Enough Food If...

As you know, since the start of the year we have been taking part in the Enough Food If... campaign, which aims to eradicate hunger through firmer aid commitments, greater transparency, tackling tax dodging and stopping neo-colonial land grabs.

On the 8th June, Justice Matters will be joining with thousands of others from across the country for the Big If London gathering. The day will include inspiring speakers, stories, family activities and music. The symbolic centre of the day will be the planting of a breathtaking field of paper flowers, with two million petals representing the two million children that die from hunger every year – lives that could be saved.

Read our blog post on why this symbolic act is important and and then sign up to come along. We'll be discussing logistics at the June 5 pub session (8pm at the Bohemia).

UK Government makes all the right noises on trade, tax and transparency

“As we free up the world economy, we must make sure openness delivers the benefits it should for rich economies and developing countries alike. That means consistent and fair rules for the global economy. When countries open up to cross-border trade, and global supply chains, they need to know that they will see the benefits in jobs, fair tax revenues and economic growth.

So we need global rules that prevent tax evasion and aggressive avoidance, and enable governments to collect the taxes they are owed. We also need to make sure that mineral wealth in developing countries becomes a blessing, not a curse. It is to the shame of the whole world that a lack of transparency allowed the illicit diamond trade to fuel appalling conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Today, we have a duty to make sure that resource wealth does not fuel conflict, corruption and crime. So at the G-8 next month in Northern Ireland I will push for fairer taxes and greater transparency alongside more open trade.”

Read in full: The UK's G8 agenda - Increasing trade, fairer taxes and greater transparency

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

On cheap clothing, development and tax dodging

"Developing countries like Bangladesh lose an estimated $160bn in tax dodging by multi-nationals annually. That's a bigger sum than all the money spent by governments around the world on aid. And George Osborne's change to the rules on how foreign subsidiaries of multinationals are taxed in last year's Budget will make it more attractive for large firms to avoid their economic responsibilities in poor countries."

Read more: http://goo.gl/mag/uD7tFZy

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

Should the aid budget be spent on projections of power or poverty reduction...?

Guardian: Defence chiefs want a share of overseas aid budget to cover humanitarian work undertaken by the military

"The Ministry of Defence has stepped up its campaign to draw upon millions of pounds from Britain's aid budget by suggesting the Department for International Development (DfID) pays for flights on military aircraft, some navy patrols and body armour.

There was even a move to ask DfID to contribute to the cost of the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers on the grounds they will be used for peacekeeping operations and for disaster relief – but that suggestion has now been dropped."


Read more: Ministry of Defence campaigns for overseas aid to pay for military patrols

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

GB joins the G0.7

"We also deliver in this coming year on this nation’s long-standing commitment to the world’s poorest to spend 0.7 per cent of our national income on international development.

We should all take pride, as I do, in this historic achievement for our country."

Read the full text of the Chancellor's 2013 budget speech: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

A busy weekend

What a busy weekend!

A number of us went to visit Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, on Saturday morning to discuss the IF campaign. We meet someone else in the waiting room who was also there to talk to her about the campaign, so we made friends and went in together - always networking and recruiting new members!

Theresa was familiar with much of what the campaign is trying to achieve and made positive noises about the issues we raised. Perhaps most pleasingly, when we raised the matter of the Government committing to allocate 0.7% of GDP to international aid, she smiled and told us that the first person into her surgery that morning had been complaining loudly about the amount of money Britain gives away in aid to developing nations, so it was encouraging to hear the five of us voicing our support for ongoing generosity.

On Monday morning Lizzie and Dave went to have a similar conversation with Mile Freer, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, which sounds to have been equally productive.

In addition to that, Elaine hosted the Sing for Water concert at St Bs in Saturday night, where several local choirs performed in support of the work of WaterAid. It was a great evening, with some memorable performances, including an appearance by our own Victoria and Mr Mike Dore. Thanks to all who came along and supported.

This week is a second Wednesday week, so if you have a 2to4 Group, you might want to meet up with them. If you don't, why not invite someone else from the community over for a drink and a natter?

Oh, and don't forget to hang on to plastic trays in preparation for a week Wednesday, when we'll be looking at food chains and grow your own.

That's all for now. Enjoy your week and see you soon!

Raiding the aid budget to pay for defence?

An interesting comment on the potential ripple effects of passporting DFID resources from development to peacekeeping:

"Campaigners point out that using the aid budget to pay for peacekeeping leaves the Ministry of Defence with more to spend on war."

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/02/problem-camerons-plan-raid-aid-budget-pay-defence

What do you think?

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

Correspondence

Earlier in the year I sent a letter to my local MP, Theresa Villiers, to encourage her to take a bold stand in supporting climate change legislation and to encourage the UK Government to play a positive role in the Rio+20 Conference on sustainability. Previous emails had gone without response, so I was pleased when I received a letter in reply. You can read what she said here.

If anyone else has received letters of response from writing to an MP or anyone else, do let us know - we'd be happy to share the correspondence so others can see, be encouraged and informed.

Failed States 2012

Failed states: An interesting infographic and 'postcards from hell'. Provocative reminders of a world in need of hope.

"If anything has become clear since we started publishing the Failed States Index in 2005, it’s that state failure is an entrenched problem -- one the world is far from figuring out how to fix. Every one of the 20 countries atop this year’s index has been there before: Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Iraq have never made it out of the top 10, and Somalia takes the unwanted No. 1 spot for the fifth straight year."

Read more: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/failedstates2012

Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

Up through the cracks in the concrete

The revolution rises.

Hordes of soundbite politicians roam Westminster professing progress with their words but denying it with their lives. Media jackals haunt the streets, rooting through the recycling to feed their voracious appetites for suffering. They devour their own young on a capricious whim; the dark lords of celebrity fate. High above, in the glassy towers and gilded boardrooms, oil barons and money men plunder the planet's pockets, turning its own riches against itself.

And all the while, weary and disenchanted, the world yearns for something different.

Rumours of revolution abound.

Quietly but irrepressibly, revolutionary souls subvert the status quo, reclaiming and recruiting communities into their revolutionary fold. The tendrils of this revolution spread far and wide, bringing the hum of new life to the ruins and rubble. Green shoots of change break through the concrete jungle, creeping up through the cracks in the pavement, disrupting the carefully maintained constraints of the prevailing system.

The revolution rises.

Its faithful followers don't just sell light at the end of the tunnel, but see the diamonds sparkling in the grimy walls along the way. They collaborate, co-exist and conspire to create lasting change. They have a vision for the future, not just more of the same. Their lives are lived in community; not just knowing their neighbours' faces but their names and their stories as well. They are a new humanity; humankind 2.0.

The revolution rises.

These revolutionaries embrace technology, adopting and adapting rapidly to integrate new tools and toys just as their prehistoric forebears once did. They live on the wire, as comfortable navigating the twitterverse as the tube map. However, they are not consumed by consumerism, nor deafened by digital broadcasts. Their lives are more than the sum of their playlists and podcasts. They delight in discovering the wild heartbeat that sounds in untamed open spaces; they marvel at the stars that exist beyond the mask of city smog.

Such individuals celebrate their membership of the global village, but lament the exploitative implications of globalisation, the systematic corruptions that make our lives better at the expense of others. But they don't just lament: they act, they speak, they go and stand alongside the poor and the broken. There are no boundaries or borders that can stop the revolution; it is inexorably laying claim to the whole world.

The revolution rises.

Nations fall, politicians falter, but the revolution will continue. It is a perpetual rediscovery. A society turned inside out and outside in at the same time. It is radical yet non-violent, unheralded yet long-awaited.

It is Quantum and it has arrived.