Karen Bartlett is a writer, journalist and film maker.
Karen writes for The Times, The Sunday Times,The Guardian, WIRED and Newsweek. In broadcast Karen has made documentaries for the BBC World Service, and directed a series on the economic meltdown.
Karen’s book 'Architects of Death' about Topf and Sons will be published in March 2018. She is also the author of 'After Auschwitz', a critically acclaimed biography about Dusty Springfield, and a book about disease eradication in the Twentieth Century.
Growing Up X
Fifty years after he was killed, the daughter of Malcolm X wants to make sure her father isn't written out of history Half way down a winding country road in New York’s wealthy Westchester County, one of America’s most famous revolutionaries lies buried under three feet of crisp white snow. I...
Newsweek
How one man gave Congo’s women hope
Life is hell for women caught up in the conflict in the Congo. But one remarkable doctor helps survivors to build a future Why are the lives of African women worthless? It’s a question that Denis Mukwege asks every day that he works with the raped and mutilated women of the Democratic Republic...
The Times - World
‘If they gave me a house, I’d take it tomorrow’
All I want is to die under this mountain.” Noor Ebrahim, a slightly-built former messenger for Reader’s Digest, has returned to the area where he grew up. Now retired, he likes to remember the old days; he can point out his school — “it was tough” — the mosque where his family prayed and the spot...
The Times - World
Momma D: Dionne Warwick, the Grande Dame of Divas
She learnt her stagecraft from Marlene Dietrich; 50 years on, she’s mentor to Whitney Houston and P. Diddy Dionne Warwick opens up her arms in a stage bow: “I’m looking pretty good, don’t you think,” she says. The singer seems slightly surprised to be turning 70, and, with pearly white teeth a...
The Times - Arts
India's Barefoot Revolution
What would it be like if women ran the world? In some parts of India, it’s already happening If all revolutions begin in unlikely locations, few could be as unpromising as Borda. It’s a poor village in the poorest district of one of the poorest states in India. Only the blasting from a nearby ...
The Times - World
It’s murder on your mobile, says The Killing’s Sarah Lund
Hit crime drama The Killing is back for a second series, and Karen Bartlett talks mobile phone forensics with actress Sofie Gråbøl Detective Sarah Lund is a Luddite. The loner heroine of Denmark’s hit crime drama The Killing is as much of a 70s relic as her Faroe sweaters: She makes notes by h...
Technology
Skateistan: How skateboarding took off with Afghan kids
It’s no surprise that in a world full of rules most kids want to do something with no organisation, and no adults. “This country has more restrictions than just about any other,” Oliver Percovich says, explaining how his own passion for freedom and fun led to groups of boys and girls flying acros...
The Times - World
Life and Love with 'The Greatest': Muhammad Ali
When Yolanda “Lonnie” Williams was six years old she looked out of her front door in Louisville, Kentucky, and saw an energetic young man holding court to a wide-eyed gaggle of neighbourhood boys, including her brother. “Who’s that big man?” she asked her mother, not knowing that the answer wo...
The Times - Arts
Polio's Last Stand
Eradicating the Last 1% of Polio Is Deadly But Essential When 40-year-old Liberian civil servant Patrick Sawyer died of Ebola earlier this year in hospital in Lagos, having carried the disease from his home country to Nigeria, global health workers feared the epidemic would spread in West Af...
Newsweek
Bringing Anne Frank Home – to Germany
Like many people in their seventies and eighties, Buddy Elias and his wife Gertie are downsizing – clearing out the attic and getting rid of several generations’ worth of papers, clutter and possessions from their family home in Basel, Switzerland. Unlike most other pensioners, however, Elias is ...
Newsweek
A Race Apart: the beauty queens of the apartheid era
The Miss World finalists are now at the World Cup, but the women who represented South Africa in its past have divided memories So far the game has not been beautiful for the World Cup’s “33rd official team”. They have gone largely unnoticed in South Africa’s impressive new stadiums, despite d...
The Times - World
Maki Mandela: “As Nelson's child, I can say I am proud of him”
In the week that London marks the statesman's 90th birthday, his daughter reveals how she overcame her resentment that he was a father to the world, but not to her Nelson Mandela arrives in London today for what is likely to be his last major public appearance; a 90th birthday charity concert ...
The Times - World
The Vagina Monologues turns ten
Eve Ensler transformed the New Orleans Superdome into ‘Superlove' for a celebrity-studded event to campaign against violence towards women Few people know that New Orleans is the vagina of America. Few would suggest it. “It is fertile. It's a delta. And everyone wants to party there,” explains...
The Times - Arts
Political dry rot has firmly taken hold in the foundations of
British democracy. The Houses of Parliament once inspired a
democratic principle to be exported around the world. To most British
people today, they have become a symbol of alienation where a small
elite rule without accountability.
How healthy is our democracy in Britain in 2002? Hundreds of
thousands protest on the streets while politicians and media worry
about apathy and the lowest election turnout since 1918. We teeter on
the brink of war without any effective public forum providing a voice
for those many people who have profound misgivings about an invasion
of Iraq. We live in a curious world where the civil liberties agenda
has been successfully hijacked by a cadre of the old establishment
primarily concerned with their ability to carry on fox hunting. A
political era in which the worst excesses of the sleaze era have not been repeated has done nothing to restore trust in our elected
politicians.
Yet this New Labour government can claim to have delivered more on
constitutional reform than practically all of its post-war
predecessors put together. But where the government has failed not so
much on the ingredients of constitutional reform, but in failing to
make any sense of them.
