World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

Blackburn dog attack: couple released on bail over death of 11-month-old girl
UK slips down press freedom index due to harassment of The Guardian
'Japanese Beethoven' faces the music after admitting he is no longer deaf
Aid workers in Homs race to evacuate civilians before Syrian ceasefire ends
Carscape: how the motor car reshaped England – in pictures
Wire fox terrier wins Kennel Club show – a record 14th victory for the breed
Singapore airshow - in pictures
Asylum towbacks: Senate demands details on lifeboat costs and numbers
Celebrity pet: the rediscovery of Charles Darwin’s long-lost Galapagos tortoise
Belgium expected to legalise euthanasia for children
Pakistan militants kill nine anti-Taliban militia members in Peshawar
Israel race case: judge questions class action against Sydney academic
Pakistani cleric stood down for conducting marriage of child bride
A Roma reality check | Yaron Matras
Northern Broadsides let slip the clogs of war
Great Barrier Reef pollution: FOI documents in full
Campbell Newman denies role in outspoken silk being stripped of brief
Asylum seekers: consultancy behind graphic campaign holds $2m contract
Closing the Gap report delivered as Toyota fallout continues - as it happened
Philippines seizes £17.6m from Marcos accounts
The best books on Iran: start your reading here | Pushpinder Khaneka
Unaffordable cities: squatting in Caracas's tower of broken dreams
Burnout in France: focus turned to workplace health after spate of suicides
Gang rape of girl, 14, leads to calls for calm amid rising racial tensions
Sydney Biennale and a question of corporate sponsorship | Antony Lowenstein

Blackburn dog attack: couple released on bail over death of 11-month-old girl

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 01:25 AM PST

Chloe King, mother of baby killed by pit bull terrier, and partner Lee Wright were being held on suspicion of manslaughter

A couple arrested over the death of an 11-month-old girl killed by a banned dog have been released on bail.

Ava-Jayne Corless was asleep in bed at a house in Blackburn on Monday night when she was savaged by the pit bull terrier.

The girl's mother, Chloe King, 20, and her partner, Lee Wright, 26, were held on suspicion of manslaughter.

Lancashire police said: "The two people arrested in connection with the death of Ava-Jayne Corless at Blackburn have both been released on bail pending further inquiries."

Police and ambulance staff tried to resuscitate Ava-Jayne at the address in Emily Street but she was pronounced dead at Royal Blackburn Hospital a short time later.

Police said the dog, which was destroyed after the attack, had been identified by experts as a pit bull terrier-type that people are prohibited from owning under Section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. Locals claim to have made previous complaints to police about the dog's behaviour.

King and Wright were said to have been downstairs when the attack happened, while Ava-Jayne was in a front bedroom.

On Tuesday, Chief Superintendent Chris Bithell of Lancashire police said: "This is an absolutely horrific incident in which a baby girl has lost her life and I would like to take this opportunity to express my own personal sympathy to the wider family of baby Ava.

"As part of the investigation we are making inquiries to see whether there have been previous issues with this particular dog and I think at this moment it would be too early to speculate on that."

The couple were initially arrested on suspicion of child neglect.

Family liaison officers are offering support to the wider family of Ava-Jayne.

The child's father is understood to be Dean Corless. Writing on Facebook, his sister, Shannon Corless, said: "She is a beautiful little girl, she was only 11 month and didn't deserve to be took away so soon.

"You know what they say god only takes the best, you really didn't deserve to go. I love you loads princess. Your with the angels now princess. Auntie Shannon loves you loads."

According to King's Facebook page, she is a former student at Witton Park High School and Blackburn College who is studying food, nutrition and health at Edge Hill College in Ormskirk.

UK slips down press freedom index due to harassment of The Guardian

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 01:23 AM PST

Major declines in media freedom in countries as varied as the United States, Central African Republic and Guatemala are highlighted in the latest annual press freedom index produced by the international watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

But it also points to marked improvements in Ecuador, Bolivia and South Africa among the total of 180 countries.

The same trio of European countries - Finland, Netherlands and Norway - head the index again, while the last, and worst, three positions remain Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.

The UK has slipped three places down the league, to 33rd. According to RSF, this was due to the country "distinguishing itself by its harassment of The Guardian" following its publication of the NSA and GCHQ leaks by the whistleblower Edward Snowden.

That incident, and the White House administration's reaction to the Snowden affair and the jailing of Chelsea Manning over the Wikileaks revelations, also resulted in the United States falling by 13 places to 46th in the list.

RSF remarks: "The hunt for leaks and whistleblowers serves as a warning to those thinking of satisfying a public interest need for information about the imperial prerogatives assumed by the world's leading power."

At the bottom of the index list...

Turkmenistan adopted a media law in January 2013 that proclaims pluralism and bans censorship but, according to RSF, "it is a complete fiction" because President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov's totalitarian regime still controls all the local media.

Arbitrary arrests are common. RSF says independent journalists in Turkmenistan can only operate clandestinely, reporting for news media based outside the country. This is risky, as the journalists Annakurban Amanklychev and Sapardurdy Khadjiyev can testify.

In February last year they were finally released after completing seven-year jail terms in appalling conditions.

Eritrea is Africa's biggest prison for journalists with 28 journalists currently in detention. Seven of 11 journalists jailed in 2001 are reported to have died while in prison.

The president, Issayas Afeworki, has closed down all the privately-owned media and the state media are subject to such close surveillance that they have to conceal entire swathes of contemporary history such as the Arab spring.

Accessing reliable information is impossible in the absence of satellite and internet connections. But a few independent radio stations, such as Radio Erena, do manage to broadcast from abroad.

In North Korea, freedom of information is non-existent, as has been the case ever since RSF first started its index. RSF highlighted the media manipulation in December last year during the arrest and execution of Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of the president, Kim Jong-un.

Jang's appearance in films and photographs were eliminated, as if he had never existed. But his arrest, trial and execution received detailed coverage. RSF described it as "extraordinary" propaganda designed to be an "intimidatory message to the entire Korean population."

Armed conflicts, political instability and national security

The 2014 index illustrates the negative correlation between armed conflicts and freedom of information. RSF says: "In an unstable environment, the media become strategic goals or targets for groups or individuals trying to control news and information."

In Syria (177th) around 130 professional and citizen-journalists were killed between March 2011 to December 2013. They are being targeted by both the Assad government and extremist rebel militias.

