O amor pelo esporte e obviamente um fator que une os britanicos e os brasileiros. E, como ja comentamos neste blog, nos podemos esperar o melhor do esporte mundial sediado em um destes dois paises na proxima decada.

Quando Londres se candidatou para sediar as Olimpiadas de 2012, eles pometeram investir em esporte nao so no Reino Unido mas tambem em paises ao redor do mundo ainda em desenvolvimento. Este esquema, chamado Inspiracao Internacional, esta sendo pilotado em 5 paises diferentes, incluindo o Brasil. A meta do projeto e de usar esporte como um meio de desenvolvimento, unindo comunidades e proporcionando opcoes para criancas se manterem sadias, focadas e bem-sucedidas. Dentro do Brasil, os projetos estao em andamento em Pernambuco, Alagoas, Ceara e Bahia e podemos esperar mais a medida que 2012 for se aproximando. Mantenha-se informado aqui.

Aqui esta um video promocional sobre o projeto em portugues, com legendas em ingles.

A timeline of negotiations leading up to Copenhagen has been created by Act On Copenhagen. You can view it here: http://www.actoncopenhagen.decc.gov.uk/en/media-centre/negotiations/

by Richard Frost

Richard Frost with staff at the British Council teaching centre in Chennai

There is a feeling of something very new in the air.  After seven years of working in various teaching centres at the British Council what I have just walked into feels so fresh and exciting.

There are so many similarities between the British Council teaching centre in Chennai and other centres that at first you wouldn’t notice anything is different.  We have the same facilities for students, there are the usual systems in place and the teaching is of a really high standard.  The big difference here is that the courses are being delivered by local teachers. 

In the world of English language teaching there is so much prejudice about employing local teachers or ‘non-native speaker teachers’ (a controversial and much discredited term).  I have always felt very strongly about this contentious issue and am really happy to be working for an organisation and on a project where it is being confronted head on.  It feels very exciting to be able to challenge this notion and prove the naysayers wrong.

Anyone who has trained on CELTA courses (Certificate in English language teaching for adults) will tell you that the best candidates can be from any background, whether it be fresh out of university in England or with years of experience teaching in state schools in Vietnam.  A person’s ability to teach depends on their attitude, their emotional intelligence and their ability to adapt quickly.  It depends on how flexible they are and if they are open-minded to new ideas and feedback.  None of this is determined by whether or not they are a native speaker. 

The problem is that many students (and some teachers) have preconceived views.  Local teachers will tell you countless stories of how students openly declare their disappointment on day one because they wanted a British teacher.

These same teachers have to prove themselves with every new group of students and invariably they succeed.  The feedback at the British Council centre in Chennai would delight any Teaching Centre Manager. 

So, we have a centre that is not only confronting prejudice and meeting a local need for English but also delivering excellent teaching at a price local people can afford.   Isn’t that a winning formula?

Over the next few months our teachers will contribute to this blog and tell you about their experiences. Keep checking back!

Richard Frost is the Academic Manager at the British Council teaching centre in Chennai, India

Day Five – Ahmedabad
NID
Thursday 15 January 2009

Talk about a frustrating morning. Arrived at the Calico Museum three minutes before our booked tour but they refused to let us in! The doorman was unbelievable rude, and wouldn’t open the door for us. Apparently he runs a very strict (and absurd) policy, so if you’re not 15 minutes before the tour commences, he assumes you’re not showing up and gives your place to someone else. Which means there’s no need to book anything in advance - just turn up a wee bit early and steal someone else’s place.

Thankfully Sid is still with us, so he improvises a design and architecture tour of the new town.

If old Ahmedabad revolves around Ahmed Shah’s architects, the new town is scattered with exquisite modernist landmarks. After India’s independence, the city commissioned Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier a series of buildings. B. V. Doshi, an Indian disciple of Le Corbusier, who came to Ahmedabad to supervise his teacher’s work, has also built in the city. We begin the tour by visiting his Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT). The Amdavad-ni-Gufa is unfortunately closed, but we are able to wander around the old School of Architecture and Fine Arts.

BV Doshi's CEPT/Old School of Fine Arts and Architecture.

CEPT.

CEPT.

BV Doshi's Amdavad-ni-Gufa.

Before lunch, we do a brief stopover to visit the Sabarmati Ashram, which preserves intact the small house where Gandhi lived from 1917 to 1930 while organising the Indian independence movement. Wonderful views of the Sabarmati river, with bright green parrots flying around.

Quick lunch, and then off to National Institute of Design, the heart of India’s design education. We meet with Professor Ranjan, who gives us a quick introduction to the history of the institution and the diverse programmes they run. Founded in the early 1960s, NID was created in response to the rapid social, political and industrial changes that came about after independence. Commissioned by the Indian government to write a report on the developing industrial/manufacturing sector, Charles Eames recommended the establishment of an education centre that trained professionals in visual and product design. From an economic perspective, NID designers would work to increase the value of Indian products; from a political point of view, the centre would help create an Indian design identity, an ‘Indian brand’ that through designed objects would encapsulate and represent the structure of feelings of the newly formed Indian nation. Almost 50 years after its inception, NID continues to gravitate at the centre of Indian design. From our meetings in Bangalore, we’ve realised that most practitioners are trained here. Together with Mumbai’s Industrial Design Centre (IDC), NID monopolises design education in India.

NID, with MP Ranjan.

