The nightmare of Peru

HUNDREDS of young children are dying in the Andes of Peru as the country attempts to deal with its worst winter for 50 years.


Temperatures are plummeting to a deadly -24C which is literally freezing the old and young to death in their sleep, unprotected by their flimsy straw shacks.

In a world growing hotter because of climate change, the Andes of Peru is an anomaly with an increasingly cold microclimate, altered by the rapid melting of the glaciers.

Rafael Rojas Huanqui, regional director for the Defensa Civil, the national disaster protection agency said:

"There have been many dead children. I don't know how many, but there are more and more and mainly the deaths have been from pneumonia.

"They have no resilience of any kind to deal with the weather getting colder."

The changing weather has come on top of a lack of basic health services, animal diseases, rising food prices and a declining availability of water.

Since 2007, children's acute respiratory infections have increased by 30% and staple food production has fallen by 44%. Latest figures show that one in 10 children do not live to see their first birthday.

Rebecca Clements, who works in Peru for UK NGO Practical Action, said the farmers and herdsmen of the high Andes, who live up to 5,000 metres above sea level, know that this extreme weather is not normal.

“The mountain people themselves have noticed these changes, without knowing anything about the science of climate change.

“Famers here don’t switch the TV on to check the weather forecast, they look for signs around them, when flowers come into bloom, when certain animals start to nest and from that they can predict what kind of weather is to come.

“But now they are finding that these indicators are no longer working because the climate is changing so rapidly and dramatically.”

And as the conditions start to worsen, the village people of the Andes must make the harrowing choice of protecting their children or their animals which are vital for business.

The people have herds of over 100,000 alpacas which rural communities depend upon not only for the wool trade but to clothe and feed their families.

Since 2007, alpaca mortality in the Andes has more than doubled, with pregnant animals aborting their calves putting further strain on the food supply of local people.

Teresa Carpio, director of Save the Children Peru said:

"The welfare of children is sidelined because the situation is so bad that everything has become about the survival of the animals, both for the families themselves and the agencies who are trying to support them.

"In the west we tend to think that children take priority above all else, but when there is this level of desperation, children can be the last to get the attention they so badly need – until it is too late."

I have never been an especially proficient skier. I had only been once before, and a rather nasty fall in a charming little Italian town called Claviere left me with a severely bruised coccyx and the inability to sit down for two months. So when I was given the opportunity to visit the gold plated slopes of millionaire haven Verbier, high in the Swiss Alps in the south of the country, I was initially apprehensive. “What if I crash and burn in front of the bronze and blonde Eton-ites that wear jackets that cost a thousand pounds?”  My pleas fell on deaf ears, and off we went.

We travelled to Switzerland by car. First the drive to Dover, then the ferry to Dunkirk and then a 12 hour slog to a town just outside Verbier called La Tzoumaz. Now I would love to tell you that the journey was a joyous caper of rustic French villages and exquisite Swiss vistas that unfold glorious mountains and lakes in front of your very eyes. It wasn’t. It was 700 miles of motorway and a particularly brutal game of eye spy that lasted four hours. My brother managed to jump on a plane from Bristol to Geneva and then a transfer to the chalet, which was £65 all in with Easyjet and a far superior option to driving.

The skiing was excellent. More built for the intermediates and experts than me and my bruised...ego, Verbier is one of the off-piste capitals of the world, and well worth a look if you’re daredevil well into your red and black runs. While I was there, I was told that Richard Branson owned a chalet called: ‘The Lodge, Verbier’. A gazillion bedroom retreat for the rich and famous that goes for £100,000 a week during Christmas. “Sounds decent for next year dad?” I chirped. I won’t tell you his reply, but I assume that we’ll be staying somewhere a bit more modest next year.

Sports Round-up

So another ‘Deadline Day’ has passed us by, and despite British clubs spending only £65m this January compared to a monstrous £225m last year, there were still bounty of last minute deals to be done. Everton were busy bringing in Steven Pienaar back on loan from Spurs and Nikica Jelavic from Rangers for £6m. Spurs themselves offloaded Roman Pavlyuchenko to Locomotiv Moscow and replaced him with Louis Saha from Everton while Sebastien Bassong was loaned to Wolves and Ryan Nelsen was brought in on a free from Blackburn Rovers. QPR were the biggest spenders of the day, paying £4m for Bobby Zamora from local rivals Fulham and paying £5m for French striker Djibril Cisse from Lazio.

British round up
It was heartbreak again for Andy Murray as he went out of the Australian Open in the semi- finals to eventual winner Novak Djokovic. The Brit was on top for large parts of the match but the Serbian showed his class to win in five sets. The England cricket team returned to their superb knack of clawing defeat from the jaws of victory as they lost t the second test to Pakistan by 72 runs. Despite superb bowling displays by recalled Monty Panesar and Stuart Broad, England needed 145 on the fourth day to win but an inept batting display handed Pakistan the victory.