In Africa, Mali (122nd) progress in the conflict in north of the country has stalled, preventing any real revival in media activity. The violent conflict in the Central African Republic saw it fall 43 places to 109th - the biggest fall in this year's index - after repeated attacks and threats against journalists.

In Egypt (159th), after President Morsi's ousting by the army led by Al-Sisi, there has been a witchhunt against journalists alleged to have offered support to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Even journalists who have done nothing more than report on the Brotherhood have ended up in jail, most often without charge, or on trumped-up charges of "spreading false news."

There have also been many examples of governments using (and abusing) the "fight against terrorism" in order to arrest journalists. In Turkey (154th), dozens of journalists have been detained on this pretext, above all those who cover the Kurdish issue.

Israel (96th) regained some of the places it lost in the previous index because of the impact on media freedom during the 2012 Pillar of Defence operation. But, says RSF, "the territorial integrity imperative often suppresses freedom of information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

In Sri Lanka (165th), the army shapes the news by suppressing accounts that stray too far from the official vision of "pacification" in the former Tamil separatist strongholds.

Guatemala fell 29 places to 125th due to a sharp decline in the safety of journalists, with four murders and twice as many attacks as the previous year.

Elsewhere in South America several countries improved their records. Violence against journalists, direct censorship and misuse of judicial proceedings fell in Panama (87th, +25), Dominican Republic (68th, +13), Bolivia (94th, +16) and Ecuador (94th, +25).

In Kenya (90th, -18), the government's authoritarian response to the media's coverage of the Westgate Mall attack was compounded by dangerous parliamentary initiatives. Chad (139th) fell 17 places due to a series of abusive arrests and prosecutions.

Bo contrast, South Africa (42nd) improved by 11 places in a year marked by what RSF calls its "laudable legislative developments" which saw the president refuse to sign a law that would have threatened media freedom.

How the press freedom index is compiled...

RSF's secretary-general Christophe Deloire says: "The World Press Freedom Index is a reference tool that is based on seven criteria: the level of abuses, the extent of pluralism, media independence, the environment and self-censorship, the legislative framework, transparency and infrastructure.

"It makes governments face their responsibilities by providing civil society with an objective measure, and provides international bodies with a good governance indicator to guide their decisions."

And RSF's head of research, Lucie Morillon, pointed out that this year's fall in rankings by some democracies were influenced by "an overly broad and abusive interpretation of the concept of national security protection."

This year's index covers 180 countries, one more than the 179 countries covered in last year's index. The newcomer is Belize, which has been ranked 29th.

Source: Reporters Without Borders

Roy Greenslade

'Japanese Beethoven' faces the music after admitting he is no longer deaf

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 01:15 AM PST

Mamoru Samuragochi, who admitted paying professor to write symphonies, says he has regained some of his hearing

A composer known as the "Beethoven of Japan" says he has regained some of his hearing ability, a week after causing a furore by admitting he had used a ghost writer for his popular symphonies and other music.

Mamoru Samuragochi, a classical musician, became known as an inspirational genius for composing despite losing his hearing.

He said on Wednesday he had suffered hearing loss and was not able to hear when he began paying a part-time university professor to write music under his name, a collaboration that continued for 18 years and included music being used by Japanese figure skater Daisuke Takahashi for his short programme at the Sochi Olympics.

"The truth is that recently I have begun to hear a little again," Samuragochi said in a statement reported by Japanese media, adding that for the past three years he has been able to follow conversations under certain conditions.

Samuragochi, 50, apologised to fans last week for paying Takashi Niigaki to write compositions under his name. Niigaki told reporters he had also wondered about the extent of the composer's hearing loss.

Samuragochi acknowledged on Wednesday he had not been truthful about his hearing when the scandal emerged. "I was thinking only of what would happen after news broke about Mr Niigaki writing my music, and was unable to tell the truth due to fear," he said.

He said he would appear in public soon to apologise and offered to have his hearing tested by experts.

German composer Ludwig van Beethoven began suffering hearing loss from about the age of 30 and withdrew from public performances while continuing to write music. He was almost totally deaf for the last decade of his life.

Samuragochi gained international fame for his Hiroshima Symphony, a tribute to the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of the Japanese city.

Niigaki said last week he received more than 7m yen (£41,000) for more than 20 songs he wrote for Samuragochi.

Takahashi has said he was "surprised" to hear the news, but had no intention of changing his music.

Observers say that part of Samuragochi's popularity was due to the industry eager to put a human face to classical music and hang on to a shrinking market share as Japanese society rapidly ages.

Aid workers in Homs race to evacuate civilians before Syrian ceasefire ends

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 01:06 AM PST

UN appeals to warring factions in Syria's civil war to further extend 'humanitarian pause'

Humanitarian agencies are standing by to resume their desperate scramble to evacuate hundreds of civilians – including terrified and malnourished children, the elderly, the sick and the injured – from the besieged Old City of Homs after the emergency operation was suspended Tuesday over "logistical difficulties".

The United Nations has appealed to the warring factions in Syria's civil war to further extend their "humanitarian pause", which began last Friday and was set to end on Wednesday, until all those who want to leave have been evacuated.

Red Crescent head of operations Khaled Erksoussi said his teams were waiting for the conclusion of a daily meeting between the United Nations and Homs's governor, Talal Barazi.

"We are expecting that we'll be able to get some more food material in and hoping to get some more people out," he said.

In chaotic scenes earlier this week, convoys of flagged UN vehicles were seen driving at high speed to the Old City's main checkpoint to load up with civilians desperate to leave conditions of extreme privation after 18 months of siege.

Unverified video posted on the internet showed women, laden with heavy suitcases and backpacks, clutching at the hands of children as they ran towards the vehicles.

In a setback to humanitarian efforts, Russia on Wednesday rejected the wording of a draft UN resolution calling for greater access to Syria for aid purposes, saying it was aimed at creating grounds for military intervention. The RIA news agency quoted deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov as saying Russia would veto the document in its current form. "It is unacceptable to us in the form in which it is now being prepared, and we, of course, will not let it through."

On Monday the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had dismissed the draft resolution as one-sided and "detached from reality", according to the Interfax news agency.

More than 1,100 of the estimated 2,500 civilians trapped in Homs left by the end of Monday, according to the UN. "It's an extremely dangerous operation," said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Co-Ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva. "But this is what the ordinary people of Homs have been living with every single day for the past one and a half years."

