The 365 Ways Blog

Put a Penny On

2010-04-01T10:58:00.001+01:00

PennyOn is a simple solution to ensuring every person in the world has what they need – enough to eat, a safe place to sleep, education and their health. It starts with you giving one penny. You can do this every time you shop. Participating retailers will add a penny to your bill; or you can calculate how often you shop and send the money to PennyOn using PayPal.

There’s about £580 million in loose change just lying around – you can turn that into something positive. If you find some of that, you can donate it.

You can also collect all your spare change each night by emptying your pockets or purse – and donate all the pennies to PennyOn, and do something creative with the rest of the money.

Your pennies can be used to help people take care of themselves – from support programmes in your local community to get people back on their feet and overseas educational projects to help people grow their own food so they can feed themselves or building their own schools so they can teach their community the skills they need to thrive. PennyOn will be supporting some worthwhile projects. Contact them for more information: www.pennyon.com

Socks for Happy People is a new social venture. This is how they describe themselves: The happy surprise with which people say ‘socks?’ when they hear what we do is always fun to see. It seems starting a sock company, in itself, is a little bit different since great socks - despite being over 3,000 years old - have somehow remained below most people’s radars.

Well we think it's time for that to change. Socks are brilliant and they deserve to be celebrated! But socks - brilliant as they are - aren't really the reason we're here. Socks for Happy People exists for reasons much deeper than socks. In fact sometimes we say, in the nicest possible way: "If you think we're in the sock business you've already missed the point." But also:

Socks can literally help brighten your day
Others can enjoy your socks as well as you
Everything can be improved
Socks could be the first step into something greater

Their proportional stripe sock is in colourful stripes (in four colourways) with the width of each stripe proportional to where the £65 million of lost pennies are estimated to be:

Down the backs of sofas, £5.9 million
In the supermarket, £2.6 million
Inside vacuum cleaners, £1.3 million
In washing machines, £3.3 million
In the car, £7.8 million
Down the drain £0.65 million
On public transport, £2 million
In clothes and shoes, £3.9 million
On the street, £26 million
In handbags and suitcases, £11 million

For every pair of socks you purchase, you will also be donating a pair to a streetchild in Mongolia, and you have the option of putting a Penny On. www.socksforhappypeople.com

Walk to Work

2010-04-01T10:08:00.002+01:00

Here’s just one little thing you can do to address global warming, reduce air pollution and improve your fitness – that’s walk to work. If not every day, then at least once a week. It’s a WIN-WIN-WIN for you, the environment and the world.

To promote walking to work, there is a Walk to Work Week. In 2010, this runs from 26-30 April.

There are challenges for this year.
1. Try walking all or part of the way to work
2. Try walking all or part of the way home from work
3. Hold a walking meeting
4. Walk all or part of the way to a meeting
4. Take a walk during your lunch break

But remember, walking consumes energy and your fuel is the food you eat. If you eat more meat or meat products to make up for the extra energy you have consumed, then this will be bad for the environment. This issue is covered in in Robert and Brenda Vale's book "Time to Eat the Dog?", a previous post. So whilst you are walking, think about that delicious veggie snack you are going to reward yourself with!

Walk to Work Week: www.walkingworks.org.uk

For lunchbreak circular walks or to find a good way of getting to and from work on foot, go to www.walkit.com (for the UK only)

From 17 to 21 May, Living Streets also organises a Walk to School Week; take your children on foot. Leave the car at home. www.livingstreets.org.uk

Comments from the 2009 Walk to Work Week
"I felt really inspired by the challenges set by Walk to Work Week and have discovered new paths and areas in London. I work near Portobello Road and live in Highgate, so I have taken the plunge and walked home... I realised it will be quite hard to do this walk every day, so the next time I decided to jump off the tube at Kentish Town and walk to Highgate from there, which takes anything from 45 minutes to an hour. I take a different route each time and have discovered beautiful paths on and around Hampstead Heath which I hope to explore more in the future. Apart from the exercise and fresh air, I enjoy having control over my arrival times and the creativity involved in exploring new ways to and from work." Hanlie, Highgate, London

"Nothing major to report except that I have walked to work all week a total of 10.5 miles and I feel great, I am going to carry on doing it for the benefit of my health (and my weight I hope!!) I have realised that stiletto heels were not a plan after Monday so for the rest of the week it has been flats with the heels in my bag ready for when I get to work. Many thanks for arranging this event it was the push I needed." Rita, Greenwich, London

Are you mentally ill?

2010-03-15T12:22:00.003Z

Mental illness seems to be increasing… at least according to the American Psychiatric Association which keeps finding new conditions which it compiles in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disease.

The first edition of this manual in 1952 extended to 130 pages and listed 106 disorders.
The second edition of this manual in 1968 extended to 134 pages and listed 182 disorders.
The third edition of this manual in 1980 extended to 494 pages and listed 265 disorders.
The fourth edition of this manual in 1987 extended to 562 pages and listed 290 disorders.
The fifth edition of this manual in 1994 extended to 886 pages and listed 297 disorders.
This was updated in 2000 and the next edition is planned for 2013.

Noteworthy is the fact that the earliest editions had homosexuality as a disorder, and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder was only recognised as a disorder in the 1994 edition.

Read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders

So is mental illness really on the increase? Or are we now no longer able to cope, such that conditions that we would have managed in the past are now classed as disorders. Are we becoming too sensitive to what we encounter in the world around us? Or is society really getting so complex that people are finding it harder and harder to cope? Or are psychiatrists just becoming too clever at seeking out and identifying new disorders?

Whatever the cause of the escalation of mental disorders, we should be attending to our wellbeing.

Research has shown that there is lots you can do to improve your mental health. The WellBeing Project in St Helens, Lancashire promotes the following twelve steps to enhancing your wellbeing:
• Explore your spiritual side. What do you value in life?
• Talk about your feelings. Talk to friends, family members, or visit your GP.
• Value yourself and others. Attend assertiveness classes, try team sports.
• Keep in touch with friends and loved ones. Send a letter or card. Meet for lunch.
• Ask for help. Talk to friends, family members, or visit your GP.
• Relax - take a break. Go walking, listen to music.
• Keep physically active. Gardening, walking, dancing.
• Eat well. Eat together. Eat five fruit and vegetables every day.
• Drink alcohol in moderation. Know your limits.
• Learn new skills. Learn basic skills, computer skills, learn a new language.
• Do something creative. Try cooking, painting, DIY.
• Get involved and make a contribution. Try volunteering, or join a local sports team.

www.wellbeingproject.co.uk

Go to sleep

2010-03-15T12:03:00.004Z

A survey, carried out for the BBC suggests that many children are not getting enough sleep. of 1,083 children aged between 9 and 11 across the UK who answered a questionnaire, 314 said that they went to bed by 9.30pm,  and 272 stated that their bedtime was 10.00pm or later. Half stated that they were not getting enough sleep and wanted more. Half said that they were staying up to play on computer games or their mobile phones or to watch television, and more than half had a TV in their bedroom.

A human's need for sleep can decline by up to 11 hours a day during the course of a lifetime - from a maximum of 18 hours for a newborn baby to seven hours as an adult. For children aged 10, experts recommend at least 10 hours of sleep a night.

Sleep is a stronger basic need than food and water. Without sleep the body and mind are unable to function efficiently. Lack of sleep amongst young people has been linked to problems with concentration, behaviour and school work. Sleep deprivation is used in war and terrorism as a form of torture to force victims to disclose information.

Be more effective when you are awake. Make sure that you get enough sleep… at night.

Food for Thought from Insomniacs (UK): Anxiety is one of the main causes of insomnia. Worrying over what you eat will not help you sleep. Weight loss and body image dominate the media affecting how we feel about ourselves and making us preoccupied with what we eat. Worrying over food will keep you awake and add to all the other stresses that affect sleep. Finding a balance and cutting down on the 'sleep stoppers' such as caffeine makes sense. Worrying over every mouthful will only make it harder to sleep. Try to cut out the alcohol and restrict the coffee for a few nights each week and see how well you sleep - it might become a lifetime habit! www.insomniacs.co.uk

Divide up your day… how long do you spend changing the world? In 19th Century Europe, working conditions were unregulated. The health, welfare and morale of working people suffered, and child labour was common. The working day could range from 10 hours up to 16 hours for six days a week. Religious sentiment ensured a day off for the Sabbath.

Robert Owen, a socialist pioneer, demanded a ten-hour day in 1810, which he instituted in his model industrial community of New Lanark. In 1817, he demanded an eight-hour day using the slogan: “Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest.”

Although there were initial successes in achieving an eight-hour day for skilled workers in Australia in the 1840s and 1850s, most employed people in the industrialised world had to wait until the 20th century for the eight-hour day to be widely achieved. In Europe today, the working week for many people is just 35 hours, with up to 6 weeks of annual holiday, and the Working Time Directive seeks to limit the maximum number of hours worked per week to 48. In developing countries, workers are not so lucky, where child labour, a long working day and sweatshop conditions are often the norm.

The Great Leap Forward in China (1958-1961): Mao Zedong demanded that the people work at fever pitch. They had to run carrying heavy loads, whether it was freezing cold or blazing hot. They had to carry water up winding paths to irrigate the terraced fields. They had to keep the backyard steel furnaces going night and day. They literally had to move mountains. Work was good, and Mao hoped it would transform China. Mao set this out as the daily norm for Chinese workers and peasants:
8 hours sleeping
4 hours eating and breaks
2 hours studying (which meant reading and discussing good Communist thought)
10 hours working
Under this 8-4-2-10 regime, workers were allowed two days off a month (five for women). Mao called this way of working ‘Communist Spirit’.

How do you spend your time? There are 84,400 seconds in each day. Keep a diary of what you do. How much time are you spending on what, on average, for each day of the week…
Working
Eating and breaks
Travel to work
Study, reading and hobbies
Sport and fitness
Shopping
Housework, cooking and child minding
Going out: to friends, to the cinema, to the pub, to a football match, etc.
Idling, including sitting in front of the TV, doing the crossword or SuDoKu
Doing things for others and the community: volunteering and community action
Is your life in balance? How much time are you wasting? Could you be doing more for the community and for a better world?

Invest in me

2010-02-08T11:10:00.002Z

In a recent discussion among a select group of social investors and entrepreneurs a strange question was presented. If an investor offered you a large infusion of unrestricted capital, say $300,000, with the only condition being that you would give them 3% of your income for the rest of your life, would you take the deal? To the host’s delight, the conversation struck a controversial chord leading to 100 unique email responses about the idea.

For the model of investing in individuals to work, the investor will need to have a strong faith in the integrity and future prospects of the individual entrepreneur they are investing in. The entrepreneur should also look to the investor for wisdom and guidance. This could make an ideal model for learning, growth and success.

The notion of unrestricted funding could be music to the ears of a social entrepreneur because they are often operating at the brink despite knowing that a large upfront investment could catalyse sustainability and going to scale.

For young social entrepreneurs, the greatest burden is often a sense of unrealized potential because the philanthropic and social innovation markets are not yet evolved to catalyze high-potential nonprofits and social businesses in the same way that the traditional venture markets have learned to do. If young social entrepreneurs are given an upfront investment, who knows what we may go on to do. So the slogan should be: “Invest in us; we’ll give you some of our equity for life.”

As reported in Social Edge: www.socialedge.org/discussions/funding/invest-in-me-take-my-equity

The Thrust Fund. Here is a selection of entrepreneurs who are offering a 3% share in their future income for $300,000; and you can invest in them through the Thrust Fund:

Kjerstin Erickson, 26, the entrepreneur behind FORGE, an international NGO that helps transform Africa's victims of war into heroes of peacebuilding and reconstruction.

Jon Gosier, 28, the lead engineer and entrepreneur behind AppAfrica, a social venture investing in African software entrepreneurs to create jobs and prevent braindrain.

Saul Garlick, 26, the entrepreneur behind ThinkImpact, an international nonprofit that connects American students to rural villages in Africa to alleviate poverty.

Pick one of these - or all of them - who you find compelling and get in touch with them. Get to know them. Explore their passions, their plans, and the potential of changing the world with them for the rest of their life. Revolutions could occur at these people's hands... and you can be a part of it. Invest in your chosen entrepreneur in return for a share of their life’s income: www.thrustfund.com

And in the UK: James Layfield, an ambitious young entrepreneur (but not a social entrepreneur) is looking for private equity investment of £1m for a 10% share of his future lifetime earnings, although there would be a clause allowing him to buy out the investor for a multiple of the original cost. Layfield developed this fundraising idea through the frustration of engaging with the conventional fund-raising process. “I believe that this is the true spirit of entrepreneurship, where I am my own commodity. I’m young, I’ve now started three companies which are all on the right track, and I have ideas for more.” Layfield’s aim is to increase his net worth to £100m by 2019, when he will be 45. (as reported in the Financial Times)

Lending to microentrepreneurs

2009-12-24T14:10:00.002Z

The Internet is an ideal medium for linking people to people and aggregating their support to achieve something specific. There is a new term for this – crowdfunding. And websites are being launched, such as www.kickstarter.com and www.sellaband.com and www.spot.us and one that I am working on (to be launched in mid-2010) provisionally called Sellaventure: www.sellaventure.co.uk

There are also websites such as www.goodgifts.org which link people's gift of money
to the purchase of a specific item which will improve the lives of an individual, a family or the wider community.

It is important (a) that these websites state clearly what will be done with the money they have collected (provide a loan to a Tanzanian microentrepreneur, give a Rwandan woman a goat, etc.) and (b) that the money is not appropriated for general funds through a get-out clause in the small print. People need to have confidence that their money is being spent as they believe it will be, and charities raising money in these ways need to respect their donors.

But many of the "good gift" fundraising has small print, that the money may not go for a goat, but perhaps be given for a giraffe or even spent just on running costs, if that's where the money is needed. I should state that the worst offenders seem to be the major charities, and that specialist websites such as goodgifts.org really do do wha they state.

For some time I have been a strong advocate of www.kiva.org and have made several loans to microentrepreneurs using their website. I was passed this cutting from the New York Times. Let it speak for itself (see below). But my suggestion to Kiva as a Kiva lender is that they try to do what everybody thought they were doing, to act as a market place to provide loans to microentrepreneurs with the Kiva supporters supporting specific named individuals (which is a powerful fundraising idea) and not just putting their funds into microfinance lending institutions (which is something that banks are better at doing). I really like the idea of giving somebody a hand up, by contributing towards a target sum for that individual to invest in his or her future.

Confusion on Where Money Lent via Kiva Goes by STEPHANIE STROM Published: November 8, 2009 in the New York Times

Last month (October 2009), David Roodman, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development, pressed a button on his laptop as his bus left the Lincoln Tunnel in Manhattan and started a debate that has people re-examining the country’s latest celebrated charity, Kiva.org.

Oprah Winfrey extolled Kiva on her TV show. Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times, sang its praises. “I lent $25 each to the owner of a TV repair shop in Afghanistan, a baker in Afghanistan, and a single mother running a clothing shop in the Dominican Republic,” Mr. Kristof wrote in a 2007 column.

Kiva, a nonprofit organization, promoted itself as a link between small individual lenders and small individual borrowers like Maryjane Cruz in the Philippines, who recently sought a $625 loan to support her family’s farm.

But Mr. Roodman’s blog post said that lenders like Mr. Kristof were not making direct loans. Borrowers like Ms. Cruz already have loans from microfinance institutions by the time their pictures are posted on Kiva’s Web site.

Thus, the direct person-to-person connection Kiva offered was in fact an illusion. Kiva’s lenders were actually backstopping microfinance institutions, and since Kiva and other online giving and lending models pride themselves on their transparency, Mr. Roodman and others suggested it might better explain what its lenders’ money — about $100 million over four years — was really doing.

“The person-to-person donor-to-borrower connections created by Kiva are partly fictional,” he wrote. “I suspect that most Kiva users do not realize this.”

“Little did I realize what that click would unleash,” he said in an interview, later adding that the post had attracted dozens of comments, more than 10,000 hits and thousands of Twitter postings.

Much of his long post is complimentary to Kiva — after all, the information he used to write it is largely tucked away on Kiva’s site — but it has brought scrutiny of the organization. It goes beyond complaints about its transparency to questioning whether the model it relies on is viable and, indeed, whether any organization can fulfill the promise it was making to directly connect people to people.

“There’s a whole new generation of socially connected nonprofits that use the Internet to make the illusion of person-to-person contact much more believable,” said Timothy Ogden, editor in chief of Philanthropy Action, an online journal for donors. “The problem is that they are no more connecting donors to people than the child sponsorship organizations of the past did.”

In the late 1990s, several child sponsorship organizations amended their disclosures after a series of articles in The Chicago Tribune revealed that while they were soliciting money to sponsor a specific needy child, that child was not necessarily receiving the money directly.

More recently, charities that ask donors for money to buy a farm animal have added disclaimers to their pitches, stating that money might not buy a cow or a duck but finance broader programs.

Now Kiva is the latest nonprofit group to have to overhaul its explanation of how it works. Where its home page once promised, “Kiva lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty,” it now simply states, after Mr. Roodman’s post: “Kiva connects people through lending to alleviate poverty.”

Kiva is not the only site with transparency problems. GlobalGiving, whose Web site allows donors to choose among various projects to support, has raised money for philanthropic projects of three or four profit-making companies, according to Dennis Whittle, its co-founder and chief executive. It did not, however, tell donors that their money would support a company’s philanthropic projects rather than one proposed by a nonprofit.

For instance, it raised $975 for SunNight Solar Enterprises, a small start-up that develops solar-powered consumer products, so it could distribute 500 free solar-powered lights to refugees in camps. After The New York Times raised questions about the issue, Mr. Whittle said in a blog post on The Huffington Post that GlobalGiving was considering whether to tell potential donors when it was raising money for a business rather than a nonprofit.

Premal Shah, Kiva’s president, said he could foresee a day when Kiva really did provide person-to-person connection, once some legal hurdles are cleared and when people in the developing world began using their mobile phones to use credit and make payments.

“That’s the future of Kiva,” he said, “when through that disintermediation process you can bring down the costs of these transactions and put them directly in the hands of people.”

For now, however, analysts are raising questions about Kiva’s model, which relies in part on its own data, offers lenders no recourse against default and deploys volunteers to do most of its auditing.

Mr. Ogden goes so far as to question Kiva’s role in the lending process. “Kiva’s new documentation explains, if you read it, that Kiva is a connector not of individual lenders to individual donors, but of individual lenders to microfinance institutions,” he said. “If Kiva’s users want to be connected to an individual borrower, Kiva doesn’t do that, and so the big question is, do Kiva’s users want to be connected to a microfinance institution — in which case, why do they need Kiva?”

Indeed, individual lenders can support microfinance institutions directly through, for example, Microplace, or make donations to support nonprofit groups like the Grameen Foundation and Acción that support microfinance.

Mr. Shah said he thought Kiva’s distinct advantage was in making it easier for small lenders to support microfinance than the other programs.

The difficulty is in engaging the person who wants to lend $25, a mother of three in Des Moines, for instance, “and create a simple way for her to participate in microfinance, which is what we do,” Mr. Shah said.

The question is, does the lender understand that his money may not be supporting the loan he picked on Kiva’s Web site?

The uproar has proven beneficial in an unexpected way. “If anything, it has drawn more people into the nuance and beauty of this model of microfinance,” said Mr. Shah, who joined Kiva from eBay. “It’s highly imperfect, but it’s like a 3 1/2-year-old child: it has a lot of potential.”

He said he had so far seen no impact on Kiva’s business, which set a record with $293,000 lent on the day he was interviewed and celebrated its fourth anniversary last month by announcing it had lent more than $100 million all told.

Time to eat your dog?

2009-12-21T12:39:00.001Z

Should owning a Great Dane make you as much of an eco-outcast as an SUV driver? Yes it should, say Robert and Brenda Vale, two architects at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, who specialise in sustainable living. In their book, “Time to Eat the Dog? The real guide to sustainable living”, they compare the ecological footprints of popular pets with those of various other lifestyle choices - and pets do not fare well.

As well as guzzling resources, especially eating processed meat which requires a high input of resources, cats and dogs devastate wildlife populations, spread disease and add to pollution. It is time that we recognized the ecological footprint of our pets.

To measure the paw, claw and fin-prints of the family pet, the Vales analysed the ingredients of common brands of pet food. They calculated, for example, that a medium-sized dog would consume 90gms of meat and 156gms of cereals daily in its recommended 300gm portion of dried dog food. At its pre-dried weight, that equates to 450gms of fresh meat and 260gms of cereal. That means that over the course of a year, your dog will wolf down about 164kgs of meat and 95kgs of cereals. It takes 43.3sq m of land to generate 1kg of chicken per year (it is far more for beef and lamb), and 13.4sq m of land to generate 1kg of cereals. So that gives him a footprint for an average dog of 0.84 hectares. For a bigger dog such as a German Shepherd, the figure would be 1.1 hectares.

Meanwhile, an SUV such as a 4.6-litre Toyota Land Cruiser driven a modest 10,000 kms a year will uses 55.1 gigajoules, of energy both to fuel it and to build it. One hectare of land can produce approximately 135 gigajoules of energy per year, so the Land Cruiser's eco-footprint is about 0.41 hectares – which is less than half that of a medium-sized dog.

Owning a dog really is an ecological extravagance, mainly because of the carbon footprint of meat.

The Vales found that cats have an eco-footprint of about 0.15 hectares (slightly less than a Volkswagen Golf), hamsters come in at 0.014 hectares apiece (buy two, and you might as well have bought a plasma TV) and canaries half that. Even a goldfish requires 0.00034 hectares (3.4 sq m) of land to sustain it, giving it an ecological fin-print equal to two cellphones.

What can we do about this? We could:

Give up owning a pet altogether for environmental reasons. If we are unwilling to do that, then…
Trade down first to smaller pets, and then to vegetarian pets.
And if in the end, you must have a pet, probably go for a goldfish.
Or why not get a virtual pet? www.virtualpet.com/vp/links/links.htm

Twixtmas

2009-12-21T11:34:00.002Z

A new campaign has been launched called Twixtmas, which hopes to improve the world a little bit. And if lots of people take part, it will mean that the little improvements add up to something meaningful.

The idea of Twixtmas is that, in the five days between Christmas and New Year (December 27th to December 31st) , we all encourage everyone we know (including ourselves of course) to do five things to make the world a better place. Each day has a particular theme – helping yourself, someone else, a friend, the planet and doing something for your future. To spread the Twixtmas cheer, people are encouraged to give their friends and family a ‘Merry Twixtmas High Five’ hand greeting and share their Twixtmas pledge – the five things they are doing to change their world – as well as spreading the word about Twixtmas and what it stands for. Valuable tips and advice from leading experts in well-being are offered on the website www.twixtmas.com where visitors can also download a Twixtmas Pledge form.

The idea for Twixtmas celebrations is being promoted by the Flexible Thinking Forum, a new not-for-profit social enterprise which works to provide training for more creative and flexible thinking among businesses and organizations.
You can find out more at www.twixtmas.com.

Started in 2008, it is not yet too late to do it for 2009, but also make a note to do it in 2010 by putting it in your diary and promoting the idea when you send out your Christmas greetings. Five little things can make a big difference.

Pitch your ideas for changing the world

2009-04-15T10:34:00.000+01:00

Social entrepreneurs take note. Here’s an opportunity to get your entrepreneurial ideas to a wider audience. As part of it’s 25th Anniversary celebrations, the Virgin Atlantic airline is launching a new show, PitchTV, which will air onboard and will also be available online here.

Virgin Atlantic is inviting entrepreneurs in search of investment and exposure for their business ideas to upload a 2-minute video pitch. Virgin Atlantic staff will vote for their favourite and each month. The winning videos will feature on Virgin Atlantic’s PitchTV show which will air on the inflight entertainment system – and give exposure to thousands of business professionals flying Virgin Atlantic. Any viewer interested in hearing more about a pitched idea will then be able to get in contact and maybe help take the idea further.

“When I was starting out, I wish I could have had the chance to pitch my business ideas directly to people who could help make my ambitions a reality. We can now make that happen for you. If you’re a budding entrepreneur, we’re giving you the unique opportunity of getting your ideas by top business professionals from around the world on board Virgin Atlantic planes as well online. Who knows – among the viewers might be someone with the power to bring your idea to life.” – Richard Branson

All you have to do is film yourself delivering the very best pitch possible, but make sure it’s no longer than 2 minutes. Then simply upload your video pitch on http://entrepreneur.virgin.com/pitchtv

Each year, Branson will also personally select his favourite pitch, and the winner will receive a special prize, details to be revealed later. In the meantime, get your ideas sorted, film yourself, upload your video, and good luck!

Celebrating Sarah-ness

2009-02-27T15:55:00.003Z

Nearly every year, two friends called Sarah at America’s Burning Man festival, host a party for all the Sarahs there. A Sarah Party, where Sarahs gather to share food, music, stories about their names, and inevitably debate the with or without an ‘h’ issue.

In 2003 Sarah Pletts met Sarah Jane Hall at the festival and they attended the Sarah Party together. They subsequently decided it would be fun to host a Sarah Party in London. This is how they describe the experience:

Having a name that seemed to be shared by many means that I work hard to differentiate myself. I never really enjoyed being a Sarah until I went to the Sarah Party at the Burning Man festival. It transformed the way I felt about my name. Suddenly it was fun and exciting, and I wanted to pass on the experience to others.

I and some of my Sarah-friends agreed to host a Sarah Party on a whim. It never occurred to me that it might be difficult to find enough Sarahs to make it happen, as there always seemed to be plenty of them in my life, but as the day grew nearer, it became the biggest challenge. Literally hundreds of Sarahs were approached and invited to the party. I e-mailed all the Sarahs I knew, then my whole address book. I asked everyone I met if they knew any Sarahs. I googled them, and I made a sign to try and track them down at a festival. Most of them were wary of my strange approach. They could be forgiven for thinking I was mad.

The Sarahs brave and lucky enough to be able to be there at my Sarah Party on Sunday 29th June 2008 were an extraordinary and diverse group of wonderful people. It really was a delight to meet them.

We tried to theme every aspect of the party within our limited budget. On arrival everyone received a name badge, and a tiara. There was a shrine to honour past Sarahs. Poems were written and read, there were Sarah songs and the extraordinary singer Sarah Jane Morris performed with guitarist Dominic Miller. There were games, a quiz, yoga, massage and juggling, a raffle with MC Sarah Bennetto. We showed a film starring Sara Dee who played 'Sarah'. Sara Leigh Lewis took photographs, and we ate food that spelled our name while drinking 'Sarandipity' cocktails.

We don't know exactly how many came, but there are 59 in the group photo and we know of quite a few who left before or arrived after it. Our guess is about 75. Everyone who came participated and added to the spirit of playfulness.

I didn't expect the whole experience to be quite so fulfilling, and quite such hard work. Through the Burning Man community - which has an ethos of 'gifting' and participation, I have discovered new possibilities for enjoying life and expressing my passions creatively. Doing something for fun can be surprisingly radical. My aim was to inspire and please, and in so doing send out ripples for others to taste and follow their own pleasure. Celebrate your Sarah-ness, express your unique-ness!

And if you are not a Sarah, but a Mary or a Michael, then follow the example of the Sarah’s and organise your own Michael or Mary party to celebrate your Michael-ness of Mary-ness….
www.sarahness.co.uk

Two out of the ten things about being Sarah by Sarah Salway:
• My uncle made a speech at my wedding. ‘Sarah,’ he said, ‘is harass backwards, and he has certainly always been very good at that.’
• Sarah, Sarha, Sahra… how hard is it to spell? Once, after three attempts over the telephone, the man on the other end told me crossly that it would be easier if I’d been called ‘banana.’

The top 10 boys names in the UK in 2007 (according to the Office of National Statistics):
Jack
Thomas
Oliver
Joshua
Harry
Charlie
Daniel
William
James
Alfie

And the top 10 girls names in the UK in 2007
Grace
Ruby
Olivia
Emily
Jessica
Sophie
Chloe
Lily
Ella
Amelia

Burning Man is an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self-expression and self-reliance and held at the start of September in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Find out more about Burning Man. Go along and join in if you are looking for something different: www.burningman.com

Guerrilla tactics for sustainable transport

2009-02-27T15:52:00.002Z

1. Organise a Parking Meter Party
Pay for a bay. The going rate on the meter for as long as you want to party. Place a model car in the space – just to show that you are parked there. Bring some deckchairs and a table, a nicely chilled bottle of white wine, elegant wine flutes and some delicious snacks. Enjoy. But at the same time, spread the word. Have leaflets to give out to passers-by. You could even invite them to come and join your party. Maybe, they will be committed enough to the cause to take the adjacent parking bay. You can organise your party to promote sustainable transport solutions, or just to have a ball. Either way, you will be reducing the parking capacity of the street (temporarily) and having a lot of fun. Canada seems to be the world centre for promoting this sort of street event. You can get some tips on organising a Parking Meter Party from: www.streetsareforpeople.org/actions/carfree2006-tips.html

2. Print out some fake parking tickets
The Alliance Against Urban 4x4s seeks to educate people about the environmental and social damage caused by the increasing numbers of urban 4x4s that we have been seeing in cities as well as to promote more sustainable forms of transport. They are lobbying for increases in congestion charges and road taxes for 4x4s, and trying to get a ban on advertising 4x4s in mainstream media.

Their campaigning activities aim to be peaceful, creative, eye-catching and constructive. They want to engage drivers in the debate and not demonise those who drive oversize 4x4s. Everyone wants to have a safer, cleaner environment, so the hope is that urban 4x4 drivers will realise that their car is the villain (not them) and that this could lead them to making better transport choices in future.

A small number of 4x4 models have carbon emissions less damaging than most, and these could be chosen by people who genuinely need a 4x4. However, most 4x4s are large, highly polluting and dangerous to others on narrow streets. Apart from those need to drive off-road, tow heavy loads or engage in other activities for which 4x4s are specially designed, SUVs are a nuisance to others and bad for the environment.

