tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/isle-of-man-46029/articlesIsle of Man – The Conversation2022-02-15T17:24:45Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1688812022-02-15T17:24:45Z2022-02-15T17:24:45ZWhat is biocultural diversity, and why does it matter?<p>What do the English concept of the countryside, the French <em>paysage</em>, the Spanish <em>dehesas</em> and Australian Aboriginal <em>country</em> have in common? All of these are unique landscapes which created through long-term management by people. All are underpinned by centuries, even millennia, of intangible knowledge, cultural heritage and practice.</p>
<p>Crucially, these landscapes also contain more biodiversity than the areas that surrounding them. It was this observation that created the term “biocultural diversity”, to encompass how crucial the knowledge, innovations, and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities are for conservation and sustainability.</p>
<p>Biocultural diversity first gained attention at the 1988 First International Congress of Ethnobiology in Belém, Brazil. That congress gathered Indigenous peoples, scientists, and environmentalists together to devise a strategy to halt the ongoing decline in the global diversity of both nature and culture.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ethnobiology.net/what-we-do/core-programs/global-coalition-2/declaration-of-belem/">The Congress declaration</a> stated: “There is an inextricable link between cultural and biological diversity.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="'Emerald Terraces of the Cordillera' surround Bangaan village near Banaue, Ifugao, Philippines" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441356/original/file-20220118-19-139fzi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441356/original/file-20220118-19-139fzi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441356/original/file-20220118-19-139fzi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441356/original/file-20220118-19-139fzi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441356/original/file-20220118-19-139fzi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441356/original/file-20220118-19-139fzi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441356/original/file-20220118-19-139fzi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The rice terraces of the Cordillera in the Philippines are recognised by the UN as a ‘cultural landscape’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidstanleytravel/40879929533/in/photolist-25hqjPg-2g5SCAL-sHSruG-62xCHF-62BRwj-62xGqa-62BV41-62BXtq-62C1xj-62C3dJ-62BSgu-2g4ekVb-62xDhF-62xJLr-62xHXp-62BZG5-62xDTF-62BVMy-62xAte-6phK-62BwrU-29ZZYZw-NXNa3Y-6278ZF-2g688xR-4kA93z-njSTHV-8QYQtn-6274yg-6278hF-6275de-6273RD-62bgfh-4kA8NX-62bkHd-627736-62bjsS-62biR7-ni7HZq-62xgi4-62Btiw-5RjwbJ-62bfBS-62Bu8C-62xftB-5RjyzU-5Rfj42-6eLge-2b5B98f-vowh9D">David Stanley</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>By 2016, the Convention on Biological Diversity had adopted the Mo’otz kuxtal (meaning “roots of life” in the Maya language) <a href="https://www.cbd.int/doc/publications/8j-cbd-mootz-kuxtal-en.pdf">guidelines</a> for fairly accessing and sharing the knowledge, innovations and practices of Indigenous peoples for conservation and sustainability.</p>
<h2>Language and biodiversity</h2>
<p>How does biocultural diversity manifest? One example can be found in language.</p>
<p>Language diversity hotspots frequently correlate with species diversity hotspots; similarly, endangered languages often correspond to areas where there are high numbers of <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/109/21/8032">endangered species</a>.</p>
<p>We can see the importance of language in conserving biodiversity in the management practices of Northern American First Nations in the <a href="https://ecotrust.org/wp-content/uploads/Rainforests_of_Home.pdf">temperate rainforest</a> of western Canada and the USA. Particular phrases in the native languages indicate, for example, times for harvesting wild plants and animals, and other biodiversity signals that allow sustainable harvesting.</p>
<p>Similarly, many Australian Aboriginal peoples define <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/research/natural-environment/land/about-the-calendars">seasons</a> through language based on biodiversity signals. They link those signals to fire management techniques, which are vital to protecting the Australian landscape from <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-expertise-is-reducing-bushfires-in-northern-australia-its-time-to-consider-similar-approaches-for-other-disasters-155361">ever-more deadly wildfires</a>.</p>
<p>And on the Isle of Man, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPFuUsdpmRo">resurrection of the Manx language</a> has had positive effects on both local culture and the environment. Use of Manx language names for plants, animals and habitat management allow Civil society and tourists alike to better appreciate biodiversity, landscape and culture.</p>
<h2>Severing cultures</h2>
<p>If the interweaving of nature and culture can have a positive effect on biodiversity, its opposite, the separation of nature from human culture, known as <a href="https://www.rsb.org.uk/biologist-book-reviews/cultural-severance-and-the-environment">cultural severance</a>, is negative. Cultural severance is a serious problem for conserving both nature and culture.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441353/original/file-20220118-19-ztklns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A view of the Isle of Man from an aeroplane window" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441353/original/file-20220118-19-ztklns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441353/original/file-20220118-19-ztklns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=234&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441353/original/file-20220118-19-ztklns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=234&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441353/original/file-20220118-19-ztklns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=234&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441353/original/file-20220118-19-ztklns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=294&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441353/original/file-20220118-19-ztklns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=294&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441353/original/file-20220118-19-ztklns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=294&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Isle of Man has benefitted from the revival of the Manx language.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/39997856@N03/8073155752/in/photolist-dip2Wy-2jpcgHx-221um6p-Fp5bHo-pbML9M-2kZcupF-bLSfd-ZW46-5x4D3z-5x4EJZ-N2Eqo2-hYrTqe-mB9XB-2mmdbNV-Ps8rR4-MQMAqQ-i6yYro-di6LM3-i2N4WX-q2es9S-R21c2h-dhzcDB-GdG9T2-d8TrKh-Bmab6f-afZtkX-2h2hk74-ptgAch-2hKpmdg-hXNrgN-6QMyti-Db5vSu-274GhGT-5x965N-6Qrx6H-5wYKRd-5x91Ys-5wYGfw-pcCERp-5wYXNJ-5x4DpK-5x92mY-5x4C4a-2mbVjcM-5x8ZxW-5wUECH-5x4E28-QRexXW-5wYUD7-5x4DeK">Mariusz Kluzniak</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Creating deliberate cultural severance (even depopulation) is effectively “rewilding”, but without direction. Landscapes shaped by people that suffer depopulation may suddenly look “natural”, yet will have fewer drivers for ecosystem functions. This has potential negative consequences, despite the <a href="https://theconversation.com/rewilding-four-tips-to-let-nature-thrive-157441">increasing clamour for rewilding</a>.</p>
