We're still here

Welcome to the Justice Matters blog/website. Since we moved our communications to MailChimp earlier in the year, this blog has been a bit quiet, but don't worry - we're still going and always keen to make new friends.

For all the latest on what Justice Matters is up to, check us out at our Facebook Page, sign up for our newsletter (see the box to the left of the screen) or drop us an email at justicemattersn12@gmail.com.

Hope to see you at a meeting soon...


Sam, Victoria and Elaine

Improving health through witty design

This iron fish offers relief from Anaemia.

An estimated 10% to 14% of the U.S. population is anaemic, the majority of that population women and children. But in Cambodia, those numbers skyrocket: 44% of Cambodians suffer from anaemia, including two-thirds of the country’s entire population of children. At the same time, about 70% of Cambodians live on less than $1 a day, pushing iron supplements (or red meat) far out of reach.

When Chris Charles, then a University of Guelph PhD student, travelled to Cambodia to tackle the problem, he had a crucial resource at hand: a study showing that simply adding iron to food while cooking could increase iron levels in the blood. But when he pitched the idea - essentially dropping a clunky, distasteful-looking block of iron into a skillet - Cambodian villagers were dubious.

A design flaw - this was an ugly piece of metal - kept Cambodian women from wanting to add it to the meals they were preparing for their families. “Actually almost no one used it,” says Gavin Armstrong, now CEO of the Lucky Iron Fish Project.

He and Charles conducted some boots-on-the-ground research, and eventually they arrived at the right connection: The fish is a Cambodian symbol of luck. “So the Lucky Iron Fish was born," Armstrong tells Co.Design.

http://google.com/producer/s/CBIwrpfyZg

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

Saudi Arabia Cabinet passes ban on domestic violence

Saudi Arabia's cabinet has passed a ban on domestic violence and other forms of abuse against women for the first time in the Kingdom's history.

Read more: http://google.com/producer/s/CBIw27mL_AM

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

The First Rule of Casserole Club Is...

Have you heard about Casserole Club - a great way to support older people in your area simply by cooking one extra portion of your supper? Find out more at Finchley Youth Theatre on 15th Sept.

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

The North Pole Is Now a Lake

You thought it was hot on the Underground this summer? The North Pole is now a lake...

"If you think these images from the North Pole look more like a lake than the snow-covered expanse you'd expect, that because it is is--the North Pole has melted."

http://google.com/producer/s/CBIw_vbcEw

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

Save the Bohemia

As some of you will have seen, the Bohemia pub in North Finchley has been closed down after just one year of business. In addition to being a top local watering hole, the Bohemia has hosted many formal and informal JM gatherings, including our session on the Foodbank Network where members and pub goers alike made donations for the local Foodbank, and the Christmas wrapping bonanza when we organised the donation and wrapping of over 30 gifts for giving out at the Christmas meal the pub was putting on for isolated older people.

Apparently, the issue is that the landlord doesn't want to renew the lease to Antic Ltd who run the Bohemia. As part of ongoing negotiations with the landlord, Antic Ltd are asking Bohemia regulars to write letters of support to buoy their cause. So that's where you come in.

Over the last few years we have equipped and encouraged you to take a stand on a wide range of issues, to write to company managers and to visit your MPs to make a noise about the issues that matter to you. Now we're asking you to take all those skills and apply them to overcoming our very own issue.

Its not as desperate as lack of access of clean drinking water, not as horrific as FGM, and not as entrenched as unjust trade laws. However, it is something that will have a negative effect on our local community and our own efforts as a network.

So please, if you feel able, drop a note to fi@anticlondon.com who is compiling letters of support for the pub to use in their negotiations. Tell her why you care about the pub and what happens to it. Tell her how much we value what the staff there have done to create a welcoming space for the community. Tell her that we don't want a Tesco Metro or whatever the landlord is hoping to put there instead. We love the Bohemia and we want to see if continue to be the vibrant and vital community hub that it has become.

I've sent off a note already - will you join me in the doing the same?

Thanks!

PS - We are just laying final plans for the new term and will be in touch soon to share more, so watch this space...