Flight to Mumbai. One hour delay in Ahmedabad. We arrive in Mumbai, but most of our luggage doesn’t. Long faces and much anger at Jet Airway’s desk – they promise to deliver the bags as soon as they arrive. It’s clear to all of us now, Russell’s bad luck is following us.

Day Four – Ahmedabad
Uttarayan and the Sarabhais.
Wednesday 14 January, 2009

Woke up at 5am to catch the morning flight to Ahmedabad via Mumbai. Michael-George and I bought cheap Asterix comics at the airport; still no Russell who’s still in London trying to get his Indian visa…

Welcome to vibrant Ahmedabad.

With just over four million inhabitants, Ahmedabad makes a striking contrast with Bangalore. Strongly traditional, the former Gujarati capital seems unaffected by the IT revolution of the south (and this despite being one of India’s most developed industrial regions). Its rich textile tradition and the fact that the National Institute of Design (NID) is based here place the city at the epicentre of the Indian design scene. Today is Uttarayan, a kite-running festivity that marks the day when the sun begins to travel north, signalling the proximity of summer. The city is barren. There is no traffic, and the streets in the old town are deserted.

The Green House, with Michael-George and Rwituja.

We meet with Siddartha (Das, Indian finalist and winner of the International Young Design Entrepreneur award 08), who studied at NID and has volunteered to give us a tour around the city. We have lunch at the Green House, a cute informal restaurant that serves traditional vegetarian Gujarati food. Serious overdose of sev puri in the House of the Mangoldas. Afterwards, a walk across the old town. In the wonderful 15th century Jami Masjid we spot the first signs of kite flying. But the group is tired from all the travelling, so some of them go back to the hotel. Michael-George and I stay with Sid, who takes us deeper into the old town, to check out the tomb of Ahmed Shah, the founder of the city. In the Rani-ka-Hazira, the mausoleum of his many wives, we’re invited by a bunch of locals to climb over to the roof and fly some kites with them. Up on the roof, Michael-George and I have our first India moment. I’ve spent the past couple of days complaining about the traffic, the noise, the chaos, but all of a sudden it all starts making sense. We realise where the entire city has been hiding: hundreds of kites fly above us while we spot dozens of people squeezed on their rooftops flying them, trying to bring the others down (the kites’ threads have tiny pieces of glass attached to them). There’s a beautiful sense of continuity between the medieval structure we’re standing on, the Uttarayan, and the explosion of life around us. There’s a lesson to be learnt here. Shame the others aren’t around with us – it’s such a rare, wonderful cultural experience.

Ahmedabad. Friday Mosque.

Ahmedabad. Old Town.

Uttarayan.

Uttarayan.

In the evening, Russell is finally with us. Long trip from London to Ahmedabad, via Mumbai. His flight to Ahmedabad got cancelled just before take-off because of security. We need to get him a luck charm (maybe one of those small figurines of Ganesh that sell in the markets) quickly. Dinner at the House of Mangoldas again, but this time at the rooftop restaurant, Agashiye. Wonderful company: Professor Ranjan from the NID, Rajshree Sarabhai, her husband Dr. Bimal Patel and their son Samvit all join us for dinner. Having the Sarabhais for dinner is arguably the closest we’ll get to royalty in this trip – the family is arguably as essential as Shah Ahmed is to understand the city’s history. Old textile mill owners, they’ve been important art philanthropists in Gujarat, closely associated with the National Institute of Design (NID), and the Calico Museum of Textiles (which they founded in 1949, and still run). Ahh… the life of the glitterati. Delicious vegan food, but we’re exhausted, and the state runs a dry policy, so off to bed early.

Day Three – Bangalore
‘Typical good design is hated here’.
Tuesday 13 January 2009

Second day of meetings in Bangalore. Breakfast and then early meetings at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), one of India’s most prestigious management schools. The campus is beautiful (entirely non-smoking of course), and we are greeted by Professor J. Ramachandaran in his office. A Doctor in Finance, Professor Ramachandaran specialises in business investigation and has done substantial research in the creative industries, examining successful Indian design practises such as FabIndia and HiDesign. 

IIM Bangalore.

 So how does one go about making business in the Indian design sector? There are some universal principles, of course: (a) efficient risk management, (b) establishment of successful social and business networks, (c) establishment of a brand identity (which sometimes requires associating the product or the company with some already established brands, especially retail ones), and (d) thorough knowledge of the local market and its taste. The latter is important, as Indian taste is very different from the Western one. Minimalism appeals to few, and abundance of colour and evidence of the brand are essential, especially for the newly affluent and aspirational urban middle classes that seek exclusivity and luxury to demarcate their social identity. There is also a growing importance of community-friendly craft products, which make handmade objects increasingly attractive to buyers.

Our second meeting is with Professor Ramnath. The contrast with the first meeting is huge, as the Professor examines management and management education from a spiritual point of view. For him, most MBA programmes teach management skills but fail to educate the students, to develop in them a sense of responsibility given their place and role in society. His course on spirituality and management follows the teachings of ‘The Hugging Saint’ of Kerala, seeking to develop an organic rationality and a non-instrumental, wide and integral understanding of the world. All a bit strange, and difficult to tell how accepted his is perspective within Faculty and students. Isn’t management all about instrumentality? How can you conciliate both – and more interestingly, how do you assess students on this? Maybe we’ve got it all wrong.

