fergyboi

I wrote to my MP Mark Lazarowicz some time ago regarding the Government proposal to increase the period of detention of suspected terrorists to 42 days - you can find the post here.

While initially stating that he was opposed to the bill, I was later informed that he had voted to support it (thanks Andrew!). So, I decided to find out why:

Wednesday 25 June 2008

Dear Mark Lazarowicz,

I wrote to you on the 5th May regarding the terrorism laws in the UK, specifically the ability to detain suspects without charge for a substantial period of time.

Part of your reply:
“You will no doubt be aware there is currently a proposal under discussion to raise the 28 day limit to 42 days. While I am of course open to all reasonable argument, I have certainly not been convinced of the case for this extension, and at present I do not intend to support it.”

I am interested to know what changed your mind on this matter as I believe you voted for this Bill when it came up in the House of Commons earlier this month, and indeed on other Bills such as the renewal of Control Orders in February, and any other legislation that blatantly removes a citizen’s basic rights without charge.

Yours sincerely,

Fergus Macdonald

I came across some of the information in this letter from a few sites I found through writetothem.com. There is quite a wealth of information on MPs available on the internet which I was slightly unaware about. I’m not surpised by this, but I have never looked it up before so wasn’t quite sure how or where this was available. It makes interesting reading if you want insight into how the person you vote for actually performs his/her duties.

Anyway, Mark replied personally to my email the same day, which again is impressive timing, and a thorough response:

Dear Mr Macdonald

Thank you for your email. I have to tell you that it was only after a great deal of thought I decided to support the government proposal on this issue. It is no secret that I had a great number of reservations about the proposal, so I shall explain why I eventually decided to vote in the way that I did.

Firstly, having looked at all the information available to me, I was persuaded that there was a case for a ‘reserve power’ of the type proposed, as long as it was genuinely that, and not a power which became used on a regular basis.

Secondly, the various amendments and concessions made by the government have made it clear that the power will indeed be a reserve power. It is certainly not the case that there will become an automatic 42 day detention period. The power will only be able to be used in closely specified circumstances, for a limited time period, with parliamentary approval on each occasion, and will require the approval of the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Lord Advocate. It is therefore a very different proposal from the ‘90 days’ proposals, to which I was very strongly opposed and which I had no hesitation in voting against.

Thirdly, the Prime Minister has personally made it clear that there is no intention to seek any further changes in the number of days for which pre-charge detention is available, and that he expects these powers to be used very sparingly, perhaps (hopefully) never. I have posted in my “blog” a copy of the Prime Minister’s letter to Labour MPs on the subject. There is a link to this from my website www.marklazarowicz.org.uk.

It is always of course possible to exaggerate the threat of terrorism - but equally, we should not ignore that it is a real threat as well. That does not mean that our primary response should be security measures - the most important thing is to tackle factors underlying terrorism, whether that be social divisions at home, poverty, and sometimes foreign policy. But sometimes security measures are important as well.

It is very hard, of course, to get the balance right. The recent case of Abu Qatada seems to highlight these difficulties. He has been released on bail (indirectly as a result of the provisions of the Human Rights Act, introduced of course by this Labour government); if it had not been for Control Orders, he would now be under no realistic controls, notwithstanding the clear views expressed by the Courts previously about him.

I realise that this is not the type of answer you would like, but I can assure you that I considered the issue of “42 days detention” very carefully, and eventually thought it was right to vote in the way that I did.

I am sorry to disappoint you - and obviously if you have any comments in response I would be happy and interested to hear from you.

Mark Lazarowicz MP

In light of this reply, which I did not manage to fully read until this morning, I made the following reply:

Dear Mr Lazarowicz,

My apologies for the slow reply to your letter, I am currently in South East Asia and have just spent a few weeks travelling through Laos  and Cambodia where internet access is not as good as some other places.

I thank you for your timely and thorough reply to my letter of 25th June, and I am certain that the situation that our country faces at this time is far more complicated than I can understand as a moderately-informed citizen. I also believe from reading your letter and looking at how you have voted on other matters (for example the recent bill to make MP’s expenses more transparent) that I can trust your response and therefore your judgement - which is a welcome feeling!

