Izeusse Dias Braga Jr., Head of Petrobras’ International Corporate Communications and me.

Christo Redentor - great views from the top

Marcos Mantoan from Banco do Brazil and me.

All of us, with some of the directors of “5 x Favela”. The film is released on 27^th August and is about life in the favelas from the point of view of people from the community.

Santa Marta.

Kids playing footie in Santa Marta - once we had taken the lift/train up the side of the hill, and changed onto another lift, we were at the top of the favela. First thing we saw was kids playing footie. They were playing 4v4 and had 3 teams of 4. They were playing on a caged-in footie pitch which I assume was astro-turf. They were doing skills, footwork, scoring and celebrating goals. The coach had a whistle, as well as a yellow and red card. Very similar to the sessions I’ve coached on Free and Active at home – rotating teams and making sure that everyone gets a game, and the engagement with kids was similar. Those playing were around 12-16 and there were little kids playing at the side of the pitch kicking a ball. There was also a climbing frame adjacent to the footie pitch and it was not a lot dissimilar to the sessions at home.

I watched them playing for about 10-15 minutes and had an immense feeling about something. Quite what I’m not so sure. Maybe it was the similarity between the kids playing there and the kids playing in the UK? Or the similarity between the coach there and me? Or that kids playing there will go home after the session and go back to their home – in the favela (community) – and the kids in the UK going home – probably to luxury. It is hard not to ask the question…why? - Why is there inequality present in this form? There are many answers, but there is something in common between kids in Brazil and kids at home - sport brings them together regardless of their background.

We also visited the UPP Santa Marta (Pacifying Police Unit). Initially, they had attempted to occupy the part of the favela where drugs were in control. The police went in with the intention of not causing too much disruption and wanted to work with the community. They said that there are drugs still present, but the situation is not as bad and has been weakened.

The idea of the programme is not to offer services, but to allow services to be able to come into the favela. People no longer need to ask the drug dealers for permission to enter the community. The ambition is to make the favela part of the city.

When asked about whether the programme is short-term or long-term, the police were positive about the success of the programme. Benefits that are present are things like doctors being able to go in, as well as bringing the community into closer contact with the government. The ultimate goal is to turn favelas into neighbourhoods.

The programme obviously looks really good and the feeling was that it is relatively successful. It was definitely an eye-opening experience, especially when we walked back down through the favela.

Global Fllowship Flickr account - http://www.flickr.com/photos/41858667@N02/4841694070/

Take care.

Ian

Palm trees along the beach - just before sunrise.

Have put some photos on my Facebook page (Ian Goley), as well as on Flickr.com

 At the Maracana stadium - Flamengo 1-1 Avai.

Sunrise…pretty awesome!

More coming in a few hours.

Ian

Hello all!

Thought it was about time I added another update as it's been a while! All the India fellows are now in their different cities, so i'm here with the Delhi group still exploring the city and slowly getting used to everything here!

It's been a busy exciting week as usual...the British Council here are definately working us hard and making sure we really do get the chance to fully immerse ourselves in the culture, which has been really brilliant. Had our last Hindi session on Tuesday as schools have just started again here, so now on our own with the language...i'm trying my best to learn little bits but although I usually pick up languages quite easily, Hindi just doesn't seem to stick! I'm trying though!
Had the chance to do some bollywood dance and bhangra over the past few days which has been really good fun...I can't dance to save my life (and can't tell left from right which makes everything ten times harder!) but it's been really good and it's difficult not to smile when the music and the steps are just such fun to do! Hoping to get the chance to showcase some of our skills over the next few weeks!

Got the chance to learn about different industries as well over the last few days. Spoke to leading journalists from the Hindustani Times (one of the major newspapers here) and MINT (the financial paper from the same corporation) which was really interesting. Unlike in the UK, India's printed papers are seeing demand soar as literacy levels go up, but the new technology arms of newspaper corporations are facing a difficult task as relatively few people in India are using the web for reading news, and as printed papers are so cheap (approx 2 rupees), people are reluctant to pay for online news. Indeed, interestingly, many of the people we've spoken to from many different industries have said that in India, it is pricing products at a cheap price that really unlocks the market here rather than producing the new most desirable item. Also got the chance to visit two radio stations, All India Radio (a public broadcaster and the only radio station allowed to broadcast news) and Fever 104 fm (a station partly funded by Virgin media). It was interesting to see the multilingual aspects of AIR which produces programmes in both Hindi and English, although I must say I was slightly shocked that despite the fact that there are lots of tv news channels and newspapers, only AIR are officially allowed to broadcast news (although this is due to change when new legislation comes in). Got the chance to rap on fever fm - broadcast to all of Delhi this morning at 7.05 - which was great fun, although somehow i'm not sure we have futures as rap stars! Also learnt abot the fashion industry in India which was really interesting, particularly the comments about India making the transition from a maker of textiles to a designer industry, and met the model Amanpreet Wahi who then very kindly got us in to her fashion show at a luxury hotel in Delhi...definately a very surreal experience, but by far one of the best nights ever!