Trojan Horse. The Hugging Saint of Kerala's teachings at the IIM Bangalore.

Quick lunch on the way to our next meeting with Sunil Sudhakaran and Sapna Behar from Icarus Design. Although it is a multi-disciplinary design consultancy that works in branding and packaging, their main focus (as trained engineers) is on product design. Like Jacob from Idiom, they have built their business alongside the thriving Bangalore IT and manufacturing industry. They design everything, from computer mouses to plugs and digital stethoscopes, and mainly work for small start-ups that need market-guidance in their high technology product development. Icarus not only provides a strictly product design service, but also gives their clients guidance on how to market their pieces, and puts them in touch with the right manufacturers. That is, they are the right people to get in touch with if one intends to do business in the area, as few know the Bangalore design market like them.

Sunil from Icarus.

On the other hand, when it comes to branding and packaging projects, these are mainly commissioned by big companies, who rely on their knowledge of Indian regional tastes to modify the packaging of their products accordingly. In both cases though, as graphic and product designers, the need for design professionals in the area is so big that they doesn’t invest in marketing, as their client lists keeps expanding, and competition seems not to be a problem. Clearly an underdeveloped, unexploited niche here.

Our last meeting is with yet another emblematic Indian design personality. Sujata Keshavan is one of India’s finest graphic designers, and are a true pioneers in the sector, having founded the first brand consultancy in the country. Created in 1989, Ray + Keshavan is one of the most successful communication and branding agencies in India (e.g. they have recently re-branded the entire visual communication of all of Indian airports).

Sujata at the Kyoorius Exchange Conference, 2008.

Ray + Keshavan, Bangalore.

‘Typical “good design” is hated locally’, she explains. Indian designers trained abroad usually need to rework their learning when they come back home, as locals rarely connect with Western taste. Colour sensibility is entirely different over here. As also explained by Sunil and Japna from Icarus, the graphic designer’s task is further complicated by the endless regional variations. The south usually goes for lighter colours; the north prefers darker ones. The biggest obstacle for designers, though, is not the particularity of Indian taste, but the lack of understanding of what design praxis means, which gives rise to a series of prejudices associated with it. ‘Sexist Indian businessmen often regard design as something their wives can do in their spare time’, she adds. Despite the recently approved Design Policy, the government is still slow in understanding its importance, and businesses usually fail to distinguish between advertising and graphic design/visual communication. After the neo-liberal opening of the economy in the 1990s, design has become fundamental for the market, as products are competing against one another, so brand differentiation is essential to survive. Hopefully, she concludes, the new Design Policy means that the government is finally to include design in their economic agenda, providing the resources to create a proper infrastructure that supports the sector.

Day Two – Bangalore
Enter South Indian design.
Monday 12 January 2009

Breakfast at 9:30. Met with Catherine (Ince, Curator and Project Manager from the British Council’s Design & Architecture Department), who is also joining us for the tour. Met also with Rwituja (Mookherjee, British Council Delhi), the designer, architect, master and commander of the study tour. Deborah and Michael-George (Hemus, UKYDE 08 runner-up) are with us – Russell (Pinch, UKYDE 08 runner-up) will arrive tomorrow.

Morning in Bangalore.

Briefing session over coffee, and then off to our first meeting with Jacob Matthews (Idiom). One of the most emblematic figures in the South Indian design scene, Jacob is an NID-trained product designer who moved to Bangalore in the 1980s to found both his own product-design practise and a manufacturing company. Operating at arm’s length from the consultancy, the manufacturing company mostly worked outsourcing international companies. Teesaract has now merged with Idiom, a multi-disciplinary design consultancy that works across the different design segments, employing over 90 full-time designers (!). Despite the size and operational complexity of the company, Jacob also works in other projects, like the social initiative he helps run with his wife (Industree), and the Association of Indian Design Industry (AIDI), a still nascent trade association based in Bangalore that seeks to promote the importance of design and its social benefits across the country.

When Jacob moved to Bangalore in the mid 1980s, the city was not a popular destination for fledging designers looking to start up their own businesses. So why is Bangalore such a design success story in 2009? MP Ranjan, Head of Textiles at the National Institute of Design at Ahmedabad, recently pitched Bangalore (much to the annoyance of Pune) as India’s design city at a seminar organised by the British Council and the Design Museum in London. When in the 1950s, the new Indian government decided to make Bangalore a manufacturing hub for heavy industries (especially in the automobile sector), design wasn’t included in the brief. The public sector’s plans for design (or ‘industrial art’, as it was called back then) revolved mainly around Ahmedabad, the Eames’ Report, and the setting up a new design education centre (what would later become NID). During the 1970s in Bangalore, the public sector’s support to manufacturing expanded to include high technology (IT). Under the leadership of R. K. Baliga, Chairman of the state-owned Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation, the government invested heavily in technological and scientific infrastructure and education. Bangalore’s Electronic Park quickly became an important centre for software development and research, attracting foreign multinationals to outsource their R&D. With the liberalisation of the economy in the early 1990s (and the later dot.com boom), investment in IT R&D grew immensely, and foreign multinationals were allowed the open offices in India.

