findinggavin

Once worked

2009-07-09T22:05:00.000+01:00

Where I once worked
Now just a desk, a seat and phone.
Posters still on the wall
But drawers empty as
Notebook pages.

Where once I worked
Now new desks and ringtones
Gossips still in the hall
But not about me
Not for ages.

Once I worked where
Passion and policy collided
Service was still a call
But then it went unanswered
No messages.

Just feeling?

2009-07-01T18:50:00.002+01:00

Love is a feeling
No, no it's about willing actions
Demonstrating and serving
Not self gratifying
But self giving
Until you are empty
Unloveable
Perhaps
And unforgiving.

Surely love is fiery passion
Thats burns into actions
Maybe reckless
Foolishness
Not self conscious
But Other focussed
Until they are consumed
Unloved
By any other
and unforgetting.

On Michael Jackson's death

2009-07-01T18:48:00.002+01:00

A living legend dies
And we autopsy his dysfunction
As the virally broadcast loss
Dissects our griefs outpoured in public
Over songs and dances that were shared
Millions of times over
While he's beat it
And sleeps
Never to be harmed anymore.

Inspiration

2009-07-01T18:45:00.003+01:00

Why is melancholy so inspiring?
So many sad songs
Is happiness too fleeting
That prose can't capture it?
The froth, fizz and the hours
That whizz by?

How can pain make such art?
Bittersweet symphonies
Does the masterpiece
trap and contain it?
Bound up in oil and glaze
Never to harm us again?

Midsummer

2009-07-01T18:42:00.002+01:00

Midsummer in Scotland
Heat trapped in houses
Still light
Till nearly midnight
Windows open but no
Exhaling of the stifling air.

Midsummer in Scotland
Endless evening
Two days in one
Sometimes sun!
Nowadays barbeque, patio and
Decking are standard fare.

Midsummer, Scotland
High altitude clouds etch
New coastlines and oceans
Solsticed
and soul stirred
At the vast map of possibilities
until sunset burns them bare.

Normalcy

2009-06-10T21:40:00.000+01:00

It’s a blanket
Reassuring and cosy sometimes.
With her cousin Constancy
Always there.
Not changing much
Maybe fraying and fading
Taking you to the source of memories
When things weren’t so bad
When the sun shone
With halcyon rays
When things were normal.

Daily enveloping
Your body’s state of being
Regulating it
Innoculating you from the life of risk
From unexpected outcomes
Closing off the world of dreams
So that they stay dreamlike and
Not normal
Not everyday experience
Neither achievable
Nor desirable.

But can normal ever quite be the same
as it was before things strayed
from whatever was last recognised
as normal?

Learning comes from mistakes
And the shattering of norms
Risk it or sleep to dream.

Catalyst

2009-05-30T23:45:00.001+01:00

A change maker
Yet not changing
Or making anything

A precipitate
Chemically speaking
that makes a reaction go faster
without
being consumed in the process

Precipitating
events and chains of events
happenings and altering relationships
In the people around you
Sometimes without even knowing,
By strict definition ‘especially without being involved in
or changed by the consequences.’

That last part
Humanly speaking
Is hard to practice
Too much precipitates

Flash past

2009-05-18T23:00:00.002+01:00

Californian sunshine
Bathed Kilmarnock one day
Momentarily really
Dusty dry street, broken glass glistening at the kerb
Struck by the wheels
Of the first skateboard my eyes set upon
It clunkered and thunked
Making an alien rhythm
Flashed past
A thing of US import
Really in Kilmarnock?
Could I ever?
Seen on TV only
Now on my granny’s street

I was not that boy
That flashed past
No early adopter
Could I ever?
See on TV only
Wouldn’t really actually
Have a go
Could I ever?
Watched it, flash by
Never thinking
That I could ever.

So much flashes past
Signals to other lives that
Needn’t bounce off and be repelled
It seems ‘Roger that’
Would be better.
Sometimes
To say ‘received’
Instead of mute watching
And later wishing.

Worsening forecast

2009-05-13T00:14:00.003+01:00

Al Gore video on worsening climate crisis
Al Gore presents updated slides from around the globe to make the case that worrying climate trends are even worse than scientists predicted, and to make clear his stance on ‘clean coal.’

Astoundingly beautiful lyrics, sounds great too.

2009-05-07T22:37:00.006+01:00

"Marching Bands of Manhattan" Death Cab for Cutie

If I could open my arms and span the length of the isle of Manhattan
I’d bring it to where you are making a lake of the East River and Hudson
If I could open my mouth wide enough for a marching band to march out
They would make your name sing and bend through alleys and bounce off all the buildings

I wish we could open our eyes to see in all directions at the same time
Oh what a beautiful view if you were never aware of what was around you
And it is true what you said: that I live like a hermit in my own head
But when the sun shines again I’ll pull the curtains and blinds to let the light in

Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole
Just like a faucet that leaks and there is comfort in the sound
But while you debate “half empty” or “half full”
It slowly rises: your love is gonna drown

plans - death cab for cutie

I am what I am

2009-05-02T08:05:00.004+01:00

Whatever the genetics, nurture and environment that go into making us what we are there is the constant inner ache that we are not what we should be. This seems to be a universal human condition. I am not what I ought.

After last Sunday's service I was given these simple profound verses. A response to my reflections on the verses in Romans 7 '"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."

I am what I am
I am not what I follow
If I am what I follow
And I follow what I am
Then I am not what I am.

Descending order

2009-04-26T23:18:00.005+01:00

After a long longing I have finally found out more about my family tree. I am descended from farming stock! Its really surprising to find this out and not what I expected.
In this photograph is my great great Grandfather Archibald, with the horse and cart at the back of the picture. He was a dairy farmer and is pictured here outside his own dairy buildings at Rhu, near Helensburgh on the north Clyde estuary. In front of him is his son John, about whom we have no dates or records yet, so guessing John's age in this picture to be about 30, and taking a date between his siblings, Neil,(b.1867) and Isabella (b.1872) then maybe this picture was taken in 1900. Maybe a special occassion to mark the turn of the new 20th century?

So now I am a little less lost and have my descending order;

Neil McLellan (Ploughman)
Archibald McLellan (Ploughman, then Carter) b.1839-d.1910
Neil McLellan (dont know occupation) b.1867
Archibald McLellan (Doctor, Captain British Army) b.1900 d.1942
Neil McLellan (Doctor) b.1931 -
Gavin b.1970

Between

2009-04-18T22:26:00.003+01:00

I am between jobs just now and in this verse I have tried to capture the various moods and phases that I've been experiencing recently.

Between jobs feels like
the gap between Trailer and Feature.
A departure and a lounge.
Relief comes in making the announcement, disclosing;
'I am leaving.'
Then an ebbing of one's power,
'When I'm gone'
Especially when making the surreal expression
'for my successor'
Then maybe that can be done, or maybe not
Suddenly one's opinion is inconsequential

Then comes the revelation of your real Identity
of one's true Companions,
staying with you after the Emmaus road.

