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Helen Clark: "Empowered Lives; Resilient Nations – Why Health Matters to Human Development"Jan 31, 2013
Helen Clark, Administrator UNDP
Lecture at the
Harvard School of Public Health Lecture
"Empowered Lives; Resilient Nations –
Why Health Matters to Human Development"
4pm, Thursday 31 January 2013
Boston, Massachusetts
It is a pleasure to join you at the Harvard School of Public Health. My thanks go to Professor Ichiro Kawachi for inviting me to deliver this lecture on global health and human development.
This School's contribution to public health discourse is notable – as seen in research undertaken by faculty and students, including in the field of social epidemiology which Professor Kawachi has helped to define. I also acknowledge the participation of Dean Julio Frenk in numerous UN panels.
The United Nations Development Programme, the organization I head, is not a specialized health agency. Yet, our core mandate of helping countries to tackle poverty, promote gender equality, and achieve sustainable human development, is highly relevant to lifting health status. In that sense it can complement the work of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other specialized global health agencies.
That is because the conditions in which people live and work impact on their well-being. Disparities in health outcomes tend to mirror inequalities and inequities in the broader society. Therefore efforts by development actors to tackle inequality and inequity will have a positive impact on health status.
The reverse is also true: advancing better health is a gateway to development progress, lifting economies and societies. In Asia, for example, between thirty and fifty per cent of economic growth between 1965 and 1990 has been attributed to improvements in reproductive health and reductions in fertility rates and infant and child mortality.
At the most basic level, well-nourished and healthy children are better able to learn. Well-nourished and healthy adults will have more productive lives – and one hopes a better chance of attaining overall wellbeing.
Understanding this feedback loop between health and development reminds us why it is important for health and development actors to see each other's efforts as complementary. My lecture today therefore will focus on the intersection between the health and human development agendas, and on why it is important for actors in each to collaborate.
Examining the intersection between Health and Human Development
Defining Health and Human Development
The preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization, agreed in 1946, defined health as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity". That definition stands to this day. It reminds us that good health is built on broad foundations, and is about rather more than the absence of illness.
Two years later, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was agreed at the United Nations. It declares that "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health, and wellbeing of himself and his family." The right to health has since been enshrined in global and regional human rights treaties, and in many national constitutions.
These landmark documents provide a firm basis for advocacy for health as a fundamental right for all. As such, health features prominently in the human development paradigm, which is the guiding framework for UNDP's work. That paradigm owes much to the lifetime contribution to development thinking of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen – who has written extensively on health equity – and his colleague Mahbub ul Haq.
The very first global Human Development Report published by UNDP in 1990 declared that "people are the real wealth of nations", and defined human development as the process of enlarging people's choices, freedoms, and capabilities to lead lives they value.
This definition challenged traditional thinking which had equated development with economic growth, as measured by GDP per capita. As the old saying goes, "man does not live by bread alone". Within the human development paradigm, good health is viewed both as a precondition for exercising one's choices and freedoms, and as an outcome of that freedom.
With each global Human Development Report, UNDP publishes the Human Development Index. Health is one of its three components alongside education and GDP per capita. Life expectancy at birth is used as the indicator for health and well-being.
Since 2010 the annual global Human Development Reports have included three new indices:
- the Inequality-Adjusted HDI, which captures the loss in HDI because of inequality in each of the three dimensions of the HDI. Here intra-country disparities in life expectancy figure prominently;
- the Gender Inequality Index, which captures the loss in HDI because of gender inequality; and
- the Multidimensional Poverty Index, which gives a more comprehensive picture of poverty than an income-only indicator can.
There can be no doubt that poverty impacts adversely on health, as do both inequality in general and gender inequality. To lift health status and make the right to health a reality, it is vital to tackle poverty and inequality in all their dimensions. That too places health at the centre of the development agenda.
The Alma Ata Declaration of the WHO's 1978 International Conference on Primary Health Care proclaimed that: "the attainment of the highest possible level of health is a most important world-wide social goal whose realization requires the action of many other social and economic sectors in addition to the health sector."
As a young Health Minister almost a quarter of a century ago, I often thought I had been able to achieve as much, if not more, for public health in my previous role as Minister of Housing. Over almost three decades in public life in my country, including nine years as Prime Minister, I was acutely aware of the broader economic, social, and other factors which impacted on health status.
Now, as head of the UN Development Programme, the Alma Ata Declaration helps me to place health status in that broader developmental context. UNDP's own strategy for tackling HIV, "HIV, Health, and Development", is based on our understanding that "just as health shapes development, development shapes health."
For all these reasons it is vital to tackle health challenges on a cross-sectoral basis. Action in the health sector alone will not produce the gains in health status and development we all want to see. The final report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, established by the World Health Organization in 2005, reinforces the importance of cross-sectoral strategies and action.
In September 2011, the United Nations General Assembly held its first High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases, bringing together world leaders, and ministers, and other stakeholders within and beyond the health sector. The meeting issued a Political Declaration recognizing NCDs as not only a global health concern, but also as a threat to social and economic development.
The UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in June last year weighed in along similar lines, stating in its outcome document that "health is a precondition for and an outcome of all three dimensions of sustainable development" – the economic, social, and environmental.
Health and the Millennium Development Goals
Health was placed at the very centre of the development agenda in the Millennium Development Goals promulgated by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2000. The MDGs focus on basic benchmarks of progress in human development. They set out to: reduce poverty and hunger; empower women and girls; reduce the incidence of specified diseases and maternal and child mortality; increase access to education, clean water, and sanitation; protect the environment; and forge strong global partnerships for development.
Three of the eight MDGs specifically target health outcomes. They are:
- Goal 4 – Reduce Child Mortality: with a specific target to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate;
- Goal 5 – Improve maternal health: with specific targets to reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio and achieve universal access to reproductive health; and
- Goal 6 – Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other major diseases; with specific targets to a) have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, and b) have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases. The indicators under this second target focus on both tuberculosis and malaria.
While these goals and targets seek better health outcomes, action in the health sector alone will not achieve them. Achieving these goals is heavily related to progress on the other MDGs – not least through, variously, reducing poverty, improving nutrition, ensuring that children finish school, empowering women, and improving water and sanitation.
The UN issues an annual global report on the rate of progress on the MDGs, and many regional and national reports are also produced.
To me, there seems little doubt that the MDGs, with their time-bound, clear, and measurable targets, have succeeded in mobilizing action and directing resources to lift human development.
Last month, the Lancet published results from the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study. Seven articles looked at different aspects of the study, including areas targeted in the MDGs: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; under-5 mortality; and, maternal mortality. Chris Murray and others, in their paper looking at Disability-Adjusted Life Years, suggest that the decline by nearly 32 per cent in the burden from MDG-related disorders between 1990 and 2010 is largely due to the increased global attention which was given to these priorities. While not all the health related targets will be achieved, the authors note that, on current trends, the burden should continue to decline further by 2015. They also note that under-5 mortality has dropped in all but three countries over the last two decades.
