Ask the Obvious Question?

A little reminder of why I do this. The premise is simple. You donate to a childrens charity and comment on this blog about the donation and what you wanted to be when you were 8. Want to know more? Please read the About Lesley page….

I had, as is my wont, a wander through the news pages today. I found this – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15904408, NASA has launched the most ‘capable’ machine ever built to land on Mars. Read the full text, it is a great story and evidence again of man’s committment to exploration and science.

I am in awe of the brains that drive these scientific initiatives. Knowing our brains are mere neurons sparking small electrochemical signals I am astounded that we have such variety in the Arts and Sciences. I envy all great brains that bring beauty and new discoveries day after day. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the talent to move or astound? I always wanted to possess artistic talent but alas have none. I literally struggle to draw a straight line using a ruler. I am told I have some talent with words but I just witter away on here and hope to make people think. This is not false modesty, I have read too many great words from others, I know my place:)

Back to the NASA Rover, aptly named Curiosity. Launched today, they hope it lands safely next August. If it does, it will roam Mars sending images and collecting samples from the planet’s surface. Hopefully it will allow the scientists who monitor the output to determine if the Red Planet can or could have supported life in any form. Mind-boggling eh? It is stirring stuff.

However, (you must have known it was coming), this one mission is costing $2.5 billion. Two and a half billion dollars. Whoa Nelly. That is a lot of cash. All that money and brainpower. I wonder. If that funding and those brains were put into ending poverty and cruelty to children how much difference could it make? They say that it would take $30 billion a year to start the agricultural programs to end world hunger. The costs for the Curiosity module wouldn’t cover a month but does that mean we shouldn’t consider it?

I add another link for you. This is a link to an article on the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation’s website. The article is a few years old but the figures still have the power to shock me as I know the sitation hasn’t changed that much. Please read – http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000853/index.html

Once you have read this then answer me one question. Which do you prefer?

This?

Courtesy of BBC website

Or this?

Perhaps we can have both; I would like to think so…..

I close, as always, with this:-

• Donate to a valid children’s charity of your choice.

• Visit this blog and comment about your donation. Please also tell me what you wanted to be when you were 8. I still want to collect those tales and hope that some child will read about your words and deeds and want to do the same when they are old enough.

I will:-

• Add your donation to the Totals page on this blog, totals are updated weekly.

• I will also write some words about the current donations and the charity

• Store all comments so that everyone can read them.

Thank you for reading.

Lesley

The Power of a Three Letter Word.

I remember when my children were small. As they started to understand there might be interesting things beyond the end of their noses the inquisition started. The questions were incessant, off-the-wall and sometimes plain embarrassing. I remember walking home one day with my son, he was three and a great talker (wonder where he got that from). We were happily dawdling and chatting about nursery school when he noticed a lady I knew. She had been ill and had problems with fluid in her legs. To aid her recovery she walked every day but this was slow and painful for her. My son watched her from behind, he asked in that loud and crystal clear voice of his, ‘Mummy, why are that lady’s legs so fat’. To say I hoped for the ground to open up and swallow me was an understatement. I quickly muttered that we had to go back to the shop to get bread so could let my face cool down. He and I chatted ‘later’ on that one.

He was also quite obsessed by death at the age of three. I have no idea how this came about but every night he would look at me with a little solemn face and say ‘Mummy, will you die while I am sleeping?’. I hated that question. Also, I didn’t want to lie to him just on the off-chance so I promised him I would do my very best to stay alive until he woke up. We would then read about Thomas the Tank and sing Postman Pat, Ride a Cock Horse and old King Cole so he would be smiling when he went to sleep.

Not all of the questions were so scary but they did illustrate the working of an exploring mind. My personal favourite will always be my son and my mother. They used to sneak off and lie on her bed reading Ogden Nash, his poetry made them both giggle. One day, they read a poem about God. This prompted ‘Nana, does God wear clothes? And, if he does wear clothes, does he have a washing machine?’. He has always had a practical bent.

However, there is one question that ends up making any parent want to tear their hair out. It is one word and the word is WHY? Let’s go to the shops. WHY? We will go for a walk. WHY? You are too little to play in the street. WHY? Because the cars are dangerous. WHY? Because cars are hard and can be fast and you may forget to watch for them. WHY? This can go on and on and on. My kids did learn that when I just said ‘Because’ the conversation was over….