With breath withheld
Comes the silence of Critics,
after the gavel drop proclaiming your verdict;
'I'm done here.'

Messages surprise
warm the doubtful, wavering heart.
Doubt flutters and fades,

Then Importance suddenly shows herself,
Priority crystallises,
Promise glitters
and Resolve beckons.

Defining Hope

2009-04-04T22:13:00.003+01:00

Brazilian theologian, Ruben Alvez, described hope in this way:
"What is hope? It is the presentiment that imagination is more real and reality less real than it looks. It is the suspicion that the overwhelming brutality of fact that oppresses us and represses us is not the last word. It is the hunch that reality is more complex than the realists want us to believe, that the frontiers of the possible are not determined by the limits of the actual, and that, in a miraculous and unexpected way, life is preparing the creative events which will open the way to freedom and to resurrection. "But, hope must live with suffering. Suffering, without hope, produces resentment and despair. And hope, without suffering, creates illusions, naiveté, and drunkenness. So, let us plant dates, even though we who plant them will never eat them. We must live by the love of what we will never see.

Photo I took on my trip to Palestine of YWCA workers in Jericho polishing locally grown dates for sale.

Random commentary verse #1

2009-04-03T22:43:00.004+01:00

This is a mash-up rip-off scrapbook poem composed from random phrases taken from press commentary on the current economic meltdown.

We are living through
first intimations
of crisis, crunch, collapse
nobody has been able to understand.
Each attempt to deal
consumed by an irresistible,
often concealed within the balance sheets,
abject surrender to the new orthodoxy.

The last came
triggered
by oil price spike
dramatic rises
to inflation
ending a long boom
after the war
consolidation.

Now
we are living
through price hike, triple spike, off mike
commentary
narrating Google streets
everything public
but no-one rules the world
after the squeeze.

Jesus came to my house

2009-03-15T22:32:00.003Z

Another imaginative worshipful challenge from Iain. Many of us at wgnc have written about Jesus coming to our house. Here's my offering.

Jesus came to my house today. I really wish he hadn’t. Don’t misunderstand me I desperately wanted to meet him. Its just I’d rather have gone along to an evening at someone else’s house, a kind of fireside chat, some selected friends and, wow, Jesus would be our guest!

But he wanted to come to my house and said so publicly. Why did I climb the bus shelter to get a good view of Him? All the way from Byres Road we traipsed to my house, everyone and Jesus, every hanger-on.

I must admit the days have passed so pleasantly and peacefully even with everyone around, so many visitors! So many people I don’t know and yet I have become host and slightly hostage. I’m captive and captivated.

I don’t know how He does it. Everybody’s name He knows, and the conversations! It should be startling and set us on edge but you know the way he knows all about you? He says exactly the right thing to everyone every time. Even through the window to people outside in the rain.

I’m not stressing, but get this, every time my wife Shirley and I go to the fridge for supplies as yet more guest arrive, it remains provisioned. It hasn’t expanded Tardis-like. It just has an undiminished abundance. We have wine, of course, pouring out of vases, bottles and plastic cups.

Sometimes He just looks you in the eye. Smiles gently and sweetly. I can’t articulate the energy and rush of feeling this gives. Not goose bumps, more like an inner earthquake. So much said without words. He laughs a lot too! With us never at us.

I opened my bedroom curtains the next morning and there were three tents in my front garden. I waited 20 minutes for a homeless family to finish using the bathroom. I hadn’t seen my own children yet. When I did there was my son is sitting on His knee. The stories He can tell! Everyone was spellbound.

He did some dishes with me and then helped Shirley hang out some washing and without warning said He needed to go.

I gushed out a declaration that I would give half of all I had to the poor and repay all my rotten debts to everybody I’d wronged. I didn’t meant to, it just was drawn out of me like a long withheld breath. Yet I feel it rung true and I can do it.

He smiled beatifically and said “salvation comes to this house today.” I really, really think it has. I wondered, momentarily about following, dropping everything, but it didn’t feel that was what He wanted. I left it unsaid. I was still looking out the living room window hours after He and all the followers had gone. I remember Him looking back, straight back at me, smiling, crying, praying all at once it seemed.

The phone rang, my anxious boss wondering why I wasn’t at work. “I’m sorry,” I said, “ Jesus was here, is here, He came, he really came, and.…I’m alright now.”
“Right so you’re coming back today then?”
“ No I’m all right, all right, everything! Totally everything, its just …”
“What!”
“Its not like a funny turn or anything, its just, well I’m not coming back!”

An iphone poet

2009-03-15T00:37:00.008Z

Looks like new tech is recultivating the old art of poetry, or maybe just making it feel easy and accessible. Here's an offering of iphone poetry from blogger Michael Toy

iphone-poetry-from-university-ave

Random IM verse #2

2009-03-11T21:43:00.001Z

A jammed printer
shouting swearing obscenities
not usually heard in the office
wasn’t the real distraction
instead for those with eyes to see
maybe the tautness of my face
victim of exposure to the harshness of the sun
I forced myself to breathe deeply,
sucking air into my lungs
to blow the printer and monster away

but to no avail
just mere breath can't change things
or can it?

What words can move mountains?
Empty phrases surely?
Can they really?
Change the world?

Lapsing back into the tyrannical tedium
I 'cancel print job'

Random IM verse #1

2009-02-27T23:24:00.007Z

My good friend Linda and I experimented with some poetic co-creation. This is the result, the first co-authored random verse through the medium of instant messaging, line by line. Hope you like it. The link below gives the topicality.

Ed is so brilliant
a wizard on Ning
no bad thing
but not really social
one silent night
it was too hard to listen
even owls took flight
without a hoot
into the deeply dark sooty sky

logging on gave no clarity
he mourned a lack of parity
on tax and havens
he climbed the highest mountain
searched optimally for justice
wondered if U2
like him
suddenly found themselves
friendless

U2 and tax havens

Gaelic is endangered, should I care?

2009-02-24T23:26:00.013Z

According to UNESCO's 'Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger' Gaelic is 'definately endangered.' A language is endangered when its speakers stop using it, or use it less often and stop passing it on to the next generation.

There were just 58,552 Gaelic speakers left in the 2001 census. Thats about the population of a town like Dunfermline.

This Times article lays into the "Gaelic triumphalism" which "surfaces whenever the little that remains of the culture comes under threat of further erosion, at the same time as Gaelic is crowbarred into an ever-increasing number of crannies in lowland life."

At £20m a year for BBC Alba? Sounds a lot but still only £350 per head per speaker. But taking in the wider public spending (£50m) on 1.2% of the population this rises to about £850 a head.