One tactic used to campaign against SUVs in cities is to place a fake parking ticket on the windshield, which gives information on all the reasons for not driving this sort of vehicle. It might also cause the driver a few moments of worry until they realise what the parking ticket actually is. You can download fake parking tickets from the Alliance against Urban 4x4s website: www.stopurban4x4s.org.uk

In the USA, over 1 million fake tickets served on SUV drivers in 500 cities in 48 States:
www.globalexchange.org/war_peace_democracy/oil/suvticket.html
www.earthonempty.com/tickets.html

3. Draw your own cycle lanes
Hywell Sedjwick-Jell writes… “Every time I see a cyclist struggling through the traffic, I feel a surge of rage growing from my stomach and spreading to my chest and then heading towards my cheeks. That’s when I start thinking about how I might be able to find a way to help, something that will also help me the next time I cycle down that road.”

It started in Latvia, where cyclists had the idea of drawing their own cycle lanes in the narrow congested streets of Riga. One evening in the UK, Hywel went out with chalk in his hands to do the same in a street he cycled down every day… Barker Drive in Camden Town, north London. “It didn’t have a bike lane. I was sick of holding my breath in fear every time I heard the rev of a car engine behind me. I wanted something that would separate me from the street and keep cars away. Maybe if I drew a cycle lane, people would start thinking that there really should be one and start asking for one. I know I certainly would.”

“Cycling is something that should be preserved as precious, and encouraged. When I’m cycling, I’m saving the city from pollution. I’m diminishing raffic. I’m not taking up places in the bus or on the subway; And I’m generally creating a nicer environment for everyone.”

“I usually go out on the streets to draw at about 1.00am. I prefer doing it when there aren’t too many people around. I’ve never checked whether what I’m doing is legal. Yes, I am drawing on public property, but the chalk dissolves when it rains.. I would like people, especially cyclists, to be aware that it is their right to demand bike paths. Maybe someone rushing to work one morning will notice my cycle lane and think “I could send a letter to the Council or to my MP.” [from The Guardian newspaper]

Stop the runway; join the airplot

2009-01-15T13:22:00.004Z

Plans for building a third runway at London’s Heathrow airport have been approved by the UK government. There is widespread opposition to this from environmentalists as well as the two main opposition political parties who feel that a stop should be made to any airport expansion if the UK is to reduce its carbon emissions to the extent that will be needed to halt and reverse global warming. The most optimistic forecast for when the new runway would become operational is 2019, by which time the world will have had to come to terms with peak oil and the consequences of our inaction on climate change.

Greenpeace UK has developed a campaign for opposing the runway plan by buying a plot of land where it is to be built and then inviting people opposed to the runway plan to become co-owners. Sign up to join the Airplot and co-own a bit of land that will be needed for the runway. Do this at: www.greenpeace.org.uk

Here’s what Greenpeace say:

We've bought a piece of land slap bang in the middle of the proposed third runway site at Heathrow. We're not going to let the runway get built and we need your help.   The government plans to go ahead with airport expansion across the country even though this means we'll have no hope of meeting our climate emission targets. At full capacity, Heathrow would become the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in the whole country. We can't let this happen if we are serious about tackling climate change.   We've bought the plot at Heathrow to make sure that climate change cannot be ignored. We will challenge the proposals every step of the way. We will give evidence at the planning inquiry, resist the compulsory purchase of the land, we will campaign during the national election and final, if necessary, we will stand with the community of Sipson and stop the bulldozers. The village of Sipson, including 700 homes, businesses, the local school and several local pubs, will be flattened to make way for the third runway.    We have four legal owners on the deeds: Oscar winning actress Emma Thompson, comedian Alistair McGowan and prospective Tory parliamentary candidate Zac Goldsmith and Greenpeace UK. That's the maximum number of owners we can put on the deeds, but we're inviting everyone to join the plot as a beneficial owner and stand beside us to resist all attempts to build the runway.   You'll be joining beneficial owners who've already signed-up including local Labour MP John McDonnell, Tory frontbench spokeswoman Justine Greening, Lib Dem MP Susan Kramer, environmentalist George Monbiot and acclaimed climate scientist and Royal Society Research Fellow Dr Simon Lewis.   We'll be depending on thousands of people to join the Airplot community in the coming months and years to put pressure on your MPs, write letters to local media, join us at events, tell friends, and come up with your own ideas to make sure that everyone in the country know that we must stop airport expansion if we are going to stop runaway climate change.   The government says that we need the third runway to create jobs in these tough economic times. But building a runway in 10 years time will do nothing to stop a recession now. And the benefits to the economy have been completely overblown by the government. In fact an independent study commissioned by WWF suggests that the true cost of a third runway would lead to a £5 billion loss.  In truth the government has few allies outside the aviation industry on this issue. Scientists including the government's former Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King, the head of the environment agency, Chris Smith, cabinet ministers Ed Miliband and Hillary Benn, all major opposition parties, and an increasing number of Labour MPs have all spoken out against the plans to build a third runway at Heathrow.   Now we need your help! Join the plot and help stop airport expansion.
Check out Plane Stupid, the campaign against airport expansion: www.planestupid.com

Change the world at change.org

2009-01-12T14:18:00.001Z

The new US President used two catchphrases in his speeches “Change” and “Yes we can”. Change.org is a social action network where you can: learn about causes; connect to good people and non-profits; and take action.

You can also submit or vote on ideas for change in America. For example, here’s an idea that’s particularly relevant:

Appoint Secretary of Peace in Department of Peace and Non-Violence: Our planet, our media, our social interactions, our homes all suffer from the epidemic of inter-personal violence and warfare that plagues America. With the establishment of a Department of Peace and Non-Violence, with a respected Secretary of Peace in the President's Cabinet, and a program to reduce violence in cities, nations, and even in our homes, we will all benefit from the growth of a culture of peace.  While this is a new layer of the Federal Government, it is a positive force for change, for handling the rage and violence that has cost our country billions in emergency rooms, police protection, broken homes and marriages. This is not an attempt to circumvent or replace the Department of Defense nor to co-opt the Department of State. This is a new entity, in the President's Cabinet, a Department dedicated to training peace-keepers, educating our children, and suggesting non-violent alternatives to hostility, and war. We are asking for a motive and a method to counteract violence, with positive potentials for resolution of conflict, by individuals trained to work with local, state and national approaches, building a United States that no longer glorifies warfare and deadly force, but brings to the table a sincere desire for peace, and a methodology to achieve it. – Submitted by Stephen Zendt (Senior Citizen working in Financial Services, Walnut Creek, California).

Change.org is a social entrepreneurship venture based in San Francisco, CA. The company was founded by Ben Rattray in the summer of 2005. Change.org launched the first version of its website in 2007. Our Vision: Today as citizens of the world, we face a daunting array of social and environmental problems ranging from health care and education to global warming and economic inequality. For each of these issues, whether local or global in scope, there are millions of people who care passionately about working for change but lack the information and opportunities necessary to translate their interest into effective action. Change.org aims to address this need by serving as the central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time.

Have fun browsing the ideas on this website: www.change.org/ideas
Take action on issues. Be part of the change. www.change.org

Football can change the world

2009-01-12T10:35:00.001Z

Football is the world’s most popular sport. It can be used in many ways to help create a better world. All sorts of projects have been set up, from homeless and slum football leagues and world cups to micro-enterprises making fair trade footballs. But none has been so successful as the Mathare Youth Sports Association established in 1987 in a Nairobi slum which set up the semi-professional Mathare United team which has now won Kenya’s Premier League and helped create many young sports stars.

Boys' football in MYSA was started in the Mathare and Eastleigh area. In the first year the league comprised 27 teams. In 1988 there were over 120 teams from junior to senior level. Today over 13,000 youth aged between 9-18 play in MYSA boys leagues with over 900 boys teams in 15 different zones.

Girls football was started in 1992. Many of the girls were doing domestic work and had nothing interesting to do in their free time. Football was an unexpected success. Girls playing football in African society was an alien concept. Parents weren't comfortable with the idea and the boys laughed it off thinking that girls couldn’t play at all. But some girls were interested and also saw it as an opportunity to get fit, and MYSA was determined to develop the idea. In 1996 the girls under-14 team featured in the Norway Cup. Seeing fellow girls in action was a great morale boost for them. More and more girls wanted to be involved in football. Their parents started encouraging them and their brothers were surprised by how good the girls were. In 1998 and 2000 the girls' teams were runners up in the Norway Cup.

One underlying principle behind MYSA is reciprocity. “We’ll do something for you (provide you with the opportunity to play football), if you give something back in return (help clean up the community)”. A win may earn 3 points in the Mathare league, but participating in a clean up earns 6 points!. The incentive is clear.

Under the MYSA Environment Programme, young people and their teams are encouraged weekly and voluntarily to remove solid waste and unclog open sewers which will reduce disease. Any team that completes its cleanup activity is awarded 6 points in the league standings and individual players get 2 points in every completed cleanup which increases their chance of winning a leadership award. The programme teaches the youth to be responsible for their environment and be “winners on and off the pitch”. One successful activity can lead to another. MYSA is now considering acquiring skills and the necessary equipment which can be used to start a garbage recycling plant, which could become a successful income generating activity for MYSA.

The MYSA Leadership Awards Project tries to help the youth stay in school for an additional year. The MYSA youth are able to earn points for participating in sports and community development activities. Each year the best young leaders by age and gender in our 16 zones will receive MYSA Leadership Awards paid directly to their school. Each award is about $150 which largely covers their school fees. Over 300 young leaders receive awards annually.

Key MYSA achievements
• More and more youth are joining MYSA
• Through sport, MYSA is able to fight poverty by creating job opportunities for the youth and involving them in a scholarship award programme which keeps most of them in school.
• Through sport, MYSA has managed to create awareness on key social issues such as HIV/AIDS and drug abuse.
• First Kenyan team in the Norway Cup.
• First to combine sports with environment clean up.
• First self-help league by and for slum youth.
• Started Mathare United semi-professional team, which is also the first top team to train its players on HIV/AIDS awareness.
• MYSA hosts more that 70 teams from all over Kenya and neighbouring countries, for an annual international girls tournament
• The MYSA sports programme has been a model to other organizations in Africa and has offered consultancy services to countries such as Tanzania , Uganda , Botswana , Sudan , Zambia and South Africa by assisting them in initiating a similar programme, as well as offering coaching and refereeing courses.

Key challenges for MYSA
• Since MYSA does not own any community fields, the sports programme has to rely on the co-operation of local schools for running its activities.
• Future aims are:
To possess our own fields.
To fully equip our MYSA zones with all the required sports equipment
To expand the sports programme to other areas in Kenya
To incorporate sport for the disabled in our programme
To have our own stadium
To host an international youth exchange soccer tournament like the Norway Cup
To decentralize and have offices in all the 16 MYSA zones
To introduce other sporting activities apart from soccer

How you can help
1. Support MYSA with a cash donation. $160 will provide one leadership award and keep a young person in school for an additional year. Contact www.mysakenya.org to find out more and to make a donation.
2. Donate equipment to MYSA. Trainers, boots, balls will all be useful.
3. Buy footballs from Alive and Kicking, a social enterprise which creates jobs for young people in Kenya making footballs, and donate them to MYSA. For just $15, A&K will make and deliver one football, netball or volleyball to a school, youth club, orphanage, slum project or refugee camp in Africa. www.aliveandkicking.org.uk

It’s all a lot of rubbish

2008-09-12T13:56:00.003+01:00

I’ve read two books about rubbish recently:

Rubbish: the archaeology of garbage by William and Rathje and Cullen Murphy, published in 1982, explores the way in which garbage today and through history provides an insight into how we live. By analyzing the garbage people throw out and excavating core samples from landfill sites, the authors explore the impact of such things as fast food packaging, disposable diapers, old newspapers, compostable food waste, and take a look at recycling and waste-to-energy schemes.

The Book of Rubbish Ideas by Tracey Smith, who is also the initiator of International Downshifting Week. The author looks at rubbish room by room and gives practical ideas for how to reduce it and shows how much of our rubbish can be recycled usefully. Here are some facts and ideas from this lively and useful book:

If you toss out your rubbish, this is how long it takes to break down:
Banana peel 2-10 days
Sugar cane and pulp products 1-2 months
Cotton rags 1-5 months
Paper 2-5 months
Rope (organic matter) 3-14 months
Orange peel 6 months
Wool socks 1-5 years
Cigarette filters 1-12 years
Leather shoes 60-80 years
Nylon fabric 100+ years
Aluminium cans 200-400 years
Nappies 300-500 years
Plastic 6-pack holder 450 years
Plastic bottles 450 years – never
Car tyres 1000s of years – never
Chewing gum never
The Zero Waste Week challenge is to see how little residents can throw away in their rubbish bins over the course of one week by recycling and composting as much as possible as well as trying to reuse things, like shopping bags, and avoiding or reducing disposable items whenever possible. The 2008 Zero Waste Week organized by a group of local authorities in the UK took place from 29th September to 5th October. Find out more at:
www.bathnes.gov.uk/BathNES/environmentandplanning/recyclingandwaste/Recycling/Zerowastechallenge.htm and www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/zerowaste and www.therubbishdiet.co.uk

Check out www.junkk.com for recycling ideas

Give up washing powder and use soapnuts instead, a naturally occurring washing detergent which has been used traditionally in India and Nepal. Google it, or check out: www.inasoapnutshell.com

Cut your food waste. Buy only only the food you need. Around one third of all the food we buy is wasted (and that excludes peelings), and this is a significant contributor to global warming. Did you know that in the UK, each day we throw away:
1 million slices of ham
1.3 million yogurts and yogurt drinks
7 million slices of bread
5.1 million potatoes
1.6 million bananas
2.2 million apples
2.8 million tomatoes
Check out: www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

Recycle your old sex toys: New recycling regulations mean that all electrical equipment – including sex toys – must be disposed of at a designated electrical waste collection centre. This means that you shouldn't just chuck your dead vibrator in the kitchen bin! More than 1,000 electrical waste centres have been set up at recycling sites around the UK. But who wants the hassle and embarrassment of taking your dog-eared defunct sex toy down to the tip? Nobody! That's where the LoveHoney Rabbit Amnesty can help. You can send your old rabbit vibrator to LoveHoney Rabbit Amnesty and they will: carefully dispose of your old vibrator, ensuring as much as possible is recycled; donate £1 to a green charity; sell you a new rabbit vibrator at half price. Irresistible! www.lovehoney.co.uk/rabbit-amnesty

Save your sole and recycle your old shoes: a recycled footwear project to donate old shoes to the shoeless: www.solesunited.com

Use a Sol Shaver solar-powered razor (cost around £30 or $50), and cut the carbon as you cut the stubble. Google it for suppliers.

Pests or partners?

2008-07-29T16:37:00.002+01:00

Here is why we need to conserve invertebrates:

“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.” – E.O Wilson

“If we and the rest of the back-boned animals were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty well. But if the invertebrates were to disappear, the world’s ecosystems would collapse.” – David Attenborough

Although insect life is critical to the well-being of the planet, many insect species are becoming endangered through human action. And recently, there has been an enormous worry about the fate of bees, where whole colonies seem to be dying without any real explanation as to why… and without the bee, much of our plant life would not be so effectively pollinated.

To celebrate the importance of insect life, Bridget Nicholls created the International Arts Festival of pests, known as the “Pestival”. This was first run in 2006 at the London Wetlands Centre, and is again being run in 2009, this time on the South Bank. The Pestival aims to raising awareness of the integral role insects play in the global ecosystem and in all animal societies and to generate positive PR for insects, so that they are seen as co-citizens of the planet rather than just as pests. “The Pestival aims to create positive PR for this 400-million-year-old, highly evolved taxon that has had thousands of years of bad press.”

Pestival will take place in London in May 2009. “The programme will include talks, demonstrations, workshops, art installations, films, music and performance, fusing art and science and reaching out to a broad, interested audience of homo sapiens adults and children.” www.pestival.org

Bugs in trouble
Did you know…
• The New Forest cicada is one of Britain's largest insects, black with orange stripes and lovely transparent wings longer than its body. It spends eight years in a larval stage before emerging in a burst of song -- but it has not been heard since 1996.
• Folklore has it that the spots of the seven-spot ladybird symbolise the seven joys and seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary. Sorrow than joy may be in store for lovers of Coccinella septempunctata as the aphids it eats are being gobbled up by the Asian harlequin ladybird, introduced to Europe as a biocontrol.
• The shrill carder bee was widespread in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but records suggest a decline to only one third of the previous distribution by the 1970s, with just seven sites reliably identified in the south and east of the British Isles in the 1980s.
• The southern damselfly is a glorious barcode in turquoise and black. But Coenagrion mercuriale has suffered a 30-per-cent decline in its UK distribution since 1960 due to a lack of appropriate heathland management.
• The oil beetle has one of the most extraordinary life cycles of any British insect, being parasitic on various species of ground-nesting solitary bee.But only three of the nine oil- beetle varieties once found in Britain are still resident.

What can you do to support insect life?
Put a note in your diary to go along to the next Pestival which is being held in May 2009 (watch the website for final dates and programme), and send Bridget your best wishes for its success at: bridget@pestival.org

Check out our blog entry for 7th March 2008 (“Bugs are our Friends”) and visit the Bugwatch website: www.buglife.org.uk

Think about the problem of pesticides by going to these Pesticide Action Network websites: www.pan-international.org, www.pan-uk.org and www.panna.org

Make your own chemical-free mosquito repellant from lemon grass, which is readily available. Here’s how: http://journeytoforever.org/edu_homer.html

Find out about beekeeping: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beekeeping

And if you want to become a beekeeper, the first point of contact is your national Beekeepers’ Association. In the UK this is: www.britishbee.org.uk

Animal rights activists don’t appear to be concerned about people eating insects. If you don’t want to be vegetarian, then insects will provide a more planet-friendly source of protein than farm-reared beef or pork. And if this becomes a fashion, then insects will be bred to create more insects... which could even improve the species! Check out the possibilities at http://eatbug.com

What do you think you are eating?

2008-07-20T23:06:00.002+01:00

More and more of us are eating pre-prepared food. This could be a pre-prepared complete meal or food which has been chilled or frozen; it could be food that has been canned or bottled; it could be dried and then reconstituted by the addition of water. Whatever the food, it will usually be nicely packaged.

We will make our buying choices partly through the images of the food that have been printed on the packaging. We do this, despite knowing from experience that the pictures on the package are seldom anything like what’s inside – which may be greyer, soggier, and altogether less appealing than the picture.

If you don’t believe this, then go to the website www.pundo3000.com. Go to this page: www.pundo3000.com/htms/1.htm for the first product and then scroll through by pressing the “nachstes” button (yes, the website is in German) through to www.pundo3000.com/htms/100.htm. Each product has three images: the package; the image of the food inside that has been printed on the package; and a photograph of what’s actually inside.

Do the following:
1. Visit the pundo website and feel disgusted about the whole idea of food that has been prepared for you in factories; and start cooking real food for yourself, when you know exactly what ingredients you are using and you can use your culinary arts to make it look delicious.
2. If you encounter any particularly stomach-churning examples of prepared food and how the contents look completely different from the picture on the package, then photograph it, and send your photos to The Guardian newspaper at g2@guardian.co.uk and they'll put the best photographs in a gallery. You can also post your comments on any particularly revolting example on The Guardian blog at http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/food/2008/07/not_what_it_says_on_the_tin.html

Support the Bhopal victims

2008-07-01T02:19:00.003+01:00

The Bhopal Disaster of 1984 was an industrial disaster caused by the accidental release of 40 tonnes of Methyl Isocyanate from a Union Carbide India pesticide plant (50.9% owned by the Union Carbide corporation) located in the heart of the city of Bhopal, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

According to the Bhopal Medical Appeal, around 500,000 people were exposed to the leaking chemical. The death toll was estimated by the BBC at nearly 3,000 people who died immediately and at least 15,000 from related illnesses subsequently, although this may be a conservative estimate. Over 120,000 people continue to suffer from the effects of the disaster – such as breathing difficulties, cancer, serious birth-defects, blindness, gynaecological complications and other related problems.

Alongside the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Bhopal rates as the major industrial disaster of the 20th century. After a fight, some compensation was obtained from Union Carbide, but it was not nearly enough and many of the victims found it hard to access. Nearly 25 years later, teh disaster is still causing misery.

After marching more than 500 miles from Bhopal to Delhi, a group survivors and their children, with ages ranging from 6-year old Nagma to eighty-plus year old Gulabo Bai, sat at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi for over 70 days in Spring and Summer 2008 to highlight the unresolved issues of the Bhopal disaster, braving dust storms and heavy rainfall. They asked for a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh even before they began their march to Delhi. They are demanding the formation of a Special Commission on Bhopal, and for legal action to be taken against Dow Chemical Company, the successor company to Union Carbide which inherited the liability for the ongoing consequences of the disaster.

The Prime Minister remained deaf to their pleas. Then nine of the survivors and supporters began an indefinite hunger strike in Delhi starting on June 10. You can read more about the march, sit-in and campaign at www.bhopal.net.

Penelope Doyle decided to fast for one day on 29 June 2008 in solidarity with the survivors of Bhopal. She became part of the International Hunger Strike Relay. And she writes as follows: “I am doing my part to express my support with the survivors. I am writing to ask you to help in whatever capacity possible.” Here are some of the ways that you could support Penelope and the Bhopal Survivors:

1. Join the International Hunger Fast and sign up to fast for a day or more at www.bhopal.net/2008hungerstrike.html

2. Donate to the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal. Please send the money that you would spend on a day’s worth of food to support the Bhopalis’ struggle by going to www.panna.org/system/onlineDonationBhopal.html

3. Call the Prime Minister of India's office to express your disappointment in India’s leaders who are supposed to be there to help the people. Call from overseas at: +91-11-2301 8939 or +91-11-2301-1166. Or send an online fax to the Prime Minster's office at
www.boston4bhopal.org/write_fax.php

4. Spread the word. If you create awareness as a first step, then action will follow. Visit the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal website www.bhopal.net and the Bhopal Medical Appeal website at www.bhopal.org for more information. Or for the Union Carbide viewpoint and their statement about the disaster, go to: www.bhopal.co m

Dialogue in the dark

2008-06-11T18:16:00.002+01:00

The idea is really very simple. In completely a darkened room, blind people lead small groups of guests through an exhibition in which everyday situations are experienced without eyesight.

But the experience is altogether different. A role reversal takes place. Sighted people are taken out from their normal social routine and away from the familiar. Blind people help you orient yourself and give you mobility, and they are also ambassadors for their culture which is devoid of images. They will show you that being blind is a different, but it also offers interesting ways of perceiving people and places.

Everybody will have an unforgettable experience. They will feel their own limits, and perhaps develop a greater understanding, empathy and respect for people who see the world without the benefit of sight.

To complement the exhibitions Dialogue in the Dark provides educational activities for pupils, teachers and others who are interested, and for companies and institutions, a special Business Workshop. Their Taste of Darkness allows you to eat in the dark – there are other restaurants such as Dans le Noir? (London and Paris, with franchises in Moscow and Warsaw)and Die Blinde Kuh (Zurich and Basel) which also do this.

Dialogue in the Dark started in 2000. It has creates jobs for over 5,000 blind, disabled and disadvantaged people worldwide. Its experience can change mindsets on disability and diversity, and increase tolerance. Over 5 million visitors from more than 20 countries have experienced the exhibition.

There are Dialogue in the Dark venues in many European countries, the Americas, East Asia and Israel. If you are passing why not drop by. If you can think of somewhere in your own country to install a Dialogue in the Dark permanent or temporary exhibition, then contact Andreas at: www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com

Dialogue in the Dark was founded by Andreas Heinecke. He was born in 1955 and grew up in Baden-Baden in Germany. He studied German language, literature and history. Following his studies began work as a journalist and documentary writer. It was there that he was asked to train a journalist who had gone blind. Andreas was fascinated by the world of blind people and shocked by the discrimination against them, to which they are still exposed today.

In 1988, Andreas began working with the Home for the Blind Foundation in Frankfurt am Main, so that he could share the experience he had gained so far with other broadcasting corporations. He was looking for possibilities to engage blind and sighted people in conversations where their interest in each other would not be impaired by pity, insecurity or prejudice. It seemed an obvious idea to allow blind and sighted people to meet in the dark.

In 1996, Andreas resigned from the Foundation to start his own business and spread the idea of Dialogue in the Dark internationally.

Together with his wife, Orna Cohen, he has also developed the spin-off of Dialogue in Silence where deaf people provide the hearing with access to non-verbal communication.

Dialogue in Silence is an exhibition which invites you into a world of silence. Other forms of expression have to be used and language has to be visible if it is to be understood. Deaf people act as guides for the visitors, taking small groups through the exhibition which is totally soundproof. Hearing people will discover a repertoire of non-verbal communication (such as mime, gesture and body language). Deaf people will show them a world without sound but which is in no way poorer.

Dialogue in Silence: www.dialogue-in-silence.com

Go and have a meal in a blind restaurant:
www.blindekuh.ch
www.danslenoir.com

Words, words, words

2008-06-06T09:59:00.002+01:00

Words not only enable us to communicate, they also define the society we live in.

New words and phrases arise when we have something new to communicate which can’t be expressed in existing language – from Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Axis of Evil to Sub-Prime Mortgages and Collateralised Debt Obligations or Greenhouse Gases and Carbon Offsetting, new ideas need new words to express them. But new words also arise through the new ways of communication that we have now developed (such as e-mailing, texting, talking in chatrooms, on-line gaming, rapping…), through spin and PR-speak (which seeks to obscure or manipulate our messages), and within particular groups (such as gangsta culture and business-speak).

Because of rapid technological and social change, language now seems to be evolving faster and faster.

Someone somewhere today will feel a need to say something which needs a new word, and invents that word. Then its usage may spread (slowly or extremely rapidly) so that it becomes accepted slang or even enters a mainstream dictionary.

The Urban Dictionary
Eric Pederson, head linguistics at the University of Oregon, has kept an online slang dictionary since 2000 (at babel.uoregon.edu/slang/pub_search.lasso). All undergraduates taking his Linguistics 101 course have to collect terms for the dictionary from a community or social group other than their own. If you are not an undergraduate on this course, you can register with the website and you will then be able to contribute your own words and definitions. This dictionary now has definitions of nearly 7,000 words.

Aaron Peckham, now a Silicon Valley software engineer, launched UrbanDictionary.com in 1999 at age 18 whilst a freshman at Cal Poly State University. He wanted to parody traditional dictionaries by providing definitions of words that would never qualify for an entry in any mainstream publication. His website now has 1 million definitions for 600,000 words, and some 2,000 new definitions are being created every day. About half the words and new definitions submitted are actually put online; before this happens, they are scrutinised via a team of around 6,500 volunteer editors. Dictionary users can vote “for” or “against” each definition, edit an entry or submit a new word for inclusion.

“Aaron Peckham was chillin' at the computer nine years ago, when he dreamed up Urban Dictionary – a ridonkulous slang online dictionary co-created by fellow technogeeks.” Find out what these words mean at UrbanDictionary.com

Here is an example of how it works. David Turnbull used the term "California car pool" in an online exchange with someone, who didn't know what it meant. He had been using this phrase for several years. So he turned to UrbanDictionary.com for a definition. As there was no entry for this, he submitted this definition: "When each member of a group uses their own car to go to the same destination." This was published and gained more than 1,600 votes of approval.

Do something:
1. Sign up to receive the word of the day. Each day a word (and its definition) will arrive in your inbox. Subscription is free.

For 23rd April 2008 the word of the day was “Power Outage Baby”. Definition: Some years back the power went out in San Francisco for a long time due [to a supply shortage]. Nine months later, there was a certain increase in birthrate. If you were born nine months after a power outage, you are a power outage baby.

2. Resolve to use the Word of the Day in your speech at some time during the day.
3. Write a definition for a slang word that you came across, or invent a new word. Submit it to UrbanDictionary.com.

www.urbandictionary.com

The English Project
The English Project is creating a 'living museum' of the English language where visitors can explore the English language in all its complexity across time and geography. It aims to deepen people’s understanding and knowledge of the language, its history and continuing development so that English speakers everywhere can better appreciate, use and enjoy it.

It will include all forms of English so as to reflect the amazing variety and power and adaptability of the language – from the street and workplace to science and advertising. There will be a core exhibition tracking the broad development of the language over the past 1,500 years across the globe but it will be supplemented constantly by temporary exhibitions focused on special aspects and applications of English in, for example, pop music and science, law and love.

English-language speakers are constantly creating their own new words and meanings in their lives and families for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes these private words gain wider currency and, over time, come into common usage and perhaps are even included in mainstream to the dictionaries. Although more often these words will remain the preserve of the people or group that invented them.

The English Project’s Kitchen Table Lingo Project aims to collect these private words and bring them to a wider audience. So if you, your friends, family, or workmates have special words with special meanings that you use amongst yourselves, then submit them to: www.englishproject.org

The Future Dictionary of America
As a reaction to the excesses of the Neo-Con culture of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld years, a dictionary was created as a guide to the American language sometime in the future, when all or most of the USA’s problems had been solved and the 2000-2008 administration was just a distant memory. The book includes contributions from almost 200 writers who were asked to invent words that reflected the time and its excesses, and then provide a definition for their word. www.mcsweeneys.net/2004/7/11.html

Get some great fundraising ideas

2008-05-30T12:11:00.002+01:00

At the International Workshop on Resource Mobilisation held in Kuala Lumpur in 2008, one of the speakers asked the fundraisers in the audience whether they liked asking for money. Only one person put their hand up. Most people are good at writing fundraising proposals and organising events, but when it comes to asking for money they feel embarrassed.

