MixTogether & Friends

This week RAJAR, the radio industry’s audience measurement body, published its latest figures for the quarter to December 2009. The results make bleak reading for the BBC Asian Network.

Asian Network Listeners

Asian Network Listener Hours

In July 2009 the BBC Trust singled out the BBC Asian Network for criticism in its annual report. The station had lost 1/5 of its audience in a year despite spending £25m.

The Evening Standard at the time carried a report by Amar Singh stating that the Asian Network was under threat of closure because of its poor performance:

BBC’s £25m Asian station faces axe after audience plunges

It now seems that closure of the troubled station is all but inevitable. The BBC confided their worries to the Media Guardian on Wednesday before the Rajar results, and the Asian Network itself has been  briefing on panic schedule changes to reputable Asian Media news organisation BizAsia.

Managing Editor of the Station Vijay Sharma has been ‘in hiding‘ as the station’s demise has become public knowledge.

Last year, members of MixTogether drew up a proposal for the Asian Network. It was an idea for a show aimed at mixed race couples, who often struggle when traditional Asian family values are ranged against them. Our proposal was inspired by our work with genuine mixed couples. It was backed by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, Jasvinder Sanghera of Karma Nirvana, Parveen Bird of the Big Issue, mixed race charity People In Harmony and MPs Ann Cryer and Vince Cable. Their letters of support accompany the proposal.

The Asian Network dismissed our idea out of hand.

As with all progressive ideas that the Asian Network could have helped to introduce within the Asian community, our idea was ignored in favour of outdated talkshow debates where the same few callers were always invited to share their negative thoughts on progressive matters. Many of the Asian callers to their mixed race debates expressed opinions that would not have been out of place in a BNP meeting, but this was deemed acceptable in the name of balance. No other BBC station would have allowed such views on air if they had been expressed by white people.

How much more could the Asian Network have done to tackle the scourges of forced marriage, honour crime and disownment that blight the lives of many of their target audience?

It seems that the Asian Network audience was also looking for more from the station than outdated debates and poorly produced underground music, and they have been voting with their feet. Meanwhile the BBC’s black music station 1Xtra enjoys solid ratings, and their artists are Migraine Skanking all the way into the charts.

As Rumbold on Pickled Politics has observed, “there isn’t as much to say about the Asian Network as one might think; it is expensive and losing listeners”

The Network has had the time, money and goodwill to sponsor progressive ideas within the Asian community.

It has squandered all three.

It deserves to fail.

December statistics were boosted by a link from Iain Dale, but leaving that aside we have still doubled our visitor numbers since November 2009.

Thanks as always to readers and commenters!

The BBC Asian Network is engaged in a panic re-shuffle aimed at shoring up the family image of the station ahead of Thursday’s Rajar ratings for the quarter ended December ‘09.

The Asian Network is reportedly under threat of closure after the BBC’s Annual Report for 2008/9 criticised it for dropping 100,000 listeners (400,000 down from 500,000). Analysis of the Rajar figures since the BBC’s report show a further steep decline to September ‘09.

Asian Network Listener Numbers

According to BizAsia.co.uk the Asian Network has now dropped Nerm’s ‘Electro East’ show and ‘Pathaan’s Musical Rickshaw’, and sadly also dropped Nikki Bedi- the station’s only mixed race DJ- after 6 years.

These changes suggest that the Asian Network already know their ratings will drop again for the last quarter of 2009. They are re-shuffling to create a more family-friendly lineup, and talking up a ‘long term strategy’ to try and deal with the pressure that will inevitably accompany another ratings drop.

It is a sad day for the once-illustrious Asian underground scene, and for Brick Lane’s Shiva Sound System, that they are being made scapegoats for the Asian Network’s failiure. Nerm’s show in particular reflects an alternative lifestyle for young Asians, away from the traditional family model and more in tune with the rich underground scenes that young black and white people enjoy.

The Asian Network should have changed the rest of its schedule to reflect the variety of lives being lived by young Asians. By retreating back to traditional family programming they are making themselves even less relevant in the 21st Century, and even less likely to survive.

The BBC carries a report today on ‘honour babies‘: babies born to unmarried Asian women- often in mixed relationships- whose mothers are forced to give away (or abort) their child to protect the honour of the family.

Single British Asian mums losing their ‘honour babies‘ – BBC

Some single British Asian women are being forced by their families to give up their children as so-called “honour babies“, according to a charity which wants action to uncover the scale of the problem.

Most of the cases involve girls from south Asian backgrounds who have fallen pregnant out of wedlock or by a boyfriend from a different background.

Their parents force them to put their babies up for adoption or hand them over to other family members to prevent shame.

Some of these girls go to great lengths to conceal the pregnancies from their parents because they know they will never be accepted.

