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All posts tagged Lebensraum
Munich by Robert Harris (2017)
Both men fell silent, watching him, and Legat had a peculiar sense of – what was it, he wondered afterwards? – not of déjà vu exactly, but of inevitability: that he had always known Munich was not done with him; that however far he might travel from that place and time he was forever caught in its gravitational pull and would be dragged back towards it eventually. (p.188)
This is another Robert Harris historical thriller, set during the four nailbiting days of the Munich Crisis of September 1938.
In the Acknowledgements section at the end of the book Harris discloses that the crisis had been an obsession with him even before he collaborated on a BBC documentary about it, to mark the 50th anniversary, in 1988, and he hasn't stopped being obsessed by it. The acknowledgements go on to list no fewer than 54 volumes of history, diaries and memoirs which were consulted in the writing of this book.
And this depth of research certainly shines out from every page right from the start. Even before the text proper begins, the book has an architect's plan of the Führerbau in Munich where the climactic scenes of the book take place, because it was here that the four key European leaders – Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Britain, Daladier, Premier of France, Mussolini, the Duce of Italy and Adolf Hitler, the Führer of Germany – met to resolve the crisis and here that the various backstairs shenanigans of Harris's thriller take place.
The Munich Crisis
Hitler came to power in 1933 with promises to end reparations to the Allies (France, Britain, America) for Germany's responsibility for World War One, and to repeal or turn back the provisions of the Versailles Treaty which had stripped Germany of some of her territory and people.
True to his word, Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland (until then a neutral zone) in March 1936. Two years later in March 1938, he sent German troops to annex Austria, thus creating a Greater Germany.
Next on the list were the ethnic Germans who lived in a strip of territory along the periphery of Czechoslovakia, a 'new' country which had only been created by Versailles in 1918. Hitler created a mounting sense of crisis through the summer of 1938 by making evermore feverish claims to the land, and then arranging incidents which 'proved' that the Czechs were attacking and victimising the ethnic Germans, blaming the Czechs for their aggression and bullying.
Now France had made formal legal obligations to guarantee Czechoslovakia's safety, and Britain had pledged to come to France's aid if she was attacked, so everyone in Europe could see how an assault in Czechoslovakia might lead France to mobilise, Britain to mobilise to defend here, the Poles and Russians to pile in, and it would be exactly how the Great War started – with a series of toppling dominoes plunging the continent into armageddon.
Determined to avoid this outcome at any cost, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew twice to Germany to meet Hitler, on the 15th and 22nd of September. On the second occasion he conceded that Hitler could have the Sudetenland with the full agreement of Britain and France – but Hitler moved the goalposts, now demanding the full dismemberment of Czechoslovakia and the redivision of its territory among Germany and Hungary and Poland (who also shared borders with Czechoslovakia and had mobilised their armies to seize what territory they could.)
On 26 September Hitler made a speech to a vast crowd at the Sportspalast in Berlin setting Czechoslovakia the deadline of 2pm on 28 September to cede the Sudetenland to Germany or face war. In secret, Hitler and the Wehrmacht had a fully-worked-out plan of invasion and expected to carry it out.
However, in a fast-moving sequence of events, Chamberlain sent a message via diplomatic channels to the Fascist leader of Italy, Mussolini, asking him to enter the negotiations and use his moderating influence on the Führer. Mussolini agreed, and sent a message to Hitler saying he was totally on his side but suggesting a 24 hour delay in the deadline in order to further study the problem.
Thus it came about that a conference was arranged in Munich, to be hosted by Hitler and attended by Mussolini, Chamberlain and the increasingly sidelined French premiere, Daladier.
And thus Chamberlain and his staff flew for a third time to Germany, this time to Munich, destination the Führerbau building, and here it was that over a series of closed-door meetings the four leaders and their staffs thrashed out an agreement.
It was signed by the four leaders the next day at 1.30pm. As one of Harris's characters makes clear, the final agreement, although ostensibly submitted by the Italians, was in fact a German creation which they had given the Italians to present. The main terms were that the German army was to peacefully complete the occupation of the Sudetenland by 10 October, and an international commission would decide the future of other disputed areas.
One of the most famous aspects of the summit meeting was that the Czech leaders were physically there, but were prevented by Hitler's orders from attending any of the actual negotiations. They were simply forced by France and Britain to accept all the terms and hand over their border area to Germany. Since this was where all their fortifications were built it left the rest of the country defenceless and, sure enough, the German army invaded and occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia just six months later, in March 1939.
Map of Czechoslovakia showing the Sudeten territory given to Germany in September 1938 in dark brown
All of Europe had held its breath in case the incident sparked the outbreak of another European war. Chamberlain is quoted in the book, in private and then in a famous speech to the House of Commons, saying how unbelievable it is that they all seemed to be galloping towards the apocalyptic disaster so many of them could still remember (the Great War). It was this attitude – avoiding war at all costs – that underpinned Chamberlain's strategy. And so when he flew to Munich, and even more when he emerged with a face-saving treaty, scores of millions of people all across Europe greeted the avoidance of war with enormous relief, and Chamberlain was feted as a hero.
Of course, in hindsight, we can see that nothing was going to stop Hitler and his maniacal dreams of European domination, and Chamberlain's policy of 'appeasement' grew to have an entirely negative connotation of weakness and cowardice, a policy failure which only ended up encouraging the dictator. And there were plenty of politicians and intellectuals at the time who thought Hitler needed to be stood up to, instead of cravenly given in to, and that Chamberlain had made a great mistake.
That said, there are other historians who point out that neither Britain nor France were militarily prepared for war in September 1938 and that the deal, whatever its precise morality, and despite the unforgiveable abandoning of the Czechs, did give both France but particularly Britain a crucial further year in which to re-arm and, in particular, build up an air force, the air force which went on to win the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940. It was only by a sliver that we won the Battle of Britain, thus maintaining the island of Britain as a launchpad for what eventually came the D-Day invasions.
If war had broken out in 1938, Britain might have lost and been invaded (doubtful but possible), America would never have entered the war, and Europe might have become an impenetrable Nazi fortress. Chamberlain certainly didn't achieve the 'peace in our time' which he so hoped for; but maybe he did secure a vital breathing space for democracy. Historians will discuss these and other possible variations for generations…
The thriller
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the real-life, historical diplomacy, it is these hectic days leading up to 30 September, which Harris describes in minute and fascinating detail, and from both sides.
Because the book is made up of alternating chapters, following the parallel experiences of two well-placed if junior civil service figures, one on the Nazi side, one in Chamberlain's staff.
In London we follow the working routine and then increasingly hectic preparations for flying to the conference of Hugh Legat, Oxford-educated Third Secretary in Chamberlain's staff, very much the bottom of an elaborate hierarchy of civil servants. Through his eyes we see the bureaucracy of Number Ten Downing Street in action, as Legat interacts with his civil service bosses and Chamberlain himself (and his wife), fetching and carrying papers, writing up notes to meetings and so on.
In all these passages you can sense the intense research Harris has put in to document with meticulous accurately the layout of the buildings, the furnishing of each room, who attended which meeting, what they looked like, their personal quirks and nicknames, what was said, etc, in immense detail.
On the German side, we meet Paul von Hartmann, a junior official in the Foreign Ministry, as he, too, goes about various bureaucratic tasks, again gradually giving us insider knowledge of every personage in the German government, with pen portraits of senior civil servants, military figures as well as glimpses of the Führer himself.
Why these two protagonists? Because Harris places them at the heart of the thriller plot he has woven into the real historical events. We now know that during the Munich Crisis a group of senior figures in the Nazi regime and army met to discuss overthrowing Hitler, if the crisis blew up into full-scale war. Hartmann is one of these conspirators and so, through his eyes, we witness one of their meetings and are party to various panic-stricken phone calls among them as the crisis escalates.
None of the conspirators were western liberals. They hated reparations just as much as Hitler, they wanted to unravel the Versailles treaty, they wanted a strong Greater Germany and they were in favour of annexing the Sudetenland. They just disagreed with Hitler's approach. They thought his brinkmanship would plunge Germany into a war it wasn't yet militarily ready to win. And so, if the talks failed and war was declared, they were prepared to overthrow the Nazi regime and assassinate Hitler.
To this end they steal secret documents which show that Hitler had planned not only the Sudeten Crisis, and the full-blown invasion of all Czechoslovakia, but has a deeper plan to invade eastwards in order to expand Germany's Lebensraum. This 'incriminating' document is a memo of a meeting Hitler held with his chiefs of staff back in November 1937. It conclusively shows that the Sudetenland is not the end, but only the start of Hitler's territorial ambitions.
The documents are handed to Hartmann by his lover in the Ministry, Frau Winter, who is part of the plot and stole it from a Ministry safe. At a meeting of the conspirators Hartmann realises he must pass this document on to the British delegation at the conference, and his fellow conspirators agree.
Thriller tropes
It's at this point that you enter what could be called 'thrillerland' i.e a whole series of familiar thriller plotlines and tropes.
First tension is raised as Hartmann takes a train out to a Berlin suburb for the meeting of conspirators, convinced he is being followed or watched.
Later he makes a copy of a top secret Nazi document and then bumps into people who, he thinks, are watching him too closely, asking too many questions. Do they suspect?
It is, after all, Nazi Germany, which comes with a ready-made atmosphere of guilt and paranoia.
Hartmann then has to wangle his way into the delegation travelling with Hitler by train from Berlin to Munich for the conference. He manages to do this but at the price of raising the suspicions of his superior, an SS Sturmbahnfūhrer, Sauer, a senior figure in the delegation who from that point onwards keeps a very close watch on Hartmann. When Hartmann takes advantage of a short stop he phones his office in Berlin to make sure that Legat is on the British delegation. His paranoia forces him to find hiding places for both the document and the pistol he has brought with him, leading to heart-thumping moments when he returns to check his hiding places and see if they're still there.
Why is Hartmann so concerned that Legat be on the British delegation. Because they had been friends once, when Hartmann was on a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, where Legat was a student. Now he hopes to use Legat as a conduit to the British Prime Minister.
