Women at work

Professional women at work

I’ve blogged about images before on this blog and so when I read Danny Golding’s post  regarding the trouble he was having finding suitable images for his new enterprise (Work Out Loud). The post got me thinking.

His post is primarily about how all of the available pictures are overly stylised pictures of young suited men. He goes on to explain there are very few photos available of working women, just lots of suits.  

Asi get most of my images from Wiki commons I thought I’d check what their selection of Working Women looked like, and it seems the view of the open media community is just as stereotypical. Here's the wiki commons page for when you search “Women at work”

The first thing I noticed was the categorisation which included

•  “Men and women at work” - Which would be ok if there were also suitable categories of “women at work”, but with the others it appears to define working women as only possible alongside men.
• Peasant women – So peasant women have to do some manual work or bake bread, but surely paid employment is not possible?
• Bikini Car Wash – Which bizarrely implies that one of the most popular jobs for women is to wash men’s cars with very little clothes on.
• Working mothers – so those that aren't defined by men, undertaking manual tasks or washing men’s cars are only working because their mothers.

The picture that come up in the first place are mostly historical black and white pictures which is not uncommon for Wiki commons but does give the impression that women used to work but that no modem women has a job worth photographing.  Filter the historical pictures we’re back to manual tasks and bikini’s. There are also a number of photos of women in uniform, police, flight attendants, nurses, ect ect, and whilst that’s all fine and dandy I can’t believe it proportional to the jobs that women actually undertake.

But now there is something you can do to redress the balance, Wiki commons is an open community so if you have more appropriate images of women at work why not upload them to commons.wikimedia.org

CentrePoint - a new page - or back full circle?

I currently work in the 27th tallest building in London, and a landmark in central London. Built in 1966, Centrepoint has been many things to many people. But for my company and I it has most recently been a workplace. All that is about to change as the building is set to undergo a major change. Its set to become plush new housing, so today is our last day in the building before heading off for a new page of our own on Friday.

Growing up in London you can't miss the rather drab looking building that towers over the end of Oxford street, marking the end of London's best known shopping street, it also sits on a road that through the 90's could guarantee a bargain for techies, yet turn your eye half a turn and you find the luvies of theater land. Location wise you couldn't find a better place to provide 32 floors of offices, yet it stood empty for years. As a child I never understood this and I wasn't alone, it proved to be controversial in a number of ways but the developers where effectively speculating on the chance of finding a single tenant. This led to the government offering to buy the building for 5 million pounds, maybe if we had bought it in 1972 we could now have afforded to buy another couple of banks. It eventually became the home of the CBI and a number of other tenants, ourselves included.

Homeless Charity

Another side to the building was the link to the homeless charity and again growing up I couldn't work out how a homeless charity could afford to build a huge building like this and keep it empty. At one stage I even thought that it was the worlds largest Homeless hostel and that the entrance was a rather salubrious snooker hall. In 1974 local activists aimed to squat inside the building to draw attention to the plight of the homeless and reasoning that an empty building such as this should be used for the benefit of the homeless. Around this time the homeless charity Centrepoint was born. It seems the link is purely co-incidental but its rather a good story to think of it as a reaction to the excesses of property speculation that led to the building of a concrete empty building and contrasting to the hundreds of homeless people sleeping on the cold streets within its Shadow.

Its design too is controversial and rather Brutalist, its just Glass and concrete jutting up from the ground rather, well, brutally. Modern sky scrappers like the Shard and the Gherkin are for me far more beautiful. But the building is Grade 2 listed and has won plaudits for it rather uncompromising style. Its certainly deemed nice enough to be suitable for its next phase of life as a home for the rich. One things for sure the views from the building are like no other in the London, and therefore the world. London's newer Skyscrapers are grouped together in the east, but Centrepoint stands alone right in the middle and offers 360 degree views in to the heart of the worlds greatest City.

