Just one small thing

Support Darfur...but don't forget Iraq

I never wanted this blog to be a platform for explicit political ranting. And the plan was always to focus on positive action. But an article I've just finished reading gave me real pause for thought.

The consequences of the complex, in many ways state-sponsored civil war in Darfur are terrible. And people from across the political spectrum, the EU and the UN, together with the media and celebrities various have quite rightly united in condemnation.

Which begs the question of why there hasn't been such a united compassionate response to what is happening in Iraq.

Because the bald facts are that the situation in Iraq is even worse than in Darfur. And here we have to park our views on the rights and wrongs of the invasion, the existence (or otherwise) of WMDs, the needs of the 'war on terror' and the fact that 'our boys' are out there, and look instead to escalating human misery felt by real, ordinary people.

The highest level figure for deaths in Darfur is 400,000. As of 2006, around 650,000 Iraqis have died since the US/UK invasion. More than 4 million have lost their homes, around half of whom have been internally displaced. The other 2 million are languishing in squalid refugee camps in neighbouring countries. Basic services such as electricity and clean drinking water are in short supply, and infant mortality has shot up. One third of Iraqis need emergency humanitarian aid, according to Oxfam, 70% are without adequate water supplies (up from 50% in 2003) and 28% of children are malnourished (up from a pre-invasion figure of 19%).

All in the name of democracy, of preventing civil war and of protecting civilian lives. Surely there must be a better way to make a difference.

Making do

Scrapheap Challenge is a top fave in our house - great dads and lads TV. And presenter Robert Llewellyn is now half way thru a year long experiment to take the Scrapheap ethos into his own life.

For 12 months his plan is to not buy anything new, and instead make do, mend stuff, that kind of thing.

Episode one is here...

And he's now up to episode 16, with short 'specials' interspersed in between. You can find them all on his Youtube channel.

All very inspiring (and challenging) stuff, and I shall be sitting down to watch them all. And maybe buy less.

(Thanks to Ian for the heads up)

They're Human_2

Rob is angry (as usual). And what he's angry about is homelessness.

You can read all the details here. But as he says...

"For a great number of years, the situation with the homeless has really upset me. I find it absolutely tragic that in this day and age so many people find their only option is living on the street … but what makes it worse is that so many in society seem happy to simply walk past these individuals as if they are invisible to the naked eye. A couple of weekends ago - as I was driving home to my Mum - I encountered a homeless guy, Brian, whose situation was so sad that I decided I had to stop being upset by the situation and try to do something about it."

So how does one person make a big difference, even if only for some people? By registering the name of a charity/pressure group (Human_2), and then asking the blogosphere for the Big Idea to campaign behind.

176 comments and counting, both ideas and interesting discussions about the homeless issue. So check it out and make your contribution.

The water is rising

This is a really simple dramatisation of a very complex issue...

The High Water Line is an art project with a purpose. As the website says...

"High Water Line is a public artwork on the New York city waterfront designed to create an immediate visual and local understanding of the affects of climate change. I will be marking the 10-feet above sea level line by drawing a blue chalk line and installing illuminated beacons in parks. This line marks the extent of increased flooding brought on by stronger and more frequent storms as a result of climate change. During the summer of 2007, I will be walking, chalking and marking almost 70 miles of coastline. As I am out in the public creating the work, I will have a chance to engage in conversations about climate change and its potential impacts. Through awareness and action, we can change the future."

Thanks to Diablogue for pointing it out.

See the light

Thanks to Dead Fish for this (and to author Neil for all the other suggestions he's made for this site as well - keep em coming people!).

It's one of those stories that just reaffirms your belief in human nature and the 'youth of the day'.

Inspired by An Inconvenient Truth, New York school boy Avery Hairston couldn't understand why people weren't doing easy things like switching to lo-energy CFL light-bulbs, given the cost savings and environmental benefits.

But rather than just wring his hands and complain about other people's inaction, he set out to do something about it. And change the world one bulb at a time if necessary.

The result was RelightNY, set up by Avery and a number of his friends. It's a charity that provides CFL bulbs to people in low-income housing, resulting in a triple whammy benefit - they get lower energy bills thanks to the CFL bulbs, there's a positive impact on carbon emissions, and everyone else wants to get stuck in as well, and do their bit.

Have a watch here, to find out more...

All from one small bulb and a few teens willing to get stuck in.

Who says we can't change the world!

Pay your way

Came across this a while ago when I was first thinking about this site. And I've just rediscovered it...

More than £700 raised apparently.

Technique is important

My son is a swimmer. And a pretty good one, competing up to the level of county and regional championships.

But in swimming (like most sport done to a high standard), technique is everything. And one area where Josh's technique had always suffered was his diving.