To this end, back in London and a few days earlier, Hartmann had used contacts in England to anonymously drop off less important but still secret Nazi documents at Legat's flat in Westminster. Legat hears something coming through his letterbox but by the time he's gone into the hall, the car with the deliverymen is long gone.
When Legat hands these documents into the authorities, he is called to the office of Foreign Office mandarin Sir Alexander Cadogan where he is introduced to a secret service colonel, Menzies. Menzies questions him and Legat reveals his friendship with Hartmann from their carefree Oxford days back at Balliol College in 1932. They had been very close friends and Legat had gone over to Munich that summer to go on a walking holiday with Hartmann in the mountains.
Menzies judges that Hartmann is obviously a member of the German 'opposition' (which British security have heard rumours about) and may wish to communicate with Legat in Munich. Therefore he gets Legat's immediate superior, Cecil Syers (Chamberlain's Private Secretary) bumped off the British delegation – much to his anger – and Legat replaces him. But with a mission – to be professional and discreet and do nothing to undermine this vital diplomatic mission – but to be alert to an approach from his old friend and to report back on its contents and intentions. Without wishing to, he has in effect been recruited as a spy.
Legat's presence enables Harris to give the reader a first-hand account of the Chamberlain entire trip, from packing bags at Number 10, the taxi to Heston airport, the flight, the landing, the official greeting, taxis to the hotel, and then on to the Führerbau for the official reception and then meetings with Il Duce and Der Führer.
The descriptions of all these scenes reek of decades of in-depth research. Which kind of plane, the layout inside it, the sound of take-off, what refreshments were served – all of it is utterly believable but also smells a bit of the study, of the careful poring over dry old memoirs and diaries to recreate every aspect of the scene.
Those 54 books listed in the acknowledgments underpin the detailed descriptions of who was wearing what at the diplomatic reception party which precedes the actual talks, who Mussolini was talking to, what Goering was wearing, even down to the expression on Hitler's face as he first walks down the grand staircase into the assembled diplomats.
All of it reeks of authenticity and former journalist who has done his research to a T, and all of it makes the book a fascinating account of events – right down to the way that Legat literally stumbles upon the Czech delegation (Foreign Office official Masarik and Czech Minister to Berlin Mastny) being kept in virtual house arrest by SS guards directly under Hitler's orders – a fact he passes on to his own superiors who filter it up to the PM.
So all these descriptions make it feel like you are there. But as to the thriller plot… for once a Harris thriller failed to really catch light for me. It contains umpteen thriller tropes and moments – we share Hartmann's stress and anxiety as he hides the incriminating document from the SS man who suspects him – and then tries to give this man the slip once everyone is at the Führerbau, the anonymous men who drop the document through Legat's letterbox and make off in a car in the dark.
Similarly, from the moment Legat is given his spying mission by Colonel Menzies he certainly feels stiff and self-conscious. A big stumbling block comes when his superiors (not knowing about the mission Menzies has given him) instruct him to stay at the British delegations's hotel and keep the phone line open to London to report developments, thus stymying his intention of going to the Führerbau and searching for Hartmann. Another uptick in the sense of tension.
But in the end Legat evades this order on a pretext, gets to the big Nazi building, almost immediately sees Hartmann, follows him down backstairs to the basement, out into the car park and then through local streets to a busy Bierkeller and out into the garden where they can talk in secret and that talk… is strangely inconsequential. As in, it doesn't reveal any really big or new facts.
The crux of their conversation is this: Hartmann and his people want war to break out, so that they can recruit as many high-level German officials as possible to their plan to mount a coup and overthrow the irresponsible warmonger Hitler. This is why Hartmann hands Legat the Nazi memo dating from November 1937 which clearly states that Czechoslovakia is only the beginning of Hitler's plans. It must be given to Chamberlain in order to make him realise that Hitler is a mad warmonger, and the final invasion of Czechoslovakia and much more will happen regardless of agreement in Munich. Chamberlain must see the memo in order to stiffen his resolve to stand up to Hitler, even if it prompts a crisis, even if it prompts war. Good. That is what the conspirators want. Or, as Hartmann puts it:
'If Chamberlain refuses tonight to continue to negotiate under duress, then Hitler will invade Czechoslovakia tomorrow. And the moment he issues that order, everything will change, and we in the opposition, in the Army and elsewhere, will take care of Hitler.'
Chamberlain mustn't sign a peace. If he signs a peace treaty then Hitler will be immensely popular inside Germany as the man who created a Greater Germany without firing a shot: all the waverers Hartmann and the conspirators hope to recruit will fall in line behind him. Hitler will become unstoppable. But, Legat points out, this is all hugely speculative:
Legat folded his arms and shook his head. 'It is at this point that I'm afraid you lose me. You want my country to go to war to prevent three million Germans joining Germany, on the off chance that you and your friends can then get rid of Hitler?' (p.297-98)
Which Hartmann has to concede, does sum up his position. And when it is stated like that, not only Hartmann and Legat realise how unlikely the position is… but so does the reader. This could never happen, the reader thinks, with the added dampener that the reader of course knows that it did not happen. At the heart of the book is a little cloak and dagger adventure among a handful of men, boiling down to these two old friends, which doesn't amount to a hill of beans and doesn't change anything.
So the old 'friends' have met, exchanged the document, and Hartmann has laid his proposition on the line. What happens in the final hundred pages?
Chamberlain refuses the Nazi memo
Both men return to their delegations and tasks which are described with documentary accuracy. But overnight Hartmann sees no sign of change in the British position and he suddenly decides to abandon diplomacy and care for his cover. He shoulders his way into the British delegation, confronts Legat and forces him to take him to Chamberlain's room.
There Hartmann begs five minutes of Chamberlain's time and presents him with the 1937 Nazi war plan. Chamberlain reads it and his reaction is interesting, in a way the most interesting part of the book. Chamberlain says it is entirely inappropriate for Hartmann to have pushed in like this; it breaks the chain of command on both sides, and it undermines the present negotiations; because Chamberlain is interested in the present, not what Hitler may or may not have said 6 months, or a year or five years ago. From the point of view of the professional negotiator, all that matters is what your opposite number says in the room, now. What he says and signs up to now supersedes all previous declarations. I thought that was an interesting insight into negotiating tactics as a whole.
Chamberlain reads the stolen memo but rejects it and its contents and asks Hartmann to leave, and then instructs Legat to burn it. It has no bearing on the present.
This is a very interesting scene in terms of being an education in how actual diplomacy and negotiation works, but it militates the entire basis of the thriller. the Big Secret is out. The Key Document has been shown to the Prime Minister. The Secret men and women risked their lives for, cloak and dagger letter drops in London took place for, which Legat was subbed onto the British Legation for and Hartmann played sweaty cat and mouse with his SS boss for – has finally been delivered and… nothing happens. Chamberlain says: I am ignoring it. Burn it.
Oh. OK. Hard not to feel the tension Harris has built up with all the backstairs meetings and SS searches suddenly leak away like the air from a punctured balloon.
Leyna
Throughout the narrative Legat has dropped occasional hints about a woman named Leyna, who made up the third element in his friendship with Hartmann. Only now, towards the end of the book, do we find out more.
A few hours after they've both been turfed out of Chamberlain's office, Legat is fast asleep in his room at the hotel being used by the British, when there's a knock and it's Hartmann who tells him to get dressed. Hartmann takes him outside to car he's (conveniently) borrowed and then drives Legat out of Munich into the countryside, to a village called Dachau and stops outside the barbed wire fence of the concentration camp there.
To my surprise, Legat is not impressed, and says officials in Britain know all about these camps, Stalin has as many if not more but they have to deal with him, too. Hartmann points out that within weeks, if the Nazis annex the Sudetenland, some Sudeten Germans, now free – communists and Jews and homosexuals – will be behind the wire being worked to death at Dachau. Yes, replies Legat, but then how many would survive the aerial bombing and street fighting which will occur if Chamberlain refuses a settlement and prompts war, which will end up with Czechoslovakia still being occupied and victims still being carted off by the SS.
This is an interesting debate but it has now lost the element of being a thriller. For me this felt like a purely cerebral, intellectual debate about what was at stake at Munich.
Anyway, it turns out this isn't what Hartmann wanted to show him. Some Dachau guards notice the pair bickering in the car and turn the floodlights on them, so our guys beat a hasty retreat and Hartmann then drives Legat on for a further hour until they arrive at a remote mansion in the country with, Legat notices, the windows barred, no notices on the noticeboard in the cold hallway which smells of antiseptic.
Now we learn two things. Harris gives us a flashback to that summer of 1932, when, after walking in the woods, the three friends drove back into Munich and Leyna insisted on going to the apartment block where Hitler lived, surrounded by Nazi bodyguards.
As the would-be Führer (he was famous but had still not been made German Chancellor) leaves the building Leyna shouts loudly 'NIECE-FUCKER' at him. This was based on the rumours that Hitler had had an affair with his niece, Geli Raubel, who he forced to live with him in this apartment block and kept a maniacal watch over. In his absence, on 18 September 1931, Gaubl apparently shot herself dead with Hitler's pistol. Was he having an affair with her? Was she pregnant with his child? Did she kill herself, or was it a put-up job by party apparatchiks who realised her existence threatened the Führer's career. Whatever the truth (and historians argue about it to this day) there were enough lurid rumours around to allow Leyna to shout this insult at the future Führer as he emerged from his apartment, and to anger his SA guards, some of whom turn from protecting their boss and give chase to Leyna, Hartmann and Legat. The SA guards chase after our threesome who split up in a warren of alleyways.
Legat finds his way back to Hartmann and Leyna's apartment. In the melee outside the apartment, someone had punched him in the eye and now it is swollen closed. Layna leans over Legat to apply a poultice, and he pulls her head down and kisses her. They make love. It wasn't crystal clear to me earlier but now the text makes clear that Leyna was Hartmann's girlfriend. So she has 'betrayed' him, and so has his best friend. Thus there is an emotional and sexual 'betrayal' at the heart of this plot which is about numerous betrayals, or betrayal on many levels: Hartmann betraying his Führer; Chamberlain betraying the Czechs, and now friend betraying friend. And so on.