<p>Cultural severance has taken place all over the world. Examples include the conversion of upland moors and bogs to intensive grouse moor in the UK; the conversion of prairie land to intensive agriculture in the US Midwest; and the removal of Indigenous management of landscapes in Australia, Africa, and Latin America.</p>
<p>Cultural severance can result in dramatic declines in ecological diversity. Many of the species that have today reduced in numbers and distribution have declined because long-term human involvement in the landscape management has ended.</p>
<h2>New concepts</h2>
<p>Since 2018, a concept has been developed to describe our relationship with the environment, <a href="https://ipbes.net/glossary/natures-contributions-people">“nature’s contributions to people”</a>. It is an evolution of the idea of ecosystem services, which refers to the positive benefit the environment provides to people, and it is not without controversy.</p>
<p>It only refers to people’s contributions to nature in a very obscure way. To be a complete concept, it must explain the feedbacks and links between cultural and biological diversity. In diagrammatic form, these feedbacks and links look like this:</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446567/original/file-20220215-15-1vnzgb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446567/original/file-20220215-15-1vnzgb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446567/original/file-20220215-15-1vnzgb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446567/original/file-20220215-15-1vnzgb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446567/original/file-20220215-15-1vnzgb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446567/original/file-20220215-15-1vnzgb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446567/original/file-20220215-15-1vnzgb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
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<p>UNESCO recognises <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/culturallandscape/">cultural landscapes</a> in its World Heritage Convention. This constitutes a growing list of places significant for their biocultural diversity, from the Saloum Delta in Senegal to Norway’s Vega Archipelago, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in Central Australia and the rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras.</p>
<p>The people who live in and around landscapes have cultivated the sharing of intergenerational knowledge on maintenance, management, and reshaping of the land they inhabit. This can be encapsulated simply as the “interaction between genes and memes”. We do not mean memes in the social media sense, but in the original meaning given by <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Selfish_Gene/ekonDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=inauthor:%22Richard+Dawkins%22&printsec=frontcover">Richard Dawkins</a>, as inherited culture.</p>
<p>The Convention on Biological Diversity defines biocultural diversity as “biological diversity and cultural diversity and the links between them”. The convention also defines biocultural heritage as the holistic approach of many indigenous peoples and local communities. This collective conceptual approach recognises knowledge as “heritage”.</p>
<p>We suggest these definitions should be widely used, and encourage further work on the concepts, both academic and practical.</p>
<hr>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>For 50 years, the UNESCO <a href="https://en.unesco.org/mab">Man and the Biosphere Program</a> (MAB) has combined exact, natural and social sciences to find solutions implemented in the 727 exceptional sites (131 countries) of biosphere reserves.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168881/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Ecosystems thrive in places where human connections with nature go back generations.Peter Bridgewater, Adjunct Professor, University of CanberraSuraj Upadhaya, Postdoctoral research associate, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1494102020-11-05T15:16:32Z2020-11-05T15:16:32ZMetal pollution is leaving scallops helpless against crabs and lobsters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367728/original/file-20201105-20-iif35j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5455%2C3071&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Will Notley</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Shellfish such as scallops, mussels and oysters – bivalve molluscs – <a href="http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v211/p157-167/">readily take up tiny specs of metals</a> into their tissues and shells. In sufficient concentrations this can harm their growth and survival chances, and even threaten the health of any human who eats their contaminated meat. Such shellfish provide <a href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-fisheries-aquaculture">one-quarter of the world’s seafood</a>, so the impact of pollution from the “heavy metals” such as lead, zinc and copper, is hugely important.</p>
<p>We recently investigated the effects of metal pollution on the great scallop, <em>Pecten maximus</em>, for a new <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720365499">scientific study</a>. This is a common species which supports the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-sea-fisheries-annual-statistics-report-2019">most valuable fishery</a> in England and the third most valuable in the UK overall. </p>
<p>We first discovered these effects of pollution by chance. While carrying out routine stock assessment surveys around the Isle of Man, a self-governing island that lies between Britain and Ireland, we noticed that scallops found on the Laxey fishing ground off the east coast were much more likely to have lethally damaged shells than scallops from elsewhere.</p>
<p>Laxey is famous for the world’s largest working <a href="https://www.visitisleofman.com/experience/great-laxey-wheel-and-mine-trail-p1292251">waterwheel</a>, a spectacular example of Victorian engineering used to pump water <a href="https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/metal/isle-man-mines/laxey-mine/">from a mine</a> which produced lead, copper, silver and zinc. The mine closed in 1929, but its legacy is that sediments in the rivers, estuary and sea waters around Laxey are unnaturally high in metals. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367722/original/file-20201105-17-1tjxqsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large red and white wheel next to a tower." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367722/original/file-20201105-17-1tjxqsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367722/original/file-20201105-17-1tjxqsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367722/original/file-20201105-17-1tjxqsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367722/original/file-20201105-17-1tjxqsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367722/original/file-20201105-17-1tjxqsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367722/original/file-20201105-17-1tjxqsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367722/original/file-20201105-17-1tjxqsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 22-metre diameter Laxey Wheel is now a tourist attraction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Powerofflowers / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It looked as though metal pollution may be responsible for the damaged shells we discovered. To test this hypothesis, we analysed the strength of scallop shells that had been collected from Laxey and other fishing grounds around the Isle in both 2004 and 2013. In both groups the shells from Laxey were found to be significantly weaker than those from all other areas.</p>
