A moment with Tony Benn

Today whilst passing through London and before descending into the tube, I just happened to pop outside Euston train station  and spotted Tony Benn sat on a bench lighting his pipe.

I was on the way down to Southampton to pick up a car and although I have no idea what made me pop outside the station after getting off the train, I am glad i did.

I was not going pass up the opportunity to chat with a lifelong hero of mine so I wondered over and introduced myself.

We had a brief discussion about the National Union of Journalists before I suddenly remembered I had in my bag a pro stills camera, a web enabled mobile phone and a mini video camera.

Although Tony Benn only had about five minutes to catch his train to Preston he was kind enough to humour me as I conducted a short interview on video.. I then took a few stills and showed him how easy it was using Qik to stream from a mobile phone.

 
Tony is no stranger to being interviewed or filmed as he spends much of his life on the lecture circuit in the public eye. It was the quick demo of the technology around live streaming from a mobile device straight to the web that seemed to interest him the most.

In about three minutes we were done and a slightly amazed Tony Benn took my card and invited me to get in touch so I could introduce him to more of this technology.

It was a really great start to the day for me. Totally unexpected and I was glad I had my ‘geek’ bag at the ready.

I have been a fan of Tony Benn and his work for a while now and am so glad to have finally met him. Not only that, but as a great bonus I now have his home number and hope to do a more in depth interview in the future.

  

Here is the same video on YouTube

..and my thoughts on Qik straight afterwards.

Iraqi Refugees: Life in the Shadows

The fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War is upon us, and there is speculation that the engagement may continue yet another five years, if not more. To date, approximately 4,000 American soldiers have been killed in combat.

While the loss of combat troops is certainly tragic, even more stunning is a recent World Health Organization report based on Iraqi Health Ministry figures which estimates that 151,000 Iraqi civilians were killed between March 2003, the start of the invasion, and June 2006.

Many of the reports of civilian deaths are disputed. What cannot be argued, however, is another grave consequence of the Iraq War: the displacement crisis as a mass exodus of Iraqis flee the instabilities and ever-increasing sectarian violence at home, tearing their families apart.

In mid-January 2008, with the support of the United Nations High Commission For Refugees (UNHCR), I traveled to Amman, Jordan to photograph and record a few of these families trapped in a no-man’s land; asylum seekers looking for refuge, too afraid to return to their blood-soaked country.

Here are a few of their stories:

The film can also be viewed as a .wmv file here.. http://www.unhcr.org/video/iraqi-refugees-in-jordan.wmv
…and downloaded as a real media file here.. http://www.unhcr.org/video/iraqi-refugees-in-jordan.rm
For more information please check out.. The UNHCR Multimedia pages

To download this film to your ipod or mobile device please subscribe to the podcast at www.Documentally.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

[This film is dedicated to the memory of my Mother Liala Payne.  Two weeks before I left for Jordan I explained my plans. She was proud and answered as she always did when i told her about a trip abroad.. Simply "Take care".  Without her giving me the freedom she did as I was growing up I would not be the person I am now. I am sorry she did not get to see these stories. She died suddenly as I was due to leave. I flew out a week after we laid her to rest.]

Social Media Connections

I’d love to have taken the time to have written my thanks to Bill Cammack regarding his job as editor on the recent UNHCR Podcast I have been working on but now I have seen his blogging skills in full swing..

I am glad i stuck with a brief video and didn’t embarrass myself.

When Bill talks about the connections made within social media I think he hits the nail on the head. So much so that you should just click this link and read his post. That way I can get on with my packing and preparations for my flight tomorrow to Austin, Texas and the massive festival that is SXSW.

Let me just say though.. All these places we spend time on allow us to converse with people in some ways on better terms that we could do in the flesh.

A couple of days ago I posted my 3000 video post on Seesmic and soon after was asked.. “Was it worth it?”.

I answered that I would have happily posted 5000 posts in exchange for the chance to have made contact with half of the amazing people I have met through the site. It has taken many of my previous ‘Twitter‘ connections to another dimension, as I choose what conversation I wish to get involved with, with whom and when.

How many conversations do you have in a day where you do not have the chance to choose those parameters?

I have been podcasting for a couple of years now and before that I was a heavy forum poster.. That said, I still feel I am very new to many of the intricacies of social media and with this in mind I am more than a little excited to what the future may hold.

Project Update:
Regarding the UNHCR project.. As I type this there are a few representatives in a small office in Amman, Jordan looking over it now. I hope to hear back soon and have a date where I can put it out there. Then, hopefully it will start a conversation and perhaps direct some help to some people that really need it.

Focus On Imaging 08 (Part 3)

Thanks to Phil Campbell for the edit.

All three parts of the video are here.. Part One Part Two Part Three

Focus On Imaging 08 (Part 2)

Thanks to Phil Campbell for the edit.

All three parts of the video are here.. Part One Part Two Part Three

Focus on Imaging 08 (Part 1)

Thanks to Phil Campbell for the hard work in editing this film and to Yellow Snapper for introducing us to some great Think Tank kit..

All three parts of the video are here.. Part One Part Two Part Three

Episode 40 - An interview in Jordan

Well here is a turn up for the books.. And a handy one at that as I am bowled over with my various projects at the moment so i am posting this interview with me in my feed to not only save me some valuble editing time but also to introduce and thank a British podcaster who lives in Canada called David Bailey.David Phoned me up whilst i was working In Amman Jordan and we had time for this quick interview. David’s content can be found at http://dfbmbe.wordpress.com and more of my other updates can be found at www.OurManInside.com

You can also stream the podcast here.. DFBMBE Blog

Many thanks to Dave in taking the time to call me in jordan and for making the interview available as a podcast.

correction: During the interview i should have said… It is the largest refugee crisis to hit the Middle East in 60 years. We must not forget Afghanistan.