This, frankly, felt a lot too 'pat' and convenient to me. Formulaic. It had the thumping inevitability of a cheap made-for-TV movie (which is how the book might well end up, since it has none of the really big action scenes required by a modern movie).
Now, in another development which seemed to me equally clichéd, it turns out that Leyna has ended up here in this mournful, isolated care home for the mentally defective. We now learn that: a) Hartmann found out about Leyna's 'betrayal' and they split up b) she got more heavily into communist politics and married a communist who was subsequently killed in the Spanish Civil War, but c) she continued being an organiser of an underground communist newspaper till she was arrested by the Gestapo and badly beaten. Hartmann points out that Leyna was of Jewish heritage (which I don't think anybody had mentioned earlier). With the result that the SS beat her unconscious, before or after carving a star of David into her back, and then threw her out of a third floor window. She survived in body, but was permanently brain damaged. Hartmann found out, and used his contacts to get her a place here in this out-of-the-way hospice.
This plot development, coming late on in the story, did three things for me:
1. It is a gross and characteristic example of the brutality of the Third Reich i.e. it has the effect of undermining all the diplomats fussing about precedence back in Munich. I think that is its intention, to show you the brutality behind the diplomatic veneer. But it has the unintended consequence, fictionally, imaginatively of making all the rest of the text, with its precise observations of diplomatic procedure, seem pale and irrelevant.
2. Indeed Hartmann picks up this idea, and makes an impassioned speech explaining that this is what he and Legat didn't realise when they airily debated national Socialism back at Oxford, what their lofty Oxford education didn't at all prepare them for: for the sheer bestial irrationality of the regime, its violence, which no diplomatic niceties can contain ('This is what I have learned these past six years, as opposed to what is taught at Oxford: the power of unreason.' p.374)
3. But I also couldn't help the feminist in me rising up a bit and thinking – why does this point have to be made over the mute, unspeaking body of a tortured and disfigured woman – for Leyna is brain-damaged and recognises neither Hartmann nor Legat (p.373)?
Why is the central woman in their menage reduced to silence? Is it, in itself, a sort of feminist point, that the entire diplomatic circus, Hitler's blusterings and Chamberlain's prissy precisionism and French cowardice, all this describes the world of men, the men who would soon plunge the entire world into a war in which millions more totally innocent women and children would be murdered?
Back in Munich
Hartmann drives Legat back to his hotel in Munich as the last day of the Munich conference, and the novel, dawns.
Legat is shaving when he hears a noise in his bedroom and gets in just in time to see a man exiting by the door into the corridor. This scene reminded me of numerous Tintin books where the hero gives chase to the 'strange man' who turns a corner and disappears, leaving our hero to trudge back to his room half-dressed, bumping into a startled member of the delegation on the way.
Back in his room, Legat discovers that he has, of course, been burgled and that the incriminating Nazi memorandum from November 1937, the one which had been stolen and given to Hartmann to show to Chamberlain, who rejected it and told Legat to destroy – well, Legat like a fool hadn't destroyed it, and he now discovers that whoever was searching his room found it. What an idiot he's been. He has jeopardised his friend's life – and all for nothing!
So Legat finishes dressing and goes along to the Prime Minister's room where he just about persuades Chamberlain to let him (Legat) accompany Chamberlain to his last meeting with Hitler.
Chamberlain has had the bright idea of requesting a one-on-one meeting with Hitler in order to present him with the text of a speech he (Hitler) made a week earlier, in which he had pledged eternal friendship between Germany and Britain. Chamberlain has had his officials convert this speech into a pledge, a declaration, a binding document. He hopes to persuade Hitler to sign it and thus secure 'peace in our time'.
And now, thanks to Harris's clever interleaving of historical fact with spy fiction, Legat gets to witness this meeting at first hand, and so do we. We are given the entire scene in which a translator translates into German the couple of paragraphs in which Chamberlain has recast Hitler's pledge of friendship between Britain and Germany and, to his slight surprise, Hitler signs it.
And now the delegation packs up, catches its taxis to the airport and flies home. It is only as they land that one of the pair of female typists who have accompanied the delegation, to type up the various notes and memos, corners Legat.
As Chamberlain gets out of the plane and holds an impromptu press conference, waving the little piece of paper with Hitler's signature on it, this secretary tells Legat that she is also a recruit of British Security, tasked with keeping an eye on Legat. And that she had earlier broken into Legat's bedroom, professionally searched it, found the incriminating memo and removed it; so that the burglar who Legat disturbed, and who ran off down the corridor, did not have the incriminating memo after all. Hartmann is in the clear.
And indeed in the last couple of pages we learn that Hartmann was not arrested by his hyper-suspicious boss, Sauer, and continued to serve the Nazi regime until he was involved in the 20 July 1944 bomb plot against Hitler, at which point he was arrested, interrogated and hanged.
This is a fascinating and deeply researched description of the Munich Crisis which opened my eyes about the details of the actual negotiations and the issues at stake. But despite early promise, the thriller element never caught fire for me. If you come to the book with the mindset that the whole future of Europe is at stake, then maybe you can make every one of the small tense incidents (secret documents, secret meetings) have a vast world-shattering importance.
But I came to it knowing what came afterwards (i.e. the entire conspiracy fails, is completely inconsequential) which continually poured cold water on attempts to get me excited. Even if both the protagonists had been arrested, tortured and bumped off, it wouldn't ultimately have made any difference, not if you bear in mind what was about to follow i.e. the deaths of tens of millions of people.
For a thriller to work you have to believe the fate of the protagonists is of total, nailbiting importance. But nice enough though these two young chaps seemed to be, the book failed to make me care very much about them.
Shit and fuck
Part of this was because the characters just seemed too modern to me. They seemed contemporary, not creatures from what is becoming a remote past. Legat and Hartmann and many of the other characters completely lacked, for me, the old trappings, the genuinely old and remote mindset of that period – not only its embedded sexism and racism, but the entire imperial and class assumptions of their time and class. When you read fiction written at that time (late 1930s) you are continually pulled up sort by all kinds of period assumptions, about race and sex and class, not to mention that actual vocabulary and phraseology and turns of speech. The ruling class really did say 'Top hole', and 'I say', and 'old chap', and was drenched in expectations of privilege and deference.
None of this really came over in Harris's book. Instead the characters came over as entirely up-to-date modern thriller protagonists. They think logically and clearly, with no emotion, like computers, uninfluenced by ideology or the beliefs of their era. Hartmann says he is a German nationalist, but nowhere in his conversations with Legat, or in his thoughts which we are privy to throughout the book, does any of that come across. He is a good German nationalist and yet his attitude to the Nazis' anti-Semitism could come from a Guardian editorial.
There is little sense that these people belonged to a different time, with its own, now long-lost values and assumptions.
A small but symptomatic indication of this was Harris's use of the words shit and fuck. His characters think 'shit' and 'fuck' in a way you would never find in, say Graham Greene or Evelyn Waugh writing in 1938. Hartmann sees roadsweepers and thinks not that they are shovelling up horse droppings, but cleaning horse 'shit'.
When Hartmann is lying in the bed of his mistress, Frau Winter, he notes the photo of her husband on her cabinet and wonder if she fantasises, when they make love, that she is 'still fucking Captain Winter'.
The half a dozen times Harris uses the word 'fuck' completed the process of making his characters sound like post-1960s, brutally explicit, modern-day thriller protagonists. The use of 'shit' and 'fuck', for me, not only upset the register of the narrative but begged the bigger question of whether he was at all inhabiting the minds of the people of the day – or simply ventriloquising them from an irredeemably 21st century perspective.
Without a doubt the book is a fascinating account of the nitty-gritty of the Munich meeting, of the nuts and bolts of key events and main players – but it failed for me a) as a thriller, because the Big Secret which is meant to underpin a thriller in fact is revealed a hundred pages before the end and turns out not to matter at all – and b) as a fictional attempt to enter the minds and mindsets of these long-dead people.
All the people felt like they were just waiting to be turned into the characters of another film adaptation, an adaptation in which all the good guys will have impeccably #metoo and politically correct attitudes about everything, who will be fighting for decency as we define it in 2019 – instead of being the much more difficult and potentially unlikeable characters you'd expect to meet from that period.
Munich is an effectively written account of the events, with a clever but ultimately disappointing thriller plot slipped in – but not a very good fictional guide or insight into the lost values and psychology of that remote and ever-more-distant era.
Munich on Amazon
Robert Harris's website
Robert Harris Wikipedia article
Robert Harris's thrillers
1992 Fatherland – Berlin 1964. Germany won the Second World War. Xavier March is a cop in Berlin, capital of the huge German Empire. The discovery of a corpse in a lake leads him on an increasingly nail-biting investigation into the dark heart of the Nazi regime and its most infamous secret which, in this terrifying parallel universe, has been completely buried.
1995 Enigma – Bletchley Park 1943, where a motley collection of maths, computer and coding geniuses are trying to crack the Germans' Enigma codes. The hero – weedy geek Tom Jericho – discovers that the gorgeous, sexy woman who seduced him and then as casually dumped him a month later, is in fact a spy, stealing top secret intercepts from the base for her Polish lover. Or is she?
1998 Archangel – Dr Christopher 'Fluke' Kelso, a populist historian of contemporary Russia, stumbles across one of the secrets of the century – that the great dictator Josef Stalin had a son, brought up by communist fanatics in the forests of the frozen north, who is now ready to return to claim his rightful position as the 'Great Leader' and restore Russia to her former glory.
2007 The Ghost – The unnamed narrator is a ghost writer called in to complete the memoirs of former UK Prime Minister Adam Lang (a thinly disguised portrait of Tony Blair) after the previous writer died mysteriously. Marooned with the politico and his staff in a remote mansion on the coast of New England, the ghost writer slowly uncovers a shattering conspiracy.
