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As a small charity we have been struggling to survive and over the past five years we have been completely self financing as we have encountered funders who refuse to look at the outstanding work we have been undertaking in the community. Much of the rejections we have received have conditioned by nepotistic urges. 

Our experiences is one that is shared by over 90% of the charity sector, the small charities delivering at grass roots. This is the places where the recession has hit the hardest and continues to decimate communities. Funders have taken the decision to only support that which they know . This attitude has resulted in the demise of thousands of charities in the past six years and has obviously resulted in an unprecedented loss of community services. 

This  attack on small charities continues and is highlighted by CAF Nearly one in five charities ‘struggling to survive’ say CAF  

The very mindshift has seen an unprecedented rise in racist attacks across the country in the past eleven months. Closeted bigots have felt a level of freedom never previously experienced in 21st century and will openly attack those with an evident difference. 

The people from the colonies have never had it so bad, sadly the contribution of those that are different, is forgotten.    

In an effort to level the playing field a petition was circulated seeking to look at the rights of the folks from the colonies, the objective was to get some clarity from the Home Office about their right to British citizenship. 

Below are the Home Office response. 

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The Government has responded to the petition  – “Give British commonwealth citizens in the UK for 5 years British nationality”.

Government responded:

Those who live in the UK for more than five years can already apply for British citizenship.

Under the current legislation, the British Nationality Act 1981, a person who has completed a continuous period of five years residence in the UK may already be able to apply for naturalisation as a British citizen. That Act reflects the principle that citizenship should be acquired on the basis of a close, current and continuing connection with the UK.

A person can qualify for naturalisation following a period of lawful residence in the United Kingdom - of three years for spouses and civil partners of British citizens, and five years for others. The residence requirements also specify that the person must be settled in the UK and not have excess absences during their period of residence.

They must also: • have sufficient knowledge of English, Welsh or Scottish Gaelic • have sufficient knowledge of life in the United Kingdom • be of good character. In addition, those who are not married to or the civil partner of a British citizen must intend to continue to live in the United Kingdom, or to continue in relevant service overseas, and be settled in the United Kingdom for at least 12 months before applying.

As such, there are already provisions in place for Commonwealth citizens who have lived lawfully in the UK for more than five years to acquire British citizenship.

In its desperation to remove individuals from the country, the UK Government has utilised, immigrations controls put in place by the former Home Secretary the now ‘Brexit Queen’.

The new approach is to ignore many of the basics of Human Right legislation, a shift akin to Trump’s government where Parachuting individuals into war zones is acceptable, we may not be able to build a wall but we can drop them over the wall, ‘out of sight out of mind’. What is the result of such actions for the victims used to address the paranoid psyche. Dear we say death! Our ruling classes suggest that for an acceptable proportion this will be the result. We can live with that collateral damage. What is to be expected when they do not have the knowledge or the training to survive in such spaces, the inevitable result will be, death for the majority, but they are among their own.

The Government have invented a house of mirrors to misdirect the loved ones of individuals subject to immigration control. Currently despite having papers or further reps in the Home Office, individuals’ homes are raided and they are collected. This below radar activity takes places, usually on Friday nights and Saturday mornings and by the morning of the following Monday, individuals are usually in their home countries or in the air. For too many they end up in places in which they are strangers, not their home country as has been the case for numerous individuals.

A father of two who is among dozens of Jamaicans to be removed from the UK on Wednesday morning was told by the Home Office that he can keep in touch with his British family via the internet.

Home Office told Muir: “You have put forward no reason to suggest that it would be unreasonable to expect your claimed partner and son to accompany you to Jamaica; however, should they choose not to it is considered you would be able to remain in contact with them via modern methods of communication i.e. telephone, internet or by written correspondence.”

Let’s see, are there reasons why an individual would be scared to go to Jamaica to live?

According to the data, Jamaica is averaging almost 150 murders each month, or just over three per day. Jamaica population is a 20th the size of the UK, so that is the equivalent of 2,000 murders in the UK a month (can you imagine life under such circumstances.  If those are not statistics from a war zone then I do not know what is, the government says it is acceptable that they dispose of chattels in such a fashion. Who will speak for them?

