Hallelujah

Wishing you a

Very blessed Easter

Please read and check out the links

Dave

Have you seen the footage of the Metropolitan police tactics during the G20 demonstrations? The police used excessive force on the thousands of peaceful demonstrators instead of isolating a handful of troublemakers. One instance in particular quite possibly led to the death of innocent bystander Ian Tomlinson. 

Flawed police tactics are an attack on our democratic right to peaceful protest. Join the public outcry across Britain, urging the government to fix rules governing the policing of protests:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/fix_british_protest_policing/97.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

You can read more below.

Thanks!

———————————–
Peaceful protests can change the world. Last week’s G20 summit wouldn’t have taken the decisions it did without the non-violent pressure hundreds of thousands of citizens brought to bear — like our peaceful march with thousands of green hard hats the weekend before the G20.[1]

The protests in the City of London immediately before the summit were rowdier than our own, but still overwhelmingly peaceful despite media hysteria, aggressive policing and a handful of troublemakers. Tragically, one man died that day — bystander and newspaper-seller Ian Tomlinson. Now video footage shows that he was struck down by a masked, baton-wielding policeman.[2]

We’ve worked with the police on our own public demonstrations, and they play an essential role in making peaceful protest possible. But not for the first time, the police lost their way at these City protests — using excessive force, starting to criminalise the peaceful majority and creating pressure-cooker confrontations instead of defusing them. Enough is enough — the British tradition of peaceful public protest is too important to lose. Follow this link to watch the video and sign the emergency petition to fix British policing of demonstrations — we’ll deliver it directly to the Home Secretary, Parliament and the Metropolitan Police:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/fix_british_protest_policing

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is now investigating Ian Tomlinson’s death minutes after he was struck down — but he was far from the only innocent person injured by violent police tactics on April 1st, as a growing flood of dependable eyewitnesses’ testimonies and videos have begun to reveal.[3] This is not an isolated incident. It points to wider failings in the policing of demonstrations in the UK in recent years.

The policy of “kettling” (penning in people including bystanders, families and those who want to move on, often for ten hours or more) seems to create a pressure-cooker atmosphere of frustration and confrontation. Instead of isolating and removing the handful of troublemakers who wrecked the Royal Bank of Scotland branch, the police responded by cracking down on the peaceful majority, confining them, forcing them to give personal information, and charging them with batons and dogs. This cannot be right.

The separate and wholly-peaceful “climate camp” on Bishopsgate was subject to similar imprisonment and baton-charges. Initial police statements about these events have often turned out to be misleading. As well as constraining rights of assembly, new laws now supposedly prohibit taking the very photos and videos of police officers which have begun to reveal the truth of these events.

We can’t let this slide toward unaccountability continue. Many of those policing this demonstration wore balaclavas or took their identification numbers off. By telling the media before the protests that they were “up for it” if violence ensued, commanding officers were whipping up dangerous hysteria. As Andy Hayman, the former Assistant Commissioner of the Met wrote yesterday: “If left unchecked, we have a more violent crowd in uniform than the crowd demonstrating.”

This is ultimately a question of government policy and accountability — so we’ll deliver the petition to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and the Home Affairs Committee of Parliament as well as the Metropolitan Police, and alert the media to raise wider awareness of this effort.

After Ian Tomlinson’s death, it’s time to fix the policing of demonstrations in Britain. Sign the emergency petition at the link below, and share this message with friends, family and colleagues:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/fix_british_protest_policing

With hope and determination,

Paul, Alice, Iain and the whole Avaaz team

Sources:

[1] Avaaz Flickr photos from London G20 demonstration:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/avaaz/sets/72157615805537381/

[2] The Guardian — “New video footage from G20 protests gives fresh angle on attack”:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2009/apr/08/g20-police-assault-ian-tomlinson-video

[3] Chris Abbott, Open Democracy — “Trapped and beaten by police in Climate Camp”:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/ourkingdom-theme/ourkingdom/2009/04/09/trapped-and-beaten-by-police-in-climate-camp

One great episode was called Daleks in Manhattan where the TARDIS lands in 1930s New York in the midst of the Great Depression. People go missing and of course the Doctors’ arch enemies the Daleks are involved.

The episode also included the huge tent city in set up in Central Park called Hooverville ; it was one of many throughout the country. The US Library of Congress has this to say:

During the Great Depression, many families lost their homes because they could not pay their mortgages. These people had no choice but to seek alternative forms of shelter. Hoovervilles, named after President Hoover, who was blamed for the problems that led to the depression, sprung up throughout the United States.