2011 The Fear Index A series of bizarre incidents plague American physics professor-turned-multi-billionaire hedge fund manager, Alex Hoffmann. Slowly it becomes clear they are all related to the launch of the latest version of his artificial intelligence program – VIXEL-4 – designed to identify and manage anxiety and fear on the financial markets, but which has gone significantly, bewilderingly, beyond its money-making remit.
2013 An Officer and a Spy A long, absorbing fictional recreation of the Dreyfus Affair which divided France at the end of the 19th century, seen from the point of view of a French army officer who played a key role in the prosecution of Alfred Dreyfus as a German spy, and then slowly, to his horror, uncovers the evidence which proves that Dreyfus was innocent all along, and his trial one of the great miscarriages of justice in history.
2016 Conclave
2017 Munich A young German civil servant tries to smuggle a key document showing Hitler's true intentions to his opposite number during the fateful Munich Conference of September 1939, complicated by the fact that the pair were once friends who shared a mistress until she met a terrible fate at the hands of the Gestapo.
by Simon on February 17, 2019 • Permalink
Posted in Adventure, Books, European History, Second World War, Spy novel, Thriller, War
Tagged 2017, Adolf Hitler, appeasement, Battle of Britain, Cecil Syers, Colonel Menzies, Czechoslovakia, D-Day, Dachau, Daladier, Führer, Führerbau, Geli Raubel, Germany, Great War, historical thriller, Hugh Legat, Lebensraum, Legat, Leyna, Munich, Munich Crisis, Mussolini, Nazi Party, Nazis, Neville Chamberlain, Paul von Hartmann, Rhineland, Robert Harris, September 1938, Sir Alexander Cadogan, Sudetenland, Versailles Treaty
Posted by Simon on February 17, 2019
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2019/02/17/munich-robert-harris/
The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze (2006)
If we are to do justice to the Third Reich we must seek to understand it in its own terms. (p.147)
This is a massive book – 676 pages of text, 10 pages of tables, 84 pages of notes, a 25-page index = some 800 pages in total.
Tooze deploys a mind-boggling amount of research and analysis to give a really thorough economic history of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945. After a brief review of the economic woes of the Weimar Republic (huge reparations to the Allies, hyperinflation, the Dawes Plan) and the complicated series of events around 1931 when America and Britain came off the gold standard, devalued their currencies and began to enact protectionist policies – we arrive at January 1933 when a small group of Germany's ruling class decided to make Hitler Chancellor on the assumption that they'd be able to control him.
The next 500 pages give a minutely detailed account of the Nazis' economic policies, from the fiscal or financial level (they reneged on reparations to America, Britain and France, although the details are fiendishly complicated), through industrial strategy (subsidies to industry which then, however, had to do the Nazis bidding in areas like car and airplane manufacture) and agriculture (where Tooze sheds fascinating light on the problems of a still mostly agricultural economy, split into millions of small farms, with an ageing population).
Like anyone who studies a subject really intensively, Tooze's account tends to undermine accepted myths or accepted wisdom if in part simply because accepted wisdom, by its very nature, tends to be simplistic – in order to be teachable, in order to be memorable – whereas the level of detail Tooze goes into reveals every element of Nazi policy to have been more complicated, contingent and compromised than we read in textbooks or watch on documentaries.
And Tooze takes evident pleasure in overturning received opinion. For example, he says the Nazis' emphasis on 'blood and soil' has for a long time been interpreted as a regressive, turning-the-clock back fantasy on the part of an alienated urbanised society which wanted to return to some kind of peasant utopia. But Tooze devotes a chapter to explaining that Germany was, despite our generalised images of the Nazis' massed rallies, of bully boys smashing Jewish shop windows in Berlin or Munich, associations of big factories and BMWs, still a predominantly agricultural society in 1939. Factoring in small shopkeepers and workshops who provided goods and equipment to farmers, around 56% of the German population worked on the land. So the Nazi rhetoric of blood and soil was addressing an actual economic and social reality.
Tooze is at pains to explain Nazi economic policy in the context of the wider system of global capitalism and imperialism, and this is often very illuminating.
Tooze gives a sympathetic reading of Hitler's analysis of the global economy in the 1920s as expounded in Mein Kampf (1924), and also in 'Hitler's Second Book' (1928), a follow-up full of more anti-Semitic rantings, which he wrote but which was never published. A manuscript was discovered in a safe in Germany in the 1960s and published.
In these works Hitler acknowledges that America has become by the 1920s the dominant economy in the world because its settlers were able to expand across its enormous land area and the huge amount of natural resources it contained – coal, iron, all the metals, endless supplies of timber etc, all of which could be utilised by a population twice the size of Germany's (America's 130 million to Germany's 85 million).
The next greatest economic power was Britain which, although it had a smaller population (46 million) of course possessed a vast and farflung empire a) from which it imported a cornucopia of raw materials b) to which it could export a) its goods, at a guaranteed profit and b) its surplus population, with hundreds of thousands leaving to find a better life in Australia, New Zealand or Canada (where my aunt and her new husband emigrated just after the war).
Even France, Germany's neighbour, had only half the population of Germany (41 million) while being twice the size (France today is approximately 551,500 sq km, Germany approximately 357,022 sq km), plus the advantages of an overseas empire from which it imported cheap raw materials and to which, like Britain, it could export its surplus population.
Thus, by the mid 1920s, Hitler had reached a simple conclusion – Germany needed more land – and a simple strategy, the Drang nach Osten or push eastward.
In fact this was quite an old idea, having originated among a number of nationalist and right-wing German thinkers in the late-nineteenth century. What was new was Hitler's determination to carry it out by violence, and the extreme brutality of his plan to not only conquer Poland and push into western Russia, but to subjugate their native Slavic populations as slaves as part of the horrifying Generalplan Ost.
Hitler's success
As it was, by mid-1939, despite the mire of economic challenges the regime had faced (poor balance of payments deficit, lack of raw materials, housing shortage, crisis in agricultural production, and many more), by a series of extraordinary diplomatic bluffs, Hitler had achieved what no other Germany leader, even the great Bismarck had managed, namely the creation of the Greater Germany of the nationalists' dreams (incorporating Austria and the Sudetenland), and all without firing a shot (it took Bismarck two wars to create a united Germany, climaxing in the catastrophic Franco-Prussian War).
But all the time Tooze is showing the toll it took on the domestic economy and the frantic juggling behind the scenes among ministries and officials, to try and prevent inflation, preserve the value of the Reichsmark, ensure a decent standard of living for the population while all the time trying to fulfil Hitler and Goering's enormous wishes for wholesale rearmament.
Familiar and unfamiliar
So Tooze points out counter-intuitive facts (the largely agricultural nature of Germany) which you hadn't quite grasped before. He goes into massive detail about, for example, the various policy options open to Germany's finance minister to try and boost exports, improve balance of payments, bolster the currency, and sets all these amid the wider and constantly changing international economic scene, from the gold standard crisis of 1931, through the revival of the global economy in the later 1930s, and then the beginnings of a slowdown in 1939.
All this is new, and puts the main events in a rich and thoughtful context. Also we are introduced to a range of Germany businessmen, financiers and party officials whose internecine fights and feuds helped to shape the Nazi regime, men like the famous Ferdinand Porsche, but also Hjalmar Schacht, President of the National Bank (Reichsbank) 1933–1939, who opposed the scale of Nazi rearmament, was eventually dismissed in 1939, then arrested and sent to a concentration camp in 1944. Or Richard Walther Darré, Reich Minister of Food and Agriculture from 1933 to 1942 and also a high-ranking functionary in the SS.
The pen portraits Tooze gives of these key players, and the extraordinary depth with which he describes and investigates the Nazi economy, enrich your understanding, really bring it to life not as the dark legend we carry in our minds, but a congeries of overlapping and competing bureaucracies, the jostling for money and influence, all set against the fraught context of Hitler pushing the pace and ratcheting up the tension in international affairs.
And yet, stepping back, I didn't feel Tooze changed the overall narrative much. Germany is prostrate from depression and reparations. Hitler comes to power in the back of mass unemployment. The backroom deal which made him chancellor turned out to be a wild miscalculation. He blames all Germany's woes on the Jews and immediately sets about overthrowing the Versailles agreement. Through the mid to late 1930s he calls the bluff of the Western powers (Britain and France). Astonishes everyone with the Nazi-Soviet Pact and the invasion of Poland. During the war, from humble makepiece beginnings, a vast network of forced labour and concentration camps is constructed, which is never as productive as its planners hope. Defeat in Russia in 1942 leads inexorably to the defeat of the Reich, but the war is prolonged by the superb fighting qualities of the Wehrmacht and the ability of German armaments industries to struggle through their chaotic mismanagement by the Nazi hierarchy and pour out an astonishing stream of tanks, guns and ammunition almost until the very end.
Tooze's book deepens and complexifies your understanding of these events, gives names and biographies of the key players, in the Nazi Party, the world of finance and the industrialists who made it possible and, at various key points (what I found most interesting) puts you in the shoes, enters the mindset of the Nazi leaders, to help you understand the choices they faced once they'd set off down their fateful road.
But stepping right back, I don't think this long detailed and rather exhausting book fundamentally changes your overall understanding of what happened, or why.
