June 2013 Harkness Report The Newsletter of the Harkness Fellows Association What’s Inside Profile of a Harkness hero ver the page there is a profile of a new Harkness OFellow, Geraint Lewis, to complement this page’s feature on Colin Blakemore. Geraint was already winning prizes before he won his fellowship in 2008.
On page 4 a thoughtful feature from Peter Jenkins (HF 1971-73) reminds readers of the two different types of American presidents, as noted by Senator Fulbright in ‘The Arrogance of Power’ in 1966. On the opposite page is an obituary of Jonathon Harvey (HF 1969), best known for compositions involving electronics, Colin Blakemore but who composed both ancient and modern music. There is another obit on pg 5 of Robert Johnston, ven among the many eminent There was one prize, however, which he the former director of the Harkness people to emerge from a Harkness did not get: the knighthood which all programme in London for 15 years Fellowship, it will be difficult to previous and subsequent heads of the from 1963-78. find a person who has collected Medical Research Council have received. Emore honours, awards and prizes The scandal was exposed by the Sunday There has been a positive response than Colin Blakemore (1965-68), the Times, which discovered he had been by fellows to email appeals for an neuroscientist specialising in vision and nominated for the 2004 New Year’s update on their activities. They run the development of the brain. There was Honours List, only to be eliminated by through pages 6 to 8. Keep them an early signal of success to come at the nervous Whitehall civil servants worried coming to [email protected]. Then end of his Harkness Fellowship at Berkeley, that his research was ‘controversial’. follow two edited lectures from the where he completed his Ph D in 1968 Colin’s response was robust: he threatened Association’s excellent series on BRIC in two years and five months when the to resign declaring his position as chief nations. The first by Richard Lapper, average time for such awards was over executive had become untenable: ‘How former Financial Times Latin American five years. His grade average was 3.99 out can I go to our scientists and ask them to editor, describes the rise of Brazil of 4. risk talking about animal research, when and examines its future prospects. Some 44 years on, having reached 67 there now appears to be evidence that The second is a fascinating look at last year, the Oxford retirement age, he in secret the government disapproves.’ It the future of India from Sir Michael had collected 10 honorary degrees and prompted open declarations of support Arthur, former UK High Commissioner 47 other awards and prizes from some for such research from the Government’s in Delhi. of the world’s leading scientific societies Chief Scientific Adviser David King, the and medical academies. They included: Science Minister Lord Sainsbury, Prime The back page reports on last year’s the Royal College of Physicians Baly Minister Tony Blair along with leading summer event gives an update on the gold medal in 2001; the Society for UK science institutions. He didn’t get his Plowden Fellowships and lists three Neuroscience’s highest award (2012); knighthood, but more importantly he promising future events: China’s highest honour for foreigners established widespread support for such Sir Nigel Sheinwald on the future of (2012); along with American, French, work when it had been under intense American foreign policy (June 13); Swiss, Czech and Indian honours. pressure from animal rights activists. Sir Liam Donaldson (July 2), former Not bad for a man who was brought Chief Medical Officer, on the up in a humble two up and two down Family under siege challenges facing health services at rented house in a poor area of Coventry. No-one had been subjected to more home and abroad; and a tour of the The headmaster of the local primary was pressure than Colin Blakemore. His family studio of sculptor Nigel Hall (July 6) the first to identify his talent, urging his had endured a decade of assaults. Not (HF 1967-69). parents to transfer him to the junior school just regular non-violent activists protesting of the local grammar at the age of nine outside their Oxford home with speakers, Malcolm Dean Editor and because no one had passed the 11 plus but much more seriously violent extremists Veronica Plowden Assistant Editor from the primary. who had sent letters laced with razor Colin Blakemore Profile of a Harkness hero Contd
blades, made threatening phone calls, one third higher – over £700 million – its that the visual part of the cerebral cortex smashed windows and attempted to pull relations with the Department of Health undergoes active, adaptive change shortly down the front door, damaged the family and the burgeoning Wellcome Foundation after birth. Initially controversial, ‘plasticity’ car, and sent two bombs through the post more amicable, and its communications is now a dominant theme in neuroscience. (one of which arrived when only the three much more transparent. The plasticity of connections between children and au pair were in the house). nerve cells is thought to underlie many The home had to be fitted with panic The natural communicator different types of learning and memory. buttons, triple locks and a safe room. He was perfectly equipped to achieve True to his reputation for challenging The children had to accept police escorts the latter. At the age of 32, he was the orthodoxy, in his Ferrier prize lecture in to their schools, which suffered two bomb youngest person selected to deliver 2010 on the 350th anniversary of the threats. the BBC Reith lectures in 1976. The Royal Society, he argued that far from Colin had been advised to keep his head theme: Mechanisms of the Mind. The the growth in the human brain emerging down when he was pinpointed by the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in through gradual evolution, something protesters. He had refused and insisted 1982-3 followed. Then there was a run more dramatic happened: a genetic on publicly explaining – to journalists, of television and radio programmes: a accident. Research suggested the sudden politicians and animal activists – why 13-part series, the Mind machine on BBC expansion happened about 200,000 years animal research was needed. It was only television; a radio series about artificial ago. He ruled out evolution because it allowed by law if there was no other intelligence, Machines with Minds; and a took almost that time before it became option. The research had been crucial channel 4 television programme, God and useful. “It’s like arguing a reptile suddenly in the creation of antibiotics, insulin, the Scientists. He has had regular articles developed fully formed wings and then vaccines for polio and cervical cancer, and in the serious press: Guardian, Observer , sat around for 200,000 years before important in achieving success with organ Times and Telegraph and a succession of realising it could fly.” He suggested it was transplants, heart by-pass surgery and popular science books, some based on his a dramatic spontaneous mutation in the HIV treatment. “Without it, we would – broadcasts others on Gender and Society, brain. “A change in a single gene would medically speaking – be stuck in the Dark Mindwaves, Images and Understanding, have been enough.” Age.” and the Oxford Companion to the Body. He has not given up research. He still has He had called for bans on animal testing He was awarded the Royal Society’s access to his Oxford laboratory and has a for cosmetics and helped set up an Faraday prize and medal in 1989 for his new post at the University of London as organisation which brought scientists public communication of medicine and Director of the School of Advanced Study’s and anti vivisectionists together to science. Centre for the Study of the Senses. He is converse. He was a committed humanist Since returning from his Harkness the only scientist in the centre but plenty and rationalist. But none of this deterred Fellowship, he has divided his time of sympathetic colleagues from cognitive the extremists. His experiments, which between Cambridge (1968-1979) and science, psychology, and philosophy required the eyelids of new born kitten to Oxford (1979-2012) with breaks for the particularly with reference to perception. be sewn down, were too good a target. MRC and visiting fellowships. When he He speaks with enthusiasm about the But it was the Blakemore experiments that began his studies, neuroscience had yet