Also - and thank you so much British Council for organising this! - met Jeremy Hunt, secretary of State for culture, media, sport and the olympics today who was here in Delhi as part of Cameron's delegation to promote a new special relationship between India and the UK. He was accompanied by Sir Mark Jones, the head of the V and A museum in London, Neil Macgregor, the director of the British Museum and Dame Lynne Brindley, head of the British Library. It was good to have the chance to talk about our experiences of India with a politician, and interesting to hear not only his views on the importance of culture, but also to hear his responses to some of our questions. Moreover, it was interesting to hear how big UK institutions were planning to promote links between India and the UK, particularly using new technology to share information and artefacts. Due to the hectic nature of the delegations schedule, we sadly didn't have much of a chance to delve deeply into the delegations aims here in India, and although it was clear that the government is keen to promote global links, particularly with India, I got more of a sense about how this will work in relation to larger cultural institutions, rather than how it will work on a more grassroots scale, something I think it is important to really explore if the UK government really wants the British public to engage with India.

Anyway, think i've written quite a lot, so i'll leave it there...speak again soon!

Hello again, hope all is well wherever you are reading this. I can safely say that all is fantastic here. Before I move on to some deeper issues, I would like to mention about yesterday. It was a very surreal day. We first had a Bangra dance session, where, with a bit of convincing, the group will be performing a dance on the final night, when all the Indian fellows reunite, along with an audience of around 200... We then moved on to visiting some radio stations, one national, the other Local. The presenter wanted something from us to air on his show, but as it is a Hindi radio station an interview was out of the question. So instead he wrote a rap for us there and then in the studio which we sang and was recorded for this morning’s main breakfast show, think of the equivalent of Chris Moyles. As the day progressed a invite came through from the fashion model we met the previous day, asking if we would like to attend her show that night in one of the best hotels India has to offer, and will be home to David Cameron and his cronies in the coming week I think. By now people were beginning to feel like B list Celebs and when we arrived at the hotel, the cars dropped us right outside where we were met with flashing cameras and a red carpet, all very glam. I feel like I am turning this into a narrative, so I do apologise, but the day was so cool I’ll continue regardless. We were ushered into the fashion show, which was themed Indian Bridal wear, very suitable. When we walked in there were men in white uniforms with trays of drinks who couldn’t wait to give them away. Anything from Coke to rather large whiskeys... By now we had been on radio, and turned up at a 7 star hotel (I know no such thing exists but hey, you get the idea) where we were greeted with paparazzi and a free bar. What was next? Oh look, there’s a TV crew over there, wonder where there from? Wait are they walking this way? HEYA!!! Shout the presenter of India’s equivalent of, well, actually not sure to be honest, I would say MTV, but more of a fashion slant, and not quite so big. So a 15 minute group chat with them was rather cool. Then, just to top the day off, after the show we were talking to the model that got us the tickets, when another model and her boyfriend/partner/husband came over. He just so happened to be a famous Indian DJ playing all the top clubs in Delhi. With a chat and exchange of phone numbers we wangled ourselves onto the guest list of his next gig. All in all not a bad day out.

                Anyway, enough of the story telling, let’s get down to the reason why we’re all here, to see the effects of globalisation and immerse ourselves in the culture. The issue I was talking about the other night, where we were playing games with street kids. What bracket does it come under? There doesn’t appear to be any cultural things there, until u you see the reactions of other people waiting on the platform. The way they are able to pretend that the problem doesn’t exist. They walk on by while people are abused, use the platform as a house and worst of all, they are children. I believe that the hour or so of fun and laughter that we gave to those children was the right thing to do. As I said the other night, it shows the kids that not all adults will ‘walk on by’ and that they are human beings. So what can be done? Giving money directly to the children is pointless; it is taken straight off them.  So as a primary form of aid, food is the best. But that is not a solution, only a mere stop gap until they are hungry again. You may ask where is the government in all this. It’s a question I’ve been asking myself. At this very moment in time I am not sure, it is still left for me to discover, I have just started to read a book called ‘making India work’, I am hoping this will have some, if not all of the answer. At the moment the biggest barrier is the corruption within the government. Most MP’s are there because their father was a MP, and the job has been handed down. India is the biggest democracy in the world, but I haven’t seen the democracy bit yet. Or should the work be done by charities, and other non profit organisations? Is it really their role to aid a country that will soon have more economic power than our own? I was speaking a journalist the other day for the Hindustan times, and he said that when he asks young people, (university or collage) what the problems with the country are, they say the politicians. He then asks, well, how do you solve this, and the first response, which is seconded by the rest of the class is to line the politicians up, and use a firing squad, that way the political system could start from fresh.  

