Will a more centralized police force be more effective in combatting domestic and international terrorism? Will it also ensure a more streamlined data-network and efficient organization in tackling criminal activities, from petty to organized crime?
Archive for August, 2008
Should the United States have a more centralized national police force, similar to Japan and South Korea?
Saturday, August 30th, 2008Will a more centralized police force be more effective in combatting domestic and international terrorism? Will it also ensure a more streamlined data-network and efficient organization in tackling criminal activities, from petty to organized crime?
Privilege: Its Role in Oppression
Saturday, August 30th, 2008
: Its Role in Oppression
By Punkerslut
The Capitalist system produces two classes: the Proletariat class and the Capitalist class. The first class produces all of the wealth of society, according to the instructions of the Capitalist class. The Capitalist class is composed of investors, businessmen, entrepreneurs, all persons who are in possession of the means of production. We are all aware of the variation of this class. There is the small business owner, who might make anywhere in between $50,000 and $250,000 in a year. There are business chain owners who probably make up to four times as much. Then there is the corporation: a single business that is owned unevenly by many investors. Those who are asked to lead the corporation, the corporate executive officers, are taking the traditional role of the business owner; they become responsible for sales, salaries, advertising, everything that a business functions on. Those who own the stock make millions a year, due to the CEO’s organizing and the workers laboring. The variety of the Capitalist class is clear — it provides different degrees of affluence. Variation of income is not limited to the Capitalist class. In America, for instance, a minimum wage worker might make only $10,000 a year, while a physician or engineer might make $80,000 a year, while other careers can make up to $100,000 or $150,000 per year. Those who work hard and can impress supervisors by the quality of their labor may be promoted and given wage increases. Laborers who enter vocational schools or universities improve their productive capabilities, increasing their wages. Likewise, artists and musicians in this society are paid according to how many people enjoy their creativity — theoretically. These are generalizations, but they are the primary defense of the system of Free Trade: people who work hard can advance and gain more privilege.
Privilege. If a person has social privilege, that means that they enjoy a greater part of the fruit of society’s production, what our economists call the gross national product. The use of privilege in a Capitalist system is obvious: it provides an incentive to the laboring class to increase their productive capabilities. If someone can create more wealth with their labor, then they will be given a larger quantity of the social wealth, that is to say, the total wealth produced by all society. The first rule of granting privilege, of course, is that the new amount of wealth assigned to the individual is smaller than what their productive capabilities can do. For example, if an assembly line worker gives more effort and energy in his labor, he might produce any extra $5 of profit for his employer per hour. In response, the employer might decide to award him a pay raise. But, the wage increase would not be higher than $5, since that wouldn’t make sense to the employer’s interests. Instead, it’s typical that such a raise might be $.50 to $1.00, if one were awarded at all. Here is the first trend of privilege: by improving your productive capabilities, where the present social order is maintained, you are rewarded by the system accordingly. By creating more social wealth, you are awarded a slightly larger piece of the whole of society’s productions.
Among the members of the privileged class, there is the police and the military — coercion used for attack and defense. This is the protective, security class. In order to induce members of society to join the ranks of the coercive class, the masters of the state have offered them one thing: privilege. It is common in every effective military or protective force that those who serve are rewarded with some kind of privilege — honors alone have never been enough. We often hear of the massive armies that ancient emperors could muster just by arming all of the males, however, they still received some payment. One author in 1683 tells us: “But just as soldiers fight under authority of the state, so what they take from the enemy, as properly acquired for the state, not for the soldiers. Yet it is everywhere customary to leave movable property, especially of small value, to the soldiers who have taken it; and this is connived at, or it takes the place of a reward, or sometimes of pay; or it is to tempt such as may be willing to sell their blood when there is no compulsion.” ["On the Duty of Man and Citizen According to the Natural Law," by Samuel von Pufendorf, book 2, chapter 16, published in 1683.] In the United States today, we find that soldiers are still considered invaluable to the state. Their privilege includes a paycheck higher than your average minimum wage worker, plus benefits of health and financial aid for education. There are other techniques to gain compliance in mustering a military force. A ruler could use his present military strength to enslave others to the task of security. However, to do this, the ruler must already have a military strength with which to threaten the general population to do his will. One early example of this we discover in the pages of Aristotle, when we read of Pisistratus, who enslaved the public once they allotted him a tax fund to hire soldiers. ["The Athenian Constitution," by Aristotle, translated by Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, section 14.]
The initial use of privilege as a means of controlling society was by the early despots and tyrants. The only privilege they granted to any member of society was freedom in exchange for their service as soldiers in keeping the majority enslaved. It has been several thousand years since the Spartan soldiers would enslave foreign villages, only so that they can live off of the labors of others. Though the origin of privilege is a part of the history of soldiers, modernized society has allowed this concept to have much more far-reaching effects. In today’s world, privilege is awarded to a class based on how much productive capability it possesses, or how much more the class adds to the social wealth based on their abilities, which make them unique, compared to the other classes. Factory workers, for example, have a higher income than other blue-collar workers, because they are a skilled class needed for their abilities. Physicians help create more productivity by maintaining the health of society and fending off illness, hence, doctors are paid more. Judges, legislators, and other politicians are paid extremely well. Naturally, any group that has authoritative and coercive control of the majority will reward itself the greatest when distributing privilege. The inclusive ruling class will always defend itself. The use of privilege and its role in modern society is very apparent.
What is the alternative to privilege? If a citizen in this society does not wish to obey the orders of the masters of the system, they will lose their privilege. They would still enjoy some of the fruits of society, but they would be among the class of the majority with little privilege. That is the only punishment given to those who do not accept the offers of the system to become more productive members. The offer of privilege reads as follows: “Adhere to these special orders and you will be rewarded.” On the other end, there is a threat: “Violate our laws, or the orders to the many, and you will be punished with imprisonment — the complete inability to gain or enjoy any privilege.” The use of privilege is two-fold, in that it is used as a method of reward as well as a method of punishment. The social system in place then has interests, desires, wants, goals. Its natural role is to force people to comply with orders. The privileged classes enjoy a higher quality of living, because the framers of the social system gave them more consideration. By having these privileged classes, the ruling class gains a tighter and firmer control of the majority. For instance, kings in Europe would assign nobles who in turn controlled knights, the class honored with the duty of force. Today, privilege is granted to all members of society that produce more, because the fruit of their produce is taxed to feed runaway military and police budgets. By granting a small amount of privilege to doctors, the whole of society can produce more wealth to feed more troops. In that respect, the system gains more protective strength, in order to maintain the present order.