They should not be. They are asking people to join with them in addressing an important and sometimes urgent social problem. They are giving people the opportunity to do something about it – which they may really want to do. And without their support, less can be done. So if you are involved in a campaign or a project which you feel passionate about, and if you need money, volunteers, gifts in kind or other support, then go out and ask people. Besides asking family, friends and colleagues at work, or organising receptions to tell people about what you are doing or speaking in public, there are lots of other opportunities for asking. Here are some whacky ideas for asking contributed by participants at another workshop:

1. Get talking to the person behind you in the supermarket queue. They will be just as bored as you, and will have to wait longer than you to pass through the checkout. Why not use the opportunity to tell them about the importance of your cause, and even ask them to support you.
2. Go and ask one person at random in the street if they can spare you a minute to hear about a really important issue. Do this once a day. Most people will not want to talk to you. A few will. Someone may decide to support you. You will get better and better at it with practice.
3. Go and speak at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, London. Just take along a crate to stand on, dress colourfully and bring along some leaflets to hand out. Start talking. People passing by will stop to listen. Eventually you may attract a crowd. Participate in one of the iconic symbols of freedom of speech.
4. Develop a ten-second pitch to give to people in an elevator as you zoom up from street level to the 51st floor. See how many you can convince on the way up. Do it again on the way down.
5. If you happen to go sky diving, talk to your fellow divers on the way down. See if you can sign them up to make a legacy in your favour (which you will only benefit from when they die). Perhaps their ’chute will not open!
6. Organise a dress-in-green day at your workplace, and fine people as they come in if they are not dressed in green. As you fine them, tell them about how their fine is going to help change the world.

If you have any great ideas for how to ask for money, then submit them to www.365act.com

If you want to get some great fundraising ideas, then visit the Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration: www.sofii.org

Over 100 great examples of fundraising successes are showcased. Browse the website, or submit your own example of a creative idea that worked really well for you. Here are two of the case studies.

Jeans for Genes is a national appeal in the UK where everyone across the country is asked to throw out the usual dress rules, jump into their jeans and donate £1 at schools or £2 at work to help children with genetic disorders. In order to get people to know about Jeans for Genes Day and to sign up to organise something at their place of work, iconic statues all around the UK were dressed in jeans. Some statues wore denim jeans, others had cloaks, aprons or specially eye-catching denim clothing. It all cost about £100 – the denim was donated, the jeans were made by volunteers. The media picked up the story which helped promote Jeans for Genes Day.

Jeans or denim wear were put on: The Bull in Birmingham, Dylan Thomas in Swansea, Captain Cat in Swansea, Gareth Edwards in Cardiff, Lady Godiva in Coventry, Sir Stanley Matthews in Stoke on Trent, Beau Brummell in Jermyn Street (London), The Cordwainer in Watling Street (London), The LIFFE Trader in Walbrook Street (London), The Shepherd and Sheep in Paternoster Square (London), and Eric Morecambe in Morecambe Bay.

Covenant House Candlelight Vigil. For over 16 years, Covenant House (USA) has used a candlelight vigil to draw attention to the needs of homeless and street youth. The main vigil is held in Times Square, New York with surrounding billboards lighting up with advertisements and information about Covenant House and the youth it serves. The 2006 vigil was held at 17 locations in North and Latin America with audiences of up to 750. The event itself is a simple half-hour programme: a proclamation and/or greetings from local government individuals, inspirational messages from street youth and a short address by a distinguished member of the community. All vigils include the lighting of candles as a symbol of caring.

Covenant House now wants to increase the number of vigil sites to more than 1,000, to create a ‘blaze’ of concern at the start of US National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week and to raise $10-12 million dollars in sponsorships to fund its programmes.

A garden in a bag

2008-05-30T11:15:00.002+01:00

Two London architects, Ulrike Steven and Gareth Morris, started WHAT IF: projects to develop ideas for the urban landscape. Their aim is to build on what’s already happening in local communities, and to unlock resources and enable people to find new ways of doing, thinking responding to everyday issues. Through their architectural practice and as college lecturers they are testing ideas through small-scale interventions. A particular interest is Void Spaces and the opportunities that these could offer neighbourhoods and cities. www.what-if.info

Vacant Lot: one question they have tried to answer is “How might you meet the demand for ‘grow-your-own’ within dense urban areas where available land is scarce?”   Together with local residents of an inner city housing estate in Shoreditch in East London, they have come up with a novel solution. They have transformed a formerly inaccessible and run-down piece of vacant land on a housing estate into a beautiful oasis of green. Seventy 500kg bags of soil have been arranged to form an allotment space. The bags are the sort that builders use for the delivery on site of sand and gravel. Within their individual plots, local residents are tending a spectacular array of vegetables, salads, fruit and flowers. A new sense of community has emerged as a result of this... plus fresh, healthy and virtually free food for them and their families. They have called the project “Vacant Lot”, and it was commissioned by the Shoreditch Trust, funded by the Arts Council and developed for the London Festival of Architecture in 2008 in association with the Charles Street and Pitfield Tenant and Resident Association and Groundwork East London. What a lot of organisations for a little project! But a really creative way of growing vegetables on your doorstep.

Other WHAT IF projects include:

Out-Post: a shipping container wass placed on some unused land in the Toxteth area of Liverpool to be used for meetings, exhibitions, rehearsals. Workshops and gatherings of all kinds.

During the Liverpool, European Capital of Culture Year 2008 unheard voices were given a say through an exhibition of stories exhibited at the Out-Post and in the surrounding streets. The collection of personal stories from within Toxteth aimed to give expression to the different cultures and identities within three marginalised neighbourhoods. These areas lacked amenities and meeting places, so the container provided a central public space for local people who were invited to fill it with their experiences, memories, fears and aspirations.

Also in Toxteth, the Cow: the Udder Way project brought 5 cows, 5 calves, 3 milkmen and a milking parlour to a piece of green space in Toxteth for 9 days. Imagine waking up in the city, and seeing a farm suddenly appear nearby!

The Travelling Shed sought to promote environmental awareness. A garden shed appeared at shopping centres offering people digital garden make-overs so that a more sensible use of their gardens would help them reduce their ecological footprint. Each person’s ecological footprint is about 800 times the size of the average suburban back garden. 60,000 square metres is the area needed to produce the resources each of us consumes and to absorb our waste. If the earth’s available land was shared evenly between the global population, we would each have 18,000 square metres of space. This is the space available to us sustainable living (as a planet).

Using more than our fair share will eventually lead to ecological overload. If every country had Britain’s level of consumption we would need 3.1 worlds to cope with the demand for resources.  Reducing our “ecological footprint” means becoming more aware of the origin of our food, how our energy is produced, where our waste goes, where water comes from or drains to… and then taking action to reduce it. For 3 weeks the Shed advertised the beauty of a productive plot or a wildlife habitat in our back gardens, with the slogan: “Don’t mow it, grow it!”.

Also on the WHAT IF: projects website are ideas for constructing low-cost greenhouses out of bamboo and polythene to grow tomatoes, and green roofs to grow things which also retain water during periods of heavy rainfall and act as an insulator helping keep the heat inside the house.

Commemorating people who have died on the roads

2008-05-19T17:48:00.002+01:00

In Great Britain, there were 3,431 on the road in 2002 (the latest available statistics) and 35,976 serious injuries. Of these, 130 cyclists were killed and 2,420 seriously injured.

When people are murdered or when they are killed on the road, often bouquets of flowers are left by well-wishers near where the death took place. Remember the outpouring of flowers for Princess Di placed against the railings of Kensington Palace where she lived. Now a new phenomenon is taking place in response to cyclists being killed on the roads. Old bikes are being left instead of flowers.

These are being called Ghostbikes. They are old junked bikes painted white all over (including the tyres) and affixed to the site where a cyclist has been hit or killed with a message of commemoration. Ghostbikes are intended as a memorial for the fallen, but they also provide a reminder to everyone to share the road.

If you are a car driver, please remember that reckless driving can kill. And cyclists are particularly vulnerable. You would not wish to become a murderer. So drive safely and give cyclists a break. A collision with a bicycle may not always be your fault, but you are not likely to suffer much in the way of injury. There’s a lot you can do to make cycling safer for cyclists – such as drive within the speed limit, don’t accelerate away from traffic lights at maximum throttle, give cyclists a wide berth when overtaking them, always signal when you are turning (and do this well before you reach the turn), and check your mirror before opening the car door.

If you want to commemorate cyclists who have been the victim of a road accident, creating a Ghostbike is easy. Here's how:
1. Gather a team of people around you to do the business.
2. Identify locations where cyclists have been killed. Start a log of the time, place, person and other details.
3. Obtain old bicycles, paint entirely white.
4. Create signs to let people know why the bike is there. Pieces of plywood make good signage and creating a stencil so you can spray on the info is a good way of creating several signs. Work out how you are going to attach the sign to the bike.
5. Find a way of stopping the bikes being removed. Lengths of metal cable with couplers is a fairly affordable way of locking them.
6. Identify the exact bike placement locations. Keep in mind that memorials may not be technically legal. Local authorities may decide to overlook this if their siting does not present a problem, since this kind of enforcement is usually complaint-driven. Try not to block the road or the pavement, and keep in mind where the fire hydrants are located.
7. Erect your bike memorials under the cover of darkness.
8. Take a photo.
9. Create an entry for your Ghostbike on the Ghostbike website.

Are there any other causes of death where you could use a similar approach to creating a memorial?

Ghostbike: www.ghostbike.org

Road accidents are a major global killer
These statistics are taken from the fact file from the Global Commission on Road Safety which is supported by the FIA Foundation, which itself was established by the governing body for world motor sport to promote road safety worldwide:

• Worldwide, the number of people killed in road traffic crashes each year is estimated to be almost 1.2 million. That’s 3,000 people killed on the world’s roads every day. According to World Health Organisation data, deaths from road traffic injuries account for around 25% of all deaths from injury. Road deaths are expected to rise above 2 million a year by 2020.
• The number of people injured in road traffic accidents is estimated to be as high as 50 million – which is the combined population of five of the world’s large cities.
• It is expected that, if nothing is done, road traffic injuries and deaths will rise by 65% between 2000 and 2020
• Over 50% of deaths are among young adults in the age range of 15-44 years. For men aged 15-44 road traffic injuries rank second (behind HIV/AIDS) as the leading cause of premature death and ill health worldwide. Among both children aged 5-14 years and young people aged 15-29 years, road traffic injuries are the second-leading cause of death worldwide
• More than 80% of those killed in road traffic crashes live in middle and low income countries, where road traffic deaths are predicted to rise (on average) by more than 80% in low and middle income countries by 2020
• The World Bank recently estimated that developing countries lose approximately US$100 billion every year due to road crashes. This is twice the amount of all development aid provided by donors. Africa bears a huge economic burden from road traffic crashes. Despite having very low levels of vehicle use. 10% of global road fatalities occur in Africa and are conservatively estimated to cost the continent approximately US$3.7 billion a year. This cost is expected to increase by 80% over the next seven years Promoting road safety could have a greater impact on international development than giving money.

Global Commission on Road Safety: www.fiafoundation.com/commissionforglobalroadsafety/index.html

Swinging and Surfing

2008-05-13T11:30:00.002+01:00

The ageing population: Population ageing is taking place in many highly developed countries. Amongst those countries classified by the United Nations as more developed (with a combined population of 1.2 billion in 2005), the median age of the population rose from 29.0 in 1950 to 37.3 in 2000, and is forecast to rise to 45.5 by 2050. The corresponding figures for the world as a whole are 23.9 for 1950, 26.8 for 2000, and 37.8 for 2050. In Japan, one of the fastest aging countries in the world, in 1950 there were 9.3 people under 20 for every person over 65, but by 2025 this ratio will become 0.59 people under 20 for every person older than 65.

Unless the elderly remain engaged in productive and creative activity for longer, this could cause problems as a smaller and smaller workforce creates the wealth to sustain a larger and larger population of retirees. But as the world develops, and as a result of medical advances and healthier work environments, older people are remaining fit and active for much longer.

Here are some initiatives which seek to engage older people in the modern world:

Silver Surfers' Day: This takes place in the UK on 23rd May 2008. The idea is to help nearly 10 million over-50s who haven't yet got online and tasted cyber-life, to introduce them to the delights of surfing.

However old you are, and whether you represent an organisation or are just an individual, you can take part.

If you are a big business, a small business, a sheltered housing scheme, a community centre, a library, a school, a pub, a bingo hall, a sports club – or even one person in your own home – you can hold an IT taster event on Silver Surfers' Day that could be a trigger point for changing older people's lives.

You just need to offer an hour or so of your time per visitor and the Silver Surfer Learning Zone will do the rest. Log your email address to receive Learning Zone handouts (on everything from the basics to blogging, online shopping to I-player).

Silver Surfers' Day: www.digitalunite.net/ssd

Swinging singles at 70 and beyond: You’re never too old. Seniors are leading more active sex lives. They're ready and willing, if not always able without some external stimulant!

As the veterans of the sexual revolution head toward retirement, their golden years appear to be getting even hotter. Carol McConnell, 63, single after her husband of 18 years passed away and living in Ontario, approached dating with some trepidation. “At first I tried the seniors' dances. They're meat markets." On the website Wired Seniors, she met several older men, including an 83-year-old who sent her $1,000 to cover the cost of a visit to California and a 70-year-old from Canada. Both men used Viagra, although with limited success.  Eventually, she met a 69-year-old male for occasional romantic trysts. But she enjoys staying single and having the freedom to date around. 

“Today's seniors are meeting their sometimes medically enhanced later years with a more liberated mindset, with access to multiple partners through the internet and with more movies and books that depict their sexual adventures.” From Suddenly Senior, a daily e-zine for anyone who feels that they have become senior before their time: www.suddenlysenior.com

Saga Zone (UK) and Wired Seniors (USA and Canada), two popular online social communities for the over 50s. www.sagazone.co.uk and www.wiredseniors.com

Body gossip

2008-05-12T12:02:00.001+01:00

“Everyday I wake up and I tell myself, don’t eat anything today”

It’s not fair that this 12-year old girl thinks that she is so fat that she wants to starve herself. I’m Ruth Rogers. I think that the beauty battle has gone too far. Every day men, women and now children worry about how they look. So I’ve decided to do something about it. I want to give everyone in the UK the chance to shout louder than the media for once. I’m launching a national writing competition. I want stories about real bodies from real people. The twenty best will be performed by a cast of celebrities on a West End stage. It could be the most worthwhile theatre event this year. But organising it isn’t going to be easy!

Body Gossip is a call to arms for people in the UK to celebrate their realistic natural beauty.
Whether it's man boobs, muffin tops or cellulite. Growing old, grey or saggy. Media pressure, peer pressure, negative beauty icons or airbrushed magazine images. Size 0, size 20 and everything inbetween. Whether you're male or female, aged 10 or 110: if you have something to say about body image, Body Gossip wants to hear your stories.

Your personal story could inspire, encourage and reassure others. It could change their world – and your world too.

Your story can either be in the form of a theatrical monologue (a character speaking to the audience), or a duologue (two characters speaking to each other). The style of each piece is up to the writer. If you decide to submit a story, it should be no more than five minutes in length.

If your story is one of the 20 that is chosen to be performed, you will receive full writing credits, VIP tickets for the performance, return travel to and from London and 5 star accommodation and an invitation to a glitzy after-show party. Once at the event, you'll be treated like a star – you'll meet the celebrity performing your story and will take a bow with them onstage in recognition of your contribution to the evening.

Besides the competition, there is a Body Gossip Sofa. This is taken to events such as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and London Alternative Fashion Week. People are invited to sit on the sofa and write a sentence about how they feel about their body. There are five sofas so far (actually, just one sofa with five sets of covers). The sofas will form part of the stage set when the Body Gossip performance is staged. After everything has ended, the sofas will be auctioned with proceeds going to an eating disorder charity.

Submit your own entry to the competition. Find out where the sofa is going next, go there and write your own message on the cover.

www.bodygossip.org

Holidaying without leaving your room

2008-04-29T15:12:00.002+01:00

This is the ultimate in eco-tourism, to have a holiday without leaving your room. This is what 27-year old Frenchman Xavier De Maistre did in 1790. He was arrested after a duel and imprisoned in his room for six weeks, with only his butler and a dog for company. He filled his time by embarking on a journey around his bedroom, later writing an account of what he had seen. Eight years later, he made a second journey traveling at night and reaching as far as the window ledge. He wore a “traveling outfit” of pink and blue pyjamas. Read his classic travel book: “A Journey Around My Room”.

Graveling goes traveling
In an attempt to keep fit and do his bit for the environment, Gary Graveling began cycling to work. His current commute is just under 27 miles per day and takes him from Bristol to Bath and back, mainly along the first Sustrans Cycle Route – the Bristol-Bath Railway Path. He cycled 2,350 commuter miles in 2007.

To make the journey a bit more interesting/challenging in 2008, and to add to the mix, he decided to take a virtual trek across North America, transposing my commuter miles (red line) onto my virtual route (blue line) on the map on his Just Giving website and raising money for Sustrans at the same time.

In January 2008, Gary started this virtual journey close to the area where John Cabot landed on his first voyage from Bristol to Newfoundland. He is currently making his virtual way down to Chicago, where he will follow Route 66 and on to Los Angeles.

The trip according to the Google route planner is 4,145 miles long. He aims to finish before the Christmas holiday break, by when he should be at least 15kg lighter, healthier and will have saved about 1.5 tonnes of CO2 (compared with driving the same distance to and from work for a year) – never mind the CO2 saved by not flying to America.

www.justgiving.com/garygraveling

Sustrans works on practical projects to encourage people to walk, cycle and use public transport in order to reduce motor traffic and its adverse effects. Sustrans's flagship project is the National Cycle Network, where it is creating 10,000 miles of bicycle routes throughout the UK: www.sustrans.org.uk

Some further options for virtual travel
1. Plan a great route, full of interest. A journey that you’ve always wanted to take but never got around to.
2. Follow your route on Google maps and Google Earth photographs: www.google.com
3. You don’t even need to get on a bike. Forge the fresh air. Don’t worry about safety. Buy an exercise bike and do your virtual journey without leaving your room.
4. Then link up your exercise bike to an electricity generator, and as you pedal put electricity back into the grid.

The Newspaper House

2008-04-22T15:13:00.002+01:00

One quite recent phenomenon is the emergence of the freesheet, a newspaper paid for through its advertising and given away for free. Over 40 million papers are being handed out on the streets every day around the world. London has three freesheets: Metro distributed on the tube (subway) system in the mornings, and London Lite and thelondonpaper handed out on the street in the afternoons.

Sometimes these are handed on for another person to read. But mostly they are thrown away, which is creating a growing waste mountain. Tube passengers in London discard approximately nine-and-a-half tonnes of freesheet newspapers every day.

Besides being a litter problem, these freesheets are also an environmental problem. The vast majority of the papers goes to landfill rather than being recycled.

Project Freesheet aims to highlight this growing problem. They want to see:
• An increased proportion of the paper used being recycled.
• A ban on the distributors handing them out.
• More collection points on the street paid for by the freesheets themselves (on the basis that the polluter should pay).

You can do two things to help:
• Sign the petition on the website. Add your voice to thousands of others protesting about this grotesque waste.
• Upload your photo of discarded freesheets which will contribute towards a collage on the website.

www.projectfreesheet.com

Project Freesheet has also been working with Creative City, which creates projects that engage artists with audiences. “We believe that Art can really engage people on issues that touch them. Our aim is to create high quality projects that are both publicly accessible and viable works of art in themselves.”

Around 100 volunteers gathered 10,000 copies of discarded papers which they then used to build a house in Dalston, north London, which was constructed entirely from discarded newspapers. The aim was to get some publicity for this waste problem and to heighten people’ consciousness of the issue such that they start to change their behaviour.

“Thinking about the way we live is not a trend but a necessity. It is essential that each member of the public starts to think about their impact on their environment and the world they are creating for their children. The Newspaper House aims to engage the audience in a fun, non-moralistic way.”

www.creative-city.co.uk
www.newspaperhouse.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/newspaperhouse

Travelling Lite

2008-04-22T13:53:00.003+01:00

Ed Gillespie, co-founder of Futerra, an environmental consultancy, travelled around the world taking more than one year using “slow travel” options wherever possible, and trying to avoid flights during his 45,000-mile 381-day odyssey which (on his calculations) consumed just 1.8 tonnes of carbon. During his trip, he wrote a mostly weekly column for The Observer, and will be publishing a book about his trip during 2008. www.lowcarbontravel.com

Mark Smith is “The Man in Seat 61”.“I'm a career railwayman who ran away from Oxford to join the circus (or British Rail as it was then called) as soon as he could... I became the Station Manager for Charing Cross, London Bridge & Cannon Street railway stations in London in the early to mid 90s, and later the Customer Relations Manager for two major UK train companies. Until recently, I worked in London for the Department for Transport managing the team that regulates fares and ticketing on Britain's railways. When not travelling, of course...

I've been lucky enough to travel around the world on trains and ships to many interesting places, and I've worked as a European rail agent issuing tickets and advising other travel agents on train travel across Europe. So if you'd like some help with a journey you're planning, why not ask the Man in Seat Sixty-One...?

Why 'The Man in Seat Sixty-One'...? It's Eurostar's fault... I've left London by Eurostar on my way to Marrakech (via Paris, Madrid & Algeciras), to Tunisia (via Lille & Marseille), to Italy, to Albania, to Malta, to Istanbul, Aleppo, Damascus & Petra, to Ukraine & the Crimea, and even to Tokyo & Nagasaki via Moscow, Vladivostok and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Zaharoff, the notorious arms dealer, would always book compartment 7 on the Orient Express. When travelling in Eurostar 1st class, I always ask for seat 61 (in cars 11, 7 or 8). Before you ask, it's one of a pair of individual seats with table that actually lines up with the window...”

Need help ideas for planning your low carbon holiday? Ask the Man in Seat 61.

Seat61.com is a personal website, started by Mark Smith purely as a hobby in 2001. It's grown and now become a full time job. It’s not a company or a travel agency, just an individual sharing knowledge that others might find useful. All the information on the website is provided free of charge to users, with the aim of providing sound practical advice to help people make journeys by train or ship instead of flying, affordably, comfortably and safely.

The site will help you if you can't find what you need through normal commercial websites or travel agencies. It also aims to inspire you to do something more rewarding with your travel than going to an airport, getting on am international airliner, missing out on all the scenery below and trashing the environment at the same time. “There's more to travel than the destination. It used to be called a journey!” www.seat61.com

NoFlights.com is a travel agency offering travel options that exclude flying. So if you want to go somewhere by rail (Including by electrified high speed rail) or by small ship (cargo or passenger), then check them out. They have a price promise to refuynd any difference if you can find the same travel product cheaper somewhere else. www.noflights.com

LoCo2 is a website which is “attempting to put the mental in environmental”. Its aim is to make low carbon travel fun, accessible and ultimately cheaper. The website is just starting up, and aims to inspire with ideas for travel by airship, supertanker, long-distance rail or to some wonderful European festivals. Go loco at: www.loco2travel.com

Nominate a journalist for the Churner Prize

2008-04-22T13:50:00.000+01:00

Journalists are becoming “churnalists”. Denied the time, money and resources to do the job properly, many hacks now churn out stories from press releases without even bothering to check the facts or their sources.

But it’s not all their fault, as often their editor is demanding that they deliver too much right now on a budget which is just too small. Your press release might just arrive when they are desperate for some interesting information to fill a space.

This phenomenon of turning PR into journalism “churnalism” is worth celebrating, even if it is only to highlight the depths that journalism can sink to.

With this in mind, a new website has been created. This website will display examples of bad churnalism and The Churner Prize will be offered from time to time to the most deserving recipients. Note that this is a pun on The Turner Prize, which is the UK’s most presitigious annual fine art award.

They need your help. If you spot an example of churnalism, email them the details. Your anonymity is 100% guaranteed. If you’re a journalist on the churn, then confess; this will ease the soul.

www.churnerprize.co.uk

Steal This Book

2008-04-14T13:23:00.002+01:00

Steal This Book is the title of a book written by Abbie Hoffman, co-founder of the Youth International Party known as the Yippees, which was published in 1971. Hoffman campaigned vigorously against the Vietnam War, and in his autobiography Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture, he described himself as anarchist.

His book advocates rebelling against authority in all its forms, including the government and big corporations. It contains practical advice on such topics as growing marijuana, starting a pirate radio station, living in a commune, stealing food and shoplifting, preparing a legal defense, making pipe bombs, and even how to obtaining a free buffalo from the US government. The book discusses various tactics for fighting, and there is a list of affordable and easy ways to find weapons and armour to use in any confrontation with the police.

Many bookstores refused to carry the book. They were afraid that some people would take the book's title literally. Even today, it is still very hard to find the book in public libraries probably for the same reason. The latest paperback edition was published in 2002 and you can get it at www.amazon.com.

Reflecting on the success of the book, the author said, "It's embarrassing when you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on the Best Seller's List".

Much of the information in the book is now completely out of date; and some would now be seen as encouraging international terrorism. But what the book does is capture the mood of a generation that has long since passed.

The influence of the Yippees is still around through such things as “culture jamming” and “subvertising”; and there are parallels between the Vietnam war which mobilized a generation to speak out and the growing revulsion against the Iraq war of today. The Yippees still exist as a small movement whose main concern now is to see marijuana legalised. In 2004, they were able to purchased their 9 Bleeker Street headquarters which they have converted into the Yippie Museum Cafe. If you are ever in New York, pay it a visit, have a cup of coffee and think about the consumer culture and what we can do to rein it in.

Borrow this book

The internet also provides you with a way of sharing your books… through BookCrossing:

“Our goal, simply, is to make the whole world a library. BookCrossing is a book exchange of infinite proportion, the first and only of its kind.”

There must be a book which you have really enjoyed or found particularly useful, which you would like others to read. Maybe this is gathering dust on your bookshelf. So, take it off the shelf, write some comments about what you like about it and why others should read it in the inside front cover. Then go to the BookCrossing website, register the book and follow the instructions. You will then leave the book somewhere for someone else to find it, read it and then pass it on to someone else. You will be track the progress of your book as it travels the world on the BookCrossing website.

The process is really very simple. These are the “Three R’s of BookCrossing”:

R1: Read a good book… a book that you would recommend to others.

R2: Register the book with BookCrossing. First you log in your details. This takes a couple of minutes. You will be given a BookCrossing identification number and the URL of the BookCrossing website.

Label the book with these references, and put a note asking the reader to pass it on after they’ve finished reading it. You can download printed labels from the BookCrossing website.

R3: Release the book for someone else to read. There are three ways of doing this. You can give it to a friend. You can leave it somewhere for someone to pick up – on a park bench, in a coffee shop, etc. Or you can release it “into the wild”, when people can search for it. The BookCrossing website enables you to say you have left it or give clues to help people find it.

Then wait and see what happens. You will be joining 589,357 other people in over 130 countries who have shared their passion for a particular book with the world.

BookCrossing: www.bookcrossing.com

Go Kindling

“Kindling” is the term used for small strips of wood used to start a fire. You can now “Kindle” your books without having to burn them!

Kindle is a new electronic reading device developed by Amazon.com, where you can download books wirelessly in a matter of seconds. It has these features:
• Its electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.
• It is simple to use – no computer, no cables, just press a button.
• Its wireless connectivity enables you to purchase electronic books from Amazon wherever you are – whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.
• You just buy the book and it is delivered wirelessly to your Kindle in less than one minute and at a good saving on the printed version.
• More than 110,000 books are available, including many current best sellers.
• You can download free book samples, and read a chapter or two before you decide to buy.
• You can also get a selection of leading newspapers and magazines, and more than 250 leading blogs on business, technology, sports, entertainment, and politics. It also includes free wireless access to Wikipedia.
• It is lighter and thinner than a typical paperback – weighing just 10.3 ounces and holding over 200 titles.
• It has a long battery life. It needs to be recharged approximately every other day if left on continuously; or if the wireless is turned off, you can read for a week or more before needing to recharge. Recharging takes two hours.
• Unlike WiFi, Kindle uses the same high-speed data transmission system as advanced cell phones. You can download from anywhere, and you don’t need to go to a hotspot.
• You can e-mail Word documents and pictures in JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG format to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing.

At he moment, Kindle is only available for delivery n the USA. It costs $399. Since there are no printing or distribution costs, this method of selling books to readers has the potential to transform the book industry.

Find out more and watch the video at: www.amazon.com

Be inspired by film

2008-04-14T13:13:00.002+01:00

Pangea Day is a global event which will bring the world together through film. It takes place starting at 18:00 GMT on 10th May 2008. Public locations in Cairo, Kigali, Jerusalem, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live programme of films, music and visionary speeches, which will be broadcast in seven languages to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television and mobile phones.

Twenty-four short films will be shown which were selected through an international competition which generated more than 2,500 submissions from over 100 countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person's eyes. The programme will also include contributions from such “luminaries” as Queen Noor of Jordan, CNN broadcaster Christiane Amanpour and Live8 activist Bob Geldof.

Thousands of people across the world are organising their own local “Friends of Pangea Day” event. These will be held in people’s homes and backyards, in schools and offices, in cinemas, outdoors in parks and on public beaches, and even in a Bedouin camp.

What you can do to support Pangea Day: You can sign up to organise your own public or private screening; or you can attend one of the events being held near you (check these out on the Pangea website); or you can view the programme which is being streamed from the Pangea website.

Pangea Day was created by award-winning Egyptian-American documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim as her 2006 TED Prizewinning wish in collaboration with TED and Nokia.

Pangea Day: www.pangeaday.org
Jehane Noujaim: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehane_Noujaim

Be inspired by ideas

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It was started in 1984 to bring together people from those three worlds for creative interaction. TED is a global network of people from every discipline and culture with two things in common – they are looking for a deeper understanding of the world, and they hope to turn that understanding into a better future for all of us.