While progress has been encouraging on the health MDGs, many factors stand in the way of meeting them everywhere. The barriers to progress cannot be addressed by the health sector alone. Let me illustrate this by drawing on concrete examples of UNDP's work to support the achievement of MDG Goals 5 and 6, working with diverse partners.
Maternal Mortality
Progress towards the MDG 5 target to reduce maternal mortality has been very slow. The target will not be met within the timeframe set. Nor can it be said that universal access to reproductive health has been achieved.
Across the developing world, the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births is estimated to have been reduced from 440 in 1990 to 240 in 2010 on the figures used by the United Nations. That is well below the progress needed to achieve the MDG target. Significant regional disparities also persist, with maternal deaths occurring disproportionately in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.
In tackling preventable maternal death, the health sector clearly has much to contribute – for example through the provision of antenatal care, attendance at birth by midwives or other health personnel, and access to full obstetric services.
But there may also be a range of social, cultural, and economic factors preventing women from exercising their reproductive and sexual health rights and accessing the health services they need. Those factors may include gender inequality; poverty; poor or little protection of the human rights of women and girls; food insecurity and poor nutrition; and inadequate infrastructure and services, including lack of access to energy or to transport to health services.
The complex relationship between such factors and maternal health status becomes apparent when work is done to identify obstacles in the way of achieving MDG 5. In 2010, UNDP developed the MDG Acceleration Framework, which has now been applied with the support of UN Country Teams in more than forty countries. It drives efforts across sectors to overcome the bottlenecks preventing progress on lagging MDG targets. In a number of countries, the MAF is being used to address maternal mortality.
Evidence from this exercise confirms that many of the obstacles to achieving MDG 5 do not relate to inefficiencies or problems within the health sector alone, but rather to a broader range of constraints. These may include:
- overstretched governance systems, struggling to allocate and manage the limited resources available;
- an inability to train and deploy skilled health personnel where they are most needed – more collaboration with education and other sectors is needed;
- the breakdown of supply chains for equipment, drugs, and other supplies;
- challenges in reaching remote communities – because of poor transport infrastructure;
- persistent gender inequality.
In Uganda, one of the first countries to use the Acceleration Framework, practitioners and experts from the Finance, Planning, and Health Ministries were brought together with partners from civil society, multilateral organizations, and other development actors to identify the constraints on achieving MDG 5, and to agree on actions in a wide range of areas. They prioritized improving transport links and water supply to health centres, and putting in place incentives aimed at retaining health workers in remote areas.
Turning the tide on HIV
Significant prevention efforts, along with progress in science and technology, have contributed to slowing the rate of new HIV infections radically. A lot of the research has been done in the world's leading research institutions, like Harvard, and improvements in treatment continue. To complement this progress, however, initiatives outside the health sector are also critical.
In 2010 UNDP established and supported the work of a Global Commission on HIV and the Law. Its final report, released in July last year, showed that many of the inequalities and much of the discrimination which impede effective HIV responses are entrenched in laws and policies. For example:
- laws which inappropriately criminalise HIV transmission, exposure, and non-disclosure deepen the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS, and negatively affect both the taking up of testing and treatment services and the relationship between patients and health service providers;
- laws which fail to protect women from domestic and sexual violence contribute to women's greater vulnerability and risk of HIV infection;
- punitive and discriminatory laws and law enforcement practices may prevent people who use drugs, men who have sex with men, transgender people, and sex workers from accessing HIV and health services;
- where the age of consent for autonomous access to sexual and reproductive health services is higher than the age at which young people are sexually active, young people may be unable to access necessary prevention services; and,
- trade law and policies may present barriers to expanding life-saving treatment for millions in need.
The Commission's report also notes that evidence-based laws and practices firmly grounded in human rights do exist in a number of countries, and are powerful instruments for challenging stigma, promoting public health, and protecting human rights.
Recently, Guyana rejected a bill criminalizing HIV transmission on the grounds that it was bad public health policy.
In 2009, Fiji removed its outdated 'sodomy law' from its penal code; the same year it requested UNDP support for a human rights-compliant HIV law. In August 2011, a law that met such criteria was introduced. Over the past couple of years, thanks to constructive engagement with government, civil society and networks of people living with HIV, Pacific Island countries are realizing the importance of human rights for a more effective HIV response.
Equally important to changing laws for better prevention and treatment is enabling men and women living with HIV to participate with dignity in daily life. In 2007, UNDP began work in India to expand the criteria of existing social protection schemes so that they were more HIV-sensitive and able to encompass marginalized groups, especially women and girls living with HIV. According to data from India's National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), by the end of 2011, 35 state social protection schemes had started providing food, transport, housing, and pensions for people living with HIV. Close to 200,000 people living with HIV are now accessing such schemes.
Such policies can be important not only for persons living with HIV, but also for their families, and for ensuring that HIV does not force them into poverty-traps from which there is no escape. Evidence from a recent UNDP study in Asia, for example, suggests that children living in households affected by HIV were less likely to attend school than children in households not affected by HIV. This was especially true for girls, who were also more likely to have dropped out of school.
UNDP is an important partner of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. We act as the principal recipient of Global Fund grant monies in countries where capacity to receive and expend funding is low – for whatever reason.
In this capacity we are responsible for the delivery of some $400 million of Global Fund money each year, and for building the capacities of countries themselves to manage large-scale health programmes in the future.
In Zambia, for example, UNDP has worked with the Ministry of Health to strengthen national systems for managing funds, procurement, and supply chain quality assurance. This has enabled the Ministry to overcome recurrent shortages in the supply of life-saving commodities, and has improved the country's ability to attract funding from donors for tackling HIV.
The value UNDP brings to the partnership with the Global Fund includes its universal country presence and operational capacities, its experience of operating in complex emergencies and through political transitions, the existing legal and administrative agreements we have with host governments, our public policy expertise on tackling HIV and its social determinants, and our ability to harness the technical expertise and resources of other UN agencies and civil society.
Combating Non-Communicable Diseases
Non-communicable diseases were not covered in the MDGs, but are increasingly recognised as a very significant health problem in developing countries. Indeed, nearly eighty per cent of global NCD deaths are estimated to occur in developing countries.
NCDs have striking socio-economic impacts:
- At the macro level, morbidity and mortality related to NCDs sap productivity among working age populations. China, India and Russia were estimated to lose USD 23-53 billion per year between 2005-2015 because of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes alone.
- For low-income countries, managing NCDs can be very expensive, and puts a severe strain on already overburdened health systems.
- At the household level, NCDs can push families into poverty when adequate social protection measures, such as health and disability cover and access to services, are not available.
Evidence suggests that policies which directly target the use of tobacco, alcohol, and obesogenic food and drinks, through taxation, production, and advertising restrictions, can have a positive effect on NCD prevention and control. The UN has been supporting Ministries of Trade and Health in the South Pacific to review import tariffs on unhealthy foods, because we believe that reforming such laws and policies can help reduce the incidence of NCDs.
Public policy in other areas as wide ranging as sport and recreation, transport, urban planning, the environment, access to clean energy, and more could also help tackle the NCD burden.