The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy on Amazon
Adam Tooze's website
Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk by Len Deighton (1979)
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (1962)
Holocaust literature
Remembering the Kindertransport: 80 Years On @ The Jewish Museum
The Drowned and The Saved by Primo Levi (1986)
Moments of Reprieve by Primo Levi (1986)
If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi (1982)
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi (1975)
The Truce by Primo Levi (1963)
This Way For the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman by Tadeusz Borowski (1948)
If This Is A Man by Primo Levi (1947)
Posted in Books, History, Holocaust, Second World War, War
Tagged Adam Tooze, America, Austria, Bismarck, blood and soil, Britain, Dawes Plan, Drang nach Osten, Ferdinand Porsche, First World War, France, Franco-Prussian War, Generalplan Ost, Germany, Goering, Great War, Greater Germany, Hitler, Hjalmar Schacht, Holocaust, Lebensraum, Mein Kampf, Nazi Party, Nazi-Soviet Pact, Nazis, Poland, reparations, Richard Darré, Second World War, SS, Sudetenland, Third Reich, Wehrmacht, Weimar Republic
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2019/02/15/the-wages-of-destruction-adam-tooze/


text:
RAINIER STREET/UPPER SIMS WAY SUBAREA
17.31.020 Purpose – C-II(S) commercial zoning district.
17.31.030 Permitted, conditional and prohibited uses in the C-II(S) district.
17.31.040 Design review required within the C-II(S) zoning district.
17.31.050 Bulk, dimensional and density requirements – C-II(S) zoning district.
17.31.060 Purpose – M/C mixed light manufacturing and commercial.
17.31.070 Permitted, conditional and prohibited uses – M/C zoning district.
17.31.080 Bulk, dimensional and density requirements within the M/C mixed light manufacturing and commercial zoning district.
17.31.090 Design review required within the M/C mixed light manufacturing and commercial zoning district.
17.31.100 Purpose – Commercial focus overlay.
17.31.110 Boundaries of district – Commercial focus overlay.
17.31.120 Development standards – Commercial focus overlay.
17.31.130 Application of regulations – Commercial focus overlay.
17.31.140 Purpose – Building-specific standards.
17.31.150 Bulk, dimensional and lot standards by building type.
The following definitions supplement or supersede the definitions in Chapter 17.08 PTMC and are applicable within the Rainier Street/Upper Sims Way Subarea:
"Agriculture" means the tilling of soil, the raising of crops, horticulture, viticulture, small livestock farming, pasturing, grazing, poultry, dairying and/or animal husbandry, including all uses customarily incidental thereto except small animal husbandry on a noncommercial scale. This definition also includes accessory agricultural structures such as storage, warehousing, and distribution buildings.
Alcohol Beverage Production or Processing. See "microbrewery," "microdistillery" and "microwinery."
"Artisan production" means a use in which nonfood, finished, personal or household items, which are either made to order or which involve considerable handwork, are produced. Examples include but are not limited to pottery and candle making, leather work, creation of sculpture and other art work, and glassblowing. High-impact uses shall not be considered custom art and craft work.
"Automated teller machine" means a type of banking and financial services with automated or self-service banking features with no staff or personnel provided.
"Automobile and boat sales" means a business primarily engaged in the sale of new and used autos, trucks, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, utility trailers, aircraft, snowmobiles, motorboats, sailboats, and the like. Automotive and boat sales may also include establishments that provide for the sale of these vehicles and boat craft as well as some minor or major repair, paint and body work.
"Bank/financial services" includes but is not limited to savings and loans, credit unions, and other depository institutions; banks and trust companies, credit agencies, investment companies, brokers and dealers of securities and commodities. Does not include check-cashing stores.
"Community garden" means a site used for growing plants for food, fiber, herbs, and flowers and shared and maintained by community residents and may include collective gardens for medical marijuana (see "collective garden, medical marijuana, commercial" and "collective garden, medical marijuana, noncommercial" in PTMC 17.08.020) where permitted by city codes.
"Correctional facility" means prisons, jails and other correctional facilities which are also defined as "essential public facilities" and regulated in accordance with RCW 36.70A.200.
"Day care centers and preschools" means a building or structure in which an agency, person or persons provides developmentally appropriate care, protection and supervision of children that are designed to promote positive growth and educational experiences for children outside of their home for periods of less than 24 hours a day, as currently and hereafter defined in WAC 170-296-0020. Day care centers and preschools include preschools (not state-licensed) and child day care centers that are regulated by the Washington State Department of Early Learning, as presently defined and hereafter amended (WAC 170-295-0010 and 170-296-0020). As used in this title, the term is not intended to include babysitting services of a casual, nonrecurring nature or in the child's own home. Likewise, the term is not intended to include cooperative, reciprocal child care by a group of parents in their respective homes.
"Dwelling, live/work" means an establishment that includes a dwelling unit and an area for nonresidential activity by the unit resident(s). Live/work dwelling units may be considered multifamily or single-family attached based on the unit design. The entire unit is considered a residential use.
"Eating or drinking establishment" means an establishment where food and drink (including alcoholic beverages) are prepared, served and consumed primarily within the principal building. Eating or drinking establishments include, but are not limited to: restaurants providing sit-down, drive-in or fast-food service, as well as businesses engaged in the retail sale of alcoholic beverages including bars, night clubs and taverns. Catering establishments where food is prepared on the premises for serving elsewhere are also included in this definition.
"Equipment rental and repair" means a business which rents or leases equipment for personal or household use, including but not limited to power and hand tools, yard and garden equipment, or party supplies such as dishware, glassware, and folding tables and chairs. This does not include rental of furniture or appliances, which is classified under "general retail." It also does not include rental or leasing of portable toilets, heavy equipment like bulldozers, or similar services to the construction trades. These are classified as light production uses.
"General production" means manufacturing of products from extracted or raw materials, recycled or secondary materials, or bulk storage and handling of such products and materials. This classification includes, but is not limited to: food, beverage and tobacco product manufacturing; textile mills; textile product mills; apparel manufacturing; leather and allied product manufacturing; wood product manufacturing; paper manufacturing; chemical manufacturing; plastics and rubber products manufacturing; nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing; transportation equipment manufacturing; primary metal manufacturing; and fabricated metal product manufacturing.
"General retail" means stores and shops intended to serve the city as destination retail rather than convenience shopping. Examples of these stores and lines of merchandise include, but are not limited to: art galleries; art supplies, including framing services; bakeries, confectioneries, artisan cheese makers; books, magazines, and newspapers; cameras and photographic supplies; clothing, shoes, and accessories; collectibles (cards, coins, comics, stamps, etc.); drug stores and pharmacies; dry goods; fabrics and sewing supplies; furniture and appliance stores; grocery stores; hobby materials; home and office electronics; jewelry; luggage and leather goods; musical instruments; parts; accessories; small wares; specialty shops; sporting goods and equipment; stationery; toys and games; variety stores; videos, DVDs, records, and CDs, including rental stores. Does not include retail sales of sexually oriented materials.
"Home day care" means a facility licensed to provide direct care, supervision and early learning opportunities for 12 or fewer children at any one time, in the home of the licensee where the licensee resides and is the primary provider, as presently defined and hereafter amended (WAC 170-296-0020).
"Limited production" means manufacturing of finished parts or products, where articles are either produced, assembled, finished and/or packaged from prepared materials made at another location, or raw materials, such as premilled wood, paper, wool, textile, leather, cork or semiprecious or precious metals or stones. This classification includes, but is not limited to: assembly of clocks; clothing assembly; medical equipment manufacturing; sports equipment manufacturing; building construction yards; computer and electronic product manufacturing; furniture and fixture manufacturing; electrical equipment and component manufacturing; and other uses as determined by the director. For the purpose of this definition, limited production shall include canning or bottling of food or beverages for human or animal consumption using a mechanized assembly line food manufacturing.
"Lodging" means an establishment used for the purpose of lodging transient guests. Lodging may be in the form of a bed and breakfast, inn, hotel, motel, or tourist home.
Marijuana Production or Processing. See "marijuana processor" and "marijuana producer," PTMC 17.08.040.
"Meeting facilities" means a facility for public or private meetings, including, but not limited to: community centers; civic and private auditoriums; grange halls; union halls; meeting halls for clubs and other membership organizations, etc. Also includes functionally related internal facilities such as kitchens, multi-purpose rooms and storage. Does not include conference and meeting rooms accessory and incidental to another primary use and which are typically used only by on-site employees and clients and occupy less floor area on the site than the offices they support. Does not include: cinemas; performing arts theaters; indoor commercial sports assembly or other commercial entertainment facilities. Related on-site facilities such as day care centers and schools are separately defined and regulated.
"Microbrewery" means a combination retail, wholesale and manufacturing business that brews and serves beer and/or food on the premises. This definition also includes structures such as storage, warehousing, and distribution buildings.
"Microdistillery" means a combination retail, wholesale and small-scale artisan manufacturing business that produces and serves alcoholic spirits and/or food on the premises. This definition also includes structures such as storage, warehousing, and distribution buildings.
"Microwinery" means a combination retail, wholesale and small-scale artisan manufacturing business that produces and serves wine and/or food on the premises. This definition also includes structures such as storage, warehousing, and distribution buildings.
"Parking facility, private" means parking lots or structures accessory to a residential building and used for the parking and storage of vehicles owned and operated by the residents thereof, and is not a separate commercial enterprise available to the general public.
"Parking facility, public" means parking lots or structures operated by the city or a private entity providing parking to the general public either for free or for a fee. Does not include towing, impound or storage facilities.
"Personal services" means establishments primarily engaged in providing services involving the care of a person including, but not limited to: barber and beauty shops; clothing rental; dry cleaning pick-up stores with limited equipment; home electronics and small appliance repair; laundromats (self-service laundries); locksmiths; massage (licensed, therapeutic, nonsexual); nail salons; pet grooming with no boarding; shoe repair shops; tailors; and tanning salons. These uses may also include accessory retail sales of products related to the services provided.
"Printing and publishing" means printing by letterpress, lithography, gravure, screen, offset, or electrostatic (xerographic) copying and other establishments serving the printing trade such as bookbinding, typesetting, engraving, photoengraving and electrotyping. This use also includes establishments that publish newspapers, books and periodicals and establishments manufacturing business forms and binding devices. Quick printing services including shops specializing in printing small jobs for business clients or the general public, such as photocopying, offset printing, or screen printing of documents, announcements, business cards, or the like are also included in this definition.
"Recreational and cultural facility" means facilities designed and equipped for recreation or leisure-time activities. These facilities may be open to the general public and operated by a municipal corporation or not-for-profit organization, or operated as a business. These include, but are not limited to, parks, playgrounds, sports fields, beaches, boat or yacht clubs, swimming pools, carousels, athletic clubs, golf and country clubs, theaters, bowling alleys, museums, aquariums, public and private recreational concessions, miniature golf, archery ranges and amusement activities such as coin- or token-operated machines, rides, or booths to conduct games.
