Diaries at the ready

Have you had a good summer? Of course, with the Paralympics about to start and the Bank Holiday on the horizon, summer's not over yet, but we wanted to give you plenty of notice on the dates for the coming term, so get those diaries out...

Justice Matters will start regular meetings again from the third Wednesday in September (the 19th) with a session at Coffee Republic. As usual, this will begin at 7:30pm. Come in good time to catch up with others over tasty cake and coffee. We will then resume our twice monthly rhythm, with sessions on the following dates:

19th September

3rd October

17th October

7th November

21st November

5th December

19th December

We'll publish further details of what's planned for each session shortly so you can invite friends that might be interested.

Looking forward to seeing you all again in a month's time!

Activists, optimists and ordinary radicals?

Recently, one of our members shared with us how she had felt uncertain about joining Justice Matters because she wasn't that actively involved in campaigning or anything like that. Thankfully, a conversation with another member encouraged her that we weren't all zealous placard waving revolutionaries, but rather ordinary people with a shared passion to make a difference in whatever (often small) ways we can.

Reflecting on this conversation, I wanted to explain a little bit more about our invitation to 'activists, optimists and ordinary radicals' in case anyone else was uncertain about whether JM is the place for them.

There are no admission criteria to be a member of Justice Matters aside from an appetite to get involved with the community. You don't have to work in the charitable sector or be a seasoned campaigner. You don't even have to be especially engaged with any particular issue to come along and take part. It is our hope that through JM you may find an issue or an organisation that inspires you and you might like to get behind, but that needn't be the case from Day One.

So what do we mean by calling ourselves a network of activists, optimists and ordinary radicals?

Our membership is quite varied. Some of our members work in International Development and other Third Sector organisations. Some are active in championing a specific cause or charity. These two sets might be described at the activists, but not everyone has that same clarity of purpose or opportunity to be engaged in this way. A good number of our members are what might be called 'ordinary radicals' - individuals living their lives as best they can, making deliberate decisions about where they shop, what they eat and where they save their money. They may do this to different degrees, but they make concious decisions to live a life alert to the impact of their choices and seeking in their own everyday way to sow positive change into the world around them. If that sounds like you, you are just as welcome as the person running fundraising marathons or visiting Number 10 to lobby the Prime Minister.

So that's the activists and the ordinary radicals explained - different but both welcome. What about the optimists?

The reason we include optimists in our description is because we are aware of lots of people out there who see that the world is in a mess and would like to make a difference, but feel that there is no way the barriers to change can be overcome. This is not an unreasonable position to hold given the scale of the challenge. If that's how you feel, you are just as welcome to come along as anyone else. However, we believe that the situation is not insurmountable, that change is possible and that we can play a part in that. If we didn't believe that, there would be no Justice Matters; there would be no point in trying. We are optimists because we have hope. If you share that belief, then you'll fit right in and we've love to see you at a future gathering. However, you don't have to share that hope to be welcome. Come along and see what we're about - who knows, you may even rediscover your optimism...

Invitation: Models for Social Change

This email came through from St Paul's Institute yesterday - I thought it looked interesting and thought others might agree. Get in touch with them directly if you fancy going, but do let us know so we can link up.

I'm writing to invite you to a forthcoming seminar that we are hosting at St Paul's Cathedral, taking place on Tuesday 25^th September at 6.30pm.  Details for this event can be found below in full, and if you would like to register to attend (places are limited) then please do respond to this email with your full name and, if you wish, organisation.  

*****
Models for Social Change: New Debate and Democracy
SEMINAR

Date: 25th September 2012

Venue: Wren Suite, St Paul's Cathedral

Time: 6.30pm - 8.00pm

Held in conjunction with Our Democratic Heritage, this seminar will cover themes of direct democracy, technology and its impact on social campaigning, and the way in which we can help promote and facilitate public discourse that explores the meaning of the common good.   

