Here is a copy of the letter I sent to both BA and BAA, regarding the treatment of my father. Clearly, you will note that has been no adherence to protocol. If a person has become sick on-board, then common-sense suggests that it is the duty of cabin crew and ground staff to do everything in their power to help and save a life.

At the time of going to print on my blog, he is still in an Intensive Care Unit in hospital and we hope he will recover.
I still await a reply from the organisations involved in this apparent shambles.

Ref: Passenger Mr P S Arora Medical Alert
21st January 2011

Dear Sir/Madam,

It is now 4 weeks since my father arrived back from holidaying in India. His e-Ticket number was: xxxxxxxxxx and reservation number was: xxxxxxxxxxxxx (BA0256)

Since his arrival on Christmas Eve 24th December 2010 he has been in ITU – The Intensive Treatment Unit. The reason for writing to you is to outline what happened on the flight and subsequent disembarking. This is what happened:

• The flight arrived at 5pm and at 5:10pm a member of the BA Cabin Crew, a Mr Singh called my home and spoke to me about collecting my father from the arrival gate at terminal 5.As we live close to Terminal 5 we arrived at approx 5:40pm
• My daughter and I ran between the ground and 3rd floor to find the BAA passenger assistance desk and I left my son standing at arrivals to wait for my father there.
• By coincidence we met 3 of the BA cabin crew near one of the lifts and one of them spoke to us as noticed we were asking people the location of the BAA passenger assistance desk.
• The BA crew member said he had called me and that my father had been on Oxygen for the past 6 hours. He further said that he was behind arrivals.
• When we did eventually find a BAA person, after 50 minutes they placed a Public address call out to the wheelchair attendant to find my father.
• All in all it took an hour to locate my father.
• His condition worsened when we managed to get him brought out by BAA from the baggage area behind arrivals. He had apparently been left there and ignored?!
• Mr Depak, the BAA duty manager assembled some of his staff and organised some portable curtains as my father was in deep medical distress, slumped forward in the wheelchair, with his eyes rolled up and hands and feet frozen.
• We stressed to BAA that they call an ambulance immediately. NB this should have happened far earlier – BAA claim no request was made by the cabin crew. Surprising as my father was on Oxygen for 6 hours.
• Within 10minutes, the time now being past 6pm an ambulance arrived and my father was rushed to hospital.
• Upon arrival to hospital we were told by 2 Doctors that my father could die and that one lung had stopped functioning. He has
  been on a ventilator ever since suffering from severe Pneumonia.

We are hoping he will recover.

Why did the BA cabin crew not contact the medics on the ground? Why was the BAA wheelchair attendant contractor not proactive- My father was best described as in a comatose position. BAA claim (the main person that organises the medics to be called out) that no call was received from the plane/cabin crew for medical assistance. Is this not against the protocol of both organisations and BA training, especially as a passenger was on Oxygen for 6 hours and clearly in medical distress?

What will you be doing to investigate this matter, fully audit responsibilities and ensure that this never happens again? Will you please find out about the facts as a persons life has been compromised by what appears as a collective lack of communication or responsibility.

It is likely that my fathers condition was also comprised further by lack of Oxygen for a further 1 hour causing a complete white-out of his right lung. I would appreciate a call to discuss this ASAP.

I hope that my father recovers.

Dr Savi S Arora

Lets hope somebody writes back to me soon. Or, do I have a legal case here?

Merriam-Webster  announced that “austerity” saw more than 250,000 searches on the dictionary’s free online tool. This was probably due to greater coverage of the international debt crisis. Therefore, it was announced by the company as Word of the Year for 2010. Runners-up also included “pragmatic,” “moratorium,” “socialism,” and “bigot”. For example, the latter possibly motivated from the public use by former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown! see: http://www.saviarora.com/gordon-brown-bigot-comment/

Austerity, is a 14th century noun defined as “the quality or state of being austere” and “enforced or extreme economy,”

Does this mean that people look behind the meaning of words? Or, could it be that the public wish to verify their use, checking-up on those who potentially should know better? I will always remember the words from the Reverend Jesse Jackson when I interviewed him a few years ago (see http://www.saviarora.com/rev-jesse-jackson-and-the-rainbow-push-coalition/). He suggested (paraphrasing)  that it is interesting some banks were quick to lend. However, now that there is an issue, they need to show both Corporate Responsibility and justice.

Now is the time for creative solutions to ensure that people, all who are hardworking can manage their existence and dreams.