Portland 1930's

Lost their homes because they could not pay their mortgages   – sounds familiar.

Well, at least the world has moved on. We would not expect people from the richest country in the world to find it necessary to form shanty towns on the banks of rivers.

Think again!

Sacramento 2009

Here is what The Times Newspaper has to say

There are more than 300 people living in scattered encampments stretching a couple of miles along the river bank. As many as 50 more arrive each week. Unemployment in Sacramento reached 10.4 per cent in January and California is suffering some of the worst repossession rates in the country, with as many as 500 people losing their homes every day last year.

Should this concern us in the UK. Well, when America sneezes we catch cold not long after.  Let us pray that we and our Churches are up to any challenge that may present itself.

However, one  year in particular is etched on my memory, 1981. It was in that year that my first computer came on the scene, the good old Sinclair ZX81. That was quickly followed by my first ( legal) CB Radio. In that one year my love of computers and mobile communication technology was born.

In a short time the ZX81 gave way to the BBC computer which in turn was replaced by a succession of  PC’s. The CB was replaced in 1983 by my first mobile phone, a simple device which just made phone calls and needed the battery recharging twice a day!

Next came phones that offered SMS, then WAP followed by a very cut down mobile version of the internet. Now I have a device that seems to do everything but make a cup of tea. Where will it end, what is waiting round the corner? The internet is full ideas and rumours as to what the next great thing will be.

In the technical world there is an assumption that each new device will be better than the one before. Adverts no doubt will try to persuade us that we cannot cope without this or that  latest gadget.

But what about the most technically advanced device on the planet – human beings – have they improved with each successive generation? People would like to think so and our Victorian forebears certainly believed it to be the case. After all, hadn’t Darwin shown this to be true?  Well, not really, it was simply people reading into Darwin what they wanted to believe. It is interesting to note that the Victorian idea of the  evolutionary pinnacle seemed to be white, protestant and male!

Some people know that my other passion in life is history, not just reading about it but as far as possible re-creating it. The more I read and the more I put things into practice, the more I become to realise that the lives of the people I try to recreate were no different to mine. I may have the ‘advantages’ of  technology, but I have discovered that  peoples’ reaction to the hopes and fears of life remain fairly constant whatever the age.

That is why I find the Bible and its message important. However far I go back in its page I see in the life of its people many of my own characteristics. They may have dressed differently to me, spoke a different language, but they knew all the emotions, all the hopes and fears that I feel in this 21st century. Because of this the message of the Bible stays constant and up-to-date. It is as relevant to now as it was millenia ago. My copy may now be found on my iPhone rather than  bound between covers of black leather but the message is the same: one constant in a changing world

No need for me to add further comments

Inspirational Fiction or God's Word

It was our Church Organist, Phil, which first brought this to my attention, so while I was out shopping with my Grandson, I thought I would take a picture. It was taken in Borders, Speke Retail Park today (16th Feb)

Now I know peoples’  thoughts about the Holy Bible differ, but to class the book as ‘Inspirational Fiction’ seems to me to be taking things too far. Inspirational yes: but fiction?

To be generous, some passages in the Bible may well have a fictional element, but there are many more containing documented history; others are books of law – is that fiction?  Much of the New Testament contains letters – how can they be classed as fiction? – I could go on but I have no intention of  getting into debate about the nature of Holy Scripture.

I also noted that the sacred texts from other major world religions were not to be found alongside the Christian  Bible and I am sure if they did there would be a public outcry. “And there, as Shakespeare would say, tis the rub.” Is Borders’ attitude simply a reflection of our own attitude to our scripture?

I thought I would email Borders a copy of this to see what they say: I’ll let folk know what transpires. If anyone feels the same then I have included their office address and an email link below.

Stillerman House
120 Charing Cross Road
London

WC2H 0JR

customerservice@mail2.borders.co.uk

One last thing: Borders, if you are going to file by author make sure it is listed under G for God,Y for Yahweh or J for Jehovah. No forget that, there is a lot more names I can think of. Just file it under Holy Bible – now that seems  a logical place for people to look.

Update

Well, after more than a month there has been no reply to my email. Well, that is not quite true. Borders have decided to subscribe me to their Newsletter with lots of goodies for Mothers’ Day.

At least my Outlook  marked it as Spam!