<p>A detailed analysis revealed the Laxey shells were proportionally thinner than shells found at other areas, and that the internal structure of shells contained a disruption, or fault line. We were not able to detect metals in the shells themselves, but we think that even in low quantities the metals are either affecting the physiology of the scallops or disrupting chemical reactions during the mineralisation (shell-growing) process.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367727/original/file-20201105-21-1ke2lxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram of heavy metal pollution and impact on scallops." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367727/original/file-20201105-21-1ke2lxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367727/original/file-20201105-21-1ke2lxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367727/original/file-20201105-21-1ke2lxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367727/original/file-20201105-21-1ke2lxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367727/original/file-20201105-21-1ke2lxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367727/original/file-20201105-21-1ke2lxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367727/original/file-20201105-21-1ke2lxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scallops with unnaturally thin shells are also more likely to be damaged when being captured.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stewart et al (2020)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In ecotoxicology terms, what we observed is called a <a href="https://www.oecd.org/chemicalsafety/testing/49963576.pdf">non-apical endpoint effect</a>. Weakened shells don’t directly kill scallops, but instead leave them more vulnerable to mortality. Such responses are rarely considered when assessing the effects of environmental contaminants, but could have significant implications. This is a concern, because the levels of metal contamination we observed were generally below the current regulatory limits thought to affect marine life, and the scallops were considered perfectly safe to eat.</p>
<h2>Metals at sea</h2>
<p>It is remarkable that mining from 100 years ago is still affecting marine life in this way. But, given that metal contamination is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40726-015-0018-9">a common and increasing threat</a> in coastal areas around the world, and that many other shellfish and marine species such as corals produce calcified structures chemically-similar to scallop shells, we believe metals may be having unseen effects on a large scale. We may therefore need to rethink how we assess and manage the risks of metal contamination.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367729/original/file-20201105-16-rc110n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo showing four scallop shells" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367729/original/file-20201105-16-rc110n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367729/original/file-20201105-16-rc110n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367729/original/file-20201105-16-rc110n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367729/original/file-20201105-16-rc110n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367729/original/file-20201105-16-rc110n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367729/original/file-20201105-16-rc110n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367729/original/file-20201105-16-rc110n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">King scallops showing different levels of damage after being caught in dredges around the Isle of Man. This type of damage is much more likely in areas contaminated with heavy metals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bryce Stewart</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Metals are a natural component of marine systems and in trace concentrations may be essential for supporting life. However, human activities have <a href="https://oap.ospar.org/en/ospar-assessments/intermediate-assessment-2017/pressures-human-activities/contaminants/metals-fish-shellfish/">elevated their concentrations</a> in many marine environments to the point where they have become toxic. This pollution comes from <a href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jas.2004.1.20">a variety of sources</a> such as run off from mining, agricultural and industrial activity; offshore oil and gas exploitation; and leaching of anti-fouling paint from ships hulls. As a result, metal pollution tends to be highest in estuaries, around ports and in inshore waters. </p>
<p>Despite stricter recent regulations controlling the use of metals in marine environments, they continue to be an increasing threat. This is because heavy metals are highly persistent (they do not disappear over time) and ongoing coastal development and bottom-towed fishing gear is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749112003284">remobilising contaminated sediments</a>. Climate change is also <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcb.12048">exacerbating the threat</a> because higher rainfall is increasing run-off from contaminated areas, and ocean warming and acidification is increasing the rate of uptake and toxicity of metals in seawater.</p>
<p>Most previous studies have concentrated on the direct effects of metals on shellfish <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0141113687900523">survival</a> or <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780081006740000217">food safety</a>. However, our new study has unearthed that even relatively low concentrations of metal contamination appears to be causing scallops to grow weaker shells. This leaves the scallops more vulnerable to being <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-002-0977-4">eaten by crabs and lobsters</a> and to disturbance from storms and fishing activity, with potentially substantial ecological and economic repercussions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149410/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryce Stewart receives funding from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Global Challenges Research Fund and the Blue Marine Foundation. He is a member of the ICES Scallop Working Group, the Marine Conservation Society and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roland Kröger receives funding from EPSRC, NERC, Leverhulme Trust, European Comission. </span></em></p>New research points to ‘heavy metals’ having unseen effects on a much larger scale than previously thought.Bryce Stewart, Senior Lecturer in Marine Ecosystem Management, University of YorkRoland Kröger, Professor, Department of Physics, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/983312018-06-22T05:06:03Z2018-06-22T05:06:03ZFrom World War II ‘enemy’ internment to Windrush: Britain quickly forgets its gratitude to economic migrants<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224202/original/file-20180621-137738-1vxn3cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Deported and drowned: an Italian memorial in London to those who died on the Arandora Star in 1940. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Remembrance_for_the_Drowned_-_geograph.org.uk_-_679587.jpg">Martin Addison / Remembrance for the Drowned via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c9vwmzw7n7lt/windrush-scandal">Windrush scandal</a> of recent months, alongside revelations of the appalling conditions in <a href="http://www.aboutimmigration.co.uk/uk-detention-centres.html">immigration detention centres</a> in the UK, have highlighted serious issues with the way migrants are treated in Britain. </p>
