This is a cartoon by Chris Slane (@slanecartoons)
Mar152015
Dec132014
Day 13 of the Advent Photography Challenge is Justice.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; •
he has looked with favour on his lowly servant.From this day all generations will call me blessed; •
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his name.He has mercy on those who fear him, •
from generation to generation.He has shown strength with his arm •
and has scattered the proud in their conceit,Casting down the mighty from their thrones •
and lifting up the lowly.He has filled the hungry with good things •
and sent the rich away empty.He has come to the aid of his servant Israel, •
to remember his promise of mercy,The promise made to our ancestors, •
to Abraham and his children for ever.– Mary
I’m attempting to do the Advent photo a day challenge. I am three days behind because I fit a new hard drive, operating system and new and shiny Lightroom and Photoshop. Am now playing catchup with photos I’ve taken.
Check out the Facebook Group.
Aug122014
Invisible People
There is a fashion at the moment for videoing yourself doing unusual things and uploading it to youtube. They are everywhere but Upworthy share these types of video at an almost hourly rate. Often they highlight issues within our society that should cause us great shame like the plight of the poor or homeless.
Here we have a video that I keep seeing again and again appear on Facebook and twitter. A homeless man is begging on the street and some students come and play music with his bucket.
[EDIT – it got taken down]
I can’t help feeling uneasy about the whole scenario. This homeless man is someone we never hear from or about in the whole clip. He is still homeless and still has no voice at the end of the video. He becomes part of a freak show that no doubt generates lots of traffic to someone’s YouTube account. I’m haunted by the bewildered look on his face as they leave arm in arm having changed… their YouTube hit count.
As we wander through life we are increasingly oblivious to “the other”. We wear our headphones and stare at our smart phones as we hustle and bustle from one place to another. There are marginalised people who are invisible in our society. We speak about them but we rarely hear from them. The homeless woman sitting on a sleeping bag at the corner of the road by the market is someone we either walk past or throw some loose change at. As a society we are paternalistic in the way we engage with “the other”. We talk about those “invisible people”, the poor or the homeless and we are in danger of dehumanising people we see as “problems to fix” as we turn people into objects.
Apr212014
The Mail on Sunday, Foodbanks and Self Esteem
Thank the Lord it is self esteem Friday, perhaps now I can finally pay these bills. Hi, is that British Gas? I’m skint but I feel fantastic. I’m wondering, are you prepared to accept self esteem?
I’ve been a bit busy of late. When we finished the final shout of “he is risen indeed” I discovered that the Mail on Sunday chose the day of resurrection to… not to put too fine a point on it… Lie despicably to steal food from the poor. Here’s the strap line:
HOW MOS REPORTER GOT 3 DAYS OF GROCERIES… NO QUESTIONS ASKED
The reporter then details how lots of questions were asked but he… how do I put this… lied through his teeth.
As a trustee of a food bank I was interested in the developments. There have been some good things to come out of this. There has been a huge surge in donations to Foodbanks. Thank you humanity for restoring my faith in you. More importantly, there has been a backlash against the Mail on Sunday as they have exposed themselves for what they really are.
Here is an open letter to the MOS from a parent of a two year old.
I’ve got a little boy. His name is Isaac, and he’s nearly three. Like any little boy, he loves cars, balls, and running around. He’s barely ever still.
A few days ago though, he was. I took him to the supermarket to spend his pocket money, and we passed the donation basket for our local food bank. It was about half full – nothing spectacular, in fact, mostly prunes and pasta – and he asked what it was. As simply as possible, I tried to explain that it was for people to give food for other people who couldn’t afford it.
This affected his two year old brain fairly deeply. After a lot of thought, he decided to spend a little bit of his pocket money on some treats to donate, because “children haffa have treats when they mummy and daddy is sad!” Nothing exciting. A chocolate swiss roll (about 29p), some angel delight (about 40p). Just a treat for a child, from a child who cares.
Daily Mail, I’ve got to ask. Why does my two year old get it better than you do?
Please go and read the whole letter. Kevin Bridges gets it: “Imagine working in a shop where everything is worth a pound except you” . A two year old gets it. The Mail on Sunday don’t get it.
Next week you will probably find an expose about me gracing their pages because I’ve written this blog. It’s probably all true. Or not.