In March 2012, Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO, and I wrote to the UN Development System's Country Teams of diverse agencies worldwide, asking them to support holistic strategies and multi-sectoral action to tackle NCDs in the wake of the Political Declaration on NCDs agreed at the UN General Assembly's High Level Meeting the previous September.
The post-2015 development agenda and emerging development challenges
Debate is now underway on what the global development agenda should look like beyond the 2015 date set for the MDG targets. There is no question that health should feature in the agenda: the question is what form it should take.
UNDP and its partners in the UN Development Group are leading a large number of national and global consultations on how the agenda should be shaped.
Some advocate having targets for universal health coverage. A resolution passed last month in the UN General Assembly: "Recommends that consideration be given to including universal health coverage in the discussions on the post-2015 development agenda in the context of global health challenges".
In Mexico, the expansion of health coverage – an effort which began in 2004 when Dean Frenk was Minister of Health - has led to significant declines in maternal and infant mortality as well as mortality in children under five years old. In Thailand, the expansion of universal health care increased inpatient care use by poor people by between eight and twelve per cent over a period of five years.
Universal health coverage, however, desirable as it is, will not in itself deliver higher health status. Action on a much broader front is needed, including on tackling the socio-economic determinants of health. That is because various forms of stigma, discrimination and marginalization, rooted in laws, policies and economic, social, cultural, and other factors, have profound impacts on health status, and on whether people will access health services even when they are readily available.
A broader chapeau for a health goal could be envisaged – possibly around "universal health", or maximizing "healthy life" – beneath which specific targets could be set; for example, for progress towards universal health cover and on tackling the drivers of disease. Outcome indicators could relate to life expectancy, premature mortality, and other factors.
Health in the broader context of sustainable development – including the environmental dimension
Achieving sustainable human development becomes very difficult as the world moves towards the edges of its planetary boundaries. This can be most clearly demonstrated with respect to climate change, which is now recognised as a significant threat to development. Its health consequences need to be more widely acknowledged too.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that increases in extreme weather events are already a discernible trend. There is broad agreement that without urgent action the world will move beyond what have been termed its 'planetary boundaries' for climate and on other dimensions. The impacts of that would include the depletion of natural resources; more frequent natural disasters, from flooding to heat waves and droughts; and radical changes in ecosystem dynamics.
These 'environmental' impacts have real economic and social repercussions, including some directly related to health outcomes. Evidence suggests that climate change:
- threatens food security and livelihoods, which can increase malnutrition;
- alters ecosystems, influencing disease distribution through exposure to new pathogens and expanding the influence of existing ones such as malaria;
- causes natural disasters, contributing directly to injury and death, and to disease related to the destruction of critical infrastructure; and
- leads to an increase in the incidence of natural resource-related conflicts both within and across borders, particularly with respect to fresh water, with populations being displaced.
Climate change therefore is an environmental, a developmental, and a health challenge. Those groups and individuals already disadvantaged are the most at risk.
As the poor disproportionately rely on access to natural resources for their livelihoods, their economic and social wellbeing is directly impacted by inaction on climate change. Similarly, as women and girls in developing countries often bear the responsibility for collecting fuel and water, the extra burdens when these resources become scarcer and lie further away from home are inequitably distributed. This can mean less time for girls to be in school, or for women to pursue income generating activities which could lift their family's living standard.
The poor also carry a "double burden" of exposure to environmental risks which impacts on their health. They are simultaneously exposed to risks in their immediate home environment, including air and water pollution and lack of sanitation, and to global climate trends such as extreme weather hazards, rising sea levels, and related injury and death, as they often reside in more precarious housing.
The WHO estimates that preventable diseases directly linked to contaminated water and polluted air claim the lives of around three million children under five years of age each year, with these fatalities concentrated in Africa and South Asia. It is sobering to think that this number equates to the size of the entire under-five population of Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland combined.
The UN's Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) estimates that over the past twenty years 1.3 million people have been killed and 4.4 billion have been affected by disasters caused by natural hazards. Climate change is making weather patterns more volatile and extreme events more common. In 2011 alone, almost 30,000 people were killed in 302 disasters, and 206 million people were affected, including 106 million by floods, and sixty million by drought - mainly in the Horn of Africa.
Deaths and injuries from natural disasters are not randomly distributed within countries, or across them. Adverse impacts from these disasters are disproportionately concentrated in poorer countries with weaker governance. Ninety-five per cent of disaster-related deaths occur in developing countries.
While the risk of being killed by a cyclone or flood is lower today than it was twenty years ago, under two per cent of global deaths from cyclones occur in countries with high levels of development, while more than half of all cyclone deaths occur in least developed nations.
Within countries, certain communities may be marginalized and made particularly vulnerable to injury because poverty, lack of legal rights, or ethnic or other affiliation, has led them to reside in precarious informal settlements.
For all these reasons, we need to hear the voice of the global health community on the threat to human health and development posed by climate change.
Conclusion: A call for a stronger public health advocacy and research agenda around current development challenges
How can public health research support policy-making to tackle emerging development challenges with health implications?
The theoretical and conceptual groundwork for doing such research has already been set, particularly through the social determinants approach. The methodological tools are constantly being refined to allow for more credible causal inference.
Multi-level modeling, familiar to researchers at this institution, can contribute to a better understanding of the structural factors which make certain populations and individuals more vulnerable to poorer health outcomes. It is important to take a broad range of factors into account, including the environmental, legal, and political factors which have been studied less.
More research on the links between policies which touch on the core business of development actors – such as employment, housing, and labour conditions; increasing access to health and education; setting urban development and environmental policy; and supporting inclusive social protection programmes – and health outcomes,should be encouraged.
From a life-course perspective, inter-generational perpetuation of disadvantage can have important implications for the future prospects for individuals – including for their health, and for the sustainable economic and social development of communities and countries. Life-course epidemiology can therefore contribute to current debates around sustainable development.
At UNDP we recognize that there are opportunities to support health interventions in settings like schools, workplaces, community meeting places, and public sector institutions. Intervention studies could offer evidence of what could work best, and also of how to use innovation in technology in support of better health outcomes. Examples of the latter include:
- the WHO and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) are testing a mobile phone solution for supporting people in managing their NCDs in Africa, by offering guidance through text messages.
- the Clinton Foundation's "Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves" aims simultaneously to save the lives of women and children currently exposed to indoor air pollution, improve livelihoods, empower women, and combat climate change.
Community-based research being conducted in the Harvard School of Public Health, including the randomized worksite studies for cancer prevention, can also offer tools for combating NCD risk factors.
The remaining challenge then, is to put research into action at the scale needed to see a real impact on population health.
Development and health practitioners share the same goals of tackling inequality and improving the well-being of individuals and communities; yet, they often lack the common language or approaches to find solutions together. This gap is an artificial one, and should be bridged through dialogue and inter-institutional partnerships.
Now more than ever, health and development actors need to work together. The global financial crisis has placed significant constraints on funding for health and development. New and innovative partnerships are needed to prevent human development progress stalling.