technical advances of neuroscience over led to a breakthrough in the diagnosis of to be given its name. There are now the last 40 years. “What I find most amblyopia – the most common form of 70,000 such scientists worldwide. His exciting about the science, is that it is child blindness. major contribution to the science is the starting to touch on what it means to Ironically, by the time he went to the concept of neuronal plasticity, the capacity being human. ” Medical Research Council in 2003, new of the brain to reorganise itself by the He still believes in keeping fit, but after laws and key extremists in prison meant activity passing through its connections. running 18 marathons has stopped such the worst was over for the family. By the late 1960s, he had demonstrated extreme exercise. Colin was facing a different poisoned chalice. The MRC had just suffered a damning indictment from the Commons select committee on science and technology. It was condemned for poor financial management, misguided research strategies and inadequate communications. The scientists who had provided the evidence were given anonymity for fear of retribution. The Blakemore solution was a mixture of wider consultation, new mechanisms for handling funds, new forms of support for young researchers and an overhaul of communications. Why did he take the post? “Both the challenge and a loyalty to the council. They had helped support my research.” By the time he completed his four-year term, the MRC’s budget was
2 Harkness Report June 2013 Dr Geraint Lewis A breakthrough in community care
A recent Harkness Fellow achieved a Americans now live in primary care areas fascinating breakthrough in one where they have access to an ACO. of the most challenging reforms One likely problem in the quest for cost facing the NHS - restructuring saving is that under ‘Obamacare’ newly community care - even before he insured patients, coming from relatively won his fellowship. disadvantaged groups, are likely to have more expensive health needs. r Geraint Lewis (HF 2008-9), a public health specialist, was Returning from his Fellowship in 2009 Dinvolved in setting up ‘virtual Geraint was Senior Fellow at the wards’ with Croydon Primary Care Trust Nuffield Trust until his departure for in 2004-6. his Walgreen’s sabbatical, pursuing his A virtual ward is a way of providing interests in predictive risk modelling for support in the community to people commissioners, integrated care including with complex medical and social needs, the overlap between hospital use and using the same systems and staffing as social care, and multidisciplinary case a hospital ward, providing preventative services combined with better quality and management. care for people in their own homes. more patient choice and satisfaction. The scheme aims to use forecasts from He is well placed to make this comparison, In January 2013 he became the first Chief predictive risk modelling to reduce because in 2012 he spent a further Data Officer at NHS England (until April unplanned acute hospital admissions. year, in Chicago, with Walgreen’s 2013 the NHS Commissioning Board). Cases are managed by multidisciplinary (currently completing its takeover Almost half of his teams of 40+ are now teams, aiming to develop effective of Boots to form the world’s largest in post, starting from initially two people. communication systems, and working in pharmaceutical business). As part of the The tasks of the role are firstly to improve an ‘intuitive’ way that appeals to patients Obama reforms Walgreen’s is becoming the flow and accuracy of information, as well as clinicians. a hub of American health care, relieving about governance, about standards (for primary care physicians of some routine example whether a defined concept like The project won in a record four treatments. An example is patients with ‘headache’ is consistent and reliable), and categories of the 2006 Health Service high blood pressure who can be referred about standardising patients’ information, Journal Awards, and was overall winner of to Walgreen’s for case management, with and ensuring security. Then there has to the 2007 Public Service Awards run by the the pharmacist monitoring their condition be a strategic look at intelligence; what Guardian. Geraint published further work and prescribing accordingly. This is more data are really needed? The data need to on virtual wards last year and the Nuffield convenient for patients too in terms of be open and transparent, and improved Trust is doing comparative research on location and opening hours. in some areas, for example inpatients’ various current examples. information is currently better than that Another route to cost saving in the US for A&E, outpatients and primary care. After a spell as Policy Advisor to the is the development of Accountable Care The staff are developing ‘dashboards’, Cabinet Office and Visiting Fellow at the Organisations (ACOs) following the management information systems to King’s Fund, Geraint spent his fellowship Affordable Care Act 2010. These are provide early warnings of something year in New York at the Wagner Graduate voluntarily assembled groups of physicians, going wrong. School of Public Service. His research hospitals and other health care providers into predictive risk modelling grew out (including Walgreen’s) agreeing to be Geraint sees his Harkness Fellowship of his previous work. He was analysing accountable for quality, cost and the as hugely important in his professional the relationships in patients’ historic overall care of Medicare beneficiaries. The development, and in his understanding data, looking for factors associated with system ties providers’ reimbursements to and enjoyment of the US. He believes he ‘bad’ health events. These can then be quality standards and reductions in the would not be in his present job without it. applied to planning health care for large total costs of care to populations, typically Collaboration with other Harkness Fellows populations, aiming to avoid unplanned of 100,000 or so. Cost savings are shared and the Commowealth Fund started with hospital admissions. between providers and insurers. a pre-tenure gathering, developed in the US with reporting seminars, and continues Comparing the US and UK health care Through calculating health trends and with publishing joint papers. He expects to systems would be a different experience care costs, and providing integrated retain professional connections with the US now from his in 2008, Geraint thinks, services, the idea is to shift the emphasis for life. While at Nuffield he set up an active because President Obama’s reforms, away from acute reactive medical care, Harkness Fellows blog network and values although not fully comprehensive, are reduce the need for chronic disease links with Harkness Fellows’ Association. starting to take effect, in parallel with management and focus on addressing current NHS reforms. During his fellowship population health, while increasing patient Since before the advent of the ‘Boris bikes’ he saw his task as to learn from the US satisfaction. ACOs seek to avoid the waste hire scheme, and with a similar scheme system how to do things well, but more that occurs in the fee for service system, now about to be launched in New York, often how to avoid doing them badly. for example through individual specialists he has been promoting the idea of a ‘tube Now the two systems are pursuing similar commissioning unnecessary procedures network’ with map for London cyclists, as ideas, such as aiming for lower cost such as scans. It is estimated that 50% of another public health promotion idea.
June 2013 Harkness Report 3 Peter Jenkins The White House’s Jekylls & Hydes
have been dipping into The Arrogance of Power, written by Senator William Fulbright in 1966. It has been a comforting experience in one respect. IThe divisions within the US foreign policy community that have been so apparent to European observers since 2001 have clearly been a characteristic of the world’s only Great Power since the Senator offered his diagnosis 47 years ago; and yet the world has survived. In another respect it has been troubling. The Senator saw two tendencies that were evenly matched and believed that the tendency he characterised as “moderate” could prevail; yet over the last 12 years the tendency he characterised as “full of a passionate intensity” (cf. The Second Coming, W.B.Yeats) has shown itself to be in rude health, whereas the moderate tendency seems to have suffered a loss of form.