So yes being disposable it is acceptable to expose foreigners to such perils. Remember the telephone is an acceptable channel to maintain a relationship.  

Arthur Muir, 30, was on suicide watch at Dungavel detention centre before being moved to London, his wife, Sarah Jackson-Muir, told the Guardian. Arthur Muir is one of a number of people with seats on flight PVT070, including many who have lived in the UK since they were children and have made their lives here.

Black History, Black lives Matter, Civil Rights  Advocates ,  you let this happen? A recent event seems to have eluded most of us . A piece of history , world history,  not Black history, not African American history but World History was kicked to the curb after 60 years and no one seem to care. 

It has become one of the most heart breaking moment for with a single act of defiance a ‘chain of change’ which was rattled, a chain that many want to turn back, want to stop. Billionaires now turn politicians bemoan that day when Rosa Parks brought together a unique blend of life experiences, a commitment to racial justice, and a flawless reputation to transform a single act of defiance into a defining moment for the modern American civil rights movement.   

Many of the chief  beneficiaries of the fateful day have sat back drinking ‘Lemonade’ as her story was sold. When they awake in a hundred years they will accuse the man, the white man of colouring their history. 

What am I referencing here, the recontextualising of a historical moment . The threat to destroy Rosa Parks’ Home in Detroit and the refusal by those who claim her as their ‘hero’ to act to ensure that her story is retold again and again  for eternity her memory and that her foot prints and burnt into the American Landscape . 

Thanks to her niece and a Europe-based American artist's joint efforts, Rosa Parks' former Detroit house escaped destruction and now stands across the Atlantic Ocean in Berlin.  Yes! Berlin and all this happened while all the glamourous lemonade drinkers partied, collected accolades and smiled for the Glitterati. 

Does citizens  lives matter?

We urge all Nigerians, home and abroad to demand action from the Federal Government to tackle the outbreak of Cerebro Spinal Meningitis. This current outbreak of Meningitis C, has according to conservative estimates claimed over 500 Nigerians lives and the Federal Government  is on the whole silent. Their sole response, 'We need to order vaccine'.  The Government should remember that not every citizen has a doctor in London.

This week the centre of attention for the global refugee crisis shifts from the beaches of Greece, the refugee camps of Jordan, the shoreline of Libya, the fatal waters of the Mediterranean and the battlefields of Syria to the riverside home of the United Nations in New York.

The worst human displacement problem the United Nations has ever confronted will be the focus of two major events here aimed at galvanising worldwide action. As this film shows, the scale of the problem is immense:

The first event, held on Monday, is a UN refugee and migration summit. The following day Barack Obama will convene his own refugee event on the fringes of the UN general debate, the annual diplomatic jamboree held in New York that draws leaders from all over the world.

At the UN event, world leaders will adopt the New York Declaration, a document enshrining certain principles, such as a commitment to share responsibility for the refugee crisis more equitably between member states and to combat racism and xenophobia.

Despite its grandiose title, however, the "outcome document" is a classic UN fudge. To secure the backing of UN member states, it has been written in often vague and generalised language and lacks binding, concrete commitments.

Absent from the document, for example, is a clear commitment to resettle 10% of the world's refugees.

A clause on the detention of children was watered down - and one country that pressed for that was the US, which detains undocumented children crossing its southern border from Mexico.

Domestic violence in SA

Cases of domestic violence are likely to be recorded as cases of assault. Given the serious nature of domestic violence, it is important that assault victims are encouraged to report incidents to the police.

The police do not release the details about the number of assaults that involve intimate partners although they are required by law to record cases of domestic violence in a register at police stations and have victim friendly rooms available. Despite these requirements, regular compliance is very low:

The Civilian Secretariat for Police found that between October 2013 and March 2014, only 1.4% of police stations inspected (two out of 145) were fully compliant with the Domestic Violence Act.

77% were partially compliant and 21% were rated as non-complaint.

This sentence raised endless questions about the plight of women in this country (SA). We ask ourselves what is the price affixed to a woman’s life. 

We all have to realise that because the person sitting on the bench is black and a woman(?) making the decision, does not make this travesty of justice any less bigoted. All life has equal value and white men must not be allowed to use ‘White Privilege’ to circumvent justice.