The answer therefore lies in the IT and electronics  sector’s explosion of the 80s and 90s. Bangalore’s successful development as a manufacturing and IT hub also provided an excellent infrastructure (a large pool of engineers and software developers working in the city) for both product and graphic designers. Entrepreneurs like Jacob therefore seized the opportunity, and several have re-located there practises here given the amount of clients living in the area. This doesn’t mean that life as a designer in Kartnataka lacks challenges. Design is still largely indistinguishable for many from traditional disciplines like advertising, engineering and architecture, so the consolidation of a successful design sector in Bangalore and in India is still in process. The absence of trade bodies that support the agenda of designers doesn’t help particualrly in this direction either.

Idiom.

Idiom.

Lunch at a Tamil restaurant with Jacob, who kindly arranged an impromptu visit to his wife’s organisation, Industree. The company works developing the Indian crafts sector, looking to benefit the producers (i.e. the crafts communities scattered across India) rather than the consumers. Acting as a mediator between buyers and rural producers, Industree currently works with over 3000 women artisans, ensuring both decent wages and pricing, as well as guiding their product development so that they can expand their markets to meet urban consumers’ demands. Gita Ram’s social model is not only tremendously inspiring; it’s also hugely successful and it’s a perfect example of what creative thinking and proper management can do to exploit the opportunities of the Indian crafts sector in a social and sustainable way. They now have five stores operating in India, and last year they had a turnover of over $1.2 million.

Free evening. Michael-George and I took a rickshaw tour of central Bangalore. Can’t believe I ever thought this was a peaceful city. Can’t believe I thought of this yesteday either, as it feels we’ve been here for ages. The traffic, the noise, and the amount of people make the Notting Hill Carnival look like a religious procession. Still, it all feels choreographed, like there’s some logic behind the chaos. Quick walk around the Vidhana Soudha (the Karnataka Secretariat), a sinister, massive structure that looks like Dracula’s castle (even bats fly around it). Back to the hotel – dinner on the top floor restaurant, then off to bed early.

In the week before the Swiss voted on banning the construction of minarets the European Conservatives and Reformists group (which is where the UK Tories sit) and the British Council did their bit to entrench a bit of prejudice by putting on a debate in the Parliament on “Islam and Europe”.  I had the misfortune of attending this event and to come face to face with the likes of Douglas Murray. 

Douglas Murray, the widely credited political commentator, came off by far the strongest in the debate.  This is a travesty of the highest order as he presents such simplistic arguments (albeit in a clever and articulate way) that anyone with even the slightest grasp of Islam should have been able to expose him.  None of the panellists managed this.  I am by no stretch of the imagination an expert on Islam, or even a follower of the faith.  What I am, is somebody who can see that having a debate about “Islamic culture” and “European culture” is so overly simplified that it borders on being useless. 

There is clearly a debate that does need to happen, and this is how to reconcile potentially antagonistic aspects of cultures within a given geographic location.  We can see that honour killings for example are clearly incompatible with western understandings of liberalism and human rights.  Murray went to great lengths to represent some actions of some people who purport to act in the name of Islam as being representative of Islam as a whole.

This argument should be quite easy to show as being flawed.  Just as the opinions put forward by George Bush in the name of Christianity might sit uncomfortably with lots of practicing Christians, so an individual Muslim in the public eye may well act in a way that abhorrent to many millions of Muslims.  This first point was at least partially raised, that people interpret faith in many different ways and can use it to justify all sorts of actions (from invading countries to habitually helping the poor!).

The point that was not raised (to my utter shock) however was that theologically Islam is extremely diverse.  It is a truism that Liberal Quakers and the Catholic Church represent two very different schools of Christian thought.  In the western media and in every day life however there is a lot of loose language around different schools of Islamic thought.  The most often quoted is that of Wahhabism (thanks in large to people’s connections with it and Bin Laden). Often this is blurred with inherently violent forms of Islam such as Jihadist Salafists.  It can not be stated clearly enough that there is nothing inherently violent about Wahhabism.  There is something inherently conservative, but this is vastly different from violence.

There is nothing within Islam that suggests that it cannot be compatible with human rights and western understandings of liberalism (See the writings of An-Na’im http://www.law.emory.edu/aannaim/). What is apparent, is that an absolute understanding of Islam as one distinct religion (opposed to a series of theological schools of thought messily bought under one banner – like nearly all the worlds big religions) can be used to either justify the complete compatibility of Islam and western standards, or (if you so choose) it can be used to argue that they are inherently antagonistic. 

By arguing that any religion (including Islam) is inherently peace-loving is short-sighted and plays into the hands of those who would wish to paint a faith as intolerant (like Douglas Murray for example).  We all have a responsibility to engage with the worlds religions, even when we are starting off from a level of ignorance.  If we do not explore alternative religions and see the potential within them for moving towards a progressive future we will alienate those who wish to work for a better future though a religious framework.  Equally we leave ourselves ignorant to argue against those who wish to paint any given religion as being intolerant.

I happen to agree with Douglas Murray when he comes out with comments like “Mary was probably a Jew who told a lie” and “Mohamed probably did not write the Koran” (he actually said these things in the Parliament sessions), but I would have at least two responses to such comments :

• Firstly I would have to question what he hopes to achieve by making such inflammatory statements and
• Secondly I would suggest that he leaves himself alienated from Billions of people who see their religion as their primary moral guide.  If Mr Murray is genuinely interested in building a better world he is going about it in a very strange way.  How can you build a better world when you have just insulted half of its population?