Let me start to clarify what I am trying to say by a lengthy quote from the final chapter of The Arrogance or Power:
“There are two Americas. One is the America of Lincoln (right) and Adlai Stevenson; the other the America of Teddy Roosevelt and the modern super-patriots. One is generous and humane, the other narrowly egotistical; one is self-critical, the other self-righteous....one is moderate, the other filled with passionate intensity; one is judicious and the other arrogant in the use of great power. George W. Bush (below), Dick Cheney, President Obama, whose rhetoric is on the Donald Rumsfeld and Mitt Romney to the moderate side of the divide, let his first “We have tended…to puzzle the world witness-box if necessary. What grounds, term pass without really trying to resolve by presenting to it now the one face and though, have I, for claiming that the the greatest potential threat to world now the other; and sometimes both at “humane, “generous”, “moderate” and peace, the Iranian nuclear dispute, or to once. Many people all over the world have “judicious” tendency is going through a heal the festering sore of Israeli occupation come to regard America as being capable bad patch? of the West Bank. He allowed himself to of magnanimity and farsightedness but no be deterred from acting by advisers who less capable of pettiness and spite…. were more concerned with conciliating Israel and Congress than with showing the “The United States must decide which of statecraft that would be needed to crack the two sides of its national character is to such tough nuts. predominate – the humanism of Lincoln or the arrogance of those who would make This criticism may sound harsh but books America the world’s policeman …. such as A Single Roll of the Dice by Trita Parsi and The Dispensable Nation: “The foremost need of American foreign American Foreign Policy in Retreat by Vali policy is a renewal of dedication to an Nasr suggest that it is justified.. ‘idea that mankind can hold to’ – not a missionary idea full of pretensions Nasr, in particular, who worked for the about being the world’s policeman but a administration as a special adviser to the Lincolnian idea expressing that powerful late Richard Holbrooke, paints a depressing strand of decency and humanity which is picture of foreign-policy making in the the true source of America’s greatness.” Obama White House. He suggests that the White House failed to exploit diplomatic I imagine I need not defend the assertion opportunities throughout the critical South that the Teddy Roosevelt tradition has West Asian region, preferring to continue been in rude health since 2001. I can call to tolerate an excessive reliance on force,
4 Harkness Report June 2013 Obituaries
as the Bush administration had done. Jonathon Harvey (HF 1969-70) The President himself, according to Nasr, A distinguished composer best known has preferred to concentrate on domestic for compositions involving electronics, affairs and failed to get to grips with but who composed both ancient and several important regional developments. modern music for orchestra, soloists and choirs, died on 4th December 2012 aged Nasr also charges that the White House 73 from motor neurone disease. made foreign policy unduly subservient to domestic politics. One reviewer of Warm tributes were paid across the national the book, Ambassador Robert Hunter, media. Roger Wright, the BBC Radio 3 observes: “Nasr is not the only one to controller and proms director, described argue a similar thesis, but his is the first to him as ‘a hugely important figure – his was be made, as far as this reviewer is aware, a powerfully original music which rightly by someone as intimately involved in at received international acclaim.’ Julian make him the subject of his first major least one major element of US policy Anderson in the Independent noted he book, The Music of Stockhausen, published implementation.” ‘was one of the UK’s leading composers of in 1975. He practised Buddhist-inspired music in all genres, as happy to be sung in meditation, but was free from dogmatism Further grounds for disappointment can a cathedral evensong as to be performed allowing other religious affiliations – be found in the President’s decision to at Pierre Boulez’s electro-acoustic research Christian, Sufi and Hindu – to influence be drawn by Saudi Arabia and Qatar institute, IRCAM in Paris. He was impossible his music. into taking sides in the Syrian conflict. to pigeon hole.’ He was able to successfully straddle two Two years after the conflict erupted, it Ivan Hewett in the Guardian wrote: ‘He was separate careers, a prolific composer as continues to rage. Tens of thousands a quiet man, tall and slightly stooping....his well as an academic, first at Southampton are dead; hundreds of thousands have music, though not without its tumult and as a lecturer (1964-77), then a reader for become refugees.. The risk that inter- discord, on the whole speaks in a similar three years before becoming professor at communal strife will be reignited in the quiet voice. What makes it distinctive is Sussex (1977-1995). Between 1995-2000 he Lebanon and Iraq is growing. Al-Qaida its otherworldly, incandescent sound and returned to the US as a professor of music at in Iraq is merging with one of the Syrian sinuous oriental-sounding melodies, which Stanford on a part-time basis. opposition groups to form the Islamic give it a sense of ecstatic striving for a world An early invitation from Boulez to work at State in Iraq and the Levant. beyond this one.’ The Telegraph noted that IRCAM in Paris in the early 1980s produced he ‘combined mystical and religious themes a vast amount of electronic music. His best American critics charge that US interests with ever more complex electroacoustic known work, Mortuous Plango, Vivos Voco would have been better served by keeping techniques; if his name was not recognised was recorded in 1980 using digital synthesis the US above the fray and applying strong among the public at large, to aficionados of to fuse the sound of Winchester Cathedral’s pressure on the parties to halt the violence the avant- garde, he was arguably Britain’s tenor bell to the treble voice of his son, at an early stage, in cooperation with senior composer’. All agreed he was better Dominic, a member of the cathedral choir. It Russia, long an ally of the Syrian Alawites known abroad than at home. became an international hit. He wrote three and Christians. “The ultimate stakes for Jonathan was born in Sutton Coldfield in operas and near to the end of his life, was regional stability are too high and the 1939. He was a chorister at St Michael’s commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic continued suffering of the Syrian people College, Tenbury, Worcestershire, played the Orchestra to compose a 90-minute oratorio, too great for America to allow the war to cello in the National Youth Orchestra while Weltehos, involving texts from six religions continue. The President will have to show at Repton, and won a choral scholarship to that was given its world premiere under uncustomary political courage” wrote a St John’s College, Cambridge. While there, Simon Rattle in October 2011. By then he retired US diplomat recently. he sent some early compositions to Benjamin was too ill to attend. He survived to hear Britten, who guided him to two private its UK premiere by the Birmingham City There’s still time, of course, for the tutors, Erwin Stein and later Hans Keller, both Orchestra in June 2012 listening via the moderate tendency to recover a modicum Austrian refugees living in London. He gained internet. of form. But will it? Can the men and doctorates at the universities of Glasgow If his works only appeared occasionally in women who staff it recognise one of and Cambridge. While in Glasgow he joined mainstream UK concerts, they frequently the unspoken assumptions of Senator the cellists in the BBC Scottish Symphony featured at festivals. The Bath Festival Fulbright and others of his generation: Orchestra, later becoming composer in included nine of his works in 1995. The BBC statesmen take short-term political risks to association with the orchestra between devoted a weekend of ‘Total Immersion’ in avert the long-term risks to their nation of 2005-08. his music at the Barbican in January 2011, inaction. He was inspired to be a composer as an which was followed by a similar week-end 11-year-old chorister, when he heard the at London’s Festival Hall. If he neither courted The outlook is a little bleak if they can’t. church organist hit ‘a wild chord’ while fame nor followed fashion, he was always improvising after the service, exposing available to his students and respected for Jonathan to the thrill of musical dissonance. his deep spirituality and gentleness. He was He was 30 when he was awarded a Harkness bestowed a lifetime achievement award by Peter Jenkins (HF 1971-73) was a Fellowship to study composition and music at the Incorporated Society of Musicians last British diplomat for 33 years and Princeton in 1969. He credited Stockhausen year. served in the UK’s Washington with giving him the courage to bring Eastern He leaves a widow, Rosa, who he married in embassy between 1982-84. spirituality into his music and went on to 1960, and two children.