<p>To Anglo-Italians in particular, interned in Britain during World War II, there are many similarities between their experiences almost 80 years ago and what the Windrush immigrants endured more recently. </p>
<p>The Windrush immigrants arrived from the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43782241">West Indies between 1948 and 1971</a> in order to help plug the British postwar labour shortage. Almost a century before, Italians had travelled to Britain in order to <a href="https://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/oms/italian-immigration-to-britain">run – and work in – cafes and restaurants</a>, in types of jobs not usually perceived as threats to British workers. With both the Windrush immigrants and the Italians, their labour was appreciated, even though they often suffered verbal and physical <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-36388761">abuse because of their race</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/windrush-generation-latest-to-be-stripped-of-their-rights-in-the-name-of-migration-control-95158">Windrush generation latest to be stripped of their rights in the name of 'migration control'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>During World War II, foreign nationals from countries with which Britain was at war became “enemy aliens” and were subject to various restrictions. A few months into the war, the order was given to <a href="https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/collar-lot-britains-policy-internment-second-world-war/">arrest them</a>. Up to 30,000 Germans, Austrians, and Italians were arrested during May and June 1940 and sent to temporary holding camps, and then to semi-permanent camps on the Isle of Man. The majority of the internees were men, though approximately 4,000 women and children were also interned. Some of the men were then deported to camps in Canada and Australia. </p>
<h2>Warth Mill</h2>
<p>The temporary holding camps where the internees were sent immediately after their arrest were barely habitable by the time the first of them arrived. The worst of all these camps by far, however, was <a href="http://www.lancashireatwar.co.uk/warth-pow/4587398310">Warth Mill</a>, in Bury, near Manchester.</p>
<p>Warth Mill was an abandoned cotton mill where buckets were provided as toilets, floors were covered in oil from abandoned machinery, windows were broken, and rats roamed freely. Although only in existence for a few weeks in 1940, the terrible conditions remained seared on the memories of those who experienced detention at Warth Mill, or “<a href="https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=pistol-enemy-alien.pdf&site=15">Wrath Mill</a>”, as it was labelled by one of its inmates. </p>
<p>Like those in present-day immigration detention centres, the internees had no idea how long they would be held in detention, they lacked adequate healthcare, and were treated like criminals. The inhumane conditions at Warth Mill led to a <a href="https://www.warthmillsproject.com/stories/conditions-at-warth-mills/">hunger strike</a>, much in the same way that more than 100 women went on hunger strike at <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/yarls-wood-women-immigration-detention-centre-hunger-strike-home-office-a8223886.html">Yarl’s Wood</a> in February 2018. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-befriend-women-detained-at-yarls-wood-their-life-in-immigration-limbo-is-excruciating-92905">I befriend women detained at Yarl's Wood: their life in immigration limbo is excruciating</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Although many of the internees from Germany and Austria held at Warth Mill had only recently arrived in Britain as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvKX0ZX6lXE">refugees from Nazi oppression</a>, for the Italian internees it was a very different story. The majority of them had lived in the UK for several decades and had established lives and businesses in the country. The often significant contributions to their communities were no protection against incarceration. </p>
<p>For those Italians of the 1940s who had not naturalised and become British citizens, their rights were limited in a similar way to those Windrush immigrants who have not gone through the naturalisation process. In the case of the Italians, Britain was at war – but the fact that the Windrush immigrants can be treated in such a similar way during peacetime is even more concerning.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tvKX0ZX6lXE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>Dangerous deportations</h2>
<p>In June and July 1940, most of the internees at Warth Mill were being moved on to Liverpool and the Isle of Man. The Italian inmates presumed that would also be their fate, but unknown to them, a large proportion were selected by the authorities to be transported to Canada on a ship called the <a href="https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/collar-lot-britains-policy-internment-second-world-war/">Arandora Star</a>. When it left Liverpool 1 July, 1940, 1,678 men had been forced onto a ship designed to carry 500. </p>
<p>Internees were crammed below decks and the exits were guarded by barbed wire. On the morning of July 2, 1940, just over half those on board lost their lives when the <a href="https://www.warthmillsproject.com/stories/tragedy-of-the-arandora-star/">Arandora Star was torpedoed</a> by a German U-boat. Those that survived had to wait several hours in the freezing sea to be rescued and many were then loaded on to another boat, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10409026">the Dunera</a>, and sent on a traumatic journey to Australia.</p>
<p>Public opinion was initially in favour of the internment of Germans, Austrians, and Italians during the war. However, after the public became aware of the tragedy of the Arandora Star – and as a result of campaigns by various members of parliament – opinion changed and supported the release of “loyal” internees. It took several months, but eventually internees were able to apply for release and many of them served in the armed forces. </p>
<p>In a similar way, recent campaigns in the House of Commons, such as those <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2018/apr/16/national-day-of-shame-david-lammy-criticises-treatment-of-windrush-generation-video">spearheaded by David Lammy</a> have led to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/caroline-nokes-immigration-minister-apology-windrush-generation-a8331696.html">public apologies</a> and a review of policy. </p>
<p>What the Anglo-Italian community hoped several decades ago – and what the Windrush immigrants hope today – is that effective policy can be developed without the trauma immigrants have experienced in the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98331/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Pistol has received funding from The Warth Mills Project, which is sponsored by the Heritage Lottery Fund.</span></em></p>During World War II, many Anglo-Italians who had come to the UK as economic migrants, were interned as ‘enemy aliens’ – and some deported.Rachel Pistol, Research associate, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/981922018-06-15T11:40:31Z2018-06-15T11:40:31ZGerman prisoners held comedy nights in British war camps – we recreated one<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223107/original/file-20180613-32307-1m3mzxo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Die show muss weitergehen!</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Ian Lowes Collection</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Picture an expensively furnished dining room with a table set for over 30 people. Dr Felix Volkart and his wife Hermine will later host a lavish party; she is already in full evening dress. Their young maid is sent to roll the carpet out to the street. An elderly manservant, Baumann, is slowed by nostalgia, trying Hermine’s patience to the limit. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>HERMINE: Go ask the cook whether the lobster has yet been brought; if not telephone.</p>
