Author: pixel2coding

Lord Puttnam praises boat building project in Limerick

Oscar winner praises boat building project in Limerick

OSCAR winning producer Lord David Puttnam has praised the efforts of an enterprising group in Limerick, which has invested more than 20,000 hours in restoring a historic wooden sailing vessel.

To mark a significant milestone in the boat rebuilding project of the AK Ilen in bringing Ireland’s sole surviving wooden sailing ship back to life, a ceremony was held at the weekend in Cork, where Lord Puttnam resides.

The AK Ilen was famously sailed to the Falklands Islands by Conor O’Brien, an Oxford-educated Limerickman and the first Irishman to circumnavigate the globe, in 1927. Seven decades later another son of Limerick, Gary MacMahon, a sailor himself, flew to the Falklands and purchased this piece of living history, with a capacity of 43 tonnes.

Since then some 20,000 hours have been invested in restoring the ship to its former glory by over 20 volunteers and a group of skilled tradesmen and boat builders from around the world, through Ilen School & Network for Wooden Boat Building in Roxboro, which opened in 2008.

Brother Anthony Keane, of Glenstal Abbey, a key promoter of the Ilen Project, officiated at the ceremony and said that what has been achieved so far showed that there was not alone a great work ethic in the Ilen Project but also a spiritual commitment to the work being done.

“This is an amazing act of faith and commitment come to fruition. It is heading for the sea, like a salmon, and it will not be stopped, even if some of the financial people have still to solve their problems of calculus and apply their mathematics,” said Br Keane.

Guest speaker Lord Puttnam said that “the project underlined what could be done by a determined community, a community that could make their decisions for themselves, not to be dependent upon others beyond their community, but to be self-sufficient, and the project of the Ilen showed that.”

Dr Edward Walsh, the founding president of the University of Limerick, told of how he had at the outset of the project urged those involved “go ahead and buy the boat” and “pretend” that the money was there. Following Saturday’s decking-out ceremony, Gary MacMahon, of the school, said while the ship has been restored to its 1927 state, there is much work left to be done.

Source: Limerick Leader

Activities Education

Puttnam Mentor at Kampot Writers and Readers Festival

Kampot Writers and Readers Festival helps Cambodians tell their stories

With low levels of literacy in Cambodia, it comes as no surprise that storytelling makes up a strong part of the country’s cultural heritage – something that is being showcased at the second Kampot Writers and Readers Festival.

David Puttnam, producer of Hollywood films Midnight Express and The Killing Fields – the latter set during the Cambodian civil war in the 1970s – will travel from Britain to be one of the mentors on a four-day Media Lab, hosted in partnership with BBC Media Action and OnePlus Media. The sessions will see 30 applicants hone their skills in writing for film, radio, TV and social media, and media arts production techniques.

Read the full article here…

Activities Education

Grammar Schools Criticized by Peers

Expanding selection could increase racial tensions, warn peers

The reintroduction of grammar schools is a “lethal” policy that could strike a “tinderbox” under divided communities, peers have warned.

Lord David Puttnam, a producer who once chaired the National Film and Television School, told a debate in the House of Lords that it was a “fantasy” to think that white working-class children would surge into new grammar schools.

Government data shows white boys that are eligible for free school meals are among the worst-performing ethnic groups in English schools, while Asian pupils, particularly Chinese and Bangladeshi girls, are among the highest-performing.

“The very notion that by reintroducing selection, the people that this policy is intended to attract, will suddenly find their [white working class] children surging into new and better grammar schools is a fantasy,” he said.

“What will actually happen, and I really admire and salute this, is that migrant and first-generation kids from Asia and Eastern Europe, will sweep into those schools, and God bless them, with the small problem that the disgruntled and now disconnected white working class who believed they were going to get better schools won’t get in.

“I can think of no other tinderbox that you could strike under hard-pressed and already-divided communities. This is a potentially lethal policy, ill-thought-through, ill-considered, and could do far more damage than anyone I think fully understands.”

Melvyn Bragg, also a Labour peer, said he agreed with Puttnam that “what they are seeking to put into operation could be incendiary”.

Bragg said pupils at his own grammar school had continued to be “every bit as well-taught” once it became a comprehensive.

“The evidence is all about us that some of our few grammar schools are doing well, and some are doing less well, but maintained comprehensives, and schools like them, have largely replaced them and brought multi-dimensional benefits,” he added.

Peers also heard from Lord Blunkett, who enacted the school standards and framework act in 1998 that banned the creation of new grammar schools as education secretary under Tony Blair’s government.