But consider this.

Koichiro Matsuura, Unesco's director-general, said: "The death of a language leads to the disappearance of many forms of intangible cultural heritage, especially the invaluable heritage of traditions and oral expressions of the community that spoke it – from poems and legends to proverbs and jokes."

How important is it to know that Bheinn Mhor means 'Big Hill?'

Africa needs God?....

2009-02-21T00:06:00.005Z

I've been getting peeved at the over-use of Matthew Parris' recent Times article, "As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God," by evangelicals in church sermons. If you missed it then Google it but essentially he has done a confessional piece saying that his experience of mission work in Africa confounds him as a diehard athiest. " I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa" he writes.

His main interest is not so much in the cause but the effect leading him to conclude "a whole belief system must first be supplanted."

An unbelieving colleague was appalled and made this blistering critique which I find hard to challenge:
"Unfortunately this article doesn't really go into that debate but peddles some really racist stuff - I'm suprised it was allowed to be published and surprised at Matthew Parris. Traditionally in parts of Africa people don't look you in the eye as it's seen as a mark of disrespect - those who do are likely to do it because they have been around lots of Western people, not necessarily christians. Africa has
had a lot of crap imposed on it from the West - and I would argue Western democracy was one of them. Democracy in the west took centuries to develop along with the civil society that shaped it. Imposing democracy on other cultures has undermined traditional systems some of which are much closer to the true concept of democracy. The idea that as Mr Parris suggests we should now "supplant a whole belief system"
completely appalls me - he must have missed the whole climate change debate if he thinks the west still has good ideas for the rest of humanity.

I've got soul but I'm not a soldier!

2009-01-22T23:15:00.003Z

A revelation today. My son, nearly nine, has expressed a new life aspiration, to be a soldier! I'm shocked to the core.
"Because so many people are dying!" And he wants to help. Not for King and Country. Not in the killing, he wants to help. There's something noble in this. To Fight, to Protect, to Defend!
I hadnt thought through any desire to be in warfare or a battle with any sense of justice any sense at all of a positive putcome, surely there must be sometimes. Or is liberation usually just a transfer from one tyranny to another?
Can a combatant be a subversive peacemaker?

Secular Sunday

2009-01-04T23:44:00.004Z

We had a secular Sunday today just like the majority of our neighbours. Slept in, had a brunch of baguette and scrambled egg and ham, filter coffee, just eased into the day, glided around the house. Then all of us out for a family swim after walking the dog along the Clyde for a little stretch. (Just to be clear we swam in our local pool not the Clyde!) After that a very late lunch in IKEA; the ultimate secular temple.

It was wonderful and one of the most restful Sabbaths of long while. Why should this be so? Obviously the novelty factor, then the absence of pressure, the lack of challenge. But I'm wondering what else. Why would anyone give that up to go and be part of a church worship service?

Quantum of humanity

2008-11-16T01:11:00.001Z

Well I’ve seen the latest Bond movie. The recipe has changed; mixed much more quickly, faster fight scenes with lots of bone crunching sounds, no gadgets, no humour, no black and white, no fantasy island evil empires, just brutal, clinical despatching of whoever gets in the way of the grudge, ‘duty’ and a hunger for revenge.

Bond has never been warm or human. He has never been so efficient. He has never faced a corporate eco-terrorist before. This Bond wears his glamour like work overalls which is reasonable enough because its dirty stuff his duty requires. He shows a quantum of humanity.

That quantum is this; a drive to find the right order of things, a drive to find love, to find acceptance and approval. There is a residual trace element in the 2008 Bond of these traits of humanity.

The portrayal of omnipresent corporate greed, acting almost as a sovereign empire, carving up the world, for a shadowy elite isn’t that far fetched. Its worryingly accurate.

Advice

2008-08-20T23:18:00.002+01:00

"Be regular and orderly in your life, that you may be violent and original in your work"
Gustave Flaubert

Looking for Divine Nobodies

2008-06-08T23:52:00.002+01:00

This thought comes from mulling over the sermon of two weeks past. Our guest preacher was a lovely guy Barry Grecu of Ministry Emmaus Inc, of Atlanta.
I liked his motif of a 'divine nobody.' People who have quietly, persistently, maybe even invisibly impacted upon our lives and our lifecourse leading to a deeper and closer encouter and journey with God.
It seem close to the premise of Mitch Alblom's magnificent novel 'The 5 people you meet in Heaven.' That the unknown quantities in your life, footnotes, passers by, observers may be much more significant than we could ever realise. So I will be looking out for them and hoping that I too may be impacting, may be just a ripple that forms a wave and then tide of change.

More unbearable infanticide

2008-06-01T22:15:00.003+01:00

Its seems the brutality towards our young is on the rise. I'm thinking of the double murder of the Tamil children in London and the death by starvation of the 7 year old Indian girl in Birmingham.
How can this be happening? Are we simply seeing the media mining a theme here and grisly child murder stories that otherwise wouldnt make through the newsrooms are now flagged up for public consumption?

World that cant bear children

2008-05-28T23:42:00.000+01:00

Some people, like me in their thirties, say they won’t have children, even if they married. They say they couldn’t bear to bring children into the world, because the world has become so bad.

I used the think that attitude was incredibility selfish. Isn’t it the most wonderful thing in the world was to bring in a new life, and share in its blossoming and development?

Yet I now sense some of the empathy and depth of that position. Its only because I have children myself that I have been dumbfounded by the increasing hostility to children portrayed by the events that have unfolded in the media and emerged from Amstetten, Dewsbury, Praia de Luz, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dunblane.

It seems there is a pervasive disregard for young life. Could this mark a civilisation on the edge of collapse? Yet isn’t there the possibility that obscene events like this have happened throughout history? Fathers abusing daughters, uncles abusing nieces, children killing children?

So could it be that it’s the portrayal of it that’s the new unsettling dimension? Think of the Madeleine story. A year on, still headlines. Unprecedented apologies from tabloids for over a hundred fabricated stories. But isn’t that drive for stories itself driven by the demand for the freak show thrill of ‘true’ shocking sensational revelations? What does that say about our sick society?

The intensifying trend in recent years of news stories about cruelty and abuse to children, sometimes ending in murder, risks desensitising us to events are true, shocking and real. Yet they need to be heard however inexplicable, inexcusable and in the case of Amstetten, for so long, unsuspected, undetected, and unknown.

Can the punishment fit the crime?

2008-05-08T23:12:00.000+01:00

One of the worst elements of the Amstetten crimes is that they are so shocking, so off the scale, that forgiveness and justice are rendered impotent.

It would be inconceivable that Elizabeth Fritzl could ever be able to countenance forgiving her father. That she could find it in her heart to not hold it against him. That he was a damaged man acting under impulses he couldn’t control. No it’s all too premeditated and calculated for that.