UN and Syrian Red Crescent vehicles had come under gun and mortar fire at the weekend, he said, declining to speculate on the origin of the attack. Eleven civilians had been killed inside the Old City over the weekend despite the ceasefire, he added.

The Old City and other opposition-held areas of Homs have been under siege for about 18 months, facing daily bombardment and rapidly dwindling supplies of food, drinking water and medicine. The city was the birthplace of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad almost three years ago.

The terms of the "humanitarian pause" initially said no males between the ages of 15 and 55 would be allowed to leave the Old City. The stipulation was later relaxed, although more than 300 youths and men were detained for screening to ensure that there were no fighters among them.

The governor of Homs, Talal Barazi, said he expected 80% of men to be released after the "regularisation" process. However, the fate of those not released was unclear, and the UN said it was "deeply concerned".

"It is essential that they do not come to any harm," said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights. "We will continue to press for their proper treatment according to the international humanitarian and human rights law."

Last month, evidence smuggled out of Syria pointed to the systematic killing of around 11,000 detainees in the custody of regime security forces between March 2001 and last August.

Some 500 children, most of them under the age of 15, and about 20 pregnant women were among those evacuated from the Old City since Friday. Geoffrey Ijumba, of the UN's children's agency Unicef, who is based in Homs, said: "They look sad and weak, dehydrated, emaciated – anything but healthy.

"The children are not in a good psychological condition; they are very scared and are clinging to their parents."

None of the children inside the Old City had attended school for the past 18 months, he added. "Most of them have been stuck at home, listening to shelling. Even after they come out, you can see the fear in their eyes when they hear the sound of guns. They are terrified. They have witnessed deeply traumatic events."

Evacuees were visibly malnourished, according to humanitarian workers. "There is very little food available in the Old City," said Laerke. There were small quantities of flour and bulgar, but most of it was infested with insects. "They are eating it anyway."

Matthew Hollingworth, Syria director for the UN's World Food Programme, told the BBC that the "levels of destitution inside the Old City are like nothing I've ever seen before. People are living in tunnels underground, moving between shells of buildings to find roots to eat – there has been little food for many, many months now."

Evacuees given packs of food rations were tearing them open to eat on the spot, according to the UN. Children were undergoing nutritional assessment and, if required, being put on a therapeutical feeding programme.

The corpse of a man who it was claimed had died of malnutrition was shown on a YouTube video being loaded into a UN vehicle. The sick and injured were given immediate medical attention at a mobile clinic on evacuation, and hundreds of children were being vaccinated against polio, rubella and tuberculosis.

Residents of the Old City have been forced to rely on a single field hospital since the siege began. "For many months it has been without adequate medicine or equipment. It's a place for people to die rather than live," said Laerke.

The World Health Organisation sent medical supplies into the Old City at the weekend, including drugs to treat chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, and 3,600 doses of polio vaccine.

The vast majority of those leaving the Old City were heading for the homes of relatives in other parts of Homs, according to the UN. There were at least a quarter of a million people living under siege conditions in other parts of Syria, said Laerke.

The Syria peace talks in Geneva were making little progress, the international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said after the two sides held face-to-face talks on Tuesday. "The beginning of this week is as laborious as it was the first week," Brahimi told reporters. He called on the government and the opposition to stop the "nightmare" of the civil war.

Syria's civil conflict has claimed more than 100,000 lives since 2011 and has forced about six million people from their homes.

Harriet Sherwood

Carscape: how the motor car reshaped England – in pictures

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 01:00 AM PST

Roundabouts, petrol stations and ringroads feature in a new English Heritage exhibition that looks at the impact of the car on the English landscape

Sarah Gilbert

Wire fox terrier wins Kennel Club show – a record 14th victory for the breed

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 12:55 AM PST

Sky beats standard poodle in 138th show at Madison Square Garden in New York

A wire fox terrier named Sky has won best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club in a record 14th victory for the breed.

She beat a standard poodle, a Portuguese water dog, a bloodhound, an Irish water spaniel, a Cardigan Welsh corgi and a miniature pinscher at the final on Tuesday evening at Madison Square Garden, New York.

The standard poodle, named Ally, was runner-up.

No breed other than wire fox terriers has won best in show more than eight times.

Gabriel Rangel, Sky's handler – who won Westminster four years ago while guiding Sadie the Scottish terrier – led his dog to her 129th best in show ribbon overall. She became a Triple Crown winner in the world of competitive dogs, having previously taken the National Dog Show and the top AKC event.

There were 2,845 dogs entered in the 138th Westminster Kennel Club show. They were eligible in 190 breeds and varieties.

Nathan the bloodhound was clearly the crowd's pick as all seven dogs circled in the final ring. But once again, a terrier prevailed. Terriers have taken 46 of the 105 best in show ribbons presented at an event that dates to the late 19th century.

Sky entered the ring only 30 minutes after winning the terrier group.

Singapore airshow - in pictures

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 12:52 AM PST

Asia's top aerospace and defence show opens in Singapore, with major global arms makers seeking to cash in on rising military spending in China and elsewhere as territorial disputes escalate in the region

Karin Andreasson

Asylum towbacks: Senate demands details on lifeboat costs and numbers

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 12:45 AM PST

Kim Carr launches document demand, saying government needs to be open about expenditure of taxpayers' money

Daniel Hurst

Celebrity pet: the rediscovery of Charles Darwin’s long-lost Galapagos tortoise

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 12:21 AM PST

It's Charles Darwin's birthday (he would be 205 today) and Galapagos Day (the islands were claimed by Ecuador 182 years ago), the perfect cue for a story about a rather special reptilian pet.

Henry Nicholls

Belgium expected to legalise euthanasia for children

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 12:17 AM PST

Group of paediatricians expresses vocal opposition to extension of law to under-18s approaching death and in extreme pain

Belgium, one of the few countries where euthanasia is legal, is expected to abolish age restrictions this week on who can ask to be put to death – extending the right to children for the first time.

The legislation appears to have wide support in the largely liberal country. But it has also aroused intense opposition – including from paediatricians – and people have staged noisy street protests, fearing that vulnerable children will be talked into making an irreversible choice.

Backers such as Dr Gerland van Berlaer, a prominent Brussels paediatrician, believe euthanasia is the merciful thing to do. The law will be specific enough that it will apply only to the handful of teenage boys and girls who are in advanced stages of cancer or other terminal illnesses and suffering unbearable pain, he said.