It does make me wonder though. Do we not use that word enough? Should we not ask WHY more? What would you ask WHY about? I will give you some of mine….

• WHY don’t we think more about the distribution of water. We are told about think-tanks and quangos and brilliant minds coming together; can’t they think of something that will benefit millions?
• WHY do we go in to assist those countries that have conflict and oil but not those with conflict but no natural resources? Is this me being simple? I don’t think so.
• WHY do those who claim to believe in peaceful deities preach hate and intolerance?
• WHY can’t we solve starvation?
• WHY is there war?
• WHY don’t more people talk?
• WHY do I have to write this list?

I don’t have the answers, we all know I don’t have the answers. I am happy for you to add your questions to this post; I am interested to see what your burning question is. We may not have the answers but at least we are asking the questions. I just hope that one of us or all of us together will figure this all out.

I close with this:-

• Donate to a valid children’s charity of your choice.

• Visit this blog and comment about your donation. Please also tell me what you wanted to be when you were 8. I still want to collect those tales and hope that some child will read about your words and deeds and want to do the same when they are old enough.

I will:-

• Add your donation to the Totals page on this blog, totals are updated weekly.

• I will also write some words about the current donations and the charity

• Store all comments so that everyone can read them.

Thank you for reading.

Lesley

Relaxation….

I will be heading off today for a week in the sun. I have packed many books but no laptop or iPad, I will be techno-free. There is no doubt that I will miss my virtual life, I am very fond of it. I admit my techo-addiction, I am currently logged into Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. I am not sure what this makes me, I wonder what those who only inhabit the real world think of people like me. There are many of us out there, we live a mix of real and virtual and love both. I also find my online world informative and laugh-out-loud funny. People also aren’t afraid to challenge each other on beliefs, politics and the best sauce for a bacon butty (brown since you ask).

One other thing that my social media roundabout does is make me think. When we read and watch the news it tends towards the dark and dire but I do get balance from the kindness I see generated on social media. Yes, there are arguments but if you have a bad day someone will always try to cheer you up and send you ((hugs)). There are many good people out there who send out support for charities, raise money and think of new and inventive ways to raise awareness for their favourite causes. This I will miss, I think those who believe social media is only a tool for cruelty and arranging riots would do well to browse a little and see for themselves.

So, I am looking forward to a rest with no work, driving, cooking or cleaning. I will miss my virtual life but I think it can stand a week without my company. I will read and watch news when I am away, one thing I will not give up at any time. I want to see what is happening in the Horn of Africa and the progress towards peace in Tripoli. I am aware of the irony that I seek the sun while those in Africa pray for rain.

I close, as always, with this:-

• Donate to a valid children’s charity of your choice.

• Visit this blog and comment about your donation. Please also tell me what you wanted to be when you were 8. I still want to collect those tales and hope that some child will read about your words and deeds and want to do the same when they are old enough.

I will:-

• Add your donation to the Totals page on this blog, totals are updated weekly.

• I will also write some words about the current donations and the charity

• Store all comments so that everyone can read them.

Thank you for reading.

Lesley

What is News Exactly? Happy Resting Mr Jobs?

I am, as I like to every morning, watching the news. I watch the news as I have my coffee to have some awareness of what is happening in the world. I confess that I don’t read a newspaper every day. I sometimes feel a bit guilty about that as I know this means I only ‘skim’ over the news stories.

I am on a few days off so today I am having coffee, watching the news, tweeting (naturally!) and checking out a couple of news websites. I default to the BBC but will also look at few others.

So, the BBC, what is your website offering me today? Top stories of the day on the Home page:-

• Rebels appeal for Gaddafi capture
• Steve Jobs quits as Apple chief
• GCSE students poised for results. (Good luck everyone).
• Police could have stopped riots (will read that one later)
• UN warns on 12 million stateless people
• US-bound Hurricane Irene swells
• Man in custody over Jersey stab deaths
• Riot summit for social networks (will read this one too!)
• Google pays $500m in drug ad row
• Savings ‘needed’ in Scotland

I then move to the Africa page on the BBC website and find:-

• Rebels appeal for Gaddafi capture
• UN warning over 12 million stateless people
• Africa heads to pledge famine aid
• ICC accused Kenya Minister sacked
• Zimbabwe VP calls for death probe

Now I roam to the Guardian and the Independent. I do not subscribe to any news feeds so will not be covering the Times.