June 2013 Harkness Report 5 Rosie Dastgir (HF 1989-91) Her well-received debut novel A Small Fellows Fortune, published in 2012 by Penguin Riverhead in the US and by Quercus in Obituaries News the UK, explores the lives of an extended Pakistani family of immigrants in England.
Malcolm Dean (HF 1966-68) His 2011 hardback book, Democracy Under Robert Johnston, Daniela Abravanel (HF 1977-78) Attack -- how the media distort policy and who many fellows will have met during She has produced a booklet with images and politics, was updated and re-issued as a his 15 years in London as the Director text about her books and her work. daniela. paperback by Policy Press in April, 2013. of the Harkness Fellowships between [email protected] 1963 to 1978, died on 31 October, The book indicts his own trade through 2012, in Monterey, California aged 88. Tom Angear (HF 1961-63) a series of seven case studies. The main During his time in England Bob served The University of Nottingham conferred on villains are the tabloids, but not exclusively on the boards of the American School him the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris so. It identifies seven deadly sins of the in London, the US-UK Educational causa. Cornell University also made him a Life ‘reptiles’ (Dennis Thatcher’s waspish word (Fulbright) Commission, and the Institut Member of the University Council. for journalists). The new edition includes an d’Etudes Americaines, Paris. extra chapter following the parliamentary Bob, who was born in Minneapolis, David Armitage (HF 1988-90) inquiries, court hearings and the Leveson Minnesota in 1924, was a graduate of the the Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History commission’s examination of the News University of Minnesota, a Rhodes Scholar at at Harvard University, currently chairs the Inrternational hacking scandal, along with Lincoln College, Oxford, and received his PhD Harvard History Department; he also holds an the protracted negotiations that followed from the University of California, Berkeley. Honorary Professorship at the University of over its plan for a robust and independent He served for three years during the Second Sydney and was recently elected a Fellow of press regulator. World War in the US army, 10th Mountain the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Division (ski troops), 87th regiment, and His latest book is Foundations of Modern Martin Doornbos (HF 1962-64) saw combat in Italy. His awards included a International Thought (Cambridge University He sees it as one of the (many) good features gold star. Press, 2013). of the Harkness experience that fellows are As a returning GI at Minnesota University, kept informed about other Fellows’ activities Bob joined a group of internationally-minded Nicholas Barton (HF 1967-68) and events. He has two book titles coming students to organise a student-run, study was presented by the British Orthopaedic out this spring or summer: Researching abroad programme, the Student Project Association with an Honorary Fellowship in Dynamics of African State Formation: for Amity among Nations , better known 2012, the highest accolade they have Comparative Perspectives, UNISA Press, SA, as SPAN, and served as the first president to offer. a joint work co-authored with Wim van of the non-profit SPAN Association. The Binsbergen, and Not all the King’s Men: programme has grown to include all 17 Margaret Boden (HF 1962-64) Inequality as a Political Instrument in Ankole, Minnesota colleges and universities and more She has been awarded one of 8 Gold Uganda, (first published in 1978), Fountain than 4,000 students have shared the SPAN Medals by the University of Sussex, on their Publishers Edition, Kampala, with a experience in over 75 countries. 50th Anniversary. Also the Covey Award new introduction. He spent 10 years teaching in California for outstanding research in computing colleges – including visiting lectureships at and philosophy, by IACAP (Int. Assocn. for Dr Simon Duffy (HF 1994-95) Stanford and Berkeley – before coming Computing & Philosophy). established The Centre for Welfare Reform to London. After leaving the fellowship in 2009 and has been busy developing and programme, he spent 10 years as a real Anthony Cary (HF 1980-82) publishing new thinking on the redesign estate investment consultant in both He became a UK Commonwealth Scholarship of the welfare state and challenging the England and California. He retired in Commissioner last year - and a juror for the current government’s reforms. Recent Monterey Peninsular, where he was involved 2013 Cundill History Prize (a $75,000 prize publications include A Fair Society? How with a variety of charity and community administered through McGill University). the cuts target disabled people and A Fair organisations. Income - arguing for radical reform of the
BBC’s new Alistair Cooke archive A special archive of Alistair Cooke’s freelance contract with the BBC to provide Letters from America was launched film reviews. He moved back to the US in online by the BBC in November 2012. 1937, produced a prototype American Letter that was focused on New York and used Although initially the BBC had only 900 of intermittently by the BBC in 1938-39, but the 2869 letters he broadcast between 1946 was shelved with the outbreak of war. His and 2004, help was on hand. A public appeal BBC Letter from America began in 1946, for privately recorded broadcasts produced running parallel with his job as the Guardian’s 620 lost episodes from the 1970s and 1980s chief American correspondent between 1948 from just two people by Christmas, 2012. and 1972. Alistair’s original contract was for a series The website has both audio and transcripts of 13 broadcasts. He was still broadcasting of the 15 minute broadcasts, catalogued them 58 years later until just three weeks by dates and themes (elections, presidents, before he died on 30 March 2004 aged 95. movies and television). It is easy to use and Alistair spent his 1932-34 fellowship at includes a photographic section with the Yale and Harvard reading literature and handsome dark-haired Cooke at 28 slowly drama. He returned to the UK to win a becoming more silver.