Under current law, they must let nature take its course or wait until they turn 18 and can request euthanasia.

"We are talking about children that are really at the end of their life. It's not that they have months or years to go. Their life will end anyway," said van Berlaer, chief of clinic in the paediatric critical care unit of University Hospital Brussels. "The question they ask us is: 'Don't make me go in a terrible, horrifying way, let me go now while I am still a human being and while I still have my dignity.'"

The Belgian senate voted 50-17 on 12 December to amend the country's 2002 law on euthanasia so that it would apply to minors, but only under certain conditions. Those include parental consent and a requirement that any minor desiring euthanasia demonstrate a "capacity for discernment" to a psychiatrist and psychologist.

The house of representatives, the other chamber of parliament, is scheduled to debate on Wednesday whether to agree to the changes, and vote on them on Thursday. Passage is widely expected.

King Philippe, Belgium's constitutional head of state, must sign the legislation for it to go into effect. So far, the 53-year-old monarch and father of four has not taken a public position, but spokesman Pierre De Bauw said that was not unusual. "We never give any comment on any piece of legislation being discussed in parliament," De Bauw said on Tuesday.

Though one opinion poll found 75% of Belgians in favour, there has been vocal opposition.

This week, an open letter from 160 Belgian paediatricians argued against the new law, claiming there is no urgent need for it and that modern medicine is capable of soothing the pain of even the sickest children.

The doctors also said there was no objective way of providing that children possess the "discernment" to know what euthanasia means.

Besides Belgium, the only other countries to have legalised euthanasia are the Netherlands and Luxembourg, said Kenneth Chambaere, a sociologist and member of the End-of-Life Care research group at the Free University Brussels and University of Ghent.

In Luxembourg, a patient must be 18. In the Netherlands, children between 12 and 15 may be given euthanasia with their parents' permission, while those who are 16 or 17 must notify their parents beforehand.

Pakistan militants kill nine anti-Taliban militia members in Peshawar

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 12:16 AM PST

Group of 25 militants attacks house of Israrullah Khan, head of local militia supported by the Pakistani government

Militants killed nine members of an anti-Taliban militia on Wednesday in Pakistan's north-western city of Peshawar, police said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Peshawar sits near restive areas along the Afghan border that are home to Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida-linked foreign Islamic militants.

The Pakistani Taliban have been waging a bloody war against the government in a bid to overthrow the authorities and enforce their hardline brand of Islamic sharia law.

In Wednesday's attack, a group of about 25 militants attacked the house of militia chief Israrullah Khan on the outskirts of Peshawar, killing him and eight of his relatives, said police official Jamal Khan.

The official said that earlier in February, the militia chief's son and two other people were also killed after they shot dead a militant commander.

Khan was the head of the militia supported by the Pakistani government to fight and block infiltration of the militants from the surrounding tribal regions, the official said. He said the attackers first lobbed handgrenades into a guest house in the Khan family compound, then opened fire with automatic rifles when the inmates ran outside.

The attack came a day after assailants threw grenades into a crowded cinema in Peshawar, killing 13 people. No one claimed responsibility for that attack either but many militant groups view movies and other forms of entertainment as obscene western influences.

The attacks come at a time when Pakistan is trying to hold peace negotiations with Taliban militants fighting in the country's north-west to end the violence that has killed thousands of security forces personnel and civilians in recent years.

The Pakistani Taliban, formally called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, is separate from the Taliban fighting Nato forces in neighbouring Afghanistan. Although the two groups share similar ideology, the Pakistani Taliban has focused its fight against the Pakistani government.

The Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has made negotiating with the militants a centerpiece of his new government elected last May.

After some initial stumbles, the government's efforts have picked up steam in recent weeks with both sides naming people to represent them in the talks. Members of the Pakistani Taliban's negotiating team flew to the North Waziristan tribal agency over the weekend to meet with the militant organisation's leadership at a secret location.

Maulana Samiul Haq, who heads the Taliban's negotiating team, said both the militants and the government have recommended a ceasefire as a confidence-building measure.

Critics say the militants always used such peace deals to gain time to strengthen themselves and regroup.

Israel race case: judge questions class action against Sydney academic

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 12:15 AM PST

Justice Alan Robertson opens case seen as major test of the legality of the boycott, divestments and sanctions campaign against Israel

Pakistani cleric stood down for conducting marriage of child bride

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 12:00 AM PST

Islamic Centre of Newcastle says it has also withdrawn its sponsorship visa for Imam Riaz Tasawar

A Roma reality check | Yaron Matras

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 12:00 AM PST

Fears of Gypsies flocking to these shores have proved unfounded. Now let's put prejudice aside and examine the real potential of a Roma contribution to the UK

Last week a friend told me about a conversation he overheard at a hairdressers in Birmingham. The barber complained about the competition, which kept rates low by employing immigrant staff. "They're probably Romanian, you can tell from the caravans outside," he joked, then added hastily: "But I shouldn't say that." In the weeks leading up to 1 January, Romanians and Bulgarians were said to be queuing up to take advantage of the lifting of employment restrictions in the UK. Several weeks on we know that the panic was unjustified and the warnings were pure scaremongering. But the hairdresser revealed something about the public's perception of the debate. Romanians are equated with Roma – hence the association with caravans and the shyness to appear politically incorrect.

"Roma" does sound a bit like "Romanian", so you can't blame people for getting confused. But the similarity is coincidental. Many Roma live in Romania, but there are also Roma communities in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and many other countries. Most Roma don't live in caravans, either; in south-eastern and central Europe they have been settled since the 15 century, often segregated on the outskirts of towns and villages.

It is the image of Roma on our streets that triggers an emotional reaction, more so than the thought of just any citizen from new EU member states arriving at a job centre in Basingstoke or Leeds. It was the Roma who were singled out last November by the deputy prime minister as "intimidating" and "offensive" in their behaviour. Unfounded allegations that Roma were kidnapping children in Greece and Ireland didn't help either.

Why is the presence of Roma in Britain perceived as a challenge? There is, to some extent, the reality on the ground: Roma organise their lives in extended families and rely on their family structures for support. When they migrate they do so in large groups and not as individuals. This makes them more conspicuous, as they require clusters of rented homes in close proximity; they are often seen socialising outdoors because their houses cannot accommodate large groups.