Iraqi Refugees in Jordan (update)

It’s the beginning of my fourth full day here in Amman, Jordan and I feel I have hardly stopped. Friday is a holiday like the west’s Sunday here so while we catch up on a little sleep I have sacrificed an extra hour to try to get a few words down on the blog.

On my arrival into the country I was to meet my friend Phil Sands. He is a friend from about five year back, where we both worked on a regional daily paper in Northamptonshire. As my trip here was delayed I had arranged Phil to come here and be a ‘fixer’ for a few days. Setting up some interviews with my contact and smoothing the way.

Phil has lived in the middle east for a good few years now, commuting between Iraq (where we have worked together before) and Syria where he has made Damascus his base. It’s about $10 4 hour taxi ride from Amman to Damascus.

Phil has also has spent some time here in the past and knows some good people. One of these ‘good people’ a professional guy who runs a business mag called Karim came with Phil to pick me up at the station and instead of waiting with a normal white placard with my name on, they thought it funny to stage a fake kidnaping.

After a nervous welcome and hello we headed out into the dark cold night.. Only to be met by a short hairy guy on a mobile speaking in arabic and telling us we had to follow him. With secret police all over the Middle East It is not unusual for people to be taken off the street in this way. I was nearly taken hook line and sinker but Karim was a little to short and not at all threatening. Phil’s acting was thankfully not that good either.

Amman is a sprawling city without a visible centre.. This does not so much make it a soul-less place but draw parallels with western developments where the old town is forgotten as the new multi billion dollar developments spring up on it’s outskirts with their plazas and manicured gardens, surrounding condos and expensive apartments.

These developments only serve a very small percentage of the population but help to push up the cost of living for all. As a result those coming in from Syria and other neighboring countries may be surprised at the cost of living.

Phil and I are currently living in a small apartment in the Hotel Draghmeh in the region of Webdah. It costs about $40/night.

The work has been relentless and hard. Iraqi’s keep strange hours at the best of time and Iraqi refugees trying to lie low in a country that does not necessarily see them as having any legal status are even harder to pin down. As a result, there never seems to be a time when I am not working and somedays can stretch into the morning of the next. Lunch-times are spent with some of the poorest yet still incredibly hospitable people while we interview and take pictures and the late night moments we snatch to find food and sustenance are spent making calls and arranging the next day. Everyone has a mobile phone here and I could not imagine even beginning to manage a project like this five years ago.

The people I have met so far have harrowing stories. One well educated guy from Baghdad fled to Jordan having had his life threatened, only to hear five members of his family were killed in a car when passing US soldiers in their neighborhood.

None of these stories are easy to hear and I am amazed at the strength of spirit of these Iraqis forced into exile. There is an infrastructure attempting to help these people headed by the UNHCR. It is these people who have asked me to come here. I can see now that giving assistance is a much harder job than any could have imagined.

I just hope that once I have finished this project it will make some people sit up and pay attention to what is probably the largest single migration of people since 1945.

(Photos and audio taken of Iraqi refugees will follow in the coming weeks.)

Project Update.

My flight is booked and in a few days I fly to Jordan. Although I am still to get my hands on a D3 I am satisfied that I have the use of the new D300 for at least a month. Thank you to those that humoured me in my testing of the website chipin.com. £40 was donated, before i pulled the widget. I really appreciate the gestures and that money is safely put away and will be put toward other savings when they accumulate.

The unexpected death of my Mother over the holidays has not only allowed me to re-evaluate my goals in life but also meant the luxury of a new work tool will have to wait as my savings have been put towards her burial and send off.

My next assignment will be dedicated to my Mother Liala.

On the podcasting front I still have a backlog to get through but as you can imagine these have been unusually difficult times. I promise to do more podcasts in the future. So please sit tight and stay subscribed. I was going to pop all this in a podcast but thought those that subscribe may well read this blog too.

I am not one to look forward to much as i feel living in the moment is the best bet. Still. I am open to all kind of possibilities this new year and feel strangely optimistic for the future.

Cheers guys.

christian.

I feel the need.. the need for feeds.

I still make an effort to read the paper but I couldn’t help but notice this morning that whilst flicking through the Guardian magazines from yesterday, I seemed to need my macbook to supplement the supplements.

I love the touchy-feely experience of leaning over the paper with a coffee, skimming the bits that don’t raise a brow and absorbing the others that do. Still, It was obvious I needed that extra dimension.

I know that if I don’t check that link or search that person or view that trailer or check the price of that product.. I will forget and not get a grasp of the whole picture.

Feed reading is a new thing for me as up until a few months ago I hadn’t found a feed-reader I liked. I try to avoid the homogenized world of google and was glad to stumble apon Vienna.

So today I was reading Stephen Fry’s blog (which I subscribe to online anyway) and was fascinated by the ‘Trevor Baylis Eco Media Player‘ he was talking about. It is the sort of device you will wish you have come the apocalypse and we are all living ‘Mad Max’ lives. A kind of windup hippy ipod with a torch, radio, phone charger, audio recorder and so on.. I got the gist of this amazing gadget but needed to see a photo to complete the picture. After 30 seconds I had not only viewed a selection of photos, but had also read some reviews and found an ethical superstore selling it for a much lower price.

With this mornings realisations I fear for the continuing purchases of my Saturday/Sunday paper. Perhaps I should have more faith in the RSS feed..

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