Masculinity, toxic and otherwise

This post compares two thinkers on the topic of masculinity and whether it is, to coin a phrase, toxic or not. They are Will Storr and Richard Wrangham.

Accidental Anarchist film report

Twenty-seven people attended the screening at Firstsite on Sat 30 June of Accidental Anarchist: Life Without Government. (See previous blogpost for details.)  It was free and there was a collection, which raised £75.

Accidental Anarchist film

Accidental Anarchist: Life Without Government is a rare instance of TV putting anarchism in a favourable light. You can see the trailer at www.accidentalanarchist.net. Produced by BBC Scotland and shown on BBC4 Storyville on Sunday 23 July 2017 at 21:50, the one-hour film tells how:

Carne Ross was a career diplomat who believed western democracy could save us all. But after the Iraq war he became disillusioned and resigned. This film traces Carne's worldwide quest to find a better way of doing things - from a farming collective in Spain, to Occupy Wall Street to Rojava in war-torn Syria - as he makes the epic journey from government insider to anarchist.

Adlestrop

Yes. I remember Adlestrop -
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

World War Two: a just war?

See www.newleftproject.org blog of 19 February 2014 by Ian Sinclair, which notes how World War Two in the Pacific and Middle East was an imperialist venture and how Churchill and Stalin carved up South East Europe in 1944.

Green Party peace policy

Strangely, there is no mention of peace, war or Trident in the Green Party MiniManifesto of 2015. 

Conversation in a cable car

"Conversation in a cable car" by Ernest Hall, published in May 2016 Southern East Anglia Area Quaker Meeting Newsletter

Brussels Bombings - Frank Barat responds

One of the best reports/comments I've heard so far re Brussels Bombings - Frank Barat in Belgium: More War is Not the Answer to Brussels Bombings

ethical board games

Christmas shopping for ethical board games? (aka social impact games)

1. Paul Lamond - You Be the Judge
2. Really Nasty Bankers Game - Board Game 
3. Rollet £67 - fast ricochet game for 2 to 4 players - aim is to roll steel balls down your chute and knock the wooden ball into your opponents goal - from ethicalshop.org
4. Cyberpeace - online training courses based on the ideas of Johan Galtung, the Norwegian sociologist who founded peace and conflict studies. The Medical Peacework training courses, which were developed with support from the EU’s Leonardo da Vinci Fund, were launched in the UK in 2012. Each of the seven courses covers a different topic, from war and weapons, health and human rights, to refugees, discrimination and problems at work. Each of the 21 chapters consists of textbook lessons, standardized questions and problem-based e-learning cases.
5. ‘Fighter, not Killer’ app for Apple and Android smartphones, launched May 2015, by Swiss group ‘Geneva Call’ to educate armed groups on the humanitarian laws of war.
6. People Power, in which you play a leader of a popular movement - International Centre for Nonviolent Conflict, 2010 - see peoplepowergame.com
7. World Peace Game, invented 1978 by teacher John Hunter. TED talk about the game has over 1.2m views. A hands-on political simulation for 10-year-olds, the game is normally played by 25–35 players for six to 12 weeks. There is no commercial version of the game, but John Hunter does tour the world hosting shorter game sessions.

Malaya: UK tried to exterminate communists in 1950s

Malaya - Web of Deceit Chapter 16

"The World is My Country": Heritage Open Day, 12 September 2015

"The World is My Country" exhibition:

Heritage Open Day: Saturday 12 September 2015, 10am to 4pm, at Colchester Quaker Meeting House, 6 Church Street, Colchester, Essex, CO1 1NF

Book Group poems 3 July 2015

'Cargoes' by John Masefield (RS)

The needless destruction of Dresden on 13-14 February 1945

With the Second World War effectively won, an estimated 135,000 German people were killed for no military purpose on the orders of Winston Churchill and Bomber Harris. There is a statue of Churchill in Parliament Square and one of Bomber Harris on the Strand in central London. 

No Glory: The Real History of the First World War

Historian Neil Faulkner looks at the real reasons for the outbreak of the First World War. This pamphlet is part of No Glory in War, a national campaign of political, cultural, and educational activities that opposes ‘nationalist’ interpretations of the First World War, and aims to promote international solidarity and peace.

"The World is My Country" Public Meeting Thurs 24 Sep 2015

To co-incide with “The World is My Country” exhibition on Heritage Open Day on Sat 12 Sep 2015 there will be a Public Meeting hosted by Gabriel Carlyle and Emily Johns of Peace News:

"The World is My Country" Sat 12 Sep 2015

Here is the draft web page that I submitted last week to Heritage Open Days. It should appear on the site in due course. Further below are some notes from the Local Meeting for business for worship on Sun 3 May.

Since WW2 USA has bombed 21+ countries: New Internationalist

Since the Second World War
THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
has bombed 21 countries

Charlie Hebdo and Serb Radio

On 23 April 1999 NATO bombed the Radio Television of Serbia headquarters in what was one of the largest incidents of civilian deaths, and certainly the largest in Belgrade, of the Kosovo war. Sixteen RTS civilian technicians and workers were killed and sixteen were wounded.

Noam Chomsky views the NATO bombing as an act of terrorism. Comparing it with the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris on Wednesday 7 January 2015, he criticises the hypocrisy shown by media and politicians in the West, which in general viewed the 1999 bombing as legitimate, noting that, "There were no demonstrations or cries of outrage, no chants of 'We are RTS'”

See also Noam Chomsky (2015) "The Charlie Hebdo Attack and Hypocrisy" on YouTube

Twentieth century history

Thanks to Mark Goacher for introducing me to two major twentieth century historians: Geoffrey Roberts and John Lewis Gaddis.