But this does not explain entirely these reactions. Our perception of Roma is shaped by fictional images of Gypsies that are deeply entrenched in our culture. This fictional image represents the opposite of our own values: our society restrains the way it expresses emotion, so we envy the passion that Gypsies express through their music and colourful appearance. We feel trapped by the routines of our daily lives, so we romanticise Gypsy life as free and spontaneous, but we also resent it as lawless and uncontrolled. Roma organise their work in families and are usually self-employed, but we think of them as work-shy. They have no country of their own, so we regard them as rootless.

Perception and prejudice stand in the way of a rational assessment of the real problems on the ground faced by Roma migrants. But if we put them aside, we find that there are more opportunities than challenges. Compared with their neighbours in the deprived urban districts in which they tend to settle, Roma are more likely than others to find work and their children are more likely to attend school regularly. Allegations of a propensity to crime among Roma migrants have repeatedly been dismissed by local police as baseless.

Rather than change their behaviour or their culture, the challenge facing Roma migrants is how to make use of opportunities to settle, gain skills and participate in community life while protecting their own identity and values just like any other ethnic minority. The bigger challenge is how to change majority society's attitudes to Roma.

By definition, social inclusion can only take place if exclusionary practices are eradicated. Instead of blaming the Roma for our fears and fantasies, we should reach out to them and allow ourselves to be inspired by their generosity, flexibility and their commitment to mutual support.

Yaron Matras

Northern Broadsides let slip the clogs of war

Posted: 12 Feb 2014 12:00 AM PST

Can you do a ronnie? Ever tried a rant? Alfred Hickling gets a lesson in clog-dancing from a troupe using it to bring the horrors of the first world war back to life

Conrad Nelson is in the middle of a rant. "Left foot crosses right," he barks. "In 6/8 time – more syncopation. Don't stop skipping." A rant, I should explain, is not a stream of abuse directed at an ill-coordinated journalist, but one of the basic steps of Lancastrian clog dancing: a percussive, hopping manoeuvre that, like many such clog steps, is meant to imitate the sound of industrial machinery.

And it's bloody difficult – especially when you realise you can't stay ranting on the spot, but must wheel around in formation with a team of eight sturdy morris-dancers wielding sticks. We're in a rehearsal room at the New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme, and my left foot has trouble moving in the same direction as the short poles I'm holding. My other left foot flatly refuses to go with it. And the clogs themselves feel about as natural as having a couple of small barrels tied to your ankles: the curved wooden soles make a satisfying clack, but the lack of grip makes you feel as though you're on ice.

Clog dancing has been part of Northern Broadsides' style since the theatre company's birth 22 years ago. It featured in its very first production, a staging of Richard III in an abandoned weaving shed, using footwear the vanished workers might have left behind. The company's take on Romeo and Juliet included a wooden-soled dance-off at the Capulet ball; and they once clattered through the Henry VI plays, making the houses of York and Lancaster wage the entire Wars of the Roses with their feet.

I'm joining in the preparations for the company's latest production, An August Bank Holiday Lark, which depicts the impact of the first world war on a small Lancashire village that no longer has enough young men to scrape together a morris team. Perhaps unwisely, I've expressed a desire to try out a few steps. But even after my shambolic showing, Nelson – associate director, musical arranger and resident clog-dancing expert for Northern Broadsides – remains encouraging. "Clog dancing isn't meant to be pretty," he says. "It's visceral, intense and celebratory. Done well, it's exhilarating."

Deborah McAndrew's play was commissioned to mark the war's centenary and takes its title from Philip Larkin's poem MCMXIV, which describes newly enlisted soldiers "Grinning as if it were all/ An August Bank Holiday lark".

"The brief," says Nelson, who is married to McAndrew, "was to find a subject that could be uplifting as well as tragic." The action is set in the valley of Saddleworth, one of the strongholds of traditional Lancastrian morris (the website of its dance team promises "no speeches, no PA systems and no coach parties"). Saddleworth morris men are famed for their hats, towering willow structures woven with flowers that resemble elaborate birdcages. It's also the home of the Rushcart, an August bank-holiday procession in which a wagon is loaded with freshly cut reeds and hauled round the valley by hundreds of dancers.

Nelson became so fascinated by Saddleworth lore while researching the play that he decided the only way to fully understand its mysteries was to join the group himself, driving three hours each way from his home in the Midlands to train in a remote Pennine pub. "This Easter, I will be dancing for my waistcoat," he says, proudly. This coveted, candy-striped garment is awarded to any new member who has attained a sufficient standard to dance in public – along with two ankle bells for every subsequent year of service. "Some of the older guys have bells up to their knees," Nelson adds. "They're the ones who revived the Rushcart parade in the 1970s, when there were still a few villagers who could remember the dances."

In addition to performing these dances, the cast have to recreate the construction of the Rushcart on stage. The towering edifice in the corner of the rehearsal room looks less like a hay wagon than a thatched cottage on wheels. The highest honour a morris man can achieve is to be appointed the Rushcart Jockey, who gets to balance on top. I'm not volunteering to try.

Nelson looks me over, then jumps to his feet declaring: "Right, let's put you into Denshaw." Like all the dances, this one takes its name from the village where it originated, and begins with a complex, place-swapping manoeuvre known as a ronnie. Inevitably, there are two of these, followed by some perilous high kicks and a pole-thrust. Nelson has dubbed the manoeuvre Ski Sunday. Is that what they call it in Saddleworth? "No," he grins. "They call it a bastard because it takes so long to get it right."

Alfred Hickling

Great Barrier Reef pollution: FOI documents in full

Posted: 11 Feb 2014 11:50 PM PST

A nickel refinery owned by Clive Palmer has released toxic wastewater into the Great Barrier Reef marine park on several occasions despite being forbidden from doing so, government documents have revealed

Campbell Newman denies role in outspoken silk being stripped of brief

Posted: 11 Feb 2014 11:38 PM PST

Opposition claims political interference and a return to the 'national embarrassment' of Bjelke-Peterson days

Asylum seekers: consultancy behind graphic campaign holds $2m contract

Posted: 11 Feb 2014 11:10 PM PST

STATT, whose controversial novel aims to deter Afghan asylum seekers, has also predicted their mass displacement

A graphic novel used by the Australian government to dissuade Afghan asylum seekers from coming to Australia was produced by the same consultancy company that just a few months earlier advised that "unpalatable conditions" in Afghanistan made "onward movement the most rational choice" for many Afghans.