Instead of showing themselves to be progressive minded individuals the ECR and the British council have shown themselves to have little academic (let alone political) credibility.  If you are interested in this, do not be afraid to go and ask about it in your local mosque and be honest that you do not know much about Islam but you are interested. 

I am no expert, but even I can see that Douglas Murray is a short-sighted populist.  Lets not stigmatise people because of the actions that are undertaken in the name of their faith.

by Scott Forbes

Yesterday wasn’t any ordinary World AIDS Day, in fact it was marked by a number of events put together after months of hard work, from ‘Global Forum 40′ a Community Action Project supported by the British Council’s Global Changemakers programme.

The day started out early on what was a cold frosty morning here in London. It was a day that my team and I at Global Forum 40 had spent months working hard to prepare for;  we wanted to mark World AIDS Day 2009 with a difference and that is simply what we done.

Starting out just over 5 months ago with a rough concept of hosting a Gala Dinner, it soon became a reality when we managed to secure an up and coming top restaurant in the City called Ping Pong, who offered us something that no other place could and it was totally the making to a magical evening.

But this wasn’t the only event we managed to pull together –  after weeks of emails and letters back and fourth to St Paul’s Cathedral our request of evening prayer was finally accepted.  The idea would be that the Cannon of St Paul’s would offer a blessing and a short service to reflect on those that had lost their lives in the battle with AIDS. The service was beautifully constructed and the turnout was high. This of course led on into the Gala dinner, which was a mere 10 minute walk from St Paul’s.

The evening started with a drinks reception, which gave various people the chance to network, followed by a sit down five course meal of delicious dim sum catered and provided by Ping Pong’s Executive Chef. We managed to bring around 160 people together from a wide range of backgrounds, whether that be famous TV personalities such as Denise Robertson from This Morning, comedian Francesca Martinez and writer Sir Tom Stoppard to successful business men and women from the city, CEO’s of various charities and trusts like Nicholas Hynter Director of the National Theatre, or even just a family coming out to enjoy a night to remember.

During the dinner we enlisted the support of the Shakespeare School’s Festival, whereby young people who have participated in the festival dazzled our guests with a collection of Shakespeare’s greatest pieces – which were performed to a very high standard and received thunderous applause.

 The evening slowly came to a close, but before our guests began to leave we took the opportunity to play a number of video messages from young people living with HIV across the globe, who are either attending our forum next year in San Patrignano or working with our partner Hope’s Voice International.

Overall the event was a huge success and helped to raise much needed funds. We were really pleased with how things went and the feedback we have received has been amazing. We can’t wait until the next event in February when we officially launch Global Forum 40.

Scott Forbes is a Global Changemaker and founder of Global Forum 40.

Day One - Bangalore, Srirangapattana, Mysore. 
UKYDE 08 India Industry Tour 
Sunday 11 January 2009

Arrived finally in India, waking up in sunny Bangalore – what a difference from the weather we left in London! The city looks extremely peaceful from the hotel window; there are palm trees everywhere and there’s a general quietness around that makes me wonder whether I took the right flight. As one of the most populous Indian cities, (population of over six million), Bangalore should be a traffic-ridden, bustling, noisy place. Instead, it feels and looks like a lazy Andalucian town.  

Bangalore

Being heavily jet-lagged, we decide after breakfast that the best idea is to avoid the room (and the inevitable five hour nap and its consequences) and get out of the hotel. Following the waiter’s recommendations, we hire a taxi for the day and head off to Mysore.  

140km from Bangalore, Mysore was the capital of the mighty Wodeyars, the South Indian dynasty that ruled almost uninterruptedly from 1399 until the independence of India in 1947. After two hours in the taxi, we make a stopover in the sleepy village of Srirangapattana. An island fortress in the Kaveri river, the town is famous for the battles fought between the British and Tipu Sultan (‘the Tiger of Mysore’) in the late 18^th century. We visit Tipu Sultan’s elegant summer palace, and then his beautiful, stunning tomb (the Gumbaz), whose chambers are decorated with tiger stripes motifs. Off then to Mysore, where after a brief stop at the Cathedral of St Philomena (an odd Gothic structure from the 1950s that speaks of the Roman Catholic legacy of the Portuguese) we stop to have lunch at a hotel. Delicious Karnataka Bisibele huliyana, but foul coffee and non-smoking signs everywhere. Where are all the Indian smokers? 

Srirangapattana. Frescoes from Tipu Sultan’s summer palace.

Srirangapattana. The Gumbaz, Tipu Sultan's tomb.

Mysore. Cathedral of St Philomena.

Next stop is the famous Ambas Vilas Palace. Built on the site of the old Wodeyar Palace, the Ambas Vilas is a relatively recent construction, built only in 1897 by Henry Irwing, the British architect famous for his work in Victorian Madras (Chennai). Built in Indo-Saracenic style (a mixture of Mughal, Victorian neo-Gothic and traditional Hindu styles), the palace certainly reflects the magnificence of its rulers (and the size of their egos). The building is just enormous, and the conglomeration of styles and materials (pink marble domes, multicoloured Glaswegian stained glass, thick metal columns covered in electric blue paint) give ‘extravagance’ a new meaning. Still, the space is fantastic, and its public Durbar Hall (with its turquoise gallery designed to view the annual Dasara procession) is just breathtaking. 

Mysore. Ambas Vilas Palace.

Mysore. Ambas Vilas Palace.