6 Harkness Report June 2013 tax and benefit systems. The Social Policy Geoffrey Leech (HF 1964-5) in 2012. Association gave Simon an award for his He received an honorary doctorate from The Fourth International Human Rights ‘outstanding contribution to social policy’. Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, Education Conference: Global Convergence Simon also gave the annual Tizard lecture at in May 2012. This was awarded by the and Local Practice will be held on 21 to 26 the University of Kent and is providing policy Philosophical Faculty. November 2013 at Soochow University, advice to the newly formed Campaign for a Taipei, Taiwan: http://scu.hre2013.org.tw/ Fair Society. He is now a regular blogger for Stephen Littlechild (HF1965-7) The deadline for submitting paper abstracts the Huffington Post. He completed a term as member of the was 30 April 2013. Postal Services Commission (Postcomm) David Edmonds (HF 1993-4) (2006 – 2011) and has just been appointed Dr Thierry Potok (HF 1975-77) has co-edited a new Philosophy Bites book, as panel member of the Competition He created and heads (as Chairman, CEO Philosophy Bites Back, published by Oxford Commission (2013-2015). and main shareholder) MP Medienparks NRW University Press. His latest philosophy (MPN), a Cologne-based studio operating book, Would You Kill the Fat Man? will Ross Love (HF 1986-88) company. be published by Princeton University Press He has joined the NSW Selection Panel for Since Janauary 2012, he has been running, towards the end of 2013. the John Monash Fellowships, offered by through MPN, a 16 sound-stage TV and the General Sir John Monash Foundation in movie studio. Starting from scratch they Nicholas Falk (HF 1967-69) Australia. These are generous fellowships finished 2012 with a (small) profit, and the has been working on a book drawing lessons for international postgraduate study for plan for 2013 is to attract more movies, from European cities on how the UK could Australians, very similar to the Harkness bigger ones too, and to generate a bigger transform its prospects. This follows on from Fellowship that he feels fortunate to have profit. The beginning of 2013 seems to go a series of study tours URBED has run, and received. He thinks of this role as a partial in the right direction. This new development he hopes some Harkness Fellows will look give-back for that experience. He is also a has pushed him and his wife Ruth to move up his blog http://postcardfromthefuture. member of the Australian Government’s from Munich to Cologne. wordpress.com/. As well as advising Oxford International Education Advisory Council, a City Council and Grosvenor Developments on Director of Jawun – Indigenous Corporate Dr Stephen Potter: (HF1973-75) an urban extension to the City, he is helping Partnerships and Wunan Foundation, an He is currently active in three start-ups: to organise ongoing events to debate Oxford indigenous development organisation based • Iprova: a pioneering internet protocol Futures, and would welcome hearing from in the remote East Kimberley region. My (IP) supported by ~SFr 1.6m from the anyone with an interest in how the City day job continues as Managing Partner for Swiss Confederation for the development should grow. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Australia of its “Big Data” software. Customers and New Zealand. include world-leading companies in John Gapper (HF 1991-92) oil and gas, mobile devices, medtech, He is a Business Columnist and Associate Sara Nathan OBE (HF 1977-79) lighting, telecommunications networks and Editor of the Financial Times, based until She was appointed as a Public Appointments automobile and marine power systems recently in New York with his wife Rosie Assessor in the Office of the First Civil Service • Visual Metaphors at Work: based on 30 Dastgir (see above). They have now returned Commissioner in April 2012, and chairs the years work from Professor Angela Dumas to London. He too published his first novel in appointment process of chairs of public at London Business School (LBS), the Judge 2012, a mystery set among the gilded elite bodies. She also started as a tribunal chair Institute and elsewhere. Its “Totemics” in New York and East Hampton, published in for the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the techniques help teams from disparate hardback by Ballantine Books in the US, and same month. backgrounds, nationalities, cultures, Duckworth in the UK. functions, hierarchy levels and so on, rapidly Robert Norman (CFF 1956-57) unite to solve common problems or to Heather-Jane Gray (HF 1996-7, then He published his third book last year To Get resolve disputes. H-J Sears) She publishes a book this May: to the Other Side (A Personal Encounter with • Klaustech: a novel digital advertising Change Leadership & Effectiveness some Bridges Around the World. platform, recently launched in the UK www.synergy-global.com This is in A5 format, 112 pages with 70 as well as acting as an IP and strategy adviser colour illustrations, priced at $NZ25 and and IP broker to a variety of organisations. Dr Chris Horwitz (HF 1979-81) anyone interested could contact him by He recently wrote an article for Intellectual 25 years ago he founded and is still running email: [email protected] Asset Management and gave a talk at Electrogrip in Pittsburgh PA USA. This is a He travelled extensively in the United States Global Intellectual Property Centre (GIPC) in spinoff of Univ. NSW (Sydney, Australia) on his Harkness Fellowship, studying roads Bangalore on “Patents as the Next Weapons research work after an 11-year Senior and bridges. The book will give particular in Economic Warfare” Lecturer stint there. Electrogrip provides pleasure to fellow engineers, but anyone equipment for the micro/nanofabrication with an appreciation of ingenious and Andrew Rabeneck and Frank Duffy industries, including semiconductors. beautiful design, and an interest in history, (both HF 1967-9) Chris has been most grateful over the will find much here to enjoy. published a joint article “Professionalism and years for his Harkness experience, for its Architects in the 21st Century” in Building interactions with people as well as national Dr Sev Ozdowski (HF 1984-86) Research and Information Volume 41, No. 1. parks, and for the continued internationalism In 2010 he initiated the international human of his resultant family. rights education conference series with Dr Ted Sandercock (HF 1969-71) the first hosted by University of Western He continues as an education professional Stanley Johnson (HF 1963-64) Sydney (UWS), where he is Director, Equity for the Australian Human Resources Institute Where the Wild Things Were: Travels of a and Diversity, at Parramatta Campus (see: (AHRI) in the online Professional Diploma Conservationist was published last year as a The HRE Conference Report
June 2013 Harkness Report 7 Richard Lapper Fellows News Brazil’s Contd College with three campuses at Goolwa (R-12), Victor Harbor (R-12) and Currency Creek (sustainable environmental facility). Transformation Ted also participates in the activities of the National Trust in Willunga as a volunteer guide and presenter.