The citizen possesses the option to reject the offers of privilege for special duties, such as enrolling in the military or becoming a more productive member of society. One might even theoretically say that he possesses the option to reject even the law, only if they are willing to accept the penalty of losing all privilege. And though it is not difficult for us to use the phrase “losing all privilege,” we cannot forget that waking everyday in a prison cell is a very stark and brutal reality for many. The ruling party of the state has one interest in mind: to maintain its present regime and its ability to use coercive force on the majority. Those who aid the state, the privileged classes, are rewarded for their duty. If the state were to lose its privileged classes, if the people were to reject all programs of privilege, then the ruling class would lose its power and authority. The benefits that the rulers enjoy as the leaders of people would disintegrate. It is the nature of government to be corrupt, manipulative, and exploitive, the first enemy of the people. The French Revolution was a response to the endless reach of poverty due to the ruling class. The Cuban Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, and many others were all started by citizens that were discontent with their government. If, in these cases, the government was wise enough to distribute more privilege instead of hording wealth, they might have survived. The nations of the world today have learned some lessons from history. They are willing to grant small concessions to the people, in order to maintain their power and oppress their citizens in other ways.
The use of privilege in modern society is simple. By many people accepting the offer of special tasks in order to accumulate wealth, the government’s coercion of the majority becomes stronger and stronger. The use of privilege is to fuel the system’s strength and ability to punish those who violate the law, the orders to the many. Those that accept this privilege are essentially the reason why the present system can be maintained. To describe this, our political theorists use the term oppression. A higher class is rewarded for its ability to maintain the present regime’s policies and laws. Though propaganda is always used to convince the privileged class that they are doing what is right, they are also rewarded a greater part of wealth, the key determining factor in their obedience. Aside from the privileged class of society, there is also the ruling class — this is the class that asserts coercive authority over the majority. The ruling class has provided the majority with every reason for revolt and resistance, from organizing massacres, to slavery, to torture and vindictive judicial processes, to violating civil liberties, and wrongfully imprisoning its citizens. Organized coercive authorities, or governments, are the instigators to the dark side of human nature. Their only goal is to maintain their control on the majority through oppression, aided by the use of privilege. If the people were able to reorganize the social structure on mutual and non-exploiting agreements, then poverty would cease to infect their nations; the people would be able to work and live in humane conditions.
The ruling class must oppose a fair and just society. If every person were fairly awarded wealth based on how important they are to society, then everyone would have much higher incomes. In a society where the majority is enslaved to the rule of one despot, those who are given privilege to be soldiers make less than they would if everyone was free. The reason that citizens give in to the offers that the ruling party makes is because there are enough others doing the same thing to the point where it is a protected status. A government with a small military or police force would be ineffective; it would instantly crumble the moment the people demanded freedom. Citizens join the privileged ranks because they are already swollen. They enter in for their mutual defense. In a free society, they would enjoy even more privilege. They do not seek a free society for two reasons. First, if they sought out a revolutionary change in the social structure, they would lose their present privilege unless every other member of the privileged class did the same thing. Second, they are convinced by the arguments of the ruling class that a truly free society could not exist. Their claim is that it is unnatural to humans to be free.
While the use of privilege has become a great deal diversified, the essential ethic of the state remains the same: the use of privilege to get a part of society to quell the majority is essential. Its role of privilege is natural. It exists to induce compliance with a social situation that would otherwise be unacceptable. Every piece of privilege is established on the same firm ground. It is established on the slavery and submission of the majority. Those who enjoy privilege hold it solely due to this slavery. When a citizen decides to reach up and grab a larger slice of the pie, they can only do this by stepping on the skulls of their so-called fellow citizens. To grant one person larger privilege is, in effect, to deny the majority a part of their wealth. Revolutionaries throughout history have denied all privilege for these reasons. Leo Tolstoy sent all the royalties of his books to charity, living as a father and a peasant. Che Guevara refused special treatment, eating side-by-side with ordinary soldiers in their Marxist militias. Peter Kropotkin, the revered philosopher of Anarchism, was born a prince, but he abandoned his privilege because it was built on slavery. George Orwell, author of 1984, served in the Spanish revolutionary forces as they battled the Fascist invasion. Siddartha Gautama, also known as “Buddha,” was born in to wealth, but he also abandoned everything that he had just so that he could understand truth. All of these great people give us an important truth that we must understand. In order to overthrow oppressive situations, in order to achieve a state of true freedom and equality, we must reject all privileges that are built upon slavery — we must have unity and solidarity. The revolution needs bold individuals who are willing to make sacrifices in order that the majority can understand and live in freedom.
http://www.punkerslut.com
Punkerslut,
By: Andy Carloff
By Punkerslut
The Capitalist system produces two classes: the Proletariat class and the Capitalist class. The first class produces all of the wealth of society, according to the instructions of the Capitalist class. The Capitalist class is composed of investors, businessmen, entrepreneurs, all persons who are in possession of the means of production. We are all aware of the variation of this class. There is the small business owner, who might make anywhere in between $50,000 and $250,000 in a year. There are business chain owners who probably make up to four times as much. Then there is the corporation: a single business that is owned unevenly by many investors. Those who are asked to lead the corporation, the corporate executive officers, are taking the traditional role of the business owner; they become responsible for sales, salaries, advertising, everything that a business functions on. Those who own the stock make millions a year, due to the CEO’s organizing and the workers laboring. The variety of the Capitalist class is clear — it provides different degrees of affluence. Variation of income is not limited to the Capitalist class. In America, for instance, a minimum wage worker might make only $10,000 a year, while a physician or engineer might make $80,000 a year, while other careers can make up to $100,000 or $150,000 per year. Those who work hard and can impress supervisors by the quality of their labor may be promoted and given wage increases. Laborers who enter vocational schools or universities improve their productive capabilities, increasing their wages. Likewise, artists and musicians in this society are paid according to how many people enjoy their creativity — theoretically. These are generalizations, but they are the primary defense of the system of Free Trade: people who work hard can advance and gain more privilege.