TED’s annual conference brings together some of the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are given 18 minutes to present their ideas and inspire the audience.

The TED website has an archive of 200 talks, and more are being added all the time. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared.

The TED Prize which was launched in 2005 is awarded annually to three exceptional individuals who each receive $100,000 and the granting of "One Wish to Change the World”. After several months of preparation, they unveil their wish at an award ceremony which is held during the TED Conference. These wishes then lead on to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact.

TED is now run by IT magazine entrepreneur Chris Anderson, who acquired it from its founders in 2000 via his New York-based Sapling Foundation which aims to foster the spread of great ideas and provide a platform for the world’s smartest thinkers.

These are the TED Prizewinners for 2008 and their wishes. Go to the TED Prize website to find out how their wishes are being turned into practice.

Karen Armstrong: "… the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect."

Dave Eggers: “… you personally and every creative individual and organization you know to find a way of directly engaging with a public school in your area and that you'll then tell the story of how you got involved, so that within a year we have 1,000 examples of innovative partnerships."

Neil Turok: “… to unlock and nurture scientific talent across Africa, so that within our lifetimes we are celebrating an African Einstein."

Find out how these prizewinners with the support of TED are making these dreams come true.

How to support the spread of ideas through TED
1. Spread ideas. Email your favorite TED talks, speakers and themes to other people. There's a link on each page that enables you to do this easily.
2. Join the conversation. Add your own comments to TED's discussion pages.
3. Host a TED session at work, perhaps a lunch break. This might inspire out-of-the-box thinking.
4. Host a TED salon at your home. Invite half a dozen people around for an evening to listen to two or three talks and then engage in discussion.
5. Use TED Talks as a classroom resource, if you're a teacher.
6. Post a TED Talk on your blog or website, if it particularly interests you.
7. Make a contribution to the Sapling Foundation.

And if you have an idea for spreading TED ideas, then write in with your suggestion. If you have a powerful idea of your own that you'd like to share with the world, record it and send it to us.

If you do any of the above with exciting results, tell us about it. Others can learn from your experience.

TED: www.ted.com
The TED Prize: www.tedprize.org

Crochet a coral reef to save the world

2008-04-07T14:58:00.001+01:00

The Great Barrier Reef is recognised as one of the great wonders of the natural world. Sadly, everything from over-fishing to climate change is threatening the survival of this rich ecosystem.

Coral Reefs and Global Warming
All over the world coral reefs are dying out. Marine pollutants, agricultural run-off and, above all, global warming, are taking a toll on these fragile marvels of nature.

The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest living organism. Almost one third of its 133,000 square miles has already suffered coral die-off.

Many corals are so tightly dependent on local conditions that they cannot survive if average sea temperature rises by more than a single degree, a figure we are now approaching in some parts of the world.

Politicians may be able to deny global warming (although the new Australian government now accepts the importance of this issue), corals, sadly, don’t have that option. They just die.

Since the nineteenth century the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) has warmed an average of 0.4 degrees, but scientists at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) say this already enough to cause serious damage.

These corals are now living near the upper limit of their temperature tolerance, so any sustained rise is likely to push them over the edge.

In 1998, 2002 and again in 2006 water temperature in the region rose 1-2 degrees above the seasonal average and the Great Barrier Reef experienced large scale-bleaching events. By the end of the 21st century, projections suggest that the Great Barrier Reef could be 1-3 degrees warmer. Bleaching will have become an annual event. Coral devastation will be on a wide scale. Tourists will come (if they do still come) not to see the coral reef in its wonderful splendour; but to see how global warming has trashed the environment.

But you can help!
The Institute for Figuring in Los Angeles is working on a massive project to crochet a coral reef using hyperbolic crochet. They want as many people from across the world to get involved in crocheting pieces for this. The finished product will generate a huge amount of publicity and create a lot of publicity around the impact of global warming.

Hyperbolic crochet is a form of crochet based on hyperbolic planes. When the pieces are stitched together, they do not lie flat, but creates a frilly circular pattern. The finished product looks a lot like a coral reef!

If you’re a crochet virgin check out Lion Brand’s crochet tutorial which will tell you all you need to know.

Learn to crochet (free) at: http://learntocrochet.lionbrand.com
Learn more about the crochet coral reef at: www.theiff.org/reef/reef1a.html
Look at pictures of some of the finished sections at: www.flickr.com/photos/84445194@N00/sets/72157594407472295

About the Institute for Figuring
This is how they describe themselves: Through the simple drawing of a circle in sand we open the door to a realm where figures disport themselves in play. Dividing this circle by a cross we begin to invoke the relations inherent in its form. From such beginnings emerges the game of mathematics.

If mathematics is a language of pattern its structures may be seen as the verses of a formal, yet fantastical poetics. Across the globe people have delighted in the harmonies of this language and the patterns discovered therein. These are the songs that figures sing amongst themselves.   Mathematical forms are but one kind of figure. There are many others. Long before the development of algebra, Indian culture anticipated fractals in paisley patterns while Islamic mosaicists explored the symmetries inherent in a plane with their unparalleled command of tiling. Throughout history humans have developed a vast variety of methods for investigating and constructing different types of figures - what we might term figurative technologies - from weaving, knotting and “string figuring,” to origami, tiling, perspectival drawing, and holography.

Nature too inclines towards a figurative poetics, materializing throughout its domain exquisite formal structures - from Fibonacci numbers found in the pattern of a pineapple’s scales, to the miniature geodesic spheres of carbon “buckyball” molecules, and the logarithmic spirals in a galaxy’s rotating arms. Likewise, culture abounds with structured forms. In myths and mandalas we find relations described by projective geometry, which some philosophers also ascribe to structures of the human mind.

By classifying such figures and recognizing their diverse manifestations hitherto unsuspected correspondences are revealed.

The Institute For Figuring is an educational organization dedicated to enhancing the public understanding of figures and figuring techniques. From the physics of snowflakes and the hyperbolic geometry of sea slugs, to the mathematics of paper folding and graphical models of the human mind, the Institute takes as its purview a complex ecology of figuring.

Find out about the Institute for Figuring at: www.theiff.org

Become a citizen of Slow Planet

2008-04-04T00:26:00.002+01:00

First there was slow food – enjoying good food in good company, savouring every mouthful. Then there were slow cities, where efforts were made to slow everything down. Both these movements started in Italy, but have since spread. Then there was the Society for the Deceleration of Time, which started in Germany. Then Carl Honore wrote a best-selling book “In Praise of Slow”, where he explored everything from slow food to slow sex, Now Carl has launched a new website promoting the idea of “slow” as a way of creating a slow planet: www.slowplanet.com

Slow is not about doing everything at a snail's pace; it's about working, playing and living better by doing everything at the right speed. For example:

Slow travel: Mae West once said “Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly”. She probably had sex on her mind – yet the same principle holds for travel. Slow travel is not only better for the environment, it also delivers a richer, more memorable and more convivial journey. Is there more to slow travel than this? Citizens of Slow Planet are asked share their views – preferably after a long, relaxing vacation!

Slow sport: A little while ago, a famous sports columnist in Spain hailed the rise of slow football. He wrote that in the fast-paced modern game many players barely take time to think anymore. He argued that the real artists are those who can move quickly when needed but also know when to slow down, when to put their foot on the ball, size up the angles and movement around them and then deliver the killer pass or dribble. He cited Ronaldinho, the Brazilian ace, as the high practitioner of slow football.

Slow work: Even when we accept that slowing down makes sense in every other walk of life, we still resist the idea that it can also pay dividends at work. After all, speed is king in the modern workplace. Just look at these buzzwords and catchphrases: multitasking; just-in-time management; “I need this yesterday”; lunch is for wimps; get up to speed; “You snooze, you lose”. However, there is too much speed in the workplace. Employees are burning out faster than ever. Absenteeism and staff turnover are soaring. The constant pressure to accelerate, to do more and more in less and less time, is leading us to cut corners, think inside the box and make mistakes. In the global economy, the spoils will go to those who deliver quality rather than quantity. And that is why the idea of slow work will catch on around the world.

Slow design: This means using materials and resources in a way that respects the environment. It means small-scale, local production and networks of artisans sharing ideas and expertise. It means diversity, eccentricity and real character rather than cookie-cutter products that look the same all over the world. Slow Design creates objects with a story behind them.

Sign up now (but not too quickly) to become a citizen of Slow Planet: www.slowplanet.com

The Beginners Guide to Slowing Down
1. Have a cup of tea, put your feet up and stare out of the window. Warning: don’t try this while driving.
2. Spend some quality time in the bathtub.
3. Write down these words and place them where you can see them, “Multi-tasking is a Moral Weakness.”
4. Try to do only one thing at a time.
5. Do not be pushed into answering a question right away. Take your time.
6. Get some stuff to show you're slow. Find out what at www.zazzle.com/greencar
7. Yawn often. Medical studies have shown lots of things and possibly that yawning may be good for you.
8. Have some more tea. Tea is the drink of the slow.
9. Join our slow story reminder list. Sign up to be reminded when slow stories appear on www.slowdownnow.org/Main/Get-on-the-slow-list.html
10. Take a nap and spend at least an hour extra in bed. You deserve it.

…and check out: www.slowdownnow.org

Fossil Fools Day

2008-04-04T00:19:00.002+01:00

"April 1… the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four." – Mark Twain.

April 1, “All Fools Day” otherwise known as “April Fools Day”, is a day to play practical jokes on your friends and colleagues. Tradition has it that the practical joke should be performed before noon. To work, an April Fool’s joke needs to seem credible, and perhaps appeal to the vanity or snobbery of the person being fooled.

April Fool 1957: The respected and normally rather stuffy BBC TV news show Panorama carried a feature on the spaghetti harvest in Europe. The mild winter had led to a bumper crop. The programme showed Swiss family farmers harvesting strands of spaghetti from the trees, rather than the vast spaghetti plantations of the Italian Po valley. Huge numbers called up to find out more about spaghetti growing and where to buy spaghetti trees.

April Fool 1977: the British newspaper The Guardian published a special 7-page supplement to mark the tenth anniversary of the independence of San Serriffe, a former British colony in the Indian Ocean. The geography and culture of this obscure nation was described using puns on typographical terms, such as “Serif” for the country, “upper and lower case” for its two main islands, Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its capital was Bodoni, and its leader General Pica. It seemed an idyllic holiday spot. Several days late, button badges bean to appear saying “I’ve been to San Serriffe”.

On 1st April 2008, the International Rising Tide network and its allies called for a day of action against the fossil fuel industry … which they named as FOSSIL FOOLS DAY!

Confronted with melting ice caps, unprecedented species extinction, droughts, and extreme weather the fools at the head of the fossil fuel empire continue to plunder the earth, with the governments as willing court jesters at their side.

But climate activism doesn’t yet match the severity of the climate crisis… which means that it’s time to ask ourselves how serious we are about stopping climate change.

This is what we do know:
• The fossil fuel industry has poisoned our air, polluted our water and is ruining our climate.
• Governments do little to stop this. Despite the rhetoric and because of the intense lobbying by the fossil fuel sector, nothing is changing fast.
• The most appropriate response to climate change is to keep fossil fuels in the ground. One thing is for sure. Everything that is extracted will be burned... and this creates more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, more greenhouse gases.

So what we can do:
• We can do what we can in our own lives to reduce our carbon emissions at home and at work. This will start to wean ourselves away from fossil fuel dependency.
• We can come together to take action to highlight the situation and what governments and the energy companies should be doing. We can even think about taking “direct action” to show the seriousness and urgency of the problem.

Climate change threatens our very survival. Weather chaos, an unpredictable climate, is increasingly upon on us. There is no time to lose. It is up to all of us to launch a global uprising of opinion against the fossil fuel industry.

On 1st April 2008 thousands of people around the world took action to highlight the foolishness of burning more and more fossil fuels. They found “a fossil fool in their community and pulled a prank that packed a punch”. Find out what they did at: www.fossilfoolsdayofaction.org

Check out the international Rising Tide network at:
www.risingtidenorthamerica.org
http://risingtide.org.uk
www.risingtide.org.au

Fifteen ideas for Fossil Foolery on April 1

These are ideas for action for Fossil Fools Day which were suggested by Rising Tide North America. Check out what people actually did on the Fossil Fool website. This is all part of an effort to get the world to listen, take notice and act on global warming, which politicians from Blair to Gore to Schwartzenegger have described as being the most important issue facing the planet.

1. Stop the pumps: As the main public face of the oil industry not to mention the fact that they are everywhere, gas stations are a great place to highlight the connection between car culture, climate change, and environmental justice. Aside from being one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases, there is not an oil company on this planet that has not been party to human rights atrocities. Consider such tactics as blockading the entrance to a gas station, locking down to gas pumps, or having a die-in in front of the gas station. It is quite easy to gain access to the roof for a banner drop with the use of a extension ladder. It should also be noted that all gas stations have safety shut off buttons that will shut off gas pumps in case of an emergency, which are generally located on the outside of the station. If a global climate meltdown isn’t an emergency, we don’t know what is!

2. Stick it to the Biofools: Agri-fuel expansion is being touted as a solution to climate change, but agri-fuels are actually a distraction from rejecting car culture at best. At their worst they use massive amounts of fossil fuels and pesticides to produce, waste enormous quantities of fresh water, and are one of the leading causes of deforestation in the global south. Target your local bio-refinery – be it for ethanol, biodiesel or other biomass. Find them at www.ethanolrfa.org/industry/locations or www.distill.com/usa.html

3. Spank a bank: It would be nearly impossible for the fossil fuels industry to continue extraction and build new energy facilities without the financing of the world’s largest banks. There is a growing international effort to get these banks to withdraw all funding of the fossil fuels industry. In the United States, groups such as Rainforest Action Network, Mountain Justice Summer, and Rising Tide North America have been targeting Bank of America and CitiGroup for their financial support of the coal industry, and in particular companies practicing mountaintop removal coal mining. There have been over 100 actions against these banks ranging from branch occupations, to street theater, and banner drops. In England activists have targeted the Royal Bank of Scotland in similar fashion for its funding of the oil and gas industry. Even if you can’t pull a crowd together for a protest, a few people with “out of order” signs can shut down dozens of ATM machines owned by these banks in a matter of hours. Make sure there is a message in fine print on these signs about the banks role in climate change. For additional resources check out http://dirtymoney.org

4. Kick corporate research off your (or anybody’s) campus: Universities, in collaboration with corporations, are developing new technologies using fossil fuel extraction and burning. Many schools in coal states have research facilities dedicated to the perpetuation of this dirty fuel, while schools in oil states like Texas focus on petroleum. Chances are that any major university will be involved in some aspect of perpetuating our addiction to fossil fuels. Do some research, get creative, and kick the fossil fools in the butt and then off your campus.

5. Deflate or die: People in Sweden and France have developed a creative means of protest against gas guzzling SUVs. They simply let the air out of the tires, rendering them immobile. Thousands of tires have been deflated immobilizing hundreds of vehicles which has generated much media attention and awareness on global warming. The act is simple and does not involve property damage. All one does is take off the valve cap and place a small pebble on top of the valve and screw the cap back on. If the pebble is placed correctly, it will press down on the air valve when you screw down the cap, thus releasing the air. To our knowledge there is no law against releasing air from car tires, though we aren’t going to guarantee it’s without risk. In Belgium, one of many countries where this tactic is catching on, the Justice Minister recently had to admit there is nothing illegal about it! Make sure you leave a note on the car explaining your action.

6. Fry the friendly skies: Air travel is one of the fastest growing sectors for greenhouse gas emissions, as well as one of the most extravagant uses of fossil fuels. We need to combat air travel. Protests can be organized at airline offices as well as airports. Many airports are considering major expansions, which means even more airplanes polluting the air. While tight security at airports creates a number of logistical problems, they also contain some advantages such as a tendency to overreact to any situation out of the norm with a resulting disruption of airport business. Due to the danger to both airplane passengers and yourself we discourage doing anything to interfere with airport runways. While airport activism is largely uncharted territory in the US, activists in Europe have been at it for years.

7. Offset this! As the reality of climate change becomes ever more real, people and businesses are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. This is undoubtedly a good thing. Unfortunately there are those out there who would rather make a fortune off the climate crisis rather than actually do anything to help. Enter carbon offset companies. These companies take people’s money, and promise to “offset” all or a portion of the greenhouse gas emissions they create by paying to plant some trees or install efficient light bulbs in some developing country. The problem is this does very little to actually reduce carbon emissions while making people think they can continue to live their exorbitant lifestyles. The bottom line is that carbon offset companies perpetuate the notion that we can continue to burn fossil fuels and fight climate change at the same time. A number of actions have been taken against the carbon offset industry such as office occupations and creative street theater.

8. Resist road expansion. More roads mean more cars, plain and simple. Instead of reducing our dependency on automobiles the government focuses on building a never ending web of roads. New roads devastate natural ecosystems, disrupt animal migration, and open up previously untouched areas to new development, and encourage more and more cars to hit the road. Many communities are already resisting new road projects. They disrupt public meetings, hold street demos, and even evict the planning offices for the highway by throwing all of their contents on the kerb!

9. Bikes not Buicks! Critical Mass is a time honored protest against car culture and an excellent way to get large crowds out for mass civil disobedience with relatively low risk. For a Critical Mass, all you have to do is get together a group of bikers and take to the streets. The idea is to take over all lanes of traffic to create an empowering atmosphere for bicycles while temporarily impeding automobile traffic. It helps to have a few people at the head of the ride leading the mob if you have a route you want to stick to. But a ride without a planned route can be just as fun. Critical Masses can also be and excellent way to get a bunch of people to a protest target in a short amount of time. Consider having your Critical Mass end at a local climate criminal. Or make is a take a tour of all the fossil fools in your town.

10. Banner Drops, Billboard Liberations, and other Guerilla Messaging. Unfurling a banner (for example, over a highway overpass, parking garage, or roof) is an easy action that anyone can take with little effort. Banner drops when well timed will get the message out to thousands of people, even though they rarely stay up for more than 30 minutes before being removed by security of some sort. And if you’re feeling a little more adventuresome you can get the message out for hours by choosing a hard to reach location…or by a bit of extra scheming.

11. Direct Action at the point of destruction. We strongly recommend taking actions directly to the point of destruction. There are few more actions more empowering and attention grabbing then blocking access to a coal or oil-fired plant, coal mine, pipeline construction site, or liquefied natural gas terminal. Having a lot of people is useful for an action like this, but most important is a site with one entry way that can be blockaded using civil disobedience and/or a more sophisticated blockade.

12. Take it to the HQ. If you live in a major urban area, there’s a good chance that there is a HQ of an energy company in your area. Pay a little fossil fool day visit to their place of business. Energy companies hate the negative publicity a big rally brings, but even more annoying and disruptive to their climate destroying efforts is a nice blockade of the entry way of their business. If you want to get a bit closer to the dirty business of the fossil fools, an office occupation may be in order. With some proper scouting, you’ll probably be shocked to learn just how easy it is to get into CEO’s offices. You might want to bring some lock down devices, and perhaps a bucket of coal as office warming gifts.

13. Home is where the heart of the fossil fool is. If you’re more of an evening person, or just want to make your meet-up with your chosen fossil fool a little more personal, a home visit may be in order. It can be tricky finding out where they live. But with a klittle ingenuity, it can be done. Organizing a big rally at a fossil fool big-wig’s house is action enough to get a lot of media attention (not to mention their neighbors attention) especially if you bring a great party songs and games. A banner hang on someone’s roof makes things a bit more interesting. But don’t do anything that could be construed as destroying personal property. “Wanted” posters hung in the neighborhood warning neighbours of a dangerous climate criminal living nearby can help get the word out as well.

14. Share the love… Don’t leave any fossil fools forgotten on 1st April. Many companies are involved in some way in the fossil fuel-related business. For example, Halliburton, Dynergy, Bechtel or General Electric specialize in providing construction and other “energy services” for fossil fools around the world. Be sure to share some foolery with them as well.

15. Don’t listen to us! The best idea is the one you and your community comes up with. Plan something great whatever it is.

Earth hour

2008-03-13T17:53:00.002Z

It all started with a question: How can we inspire people to take action on climate change?

This was the answer: Ask the people of Sydney to turn off their lights for one hour.

On 31st March 2007 at 7.30pm the citizens of Sydney (Australia) switched off their electricity for one hour to show that they cared about global warming. Other communities in other parts of Australia and across the world did the same thing at the same time as a show of solidarity.

In Sydney, 2.2 million people and 2,100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for Earth Hour. This collective effort reduced Sydney's energy consumption by 10.2% for this one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for a year. Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turned their lights off, and people undertook some quite imaginative events in the dark.

What people did during Earth Hour: When the lights went down in Sydney for Earth Hour, the best place to be was with friends and family, or at a celebration that you or somebody else organised specially.

These were all suggested: Get your neighbours together for a BBQ or head out to your local park for the hour. Take some binoculars and look at the stars. Or just go for a stroll. Talk with your family and friends about the state of our planet and the need to make a change to keep the place we live the way we need it to be. Do something non-electric as a family – have a picnic or a have a candlelit dinner – but most importantly enjoy!

And these were some of the events that people actually organised:
• a wedding by candlelight
• a beach performance of mainly environmental songs by The Ramblers
• celebrating a move to a new house with a housewarming party in the dark
• a barbeque by candlelight
• stargazing
• yoga by candlelight
• a torchlit treasure hunt
• speed dating by candlelight (romantic and you don’t get too good a view of your partner)
• Scrabble by candlelight
• a neighbourly moonlit stroll

Earth Hour 2007 was a Sydney event. Earth Hour 2008 will be a global event. It will take place on March 29th at 8.00pm. So far 112,409 people and 7,104 businesses have signed up to do something (as of 13th March), and more are signing up every hour.

On the website, you can sign up, and you can then send this to others to alert them to Earth Hour...

Hey, I just signed up to the new Earth Hour website for 2008 and I thought you might like to take a look and possibly sign up too. Earth Hour is on 29 March 2008 at 8pm, and it looks like it's going to be really big. So far, as well as Sydney, there'll also be Chicago, Tel Aviv, Manila, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Brisbane and Toronto all turning off their lights for an hour in the name of fighting global warming. And I'm sure there'll be more cities by March. Sign up for Earth Hour with me by visiting www.earthhour.org/sign-up and join the movement.

www.earthhour.org

Remember too that 20th March 2008 (Spring solstice in the Northern hemisphere) is International Earth Day. This is a day to pledge to live on the planet as a responsible citizen and to do what we can to make it better for everyone: www.earthsite.org

There is another Earth Day on 22nd April 2008: www.earthday.net/earthday2008.aspx

Find out why there are two Earth Days at: www.earthsite.org

Celebrate both!

Locked-in Syndrome

2008-03-13T17:35:00.001Z

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is the book written by Jean-Dominique Bauby describing the last months of his life after a massive stroke which resulted in locked-in syndrome. This means that the sufferer loses virtually all bodily movement, whilst retaining full mental faculties. Jean-Do had been Editor-in-Chief at Elle magazine in Paris and found himself after a 20 day coma in a ventilator and being fed by an IV drip (like being trapped in a “diving bell”) whilst his mind was alert and fluttering (like a “butterfly”).

Jean-Do wrote his book by blinking his eyelid (one eye had been sewn up as it was not lubricating properly). A secretary pointed to letters on a board, and one blink was a “No” and two a “Yes”. Thus the words were laboriously spelled out until the book was complete. Jean-Do had had his accident in December 1995, and his book was published in February 1997 about a week before he died. The book became a best seller, and has now been made into an award-winning film directed by the artist Julian Schabel.

Read the book and see the film. The last year of Jean-Do’s life is an inspiration which also gives a real insight into the life and meaning of life of someone whose mind is still alert but whose body is locked in.

Jen-Do founded the Association for Locked in Syndrome from his bed, as a way of communicating information about this quite rare condition, but also to enable sufferers to share their thoughts.

Read The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Check out Association for Locked-In Syndrome: www.alis-asso.fr

Nick Chisholm has lived with locked-in syndrome since 2000. Read his account which is interspersed with information on his condition and a commentary on the clinical and ethical issues that arise in locked-in syndrome. It starts…

I had my accident on the rugby field on 29 July 2000 about 2 00 pm, just before the ball was thrown into a line-out. It just felt like a simple case of concussion (everything went blurry). I staggered to the sideline, the coach asked me "What's wrong"?

After six days of going in and out of seizures, after what seemed like all the tests known to man, they said I had had several strokes of the brain stem and then one major one, which left me with the extremely rare condition known as locked-in syndrome, not able to do anything.

I talk by using a transparent Perspex board (about A2 size) with the letters of the alphabet spaced out on it (identically on both sides). The person holds it up between our eyes (about 800 mm apart). I spell out each letter of my sentence using my eyes (similar to a typewriter), with the other person guessing each letter I'm starring at, until I've spelled out a whole sentence—extremely laborious! It's also very difficult (almost impossible) to express yourself or be sarcastic.

www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/331/7508/94

Bugs are our friends

2008-03-07T22:28:00.004Z

Why we need to conserve invertebrates: “If we and the rest of the back-boned animals were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty well. But if the invertebrates were to disappear, the world’s ecosystems would collapse.” – David Attenborough, naturalist

At least 65% of all species on the planet are invertebrates. There are more than 32,000 terrestrial and freshwater and 7,000 marine species in the UK alone, and many are critically endangered. Bugs are also important to human life and to the world as a whole.
• They are an important part of the food chain, providing essential food to most birds and mammals.
• They are integral to our ecosystem. For example, many wild flowers would be lost without insect pollination.
• Many species are yet to be discovered. Some might benefit humanity in areas such as biological pest control or medicine.

Just how threatened are invertebrates? Habitat fragmentation, intense agricultural practices, climate change and many other human activities are damaging invertebrate populations.

One of the problems facing invertebrate conservationists is our lack of knowledge on their exact status. Perhaps this is unsurprising given that there are 40,000 species and only a few hundred experts who are studying them. However what we do know presents a very worrying picture.
• Worldwide, an estimated 570,000 species could be extinct by 2100.
• The British Red Data Book for Insects, published in 1987, includes 1786 species whose continued existence is threatened - and that is just for the best known groups.
• Almost a third of all bees and wasps are under threat.
• Over 70% of butterflies are declining significantly.
• It is estimated that at least 15% of the total UK invertebrate fauna is under threat = 4,500 species in decline.
• Species such as the Short-haired bumblebee and the Essex emerald moth have become extinct in the last 15 years.

Most conservation organisations recognise the problem. Buglife specializes in publicising it and in encouraging people to do something about it.

What you can do

1. Do a survey in your garden. Look for
Scarlet malachite beetles
Oil beetles
Glow worms
Harlequin ladybirds
Stag beetles
Noble chafers
Find out how at Bugwatch: www.buglife.org.uk

2. Take part in a beewatch, spotting big bumblebees: www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk/surveys.htm

3. Join in national moth night: www.nationalmothnight.info

4. Move up from insects to birds, and take part in Garden Birdwatch, a year-round project that gathers important information on how different species of birds use gardens and how this use changes over time: www.bto.org/gbw

Also check out the Species of Conservation Concern list, which contains information on the designation and status of UK species.

Increase your Carbon Fruitprint

2008-03-05T11:43:00.001Z

You can offset your carbon emissions by paying for something which will reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Your offset may pay for a tree to be plated, an emissions certificate to be withdrawn from circulation or a wind generator to be constructed. But there are serious flaws with carbon offsetting – it may just be paying for something that would happen anyway; the unit cost of CO2 may be too low for all sorts of reasons; or what is being done may not take the carbon out of the atmosphere quickly enough or permanently. Even if your money is paying for something beneficial to take place, you need to reduce as well as offset. The CO2 crisis will only be solved if people everywhere start emitting less of the gas. So offset if you wish; but reduce as much as you can.

If you want to offset, here's an imaginative and very simple way of offsetting with a lot of benefits...

Mangoes don't just taste great, they can also save the planet! As each mango tree grows quickly in its tropical environment it absorbs carbon dioxide, cooling the atmosphere.   But it gets better. By offsetting your carbon emissions through the Teach A Man To Fish project you will help schools in Kenya plant Mango Orchards and teach students how growing fruit trees can reduce poverty.

Each harvest time income generated from the orchard will be reinvested in the school - from buying books, and repairing roofs to subsidizing fees for HIV and AIDS orphans. Which means your one-off donation will bear fruit year after year after year.

Offset today:
1 tonne of CO2 = a European flight or one year’s London travel = £15 offset donation
2.5 tonnes of CO2 = a long-haul flight = £37.50 offset donation
3.5 tonnes of CO2 = one year’s car usage = £50 offset donation

Then money really will go to planting Mango trees, and will help change people’s lives as well as suck CO2 from the atmosphere. This is an imaginative solution developed by Teach A Man To Fish: www.teachamantofish.org.uk/carbonfruitprint

Swap your seeds

2008-02-17T21:14:00.002Z

Thousands of garden seeds are disappearing. The new-variety F1 seeds being sold by seed companies cannot be collected and used again after the plant has flowered. So for the first time in history, growers have to buy new seeds each year. This creates an expensive dependency for growers in the UK, but subsistence farmers in the developing world it is far more of a burden – they are being forced to pay more than they can afford and still with the risk that drought or flood will wipe out their harvest.

The campaign to protect traditional varieties of seeds stretches around the world. But it can all start in your garden. By growing open-pollinated varieties, then saving and swapping the seeds, you can keep alive a more diverse range of seeds, conserve biodiversity and limit corporate control over what we do.

Seedy Sunday is the UK's biggest community seed swap. The aim is to protect biodiversity and take a stand against the increasing control of the seed supply by a handful of large companies.
The Seed Swap event takes place every February in Brighton and Hove (in southern England). The campaign to protect biodiversity goes on year round.