Malcolm Singer (HF 1980-82) was awarded the Cobbett Medal for service to chamber music by the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 2012. He remains Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School. He will be celebrating his 60th birthday with a concert of his music in the Menuhin Hall in Surrey
Jean van den Eynde (HF 1976-1978) He continues to be a Managing Director of Russell Reynolds Associates, based in s Financial Times Latin America inflation were a regular feature of life. Brussels. In 2012 his executive search and Editor from 1998, I realised It was impossible for people to save or assessment work took him to places where Athat Brazil was in the process businesses to plan. In 1994 the finance the market for talent and top executives is of achieving some kind of stability, minister and soon to be president rapidly changing, and this included Istanbul, but was pretty precarious. So Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso cut costs, Dubai, Beirut, ... And to a few Nominations was going to be a big story for us. I privatised loss making companies and tied Committees of quoted companies who spoke Spanish but not Portugese. the Real – a new currency - to the dollar – worked with him on searches for non- I knew that to work effectively in the helping to bring about a blissful period of executive directors. He has been named an country I would need to acquire the stability. independent non-executive Director of Fidea, a Belgian insurance company. language; an important decision, not least because Fatima, my language Even so all this was seen to be quite Tony Woods (HF 1968-69) teacher, became my wife. precarious. No-one at the Financial Times lives and works in Melbourne Australia. A thought Brazil’s currency would stay biographical book has just been printed in Since 2010 I’ve headed up Brazil afloat very long. Brazil had been the last Taiwan covering 50 years of his art activities, Confidential, a fortnightly research report country in Latin America to embrace the e.g., painting, works on paper, super8 aiming to provide independent investment liberal reforms so popular elsewhere in the films /video and sound recordings.The research for fund managers. region, and had done so half-heartedly, book should be in Australia mid-May and argued its critics. will be distributed by Australian Scholarly Living in Brazil for five years I had Publications (then will be listed by them ). been constantly frustrated by the Well they were wrong. Financial and www.scholarly.info.-www.tonywoodsart.com endless bureaucracy and unnecessary monetary stability have been achieved and John Worthington (HF 1965-67) complication of day-to-day life. I’d are still intact; and without the sweeping He is currently Director of the Academy been deeply sceptical about President reforms demanded by financial markets. of Urbanism. Lula’s government, unconvinced that • Responsible for European Learning Cities it was prepared to make the tough The key moments were: In early 1999 Platform; Places of Connection symposium, decisions needed to progress. But two Brazil abandoned a fixed currency peg and Utrecht 2012 years in Johannesburg as Bureau Chief, allowed its currency to float, while from • Commissioner, the Independent Transport well after the end of Apartheid, made 1994 the currency was kept artificially Commission me appreciate Brazil’s social and racial high against the dollar in order to fend off • Chairing call for evidence on spatial impact integration, and better standards of living. inflationary pressures and secure stability. of High Speed Rail • Advisory panel Climate Change Capital Property Investment Fund I believe there are four factors helping Then from 1999 came more serious Recent Publications: to transform Brazil: the achievement of fiscal reform, in particular bringing the • Blyth and Worthington Managing the economic stability; the development of accounts of states and municipalities Brief for Better Design, Routledge 2nd comparative advantage; the advance of into line through the approval of a fiscal Edition 2010 social inclusion with the expansion of the responsibility law. The central government • Worthington Reinventing the Workplace, domestic market; and the consolidation of made a commitment to register a primary Architectural Press 2nd Edition 2006 political pragmatism. surplus, allowing its accounts to be in balance after debt payments. Inflation First, economic stability: Back in December remains at about 5%, well within the 1988, prices had increased over the central bank’s band of 2.5% to 6.5%. year by about 600%, and high levels of Brazil is stable, unlike Argentina or
8 Harkness Report June 2013 Brasília the capital of Brazil. In recent Richard Lapper decades Brazil (unlike China or India) has been a largely urban society – 83% of its Brazil’s population living in cities. formal jobs between 2002 and 2009, six times more than during the 1990s. The carteira assinada – the signed labour Transformation card – is in many ways the emblem of the Lula and Rousseff governments. In 2012, despite the economic slowdown, formal unemployment fell to record lows. How did this happen? First, there was some public sector job creation. Second, the tax authorities started aggressively tracking down tax evaders. Third, because of the more stable outlook many businesses became more confident about their futures and started contracting labour. It also became easier to raise capital. During Brazil’s Initial Public Offerings (IPO) boom in 2007 many Venezuela, where fiscal policy has been achievement of economic stability and companies found it was suddenly worth irresponsible. the new attractions of Brazil’s natural their while to declare assets that they had resources. previously left hidden from the tax man, Second, comparative advantage: Brazil is Brazil has radically improved its external and they were able to borrow more easily. famously the one Bric that is self-sufficient performance, which has eliminated its Again, there has been a wave of new in water, food and energy, and rich in previous burden of foreign debt, and built business creation. According to Sebrae, a minerals. What has changed though is the up foreign reserves. This has extended non-government agency supporting small demand for these commodities. the market for domestic credit and the business, 4,500 businesses per day are Since 2002, Chinese demand for Brazilian dramatic increase in the number of being formed. iron ore, soya bean and increasingly formal jobs. Meanwhile, the government Formalisation has helped bring more oil has been a huge driver of growth. has extended social welfare to very individuals into credit markets too, There is a precise fit between Brazil as an significant numbers of families (about 13m because with a carteira assinada it is efficient producer of soya and iron ore and people receive bolsa familia compared easier to open a bank account and borrow China’s demand for these raw materials. to 3m when Cardoso left office) and money. That helps create demand, in turn China needs iron ore for its steel industry, the minimum wage has been increased creating employment opportunities. feeding its construction sector. Dozens of relatively quickly. Brazil has also improved its social small mining concerns and some not so In 2004, after stabilising the external indicators, radically reducing poverty levels small are now mining iron ore in response accounts, the government allowed banks and increasing the spending power of to this demand. And as China becomes to lend against the workers’ pay cheques; the poor, partly through the introduction more urbanized and richer, it increasingly a system known as crédito consignado. of bolsa familia as described above, and needs Brazilian soya to feed pork and That led to a sharp rise in consumer through the government’s minimum wage chicken. China has also ploughed billions loans, with poorer Brazilians for the first policies. of dollars into Brazil, becoming in 2010 time acquiring consumer durables such So credit, formalisation and social welfare Brazil’s biggest source of foreign direct as cell phones, TVs and stereo systems. have paved the way for a radical increase investment as well as its biggest trading Increasingly from about 2008, many in popular consumption. Even over the partner. Brazilians began to buy cars on credit as past eighteen months as the economy – Nor is it just China. Over the last 20 well. largely reflecting international uncertainty years the emerging markets of Africa, In recent decades Brazil (unlike China or – has begun to stumble, retail sales have the Middle East, Asia and South America India) has been a largely urban society continued to grow at between 5 and have all gained in importance over North – 83% of its population living in cities. 10% per year. Those growth rates have American and European markets. Millions of these urbanites who were continued to attract foreign companies Brazil’s comparative advantage is now living in shacks on the edge of giant to set up operations in Brazil, while sales really breathtaking. In particular, the Brazilian cities and working in the informal have stagnated in the developed world. In discovery of the ‘pre-salt’ oil reserves off economy are being slowly absorbed the UK and the US supermarket sales and Rio de Janeiro has provided Brazil with into the formal economy and those of cars and consumer durables have 50bn barrels of reserves, making it one mainstream society. been flatlining since 2005. In Brazil they of the top three most attractive energy Job creation has been limited by the have grown at about 10% per year. investment locations in the world. relatively steep social security contributions Debt levels are growing though. Some The third element in Brazil’s transformation that employers must pay, the complexity families are overstretched. But debts are is the inclusion in its formal markets of of the tax system and the very generous largely less than a year, interest rates are millions of previously marginal people. labour rights that Brazilian workers enjoy. This has happened partly through this And yet Brazil has created 12 million Contd>
June 2013 Harkness Report 9 Brazil’s Transformation
Contd> coming down very sharply, and banks are under pressure to reduce their generally high spreads. It has been a turbulent year but the consumer story is still very much alive and is continuing to underpin Brazil’s attractions for foreign investors. The fourth factor is politics. Latin America has had its fair share of ideological and/ or predatory leaderships in the past. Brazil has always been more pragmatic Michael Arthur than ideological, although it has had its corruption scandals, highlighted by the recent court case into the so-called mensalão, a corruption scheme in which the government of President Lula bought Whither India: votes from congressmen loyal to allied parties.
