A week in July and looking forward

8 Days in July:
"In a period of eight days at the height of summer, the UK experienced an extraordinary series of events which shook the country and in many ways shaped 2005."

I don't think it's overly dramatic to say that the week in July will perhaps be remembered in the same way as the moon landing, JFK's assasination and the twin towers on 11th September. It is one of those weeks that I know I will remember. I had just celebrated my birthday. Hubby and I were away on holiday when Live8 was broadcast and spent a lot of that afternoon/evening watching the TV in the bar of our hotel and later in our room. Then we returned to London, now the location of the 2012 Olympics, but still had a few days off work. We were lounging around at home when we witnessed the coverage of the transport bombings on the news, struggling to grasp that what we were witnessing was actually real.

Then amidst all the confusion, sadness and horror, a group of men announced that they had listened to us. Although they didn't meet all the requests made by the Make Poverty History campaign, they made some great steps forward. With everything else that has happened this year, it's easy to forget that this is still an ongoing issue, that these promises need to be delivered and that more work is still needed to bring about fair trade:

"The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong (13-18 December) could have been a turning point in making poverty history. ... The WTO meeting failed to deliver the trade justice deal needed in 2005 to make poverty history. The intransigence of rich countries means the agreement reached is far from just for the poor of the world. ... This shameful abuse of power showed no respect for poor countries’ right to decide their own trade policies to help lift millions of people out of poverty and stop environmental damage."
[Excerpt from Make Poverty History's response to the recent World Trade Organisation's conference]

This time last year I was making a new year's resolution.
This year, I want to make another resolution, to be more aware of how my life impacts upon others and this planet; to try to think about my purchases, the products I use and the companies I support ... oh, and to eat more fruit and veg.

Again, I find myself looking back down the road I've travelled and forward to the uncharted route ahead, wishing you all ...

Happy Journeys.

Final Chance ...

I've just been watching Joanna Lumley in 'Final Chance to Save'. A programme that looks at endangered species, this time it was focussing on the orang-utans of Borneo and the work carried out by the Orang-utan Foundation.

Since first reading The Light Fantastic (the librarian is an Orang-utan) I've been intrigued by these gorgeous apes and have sponsored one for many years through WWF.

So it was shocking to see their natural habitat being cut down to make ply wood (?!), mine gold or plant other non-native plants:
Acres of rain forest had been cut down for plantations to create palm oil, a ingredient that is apparently in many household and cleansing products. These are plants that can thrive in quite meagre conditions and yet precious rain forest has been destroyed for them. (Following a link, I've found information on sustainable Palm Oil here.)
In another location, a gold mining operation had completely stripped an area of rain forest. It resembled a desert. The mercury used to process the gold poisoned the earth so that no plants could grow, therefore there was no insect life, no birds, no animals.

Joanna saw baby orang-utans that had been taken to be sold ... as pets?? ... or who knows what. They raided one property and the two rescued infants clung to Joanna and a sanctuary operator like little children. It is very easy to anthropomorphise such creatures as their eyes have a startling depth to them and their actions demonstrate an inquisitiveness about the world around them. Somehow, perhaps because they are so genetically close to us and because, in a way, we are their cousins on the evolutionary tree, it almost seems to be even harder to me to witness cruelty towards great apes than other animals.

She said something later in the programme that struck me about what all the animals would think if the human race was wiped out, that they would probably think 'phew they've gone' and then get on with their lives.

It's quite a sobering thought - what would happen if we were wiped out tomorrow? There would possibly be some pollution as toxic substances escaped from chemical processing plants and the like, but without our vehicles and industry the air quality would most likely improve quite quickly. Our buildings would slowly succumb to the weather and wildlife. Our roads would overgrow, the countryside would re-conqer the cities and in probably a relatively short period of time all our achievements and progress would be as a whispered memory.

Surely the best achievement, the best indication of our progress, civilisation and developement, would be to look after the beautiful place we call home before time runs out for all of us?

