aaargh Esther help me...

...something bad happend!! I managed to move the whole of my sidebar to the bottom of the page..and I dont know how to reverse whatever it was I did! Please please help me please please...?!
xXx

Whose Rules Rule?

Yesterday I went to the World Development Movement's conference - Whose Rules Rule? - on Africa. It was a really good afternoon. I think that too few of the thinkings/suggestions/policies/insights into poverty that I've heard and read and have even been a part of are from people that have dealt with poverty on a day to day, face to face basis. I found it all fascinating, despite the fact that my head was pounding from being couped up in a lecture theatre on one of the hottest days of the year!
So, for all interested, a brief summary of some of the day's noteable points:

- Gyekye Tanoh from Third World Network Africa gave the opening talk. He made the excellent point that the 'problem of poverty' is not just a problem for people in less economically developed parts of the world - but a huge global problem related to a lack of equality and justice everywhere. He said it's the whole bad system, the way people deal with eachother, mis-lead, disrespect and con eachother that's the problem. He suggested that MAKECAPITALISMHISTORY would be a good idea. He said that if we think we've escaped poverty and curruption in this country, and others in the 'more developed' parts of the world. then we're fooling ourselves and we need to open our eyes. He said that policies being "encouraged" in developing countries, for example the privatisation of various things, are ones that have already done substantial damage to the developed countries they're coming from - that this is illogical, unfair and corrupt.

- Then I went to a seminar on Historical and Contemporary Slavery with two speakers:

Esther Stanford from the Black United Front said that society is still recovering from the trans-atlantic slave-trade that laid the foundations for modern slavery. She suggested that the trauma from this is still real, that people/communities of African origin in GB are suffesring from a lack of identity as a result. She said that the miseducation and misinformation surrounding the issue is as good as a cultural genocide; that school/crime stats regarding black young people and adults can be related to this. She has a challenging perspective on aid, asserting that aid should actually be viewed as a rightful reparation of the exploitation, robbery and rape of Africa by richer nations over years and years.

Kofi Mawuli-Klu from Rendezvous of Victory called for people to learn their history - if we know how the rich got rich then we'll know how the poor got poor; people need to face up to the past or they repeat the crimes of the past. He said that slavery most definitely continues into the present in many forms: the African people being removed from the wealth of their land (gold, diamonds, oil, coffee, aluminium) and receiving no benefit from it, whilst others do - this is slavery. He expressed his anger at the repeated ignoring of the African Union, that other groups such as the Commission for Africa being establised whilst many 'true' African voices of Africa are ignored equals corruption. He applauded the original abolition of (trans-atlantic) slavery - saying that it was a powerful uprising of ordinary people making a noise the authorities could not ignore - he said that this must happen again in the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign. He warned that initiatives such as Live8 are in danger of obscuring the truth, simplifying the matter of poverty, portraying an injustice as a misfortune or a stroke of bad-luck. He described some of the 'big personalities' of the campaign as skirting over/around the issues, "like tarzans, swinging from tree to tree in a fanfare of pop music"!

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Theological worldview test

I did another one of those worldview tests...here's what it came up with. Like last time, bits I like, bits I'm not sure about...

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 79% Neo orthodox 61% Classical Liberal 57% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 57% Roman Catholic 54% Charismatic/Pentecostal 43% Modern Liberal 36% Reformed Evangelical 21% Fundamentalist 21% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

the blog, sorry BIG, discussion

It's true...blogging is turning into quite the discussion. Newspaper journalists write articles on it. There are special blogging awards for it. Etcetera etcetera etcetera.
But some of us (well, three of us) here in my place of work (by the way, things here do not neccessarily reflect or represent the views of the said organisation!) have been having our own little blog debate. It's been going on for a short while now, since I started chatting to Ken (in charge of our website) about the possibility of an organisational/departmental blog. The main participants have been Ken(head of website) and Adrian (my editor and head of publications) - me always being copied in, seeing as my desk sits in between them and I am one of just two people (that I know of) here with a blog. But never having the time to respond much!
Anyway - I thought I'd copy the brief beginnings of a (quite tongue-in-cheek) discussion here for your viewing pleasure...unfortunately I deleted much former 'blog correspondance' from my inbox. I'll keep hold of it from now on and post it up here.

Ken, 13th June:
WEBLOG WATCH The Magazine's review of blogs By Alan Connor
There was a time when an economic conference would be covered mainly in the financial pages, and snoozed through by the rest of the world. But with the Make Poverty History campaign putting the G8 summit in the mainstream, and with blogs making everyone a potential world trade expert, it's going to be more interesting this time.
See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4088584.stm

Adrian, 13th June:
Here's a topic for a web log in its own right: Are weblogs a) destroying the need for commentators on the world (eg journalists etc), and b) undermining the role of experts (eg specialists (like ACE, World Vision UK))? That is, will anybody read the materials we produce and see them as credible when so much additional information, points of view are available; who do you believe, trust?

Ken, 13th June:
On the basis that most message boards, blogs, house groups etc. normally demonstrate a pooling of ignorance, the place for the expert will always exist.The information 'brand' will always win through which is why even in the age of unprecedented information the BBC is still the measure by which most other news broadcasters are measured.

Adrian, 17th June:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4099802.stm

Amy, 17th June:
I think the 2 of you should start up a 'blog on blogging' - then everyone could comment, chip-in!!http://www.blogspot.com/ :o)

Adrian, 17th June:
If I did I'd do it as a newspaper.

Amy, 17th June:
You are a true rebel!

Adrian, 17th June:
Well us 'oldies' have to let you 'youngies' know that you don't have a hold on subversive behaviour, at swimming against the tide.
Any views or opinions about age contained in this e-mail are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ken or Amy, in fact the author may not really believe them either.

just quickly...

I just found out that I have passed my six month probation (yes it really has been six months!) - so I am now an official employee of World Vision UK!
Secondly...I found this really good quote (slightly cut down for the sake of my word count!) on trade and consumerism from Ms Body Shop Anita Roddick. I used it for something I'm doing at work and thought I'd share it with you too...

“What is missing is the real belief that business should be about public good rather than private greed. Whatever law this country gives or puts in place to protect my health or the environment, if it gets in the way of trade it is suppressed….So who’s going to control this most powerful of institutions? The business is more powerful than politics and it’s more powerful than religion….It’s going to be the vigilante consumer….Be an irritant – if you think you’re too small to be effective then you’ve never been to bed with a mosquito”.

I found this on a DVD called 1 Giant Leap - a musical/visual/verbal look at various different current subjects including money, time, masks... compiled with the help of Faithless, there's some really good stuff on it.

xXx

acknowledgements

As you may have noticed: my blog has been updated, revamped, spring-cleaned...and is now, predominantly, pink!! It also has alsorts of new features...all the mod cons, well some of them. This is great...but alas is not down to me. So can I just say a big THANK YOU and a raise your glasses to Esther, without whom none of this would have been possible! I hope to master this new technology soon...then Esther won't have to give me quite so much help on my blog! I also plan to have photos here soon, that may take some time though! So, yes..this post is dedicated to Esther!! (Lots of love Est...hope you're enjoying all your new sparkly clothes!!)
xXx