Although nations in 2010 have focused on Austerity measures, have they:

• Identified their own areas of waste,
• Found potential investment in renewal strategies,
• Shown courage to support small businesses,
• Revisited private firms/contracts and associated procurement strategies
• Limited bankers bonuses (see: http://www.saviarora.com/bankers-bonuses-do-they-deserve-it/) and
• Started to seriously invest in youth based projects to give them hope rather than fueling their debt and despair?

I hope 2011 will be a year of creative renewal rather than a year of deepening crisis.

Today the UK is expecting one of the harshest Budget’s for 30 years. As per normal the UK press manage to capture leaks, hints and tips or are they leaks (!) of what we are to expect.

The current UK coalition government may claim that the deficit is a result of the past regime.
The past regime quite rightly suggest that it is a global issue.

Lets just take a look at the latter. From the outset it appears that freedom of banks to gamble has now lead to the public paying the price.

I look at the economy from a different perspective. Although capitalism can fuel opportunities it has a dark side, one of greed and as Wall Street the movie put it, ‘Greed is good’ and ‘Lunch is for wimps’!

The model to squeeze the worker to support the power of the multinational is based on personal survival.
i.e: The beast wants more and if you feed it, you too can eat some of the pie and live.

We seemed to have missed something. Economics based on helping each other.
We are bred to be immune to the suffering of others. We all know people are dying of malnutrition.
We and I am guilty if this this, will buy the latest gadget but simply express shock when we realise how little the component assembler is being paid or treated. We hope that the manufacturer will influence the factory but on many occasions they don’t or can’t get close enough to the internal abuse. By then it can be too late. In the same way people will rush to buy cheap cloths and will forget that child labour made in a backdrop of underground/Mafia, ungoverned operations and non-policed middle men. Corporate responsibility is played a simple lip service to as it is left to unaudited processes.

The following list shows some of the reasons for poverty. Why can’t our politicians and economists develop strategies that involve global sharing initiative initiatives to tackle each and more of them?

• State discrimination corruption and abuse of public power.
• Lack of social integration. Competition instead of cooperation.
• Crime.
• Substance abuse
• Procrastination
• Climate or environmental factors and abuse of the dumping of recycling waste.
  
• Historical factors, e.g: with origins from imperialism and colonialism.
• Population growth
  
• War, genocide and bullying
• Lack of education and skill development
• Excessive materialism

If we based an economy on developing other nations then collectively we will benefit. If we can see that they (for example, a developing nation) need the building of infrastructure, then together we can trade and harmonise the world. Economics driven on equality not on class, caste or race distinction. One way to expose and help on a community level is to twin schools, enterprises, medical support and food provision.

The obsession with squeezing people in richer countries could impact development projects as they could claim they have less of their own money to share with others. Instead, we should set-up global development funds for those living in richer countries to invest in.

We need economists with imagination not politicians claiming and repeating the policies of the past will work. We all know they don’t and we let them (the politicians) continue on a decade-on-decade of the cycle of boom and bust – yet for some people its doom and dust for all of their lives…

I remember interviewing Rev Jesse Jackson back in Oct 2008.  The Rev Jackson was on-route to India and encouraging Equanomics through the Rainbow Alliance. He was due back in December 2008 to lead a demonstration on Wall Street to help demand fairer terms for people who had been leant money and were in imminent danger of having their homes repossessed. The Reverend said something interesting. He suggested that creativity seemed to be alluding the Bankers all of a sudden. Where is the creativity they (the bankers) demonstrated when initially lending money, especially to vulnerable people ?

In recent years we have seen the Banking crisis being averted by governments propping them up with Public money. In return very little can be seen as awarded to us, Joe and Jane Public.

Back in the 1980s, Endowment mortgages were all the rage. Unfortunately, 25+ years later the vast majority of these schemes have resulted in a short fall of their potential. Instead, another industry grew-up where endowments could be sold, leaving the public with losses. Frustratingly, the bankers who created such schemes or brokers who sold them probably still got paid their bonuses. Bonuses for doing a bad job!?

It does appear wrong that a bank can record a profit based on an external cash injection and still award a set of high bonuses to its staff. There needs to be more transparency as to who is being paid and what. NB In most industries, for example Teaching, there is public awareness of pay scales and performance targets. Are the bankers immune. Or, should we accept that to retain them we need to pay them more?

A good article from the BBC news portal, implies that bankers bonuses are:

free market driven across the world. Unless the politicians globally get together and find a solution that gives bankers fair and reasonable pay for the work put in, makes the global financial system more stable and reduces the risk of another crash – then its all going to happen again one day.