England Manager's

When it comes to the England, we all certainly thrive on the uncertainty and rage the football team gives us. We lambaste our managers and players publicly; we tell them how to play, what team they should pick, phone-in after phone-in deride them for failing to stick 10 past minnows like Andorra. It is a miracle then, that current state of flux of the England football team hasn’t seen supporters reach little pot of pills.

No manager, no captain, but no matter. The lack of antipathy is something we’ve scarcely seen from England fans over the last 20 years. Most are happy with a fresh start. Irritated by Fabio Capello’s surly demeanour, lack of English and the fact we all know he should have resigned after the disastrous 2010 World Cup campaign in South Africa. While Stuart Pearce is an able stand in for the game against Holland on Wednesday night, I’m not sure he’s the man to take us to Poland and Ukraine. I suppose the question is: Who is? If we can’t get Harry Redknapp in time, someone will have to take the reins for the summer; Harry will just have to hope they don’t do to well.

The captaincy is no issue either, though I disagree with these philistines who say it’s no big deal. The England captaincy is the biggest deal. The England team represent our tiny island against the rest of the World, and the captain is their leader. While it shouldn’t chop and change, it’s important the right man gets the job. For me, it should Scott Parker though I’m sure it will be Steven Gerrard.
The FA has a small amount of time to make the right decisions, and for once they have the fans backing, but they should remember we all certainly thrive on the uncertainty and rage the England football team gives us

Poor Form: The rise of Twenty20 Cricket and what it means for the rest

Cricket as a whole is facing a turbulent time. The game has developed faster than most would have imagined, and first class cricket is taking a backwards step as the popularity of Twenty20 and the shorter forms of the game continue to explode.  I wanted to look at the economic pressures facing cricket and whether the longer form of the game can continue in the face of the unrelenting pace of the shorter forms.

The emergence of Twenty20 cricket over the last few years has surprised every professional body associated with it. Originating from the ashes of the now defunct Benson and Hedges Cup, the ECB wanted something in its place, and put funds into looking into a more viewer friendly alternative to One Day and Test cricket.  The International Cricket Board agreed and in 2003 Twenty20 was born. It has undoubtedly fired a shot of adrenaline in to crickets weary arms, with huge satellite TV deals lifting the sport off its knees into the mainstreams living rooms. It’s quicker, more exciting and far more accessible to the populist palate than the structure of the longer forms allow them to be. Twenty20 has recruited most cricket lovers while managing to find a whole new audience. But does a rising tide raise all boats? Is the popularity of Twenty20 taking valuable marketing and advertising revenue away from the rest of the sport?

I asked Paul Topley, owner of Churches Fire Security, a major sponsor of the Rose Bowl, home of Hampshire County Cricket Club. ‘In my experience, teams tend to put as much onus on sponsorship as they always have, money is money, and we see cricket as more and more of an attractive commodity’ claims Paul, commenting on the lucrative TV deals that Twenty20 has produced for the sport. ‘Twenty20 is a nice two hours of entertainment, seeing people smash sixes doesn’t require as much attention as longer forms of the game.’ I asked him if he thought he would have sponsored the Rose Bowl before the dawn of Twenty20. He replied: ‘Ten years ago we would have thought twice before trying to advertise at the Rose Bowl and this is in no small part down to Twenty20. It is popular with more people and globally gives the game more exposure.’

The world ‘global’ is a major sticking point for the future of the game. The popularity of Twenty20 in Asia is enormous and has exploded in a way that no one could have anticipated. But spectators have claimed that England’s thrashing of India over four Tests in the summer could have done more harm than good, revealing that for the longer forms of the game to prosper, the Indian team must prosper too. If India loses interest then it will undoubtedly affect the rest of the world. One billion people will take their money and out of one form, and invest it in the other. This can only make the longer forms uncompetitive as a result. The IPL on the other hand has showed massive growth in the region, with over $50,000,000 being spent on wages alone.

Paul reflects: ‘It does seem like Twenty20 is the future, mostly for the reasons I gave before, more interest means more people watching, more revenue streams generally, more corporate boxes, more television money. But I wouldn’t say the longer forms of the game are in massive trouble, they just need to emphasize what people have always loved about them to continue to grow.’ England’s successful tour against India in the summer is testament to that, four Tests, every single day each sold out, along with the following One Day Series being popular as well.

It’s fair to say that Twenty20 has become king of cricket globally, with worldwide appeal and even a push for it to be included as a future Olympic sport, but nationally, traditional forms of the game remain strong and if they want to remain as competitive with Twenty20, they will enforce the values that made them so popular to begin with.