At UNDP we welcome all opportunities to link with health sector counterparts: the challenges we tackle in health and development are so often two sides of the same coin. If we tackle those challenges together, we are both more likely to succeed in our missions.


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This past week, I watched a rerun of National Geographic's newest show, Navajo Cops. You can watch a clip here The premise of the show is similar to Cops, but filmed on the Navajo reservation. Obviously, the show was littered with your average reprobates, thugs, trouble youths, etc. After watching the show, I couldn't help but cringe. The Navajo Nation, the largest American Indian tribe in the US, receives little if any national exposure. When we do, it's usually negative or stereotypical, for instance Oprah's visit to the Navajo Nation. Check it out here
So, to my dismay, Navajo Cops was just a reinforcement of negative stereotypes of American Indians.
I posted a link to the video on my facebook wall, and many of my Native friends agreed with me. However, my Non-Native friends, felt that the show brought attention to current situation on many Indian reservations that often goes unnoticed by Americans. True. I agree, however, my issue with the show was that there weren't enough positive portrayals of American Indians in the media to offset the damaging stereotypes of American Indians in the mainstream media. Sure, the show Cops shows Whites in a negative light, but there are so many positive portrayals of Whites in the media to counter these negative stereotypes. Not so with many minority groups within America.
As you can see it is a double edge sword for the Navajo Nation and American Indians in general. On one hand there is exposure to the problems we face within our communities, but then the shows narrow focus only reinforce negative stereotypes. I for one wasn't hanging my head up high after watching this show! I felt extremely embarrassed for my nation and those unfortunate Navajo's who were seen in the show. Since the rez is such a small community, I know I must be related to one of them by blood or clan. I am sure I am going to hear about how my "cousin" was on Navajo Cops next time I return to the rez! Ugh!

subset: commoncrawl


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Montville's Crowley sets state single-game rushing record
Montville - Jeremiah Crowley kept thinking of his late father Friday night, every time his knee buckled, every time the pain was there numbing, every time his team needed one more play.
And somewhere, Thomas Crowley, who died when his son was a freshman at Montville High School, must have been beaming. Nah. More than that. Maybe even hollering "that's my boy!" for all to hear.
That's because Jeremiah Crowley stands alone today in the pantheon of high school running backs, the brand new owner of an esteemed state record.
Crowley rushed for a state record 526 yards on 37 carries, leading the Indians to a 49-37 win over Stonington within the Medium Division of the Eastern Connecticut Conference. Crowley eclipsed previous record holder Alex Thomas of Ansonia, who gained 518 yards on 44 carries Sept. 27, 2007.
Crowley, who also scored seven touchdowns, broke Jamal Johnson's ECC record of 427 yards early in the fourth period on a 4-yard touchdown run that gave Montville the lead for good. Johnson set the record for New London on Oct. 23, 1988.
"I was a little kid when Jamal Johnson went bonkers. I remember hearing about it all my life," Montville coach Tanner Grove said. "To know we have a kid go for 500, it's like video games."
Grove and Crowley exchanged a lengthy embrace moments after the record had been set on a 19-yard run late in the game.
Crowley, who played nearly every snap on defense, too, came off the field only when he needed ice on his already aching knee that worsened after a direct hit with a helmet earlier in the game.
"Nothing was going to take me out except the ambulance," Crowley said. "I really don't want all the publicity for this. I want my team to know I couldn't have done any of it without them.
"It's still a huge shock to me. I had no idea I had any of this in me. Every time I step on the field I think of my dad. I know he never wants me to give up on my team."
Crowley's record night came two weeks after he missed the season opener, suspended for violating team rules during a preseason scrimmage.
"I let my team down, myself down, the coaches down and I embarrassed the school," Crowley said. "I had to make up for it."
Grove: "The kid is good at a lot of things, but the things he's always struggled with, people have let him know about at every level of his life. After his time served, he came to me and said he was going to do everything in his power to play the right way. ... Tonight I really got to see him grow up, which is probably more impressive to me than all the yards."
It wasn't lost on Grove that the Indians (1-2, 1-1) needed every single one of Crowley's yards and scores. Montville, which committed four turnovers and was penalized for nearly 150 yards, squandered a 21-6 lead and had to rally from deficits of 24-21, 30-28 and 37-36.
Crowley scored on runs of 4 and 78 yards in the final eight minutes.
Montville's defense, led by lineman Nick Haralambidis, stuffed Stonington (0-2, 0-1) on its final two possessions.
Stonington's Zach Poirier ran for 124 yards and returned a kickoff 77 yards for a touchdown.
"Honestly, they ran the same play over and over again and we didn't tackle," Stonington coach A.J. Massengale said. "We, as coaches, have to scheme better to put our players in better positions to make plays."
State single-game rushing leaders
Player (School) Yards Year
1. Jeremiah Crowley (Montville) 526 2013
2. Alex Thomas (Ansonia) 518 2007
3. Brandon Williard (Farmington) 508 2002
4. Bubby Natowich (Ansonia) 451 1936
5. Tim Washington (Bristol Central) 449 2000
6. Jamal Johnson (New London) 427 1988
Source: Connecticut High School Football Record Book


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At some point before March 8, the Indianapolis Colts will release Peyton Manning to avoid paying him a $28 million roster bonus. That would leave Manning free to go ahead and sign with another team in desperate need of his services (coughJETScough).
The problem is that Archie Manning went on the radio the other day and expressed doubts as to whether or not his son will be ready to play next season:
Appearing on Yahoo! Sports Radio on Monday, Archie Manning said he was unsure if his son would be able to play in 2012 after missing the entire 2011 season while recovering from his third neck procedure in less than two years.
To say that Manning's injury complicates his future is a mild understatement. It virtually guarantees his release from the Colts, since the Colts will have to draft Andrew Luck and will be unwilling to restructure Manning's contract if they know he's not guaranteed to play next season. That's too much salary cap space devoted to one position, with the real risk of Manning's cap number going toward another wasted year. And certainly, there's no way the Colts will be able to trade Manning, not with the cap implications, and not with other teams fearful of trading for damaged goods.
That would leave Manning out on the open market, signing with a team that's willing to take a chance on him despite the severity of his injuries. It could be that a team like the Jets would be willing to sign Manning as a free agent now, hope he can play in 2012, and at least have him in the fold for 2013 if he can't.
Given Manning's age (36), I doubt any team will take that kind of risk, and will instead sign Manning only when he's proven to be healthy. That could leave Manning out of football for all of next season, and back on the open market for 2013.
Or Manning could retire and forget all of it.
It's amazing to think that Manning, who many would argue is the finest quarterback of his time, if not ever, could have his career end so abruptly (the only equivalent I can think of is the hip injury that ended Bo Jackson's career). And it's amazing that Manning could find himself unwanted by every NFL team come this spring. That's how fast the NFL changes from year to year, from week to week.
That's always the great trick that pro athletes pull on us: They're so good, we think they'll go on forever.