The gravity and depravity of the man’s deeds are such that forgiveness seems too costly for his victim, someone who has already paid such a high price already.

Justice is weakened as he is a 73 year old who has had a long fulfilling life enjoying himself doing what he likes best, controlling and dominating those around him. For a man who is now eliciting sympathy with the line ‘oh well at least I didn’t kill them” a prison sentence in his last years is surely nothing more than a time out. Even the death penalty doesn’t cut it. Its surely better that he pays in time and is imprisoned with his freedom curtailed like his victim offspring.

But I feel there should be something more. My feeling is that there needs to be, in every country, an exceptional space in the justice system for crimes that are so unprecedented, so heinous, that a public execution is the ultimate sanction. That way there is humiliation for those monstrous perpetrators in their perverse denial. Justice is seen done and a message to goes out society at large that evil can be and will be reckoned with.

But then in our baying for blood it makes monsters of us all.

Multi or mono-faith?

2008-04-30T23:37:00.002+01:00

An interesting thought bolted unexpectedly out of Sunday’s sermon. There is apparently a serious prospect, or at least a debate, of the Church of Scotland proposing offering some of their churches for multi-faith worship.

This provoked a somewhat unnecessarily staunch defence of remaining a Christian worship community. There has been no desire in our own community of believers to unite with others for multi faith worship. The notion is not even on our radar.

However I do believe we would do well to think it through. The prospect of Scotland’s main denomination opening out to embrace all faith worship seems strange and unnecessary. Yet as a counterpoint and also increasingly disturbing is the creeping secular intolerance of faith groups (although secularists target mainstream Christianity and don’t dare take on other faiths)

It seems unnecessary for the Kirk to consider this, as I can’t imagine any reciprocity in the arrangement. Will Christians be welcome to inter faith worship at the Mosque, gentiles to Synagogue?

As usual our 20-30 centuries old scriptures don’t give direct guidance. Like climate change, genetic engineering, nuclear arms, the topic of multi-faith worship is a modern encumbrance.

The OT gives the story of Ezekiel on Mt Carmel. This is seriously confrontational multi-faith worship. Taunting the followers of Baal to invoke a miracle of fire, which the Lord finally brings burning up any credibility in following a false faith.

Yet Jesus took a much more gentle approach with the woman at the well. He willingly debated the place of worship; Samaria or Mount Zion. He unveiled the inner place of worship in Spirit and in Truth. But qualified this worship as the kind that the Father seeks.

Would not the Father hear and seek the genuine worship of one true god in the heart of the Muslim Jew and Christian? With our monotheistic and Abrahamic brothers and sisters can we not bond over our common heritage and shared scriptures?

Grass greener

2008-04-18T22:48:00.003+01:00

Now that my post holiday blues have receded and I'm settling back into normality again I wonder why the grass gets greener?

Now that Ive stopped Googling for affordable island homes on Mull and imagining an idyllic alternative lifestyle in the Hebrides I have realised it's our false concept of life that's to blame.

Holidays are a recent invention. Our great grandparents would in all likelihood not have had any. Certainly the Hebridean islanders of even recent times would not have taken any time off except for sickness and maybe for exceptional family reasons that forced them to travel somewhere. The other exception being the 18th century rich young who were despatched on grand tours of Europe. Going more distantly through history travel was the exclusive domain only by necessity inhabited by soldiers, sailers and merchants. The only people opting to travel were ecclesiastical scholars and missionaries.

This current and the last generation are the first to regularly travel for pleasure. 'A change as good as a rest' entered the lexicon and expectation. Holidays and time off incrementally became personal rights. Hitherto these had been communal things; festivals, religious feast days.

So in deliberately exposing ourselves to the possibilities of alternative lives in undreamt of locations we stoke fires of jealosy. We envy Meditteranean lifestyle, culture and diet. We envy tanned skin. We covet a place in the sun.

Then we are led to disdain our driech grey skies even more and become so dour that 4 weeks in sunny climes every becomes almost a medical requirement for national health.

Mulling around

2008-04-17T22:54:00.003+01:00

Back from a week on the Isle of Mull. A wonderful place. Never has the North Atlantic looked so azure and Meditteranean. Staying on the 'Ross' the southern fingered peninsula we had easy cycling access to two pristine sandy beaches.
Our caravan had a view that so rested the soul. Across from Bunessan bay to Staffa, Treshnish Isles, Lunga and more distantly to Coll and Tiree.
Just 6 miles away we could take the 5 minute ferry hop to Iona. Another uniquely stirring and peace making place.

The Independent to rebrand as The Intolerant

2008-04-03T22:59:00.013+01:00

A shamefully hysterical polemic piece by the Independent about the suspicious dealings of CARE Interns at Westminster. There are 12 of these sinister Christians employed by MP's (well less than 2% of them) With such 'long reach' they have 'masterminded' opposition to the latest embryology bill, at the same time The Independent ackowledges the long arm of the Roman Catholic Church leaning on the PM and members of his cabinet!

A re-reading of the article substituting 'gay' or 'muslim' for Care, evangelical or Christian would be very disturbing indeed.

Most absurd of all is the ever hysterical Richard Dawkins rent-a-quote "If only these restless busybodies would keep their prejudices to themselves, nobody would object. But they can't resist inflicting their ignorant opinions on others." Please take your own advice Dawkins.

Stunted snowman victim of global warming

2008-03-29T00:00:00.004Z

Pitiful. All that could be mustered by my office colleagues on the roofgarden in Glasgow's only snowfall this year. Climate change is ruining our snowmen production.

Many mansions, many doors?

2008-03-22T00:31:00.000Z

Increasingly I have found the narrow path less comfortable. It seems an inflexible and limited route. There is a lack of latitude over the way taken for deviation, carelessness and loss of bearings. In all of our times, in all of our journeys hasn’t there always been a multitude of pathways. Isn’t it the direction and destination that count?

Its too hard to accept that this is all there is, the one and only chance. The evidence for evil is too powerful and pervasive. A three score and ten without any resolution, any meaning, is too unbearable and a curtailed life even more so.

If I were asked now about the ultimate destination, the pie in the sky thing, then I would affirm my belief in heaven. I cant say what heaven exactly is. I would say it’s an afterlife with God. I think it’ll be brilliant beyond our imagining. More colourful, more noisy, and as crowded or as solitary as we can ever desire.

It’s the getting there. We don’t have to do anything. That’s enormously comforting. No anxious earning of approval. In by grace and by the faith. Yet how will they know unless He is preached? So may didn’t know and will not know. They will not be ‘in.’ Or will they be there? Will they be because of other ways? Will we visit many mansions? Will there be many surprises? Shall we be eternally stumbling upon Muslim brothers and Hindu sisters that we never knew and that like us they travelled there too? Perhaps in parallel with us or in a diametric route but still able to satisfy the Truth and finding the Way?