Brief stop in Chamundi Hill (with its lively Chamundeshvari Hindi temple), and then back to Bangalore, absolutely knackered, and ready for a long, 10 hour sleep. Study tour begins tomorrow.

by John Worne

 
A big day in our house as the children got to open the first window of their advent calendars marking 24 days to Xmas pressies. One of their calendars has several Santas on on it clambering over a Viennese building with Happy Xmas in German on the frontage.
 
The existential question arising from my daughter was why are there so many Santas (or St Peters) when there is only one and why are some of them dressed on blue and grey when he only wears red? Coca Cola famously claim they invented the red Santa, but it’s hard to explain brands not dispel the magic of Xmas.
 
My son was more hard headed – where are the chocolate buttons? Last year’s advent calender had a chocolate treat behind each window. A jolly piccy just is no subsitute, he is not impressed.
 
Today, right on cue, is crisp, cold and bright with frost on the windows – in constrast to the deluge of the last few days, but I was jolted back to reality by the email from a colleague in Pakistan reminding us that it is World Aids day today. A day for red coats but also to remember red ribbons.
 
He writes:

World AIDS Day, December 1

AIDS has killed more than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007, and an estimated 33.2 million people worldwide live with HIV as of 2007, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. Despite recent, improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 2 million lives in 2007, of which about 270,000 were Children!

The Red Ribbon is the global symbol for solidarity with HIV-positive people and those living with AIDS.

 John Worne, British Council, Executive Board

Last weekend, I’m trying to access the IETLS website of British Council and guess what?

Interesting, isn’t it?

How can a worldwide known and trusted educational website infect our computers?And who can report this website as Attack Site?

Well, it happens.

I check it again, and seems it is unblocked for now.

Hello everyone

It was a pleasure watching the conference sessions live online yesterday. I urge those of you who wanted to attend the conference but could not, to use this facility provided by British Council to watch it live and even take part in it by adding comments. You comments may get discussed.

I tuned in for some of the sessions. Some- like, ‘building skills for employability’- were gripping as well as hilarious. Especially the speech by Manish Sabharwal; was it eloquence epitomized!  Some were eye openers–Policy implications for English teaching and learning. It was quite informative.

‘Policy implications for English teaching and learning’ dealt a lot with scenario in schools in different parts of India. I guess good English teaching and learning in schools will lead to ‘building employability skills’ in the long run!  This points to the lacuna we have in India in this area.

Isn’t that one of the reasons that makes ‘building employability skills’ a necessity now? I have heard private school principals lamenting about the difficulty they face in recruiting good teachers. They have to place the good teachers in high school so that the 10^th grade results are not compromised. So most often the worst teachers end up in the primary section.

Rod Bolitho, Academic Director of Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE), raised many questions which I felt are very relevant.

Some questions, about the shortage of English teachers in India, are listed below.

1. How attractive is teaching as a career in India in general?
2. What is the reason behind the English graduates choosing fields other than teaching as profession?
3. Is there any appropriate formulated initiative in India to raise the number of English teachers in training?
4. Has the government decided what the probable number of teachers required to be trained is in order to meet the demand in, maybe, the next 10 years?
5. Are there enough institutions training teachers?

Some others, about the quality of English teachers/education, are below.

1. What is the minimum qualification for school teachers? Is there any standardisation of qualification for the primary school teachers teaching English across India?
2. In some states the minimum qualification set for the teachers of English is far lower than the others. So is bad English being perpetuated through the system?
3. What type of pre-service training do they undergo?
4. What kind of training is going on in pre-service level and how practical is it?
5. Are the pre-service training institutions calibrated completely against the needs of the teachers?
6. Are the skills of the teacher educator the skills which are needed to produce methodologically and linguistically competent teachers?

What is your opinion on these issues? Please write in your comments, would love to hear your ideas.

by Colm McGivern

We opened a new office in the heart of Cardiff this week, a subtly designed new facility that acts as an emblem of the British Council’s deepening commitment to reflecting the diversity of the UK in our international cultural relations work.

The timing is excellent: Just this week the All Wales Convention suggested a raft of new powers for the Welsh Assembly Government and advocated a referendum be held on increasing powers for Cardiff. Today in Parliament at Westminster legislation was placed to give the Parliament in Edinburgh new tax raising and varying powers. In Northern Ireland, the power sharing government is preparing to take on responsibility for policing and justice matters for the first time, finishing off the commitments made in the recent Peace Agreements. Devolution is changing the face of the UK, and the pace of that change is quickening . The widening and deepening of devolved powers is popularly seen as a move towards a more federal approach to the government of the UK, complicating and enriching ideas of a United Kingdom and Britishness in ways that offer big opportunities for the British Council’s international cultural relations work.

The more diverse the governance of the UK, the more points of connection we can make across the world; for some time its been blissfully impossible to present an homogenous view of the UK and we’ve done well in building up strong operations and partnerships in the Devolved Countries that help us promote our range of cultures. This is important for the Devolved Countries, but it’s very much in our interests too, and in the interests of effective cultural relations.

What I mean is that our very credibility is at stake. We stand to lose a lot if we ignore the nuances driving devolution, and we have much greater credibility as a cultural relations organisation when we can show how we’re dealing with intercultural relations inside the UK. I think we do this well; we work as hard for Northern Ireland’s schools, Scotland’s artists, and the Welsh sustainability-experts as we do for English counterparts. Our presence in the UK, and our partnerships with important national institutions across the four countries supports that.