In return for a donation or in exchange for seeds you have saved, you can choose seeds from dozens of traditional varieties of garden vegetables to take home and grow yourself. The seeds are open-pollinated, heritage varieties, many of which are no longer commercially available – but are naturally well-adapted to local growing conditions, as well as being tasty and colourful.

At the seed swap, experienced local growers will be on hand to advise on the practicalities of seed saving and growing from seed, and there are films, displays and talks to inspire you to go home and get growing.

The starting point was in 2001, when two members of Brighton and Hove Organic Gardening Group went on holiday to Vancouver, Canada and happened upon a seed swap, organised by Sharon Rempel of Saltspring Seeds. They were so impressed that when they returned, they persuaded a group of fellow growers to help organise a similar event. The UK's first ever seed swap took place in Kemptown in Brighton in February 2002.

The event has grown to include talks, demonstrations, displays, films, plant sales, second hand books, crèche, cafe and other activities that make the event so lively today. But at heart it remains a community seed swap.

Seedy Sunday: www.seedysunday.org
Brighton and Hove Organic Gardening Group: www.bhogg.org
Saltspring Seeds: www.saltspringseeds.com

How to organise your own Seed Swap
Here are the four key ingredients for a successful Seed Swap:

1. The organisers: If you don't already know enough people who want to help, put up notices where you think interested people might see them – such as the library, health food shops, food co-ops or garden centres. Explain what a Seed Swap is and ask people to get in touch. You could also contact local allotments groups, and make use of internet forums / discussion lists, websites, etc. Aim for a small group of people you like and can rely on. In subsequent years, you can put the arrangements on a more formal footing. It's useful to recruit people who have the sort of administrative, communications and practical skills you will need to plan the event, keep track of finances, do publicity and run the event on the day.

2. The seeds: Seed collectors will need advance notice to collect seeds at the end of the summer before you hold your Seed Swap. The seeds should come from local gardeners and growers who grow open-pollinated varieties of vegetable. If you decide you want to be all-organic, you will need to choose organic growers. Remind them to label their seeds clearly. The more seed collectors you have, the better. Talk to other Seed Swaps around the country for advice and guidance.

3. The venue: This can be anything from a private garden to a community centre or church hall – the choice will depend on your budget and how many people you expect. You may have to book the venue well in advance, so this should be one of the first things you do once you have decided to proceed.

4. Publicity: This sounds like an afterthought, but it's essential. If no one turns up on the day, you won't have a seed swap. Publicity can't be left to the last minute; it has to be well-planned. You need to tell people know what a seed swap is, and when and where yours will be taking place.

And then go international…
Become a Kokopelli seed grower and help stamp out hunger. Their mission is to create a “Community-Supported Seed Fund” which will provide poor farmers in poor countries with the seeds they need for their gardens and small farms.

It is not hard to provide some real help. Food plants provide plenty of seeds:
• A squash or a melon contains hundreds of seeds.
• A cherry tomato contains around 70 seeds.
• A lettuce going to seed may produce up to 10,000 seeds.

A 30 foot by 30 foot garden is big enough for 150 tomato plants which would produce 6 kg of seeds. This would be enough to provide 40,000 packets each containing 30 seeds.

The Kokopelli Seed Foundation, which started in France and has now spread around the world, will advise you on what seeds to grow, and even provide you with starter seeds so that you can start up your own “seed factory”.

All seeds are welcome: tomatoes, melons, lettuces, beets, carrots, grains, pulses, peppers. Every species will find a home somewhere. If you haven’t got a garden, then do it in gro-bags on your roof or balcony.

Kokopelli: www.kokopelli-seeds.com

Become a Citizen Journalist

2008-02-13T10:49:00.001Z

Steve Poynter has written up a summary of what’s happening with citizen journalism in the USA where he has analysed the opportunities into eleven layers, and given examples of each from the USA and the Korean OhMyNews which was the inspiration for this movement.

1. First step: opening up the newspaper to public comment.
2. Second step: the citizen as an add-on reporter.
3. Now we're getting serious: open-source reporting.
4. The citizen bloghouse.
5. Newsroom citizen 'transparency' blogs.
6. The stand-alone citizen-journalism site: an edited version.
7. The stand-alone citizen-journalism site: an unedited version.
8. Add a print edition.
9. The hybrid: professional PLUS citizen journalism.
10. Integrating citizen and professional journalism under one roof.
11. Wiki journalism: where the readers are the editors.

Read Steve’s article at: http://poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=83126

Read Dan Gilmour’s book “We the Media: grassroots journalism by the people, for the people” at: www.dangillmor.com and http://wethemedia.oreilly.com

Check out OhMyNews at: http://english.ohmynews.com

Then take the first step by writing a letter to the Editor of a national or local newspaper on a matter of interest or concern to you where you have something that needs saying.

Your dreams in just six words

2008-02-08T12:15:00.000Z

In the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway bet ten dollars that he could write a complete story in just six words. He wrote: "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn." He won the bet.

Inspired by the Hemingway anecdote, Smith an online magazine asked its readers to sum up their own lives in just six words. More than 15,000 did this. Then they compiled 832 of the best contributions and published a book called "Not Quite What I Was Planning". This is “Everything we believe storytelling can be: accessible, funny, profound, and addictive.”

The BBC Today programme interviewed the magazine’s editor Larry Smith, and challenged listeners to come up with their own six-word stories. The feedback was phenomenal. Here is a selection of the submissions:

Three sons, eleven cats, and Yvonne – Michael Govan

Outside lavatory, worked hard, now flush – Ashley Errington

Laughed out loud, cried in silence – Lisa Weston

Age crept up and mugged me – Bill Cowan

If only I had turned left – Robin Pickering

Thirty thousand insulin injections and counting – Tim Kell

Saw, heard, learnt, loved, mourned, dying – Aaron Asadi

Left mad Russian for mad Scotsman – Maggie Morgan

Pass the bottle before clarity returns – Gail Edmans

Now do these three things:
1. Write your dreams for the future and for a better world in just six words – perhaps in lipstick on the bathroom mirror, where you can look at what you have written every day.
2. Talk about your ideas or experiences of green living in just six words and submit them to Smith.
3. Write a six-word epitaph by which you would like to be remembered. Mine might be “Go change the world. I did! – Michael Norton”

All about Smith: The website is a storytelling community, a place to read, to write, and to share stories. The website has a number of active storytelling projects. For example, in the run up to Valentine’s Day, people were asked to submit a story in 100 words of the craziest thing that they had ever done for love. Smith in partnership with TreeHugger challenged people to define their green life in just six words – their green philosophy, things that they had done, how they had fallen off the eco-wagon often. TreeHugger is a one-stop shop in the USA for green news, solutions, and product information.

www.smithmag.net
www.treehugger.com

Become somebody else’s Travel Eyes

2008-01-28T15:19:00.000Z

Canada, Canary Islands, Cuba… Italy, Iceland… South Africa. Why not take a holiday with a mixed group of sighted and visually impaired people, and help your blind co-travellers “see”.

The idea for Traveleyes was devised by its visually impaired founder Amar Latif. Amar has had travelled to many destinations with a number of different organisations but often found limitations with these holidays. It was his need to go where he wanted and do what he wanted that inspired him to set up Traveleyes where blind, visually impaired and sighted people go on holiday together.

If you join one of the holidays as a sighted traveler, you will be able to choose your preferred destination. You will holiday with integrated group of sighted, visually impaired and blind travellers and be helping help make independent blind travel a reality.

As a sighted traveller, you will benefit in these ways:
• You will get to travel to an exciting destination and obtain a very substantial discount on the price of your holiday.
• You will get pleasure from being the seeing eyes for the blind travellers, thereby enabling the latter to travel more independently. You will gain an insight into the needs and aspirations of blind people and your perceptions of disability.
• You will be a friend, fellow holidaymaker and guide, but not a carer in any sense of the word. You will meet new people and could make friends for life.

All participants on a group holiday bring something unique. This is why Traveleyes encourages applicants from all backgrounds. These are a few qualities that would be useful:
being a good communicator
being quite good at describing things
being good-natured, positive, reliable and fun.

Here is a commendation from a visually impaired traveller:

Until recently, Cuba was not on my holiday destination list. In the past I'd found that independent travel was never straightforward - being visually impaired meant that I either had to find friends or family who wanted to go to the same places at the same time, to work a lot harder in terms of planning and organisation, or to join in with other organisations who organised travel for blind people. Each of these options had restrictions associated with them, so I was excited when a friend told me about a new company which had been set up to facilitate independent travel for people with a visual impairment.

I was excited about my new adventure, and The accessible "Lonely Planet" guide which I bought when I booked the trip, went a long way to giving me an understanding of Cuba's culture and history, as I was able to read it before I went, using screen reading software on my computer. At the same time, I went with an open mind, waiting to be pleasantly surprised by what the trip had in store for us.

My guide dog Cindy stayed behind with her puppy walkers, where I knew she would be well looked after, and unlike other times when I've travelled without her, I knew that there would be sighted travellers who could assist in the unfamiliar surroundings if I needed them to.

Traveleyes: www.traveleyes.co.uk

Pedal power bringing water to people

2008-01-20T16:16:00.000Z

“Global warming exacerbated by the burning of fossil fuels has reached its tipping point. The need to find alternative energy sources and modes of transportation has never been greater. We must innovate.”

This was the rationale behind the Innovate or Die awards sponsored by bike firm Specialized and Google. The challenge was to invent and build machines that transform pedalling energy into new and useful purposes. Entries had to be submitted in a video format detailing the machine and describing its function and purpose. The aim of the competition was to inspire creative thinking and innovation whilst highlighting the efficiency and environmental benefits of cycling. 102 entries were submitted.

The winning entry was Aquaduct which transports water from source to home whilst using the pedal power also to filter the water. This is how they describe their product in their video:

1.1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean water. Over 5,000 children die each day because of water-related diseases. Our solution is the Aquaduct. A pedal-powered vehicle that transports water and filters it while in motion. Often water sources are distant and women must devote hours of labour just to meet the basic needs of their families. Walking 3 miles or more is common. Travelling this distance via motorbike or truck consumes fuel and pollutes the air. Moreover a family of 4 needs a minimum of 20 gallons of water per day. Sanitizing this much water by boiling consumes precious resources and contributes to deforestation. The Aquaduct enables a person to get enough water for an entire family and clean it in one trip. The Aquaduct is composed of two tanks, a filter, a belt drive, a peristaltic pump and clutch. Once the rider arrives at the water source, she fills the large tank at the back of the vehicle with water. The cap is replaced and the rider can start home. As the rider pedals, the pump draws the water from the large tank through a filter and into a 2-gallon clean water tank. Upon arrival the clean-water tank is easily removed and taken inside the home for drinking and cooking needs. The closed container eliminates the contamination that currently occurs from storage in open containers. When more filtered water is needed, the clean water tank is reattached. Then the rider uses the clutch to relieve the tension in the belt and disengage the pedals from the wheels. She can now filter the next two gallons whilst stationary. The Aquaduct will allow families in the developing world to have daily access to clean water all by harnessing the energy of pedal power.

Additional water purification may be required to remove bacteria, viruses and dangerous chemicals, and it certainly will require a cycleable track or path for the vehicle can. But this could be the start of a great idea. Innovate… or die!

Innovate or Die: www.innovate-or-die.com
See all 102 entries on video at: www.youtube.com/groups_videos?name=innovateordie
See the winning Aquaduct pedal-powered mobile filtration system at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-mvfjyiao

Become a music producer

2008-01-20T15:59:00.000Z

The internet has changed for ever how music is distributed. Tracks can now be accessed digitally by downloading from iTunes and other sites and through file sharing. The age of the big record company with its list of signed-up musicians may be ending, and certainly the big companies seem to have fallen on harder times.

To emphasise the point, Radiohead released their album "In Rainbows" on line on 10th October 2007 asking purchasers to choose their own purchase price (which could be for nothing). The album became a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic, and was eventually released in traditional format.

The internet is also allowing fans to become partners of musicians and co-owners of their output. Here are two popular international websites where musicians can be published and fans can become part of the process and even co-owners of the recordings.

Sell a band
On the Netherlands-based Sellaband, not to be confused with the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant, this is how it works. A musician signs up for free, first having accepted the terms and conditions of the site. They then create a profile, which includes a picture, a biography, a maximum of 3 demo songs and details of any website or social networking site. The musician or band then sets out to raise $50,000 by finding 5,000 Believers each prepared to invest $10. Believers can be recruited via the website, or the musician can plan an active role in trying to find these 5,000 people.

Once the money has been raised, the musician records their CD, and this is then promoted and distributed by the musician, the website and the 5,000 Believers doing what they can. Believers get a free CD in return for their investment plus a share of the profits.

This is the process of becoming a Believer:
1. Find a musician you want to believe in. Select a category of music and then earch on the website. Or find a friend who wants to become a great musician and get them to sign up on Sellaband.
2. Read the terms and conditions and then sign up as a Believer. This is free.
3. Buy one or more parts of your selected musician. Each musician issues 5,000 parts.
4. Help you musician achieve the target of selling 5,000 parts.
5. Get a sneak preview of your musician as their music is being transformed into a CD.
6. Receive your own “Limited Edition” copy of the CD.7. Make money. Three of the songs on the CD will be distributed as free downloads. The other tracks will cost 50cents each to download, and the net profit is split between the Believers, the musician and Sellaband.
8. Make more money. You will get a share of the royalties on album sales, and you can open your own Shop on Sellaband to sell related products from your musician.
9. Promote the music. Spread the word. It’s in everybody’s interest!
Find out about how Sellaband works at: www.sellaband.com

Slice the pie
A similar website is the UK-based SliceThePie, where:
• Musicians can raise money directly from their fans so that they are able to professionally record and release their albums
• Fans can become emotionally and financially involved at all levels of the music industry – scouting, breaking, investing in and influencing real musicians.
• Investors can gamble on, trade in and profit from the success of the musicians they invest in.
• Musicians who secure finance pay SliceThePie a small royalty on album sales but keep all their copyright and publishing rights.

There are two routes for a musician to get funding. If they already have a dedicated fan base of over 5,000 fans, then they may be able to go directly to the financing stage, and they should contact SliceThePie.

Alternatively, they can join a SliceThePie Arena. Each Arena is divided into 3 stages:   
1. Scout Room: Up to 1,000 musicians enter a Scout Room where music fans give high quality feedback on each musician’s three demo tracks.  
2. Showcase: Up to 20 musicians with the best reviews from the Scout Room are then featured in the Showcase, where fans vote for their favourite.  
3. Get financed:  Musicians seek support from fans on the Showcase. Those who get enough support receive the £15,000 needed to record an album. Whatever happens, the most popular artist is guaranteed £15,000.

Fans can also earn money as a Scout by reviewing new music and spotting talent. The better you become at this, the more you will earn per review and the more influential your vote will be. Find out about how SliceThePie works at: www.slicethepie.com

I fought the Lloyds
A band called Oystar have just released a protest song in the UK called "I Fought the Lloyds" about what happened when Dan Understanding tried to reclaim bank charges where he felt he had been overcharged. The track features a cameo from Martin Lewis, the MoneySavingExpert, together with Mr Horse who bears a passing resemblance to the Lloyds stallion and Dan who got £531 pounds back from Lloyds Bank by following the simple steps that were given on Martin Lewis's MoneySavingExpert.com website.

"I Fought the Lloyds" got prominent coverage when the case by the Office of Fair Trading against the big banks started in January 2008. The MoneySavingExpert organised a campaign to get people to download the track. “If you've reclaimed bank charges, plan to, or support the cause... let’s get the song to the top of the agenda by getting it to the top of the charts. Order the 50p download and cross your fingers for a number 1 in the week of the bank charges test case.”

The track was released on 7th January 2008. It became Number 1 in the download charts and on January 13th was Number 25 in the Singles Charts. “I Fought The Lloyds” is available from iTunes or by texting “bankers” to 82822. Texts cost 50p + your standard text message charge.

Dan Understanding and co-vocalist Kev Campbell are selling shares in themselves as “Blairs Britain” on Sellaband. So you can support them and their protest music, and at the same time make an investment in two musicians with a purpose.

Find out about Oystar and the story of “I fought the Lloyds” at: www.oystarmusic.com
Watch the video of “I fought the Lloyds” at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLIe5X9DBew

And find out how to challenge your bank charges at: www.moneysavingexpert.com

Write a letter to yourself

2008-01-16T17:51:00.000Z

FutureMe.org is a website where you can write yourself a letter and have it delivered to you at some later date which you specify. This could be in at the end of the year or in two years time or after ten or even twenty-five years. What you put in your letter and when you receive it is entirely up to you to decide. You might want to write to yourself about your aspirations and what you would like to have achieved, or the sort of person that you would really like to have become. You might want to write about the threat of global warming from today’s perspective and what you are doing to counter it. You might want to give yourself some advice for how to live the rest of your life.

Here is a letter selected at random from the FutureMe website. You can also buy a book containing a selection of Dear FutureMe letters.

Three decades ago, you were sitting around, browsing the web, (does that even exist anymore?) checking out futureme.org, and writing to yourself. Damn you were boring.

Your birthday is in a week. You're gonna be how old? The 'right now' me is going to be 25 in a week's time. That means you're gonna be 55 years old!

Damn.

What have you done with the last three decades? Did you make a change in the world?

You used to be a political fire-brand. An unabashed liberal. Not afraid to stand up for what you believed in. The big question is, are you still???

Or did you wuss out, buy a house, start a family and get old, fat and lazy? Did you get content? Please tell me you didn't.

If you did, why?

Ahh well...

Visit the website. Write a letter to yourself. www.futureme.org

Remembering a great man

2008-01-16T17:46:00.000Z

A great man died in January 2008. It was not just that he undertook a truly heroic event in the 20th century; but it was also the work he did subsequently for the Himalayan people. In a world full of media celebrities and “instant heroes”, here is a person we should admire and remember.

Edmund Percival Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest on 29th May 1953. Hillary died on 11th January 2008.

Since this successful expedition led by John Hunt, and with the advance of mountaineering technology and better knowledge of the problems of the impact of high altitude on the human body, Everest has been climbed many thousand times. By 2006 there had been 3050 ascents by 2062 individuals, and the mountain is now a tourist destination for those wanting an extreme experience. In 1978 Reinhold Messner (Italian) and Peter Habeler (Austrian) made a successful climb without using oxygen. In 2005, Frenchman Didier Desalle landed on the summit in a helicopter.

The Himalayan Trust: In the years that followed the 1953 Everest expedition, Edmund Hillary returned repeatedly to Nepal and to his friends the Sherpas, the mountain people of Nepal. They are some of the most friendly, generous and tough people on earth, but their lot is a hard one, living at high altitude, without most resources that we take for granted in the west.

Inspired by his admiration and respect for the Sherpa people, Hillary established the Himalayan Trust in 1960. At that time, the Everest region was very isolated from the outside world and lacked many basic human needs such as education and health care.

During a journey with his Sherpa friends across a mountain pass in early 1960s, Hillary asked if there was anything he can do for the Sherpa people. A Sherpa friend immediately replied, “Burra Sahib (big Sahib), our children have eyes but they are blind and can not see. Therefore, we want you to open their eyes by building a school in our village of Khumjung.” Hillary began to raise funds and was able to build a school in Khumjung village in 1961.

This was the start of the work of the Himalayan Trust in the Everest region. Since then, the Trust has been involved in education, health services, reforestation, building airports, trails, bridges, water supplies and preservation of local cultural monuments.

About the Sherpas: The word Sherpa does not mean mountaineer, guide or porter, but is the name of a race of people. Tibetan in origin, they inhabit the southern flanks of the Himalayan range in north-east Nepal. Few who visit them can remain indifferent to their loyalty, affection and charm or be unimpressed by their remarkable toughness and courage. The Sherpa language is a dialect of Tibetan; their customs and dress are basically Tibetan and their religion Buddhist.

Potatoes are the basic crop of the Sherpas and they rear Yak in Alpine pastures up to a height of 17,000 ft. Deforestation, much of it due to the growth of tourism, is a major problem, it results in the loss of topsoil, threatening crops and contributing to flooding downstream.

Many of their basic needs, such as foodstuffs, building materials and medical supplies, have to be carried for many days over wild terrain on a man’s back – this work is also undertaken by women. Some Sherpa children, eager for education, walk for two hours a day each way to attend school.

Find out about the work of the Himalayan Trust, and support it: www.himalayan-trust.org.np in Nepal, and www.himalayantrust.co.uk in the UK, and www.thesiredmundhillaryfoundation.ca in Canada.

Stickk to your promises

2008-01-16T17:40:00.000Z

Stickk.com is a recently-launched website which allows you to create a contractual commitment with your family, friends or colleagues at work, to help you achieve a personal goal – such as keeping to your new year resolution, losing weight, giving up smoking, doing regular exercise, running in a marathon or improving your grades at school or college.

“We are trying to motivate people to accomplish personal goals by having users literally put something on the line. We’re not simply a motivational site. We’re actually giving them the necessary tools for success.” – Dean Karlan, co-founder of Stickk.com

The name of the site comes from its use of the “carrot and stick” approach, but it is also about making commitments and “sticking” to them.

On Stickk.com, you draw up an official commitment contract that binds you to achieving a personal goal, be it big or small. By agreeing to this contract, you publicly state your goal and commit to achieving it. In this way, you are staking your reputation on success. To make you accountable as you work towards your goal, you file weekly reports on your progress. You are also asked to appoint someone you know as a “referee” to verify the accuracy of your reporting! You also enlist as many supporters as you like to encourage you.

To keep yourself focused on your goal, you are asked to record your progress daily in a personal journal.  And if you want to up the ante, you can gamble on your success. If you accomplish your goal, you get your money back. If you don’t, your money goes to charity or to someone you’ve designated in advance. The Stickk.com website has been designed to make you more likely to stickK with it until your goal is accomplished.

How to create a commitment contract in four easy steps

Step One: Choose your goal
Write down what you pledge to do. Or you can click on one of the popular commitments on the website. And then select one of the following two commitment categories, which will determine the structure of your contract:
a. A one-shot commitment  to achieve something very specific, such as to quit smoking or to complete a given task by a certain date. At your deadline, you will either have succeeded or you will have failed.
b. An ongoing commitment, such as committing to using reusable shopping bags whenever you go shopping or giving up drinking bottled water. For an ongoing commitment, you select the timeframe of your choice, up to a maximum of 52 weeks.

Step Two: Choose your stakes
This is what you are willing to wager on achieving success. You can choose to bet money on this. You decide how much and who will get the money if you fail your commitment. This can work in two ways, depending on whether your goal is one-shot or ongoing. For example on a one-shot commitment, you might decide to bet $500 and choose a friend as the recipient of the money if you fail. You pay the money now as a bond. If you succeed, you will receive a $500 cheque. If you fail, the $500 cheque will be sent to your selected beneficiary. For an ongoing commitment, you can bet a sum of money each week. For example, if you commit to jogging three miles four times a week for a period of 8 weeks, you might decide to bet $25 each week. You pay an up-front total of $200, and then each week that you don’t fulfill your pledge, $25 is sent to your selected beneficiary; and at the end of the 8 weeks, whatever balance remains is returned to you.

You have three recipient options:
• Charities, where the money is pooled and sent to a selected group of charities selected by Stickk.com.  
• Anti-charity, where you select a cause that you DON’T believe in from the list provided. For example if you believe in gun control, your losing bet would go to the National Rifle Association Foundation. The less you believe in the cause, the harder you will want to work to ensure that the organization does NOT get the money.
• A friend or foe, where you designate someone you like or dislike to receive the money. Stickk.com then notifies the person via email and requests their mailing address, so that they can be sent them a cheque. If the designated person declines the money or doesn’t respond to repeated emails within a week, the money will go to charity instead. A group of friends might want to create a group contract in which each commits a certain amount of money to a pool, and the entire pot going only to those who accomplish their goals

Step Three: Choose your referee 
This is the person you designate to hold you accountable to your goals. You can choose a friend, a family member or a colleague. It helps if your referee is someone you really don’t want to disappoint… someone who’ll stickK it to you if you start slacking! Being accountable to someone other than yourself gives you that extra push. When you report success, your referee’s job is to confirm the accuracy of this. If you report failure, there’s no need for the referee to confirm this. If you report success when you actually failed, and your referee blows the whistle on you and reports failure, then the week is counted as a failure. And if you neglect to file your weekly report, you get an automatic failure for that week. If you trust yourself implicitly and absolutely insist on going at it alone, there is an alternate of an honour system, where your reports are accepted without referee confirmation.

Step Four: Choose your supporters 
These are friends, family members and colleagues who you designate to support and encourage you in achieving your goal. They will receive updates on your progress as you make your weekly reports and journal entries. They can respond by sending you messages of encouragement. Never underestimate the guilt factor. The more people to whom you are accountable, the greater the chance you’ll succeed. So surround yourself with supporters who you don’t want to let down!

www.stickk.com

Happiness Manifesto

2007-12-29T15:23:00.000Z

Most people in the developed world and most middle class people everywhere are not as happy as they might be. Doing jobs they don’t enjoy, traveling nose to bumper or crushed inside a bus to get to work, the strains of family life, “I want, I want, I want” but never quite enough money to afford everything – all this makes life really stressful.

Despite growing affluence, happiness levels are remaining fairly constant. Once people have enough income for their basic necessities, then money does not make much of a difference. And the people who spend more time pursuing money are often less happy.

Slough, a town near London, started a programme called “Making Slough Happy”. The aim was to raise the level of happiness. They encouraged singing and dancing, communal art projects, visits to lottery winners to see if money made a difference. Even a trip to a graveyard: “Reminding yourself that life is short can really boost your appreciation that it's wonderful just to be alive!".

The Happiness Manifesto
The happiness experts making Slough happy drew up a Happiness Manifesto. They suggest that you do all these things for two months, and see the difference it makes!
1. Get physical. Exercise for half an hour three times a week.
2. Count your blessings. At the end of each day, reflect on at least five things you're grateful for.
3. Make time to talk. An hour of uninterrupted conversation with your partner or closest friend each week.
4. Plant something. Even if it’s a window box or pot plant. Then keep it alive!
5. Cut your TV viewing. By half. More if you can.
6. Smile or say hello to a stranger. At least once each day.
7. Phone a friend. Make contact with at least one friend or relation you have not been in contact for a while, and arrange to meet up.
8. Have a good laugh. At least once a day.
9. Give yourself a daily treat. Take time to really enjoy this.
10. Do a daily kindness. Do an extra good turn for someone each day.

Before you change the world, you need to change your world. So, print out the Happiness Manifesto, and put it somewhere prominent in your home. Pledge to do all 10 things for two months. Then see how you feel.

Spread a little happiness. Circulate the manifesto to your ten best friends. Or if you are so miserable that you have no friends, then to the first ten people you meet. Think about how to make your town happier.

The BBC website for Making Slough Happy: www.bbc.co.uk/lifestyle/tv_and_radio/making_slough_happy
A Slough journalist’s site: www.richardhill.co.uk/makingsloughhappy
The official website for Slough: www.slough.gov.uk

How to measure the quality of life in your country

2007-12-29T15:16:00.000Z

The well-being or quality of life of a population is an important measure of progress. It is not just the standard of living which can be measured by the amount of money people have and access to services. But it also includes much less easily quantifiable factors such as freedom, happiness, human creativity, health, quality of the environment and other factors. Here are three indexes which seek to measure a country’s quality of life:

The physical quality-of-life index which is a really simple way of estimating the quality of life in a country. The value is derived from these three measures:
1. The basic literacy rate, (percentage of the population that is literate)
2. The infant mortality (number of children dying out of every 1000 births)
3. The life expectancy at age one.
The figures are then adjusted and added together to create a single figure which estimates the quality of life in that country, which can be compared with figures for other countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_quality-of-life_index

The UN Human Development Index is slightly more complicated, but now more widely used. It combines these three factors:
1. A long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth.
2. Knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) plus the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary education enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting).
3. Standard of living, as measured by the country’s gross domestic product per capita adjusted to allow for purchasing power parity.
The top ten countries in 2007-08 were Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Netherlands and France. The bottom 24 countries were all African with Sierra Leone right at the bottom.
http://hdr.undp.org
The Human Poverty Index is the opposite of this and also calculated by the UN Development Programme. Different methods of compiling this index are used depending on the country’s level of development. For developing countries it combines these factors:
1. The probability at birth of not surviving to age 40
2. The adult illiteracy rate
3. The percentage of the population without sustainable access to an improved water source
4. Children under weight for age at age 3.
In 2006, Niger was bottom, with Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad close behind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Poverty_Index

A completely other approach is to try to measure the happiness of the population.

The New Economics Foundation in the UK tried to develop a measure of happiness which it calls the Happy Planet Index. This is compiled from measures of personal life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth and the country’s ecological footprint. The best-scoring countries in 2006 were Vanuatu followed by Colombia and Cost Rica. At the bottom of the list were Burundi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Planet_Index

The King of Bhutan adopted a policy of Gross National Happiness for his country: www.grossinternationalhappiness.org

From the bottom of the world

2007-12-27T22:32:00.000Z

Some thoughts on returning from an Antarctic expedition

The Antarctic continent is a truly great wilderness area, possibly the most important and the most spectacular in the whole world. But there are problems.
• There are geo-political problems. Countries are jockeying for position and attempting to gain influence on deciding Antarctica’s future. The Antarctic Treaty which governs what can and can’t be done will come up for renewal; and a lot of countries are looking greedily at the potential for mining minerals and searching for oil (which are both currently prohibited)
• Tourism is having a growing impact, despite the voluntary self- regulation through the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, which specifies that nothing can be taken in and nothing taken out – you are not even allowed to have a pee or remove a single sea shell. There is still pristine snow and ice in the areas that tourists visit. But you can now occasionally see beer cans, toilet paper and used condoms washed up on to the shore. Many of the research stations now treat and remove their sewage (after pressure from Greenpeace). But the US South Pole base buries its sewage underground – so that the South Pole itself now rests on a sea of frozen American shit. Tourism is growing. This year over 30,000 people will visit and over 20,000 will land. And tour operators are starting to offer packages which involve staying overnight on land. Both these are bound to create further problems.
• There is still a vast array of wildlife. But whales have been hunted to near extinction, with only 3-4% of original stocks now remaining, Krill is beginning to be caught, currently only in quite small quantities; but this could become the next marine species to be overexploited, which would seriously affect the wide variety of creatures (including penguins) that depend on krill for their food.
• You can see climate change in action, not that you can actually tell from being there that the continent is getting warmer. But you can see the vastness of the polar icecap and understand the impact that its melting would cause on sea levels. And the tourists who go there are flying thousands of miles to get to the Antarctic, and the ships require several tonnes of fuel each day to power themselves.