Of course taking a narrow path needn’t mean singular. I don’t think believing the magnanimity of God and his blessing of many paths affects my witness to Him. Rather I think it strengthens it. Its clear to me that I can show people to the door that I know best as it has been revealed to me. I cant and wouldn’t direct people to the path along to the mosque, temple or chapel because I know nothing of it. So I can only point to the door where Jesus stands and knocks.

Café Scientifique: Edinburgh, Moscow and Recife

2008-03-22T00:28:00.003Z

Friday 29th Feb 09: Today I was taking part in a videoconference on climate change via a 3-way videoconference with people in Moscow and Recife. It was great to be taking part in a real-time adaptation solution and seeing this in action. Dialogue without air travel.

Adaptation to and mitigation of climate change were the main topics. How do we get the push and momentum amongst confused and indifferent publics? How much more did we feel our respective governments need to do? How much to we wait for top-level action or act ourselves?

The urgency is clear; we have breached 450 ppm of CO2, the highest level for 600,000 years, taking us into uncharted territory beyond the known naturally cyclical parameters. There was a call for clarity on the need to measure the true scope and increasing speed of the problem- ensuring the whole range of GHG were being accounted for; something highlighted by the thawing of permafrost in Russia and consequent methane release.

Optimism was notably absent. Yet we in Edinburgh seemed coy about our early success in having legislative action in both Westminster and Holyrood. The first climate change legalisation in the world after all!

Cloverfield - Mission Implausible

2008-03-22T00:24:00.002Z

28th Feb 08: I misspent an hour and half today watching this minicam monster movie. It’s tediously compelling. The sheer pointlessness was almost disturbing.

I wasn’t sure what was in the mind of the makers. “Lets do a Godzilla movie but like really, really realistic?” The script was vacuous and didn’t help the earnestness of the performances which were actually pretty good. I’ve never seen a movie so undiversified in its characters. NY seemed to have eliminated all elderly and children.

There was no higher purpose. It was “ohmigod lets get outta here” again and again. There wasn’t any sacrificial heroism. What do movies like this say about us? That we should empathise with the shiny beautiful young yuppie people? That we should readily accept that they implicit represent of all humankind? That America and Manhattan in particular is symbolic of our highest pinnacle of civilisation? That we should be shocked and in awe if its under attack and losing? I just couldn’t relate or even care about them.

What worked though was the unrelenting grinding and overpowering soundtrack. The shudders, thuds and shrieks build up into a convincing and head throbbing crescendo. And when the military strikes build up too the sense of jeopardy oozes off the screen. But the hero’s search for his loved one didn’t cut enough through all the effects to make a satisfying climax. It was bleak and brutal. That’s another thing that worked though, the realism (although the spawned aliens was a reference too far and didn’t add much to the horror anyway.)

Blogs can change the world...well public services maybe...a bit

2008-02-08T23:51:00.001Z

Was inspired by this story of blogger who breaks through virtual into reality and makes change happen. Well done mate!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/08/summit.reynolds

Inertia

2008-02-04T21:16:00.001Z

Great quote of the day:

"If you act like there is no possibility of change, you guarantee that there will be no change." Noam Chomsky

Cynics of the world take note!

Your work/life balance

2008-01-27T17:52:00.000Z

Today I received another list of questions to assess the ever elusive work/life balance. However this one really is the most devastingly close to the bone I've ever experienced. I'll list them below so that you see what I'm about to discover about my out-of-kilter life and long suffering family.

This is how you use the questions. Give them to your partner, family member or friend, and let them answer them as though you are asking. Its recommended they write down their answers then discuss with you!

Do you think I have got stuck in habits which detract from my ability to integrate work from non-work aspects of my life? What are those habits?
On a scale of 1 to 5 rate how 'with you' I am when we're together. Do I occasionally/often/always seem distracted and 'elsewere.'
From the way I talk about my work, do you sense that its an area of my life in which Christ and my faith have a definite and distinctive impact?
Do you think I have the right attitude to work and relaxation?
What role could you play in helping me achieve a better standard of work/life balance?
Do you believe I am sufficuently accountable to you for the choices and priorities in my work and life?
Do you believe I am living a life with a clear purpose?
As far as you are able to discern, how far is my work and life consistent with God's calling for me? (for us as a family?)
On a scale of 1 to 5 how would you rate the ability of our family to manage pressures of work and life? Do we need to make any changes?

Quite a thorough going through! I'll post when I've been assessed (and probably no time to blog!)

God of Media

2008-01-26T18:23:00.000Z

I have been given the task of doing a workshop in March broadly entitled 'God of Media.' Here are my thoughts for a preamble.

In this 21^st century the media has omniscient scale, speed and reach. It is omnipresent, 365/24/7 coverage; events can be in millions of homes as they happen.

The media can shape consciousness and values. It doesn’t merely report events or pass on information or a message; it makes the news. News that is packaged in a pluralistic, ostensibly tolerant, value neutral, or value laden way. These values are not rooted in something such as a predisposition to Christendom, rather the media pursues its own ‘news value’ and sets the agenda for mass consumption. We only hear and receive what unaccountable editors and their owners consider ‘newsworthy’. What we hear is simplified, decontextualised often emotive and usually loaded. Even entertaining.

‘Breaking news’ doesn’t just mean sudden events but could also describe the invidious effect that leads to the progressive breaking of governments, of taboos, of cultural, societal and moral norms. There is ‘media power’ and this can be wielded politically, globally and morally.

So in this context of media power what issues are there for Christians, as message bearers, to think through and how can we respond practically?

Hidden Jesus best show on Christmas Day

2008-01-02T23:17:00.001Z

Good old Channel 4. What was once the desparate-to-shock adolescent of British broadcasting has now grown up into a likeable erudite dude. And a brave one too, on Christmas day no less a programme about Jesus! Two and a half hours of documentary with liberal, soul searching, dreadlocked theologian Robert Beckford.
I thought it was great. Exploring the other views and what if's behind the virgin birth and messiah accounts. Taking a look at the other hidden stories such as Jesus' alleged trip to Kashmir after crucifixion failed to kill him. Trying to make sense of the Gospel of Thomas. Listening to what messianic Jews had to say and how muslims wait for Jesus to return too.
Most interesting was the parallel messiah stories. The similarity of Jesus and Krishna; virgin birth, miracles, walking on water, with similar exhortations on loving neighbours albiet with a bit more karma. The astonishing revelation about the Roman god of Mithra, the God of light, and how this diety's birthday was transferred to Jesus! Hence 25th December.
So much that made me really think about the 'unique' message of Christianity and the 'other sheep not of this sheep pen' and the 'many mansions' in heaven.

Tricked not treated!

