood is some of
know this. Yet in so-called Weird the most beautiful and creative in the book.
countries (western, educated, There is much to be gleaned as Jones skilfully
industrialised, rich and demo- elucidates the monumental shifts matrescence
The birth of a mother cratic) there is very little in the way of ritual to brings, from the foetal cells that remain in a
acknowledge this rite of passage, this fundamen- mother’s body for decades to evidence that preg-
A science and nature tal transformation. How can this be, Lucy Jones nancy and birth have a dramatic, long-term impact
asks, when it is “a transition that involves a whole on the brain that may even be permanent. Indeed,
writer skilfully spectrum of emotional and existential ruptures”? the chapter on the maternal brain is especially
elucidates the Unlike adolescence, “matrescence” is scarcely fascinating and, more importantly, validating
marked. Instead, we are expected to get on for those of us who feel society’s minimising of
monumental impact with it, sublimate all our needs to our new baby matrescence flies in the face of our experience of it.
of having children, and weather this most fundamental of human The politics of motherhood is a bubbling
shifts without making too much of a fuss. We source of despair and fury that underpins this
from every angle don’t properly recognise “the psychological book. Like many women, Jones describes feeling
and physiological significance of becoming a “hoodwinked” by norms of motherhood, how
By Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett mother: how it affects the brain, the endocrine amid the pain, trauma and guilt of being unable to
system, cognition, immunity, the psyche, the breastfeed she began to detect a coercive force. You
microbiome, the sense of self ”. may well find yourself raging at the various health
Jones’s book is an attempt to correct this. Billed professionals depicted: the midwife who cries at
as a radical new examination of how motherhood one woman’s bedside because she so wanted her
changes the mind and body, it’s a work that I’d to breastfeed, the health visitor who tells Jones
expected would fit neatly into what publishers and “baby needs mummy” when she has the temerity
booksellers call the “smart thinking” category of to ask if she can let the baby cry for 30 seconds
nonfiction. What I found instead was a boundary- before picking her up, to see if she self-settles. Yet
pushing book that is altogether tricksier. there are glorious, moving glimpses of maternal
Jones is known primarily as a science and solidarity here too: the woman who picks a book off
nature writer, and I’ll confess I sighed slightly the floor of a train and reads it to Jones’s screaming
when I waded through an opening section about daughter, the older woman at the garden centre
slime mould. Subsequent chapters who kneels down to tie Jones’s shoes
begin with similar passages, which, because her hands are full with babies.
Jones writes, attempt to show that If at times there is an uneasy tension
natural change is not always beautiful. in this book between the science, mem-
Initially I felt they jarred with the body oir, social commentary and flashes of
of the work, which follows Jones’s jour- creative writing, this is a testament
▲ Baby steps ney into motherhood and is divided to its ambition. Jones never becomes
The politics of according to a series of themes, includ- BOOK OF bogged down in the material, which
motherhood is a ing birth, the brain, sleep and society. THE WEEK is quite an achievement considering
bubbling source of But as the book went on I found I Matrescence its scope.
despair and fury enjoyed reading about vampire bats By Lucy Jones RHIANNON LUCY COSSLETT IS A
CAVAN IMAGES/GETTY and aurora borealis and spiders that GUARDIAN COLUMNIST AND AUTHOR