Having committed themselves to a large programme of constitutional
reform under the late John Smith, they have wearily carried out these
reforms in the spirit of ticking off a list of tiresome commitments.
They have singularly failed to create any strong democratic
narrative. Because the Government’s heart is not in it, their reforms
often disappoint in the detail. Devolution for Scotland, less for
Wales, even less for the English regions. A House of Lords to be
partially elected. Not so much as a whiff of proportional
representation for Westminster. Little discussion of the lack of
democracy or accountability in any of the international institutions -
the European Union, the WTO and the World Bank.
Where the reforms have been impressive they have gone largely
undefended. Instead of heralding a new era in which rights are taken
seriously, the Human Rights Act has languished as the kicking boy of
everybody from the Daily Mail to Prince Charles in his letters to
Ministers. The lamentable failure of most on the left to speak up on
its behalf leaves the Act fated to be both toothless and vulnerable
to demolition by a future government, even less likely to support it
than the current one. Creating a separate Human Rights Commission
would, it seems, simply cause Ministers too much inconvenience in the
courts. It is essential, therefore, that human rights should now have
a major function at the heart of a new single equalities body, and
are not merely tacked on the end.
Politicians worry about apathy but refuse to recognise the many ways
in which our current political system increases apathy. When the
political parties only care about scrambling for a select few swing
voters in the marginal key seats, most voters know that their votes
don’t really count or matter under our current electoral system.
On public services, the debate over public or private funding
continues to be hotly contested. But only organisations like the
World Development Movement have drawn attention to the fact that real
future of public services lies not in Westminster or in the regions,
but in the GATS agreements Britain has signed up to at the WTO. These
agreements open our public services to investment and influence from
private companies, British and foreign, in the name of free trade.
While we argue about public ‘ownership’ of hospitals and schools, we
may be fighting the battle without being told that the war has
already been lost.
But more important than the detail of arguments about GATS or
electoral reform, the democracy is in the debate. But the government
is simply too complacent about democracy and not open to debate about
the future of our politics. Ironically, they now favour the
introduction of a democratic constitutional framework for Europe
while still resisting the debate at home. Surely our government
should be equally interested in transparency and legitimacy here in
the UK too. Jack Straw announced that a common statement of values
for the EU was necessary as no one understood how Europe worked, but
that most people did understand British democracy as embodied by
familiar images of the Houses of Parliament.
Really? It would be difficult to find a member of the public who
could explain many of the mixed and confused principles of British
democracy – the royal prerogative, the function of the second
chamber, the proposals for devolved assemblies in some parts of the
England but not others, the role played by the Lord Chancellor, or
their own rights as subjects. People may have a weak grasp on the
technicalities of power, but they do understand that it is held by a
very few, in Westminster and further afield. People understand that
these decisions are not influenced in any way by them, or even by the
majority of their elected representatives, treated by the government
as mere lobby fodder.
Our unwritten constitution and system of government has managed very
well up to this point to exclude the majority of people from the
small political elite which understands how decisions are made.
Strong governments can, and do override at whim the unwritten
conventions that determine how our country is shaped. A written
constitution is not merely a ‘statement of values’, created to paper
over enormous areas of democratic deficit in institutions like the
EU. Nor is it a piece of paper in a museum. A written constitution is
a clear contract with every citizen, which is never subject to
unquestioned renegotiations by any government.
This current government may be well intentioned, but it is
overwhelming in its strength and its ability to ride roughshod over
our democratic traditions while the opposition is pitifully weak. The
current issues we face are critical in determining our global and
local future. Progressives need to realise that the arguments for
democracy are now more important than ever. By campaigning separately
we have made it far too easy for the government to ignore us. For too
long we have campaigned alone on issues which share an underlining
concern; the lack of democracy, transparency and accountability in
the decisions which affect our lives.
We must create a coherent democratic framework that links the
concerns people feel over war, Europe, sleaze, the media, local
government, and the power of multi-national companies. These links
have not yet been made. It is up to reforming groups and individuals
to create this agenda, and act together to serve notice on the
political establishment that people throughout the country demand to
be listened to
Welcome to my website. I hope these pages give you a flavour of some of my work in books, print, onl…
Last week I was in Istanbul attending a Youth Forum for teenagers from around the world. But not eve…
When Nelson Mandela retired after serving one five-year term as President of South Africa in 1999 he…
I’ve just returned from China, after a gap of about 16 years, and I met these undergraduates – comin…
Eradicating the Last 1% of Polio Is Deadly But Essential
When 40-year-old Liberian civil servan…
When Yolanda “Lonnie” Williams was six years old she looked out of her front door in Louisville,…
She learnt her stagecraft from Marlene Dietrich; 50 years on, she’s mentor to Whitney Houston and …
What would it be like if women ran the world? In some parts of India, it’s already happening
If…
*Life is hell for women caught up in the conflict in the Congo. But one remarkable doctor helps surv…
All I want is to die under this mountain.” Noor Ebrahim, a slightly-built former messenger for Rea…
Hit crime drama The Killing is back for a second series, and Karen Bartlett talks mobile phone foren…
It’s no surprise that in a world full of rules most kids want to do something with no organisation…
Fifty years after he was killed, the daughter of Malcolm X wants to make sure her father isn’t writt…
Like many people in their seventies and eighties, Buddy Elias and his wife Gertie are downsizing –…
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