Hello everyone and welcome to the blog.
You have to start from the bottom and work up, but I wouldn't bother unless you like the way I rant. I'll start posting the traveller's tales up in April.
See you then! xx
Friday 13 February 2009
Monday 9 February 2009
Too much time to blog
So here's one that's a little more general and a little more abstract and radical... A bit more honest, I don't have that much opportunity to really express what I'm thinking just because most people think it's loopy! (Despite the fact that I am a bonafide chatterbox!!)
http://smashthepower.blogspot.com/
http://smashthepower.blogspot.com/
Sunday 8 February 2009
English!!
I'm starting a month long super-subsidised intensive TEFL - Teaching English as a Foreign Language course that starts on the 16th, then I'm off to Amsterdam for a week on the hitchhike down to see a close and valued friend, and explore some of the things that the Dutch have going for them (transport, bicycles, wind-power, schools you can set up with government money if you have 40 families that want it a certain way.... Lots of niceness) and some of the nastier aspects of liberalism - mainly prostitution. Well, I probably won't get a chance to explore the prostitution things because you have to be quite old to volunteer with anything like that I think, and dipping in for a week would probably be a bit destructive (with Stop the Traffick or something... but they seem to be tied up with cocoa farmers on the Ivory Coast at the moment..) so I'll probably mill around having a nice time before hitching hard to Israel and the territories.
Once there I'm going to start with teaching - I think that this will be a good platform in terms of connecting with people, making friends and sussing out what's going on. If anyone has any better ideas taking into account what I can do without any qualified skills, then please leave a comment!
So there are over 650,000 official refugees in 27 official refugee camps in Palestine among a tiny population of 3.7 million. That would be the equivalent to about 12 million refugees in our population if you took it as a rough percentage (600,000 * (60million/3million)). I don't know what help teaching a few of them English is going to do to be honest. It is viewed by some as counterproductive I'm sure - making more people reliant on Western economies and culture to provide for them in exchange for labour rather than just organising themselves. But I think this is a unique situation and these people are asking for it, and it's pretty much all I can do until I get settled there and ken what's going on :)
I'll try and keep the posts short - I know how annoying reading from a screeeen is!
Once there I'm going to start with teaching - I think that this will be a good platform in terms of connecting with people, making friends and sussing out what's going on. If anyone has any better ideas taking into account what I can do without any qualified skills, then please leave a comment!
So there are over 650,000 official refugees in 27 official refugee camps in Palestine among a tiny population of 3.7 million. That would be the equivalent to about 12 million refugees in our population if you took it as a rough percentage (600,000 * (60million/3million)). I don't know what help teaching a few of them English is going to do to be honest. It is viewed by some as counterproductive I'm sure - making more people reliant on Western economies and culture to provide for them in exchange for labour rather than just organising themselves. But I think this is a unique situation and these people are asking for it, and it's pretty much all I can do until I get settled there and ken what's going on :)
I'll try and keep the posts short - I know how annoying reading from a screeeen is!
Friday 6 February 2009
Disputed Territories
So, there's an occupation going on in Manchester at the moment. This was a real surprise to here about, apparently it was organized for months by my friends but I only vaguely heard about it. It feels like a shame that I'm not there - it looks like great fun, documentaries, talks, education in general, and what fantastic demands! Especially 5) "That the university divests from all companies involved at all in the arms trade & end all research with these companies on campus." and 3)" All furniture & surplus supplies from building that are being renovated to be sent to Gaza on the Viva Palestina convey ….". I think that curtailing the arms trade in any way is a good thing - there isn't much room to argue for arms exports:
a). They come back to hit you anyway
b). There is a direct positive correlation (surprise surprise) between arms sales and internal repression or external aggression
c).The more conflict there is, the more poverty + infectious diseases - which come back to get you!
d). It takes resources away from developing governments' budgets for health education welfare and
e). Guns kill people, and de-personalise the killing. I think that the more removed that the killer is from the experience of killing, the more horrific it is - this might be slightly unorthodox, but I think that fighting someone to death with your fists is infinitely better than sniping someone from a roof-top, or dropping a bomb from a plane, or sending a 'drone' out to do the bombing for you. The more guns are sold, the more this technology is progressed, the easier it is to take life away, the cheaper life gets, the more conflict starts, the more guns are sole, the more...... Many very vicious cycles going on here
f). They are bad for the global economy in terms of providing utility from our skills, training, effort, resources and finite materials, engineering technologies that could be developed by pouring money into useful things, like alternative energy generation, pharmacies and treatments for AIDs TB Parasites and Malaria.