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

58 Culture
Books

A
SOCIETY year ago, I opened a respected British Turning to Britain, he warns that America’s
journal and read that I was black. battles have been adopted here and should be
Specifically, I was a black historian. Until rejected. “We should understand race in Britain
then, I was simply known as a historian. through a British perspective, and we shouldn’t
Black and British The editor was dismayed when I complained about reduce black people to their race,” he writes. I
not wanting to be racialised in this way. Finally, he agree, but Owolade’s assertion that “what is at
The cultural critic apologised, saying he’d been badly advised. The stake is the dignity of black people in Britain’’
advice had come from the US. It is just this kind of sounds a bit of a stretch. Peculiarly, he cites Jeffrey
argues that Britain cultural cringe to the US, and the notions it exports Boakye as a threat to black dignity. The evidence?
should consider to these shores, that sits at the heart of This Is Not Boakye writes in Black, Listed, his 2019 book about
America, Tomiwa Owolade’s timely intervention black British culture: “Poverty is a key defining
race from its own into the politics of identity. Owolade contends that characteristic of the black experience … Every
perspective rather than Britain continues to cede authority to black person I have ever spoken to has
the US, especially in matters of race, and some shared point of reference to an
adopt America’s battles is blind to what should be obvious: we impoverished upbringing.” Owolade
are not America. responds: “To define blackness in terms
By Colin Grant Britain’s problems with race pale of poverty is both untrue and insulting.”
beside the awful day-to-day enmity But surely Boakye is just describing
in the US. Increasingly, though – with a heartfelt view; it’s hardly insulting.
the murder of George Floyd, the This Is Not America At times, This Is Not America possesses
capitalisation of Black and White, By Tomiwa a surprising tetchiness, given that its
▼ Shout out the rise, fall and rise again of Black Owolade author, a battle-hardened cultural
Protesters at an anti-racism Lives Matter – insights from across the critic, has remained largely unfazed
demonstration in London, 2020 Atlantic are embraced. This is tied up with the by ugly online abuse from detractors targeting
TOLGA AKMEN/ AFP/GETTY
allure of America generally, believes Owolade. him as someone, he says, “who deviates from
Which is undoubtedly true: even today British the orthodoxy” of race conversations.
newspapers are more likely to genuflect in front In a lengthy introduction, Owolade flags up the
of an African American than a black Briton. limits of his book’s ambition. It does not include
Owolade’s polemic, split into two halves – US reflections on British-Asians because, he says
and Britain – starts with the former. He provides guilelessly: “I can only write about what interests
valuable sketches on America’s obsession with me, and I am interested principally in black people
race and its culture wars, focused in recent years in Britain.” Nonetheless, he provides a whistle-
on Derrick Bell’s critical race theory (the notion stop tour of race relations while acting as a guide.
that racism is an ineradicable feature of the US) He subscribes to the “disparity fallacy” – the
and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work on intersection- idea that not all problems faced by black people
ality (the proposition that an individual can be can be ascribed to racism. It’s wrong to suggest
subjected to more than one form of discrimin- that schools systemically let down black students,
ation, eg sexism and racism). he argues, because some children of west African

E
MEMOIR xcuse me,” began the direct message on It might be possible to describe Morimoto’s
Twitter, “I may have sex today so could work, in today’s corporate jargon, as an example
you send me a message at 12 to tell me of “active listening”; he, though, would demur
to cut my nails?” The question wasn’t – “When I listen, it is always in a passive way. I’m
Hire education aimed at a lover, but at Shoji Morimoto, a thirty- not doing anything.”
something living in Tokyo who, since Morimoto insists he doesn’t have
Eating with clients, 2018, had been offering himself “for much of a personality. Over time, bio-
rent”. His services involve hanging graphical details emerge. He studied
sitting with clients, around clients – watching them, eat- earthquakes at graduate school, but
waving at clients – the ing with them, mostly listening rather wound up as a freelance writer produc-
than talking to them. Is this work? He ing copy for business pamphlets. His
story of the man whose called himself Rental Person Who Does boss told him he lacked a strong per-
job is to just be there Nothing. News outlets rushed to pro- Rental Person sonality. At work, his company wanted
file him. His story inspired a manga Who Does Nothing staff to focus on creative, high-level
and a television series. By Shoji projects – “I’m afraid I couldn’t come
By Sukhdev Sandhu Now, Morimoto has written a Morimoto up with any useful ideas at all.”
memoir that’s a partial inventory of What he is resisting is, in the phrase
the requests he received and chose to accept. of the late David Graeber, bullshit jobs. Upspeak,
Most are mesmerisingly banal. Morimoto serves pompous mission statements, bogus invocations
many functions. He’s an ergonomic tool for a of teamwork and community: bullshit, all of it.
writer who says he’ll never finish an assignment “I’d like the world to be one where even if people
unless he’s being watched. He’s an incentiviser for can’t do anything for others,” he writes, “even if
a marathon runner who thinks he’ll run quicker if they can make no contribution to society, they
someone is waiting for him at the finishing line. can still live stress-free lives.”

