Sunday, June 22

Rollermaniac

Suddenly I'm hooked on rollerblading. I bought a pair last summer and poodled about a couple of times without much gusto. Now I'm living right on Hyde Park, doing a new job which lets me leave work at a reasonable hour and we're having a spurt of glorious summer evenings.

I did my first street skate on Friday night, and it was one of the most exilerating things I've ever experienced. About 500 people gathered on the roundabout at Hyde Park Corner and then went skating for 2 hours right around central London. There's a team of volunteer marshalls who plan the route and protect the front, back and sides of "the flock" (it was wonderful feeling long buried animalistic herding instincts coming to the fore). So it's very safe, pretty fast at times (though slows in narrow streets when everyone bunches up - it's amazing how few collisions there are) and so much fun - I immediately decided to become a regular on the two weekly skates (for details see Londonskate.com (8pm Wed, Serpentine) and Citiskate (7.30pm Fri, Hyde Park Corner). Citiskate also does a relaxed Sunday Stroll (2pm, east end of Serpentine road). Here's a good info and link site: Londonskaters, and a slick site focused on the social side of the skatescene: Serpentine Road.

If you've got some blades then lets go for a mosey sometime or come join me on the streek skates (typo there - but I'm sure there are nudist skates in France or somewhere!). If you haven't got blades then go get some quick! (Skate shops, I got my skates and pads for just £70. And, for fitness freaks out there: it's great non-impact exercise in the fresh air (well, london air) and cheaper and more sociable than chain gyms.

Sunday, June 15

Surray the Bolivian chief and the British Rubber Company

Amazing conversation around a BBQ in Notting Hill with a refugee from Bolivia. Surray organised indigenous rights marches in the early 90s and was tortured and imprisoned by the Bolivian government. He's over in London reseaching his tribe in the British Library where exist the only surviving copies of studies by 18th century Fransiscan missionaries. The Bolivian government claims that his people are just "peasants" and have no independent ethnic identity, but the Fransiscan writings are proof of their existance.

I asked Surray if his tribe (about 3000 are left) have any memory of their history. He told an amazing story which the tribe remembers through a dance. It recounts the contact they have had with different civilisations, starting before the Inca and more laterly Jesuit and Fransiscans, Spanish Conquistadors in search of Eldorado and finally the British Rubber Company in the 19th century.

The British enslaved many of Surray's people to work in the plantations, and the slavery shockingly continued until the 1950s. Although Britain had banned slavery in 1834, deep in the jungle no one cared, and certainly not the hispanic Bolivian government. Surray's grandfather told him about an event the tribe had kept very secret. It was October 12th 1912 and the plantation owners were celebrating the anniversary of European colonisation of Bolivia. By 4 o'clock in the afternoon they were all very drunk on imported Scotch whiskey, and a strong wind was blowing from the north. Surray's greatgrandfather - one of the slaves - and some friends fired burning arrows from the jungle onto the palm leaf roofs of the plantation huts. The wind whipped up the flames, and they were fed by the rubber stores. A 40ft wall of fire swept accross the outpost and engulf most of the Europeans. No one realised that the fire had been started by the slaves, and so they escaped retribution. Unfortunately the slavery continued for another generation.

Surray is working with Amnesty International and some other human rights groups to document his tribes story and lobby the Bolivian government to give his people autonomy. Today they live in the jungle almost exactly as they would have done a hundred years ago, but Surray fears they will be exploited further and assimilated into the Spanish speaking population unless they recieve legal recognition and protection.

Saturday, June 14

Hello Universe!!!

What was life like BB - before blogging? I've finally joined the ranks of online ranters. Well, I've been running a little blog since April for Jubilee Iraq, a campaign working to ensure the Iraqi people aren't forced to pay debts which were accumulated by Saddam and not spent to their benefit. That blog was just meant be an easy way of updating news, but quickly became an obsession, part of the rhythm of my life. So I've scrapped my ancient website (which was last updated so long ago that it had become very embarrasing, like photos of decade-old hairdos) and set up this blog instead.

Despite being online since 1995, having a website since 1996 and spending far too much time online, I only stubbled across blogging in September 2002. The British Council ran an excellent weblog - The Daily Summit - from the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Joburg - it was amazing getting upto the minute updates from on the ground of the developments and rumours - quite unlike any journalism I'd experienced before.