g). They don't provide security!!! They may mean that the government which is arranging the sale of the weapons will get a good deal for oil or another resource in the short term, but if you are selling guns to boths sides of a conflict (Britain sells arms to 11 of the 13 sovereign states in "major conflict") we will not make friends long term! Russia had a booming arms trade, massive military complex second only to the US (now third, with UK climbing to second position) - but that hasn't given it any security, poverty is rampant, and the US waged an economic war until Russia was ground into dust - mainly because of its arms trade and because it was seen as a threat! If you want security, then just stop treading on everyone and keep quiet about any natural wealth in your country, and be a good example in terms of how you treat yourself. Will anyone invade Botswana? No, they aren't aggressive and they don't have too big an army. Spot on.
f). For the above reasons it is seen as hypocritical of someone signed up to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and discredits it so that it is a weaker lever against abuse of humanity abroad. They teach the world that violence is a justifiable means to resolve coflict - leading to more war.
g). Nearly all arms sales are illegal under both EU law and international law, as no arms can be sold that are likely to contribute to internal repression or external aggression - WHAT ELSE ARE THEY USED FOR? Defence? Defending your country in modern warfare requires "external aggression" or you will lose faily rapidly.
h). There are enough guns in the world, there is roughly one small arm for every 7 people, I don't think providing any more is a wise move, do we want to grow these industries and provide more jobs? So that there are 7 arms for every person?
i). If violence is unjustified (unless you are in very special circumstances, such as protecting other people from iminent death), then surely selling the means with which violence becomes easier is also unjustified
j). I think that peace, co-operation and stability for one nation relies on an appreciation of other nations and their differences, from a sound education into why people are the way they are, what needs need to be met by either side, what we can help each other with. As it says on a postcard given to me by someone very special "Peace cannot be kept by force; only by understanding" - Albert Einstein. Or an even earlier quote "Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding" Ralph Waldo Emerson. Can't we put our technological efforts into peacework - how best to resolve conflicts, create stability abroad, arrest the cyclones of violence and anger before they come back around to us?
When I talk about visions for social change, many people say "you're just young and idealistic, life just doesn't work like that" or "you just don't get human nature" - but whatever human nature is like, I know that it is possible for Britain to stop exporting arms, and I know that human nature will be better for it. So that is something that everyone (except for the 55,000 employees in the whole sector being subsidised by the government by around £10,000 to £14,000 for each employee depending on which variables you take into account, probably the most heavily subsidised sector in the country per job) can get involved in, whatever background, whatever outlook on life, I think that not to care about arms exports isn't apathetic, it's positively psychopathic.
OK, so the arms demand makes me happy (and a bit preachy... Sorry about that, it's a bad habit!), but the demand about furniture I think is fantastic. Really fun, which is what is needed really. I can just imagine a large polished mahogany desk with that green felt on the top sitting in a teaching room in Gaza with 2 walls left and steel structuring sticking out from the grey and crumbling building. Genius. Send a bit of opulence and refined workmanship to where it will be wholly appreciated, and stick out as a strong bold reminder that there are people that back in the UK that value people. There are people that are prepared to take time out of their day to arrange something to help. That makes me happy too! There is a tide of people doing their best, not just for themselves, their familly, their friends, immediate community or nation, but actually for people in a distant land. Humans are just fantastic, aren't they? Everyone is doing their best, even the arms dealers, they just get a bit blinded by ego perhaps, but they are still doing what they think is right for them - I think that's how the mind works, so there's hope.
To close off this rather long rant, about things that I haven't made the connection to the Middle East with, but hopefully with something worth reading in there, I thought I'd leave you with another quote from one of the many prophets and wise-men that seem to have hit the nail on the head over the past few centuries (how many do we have to have before we start changing???)