Maybe we need more creative people like the Rev Jesse Jackson to suggest lateral thoughts to change how banking works. The politicians appear to be strangely silent, especially in the UK where the expenses scandal continues.

What is fascinating is the following graph:

It appears that if we stay out of wars and quickly jail greedy bankers, we could dramatically change the face of our global economy for good.

What we really need is a world-wide initiative to harmonise the world. No more fat cats, instead an even distribution of wealth.

No more haves and have yachts!

I think we are all living in a war torn world,  just because it is not called World War III, should not mean that we do not take seriously the need for greater peace in the world and an initiative to start harmonisation.

I talk about the latter a lot. Maybe harmonisation can be the key to reigniting the economy, especially as it has been ravaged by a banking situation and the greed generated by the perpetual motion of capitalism.
Has humankind learnt nothing about not repeating mistakes or becoming enveloped in materialism?

Yesterday’s news of the closure of a camp between France and the UK also rams home the point of the need for solutions in worlds where people flee for their lives of a better existance.

We need multi-nationals to use their power for change.

Interestingly, It has been a while since I said anything about the movies and ironically with all my thoughts in recent years about the unnecessary lavishness of the Oscars I did buy a monthly season ticket for my local theatre. Could it be that the older I get the more I want to view and appreciate the effort involved in any movie project?  Or, is it that since the success of the film Slumdog millionaire I feel a sense that art can change the world? Not sure yet as I know that the £200M that has already been recorded at the box office for the latter mentioned film will certainly raise some capital for trust funds for the actors et al. However, what about the situation today and all those who continue to struggle for survival?

The raising of awareness has to be one thing that has come out of the ’09 Oscars, i.e: honouring the film with an avalanche of awards. I hope that this momentum will continue to raise an air of conciousness.

Over the last month it has been difficult to find time to update my blog. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, being away for a few days in the early part of Feb ’09 – in the Subcontinent (India), getting sick on the last couple of days there and then returning back to London to the cold!

During the trip I remember a child who approached me at on an auto-rickshaw, the one time that I took one from Noida to Central Delhi. We were stuck at a traffic light and the child held out his hand and repeating over and over again a request for money. Above me was one of the many fly-overs being constructed for the Commonwealth games to be held I believe next year. We had also just passed a number of recent construction sites for new offices all showing sign boards of many recognisable western organisation’s – probably keen to pursue their cost containment strategies.

I wondered why this world is full of double standards. In one part of the world we have barefeet rag clothed children, the women who work on   Highway construction sites under the sweltering sun – carrying rocks on their heads on trays and make shift tents for thousands of families. In Hollywood we see the press hoovering around the bold and the beautiful people (actors) trying to pretend to be real people.

In 2009 some of the real people (Actors selected from the 19 million who live in the slums in Mumbai) turned up to the ceremony, will the world wake-up and ask for change or simply wait for the next premiere as life passes us by…?

Check out the double standards on the following vid. As the interviews are taking place with the kids of the Slumdog Millionare movie, a not so subtle shot of SJP ‘kicks in’ showing the array of frocks and celebs. What about the question at the end, would you rather be at home playing video games!! I believe that question was for one of the 2 little ones who live in the slums,  enough said!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The article talks about the real slumdog millionaire situation. How children head for Mumbai, get picked-up by disturbed, greedy and demented individuals who amputate their limbs, get them addicted to substances and then put them to work for up to £50 per day – collecting their takings in return for a drug top-up!!!

What kind of world are we living in. What kind of doctors can consider selling childrens organs for profit or doing and charging amputations for £100 a time!?

I’ve seen the movie Slumdog millionaire and it will be in my top 10 films of all time. Not only because it is filmed in a way that touches the soul (NB I don’t understand the ‘feel good factor’ commercial marketing / tagline / positioning of this film!?) but because makes you realise that the world needs to come together to root-out the evil of inequality and poverty. It reminds us that we must not forget our mission in life – to help others and press for harmonisation.

Yes, I do hark on about the need for harmonisation.
Until the corporate world realises (UK spelling!) that they have a responsibility too, the developing world will replicate the mistakes of the developed world.

Until we ‘burn’ the drug harvests, these control devices will continue to cause pain.

Our hands are tied by the politicians who struggle to make change happen… It is going to be up to us, the people to shout louder and LOUDER for change to happen…

Watch the the video to see India’s contrast on so many levels…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Closing Thoughts…
Does money bring happiness?
What does that woman at the glitzy red carpet event mean by, ‘It’s celebrating human spirit, its celebrating the people who live in the slums’?
I find the latter offensive as there should be no slums…
Will we ever be able to make a sequel that showed how the world eradicated this situation? I hope so, I really do.