President Rousseff seems on the right path. First, she has picked up on some two views difficult challenges left over from the da Silva administration. Her government is now beginning to open up its roads, alking and thinking about India of these waves was perhaps the Moghul fascinates me all the time. Thank empire. Then the British – remember, railways and airports to private operators. you for inviting me to do that with only 300 years of crust on a 4 millenia The airport sell off announced in 2012 T you this evening. Where to start? The history. British thinking about India is, not was of huge importance symbolically, visitor to India is hit by a cacophony unreasonably but erroneously, conditioned because Ms Rousseff’s Workers’ Party of experiences – sounds smells sights. by that experience. We did plenty of good has been hitherto ideologically opposed Hassle. Bustle. You sense a huge, chaotic, things, and just as many bad. But our impact to privatization. Ms Rousseff has shown complex, country. But it is not even a is a drop in the ocean of India’s legacy. herself less tolerant of inefficiency and country – more a diverse continent. And To finish the history, remember the corruption among her allies, one of the one with immense charisma too. importance of Nehru ( with Gandhi) in reasons we saw so many changes in creating the sense of nationhood and her first 18 months in office. Finally, she Two views of modern India abound. The establishing the core elements of today’s has been tough on the single biggest bullish one is that India’s time has come modern polity. A visionary political leader challenge of Brazilian politics – that of again in the 21st century. If it takes a decade of this new State; but an economic disaster getting interest rates and lending rates to or two more to sort out today’s problems, in many ways, as he created the centralised sustainably lower levels. so be it – a flash in the long history of India. state-run economy that was the Zeitgeist India has special strengths, not least in of his time. His legacy – both political and For all these four reasons – stability, contrast to China, that will help it prove a economic – still defines much of modern comparative advantage, social inclusion leader of this century. The booming, young, India. and pragmatic leadership – Brazil’s middle class testifies to that change. India impresses above all for its scale and prospects look good. Change won’t The pessimists say “get real”. Indian its diversity. 28 states, each the size of the happen overnight, but the changes gdp per head is 25% of China’s, with the UK or Germany. From Kerala to Assam, they introduced by Brazil’s last three presidents, gap widening. Infrastructure is appalling. are much more different than Portugal and Cardoso, Lula da Silva and Rousseff, have India cannot organise anything efficiently. Poland. India has 16 languages recognised Corruption abounds. Politics is in a mess, not in the constitution; several hundred beyond set the country on the right track. Despite to say downward spiral. that, not to count thousands of distinctive the prospect of continuing uncertainty in Let us not start from here. Every nation dialects. India has some 12 scripts – mostly developed markets and a slowdown in is conditioned in part by its history (and very different. De Gaulle complained about China the long-term international outlook geography). India more so than most. ruling a country with 300 cheeses. Try 12 continues to be favourable towards Brazil. India has had a civilisation for some 4000 scripts! years. The Vedic Mathematicians discovered • Richard Lapper worked for the Financial Pythagoras’ theorem several centuries India’s ethnic mix is as broad as Times for 25 years, of which 10 were before his birth. By 250 BC the remarkable its linguistic spent as the paper’s Latin American man Ashoka ruled a tolerant, enlightened Diversity extends to religion. A predominantly Editor. He now heads Brazil Confidential, Buddhist Empire stretching from Afghanistan Hindu culture. But remember that there are which carries out research on Brazil’s to Bangladesh. literally millions of Hindu deities. And India is resources, infrastructure and consumer Down the centuries, India was regularly the second or third biggest Muslim country industries invaded. The most famous and distinctive in the world after Indonesia and alongside
10 Harkness Report June 2013 “You deserve more” is pluralist culture, with an open and lively pres. Let me mention four priorities, chosen in a campaign marketing But Corruption is endemic. It is built in order of importance for India. gated communities for to the system. To win an election you need First China. The big competitor for strategic India’s new middle-class. lots of money. So once elected you go space and influence, the dominant Asian A huge and booming about getting reimbursed. Of course many power of the 21st century, a proven success home market (the in politics are clean, even super clean. The story with ambitions in India’s back yard. For equivalent of the present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh all the harmony and huge trade, these two population of Australia is a shining example. The public mood has countries are deeply competitive. India’s joins the spending turned strongly against corruption, and press comparative strengths lie in demography, middle class every year). pressure is intense. Things may change. pluralism, political stability, diversity, and The growing middle classes are fed up with perhaps geopolitical location – on the cross facing corruption at every turn. They are a roads of Asian trade. They worry a lot about becoming a powerful force. China. Including militarily. It is little discussed, but India is in the Second Pakistan and other difficult regional throes of a sort of civil war – the Naxalite relationships. It is a common mistake to movement – running down through the hyphenate India and Pakistan. Pakistan has eastern and central states, where Maoists very serious problems of internal security, Michael Arthur have for 20 years been trying to protect the political stability, economic development etc rights of the exploited poor people, often that far exceed India’s similar challenges. tribals, in the forest. Now government and Pakistan is one tenth of the population, and rebels slog it out in the villages, with the the economy, of India. India does not need poor people caught in the middle. It is far Pakistan, unlike vice versa. But it does need worse than the situation in Kashmir. stability on its borders. Whither India: Third, South/South. New global Let me turn to the economy. It is going relationships are emerging. Partly based through a very weak phase. Growth is down on trade. Partly based on new strategic to 5% - too low to sustain the poverty balances. Partly a sign of the post-Western reduction that is so much needed. It was era in global politics. India is at the forefront two views 8/9%. It may get back there in a year or two. of that thinking. Its economic dimensions Meanwhile 500m people still live on less manifest itself in new trade links, energy than $2 a day. Inflation is high – oscillating dependance, new aid patterns (competition Pakistan (all the Arab states are way behind nearer 10% than 5%. Infrastructure is in a with China in Africa). in numbers). India has 20 million Sikhs. As bad way, although improving. Hundreds of I exaggerate this point a little, (at the many Christians. It was the birthplace of billions of dollars need to be invested in this, expense of India/US) simply because it is Buddhism. And Jainism. Parsees run some of from transport through social services/health/ a new and growing feature of the global its biggest businesses. education to energy. Governance is weak balance. It is impossible to understand India without and corrupt – the “licence raj” of red tape Finally India’s relationship with the realising the depths to which this country is that faces every business venture or citizen Developed West. This is complicated. Of both Spiritual and Secular. I have never lived interaction with the state. All that is slowly course economically this is where India’s in a country which is so spiritual in the sense changing for the better. current interests lie. With the US, with that people have deep spiritual attachments, But India has fantastic economic strengths Europe (much less with Russia). But as we deeply relevant to their every day life. And and potential too. For the entrepreneur - and saw in the migration of the G8 to the G20, yet India is profoundly secular. For India, a entrepreneurial spirit is in the Indian DNA – or in the debate at the IMF and World Bank secular society