Happy things

So, back from a week on the North Norfolk coast (bracing but lovely) and ready to blog. First things first a fabulous story from The Week:  A waiter who was given a £10,000 reward for helping to convict a rapist has given the money to the victim. Lloyd Gardner, 22, rang the police after seeing CCTV footage of a man wanted in connection with the rape in Exeter. He recognised two women on the film, and they led police to rapist Jakub Tomczak. Mr Gardner, who earns £20,000 a year, said the money would have been useful, but that he did not deserve it and hoped it would help the woman rebuild her life.

So we say hurrah for Lloyd Gardner! What a lovely man. Another happy thing is BeWILDerwood. If you have young children and can get to Wroxham (just east of Norwich), make a date in your diary now to visit when it reopens in the spring. It’s a woodland-based adventure park with lots to climb, swing and slide on. At £10 a head (for adults and children tall enough to Be WILD Now!) it’s also excellent value for money. You could take a picnic, but the food is delicious and not extortionately priced. I found the whole day stress-free – which can’t be said for all family-friendly places!

And, now it’s nearly the weekend – a third thing to make you happy (I hope).

PS If you haven’t already filled a shoebox for Samaritan’s Purse, there’s still time to do it (you have until November 18 to drop off your boxes). Add to 1.2 million shoeboxes sent out to children who won’t be getting Christmas presents and bring a smile to a little face this December. But be warned, Operation Christmas Child is addictive. I started out filling one box, this year I’m sending three and wishing it was more. It doesn’t have to be expensive, send supermarket value soap and flannel, some pocket-money toys, colouring pencils, and a bag of sweets (not chocolate though) and make someone’s Christmas really special.

The BNP on Question Time

It’s a tricky one. Do you go with the principles of freedom of speech and allow vile fascists a place at the Question Time table, or not? In my humble opinion, you have to give these narrow-minded racists the chance to air their views, not matter how abhorrent I find them. I’m not at all sure that Question Time is the best place to do it though – I can only hope that Auntie is giving Nick Griffin enough rope to hang himself with. Fingers crossed anyway.

On this subject, you should take five minutes to read this Independent article: 10 things you should know about the BNP when you watch Question Time tonight. Some jaw-dropping stuff in there. You may already know that Nick Griffin is a convicted racist who said Hitler ‘went a bit too far’. Did you know he stood in the witness box at his trial (for inciting racial hatred) and said: “I am well aware that the orthodox opinion is that six million Jews were gassed and cremated and turned into lampshades. Orthodox opinion also once held that the world is flat.” Such odious claptrap provoke a string of adjectives that I won’t sully your pixels with. But, he’s one of the few people in the world to whom I will mentally, at least, attach a four-letter label which begins with ‘c’. And it’s a word I thoroughly despise and will not use out loud. [Reaches for the mental toothbrush once more…]

I won’t be watching Question Time tonight. I will not bolster that nasty little man’s ego by boosting the viewing figures. I won’t presume to advise what you should do tonight either. What I will say is that we all carry the responsibility for challenging these racist and ignorant views when we encounter them. So please don’t duck the issue, or pretend not to hear, when people come out with this vile nonsense. Unless there is real, physical danger, do challenge it, loud and proud. 

And while we’re about it, Hope Not Hate is still doing its bit to bring down the BNP, so you could head over there too.

Take action against poverty

Pumpkin cut into a Halloween lantern

My daughter and I went shopping in town today. We’re not regular shoppers (not counting the weekly food shop, natch), but do enjoy the bus ride into town occasionally and browsing our favourite shops (Lush, Lakeland, Evolution (I’m trying to relive my youth but without actually purchasing incense sticks) and, of course, any bookshops).

For the most part we were Christmas shopping – presents for my nieces, something for Abigail’s reception teachers, and so on. But wandering along the high street, and giving some cash to a busker who, if not actually homeless, clearly enjoys a different standard of living to me and those walking past and ignoring him, I felt a little queasy (alright, a little queasier than usual) at the rampant commercialism on the high street.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t buy anything – but who really needs the quantities of plastic Halloween tat that’s being peddled? And, when so much of the world’s resources are used by so few, we – the few – have a great responsibility to try and even things out.

In this season of spending, we can all do our bit to take action against poverty. You could pledge a small regular payment to charity, or you could pop into your local Oxfam shop and pick up one of its Unwrapped catalogues. Small actions can make a big difference, so choose yours and take a step to making poverty a thing of the past. Because poverty is not just being too poor to buy a glow-in-the-dark bat, or a pumpkin-shaped candy bucket. Poverty affects every aspect of life – your health, your education, your-well-being. It’s shitty – to be blunt – and not something I’d want for anyone I know. And because I’m the kind of person to set up this kind of blog, it’s not something I want for anyone.

So, forgo that set of sparkly devil horns and put £2 in an Oxfam collection box instead (other poverty-alleviating charities are available and equally condoned in this context).