Happy Holidays

The BBC has run two interesting articles recently about Christmas which have, yet again, made me question 'organised religion'.

(Note: I must make it clear that I do respect people who have a religious belief and try to live a good life that is compatible with their faith but I have an issue with some of the stuff that occurs because of and around organised religion).


In the first article, intriguingly titled Lines drawn in battle over Christmas:

'An increasingly vocal number of Christians are attacking what they say is a "war on Christmas" by those determined to enforce a rigorously neutral holiday season reflecting America's constitutional separation of church and state. ... The AFA [American family Association] and other groups are urging members to petition dozens of other major retailers that they accuse of stripping Christ from Christmas with phrases like "happy winter". ... Meanwhile, at least 1,500 lawyers have volunteered to sue any town that tries to keep nativity scenes out of its holiday displays. ... Such moves reflect the 1985 US Supreme Court "reindeer ruling". It said that town-square nativity scenes and the like were constitutional if balanced with secular symbols like Santa Claus, thus avoiding the appearance of state-endorsed religion.'

Whilst I think that it's a bit daft to need a legal ruling on town decorations, I suppose I can understand the logic behind it.

In a similar vein, the Archbishop said:
"What makes some people suspicious of Christmas these days is that it's too religious.This year there seems to have been even more stories about the banning of Christian images and words by silly bureaucrats. It's all because of the idea that our neighbours from other religious traditions will be offended by Christian symbols. The truth is they're usually much happier with the idea of a Christian festival than with some general excuse to have a good time in midwinter."

Now, I was with him until the last sentence - why can't I have a good time in midwinter?

Many of the symbols and traditions of christmas (such as Holiday Trees!) aren't anything to do with Christianity. We've only had christmas trees as we know them today since Victorian times but the practice of bringing greenery into the home has been going on for much, much longer:

'Holly, Ivy and other greenery such as Mistletoe were originally used in the pre-Christian times to help celebrate the Winter Solstice Festival and ward off evil spirits and celebrate new growth. ... Pagans used branches of it [evergreen fir tree] to decorate their homes during the winter solstice as it made them think of the spring to come. The Romans used Fir Trees to decorate their temples at the festival of Saturnalia.'
[With thanks to www.whychristmas.com]

I do not celebrate the birth of Jesus therefore there is no religious symbolism in our house. But it is decorated like homes have been decorated in the dark winter months for thousands of years.

I think the vastly over-commercialisation of Christmas is sad but I also understand our need for a mid-winter festival. I fully agree that Christians should be able to celebrate Christmas in the same way that other faiths can celebrate their major festivals. I also think that in our multi-cultural society, far from hiding or apologising for our festivals (religious and otherwise), they should be celebrated openly and without apology as they form part of our culture.

Perhaps people could also think about the very basic need within us all to lighten the dark days of winter with a little cheer.

So I wish you all a Joyful Winter Solstice, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah and Seasons Greetings!

An historic week

What a wonderfully historic week:

'Gay weddings' first for Belfast on Monday
Couples in partnership ceremonies in Scotland on Tuesday
and today in England, Sir Elton 'wedding' takes place (and no doubt many more, but less newsworthy(!), ceremonies)

marred only by some people who felt it acceptable to protest outside registry offices around the country. I understand their need and their right to have their feelings be heard but did they not think that it might be hurtful for those preparing to sign the register to have their special day intruded upon by placard holding protesters?

I know that this new legal status is officially known as a civil partnership but most people are already referring to them as marriages. I think the official name is in an effort not to offend those who view marriage in the biblical sense of one man and one woman joined in the eyes of god. What about all those who have their ceremonies in registry offices, by humanist celebrants, etc - they are non-religious and yet still called a marriage? But I digress, I find it quite amusing that most news stories, presumably for convenience, are referring to 'weddings' and 'marriages'. I wonder how long the quotation marks will stay before they are dropped and society as a whole recognises the civil partnership for what it is - a marriage between two loving and committed people.