As the UK becomes ‘more different’, national politics more complex and ideas of Britishness more contested, we’ll work harder to reflect that diversity in all that we do – and the statement we’ve made in Cardiff this week is a fine example our strengthening commitment.

http://www.actoncopenhagen.decc.gov.uk/content/en/embeds/flash/4-degrees-large-map-final

A look at the effects of a global rise in temerature of four degrees.

This short film features young people from Commonwealth countries urging their leaders to take action on climate change at the 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and subsequently at the Copenhagen UN climate change summit.

On Tuesday 12 November during his visit to Edinburgh, Foreign Secretary David Miliband met with a group of young climate champions in Scotland and Japan via a video link from Kyoto.  As well as being the home of the Kyoto Treaty, Kyoto is twinned with Edinburgh, so this was a unique opportunity to bring together young people in both cities ahead of next month’s United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen,  COP 15 (15th Conference of the Parties). 

Speaking to the champions at the start of the event, the Foreign Secretary spoke of the need of the COP 15 negotiations to:

>> remain ambitious – the science is clear that more than a 2˚ increase in global temperatures will have unprecedented and dangerous effects so we need to take bold action;

>> be fair – the richest countries like the UK and Japan need to do the most in tackling these issues while poorer and developing countries, although contributing less, need to do something in response to this issue;

>> be effective – tools for future administration and monitoring of reductions need to be effective.  

In reply, Saki Fujiwara (20) said that “as it is the young people who will inherit the future climate situation, young people had expectations for a strong post-Kyoto agreement with firm commitments from all sides”.

The champions put some searching questions to the Foreign Secretary on:  the balance between economic development and environmental protection, UK policies on renewable energies, EU cooperation on climate change, the place of nuclear energy within the energy mix, and the role of young people in tackling climate change.

Speaking after the event, Japanese champion, Kaori Kume (24) said, “I was impressed by the importance attached by the Foreign Secretary to the champions’ roles as educators, innovators and pioneers on climate change.”

Ayana Nakata (17) said the video link was a great experience and felt the importance of international cooperation, “If the world can collaborate, we can save the planet.” 

Director British Council Japan, Jason James, said, “Ahead of the COP15, this was an important opportunity for the champions to ask questions and share their opinions with the Foreign Secretary. The Foreign Secretary told them that their dynamism and drive plays an important role in securing the public and political support for the hard decisions that have to be made for a post-Kyoto agreement. I hope they will return home with renewed motivation about their role as champions.” 

The International Climate Champions (ICC) programme started in Japan in 2008 and was launched with considerable media coverage ahead of the G8 Environment Ministers’ Meeting in Kobe, Japan.

There are now 35 Japanese climate champions and climate leaders between the ages of 15-35. Seven Japanese representatives will be going to COP 15 and take part in the British Council’s international engagement in Copenhagen. The Scottish and Japanese champions are keen to link up again in early 2010 to look at the outcomes of COP 15 and future cooperation.

Day Six – Bombay
6 things you need to know about Indian design
Friday 16 January 2009

So far, Russell has:
(a) had terrible bad luck with the Indian Consulate in London,
(b) left his handbag on the London plane when arriving in Mumbai (he got it back four hours later),
(c) waited for hours in Mumbai’s airport after his flight was cancelled while on the runway just before take-off,
(d) had to be rescued by the police while travelling to a private appointment in a taxi that broke down in the middle of a Mumbai highway.

Since Russell arrived:
(a) Catherine has fallen sick and has missed a day of the tour,
(b) Michael-George, Deborah and I have been feeling dizzy and not very well,
(c) I’ve lost ALL of my pictures from Bangalore and Ahmedabad while transferring them to my laptop,
(d) we arrived ‘late’ to the Calico Museum and were denied entry,
(e) most places we’ve visited have been closed, so we’ve had to improvise where to go,
(f) Jet Airways has lost our luggage when flying from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.

So this guy’s cursed and we’re trying to stay as far away from him as we can. Luggage arrived early in the morning, to everybody’s surprise, so there was clean underwear for everyone. Catherine is still sick, so she’s staying in bed today.

Running late...

Early meeting at the Industrial Design Centre (IDC Mumbai), where we meet with Professor Ravi Pooviah, who gives us a brilliant introduction to the Indian design sector. Founded in 1970, the IDC is part of the Indian Institute of Technology (there are seven of them scattered across India), and remains together with NID one of the best design schools in the country. Unlike NID, they do only postgraduate courses, specialising in interactive design and animation.

IDC Mumbai.