What could be considered the successes and failures of Occupy's political experiment with direct democracy, and where is Occupy now? How is technology and social media changing the way we communicate political ideas and campaigns? What can be learned from other models of representative democracy such as Citizens UK or models used throughout Europe and more broadly, and in what way might St Paul's continue to be a centre for public discourse?

Speakers:

Neil Jameson - Chief Executive of Citizens UK and Lead Organiser for London Citizens

Dr Sara Hagemann - Lecturer in EU Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science

Ludovica Rogers - Facilitator of General Assemblies and part of the Occupy London media group

Dr Dan Plesch - Director, Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (SOAS) and Co-Founder of Our Democratic Heritage

Chaired by Canon Dr Angus Ritchie - Director, The Contextual Theology Centre

*****

I look forward to seeing many of you there, and as always if you are not able to make the event itself you will be able to view it in full on our website a few weeks afterwards  - www.stpaulsinstitute.org.uk

All the best and kind regards,

Robert

Robert Gordon
St Paul's Institute Manager 

 

St Paul's Cathedral Institute
3b Amen CourtLondon EC4M 7BUTel.  +44(0)20 7489 1011
Fax. +44(0)20 7489 3104
Web. www.stpaulsinstitute.org.uk 

Consultation in relation to Sex Entertainment Venues

Barnet Council is currently consulting on whether it should embrace new powers to regulate lap dancing clubs. What do you think?

Following various JM sessions in which we have lifted the lid on the world of sex trafficking and other abuses of women by men with messed up perspectives, I felt compelled to encourage our local authority to take up powers to regulate and limit these kind of establishments in our neighbourhood. If you feel the same way, don't forget to tell them so.

Have your say on this and other local issues via the council's Engage Space consultation portal: http://engage.barnet.gov.uk/

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

Why worry about the state of the world?

“The story started in a garden. The Bible is not artistically symmetrical: it ends its story in a city. Since Eden there has been progress. Important things have happened. The object is not simply to restore Eden. The plan is more exciting than that... 

God loves his creation. He loves matter. Despite all the trouble it has given him, he has not thrown it away and started again, and he never will...

The plan is not to scrap the earth, but to unite it with heaven in a way so intimate that the only metaphor the Bible can think of is marriage - one-fleshness... There is a vital continuity between this world and the next which is one reason why being here is useful preparation for what is to come, and one reason why it matters what we do to the planet.”

From The Selfless Gene: Living with God and Darwin by Charles Foster, 2010 (Paperback, p186-7)

Help without barriers

Emperor Julian: “Nothing has contributed [more] to the progress of the superstitions of the Christians as their charity to strangers... The impious Galileans provide not only for their own poor, but for ours as well.”
#generousjustice

Shared from Justice Matters Facebook Page

Conflict minerals - an update

Back in the Spring, we held a screening of the documentary film Blood in the Mobile. The film set out a pretty bleak picture of the way so called conflict minerals, mined in the DR Congo and taxed by militia groups to buy weapons, are used by technology companies like Nokia to make devices that we all use. One of the lobby groups featured in the documentary was the Enough Project, who have recently published a report on progress towards closing down this shocking supply chain:

"Experts say these "conflict minerals" help fuel one of the world's deadliest conflicts. An estimated 5.4 million people have died there from war-related causes, including disease and malnutrition, since 1998, according to the International Rescue Committee.

But according to a report released Thursday by the Enough Project, an advocacy group, metals from the Congo are getting less bloody.

That's thanks in part to the fact that tech companies like Intel, HP, Dell, Microsoft and Apple have made efforts to trace the source of metals used in their devices. An auditing system for smelters, the industrial facilities that process raw metals, also has been put in place. A certification system is in the works that would allow companies to certify some metals from Congo as "conflict free."