text: Gross Belsky Alonso LLP is a general practice, public interest law firm located in San Francisco, California. GBA's lawyers pride themselves on their innovative, thorough and tenacious client representation, which combines superior written work product, comprehensive investigative ability and skilled oral advocacy. This blend enables the firm to provide its clients with professional and effective representation of the highest quality. The firm has earned a national reputation in constitutional, international, and intellectual property law, complex civil litigation, and class actions by deploying creative and winning legal strategies bolstered by high caliber academic and professional achievement. GBA's work is distinctive and varied, ranging from intellectual property and Internet law, media law, including plaintiff's defamation and privacy, constitutional law and entertainment law, to plaintiffs' class actions for consumer fraud and antitrust violations, complex litigation, international law and commercial litigation. The firm practices in both trial and appellate courts and has diverse clientele, including foreign governments and national corporations. The bulk of the practice focuses on the representation of individuals and small companies across a spectrum of litigation. We are proud to offer superior professional services with the added attraction of small firm billing rates and efficiencies.


text:
Re: How's your weather?
this whole week so far has actually been crap. Barely any warmth (been trodding from anywhere in 50-67), and just rain.
Message Boards - Boba Fett Fan Club → Fans → How's your weather?
this whole week so far has actually been crap. Barely any warmth (been trodding from anywhere in 50-67), and just rain.
yep...lots of rain here as well..
Trumpet, hooray for brass!
Valves rule, mouth pieces rock!
We got over cast skies. Hopefully some rain.
UK is a grey cloudy sky so it might rain....:O
rain is awesome!!!!! great for dramatic purposes.
if your all cosy in bed , all snuggled up the rain patting on your window can be so relaxing , ........* sigh ! *
It's been raining three days in a row.
Yeah, rain is awesome.
I meant the band
You know what band I'm talking about?
possibly....but rain (precipitation) is great for dramatic purposes.
Wow, such a gay name......rain, lol
Please be more accurate.
Do you know the band?
the rain band is such a gay name ( no offense to anyone who likes it )
The weather here has been funky. It has been sunny and warm
lol lucky you
Oh it is very hot and humid here in Irvine
It is finally starting to cool down a little here. North Carolina has had the hottest August on record! Too bad we haven't gotten any rain. Bring some of your rain my way guys! LOL
Rather mild, but thats still not cool enough when you do yard work at noon.
A beautiful sun rise here, in Ragland Alabama.
Japan..............hot and sticky, how long until winter in this crazy hemiosphere?
We've gotten very chilly in the morning. Our fires are out, and slight rain every so often. Afternoons and evenings are still kind of hot. Our trees have been losing leaves lately too.
Man, I found Four dead trees in my yard, 4! Dog-gon this heat!
The weather has been really funky here for the last week. We have had a bit of rain but other than that it has been sunny, warm and windy
huzzah it is FALL finely its FALL!
kewl I like fall, one step kloser 2 mah birthday and thanks giving, and xmas, and haloween, which i have no costume for...
it's fall, and still around 80. wootness
It's gotten quite chilly here. The fires are out, and there was frost on the road this morning. (deer too, btw, interesting combination, least I stopped in time)
Message Boards - Boba Fett Fan Club → Fans → How's your weather?
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text:
Summary Report for:
27-2042.01 - Singers
Sing songs on stage, radio, television, or motion pictures.
Sample of reported job titles: Choir Member, Entertainer, Gospel Singer, Opera Singer, Singer, Singer Songwriter, Singing Messenger, Singing Telegram Performer, Tenor, Vocalist
Tasks | Technology Skills | Tools Used | Knowledge | Skills | Abilities | Work Activities | Detailed Work Activities | Work Context | Job Zone | Education | Credentials | Interests | Work Styles | Work Values | Related Occupations | Wages & Employment | Job Openings | Additional Information
- Memorize musical selections and routines, or sing following printed text, musical notation, or customer instructions.
- Sing as a soloist or as a member of a vocal group.
- Perform before live audiences, or in television, radio, or movie productions.
- Interpret or modify music, applying knowledge of harmony, melody, rhythm, and voice production to individualize presentations and maintain audience interest.
- Practice singing exercises and study with vocal coaches to develop voice and skills and to rehearse for upcoming roles.
- Sing a cappella or with musical accompaniment.
- Observe choral leaders or prompters for cues or directions in vocal presentation.
- Make or participate in recordings.
- Seek out and learn new music suitable for live performance or recording.
- Compose songs or create vocal arrangements.
- Collaborate with a manager or agent who handles administrative details, finds work, and negotiates contracts.
- Learn acting, dancing, and other skills required for dramatic singing roles.
- Research particular roles to find out more about a character, or the time and place in which a piece is set.
Technology Skills
Tools Used
- Audio mixing consoles — Sound mixers
- Compact disk players or recorders — Compact disk CD players; Compact disk CD trainers
- Earphone — In-ear monitors IEM
- Equalizers — Audio equalizers
- Karaoke systems — Karaoke machines
- Microphone stand — Microphone stands
- Microphones — Live microphones; Monitor microphones; Studio microphones; Universal serial bus USB microphones
- MP3 players or recorders — MP3 trainers
- Musical instrument effects unit — Effects pedals; Effects racks; Vocal processors
- Notebook computers — Laptop computers
- Personal computers
- Public address systems — Loudspeaker systems
- Tablet computers
- Wireless microphone and instrument amplification system — Wireless microphones
- English Language — Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Fine Arts — Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
- Sales and Marketing — Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
- Customer and Personal Service — Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Active Listening — Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Coordination — Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Social Perceptiveness — Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking — Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Critical Thinking — Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Judgment and Decision Making — Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Monitoring — Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Memorization — The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Speech Clarity — The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Oral Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Oral Comprehension — The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Originality — The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Fluency of Ideas — The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Selective Attention — The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Speech Recognition — The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Auditory Attention — The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Hearing Sensitivity — The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Information Ordering — The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Work Activities
- Thinking Creatively — Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions.
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships — Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time.
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems — Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
- Communicating with Persons Outside Organization — Communicating with people outside the organization, representing the organization to customers, the public, government, and other external sources. This information can be exchanged in person, in writing, or by telephone or e-mail.
- Performing for or Working Directly with the Public — Performing for people or dealing directly with the public. This includes serving customers in restaurants and stores, and receiving clients or guests.
- Selling or Influencing Others — Convincing others to buy merchandise/goods or to otherwise change their minds or actions.
- Coordinating the Work and Activities of Others — Getting members of a group to work together to accomplish tasks.
- Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work — Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.
Detailed Work Activities
- Perform music for the public.
- Practice athletic or artistic skills.
- Perform for recordings.
- Coordinate logistics for productions or events.
- Conduct research to inform art, designs, or other work.
- Create musical compositions, arrangements or scores.
Find occupations related to multiple detailed work activities
Work Context
- Face-to-Face Discussions — 27% responded "Once a month or more but not every week."
- Freedom to Make Decisions — 68% responded "A lot of freedom."
- Physical Proximity — 43% responded "Moderately close (at arm's length)."
- Work With Work Group or Team — 33% responded "Very important."
- Contact With Others — 52% responded "Contact with others most of the time."