Blunkett warned that the green paper proposals were a “diversion away from raising standards and once again onto structures”.

But Lord Cormack, a Conservative peer who both studied and taught at a grammar school, argued that the government was not “thrusting a policy on the country” or advocating a return to the 11-plus.

“What we have is a reversion, of which I’m very proud, to the principle of green paper, white paper, and then legislation,” he said.

“This is not advocating a return to the 11-plus. I myself have always felt that 13 is a better age of transition. I don’t like the idea of a demarcation line at 11, and this is not suggesting it.”

Written by Freddie Whittaker

Source: Schools Week

Activities Education

Puttnam launches An Cosán Virtual Community College

New An Cosán programme wants to end unequal access to higher education

The community education centre An Cosán has launched a new initiative that wants to use mobile and internet technology to bridge existing social inequalities to otherwise out-of-reach higher education.

An Cosán celebrated its 30th birthday in September, with a number of successful programmes to look back on. One example is their Young Women in Technology initiative that helped 70 women set up their own businesses.

Now, with help from Ireland’s Digital Champion David Puttnam, the college has launched a new initiative that wants to remove any barriers or social inequalities in society for adults that would otherwise not get access to higher education.

Called the An Cosán Virtual Community College (VCC), the initiative uses online and mobile technology that can be offered to help participants study for a potential new career.

The VCC programme combines a virtual classroom and online live lectures with independent activities, assignments and face-to-face sessions in community partner settings.

To date, more than 150 students have engaged with An Cosán in its pilot phase and for most students it was their first experience of both higher education and blended online learning.

Earlier this month, 74 students graduated from VCC after successfully completing higher education courses.

The programme offers a range of introductory, further and higher education courses, including Learning to Learn at Third Level, Community Leadership, Citizenship and Social Action, and Transformative Community Education.

Enormous potential of virtual teaching

All of the higher education courses are accredited by IT Carlow, VCC’s third-level collaborative partner.

Speaking at today’s launch at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Puttnam said: “From tackling social isolation to improving skills and employability through offering innovative models of education – these technologies have the power to positively transform society.

“VCC is a fantastic initiative which has recognised the enormous potential of virtual teaching and learning methods for communities around Ireland, and which will offer life-changing education courses to adult learners for many years to come.”

VCC director Liz Waters added: “There are many barriers for people across Ireland in accessing further and higher education, ranging from rural isolation and lack of institutional access, to childcare considerations and financial issues.

“VCC has the power to break down these barriers and offers a unique opportunity for anyone wishing to develop their skills and achieve their full potential.”

Source: SiliconRepublic.com

Activities Europe

Brexit compromise will avoid hard Border

Brexit compromise will avoid hard Border

British peer and west Cork resident believes EU will not do anything in its Brexit negotiations that would be likely to worsen the Irish economy.

The European Union will reach a level of compromise with the UK on Brexit sufficient to ensure there is no return to a hard Border between the Republic and Northern Ireland, British peer and west Cork resident, Lord David Puttnam has said.

Lord Puttnam said he believed the EU “would not do anything in its Brexit negotiations with the UK that would be likely to worsen the economic plight of Ireland.”

European leaders such as Angela Merkel and François Hollande were very aware of “the complex historic reality” that exists between the two nations.

“I profoundly believe that what I can only describe as a ‘constructive fudge’ will evolve in order to avoid a return to a hard Border. If is there a problem, it will not be with the UK, but as a consequence of the EU deciding that it has to behave punitively.

However, I continue to believe the EU will not willingly act in a way that makes life unnecessarily difficult for Ireland,” Lord Puttnam told The Irish Times.

Lord Puttnam suggested that the EU will be conscious that, after Brexit, Ireland will be the only English speaking country in the new union, and that’s something that could prove beneficial to Ireland in terms of attracting investment, as well as being of wider benefit to the EU.

Helpful

“It’s helpful to the EU to have an English language member – if you lose that, you lose quite a lot in terms of attracting international business, much of which is carried out in English. When a Japanese banker is talking to a German banker in France, the conversation doesn’t take place in Japanese, French or German, but in English.

“Ireland could well benefit from that. I believe Dublin has a better shot at attracting the financial services world than Frankfurt. American, Chinese or Japanese bankers being transferred to Europe aren’t going to be all that thrilled at having to go off and learn French, German or Italian; they’d prefer to continue to do business in English.”

Lord Puttnam also played down the implications of comments emerging from the Tory Party Conference in Birmingham this week, where both prime minister, Theresa May, and home secretary, Amber Rudd, raised the issue of foreign workers in the UK.

