Wake Up

Mosques and temples are helping to assist the elderly and the vulnerable in their towns and cities.

As the countrywide lockdown takes hold within the first week many religious and community organisations have been helping ALL members of their community. 

The army of volunteers have been collecting food and essentials to ensure those people that need the most help at this time of crisis are being cared for. 

At many times they are putting themselves in harm’s way.

The Bolton Hindu Forum said they are leading ‘a joint Coordinated Community Help Program to look after elders living alone and who have no immediate family and those who have family but they are out of town and not able to help as they would in normal circumstances’.

The Masjide Noorul Islam (Blackburn) have already recruited 250 people to help the elderly and vulnerable in isolation.

Kamal Hussein’s story is in Kutupalong, world’s largest refugee settlement –  late August 2017, thousands of refugees arriving daily. Many children were separated from parents and Hussein’s mission was to reunite families.

Hussein decided to act after a woman asked for help finding her child.

“I rented a microphone” relaying a description. His broadcasts worked – someone returned the child; his mission was born.

Charities gave audio equipment and a booth to broadcast the names of separated children and urge parents to collect them.

 “The new refugees don’t know the camp, they get lost here,”

Myanmar’s campaign of persecution and violence drove 740,000+ stateless Rohingya from their Rakhine homes. Now, 1,000,000+ Rohingya are in Bangladesh.

A refugee himself, he was separated from his parents when a boy.

“As a child, I had a lot of pain in my life but doing this work, I feel at peace with myself.”

www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2019/11/5dc3fd334/rohingya-mans-mission-reunite-parents-lost-children-new-film.html

• Forestry Commission Report 2018- 2019. Progress made towards target 11 million newly planted trees in England 2017- 22, including The Northern Forest.
• Government objective: increase area of woodland to 12% in England , by 2060
• Woodland Trust Young Peoples’ BIG CLIMATE FIGHTBACK, planted 10,000 trees in Derbyshire 2019
• Woodland Trust since founded 1972:- planted 13 million trees, 1089 mill trees saved, 3k rescued.
• READ HERE – www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/people-behind-our-work-cumbria/
• Multitude of small- scale planting projects by local groups eg Trees for Cities, Brighton  – bhgreenspaceforum.org.uk

Photo – A younger Manu Berardi demonstrating against local tree destruction by Developers

• first know thyself
• listen
• practice foregiveness
• laugh

• Two in five trans people (41 per cent) and three in ten non-binary people (31 per cent) have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity in the last 12 months.
• More than a quarter of trans people (28 per cent) in a relationship in the last year have faced domestic abuse from a partner.
• One in four trans people (25 per cent) have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives.
• One in eight trans employees (12 per cent) have been physically attacked by colleagues or customers in the last year.
• More than a third of trans university students (36 per cent) in higher education have experienced negative comments or behaviour from staff in the last year
• Two in five trans people (40 per cent) adjust the way they dress because they fear discrimination or harassment. This number increases significantly to half of non-binary people (52 per cent).
• Two in five trans people (41 per cent) said that healthcare staff lacked understanding of specific trans health needs when accessing general healthcare services in the last year.
• Three in five trans people (62 per cent) who have undergone, or are currently undergoing, medical intervention for their transition are unsatisfied with the time it took to get an appointment.
• More than one in ten trans people (11 per cent) have gone abroad for medical treatment to alter their physical appearance, including buying hormones over the internet from other countries, with many citing the barriers they currently face in accessing medical treatment in the UK.

https://www.stonewall.org.uk/system/files/lgbt_in_britain_-_trans_report_final.pdf

In the Dalai Lama’s most recent writing, A Call For Revolution published in 2018, he says

“I am calling on you to bring on a cultural revolution of compassion!”

“When I call on you to bring on the Revolution of Compassion, I am calling for the mother of all uprisings to begin.”

Speaking to all humans as Citizens of the Earth, he says,

“The problems facing you, whether to do with climate change, violence in general and terrorism in particular, were not created by God, Buddha or extra-terrestrials. They did not fall from the sky, or rise up from the ground. Humanity is entirely responsible for being at the root of the problems that have caused these crises. Which is good news. Because if we have created these problems, it is logical to believe we have the means to resolve them.”

On March 15^th 2019, in 25 countries around the world, an uprising of people from all walks of life began taking non-violent direct action in a bid to save our planet from catastrophe. In London, Waterloo Bridge was turned into a garden, Marble Arch became a campsite and learning centre, Parliament Square an information centre, Oxford Circus a speaker’s platform, Piccadilly Circus a youth centre. Songs from the soul, rhymes of reason, music of love and hope, theatre of passionate pleas were played out through the streets of our capital city.

This rebellion was a culmination of many years of the peaceful work of many individuals and small groups of citizens of this earth, who wish to see her beauty and nature thrive for future generations.