Regards,
Fergus Macdonald

We spent only two days in the small village of Tadlo, Southern Laos, but had a really amazing time there. We stayed at Tim’s Guesthouse, run by a very friendly Laos family. The dad runs a local computer school from the profit of the satellite internet service they offer and was voted Laos citizen of the year! We also met a friendly Englishman and his wife who were living next to us and helped make our stay there really nice - it’s amazing how much the people you meet affect your perspective of a new place.

While there we explored the local waterfalls which were pretty amazing, had a swim in the bottom, jumped off the top, and had a rather sore shower underneath them! We also went on an elephant trek which was amazing. Although not the comfiest form of transport, definitely one of the coolest!

There are two elephants there, 60 and 65 year old sisters. They appear to be very well looked after, and get on well with their handlers who treat them with respect. They’re not tied up, the handlers don’t use whips or sticks to control them, they’re bathed every night in the river and they don’t have to work too hard. Click the photo above to see some other photos of them.

I’m changing over my email from my gmail address to my domain name address.

That means you can email me on anything (at) fergus-macdonald.com, so please update your address books!

It’s my second trip through Vietnam, and in some ways, this one is very different. However, in others, it’s painfully similar.

Hanoi and Halong Bay

We flew into Hanoi from Manila, after niftily sorting out our Visas in 24 hours (rather than the normal 3-5 days), thanks to Callum, and this site.

The weather is definitely better this time, with a lot less rain and 25-35 degree heat, so we spent a few days roaming around Hanoi and booked a trip to Halong Bay again. Unfortunately, this trip was considerably worse than the last one i took 2 1/2 years ago, and i would highly discourage anyone from using Discovery Travel in Hanoi (ok, that bit’s over!). I won’t lay out all the details, but the problems included a large family of rats living in the walls and ceiling of our room on the boat we stayed on, and they were particularly active that night which meant a lot of squeaking and squeeling (from them and from Emma in return) which meant that neither of us got much sleep! However, we made the best of it and had a great time the following night with everyone from our group.

Sapa

The highlight so far has definitely been our trip to Sapa. I didn’t make it there last time, so i was pretty anxious to get there this time. Sapa is a small hill station in the very north-west corner of Vietnam, very close to the Chinese border. Throughout this area in Vietnam, China, Loas, Thailand and across to Burma, there are a huge number of ethnic minorities - many of which are hill tribes. Some of the people we saw are not so different from those we saw in Burma or in southern China while i was there (relatively speaking).

You can see some photos from Sapa by clicking the photo above.

Hue and Hoi An

We stopped off at Hue for a couple of days on our way down the coast of Vietnam. We found a rather nice hotel which had just built a swimming pool (i think we were the first guests in it!), so we shacked up there for a pricey £1.75 per night each! Understandably, we were inclined to stay a little longer than we otherwise would have, however we made it out eventually and last night we arrived at the little town of Hoi An. This will probably be the highlight of the trip for Emma as the streets of Hoi An are lined with over 400 tailors shops which can whip up a custom made suit for around £20 in 24-48 hours. That doesn’t even include the countless other shoe shops and handbag shops - definitely enough to keep a girl busy for a few days.

The Burma Campaign UK, along with a number of other organisations, are holding a global day of action for Burma’s cyclone victims. I’m sure that this situation is not far from anyone’s heart.

It’s reported that over 1.5 million people are at serious risk from diseases such as cholera, dysentery and malaria and may die if aid is not delivered soon. It seems that the number of dead cannot be accurately determined at this time, but i am confident that this disaster is on a par with the terrible earthquake in China. It’s rather strange then that China sent 50,000 troops to Sichuan province to help with the aid effort, but is blocking UN sanctions to force the Burmese government to accept foreign aid! I understand the principal that the Burmese should decide for themselves, but i think that when this many lives are at stake - there’s not really much time to look at everyone’s principals.

China broadcasts to the media globally that it would appreciate foreign help; unsurprisingly everyone scrambles to show them how much they can do…and maybe they can get a few new trade agreements next year, but at the same time they block aid from going to Burma! It doesn’t really make sense in my head.