Ms May referred to low skilled British workers losing their jobs to cheaper labour from Eastern Europe, while Ms Rudd said that British companies would be asked to prepare lists of the number of foreign workers they employ, relative to their British employees.

Non-starter

But Lord Puttnam said Ms Rudd’s proposal was “almost certainly a non-starter”. He cited the response of the Confederation of British Industry and other employer organisations, and said it was unlikely to have any significant impact on Irish people living and working in the UK.

Lord Puttnam said that while Ms May had struck a defiant note in her Tory Party leadership address about leading the UK out of the EU, and being able to set its own limits on immigration while retaining free trade in goods and services, everything she said had to be viewed in the context of the audience she was addressing.

Source: Irish Times

Activities Media

Charter plans stifle BBC’s independence

Charter plans stifle BBC’s independence

by Des Freedman, David Puttnam

Government influence and market pressures have neutered the BBC’s draft charter, argue David Puttnam and Des Freedman

It is a well-established trick of the policy trade that if you want to implement unpopular changes, you should threaten the worst and then compromise so that both sides can then claim success.

This is what appears to have happened with last week’s publication of the draft BBC Charter and Agreement, with Tony Hall speaking of a ‘hard won charter’ that will guarantee the BBC’s immediate future.

We too are delighted to see that the government has dropped its original plans to set up a unitary board dominated by government appointees. We hope that our criticism of these plans contributed to this welcome shift. We are pleased that the Charter will last for 11 years, taking it outside of the electoral cycle, and that it requires the BBC to fully represent the UK’s diverse communities.

However, we believe that it fails to fully safeguard the BBC’s independence, both in funding and governance, and that it seeks to reinforce the Government’s determination to see regulation of BBC content and services in relation to its impact on competition.

The draft Charter does not secure sufficient guarantees about the BBC’s future, foreshadowing a potential threat to the BBC’s status as a universal public service broadcaster able to provide a range of popular and diverse content free at the point of use.

Government influence

Firstly, we are disappointed to see that the Secretary of State seeks to retain a significant role in the appointment of the board’s extremely powerful Chair (as well as the four members representing the Nations).

We had hoped that the government would seriously consider the proposals produced for us by the former commissioner for public appointments, Sir David Normington, setting out a series of tests to ensure a genuinely independent board. Sir David has criticized the shortcomings of the existing public appointments process and we believe it remains vital that the new Chair is selected purely on merit, not as a result of personal or political connections with the government of the day.

A political appointee could not only influence the BBC’s editorial and operational leadership, but also undermine confidence in the selection of the board’s other five non-executive members, as the Chair also heads up the Nomination Committee that draws up the shortlist for these appointments.

Market impact

Secondly, we are concerned that the Charter disproportionately requires the BBC to be mindful of its impact on the wider media market. Scheduling, for example, will now need to consider ‘any potential adverse impact on fair and effective competition’, which was totally absent from the previous Agreement.

Additionally, ‘distinctiveness’ is to be firmly embedded into the overall remit of the BBC, as Ofcom is now required to monitor the BBC’s obligation ‘to secure the provision of more distinctive output and services’.

Shortcomings

Issues of significant concern to us that featured in the white paper have been incorporated into the draft Charter. For example, the BBC’s need to pursue technological innovation in the public interest has been downgraded from a core public purpose to a ‘general duty’. The Charter also firmly endorses the BBC’s right to provide a subscription service, allowing the BBC to ‘develop, test and pilot such a service, with the approval of the appropriate Minister’.

There are significant omissions. There is nothing that will prevent future funding arrangements from being carried out behind closed doors, and no detail of how to realize diversity as a public purpose; there is no onus on the BBC to change its employment practices, nor to allocate more money to, for example, BAME programming.

In conclusion, we are not quite as optimistic as the director general. There is little here to prevent the government from influencing the composition of the new unitary board, or from once again using licence fee revenue to pursue its own political projects (as it did when forcing the BBC to pay for free TV licences for the over-75s as part of its welfare reforms).

Instead, the BBC is to be handed an eleven-year extension with limited prospects for growth, and a requirement that it must not negatively impact the wider media market. Taken together, the proposed Charter and Agreement comes across not as a vote of confidence but a ‘holding position’.

David Puttnam and Des Freedman are overseeing the Inquiry into the Future of Public Service Television

Activities Media

Reflections on BBC Charter and Agreement

Home but not dry: reflections on the draft BBC Charter and Agreement

David Puttnam and Des Freedman, who led the Inquiry into the Future of Public Service Television, respond to the draft BBC Charter published last week.