I’ll keep this short and sweet…

Melting chocolate

I love chocolate. I’m also a big fan of Fairtrade – though roll on the day when such a label is an anachronism. This week, I learn from the Guardian, is Chocolate Week, and the nice people at Ethical Consumer magazine have rated the most ethical chocolate brands on the market for Grauniad readers. Here is their list of the best from 38 companies on a range of 17 ethical criteria from use of palm oil to workers’ rights.

Go on, grab a bar of Divine chocolate and treat yourself – it’s easily the tastiest way to make the world a better place!

An excellent post that you should read today (no, not one of mine)

Came across this excellent blog post today: The Bystander effect and would urge you to read it. Having read it, I’m promising myself to break away from the crowd more often. Perhaps you will too.

Alternative Christmas gift idea no.1

We all have people who, when asked what they want for Christmas or a birthday, will say they ‘really don’t need anything’. It’s all too easy to buy a bottle of something alcofrolic, a box of chocolates, or a voucher for them – I have been guilty of this too.

Women learning to read. Credit: Ami Vitale

Well, as more people accept that the world has limited resources to use up, why not take your loved ones at their word and buy them an Oxfam Unwrapped (or similar charity gift) this year?

The first of the great presents I would like to draw your attention to links into another recent post on the subject of literacy: Reading classes for adults. For £30 you can give the gift of adult literacy. Your money pays and trains teachers, provides books, chalk, blackboards and other classroom equipment.

Don’t be tempted to buy your dad another M&S jumper (don’t get me started on the thousands of gallons of water a jumper uses to produce or clean in its lifetime…), if he really doesn’t have a Christmas list, then buy him something that does more harm than good this year.

Floods, mud and some real heroism in Manila

It’s easy to become inured to tragedy half way around the world. A hundred of so dead people in a country you’re not sure you could find on an unlabelled map is just one of those things, perhaps?

It’s true that there is nothing you or I can do for the 140 people killed in the devastating Manila floods – including Muelmar Luz Magallanes, the brave 18-year-old who plunged into the flood waters to rescue his three younger siblings, went back for his parents, and then his neighbours. Finally he rescued a six-month-old baby and her mother caught in the churning waters. His heroic efforts exhausted him and he was swept away to his death.

We can be inspired by his bravery and self-sacrifice though. We can click on a link to Oxfam and donate a small (or large) amount of money to help the thousands of people forced from their homes by the floods. You can help to prevent a public health disaster.

Still not sure? Imagine your home covered in mud from deadly landslides, cut off from water, food and power. Wouldn’t you want someone to help you?

Hey Ed Balls – please make Brain Gym part of those £2bn cuts

Now, I know that cuts are going to have to be made, and to services that none of us want cut, including health and education, so I can only hope that nonsense projects like Brain Gym will finally bite the dust.

I am going to be seriously pissed off if they cut books or teaching salaries and bloody Brain Gym survives.

I have written to Ed Balls urging him to include Brain Gym in his planned cuts. Please do the same and maybe we can kill off this tosh once and for all. (If you don’t know what I’m on about, just pop over to Bad Science and read for yourself about kids holding water on the roofs of their mouths to hydrate their brains and other mind-boggling crap.)

Putting things in perspective

A mother comforts her sick child. Credit: JIM VARNEY / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

So, I’m at home, feeling a little weepy. My wonderful little girl has been dropped at school for the first time. She’s happy as a pig in poo, playing with dinosaurs as I kiss her goodbye and head for home with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye.

I turn to the last page of the latest The Week to distract myself with its fine cryptic crossword and spy a short piece of text which puts everything into perspective.

The text is for The Week’s charity of the week: Starlight. If you haven’t already heard of it, Starlight grants wishes to seriously and terminally ill children who are afraid and in pain. It brings smiles and laughter to more than 500,00 sick children in the UK. “Right now there are 342 children waiting for their wish: please help by making a donation today.”

Perhaps you’ll follow in my virtual footsteps and donate too.

Passionate about reading

When I signed up to blog on International Literacy Day I thought this would be one of the easiest posts I could write. Afterall, reading is easily my favourite optional activity (I’m not including any of the delightful stuff I get up to with my daughter because that’s not optional. Not even sharing an ice-cream in the park.) Oh, the irony then, that for a long time I didn’t really know where to start.

The key is, of course, that this International Literacy Day isn’t about my devotion to Christopher Brookmyre, Terry Pratchett or Ian Rankin. It’s about bringing literacy to the one in five adults in the world who can’t read. It’s, sadly, no surprise to learn that two-thirds of them are women.

It’s because literacy isn’t just about enjoying fabulous fiction that those in power around the world collude to prevent those whom they wish to suppress becoming literate. This basic human right empowers people (just look at what happened when Johannes Gutenberg created his fabulous printing press and gave people the chance to read the bible for themselves, instead of relying on their priest’s interpretation) and is essential in improving life for everyone.

If you also believe that literacy is for everyone, then please head over to the Literacy Trust and support them however you can.