All these problems need solutions. It is up to each and every one of us who have enjoyed and been inspired by the Antarctic to be part of the solution – whether we have visited the continent or just dreamed about doing so. But there are two barriers which have to be overcome first:
• You may believe that anything that we can do will be insignificant in relation to the scale of the problem. But doing something is better than doing nothing. Change has to start somewhere. And your small actions can inspire others and can encourage politicians and business to treat the matter much more seriously.
• You have to overcome your apathy. In fact it is apathy which is the world’s biggest problem, not global warming, poverty, AIDS, conflict, corruption or abuse of human rights. If you recognise that something needs doing, change will only happen if someone actually gets up off their backside and does something.

Getting involved is a three-stage process:
1. You start by doing little things in your everyday life that make a difference.
2. First get interested in an issue and then do something more substantial about it. Do this with friends, Get a sense of achievement. Let one thing lead to another, go on to do bigger and better things. Try to have fun doing something for a better world.
3. Finally, use your brain to come up with a creative solution which makes a significant impact on the problem.

So here are some little things to get started:

1. Become an ambassador for Antarctica. Find out as much as you can about it. Tell people about this wonderful wilderness of a continent and its importance to the future of the planet. Encourage people to speak up for its preservation. Put pressure on your politicians so that they promote and support policies which are “Antarctica-friendly”.

2. Eat sustainable fish. Much of the world’s fish has become over-fished and is facing extinction. The fish you can eat with a clear consciousness come from sustainable catcheries. The Marine Stewardship Council and Greenpeace with its Oceans campaign both have information on sustainable fishing: www.msc.org and www.greenpeace.org.uk. For a list of fish that you can’t eat, go to: www.greenpeace.org.uk/oceans/what-we-are-doing/sustainable-seafood/seafood-what-not-to-buy. Greenpeace is particularly concerned about the devastating impact of factory fishing on the ocean. It has just launched a new seafood research project to collect data on what fish is available at food stores. You can just sign up to be part of this campaign. Once registered, you will get instructions and a survey form to fill out when you visit your local supermarket or food store. This research shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to complete. You then report the results back to Greenpeace, who assemble the survey data. http://usactions.greenpeace.org

3. Give up plastic bags. It is just a small step in reducing the energy you use or cause to be used, but it will also save animals and fish, who often ingest used plastic bags which makes life difficult for them. When you go to the supermarket make sure you take a reusable bag. It may not do much in itself for reducing carbon consumption, but it is a first step. Then, contact people who are promoting similar or contrary messages in the media, and try to get them to see the perspective from your point of view.

4. Do something for World Ocean Day, which is June 8th. Check out their website, and see how you can help – perhaps by doing a beach clean up for them. World Ocean Day: www.theoceanproject.org. The International Coastal Cleanup takes place in September each year. On a single day, 300,000 volunteers in 90 countries – from Argentina to Vietnam – help clean up over 11,000 miles of shoreline. Cleanup Day is also about pollution prevention. Volunteers record the different types of marine debris, and analyzing this leads to a better understanding of the causes. Join in. www.coastalcleanup.org

5. Do something simple to address global warming. Take a first step to becoming more conscious about the issues and as a starting point doing something that will have real impact. Here are two things you might like to do:
• Search on Blackle: www.blackle.com. This saves energy by having white writing on a black screen, and it uses the Google search engine. They tell you how many kilowatts of energy have been saved as a result of people using this, It is a small step, but seeing the black screen will remind you continuously of the importance of the issue of global warming.
• Do the Green Thing. Subscribe to the website and do the simple action each month. You will find their website a lot of fun. www.dothegreenthing.com

6. Click and donate. The money comes from the site’s sponsors who pay for each click by a visitor to the site. Check out the different options, which include The Rainforest Site to preserve rainforest in central and south America and The Hunger Site to feed the hungry. There is an up-to-date listing of click and donate sties with an analysis of the response is on the “Charity” section at http://distributedcomputing.info/projects.html. Or if this doesn’t appeal to you, go to www.freerice.com when you will be asked to judge which out of four possible meanings is the meaning of a particular word. Each time you guess right, next question is harder. Each time you guess wrong, the next question is easier. For every question you answer correctly, twenty grains of rice are donated to help feed the world’s hungry. On its first day (October 7th 2007), this site raised 830 grains of rice, By the end of December 2007, the daily total was around 350 million grains of rice.

7. Save your spare change each night. Before you go to bed, tip your change into a jar, When it is full then turn it into proper cash and find something to donate it to a non-profit, possibly some Antarctic conservation trust. Check out the opportunities. Also look at the idea of helping a poor person out of poverty at www.kiva.org.

8. Give up bottled water. Ask for tap with ice and a slice of lemon, instead. Bottled water is an environmentally insane project causing pollution and congestion to get the water to you and creating an environmental hazard through the empty bottles people end disposing of. Indeed if we spent the money we as a world are spending on bottled water, we could solve many of the world’s problems, including the preservation of Antarctica, with the money saved.

9. Plant one tree. This will breathe out more than amount of oxygen that you will need to live. It also absorbs carbon dioxide which will do a little to address global warming. Check out the UN’s Billion Trees Campaign: www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign. Plant your own in your yard or garden, or just somewhere where you think a tree is needed (this is called “guerrilla gardening”).

10. Have a Whale of a Time. Enjoy changing the world. Have fun. Make new friends. If you want to find out more about whales, go to: www.whaleofatime.org.

Each of us can do something. Pledge to do as many of these ten things as you can. Get started; it’s never too early. And remember the old Quaker proverb: It’s better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

Check out the Antarctic Heritage Trust, which seeks to preserve some of the historic settlements on the continent used by explorers and whalers: www.ukaht.org and www.heritage-antarctica.org

2007-08 is International Polar Year organised by the International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organisation: www.ipy.org

For more information on how to change the world, read Michael Norton’s two books:

365 Ways to Change the World, published in Australia, Canada, India, South Africa, the UK and the USA, and The Everyday Activist, published in the UK.

Or visit his blog at: www.365ways.blogspot.com

Or sign up to the newsletter at: www.365act.com

Michael Norton travelled to Antarctica on the Orlova, from 1st to 11th December 2007

SOS ALERT: Save Our Sharks

2007-12-27T12:13:00.000Z

Chinese New Year is nearly here (which is on 7th February in 2008, the Year of the Rat), and no doubt sharks fin soup will be on the menu in many households and restaurants….

Every year, in oceans around the world, tens of millions of sharks are hunted to meet the demand for shark fin soup. Sharks’ fins are often removed when the animals are still alive; the sharks are then thrown back into the water to endure a painful death from suffocation, blood loss, or predation by other species. Sharks are apex predators who play an essential role in marine ecosystems. The cruel and ecologically devastating practice of shark finning endangers their survival.

Here’s how you can help:

1. Never consume or serve any products containing shark fin. You should also be aware that consuming shark fin can have health implications, especially for children and pregnant women.

2. If you see shark fin on a restaurant menu, ask the management to stop serving it. Ask the restaurant to sign a No Shark Fin pledge. Download Consumer Cards and Pledge Forms from the Humane Society which you can print out and hand to restaurant managers. Give the Humane Society contact information of any business you come across that offers, markets or promotes shark fin.

3. Distribute brochures on ending the cruel practice of shark finning, downloadable in both English and simplified Chinese from the Humane Society website.

9. You yourself sign the Humane Society International’s No Shark Fin pledge and sign up to receive action alerts from the Humane Society International.

These are some of the other campaigns run by the Humane Society:
Animal cruelty and fighting
Factory farming
Fur and trapping
Hunting
Puppy mills
Chimps in research
Seal hunting
Horse slaughter
Pets for life
Wild neighbours

Check out the animal channel at: http://video.hsus.org

Humane Society: www.hsus.org
Humane Society International: www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi

Also check out People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA is the largest animal rights organization in the world, with 1.6 million members. They aim to “establish and protect the rights of all animals. Like humans, animals are capable of suffering and have interests in leading their own lives; therefore, they are not ours to use – for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation or any other reason. PETA-named affiliates around the world educate policymakers and the public about cruelty to animals and promote an understanding of the right of all animals to be treated with respect.”

PETA in the UK: www.peta.org.uk
PETA in the USA: www.peta.org

Make a New Year’s resolution. Going vegan not only protects animals, but also reduces your carbon footprint considerably, thereby contributing towards action against global warming. If you can’t manage going completely vegan, try it once a week or go vegetarian (when you can eat animal products such as milk and cheese.

Make an animal-friendly New Year’s resolution for 2008 to go Vegan or to go Vegetarian. Download the Top Ten reasons to go vegetarian in 2008 and order a free vegetarian starter kit. Do all of this at www.peta.org

Check out these affiliate websites:
www.Peta2.com
www.IamsCruelty.co.uk
www.KFCCruelty.co.uk
www.GoVeg.co.uk
www.MilkSucks.co.uk
www.BritishHeartlessFoundation.com
www.UnbearableCruelty.co.uk
www.CovanceCruelty.co.uk
www.FishingHurts.com
www.RunningOfTheNudes.co.uk

Take a look at Irene Schleining’s animal website which focuses on whales and other endangered species at: www.whaleofatime.org

And Have a Whale of a Time. And best wishes for the New Year, and for doing your bit in 2008 to change the world.

Investing in the world’s poor

2007-11-27T10:52:00.000Z

Kiva was the first… Kiva was started in October 2005, and enabled people to invest directly in micro-entrepreneurs needing a loan to lift themselves out of poverty. You just go to their website, select the person or people you want to invest in, and with your credit card you then lend them some of or all of what they need. Who and how many people you choose to invest in is your decision. Each micro-entrepreneur has been screened and will be supported by a local development agency. You may have a preference for investing in someone from a particular region or country, for the type of business they are planning to set up, or it may be that the story of their life and their hopes appeals to you. Just with a click of your mouse, you’ve made a loan, and set someone along the pathway of creating a better life for themselves and their family. You will hear how their business is doing; and when they are able to, they will repay your loan, which you can either have back or use to invest in another person. The minimum loan is $25.

Kiva shows how the power of the internet can be harnessed to bring people together and to help solve the world’s problems. In its first two years, Kiva has built a $13 million loan portfolio and is helping around 20,000 micro-entrepreneurs. Kiva was the first, and with the direct link between lender and borrower is probably still the best for most people wanting to invest in the world’s poor.

Kiva: www.kiva.org
Find out more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiva_(organization)

And now MicroPlace…
Like all good ideas, Kiva was bound to be copied and adapted. Here is a variation on the Kiva idea which enables you to invest your money in helping the world’s poor.

MicroPlace was started by Tracy Pettengill Turner in 2006 and sold to eBay in 2007. It enables you to invest $100 or more in a micro-credit development agency so that they can lend onwards to micro-entrepreneurs in poor countries and communities. You choose the region and the country that you would like to invest in, and then select from a list which agency you would like to invest in, the term of the loan (which is normally from 3 to 5 years) and the return you will get on your investment (which normally ranges from 1.5% to 3% per annum). Unlike with Kiva, you are not investing in any one individual or family, although you will find stories of some of the people your chosen agency has been able to help so you will get a picture of the sort of impact your loan will have.

MicroPlace: www.microplace.com

Or you could sponsor a Village Bank…
Another idea is to sponsor a village bank. This is a programme run by FINCA International. The money you give is a donation rather than an investment, and is in many ways similar to child sponsorship. Although your money will go to start a village bank in a specific village and you will be told the name of that village, the reports you get will show the progress of the work being done and the people being helped in the country as a whole where your donation has been used.

FINCA is seeking funds to create 100,000 village banks in poor countries across the world each needing a sum of $5,000 as start-up finance. www.villagebanking.org

What is microfinance?
Microfinance is the supply of basic financial services including loans, savings and sometimes even insurance to low-income individuals and families usually without collateral in the traditional sense, in countries and for communities where people cannot easily obtain normal bank loans. Micro-credit is now a prime tool for eliminating poverty in poorer countries, and is at work in more than 100 countries, and is now being used in more than 100 countries. It was pioneered by Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist, who founded the Grameen Bank, which led him to winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

How MicroPlace helps lift people out of poverty
Linda Adjei is a 21 year-old Ghanean single mother of a 2-year old Edmond Antwi and they live together in one bedroom of her family’s house in Asokwa. Her house is built of mud and wood and roofed with aluminum sheets. There is electricity and a kitchen; however the toilet and washing facilities are 100 metres from the house. Linda takes care of all the needs of her son. To enable her to work and earn money, she sends her son to a nearby crèche where she has to pay the fees.

Linda needed just $85 to create her own hairdressing business because she needed to find a way of earning more support her family. She heard about a group of women who had been able to get loans from the Sinapi Aba Trust and she realised that she could form her own group and do the same. Linda is the leader of a group of women borrowers who banded together to seek micro-loans who call themselves the “Prince of Peace Trust Bank”.

Before getting her loan, Linda used to work in a rented hairdressing kiosk where the handheld hair dryer she was using belonged to a friend of hers. The friend was charging her a weekly fee for using her hair dryer. With her first loan (of 800,000 cedis), she was able to buy a new hair dryer and hair creams. She subsequently also arranged to buy the hairdressing kiosk from its owner and has successfully made the first installment toward its purchase.

Since she got the loan, Linda’s work has become easier, less stressful and more profitable. She now is able to send some money to her parents, she hopes to work hard to build a better life for herself and her son.

MicroPlace is offering investors a 3% per annum return for a three year loan (minimum amount $100) which will be invested in the Sinapi Aba Trust via the Calvert Foundation.

By purchasing a Calvert Community Investment Note, the full amount is lent out to the micro-credit organisation you select to enable it to scale up its micro-lending. Calvert exercises prudent portfolio management through diversification and a protective layer of loss reserves so as to minimise your risk.

Are you addicted to the intenet?

2007-11-27T02:44:00.000Z

Are you addicted to alcohol… tobacco… heroin… gambling? Of course you’re not. But what about the internet? Compulsive internet use has now been identified as a mental health issue in some countries, including the US and also South Korea where over 90% of homes now have a broadband connection. Internet gaming, on-line gambling, frequenting chat rooms and fantasy worlds such as Second Life, social networking are giving people a "PC bang" which they find hard to do without.

Research in South Korea indicates that around 30% of young people under 18 are at risk of addiction. To address the problem, the South Korean government has built a national network of 140 counselling centres, set up treatment programmes in 100 hospitals and most recently paid for young people to go to a “boot camp” to try to get them to kick the habit. The camp which is called the Jump Up Internet Rescue School lasts for 12 days and has around 5 participants; there is hard physical exercise plus group activities to encourage young people to form real relationships. It seems to be working.

Take the test; find out if you are internet-addicted
Are you addicted to the internet or rapidly going that way? Find out. Take the Internet Addiction Test which has been developed by the Centre for Internet Addiction Recovery.

This 20-item questionnaire is the first validated and reliable measure of addictive use of the Internet. It measures mild, moderate, and severe levels of Internet Addiction.

These are the first 5 questions:
1. How often do you find that you stay on-line longer than you intended?
2. How often do you neglect household chores to spend more time on-line?
3. How often do you prefer the excitement of the Internet to intimacy with your partner?
4. How often do you form new relationships with fellow on-line users?
5. How often do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend on-line?

Answer these and the remaining 15 questions, and see if you are addicted.

Centre for Internet Addiction Recovery: www.netaddiction.com
The Internet Addiction Test: www.netaddiction.com/resources/internet_addiction_test.htm

Plane Stupid

2007-11-21T02:02:00.000Z

Flying is "plane stupid"; And this is a website with lots of information on why. It wants to bring the aviation industry down to earth!

Here are 10 reasons why Plane Stupid wants us to campaign against flying:

1. Aviation is the fastest growing cause of climate change
Despite myths propagated by the airline industry, aviation already accounts for 13% of the UK’s contribution to climate change.
2. Aviation creates massive noise pollution
Living under the flight path is like living on a motorway. Over 1 million people live under the flight paths to the Heathrow and many have to endure a plane flying over every 45 seconds.
3. Aviation is mostly unnecessary
45% of air journeys in Europe are less than 500km – about the distance from London to the Scottish border.These journeys are to destinations easily reachable by train and bus, which are both around ten times less polluting.
4. Airport expansion will destroy important heritage sites
Across the country over one hundred historical buildings are at risk from airport expansion. Philip Venning, the secretary of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), established by William Morris in 1877, said of airport expansion: "This is potentially the biggest single number of destructions of historic buildings in living memory."
5. Aviation expansion will destroy ancient forests and woodland
Hundreds of acres of ancient oak woodland would have to be destroyed to make way for the government’s expansion plans.
6. Airports cause illegal levels of nitrous oxide pollution
Heathrow airport is already breaching UK and EU legal limits for the high levels of nitrogen dioxide and therefore the present growth in the number of flights is probably unlawful. The government’s own figures show that if a third runway is built 35,000 people would be exposed to this poisonous gas.
7. Aviation's contribution to the economy is massively overstated
The aviation industry is only the 26th biggest industry in Britain. It's half the size of the computer industry, and just a tenth the size of banking and finance.
8. Aviation diverts money away from public services
The airlines receive over £10 billion in tax breaks each year because of tax-free fuel and VAT-free tickets and planes. That’s enough to buy over 30 new hospitals, build 2,000 new schools, put at least 450,000 new police on the beat, and pay the tuition fees of over 3 million students!
9. Aviation expansion is wiping established communities off the map
At its seven airports across the UK BAA is proposing the biggest single programme of airport expansion that the UK has ever seen. The industry is looking for new runways at Stansted, Heathrow, Edinburgh and possibly Glasgow, with significant increases in flights at Gatwick, Aberdeen and Southampton.
10. 'Cheap' flights are for the privileged
It’s the rich who are really benefiting from the artificially low prices of air travel. The average income of people using Stansted Airport is £47,000 per year – and it’s supposed to be a budget airport!

Plane Stupid: www.planestupid.com

Pledge to stop flying at the LowFlyZone: www.flightpledge.org.uk

You can read about the experiences of people who are choosing to holiday or participate in international business meetings, without flying, and contribute your own experiences.

You can post pictures of places you have travelled to, without flying, on the LowFlyZone map

How to smoke in public places without breaking the law

2007-11-19T00:32:00.000Z

With smoking being banned in public places such as cinemas, bars and restaurants in more and more countries – in England the ban came in on 1st July 2007 – smokers are having to improvise, if they want to continue getting their nicotine fix whilst going for a night out. Suddenly pubs have taken over the streets outside, with people having a great deal of fun and laughter, whilst continuing to ignore government health warnings on smoking. Apart from the streets sometimes being ankle-deep in cigarette butts, this seems a perfect response to what some see as the nanny state at work – and non-smokers can eat, drink and watch films without having to breathe in other people’s smoke.

But now someone has developed a technological solution. This is an electronic “cigarette” which allows people to smoke wherever they want without breaking the law or spoiling it for other people. This new gizmo is a battery-powered and creates “puffs” of nicotine vapour that smokers inhale to get their nicotine fix. This is produced by an atomiser, and is just nicotine. There is no tar, no cancer causing chemicals, no carbon monoxide, no cigarette butts. The “cigarette” even lights up red at the tip, and it comes in a range of strengths from 16 milligrams of nicotine down to nothing. It costs $175 including a charger and batteries, and will last for around 350 drags which is equivalent to 30 smokes, until it needs a refill. E-cigars and pipes are also available.

This e-cigarette is produced in China by Ruyan: www.ruyanchina.com

It is available on the internet, for example, from: www.ruyanseller.com

If you want to deal with the butts problem, get a pocket ashtray from Butts Out. Use it or give it to your smoker friends. www.buttsout.net

Clothing oddments

2007-11-09T23:55:00.000Z

The chopsticks bra to highlight deforestation: In Japan, people use disposable chopsticks made of wood. 25 billion sets are used each year. They are usually manufactured in China, and require around 25 million trees to be chopped down. Because of the environmental impact of this and the rapid disappearance of forests, it has been reported in Japan that China intends to limit or ban the export of disposable chopsticks. But in Japan, it will require a shift in thinking if the imports are not obtained from another country. There is an obvious answer: reusable chopsticks made of plastic rather than disposable chopsticks made of wood. To highlight the issue and possibly also create a media splash, Triumph International, the women’s underwear maker, has launched a “Chopsticks Bra” with the cups made of two bowls – one for rice and the other for miso soup; and reusable chopsticks stored for easy access in the cleavage.

Other people are doing equally up-front things with clothing. Panties with a socket to store a mobile phone or more usefully, condoms, for example.

Here are some websites which may interest you:
Pants to Poverty, taking forward the ideas of the Make Poverty History campaign through selling fairtrade organic underwear branded with these anti-poverty messages and a slice of the income goes to make the world a better place: www.pantstopoverty.com

Green Knickers, made from ethical fabrics (kind silk, organic cotton, hemp-cotton mixes) with save the world messages and delightful designs: www.greenknickers.org

Toms Shoes. A young girl killed herself in the Philippines for want of a pair of shoes. A suicide letter found under her pillow was addressed to a TV programme called “I Just Wish”. She wrote: “I just wish for new shoes, a bag and jobs for my mother and may father…. I would like to finish my schooling and I would very much like to buy a new bike”. Simple thigns that any chiold in the rich world would take for granted. The reality was that the family had no money, the father was out of regular work, with the family living in a small hut with no water or electricity. Blake Mycoskie has decided to provide shoes, not in the Philippines, but in Argentina. He has designed a range of espadrilles hoes based on a traditional Argentinian design, and for each pair you buy, he donates a pair to a shoeless Argentinian. The two pairs (but only one for you) cost $48. There is a new range for children (Tiny Toms) and shoes which you can decorate yourself – and instruction for organising shoe decoration parties. www.tomsshoes.com

Click and donate with a difference

2007-11-01T10:06:00.000Z

There are a lot of click and donate sites, where you click on an icon and the site’s sponsors donate a small sum to a good cause. Here’s a click and donate site with a difference.

FreeRice.com is a vocabulary quiz. For every word you get right, the site donates 10 grains of rice to help end world hunger. When you get a definition right, the next word is harder; when you get it wrong, the next definition is easier. Continue playing, and with a wide vocabulary or a bit of luck you will be able to donate thousands of grains. The site started on 7th October 2007 when 830 grains of rice were donated. By the end of the month, the daily donation was nearly 60 million grains and rising rapidly.

Recede means: experience, gripe, unmask, withdraw
Naturalize means: ensure, adapt, scamper, multiply
Desiccant means: consultant, drying agent, beginning, level
Vestigial means: humid, trustworthy, shocked, rudimentary

After the first few words, the vocabulary level starts to rise when you get a correct definition, and it will get a bit easier if you guess wrong. The next words to come up were:
Unguent: weary uneasiness, ointment, inducement, pony
Corsair: superiority, limb, devilry, pirate
Dreck: junk, newsperson, lyre, burden
Specular: mirror-like, sham, lacking, diligent
Gemsbok: lodging, trophy, devoutness, oryx
Enervate: love, chat, weaken, verify

Did you get them all right? If so, that’s 100 grains donated. And it goes on and on. Beware. You may find the site addictive. But then the good thing is that you will be giving a lot of rice away: www.freerice.com

Daily totals
7 October 2007 830
8 October 2007 5,670
9 October 2007 76,020
10 October 2007 287,960
11 October 2007 4,584,100
12 October 2007 3,541,350
13 October 2007 3,194,630
14 October 2007 4,343,350
15 October 2007 6,403,920
16 October 2007 6,645,520
17 October 2007 12,157,010
18 October 2007 26,703,160
19 October 2007 40,373,060
20 October 2007 16,175,550
21 October 2007 13,276,900
22 October 2007 26,881,930
23 October 2007 30,423,770
24 October 2007 37,670,700
25 October 2007 30,819,620
26 October 2007 29,607,480
27 October 2007 37,056,070
28 October 2007 42,153,550
29 October 2007 48,720,340
30 October 2007 56,893,100
31 October 2007 59,167,790

Total raised in the first month: 537,163,380 grains of rice. That’s a phenomenal growth rate; and the news of the site must be spreading by word of mouth. Could the idea be extended to cover school learning, and particularly literacy and numeracy, with the rewards similar but different to free rice (giving points in heaven rather than actual personal benefits).

Correct definitions: withdraw, adapt, drying agent, rudimentary, ointment, pirate, junk, mirror-like, oryx, weaken

Mind the GAP

2007-10-28T16:01:00.000Z

The Gap is a major international clothign company with outlets in shopping malls and main streets across the world. Its brands also include Banana Republic. The company's social responsibility report showed problems – from unsafe machinery to the use of child labour – in the thousands of factories it uses around the world to produce clothing for its retail chains. The company produces garments in 3,000 factories located in 50 countries. It has a team of more than 90 compliance officers who conduct about 8,500 factory visits each year.

In two factories The Gap found under-age workers – though in both cases the children were older than 14. The most frequent violations of The Gap's code of conduct included factories not complying with local laws on annual leave, failure to pay the minimum wage, working weeks in excess of 60 hours, inaccurate record keeping and machinery lacking safety devices.

Following further investigation by The Observer newspaper and TV pictures showing a 10-year-old boy in India sewing clothes bearing the brand’s logo, the company took a decision to destroy the clothes involved. The had boy told the newspaper he had been sold to the factory owner by his family.

The “No Sweat” campaigners have won the argument. No international company these days wants to be seen employing child labour, worse still child bonded labour, or having its clothing made in sweatshop conditions. What is at fault is the system of subcontracting the work to poor countries, where standards are lower and enforcement is much harder (the court system does not always work well, and a bribe can sort matters out).

The economic benefit to factory owners or their subcontractors of employing underage labour makes it hard to stamp out. Even where there are factory inspections and everything seems OK, there may be another plant out at the back which the factory owner will never admit to or open up.

If the practice of employing child labour is to be stamped out, several things need to happen:
• There needs to be more collaboration amongst the clothing manufacturers.
• There needs to be more engagement of the middle classes in the poor countries involved (such as India) so that local opinion shifts decisively against child labour.
• There needs to be much more engagement by opinion formers and the middle classes in the poorer countries where child labour remains prevalent.
• If you see child labour in any form anywhere, then make sure to point this out to the employer that it is completely unacceptable.

Recently, in South India I saw two cases of child labour in micro-enterprise creation projects run by a respected NGO which was completely committed to the ending of child labour in all its forms. The sad fact is that these were “demonstration projects” that the NGO wanted its visitors to see. When challenged, one employer said that the child was a foster son. But we saw the son well-fed and well-dressed and not working; whilst the so-called foster child looked surly and dirty. In a neighbouring street, we saw a sari embroidery factory with a young girl working, and were told that this is what she liked to do “for the company” after school. This shows how easy it is to con the casual visitor, and how hard it is to stamp,out the practice.

One thing to think about is what should children be doing after they have completed their primary schooling. The Millennium Development Goals seek universal primary education, but they and international NGOs are strangely silent on what happens after when young people are still too young to work in countries where secondary education is for the few who can afford it.

The GAP’s full 42-page report is on the company’s website: www.gapinc.com
Two international campaigns against sweatshops:
Sweatshop Watch, a US campaign against child labour: www.sweatshopwatch.org
No Sweat, a UK campaign against child labour: www.nosweat.org.uk
And three Indian websites of interest:
Child Rights Information and Documentation Centre: www.cridoc.net
South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude: www.saccsweb.org.in
Swami Agnivesh, a leading campaigner against child labour in India: www.swamiagnivesh.com

Four books to inspire you

2007-10-24T17:32:00.000+01:00

The Everyday Activist
Everything You Need to Know to Get Off Your Backside and Make a Difference
By Michael Norton
Published by Boxtree, October 2007; £9.99

There is huge debate about whose responsibility it is to change the world. From politicians and celebrity to ordinary people like us, everyone is being held to account for their personal impact on our planet. The Everyday Activist offers the solution. It provides practical and easy-to-follow advice backed up by over 40 inspirational stories of people who have gone out and done something.

The book suggests six steps:
1. Understand that YOU can change the world
2. Become an Everyday Activist; do lots of little things in your life, in your community, at work.
3. Decide what's the problem – what is the issue that really concerns you?
4. Come up with a solution.
5. Take action – by yourself and with your friends.
6. World domination – your ideas start to spread around the country and through the world.

There is a 60 page action guide on getting organised, getting noticed and getting the money you need to succeed.

This inspirational book is a must-have guide for anyone who wants to go out and make a difference. Michael Norton is author of "365 Ways to Change the World" www.365act.com

How to save the world in your spare time
by Elizabeth May
published by Key Porter Books, Can$21.95: www.keyporter.com

Most how to books are a little bit too theoretical, they state the obvious and make it seem all to easy, and a lot of them are boring to read. Now here is a book written from personal experience drawing out the lessons for becoming a successful campaigner.

The author of “How to save the world in your spare time” has been in the thick of things from early childhood, when her parents formed the Connecticut Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. Her mother was an active and passionate citizen-activist, and this led to her becoming a co-signatory with 17 others (all of whom were Nobel Laureates) to an international lawsuit against the governments of the USA, UK and Soviet Union.