Privilege. If a person has social privilege, that means that they enjoy a greater part of the fruit of society’s production, what our economists call the gross national product. The use of privilege in a Capitalist system is obvious: it provides an incentive to the laboring class to increase their productive capabilities. If someone can create more wealth with their labor, then they will be given a larger quantity of the social wealth, that is to say, the total wealth produced by all society. The first rule of granting privilege, of course, is that the new amount of wealth assigned to the individual is smaller than what their productive capabilities can do. For example, if an assembly line worker gives more effort and energy in his labor, he might produce any extra $5 of profit for his employer per hour. In response, the employer might decide to award him a pay raise. But, the wage increase would not be higher than $5, since that wouldn’t make sense to the employer’s interests. Instead, it’s typical that such a raise might be $.50 to $1.00, if one were awarded at all. Here is the first trend of privilege: by improving your productive capabilities, where the present social order is maintained, you are rewarded by the system accordingly. By creating more social wealth, you are awarded a slightly larger piece of the whole of society’s productions.
Among the members of the privileged class, there is the police and the military — coercion used for attack and defense. This is the protective, security class. In order to induce members of society to join the ranks of the coercive class, the masters of the state have offered them one thing: privilege. It is common in every effective military or protective force that those who serve are rewarded with some kind of privilege — honors alone have never been enough. We often hear of the massive armies that ancient emperors could muster just by arming all of the males, however, they still received some payment. One author in 1683 tells us: “But just as soldiers fight under authority of the state, so what they take from the enemy, as properly acquired for the state, not for the soldiers. Yet it is everywhere customary to leave movable property, especially of small value, to the soldiers who have taken it; and this is connived at, or it takes the place of a reward, or sometimes of pay; or it is to tempt such as may be willing to sell their blood when there is no compulsion.” ["On the Duty of Man and Citizen According to the Natural Law," by Samuel von Pufendorf, book 2, chapter 16, published in 1683.] In the United States today, we find that soldiers are still considered invaluable to the state. Their privilege includes a paycheck higher than your average minimum wage worker, plus benefits of health and financial aid for education. There are other techniques to gain compliance in mustering a military force. A ruler could use his present military strength to enslave others to the task of security. However, to do this, the ruler must already have a military strength with which to threaten the general population to do his will. One early example of this we discover in the pages of Aristotle, when we read of Pisistratus, who enslaved the public once they allotted him a tax fund to hire soldiers. ["The Athenian Constitution," by Aristotle, translated by Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, section 14.]
The initial use of privilege as a means of controlling society was by the early despots and tyrants. The only privilege they granted to any member of society was freedom in exchange for their service as soldiers in keeping the majority enslaved. It has been several thousand years since the Spartan soldiers would enslave foreign villages, only so that they can live off of the labors of others. Though the origin of privilege is a part of the history of soldiers, modernized society has allowed this concept to have much more far-reaching effects. In today’s world, privilege is awarded to a class based on how much productive capability it possesses, or how much more the class adds to the social wealth based on their abilities, which make them unique, compared to the other classes. Factory workers, for example, have a higher income than other blue-collar workers, because they are a skilled class needed for their abilities. Physicians help create more productivity by maintaining the health of society and fending off illness, hence, doctors are paid more. Judges, legislators, and other politicians are paid extremely well. Naturally, any group that has authoritative and coercive control of the majority will reward itself the greatest when distributing privilege. The inclusive ruling class will always defend itself. The use of privilege and its role in modern society is very apparent.
What is the alternative to privilege? If a citizen in this society does not wish to obey the orders of the masters of the system, they will lose their privilege. They would still enjoy some of the fruits of society, but they would be among the class of the majority with little privilege. That is the only punishment given to those who do not accept the offers of the system to become more productive members. The offer of privilege reads as follows: “Adhere to these special orders and you will be rewarded.” On the other end, there is a threat: “Violate our laws, or the orders to the many, and you will be punished with imprisonment — the complete inability to gain or enjoy any privilege.” The use of privilege is two-fold, in that it is used as a method of reward as well as a method of punishment. The social system in place then has interests, desires, wants, goals. Its natural role is to force people to comply with orders. The privileged classes enjoy a higher quality of living, because the framers of the social system gave them more consideration. By having these privileged classes, the ruling class gains a tighter and firmer control of the majority. For instance, kings in Europe would assign nobles who in turn controlled knights, the class honored with the duty of force. Today, privilege is granted to all members of society that produce more, because the fruit of their produce is taxed to feed runaway military and police budgets. By granting a small amount of privilege to doctors, the whole of society can produce more wealth to feed more troops. In that respect, the system gains more protective strength, in order to maintain the present order.
The citizen possesses the option to reject the offers of privilege for special duties, such as enrolling in the military or becoming a more productive member of society. One might even theoretically say that he possesses the option to reject even the law, only if they are willing to accept the penalty of losing all privilege. And though it is not difficult for us to use the phrase “losing all privilege,” we cannot forget that waking everyday in a prison cell is a very stark and brutal reality for many. The ruling party of the state has one interest in mind: to maintain its present regime and its ability to use coercive force on the majority. Those who aid the state, the privileged classes, are rewarded for their duty. If the state were to lose its privileged classes, if the people were to reject all programs of privilege, then the ruling class would lose its power and authority. The benefits that the rulers enjoy as the leaders of people would disintegrate. It is the nature of government to be corrupt, manipulative, and exploitive, the first enemy of the people. The French Revolution was a response to the endless reach of poverty due to the ruling class. The Cuban Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, and many others were all started by citizens that were discontent with their government. If, in these cases, the government was wise enough to distribute more privilege instead of hording wealth, they might have survived. The nations of the world today have learned some lessons from history. They are willing to grant small concessions to the people, in order to maintain their power and oppress their citizens in other ways.
The use of privilege in modern society is simple. By many people accepting the offer of special tasks in order to accumulate wealth, the government’s coercion of the majority becomes stronger and stronger. The use of privilege is to fuel the system’s strength and ability to punish those who violate the law, the orders to the many. Those that accept this privilege are essentially the reason why the present system can be maintained. To describe this, our political theorists use the term oppression. A higher class is rewarded for its ability to maintain the present regime’s policies and laws. Though propaganda is always used to convince the privileged class that they are doing what is right, they are also rewarded a greater part of wealth, the key determining factor in their obedience. Aside from the privileged class of society, there is also the ruling class — this is the class that asserts coercive authority over the majority. The ruling class has provided the majority with every reason for revolt and resistance, from organizing massacres, to slavery, to torture and vindictive judicial processes, to violating civil liberties, and wrongfully imprisoning its citizens. Organized coercive authorities, or governments, are the instigators to the dark side of human nature. Their only goal is to maintain their control on the majority through oppression, aided by the use of privilege. If the people were able to reorganize the social structure on mutual and non-exploiting agreements, then poverty would cease to infect their nations; the people would be able to work and live in humane conditions.