The Dalai Lama
a). They come back to hit you anyway
b). There is a direct positive correlation (surprise surprise) between arms sales and internal repression or external aggression
c).The more conflict there is, the more poverty + infectious diseases - which come back to get you!
d). It takes resources away from developing governments' budgets for health education welfare and
e). Guns kill people, and de-personalise the killing. I think that the more removed that the killer is from the experience of killing, the more horrific it is - this might be slightly unorthodox, but I think that fighting someone to death with your fists is infinitely better than sniping someone from a roof-top, or dropping a bomb from a plane, or sending a 'drone' out to do the bombing for you. The more guns are sold, the more this technology is progressed, the easier it is to take life away, the cheaper life gets, the more conflict starts, the more guns are sole, the more...... Many very vicious cycles going on here
f). They are bad for the global economy in terms of providing utility from our skills, training, effort, resources and finite materials, engineering technologies that could be developed by pouring money into useful things, like alternative energy generation, pharmacies and treatments for AIDs TB Parasites and Malaria.
g). They don't provide security!!! They may mean that the government which is arranging the sale of the weapons will get a good deal for oil or another resource in the short term, but if you are selling guns to boths sides of a conflict (Britain sells arms to 11 of the 13 sovereign states in "major conflict") we will not make friends long term! Russia had a booming arms trade, massive military complex second only to the US (now third, with UK climbing to second position) - but that hasn't given it any security, poverty is rampant, and the US waged an economic war until Russia was ground into dust - mainly because of its arms trade and because it was seen as a threat! If you want security, then just stop treading on everyone and keep quiet about any natural wealth in your country, and be a good example in terms of how you treat yourself. Will anyone invade Botswana? No, they aren't aggressive and they don't have too big an army. Spot on.
f). For the above reasons it is seen as hypocritical of someone signed up to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and discredits it so that it is a weaker lever against abuse of humanity abroad. They teach the world that violence is a justifiable means to resolve coflict - leading to more war.
g). Nearly all arms sales are illegal under both EU law and international law, as no arms can be sold that are likely to contribute to internal repression or external aggression - WHAT ELSE ARE THEY USED FOR? Defence? Defending your country in modern warfare requires "external aggression" or you will lose faily rapidly.
h). There are enough guns in the world, there is roughly one small arm for every 7 people, I don't think providing any more is a wise move, do we want to grow these industries and provide more jobs? So that there are 7 arms for every person?
i). If violence is unjustified (unless you are in very special circumstances, such as protecting other people from iminent death), then surely selling the means with which violence becomes easier is also unjustified
j). I think that peace, co-operation and stability for one nation relies on an appreciation of other nations and their differences, from a sound education into why people are the way they are, what needs need to be met by either side, what we can help each other with. As it says on a postcard given to me by someone very special "Peace cannot be kept by force; only by understanding" - Albert Einstein. Or an even earlier quote "Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding" Ralph Waldo Emerson. Can't we put our technological efforts into peacework - how best to resolve conflicts, create stability abroad, arrest the cyclones of violence and anger before they come back around to us?
When I talk about visions for social change, many people say "you're just young and idealistic, life just doesn't work like that" or "you just don't get human nature" - but whatever human nature is like, I know that it is possible for Britain to stop exporting arms, and I know that human nature will be better for it. So that is something that everyone (except for the 55,000 employees in the whole sector being subsidised by the government by around £10,000 to £14,000 for each employee depending on which variables you take into account, probably the most heavily subsidised sector in the country per job) can get involved in, whatever background, whatever outlook on life, I think that not to care about arms exports isn't apathetic, it's positively psychopathic.
OK, so the arms demand makes me happy (and a bit preachy... Sorry about that, it's a bad habit!), but the demand about furniture I think is fantastic. Really fun, which is what is needed really. I can just imagine a large polished mahogany desk with that green felt on the top sitting in a teaching room in Gaza with 2 walls left and steel structuring sticking out from the grey and crumbling building. Genius. Send a bit of opulence and refined workmanship to where it will be wholly appreciated, and stick out as a strong bold reminder that there are people that back in the UK that value people. There are people that are prepared to take time out of their day to arrange something to help. That makes me happy too! There is a tide of people doing their best, not just for themselves, their familly, their friends, immediate community or nation, but actually for people in a distant land. Humans are just fantastic, aren't they? Everyone is doing their best, even the arms dealers, they just get a bit blinded by ego perhaps, but they are still doing what they think is right for them - I think that's how the mind works, so there's hope.