Intel ranked highest on the Enough Project's list with a score of 60, meaning it has taken 60% of the steps recommended by the group to ensure it is responsibly tracking conflict minerals. That's up from a score of 24 in 2010. Apple and Microsoft both scored 38, up from 13 and 15, respectively. Nokia scored 35, up from 19. IBM, Sony, LG and Samsung received scores of 27."  

Read the full article here.

Thanks to Rob for sharing this article. If you have a story or a campaign you think others would be interested in, feel free to email it to us or post in on the Justice Matters Facebook Page.

Olympic truce

Evidence of hope in unlikely places. In connection we discover our common humanity...

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

Oxfam petition for action on hunger

On Sunday 12 August, world leaders meet in London to discuss hunger and nutrition. As they talk, 18 million people face severe food shortages in West Africa. Leaders must act now to protect families in desperate need across the region. And they must commit to supporting vulnerable farmers worldwide, so they can feed themselves and lift their communities out of poverty. It's not too late. If leaders prioritise hunger, we can save lives now - and create a future where everyone always has enough to eat. Join Oxfam, Africans Act 4 Africa and Avaaz in demanding that world leaders act now to provide food and water for the hard months ahead and invest in long-term solutions to ensure this never happens again.

Sign the petition now at www.oxfam.org.uk/sahelcrisis

Is age just a number?

In the UK there are now more adults over 60 than there are under 18 for the first time ever.  We, along with most of the rest of the Western world are becoming an older society.

But what does this mean for the way that we organise our society, look after those who are most vulnerable, support people to plan for their old age and ensure that there are services available for those who need them?  A change in the make up of a population has a significant effect on how public services are arranged and paid for.  The main challenge comes as a result of reduced tax returns (because of fewer numbers of younger people who are likely to be working) and increased demand for expenditure (because older people are the heaviest users of the NHS and other public services).

If there's one thing we can be sure of about our older people (I'm talking about people over 60 for clarity's sake, but I know you're as old as you feel) it's that it's impossible to categorise.  There is no single characteristic that defines this group.  There are those on the front covers of magazines enjoying skydiving and able to work until their 90s.  But there are others that don't enjoy these benefits, who live on low incomes, worried about turning on the heating, unable to access care and support services to help them as they get less able to manage.

Let me paint a picture of some of the people who need extra care and support to do the everyday tasks that others take for granted.  It might be getting out of bed, combing your hair, going to the toilet or preparing a hot meal.  For many older people who are finding it difficult to do these without support there is little available for them.

In the last spending review in 2010 the Government recognised that care and support services were essential and should be protected from the cuts that were prescribed for most other areas of public spending.  An additional £7.2bn was found over 4 years, but the evidence shows that as a result of increasing demand because of the growing numbers of older people, there simply aren't enough services to go around.

As a result there are over 800,000 older people who need support but who don't receive it from their local council.  This means that they have to rely on their family or friends to help them, or they pay privately, or worryingly, they go without support altogether.

This can have a devastating effect on people's ability to get on with normal life.  It can reduce their ability to get out and about, socialise and keep up their involvement in the community.  It can also affect health and in particular mental health, with evidence showing there are strong links between loneliness and poor health.  Around 7% (that's about 700,000) of people over 65 say they are always or often lonely.

So what should be our response to this challenge?  We all make our communities and networks what they are so think about the older people that you know or that live in your block of flats or on your street.  Is there something you could do to make friends with them or help them out?  Or have you got a grandparent who lives in another city and who would welcome a phone call to hear your news.

If you fancy volunteering, the local Age UK to Finchley is Age UK Barnet and there's opportunities to get involved in befriending, helping out with lifts to social events and clubs or taking someone to the supermarket.  Have a look at www.ageuk.org.uk/barnet/How-you-can-help/. 

If you're a campaigning type then check out the Age UK website where there's details about the campaigns you can get involved in, including the Care in Crisis campaign which is seeking to convince the Government that urgent and widespread reform is needed in care and support.  Have a look at www.ageuk.org.uk/careincrisis.