"Religious assembly" means an establishment for religious worship and other religious ceremonies including religious education, rectories and parsonages, offices, social services, columbaria and community programs.
"School: public or private" means a place for systematic instruction in any branch or branches of knowledge, including elementary, junior, and senior high schools, whether public, private or parochial, as well as those that instruct pupils in arts, crafts or trades, but not including fraternity and sorority houses.
"State or regional transportation facilities" means transportation facilities defined as "essential public facilities" and regulated in accordance with RCW 36.70A.200. (Ord. 3232 § 1 (Exh. B), 2019).
The C-II(S) is considered a subdistrict of C-II – general commercial in the Rainier Street/Upper Sims Way Subarea. This district primarily allows for manufacturing and industrial uses, as well as office space, small-scale retail, and eating/drinking venues. Multifamily and attached residential are allowed; however, certain restrictions apply within the zoning district for those areas located within the commercial focus overlay district (PTMC 17.31.120). Rainier Street serves as the main commercial spine within the district; buildings will be oriented to the street with ground floor active commercial uses. The district occurs along Sims Way and in the triangular area bounded by SR 20 to the south, Rainier Street to the east, and Discovery Road to the northwest. (Ord. 3232 § 1 (Exh. B), 2019).
A. Table 17.31.030 identifies land uses in the C-II(S) commercial zoning district that are permitted outright (P), subject to a conditional use permit (C), subject to the specific conditional use requirements for uses in commercial historic structures contained in PTMC 17.84.060 (H), prohibited (X), or not applicable (N/A). However, notwithstanding the fact that a use may be permitted outright, additional permits may be required for certain projects.
B. Requirements for the uses identified in Table 17.31.030 which are contained within other provisions of this title are referenced under the heading "Specific Use Standards," although this should not be construed as a comprehensive listing of all provisions of this title which may apply to any given use. Specifically, the provisions of PTMC 17.31.050, Bulk, dimensional and density requirements, PTMC 17.31.150, Bulk, dimensional and lot standards by building type, Chapter 17.72 PTMC, Off-Street Parking and Loading, and Chapter 17.76 PTMC, Signs, shall apply to all uses, even if not noted in Table 17.31.030.
C. Lighting Requirements in the C-II(S) Commercial Zoning District. Where lighted signs and illuminated areas are permitted, such illuminating devices shall be shaded and directed so as not to provide glare toward any residential district (i.e., R-I, R-II, R-III and R-IV). All exterior lighting, including that to illuminate signs, shall be pointed downward and shielded from direct observation from the air, adjacent properties, and public rights-of-way. Lighting "spillover" to adjacent properties shall be minimized. Lamps shall use recessed or flat lenses. Light fixtures shall be "full cutoff" fixtures.
D. Incidental uses which are identified in this title as prohibited or conditional uses within the applicable zoning district shall be considered conditional and processed in accordance with Chapter 20.01 PTMC subject to the approval criteria codified in Chapter 17.84 PTMC.
E. Where portions of a site are located within the commercial focus overlay district, the provisions of PTMC 17.31.120, Development standards – Commercial focus overlay, shall apply.
Table 17.31.030
Commercial Zoning District – Permitted, Conditional and Prohibited Uses
Key to table:
P = Permitted outright; C = Subject to a conditional use permit; X = Prohibited; N/A = Not applicable
C-II(S)
Specific Use Standards
Cottage House
Refer to PTMC 17.31.150, Bulk, dimensional and lot standards by building type, for regulations pertaining to applicable residential building types.
Dwelling, Multifamily
Apartment House: Small
Apartment House: Large
Townhouse/Rowhouse
Dwelling, Single-Family Attached
Dwelling, Single-Family Detached
Dwelling, Live/Work
Owner/Operator Residences
Accessory Dwelling
Home Occupation
Chapter 17.56 PTMC, Home Occupations
Industry, Manufacturing and Processing
Artisan Production
General Production, except with any of the following features:
Marijuana production or processing must demonstrate compliance with the standards found in the definition set in Chapter 17.08 PTMC.
Marijuana Production or Processing
Alcohol Beverage Production or Processing
Limited Production, except with any of the following features:
Boat Building, Repair, Maintenance and Storage
Automotive Sales and Service
Boat Sales and Service
General Retail, except with any of the following features:
Formula retail establishments, refer to Chapter 17.54 PTMC for applicable regulations and definitions.
Drive-Through Services
Formula Retail Establishments
Regional Retail Establishments
Eating or Drinking Establishment, except with any of the following features:
Formula restaurants, refer to Chapter 17.54 PTMC for applicable regulations and definitions.
Drinking Establishments (No food sale/consumption on premises)
Floor Area over 5,000 sf
Formula Restaurants
Specialty Retail, except with any of the following features:
Building Materials or Garden and Farm Supplies Stores
Farmers Markets and Flea Markets
Motor Vehicle Supply Stores
Wholesale, except with any of the following features:
Wholesaling of Goods Not Produced on the Premises
Animal Services, except with the following features:
Automated Teller Machine
Bank/Financial Services
Day Care:
Refer to Chapter 17.52 PTMC, Child Care Facilities; home day care permitted only when occurring in the residence where the primary provider lives, see definition in Chapter 17.08 PTMC.
Home Day Care
Day Care Centers and Preschools
Equipment Rental and Repair
Lodging, except with the following features:
Hotels/Motels/Hostels
Mini-Storage
Mobile, Manufactured and Modular Housing Sales
Personal Services, except with the following features:
Funeral Parlors and Mortuaries
Production and Recording Studios
Vehicle Services, except with the following features:
Service Stations (both automotive and marine)
Truck, Trailer and Recreational Vehicle Rental
Recreation, Education, Public Assembly
Adult Entertainment Facilities
Recreational or Cultural Facility:
< 5,000 sf
> 5,000 sf
Religious Assembly
School: Public or Private, except with the following features:
Colleges and Universities (Public or Private) with Students in Residence
Transportation, Communications, Infrastructure
Docks, Piers and Ferry Landings
Parking Facility
Refer to Chapter 17.72 PTMC, Off-Street Parking and Loading, for required parking and design requirements.
P (when accessory to an authorized use)
Public Utility, except with the following features:
Electrical Distribution Substations
Radio and Television Towers
Personal Wireless Service
Refer to Chapter 17.78 PTMC, Personal Wireless Service Facilities, for list of permitted, conditional and prohibited uses and other substantive requirements.
Accessory Building/Structure
Agriculture is allowed if it is incidental to the principal use and located on the same lot as the principal use or on lot(s) contiguous to a lot on which the principal use is located. Agricultural uses within the commercial zones exclude small livestock farming, pasturing, grazing, poultry, dairying and/or animal husbandry. Marijuana production is not allowed as an incidental use.
Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, except with the following features:
Battery Exchange Stations Not Combined with Vehicle Services
Chapter 17.60 PTMC, Temporary Uses
Sales, except with the following features:
(Ord. 3252 § 1 (Exh. A), 2020; Ord. 3232 § 1 (Exh. B), 2019).
A. Projects in the C-II(S) district are subject to commercial, mixed use and multifamily architectural and site design review pursuant to Chapters 17.44 and 17.46 PTMC.
B. Where portions of a site are located within the commercial focus overlay district, the provisions of PTMC 17.31.120, Development standards – Commercial focus overlay, shall apply. (Ord. 3232 § 1 (Exh. B), 2019).
A. The standards contained in Table 17.31.050 apply to the C-II(S) zoning district, and shall be determined to be minimum requirements, unless stated as maximum by this title.
B. Setbacks and Minimum Yard Requirements. Notwithstanding any other ordinance or provision of this title, all setbacks (yard requirements) shall be measured from the lot line to the building line, as defined in Chapter 17.08 PTMC; provided, that the roof or eaves of a roof of a building may extend beyond the building line a maximum distance of two feet into the applicable minimum yard area.
C. Construction and Permits. From and after the effective date of the ordinance codified in this section, no building permit shall be issued and no building shall be constructed on any tract, lot or site in the city unless the building is situated on such tract, lot or site in conformance with the requirements of this title and any other applicable provision of law.
D. Residential Building-Specific Standards. Single-family attached, townhouse/rowhouse, apartment house, and live/work building types shall be subject to the setback, lot dimensions, and height requirements listed in PTMC 17.31.150, Bulk, dimensional and lot standards by building type. All other district bulk, dimensional and density requirements shall apply.
Commercial Zoning District – Bulk, Dimensional and Density Requirements
RESIDENTIAL BUILDING-SPECIFIC STANDARDS
(Applicable to: Single-Family Attached, Townhouse/Rowhouse, Apartment Houses, and/or Live/Work)
Refer to PTMC 17.31.150, Bulk, dimensional and lot standards by building type, for regulations pertaining to applicable residential building types. The setback and lot dimensions in this chapter shall apply to residential buildings in this district.
FRONT YARD SETBACKS
REAR YARD SETBACKS
None unless contiguous with an R-I, R-II or R-III zoning district, then 15 feet, or 20 feet if building height is > 20 feet
SIDE YARD SETBACKS
None unless contiguous with an R-I, R-II or R-III zone, then 15 feet, or 20 feet if building height is > 20 feet
MAXIMUM GROUND FLOOR AREA1,3 (in any one structure)
MAXIMUM GROSS FLOOR AREA3
MAXIMUM BUILDING HEIGHT
In C-II(S), 50 feet or 4 stories
MAXIMUM FENCE HEIGHT2
8 feet, unless otherwise authorized through applicable design review process
Preservation of existing trees, and/or new trees shall be provided consistent with Chapter 19.06 PTMC, Article III, Standards for Tree Conservation
1 Multiple structures on a single property or reviewed as a single development proposal may not be attached to exceed 40,000 square feet ground floor area. Such multiple structures must be separated by the minimum separation standards as established by PTMC 17.44.040 when their combined ground floor area exceeds 40,000 square feet.