So – six things we need to know about the Indian design industry:
1. Indian idiosyncrasy favours recycling, sustainability and constant re-use of objects. IKEA would be anathema over here, as waste is seen as something obscene that contradicts nature’s cycles. Objects are constantly re-used, and are carefully looked after so that they last (e.g. sofas are wrapped with transparent plastic, etc.)
2. Indian taste is dependent on functionality. Form is not as important as function – although not so much in big, urban centres, where Indian culture is ‘tragically diluted by Western values’.
3. There is a huge need for trained designers in the sector. Although in Pune three new design schools have just been created, India still lags behind other countries in terms of design education. Each year, India ‘produces’ 400,000 engineers, about 5,000 architects, but only 1,000 designers. In China, the number of designers p/a is close to half a million; in the UK the number is about 50,000. There are though about 1 million ‘design-enablers’ working across the different economic sectors, who are competent with certain design software. Nevertheless, India’s experiencing an extraordinary moment for education (55% of the population is below 25), so new institutions are being created and new programmes are being implemented. This is the perfect moment to invest in design education, as that population will soon age.
4. Design, as we understand it, is a relatively new field in India. It was inseparable from fine arts and crafts until the 1950s. In the 1960s, the Eames Report and the creation of NID improved the situation, although design remained exclusively associated with industrial and product design. Fashion and textile design emerged only during the 1980s as separate creative sectors, while graphic design was still indistinguishable from advertising. It was the economic liberalisation of the economy in the 1990s what finally changed the situation – by exposing companies to an open market, the economic sectors have finally began to realise the importance and need for design professionals to position their products and compete in the market.
5. Infrastructure in the sector is very small; the government is still pretty slow in acknowledging the potential of professional design. The few design associations across the country haven’t really managed to create a single front to put pressure on the government. Therefore, entrepreneurship is fundamental if one wishes to work here. Opportunities have to be seized, networks need to be created, all operations in the production process carefully overseen, etc.
6. Taste varies immensely from region to region. Lifestyle trends go from completely rural to urban, although these are mainly driven by family and Bollywood values. The latter is fundamental to understand the dynamics of Indian society, its trends, styles, and taste.

Mumbai.

Mumbai style. Kalhan Matto from Planet 3 Studios.

After the meeting, we take a tour of the (non-smoking) campus, and then travel to north Mumbai (i.e. one hour in bloody traffic), where we meet with Kalhan Matto from Planet 3 Studios. He runs a very successful design consultancy that does ‘Mumbai style’ interiors, product design and architecture projects. Lunch in their offices, and then back again in the car to get to our last meeting near Juhu Beach. We meet with Nitin Kilawala, an architect who runs his own practise as well as the Institute of Indian Interior Designers (IIIM). Founded in 1984, the association has over 4000 members and 19 chapters across the country. His views on Indian interior design and architecture aren’t though as optimistic as the ones we’ve been hearing. Most people we’ve met have complained about the lack of public support and the low awareness of design, but they have all expressed their belief in the huge potential for the sector’s development – be it in education, or through crafts. For Kilawala though, architecture and interior design are nowadays in a ‘confusing state’, and it’s hard to find projects which aren’t mediocre. What about the fantastic legacy of Indian architects that has populated the subcontinent with temples, Mughal tombs and fabulous palaces and fortresses? According to him, those skills remain, but there is no consciousness of the importance of architecture or design – and the IIIM seems very reluctanct to do anything about it, if you ask me.

Nitin Kilawala, IIIM.

Back again in the car, quick stopover at Juhu Beach at sunset, and then to the hotel to pick up Catherine who’s feeling a bit better now. Dinner at an Italian restaurant in Bandra. We meet with several finalists from previous Indian Young Design Entrepreneur awards. Simon Gamell (BC Mumbai) and Slash (Shailesh Prabhu, the Indian finalist for the International Interactive Entrepreneur award) are also there. Deborah leaves for London later tonight.

Juhu Beach.

Juhu Beach.

Evening dinner, Mumbai.

by Andrew Kneale

The US and UK have famously been said to be ‘divided by a common language’.  For instance, the term ‘Cultural Relations’ isn’t well recognized in Washington; it might conjure up images strictly of high art and champagne receptions, rather than programming that actively builds trust among young people. The foreign policy elites who deconstruct the ebb and flow of geopolitics on ‘the hill’, within the halls of power-house think-tanks, and amongst the prolific blogs which shape public opinion, talk more often of ‘Smart Power’ and the merits of strategic communications, and do not necessarily recognize the critical role of Cultural Relations. Increasingly however, I think this is more a function of language, rather than disagreement about the nature or importance of intercultural engagement.

Yesterday, Chief Executive Martin Davidson and Raoul Shah – one of the British Council’s trustees – were invited to participate on a roundtable at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington, DC.  Steve Clemons – foreign policy analyst, political commentator and influential author of The Washington Note, hosted and facilitated a conversation about ‘British Smart Power’ via Skype from a hotel room in Berlin. Director of New America’s Middle East Task Force, Amjad Atallah, assisted in Washington. With the backdrop of President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy speech the previous night, bloggers, think-tankers and journalists at the roundtable asked questions of Martin and Raoul. They discussed the merits of public diplomacy, cultural relations and other forms of engagement with those countries in which the UK and US have a deficit of trust, with the view to identifying what sorts of practices yield more positive, credible and closer relationships with these countries for the future.

Cultural Relations as a function of national security, and as a contributing factor to more stable societies the world over, is not a construct that many are used to. However, during the roundtable, Martin was quick to point out that in 1936, then British Council Chairman William Tyrrell successfully appealed to the Chancellor for more funds, making the argument that the organization should be seen as ‘assisting practically in our national defence. Modern defence consists not only in arms but in removing misunderstanding and promoting understanding’. This belief, Martin said, still rings true today. Where we ended up, I think, in this fantastic conversation, was an agreement that dialogue which celebrates difference and does not seek to push false consensus, is a key element of a credible, positive global engagement. And while language is one of many barriers to our conversations (even between the US and UK) continual investment in exchange between civil societies around the world is essential for our collective futures.

Andrew Kneale is Cultural Relations Project Manager at the British Council in Washington