Delhi has the commonwealth games coming this October, and the current state of the city is that of chaos. Construction of the basic infrastructure is still happening. The same journalist whom I quoted above said that it is very typical of India. To sit around for a few years when they won the games, then do all the construction and planning in the final year by chucking man power at it. There is work going on around the clock in a desperate attempt to finish before the deadline of the end of August (the day after we leave so we can say whether it’s ready) When we asked him if he thought the games would go ahead he said yes, but there will be huge cracks that the visiting public won’t see, and the quality of the work will be poor. Instead of lasting 10 years, it will only last 2. The labour has been shipped in from villages all around India, some times before the materials, so they sit around waiting for a few days. However, this is where the government missed a major trick. Whilst shipping in labour, they shipped out all the homeless people, the beggars, and moved the slums. Why not provide those people with the work, train them and clean Delhi up that way? The view of Delhi that will be broadcast across the globe will be worlds apart from the reality. The fear is that after the games the world will move on, and the flaws in Delhi’s construction and ethics will go unnoticed. Now who has the blame, the Indian politicians or the world’s media? It sounds as though I’m making India out to be some failing economy, which of course it’s not; in fact it’s one of the fastest growing. So there is hope that these issues can be resolved in time, I think my frustration is aimed at the fact that the situation could be so much better, and we’re not just talking about a few thousand people here, the Indian Government has the power to change the lives of millions and millions of people. Instead though they choose to feed their own greed to keep the wealth gap and class system as prominent as it is.

The best chance of any major change coming about will be led by the middle class. This is a growing social class in India that has worked its way up from the lower classes, either through the expanding number of tertiary sector jobs or by being self starting individuals. This class is grounded enough to realise the problems, and rich and powerful enough solve them. However where is this movement going to start, and who will start it?

So, this has been a long blog, and hope you’ve made it this far. Once again it’s getting late so I’m going to turn in. More tomorrow, or whenever I get around to it, and it should be a bit about my encounter with Jeremy Hunt the culture secretary and our day to day life as a fellow. Thank you and good night

Yesterday we were spoke to by various radio and newspaper agencies. We visited fever fm, a delhi radio station partnered with Virgin who recorded us singing a delhi rap which he played on air this morning.

Half way through our day, Amanpreet Wahi the same model that had met us the day before invited us to her fashion show at the Taj Palace Hotel that night. When we arrived at the hotel, which has been stayed in by Royals and Presidents such as Bill Clinton, we were approached by an Indian TV program Sahara TV who recorded us to go on TV. We also made the most of a free bar, off which we helped ourself to Beer and Whisky. The evening was very surreal and showcased how the other half live. It felt strange as we left after an amazing evening, where the people in the hotel were draped in extremely expensive Indian garments, to then drive home past rows and rows of homeless people just sleeping on the pavements. It showcased the huge polarization of wealth that Globalisation has created and how although for the beautiful people of the upper classes this creates great oppurtunities, for the forgotten castes below the Poverty line there is nothing.

Today we met MP Jeremy Hunt, Secretary for culture, arts and Olympics, who we sat down with for a Q and A. I asked him whether the new Government still supported this program as it is no longer called the Prime Minister's Global Fellowship, to which he did not really answer. A theme reccurent through everyones questions but then again he is a Politician.

I woke up very tired this morning, with glands the size of apples sticking out of either side of my throat! We had our first proper Kung-Fu lesson, however a complete lack of energy meant that I struggled to participate as effectively and enthusiastically as I would have liked. It was also interesting to see how much my movement was limited, as a result of poor flexibility in my legs! The lesson was still fun and I look forward to the next one, however I think Tai Chi is probably better for me! 