STATT consultancy, a global firm based in Hong Kong, holds a $2m contract with Australian Customs and Border Protection to provide "education and training services", which Guardian Australia understands involves substantial "liaison" work in Afghanistan.

The graphic novel, which contains images of asylum seekers suffering in offshore detention, were described by the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young as "fear-mongering propaganda" and has been widely condemned by human rights groups.

On its website, STATT claims to "bring together those driving globalisation and those who are vulnerable to it". In January the consultancy produced a report on Afghanistan, widely quoted in the Australian media, warning of the likely mass displacement of people in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of international military forces in the region.

STATT has not responded to requests for comment.

The graphic novel was commissioned by the previous Labor government following the introduction of mandatory offshore processing in July, but Guardian Australia understands it was not published or reviewed until the Coalition government came into office.

An immigration spokesperson maintained that the novel had been distributed by the previous government.

The spokesperson also confirmed the Coalition government had commissioned a new campaign, as Guardian Australia revealed on Tuesday, under the tagline: "No Way. They will not make Australia home"

In opposition, Morrison criticised the Labor government for running a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign purportedly aimed at dissuading asylum seekers from arriving in Australia by boat.

The Labor government advertisements, introduced on 19 July after the so-called PNG solution was introduced, were labelled as "propaganda" by the Coalition after they were published in newspapers in Australia before they were circulated abroad. The Labor government spent more than $3 million on the adverts for domestic publication.

"These ads are NSW Labor 101," said Morrison at the time. "They are ram-raiding the taxpayer's ATM … Eddie Obeid would be proud."

The spokesperson for the minister said the new campaign would not be like "the mainstream advertising undertaken by the previous government which saw full page advertisements being taken out in major daily newspapers prior to and during the election campaign at taxpayers' expense".

Oliver Laughland

Asher Wolf

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Closing the Gap report delivered as Toyota fallout continues - as it happened

Posted: 11 Feb 2014 11:08 PM PST

Live coverage of the second day of parliament, including the first Closing the Gap report under the Abbott government and aftershocks from Toyota's announcement it will stop manufacturing in Australia in 2017

Bridie Jabour

Philippines seizes £17.6m from Marcos accounts

Posted: 11 Feb 2014 11:07 PM PST

More money seized from former dictator's secret overseas holdings, authorities announce, but vast amount still outstanding

The best books on Iran: start your reading here | Pushpinder Khaneka

Posted: 11 Feb 2014 11:00 PM PST

Our literary tour of Iran includes a clandestine autobiography under recent regimes, sharp satire and a history of revolution

My Father's Notebook by Kader Abdolah

Abdolah's autobiographical novel sees Iran's recent history through the eyes of a father and son.

Aga Akbar is a deaf and mute man who becomes a master carpet repairer. In a cave in nearby Saffron Mountain he is shown a 3,000-year-old cuneiform script, which he decides to use to express himself in a notebook.

As Akbar's son Ishmael grows up, he comes to serve as his father's ears, mouth and principal link with the world. While the father is a silent witness to events, the son becomes the protagonist.

After the shah is overthrown, and hopes of freedom are dashed under Khomeini's Islamic regime, Ishmael is increasingly involved in the underground opposition. As repression intensifies, his clandestine party is "shattered like an earthenware pot that falls to the ground" and he is forced to flee the country.

In Europe, years later, his father's notebook finds its ways into his hands. The story of both characters and their beloved Iran unfolds as the son gradually deciphers his father's cuneiform writings.

This poignant, affectionate and beautifully told tale reflects a longing for a lost homeland.

Kader Abdolah is a pseudonym created to honour two friends, Kader and Abdolah, who were killed by the regime. The author, a political exile, lives in the Netherlands and writes in Dutch.

My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad

Peseshkzad's riotous tale, set in Tehran in the early 1940s, depicts the lives of a large extended family ruled over by a despotic, deluded and paranoid patriarch, Dear Uncle Napoleon.

The novel's unnamed 13-year-old narrator has a crush on his cousin, Dear Uncle's daughter, but the dysfunctional family's personalities, politics and feuds frustrate young love at every turn.

Dear Uncle hero-worships Bonaparte, and tells extremely tall tales – backed up by his loyal manservant – of his valour in battles against Britain and its allies. As British troops land in Iran at the start of the second world war, Dear Uncle is certain that perfidious Albion, whose hidden hand he sees behind almost every event, is bent on revenge against him.

This sharp-eyed satire is highly critical of the society it portrays, sending up class snobbery, family honour, personal pride and sexual shenanigans (going to San Francisco, as a womanising uncle calls it).

The novel, first published in 1973, is one of the most popular books in Iran and has become part of the national psyche. Despite that, the mullahs banned it after the revolution, along with the immensely popular TV series it spawned.

Pezeshkzad, a former Iranian judge and diplomat, lives in France.

Revolutionary Iran by Michael Axworthy

"Iran is less a country than a continent, more a civilisation than a nation," says Axworthy at the beginning of his masterly history of the Islamic Republic. His lucid and literate account takes us from the origins of the 1979 revolution that toppled the shah and installed Ayatollah Khomeini to President Ahmadinejad's hotly disputed re-election in 2009 that brought protesters on to the streets.

Iran is a big player in the Middle East and beyond, but relations between Tehran and the west are dogged by myths and misunderstandings. The 1979 crisis, when students take US embassy staff hostage, leads "Iran into a twilight zone of diplomatic breakdown and international isolation". The country's nuclear ambitions and ongoing western sanctions do little to change that. But, as Axworthy explains, Iran has good reasons not to trust the west: among them a CIA-engineered coup that ousted an elected prime minister, support for the repressive shah, and backing for Saddam Hussein in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war.

Although no apologist for the regime – which, as he points out, imprisons, tortures and kills political opponents – the author's calm, accessible and knowledgeable narrative appeals for diplomacy and understanding.

Axworthy is an academic and a former head the British Foreign Office's Iran section.

Pushpinder Khaneka

Unaffordable cities: squatting in Caracas's tower of broken dreams

Posted: 11 Feb 2014 11:00 PM PST

In the chaotic Venezuelan capital, even a policeman and his family are obliged to live illegally in the infamous Tower of David

Your views: have soaring city property prices affected your life?

The walls of the Tower of David can talk. Fifty-two storeys high and crowned with a heliport, this unfinished highrise, originally conceived as a bank, was meant to stand tall among its neighbours in downtown Caracas as an emblem of Venezuela's booming economy and the city's uber-modernism of the 1990s.