- Importance of Being Exact or Accurate — 33% responded "Extremely important."
- Telephone — 23% responded "Every day."
- Structured versus Unstructured Work — 44% responded "A lot of freedom."
- Time Pressure — 31% responded "Once a month or more but not every week."
- Deal With External Customers — 25% responded "Important."
- Indoors, Environmentally Controlled — 23% responded "Never."
- Importance of Repeating Same Tasks — 15% responded "Not important at all."
- Spend Time Standing — 41% responded "More than half the time."
- Coordinate or Lead Others — 22% responded "Very important."
- Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results — 22% responded "Minor results."
- Level of Competition — 33% responded "Not at all competitive."
- In an Enclosed Vehicle or Equipment — 34% responded "Never."
Job Zone
|Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
|These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
|Related Experience
|Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
|Job Training
|Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
|Job Zone Examples
|These occupations often involve using your knowledge and skills to help others. Examples include orderlies, forest firefighters, customer service representatives, security guards, upholsterers, and tellers.
|SVP Range
|(4.0 to < 6.0)
Interest code: AE Want to discover your interests? Take the O*NET Interest Profiler at My Next Move.
- Artistic — Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.
- Enterprising — Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
Work Styles
- Dependability — Job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
- Social Orientation — Job requires preferring to work with others rather than alone, and being personally connected with others on the job.
- Achievement/Effort — Job requires establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.
- Self Control — Job requires maintaining composure, keeping emotions in check, controlling anger, and avoiding aggressive behavior, even in very difficult situations.
- Attention to Detail — Job requires being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.
- Cooperation — Job requires being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude.
- Concern for Others — Job requires being sensitive to others' needs and feelings and being understanding and helpful on the job.
- Integrity — Job requires being honest and ethical.
- Persistence — Job requires persistence in the face of obstacles.
- Adaptability/Flexibility — Job requires being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace.
- Initiative — Job requires a willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges.
- Leadership — Job requires a willingness to lead, take charge, and offer opinions and direction.
- Stress Tolerance — Job requires accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high stress situations.
- Independence — Job requires developing one's own ways of doing things, guiding oneself with little or no supervision, and depending on oneself to get things done.
- Innovation — Job requires creativity and alternative thinking to develop new ideas for and answers to work-related problems.
Work Values
- Relationships — Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment. Corresponding needs are Co-workers, Moral Values and Social Service.
- Achievement — Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.
- Recognition — Occupations that satisfy this work value offer advancement, potential for leadership, and are often considered prestigious. Corresponding needs are Advancement, Authority, Recognition and Social Status.
Related Occupations
Wages & Employment Trends
Median wages data collected from Musicians and Singers.
Employment data collected from Musicians and Singers.
Industry data collected from Musicians and Singers.
|Median wages (2018)
|$28.15 hourly
|State wages
|Employment (2016)
|172,000 employees
|Projected growth (2016-2026)
|Average (5% to 9%)
|Projected job openings (2016-2026)
|State trends
|Top industries (2016)
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics 2018 wage data and 2016-2026 employment projections . "Projected growth" represents the estimated change in total employment over the projections period (2016-2026). "Projected job openings" represent openings due to growth and replacement.
Job Openings on the Web
Sources of Additional Information
Disclaimer: Sources are listed to provide additional information on related jobs, specialties, and/or industries. Links to non-DOL Internet sites are provided for your convenience and do not constitute an endorsement.
- Academy of Country Music
- Actors' Equity Association
- American Federation of Musicians
- American Guild of Musical Artists
- Country Music Association
- North American Singers Association
- Occupational Outlook Handbook: Musicians and singers
- Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
- The Contemporary A Capella Society of America


text:
Sounds more like she needs to read her contract properly
in order to explain the interception of her email
The civil servant sacked for being slightly rude about Hazel Blears did not post any comment on TheyWorkForYou: she only used the site to find Blears' personal website. Lisa Greenwood used Google to find a contact for Hazel Blears. This took her to Hazel Blears' page on TheyWorkForYou, and from there she clicked through to …
I look forward to lots of remarks by idiots about how the liberal media is full of lies, and how it's only the Holy Sword Of Right-Wing Journalism that saves us from Evil X.
Where Evil X is whatever fills them with terror these days. You see I never could understand why us liberals are apparently such cowards - we're not the ones running around in fear demanding that everything that moves be blasted in case it eats us.
An honest statement with political implications is still a political statement.
Why do you think politicians are so against answering questions directly? Culpability. A true statement made by a politician is going to be written down and analysed by press, internal investigators, and opposition members for any hint of either fact-giving or expression of honest opinion, neither of which are allowed by current politics.
OK, silly move to make with just a lack of computer-savviness thrown in.
Tinfoil hats to the ready, now. Did one of Hazel Blears' staff complain, or did the gub'mint office check the mail?
My money's on an apparatchik from Blears' staff complaining as it was probably their 'duty to point out any breach of civil service regulations' and not at all a 'let's lose this complainant their job'.
It's interesting that our glorious leaders are happy to have 'civil servants' being partisan when they're singing the praises of the party in power, but whine when it's the other way round.
I think that this demonstrates exactly what is wrong with the media today. Journalists seem to have an agenda, and will jump rabidly on any story that seems to confirm that agenda. Rather than attempting to actually do some journalism and attempting to work out what actually happened, they will just regurgitate something written elsewhere and spin it in the direction of their own predjudice.
Don't get me wrong, I am not in favour of everything that this government has done, but I do wish that a sense of partisanship might be re-exerted in the world of news gathering.
So a party worker at Blear's place gets a stroppy little note.
No doubt given Blear's personality and recent track record they get a lot of stroppy little notes. Most of which I guess are just binned.
Not this one though - recognising the senders email domain they have a chance to give someone a kicking.
Listening governement ? My arse ...
Cowards and hypocrites the lot of them.
(off to find blear's email address ... )
It isn't what you've done that is wrong, its the way you used a computer system to accomplish it which is forbidden.
This doesn't appear to be a public statement, it was a private email to Blears, not a comment posted on a bulletin board.
There's no such thing as a non-political statement. "Sit down and have a cup of tea." is a political statement if the person you are with someone and you are both supposed to be in the house of Commons supporting a government bill.
Perhaps there's something I'm missing here, but this doesn't appear to warrant a sacking.
Weasel word... if the comment was addressed directly to Hazel Blears it's rather stretching the term to make it "political" which I would interpret more narrowly, confining it to public statements.
As for bringing her department into disrepute... I think it could be argued it did the opposite, so even on the balance of probabilities no case to answer.
Not the smartest thing to do from a work a/c but a rap on the knuckles should have sufficed.
The problem with the Command Economy mindset is the tendency to overproduce sledgehammers and then to look for uses for them...
So not at all the 1984 secret investigation of an anonymous poster that we were led to believe in yesterday's article.
Some stupidity on the young Lisa's part - but frankly, if MPs and their staff were fired for stupid actions, there wouldn't be very many left working. Disciplined? Perhaps. Fired, no.