Ms Sanghera says her honour network helpline has received a number of calls [from the mothers of honour babies]

Honour Babies are a new frontier in the growing fight against anti-social and child abuse practices within the British Asian community.

MixTogether.org is at the forefront of this new campaign. We have first-hand experience of helping Asian girls who are under threat from their families for carrying honour babies. Members of our governing committee were closely involved with the production of the BBC report.

Anti-social practices within the Asian community are under increasing scrutiny in the UK, and the traditional protective barrier offered to minorities by left-wing politicians is evaporating fast.

The drip-feed of negative coverage over honour crimes- and now also honour babies- is causing real discomfort in mainstream society. Although it is never mentioned in the media, the lack of visible progress in challenging these anti-social behaviours is part of the reason voters are looking at parties who give unequivocal support to British values.

For Asians in media who have a position of influence, the time is rapidly approaching to speak hard truths to their own community. Otherwise the job may fall to others who do not have that community’s best interests at heart.

Race relations in the UK reached a new watershed this week as Labour’s John Denham, the Communities Secretary, stated that people from ethnic minorities are no longer automatically disadvantaged in modern Britain. He feels that inequality should be tackled on an economic basis without special regard to ethnicity, which is basically the centre-right position.

Denham’s contribution is the latest in a line of statements from high-ranking Labour ministers aimed at de-coupling the party from its former identity politics. Britain has moved on a long way since the 1970s heyday of racial agitation, and it is good to see politicians finally catching up.

The quality of Denham’s ideas can be measured by the angry snarls he has provoked from the usual 20th Century race warriors. Yasmin Alibhai Brown took to the picket lines of Southall once more in yesterday’s Standard. The Guardian’s Joseph Harker is still pushing the tired old Black Panther definition that racism=prejudice+power (hence only whites can be racists). Yvonne Roberts in the Guardian tries to paint Denham’s speech as a thinly disguised bit of BNP propaganda. Herman Ouseley refuses to accept that we are ‘comfortable with diversity’.

The one thing you notice about all of these commentators is that they are of a certain generation. They are older people who fought in the important race struggles of the late 20th Century, but who can’t let go of the outdated Marxist creed that used to bring people together back then. They can’t accept that times have changed, and they can’t let go of the idea that all white people are racist oppressors. Not one of them even mentions the racism within minority communities, because they can’t bring themselves to admit it exists.

With characters like this given pages in the national media to spout anti-white prejudices, it is no wonder that the majority population has finally lost patience.

Not all white people are racist, and plenty of non-whites are racist. The experience of couples on MixTogether.org proves this beyond doubt. The ‘racism=prejudice+power’ meme never stood up to much scrutiny, but today it is observably wrong. It has as much relevance to 21st Century British life as the idea that the earth is flat: they are both ideas to be looked back on with faint disbelief.

Younger commentators like Sunny Hundal have welcomed Denham’s speech. It is to people of our generation and younger that smart politicians now look for their cue on race matters. Alibhai-Brown is history.

As one MixTogether member reminds us in their signaure:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
- Charles Darwin

This isn’t strictly in the remit of MT&Friends, but the story is so moving that it seems right to cover it.

Sukhwinder Singh

From the Barking and Dagenham Post:

HERO father, Sukhwinder Singh, died from a stab wound to his heart, a post-mortem revealed today.

Mr Singh, 31, of Harts Lane, Barking, was attacked and killed after chasing two muggers who stole a young woman’s handbag.

He chased the robbers to the corner of Victoria Road and Uphall Road, Barking, last Friday evening at around 6.40pm.

When he caught up with the pair a fight broke out and Sukhwinder was stabbed, he later died at Royal London Hospital.

He was married with a 10-year-old son.

His wife Sandeep Kaur and son, Gurjinder, live in rural Punjab in India.

Sukhwinder, who was a deeply religious man and dedicated Sikh, has been praised for his bravery by police, family and friends.

Detectives investigating his death are appealing for information about the muggers.

One is described as black, in his twenties, 5ft 10in-6ft tall, skinny, with a young face and wearing a black hooded top and light grey jogging bottoms.

The second is thought to be a lighter-skinned black man, in his twenties, 6ft tall, of stocky build with possible facial markings or facial hair.

He was wearing a light blue hooded top with markings on the sleeves.

Officers believe the pair may have discarded the 28-year-old woman’s handbag…

Anyone with information should call 0208 345 3715 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Picture yourself in his shoes and what the last moments must have been like.

I hope this post helps to catch the killers.

The BBC news website features a report today on gay Muslims affected by honour violence:

Gay Muslims made homeless by family violence

Trust worker Annie Southerst said in the past six months there has been an increase in the number of Muslims coming to them for help.

“They face threats of physical violence, actual violence and restriction of liberties,” she said.