So…what can be done. On Saturday 17th May, the Global Day of Action for Burma’s Cyclone Victims will take place. The emphasis is on getting the rest of the world to enforce aid upon Burma to save literally millions of lives. I don’t agree with this tactic as it will only worsen relations with the government, but then i also do not have a better solution to propose!

Protests are taking place in London as follows:

French Embassy: Time: 12:30 - 13:00
Address: 58 Knightsbridge London SW1X 7JT

American Embassy: Time: 13:30 - 14:00
Address: 24 Grosvenor Square, London, W1A 2LQ

Foreign Office: 14:40 – 15:10
Address: King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH

Click here to view a map of the day’s protests.

Other protests across the world can be found here.

After being talked out of starting my own online travel guide by my older sibling, i’ve decided to more actively participate in wikitravel.org. My first article can be found here. Not bad after only being there for 3 hours!

We enjoyed a 3 hour bus journey today aboard a beast of a bus, run by the D’Christ Bus Company (as in ‘Da Christ’ - a bit of ghetto slang mixed in with strong Christianism going on there i think!).

We were making our way to the longest underground river in the world. By the time we got there - we were met with a hail of rain, crashing waves on the beach and a lot of flooded roads! Turns out that the weather we were faced with was considerably better than the last few days! We later found out that there is at least one typhoon in the area that may be heading towards us!

So…a swift change of plans, back aboard the same bus for the 3 hour return to the city…and think we should check out weather reports and possibly flights out of the country! No point sitting around for two weeks until the rain clears!

I realised today that unfortunately this site doesn’t display correctly in Internet Explorer. My apologies to my readers who use IE, I did not notice this as i always use Firefox.

I will look into this problem sometime in the near future, however, for those that can’t wait - I would highly recommend Firefox!

You know i couldn’t resist the white beach photos at some point! Click the photo for more pics…

After a week in the Philippines’ golden nugget island of Boracay, we decided to leave the beaches behind for a while, and headed off to the remote corner of Palawan.

A 5 minute tricycle, followed by a 10 minute boat, followed by a 6 hour bus, followed by a 20 minute taxi, followed by a 34 hour ferry! saw us landing on the rainy shores of Puerto Princesa!

So far it’s been pretty cool…everyone’s a lot friendlier, the food is great (fantastic meal at the what-seems-to-be-famous Kalui restuarant tonight: seaweed with king prawns and fish soup, followed by whole fried fish in pineapple sauce and fish steaks, finished off with a fruit salad served in a half coconut!), and generally there are less tourists so things are cheaper and we don’t get hassled to constantly buy this, that, this & that etc (you get the picture!).

So…tomorrow we’re off to investigate the longest underground river in the world! Sounds like an adventure!

We spent a week on Panglao Island, off the island of Bohol. Panglao itself is really touristy, and we arrived during the first weekend of the Philippine school summer holidays - so it was very busy. However, we found a nice hotel and chilled out for a few days, during which we were paid a visit by a large crab which Emma spotted trying to claw its way up onto her bed!

Panglao Island, Malapascua before it, and Moalboal before that, have all really been pretty much the same. They’re all beach towns, with lots of tourists and lots of restaurants serving a mix of Western and Eastern dishes. Not that we have not been enjoying it, but at the end of the day - we really could’ve been in Spain, France, or anywhere else - as the beach-front tourists town is essentially the same across the world.

However, a chilled out few weeks on the beach has been a great way to start the trip. Getting anxious for a little more adventure…we hired a motorbike for the day, and set off around Panglao Island and Bohol. We visited a cool underground cave which was linked to the sea and had a quick swim (after getting a little bit lost on the way there!).

In the afternoon we were hoping to head to the tarsier sanctuary, the Luboc river and the Chocolate Hills. Unfortunately, the rain came on a bit heavy around 1pm so we ran for shelter in a bus stop for an hour or so until it passed:

We made it to the tarsier sanctuary and saw these cool little dudes:

After that, we had a really nice drive through the country, before arriving at the river, and making our way back. I really felt that the whole day was a completely different experience to the rest of the trip so far. It felt like we were doing something new and seeing things which we wouldn’t normally see.