The ruling class must oppose a fair and just society. If every person were fairly awarded wealth based on how important they are to society, then everyone would have much higher incomes. In a society where the majority is enslaved to the rule of one despot, those who are given privilege to be soldiers make less than they would if everyone was free. The reason that citizens give in to the offers that the ruling party makes is because there are enough others doing the same thing to the point where it is a protected status. A government with a small military or police force would be ineffective; it would instantly crumble the moment the people demanded freedom. Citizens join the privileged ranks because they are already swollen. They enter in for their mutual defense. In a free society, they would enjoy even more privilege. They do not seek a free society for two reasons. First, if they sought out a revolutionary change in the social structure, they would lose their present privilege unless every other member of the privileged class did the same thing. Second, they are convinced by the arguments of the ruling class that a truly free society could not exist. Their claim is that it is unnatural to humans to be free.
While the use of privilege has become a great deal diversified, the essential ethic of the state remains the same: the use of privilege to get a part of society to quell the majority is essential. Its role of privilege is natural. It exists to induce compliance with a social situation that would otherwise be unacceptable. Every piece of privilege is established on the same firm ground. It is established on the slavery and submission of the majority. Those who enjoy privilege hold it solely due to this slavery. When a citizen decides to reach up and grab a larger slice of the pie, they can only do this by stepping on the skulls of their so-called fellow citizens. To grant one person larger privilege is, in effect, to deny the majority a part of their wealth. Revolutionaries throughout history have denied all privilege for these reasons. Leo Tolstoy sent all the royalties of his books to charity, living as a father and a peasant. Che Guevara refused special treatment, eating side-by-side with ordinary soldiers in their Marxist militias. Peter Kropotkin, the revered philosopher of Anarchism, was born a prince, but he abandoned his privilege because it was built on slavery. George Orwell, author of 1984, served in the Spanish revolutionary forces as they battled the Fascist invasion. Siddartha Gautama, also known as “Buddha,” was born in to wealth, but he also abandoned everything that he had just so that he could understand truth. All of these great people give us an important truth that we must understand. In order to overthrow oppressive situations, in order to achieve a state of true freedom and equality, we must reject all privileges that are built upon slavery — we must have unity and solidarity. The revolution needs bold individuals who are willing to make sacrifices in order that the majority can understand and live in freedom.
http://www.punkerslut.com
Punkerslut,
By: Andy Carloff
Can a british police officer transfer/apply for the Canadian police force?
Friday, August 29th, 2008Completed 2 years in british police force i am looking at moving to canada to live could i directly transfer to the canadian police or apply?
Police force?
Friday, August 29th, 2008once you’ve completed public service course at college can you get into the police force without trouble?
Haradhan Bag Dies. ‘why…?
Thursday, August 28th, 2008
Haradhan Bag passed away on 11 March by consuming pesticide in a remote village of Singur, called Beraberi, in the district of Hooghly, West Bengal. Haradhan Bag was no minister, no leader, no Nobel laureate, no anything. He was just a farmer of Singur, who had been happily living in peace and moderate comfort with his modest income from a multicrop plot of land in Singur which is[or perhaps I should say was!] known for its remarkably fertile land and innovative patterns of farming, leading to rich yield of varied crops and vegetables throughout the year.
But Haradhan Bag, along with his relatives, friends, neighbours in the zone, was pushed back and fenced off from his own land by barbed wire, because the Bengal government had decided to gift these rich plots of land to a private entrepreneur ( in some secret deal – the terms and conditions of which lack transparency) for manufacturing motor cars; because the government had enforced the decision with compliant armed police, and violent armed CPI(M) cadres. The people offered some genuine resistance but it was too inadequate in the face of the monstrous state apparatus reinforced by an army of pistol-wielding ‘hangman’s horror’ cadres. On 3rd December 2006 the electronic media showed the police coming down upon the villagers in a repeat of the efficient brutality of the British colonial police as shown in Dinabandhu Mitra’s Nīldarpaņ (‘The Indigo Mirror’:1860). A girl, Tapasi Mali, gave lead to small protest gatherings throughout the day; was gangraped in the grey of the following dawn and burnt alive. What accuracy and thoroughness of criminality! Before long tall brick walls came up, encircled by long miles of barbed wire, complete with searchlights, police dogs, and hounds in human form flaunting party ‘collar’. Again what remarkable efficiency in installing these new Gulags!
So Haradhan Bag, or for that matter anybody who continued to be unhappy at the development, was henceforth an ‘outsider’, a ‘rebel’, an ‘antisocial’, ‘undesirable anti-industry element’ to the perception of the ruling Party [Party and Government should be taken to mean the same thing in the case]. From this side of the barbed wire, day after day, he watched what had been his own plot– made fertile, rich, moist, black with the loving care of a lifetime—now lying beaten, mauled, bricklayered. Then one day on the eve of another season of seeding he could not take it any more and killed himself in the small hour of the night to put an end to his endless night.
# # #
The wounds of Nandigram are still raw in our psyche with countless killed, missing, tortured, raped, mauled; even women and children were not spared; the ferocity of the heinous attack upon children reminds one of the ogres, rākşasas of the ancient myths. Since 14 March (three days after Haradhan Bag’s death) Nandigram has emerged as a scarlet emblem for state terrorism (perpetrated by a horrifying combine of police and ruling party cadres who have proved horrifying thoroughness in their criminality) unleashed against poor villagers who had protested against the usurpation of their land by the government, again, in order to gift it, to a foreign entrepreneur this time, for installing a ‘chemical hub’. But the seeds of the desperation of Nandrigram villagers had been already planted in Singur by the monstrous drilling machines of the Tatas– mounted and guarded by CPI(M) government and cadres. It is because Nandigram saw what happened at Singur that they had a foretaste of what was going to happen to them. Haradhan Bag epitomizes this grim tragedy of the farmer turned pauper; so, before we launch on this discussion that Nandigram compels us to face, let us kneel once to spare one drop of tears for that obscure man, and then rise up to ask with all our residual strength—‘Why? Why must this be? What’s the way out?’