<p>BAUMANN: To whom? To the lobster?</p>
<p>HERMINE: No, to the delicatessen dealer. Number seven hundred and forty-six.</p>
<p>BAUMANN: It will all be attended to. Just to think, that 20 years have passed, and I still have the honour and the pleasure. </p>
<p>HERMINE (aside): He is incorrigible! </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s the opening scene of Ludwig Fulda’s 1890 comedy Unter Vier Augen (<a href="https://archive.org/stream/byourselvesacom00wallgoog#page/n70/mode/2up">By Ourselves</a>), staged a century ago near Hawick in the Scottish borders. It was performed entirely in German as part of a <em>lustspielabend</em>, or comedy evening, of music and two plays – the other was Heinrich von Kleist’s Der Zerbrochne Krug (<a href="https://www.enotes.com/topics/broken-jug">The Broken Jug</a>, 1808). </p>
<p>The audience and actors needed this kind of distraction: they were in Scotland as prisoners of war. The show, which took place at the Stobs internment camp, was typical of those performed in British camps throughout World War I. They are a fascinating insight into a long-forgotten cultural history. </p>
<p>As part of the war centenary commemorations, a team from Edinburgh Napier University decided to recreate this evening. Now it is about to <a href="https://www.napier.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/research-search/news/a-night-at-stobs-ahrc-funded-performances-about-wwi-internment">do a mini-tour</a>. </p>
<h2>Objects of suspicion</h2>
<p>When war broke out, German citizens in Britain became objects of suspicion and surveillance. The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/4-5/12/contents/enacted">Aliens Restriction Act</a> was immediately passed, which allowed internment camps to be set up to prevent men aged 17 to 55 from serving in enemy armies. Prisoners of war were soon added, too. </p>
<p>Besides the Scottish borders, other locations for camps included Alexandra Palace in London, Dorchester and Southend in the south of England, and Douglas and Knockaloe on the Isle of Man. In all, according to research shortly to be published by <a href="https://www.napier.ac.uk/about-us/news/comedy-and-cross-dressing-ww1-style">colleagues</a> on the Stobs project, Britain and its colonies interned 50,000 civilians and 90,000 military prisoners from Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey.</p>
<p>Theatrical nights were hugely popular. At <a href="http://www.knockaloe.im">Knockaloe</a>, on the remote western side of the Isle of Man, detainees staged 113 comedies, 42 plays, 15 dramas, 21 variety shows and a pageant over a period of just six months. At Stobs, Carl Rössler’s comedy <a href="https://www.amazon.com/f%C3%BCnf-Frankfurter-Lustspiel-Akten-German/dp/B076DR6H8J">Die Fünf Frankfurter</a> (The Five Frankfurters, 1911) was so popular it had to be performed seven times. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223223/original/file-20180614-32342-1vvta00.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223223/original/file-20180614-32342-1vvta00.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223223/original/file-20180614-32342-1vvta00.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223223/original/file-20180614-32342-1vvta00.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223223/original/file-20180614-32342-1vvta00.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223223/original/file-20180614-32342-1vvta00.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223223/original/file-20180614-32342-1vvta00.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223223/original/file-20180614-32342-1vvta00.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Ian Lowes Collection</span></span>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223224/original/file-20180614-32310-nljqba.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223224/original/file-20180614-32310-nljqba.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223224/original/file-20180614-32310-nljqba.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223224/original/file-20180614-32310-nljqba.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223224/original/file-20180614-32310-nljqba.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223224/original/file-20180614-32310-nljqba.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223224/original/file-20180614-32310-nljqba.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223224/original/file-20180614-32310-nljqba.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Both shots from Die Fünf Frankfurter being performed at Stobs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Ian Lowes Collection</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stobs, which has lately been the focus of a <a href="http://www.stobscamp.org/2017-2019-project/">major memorial project</a>, held up to 4,500 detainees during wartime, though in 1916 the civilians all moved to Knockaloe. The war must have felt long in that windswept valley, and detainees had to keep themselves entertained – besides the drama club, there were musical instruments and a camp newspaper, Stobsiade. It was after hearing about that newspaper from my colleague <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rachael-durkin-322650/articles">Rachael Durkin</a> that the idea to recreate a comedy evening came about. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223220/original/file-20180614-32310-1mm1rmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223220/original/file-20180614-32310-1mm1rmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223220/original/file-20180614-32310-1mm1rmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223220/original/file-20180614-32310-1mm1rmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223220/original/file-20180614-32310-1mm1rmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223220/original/file-20180614-32310-1mm1rmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223220/original/file-20180614-32310-1mm1rmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223220/original/file-20180614-32310-1mm1rmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stobs camp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stefan Manz / Hawick Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Theatre shows in the camps helped guard against “barbed wire disease”, a dangerously depressive mixture of boredom and isolation. Performances would remind men about distant people and places, while popular German music provided powerful emotional cues. </p>
<p>Shows were dictated by practicalities – camps were men only, for example, so all women’s parts were performed by men in women’s clothing. The sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld later <a href="https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/hirschfeld_magnus">wrote</a> that such acts helped normalise same-sex relationships in Germany and elsewhere. </p>