I arrived at my Mandarin session on time with a green tea in my hand and thinking: “how am I going to get through the next 3 and a half hours! It didn’t take long though to wake up properly and I was soon beginning to enjoy the lesson as much as previous days. In the first half of the lesson we were taught useful vocabulary for giving and receiving directions and in the second half we learnt how to ask people how they travel to various locations and how to respond. I feel that as I am learning more and more, I am finding it harder to absorb as much as I had done when I first started to learn the basics back home, but perhaps it is because of our hectic schedule and due to tiredness that I am feeling like this. The teacher kindly saved the lessons PowerPoint’s on my USB so I can review them once I get a chance and hopefully be able to absorb what I haven’t yet learnt. Also in the second lesson we practiced our songs; there is a lot of competition between the four classes and so we are all desperate to perfect them both for a performance next week. 

After lunch, we set off on an organized trip to a famous art district in Beijing. I emphasize that it was organized, because had it been optional, I would not have gone as neither my interest nor my appreciation in art warranted paying to enter each gallery-particularly when photos where prohibited. My feelings were mutual with few others in the group and so after a visit to one gallery, which was free entry, we found a cafe and sat down with a smoothie, some pizza and some fruit platters. It was expensive, but it passed the time quickly.

 We got home at about 16:00 and I came straight up to my room, read for about half an hour and slept. I was looking forward to a night out with some other fellows this evening but from the minute I woke up, I knew it wasn’t going to happen; all my exhaustion and illness has hit me in one day and it is now 23:20 and I have been awake for only 20 minutes. I hope that all this sleep will help me fully recover and tomorrow I will be able to enjoy the activities and play a more active role in the lessons.

 I apologize that there isn’t a lot to read for today but tomorrow my blogging should be back to it’s usual standard. I have had to turn the air-conditioning off for the last 2 days now, yet my throat seems to have got worse. If it carries on, I may pay a visit to the doctor, because I have heard through the grape vine that two fellows from India have gone home ill and I wouldn’t want to end up the same way because I haven’t treated what seems to be just a bad cold. I am already falling asleep again writing this blog so I will cut it short here. Until tomorrow, Zai Jian. 

just a quick blog but i must post what happened today i was at the shop buying noddles  when an chinese or zhonguoren teenager who spoke no english shouted excitedly starwars and coffee  now thats globalisation  

I’m writing todays blog earlier than usual as I’m about to get ready for my first ever foam party!! I am so excited!!! Even though I’m writing it earlier, it’s 8.30, it is totally pitch black outside! It seems to get light very early, I woke up at 5 the other day and it was full on sunlight, but then gets dark very early as well- I think this winter will seem very long!

We started with tai chi, and had a different teacher today who taught us a bit more Kung Fu, which was so much fun! We were shouting at doing a much faster paced exercise, it was like we were channeling the performers from last night. Then onto the language class, which was looking at shopping and bargaining! After class I went to cash a traveller’s cheque, and their banking system is really smart! You go in, and thankfully there was a lady there to help me or I would have been totally lost, get a ticket with a number on; and then in my case the lady dealt with me at the main desk, photocopying my passport and filling in a form, you then go and sit in the waiting room area until your number is called, when you get to go and sit at the cashier’s desk and complete the transaction- it certainly could give NatWest a run for its money! Also on the cashier desk there’s a panel which asks you to rate the service you received from the cashier, and there was the same thing at the passport inspection desk at the airport; I was really surprised that China of all countries seems to have embraced service quality in such a way! Another odd thing about employees in most shops and businesses is that there name badges don’t have names, just numbers- a bit impersonal, but I guess more practical.

This afternoon we visited the 798 art zone, which is a collection of galleries. The works were really varied, and we only saw a fraction of what was there. What particularly surprised me were the more political works, some of which were making some quite bold statements, in particular some caricature like models of Mao, Stalin, Lenin, Marx and Engles! There were also lots of non-political works, like animal skins which had been made into giant faces (the exhibition where Kate managed to set off the alarms). As we were on our way out a camera crew walked by us, not filming, but we decided to wave anyway, and next thing we knew the guy was over with his director filming us all shouting and waving! So who knows, maybe we got onto China National TV.....

We got back to the dormitories and had a bit of our practice of our song, which we’re performing when we visit the village on Saturday before heading out for some dinner where we had a bit of an issue with over ordering dumplings, and ended up with 8 bowls, after we’d already eaten a load of other dishes! Luckily the waiter’s knew what a “doggy bag” was! And now I’m getting ready for the foam party, which I have got to the extent of buying a pair of imitation Crocs for- I cannot believe I have done such a thing!

That’s all for today!