“We’ve had people chased out of the house with knives and we have had issues around young people who had exorcisms planned to get rid of the gay demons, I suppose.

“They come to us because they’re homeless, or in danger of being homeless imminently. We sort out emergency accommodation for them.

“But the biggest loss they face is the loss of their families.

“I can’t imagine what it must be like to suddenly in your late teens, early 20s suddenly not to have a family anymore.”

Using laws introduced by the government in November 2008, the charity has taken out four Forced Marriage Protection orders in the past few months.

Tonight’s Eastenders also features a showdown between Zainab and Jane (Christian’s sister) where Zainab’s attitudes towards homosexuality are denounced.

The BBC is clearly working towards delivering a powerful message, through the Eastenders storyline, about Muslim attitudes to homosexuality and the related consequences of honour crime and sham marriages.

Labour MP Frank Field has today published a declaration on immigration, by a cross-party group of MPs and Peers, entitled “70 Million Is Too Many”

We are gravely concerned about the rapid increase in the population of England that is now forecast. We note that the official projections show the population of the UK will increase from 61.4 million in 2008 to exceed 70 million by 2029. Over the next 25 years the population will increase by 10 million, nearly all of the increase being in England. 70% – 7 million – will be due to immigration…

We are convinced that failure to take action would be seriously damaging to the future harmony of our society. Nearly a million votes by our fellow citizens for an extremist party amount to a danger sign which must not be ignored. For too long the major political parties have failed to address these issues and the intense, if largely private, concern that they generate throughout our country. If politicians want to rebuild the public’s trust in the political system, they cannot continue to ignore this issue which matters so much to so many people. The time has come for action.

Reducing support for the BNP would be just one of many benefits from more tightly controlled immigration.

Another would be a decrease in so-called fetching marriages, where young people from minority communities (particularly from the Indian sub-continent) are pressured into marriages overseas in order to bring a family or tribal member to the UK.

The pressure group MigrationWatchUK, which works closely with Frank Field and the Tories’ Nicholas Soames on immigration, has published a number of warnings on fetching marriages over the last decade. This quote is from their document “Transnational marriage and the formation of ghettoes“:

1. International arranged marriages are a major factor in the formation of ghettoes in Britain. Even in the second generation, a high proportion of immigrants from certain countries enter arranged marriages with spouses from their county of origin. This sets back integration by a generation. The flow of spouses and fianc(e)s from the Indian Sub Continent (ISC) doubled between 1996 and 2001. Now nearly half of ethnic Indian and three quarters of ethnic Pakistani and Bangladeshi children aged 0-4 have a mother born in her country of origin. 30% of all children born in Bradford are born to foreign mothers; in Tower Hamlets the figure is 68%. And the Pakistani population of Manchester, Birmingham and Bradford increased by about 50% between 1991 and 2001.

2. It is now essential that immigration policy should discourage international arranged marriage which has become a means of immigration.

All groups with a stake in reducing forced marriages should be prepared to give their support to reasonable, cross-party calls for more tightly controlled immigration such as that published by Frank Field today.

Update: Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has spoken publicly in defence of the declaration.

Lord Carey said the issue angered many people and could lead to violence, and that the immigration system had to focus more on maintaining “values”… he said, immigrants must “understand” the UK’s culture

The large jump in numbers for December is due to a link from Iain Dale in his Daley Dozen, to our post ‘ Campaigners Unite Against Multiculturalism‘. For those who are wondering, Iain Dale is one of the ‘Big 3′ political bloggers in the UK.

We have also now got permanent ‘blogroll’ links to this blog from Harry’s Place and Pickled Politics, for which big respect goes out to them too!

In stark contrast to the solid-gold credibility of Channel 4’s The Family, last night’s double helping of East Enders was subject to the producers’ usual difficulty in portraying Asian family issues.

The ridiculous mis-matching of actors from different Indian ethnic groups in the same family (can Syed and Tamwar really be brothers?)has always crippled believeability. Picking a storyline that affects a tiny fraction of the population (as opposed to mixed race relationships in general which have much wider impact) wasn’t great either.

But it was the conclusion of the episode that was really shocking. Syed married Amira despite admitting that he was gay.

Syed and Amira - a model couple?

To be clear, the BBC has put forward a serious portrayal of a gay man being pushed into a wedding with an un-suspecting straight bride.  Syed’s mother was also shown spitting prejudiced venom at Syed’s ex-boyfriend, the oh-so-subtly named ‘Christian‘, calling his sexuality ‘perverted’.

We can only hope that the BBC has not entirely lost its mind, and will portray the difficulty and misery that afflicts gay and straight spouses who are tricked into arranged marriages together.

They cannot seriously be suggesting that the right ending to this story is a sham marriage.