To close off this rather long rant, about things that I haven't made the connection to the Middle East with, but hopefully with something worth reading in there, I thought I'd leave you with another quote from one of the many prophets and wise-men that seem to have hit the nail on the head over the past few centuries (how many do we have to have before we start changing???)
"Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.
When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities, and so on. When we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. And there are ways in which we can consciously work to develop feelings of love and kindness. For some of us, the most effective way to do so is through religious practice. For others it may be non-religious practices. What is important is that we each make a sincere effort to take our responsibility for each other and for the natural environment we live in seriously."The Dalai Lama
Wednesday 4 February 2009
Calm before the storm.
So, this is quite exciting - publishing something on the internet, albeit the equivalent to putting a post-it note in the dusty neglected cellar of your house...
Right now I am doing very little, as I have been for the last 2 months. Mainly just reading, cooking, the occasional bit of housework, and ending up glued to the biggest time-waster in history - TV. Having said that, there was a good program on the other day "around the world in 80 faiths", and although it only gives 3/4 minutes to each faith (not exactly doing it justice), you do hear a little window into each one. The episode that I watched was exploring Christianity, Judaism and some different forms of Islam in Jerusalem, Damascus, and Iraq.
As some people might know, I have dabbled very lightly in Sufism - the way of Love
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mevlevi
So. Faith. Religion. Spirituality... Wisdom.. Do we still need these cultural quirks and seemingly irrational ways of life? Of course!! Should we be absolutist about which way is the best? Well that completely contradicts the concept of love - which I define as "wholly desiring the other person's freedom and well-being, and appreciating their qualities in a positive way" in its most mature form, rather than the more Western idea of "I want you all for myself, I want to drink you, to mold you, to know what's best for you, to see you as mine, and be proud that you are mine". Of course I feel both, but I know which is destructive. Most tribes in the world are saying "this is the way to love, this is the way to the lord, this is the way to live because it's better. I'll kill you or steal your land or ostracise you if you don't play along". And there we get the problem. A metaphysical problem as much as a physical problem. I expect to encounter more of this in the Middle East. I look forward to exploring and seeing what I have to offer, how I can make anyone's life more wonderful or fulfill their needs (in the language of non-violent communication).
Sorry for all this irrelevant babble! I'll get writing the hard gritty fun exciting challenging hysterical illuminating accounts of my travels when I set off - I just thought I'd warm up, it's been a while since I've done any writing.
Right now I am doing very little, as I have been for the last 2 months. Mainly just reading, cooking, the occasional bit of housework, and ending up glued to the biggest time-waster in history - TV. Having said that, there was a good program on the other day "around the world in 80 faiths", and although it only gives 3/4 minutes to each faith (not exactly doing it justice), you do hear a little window into each one. The episode that I watched was exploring Christianity, Judaism and some different forms of Islam in Jerusalem, Damascus, and Iraq.
As some people might know, I have dabbled very lightly in Sufism - the way of Love
Passion makes the old medicine new:
Passion lops off the bough of weariness.
Passion is the elixir that renews:
how can there be weariness
when passion is present?
Oh, don't sigh heavily from fatigue:
seek passion, seek passion, seek passion!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mevlevi
So. Faith. Religion. Spirituality... Wisdom.. Do we still need these cultural quirks and seemingly irrational ways of life? Of course!! Should we be absolutist about which way is the best? Well that completely contradicts the concept of love - which I define as "wholly desiring the other person's freedom and well-being, and appreciating their qualities in a positive way" in its most mature form, rather than the more Western idea of "I want you all for myself, I want to drink you, to mold you, to know what's best for you, to see you as mine, and be proud that you are mine". Of course I feel both, but I know which is destructive. Most tribes in the world are saying "this is the way to love, this is the way to the lord, this is the way to live because it's better. I'll kill you or steal your land or ostracise you if you don't play along". And there we get the problem. A metaphysical problem as much as a physical problem. I expect to encounter more of this in the Middle East. I look forward to exploring and seeing what I have to offer, how I can make anyone's life more wonderful or fulfill their needs (in the language of non-violent communication).
Sorry for all this irrelevant babble! I'll get writing the hard gritty fun exciting challenging hysterical illuminating accounts of my travels when I set off - I just thought I'd warm up, it's been a while since I've done any writing.
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