Instead, with the country struggling with one of the world's highest inflation rates, chronic food shortages and a currency black market where the dollar trades at 10 times the official rate, La Torre de David (named after its principal investor David Brillembourg, whose untimely death in 1993 coincided with the collapse of the Venezuelan economy), is a metaphor for the state's failure to provide its citizens with housing, public transport and even safety.

Illegally occupied eight years ago by more than 300 families and featured last year as a hideout in the American TV series Homeland, this industrial-scale squat counts a policeman among its residents. Not that 27-year-old Jorge Luis Cadena is exactly proud to call it home to his wife and three children.

Cadena draws a policeman's salary of 4,800 bolivares (£460 at the official rate, or just £40 unofficially), and sounds resigned more than angry at his situation. "My job isn't important here, just like a teacher's job isn't important," he says ruefully. "We are in charge of people's safety and of our kids' education, but the salaries you make from jobs like these mean we are not important."

At least moving to the tower, away from Caracas's notoriously violent slums, has meant a safer life, relatively, for his family. "It allowed us to move out of my mother-in-law's, but I don't feel like I own this place," Cadena says. "I won't lose hope of owning my own home."

But squatting meant Cadena could use the 3,500 bolivares a month it would have cost to rent a similar place to meet payments on the 1999 Honda Accord he bought from a friend. He uses his car to double as a taxi-driver, asideline that pulls in twice his policeman's salary. "All Venezuelans have to work two jobs", Cadena says, as he makes his way up the 26 flights of steps to his home. "We survive as if by an act of God."

Cadena is not the only one working odd jobs, and the tower's open-air atrium bustles with early morning activity. A handful of men ride their motorcycles down impromptu ramps hoping they'll have a good day as moto-taxis, a growing solution to unemployment and to Caracas's traffic-clogged streets.

Throughout the tower, paper signs plastered on the pale blue walls of the interior corridors offer anything from homemade ice-cream to English lessons to reduced-priced braces to give you a perfect smile. Performed from home and outside regular office hours, the proliferation of these services speaks of an informal economy that Venezuelans are increasingly relying on to fight off the growing cost of living.

"We always find a way of surviving, but it's not an easy life," Cadena says. With two additional jobs, transporting personnel from a company to their homes and helping out on weekends at an auto repair shop, he used to "run on three hours of sleep. Half the time I was barely human, but now it feels good to have achieved something."

Cadena also bought the car as a way to ward off inflation. At more than 52% a year, Venezuela's inflationary economy and overreliance on imported goods means "the only thing that doesn't go up here are people's salaries". Anything, from car parts to construction material or medicines, can double in price from one month to the next. Because of Venezuela's dual exchange-rate system, only the very few with access to foreign currency can benefit from trading at the illegal and ever-increasing black market. For the vast majority, money simply evaporates.

"[Getting a car] was a gift of God. I don't have access to credit so the things I've achieved have been almost as if by a miracle," Cadena says of the loan he got, not from a bank but from a private lender he won't share details about. "He trusts me because I have a reputation for being honest."

Four years after moving in, Cadena's 90-metre (295ft) apartment still feels largely unfinished. Halfway to the penthouses, and with breaktaking views of the southern side of the city, its intended users – investment bankers – would have sat at their desks here contemplating their way up the corporate ladder. Today, where men in ties might have brokered deals, Cadena's wife, Yecenia Polanco, fries eggs for breakfast.

It was Yecenia who found the space in the tower. Apartments in the skyscraper are highly coveted and getting one often involves intense lobbying with the building's admission committee, but Yecenia had friends that helped and the couple and their three children, aged six, two and one at the time, were soon able to move in. Her two eldest sons, now 18 and 17, from a previous relationship stayed behind with her mother.

When they first got there, the apartment was little more than a floor, gigantic columns, and some remnants of the bank's glistening glass façade. Slowly and painstakingly, the Cadenas managed to erect basic walls that separate them from neighbors and to fence off a balcony that drops 70m down. They've recently put in a bathroom and finished a small L-shaped kitchen where a giant blue water tank insures their water supply for the week. The air still smells of unsettled dust. "Bringing all the bricks and cement up 26 flights of steps with only the help of some neighbours was very difficult," Cadena says. "And because this is temporary I don't want to put too much work into it."

Yecenia would. At the moment the social area is divided from the bedroom they all share by a golden curtain that gives the space a somewhat theatrical appearance. She wants walls but on Cadena's income alone, remodeling is out of the question. Cadena makes enough for the family to get by. Half of his income goes to food, which according to Yecenia is not only harder to find but also gets more expensive every week. "We used to rely on street vendors because they were cheaper but with the shortages they've actually become more expensive than supermarkets. They resell everything that has gone missing", she says. Price controls, imposed by the government more than five years ago, have led to the disappearance of basic food items like sugar, cornflour or milk from supermarket shelves. A litre of milk, if you find it, costs Bs 7 in a shop. A buhonero, or street vendour will charge Bs 15.

Children make the other big dent in the Cadenas' budget. Although four of their five children go to public school, transportat and school supplies seem to always offset their plans. "Whatever we seem to save always ends up vanishing to some unexpected emergency. This month it was Bs 750 in two shirts for school uniforms," says Yecenia.

Yecenia trained as a hairdresser but after a man she was shaving at a parlour was shot dead at point-blank range, right in front of her, she prefers to work from home and by appointments only. She is slowly building up her clientele again, but raising children with erratic school schedules and crisscrossing the city in search of scarce goods takes up most of her time.

"I feel safer working from home even if it's less money," she says. On a good month she can make Bs 2,000, but January has been slow to pick up and to date she has only made 400 Bolivares. That her husband is a cop doesn't make life easier for Yecenia or her children. In fact, she would prefer that he give his job up. "It's not safe now, and even if he quits it's the kind of job that follows you around for a while," she says. Her uncle, also a cop, was killed while he was off duty, by men who were angry after he reprimanded them while patrolling.

Cadena likes his job less and less every day. For him, joining the police was far from a dream come true, but at the time he felt the benefits outweighed the risks. "It felt great to be surrounded by people who had university degrees– lawyers, engineers. I was learning so much", Cadena explains. But Caracas is not an easy place to be a cop.