I still hope she takes them to tribunal - she'll win.
A pint of lager - because that's what I'd buy her.
>"I suspect the "contact me" button was a simple mailto: link"
It's utterly irrelevant what the "contact me" button was and/or how it worked. Talk about missing the wood for the trees.
She explicitly stated that she went to Hazel Blears' own website and used it to send email directly to Hazel Blears. No further explanation of how she got busted is needed. Why on earth are you trying to play Sherlock Holmes over some tiny detail of how the website is implemented?
(Also, instead of random guesswork like you, I bothered to actually go and look it up, since all the links are right there in the story. FYI, the "Contact me" button is not a mailto. It's a navbar button that takes you to a page full of contact details. One of them is a mailto link, but suppose it had been a webform instead: what difference would that make to anything at all?)
If calling Blears a disgrace was against the civil service code, would she have been sacked for expressing the opposite sentiment?
"It is terrible the manner in which you have been excoriated for something that wasn't against the rules. You have been a brilliant MP and Minister. Why aren't you still in the Cabinet?"
Didn't think so! Unless she'd then be caught out by the code against blatent lying and/or sarcasm...
Your commentards repeatedly miss the point: the CS contract quite rightly makes it a disciplinary offense to use work email for political purposes. She breached that, so disciplinary action was inevitable.
I do think that sacking her is a bit extreme, unless there were prior incidents or exacerbating circumstances in terms of the language used, copies sent to the press, or whatever. A written warning would seem more appropriate.
None of the left leaners who start shouting about "freedom of speech" the moment one of their clique is so much as criticized has seen the need to speak up for this persecuted soul's right to expression. It seems we must thank Blears herself, or her staff, for being thick enough to take the gist of a private email and blazon it across multiple publications.
No, no she won't. Whatever you think of Blears, or the petty bastard who dobbed her in, and whatever you think of the terms of her contract of employment is irrelevant. The fact is she agreed to abide by them when she signed up to work for whatever dept. it was, and the rules are very clear on what civil servants can and cannot say.
This is 100% her own fault.
To be honest, its her own fault. The rules are clear, and whilst sacking may be harsh, it was always a possibility. Whether or not the rule would be enforced for an email full of praise is somewhat irrelevant. Its not a reflection on the validity of a rule which exists to ensure we work to the best of our abilities no matter who is in power. They could equally well have done her for wasting taxpayers money by using the work system for personal means. Sending email does have a cost, albeit tiny. Harsh but bang to rule in both cases
Sure, work code explicitly forbids the usage of a work email account for purposes outside what your job functions entail.
Still, I don't see how its correct to betray private correspondence for a silly revenge.
Well, I should expect anything well from a woman that could have served Dr. Seuss as a model for a Grinchette.
What if she were to argue in her case that calling Blears "a disgrace" isn't a political comment, but rather a truism (as people have pointed out). It's as plain a fact as GB is Scottish.
The woman defrauded HMRC, paid back money that she's adamant was gained legally, resigned from her post at the same time as insulting her previous boss (GB). In civilised society, that is disgraceful.
Have to agree that she wouldn't win, but it would be great to hear in the news: "Civil servant defends calling Blears a disgrace as a factual statement rather than political"
If you would like to email Blears yourself, having checked your employment contract carefully for gag orders and other denials of your basic human rights, her email address is:
Of course I wouldn't dream of advising you what to say, but I'm sure she would welcome a kind word just now, were you disposed to uttering such a thing.
(Moderator- This address comes from her own website's contact page, and is therefore not private in any way.)
"None of the left leaners who start shouting about 'freedom of speech' "
If freedom of speech has a "side" in non-authoritarian (or liberal) politics it is on the right, in that the right are more likely to invoke it than the left, usually as a comment against state control. The left are more likely to consider that curtailing hate speech is a good thing. But there are no hard and fasts.
"the moment one of their clique is so much as criticized has seen the need to speak up for this persecuted soul's right to expression. It seems we must thank Blears herself, or her staff, for being thick enough to take the gist of a private email ... "
It's like this. If you send me an email I will do whatever I like with "the gist of [that] email", non-binding legal disclaimers at the bottom notwithstanding. Unless you do actually oblige me to not reveal the contents with an NDA that I have agreed to beforehand or have.
"and blazon [sic] it across multiple publications."
It was the right-wing press that published this non-story, of their own rather ill-advised volition.
Your comment is so divorced from reality, that another WTF is deserved.
@an anonymous coward: "Whether or not the rule would be enforced for an email full of praise is somewhat irrelevant. Its not a reflection on the validity of a rule which exists to ensure we work to the best of our abilities no matter who is in power. They could equally well have done her for wasting taxpayers money by using the work system for personal means. Sending email does have a cost, albeit tiny."
If the senior civil servant responsible for the sackee's sacking IS differentiating between the sending of emails full of praise about members of the government and those critical (or just true in Lisa's case) this would be a *far* more serious example of the misuse of civil service resources for political purposes.
Just add up the cost of the man-hours going into the sacking process it will come to many *millions* of times more than the alleged nano-pence the original email would have cost to send.
The senior civil servant should be instantly investigated now for political bias in his sacking procedures.
"It was the right-wing press that published this non-story, of their own rather ill-advised volition."
Leaving aside the curious idea that there is a "right-wing press" of any moment in this country or elsewhere (I give you the Wall Street Journal and the Telegraph), how did any press find out about the story? It appears to have originated as a private email. First reports apparently said it was published on a web page of some kind, but that turns out not to be true. So where did the press get the initial story? It seems to me that it must have been made public by the recipient of the email or her lackeys. If you know differently, please do tell.
I don't say there was anything to prohibit Blears/lackeys from publicizing the email. Their own good sense should have served to prevent it, but it appears that they lack this quality.
I have had an auto-reply so my own email, which says that I must show myself to be a constituent of Ms. Blears in order to have my issue dealt with, in fact it says:
"There is a strict Parliamentary protocol which states that MPs may only deal with enquiries and cases on behalf of their own constituents. I cannot deal with cases from outside of the Salford Constituency, they are rightly the responsibility of local MPs."
I wonder if Ms. Greenwood is a resident of Salford. Can it be that Blears has broken yet another parliamentary rule in "dealing" with her enquiry?
So you call me lazy for not following the link, then say that the link takes you to a page where there is, in fact, a simple mailto: link. Confirming my guess, nice work feller.
My point wasn't in defence of the situation, I was simply saying that the situation probably wasn't discovered as a result of snooping as the black helicopter brigade would assume.
I don't believe there is such a thing as the CS contract mentioned by Anonymous Coward.
I certainly never had an employee contract and I was there for over 30 years (my own fault entirely, I know).
Your (my) working conditions as a Civil Servant were specified by The Official Secrets Act and the Civil Service Code.
These were supplemented by a very fat Departmental Book of Staff Instructions (later Guidance, of course).
It was never specified that email couldn't be used for political purposes. I was barred from doing almost anything for political purposes without management approval. And I was also barred from using the Internet for anything other work.