The following is the English version of Sãoli Mitra’s article on Haradhan Bag , in Dainik Stateman, a Bengali daily of Kolkata (25-03-07); MS Mitra is a renowned playwright, actor, choreographer; recently she has been the target of official criticism for staging Paśukhāmār, her Bengali adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which seems to be strikingly relevant in the context of today’s Bengal ‘Communists’.
————————————————
The Grim Battle
Sãoli Mitra
A few youths from the Beraberi area of Singur had sought to stage our play Paśukhāmār. A day in February had been fixed too. But on 4th February trouble erupted in the area again. Driven by a desperate hope of getting back their land the farmers had drawn close to the fence, and they were violently beaten up ‘for the good of the cause’ or ‘the security of the state’. On 13 March I met nearly all those who had to be hospitalized as fallout of this thrashing. That was my first visit to Singur.
Going there I saw those bruised faces,– wrenched by pain. I saw those men and women who, even after losing dear ones, are still determined not to give up their resistance. All political parties have united there to form the ‘Committee for saving agricultural land’. They include Trinamul activists, SUCI workers, former CPI(M) workers, and who not! But today they have been standing shoulder to shoulder in this battle for saving the land. It is precisely such a battle that is the need of the day, a battle in which the sole issue of survival will become clear and pronounced. It is not the issue of winning power to the throne, of capturing the votebank. The problem is that city-based intellectuals as well as political leaders — thanks to a long lack of practice– have nearly forgotten to think about land, the soil, the earth. They have nearly forgotten that the most precious battle is man’s battle for survival. It is the battle for humanity, dignity. The cub of a tiger automatically grows into a tiger, so does the kitten become a cat. But does one become a human just by emerging from a human womb? Perhaps not. One has to ‘become’ man. I have seen the contours of that human face in Singur, for whom the battle is not just for land, but for the dignity of life. Do we have any choice but to stand by them in this battle? ‘We’ mean those who still have a residual longing to stand up with the head held high. Those who have gone to Singur again and again, have been chased by the police, have sought to express solidarity with the women there, told me: ‘Go to Singur yourself. You’ll understand at once.’ Now I have understood what is the meaning of that ‘understanding’.
A cluster of prosperous villages. This kind of prosperity is rare in our villages. Most of the houses are brick-made. Almost every house contains iron gates, barns of rice, cattle in the cowshed. How could one think of shattering this peaceful prosperity to shreds and dust. What kind of persons are they! Why such cheating in the name of ‘development’! Can one do anything he wishes just because he happens to wield state power? Autocracy has done precisely this through ages. It is our misfortune that we had to witness such an autocratic government in Bengal. But symptoms of this autocracy had been glimpsed much earlier. Unpredictable whimsical bandhs for 48 hours, 72 hours. There is no way to take even a dying patient to the hospital. This autocracy and hypocrisy had indeed begun much earlier. Perhaps power enjoyed for thirty years at a stretch has made its expression so naked. Even after witnessing this naked show we, the urbane elite class kept mum; even now many are continuing mum. How can they! Singur did not allow us to keep silent. I have felt so earlier; now after coming here I feel once again the name ‘Singur’ becomes the synonym for protest. It was because Singur had protested that the protest in Nandigram could flare up so quickly. There too the situation is critical. I bow in respect to them who have fought there the battle for dignity at the risk of their lives.
Yesterday Manab Panja, a farmer of Singur, told me, ‘They say this is single-crop land. Is it? Sister, please take a little sample of this soil, have it tested in laboratory, then write in the paper about its rich quality! It is from this land that we meet our expenses throughout the year. What does it not yield? Rice, Jute, betel, vegetables, everything!’ The women roared out from behind, ‘Even yesterday they have again said it is single-crop!’
‘Why does he shout in the Brigade? Why does not he come here and say this is single-crop!’
‘ They have planted cadres here in police trousers to harass women! Shame!’
What bottomless disgust for the rulers! What condemnation! I am amazed to think that those who have perpetually vented their solidarity for the working class,– farmers and workers– have invited this kind of disgust from the people! Then was it the only fault of these people that they had transformed an initially marshy land into high-yielding multi-crop land and thereby enhanced the supply of food to the market; that they had by the sweat of their own brow had established themselves as well-off householders? Must they be again reduced to the ‘have nots’? What is the conspiracy? I fail to understand.
Haradhan Bag , who had been in the front rank of protests from the very beginning, eventually committed suicide. … Last September (25th) his daughter-in-law and granddaughter – of two and a half years—had been arrested; even the kid had a case framed against her name. The kid does not know yet her grandpa has died by consuming poison, a death for which the government is entirely responsibile, a government which was supposed to protect him, his family. … The women gathered round me. A young housewife said, ‘Uncle was a worm-like man.’ My urbane readers, please don’t get it wrong. It is an utterance of great respect. The girl said, ‘As the worm clings to the earth, so did uncle cling to the land. He would spend the whole day, working or lingering around the land.’
Till the other day the strong elderly man used to stand by the fence, staring at his gold-yielding plot. At last when the news came that secret pact too has been signed with Tata, he had perhaps felt there was no chance left any more to get back his loved plot of land. So…
Perhaps the establishment is gloating. It is precisely this aim of crushing the stamina to resist that is being pursued at every level. Coming out of the house we went to a condolence gathering – a few flowers before a small dais. Going there I got the feel that their stamina has been boosted further by this death. They do not have any doubt that this battle will have to be fought with clenched fist till death. Rows and rows of women came to attend, they were raising slogans. Nayantara Dhara, a girl of Gopalnagar, sang a song she herself composed:
When shall we have you back Ma!
They put us behind the bars
They closed in on Ma…
It has been so long since we had our last bowlful of rice
It has been so long since we had our last night of long peaceful slumber
When shall you ever return Ma?
With that one hope
We wait by the roadside
When shall we ever have you back, Ma!