Job opportunity with Barnet Furniture Centre

Barnet Furniture Centre is currently recruiting for a part time Project Assistant. The role is 19hrs a week (Fri/Sat/Mon).

If you or someone you know would be interested in working at this excellent local social enterprise, then email beth@barnetfurniturecentre.org and request the application form.

Closing date is this Friday (23rd August).

Good luck!

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

A summer break

Wednesday's cafe session and our community BBQ last night were our final gatherings before the summer break. Thanks to everyone who have come along and taken part in our sessions since January - here's a short reminder of all that we've been up to over the last seven months.

We'll see you again in September for more and better!

Through their eyes - a glimpse into the experience of Britain's asylum seekers

We had a great gathering on Wednesday, led by Ann-Marie, Dave, Zoe and Beth, looking at the issue of asylum and immigration.

The media paints a very specific image of the types of people that come to the UK seeking refuge and the life they live whilst here, but as we learnt through the case study of Alexander and his Belarusian family (ably voiced by Ann-Marie), the reality of life as an asylum seeker can be quite different to that media stereotype.

Anna Gallagher (Beth's daughter) also provided this excellent video which set the scene for much of the conversation during the evening.

Want to know more?
Read the free booklet from the Refugee Council, The Truth About Asylum.

What can I do to help?
Do you have a spare room? Would you or someone you know be willing to host a destitute asylum seeker for a day, a week, or longer with support from an experiences organisation? If so, visit www.spare-room.org or email hostmigrants@yahoo.co.uk.

Do you have spare time or can you give money? Barnet Refugee Service supports destitute asylum seekers in Barnet. They need volunteers to help at drop-ins and women's groups, to provide advice and do help with admin.

Setting standards for the aid industry

An interesting report on the importance and challenge of delivering aid to a high standard (of particular interest in the light of the recent re-affirmation by the Chancellor of Britain's commitment to give 0.7% of GDP away to support developing countries):

"The humanitarian community has gone through a period of soul searching in recent years, following the failure to protect victims of genocide in Rwanda, the chaotic lack of coordination after the 2004 Asian tsunami and the sex-for-food scandals in West Africa. Yet attempts to set universal standards and to certify aid agencies have been inconsistent and controversial....

... This week, practitioners are taking part in the Humanitarian Standards Forum in Geneva to assess the state of humanitarian accountability and to chart a path forward."

Read more: http://shar.es/xNtPz

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

Good News for anyone looking for an ethical high street bank

Church-backed bid for RBS arm could herald ethical bank:

"The Church of England is backing a bid for hundreds of branches being offloaded by Royal Bank of Scotland, raising the prospect of a new, ethical bank on the high street."

Read more: http://goo.gl/mag/Tplbs6F

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

New York City pitches $20 billion plan to prep for climate change

"With the Big Apple facing significant impacts from climate change in the decades to come — including becoming as hot as Birmingham, Alabama, by 2050 — the plan aims to make sure that New York City’s extensive subway, transit, sewer and water, energy and food distribution systems will still be able to serve the more than 8 million people who live there."

The Big Apple can afford to prepare for climate change.

What about cities in the Developing World?

Read more: http://goo.gl/mag/8fZJo7I

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

On yer bike! How bicycles prevent rape and empower girls in rural Cambodia

"In Cambodia, school ends at the primary level for many girls simply because the nearest secondary school is too far to commute to by foot. Furthermore, this long commute is dangerous. Rape and other forms of violence against women have reached epidemic proportions in the Cambodian countryside, and parents are rightfully concerned for their daughters’ safety.

Given a sturdy bicycle, however, many of these seemingly insurmountable barriers to education disappear."

Read more: GOOD Magazine

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

First X-Man Standing

Legend. Nuff said.

"In 2007, actor Patrick Stewart became the patron of Refuge, a U.K. charity that provides support for victims of domestic abuse; in 2009, he wrote about witnessing his father, a former sergeant, abuse his mother. Stewart remains devoted to the cause, and in a recent panel at Comicpalooza in Houston, he said his work with Refuge is one of his proudest accomplishments and spoke out against victim-blaming:

“As a child, I heard in my home doctors and ambulance men say, ‘Mrs. Stewart, you must have done something to provoke him. Mrs. Stewart, it takes two to make an argument.’ Wrong. Wrong! My mother did NOTHING to provoke that — and even if she had, violence is NEVER, ever a choice that a man should make. Ever.”