Normally, for a particular Department, it would be clear what merits instant dismissal, although fiddling expenses would normally be a dismissal offence in any Department. Or is that a different case?
"Leaving aside the curious idea that there is a "right-wing press" of any moment [sic] in this country or elsewhere"
Wow. Just wow. Just woweeeeeeeeee. You just can't stop pressing that idiot button can you? The Times, The Financial Times, The Mail, The Express, The Sun ... perhaps you'ld like to explain how these papers are in any way leftist. The Sun supports New Labour you say? Yes, and they're both slightly right of centre.
You really have bought into this "liberal media" lie haven't you? Yeah, Rupert Murdoch's a lefty liberal socialist pinko commie. Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Twat.
"how did any press find out about the story?"
Who cares? Why did they publish a factually incorrect story? They published it, not her, they are to blame. Civil servants, politicians, spads, etc leak to the press the whole time. It is a very naive journalist who does not check their facts before publishing. Although in this case I would hazard that they spoke to the ex-employee and just didn't understand what she told them, mangled their notes and wrote some rubbish in attempt to ride their expenses scandal wave. In short, they were foist by their own petard.
"It seems to me that it must have been made public by the recipient of the email or her lackeys. If you know differently, please do tell."
Given that the original Telegraph article directly quotes the ex-employee, it is quite clear that they have had a conversation with her. I offer you the possibility that ... drum roll ... she spoke to the paper and no one in HM Gov had anything to do with it.
"I don't say there was anything to prohibit Blears/lackeys from publicizing the email. Their own good sense should have served to prevent it, but it appears that they lack this quality."
Given the predictable response to this story, namely outrage, why are being so stupid as to suggest that Blears herself leaked the story? If you knew anything about politics you'ld understand that if this was leaked by anyone, they were most certainly not an ally of Blears.
"Can it be that Blears has broken yet another parliamentary rule in 'dealing' with her enquiry?"
WTF? There was no enquiry, simply an abusive email. She didn't deal with that email, in that she didn't attempt to answer it. She quite possibly did what I might do upon receipt of an abusive email: contact the relevant abuse address.
In no way does any of that constitute "dealing with an enquiry". Enough with the fucktardery.
Ah, the UK, its politicians and civil servantry (or was it (un)civil servantry or civil (un) servantry? I forget - make your own minds up).
Now then, As these glorious pages of el Reg will shoorli sho it is totally acceptable to blast, blame, castigate, ... an MP or politician.
On the other hand should one wish to blast, blame, castigate, ... a civil servant "Lo! What folly aboundz!"
It really is a reflection of the culture and environs in which we find ourselves.
MPs = take the blame and flack
CS, uCS, CuS or even uCuS = take the money
But don't take my word for it. Try to do the same with any well, you know CS ... uCuS and one is a rebel cast with bringing down Brit way of life?
Back in the day I was a military officer with a bunch of civil servants working for me. One of my staff was caught red handed with his fingers in the till. The cops charged him, took him to court, and he was convicted. In a private sector job a gross breach of trust such as this would be classed as gross misconduct and the chap in question would have his P45 straight away without notice. In the civil service it took us a year of concerted effort through the admin department to fire him, and during that time he was suspended on full pay. We also knew that whilst suspended he was working in another job (against the rules of suspension) - but again the admin staff wouldn't speed up the process to fire him. A year or 2 later another of my staff met him in a pub and he said, "Getting caught stealing was the best thing that ever happened to me." His 2 jobs got him out of debt, and the parole officer got him some computer courses to help rehabilitate him (from his community service).
Yet sending an e-mail to a thief calling her a thief is considered an instantly sackable offence.
"The Times, The Financial Times, The Mail, The Express, The Sun ... perhaps you'ld like to explain how these papers are in any way leftist. The Sun supports New Labour you say? Yes, and they're both slightly right of centre."
There's your problem. For those completely wedded to leftist views, the middle of the road appears to be way over by the curb. New Labour is as socialist as old Labour, they just aren't open about it. A decade of smiley Blair distracting the voters while Brown raises taxes by stealth has not made Labour centrist. Now that the smile has gone, it is easier to see where they are coming from, but they were never "New" in anything but presentation.
Similarly, many papers and other news outlets tend to regard themselves as balanced because their journalists are predominately leftist and see, as you do, the middle of the road as well over to the left. This is one reason why mainstream media news is losing readers/viewers, especially in the USA, but also here. The general population, not the media's liberal elite, define the middle of the road.
"There's your problem. For those completely wedded to leftist views, the middle of the road appears to be way over by the curb."
Ever so-slightly right of center is still right of centre and still right-wing. Tory wets, for example, are centrist _and_ rightist. Your problem is not really understanding the English language.
"New Labour is as socialist as old Labour, they just aren't open about it. "
No. No it isn't. It has retained some leftist policies and introduced some rightist policies. Perhaps, to pick one example, you think introducing private finance into state run industries is leftist.
You see, it isn't "as socialist as old Labour". It is less socialist.
"Similarly, many papers and other news outlets tend to regard themselves as balanced because their journalists are predominately leftist and see, as you do, the middle of the road as well over to the left."
Ah, so its the rank-and-file journalists - and not the managers, editors, executives, directors, trustees or shareholders - who decide policy is it?
"This is one reason why mainstream media news is losing readers/viewers"
It's the internet, stupid. News and tits are now free.
"especially in the USA, but also here. The general population, not the media's liberal elite, define the middle of the road."
Again. You don't know what the word liberal means, so don't use it.
Now, if the Telegraph is the only right-wing newspaper and all the other are left-wing, roughly 800,000 people in this country buy a right-wing rag, and millions upon millions buy left-wing rags.
So the general populace itself is left-wing and the middle of the road is way off to the left?
There is a lot of banging on from us non-lawyer types about how she broke the rules of her contract. The contract itself might break her European Rights. Her employer may well have broken the disciplanry laws.
I'm not denying it was a bit stupid to send the email from a works address but a lack of information surrounding the whole affair means we should not be so quick to agree the woman should have been sacked.
Additionally was it REALLY a political statement? Who gets to decide this? Politicians are not above the law as they have recently found out. I'll be interested to see what the real outcome of this is.


text:
ABC Family's 'Terminales' set at The Boston Globe?
Another actor has been added to the pilot of the ABC Family drama "Terminales,'' which will be filmed around Boston in November. Abhi Sinha, who had a small role in "The Social Network'' and appeared in the Elizabeth Banks movie "People Like Us,'' joins a "Terminales'' cast that already includes Italia Ricci and Mary Page Keller. Sinha will play a newpaper reporter in the program, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The script for the pilot sets much of the action at our very own Boston Globe, and local actors are already being cast as editors and writers (and, we hope, two very attractive Names columnists). "Terminales'' is an adaptation of a Mexican drama about a young woman (played by Ricci) who is diagnosed with a terminal illness. In the US version of the show, the young woman in question will work as a reporter and will seek treatment at a local hospital. Writing partners Susanna Fogel and Joni Lefkowitz penned the pilot and are producing the series with Lionsgate TV and Televisa.