I fear if these people will also be finished off with bullets like Nandigram . We have seen yesterday a country within the country,– villages after villages encircled by barbed wire. Rows and rows of police! Watch tower! As if gearing up for protecting the sovereignty of a country! As soon as we joined the meeting the police force on the other side of the barbed wire began to swell. What degree of cowardice it indicates when battalions of armed police draw in to guard against people like us, common unarmed villagers gathered at a small condolence meeting! I have seen this with my own eyes! As I am writing this I can hear my friend in the next room sending his request through the electronic media, “You come! Come to Nandigram with ambulance and blood. Stand by the people here. Hundreds are killed, injured. There is no medical facility!’ Can we still keep quiet? We apprehend a serious threat to the security of the country itself, if we consider the geographical location of the area that this government has been handing over to multinationals, foreign agencies. Perhaps all this is being done as part of a well-hatched conspiracy. Finally an appeal: Those who are still keeping silent please end your silence and come forward. Please come to take your place by the dying people! After all man means ‘human’! and being ‘human’ involves, doesn’t it, at least a minimal commitment!
[Translation: Rama Kundu]
———————————————
This is the first time in the 30 years of Communist misrule that people are coming out in the streets, and joining hands across party lines to voice a protest against ‘man’s inhumanity to man’.
*[These are lines (translated from Bengali) from the poet Sukanta Bhattacharya,
uncle of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya; showing the irony of life, times and politics!]
By: Rama Kundu
But Haradhan Bag, along with his relatives, friends, neighbours in the zone, was pushed back and fenced off from his own land by barbed wire, because the Bengal government had decided to gift these rich plots of land to a private entrepreneur ( in some secret deal – the terms and conditions of which lack transparency) for manufacturing motor cars; because the government had enforced the decision with compliant armed police, and violent armed CPI(M) cadres. The people offered some genuine resistance but it was too inadequate in the face of the monstrous state apparatus reinforced by an army of pistol-wielding ‘hangman’s horror’ cadres. On 3rd December 2006 the electronic media showed the police coming down upon the villagers in a repeat of the efficient brutality of the British colonial police as shown in Dinabandhu Mitra’s Nīldarpaņ (‘The Indigo Mirror’:1860). A girl, Tapasi Mali, gave lead to small protest gatherings throughout the day; was gangraped in the grey of the following dawn and burnt alive. What accuracy and thoroughness of criminality! Before long tall brick walls came up, encircled by long miles of barbed wire, complete with searchlights, police dogs, and hounds in human form flaunting party ‘collar’. Again what remarkable efficiency in installing these new Gulags!
So Haradhan Bag, or for that matter anybody who continued to be unhappy at the development, was henceforth an ‘outsider’, a ‘rebel’, an ‘antisocial’, ‘undesirable anti-industry element’ to the perception of the ruling Party [Party and Government should be taken to mean the same thing in the case]. From this side of the barbed wire, day after day, he watched what had been his own plot– made fertile, rich, moist, black with the loving care of a lifetime—now lying beaten, mauled, bricklayered. Then one day on the eve of another season of seeding he could not take it any more and killed himself in the small hour of the night to put an end to his endless night.
# # #
The wounds of Nandigram are still raw in our psyche with countless killed, missing, tortured, raped, mauled; even women and children were not spared; the ferocity of the heinous attack upon children reminds one of the ogres, rākşasas of the ancient myths. Since 14 March (three days after Haradhan Bag’s death) Nandigram has emerged as a scarlet emblem for state terrorism (perpetrated by a horrifying combine of police and ruling party cadres who have proved horrifying thoroughness in their criminality) unleashed against poor villagers who had protested against the usurpation of their land by the government, again, in order to gift it, to a foreign entrepreneur this time, for installing a ‘chemical hub’. But the seeds of the desperation of Nandrigram villagers had been already planted in Singur by the monstrous drilling machines of the Tatas– mounted and guarded by CPI(M) government and cadres. It is because Nandigram saw what happened at Singur that they had a foretaste of what was going to happen to them. Haradhan Bag epitomizes this grim tragedy of the farmer turned pauper; so, before we launch on this discussion that Nandigram compels us to face, let us kneel once to spare one drop of tears for that obscure man, and then rise up to ask with all our residual strength—‘Why? Why must this be? What’s the way out?’
The following is the English version of Sãoli Mitra’s article on Haradhan Bag , in Dainik Stateman, a Bengali daily of Kolkata (25-03-07); MS Mitra is a renowned playwright, actor, choreographer; recently she has been the target of official criticism for staging Paśukhāmār, her Bengali adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which seems to be strikingly relevant in the context of today’s Bengal ‘Communists’.
————————————————
The Grim Battle
Sãoli Mitra
A few youths from the Beraberi area of Singur had sought to stage our play Paśukhāmār. A day in February had been fixed too. But on 4th February trouble erupted in the area again. Driven by a desperate hope of getting back their land the farmers had drawn close to the fence, and they were violently beaten up ‘for the good of the cause’ or ‘the security of the state’. On 13 March I met nearly all those who had to be hospitalized as fallout of this thrashing. That was my first visit to Singur.
Going there I saw those bruised faces,– wrenched by pain. I saw those men and women who, even after losing dear ones, are still determined not to give up their resistance. All political parties have united there to form the ‘Committee for saving agricultural land’. They include Trinamul activists, SUCI workers, former CPI(M) workers, and who not! But today they have been standing shoulder to shoulder in this battle for saving the land. It is precisely such a battle that is the need of the day, a battle in which the sole issue of survival will become clear and pronounced. It is not the issue of winning power to the throne, of capturing the votebank. The problem is that city-based intellectuals as well as political leaders — thanks to a long lack of practice– have nearly forgotten to think about land, the soil, the earth. They have nearly forgotten that the most precious battle is man’s battle for survival. It is the battle for humanity, dignity. The cub of a tiger automatically grows into a tiger, so does the kitten become a cat. But does one become a human just by emerging from a human womb? Perhaps not. One has to ‘become’ man. I have seen the contours of that human face in Singur, for whom the battle is not just for land, but for the dignity of life. Do we have any choice but to stand by them in this battle? ‘We’ mean those who still have a residual longing to stand up with the head held high. Those who have gone to Singur again and again, have been chased by the police, have sought to express solidarity with the women there, told me: ‘Go to Singur yourself. You’ll understand at once.’ Now I have understood what is the meaning of that ‘understanding’.
