Thursday, March 11, 2004
****************************
How the pines shake! Pines are the hardest sort of tree to live when shifted to any other soil, and here there's none but the crew's cursed clay
Old Manx Sailor
Moby Dick Melville
Herman Melville
****************************
At the beginnings of this project I forwarded a Flotilla of Hope email to many people, and one managed to find its way to Jenny and the Atlantis Ecological Community in Colombia and Becky her daughter at the Atlantis Foundation in Cork.
Jenny's daughter Becky was working on their craft 'Atlantis Warrior' in a dock in Cork, Eire. A 1911 trawler.
The trawler, was it seems awaiting, its destiny, fate, kismet.
Now, 9th March 2004, Jenny sends word from the mountains of Colombia to the effect that Pete ~ sometimes Greenpeace Skipper and working with Martini and Rien on the Diego Garcia boat project ~ has visited Becky in Cork and is keen to help.
The idea of a global peace flotilla really appeals to him.
And so Jenny her daughter Alice, her boyfriend and their 9 month old baby! are all aiming to join Becky in Eire and to join the voyage.
How the pines shake! Pines are the hardest sort of tree to live when shifted to any other soil, and here there's none but the crew's cursed clay
Old Manx Sailor
Moby Dick Melville
Herman Melville
****************************
At the beginnings of this project I forwarded a Flotilla of Hope email to many people, and one managed to find its way to Jenny and the Atlantis Ecological Community in Colombia and Becky her daughter at the Atlantis Foundation in Cork.
Jenny's daughter Becky was working on their craft 'Atlantis Warrior' in a dock in Cork, Eire. A 1911 trawler.
The trawler, was it seems awaiting, its destiny, fate, kismet.
Now, 9th March 2004, Jenny sends word from the mountains of Colombia to the effect that Pete ~ sometimes Greenpeace Skipper and working with Martini and Rien on the Diego Garcia boat project ~ has visited Becky in Cork and is keen to help.
The idea of a global peace flotilla really appeals to him.
And so Jenny her daughter Alice, her boyfriend and their 9 month old baby! are all aiming to join Becky in Eire and to join the voyage.
Friday, March 05, 2004
******************
"I'd rather be a tiger for a day than a sheep for a lifetime"
Neil Tucker's favourite adage inscribed on a memorial plaque, 15,000 feet at Mount Pissis base camp, Argentina ~
only twenty four he died in a climbing accident.
******************
Last night attended a meeting of a new political party born out of the anti-war movement: "RESPECT". It's a broad coalition that includes Muslims and Left wingers and anti-war activists amongst others. They are going to put up candidates in the European and London Assembly elections this summer - June 10, the day before my birthday. Both these elections are PR (proportional representation) so there is a good chance that they will be able to get some people elected. Unfortunately they are running against the Greens, who would agree a deal of standing down in some areas.
George Galloway , the MP who was expelled by the Labour Party for his anti-Iraq stance, was a key-note speaker and he gave a rousing speech.
I picked some information on the Green Party (UK) national conference in Hove (15 minutes away!) and on Friday March 12 one of the themes is asylum and they are showing a film LIBERATING THE WOOMERA DETENTION CENTRE!
I will set out my stall there and promote the Flotilla…
"I'd rather be a tiger for a day than a sheep for a lifetime"
Neil Tucker's favourite adage inscribed on a memorial plaque, 15,000 feet at Mount Pissis base camp, Argentina ~
only twenty four he died in a climbing accident.
******************
Last night attended a meeting of a new political party born out of the anti-war movement: "RESPECT". It's a broad coalition that includes Muslims and Left wingers and anti-war activists amongst others. They are going to put up candidates in the European and London Assembly elections this summer - June 10, the day before my birthday. Both these elections are PR (proportional representation) so there is a good chance that they will be able to get some people elected. Unfortunately they are running against the Greens, who would agree a deal of standing down in some areas.
George Galloway , the MP who was expelled by the Labour Party for his anti-Iraq stance, was a key-note speaker and he gave a rousing speech.
I picked some information on the Green Party (UK) national conference in Hove (15 minutes away!) and on Friday March 12 one of the themes is asylum and they are showing a film LIBERATING THE WOOMERA DETENTION CENTRE!
I will set out my stall there and promote the Flotilla…
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
GOODBYE Mr BLAIR?
_____________________________________________
"The only way to bring down Blair and change the political
context is to take non-violent direct action"
Two articles in todays Guardian discuss Blair being forced out of
government.
David Cameron* suggests that Blair could depart No 10 before
autumn and gives nine reasons slightly tongue in cheek
Whereas George Monbiot** suggests a more
route, accompanied by campaigns of lobbying and letter-writing.