<p>The evening we decided to recreate, using just six actors in multiple roles, opens with a rendition of the bombastic overture to Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, famous for the later section best known as the can-can. The next item is By Ourselves, followed by the interval. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vEnW5_GTooI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>The musicians return with a stereotypically German Strauss waltz. Then comes The Broken Jug, a comedy about justice and the closeness of rural life. The truth of the title incident is slowly revealed by a series of farcical events. </p>
<p>We judged that recreating this evening in its entirety would have been too long and would have said nothing about the context of the camp. After all, our challenge was to bring the history of internment to life. </p>
<p>Our theatrical director, Iain Davie, decided to create a performance within a performance. He commissioned the scriptwriter <a href="https://twitter.com/DraycottTrimm">Charity Trimm</a> to write a comedic play set backstage on the night in question, drawing on historical sources for authenticity and incorporating parts of the night’s performance. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223226/original/file-20180614-32304-14eaow5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223226/original/file-20180614-32304-14eaow5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223226/original/file-20180614-32304-14eaow5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223226/original/file-20180614-32304-14eaow5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223226/original/file-20180614-32304-14eaow5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223226/original/file-20180614-32304-14eaow5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223226/original/file-20180614-32304-14eaow5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223226/original/file-20180614-32304-14eaow5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rehearsal time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iain Davie</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The characters in the backstage play include a college lecturer, a gymnast, a baker and a scientist. They’re acutely aware of life in other camps from letters from back home, down to the details of theatre props. The drama club is an ideal way to fill their time, until one actor injures himself and a more reluctant detainee has to step forward. </p>
<h2>Played for laughs</h2>
<p>The jaunty tone of these camp comedy evenings might seem strange to audiences today, but it shows how people cope under duress. Prisoners didn’t need reminded of their harsh reality, they wanted to focus on unavailable things such as privacy, intimacy, female companionship and fine foods.</p>
<p>We see something similar with British prisoners in German internment camps. The <a href="http://ruhleben.tripod.com">Ruehleben camp</a> near Berlin <a href="http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719070846/">also had</a> a theatre club, where they performed everything from Shakespeare to light operas such as Gilbert and Sullivan’s <a href="https://www.eno.org/operas/the-mikado/">The Mikado</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223227/original/file-20180614-32323-qoaj7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223227/original/file-20180614-32323-qoaj7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223227/original/file-20180614-32323-qoaj7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223227/original/file-20180614-32323-qoaj7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223227/original/file-20180614-32323-qoaj7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223227/original/file-20180614-32323-qoaj7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=897&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223227/original/file-20180614-32323-qoaj7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=897&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223227/original/file-20180614-32323-qoaj7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=897&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Romance not dead.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, entertainment and laughter have been getting humans through hardship for as long as we can remember. Examples include everything from the <a href="http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10413/9076/Stroebel_Maureen_2000.pdf;sequence=1">pastoral poetry</a> that was a common response to the English Civil War of the 1600s, to glam rockers and new romantics in the lean years of the 1970s and early 1980s. </p>
<p>This reality adds poignancy to the <em>lustspielabend</em> of the internment camps. Elsewhere home fires burned and millions of soldiers wrote letters from the front. But in remote corners of the British countryside were lonely fearful men, clapping and laughing and hoping for better times.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98192/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Frayn received funding for this project from the AHRC. </span></em></p>Many thousands of Germans got through internment by performing farces, dressing up as women and clapping along to the can-can.Andrew Frayn, Lecturer in Twentieth Century Literature and Culture, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/981042018-06-11T15:59:12Z2018-06-11T15:59:12ZCONIFA: how the ‘other World Cup’ is helping unrecognised nations through football<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222590/original/file-20180611-191978-zmire0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C19%2C3259%2C1871&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tibet take on Northern Cyrus in Enfield, London.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Rookwood</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The FIFA World Cup commences in Russia this week, with events on and off the pitch at the 32-team tournament set to dominate global media coverage for the next month.</p>
<p>But the World Cup is not this summer’s only festival of international football. For regions and communities that FIFA has not or will not offer membership to, CONIFA is an alternative confederation, which also organises “international” competitions. This weekend the final of the third CONIFA World Football Cup took place in England, the culmination of a ten-day tournament.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1005596004379430912"}"></div></p>
<p>Karpatalja – a Hungarian-speaking minority from western Ukraine – was <a href="http://www.conifa.org/en/2018/06/09/wfc2018-final/">crowned champions</a> on Saturday after defeating Northern Cyprus in the final on penalties at Enfield Town’s Queen Elizabeth II Stadium, one of ten venues across London to host matches. The breakaway Turkish Republic also lost the final of the European equivalent in similar circumstances on home soil last year.</p>
<p>CONIFA (Confederation of Independent Football Associations) was established in 2013 and fills a significant void for some of those entities FIFA neglects. The competition has been described as defiantly <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/fifa-karpatalja-wins-alternative-football-world-cup-180609215407026.html">subversive of the geopolitical norm</a>. Critics may question its relevance, yet the confederation is developing rapidly.</p>
<h2>Building bridges</h2>