In the run up to the invasion of Iraq I stumbled across an intriguing webloger Salam Pax posting from Baghdad. His eloguent, humerous and honest commentary on life in Iraq in early 2003 was very powerful. I had hoped to go to Iraq to join the Iraq Peace Team and try and prevent war by reporting the stories of ordinary Iraqis back to Britain. The idea was to help Iraqis be hear in Britain to demonstate that the country was not just inhabited by one evil dictator but by 26 million complex beautiful human beings. Anyhow, for family reasons I didn't go, but my heart was in Iraq. Hence Salam's weblog was particularly important for me. As an aside, a journalist from the Guardian asked me whether Salam was genuine (some people were saying his blog was a fake as propoganda by the CIA or Ba'athists) and I explained that the details he revealed about daily life in Baghdad fitted with my knowledge from a visit in May 2001 and that is character and opinons were too complex, too human, to be propoganda. The Guardian decided he was genuine and published an article. Now, three months later, Salam has his own forthnightly column in the Guardian!

Here is a linksite I've been putting together today on the future of Iraq. Rather dumb of me sitting in my room chasing links and missing all the gorgeous sunshine today... so I'm going to stop now and go rollerblading in Hyde Park before the sun sets. Cheerio.

Sunday, June 1

aboutme

8 December 2006

Since my last post Jenny & I have got settled in London, living right in the center near Oxford Circus. She's now training as an accountant (focusing on non-profits) and I've been doing a variety of project. I helped www.peacemakers.tv consult with British Muslims about the films it is making. I've been doing some consultancy for my old firm New Philanthropy Capital, researching international charities working on street children and the environment. Also I'm doing some work on the Isreali-Arab conflict for the Middle East Policy Initiative Forum. I'm still staying connected to friends in Iraq and helping where I can, which is sadly increasingly limited to supporting people escaping to safety abroad.

18 July 2006

I'm a 28yr Brit just finishing off a year working with the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq on the constitutional process and national reconciliation. Since my last aboutme post I've fallen in love and got married (on 17 June 2006) to a wonderful American girl Jenny who I met in Palestine when I was there with CPT. We're going to be settling in London now for a couple of years to build a shared community and I'm in the process of looking for an interesting Middle East related job based here (any ideas?).

21 March 2005:

I'm a 26yr old Brit, currently living in Baghdad. I'm here with Christian Peacemaker Teams which works in solidarity with Iraqis, addressing some of the abuses of the Occupation and helping Iraqi organisations develop non-violence. I first came to Iraq in 2001, while campaiging against the economic sanctions, and came again in 2003 and 2004 working on Jubilee Iraq, a campaign to get Iraq's odious foreign debts and war reparations written off. My previous visits have only been for a few weeks, but now I'm here for a longer stay, maybe until the end of the year and beyond.

I studied Physics & Philosophy at Balliol College Oxford and then worked for a while in finance for Schroders Investment Management in London. More recently I have done research on organisations tackling HIV/AIDS in Africa and on other subjects for New Philanthropy Capital.

I'll write some more on a rainy day (not that they come very often here!)

Is it ever rational to believe a miracle has taken place?

add text later

Shania Twain & Nonviolent Direct Action

So here's a bit of silliness, taking a dig at the activist community as we can take ourselves too serious. This is spoof song I wrote in 2000 based on American country singer Shania Twain's song "That Don't Impress Me Much." If anyone out there is extremely bored and would like to make a recording of this spoof, then please go ahead - and send me an MP3 of it!

I've known some guys who were pretty keen on me, But you seems to prefer to go hugging trees. I can't send you mail because you live in a squat, And when we go to Mac-D's you tend to shout a lot.

Bridge: Oh-oo-oh, you think you're special. Oh-oo-oh, you think you're something else.

Okay, so you're an ecowarrior. That don't impress me much. So you've got green hair but have you got the touch? Don't get me wrong, yeah I think you're alright, But that won't keep me warm in the middle of the night. That don't impress me much.

I like the kind of guy who hold's his own in a fight, But you just hand out flowers and hold vigils at night. You invited me to a fair, and we ended up in jail, And to cap it all off you refused your bail.
(Bridge)

Okay, so you're a peace activist. That don't impress me much. So you do NVDA but have you got the touch? Don't get me wrong, yeah I think you're alright, But that won't keep me warm in the middle of the night. That don't impress me much.

Now I expect guys to attend to my views, But you're far to busy analysing slow news. I like my guys to quietly do what they're bidden, But you question what agendas I've got hidden.
(Bridge)

Okay, so you're John Pilger. That don't impress me much. So you've got a radical pen but have you got the touch? Don't get me wrong, yeah I think you're alright, But that won't keep me warm in the middle of the night. That don't impress me much.

Some guys I knew couldn't boil an egg, But rabbit food! - I'd rather go out and beg. I like the feel of fur and smell of leather shoes, But whenever I wear them it blows your fuse.
(Bridge)

Okay, so you're a vegetarian. That don't impress me much. So you're unlikely to bite but have you got the touch? Don't get me wrong, yeah I think you're alright, But that won't keep me warm in the middle of the night. That don't impress me much.

Okay, so what do you think you're ethical or something... Whatever. That don't impress me.