It is a well-established trick of the policy trade that if you want to implement unpopular changes, you should threaten the worst and then compromise so that both sides can then claim success. This is what appears to have happened with the publication last week of the draft BBC Charter and Agreement such that the director general, Tony Hall, could speak of a ‘hard won charter’ that will guarantee the BBC’s immediate future.

Like the director general, we are delighted to see that the government has dropped its original plans to set up a new unitary board dominated by government appointees. We hope that our criticism of these plans contributed to this welcome shift. We are also pleased that the Charter will last for 11 years, taking it outside of the electoral cycle, and that it requires the BBC to fully represent the diverse communities of the UK.

However, we believe that the draft Charter fails to fully safeguard the BBC’s independence, both in terms of funding and governance, and that it seeks to reinforce the Government’s determination to see regulation of BBC content and services in relation to its impact on competition. Overall, we think that the draft Charter does not secure sufficient guarantees about the BBC’s future, foreshadowing a potential threat to the BBC’s status as a universal public service broadcaster able to provide a range of popular and diverse content free at the point of use.

First, we are disappointed to see that the Secretary of State seeks to retain a significant role in the appointment of the extremely powerful Chair of the new board (as well as the four members representing the Nations). We were hoping that the government would seriously consider the proposals that were produced for us by the former Commissioner for Public Appointments, Sir David Normington, setting out a series of tests to ensure a genuinely independent board. Sir David has criticized the shortcomings of the existing public appointments process and we believe it remains vital that the new Chair is selected purely on merit, and not as a result of personal or political connections with the government of the day.

A political appointee could not only influence the editorial and operational leadership of the BBC but also undermine confidence in the selection of the other five non-executive members on the board, as the Chair also heads up the Nomination Committee that draws up the shortlist for these appointments.

Second, we are concerned that the Charter and Agreement disproportionately require the BBC to be mindful of its impact on the wider media market. Scheduling, for example, will now need to take into consideration ‘any potential adverse impact on fair and effective competition’ (p. 39 of the Agreement), something that was totally absent from the previous Agreement. Additionally, ‘distinctiveness’ is to be firmly embedded into the overall remit of the BBC given that Ofcom is now required to monitor the BBC’s obligation ‘to secure the provision of more distinctive output and services’ (p. 49 of the Agreement).

This could easily prevent the BBC from running popular programmes in peak-time or from developing new online services that its competitors would frown upon. In particular, we believe that the board’s autonomy in managing the strategic direction of the BBC will be limited by the draft Charter’s requirement that Ofcom has the final say in any disagreement between the board and the regulator. ‘Where it appears to the Board that there is a conflict between their obligations under this Charter, the Framework Agreement and the Operating Framework with any request or decision made by Ofcom, the Board must comply with the request or direction made by Ofcom’ (p. 13 Charter).

Issues of significant concern to us that featured in the white paper have been incorporated into the draft Charter. For example, the BBC’s need to pursue technological innovation in the public interest has been downgraded from a core public purpose to a ‘general duty’ while the new Charter firmly endorses the BBC’s right to provide a subscription service allowing the Corporation to ‘develop, test and pilot such a service, with the approval of the appropriate Minister’ (p. 29 of the Agreement).

There are also some significant omissions. There is nothing that will prevent future funding arrangements from being carried out behind closed doors, and no detail concerning how to realize diversity as a public purpose: there is no requirement on the BBC to change its employment practices, or to allocate more money to, for example, BAME programming.

In conclusion, we are not quite as optimistic as the director general in relation to the draft Charter. There is little here to prevent the government from influencing the composition of the new unitary board or from once again using licence fee revenue to pursue its own political projects (as it did when forcing the BBC to pay for free TV licences for the over-75s as part of its welfare reforms). Instead, the BBC is to be handed an eleven-year extension with limited prospects for growth, and a requirement that it must not negatively impact the wider media market. Taken together the proposed Charter and Agreement comes across not as a vote of confidence but a ‘holding position’.

Activities Media

IBC2016: Lord Puttnam says management needs to get creative

IBC2016: Lord Puttnam says management needs to get creative

The major inhibitor to growth in business in the UK is management, according DTi research, and is a particular barrier to growing creative businesses, according to Lord Puttnam’s Creative Keynote during IBC2016. Although Britain is “great at creating start ups”, it is also great at selling them. “We do not build global businesses.” He blames this partly on the lack of support from banks, but also on the lack of expectations and training.