2 Maximum fence heights apply only within any required front, side, or rear setback area or along the edge of any required yard. Fences over six feet and retaining walls may require a building permit.
3 This standard only applies to nonresidential uses, mixed use structures, and apartment house buildings. This is not applicable to other residential building types and their accessory structures.
(Ord. 3232 § 1 (Exh. B), 2019).
A. M/C – Mixed Light Manufacturing and Commercial. This district accommodates a wide range of uses meeting a desired form that creates a walkable urban area where a person can walk or bike to work or to fulfill many shopping needs. The purpose of this district is to provide for a mix of commercial, light manufacturing with on-site retailing, and workforce housing. These are uses which may have mixed uses or combine aspects of both on-site manufacturing and retailing (e.g., specialty crafts or artisans). Manufacturing to commercial floor area ratios are necessary for this district to ensure that certain uses do not dominate at the expense of others. The site areas located within the commercial focus overlay district shall be subject to the provisions in PTMC 17.31.120. (Ord. 3232 § 1 (Exh. B), 2019).
A. Table 17.31.070 identifies land uses in the M/C mixed light manufacturing and commercial zoning district that are permitted outright (P), subject to a conditional use permit (C), prohibited (X), or not applicable (N/A). However, notwithstanding the fact that a use may be permitted outright, additional permits may be required for certain projects.
C. Limitations on Use – Buffering Requirements. All sites in the M/C district having a common boundary with residential districts (i.e., R-I, R-II, R-III and R-IV) shall have planted and maintained along such common boundary a view-obscuring greenbelt of shrubs, trees and native vegetation, which will grow to not less than eight feet in height nor less than 10 feet in width within five years, for screening purposes and controlling access.
D. Limitations on Use – General Requirements. Manufacturing uses shall be subject to the following conditions:
1. Noise. In the M/C district the construction and operation of facilities and uses shall follow best management practices so as to minimize unnecessary conflicts with and impacts to adjacent nonindustrial land or water uses to the extent practicable given the intended use and zoning.
2. Light and Glare. Exterior lighting shall not be used in such a manner that produces glare on public streets or roads and neighboring property. Arc welding, acetylene torch cutting or similar processes shall be performed so as not to be seen from any point beyond the outside of the property.
3. Fire and Safety Hazards.
a. The storage and handling of inflammable liquids, liquefied petroleum gases and explosives shall comply with rules and regulations falling under the jurisdiction of the city fire chief, the laws of the state and other local ordinances.
b. Bulk storage of inflammable liquids below ground shall be permitted, and the tank shall be located not closer to the property line than the greatest dimension (diameter, length, or height) of the tank.
4. Interferences. Provisions must be made for necessary shielding or other preventive measures against interferences occasioned by mechanical or electrical equipment, uses or processes with electrical apparatus in nearby buildings or land uses.
5. Waste Products. Liquid and solid wastes, storage of animal or vegetable waste which attract insects or rodents or otherwise create a health hazard shall be prohibited. No waste products shall be exposed to view from eye level from any property line in the M/C district.
E. Incidental uses which are identified in this title as prohibited or conditional uses within the applicable zoning district shall be considered conditional and processed in accordance with Chapter 20.01 PTMC subject to the approval criteria codified in Chapter 17.84 PTMC.
F. Where portions of a site are located within the commercial focus overlay district, the provisions of PTMC 17.31.120, Development standards – Commercial focus overlay, shall apply.
Manufacturing District – Permitted, Conditional and Prohibited Uses
P = Permitted outright; C = Subject to a conditional use permit; X = Prohibited; N/A - Not applicable
M/C
Freezer Plants, Food Mills and Fertilizer Production
Seafood Processing
Transportation Equipment Manufacturing and Assembly
Automobile Wrecking Yards
Boat Building and Related Products Manufacture
Building Construction Yards and Offices Occupying More Than 10,000 sf Total Area
General Retail, individual tenant spaces up to 10,000 sf
General Retail, individual tenant spaces over 10,000 sf
Storage and Warehousing:
Warehousing and Freight Distribution
Essential Public Facilities, except with any of the following features:
Airports and Heliports
State or Regional Transportation Facilities
Solid Waste and Recycling Facilities
Water and Wastewater Treatment Facilities
A. The standards contained in Table 17.31.080 apply to the M/C mixed light manufacturing and commercial zoning district, and shall be determined to be minimum requirements, unless stated as maximum by this title.
D. Residential Building-Specific Standards. Residential building types shall be subject to the setback, lot dimensions, and height requirements listed in PTMC 17.31.150, Bulk, dimensional and lot standards by building type. All other district bulk, dimensional and density requirements shall apply.
Manufacturing Zoning District – Bulk, Dimensional and Density Requirements
RESIDENTIAL BUILDING-SPECIFIC STANDARDS (Applicable to residential buildings)
MINIMUM FRONT YARD SETBACKS
MINIMUM REAR YARD SETBACKS
MINIMUM SIDE YARD SETBACKS
5' each side
MAXIMUM FLOOR AREA RATIO1
2 sf of gross floor area per 1 sf of lot
MAXIMUM FENCE HEIGHT
Front = 8'
Side = 8'
Rear = 8'
Preservation shall be provided consistent with Chapter 19.06 PTMC, Article III, Standards for Tree Conservation
1 The floor area ratio standard only applies to nonresidential uses, mixed use structures, and apartment house buildings. This is not applicable to other residential building types and their accessory structures.
A. Commercial and mixed use developments in the M/C district are subject to Chapter 17.44 PTMC, Commercial and Mixed Use Architectural and Site Design Standards.
B. Multifamily projects in the M/C district are subject to Chapter 17.36 PTMC, Multifamily Residential Development Standards. (Ord. 3232 § 1 (Exh. B), 2019).
The purpose of this chapter is to establish a "commercial focus overlay district" wherein permitted commercial uses of the underlying zone are required for ground floors of buildings fronting designated streets within the boundaries of the district. (Ord. 3232 § 1 (Exh. B), 2019).
The boundaries of the commercial focus overlay district are depicted on the official zoning map. (Ord. 3232 § 1 (Exh. B), 2019).
The following development standards apply to structures within the commercial focus overlay and are not intended to preclude other provisions of this title which may also apply. Specifically, the provisions of any underlying zoning district, Chapter 17.44 PTMC, Commercial and Mixed Use Architectural Site Design Standards, and Chapter 17.72 PTMC, Off-Street Parking and Loading, shall apply to all uses.
A. Uses Permitted. One or more of the following uses, as permitted in the underlying zone, shall be required to occupy a minimum of 75 percent of any building's ground floor linear frontage along an arterial or collector roadway within the boundaries of this overlay district:
1. Retail, excepting wholesale retail uses.
2. Service, excepting mini-storage and vehicular service uses.
3. Dwelling, live/work.
B. Building Setback Standards. The following setback standards apply to building portions within the commercial focus overlay district. These setback allowances may supersede setback standards established in the underlying zone and PTMC 17.31.150, Bulk, dimensional and lot standards by building type.
1. No minimum front setbacks are required.
2. The maximum building setback shall be 20 feet. Buildings may be set back further to avoid trees, utilities, easements, and similar features. Buildings may be set back further to allow for an outdoor plaza, courtyard or similar feature.
C. Minimum Facade Requirements Along Streets.
1. Arterial and Collector Streets. Buildings/structures shall occupy a minimum of 75 percent of the site frontage along an adjacent arterial or collector roadway within overlay district boundaries.
2. Local Streets. Buildings/structures shall occupy at least 50 percent of the site frontage along an adjacent local street within overlay district boundaries.
3. Alleys. These standards do not apply to alleys.
D. Parking. Parking and auto access shall be located to the side and rear of the structure; and on corner lots, location preference shall be away from the primary street front. Parking location shall be in accordance with the building-specific standards of the underlying zone, Chapters 17.44 and 17.72 PTMC. (Ord. 3232 § 1 (Exh. B), 2019).
All properties located within the commercial focus overlay district shall be subject to both its underlying zone classification and to the requirements established in the commercial focus overlay district. Where the provisions of the commercial focus overlay district conflict with the provisions of an underlying zone or other provision of this title, the more restrictive limitation shall apply. (Ord. 3232 § 1 (Exh. B), 2019).
The general purpose for the building-specific standards is to recognize that various residential building types have specific design and layout characteristics. This chapter is intended to establish specific dimensional standards for single-family attached, townhouse/rowhouse, apartment houses, and/or live/work residential building types. In many cases, the zoning district dimensional standards are not appropriate for residential buildings types; thus, this chapter establishes specific standards for residential building types in certain zoning districts. (Ord. 3232 § 1 (Exh. B), 2019).
A. The standards herein are unique and applicable to the following residential building types in the mixed use, commercial, and manufacturing zoning districts:
1. Single-family attached;
2. Townhouse/rowhouse;
3. Apartment houses;
4. Live/work.
B. Table 17.31.150 (Building-Specific Standards) establishes the setback, height, and lot dimensional requirements for the residential building types listed in subsection A of this section. The table may also impose other dimensional requirements and design standards.
C. The dimensional standards listed in Table 17.31.150 (Building-Specific Standards) shall supersede other district requirements.
D. Where a site and/or development project is located within the commercial focus overlay district, the provisions of PTMC 17.31.120 shall also apply.
Building-Specific Standards – Bulk, Dimensional and Lot Standards by Building Type
Attached Single-Family
Live/Work
DESCRIPTION (also see Chapter 17.08 PTMC for specific definitions)
2 – 4 units per building (including duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes)
5 – 10 units per building
5 – 10 units per building (includes units above nonresidential)
Over 10 per building (includes units above nonresidential)
Multifamily or attached dwelling that contains nonresidential space
UNIT ARRANGEMENT (also see Chapter 17.08 PTMC for specific definitions)
Side by side and/or over the other
HEIGHT (MAXIMUM)
Based on zoning district
SETBACKS (MINIMUM)
SIDE WITH SHARED EXTERIOR WALL
REAR ABUTTING AN ALLEY
YARDS ABUTTING THE R-I OR R-II
WIDTH (MINIMUM)
DEPTH (MINIMUM)
AREA (MINIMUM)
Based on the underlying zoning district

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Sophie O'Brien
Reflecting on Reversals of Fortune: Poverty and shared prosperity through 2020
Posted in: COVID-19, Global politics, International development
Professor James Copestake is Director of the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) and Director of Studies for the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) Professional Doctorate in Policy Research and Practice at the University of Bath.