Saints look to make history

On Sunday, May 15th 2005, Southampton Football Club were relegated from the Premier League, ending a 27-year-stay in the top flight of English football and thus beginning a tortuous cycle of boardroom wrangling, administration and further relegation, leaving the club less than 48 hours away from liquidation.

Tomorrow, Southampton (or ‘Saints’ as they are affectionately known) will play Coventry City in their St Mary’s Stadium, knowing that a win will take them back into the promised land for the first time in seven years.

It is a game worth an estimated £90m and after spending the entire 2011/12 Championship season in the top two places, promotion will be surely deserved.

A very brief synopsis of the last seven years is a story of a club on the brink. Following relegation, two unsuccessful seasons attempting to return to the Premier League were fruitless and the financial implications of dropping from the league took their toll.

Without the Premier League’s riches, players had to be sold. Starlet Theo Walcott was sold to Arsenal for £12m while a number of other promising youngsters, including a 17-year-old Gareth Bale were also offloaded.

The dire financial situation at the club culminated with administration, meaning a 10 point deduction and eventual relegation to League One on April 25th 2009.

In May 2009, administrator Mark Fry said the club faced imminent bankruptcy if a buyer was unable to be found.

Enter Swiss Billionaire and Southampton FC saviour Marcus Liebherr, who took full control of the club installing Nicola Cortese as new Chairman of the club.

The new owners brought in new manager Alan Pardew who won the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in his first season - the clubs first silverware since 1976.

On August 11th 2009, owner Marcus Liebherr tragically died, while Nigel Adkins replaced Pardew as manager, with the change seeing the team promoted in 2011.

This brings us to present day, with the game against Coventry, and Paul Topley -who has been a season ticket holder for over 25 years and is Managing Director of Churches Fire Security, who are a main sponsor at St Mary’s, say’s the club is looking forward to the day.

Paul said: “We’re looking forward to it. I mean, this is football, anything can happen, but on paper it’s the game you’d prefer to have. We’ve been top all season, they’re relegated, we have the best home form in the league, they have the worst away record.

“A lot of our players are never going to have another chance at playing in the Premier League so I’m quietly optimistic.”

Southampton won the opening game of the season 3-1 at home against Leeds United and haven’t been out of he top two since, they would have been Champions already if it weren’t for a barnstorming late run from Reading that saw them win 15 games from 17.

Paul claimed: “Nobody saw the Reading run coming, we had been established in the top two all season and would have been promoted with West Ham. Teams have come and gone, Brighton started well, Middlesbrough were up there, but Reading came from nowhere.”
Saints have spent most of the season locked in a battle with big spending West Ham United and Paul thinks that the St Mary’s crowd has helped the team this season.

“West Ham have a brilliant away record, they’ve won 13 games away this season, that’s a club record, but the fans are happy to get on their back at home.”

Southampton have won 15 games at home this season, breaking on their own record, nearly going an entire calendar year without losing at home.

Reading’s brilliant run of form coincided with the signing of front man Jason Roberts from Blackburn, and Southampton’s own January arrival, striker Billy Sharp, has had a big impact on the second half of the season.

Paul said: “Billy came in after Tadanari Lee was doing so well, Billy isn’t much of an impact sub where as Lee has a lot of pace, but he’s scored seven goals in seven games and is starting to build a partnership with Rickie.”

Rickie, being Rickie Lambert who has scored 31 goals this season, providing the firepower Saints needed to climb the table. Lambert cost Southampton £1m from Bristol Rovers in 2010, small change compared to some of the money changing hands in the league this year,

Leicester City spent £15m on new players while West Ham have the biggest playing squad in the Championship.

Paul said: “Our squad is relatively cheaply assembled compared to others. We haven’t spent more than £2m on one player. Jose Fonte, Jan Hooivilet, Danny Fox, Billy Sharp were all around a million pounds, we’ve only really spent the money we got from selling Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Arsenal.”

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain signed for Arsenal in the summer of 2011 for £12m and the club have been careful on how to spend the money. It’s this frugal approach which has seen the club’s financial position improve. Since the death of owner Marcus Liebherr the club have invested £15m into Southampton’s Staplewood training ground.

Paul said: “It is fair to say we were forty-eight hours away from being dissolved, so the owners fiscal prudence is encouraging. It was obviously terrible when Marcus died, and with the investment in the team and training ground, they have just converted their £33m loan to the club into shares, removing it as a liability , so I’m confident his family want to honour his legacy

“We are attempting this sort of Barcelona model of training putting faith in youth and academy and I think it has results.”

Whatever the result against Coventry tomorrow, a club that has spent the best part of decade in decline can certainly celebrate a bright future.