<p>CONIFA professes to gather 166m people from 47 member entities, a mix of “nations, de-facto nations, regions, minority peoples and sports-isolated territories”. It’s a non-profit organisation that <a href="http://www.conifa.org/about-CONIFA">aims to</a> “build bridges between people, nations, minorities and isolated regions all over the world through friendship, culture and the joy of playing football”.</p>
<p>International sporting organisations typically frame their agendas and impact in these positive terms, of course. But, for a football researcher like me, such mission statements are useful as they can then be subject to scholarly scrutiny, particularly in the case of larger confederations <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17430437.2013.856590">such as FIFA</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Preparing to represent Matabeleland, the western part of Zimbabwe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Rookwood</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Academics can also look at the tournaments themselves. Recent research on sporting “mega events” has looked at whether hosting a tournament does actually <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23750472.2015.1010278">promote physical activity</a>, whether it helps the host acquire soft power (or even leads to “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19406940.2016.1150868">soft disempowerment</a>”), and the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10439463.2017.1332129?journalCode=gpas20">behaviour and treatment of supporters</a> during tournaments.</p>
<p>CONIFA is relatively new, and currently operates in the margins – scaled somewhere between “mega” and “minor”. Consequently, though the journalist Steve Menary has outlined the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Outcasts-Lands-That-FIFA-Forgot/dp/1905449313">history of organised football for unrecognised countries</a>, recent events have not yet been subject to significant scholarly scrutiny. </p>
<p>Though academic research specifically on CONIFA is limited, two geographers at Portland State University in Oregon have looked at the Cascadia region (the US states of Oregon and Washington, and the Canadian province of British Columbia). Their work examines how football has mobilised a shared <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14660970.2015.1067790">regional narrative</a> either side of the Canada–US border. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1003661010748805130"}"></div></p>
<p>My own academic writing on the CONIFA tournament is in press, but a documentary I made <a href="https://vimeo.com/196444880">The other World Cup: Football Across Borders</a> was released last year and shown at the inaugural <a href="https://footballcollective.org.uk/2016/09/21/closing-film-announced-for-future-football-conference/">Football Collective conference</a>. The film culminates in the 2016 World Football Cup, hosted and won by Abkhazia, a self-declared independent territory, considered by the UN to be a part of Georgia. It examines football, statehood, identity and conflict within the fractured Georgian-Abkhazian context. Despite CONIFA’s claim and objective to “<a href="http://www.conifa.org/en/about-us/faq/">leave all politics behind</a>” therefore, its events and those involved can prove relatively political.</p>
<h2>Appeals to football romantics</h2>
<p>The 2018 CONIFA tournament was much bigger than previous editions. For the first time, it was hosted in a global metropolitan city and was supported by lucrative sponsorship from bookmakers Paddy Power. Matches were shown live on Facebook, record attendances were set, and the mainstream global media paid attention. </p>
<p>There were some governance issues, most notably the mid-competition withdrawal of Ellan Vannin (the Manx name for the Isle of Man) in a <a href="http://www.conifa.org/en/2018/06/06/conifa-statement-regarding-ellan-vannin-7-june/">dispute over an unregistered player</a>. Further political and governance challenges are likely in the future as CONIFA continues to develop and grow. But its expansion reflects and shapes the interests of the football community in this unique format of “international” football.</p>
<p>It also appeals to football romantics: for instance <a href="https://vimeo.com/273366083">Matabeleland</a> featured 60-year-old former Liverpool goalkeeper and Zimbabwe international Bruce Grobbelaar. As the behaviour of many players and supporters demonstrates however, CONIFA events also provide substantial opportunities to <a href="https://vimeo.com/273177982">shape and express collective identities</a> through football. The “other World Cup” is here to stay.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Check out the author’s short videos of <a href="https://vimeo.com/273177982">Tibet</a> and Matabeleland fans:</em></p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/273366083" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Matabeleland fans enjoy their game vs Tuvalu (video: CONIFA / Joel Rookwood)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-football-teams-who-sing-their-national-anthem-with-passion-are-more-likely-to-win-96765?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Why football teams who sing their national anthem with passion are more likely to win</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-mohamed-salah-effect-is-real-my-research-shows-how-he-inspires-egyptian-youth-97220?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">The ‘Mohamed Salah Effect’ is real – my research shows how he inspires Egyptian youth</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98104/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Rookwood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The tournament featured teams from Tibet, North Cyprus, the Isle of Man and many more.Joel Rookwood, Senior Lecturer in Sport Business Management, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/871462017-11-09T12:02:30Z2017-11-09T12:02:30ZThe Isle of Man is a tax haven – but its prosperity has precarious roots<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193960/original/file-20171109-27120-1sl4qpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Before financial services, the Isle of Man's economy relied on tourism.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s not since 1973 that the Isle of Man has sat so firmly in the cross-hairs of British media attention. In August that year, a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-23449990">disastrous fire</a> at the Summerland resort claimed the lives of 50 holidaymakers. Now it is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/four-things-the-paradise-papers-tell-us-about-global-business-and-political-elites-86946">Paradise Papers</a> revelations about tax avoidance which have focused international interest on this windswept, semi-sovereign island. </p>
<p>The links between the two events are not as tenuous as it might seem. Both were the result of inadequate regulation and scrutiny. The materials used in key parts of Summerland were not fire retardant – nor did they need to be, in accordance with Manx building regulations at the time. And if the Summerland precedent is anything to go by, the ensuing legislative clampdown on tax avoidance will deliver rapid reform. But a knee-jerk reaction, in this instance, could inflict more harm than good.</p>