2007-10-31T22:34:00.000Z

Why are people suckers for tacky fads? Halloween is becoming so commercialised. We all complain about this. So is it who buys the tat? I saw a garden tonight with plastic lit up gravestones and skeleton hands reaching out the ground. This was in a wealthy suburb. Funnily enough they glowed RIP! Why let yourself be ripped off? Apparently manufacturers of this tat says its getting as good as Christmas;

Halloween used to be a bit of spooky fun. The kids would make a costume (yes, even in the 70's and 80's) and go round the neighbours, tell rubbish jokes and wail tuneless songs. You would get monkey nuts in your poly bag. These are now replaced by glow in the dark witches cauldrons or jack- o-lantern pumpkin pots. There are face paints, pull-over latex masks, ready made costumes galore. Every 'guiser' looks perfect now. No-one needs to ask; 'so what are you then?'

We've fully embraced the Americanism of 'trick or treat' something earlier generations would have been too embarrassed to shout on strangers doorsteps. Of course the evangelicals decry it as a pagan, satanist thing that will harm our children. Hand me the face paint, think I'll go and get myself treated.

Emerging interest

2007-10-29T23:48:00.001Z

Really enjoying this site for stimulating ideas about new ways of doing church;
http://www.emergingchurch.info/stories/prayerfeeder/abstract.jpg

Burma talk

2007-10-28T23:14:00.000Z

Today I did a talk on Burma for church. It was a prayer focus service. This slightly annoyed me as Burma needs more than prayer. Burma needs us active, conscienciatised and lobbying government and corporate powers.
I picked up a few stories of the 1m+ displaced people that where truly horrifying. Its not difficult to find information for a country so closed off. Many exiles are working hard to keep up profile and video clips abound. Its a kingdom thats beautific and horrific. There are many many unsung heroes, and many hidden atrocities. Blood soaked oil.

I have a distant affinity with Burma. My grandfather Captian Archibald McLellan died there in 1942. One of 27,000 souls with no known grave.

Not very European

2007-09-17T22:42:00.000+01:00

Just back from Rome. I want to be Italian! Prego! The coffee, cafes, the wild traffic, the shoes, the azure sky, cypress trees. In the fug of a Gauloises' fog the special last week in a movie-scene cafe just off Piazza Navona was Lobster and Gnocci! Heaven. In the blaze of the following afternoon I watch two men pull up in scooters at the Colunna Traiane. They unpack their boxes and start wrapping on togas, plastic breastplates and helmets. Moments later getting their pictures taken with every fabulous looking woman that passes. Tourist tat but somehow more impressive than the bagpiper in Glencoe.
There's an easy passion here that's not very celtic. Northern fringe people don't do Gladiator. They can get passionate, heated even, but but not like venus or vesuvius. No explosion of emotion. Any gesticulations are quickly brought to heel. At the Colosseo though, everyone is humbled. That's two thousand years and still standing still awesome. Not even the orbiting, dizzying traffic can rumble it down.
Had very limited time for sightseeing and gawping at Rome's shameless treasures. Time was spent in plenary, in discussion groups, in break outs and in smoky fugs with multi-lingual bright young europeans. A moment I remember in a discussion about funding for our campaign one UK fund had turned us down because they said they didnt think they had a remit for European issues. This brought smirks and guffaws of various franco, italian and slavic tones at the insular brits. I didnt find it funny but completely understandable. Because I was acutely aware of my otherness, my North Atlantic airs and aloofness. Being the product from the island of the mongrel race; roman, norman, viking, saxon, briton, gael. I saw how I had been blended into a root beer of insipidity. Not skillfully tongued but monosyllabic, monocultural, well almost, I knew some euro music..right?..
Perhaps I would have felt better if I was more culturally distinct. Not with tammy hat and kilt, but maybe bearing some northern edge, some longer hair and beard, leather and fur, tattooed celtic knot, some poetry and hipflask of dram. Actually I'd rather be italian.

Competition blog: My New Scotland, Sunday Herald

2007-08-21T21:34:00.000+01:00

We can’t seem to shake off this notion that Scotland needs its freedom. Braveheart. Flower of Scotland. ‘Free by 93!’ Remember that! Soon after we were lambasted for being 90-minute patriots. John Buchan would have agreed as he said, “The truth is that we are at bottom the most sentimental and emotional people on earth.” Well, certainly the case when our national identity is being debated.

Freedom for Scotland? Doesn’t this put it best? “Scotland will be reborn when the last minister is strangled with the last copy of the Sunday Post” alleged Tom Nairn. Ask a granny and she’d say ‘it woudnae be possible to strangle somebody wi’ a newspaper!’ Typically pithy, practical, and dour. A glass-half-empty worldview. McConnell at least tried to do something about the poverty of ambition, and then said what all the problems were, but nothing about what the ambition could be.

I’m with Tom Nairn’s assessment. We need to throw off our wee encumbrances. Our ‘cannae dae’ and ‘aye been’ culture. Its great there are signals of this abandonment already even with our in-by-the-pants-of-wan-seat Nat government. Why not have a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation. Why not have a seat at the UN?

Isn’t it odd that the Irish, Italian, Indian, Pakistani and now a plethora of diasporas find their new found freedom in Scotland? Yet Scotland’s own that find themselves with a perceived barrier to that same freedom. Like these entrepreneurial and risk taking immigrants we Scots need to reintegrate ourselves with some ambition and vision. What do I want Scotland’s freedom to be like? One that's moved on from subsidy junkie talk, and had some inspired grand dreams fuelled by hubbly bubblies on Great Western Road cafes. No more what’ll it cost us? What about the cost of staying on as constitutional co-habitees?

“Scotland's separation is part of England's imperial disintegration” said John Mclean. Of course a new Scotland means a new England, new Wales and new Ireland. A determined diversification rather than a homogenous huddling. Bring it on! Until the last Sunday Post wraps the last deep-fried mars bar supper in Scotland.

Inheritance Tracks

2007-08-09T23:48:00.000+01:00

A friend of mine recently started a great email discussion about what your earliest musical influences were and what you wanted to pass on the next generation. Its based on a radio programme in Scotland, you need to recollect the person who introduced you to the earliest piece of music you can remember, then you need to think about what music you would now introduce to a child and why.

Here was my answer.....

My earliest memory of a piece of music that I really loved and was passed on to me by my father was the andante from Sibelius’ 3^rd Symphony. It’s a wonderfully gentle, minimal, sparse, a delicate weft and waft of strings and woodwind. I used to ask for it to be played on my dad’s ‘Binatone Music Centre’ again and again when I was about 7 or 8, maybe 8 or 9?

