Journal Entries
Make Poverty history
Posted Feb 4, 2005
I saw my MP today driving past in his car (his constituency office is on my way to work), so ran down the road and doorstopped him, waved my white band and said 'Excuse me, Mr Sanders, have you got one of these?' He looked a bit worried, said he didn't have one but had signed up for the pledge and would have to get one as all the MP's are meeting up to have their photos taken wearing one. I said I'd keep an eye out for him and he'd better be wearing one or I'd vote for someone else. This would actually matter in Torbay, where the election before last he got in by seven votes.
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Latest reply: Feb 4, 2005
Sunday mornings
Posted Jan 23, 2005
I think it's absolutely inhumane and should be banned. It's now 7.20am, I've been at work 25 minutes and already I've had a major crisis as the blue tag fell off my Tetley Drawstring into my brew. It's Sunday, for gawd's sake.... 
Just to rub it in, please could you post details of your Sunday morning experience here? The more idyllic it was for you, the better really. Maybe you had four or five cups of tea in bed, or only got up to watch the sun set. Go on, make me feel even worse....
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Latest reply: Jan 23, 2005
Break in at reserve
Posted Jan 6, 2005
On Wednesday morning, my local nature reserve's portacabin got broken into. We've been working really hard to turn a dump into a proper heathfield for two years now, and just as we're getting somewhere a load of our work gets trashed. We've had parts of the (temporary) visitor centre trashed, all our tools stolen, even a set of three paintbrushes worth £3 new nicked. It's awful.
All the stuff, only £200 worth, will get sold on at car boot sales and fleamarkets across the county. These people were professionals, knew what to bring, how to get access (violently) and took everything with any value at all.
Have just found out, and absolutely gutted.
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Latest reply: Jan 6, 2005
Rich's New Year Message!
Posted Dec 30, 2004
Dear all,
I’ve tried to write this at least four times now, and keep getting bogged down, so please excuse any ramblings. This is absolutely the last time. I promise to get to the point.
In March 2003, the RMS Mulheim ran aground off Cornwall, spreading 2000 tonnes of toxic car scrap over the south west coast, because the captain of the ship apparently knocked himself out by catching his trousers getting off his chair. As the only man on watch, the captain’s plight meant the ship was doomed. The whole northern coast from Hartland to Lands’ End was affected, and pieces of toxic material are still being washed up. A few thousand signatories to the uncool issue of getting a law passed that would ensure all ships have two staff on watch at any one time would prevent a disaster of this type happening again. Next time, it could be radioactive waste or oil flowing in daily, and then would we have a coastline to protect?
Talking of coastlines, I’m about a mile from the sea at the moment; from my flat I can see it, and when white horses whip up it’s quite a scene. I’m quite lucky to be this high up; if the CO2 levels in the atmosphere go up by just 5%, in 15 years time at present rates, the Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica is likely to come adrift, eventually pushing sea-levels up by six metres and leaving spring tides washing at the bottom of my garden. At this point, we’ll have lost East Anglia and most of Bangladesh. Still, I’ll have a nice waterfront property, eh?
These are just two examples. Of course, illegal logging still goes on in south-east Asia, the rhino still isn’t safe, the Environment Act doesn’t stand up, Antarctica still melts, supermarkets over-package and over-import and we still can’t get the sewage around Torbay sorted out; local, national or global issues that demand a voice.
But few people sit around writing letters to their M.P.'s anymore, and if they do, as I did, they tend to feel rather short-changed. In the climate of fear and negativity that surrounds politics, there is little space for optimism or making a change for the good. ID cards are a bigger issue than climate change. But, thanks to the as yet undiscovered potential of the internet, suddenly we have a mass voice if we can find ten minutes of willpower a month. We can actually click on a campaign, read up on it, make an informed decision, find a letter already prepared for us and e-mail it without troubling the post office or even the keyboard. And it can work. If half of you that read this pass it on to your address book and half of them pass it on, suddenly 800,000 people are acting upon it by the fourth generation of readers. Who can ignore a voice THAT size?
I’m amazed by how many people I speak to who want to do 'something' about this issue or that but don’t know how to go about it. I will, for you, research issues, write letters or provide links to them so that if you wish to get involved, it’s easy. You can do your bit and you don’t have to get tied to a tree.
Every generation leaves the clearing up for the next. Our lack of sustainability is passed on for the next generation to sort out. The advent and popularisation of the internet gives people like you an me, for the first time, to actually have a change to stop the rot and begin to advocate global change.
If you’re interested, mail me at skankyrichatexcitedotcom or post me here so I can gauge if it’s worth my time and expense (I don’t see how it can’t be; it’s going to be free and effortless, but there’s no accounting for folk), and forward this to your entire address book, even if you think they’ll just bin it. You never know. I don’t want any money ever; I can set up a site and mailing list from my own funds just to help people get involved. I just want to make it easy for interested people to get involved, for us to share a communal voice, for us to actually use this medium to make a difference instead of just passing on lists of '101 Different Types of Poo'. We’re worth more than that.
Thanks for listening and happy New Year,
Rich x
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Latest reply: Dec 30, 2004
Grrr
Posted Dec 16, 2004
I had a really, really good weekend. I only smoked 11 cigarettes between Friday morning and Monday, wasn't really craving too much, feeling fit and much healthier. I even went to the gym and had a fairly major aerobic workout which I haven't had the lung capacity for for a long time. Then had a few wines at a little social gathering, in fact nine glasses in all on Sunday night, and for some reason just started smoking again on the hangover. Why, when I'm feeling awful anyway, do I have the urge to feel worse with a smoke? Maybe its the stimulant, bit like having a coffee. Anyway, am only up to a dozen a day (had a few beers Tuesday and a Devon Wildlife Trust social on Wednesday) but it still feels pretty bad. For some reason I'm finding it harder to fight the urge to have one and give in to it really easily. Perhaps I just need to be careful what I'm drinking and get my diet better again; feeling invigorated with loads of fresh fruit was a good feeling.
Think it's just been a long, tiring week but more bad excuses won't help
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Latest reply: Dec 16, 2004
Skankyrich [?]
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