Ranked among the three most murderous cities in the world, policemen here must confront in addition to low wages, and dwindling resources, the added threat of having become the target of criminals who seek revenge, as much as, the dead officer's weapon. Just last month, criminals killed two of his colleagues. Last year alone, more than 150 policemen were murdered across the country.

"The malandros (thugs) here have more and better weapons than we do. They also make more money than we can ever dream of, and whereas we confront the full weight of the law, they walk around freely," Cadena says. "I have to respect their human rights, but who is respecting ours?" According to watchdogs close to 90% of crimes in Venezuela go unpunished.

But ironically, Cadena finds that his job as a taxi driver is even more dangerous than being a policeman. "Carrying a weapon exposes you to being killed and robbed of your gun, but driving in the streets at night is worse," he says.

Jorge and Yecenia often feel discouraged. For them, Caracas isn't the sort of city where you can dream big. "What else can you aspire to here? Maybe you can study and improve a little but try wearing a watch you like or buying a cellphone you want … here, that's like putting a gun to your head", Cadena says.

And yet, they refuse to give up on their aspirations. "I want to persevere in my dreams: a home, and to give our children a better future," Cadena says. "We want what everyone wants."

Virginia López

Burnout in France: focus turned to workplace health after spate of suicides

Posted: 11 Feb 2014 11:00 PM PST

High-profile cases involving France Telecom and Renault led to review of work pressures, but are companies doing enough?

Many imagine France as a country with never-ending vacations and long leisurely lunches. Yet while there is a grain of truth in this, the reality is that the French workplace has been simmering with pent-up pressure since long before the 2008 crisis.

A recent study by the Paris-based consulting firm Technologia has found that more than three million French workers are at a high risk of burnout. Tales of work-related suicides in the French media over the past eight years seem to support these statistics.

France Telecom and Renault: two giants before the courts

Two of the perhaps most high-profile cases involved France Telecom (rebranded Orange in 2013) and Renault. The former's CEO, Didier Lombard, and two top executives resigned in early 2010 following 35 suicides in 2008 and 2009. They were subsequently indicted in May 2012, along with the company itself, under criminal law for workplace bullying. The case is still before the courts.

At the same time, a French court of appeals found car maker Renault guilty of gross negligence in May 2012 with regard to three suicides in 2006 and 2007.

Both of these events are a first in France, with potentially wide-ranging consequences. "France Telecom and its top executives being in criminal proceedings, sends a strong message to the business community," says Loïc Lerouge, a researcher and leading specialist in psychosocial risks at the Université Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV.

More recently, in January, the suicide of an Orange employee on the Paris metro reinforced the debate with the CGT, France's second largest union confederation, claiming that it could be linked to the pressures of work. A statement from Orange said that the worker had seemed to be experiencing difficulties for the last few months and that a meeting had been arranged to propose professional support measures.

Corporate action

Nicolas Barrier, the HR Director of Renault's massive R&D site Technocentre, where the suicides took place, details how Renault has been busy revamping the way it manages its staff in France in the past six years.

"Starting in 2007, Carlos Ghosn decided to put in place a management team at the centre, which employs over 10,000 people," Mr. Barrier explains, under the watchful eye of a PR rep. "We decided to create a plan to improve the working conditions of our teams. It's based on three things: bringing management closer to employees and training managers to know about psychosocial risks, regulating workload and ensuring adequate resources to get the job done, and creating warning and alert mechanisms for at-risk people."

Jean-Claude Délgènes, the founder and CEO of Technologia, which specialises in preventing work-related psychosocial risks, has dealt with no fewer than 73 work-related suicides since 2008. Despite these alarming figures, he feels that a lot of companies have improved risk prevention in the past few years.

The key to understanding the French – and in fact European – legal context is a 1989 occupational health and safety directive, which requires EU member states to encourage improvements in, and safeguard, the safety and health of workers.

In France, two events in the early 2000s drastically altered this emphasis on precautionary measures. The first was a landmark decision in an asbestos case made by one of France's highest courts, la Cour de Cassation, in 2002, shifting the burden of proof from people to companies in cases involving work-related illnesses.

The second was a decree issued by the government following the massive explosion of the AZF chemical factory in September 2001 (which resulted in 29 deaths), requiring companies to evaluate all possible occupational risks and detail them in one sole document.

The upshot of these two measures is that it is no longer enough for companies in France to take steps to prevent risks; they must ensure the results as well.

French occupational psychiatrist Christophe Dejours, who holds the occupational psychology chair at the Paris Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, believes France reached a tipping point in 2009 with the events at France Telecom.

"Three factors played a major role," he explains. "One, the media all of a sudden began to cover the suicides, whereas before they hadn't been, and, more importantly, they wouldn't let up. Two, it became part of the culture, with books and movies about it. And three, pressure from court cases pushed the MEDEF [the French employers' union] and the government to take the matter seriously."

For his part, Délgènes feels that despite these advances, France has been less effective at getting at the root causes, which he feels lie in the wide-reaching changes that have taken place in the workplace over the past fifteen years.

New pressures in a new workplace

"Things started changing in the mid-90s, when shareholders started becoming a dominant force, placing more pressure on top management," he explains. "At the same time, everything became structured around the digital economy. Time is now accelerated and work can be controlled much more precisely, leading to management by objective."

Occupational health physician Agnès Martineau-Arbes, who consults for Technologia, says that serious impacts on health have been observed. "We are seeing more and more otherwise perfectly healthy executives with a relatively high socioeconomic status suffering from strokes," she says.

"Burnout itself is not something new. It was first observed among executives in the 1950s in the US by insurance companies. The terms were different but the phenomenon was there. What has changed today is that top executives are no longer immune," says Dejours.

Yet, as Dejours puts it, despite these extreme cases "work can also be a source of fulfilment and pleasure". "Quite simply," he says, "it can often be – and should always be – better to work than not to work."

Richard Venturi is an economics teacher at the Paris Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers and freelance journalist living in Paris

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Gang rape of girl, 14, leads to calls for calm amid rising racial tensions

Posted: 11 Feb 2014 10:56 PM PST

Councillor says residents should not take the law into their own hands as ethnic profiling fuels anger within the community

Sydney Biennale and a question of corporate sponsorship | Antony Lowenstein

Posted: 11 Feb 2014 10:53 PM PST

Antony Lowenstein: Major arts events and institutions need to examine where their money comes from. Do we really want art funded by the asylum seeker industry?

Antony Loewenstein