Stretching the limits

Having been accused of posting a few too many sectarian posts recently, maybe I should post something a bit more unifying. Recently I’ve heard some rather worrying statements being made about radical climate activists demanding too much, or pushing agendas which most other campaigners aren’t ready for, let alone wider society. It seems that there are those who wish to disown certain elements within the campaign, something I find most disturbing.

The BIG 10,000!

Well, here I am, looking with amazement at the addition of a 5th digit to my blog’s view counter. Thanks to everyone who reads what I write, its really quite encouraging. I started writing almost exactly 8 months ago, and have posted 175 times since, meaning a post each for 71% of the days since.

Legal Observing a Football Match

Heading to a day conference recently, I found myself witnessing a fairly major public order policing operation, concerning a football match between two teams with a history of violent clashes between supporters. Being me, this meant deciding whether to start legal observing (watching the police and writing down almost everything they do), or simply pass on and hope nothing came of it. But then someone I know from the world of activism spotted me and asked me, with some incredulity, if I was legal observing a football match. I found this quite a bizarre question, but it dawned on me that, to some activists, the use of legal observation in this situation was a bit silly.

Issues with issues

Union Election time is here once again, and though I’m not standing, its taking up a lot of my time right now, so I apologise if posts are becoming infrequent.

Amongst all this, I’ve also had to find time for various meetings recently, including one about Khaled, a Bradford student currently trapped in Gaza and unable to return to study. During this meeting, one of the speakers stated that “If South African apartheid was the defining issue of my generation, then Palestine will be the defining issue of yours”. Sophia helpfully wrote two words on the paper we were using to communicate silently: “Climate Change”.

The Tragedy Dumbledore Represents

Like many people, I was surprised to read about JK Rowling’s announcement, when I picked through today’s news. So, Dumbledore is gay. What concerns me isn’t that a key role-model character in modern children’s literature is gay, but the fact that an announcement to that end could make headlines, and beyond that, be the most popular news story of the day on the BBC News website. This says a lot about the so-called victories of the LGBT movement.

Civil Disobedience vs Direct Action

They’re two of the most common terms in the activist vocabulary. Some see them as being one and the same thing, others see Civil Disobedience as a preferable term. But in terms of the mind-set attached to them, they are hugely different, even if they look exactly the same; a group of people sitting in a road, someone smashing up a fighter jet, etc. I find it frustrating how Direct Action has been made into the negative of the two phrases, and of the two mindsets.

The Islamisation of the Left

I have written about the need to confront the Iranian government at the same time as opposing war with Iran and about the case of anti-Tehran protesters trying to confront pro-Islamist tendencies within the STWC. Now regular reader Jonathan has written of Stop the War’s decision to prevent a group called “Hands Off the People of Iran” joining its ranks. While is an alarming case of censorship and highly destructive politics, I think this is part of a broader trend which is even more concerning.

Different Approaches to Environment

When I was wondering what to write about in my actual Blog Action Day posting, I came to the conclusion I would have to write about some aspect of the way I come to engage with issues around the environment. Then I realised that my approach points on the issue, or more correctly, issues, is or are very diverse. I am informed by concerns for personal habitat, the micro-environment within which I live, but also by concern for the world’s poorest and how they might be affected if their environment were disrupted.

Monday Action: Post on your blog!

See also Monday Action.

Well its not often I get to simply tell everyone to stop reading my blog and go post on their own (or just write a note on Facebook, or do whatever Myspace users do). But don’t do that just yet, as I haven’t fully explained. You see, Today is this year’s Blog Action Day, and the single-word theme is Environment. And a bit later today, another post will appear on this blog with my thoughts on the issue of the environment. And then maybe later I’ll do a round-up of great posts about the environment (maybe not today, though). So get going!

Widening Cathedral Usage

Looking for another article which I would like to dust-off, brush-up and make something better of, and it being Sunday, I thought I’d re-write something church-y. Sorry to any non-Christians reading this who are immediately turned off, and doubly so to those who are put off for the second time!

Most Cities in Britain have a cathedral in the middle, most of which are fairly large buildings which may be seen as tourist attractions, but which are rarely seen as spaces with relevance even for Christians who’ve moved on from the traditional Cathedral fayre of high-church Sunday Eucharist, daily evensong with little room for participation and so forth.