A cluster of prosperous villages. This kind of prosperity is rare in our villages. Most of the houses are brick-made. Almost every house contains iron gates, barns of rice, cattle in the cowshed. How could one think of shattering this peaceful prosperity to shreds and dust. What kind of persons are they! Why such cheating in the name of ‘development’! Can one do anything he wishes just because he happens to wield state power? Autocracy has done precisely this through ages. It is our misfortune that we had to witness such an autocratic government in Bengal. But symptoms of this autocracy had been glimpsed much earlier. Unpredictable whimsical bandhs for 48 hours, 72 hours. There is no way to take even a dying patient to the hospital. This autocracy and hypocrisy had indeed begun much earlier. Perhaps power enjoyed for thirty years at a stretch has made its expression so naked. Even after witnessing this naked show we, the urbane elite class kept mum; even now many are continuing mum. How can they! Singur did not allow us to keep silent. I have felt so earlier; now after coming here I feel once again the name ‘Singur’ becomes the synonym for protest. It was because Singur had protested that the protest in Nandigram could flare up so quickly. There too the situation is critical. I bow in respect to them who have fought there the battle for dignity at the risk of their lives.
Yesterday Manab Panja, a farmer of Singur, told me, ‘They say this is single-crop land. Is it? Sister, please take a little sample of this soil, have it tested in laboratory, then write in the paper about its rich quality! It is from this land that we meet our expenses throughout the year. What does it not yield? Rice, Jute, betel, vegetables, everything!’ The women roared out from behind, ‘Even yesterday they have again said it is single-crop!’
‘Why does he shout in the Brigade? Why does not he come here and say this is single-crop!’
‘ They have planted cadres here in police trousers to harass women! Shame!’
What bottomless disgust for the rulers! What condemnation! I am amazed to think that those who have perpetually vented their solidarity for the working class,– farmers and workers– have invited this kind of disgust from the people! Then was it the only fault of these people that they had transformed an initially marshy land into high-yielding multi-crop land and thereby enhanced the supply of food to the market; that they had by the sweat of their own brow had established themselves as well-off householders? Must they be again reduced to the ‘have nots’? What is the conspiracy? I fail to understand.
Haradhan Bag , who had been in the front rank of protests from the very beginning, eventually committed suicide. … Last September (25th) his daughter-in-law and granddaughter – of two and a half years—had been arrested; even the kid had a case framed against her name. The kid does not know yet her grandpa has died by consuming poison, a death for which the government is entirely responsibile, a government which was supposed to protect him, his family. … The women gathered round me. A young housewife said, ‘Uncle was a worm-like man.’ My urbane readers, please don’t get it wrong. It is an utterance of great respect. The girl said, ‘As the worm clings to the earth, so did uncle cling to the land. He would spend the whole day, working or lingering around the land.’
Till the other day the strong elderly man used to stand by the fence, staring at his gold-yielding plot. At last when the news came that secret pact too has been signed with Tata, he had perhaps felt there was no chance left any more to get back his loved plot of land. So…
Perhaps the establishment is gloating. It is precisely this aim of crushing the stamina to resist that is being pursued at every level. Coming out of the house we went to a condolence gathering – a few flowers before a small dais. Going there I got the feel that their stamina has been boosted further by this death. They do not have any doubt that this battle will have to be fought with clenched fist till death. Rows and rows of women came to attend, they were raising slogans. Nayantara Dhara, a girl of Gopalnagar, sang a song she herself composed:
When shall we have you back Ma!
They put us behind the bars
They closed in on Ma…
It has been so long since we had our last bowlful of rice
It has been so long since we had our last night of long peaceful slumber
When shall you ever return Ma?
With that one hope
We wait by the roadside
When shall we ever have you back, Ma!
I fear if these people will also be finished off with bullets like Nandigram . We have seen yesterday a country within the country,– villages after villages encircled by barbed wire. Rows and rows of police! Watch tower! As if gearing up for protecting the sovereignty of a country! As soon as we joined the meeting the police force on the other side of the barbed wire began to swell. What degree of cowardice it indicates when battalions of armed police draw in to guard against people like us, common unarmed villagers gathered at a small condolence meeting! I have seen this with my own eyes! As I am writing this I can hear my friend in the next room sending his request through the electronic media, “You come! Come to Nandigram with ambulance and blood. Stand by the people here. Hundreds are killed, injured. There is no medical facility!’ Can we still keep quiet? We apprehend a serious threat to the security of the country itself, if we consider the geographical location of the area that this government has been handing over to multinationals, foreign agencies. Perhaps all this is being done as part of a well-hatched conspiracy. Finally an appeal: Those who are still keeping silent please end your silence and come forward. Please come to take your place by the dying people! After all man means ‘human’! and being ‘human’ involves, doesn’t it, at least a minimal commitment!
[Translation: Rama Kundu]
———————————————
This is the first time in the 30 years of Communist misrule that people are coming out in the streets, and joining hands across party lines to voice a protest against ‘man’s inhumanity to man’.
*[These are lines (translated from Bengali) from the poet Sukanta Bhattacharya,
uncle of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya; showing the irony of life, times and politics!]
By: Rama Kundu
The Presence Of Anxiety And Depression In Police Forces
Thursday, August 28th, 2008
The presence of anxiety depression in police forces is a well know fact by more and more people every day. The pylons of the modern society that make sure every day that the law isn’t broken, are staring to crack. The presence of anxiety depression in police forces is not only starting to affect them in their work, but also has an effect on the whole society of which they belong to.
“I always feel my nerves are shredded, from the moment I open my eyes in the morning till I go to bed at night,” said an officer who identified herself as Tuzi, a 26-year-old woman who joined the police force in Shenyang about two years ago. Their job implies the gathering of stress, but it doesn’t offer the means to get rid of it. This every day stress builds up and eventually leads up in the presence of anxiety depression in police forces.
This has become a worldwide problem, and an urgent matter that needs dedicated attention. Some well known psychiatrists have already started working on this global problem, trying to find the best solutions possible, and this has to be done in the shortest time as possible. The presence of anxiety depression in police forces affects their colleagues firstly, their personal lives, and their relationships with their families, friends and colleagues.
This firstly affects their jobs, and this needs a solution. This solution is still expected from the people capable of giving it. The police forces can start anti depressive treatments, they can start to take anti depressives, and they can start a program that will allow them to get relieved of the stress accumulated on the streets during their normal day time or night time schedule.
After many tests and documentation, researchers encouraged the new bipolar disorder study, as this may give more hidden information that can eventually link to a bigger picture of the problem. And, after knowing the problem and having all the data, a solution can start to emerge. Stress isn’t considered as a bad thing when it’s present in a small amount, because it keeps the mind and body alert, and our senses open. The problem starts when it is in big quantities, and when the effects upon the body are noticeable. Activities which were once easy or enjoyable become harder to do. This has to be avoided and this is why a specific plan of action relating to the problem is needed.