<p>British media reactions in the wake of the Paradise Papers leak have been savage, and rightly so. Legal loopholes <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-five-countries-are-conduits-for-the-worlds-biggest-tax-havens-79555">exploited by British Crown Dependencies</a> have facilitated tax avoidance on an immense scale, depriving the government (and ordinary citizens) of money that could be channelled into public services. But to condemn the Isle of Man is to miss the point. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193961/original/file-20171109-27130-1ft9pmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193961/original/file-20171109-27130-1ft9pmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193961/original/file-20171109-27130-1ft9pmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193961/original/file-20171109-27130-1ft9pmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193961/original/file-20171109-27130-1ft9pmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193961/original/file-20171109-27130-1ft9pmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193961/original/file-20171109-27130-1ft9pmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The remains of Summerland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/iom_mark/1142462807/in/photolist-2JXqoB-21fVJoK-7FW988-7jiZxW-WmqvGq">iom_mark/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That jurisdiction (and many others) has been operating within perfectly legal parameters set by the UK government. For UK ministers to express surprise and distaste at revelations exposed by the leak is nothing short of political theatre. There seems to be an embedded belief that when you reach a certain income threshold, your societal obligations diminish, and you are perfectly entitled to squirrel away money in offshore financial centres. This has to change – but it can’t happen overnight.</p>
<h2>Proceed with caution</h2>
<p>Cautious reform is required. Contrary to popular depictions currently circulating, the Isle of Man is not some kind of financial rogue state, a chillier Monaco, or an English-speaking Switzerland, sitting adrift in the Irish Sea. A cursory look around its main towns of Douglas, Peel, or Ramsey tells a different story. The shadows of the old seaside economy are everywhere, which creak into life during the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/07/sports/Isle-of-man-TT-motorcycle-race.html">annual TT motorcycle festival</a>. </p>
<p>A walk around the backstreets of Douglas reveals bleak terraces of former boarding houses, in varying states of decay, converted into low rent flats. Social deprivation afflicts the capital, Douglas, as much as <a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150609-britains-seaside-ruins">any other seaside town in the British Isles</a>. </p>
<p>Immediate sanctions against offshore jurisdictions will not hurt the affluent beneficiaries of tax avoidance. It will hit hundreds of ordinary Manx families dependent on the financial services sector for employment. And I’m not talking about solicitors, asset managers and bankers – I’m talking about cleaners, IT technicians and receptionists. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193965/original/file-20171109-27138-fbt3b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193965/original/file-20171109-27138-fbt3b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193965/original/file-20171109-27138-fbt3b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193965/original/file-20171109-27138-fbt3b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193965/original/file-20171109-27138-fbt3b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193965/original/file-20171109-27138-fbt3b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193965/original/file-20171109-27138-fbt3b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If banks flee the Isle of Man, local residents will suffer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146057732@N07/32211150075/in/photolist-R5oyGt-VV6h96-TSrqPK-d8Tq23-PN3iXm-G7pbaw-MVLfu8-6gqM6C-i2N4WX-6yWaxp-Bd798u-6Q8na8-8fLVk3-6RsL3e-R21ais-6UXQXd-QRexXW-R5p1MV-q2es9S-5wax4a-ZWa6-TSrEmz-o4QKFe-o5k5oR-omxn9M-hSxprH-o5m928-pcCERp-6Q8n9Z-omN9RS-6UXQXb-oozCZR-oo5n64-o4PBFm-o4PCoU-ojMQAj-omhFfY-o5k58k-o4QLuZ-om7zLU-omPKd8-o5k5LK-6RsL3t-6QRBDh-om2XKv-ojhvwf-oozDMT-omhHaQ-o4PMiB-omPJBD">Culture Vannin/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Capital flight has occurred before. From the 1960s, cheap continental package holidays eroded the allure of a Manx visit, the island’s economic mainstay since the 1880s. Its entire economic structure was geared towards servicing the needs of the “visiting industry” (to adopt the colloquial term for tourism). Manx prosperity was tied to the disposable income of holidaymakers. </p>
<h2>Casino capitalism</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.imuseum.im/search/publication_record/view?id=mnh-museum%2014179&type=publication&tab=all&from=0&term=tourist+industry&size=80&sort=&filter=&view=&images=&ttmgp=0&rfname=&rlname=&machine=&race=&raceyear=&linked=0&pos=9">1969 government report</a> noted that collapse of this sector “could only mean that the standard of living of the Isle of Man would disappear and the island would become depopulated”. Casino capitalism was offered as a cure to revive the ailing holiday trade, against a backdrop of fierce moral opposition. </p>
<p>The first licensed casino in the British Isles, opened in Douglas by Sean Connery in 1966, was opposed by some Manx politicians on the grounds that it made the Manx treasury subservient to taxation revenue procured from multinational gambling magnates.</p>
<p>Today, the global headquarters of an online gambling business occupies a symbolically commanding position overlooking Douglas Bay. Meanwhile, casino capitalism in the form of multinational finance is indeed the roulette wheel which supplies the island’s economic lifeblood.</p>
<p>Dependency on offshore financial services – <a href="https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/60641">facilitated by Thatcher-era deregulation</a> – stabilised the Manx economy. But alarmed Manx nationalists, fearful of the cultural cost, railed against it. This was expressed most vividly in an arson campaign by the protest group FSFO (Financial Sector Fuck Off) <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00369229018736780">in the early 1980s</a>. </p>
<p>As in the 1970s, Manx economic and social prosperity is again reliant on one, troublingly fickle, economic sector. This time, it is asset management and offshore investment, rather than deck chairs and ice cream. Severing tax avoidance loopholes must, therefore, proceed gradually so as to protect the Isle of Man from a capital flight cliff-edge. The outcome would be a 1970s scenario of unemployment, emigration and social deprivation. </p>
<p>International wealth flows like water, settling in the jurisdiction where the tax regimes are most advantageous. A knee-jerk clampdown would spook investors and inflict severe economic damage on British Crown Dependencies – most of which lack alternative income streams. We need to instil a moral conscience among the super rich and demonstrate that their taxed wealth <a href="https://theconversation.com/tax-avoidance-might-be-legal-but-its-time-we-seriously-questioned-its-ethics-87133">provides societal good</a>. Their money – be it offshore, onshore, or in outer space – should be subject to the same tax regime as the rest of us. </p>
<p>Moral pressure and gradual legislative reform can achieve this. But don’t proceed in a way which could strip the Manx working class of their livelihoods overnight and for the second time in living memory.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87146/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pete Hodson receives PhD research funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>From ‘holiday isle’ to ‘tax haven’: the Isle of Man is no paradise for locals.Pete Hodson, PhD candidate in Modern History, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.