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 59

descent are doing all right, and it’s really only BOOKS OF THE MONTH
young people of Caribbean descent who are fail- The best recent poetry – review roundup
ing. The stats may prove him right but it would
help if the author offered some context – whether
by introducing, for instance, Bernard Coard’s By Oluwaseun Olayiwola discursive skills to verse / fourteen lines in, that
seminal 1971 text, How the West Indian Child Is that melds criticism, there’s still a decision to
Made Educationally Sub-normal in the British autobiography and essay be made?” This poem
School System, or considering reflections from while still achieving a spirals into a flurry of
former teacher Boakye’s I Heard What You Said crisp sonic momentum questions. “Am I lonely?
(2022), which details why children of Caribbean characteristic of lyric Yes. Am I upset? Yes. Am I
origin are more readily excluded from school. poetry. The meanings of confused?” The Recycling
At its heart Owolade’s polemic seems to be a diaspora in this collection is a powerful addition to
tussle over who assumes pole position for the are as varied as the forms the genre of ecopoetry,
dubious honour of spokesperson for black people Mehri deploys: prose demonstrating that the
in Britain. He seems to have a handful of “leftist” poems, found poems, upkeep of ecosystems
black British cultural critics in his literary cross- Wound Is the Origin poems using emojis begins with and is aided by
hairs, among them Kehinde Andrews, professor of Wonder and erasures. She finds the upkeep of language.
of black studies at Birmingham City University. By Maya C Popa a new tone somewhere
Owolade takes Andrews to task over his revolu- The astounding between Gwendolyn
tionary belief that in order to survive Britain’s poem Dear Life opens Brooks’s musicality
hostile systems “black people need to [build] up this meditative and and Carolyn Forché’s
their own institutions and safe spaces”. The sug- purposefully heart- haunting intensity. Hers
gestion is “hollow”, Owolade argues, because decelerating second is a dazzling voice that
“building such institutions will not change the fact collection. It foregrounds refuses to speak from a
that we are a minority”. I hold no brief for Andrews Popa’s pared-back style podium, examining guilt,
but I don’t think his proposition is without merit. of earnest revelation and culture and personhood
Towards the end of This Is Not America, precise use of abstraction: from within the “nightly
Owolade returns to the idea underpinning its “I have wanted all the decision” of community. Crisis Actor
title: “Even when two nations speak the same world, its beauties / and By Declan Ryan
language, [race] can be lost in translation.” His its injuries; some days, / I As it contains many
book shows that in Britain’s polarising culture think that is punishment poems about boxing,
wars its attitude towards race is being shaped by enough.” Popa’s sensuous one would not expect
the enlightened and the bigots in the US. But he voice hymns everything restraint to be among the