"To become a civilised, moderate, responsible nation, in other
words, we must first become a nation of extremists" states
Monbiot.
However even if 'people power' succeeds he suggests that Blair
would be "succeeded by someone almost as bad"
"But" he says "the political context in which that someone
operates will have changed. He will be forced to govern with one
eye on the people, and to demonstrate that his policies differ
from those of his predecessor. And the issue he would be
obliged to address first is Britain's relationship with the rest of
the world. Whoever succeeded Blair in these circumstances
would tone down our foreign policy until it resembled that of the
other northern European states."
When one considers how limited a 'democracy' we live in, in
that mostly only those of us who live in a 'marginal seat' can
have any chance of changing our elected representative.
Can a new kind of politics be built using the internet to increase
voter participation? The internet and email has a key role in
winning key marginal seats in a general election.***
After the recent US election, the Democracy Online Project****
found that 40% of all US web users regarded the web as
*
Bye bye Blair
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/comment/0,9236,1160220,0
0.html
**
Extreme measures
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1159775,00.ht
ml
http://www.monbiot.com/
***
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/talking_politics/1298697.
st
m
****
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9910/15/net.impact.on.poli
tics.idg/
_____________________________________________
"The only way to bring down Blair and change the political
context is to take non-violent direct action"
Two articles in todays Guardian discuss Blair being forced out of
government.
David Cameron* suggests that Blair could depart No 10 before
autumn and gives nine reasons slightly tongue in cheek
Whereas George Monbiot** suggests a more
route, accompanied by campaigns of lobbying and letter-writing.
"To become a civilised, moderate, responsible nation, in other
words, we must first become a nation of extremists" states
Monbiot.
However even if 'people power' succeeds he suggests that Blair
would be "succeeded by someone almost as bad"
"But" he says "the political context in which that someone
operates will have changed. He will be forced to govern with one
eye on the people, and to demonstrate that his policies differ
from those of his predecessor. And the issue he would be
obliged to address first is Britain's relationship with the rest of
the world. Whoever succeeded Blair in these circumstances
would tone down our foreign policy until it resembled that of the
other northern European states."
When one considers how limited a 'democracy' we live in, in
that mostly only those of us who live in a 'marginal seat' can
have any chance of changing our elected representative.
Can a new kind of politics be built using the internet to increase
voter participation? The internet and email has a key role in
winning key marginal seats in a general election.***
After the recent US election, the Democracy Online Project****
found that 40% of all US web users regarded the web as
*
Bye bye Blair
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/comment/0,9236,1160220,0
0.html
**
Extreme measures
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1159775,00.ht
ml
http://www.monbiot.com/
***
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/talking_politics/1298697.
st
m
****
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9910/15/net.impact.on.poli
tics.idg/
Monday, March 01, 2004
A 600 mile round trip to the ancient medieval city of York to see Joe, my step-son and his girlfriend Sarah, who is from Spokane, near Seattle. They are both studying there and are contemplating marriage so Sarah can stay whilst Joe finishes his course, they even have a date, 24 July. It is not just for a visa they both love each other deeply.
Arrived Thursday night and by Friday morning York had been turned upside down so all the snowflakes were in the air. Beautiful, but cold.
The Minster is the lynch pin which holds the city together its gothic arches looming over the medieval 'shambles' and appearing through gaps between the ancient dwellings.
The City walls held the denizens of York safe from the marauders of the forest. Like cities of that era it reminded me of Canterbury and Bruge in Brussels.
On the Saturday I looked in the Guardian magazine and was disappointed to see that they had not printed my letter referring to the 'Gulags in the Sun' article and the flotilla.
Although I am rapidly becoming a 'flotilla of hope' bore, I am finding it difficult to get any enthusiasm from people about the project, whereas I am filled with enthusiasm. Maybe that is the problem.
Arrived Thursday night and by Friday morning York had been turned upside down so all the snowflakes were in the air. Beautiful, but cold.
The Minster is the lynch pin which holds the city together its gothic arches looming over the medieval 'shambles' and appearing through gaps between the ancient dwellings.
The City walls held the denizens of York safe from the marauders of the forest. Like cities of that era it reminded me of Canterbury and Bruge in Brussels.
On the Saturday I looked in the Guardian magazine and was disappointed to see that they had not printed my letter referring to the 'Gulags in the Sun' article and the flotilla.
Although I am rapidly becoming a 'flotilla of hope' bore, I am finding it difficult to get any enthusiasm from people about the project, whereas I am filled with enthusiasm. Maybe that is the problem.
