From Riches to Rags

Schools and Schooling/Trust and Abuse

It’s Pchum Ben in Cambodia the annual festival to remember ancestors.  My sleep has been disturbed by the partying from the night before that faded-out just as the very early morning chants began from the Buddhist pagodas.  I had the radio on but the BBC World Service was repeating a programme I’d heard before. There was still two hours to go until dawn and breakfast.  I was wide awake, so embarked upon one of those streams of consciousness you try to drift off to sleep.

Kept from House and Home

The UK Home Office gave my wife just two weeks to get out of the UK in November 2021 as soon as it abolished its Red List of countries for Covid19 travel restrictions. That meant both of us kicked out as it would be grossly unfair for the wife to travel alone. It did this irrespective of circumstances in the UK with the Omicron variant surging at that time; those en route or in Cambodia, and her Covid vaccination status that it ruled as "irrelevant". See Note 1 below.

An Alnwick chum beaten out of house and home

Most people never wonder what it is like to have to leave home. We mostly assume that we will be able to return and to be welcome back.  We expect to resume life as it was before our foray away. 

Community Organising Globally – Saving and Enhancing Lives

Your members and supporters might like to hear how the same devotion and skills that they apply in their communities are very effective abroad.  They are perhaps the best way for Foreign Aid interventions to succeed.

As the title in one of my blogs states I am an “Unlikely Aid Worker”.

When sparks fly 

Last month Cambodia's irrepressible young people discussed consumer rights in the country.  It seems there are efforts underway to begin to correct a persistent wrong over many years, one that I actually spoke about back in 2005 "Doing Business in Cambodia."

Well, after an altercation this week with Cambodia's monopoly Electricity Company (EdC) - that proclaims "high quality" and "best productive services" - you can see how much not only the legislative and regulatory frameworks must change but also the basic culture.

Exasperating donors

Dealing with Daft Donors

We can all be exasperated or exasperating. Whistle-blowers of course encounter both.

Public Service: no way; on its way, or lost its way?

In life things go round in circles, don't they? We keep seeing the same things happen over again. This is a sequel to my blog the “Rise and Fall of Public Service”.  Please also see my website entry - the case for better public service everywhere also published here.

Roll out the Barrel!

What ales you, man? (An Alnwickdote)

Roll out Watney's Red Barrel [Video]

When Bob Caldwell told us “You must be one of the boys”, he didn't add that we'd be having our first beer of the day at the unearthly hour of 4.45 am. If you were lucky – unlucky if you're a normal mortal – you'd have two more before going for your greasy-spoon bacon-and-egg breakfast at 6.00am. Some days you'd be off again for two more “turns” and that could mean 6-8 more pints by knocking-off time at noon.