concludes: “To define someone exclusively by from bees to religious most moving features of
their race is to acquiesce to the visions of racists.” iconography, and often Ryan’s debut collection.
Amen to that. Observer spotlights other authors. In fact, a persistent
COLIN GRANT IS AN AUTHOR AND THE DIRECTOR In this collection, sight, melancholic gentleness
OF WRITERSMOSAIC grief and language “that pervades throughout.
only dreams the hunted The Recycling His speakers feel more
thing” are foundational By Joey Connolly) than they can say, and are
Morimoto may describe himself as “living wounds. With an In Connolly’s second often critical about what
without doing anything”, but that doesn’t stop extraordinary poetic collection, contemporary little has been said: “You
him from emerging as a semi-accidental painter patience, Popa reminds us existential angst arises won’t remember this –
of modern life. The most poignant service he that a wound “is where the from and is sustained one evening, typically
provides involves a young woman whose grand- light enters us”. by ecological concerns, throwaway, / you said I
mother died the day she left Tokyo to study interpersonal breakups couldn’t, strictly speaking,
abroad. Now, after a year away, she is returning. and linguistic power be a failed writer, never
“I’ll be feeling sad when I arrive,” she messages imbalances. The title having written.” Boxing
Morimoto, “so it would be nice to have someone poem has the feel of an sequences read like myth;
waving at me when I get to the airport.” ad-lib in action: “Strange Ryan’s attention to the
They go to a karaoke box where she sings and noun full of verb, noun / temporal in these poems
talks about her gran. At first she’s cheery. Then bending to verb, strange demonstrates a sensibility
she admits she can’t tell friends how sad she felt / idea of repeating attuned to the loss of
about not being able to attend the funeral. She repetition”. Connolly vitality, the understanding
starts to cry. It’s a quietly devastating vignette concentrates this anxiety that anyone’s time “in
that’s redolent of a Hirokazu Kore-eda film. Bad Diaspora Poems in a 24-page stream of the ring” is limited. Crisis
Rental Person Who Does Nothing starts slowly, By Momtaza Mehri epigraphs, quoting from Actor is a lithe debut
seemingly fluff. By its close, Morimoto, though The long-awaited debut figures such as Lucretius, characterised by these two
still elusive, emerges as a modern Bartleby, an collection from the Milton and Austen, Helen lines: “They think it’s just
inadvertent dissident, who has come to see his former Young People’s Oyeyemi and Nuar Alsadir. the power. / But it’s the
practice as being “about enjoying the absurdity Poet Laureate for London Epigraphs, individual accuracy of the power.”
of swimming against the tide of efficiency”. invites readers to consider words and poetic forms OLUWASEUN OLAYIWOLA IS A
SUKHDEV SANDHU IS AN AUTHOR, CRITIC AND the concept of diaspora. are recycled and changed: DANCER, CHOREOGRAPHER,
ACADEMIC Mehri brings unflinching “Do you seriously believe, POET AND CRITIC

