charlotte ashton

Journalist and communications consultant based in Warwickshire UK, after ten years in Southern Africa and even longer at BBC News.

[charlotte ashton @CEAshton]

Check out my latest article: A week before elections, #Zimbabwe is exhausted. https://t.co/eG1NbY4C4q via @LinkedIn

[Sky News @SkyNews]

Frazer, 18, was shown a traumatic, violent video by another pupil at school when he was in Year 8, without his consent. He's since been diagnosed with PTSD and has suffered for years with his mental health.

🔗 https://t.co/5RciKziUzB

[Sky News @SkyNews]

"We need to move to a point where it becomes normal for children not to have them at all."

Generation Focus co-founder Charlotte Ashton says while schools are within the current guidance for cellphone usage, it's not working.

https://t.co/inHbKzf5bw

📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602

[New Britain @WeAreNewBritain]

V few issues unite the public like this. Ppl don't trust social media platforms to regulate themselves and they want the government to act. It would be a brave government that ignored these calls.

New research from us and @Moreincommon_ for @NEUnion

https://t.co/2ro7T6qv4Q

[charlotte ashton @CEAshton]

https://t.co/IMW5frFfvk
"The modern Mr and Mrs Zimmerman might be reluctant to allow their teenage son to motorcycle off to Greenwich Village in search of his fortune. Perhaps the modern Dylan, raised indoors on an iPhone, would not want to go." @SmartphoneFreeC @JonHaidt

[charlotte ashton @CEAshton]

https://t.co/aKOQkvHK7I

Read. This. Now.

[charlotte ashton @CEAshton]

Meta putting profit first by reducing WhatsApp minimum age shows why we can’t leave it to tech companies to make the internet an appropriate, safe space for children.
@nickclegg please reinstate AND ENFORCE the 16 yo minimum age requirement for WhatsApp
#smartphonefreechildhood

[Tom Bennett OBE @tombennett71]

A plea to anyone with small children. Do *not* give them unrestricted access to/ possession of a smartphone until their late teens. Once allowed, it’s incredibly hard to pull it back. Do not normalise access to social media. It displaces so many healthier developmental activities. Give them the same virtual protection you would naturally give them in the material world.

[charlotte ashton @CEAshton]

The Rule of Law. Like a football game with no referee, without it you get chaos and injuries. Nobody wins.
#zimbabwe

[Hopewell Chin’ono @daddyhope]

Many global citizens have asked me why Zimbabweans are so poor and suffering when the country is so wealthy in natural resources.
Others have asked me why there is so much corruption in Zimbabwe and why the State is ruthlessly looted daily with the ZANUPF political elites doing it openly without any political pushback.

It is all to do with the lack of Good Governance, Zimbabwe is badly governed by a predatory and small ruthless crooked political elite.

As you can see on the global governance index chart below, Zimbabwe is now in the top ten countries that are badly governed worldwide.

Corruption, the looting of public funds and the plunder of the country’s natural resources are children born out of Bad Governance.

Corrupt political elites require Bad Governance in order to be able to steal from your taxes and natural resources.
Bad governance removes the pillars of transparency, Rule of Law, accountability, and it also removes equal opportunities for all to make it in life.

You end up with one man and his friends only allowing opportunities to go to their families and “business” surrogates who mostly front this looting and plunder, folks like Wicknell.
Even services rendered to the State like legal, banking or accounting are also routinely given to these corrupt surrogates on account of clansmenship, totems or regionalism as is happening in Zimbabwe.

Since our country is now in the league of the worst governed countries in the world, it means that corruption is now at an all time high, it has never been this bad in post-colonial Zimbabwe.

This also has a direct link to lack of both local and foreign investment.
Nobody serious and sane would invest their hard earned millions in a country where policies change like the weather to suit the predatory corrupt elite, their families and their friends.

No serious investor would want to come to a country where the exchange rate is fixed by the corruptly run central bank, where the judiciary is not trusted because of its self-evident puppeteer, the crooked ZANUPF political elites.

