Activism
« Previous EntriesHappy is better than rich
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008Every year, the UK’s Sunday Times publishes its famous Rich List, and this year’s came out on Sunday. Click here to find the names of those who are richer than most of us will ever dream of being - or in my case would ever want to be.
This year there’s an antidote to the Rich […]
Sunday Collection: Earth Day
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
This week saw the annual Earth Day, during which we reflected on the earth and what we are doing to her. I was especially heartened to see from the religious outreach programme that 12,000 faith initiatives related to the environment took place in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities.
Mel at Beansprouts gave us some other […]
Earth Day
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008It’s Earth Day today. I didn’t know until I read Beansprouts. I don’t know about you, but it’s easy to get a little confused here. We had World Water Day recently, and Earth Hour.
These are all wonderful worthy occasions that draw our attention to important things, and they all come down to the same thing: […]
22 March - World Water Day
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008Photograph by RickAbbott
When I first wrote about World Water Day, upon which we remember that over one billion people in the world today lack clean drinking water, I hadn’t focused on when it falls this year: Easter Saturday, the day after Jesus was tortured to death.
We can imagine the start of that Sabbath day for […]
Bearing witness
Friday, March 21st, 2008I’ve been a member of Amnesty International for years. They do fantastic work against torture and repression, standing up for justice and truth. Membership is an easy way to feel I’m doing my bit.
For all of those years, I’ve received the regular Amnesty newsletter. Which I’ve always glanced at and dropped in the recycling, largely […]
Can China bend?
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008You’ll have seen the numerous news reports about anti-Chinese feeling boiling over into violence among Tibetans in Lhasa.
The Chinese premier has accused His Holiness the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the violence. The Dalai Lama, on the other hand, condemns the violence. Indeed his whole life has been as a witness for peace.
Next year will see […]
Sunday Collection: International Women’s Day
Sunday, March 9th, 2008
Photograph by Babasteve
Because yesterday was International Women’s Day, it was easy for me to decide on the theme of today’s collection.
Those of you around my vintage will remember the second-wave feminist movement that began in the 1960s. We read classic polemics such as Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and Greer’s The Female Eunuch, we attended consciousness-raising […]
Coming soon to a tap near you
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
Photograph by JamieJohnDavies
It’s World Water Day on 22nd March. This day is set by the UN to draw attention to the lack of safe drinking water in so much of the world. In the (so-called) developed world, although we have poverty, we have almost universal access to clean water and sanitation.
There are 1 billion […]