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

60 Lifestyle

I
ASK want to reassure you that it’s not more anxiety [there is around food]
Annalisa Barbieri your fault. Children will insist on the worse it’s going to get. Her height
doing their own thing. However, and weight are fine and she’s active.”
there are a few different things Harris didn’t think your daughter’s

My daughter eats you might want to try.

I went to one of the UK’s
diet was that bad, but strongly
recommends you don’t “make her go

junk food. How leading experts in this field,

clinical psychologist Dr Gillian
hungry, because she will go hungry;
this won’t tempt her to eat”.

can I get her on Harris, registered with the British

Psychological Association, who
With help your daughter may
develop beyond Arfid (many children

a healthy diet? has 30 years’ experience in child-

feeding behaviour. Although we
do) and that help starts with not
making any of your issues her issues.
can’t diagnose your child via a letter, In time she may be motivated to try
Our daughter, who is eight, had the Harris told me about children who more foods (Harris said it takes about
“best start”: breastfed, weaned on have avoidant/restrictive food intake 10 tries to get to like a food).
to vegetables and fruit and healthy disorder (Arfid), which it’s possible “She will in time probably go
home-cooked meals. At some point, your daughter has. off pizza because we have a brain
she started favouring junk food: Harris says it generally starts to mechanism called sensory specific
pizza, fish fingers and chips. She’d manifest around the age of two, when satiety, which tells us not to eat too
have pasta bolognese for months children become more aware of the much of the same food. The pizza
and then go off it. sensory properties of food. “If food may go, the bolognese may come
She’s decided to go vegetarian so doesn’t look or smell right,” explains back.” Harris also says, “talking
it makes it harder to give her healthy Harris, “or isn’t easily identifiable or about her weight is an absolute
meat alternatives. I’ve tried giving consistent, then children can drop no-no. Forget talking about healthy
her new things, alongside things those foods.” She says Arfid is related and unhealthy food, just go with it.”
she will eat, ie cucumbers, peppers, to sensory reactivity and anxiety and Don’t try to trick your daughter
tomatoes and fruit. is largely genetically determined. either. It’s important you don’t force;
She had some potential medical Those with Arfid are also not overly if she learns she can’t trust you
issues, and her weight and height interested in food. around food that will work against
were monitored. She’s been For children with Arfid, certain you. Just go with what she’ll eat.
discharged but she is at the top of foods are unbearable, so they are not Harris did wonder about your
the percentile for height and weight. just being “fussy”. It’s no surprise If you would daughter’s protein and iron sources.
Although she’s active, I’m concerned your daughter is going for foods like advice So you could say something like “you
about her becoming overweight. I that look and taste consistent. Arfid on a family could have a bit more protein. Let’s
have struggled with my weight all my children don’t like surprises, and matter, email look at where you can get that from.”
life and the judgment attached to it. anxiety will cause their sensory ask.annalisa@ If you’re still worried you
I am trying not to ban foods, but reactivity to increase. theguardian. could try to see a dietitian, who
I have told her I’m going to start What to do? First, make a list of com. See understands Arfid. Try through your
making things and she’ll have a what your daughter does eat. It’ll theguardian. GP or if you want to go privately via
choice of eating or going hungry probably be more than you think. com/letters- the British Dietetic Association –if
(she’ll get a good lunch at school). Second, as Harris says, “pushing your terms for terms they are worried about her, they
I’m at the end of my tether. daughter is not going to help; the and conditions might prescribe a supplement.

STEPHEN COLLINS

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 ON FOOD
By Rachel Cooke

T H E W E E K LY R E C I P E
By Akwasi Brenya-Mensa

№ 225
Kingston
mess

Prep 15 min There is a music

i video
id and d song
Cook 1 hr 30 min called T-Shirt Weather In The
Manor by Kano that captures the
Serves 4-8 essence being proudly Black British

From pasties to potica, food is a • VEGAN

• GLUTEN FREE
in the summer time. I imagine this
dessert to be what I’d have served

language everyone understands after the video’s cookout scenes.

I have combined the principles of
the quintessentially English Eton
mess with rum-soaked pineapple,