Basically, there are two types of racing dives. Track start (think an athletics sprinter - 1 leg behind the other, with your hands gripping the front of the blocks)...

...and grab start (legs, and hands, together on the front of the blocks).

Of these, the track start seems to be the one preferred by many at the younger end of our club.

Why? A quick straw pole suggests two reasons. Firstly, because a track start can feel more stable - important in a sport where the merest twitch on the blocks can get you disqualified. And secondly, if the kids are to be believed, because a track start looks 'cooler'.

But cool as 'looking cool' may be, it doesn't win you races. The problem is that a lot of the power in a track start comes from the shoulders - using your arms to catapult yourself out from the blocks. Which is great for muscular 16 year olds. Less good when you're 10 - you get no real distance in your dives and, at best (to borrow from Woody in Toy Story), it looks like falling with style.

In a comparison, all the power in a grab start is in the legs - you just spring out. If they can have the confidence to counter instability (and looking less cool) even a 10 year old can launch themselves a long way out on this basis. And when races and PBs depend on 100s of seconds, that long leap can be vital.

It took us a fair while to persuade Josh of this. But when we did, there were some big improvements in his times straight away. All from something as simple as putting his legs in a slightly different position.

So I guess the question is, whatever it is you do, what 'technique' could you change a little to see a big improvement in performance?

P.s. I'm just a swimming dad, not a swimmer - this is all based on lay man observation. For more 'professional' views on the importance of getting your swimming technique right, and the life lessons to learn from this, check out some of Andrew's posts. All worth a read.

Although I recognise this is also a rather unashamed attempt to get some track-back action going on ;-)

Small acts of random heroism

I was rather taken with a piece Cam wrote after the recent bridge collapse in Minnesota, and the small acts of random heroism some were inspired to do. And which should be an inspiration to us.

As he says...

"What is that motivation? Where does it come from? And how can we become so brave and caring? If we can figure that out, maybe we won't be tempted to rely on corrupt sports figures or politicians to be our role models. Instead, we can look to true heroes who toil in obscurity every single day, doing the little things that usually go unnoticed, but whose character and service to others shines brightly when tragedy strikes. This heroism does not happen by accident. Although each moment in our lives is an opportunity to make the right choice, even if our past is littered with bad ones, heroism in this form is the usually result of a cultivated dedication to serving others...If we wait until a tragedy occurs before we decide to take notice of the things people do to make the lives of others better, we'll not nurture the seeds that give rise to the growth of such qualities. How can you cultivate the character that engenders heroism?"

Reminded me of similar things happening over here during July's flooding. One story that particularly struck me (in part, I must admit, for its faint comedic value) was the guy who tried to drive his 4x4, nearly fully submerged, under a flooded railway bridge, only to hit a previously abandoned car. Lots of people watched on; one dived in to help. I would copy the pictures over, but fear that NI are the kind of company that ends up suing bloggers!

Now I'm not necessarily sure how well this all sits with the idea of this blog. Arguably such heroism is a very big thing for the people doing it. At the same time though, and in the grand scene of 'disasters', with all the really big stuff that goes on, we ARE just talking ordinary people like you and I, doing singular, relatively small things which may not change the world, but do change the world of the person on the receiving end.

And I'm with Cam, how do we cultivate character that engenders such heroism. Or even helpfulness - that would be a start!

Buy one give one to someone else

TOMS Shoes has a very simple but very concrete proposition: for every pair sold, one will be donated to a child in need.

Probably enough of a (fashion) statement to make enough people buy that it will actually make a difference.

Have a read of what Time has to say about them. Or watch a shoe drop in Argentina...

(Via Seth)

Day of rest redefined

(Nyx)

Like most Brits, I have enjoyed the benefits of being able to shop on Sundays. But it is a benefit I have always been slightly ambivalent about. And not just because I'm a Christian, with a bit of a soft spot for that particular day of the week. It's far more because I think everyone really does need a day off. And there's something good in terms of social (or at least family) cohesion that we all do this at the same time.

Anyway, there was a short piece in the Guardian recently ("Bring Back Sundays") pondering the need to recapture some of this old sense of having a 'day of rest', but with a thoroughly modern and very relevant twist to why this would be a good thing: the positive impact it would have on the environment.

As it finishes...

"I envisage a volunterist movement, with the theme of a carbon-free and local Sunday. Every Sunday would be a day of action against global warming, a Mind-The-Sun Day…(shops might display) signs reading We Are Closed On Sundays For Carbon Saving…(And the) aim would be…the promotion of a space for rest and reflection, the transformation of one day into an antidote to the other six that are killing us".

As much as this might shock our modern, consumerist sensibilities, a day off from the mad world we live in sounds like a pretty good and rather appealing idea to me.

Even if no one else joins in, it might be something worth trying. And you could find yourself surprised how nice some true rest really is.