The Guardian has Gaddafi and Steve Jobs as their headliners. Then follows ‘Twitter Study creates Riot Plan Doubt’ and one I will definitely read later – ‘UK in Tax Evasion Deal with Swiss’. One interesting headline on the Home Page is Germany Mourns King of Comedy with the sub-heading ‘Death of Loriot, man who taught Germans to laugh, knocks the battle for Tripoli off the front pages’. An interesting headline that I think will get many readers…

Lastly, I pick the Independent. I pick this on purpose as the Independent is well-known for taking a slightly different tack on the stories of the day. They lead with Tripoli, the headline ‘Terror as Loyalists Fight to the Death’. Then follows Steve Jobs and his resignation. The next two headlines are ones I will read later – ‘Revealed : Climate Quirk that Doubles Risk of War’ and ‘Disaster Looms over addiction to Painkillers’. To pique your interest in the climate quirk story I give you the first paragraph:-

“Wars and civil conflicts are twice as likely to occur during years affected by the El Niño climate-warming phenomenon, a study suggests. The naturally recurring weather system, which boosts temperatures and cuts rainfall over a broad swath of the globe every three to seven years, doubles the risk of civil wars across many countries in the tropics, shows a remarkable statistical analysis by American scientists.”

I can’t decide whether this is a story that links the ‘mysterious’ powers of weather to people and how they behave or you can get a good story from statistics? I will read it later and see but I suspect a little bit of the latter?

I find it interesting that Steve Jobs resignation has made world headlines. Yes, I do know who he is and what he has done for Apple. Apple are one of the few companies who went from success to almost belly up to instant global recognition. You may disagree with my last statement but in business lore and beyond Jobs is famous for bucking trends, be it management style (micro since you ask) or taking a company on the ropes and making it a contender. I applaud him for his successes and wish him well as he struggles with his health.

But now to the point of this blog. Did you notice anything? Was there something conspicuous by its absence? My gast is flabbered. Why was there only one story on the famine in all of those headlines above? Why is it not front page every day? Why, why, why?

Any regular readers know why I do this blog, I want you, yes you, to donate to a children’s charity and then write to me about it. I try not to dictate to anyone which charity they should choose, that is not my place. I understand how some people feel about charities; there are some out there where the revenue percentage that goes to their stated cause is both abysmal and, to my mind, criminal. However, there are well-established charities out there who are open with their accounting methods and spending patterns, surely you can consider them?

In the Horn of Africa right now there are tens of thousands of people at risk of starvation and death. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have lived in the refugee camps for many years as they literally have nowhere else to go. With the arrival of hundreds more every day the fragile infrastructure creaks a little more; how much more can it take I wonder? Many new people arrive simply to die, they have used their last vestiges of strength to get there and have nothing left, even when given help, to recover. This is horrific.

Please consider helping an organisation that will help those suffering in the drought and famine in Africa, please……

I close, as always, with this:-

• Donate to a valid children’s charity of your choice.

• Visit this blog and comment about your donation. Please also tell me what you wanted to be when you were 8. I still want to collect those tales and hope that some child will read about your words and deeds and want to do the same when they are old enough.

I will:-

• Add your donation to the Totals page on this blog, totals are updated weekly.

• I will also write some words about the current donations and the charity

• Store all comments so that everyone can read them.

Thank you for reading.

Lesley

Riots, eh?

Oh my, watching the news is so rarely a source of pleasure these days. This week it is even more painful. I have been watching the riots in London and Birmingham and am puzzled, there is no other word for it. Rioting doesn’t really get you very far you know. You already know this, I am stating the obvious again aren’t I? However, sometimes the obvious needs to be stated again and again. Rioting will not get you very far.