Elizabeth’s career as an activist also got off to an explosive start. Aged 23 on her first live TV appearance, she read out a letter sent in by a whistleblower that completely contradicted everything a Swedish paper company was saying about the need to spray pesticides. Elizabeth is now Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada.

Her book is full of sound advice as well as fascinating case examples of determined people winning out, often against seemingly impossible odds.

These are the ten lessons that Elizabeth learned at her mother’s knee:
1. My grandmother always said, “Thought without constructive action is demoralising”.
2. You can accomplish anything you want so long as you don’t care who gets the credit.
3. There is no one so famous of important that you cannot pick up the phone and talk to them. Even famous people need baths.
4. Media coverage is fickle.
5. Sometimes governments lie.
6. No one is powerless without their own permission.
7. Be polite.
8. Thank people for helping.
9. Changing the world is only a matter of time… if you have enough people on your side. Getting them on your side is what takes time.
10. My mommy changed the world. So can I.

The Big Earth Book
by James Bruges
Alastair Sawday Publishing, £25
This book explores environmental, social and economic ideas that can make life better for everyone on the planet. A follow up from The Little Earth Book b y the same author and publisher.

The More You Give, The More You Get
by Mike Dickson
from the author
A guide to philanthropy and some interesting philanthropists. www.themoreyougive.co.uk

Viral messages

2007-10-17T10:14:00.000+01:00

Viral messages spread on the internet as a virus might, with people passing the message on to their friends, and friends then passing the message on.

Viral marketing is an attempt to use this technique to market a product or a service. But sometimes a message will spread because it is funny, curiouos, important or the people spreading it are really committed to getting it out.

Here is a recent viral message. How far will it go? Will you pass it on to your friends?

Donating a mammogram
**Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! The Breast Cancer site is
having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet
their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an
underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and
click on 'donating a mammogram' for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the
number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know. **

**http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/*

*AGAIN** **, PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS TO TELL 10** *

The Ig Nobel Awards

2007-10-17T10:05:00.000+01:00

The Ig Nobel Prize awards are given out every early October since 1991 by the Annals of Improbable Research, a bimonthly magazine which satirises scientific research. The awards are a parody of the Nobel Prize, and are given to achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think."

Ten awards were made in 2007 in different fields. The winners are:
• Medicine: Brian Witcombe, of Gloucestershire Royal NHS Foundation Trust, UK, and Dan Meyer, who studied the health consequences of sword swallowing.
• Physics: A team from the USA and Chile, who made a study about how cloth sheets become wrinkled.
• Biology: Dr Johanna van Bronswijk of the Netherlands, for carrying out a census of creatures that live in people's beds.
• Chemistry: Mayu Yamamoto, from Japan, for creating a method of extracting vanilla fragrance and flavouring from cow dung.
• Linguistics: A team from the University of Barcelona, who discovered that rats cannot tell the difference between Japanese and Dutch when spoken backwards.
• Literature: Glenda Browne of Blue Mountains, Australia, for her study on how the word "The" confuses people when they try to put things in alphabetical order.
• Peace: The US Air Force Wright Laboratory for trying to develop a "Gay bomb" that would turn enemy soldiers homosexual.
• Nutrition: Brian Wansink of Cornell University for his investigation into the limits of the human appetite, by using a self-refilling "bottomless" bowl of soup.
• Economics: Kuo Cheng Hsieh of Taiwan, for patenting a machine that catches bank robbers by dropping a net on top of them.
• Aviation: A team from the National University of Quilmes, Argentina, for discovering that impotency drugs can help hamsters recover from jet lag.

Annals of Improbable Research: www.improb.com
The Ig Nobel awards: http://improbable.com/ig and the list of past winners: www.improb.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html

The official Nobel Prize website: www.nobelprize.org
The official Nobel Peace Prize website: www.nobelpeaceprize.org

The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was won jointly by Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Since just failing to become President of the USA, Al Gore has been devoting his talents and his energy to campaigning on the issue of global warming. His book and film “An Inconvenient Truth” have been subtitled “A global warning”, and are intended as a wake-up call to the world. He is also building a movement of activists who can go out and spread the message to a world which needs to act faster than it seems to want to.

These are Al Gore’s Top Ten Tips for simple things you can do today that will help stop the world warming up (or at least make a small contribution to slowing down the rate).

1. Replace lightbulbs with compact fluorescent ones.
2. Drive less.
3. Recycle more.
4. Keep your car tyres properly inflated.
5. Use less hot water
6. Avoid products with a lot of packaging.
7. Reduce your heating and air conditioning usage.
8. Plant a tree.
9. Turn off electronic devices when you are not using them instead of putting them on standby.
10. Be part of the solution.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: www.ipcc.ch
Al Gore’s site: www.aninconvenienttruth.co.uk

Be a hypocrite

2007-10-07T22:19:00.000+01:00

We are told that global warming is the greatest issue facing the planet. Yet we see many of those who are telling us this jetting off on holiday or another book tour. Sure they may be offsetting their carbon emissions. But they know that any offsetting must also be accompanied by a serious attempt to reduce personal emissions.

There are lots of things that all of us do which we know we shouldn’t be doing. And despite every attempt to tell us it’s wrong, we will continue doing them. S, perhaps we should legitimise the idea of “being a hypocrite”… but only up to a point. We should allow people to own up to everything that they are doing which they know they shouldn’t be doing. This at least will put everything out into the open... and it could be a starting point for behaviour change.

So…
• Be a hypocrite. Continue to talk about global warming, yet take those flights to the South of France or the USA. Or forget to change your light bulbs to low energy or switch to green electricity. All simple things that will have an impact on the problem.
• But own up to what you are doing that you know in your heart of hearts that you really ought not to be doing. Make a list of all your acts of hypocrisy in relation to the environment (what you are doing to trash it).
• Then see if you can stop doing just one of these things… a small step for a better future for the planet.

This is Jeanette Winterson, acclaimed author of “Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit” and most recently of “The Stone Gods” in conversation with Fi Glover on Radio 4’s Saturday Live on 6th October 2007. She is talking about changing the world and being a hypocrite:

Asked if she was concerned about climate change… “I’m an optimistic person anyway. I always think that we get another chance. And I’m also convinced that nature will produce a miracle when we least expect it.

We’ve already seen so many problems averted. I don’t think we need to go down the Doom and Gloom route. But we do need to be, each of us, very conscious of what we are doing in the world and our own choices on the planet. So it’s not about pessimism, it is about challenge now.

What I really worry about are my godchildren. They’re only kids, and they worry about the planet every day. They always coming home and asking “Will there even be a planet for us to live on?” But when you hear it from the kids, you must really do something about this. And it can’t just be politics. It has to be personal commitment from everybody.

At home I have a geothermal heating system and a rainwater collecting system. So I do what I can. But I’m not that squeaky clean. I do have a Porsche. Not an electric Porsche. Sadly they haven’t made them yet. I limit the mileage.

But the point is that there’s always going to be some part of us that says “Hey, let’s party!”. That’s what we have got to balance against responsibility. If it becomes too hairshirt and penitential, then nobody’s going to do anything. But there are things that all of us can do.”

Listen to the full broadcast at: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/saturdaylive/saturdaylive.shtml

Free software for schools

2007-10-04T02:06:00.000+01:00

This is taken from the first draft of a paper written by Frederick Noronha, a journalist and internet guru who lives and works in Goa, India. Contact him at fred@bytesforall.org

Richard M. Stallman, the founding father of the Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) Movement, argues that schools should exclusively use free software. He writes: "There are general reasons why all computer users should insist on free software. It gives users the freedom to control their own computers with proprietary software, the computer does what the software owner wants it to do, not what the software user wants it to do. Free software also gives users the freedom to cooperate with each other, to lead an upright life. These reasons apply to schools as they do to everyone."

He argues that there are "special reasons" for schools particularly to look at FLOSS, including:
1. Free software can save the schools money in a context where schools even
in the affluent world are short of money.
2. School should teach students ways of life that will benefit society as a whole and promote "free software just as they promote recycling".
3. Free software permits students to learn how software works, thus helping build good future coders.
4. Proprietary software rejects their thirst for knowledge by keeping knowledge secret and "learning forbidden".
5. The most fundamental mission of schools is to teach people to be good citizens and good neighbors to cooperate with others who need their help (6) teaching the students to use free software, and to participate in the free software community, is a handson
civics lesson.

Other arguments have also come up. For instance the view that FLOSS is "stable, secure, feature rich, and easy to learn. It is also free. Or that proprietary software "products are expensive, and require sacrifices in our school budgets to deploy."

Most of these applications are protected by the Gnu Public License (or similar licenses), a license that protects the users right to use the source, alter the program, and copy and/or redistribute the program at will. That implies that possession of one copy of the software allows one to copy it and install it on any number of computers, or even share it with students or staff, without any need for concern over additional licenses.

SPECIFIC TOOLS: There are a growing number of tools that are suitable for deployment in school-based education. Most of these come from the global pool of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS).

Below are some links to projects suitable for use in school education. France has had a group called the Libre Software School day, working on this. In Germany, the listing of who's using FLOSS in schools has been maintained by Andreas Rittershofer. Italy has it maintained by the group The Libre Software School Day. OFSET, the France-headquartered group, has tools which could be used in a wide range of contexts.

SUITABLE SOFTWARE: A Spanish volunteer from Catelonia, working for the Goa Schools Computers Project (later under the aegis of the Knowledge Initiatives Trust), put together an interesting collection of software suitable for use in schools. It is available at http://wikiwikiweb.de/FlossInSchools

Among the programmes listed are:
• BKchem, the chemical drawing programme written in Python.
http://www.zirael.org/bkchem
• Chemtool, a GTK+based 2D chemical structure editor for X11. It draws organic molecules easily. http://ruby.chemie.unifreiburg.de/~martin/chemtool
• ECell System is used for modelling, simulation, and analysis of large scale complex systems such as biological cells. http://ecell.sf.net
• 'GenChemLab' helps students prepare for actual lab experience. Supported experiments include titration, calorimetry, freezing point depression, vapour pressure, electrochemistry and spectrophotometry. http://genchemlab.sourceforge.net
• Earth3D visualizes the earth in realtime in a 3D view. You can rotate and zoom the view until countries, cities and even single houses become visible (in areas where the necessary map resolution is available), and fly around. You can also embed external data like current earthquake positions or cloud data. http://www.earth3d.org
• Xrmap interactively displays portions of the Earth, using the huge CIA world vector map. http://frmas.free.fr/li_1.htm
• Calcoo is a scientific calculator designed to provide maximum usability. http://calcoo.sourceforge.net
• Dr. Genius is merged from two projects: Dr. Geo and the Genius calculator, and is a vector drawing software. http://drgenius.seul.org

Check all these out, and the many more reviewed in Frederick Noronha’s draft paper, which can be accessed at: www.divshare.com/download/2205748-36f

The State of Burma

2007-09-27T23:44:00.000+01:00

Since an army coup overthrew Burma's last democratically-elected government in 1962, military-run or dominated regimes in Burma have been among the world's worst violators of human rights. An already serious level of abuses climbed higher after the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) (renamed the State Peace and Development Council in November 1997) seized power in September 1988. The junta removed all pretence of civilian administration and marked its arrival by massacring thousands of unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators in Rangoon and other Burmese cities and towns.

Today, says Amnesty International, "torture has become an institution" in Burma. Reports by the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other groups have repeatedly detailed a gruesome litany of abuses, including murder, torture, rape, detention without trial, massive forced relocations, and forced labor Even before 1988, Burma's army faced allegations of serious human rights abuses, especially in its campaigns against ethnic groups along the country's borders. These severe violations continue today. (from the Burma Campaign)

The Buddhist monks are standing up against the regime. They may be suppressed, when their bravery will live on. Or it may be the spark that brings down this illegal, corrupt government… and brings freedom to a nation impoverished by those who rule it.

Support the pursuit of human rights by the Burmese in Burma. Join in one of these campaigns:
The Burma Campaign UK: www.burmacampaign.org.uk
BurmaNet (USA): www.burmanet.org

Aung San Suu Kyi is the legitimately elected leader of Burma (in the last free elections that were held) and a Nobel Peace Laureate, who has been under house arrest or imprisoned since then by the Military Junta that took power. Visit her website at www.dassk.com

Information on the state of human rights in Burma
These are world’s two major human rights organisations and the information they provide on Burma:

Amnesty International
The AI report on human rights in Burma: www.thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Asia-Pacific/Myanmar
The AI website (although Burma is not one of its major campaign themes): www.amnesty.org

Human Rights Watch:
The HRW Burma file: www.hrw.org/asia/burma.php
The HRW website: www.hrw.org

The Wikipedia entry on human rights in Burma (which has a listing of organisations concerned with the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Myanmar

Transparency International has just published its 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index. This places Burma/Myanmar bottom equal with Somalia at No 179: www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2007

September 28th 2007: wear red or pink
A campaign was organised on the internet to wear red shirts on 28th September 2007 in solidarity with the human rights protestors in Burma.

On the same day, the Breast Cancer Campaign asked everyone to wear pink: www.wearitpink.co.uk

Stand up for human rights in Zimbabwe

2007-09-25T14:50:00.000+01:00

A cry for help:
The crisis in Zimbabwe is getting worse by the day. Every day that passes, more and more people will suffer and die unnecessarily.

As the international community, we owe the people of Zimbabwe a chance for a better tomorrow.

Many political, religious and human rights leaders have highlighted and debated about the atrocities in Zimbabwe, some have taken action.

No one individual, party or organization can solve the Zimbabwean crisis alone.

We call on all concerned world leaders, individuals and organizations to work together in tackling the Zimbabwean crisis now, before it is to late.

The crisis in Zimbabwe ranks among the world’s worst government created humanitarian disasters. Here are some facts and figures. Zimbabwe has…
• The lowest life expectancy in the world with an average age of 37 years
• With over 85% of the population living in poverty
• And the worst inflation in the world at over 7000% and rising
• 3.5 million have fled the country and 1000's more flee every week
• Zimbabwe had one of the best health care systems in Africa, now is one of the worst. Only 6 healthcare workers and 1 doctor per 10 000 people
• The government has sanctioned the use of excessive force and torture by the police and military. Innocent men, woman and children are being brutalized and tortured on a daily basis
• In May 2005, the government launched operation "drive out trash" resulting in 700,000 people losing their homes and livelihoods
• Land redistribution ordered by the government has destroyed Zimbabwe's agricultural commercial sector. Tobacco, Zimbabwe's main export, has fallen from 2 million kilograms per year to 60 thousand in 6 years
• Over 7000 people have been arrested in the past 6 months for not adhering to government controlled prices
• In an effort to take over the mines, the government has arrested 20,000 people since 2006
• 2 million people are vulnerable to starvation. International food aid is being distributed by the government to its supporters, and the government punishes supporters of the opposition

Robert Mugabe, the great freedom fighter who brought Zimbabwe’s independence (along with Joshu Nkomo) would like you to believe that the problems are a result of colonialism and the policies of the West (which are mainly sanctions on travel by senior ZANU-PF officials and the attempt to get food aid distributed for humanitarian rather than political purposes).

Despite the fragmentation of the opposition and the fierce bullying of its leaders, Zimbabweans are speaking out about the abuse of human rights taking place. This story hit the newsstands in September 2007:

Harare taxi driver, Tafadzwa Nyatsanga, was negotiating fares with passengers outside an agricultural show when a policeman arrived and demanded to be taken somewhere for a fare of just Z$50,000, about 10p. When Nyatsanga refused, pointing out that other people had been queuing for hours, the officer, Michael Masamwi, began beating and punching him, whacking him round the head with his truncheon.

There was nothing unusual about this in the Zimbabwe of President Robert Mugabe. But then something strange happened. Someone from the crowd stepped forward and told the officer that what he was doing constituted “a human rights abuse” and he should stop. Masamwi laughed and hit him too. The man again told him that what he was doing was wrong as there were hundreds of people waiting. This time the crowd joined in, turning on the policeman and beating him.

The officer called in riot police. They dispersed the crowd violently and arrested the taxi driver, who is still in jail two weeks later.

A few days after the incident, however, Masamwi received a legal summons. Then last week about 500 people gathered outside his police station to demonstrate. This protest was also broken up by riot police and 11 people were arrested, but the demonstrators returned the next day.

Such unprecedented public action is the result of a new movement that has been launched in Zimbabwe to try to end police brutality by naming and shaming the most violent officers and taking them to court. Restoration of Human Rights is the brainchild of two Zimbabweans, one white, one black, who were living in Britain.

Until a few months ago Justin Shaw-Gray, 33, was in Godalming working in IT sales; Stendrick Zvorwadza, 38, was a business studies teacher at a college in Bradford. But the two men were so shocked at the repression in their homeland that they decided to give up their jobs and do something.

“We’re saying enough is enough of police brutality,” said Shaw-Gray. “We felt you might not be able to get rid of Mugabe, but we could make people aware of their rights and how to act. It seemed to us there were plenty of human rights organisations documenting abuses, but none actually doing anything about it.”

Using their savings and contributions from friends, they have spent the past two months meeting district leaders and recruiting members. This is no easy task, given Zimbabwe’s notorious public order laws that require police licences for gatherings of more than five people.

The pair have been arrested several times. “My mum is so scared she can’t sleep at nights,” Shaw-Gray said. Yet so far they have signed up more than 15,000 people.
“We tell people if you stand up alone you’re at risk; if five of you stand up, you’re at risk, But if we stand up in our thousands, they can’t do anything,” said Zvorwadza.
“There are around 45,000 police, of which maybe 5,000 are bad guys. The rest want to do their job. What we want to do is start weeding them out and naming them so they can no longer hide behind the cloak of the system and will be living in fear.”

The plan is to hold demonstrations outside offending officers’ homes and workplaces, and to sue them, working with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

When asked about the risks, he said: “Zimbabwe has the lowest life expectancy in the world and people are starving. We’re explaining to people if you don’t stand up you’ll be dead anyway in six months, 12 months, maybe 18 months, because the economic situation is so bad. You must stand up or you’ll die.”
– from Timesonline: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article2511698.ece and Justin was interviewed on BBC World Service on 25.10.07

Two things you can do:

1. Support the campaign for the Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe. Use this website to send a message of support to Justin, Stendrick and their colleagues in Zimbabwe who are putting their lives at risk to defent human rights in Zimbabwe. They are standing up in the face of extreme adversity; do what you can to encourage and help them: www.rohrzimbabwe.com

2. Join the Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London. This takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe: www.zimvigil.co.uk

Get Up… and go

2007-09-05T14:13:00.000+01:00

Mobilising citizen activism through the internet: In 2004, the Democratic Presidential hopeful, Howard Dean, then Governor of Vermont, astonished the US political establishment. From this small liberal State at the North East tip of the USA, and with no money and no backing from party bosses or big sponsors, Dean was able to mobilize hnundreds of thousands of volunteers and supporters. In the process, he created a political force to be reckoned with. The fact that John Kerry, the Party’s candidate of choice, beat Dean and the other hopefuls to fight the election (although he then lost it convincingly) does not diminish Dean’s achievement in creating a political movement largely consisting of young people fed up with traditional politics.

But mobilising people through the internet was not new. In 1998, an organization called MoveOn had been established to urge Americans to move on from the issue of President Clinton’s impeachment, which was obsessing and dividing the political establishment, to dealing with the really important issues facing the American people.

MoveOn was started by two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with no experience in politics. Joan Blades and Wes Boyd were deeply frustrated with the partisan warfare going on in Washington DC, so they launched an online petition to "Censure President Clinton and Move On to Pressing Issues Facing the Nation". Within days hundreds of thousands of individuals had signed up. And Joan and Wes began looking for ways of making their voices heard.

MoveOn was formed as a political action committee so that like-minded, concerned citizens could influence the outcome of congressional elections, and in turn, the balance of power in Washington DC. Now known as MoveOn.org Political Action, this organisation provides individuals, who normally have little political power, an opportunity to aggregate their contributions with others to gain a greater voice in the political process, and brings people together to take important stands on the most important issues facing our country.

In the UK in 2003, a similar movement was started largely in response to the government’s decision to press ahead with the invasion of Iraq, which was called Our World Our Say.

Both these organisations are non-party political, but try to influence the political parties. They share liberal ideas: green, anti-war and injustice, pro-human rights and cooperation, etc. They also encourage people to participate in the democratic process by voting and holding their representatives to account.

Crossing the bridge: What do you do once you have crossed the bridge and reached the other side?

“On Sunday 28th May 2000, we were among the 250,000 Australians who braved a cold early winter’s day to march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to demonstrate Australians’ commitment to reconciliation. The walk for reconciliation was just one of several major moments in the last 10 years – like the war in Iraq and the Tampa controversy – when Australians mobilised in large numbers in favour of a more progressive vision of the country.

Although Australia has enjoyed great economic prosperity over the last decade, those of us who want to be part of a more just and progressive country have found ourselves disappointed and disheartened. Popular movements like the one opposing the Iraq war quickly appeared, raising hopes, but then dissipated. There had been no strategy or organisation to capture that energy and turn it into permanent, broad-based national movement.”

What could people do after walking to the other side of the bridge? It was this question that inspired Jeremy Heimans and David Madden to create GetUp.

Their vision was an organisation that used technology to make it easy for Australians to “engage in real political action on the major issues facing the country, and to create a new progressive movement – a community working to advance social justice, economic fairness and environmental sustainability.”

Don’t give up, GetUp: GetUp was launched with a national TV ad and email campaign. The response was overwhelming – many Australians were looking for a new way to have a voice and participate in politics again. By the end of the 2006 financial year GetUp had 100,000 members and had already made an impact on a number of major national issues. By September 2007, membership had increased to 250,000,

Join your fellow citizens in fighting for justice, fairness and e better environment. Get Up off your backside. Move On and deal with the really important issues facing our society and our communities. It’s Our World; let’s have Our Say!

GetUp: www.getup.org.au
Move On: www.moveon.org
Our World, Our Say: www.owos.info

“It was the kind of crisp and sunny August day Canberra is famous for. I watched, with a pack of journalists, as the plane flew in towards the city’s centre and then proceeded to write “Vote No!” in gigantic letters above Parliament House, impossible to miss for miles around. It was an appeal from GetUp members to senators to reject the regressive changes to the Migration Act that would see asylum seekers, including children, detained offshore. Twenty minutes later, I watched as John Howard strode out of the same House and announced he was withdrawing the legislation.

“For me, this moment has come to symbolise much about GetUp that we should aspire to for all our work. The skywriting was a single bold act that communicated effectively the community’s concern. But it was the culmination of a long campaign – a campaign that had attracted a mass diverse movement of more than 100,000 supporters to our online petition, included a national television advertisement narrated by Jack Thompson, received support from all sides of politics and was developed in collaboration from partners such as Chilout and A Just Australia. Thankfully, it was also successful.

“GetUp is a truly new type of organisation in the Australian political context, recognised here at home – and internationally – for breaking new ground in campaigning. We’ve demonstrated beyond doubt that there is a role for a multi-issue progressive political campaigning organisation, and that the internet plays a truly empowering role in our democracy. An organised and dispersed population can influence political outcomes and at the same time can change the political consciousness of a generation with the click of a mouse.” – Brett Solomon, Executive Director, GetUp

Some campaigns run by GetUp include:

Say NO to a pulp mill in Tasmania: The proposed Gunns pulp mill in the Tamar Valley represents a major threat to Tasmania’s environment and economy.

Close the gap: Indigenous Australians have a life expectancy almost twenty years lower than other Australians. That's unacceptable. We need our country to commit to achieving Indigenous health equality within a generation.

Take a stand against racism: In response to Sydney's race riots, we need to channel our emotions and shame into something practical and hopeful. That starts with taking personal responsibility for racism in our own lives and communities.

Bring David Hicks home: Unlike other governments, ours has failed to stand up for its citizen's basic human and legal rights – and that matters more than what kind of man David Hicks (is or isn't. David Hicks was imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, and was allowed home in return for an admission of guilt.

Save the Cheetah

2007-09-05T14:05:00.000+01:00

The world's fastest land animal, the sleek and long-legged cheetah, Acinonyx Jubatus, is losing its race for survival. Once a common animal found on five continents, the cheetah is now an endangered species.

Loss of habitat, conflict with humans, as well as its own loss of genetic variation, are the main threats facing the cheetah today. The cheetah needs large expanses of land to survive, but with changes in land use and habitat pressures, such as bush encroachment, this area is becoming smaller and smaller. Unfortunately, captive breeding efforts have not proved meaningful to the cheetah's hopes of survival.

Cheetahs can reach speeds of over 70 mph, but they are extremely clumsy fighters. The result is that although the cheetahs are the best hunters in Africa, they lose much of their prey to the more aggressive predators, such as lions and hyenas, who chase them away and steal their food.

In 1900, more than 100,000 cheetahs were found in 44 countries throughout Africa and Asia. Today only 12,000 to 15,000 animals remain, existing mostly in small-pocketed populations in 24 to 26 countries in Africa, and less than 100 in Iran. The cheetah is classified as an endangered species.

The largest population of cheetahs is in Namibia. But there was a drastic decline of the number of cheetahs in that country in the 1980s, when the population halved over the decade, and now there are less than 2,500 animals remaining.

Dr. Laurie Marker founded and the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia in 1990, having worked with cheetahs since 1974. Her aim was to find a solution for the continued existence of the cheetah and to stabilise the population of animals in the wild.

Dogs are the answer! The removal of lions and leopards from the farmlands, in addition to plentiful natural prey animals and an abundance of water, have allowed the cheetah to exist on Namibian farms. This sharing of land and resources has led to conflict, with the cheetah on the losing end.

In the 1980's, Namibia was hit hard by drought. The cheetah's natural prey base died or was killed by farmers to reduce grazing and watering pressures on their livestock. With little natural prey to hunt, some cheetahs were forced to prey on livestock. Many farmers considered the cheetah a major threat to their livelihood.

In Namibia, cheetahs are a protected species. But when cheetahs come into conflict with humans and their livestock, farmers are allowed to "remove" the animal. Trapping and shooting cheetahs that are suspected of being a threat to livestock is permitted. Sometimes cheetahs that are just passing through are immediately labeled as "problem animals".

The Cheetah Conservation Fund's has come up with the solution of using guarding dogs to protect farm animals.

A livestock guarding dog lives with the herd, eats and sleeps with the livestock and travels with them. The dog is always on alert, and defends its herd against a variety of threats – against baboons, jackals, caracals, cheetahs, leopards and even humans. The dog’s job is to bark and posture to scare the predator away. Cheetahs are not normally aggressive, so are quick to retreat from a barking dog.

You can sponsor a dog to save the cheetah. The Cheetah Conservation Fund breeds, cares for and places about 30 puppies a year. Each dog costs CCF around $500 a year in care. These costs include food, vaccinations, new-owner support, veterinary care and long-term monitoring. You can sponsor a dog, either yourself or by as a group of people, by raising $500 a year for CCF.

Cheetah Conservation Fund: www.cheetah.org

Rebuilding New Orleans: Katrina two years on

2007-09-02T15:14:00.000+01:00

Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on 23 August 2005, and crossed southern Florida as no more than a moderate Category 1 hurricane, where it caused some deaths and flooding. It then strengthened rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico becoming one of the strongest hurricanes on record while at sea. The storm weakened before making its landfall as a Category 3 storm on the morning of 29 August 2005 in southeast Louisiana and at the Louisiana/Mississippi state line.

The storm surge caused severe damage along the Gulf Coast, devastating the several Mississippi cities. In Louisiana, the flood protection system in New Orleans failed in 53 different places. Nearly every levee in metro New Orleans breached as Katrina passed east of the city. 80% of the city and many neighbouring areas were flooded.

At least 1,836 people lost their lives because of Katrina and the subsequent floods. It was the deadliest US hurricane since 1928. The storm is estimated to have been responsible for $81.2 billion in damage, making it the costliest natural disaster in US history.

The federal, state and local government reaction to Katrina was widespread. For a country which is spending huge amounts of money invading and then trying to pacify Iraq, it seems curious to many (within and outside the USA) that the same sense of urgency and commitment has not been applied towards rebuilding the homes and the lives of the very many citizens of New Orleans who lost everything as a result of Katrina.

The following editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on 29 August 2007, exactly two years on from Katrina:

“New Orleans and other areas maimed by Hurricane Katrina should be pretty, pristine and perfectly rebuilt by now. Shouldn't they? After all, two years have passed since the storm battered Gulf Coast communities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Billions of dollars have been spent, thousands of work-hours logged, and God knows how many prayers murmured to reassemble what the winds and waters of Katrina tore apart.

Actually, two years is not enough time to have completed all the needed repairs, especially in New Orleans, where insufficient levees contributed to most of the city's becoming submerged. But here's the problem in assessing the progress that has been made: Katrina reconstruction has suffered from so much waste, incompetence and indifference that it's impossible to separate challenges caused by nature from the man-made ones.

New Orleans has improved some since the hurricane:
• Its population is at 66 percent of its pre-Katrina size, up from 50 percent last year.
• Students are returning to schools, though in smaller numbers.
• The region's economy is stronger. Meetings and conventions are at 70 percent of their pre-Katrina level; tourism at about 60 percent. New Orleans' sales tax revenue has returned to 84 percent of its pre-storm level.

…Progress wouldn't have occurred without the tenacity and toil of survivors, and of volunteers who trekked to the Gulf Coast from around the country."

One major mobiliser of NGOs has been Habitat for Humanity International. One of its key partners has been Project Homecoming organised by the Presbytery of South Louisiana.

With the help of some 70,000 volunteers, more than 1,100 homes have already been built or are under construction in the Gulf Coast Recovery Program in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas. And every month, volunteers start working on 52 more homes.

If you are passing by New Orleans, on vacation or next year for Mardi Gras, and if you are a dab hand with a hammer, why not stay longer and volunteer your time and muscle power towards this magnificent volunteer effort. You will not just be helping the victims regain their homes and rebuild their lives in the city where they want to live; but you will be showing that people care, and perhaps shaming government into recognizing that they could and should do better.