For nearly 30 years, starting in 1990, the global incidence of extreme poverty fell almost without interruption in both absolute terms (from nearly two billion to less than one billion), and in relative terms - from more than a third of all people to less than 10%.
While aware that further reductions would become increasingly difficult, the World Bank – guardian in charge of these statistics – dared to advocate near elimination of extreme poverty by 2030, and also to acknowledge the case for supplementing this almost inhumanely miserly measure of progress (income of 190 US cents per person per day) with others, starting with 'shared prosperity', which it defined as the proportion of income accruing to the poorest 40% of any given population.
The headline poverty reduction statistics were always something of a smokescreen – hiding the persistence of less extreme but more widespread poverty recorded by other measures, and indeed its increase in many countries, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. With 2020 coming to a close, even this modest aspiration has gone with the wind.
In its latest poverty and prosperity monitoring report, the World Bank notes that the process has gone into reverse, with extreme poverty already back up to the level of 2017. Worse still, it suggests that the economic effects of COVID-19, climate change and conflict (what it calls the three 'Cs') undermine prospects for poverty reduction in the longer-term – a casualty of the twin calamities of slower growth in the size of the economic cake and rising inequality in its distribution.
These were some of the headline messages Michael Woolcock, one of the reports lead authors, shared in a seminar on 8 December co-hosted by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), the IPR, and the Coventry University Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR).
Commenting on the presentation, Zainab Mai-Bornu highlighted analysis in the report of the new forms of poverty created by COVID-19 (more urban, more educated, more poverty in employment) and also that while the poorest 40% in many African countries failed to maintain their share of growing economies (Zambia being the extreme example – see Figure 2.1) they have borne a disproportionate burden of economic reversals.
Santosh Mehrotra picked up on evidence that South Asia is the region hardest hit in 2020 (with more than 50 million people likely to have fallen back into extreme poverty already) and highlighted the overly hasty and extreme lockdown response of the Government of India as a contributor to this.
Attendees asked whether this new reality points towards the need for stronger redistribution policies, including greater use of cash transfers to guarantee a minimum income. Discussion also pointed to the likelihood of a polarising or 'K' shaped recovery between countries, as well as within them. Responding to those who challenged the emphasis on recovery in the form of economic growth, Michael Woolcock emphasised that no country had reduced extreme poverty without at least achieving per capita income of $1,500 per head, but agreed that many were failing dismally to reduce poverty despite enjoying incomes far higher than this. He also highlighted the resurgence of sovereign debt problems among the poorest countries, and the need for external fiscal support (including from the World Bank) to prevent this resulting in further retrenchment of national social protection programmes.
For myself, the seminar came as a salutary reminder that while academic development studies may be more finely focused on the political sociology of identity and recognition, this should not distract us from also keeping up with hard numbers on the political economy of poverty and inequality.
It was beyond the scope of the report to reflect on the underlying causes of the three 'Cs' and what to do about them, but clearly curtailing capitalist excess is part of that story, as well as finding ways to strengthen government capability and responsiveness to human needs. These are big asks.
Meanwhile, other priorities include investing in disaster preparedness and prevention actions, strengthening capability for global as well as national collective action, and continuing to invest in reliable and comparable evidence with which to monitor, understand and learn more about what is going badly as well as well. One telling revelation in the report is how many gaps and lags there are in our understanding of poverty in many countries, with even India (in contrast to Nigeria) showing a new reticence in sharing its most recent poverty statistics.
This blog was originally posted via the CDS blog on 9 December 2020.
All articles posted on this blog give the views of the author(s), and not the position of the IPR, nor of the University of Bath.
There are alternative models suggested in which income distribution is more even and consistent among populations. Piketty's Capital & ideology examines several. Benjamin Franklin's agricultural paper, advocating a fixed income is also one. What we have seen during this pandemic is that the current form of Capitalism has no response and is of no help. Geographic economies around the world are floundering in figures of debt unheard of in the last hundred years. In the case of Britain it goes back to 1709, the year of the Big Freeze. It indicates that we cannot reduce poverty until we find acceptable ways of changing how profit is made, and under what circumstances. It's madness to acquiesce to a system where a person's affluence is based on another's poverty.
Liberty, liberalism and the Greek Revolution
Nick Pearce is Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) at the University of Bath. Six hundred leagues are no great distance, now that liberalism navigates with full sails and is making the tour...
Universal basic income experiments: The state of play
Rachael Hochman is an intern at the University of Bath Institute for Policy Research, and a Welfare Benefits Adviser at Citizens Advice Bucks. Discussion of universal basic income (UBI) as an alternative means to traditional methods of social security reform...
Levelling up: "Please sir, I want some more"
Mark Hepworth is a multidisciplinary economist and entrepreneur whose international career spans academia, public policy and business consultancy. He leads The Good Economy's research and policy work on inclusive and sustainable development. Around Christmas, my thoughts turn to Charles Dickens...


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Tech for Social Impact: 6 Examples
Caleb Danziger October 7, 2019 Leave a Comment
You may typically think about technology that's fun to use or helps you get things done. But, what about applying tech for social impact? Here are six examples:
1. LifeStraw Products Make Water Purification More Accessible
You may be lucky enough to live in a part of the world where you can merely turn on a tap to get seemingly limitless access to clean water.
But, 780 million people around the world do not have access to water sources that give them reliable and typically contaminant-free sources of hydration. LifeStraw is a company that wants to change that. It sells water purification options that remove bacteria, microplastics and parasites.
Many of the items in the product lineup are for personal use, making them perfect for distributing around the world.
The original LifeStraw weighs only 2 ounces, and people can use it tfor drinking directly from streams and lakes. LifeStraw also has a program whereby proceeds from its items go towards providing clean water for schools.
2. A Google Artificial Intelligence Project Facilitates Better Emergency Preparedness and Response
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more advanced, some people worry about the possibility of the technology being used for evil or unethical things. Fantastic potential exists for AI to help people on a large scale, though. A far-reaching example called Google Crisis Response illustrates how AI could help people stay informed during natural disasters.
This high-tech application has several components, such as a Person Finder, which boosts the spread of information about missing people. Also, something called SOS Alerts gathers data from multiple authoritative sources and provides the most current information about disasters.
There is also Public Alerts, which works as an emergency broadcasting system that tries to reach people wherever they are, such as when they use a search engine. So far, that service extends to a dozen nations, and Google wants to expand it.
These uses for AI show how it's possible to bring accurate, timely information to people who need it. Whether those people are disaster victims, the people responding to a crisis or individuals who want to stay as safe as possible when a catastrophe looms, AI could deliver crucial details.
3. UpEffect Gives a Social Goodness Slant to Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding has arguably changed the landscape for people needing project funding or financial lifelines to get them through unexpected rough patches. But, at many crowdfunding sites, the campaigns are a mixed bag. You have equal chances to fund a new tech gadget, help someone pay their medical bills or assist a musician with completing their next album.
UpEffect is different. It focuses solely on people who need money for projects that further the global good, and those who are ready to support them. The initiatives range from social and ethical luxury fashion items to ceramic water filtration systems for rural communities.
Without UpEffect's platform and the reach that the internet provides, many of the projects listed on it may fail to gain momentum, even if they center on groundbreaking ideas. Many of the more generalized crowdfunding sources are saturated. The niche UpEffect emphasizes gives socially conscious entrepreneurs the chance to make a bigger impact.
4. An Atlanta-Based Company Streamlines Getting IDs for Homeless People
When people are homeless for long periods, they often don't have access to the methods of identification that are necessary for helping them access local services. Then, they get caught in an endless loop where they can't avail of the support systems that could help them gradually enjoy more stable situations.
A tech startup in Atlanta called Mini City aims to use tech for social impact to address the obstacles faced by the homelessness population. One of its priorities is shortening the process that people through to get new, up-to-date forms of identification. Their website reports that the procedure usually takes up to 3 months, but Mini City can achieve it in as little as two days.
The company distributes wearables that contain an ID number for a homeless person, plus enable access to an app that allows access to some services while waiting for their government-issued IDs to arrive. They can check the status of an application through the wristband, too.
5. Cell-Ed Uses an App to Tackle Adult Illiteracy
Adult illiteracy is a bigger problem than many people realize. It can affect someone's ability to get a job, as well as their self-esteem if they feel too embarrassed to be around others in situations that may require reading.
Cell-Ed developed a smartphone platform to help adults learn reading and other skills. It uses three-minute modules to break the learning principles down into manageable chunks.
6. Mobile Apps Bring Transportation Transparency Low-Income Communities in South Africa
Transportation is something else many people take for granted if they have ongoing access to it.
In some South African communities with primarily low-income households, using informal methods of transportation — such as cab shuttles and auto rickshaws — is impossible because people lack information about the routes.
App developers are filling in the gap with tailored smartphone tools that give the necessary information with a few taps on a smartphone screen.
The Power of Tech for Social Impact
This list reveals that there are plenty of ways to use technology to help others. Being aware of unmet needs and having a creative approach help tech entrepreneurs enact positive changes.
Meet Jenna
Hailing from a tech-friendly family, I've been using computers since I was an infant, and tinkering with websites since the wild days of Xanga and MySpace. These days, I focus more on writing about cybersecurity, AI, future tech, and environmental science.
Meet Caleb
If I had to guess, I'd say that my fascination with technology, science, and "the way things work" has its roots in my thoroughly LEGO-strewn childhood. Now, I write about gadgets, technological progress, scientific discovery, and the intersection of technology and politics.
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