By: Joanne R MIller
“I always feel my nerves are shredded, from the moment I open my eyes in the morning till I go to bed at night,” said an officer who identified herself as Tuzi, a 26-year-old woman who joined the police force in Shenyang about two years ago. Their job implies the gathering of stress, but it doesn’t offer the means to get rid of it. This every day stress builds up and eventually leads up in the presence of anxiety depression in police forces.
This has become a worldwide problem, and an urgent matter that needs dedicated attention. Some well known psychiatrists have already started working on this global problem, trying to find the best solutions possible, and this has to be done in the shortest time as possible. The presence of anxiety depression in police forces affects their colleagues firstly, their personal lives, and their relationships with their families, friends and colleagues.
This firstly affects their jobs, and this needs a solution. This solution is still expected from the people capable of giving it. The police forces can start anti depressive treatments, they can start to take anti depressives, and they can start a program that will allow them to get relieved of the stress accumulated on the streets during their normal day time or night time schedule.
After many tests and documentation, researchers encouraged the new bipolar disorder study, as this may give more hidden information that can eventually link to a bigger picture of the problem. And, after knowing the problem and having all the data, a solution can start to emerge. Stress isn’t considered as a bad thing when it’s present in a small amount, because it keeps the mind and body alert, and our senses open. The problem starts when it is in big quantities, and when the effects upon the body are noticeable. Activities which were once easy or enjoyable become harder to do. This has to be avoided and this is why a specific plan of action relating to the problem is needed.
By: Joanne R MIller
Home(sick) & Away? - UK Force Poaches Cops Down Under
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
For years UK police forces have seen officers emigrate to Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Now a UK police force is turning the tables on their antipodean colleagues and advertising directly for them to return to the UK - and receive a £10,000 bounty.
British police officers have always been in high demand overseas, and are often afforded ’skilled worker’ immigration status meaning their immigration passage is smoothed and they can take up residence and work in countries like Australia with active help from the Australian authorities. Australian figures show that former British police officers make up almost one in 11 of the force in Western Australia, with 480 UK Officers among its 5500 strong police force.
Now a Midlands force is fighting back. Fed up with having their officers set off for sunnier climates after having been poached by the Australian police, Leicestershire police is running an advertising campaign entitled “Homesick & Away?” aimed at encouraging UK trained police officers to return to Britain to work in the county.
People may wonder why anyone would want to leave the blistering heat and relaxed lifestyle of Australia, but research has shown that moving away from the ‘green and pleasant land’ has its drawbacks. Of things missed by emigrants, the top ten was:
1. The Sunday Roast
2. Cadbury’s Chocolate
3. English Tea
4. Marks & Spencer Underwear
5. Football Banter (Who really understands Aussie rules?)
6. Budget Holidays in Europe
7. A Traditionally Festive White Christmas
8. Real Ale
9. The British Accent
10. Marmite
Another reason seems to be their love-lives. Mark Wickenden from Uniform Dating, an online dating site for the emergency services, says that the Australian members are often ex UK police officers or nurses, and that they use the site to form relationships in the UK before returning. ‘Many of the reasons they cite are to do with the different attitudes towards emergency service personnel in Australia’. One police member, who has since returned to the UK and married a nurse, said ‘In the UK, we all have a laugh together and go to 999 parties - in Australia things are a little less fun’.
Sgt Ed Des-Chanelle, who has returned to Leicestershire after 18 months in New Zealand has said, “It was funny how whenever someone visited from the UK, we’d ask them to bring all the things we missed the most - it was always a shame they couldn’t have brought the whole family!”
Chief Superintendent Geoff Feavyour of Leicestershire Constabulary said, “Often when people relocate they feel homesick and want to move back, but due to financial constraints they are not able to do so. Some people find the prospect more comfortable when they are offered assistance in returning to the UK. We are offering a relocation package of up to £10,000 to put towards the expense of relocating. In return we get a fully trained police officer ready to go, and we think that is good value. We are also drawn to the irony of turning the tables on our antipodean colleagues”
By: Aran Lackey
British police officers have always been in high demand overseas, and are often afforded ’skilled worker’ immigration status meaning their immigration passage is smoothed and they can take up residence and work in countries like Australia with active help from the Australian authorities. Australian figures show that former British police officers make up almost one in 11 of the force in Western Australia, with 480 UK Officers among its 5500 strong police force.
Now a Midlands force is fighting back. Fed up with having their officers set off for sunnier climates after having been poached by the Australian police, Leicestershire police is running an advertising campaign entitled “Homesick & Away?” aimed at encouraging UK trained police officers to return to Britain to work in the county.
People may wonder why anyone would want to leave the blistering heat and relaxed lifestyle of Australia, but research has shown that moving away from the ‘green and pleasant land’ has its drawbacks. Of things missed by emigrants, the top ten was:
1. The Sunday Roast
2. Cadbury’s Chocolate
3. English Tea
4. Marks & Spencer Underwear
5. Football Banter (Who really understands Aussie rules?)
6. Budget Holidays in Europe
7. A Traditionally Festive White Christmas
8. Real Ale
9. The British Accent
10. Marmite
Another reason seems to be their love-lives. Mark Wickenden from Uniform Dating, an online dating site for the emergency services, says that the Australian members are often ex UK police officers or nurses, and that they use the site to form relationships in the UK before returning. ‘Many of the reasons they cite are to do with the different attitudes towards emergency service personnel in Australia’. One police member, who has since returned to the UK and married a nurse, said ‘In the UK, we all have a laugh together and go to 999 parties - in Australia things are a little less fun’.
Sgt Ed Des-Chanelle, who has returned to Leicestershire after 18 months in New Zealand has said, “It was funny how whenever someone visited from the UK, we’d ask them to bring all the things we missed the most - it was always a shame they couldn’t have brought the whole family!”
Chief Superintendent Geoff Feavyour of Leicestershire Constabulary said, “Often when people relocate they feel homesick and want to move back, but due to financial constraints they are not able to do so. Some people find the prospect more comfortable when they are offered assistance in returning to the UK. We are offering a relocation package of up to £10,000 to put towards the expense of relocating. In return we get a fully trained police officer ready to go, and we think that is good value. We are also drawn to the irony of turning the tables on our antipodean colleagues”
By: Aran Lackey