Habitat for Humanity’s Katrina Relief: www.habitat.org/gulfrecoveryeffort
Presbytery of South Louisiana’s Project Homecoming: www.pslrecovery.org/home.html
Facts about Katrina: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

Go on a grand tour

2007-08-27T19:36:00.000+01:00

Over the summer of 2007 for 12 weeks ending on August 31st, the National Gallery in London turned central London into a giant art gallery by lining the streets of Soho, Piccadilly, and Covent Garden to create a “Grand Tour” of some of the world's most famous paintings. For example, the Arnolfini portrait by Van Eyck was in Berwick Street, and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in Old Compton Street, both in Soho. All the paintings on this Grand Tour were reproductions produced by the event’s sponsors, Hewlett Packard. The real pictures could be seen every day free of charge in the National Gallery collection.

The Grand Tour website had an interactive map showing which paintings were hanging where, and an audio guide could be downloaded for information on the paintings. You could also call a phone number listed for each painting to find out the who, the why, the what and the when about that painting.

The National Gallery’s Grand Tour: www.thegrandtour.org.uk

What is a Grand Tour?
The Grand Tour was a European travel itinerary that flourished from about 1660 until the arrival of the railways from around the 1820s. It served as an educational rite of passage for the wealthy, rather as a gap year trip does today for pre-university students. A grand tour could last from several months to several years. It was always an adventure, travellign by horse and carriage along bad roads and across mountain renges with a retinue of servants, tutors and the like,

A Grand Tour typically began in Dover for crossing the Channel to France. In Paris the Grand Tourist might have French lessons and learn dancing, fencing and riding. From Paris he might go to Geneva then across the Alps into Italy. Once in Italy, he might spend a few months in Florence, Pisa, Bologna and Venice to study Renaissance art, and then on to Rome to study the classical ruins, with perhaps a visit to Naples for its music and to visit Pompeii and climb Mount Vesuvius. Towards the end of the 18th century, the more adventurous traveler might have visited Sicily and Greece. The journey home took the traveler through Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, again with a wide range of cultural experiences on offer.

What you can do
1. Design your own Grand Tour enabling you to visit all the must-see things that will complete your education. These could be cultural, political, social or just fun places around the world. Even if you don’t do it, dream about it!

2. Organise a Grand Tour exhibition inspired by what the National Gallery did. Put art in public places for people to see. Perhaps start with just one painting, which you will need to get reproduced large-scale and you will also need to prepare and produce a few paragraphs of explanation alongside it. If the picture relates somehow to something of local interest, then all the better. You will need to find a sponsor prepared to put up the cost as well as the owner of a wall (in a prominent place) who is willing to let you hang your picture on it. Then try to get as much publicity as you can.

3. Do what Sing London did. Organise a sing-along in front of a picture in your local art gallery. For example in Sing London, they sang the song “Delilah” in front of a painting of Samson and Delilah and “Love and Marriage” in front of the Arnolfini portrait n the National Gallery. Your aim will be to encourage participatory singing and art appreciation, both at the same time. This could be an organised event, or just a “guerrilla happening” See www.singlondon.org

Fight light pollution

2007-08-19T18:46:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time, you could look up at the sky and see the stars. Today there is ligt pollution almost everywhere. This is when there is so much ambient light being emitted from our cities, towns and roads that the stars become far less visible than they were in Galileo’s day.

"Excessive poorly designed outdoor lighting wastes electricity, imperils human health and safety, disturbs natural habitats, and increasingly deprives many of us of a direct relationship with the night-time sky which throughout human history has been a powerful source of reflection, inspiration, discovery and plain old jaw-dropping wonder.” – David Owen writing in the New Yorker, 20.8.07

If you really want to explore the stars, you might now need to go to the middle of the Kalahari or Gobi deserts or climb to the top of Mount Everest to avoid the problems of light pollution.

The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) aims to highlight this problem and mobilise people and communities to do something about it – which they can do by pressing for sky-friendly standards for outdoor lighting and the establishment of dark-sky parks and preserves.

Here are two things that can you do about this problem:

1. Understand that there is a problem. This is a good starting point. There is an exercise that you can do on the IDA website, which involves rating photographs. See below.

2. Join the IDA; there are Chapters in some countries of the world, but not in many others. If there is no Chapter in your own country, why not start one.

Rating light pollution
You are invited to review a series of photographs which depict various lighting fixtures either in isolation, or installed. You then rate each on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor and 10 is excellent. Your rating may be a general assessment or an appraisal which takes into account these five essential elements of outdoor lighting:

Glare: Intense light that contrasts excessively with shadowed areas, so reducing overall visibility. Glare may be annoying or discomforting.

Light trespass: Artificial light that spills from one property onto another. Look at how much light shines onto other properties, including structures or vegetation?

Energy waste: Think about if the lighting is excessive, whether it meets the task it was installed for well and in an efficient manner, whether the area is overlit, and whether there is too much contrast for good visibility.

Impact on night sky: Light that shines directly up into the sky and reflected light from installations that are too brightly lit create sky glow

Visibility: This is the capacity of something to be seen under present lighting and weather conditions and the reason for most night lighting. Think about whether the lighting helps or hurts visibility.

Like all surveys, this survey is subjective. You can add your comments with you rating especially where you rate a particular example particularly highly or poorly. Go to www.darksky.org/programs/ratings

International Dark-Sky Association: www.darksky.org

Wheelchairs for people with disabilities

2007-08-13T10:41:00.000+01:00

It is quite hard to get accurate statistics on the impact of disability in the developing world, but the following give some indication of the problem:
1. The United Nations Statistical Office estimates there are 20 million people in the world who need a wheelchair but don't have one.   
2. The World Health Organisation estimates that the average life expectancy of a paraplegic in a developing country is between 2-3 years. In the UK life expectancy for a paraplegic is normal.
3. The World Health Organisation suggests that between 20-40 people per million of the population will sustain a spinal cord injury in one year, many of whom will require the use of a wheelchair
4. Scope, the UK charity for those with cerebral palsy, suggests that 1 in 400 people worldwide have cerebral palsy.   
5. The Mines Advisory Group suggests that 26,000 people are killed or maimed by land mines each year.

Here are two inspirational initiatives for providing more people with wheelchairs.

Wheelchairs from old plastic and recycled bike parts
The Free Wheelchair Mission makes wheelchairs from plastic patio chairs, a steel frame, and some mountain bike tires to deliver FREE to those that are disabled in third world countries who could otherwise not afford a wheelchair (and who are most likely crawling around on their hands for the purposes of mobility). With over 100,000,000 disabled poor people throughout the developing world, Free Wheelchair Mission has its work cut out. You may be surprised to learn how easy it is for you to help. START YOUR OWN MISSION! Host a fundraising event to buy wheelchairs OR SPONSOR a shipment of wheelchairs. The cost to manufacture and deliver a wheelchair worldwide is just $44.90. Over 240,000 wheelchairs have now been distributed to date.

Distribution of the wheelchairs is organised via distribution partner organisations. If you want to become a distribution partner or know of an organisation able to take on this role, here are some facts to consider:
• The distribution partner should have previous experience in importing containers, or be working with another organization that does.
• The wheelchairs are given at no cost to the poorest of the poor, without discrimination, and the recipients must need a wheelchair for mobility but should not already have a wheelchair.
• A wheelchair cannot be given individually unless it is bought and transported to a developing country (usually by an individual who is traveling and would like to gift someone with a wheelchair).
• Wheelchairs come in ocean or land containers containing 550 units.

www.freewheelchairmission.org

Flatpack wheelchairs
David Constantine was on a holiday to Australia when he dived into water which was just three feet deep.  He would never walk again. But rather than let the accident destroy him, David decided to devote the rest of his life to helping other people with disabilities.

With two friends, David set up Motivation in 1991, a charity based near Bristol with the aim of changing the lives of people across the globe. Their latest project is a revolutionary flat-pack wheelchair, the Worldmade Wheelchair, which is cheap to make, easy to assemble and, crucially, fully adjustable for each individual.   It’s a chair designed for rugged third-world terrain – and is making a huge difference to the lives of disabled people.

Most wheelchairs that are designed for use in developed countries where there is generally a good infrastructure for wheelchair users are often inappropriate for conditions in developing countries, particularly rural areas where many disabled live. They are also unaffordable to many who need them. It is estimated that there are over 20 million people in developing and low income nations that need a wheelchair but don’t have one.

The concept of mass producing a range of flat pack wheelchairs helps keep the costs down and means the wheelchairs can be tailored to the individual’s requirements when assembled. The first wheelchair is specifically designed for use in rural areas – with three wheels to provide stability on rough terrain. During 2006 3,000 were produced which will increase to 10,000 per year by 2008. They are being supplied in Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and South Africa. Work is also underway to design and produce a wheelchair for people living in urban areas.

Motivation has also established the ‘Fit for Life’ course to ensure partner organisations receive training in prescribing and assembling the wheelchairs correctly and provide the right support and training to wheelchair users.

The wheelchairs cost around $150 (£86), a fraction of the average wheelchair in the UK which costs upwards of £1,000.

www.motivation.org.uk

Organ donations for peace

2007-08-06T01:10:00.000+01:00

If you become an organ donor, you can help others live after you die. Here are two inspiring stories of cross-community organ donation in conflict areas, which also make a strong statement for peace.

Ahmed Khatib, a 12-year old boy was mistakenly shot by Israeli soldiers at the entrance of the Jenin refugee camp in November 2005. He had gone to buy himself a tie on the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr (marking the end of Ramadan) and was playing with a toy gun on. Israeli troops involved in a raid to arrest suspected terrorists came under fire. They mistook Ahmed for a militant and shot him. He was taken to a Haifa Hospital with his parents, where he later died.

The Israeli military immediately apologised for their mistake. The Khatibs agreed to donate their son’s organs to be transplanted to any Israeli awaiting an organ donation. They did not mind whether the patient was Jewish, Muslim or Christian. Ahmed Khatib’s heart now beats in the chest of a 12-year old Druze girl from northern Israel, who had waited 5 years for a transplant. His lungs were transplanted to a 14-year old. His kidneys benefited a 4-year old boy and a 5-year old girl. Sections of his liver helped save the lives of a 7-month old baby girl and a 58-year old woman.

We should applaud the Khatibs for their humanitarian gesture which has enabled their son in death to sustain the lives of others, whereas another family might have pledged another of their offspring to become a martyr as a suicide bomber.

The second story is of a 19-year old Scottish Jew studying in Israel called Yoni Jesner who was killed in a suicide bombing on a bus in Tel Aviv in September 2002.

Yoni was an A-grade student on his way to study medicine at University College London. He was also active in community work in the Glasgow Jewish community. He was the driving force behind the rejuvenation and expansion of Glasgow Bnei Akiva, his local youth group. He organised and ran cross-communal events as well as inter-youth movement activities. Yoni sent a Jewish Youth delegation to the Scottish Parliament. He was a Jewish Studies teacher and was in charge of running the children and youth services at his local synagogue. He was also the youngest volunteer at the Glasgow Jewish burial society.

Yoni’s family instructed doctors to donate their son’s kidney, and this was given to Yasmin Rimila, a 7-year-old Palestinian schoolgirl from Ramallah, who had suffered kidney failure. She had been waiting two years for a suitable donor so that doctors could treat the rare genetic disorder that had led to her kidney failure

Yoni’s eldest brother, Ari Jesner, said: "The family is very proud that Yoni was able to give life to others. The most important principle was that life was given to another human being. It’s unimportant what religion; what nationality. We are glad their daughter was able to be saved. Life here is a bit of a lottery."

The Yoni Jesner Foundation was been set up in memory of Yoni. Through its projects the Foundation perpetuates Yoni's memory and continues the work that Yoni was involved with during his too-short life: www.yonijesner.org

Why not become an organ donor yourself? Type “Organ Donor” into Google, or in the UK go to: www.uktransplant.org.uk/ukt/how_to_become_a_donor/how_to_become_a_donor.jsp

Meet fellow peacemakers in their homes

2007-08-02T15:27:00.000+01:00

Are you internationally minded and committed to world peace? If so, you can travel the world and stay with local people, or invite travellers from abroad to share your home for a night or two.

Servas means "serve" in Esperanto. Servas encourages people to meet up with others on the Servas network when they are travelling. Servas has a network of 13,000 hosts and travellers all of whom are interested in helping build a world of peace, goodwill, understanding and mutual tolerance. This is how the scheme works.

If you would like to offer hospitality to travellers of any race and culture, you can become a Servas host.

If you are a traveller and want to stay with Servas hosts when you are travelling, apply to become a Servas traveller. To apply, get in touch with your local contact person – who will interview you, and then approve you. Servas travellers are of every race, creed and nationality.

Servas hosts provide a bed for two nights (or longer, but only at the host's invitation) and usually invite the traveller to share in the evening meal. The host is not expected to provide transport for the traveller, although some may want to show the traveller places of interest in the host’s community.

The host will ask to see the traveler’s Letter of Introduction to make sure it is up to date, and keep a record of travellers' name(s) and address(es) in a Visitor Book.

The host should explain the 'rules of the house' to the traveler, and set aside some time to talk with a traveller. The host is free to decline a request for accommodation if involves inconvenience to the host.

Hosts not able to provide overnight accommodation can join as Day Hosts. A Day Host will find a convenient time to meet the traveller, may provide information or a guided tour, or a work-place visit, a meal, or just find time for a chat.

As a host, your name will appear in your country's Host List, which is published each year. Hosts normally re-register each year so the List is kept up to date.

To be a traveller, you must be 18 years or over. Your interviewer will check that you are responsible, open minded and likely to be a good member of Servas. When approved, you will be given a Letter of Introduction which is your Servas 'passport' and is valid for one year.

Host Lists are provided for the countries a traveller will be visiting. A deposit is required for Host Lists, and this is refunded when the lists are returned together with a travel report. If a Host List cannot be provided for a particular country, the traveller will be given the address and telephone number of the contact in that country from whom a list can be obtained. Host Lists are private documents for members only, and should be returned at the end of a trip so that they are available for other travellers.

The traveller will show this Letter of Introduction on arrival at the host's home.

The traveller should always ask before using a host's phone, and should pay for all calls.

At the end of a trip, the traveller should write a short report for the Servas National Secretary, listing the hosts they have stayed with, and giving useful advice to other travellers. [contributed by Kay M Cleish]

www.servas.org

Or would you prefer to spend some time working on an organic farm?
Doing nothing this weekend? Want some fresh air and to do something useful. Then check out World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (it used to be called Working Weekends on Organic Farms): www.wwoof.org

Sue Coppard, the Founder of Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms describes how WWOOF came into being: I grew up on the outskirts of East Croydon, running around in the Shirley Hills, and then we moved to Hove, where my brother and I used to stay with my aunt and uncle on their farm near Uxbridge. I remember picking wildflowers, building dams in streams, sliding down haystacks and generally running wild.

In 1971, I was living in London and working as a secretary at Resurgence magazine, having a wonderful time - London in the 70s was very swinging - but I desperately missed being able to get out to the countryside. I thought that if I offered to help out on a farm, they would let me stay.

And then I thought it might be lonely on my own, but maybe other people would want to do it, too. I mentioned it to a journalist I knew, who put me in touch with John Davy, the vice-principal of Emerson College, where they study bio-dynamic agriculture. He asked the people running the college farm, who were sceptical - they didn't really want townies playing about in the countryside - but they agreed.

I put a small ad in Time Out, and 15 people answered. Two of them went down with me and the farm managers made us do what is known as housework: clearing encroaching brambles and cleaning out ditches. It was idyllic. By the end of the weekend, the farm managers said we could come back whenever we wanted.

Soon, the organisation got so big it began to dominate my life. I took a back seat and with other people in charge it has gone from strength to strength. Since 1971, 43 different countries have become involved, including Australia, China, America, Ghana, Finland and Hawaii. I'm staggered at what has happened, but immensely proud too.

After her year backpacking abroad, Sue rejoined the WWOOF Organisers. And as WWOOF grew, so did the tasks involved. The team proliferated: Troubleshooter, Exhibitions Organiser, Meetings Organiser, Regional Organisers, helping overseas WWOOFs get started, Newsletter Editor, and compiling the Fix-It-Yourself List for direct contact with hosts (WWOOF began with Scheduled Weekends only), etc.etc. There were also Projects such as the (indestructible) tea towel, exhibition posters, sturdy WWOOF aprons, and the 'WWOOF Directory of Organisations and Training in the UK Organic Movement' - the first such directory, which sold to officialdom and a wide and varied public.

WWOOF continues to grow flexibly and organically because so many people have given - and give - their expertise, hard work and inspiration. Promoting worldwide friendships and support, spreading valuable knowledge, helping people find a more fulfilling life, championing the environment - indeed the Planet, meeting wonderful individuals, and simply making people happy because they can have contact with Nature: WWOOF contributes a very positive influence wherever it spreads. [from The Guardian, 7.3.06]

Find out Wattson

2007-08-01T14:11:00.000+01:00

If you measure your energy use, you will find it easier to reduce it. There is a simple device called Wattson which does just that.

The Wattson system measures total electricity entering your house and displays this value on an easy to understand display. In your home, the electrical system will consist of several circuits, such as ring mains, lighting circuits, cooker circuit etc. These separate circuits are all connected together at the fusebox, and this is where Wattson measures the total electrical power entering your home. The amount of electricity being used at any one time, is displayed using numbers and colours.

The device will not just show how much electricity you are using, it will also record your usage history over a period of months. This will provide you with a deeper understanding of how you consume electricity use and how (if need be) you can reduce your consumption.

You can also view your power use at any moment expressed either in Watts or in Pounds Per Year – the pounds-per-year figure is calculated on the basis that everything is left as it is for the whole year. You will be able to see how much money appliances cost to run, and how much they cost when left on standby.

You may find your microwave costs you £50 a year just to tell the time and wait for you to ask it to do something.

Switching on a kettle will make the yearly figure jump by around £3,000. Nobody leaves a kettle on for a year. But this figure gives you a good reason to boil only as much water as you need rather than filling the kettle to the top, which takes six times as long to boil (and costs six times as much).

A 100W light bulb left on for a year will cost roughly £70, but if you replaced it with an 18W Low-energy light bulb with the same light output, then this would drop to about £12.60, saving you nearly £60 (again on the assumption that the light is left switched on year round)!

Wattson has been produced by the design group DIY KYOTO. They “value simple things, and seek to produce products of perfect convenience and utility, elegant in their conception and efficient in their operation.”

Wattson costs just £125. Your home will never be the same with it.

www.diykyoto.com

Rainforests and global warming

2007-07-22T23:56:00.000+01:00

Tropical rainforests are of key importance to addressing climate change. This is often forgotten with all the talk of going carbon neutral and offsetting aircraft emissions.

Just the next five years of carbon dioxide released from the burning of the rainforests (which contributes 20% of global Greenhouse Gas emissions) will be greater than all the emissions from air travel since the Wright brothers until at least 2025.

Conserving the planet’s forests needs to be given much higher priority in the effort to reduce global carbon emissions for the following reasons:
• The importance of this source to total emissions.
• Because carbon capture an d nuclear technology will make no major impact on reducing emissions before 2030.

We can tackle deforestation now, without the need for inventing new and expensive technologies or creating a new energy infrastructure. Apart for storing carbon, these forests are also giant utilities generating rainfall and air-conditioning the atmosphere on a global scale. They maintain the planet for all the world’s people. This is something the world community must start to pay for and in doing so it will not only help the effort to conserve the forests but it will also help alleviate poverty among 1.2 billion of the world's poor who depend on these forests for their livelihoods. Developing countries cannot do this on their own. The global warming problem is not of their making. Yet this course of action offers the cheapest and most efficient immediate action for addressing climate change.

Who contributes what to Greenhouse Gas emissions
Power 24%
Deforestation 18%
Transport 14%
Industry 14%
Agriculture 14%
Buildings 8%
Other 5%
Waste 3%

The importance of forests to carbon capture
• Forest trees and soils contain twice as much carbon as in the whole of the earth’s atmosphere. Tropical forests store between 120 and 400 tonnes of carbon per hectare.
• Forest burning is contributing 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year in Brazil and 350 million tones per year in Indonesia.
• Peatlands cover just 3% of the earth’s land surface, but are the largest terrestrial store of biomass carbon. In South East Asia, with 7.6% of the world’s peatlands, 42 billion tones of carbon is stored.
• When peatland is drained, cleared or burned for agriculture, greenhouse gas emissions come from peat oxidization as well as from fire.

The Global Canopy Trust
The GCT is an international network of 29 scientific institutions from 19 countries involved in forest canopy research. Find out more from www.globalcanopy.org. GCT organises forest canopy experience days in the UK in partnership with Go Ape www.goape.co.uk. It also organises more sophisticated forest experiences for the intrepid explorer who wants to learn more about the importance of forests in South East Asia and South America.

Facts about forest canopies
• Forest canopies are the richest known yet least explored terrestrial habitat on earth.
• The canopy is the functional interface between 90% of the globe's biomass and the atmosphere.
• 40% of all species on earth may exist in the canopy; 30% of them are likely to be canopy specialists.
• The value of this biodiversity to medicine, agriculture and humankind is unknown.
• New research shows rising CO2 is altering canopy function and could have a significant influence on disease patterns, hydrology (forest canopies intercept up to 25% of precipitation) and wood quality of over 45 million ha of land.
• We do not accurately know the canopy's role in maintaining the earth's carbon balance or climate.15-37% of global species most at risk could become extinct due to predicted climate change impacts in 50-100 years. Most of these will be in forest canopies.
• The forest canopy is the prime location for future risk prediction under global change and in which to interrogate ecosystem models.
• Multidisciplinary research in the canopy has challenged concepts of global species richness, plant physiology and the provision of ecosystem services.
• Closed forest canopies are fragmenting and disappearing faster than any other habitat.

Three things to do if you care about forests:
1. Find out about the UN billion trees campaign: the target was to plant 1,000,000,000 trees. So far pledges have been made to plant 1,063,845,640 trees and 37,131,175 have actually been planted. You can join the campaign and pledge to plant some trees (even just one tree) in your garden, as a school project, to brighten up the streets in your neighbourhood or to create a community orchard or forest. Make a pledge today. www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign
2. Help TreeAid plant trees in rural Africa. This creates employment, alleviates poverty, helps counter desertification as well as capturing carbon. www.treeaid.org.uk
3. Click on the Rainforest Site every day and save one square metre of rainforest a day. Get your friends to do this. Start a clickers group. It is a cost-free way of doing a little bit to save the rainforest. Make the Rainforest Site your homepage. It works! www.therainforestsite.com

Petition the Prime Minister

2007-07-22T20:51:00.000+01:00

Petitions have long been sent to the Prime Minister by post or delivered to the Number 10 door in person. Some with millions of signatures. You can now both create and sign petitions on 10 Downing Street website, providing you with the opportunity to get your petition directly to the Prime Minister’s office.

The e-petitions system was launched on the Prime Minister’s website in November 2006.

Britain has a new Prime Minister since June 2007, Gordon Brown. Use the PM’s petition site to bring matters to his attention… and even to try to influence government policy. But remember that you will need to publicise the petition as widely as you can and ask everyone not just to sign it but to circulate it to their own address books, and in this way get as many people as possible to sign up. Aim to get tens of thousands of people to back your petition. If you only get a few people, then your efforts will backfire… as your cause will seem to have little public support.

A popular petition that is currently live with over 40,000 signatures: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to repeal the Hunting Act 2004.
The Hunting Act 2004: has done nothing for animal welfare; threatens livelihoods in the longer term; ignores the findings of Lord Burn's Enquiry; gives succour to animal rights extremists; is based on political expedience following the Prime Minister's unconsidered response on the television programme Question Time in 1999; is framed to persecute a large minority who support a traditional activity; does not command popular support in the country except amongst the uninformed and mal-advised.

Another popular petition with around 25,000 signatures: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to immediately and retrospectively give all Gurkha servicemen and their immediate families past and present British citizenship.
Gurkhas have served the British forces with loyality and dedication for many years, yet we as a country treat them poorly and with inequality. Members of the regiment who served in the Falklands are not entitled to a pension, after service they are treated like illegal aliens. This it totally wrong and unacceptable. I ask that they willingly risk their life for our well being and should be given citizenship as a matter of principle as no country could ask more from an individual and these people are proven good members of our society and we will deeply benefit us as a nation if we give these men and women automatic British citizenship.

And also with around 25,000 signatures: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Stop the Chancellor from using lottery money to fund the Olympics in 2012.
Stop the chancellor using lottery money to plug the funding gap in the 2012 Olympics. If this goes ahead at least £900m will go from Big Lottery, Sport England, Arts Council and Heritage Lottery much of this money would fund projects within the local voluntary and community sector. Services to disadvantaged people will be directly affected by the loss of this funding, people who will have no opportunity to benefit from the Olympics directly but rely on local services provided by the voluntary sector.

And these were the five most recent petitions as of 23rd July 2007:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to…
1. Act to stop "fair share fee schemes" being used as a back door to creating closed shops in Britain’s workplaces.
2. Allow children the right's to use the toilets during lessons, which are in a clean safe environment. As well as the right to being allowed to drink plenty of fluids to maintain a healthy bladder and bowel.
3. Raise the school leaving age to 18.
4. Set up a democratic organisation to represent the UK’s 40 million road users, and democratise camera partnerships.
5. Ensure Medical professionals gain more understanding and show more respect to sufferers of the rare condition Transverse Myelitis.

Act now. Draw up your own petition to the UK Prime Minister at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk. Sign some of the live petitions on the website. Or if you want to petition the world, go to the Care2 PetitionSite www.thepetitionsite.com at or Petition on-line at www.petitiononline.com

Browse the 10 Downing Street website and engage in webchats with UK Government Ministers: www.number-10.gov.uk

"Ask the White House" is an online interactive forum, which allows you to interact with Bush administration officials and friends of the White House. Launched in April 2003, citizens have participated in over 200 online discussions with Cabinet Secretaries, Senior White House Officials, behind-the-scenes professionals at the White House, and others. Transcripts of every live chat session are on the website. www.whitehouse.gov/ask

Pedalling for a purpose

2007-07-12T23:50:00.000+01:00

Pedal power can be used to get you around; but it could also be used to generate electricity. Hasn’t the thought occurred to you as you wanted past a fitness centre that all that effort in travelling nowhere on a bicycle exercise machine could be put to some good use – perhaps to light up the building or to feed into the grid. Or perhaps bicycle power could be used to recharge mobile phones or even run a cinema… which is precisely what a number of eco-pioneers are trying to do.

But pedal power energy is not new. It has been in use since the nineteenth century. Aside from transportation, pedal-power can be applied for a very wide range of jobs which will then contribute to less pollution and conserving energy. Pedal power is good for you. It uses the most powerful muscles in the body: the quads, hamstrings, and calves, and converts 95% of exertion into energy.

The Magnificent Revolutionary Cycling Cinema
“Four of us meet in the barn to take a look at the small amount of kit that we’ve already got. A newly purchased hybrid road bike with a slick back tyre gets jacked up. We try out a motor with a skate board wheel barely attached. A radio becomes the first test. Before long, Lucy is putting enough leg work in to power it. We have sound. After a couple of months of hard graft, finally the time was upon us… our debut at The Big Chill 2007 festival as part of their Arts Trail – three consecutive five-hour nights of screenings.”

A group of people in Cambridge have built a touring cycle-powered cinema, which they have called The Magnificent Revolutionary Cycling Cinema. Using serious volunteer numbers (with six or more cyclists side by side providing the energy) and hours of dedicated pedalling (with no shortage of volunteers) to keep the film rolling, the Magnificent Revolutionary Cycling Cinema plans to take films to festivals and even to those parts of the country that the cinema doesn’t reach.

The Magnificent Revolutionary Cycling Cinema is the only bicycle-powered cinema in the UK. It unites art, education and sustainability by:
• Screening DIY films, independents and small productions.
• Demonstrating how to generate power locally and independently of fossil fuels.
• Engaging the audience in idea of sustainability.
“Throw in top hats, 50’s usherettes and a touch of the circus weird… and you’ve arrived at The Magnificent Revolutionary Cycling Cinema!”

They are building a collection of short and feature-length films about issues such as climate change, DIY culture, bike culture, sustainability, the green-revolution… alongside home-grown art films and other delights. They are also hoping to encourage people to produce their own DIY films about issues which are important to their communities. If you have or know of films suitable for the Cycling Cinema to screen, get in touch.

The Magnificent Revolutionary Cycling Cinema: http://cyclecinema.wordpress.com

Using no physical exertion, there is another way of generating power for movie entertainment,… by using solar panels. This is what Solar Cinema, which describes itself as “the groovy movie picture house” does. www.groovymovie.biz

Recharging cellphones
Global inheritance (GI) created a display called "The Energy Factory" fpr the 2007 Coachella Music and Arts Festival in California, which aimed to get young concert-goers interested in alternative forms of energy. There were demonstrations of wind power, solar power, bio-diesel, ethanol power, a converted electric car,… and even a human powered cellphone charging area.

They set up 24 bicycle powered generators at the 2007 Coachella Music Festival. A similar design could also be used for human powered television, human powered Playstations, and even a human-powered blender or laptop computer. Just think of the idea of TV-addicted or couch potato kids generate their own power to watch TV or play video games all day – they would end up in great shape!
www.scienceshareware.com/bike_gen.htm

What you can do
Aside from, volunteering to be one of a team of pedallers at a festival, you could design and make your own pedal-power machine to turn your efforts into electricity. Find out about this and much more on pedal power at: www.humboldt.edu/~ccat/pedalpower

You can also donate equipment to The Magnificent Revolutionary Cycling Cinema. See their wish list on their website at: http://cyclecinema.wordpress.com

Check out the Bicycle Film Festival: www.bicyclefilmfestival.com