This will partly be addressed by the new Executive MBA for the Creative Industries – a two-year, part-time MBA starting in October at Ashridge Business School. It will be “very case study driven, very experiential”, said Helen Gammons, financial director of Rotolight, who is on the advisory board. It will include residential elements and travel (to New York or LA), and there will be 24 or 25 students in the first intake.

The MBA will address the “very rapid changes taking place” in the industry, he said, such as in intellectual copyright. Puttnam did a course in copyright law. “I learned the language of law, and the discipline,” and being able to talk to lawyers “saved a huge amount of time over my career.”

However, the most important aspect, he suggested, is how to manage creatives. “It is a very particular management skill. It is probably more complex in the creative industry than anywhere else.”

Source: TVBEurope

Activities Film

David Puttnam to Head All Star Jury at 10th APSA Awards

David Puttnam to Head All Star Jury at 10th APSA Awards

The U.K.’s Lord David Puttnam will head the jury at the 10th edition of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

For the anniversary, other members of the jury are all former jury heads and include Busan festival chairman Kim Dong-ho, Hong Kong producer Nansun Shi, Australian producer Jan Chapman and Indian director Shyam Benegal.

The announcement was made Friday in Seoul, by the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Councilor Graham Quirk.

The jury decides the winners of the APSA feature narrative achievements: best feature film, achievement in directing, and cinematography, best screenplay, best performance by an actor and actress, and the prestigious APSA presented in partnership with UNESCO for excellence in cultural expression through film. The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday Nov. 24, 2016 in Brisbane, Australia.

“In this milestone tenth year, it is fitting to assemble this ‘Jury of Juries’ of five former APSA International Jury Presidents. They have all played an important role in the development and evolution of APSA, and we are honored to see them return,” he said.

“The Asia Pacific Screen Awards is an extraordinary initiative,” said Puttnam in a prepared statement. “As world events continue to challenge our search for greater understanding and tolerance, it remains important that our filmmakers reflect their experiences, share their lives and stories, and promote understanding through their craft. In bringing these films together, the Asia Pacific Screen Awards provides a profound reminder of what unites us all.”

Source: Variety

Written by Patrick Frater

Activities Environment

Paul McCartney and Ranulph Fiennes back threatened Amazon tribe

Paul McCartney and Ranulph Fiennes back Amazon tribe threatened by dams

Artists, poets, film directors and musicians call on Brazilian government and European companies to recognise the rights of the Munduruku people

Some 48 musicians, poets, chefs, artists, film directors and other celebrities including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Mark Rylance have called on the Brazilian government and European companies to recognise the rights of an Amazonian group whose territory is threatened by a large complex of dams.

In a letter to the Guardian, the group says Brazil’s plan to build four large and many smaller dams on the Tapajós river and its tributaries could destroy thousands of square miles of forest and imperil the Munduruku indigenous people.

A delegation of Munduruku chiefs will arrive in Britain this week to seek a formal meeting with European technology giant Siemens, which has been part of a consortium bidding to win contracts to build the dams.

Chief Arnaldo Kabá Munduruku and his senior adviser will ask Siemens in Britain to publicly state that they will not participate in plans for new dams on their ancestral lands.

The Munduruku have welcomed a decision last week by Brazil’s environment protection agency to reject plans for what would have been one of the world’s largest-ever dams on the river. But they say that the complex of many smaller dams will devastate the forest and their people’s way of life.

“The Brazilian watchdog’s decision marked a turning point in the struggle to protect this corner of the Amazon, but the fight isn’t over yet. The cancelled dam is one of five planned for this highly sensitive area, and the environment agency’s powers to defend the rainforest are now under threat,” the signatories write.

A spokeswoman for Siemens said: “We’re talking with Greenpeace and other stakeholders, and we’re assessing the issues intensively – as we strive to help secure a sustainable, reliable and affordable supply of power for the people of Brazil.

“Should any representatives from the Amazon tribe wish to meet representatives from Siemens while they are in the UK we will welcome them to one of our sites. However Siemens UK is not involved in any hydroelectric power projects in Brazil.”

Greenpeace has been calling on the engineering giant to rule itself out of any further hydroelectric projects in the Amazon rainforest, but the company’s leaders have so far refused to do so.

The group of 48 include Anish Kapoor, Charlotte Church, Grayson Perry, Sir Roger Moore, Michael Palin, Lord David Puttnam and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Western celebrities have championed saving Amazonian forests ever since rock star Sting lobbied the president of Brazil in 1989 to stop goldminers decimating the Yanomamai tribe.

Since then, many A-listers including Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sir Elton John, Prince Charles and Bill Clinton have added their voices. In the same period, around 350,000 square kilometres of forest has been destroyed.

Source: The Guardian

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