It puts you in mind of crystal clear lakes and sunsets in the artic north, of floating over jaggy snow capped peaks and fjords. Being Finnish I suppose gave Sibelius that clarity and subtlety. Its fairly repetitive for orchestral music but the rhythms are so lulling and soothing, layering up to a very pleasing uplifting crescendo. Such a contrast to Finlandia and En Saga with their Viking like brass blasts. But if you’re familiar with the Swan of Tuonela you’ll have a sense of the 3^rd’s simplicity and striking clarity.

The other piece was the theme tune from M*A*S*H which for a period of about 6 months marked my bedtime. I wasn’t allowed to watch it but I was allowed to listen to the theme and watch the helicopters swoosh about and land in the army hospital. I had no idea it was called ‘Suicide is Painless’ or indeed what M*A*S*H was about. That was also true even when I watched it when older!

Well from there I developed eclectic and seasonal tastes, dipping in and out of everything; pop, rock, heavy metal, progressive rock(!) jazz, folk, country and classical. . Went with the crowd on a lot of the time, so much so that I actually did go and see Simple Minds three times!

Many of the songs l love are melancholic, wistful, turning on unrequited love and the bittersweet. I’m not sure why. I suppose these kind of songs have a realism and rooting in emotional reality that I felt connected with me and my experience in the world. Its so difficult to pin down a song that I would pass on but I have picked out two that may serve the task in hand.

The first is this lovely album track from Crowded House – just recently gloriously reformed again. It’s the sentiment of not being imprisoned by the past that I like. This track also has soaring strings and maybe that harps back to my early exposure to classical.

All I Ask

Crowded House

Written By N. Finn & T. Finn

All I ask is to live each moment
Free from the last
Take the road forgotten
Don't leave me here
Oh please let me stay
Far from familiar things
All I ask is to live each moment
All I ask is to live each moment
Free from the last
Strange roads going nowhere in particular
All I ask is to live each moment
All I ask is to live each moment
Free from the last
Free from the last
All I ask

I am an unashamed U2 fan. I saw them in Hampden Park, Glasgow two years ago. Undoubtedly the best concert I have ever been to. I can air guitar and sing so many of their tracks better than Bono and the Edge (but only alone in the living room.) Bono to me is one of the most inspirational Christians alive. He has a streetwise sassy faith unbound by tradition and form. Many of the U2 songs are better than the dreadful contemporary worship splurging out from the Matt Redman school of blessed navel gazing.

U2 deliver songs racked with doubt, raw energy and spirit. Anthems that reverberating in your mind. Words that speak about the search and hunger for more of God and for more out of life. And the best of all of these…………..

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you.

I have run, I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you.

But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.

I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her finger tips
It burned like fire
(I was) burning inside her.

I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone.

But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.

I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colours will bleed into one
Bleed into one.
But yes, I'm still running.

You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame
Oh my shame, you know I believe it.

But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.

But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.

Has everything under the sun already been done?

2007-07-14T01:33:00.000+01:00

My friend Kieran posed this question on Facebook. Only 50 words are allowed in response. Obviously I need more verbiage space.This is my attempted answer.

Well ‘the Bible says so’ as the refrain of the grim verses in Ecclesiastes say; ’there is nothing new under the Sun.’ with its pessimistic take on the world and humankind. But I don’t think that is anything to do with human activity or our perception of relentless progress or terminal moral decline. Rather it is about the relentless cyclical nature of death and rebirth in the created world, the seasons, in nature and the ‘three score and ten’ of man. Nothing is actually new, its been before and is renewed, dies, is born again. When we discover a new species, its not actually new, its always been, but was just outwith our detection.

If it were, about humankind, history and progress, then I suppose the question you may be also posing is– what new things are there still to do? On this score there is a lot. Ecclesiastes was in a pre-technological age. It was about toil. No-one then could have ever thought we could change the temperature of the earth, or even fly out from the world into orbit in space. We are living in the transition from the industrial to the post-industrial to the information age and then the biogenetic age. Just edging into another technological orbit under the sun.

Maybe, to take a ridiculous example, in the next 100 years, in the same way as we see piercing in places you didn’t before; (noses, bellybuttons, lips eyebrows) we’ll see biogenetic cosmetic enhancement; natural hair extensions any colour your like (or think!) Maybe for the macho male, some cranial horns, skin colours and tints of all hues (already available for eyes) webbed feet for swimmers or sea dwellers (due to global warmed sea level rises.) In this sense there is plenty of invention and change ahead beyond our wildest imagining.

So there will still be plenty of technological advances, new things to be done, our sons and daughters taking up careers serving and served by technologies not yet invented. There will be the merging of electronic with neural, of machine and body. But is that ‘nothing new under the Sun’ in the sense of the scripture? I don’t think so.

These words I think point towards the limits of evil and the impossibility of renewal on earth. There is no shocking crime or evil that has not been committed before. In this sense the verses are very encouraging. The world is not getting worse and worse. Its just the same. It seems worse to us because of the scale, speed and awareness of events. There are many billions on the earth now (6.5Bn) More living now than have ever lived in all history (itself a mind boggling proposition.) So it seems there is a proliferation of evil. But paedophilia existed in ancient Greece and Rome. These are not modern phenomena. Same for conflicts and wars, only the technology and scale has changed.

So, in this world, under this sun, nothing really changes. So everything has been done. The world and we are fixed, limited and natural and therefore fallen and unrenewable. The only possibility of change and of meaning (as opposed to meaninglessness as complained of in Ecclesiastes) is change that comes beyond our selves and the world. It is limitless, spiritual, supernatural and it is of course a new creation – and all of those have not yet been done.

Ha Ha I'm back! Was blogged out for months!

2007-07-13T18:10:00.000+01:00

Its like coming out of a hibernation. I got blocked out since the change to Beta and Google accounts and could never get reset to get in again until now!! Not that Ive been trying every day or anything.? Swithed to Bebo and Facebook for a while, which are a lot of fun, but not expansive enough to drone on like here.
So now I need to think of more postings;
Things that have bothered me in the media - coverage of Madelaine McCann's disappearance, expecially criticism of the parents; broadcast of clearly inflammatory vox pops after the attempted bombing of Glasgow Airport; LIVE Earth's undermining of climate change campaigns; the non event that was Brown becoming PM

Climate chaos-ed my week!

2006-12-12T21:35:00.000Z

Have been a mild climate chaos victim last week. I was in Euston station, after two days of wall-to-wall business meetings in London, really looking forward to the 1715 First Class Virgin to whoosh me home with a nice meal and several glasses of red. Unusually for me I was quite early and had time to mooch around. I saw somebody taking a digipic with their phone of the departure board. I thought 'how totally sad.' But it caused me to focus on what could possibly be picture worthy in such a frame. Then I saw it in bright LED yellow letters; Cancelled, Cancelled, Cancelled, Cancelled.... I was stuck in Euston, in a moment I couldn't get out of.