Watch the video: http://youtu.be/TqFaiVNuy1k

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

Don't just talk about the problem, get involved

“You want to change a life, to save a life? Then you need to drop the awareness campaigns and make your work part of life itself.”

Read more: http://faceofthematter.com/2013/06/04/the-everything-approach/

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

Vertical farm rising from a derelict site in Manchester

"At present the Biosphere offers a fairly limited diet of freshwater fish, mushrooms green leaves, apples, pears and the occasional citrus fruit or plum.

"But according to the project founder, the potential is limitless.The concept is based on the traditional African agricultural traditions where crops are grown above each other - for example, coconuts above bananas, over coffee and ground tubers such as yams.

"Mr Walsh [the architect of the scheme] believes pressure on land and declining energy resources will mean the West will be forced to give up growing vast horizontal fields of single crops in remote farms and transporting them hundreds of miles to urban centres to be consumed. Instead every building and open space in towns and cities will be put into production."

Read more: http://goo.gl/mag/wMxPRtr

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

Burkina Faso

Justice Matters founding member, Sara recently spent a few days in Burkina Faso with Josephine, an amazing 13 year old. This is her story:

"Five News’ Peter Lane reports from Burkina Faso as new figures expose the scale of world hunger."

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

The surprising power of people in parks

On Saturday 8th June, members from Justice Matters joined with 45,000 others at Hyde Park to demand that the G8 take action on the silent scandal of world hunger.

As film director and Olympics opening ceremony maestro pointed out, this was just the latest in a series of moments where people in parks stood up and demanded action on injustice - from female emancipation to workers rights, nuclear weapons to apartheid, Live Aid to Make Poverty History and Drop the Debt, the Big IF London, the people of Britain have a track record of coming together in parks to make history. This felt like one of those days - indeed, during the afternoon, we were informed that the G8 had agreed to provide a further £2.8bn in aid to ensure proper nutritious food is made available to children in the developing world. Exciting times...

Here are some photos from our preparation...

 

... and of the event itself...

 

Bidder 70 - a lesson in civil disobedience

"In 2008, as George W. Bush tried to gift the energy and mining industries thousands of acres of pristine Utah wilderness via a widely disputed federal auction, college student Tim DeChristopher decided to monkey-wrench the process. Bidding $1.7 million, he won 22,000 acres with no intention to pay or drill. For this astonishing (and successful) act of civil disobedience he was sent to federal prison. Bidder 70 tells the story of this peaceful warrior whose patriotism and willingness to sacrifice have ignited the climate justice movement."

Read more: http://www.bidder70film.com/

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

Upcoming gatherings

We had a great time generating new ideas and planning upcoming sessions at our recent crowdsourcing gathering - if you weren't there you missed out, but you still have an opportunity to get involved, so email us if you'd like to get help out with either of the sessions.*

As you can see, there's lots going on over the coming weeks - we look forward to seeing you soon!

Sam and Victoria, Elaine, Sara, Lizzie and Ryan

Dates for your diary

• Wednesday 5 June - Enough Food If... pub chat. Join us at the Bohemia from 8pm to find out more about the If... campaign and discuss plans for attending the rally on Sat.
• Saturday 8 June - Enough Food If... big London event. Join us and others from across the country at Hyde Park from 2pm to stand up for those in greatest need.
• Wednesday 19th June - Is what you eat a matter of justice or just a lifestyle choice? and other food ethics questions (aka, Does God care what you eat?) at Coffee Republic N Finchley from 7:30pm.*
• Wednesday 16 July - Through their eyes: a glimpse into the experience of Britain's asylum seekers at Coffee Republic from 7:30pm. (Note that this date is different to that on the flyer we distributed recently.)*

* These sessions are the results of our crowdsourcing conversations. If they are issues in which you have some expertise or interest, do get in touch - we'd love your help!