I have seen rioting in my lifetime. I grew up in the early 60s in Northern Ireland, the early civil rights marches were hijacked by some and what was powerful, quiet protest became riots. I remember when I was quite small riots at the end of the street where I lived. Police and B-Specials everywhere. To me it was noise and burning and shouting, my parents made sure all of us stayed indoors and were safe. It still took another 30 years before the signing of the Belfast agreement and we still get sporadic rioting every summer. It mostly dissipates after a couple of days but is still as unpleasant when it ‘kicks off’.

What does devastate me about all of this is the waste. I know material goods are in the main unimportant but peoples’ homes are important, they are their safe place and people should not feel threatened there. On top of this local business are being looted and destroyed. What help is that to your community, to destroy the liveliehoods of those you live next to? This isn’t protest, it is lunacy. Some are out to destroy all, some to take all. No theme, no grand ideal here, just wrecking and fear. I do not and can not understand this.

A couple of other things to remember. While this tops the news other stories of drought, starvation and suffering fall down the headlines. There are people out there who cannot fix their situation while those causing issues take the headlines? I am puzzled again.

I will give you one quote from Ghandi – ‘I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could’. Isn’t it a pity that others are not thinking this way?

I wish peace and calm to those who need it tonight. Stay safe all.

I close, as always, with this:-

• Donate to a valid children’s charity of your choice.

• Visit this blog and comment about your donation. Please also tell me what you wanted to be when you were 8. I still want to collect those tales and hope that some child will read about your words and deeds and want to do the same when they are old enough.

I will:-

• Add your donation to the Totals page on this blog, totals are updated weekly.

• I will also write some words about the current donations and the charity

• Store all comments so that everyone can read them.

Thank you for reading.

Lesley

Imagine.

Today was and still is Monday. After a couple of domestic disasters last week, exploding shower causing flooding in the kitchen, I felt that the weekend had been far too short. I woke this morning and wanted to just turn over and dream for a little longer. Needless to say I got up and went to work.

It was that kind of day though. You know the kind I mean? I did all the things I needed to and prepared for a busy today tomorrow. I then came home and was, quite simply, grumpy and tired. It took me ages to gee myself up to do a few bits and bobs round the house.

Then I did what I do every day at the moment. I went to the BBC news site for Africa.If you ever want to stop a pity-party then that is the cure. They say if you want to understand someone else’s life then walk a mile in their shoes, I will briefly try.

My alarm wakens me in the morning. My family are all sleeping peacefully at this time, just after 6am. I like to lie there for a minute or two and listen to the birds singing in the trees behind my house. I then quietly slip out of bed. I have about 40 minutes of precious time on my own to shower and get ready. It really is one of my favourite parts of the day once I have recovered from the shock of waking. I love the quiet, no talking, just me and my thoughts.

So, if I was a mother in Dadaab, what would my morning be like? The heat would start to rise as dawn breaks and the noise starts to build. The smell I imagine would be harsh, a camp built for less than 100,000 people with over 300,000 in place would struggle with sanitation; it would have to be extended and extended to cope with the numbers. Thoughts of disease such as cholera and diarrhoea would then strike you, how to protect your children from this? I imagine that would be a constant thread of fear in my head.

But the worst part I can imagine? The sounds of children. Hungry and distressed babies have a very unique cry, it sounds hoarse and from the back of the throat. I know the sound from when my children were ill for, thankfully, short periods. It is the most heart-rending sound I know, guttural and primal. You know the sound I mean.

Next time I want to have myself a pity-party I will remind myself of this post.

I close with this:-

• Donate to a valid children’s charity of your choice.

• Visit this blog and comment about your donation. Please also tell me what you wanted to be when you were 8. I still want to collect those tales and hope that some child will read about your words and deeds and want to do the same when they are old enough.

I will:-

• Add your donation to the Totals page on this blog, totals are updated weekly.

• I will also write some words about the current donations and the charity

• Store all comments so that everyone can read them.

Thank you for reading.

Lesley

How Much More News Can We Take?

There is an old superstition that things happen in threes. I am not by nature superstitious but this week has given us three tragedies, one individual, one caused by one individual, the third caused by a freak accident of nature.