I had a long conversation with a friend yesterday about the real causes of the world’s issues today.
For example, hunger, famine, destruction, disputes over territory, poverty, alcholism and the manifestation of drugs in all walks of life. Shall I go on?

Obama lead his successful campaign on a ticket that sells change – Sorry about that pun but money talks, even though much of it has been lost into a black-hole due to a combination of over zealous bankers and the publics cry for property acquistion.

What are the causes of today’s problems
Unless we stop the shipment of arms and both stop the production and transportation of drugs, these evil entities will make it more diffcult to keep our hopes for change to affect our lives for the better. In Gene Rodenberry’s world of Star Trek he established that the human race had resolved these issues. A world of plenty in terms of food and opportunity had been acomplished.

Solutions
I keep talking about the need for world harmonisation as a project for recovery. For example, developed countries helping under-developed countries. I sometimes feel that I’m shouting in the dark about the need for greater corporate responsibility and communities to weed out instigators of terror. I talk about the need for a second coming for a Marshal plan, just like the one that rebuilt Japan and German post WW2. The billions being spent on bailouts just show us that money can be made available – and I don’t care if people say that this is a nieve way of looking at the problem. Maybe we should take a % from Swiss bank accounts!

Obama’s hope…
It is good to see Obama take the stand. Yes he is black and we have come a long way to assure opportunities. I wish him the best but believe that it is people that make the change not just politicians.

Today we need hope and if Obama brings that to the US and the world that is great.

Will Obama’s momentum be the world’s gain ? It is up to us to take the initiative…

Over the last few weeks the press have really ‘gone to town’, pardon the pun (!) over how the retail sector is suffering, especially with pre-Christmas sales attempting to get consumers to spend their money.

I was at the BBC today to record a short 5 part series called Pause for Thought – Sorry name drop! I couldn’t help myself so I dropped into both the Nike Store and Top Shop just around the corner from BBC Western house on Oxford street.

As an excuse to test my new portable HD camera I  took a bit of footage of the crowds.

Oxford Street, London Sales

At the best of times it difficult to walk down Oxford Street. Today was no exception, it was packed! Are these people looking for a bargin, tourists or buying on credit?

Top shop was packed and the new running section in Nike Town on the first floor were selling Nike Elite Pro +4′s at £85 each!

I wonder if the credit crunch makes people work harder to take advantage of sales or is this all just another marketing ploy to get ‘footfall’?

Economists are telling us that 2009 is going to be difficult. The doom and gloom pundits are talking down the stock market, real estate (some reports suggest a 30% drop in current house prices by the end of 2009) and job prospects. There seems to be very little in the way of positive suggestions, for example: working on projects where communities local and international who are on the poverty line can be assisted through regeneration initiatives. It also seems to me that the worlds money and international markets are locked into trade agreements that exclude selective countries and the flow of goods.

When I played back some of these videos a few times you could see that people were on the hunt for their best deals. Although we make decisions on the high street in reality the import of products, their hyped profits, the middle men that often exploit developing countries and poor government policies all contribute to the apathy of the situation.

Maybe if we spoke more about working towards deals for the greater good, the wider community and those who we cannot see but deep down know that they need our help, we could ask our employers and governments to spend our money more wisely…

Will Obama help us see the light and offer something new?
2009 could be an interesting year but it is up to us to drive forward change rather than hear about it and feel good about the words!

Click here to view the embedded video.

The following video shows how social media, especially through Twitter seems to have lead the campaign to ensure its removal.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The company concerned have now provided a public apology via their website and have suggested that it will take time for associated printed adverts to be recalled from newstands.

As I said in my previous post we have the power to create a lobby for change. If enough of us unite and rally for the eradication of poverty we can win.

Let us take a look at one example. Certain High Street retailers are relying on local agents in developing countries to manage the production of clothes. The profit is realised when you see the knock down sales price during the up and coming sales. In the developed world our expectations on price are conditioned. We need to demand accountability from CEO’s who should be rewarded on ethical production.

Just see the following (featuring a garment trader middleman & under age workers) ..

Click here to view the embedded video.

In a world where we have so much power at our finger tips, it is now time to use it for social change.

People rush to get a bargain I wish the same energy was in our hearts to make poverty history!

Click here to view the embedded video.