There had been a mini-tornado in London! In December! Christmas lights blasted along the street, people had even been killed. This was scary. This wasn't 'freak weather events' anymore, it felt like a real threat, a clear and present danger.

Along with throngs of fellow strandees I sought hapless advice from rail staff about alternatives. The West Coast line was completely out. Suggestions of routes to Birmingham, Manchester then Preston were sketched out to me which stupidly I followed and found myself sharing a cab with a couple of city gents. We took an incredibly congested cab ride to Marylebone and one of the guys made a comment about how 'scary it was that the system was so close to capacity, just a little disaster and were choked.' This led to him talking about 'adaptation industries.' He was forming an investment fund for climate change adaptation. So I told him all about our campaigns being on the 'NGO side of the world.' He raved about the 'Inconvenient Truth' and that he really thought we had to sort it for our children's sake! It was great, so inspiring to meet a corporate type so on-message and up for it. But the other guy was a complete sceptic; 'my son in geography class is learning there were warmings before and its natural!'

Anyway after another detour to Kings X and finally on a GNER to Edinburgh, then a midnight taxi ride back to Glasgow, getting in climate chaos-ed at 130am, I still had a residue of hope and inspiration that maybe we can fix this and turn it around.

By the end of the week I saw the Inconvenient Truth for myself. Steady, plodding, incontrovertible, compelling and unassailably convincing it makes you want to green your life totally. So get on to www.climatecrisis.net and www.stopclimatechaos.org

Findingbennyandjoon

2006-11-25T00:24:00.000Z

Just watched a fabulous feel-good, heart-warming, tear-jerking, and other hyphenated superlative movie; Benny and Joon. You must see this, early Johnny Depp, luminous Mary Stuart Masterton, simmering Julianne Moore and the dreamy, misty eyed guy, Aidan whatsisname. Its 13 years old! How did I miss it first time round?
Great to see Hollywood tackle issues like mental illness in a light-hearted, comi-tragic, yet serious enough way with a light dose of schmaltz. A British attempt would have been brutal, flourescent lit and have bucketfuls of spit and snot. I suppose Little Voice is a close contender, playing out the thin line between madness and brilliance in the way that Sam's Buster Keaton antics do in B&J. I loved the Boo Radley reference and the fabulous bohemian home they lived in. Gosh, I wish I lived with mad people who toast their sandwiches with the iron (on steam.) Now that's something you can try at home!

That bit of Africa in your mobile....

2006-11-12T01:15:00.000Z

Seems there's more reportage on this story than I expected. The 'black gold' of coltan, that mineral you've probably never heard of, and never knew was in minute, micro-engineered quantities in your mobile has come a long way on a chain of war, child labour, smuggling and global corporate silence and shame.
As Labour MP Oona King put it to an Independent journalist in May 2006: "Kids in Congo are being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms."

The links below spell out the story, armed with killer facts, lot more eloquently than I ever could;

http://greatreporter.com/mambo/content/view/1322/2/

http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/Africa/Articles/TheStandardColtan.asp

http://www.ethiscore.org/info.aspx?info=reports/full/mobilephones

What do we do? Give up the mobiles? Or buy more ethically, ask more questions, I quite like Ethiscores suggestion of labelling along the lines of 'Dolphin friendly tuna.' Wonder how long it will be before Phones4U are offering 'child labour free mobiles.'

Scotland Malawi fusion

2006-11-10T23:16:00.001Z

Well tonight I was schmoozing with the rich and powerful as we patted ourselves on the back over our benevolence to little Malawi. A relationship going back 150 years to David Livingston! We presume! The really humbling thing was the startlingly passionate speech by one of the visiting Malawian Government minister's Joyce, a mama who spoke with genuine warmth and conviction about the sacrifice of the 20 year old Scottish men who those many years ago, woke up and decided to leave this wonderful land of Scotland and go thousands of miles (no business class then) to Malawi 'to bring health, education and Christianity.' I was really warmed by that by the obvious privilege she felt to be in Scotland and to share in celebrating this heritage of benevolence and help. I really hope she doesn't meet any Torys who think the Scottish Executives International Fund is illegal or those dreadfully noxious 'charity begins at home' naysayers that pervade the schemes of West Central Scotland- especially in Blantrye, birthplace of Livingston and Buckie drinkers.

After canapes and wine (some actually really disgusting- a blue cheese filled profiterole- who thinks up such pestiferous nik naks!) This was followed by an evening of really quite fantastic cultural entertainment. Village Cultural Troupe - A troupe of young Malawian dancers and drummer stomped, shimmied and sparkled in a stage set normally used by classical musicians and wannabe divas of the RSAMD. There was a really cool fire eater, so cool he thrust a flaming torch down his trousers without a wince. Then there was TNT 'a kilt wearing boy band' -so the programme promised-who turned out all to be wearing black shirts and trousers (not flammable) But they were good, boy the skirling of the pipes makes you a patriot. Then real Scottish culture with a Gaelic singer Catriona Watt with Eno-like piano accompaniment. A few impenetrable drama scenes with a great young Malawian actor named Talent Phoya. He was joined by RSAMD actors Martin McCormick (who looked like Fran from Travis) and Hannah Donaldson (who looked like a River City extra) They were ok - but something about Scottish accents and drama - do Americans, Australians, French, feel the same cringe in hearing their accents in drama, radio, TV? Maybe a Scottish cringe thing?
Anyway all this Malawi Scotland culture got stramashed in the end with 'fusion,' a free for all pipes, drums and stomp n twirl n twang. We swayed and clapped in our 'business attire and national dress' as the invites directed. You know bring it on more, I'd love to see more of this stuff and what with Madonna and Malawi maybe a little bit of Africa needs us all. (Apart from the little bit of Africa in your mobile phone!- that's for another blog!)

Blog tourism 2

2006-11-09T22:16:00.000Z

Well day 2 and completely lost my way already! Probably an hour of obsessive and frantic doubleclicking before I realised you need to actually log on to make any changes! Doh! However have passed that Kryton Factor test (remember that! what happened to the Krypton Factor!) Well if you've forgotten, or didnt grow up in the late 70's, then all you need to know about KF is here

http://www.ukgameshows.com/page/index.php/The_Krypton_Factor

Or maybe I'm the weakest blog link............

http://www.ukgameshows.com/page/index.php/The_Weakest_Link

Whatever, well if you check next week I may even be using emoticons!

Gavin finding bloggin

2006-11-08T22:59:00.000Z

hello blogland! have arrived here like a tourist in need of map. So much blank space to fill. Before I got this far I had to go through the blog naming process. Here are the also-rans for your delectation and boredom alleviation; the-exploding-pluke, rocket propelled exploding babies, ethical hypocrite, fairtrade is rubbish and faithnchips. Please tell me your favourites! The most popular will be set up - but you must promise to post!!