The death of Amy Winehouse was a tragedy. Lots of words have been used, troubled, vunerable, tragic, addicted. So many people have said they hope that she will now have peace. Much has also been made of the ‘curse of the talented 27 year-olds’ with comparisons to Janis Joplin et al. I just find it sad. It proves that money and talent do not guarantee happiness or that gilded lifestyle that so many young people assume is at the end of the ‘fame’ rainbow. My thoughts go out to Amy’s family.

I have struggled to think, never mind write, about the events in Norway. I have no desire to process the thoughts of Anders Breivik who has been arrested. It is tough to comprehend making and planting a bomb in a capital city but the attack on Utoeya island leaves me shaken. All those young people, there to meet and discuss, taken by surprise by someone dressed as a figure they would trust? It reinforces my belief that fundamentalism that denies the beliefs of others is wrong. One of the things that makes this world such a strange and interesting place is the variety of religions and belief-systems that abound. People should be free to think and act as long as they do not injure others, it is that simple. For that reason, I will waste no more of my words on Mr Breivik.

The train crash in China is yet another illustration of nature and how it can devastate infrastructure and therefore people. One lightning strike was all it took to cripple one high-speed train and set off a disaster with so many dead and injured.The reports are limited but harrowing, the image of the carriages hanging from the bridge near Shuangyu town shows the aftermath only too clearly. So many families again affected by nature, my thoughts are with them and those who were injured.

So many lives in one week, it will be so hard for those left behind to mourn.

I will close this post shortly but I cannot stop until I mention one other item of news from earlier in the week. With the headlines that have taken over I see the official announcement of famine in southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle in Somalia has slipped down the headlines. No life, or death, is more important than any other. I urge you therefore, think about the 10 million under the threat of hunger, disease and death.

I close with this:-

• Donate to a valid children’s charity of your choice.

• Visit this blog and comment about your donation. Please also tell me what you wanted to be when you were 8. I still want to collect those tales and hope that some child will read about your words and deeds and want to do the same when they are old enough.

I will:-

• Add your donation to the Totals page on this blog, totals are updated weekly.

• I will also write some words about the current donations and the charity

• Store all comments so that everyone can read them.

Thank you for reading.

Lesley

News Confusion.

The news today has been shocking for me. Two stories in particular stand out.

The first story is the ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa. Crops are failing, livestock dying and, for those living  this nightmare hope is heartbreakingly absent. I did blog on Somalia last week but the problem is more widespread with Ethiopia in crisis too. We all remember the stories that prompted Live Aid. It is hard to believe that this was 1985 and we are heading back into the same kind of crisis 26 years later.

Watching the news this morning one section of the report brought it home, causing me to stop in my tracks. One mother realised her six children were in severe danger and knew her only chance was to walk her family many miles to reach a refugee camp. However, as they walked her children became weaker and could not go on. This amazing woman who was herself starving did one of the bravest things I have ever heard. She left four children to wait and carried two at a time to make progress. She then returned back to carry two more, repeating this again and again until she made it to the refugee camp with all of her children. I cannot think of any better example of the power and sheer will spurred by love.

The other news story is one that broke this evening. It is alleged that an investigator who did a lot of work for a Sunday tabloid hacked into the mobile phone of Milly Dowler after her disappearance. If this is true then I am lost for words. Legalities aside, this is a truly abhorrent act. We do not know all the facts as yet but one thing is very clear to me. The family of this poor young girl may have been given false hope as a result of messages being deleted to create space for more voicemails. Imagine the torment, fearing for the worst and seizing on anything that brings the slightest light to the darkest of times. This to me is the worst thing of all.

I can say no more today but this. Tomorrow I will donate to Save the Children. I don’t talk much about my own donations as I don’t think that is what should prompt anyone else to donate. However, this is one time that I think we all need to help.

I close with this:-

• Donate to a valid children’s charity of your choice.

• Visit this blog and comment about your donation. Please also tell me what you wanted to be when you were 8. I still want to collect those tales and hope that some child will read about your words and deeds and want to do the same when they are old enough.

I will:-

• Add your donation to the Totals page on this blog, totals are updated weekly.

• I will also write some words about the current donations and the charity

• Store all comments so that everyone can read them.

Thank you for reading.

Lesley