F
ood is an international strangers not just possible, but Ingredients coconut and passion fruit to provide
language: an Esperanto we easy; via discussions of baking and For the hibiscus a playful ending to a summer meal.
all speak pretty fluently, the making of stew, other thornier meringue
for in the end everyone has aspects of life (politics, mainly) may 200ml aquafaba Method
20ml lemon juice, or
to eat. But dialect words are also be tackled, even if only obliquely. Heat the oven to 120C (100C fan)/gas
½ tsp cream of tartar
involved, and sometimes these are In any case, I had plenty of 200g caster sugar
½ and line two medium oven trays
a little harder to translate. Recently, questions of my own. When the fish A few pinches of with greaseproof paper.
in Slovenia, where I was running a you’ve ordered for dinner tastes so hibiscus powder, In a clean, dry mixer, or in a bowl,
writing workshop, I found myself fantastically earthy, you want to to dust (optional) whisk the aquafaba for two minutes,
having to explain not only the know where it came from (answer: until it forms medium peaks. Gently
meaning of the word pasty, but from a river 11km down the road). For the elderflower fold in the lemon (or cream of tartar),
also the various reasons why the When a bowl of ice-cream arrives, cream then beat to stiff peaks. Beat in the
appearance of such a thing in a story and it tastes of tarragon, you want to 140g vegan cream sugar bit by bit, until the meringue
25ml elderflower
might be an indicator of social class know if this is unusual (answer: no, mixture is stiff and glossy.
cordial
or even of character. tarragon is almost always used only Transfer the mix to a piping bag
All cultures have portable dishes: in sweet dishes in Slovenia). People For the rum fitted with a medium 1½-2cm nozzle,
in this sense, the pasty comes with like to be asked about food, and pineapple then pipe small rounds on to the
an in-built universality, one my the stories they tell about it, full of 250g sugar lined trays. Lightly dust with hibiscus
students grasped immediately (or at pride and wistfulness, is the kind of 150ml dark rum powder, then bake for an hour and
least they did once Google provided patriotism anyone can get behind. 1 pinch flaked sea a quarter to an hour and a half, until
us with a picture). Then again, made Strange, too, to register how salt (2g) the shell is crisp but the meringues
properly, the Cornish pasty is also quickly longing is induced – for 1 pineapple, peeled, are soft within. Turn off the oven and
cored and cubed
highly specific. Its recipe is not to be foods you’d not heard of a week ago. leave them in there with the door ajar
4 passion fruits,
messed with. In Ljubljana, I ate two things I really halved
for another 20 minutes.
Away from the classroom, some liked. The first was a bowl of jota, 25g desiccated Meanwhile, make the elderflower
post-Brexit minds in Ljubljana a bean-rich soup that comes with coconut (about 1 cream. Whip the cream to medium
have turned quizzically to British fat slices of smoked sausage. The tbsp), toasted peaks, then fold in the elderflower
gravy. I was smilingly asked about second was potica, a rolled pastry cordial and chill until needed.
it more than once. People also that may be filled with walnuts, Put the sugar, 200ml water, the
wanted to know why we in the UK poppy seeds, curd cheese or (yes) rum and a pinch of flaked salt in a
make so free and easy with the tarragon. Both were delicious, and small pan, bring to a simmer and cook
word pudding, using it to describe pleasingly novel to me. But back for five minutes, stirring to dissolve
both a course, and more specific in London, international capital of the sugar and salt. Leave to cool a
dishes; alarmingly, everyone exotic foods, I can find no Slovenian little, then pour over the pineapple.
had heard of spotted dick, a dish (and few Balkan) restaurants, and Put a meringue in the base of four
I strongly suspect is becoming potica cannot even be bought to eight wine glasses, then spoon on
international shorthand for our online. Result: I miss them both some cream. Top with some of the
self-elected parochialism. In already. Observer pineapple, then repeat the layers until
truth, I relished all these inquiries. RACHEL COOKE IS AN OBSERVER the glasses are full. Top each portion
Food makes conversations with FEATURE WRITER AND CRITIC with the scooped-out flesh and seeds
of half a passion fruit, scatter on some
toasted coconut, then enjoy.
JONNY WEEKS

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly

 Notes and Queries
62 Diversions The long-running series that invites
readers to send in questions and
answers on anything and everything

QUIZ celestial bodies? CINEM A CONNECT COU N T RY DI A RY

Thomas Eaton 8 Which religion was Killian Fox GA R BU T T WO OD
banned in Japan in 1614? North Yorkshire, England, UK
What links:

I
1 Which bird’s population 9 George III’s dukedom; Name the films and the actor who seldom regret an early start,
went from billions to zero Victoria’s father and fourth connects them. but still, it’s hard to do. This
in 50 years? daughter; Scotland; João morning, I’m incentivised
2 Which siblings are on the Lavrador? by a commitment to a citizen
Capitoline Wolf sculpture? 10 Abba; ’NSync; TLC; the science effort monitoring four
3 What does the White Stripes? farmland birds of particular concern.
educational acronym Inset 11 Chrysomallos; Dawn I have two areas to walk at dawn,
stand for? Bellwether; Larry; Shaun? across a square covering the edge of
4 Which island was ruled 12 Blackburn Rovers (1995 the North York Moors escarpment
by three queens called and 1999); Leicester City and the glorious Garbutt Wood
Ranavalona? (2016 and 2023)? below, managed by Yorkshire
5 Who wrote the original 13 Gregg; Pitman; Teeline; Wildlife Trust. I’ve barely left the car
self-help book, published Tironian? park before the first of the quartet
in 1859? 14 World cycling champion; declares itself: song thrush, herald of
6 What is the only widely- LGBT movement; Cusco; the day. Sunrise brings the second,
spoken Celtic language in Covid-19? a male yellowhammer like a drop of
mainland Europe? 15 Renée Zellweger; Albert gold spilled from the crucible. I have
7 What term describes Finney; Harrison Ford; a few false starts on bird three, the
the alignment of three James Corden? Naomie Harris.
common redstart. Willow warblers
Later (2002) and Skyfall (2012) star and chaffinches have similar
PUZZLES 3 N or M Connect Moonlight (2016), 28 Days tumbling phrases.
Identify these words As I descend a steep path, there’s
ICE, SUEZ (or ZEUS), WAITS. Cinema
Chris Maslanka IMPRESARIO. 3 COMICAL, CONICAL. 4
whose spelling differs only Indiana; Bustopher. Maslanka 1 b). 2 a kerfuffle in the trees. I pause,
in the letters shown: and spot movement. The ground is
15 Played a Jones on film: Bridget; Tom;
Peruvian city; during 2020 lockdown.
1 Wordpool **M**** (funny) 14 Rainbow symbols: jersey; flag; rippling – a bow-wave of dead leaves.
Find the correct definition: **N**** (shape)
Premier League. 13 Shorthand systems.
character. 12 Won/relegated from
After a few metres it stops, and a
ACAPNOTIC Toytown radio series; Aardman stripy, black and white head appears.
a) bare-headed 4 3-4-5 Greek myth; Zootopia animation; I grew up in an England where
Hard water? (3) badgers were rare enough to warrant
on members’ names. 11 Fictional sheep:
b) non-smoker and) Labrador. 10 Group names based
c) naturally buoyant God reversing into canal? (4) Alberta; Nova Scotia; (Newfoundland conservation. Now there’s a sett
d) self-defeating The songwriter, Tom, 100 metres from my front door,
Brunswick; Prince Edward Island and
names of Canadian provinces: New
abides (5) 7 Syzygy. 8 Christianity. 9 Origins of but I’ll never lose the thrill of a new
2 E pluribus unum 5 Samuel Smiles (Self-Help). 6 Breton.
(education and) training. 4 Madagascar.
encounter. This is a serpentine
Rearrange ISOMER PAIR to Romulus and Remus. 3 In-service female. After a minute she emerges
make a word. © CMM2023 Answers 1 Passenger pigeon. 2 fully from the leaves and pauses to
scan the surroundings.
CHESS He was due to be where he would have been A moment later I pick up a
Leonard Barden absent from this week’s top seeded as reigning redstart, loud and clear, confirmed
Grand Tour Rapid/Blitz in world champion with a by the Merlin app that I’m becoming
Zagreb, Croatia, so turning possible meeting with the addicted to. I stop for a skinny dip
The franchise-based Tech down yet another chance Norwegian in the final. in Gormire Lake – one of the best
Mahindra Global Chess to take on Carlsen, and Ding has no swimming spots in England, and by
League (GCL), which will also be missing from tournaments currently 6:30am I’m climbing the escarpment
finished last Sunday, this month’s 2023 World listed for his next back to the visitor centre. The bird
attracted a galaxy of high- Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, appearance. However, in feeders there are one of the most
class players, but one an interview in the latest reliable places for the fourth and,
3874 Praggnanandhaa v Sadhwani,
name was conspicuously Global Chess League 2023. What
issue of New in Chess sadly, rarest bird, the turtle dove, but
absent. After China’s was (a) White’s winning move (b) his magazine, he stated this is outside my allocated square.
newly crowned world plan that demonstrated the win? that “Argentina wants I leave with my ticklist incomplete,
champion Ding Liren to organise a rapid and but my reserves of gratitude
disappointed at Bucharest 8 Chess960 match between replenished. Amy-Jane Beer
in May, he withdrew from 7 us [he and Carlsen] at
the Superbet Rapid/Blitz 6 the end of this year. I am
where he would have 5 interested. Let’s see.”
faced Magnus Carlsen. 4
Ding was then announced
easily with rook v bishop.
3 escape from capture and White wins
as one of the top boards for which the black rook at f5 has no
the GCL in Dubai, but was 2 king to b4 before playing Ne7, after
replaced at short notice by 1 Kf2-e3, g2-g3, then transfers the
Levon Aronian.
3874 1 f4! White follows up by
a b c d e f g h
ILLUSTRATION: CLIFFORD HARPER