This is how you end up with 95% unemployment, the highest inflation in the world and becoming the riskiest country to invest in on the continent as Zimbabwe has become.
Read; https://t.co/WPvkEmY2Mo

It doesn’t require rocket science to get Zimbabwe out of this economic ditch that it is stuck in, it only requires to drastically reduce corruption and the country will take off again and hire competent Zimbabweans in Government who are scattered around the world.

Why is this not happening?

It is because of a corrupt ruling party, a hapless and disorganised opposition, compromised and captured State institutions, unprofessional and captured security services, and a citizenry trapped in exaggerated levels of fear and involuntary acceptance of mediocrity.

Without fixing these key elements, economic recovery won’t fall from heaven like the biblical manna, Zimbabwe will remain a basket case and the laughing stock it has now become.

[charlotte ashton @CEAshton]

I've #justsponsored John Ashton, who's fundraising for Blue on @JustGiving. Donate now https://t.co/rbEDtDALNv

My brave “little” brother is rowing across the Atlantic to raise money for Blue Marine Foundation,helping to restore the world’s largest carbon sink. #COP28

[charlotte ashton @CEAshton]

Today's #COP28 announcement of a loss and damage fund is good news for #Africa, which bears the brunt of #climatechange.

But we can go BEYOND repair and build a #renewableenergy hub that will mitigate CC and create urgently-needed jobs.

How? This blog gives useful first steps

[Maris @MarisAfrica]

Can Africa become a renewable energy hub? A more transparent operating environment, robust incentives and closer cooperation with the private sector would unlock greater investment in renewables across Africa. Read our latest blog here https://t.co/9XlPlxiD3J #COP28 #COP28Action

[charlotte ashton @CEAshton]

This is great content marketing - practical help for industry colleagues (and coffee geeks like me), which demonstrates a genuine commitment to sustainability. Thankyou @springvalleycfe !
We got our packaging wrong… and the journey to make it right https://t.co/BBspzAnXUO

[BBC Current Affairs @BBC_CurrAff]

#Zimbabwe is holding elections next week.

Thousands of skilled workers are voting with their feet...and leaving, for jobs overseas.

@CEAshton has been finding out why they're so desperate to escape.

🎧 Listen to Crossing Continents on @BBCSounds.

https://t.co/LMAPybX0Ot

[Chris Page @ChrisPageTV]

Always good to be on From Our Own Correspondent on @BBCRadio4 - this week along with @OrlaGuerin @katywatson @CEAshton and @lcmporter. My dispatch from Dublin is 23 minutes into the prog:

https://t.co/Zyuwyn9R8j

[John Murphy @JohnMurphy1964]

Felt very fortunate to do this, to see the wildlife in the amazing #Okavango in #Botswana. With ⁦@CEAshton⁩. We were v lucky. Thanks too to ⁦@TheECOEXISTproj⁩ https://t.co/bpagW4p859

[charlotte ashton @CEAshton]

Don’t miss today’s Crossing Continents @bbcradio4 from the #OkavangoDelta #botswana where there are more #elephants than people.

@johnmurphy and I explore the reality of #humanwildlifeconflict and other threats to this delicate ecosystem. @pennymurphy https://t.co/4If22xiqbJ

[Martin Patience @martinpatience]

And an idea for a book kept buzzing me like a mosquito trapped in my room. It went on for years.

[Farming Today @BBCFarmingToday]

This Sunday we escape freezing February and visit an organic wine grower in the Stellenbosch region of South Africa. Join @CEAshton as she tours the vineyards of @SpierWineFarm . Sun 5 Feb 6.35am or any time on @BBCSounds https://t.co/ZXQRoltO89

[charlotte ashton @CEAshton]

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of a friend's baby at a clinic in Glenview, #harare where there is no water (they had to take 3 buckets with them) or electricity. If the baby doesn't arrive before sunset they may have to transfer her. Ambulance will cost USD60. #zimbabwe

[charlotte ashton @CEAshton]

@consultilands Banks of the Zambezi in Zimbabwe 😊

[charlotte ashton @CEAshton]

Tuning in from a far corner of the world #queensfuneral