Seeker

There's a fine line between doing something because you believe it to be a good thing to do and doing something because of the need to be seen to be doing something. It is easy to decide to do something because your friends are doing it and you do not to want to be left out. It is easy to be pressurised into a particular action because not to act in that way can make you seem weak, uncaring, naive or a traitor to the group. The propaganda used on both sides for recruitment into the military during the 1st World War relied heavily on the need of potential recruits to be seen to be doing their bit and avoid the stigma of being called cowardly or unpatriotic. I am wondering how the need to be seen to be doing something may influence decisions made today in 2 particular areas: Climate Change Syria 1. Climate Change There was an impressive turnout of world leaders at the opening of the Climate Change conference in Paris at the start of this week. Given the global import...

Today is the 75th anniversary of the Coventry blitz during the 2nd World War. The following day the Provost of Coventry Cathedral stood in its ruins and spoke 2 words, "Father forgive". These words are now engraved behind the Altar of Reconciliation in the ruins of the old cathedral. Kathryn Fleming, Canon Pastor points out in her blog post 'From Coventry to Paris' those 2 words, "Father forgive" is a sentence with no object so to pray that is to avoid pointing the finger at 'them' but instead to pray for us all: 'It's not "Father forgive THEM" - projecting the violence and hatred out to the other, and thereby justifying acts of reciprocal violence and vengeance...Rather "Father forgive" is a prayer for us all - for the many ways, great and small, in which we wound one another and mar God's image in us day by day. I can't imagine those words were universally popular in the city, as people emerged from air...

Like many people I feel torn about military action in an attempt to defeat IS. How will that work? where will it end? I'm not a full-blown pacifist though my natural inclination is towards pacifism and peace-making. I prefer words to fights. I do not accept the so-called Christian concept of a 'just war'. I do think that occasionally as a last resort war can be justified as a lesser evil when faced with a greater evil. Some brutal people and ideologies cannot be reasoned with and only understand violence. So I am reluctantly in support of the decision the UK government took yesterday with overwhelming Parliamentary support. The UK is now giving limited air-strike (bombing) support to the mission in which the US is already engaged in Iraq in an attempt to halt IS control of parts of that suffering land. Perhaps it will help, but peace-loving civilians will inevitably die in the process. Where will it end? Does violence ever actually end violence or just serve to bre...

I've been thinking about language that demeans  others - so this cartoon caught my eye. One of the things that bugs me is when people refer to adult women as 'girls'. It is usually men who do this and it can seem patronising and belittling. As I wrote this I remembered that I've just renewed my subscription to the '... Old Girls' Association' without batting an eyelid. Well, it is a school for girls and I was a girl when I was a pupil there - but should I start a campaign for a name change for the association? Any WOGA members reading this? We women can be equally guilty of using belittling terms for men. A recent public example was the UK MP Nadine Dorries who accused the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer as being "posh arrogant boys" .  It's all about the power games people play of course and women are just as capable of putting down men as men can put down women. Her comment was matronizing, snobbish and belittling. Wh...

Equality, particularly gender equality, is the theme of Christian Aid's 'Count Your Blessings' Lent calendar this week. Today's focus is parliamentary representation. The UK has made a little progress in this area in the last century. 100 years ago there were no women in either the House of Commons or the House of Lords. The first woman in the House of Commons took her seat in 1919, but it was not till 1958 there was a woman in the House of Lords.  We still have a long way to go in the UK. The percentage of women overall in the Westminster Houses of Parliament is less than 25% . This is lower than most of our Western European neighbours. The world-wide league table  as at 31 December 2011 produced by the Inter-Parliamentary Union has Rwanda in top place with  56.3% in the Lower House and 38.5% in the Upper House. A number of countries have no women in their lower or single house. Some of those with an upper house include some women in the upper house e.g...

' The Government needs to know how afraid people are' is the headline of today's leader written by Archbishop Rowan Williams in today's New Statesman. The Guardian and the Telegraph seem to have interpreted this as a savage attack on the present UK Coalition governent. They quote selectively from it as newspapers (and bloggers) do and I'm about to do the same. But if you read the full text of Rowan's original piece you'll discover it's far more measured and even-handed than other headlines might lead you to think. He seems to be writing about the way current political debate in this country is stuck in stale ideas. He criticises both the Government and the opposition and says, "...it seems worth encouraging the present government to clarify what it is aiming for in two or three key areas, in the hope of sparking a livelier debate about where we are going - and perhaps even todiscover what the left's big idea currently is." He note...

Only 3 of the 13th century Magna Carta's 63 clauses are still valid in English law. One of these 3 is the first, which guarantees the freedom of the English Church. The original charter was written in medieval Latin. An English translation of this clause (from the British Library) reads as follows: "FIRST, THAT WE HAVE GRANTED TO GOD, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired. That we wish this so to be observed, appears from the fact that of our own free will, before the outbreak of the present dispute between us and our barons, we granted and confirmed by charter the freedom of the Church's elections - a right reckoned to be of the greatest necessity and importance to it - and caused this to be confirmed by Pope Innocent III. This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be observed in good faith by our heirs i...

I'm finding it hard to decide how to vote in the UK Parliamentary Election on 6 May. That makes me one of the floating voters the 3 main political parties in England are each hoping to scoop up into their ship. I've followed their leaders' televised debates with interest, but I can't vote for Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat party (- order strictly alphabetical, not preferential). There are no candidatates standing for any of these parties in the constituency in which I live. This is because of the quaint tradition of facilitating the return of The Speaker of the House of Commons (who has to be impartial). If you don't know who this is or what this means, official information is here . There seem to be 11 candidates standing for the Buckingham Constituency, including some standing for minor parties and several standing as Independent candidates. I will not be voting for those standing for the BNP, Monster Raving Loony party, UKIP or Cut the Deficit P...