The Guardian Weekly 7 July 2023

 Guardian Puzzles & Crosswords
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Quick crossword
9 10 No 16,580
1 2 3 4

11 12 5

6 7

13 14 15 8 9

 All solutions published next week

16 17 18 10 11 12

19 20 21 13 14 15

22 23 16 17 18

24 25 19

The Weekly cryptic By Anto Across 7 No praises (anag) – disparaging

5 Do for a happy couple, perhaps comment (9)
No 29,107 (9) 12 Since 1921, the standard length
8 Written proposal or reminder for one of these has been 26
(abbr) (4) miles 385 yards (8)
Across 14 What rude customer in diner may give and get
14 Bring together (6)
9 Unrealistic individual (8)
9 Travelling men hove to at sea (2,3,4) (5,5)
10 Insufficient in amount (6) 15 Lose (6)
10 Supremo jittery, hiding display of feeling (5) 15 Embarrassed by horse going astray – it’s a
11 Plastic explosive (6) 17 Sound of laughter (or
11 It’s OK for Americans to call out these two distraction (3,7)
13 Exude profusely (6) disapproval) (4)
figures (3-4) 17 Sadly, great philosopher’s got no time for
15 Mean and moody? (6)
12 Doctor added essence of phenol – it got Russia’s neighbours (8)
16 Weight (8)
nowhere (4,3) 18 Spray creates a moister distribution (8) Solution No 16,574
18 Stepped (4)
13 Happy working atmosphere (2,3) 20 Pair swapping academy for university is C O S T L I N E S S
19 Someone who presides over a
14 Gardening equipment, if lost, would be more definitely on (6) S U A E O A
forum (9)
concerning (9) 21 Central fund gets involved in cut – that’s P A R T I N G R I P E N
16 The rich live off these obese people from the really bright (6) E D D A M L O
country (3,3,2,3,4) 22 Almost declare figure immediately (4) Down C O S H O C C A S I O N
23 Excitement can be free after a trip? (4) 1 Speak out against (8) I D Y L N O
19 Spooner kept stuff from angry milliner (3,6) A T O N A L S L O G A N
21 Singular shape causes dispute about what it 2 Frivolous behaviour (6)
3 By legend, the first 12 ended L N U B Y S
should be called (5) I N T E G R A L H Y P E
22 One following second speaker (7) here (6) S H H T T I N
23 Increasingly weird Labour leader heard going 4 End (one’s own, perhaps?) (4) E X E R T H A R N E S S
after family (7) 6 Period when one is not at war G E O I L E
(9) C O R R E S P O N D
24 Everyone is on board to make major bet (3,2)
25 Geometric theory eccentric uncle maintains
Solution No 29,101
(9) Sudoku
Down A M S R B B A Medium
1 PM fully extended dealing with dying cause A T T I T U D E E X I S T Fill in the grid so
(4,6)
L N B V A O H that every row,
2 Individual entered theatre a long time ago
B A C K W E E D K I L L E R every column
(5,3)
N A R O N and every 3x3
3 Artist establishes gambling location on
S T E E L Y S T I N G R A Y box contains the
outskirts of Izmir (6)
I X I C I numbers 1 to 9.
4 Visit old city that’s somewhat grim (4)
E C S T A S Y M E R C U R Y
5 One recruited in spring to oversee servers Last week’s solution
R K G A I
(4,6)
6 Feel a git when drifting? Find something A B R A S I V E B E L U G A
meaningful to do (3,1,4) L D N O H
7 Series of notes Tudor emissary kept hidden P U N I S H M E N T N U T S
(2,2,2) E T U R T O F
8 Peel initially rejected Irish nationalist S P E R M A L L O S A U R
demands (4) Y S P L E E L

7 July 2023 The Guardian Weekly