is not a non religious one, India provides a rules-based culture. A huge about shares, there is a new Indian-led but one where everyone’s spiritual space is and booming home market (the equivalent (partly) rebalancing requirement in these respected and allowed. Here too is another of the population of Australia joins the relationships, as India comes into its own unique Indian mix, and strength. spending middle class every year). New cities (again). We saw Indian intransigence in the I must finish on societal issues by noting are booming. India has particular strengths Climate Change negotiations. They are tough three profound negatives. Across India there in IT and IT-enabled services, but many other players in the WTO. is widespread, and very active, discrimination sectors too (pharmaceuticals). Some 8 m on grounds of caste; against tribal people; mobile hand sets are sold every month – a Prognosis and against women.These are weakening, big multiplier for SME business, alongside India will underperform, against its potential, but only slowly. the rapid societal changes that that brings. for the next decade. Let me turn to Politics today. India is Young Indian businesses are distinctively India faces a risk (less than 50%) of in a quagmire of a mess, particularly at creative and ambitious. external entanglement that could set back national level. For three generations the only But above all India has young people. the speed of development, whether with dominant national party, Congress, today Contrast ageing China. India has more Pakistan or China. Tensions over water struggles to retain support, and is far from people under the age of 25 than the entire distribution may well be the cause of such the prospect of winning a simple majority European population. Properly educated disruption. in the polls. Regional parties abound. But (a big challenge that may not be met), they Internally India will get back to rapid Indian democracy is vibrant. Dramatic. People could become one of the major work forces growth. The economy will surprise us over a vote in their millions ( 70% turn out). The of the world in the decades 2020 and 2030. ten year period, even if not over 5. poorer you are the more you vote. And, It is right that we have talked so far about There will be further decentralisation proof that India is a functioning democracy, India looking inwards. That is where the big of political authority and action, to the the rule of thumb is that incumbents get challenges and the potential lie. But not least states. So some will perform far better than kicked out, for failure to deliver. Voting as the most populous country in the world others, widening geographical differentials, is 100% electronic – an amazing feat of (overtaking China in 2030) India’s place in particularly North/South. organisation, which nicely contrasts with the 21st century world will be vital. So how Florida, for example India has a strong does India see this? Contd>
June 2013 Harkness Report 11 Whither India Contd> of change. It may even shake up the endemic stable polity, a deeply rooted pluralist culture, problem of corruption. and a young person’s creative society. All of There will also be a further widening in the Finally, India’s diversity and pluralism those strengths seem to me to be in contrast Gini distribution of income within society, will prove a major leadership quality to China. more visible nowadays than ever before for the 21st century, the first ever really And above get out there and enjoy the because of TV and internet. The towns and interconnected century. Expect India to cacophony and vitality that is India. There cities will be the engine of that growth, have a disproportionate global lead in ideas is nowhere quite like it. A maddening, but with one of the most dramatic population and creative innovation, as well as perhaps mesmerising, microcosm of the world. shifts – urbanisation – that history has ever international relations, using new, less witnessed. western, norms. Sir Michael Arthur was a British diplomat The huge young middle class will become So buy shares in India for your children, for 38 years and served as UK High more strident, and even more of an engine even if you do not for yourselves. This is a Commissioner to India between 2003-2007.
2012 Summer Event William Plowden Sir Rick Trainor, Principal of King’s College of Independence, and some beautifully London kindly arranged a visit for us to illustrated natural history books. We had Fellowship News his college A party of eighteen met at the the opportunity then to do a quick tour of Maughan Library in Chancery Lane. The the building, including visiting the splendid building had originally housed the Public reading room, very similar in design to the Record Office and because of concern central rotunda at the about possible damage by fire, the building British Museum. Two Fellows rather than one have itself was massive, with enormous fire We proceeded to the main campus been appointed in this first year and doors, and extremely heavy slate shelves. and the newly refurbished East Wing of have taken up their three months We visited the Rare Books Special Somerset House, where some of the tenure from April collections and were given an excellent talk original foundations had been preserved by the curator. He had done his homework after an archaeological dig and then on Dr Richard Lang, based at WU Vienna on Harkness, and had accordingly laid to the River room for lunch. The tour University of Economics and Business on for us a very relevant collection which ended with a visit to the chapel, ornately will be working with Professor David included first editions of some of Alistair decorated by Giles Gilbert Scott, that made Mullins, in the School of Public Policy, Cooke’s work, a very early edition of the a very fitting end to a fascinating tour. University of Birmingham. Richard Bible translated into a Native American has an impressive track record of language, early versions of the Declaration Timothy Hornsby research and publications in the field of community led and cooperative housing. While in England he will focus on various such schemes Forthcoming Events: featured in the localism agenda, mainly in the West Midlands, and look June 13 Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the July 6 Annual Summer event: a at international comparisons. future of American foreign policy, tour of sculptor Nigel Hall’s studio. Spencer Room, Brooks’s, St James St, 22 Balham New Road, London, SW12 Fozia Yamin has worked in local SW1 7pm for 7.30pm. 9PG. Then lunch at the Devonshire, 39 authorities until moving to her current Sir Nigel was British ambassador to Balham High Road. An HF 1967-69, position in the National Trust. She the US (2007-12); The Prime Minister’s Nigel’s works can be found round the will be working at LSE with Patrick Foreign Policy and Defence Adviser globe: the Tate in the UK; Museum of Dunleavy, Professor of Political (2003-07); and British Permanent Modern Art, New York; Nationalgalerie, Science and Public Policy. She wants Representative to the EU (2000-03). Berlin; and the Australian National to examine the possibility of the July 2 Sir Liam Donaldson, former Gallery, Canberra. Recent shows include performance indicators demanded by Chief Medical Officer of England Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield and government in its contracts with the and Wales, on the challenges facing the Royal Academy. voluntary sector measuring outcomes health care in the UK and abroad. rather that simply outputs, thus Garden Room, Athenaeum Club, Pall For all 3 events RSVP Lizzie Clark recording the difference these services Mall, 6.30 for 7pm. Sir Liam served six [email protected] Tel 0207 380 6704 actually make to people’s lives. She different health secretaries and co- or Harkness Fellows Association, c/o plans to focus on organisations authored a book on his 14 predecessors ACU, Woburn House, 20-24 Tavistock providing services to the unemployed. in the post. Internationally, he founded Square, London WC1H 1HF. Tickets and led the World Alliance for Patient for first 2: £20 members, £23 guests. Their lectures are expected to be Safety and is currently WHO’s Envoy for Tickets for studio tour: £10 members, delivered in the autumn, and their Patient Safety. £12 guests, £5 juniors. reports published on line in the first instance
Harkness Fellows Association c/o The ACU Woburn House, 20-24 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HF tel: 020 7380 6704, fax: 7387 2665 email: [email protected] website: www.harknessfellows.org.uk
12 Harkness Report June 2013 Newsletter design and layout by Mike Krage www.kragedesign.co.uk