Future 

So its not really a surprise that the future for the building takes it back in one sense to its controversial roots. Where as the property boom of the 60's and 70's provided profit opportunities even for an empty office building. The property boom now provides a profit opportunity for largely empty housing. Whilst the plans do include obligatory affordable housing, largely the tower itself will be Luxury flats all I'm sure will be sold for in excess of a million pounds. When you look around London at that property band most houses remain empty for 90% of the time operating as a base for the few days a year when the International owner has a meeting in London. So once again there will be a stark contrast between the super rich and the super poor sharing a single doorway. Its ironic that what was controversial back in the 70's is commonplace 50 years later.

One thing is for sure I'll miss the views, but not the rather complicated lifts.

The Mexico Question

The events in the Ukraine are devastating and surely the international community must come together and ensure a democratic route forward, that's in the best interests of Ukraine. I know nothing of the country its politics or its history. Though my great great granddad was from Kiev, so perhaps i should. The thought that Russia have invaded and are holding to ransom a independent country is shocking, and that it is within the European continent and essentially over whether Ukraine draws closer to the EU or to Russia make me think about international politics. As I said I know little about the situation in Ukraine but all my news sources seem to suggest unanimously that Russia are the ultra bad guys here.

Yet, I cant help thinking that that view may be a little hypocritical, is it suggested that if faced with a similar situation that any political powerhouse wouldn't do the same, Certainly Britain has throughout history, but surely those days are gone. But China? they would surely take a similar route, India probably, Japan? What about Brazil, surely the would defend their interests in a neighboring country, But what about the US would they just let a neighboring country fall into potential Civil war or would they send in an occupying force to protect their selfish interests.

This Blog runs the risk of being pro Russian or being supportive of the occupation, Its not meant to be its just a question of Geo-politics and a demonstration that things are never as simple as they seem.

What If...

Let me tell you a story about a fictional situation based in country that I know equally little about. Mexico has a long history of co-operating with the US and has several trade agreements, there are legal frameworks allowing for cross border initiatives. Millions of Mexicans live and work in the US. Major US companies operate out of Mexico, and relationships seem on the face of it to be going swimmingly. Sure there is poverty in Mexico, but so to in the US, sure there is a significant drug related underground and comparative inequality, but Mexico is not alone. Like the EU the south american countries have a union (UNSUR) and like the EU their are political and financial benefits to being part of that Union, currently their are 12 members, But Mexico currently has closer links to the US.

Now lets start making stuff up, Lets supposed that the inequality in Mexico increases and crime becomes a more favorable option for the countries poor. To help fight that crime the US offer assistance and help fight a more intense war against drugs. Lets assume that poverty is not curbed and the populace start directing the anger towards the government and seeing the links with the US and the relative wealth start to question why they are not helping more.

At the same time lets assume that the UNSUR start talking about expansion in to Central America, and an opposition leader made popular through sporting achievement, Maybe he won Gold in Sochi Olympics. Anyway, this opposition leader starts to campaign for closer links to UNSUR. The pro-US government has little choice but to draw battle lines along US\UNSUR boundaries and is draw even more pro-US. Eventually unrest occurs and the opposition start demanding immediate elections. But the Government stands firm, Mexican business which are understandably close to the government get worried and move money in whatever way they can out of the country, undoubtedly this will evolve some people very close to the Mexican leader, and some US Billionaires, linking to the US government. It would almost certainly be portrayed as corruption. Seeing this the situation escalates and their are riots on the street. Given its an internal affair along international relations, neither the US or the UNSUR get involved and its too far from Russia, China or the EU for them to get too close. Yet it continues to escalate and eventually the leader of Mexico stands down and the pro UNSUR leader forms a non-democratic interim government and the US are faced with the prospect of a country on their doorstep no longer being so friendly and in fact drawing closer to some rather un-cooperative countries, such as Venezuela and Cuba. It still has economic interest in the country, several large companies and governmental installations in the north of the country, It has a long border and their are family links running deep into both countries

At this point would the US stand idle with a revolution on its doorstep?, It would have to do something Everyone in California would know someone in Mexico suffering, and how would it protect its interests, to a government in chaos, Surely it too would be forced to mobilize troops to some degree, even to protect its Border? But whats the best way to protect the border? How would they respond to an Un-democratic Coup threatening their interest? Russia have undoubtedly gone too far, but what else would a superpower do? So faced with a similar situation, what should Russia do?