As an aside, I also think it's lovely and perhaps uncharacteristically classy for Elton John and David Furnish to have had a private ceremony. That is surely a mark of how much it means to them both that they didn't want it plastered all over Hello or whatever.

Anyway, congratulations to all those who have signed and will be signing the new civil partnership register. I wish you the very best for a long and happy life together.

Happy Journeys.

Search for Adam

I've just watched an interesting programme on National Georgraphic entitled the Search for Adam.

Men inherit their Y chromosome from their dad. It's passed on from father to son with an occassional mutation. The idea is that by looking at the genetic profile of men from around the world comparing various known mutations, it might be possible to find a scientific 'Adam'.

'By analyzing genetic changes in the Y-chromosome of people in all regions of the world, Wells and colleagues concluded that all humans alive today are descended from a single African man.
"We're all effectively cousins, separated by 2,000 generations," [Spencer Wells] said.'

In our past, apparently humankind was close to extinction. It is believed at one point our population was very small indeed and why we were able to recover is open to conjecture. As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention, perhaps imminent extinction is the mother of evolution! :o)

But because of this, there was a relatively small pool of genes from which we are all descended.

A similar project has been carried out using mitochondrial DNA which is passed through the female line. It is proposed that we all have seven ultimate grandmothers.

It is not to say that there was only one man and a few women, as clearly there were more. But these people produced lines that did not die out. They had sufficient healthy offspring to ensure the continued survival of their family and we are all descendants of that super family.

Words such as british, white, innuit, african, black, oriental, etc ... they are just descriptive words but have no real meaning. We are tribal beings who for some reason feel the need to categorise and distinguish between "us" and "them" - perhaps it's something to do with ancient base survival and mating instincts?

But what this research does make clear is this - not only are we all members of the species Homo Sapiens but, more than that, we are all members of the same family.

Happy Journeys

Another hurdle overcome

Well, I had my first filling for a number of years this morning.

I am still struggling with some aspects of my dentist fears - the most uncomfortable things for me now are anything touching the back of my tongue and that horrible water spray thing but my dentist is understanding. She and her nurse will remove all instruments if I raise my hand, giving me a moment to swallow, breathe or calm down. Most of the time, the fact that I know I can stop them gives me enough control of the situation to allow them to continue. Work that one out! hehe

I've come to realise that it's not really a phobia anymore. After all, a phobia suggests a very strong reaction with a desire to avoid or escape from a particular situation or object. I still experience anxiety for several days before an appointment but I wasn't woken up in the small hours of the morning by a panic attack this time so I think I'm making good progress ;o)

I've got a breather now until the new year when I have some more work scheduled. I'm keeping my mind on the ultimate goal to get a smile to be proud of.

Happy Journeys.

Stuff and Nonsense

Well I'm a little disappointed to report that NaNoWriMo didn't go quite as expected. I don't have a final word count yet as I still have to type up hand written notes. I will let you know as soon as I have typed up. I am still writing although not as disciplined as I was when the month first started. I have concluded that there were three issues that prevented me from achieving a better word count:

1. Laziness (yup, no excuse for that one)
2. Lack of rountine - sometimes I wrote when I got home from work, sometimes I had ideas at work, sometimes I wrote in bed just before I went to sleep. I think a structured time would help me to get into a routine.
3. Dealing with a major phobia (dentist) and working to overcome that isn't particularly conducive to coherent creative thought. :o)

So, number 2 is something that I can work on and number 3 is progressing well. My 2006 resolution will be to write something every day so by the time NaNoWriMo 2006 comes around I might have managed to get up to 50,000 words!

And now for something completely different - I was passed this link by a friend and it's most amusing. It's a very basic drawing programme. You can send links of your creations to friends who can re-play the creation of the piece brush stroke by brush stroke. Here's one I did earlier!

Happy Drawing!