We do not all wish to be rebels, activists or protesters. There are many ways to quietly join with those of like-mind and create change……..

https://britishpilgrimage.org

https://wisdomkeepers.earth

http://lawyersfornature.com

https://shaktisings.org

https://SOULand.org

www.earthlawcantre.org

www.glenniekindred.co.uk

June 2019

• Oil reserves in the world 2017 – Iran 4th largest 157.8 billion barrels; Iraq 5th largest 144.2 billion barrels.
• At the end of the war of invasion 2003 the US formerly ended the occupation of Iraq. Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell remain.
• Biwater Wood Hybrid scheme for Basra, Southern Iraq includes delivery of potable water for local population and the oil industry. Funded from U.K. by JP Morgan and U.K. Overseas Development investment Fund . §1.45 billion  – SEE HERE 
• Iranian economy shrunk by 1.5% 2019 …by 3% 2020. Before President Trump extended trade sanctions, IMF predicted 4%.current growth .
• Brain drain from Iran estimated by IMF to 91 developed & developing countries of educated individuals- 150,000 to 180,000,every year.
• Iraqi emigres to UK include: Jim Al-Khalili,Professor Theoretic Physics, Charles and Maurice Saatchi, Alan Yentob formerly BBC, architect Zaha Hamid.

May 2019

Being outdoors has huge benefits for children, both physically and mentally, and the growing network of Forest Schools aims to tap into those benefits by educating children in the fresh air.  Forest School and nature based learning has now become very established in the UK with more than 12,00 trained leaders.

Forest School offers children and young adults:

The inspiration to be curious, fascinated, interested and inventive.

The freedom to explore different ways of ‘being’, feeling, behaving and interacting.

The opportunity to:

Experience beauty and wonder in the woodland and become ‘lost in the experience’

Gain confidence through learning new skills

Develop imagination and creativity

Meet challenges and learn to handle risk in safety

Feel relief from stress and anxiety

Develop their spirituality through a sense of awe at the natural environment.

Increase their autonomy and independence

Take responsibility for own learning and building self confidence

Stroud Forest School

Wild Roots Forest School

Forest School: 9 ways children benefit from learning and playing outside

March 2019

• The forecast worldwide is that that owning a house is the prerequisite of the wealthy
• In London 1,137 people sleep rough on average, every night
• Sleeping rough shortens lives to average 47 as opposed to the national norm of 77 years.
• Every year, year on year, failure to tackle the supply system ratchets up the pressure on English housing. Many more families will suffer from over- crowding, more families will struggle with rising rents and larger mortgages, fewer young people under 30 will be able to leave the parental home. Shelter.
• Truth about property developers: how they are exploiting the planning process and ruining our cities –  HERE 
• ‘No (Mrs May) -the housing crisis will not be solved by building more houses.The Crisis is the result of banking failure’ –  HERE
•  Grenfell Tower – HERE
• Global figures: likely be 1.3 billion without Houses. UN Sustainable Development goals at best over- ambitious, at worst DELUSIONAL.
• Medellin, Colombia: remaking the world’s most dangerous city. The remarkable example of change happening because of radical leadership – HERE
• AND AT THE FRONT OF OUR MINDS..MIGRANT data – dead / missing crossing the Mediterranean 2016: 5,143. 2017: 3,139. 2018: 2,297.
• AND INSECT loss, internationally …up to 85% . Primarily because of destruction of their habitat by the human species

In the struggle to oppose hate, and to replace it with fierce love and compassion, it’s necessary ─ though often or usually stressful ─ to remain awake, watchful, hopeful.

One way to remain awake and hopeful is through the arts. Below there are links to six pieces of artistic creativity. All contain music, and all contain elements of drama and theatrical performance.

The countries of origin include France, Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom and United States.

Transformative power

An illustrated talk (about 20 minutes) about the power of music to transform lives, yours, mine, everyone’s – HERE 

Light in dark times

A sermon in December 2018 beginning and ending with affirmations of Bono’s song There is a Light, written after the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 –  HERE

Happiness – and watch out !

Animated film (about four minutes) that takes a wry look at doomed searches for well-being, fulfilment and bliss somewhere apart from where we actually live – HERE 

Strictly inclusive

TV celebration of inclusive choreography, everyone but everyone special, November 2018 – HERE 

Joy in the public square

That famous dream of shared humanity and world community, adopted as the anthem of the European Union – HERE

I didn’t die, says he

‘What they forgot to kill went on to organise’, the unending a luta continua onwards and upwards to justice , and to positive peace – HERE 

Hold On

If there is a light
We can’t always see
If there is a world
We can’t always be
If there is a dark
Now we shouldn’t doubt
And there is a light
Don’t let it go out

Hold on, Hold on.

Bono 2017