I have done a considerable dis-service to Mexico, and undoubtedly to Ukraine, Russia and the US and for that I apologize, but hopefully it demonstrates how complicated the situation in the Ukraine may be, and it important that even when faced with invasion, the important thing is to try and prevent escalation and to talk it out rather than to allow provocation. At least on this point the people of the Ukraine are being exceedingly patient.

Blog 101

With a bit of luck and a trailing wind I'm hoping to write a regular blog. Not sure how it will develop but the aim is  to use my time on the Much Maligned Metropolitan line to put my wandering thoughts to paper. Its a tricky thing to start, and I make no pretence of being a writer or any sort of publisher. So why am I writing one, the simplest t answer is that I often have thoughts that are too detailed for twitter and require some exploration to understand why I have reached that conclusion. I find that in implicit in the act of writing is a discipline which forces the mind to formulate ones thoughts a little better and then to commit them to public scrutiny not only allows thoughts to be tested, but ensures ones own view is resilient and at least a little thought through.

So I am writing this as a voyage of self discovery and mostly for my self. If you like what I write or have a view which can add to the conversation id love for you to join me. I appreciate this makes me sound like some sort of naval gazing self aggrandising hippy, and maybe there is some truth to that, but i guess we'll wait and see.

I guess the next question is what to write about? Quite often the best blogs with the highest readership have a narrative and a rich set of core principals, which hold the work together. Unfortunately for me I don't have those for these posts, maybe Ill find one as I write but barring in mind I'm not on a mission to gain huge readership, my goals for the blog will be slightly different. It would be easy for me to describe the blog in a whatever comes to mind sort of a way. But that also wouldn't be true, there are lots of things that go through my mind that would not make interesting reading and I do want to grip your attention and the plan is to formulate well put together blogs. The honest answer is that I don't know what to expect from this blog and that's part of the reason for doing it.Who knows in a years time I may have an idea that drives it forward, but maybe not.

What I can tell you is what i'm interested in and where my thoughts are likely to go in the early days. I'll explore all of these topics more broadly in my next few posts.

• Atheism - I am one, and there are many implications to being an atheist in today's society 
• Religion - I'm fascinated by the stuff, I don't understand it, but i'm fascinated by its history. All religions are stunning in there very existence and there are lots we can learn from how they have evolved.
• History - this mostly comes from a love of historical fiction novels, and I know little about genuine historical fact.
• Maths - the things people can do with 10 different figures is stunning. I'm not some sort of mathematical boffin but I'm particularly interested in natural sequences and the economics of reality. Think Fibonacci meets John Stewart Mill. meets
• Technology - I work in the technology industry, and there is so much to it that its inevitable that the occasional tech blog will be forthcoming especially accessibility and CRM technology
• Sport - Im not fanatical about any particular sport or team but I do enjoy the thrill of it. Essentially if I can find a knowledgeable source to get me started I can be equally enthralled by curling as I can a American football. But with a particular following for Leyton Orient
• Society - In its widest sense society and how we move forward is important, So politics, Charities, Equality, Poverty that sort of thing

Well that's about it to start with, the plan is to quietly write a blog about each of the above subject areas to get me started then I'll start looking for feedback. 

*I should say here that I'm dyslexic and my spelling is atrocious. I will attempt to fix as many mistakes as possible, but the mos important thing is that the blogs are interesting and readable, the odd mistake does not distract from that experience for too many a people, So if terrible spelling offends I can only apologise, but i'm not going to lose much sleep over it.