Live Earth hypocrisy

Update
This is an email I sent to DOW. I'm awaiting a response and will post it here when it comes along.

Dear Sir/Madam,
I recently came across the Live Earth, Run for water campaign. I applaud your involvement in this campaign but am wondering what you are doing to help ensure that the people of Bhopal, India are also being given the chance to access clean water and live free from the effects of the union carbide gas leak in 1984. I understand that DOW took over Union Carbide back in 1999 and yet the people of Bhopal are still suffering from the after effects of the pollution caused by the leak.
I would appreciate your response.
Thank you

I'm just back from Pakistan and Dubai and had lots to write about. Then I came across this story about Live Earth and it made me really mad. I know it's hard to always stand by your principles...I know I've boycotted Starbucks for ages but have now caved in a few times...but charities have an obligation to make sure they have robust policies in place when dealing with any partnerships.

If you go onto www.liveearth.org 'Run for water' campaign page, you will see a link to its event partners including DoW. The blurb for DoW is as follows:
"With sales of $58 billion in 2008 and 46,000 employees worldwide, Dow is a diversified chemical company that combines the power of science and technology with the "Human Element” to constantly improve what is essential to human progress. The Company delivers a broad range of products and services to customers in approximately 160 countries, connecting chemistry and innovation with the principles of sustainability to help provide everything from fresh water, food and pharmaceuticals to paints, packaging and personal care products. On April 1, 2009, Dow acquired Rohm and Haas Company, a global specialty materials company with sales of $10 billion in 2008 and 15,000 employees worldwide"

Pretty impressive, especially the bit about 'human progress'. Tell that to the thousands of people in Bhopal, India, affected by the Union Carbide chemical leak in 1984. Dow owns Union Carbide, albeit the acquisition was after the disaster. When you buy a company you take on the good and the bad. Take a look at www.bhopal.org if you want to see how 'bad' it is.

What makes this partnership even more disgusting is that Live Earth's campaign is about access to clean water for people.
This is the blurb from their website:
"The Dow Live Earth Run for Water – to take place April 18, 2010 – will consist of a series of 6 km run/walks (the average distance many women and children walk every day to secure water) taking place over the course of 24 hours in countries around the world, featuring concerts and water education activities aimed at igniting a tipping point to help solve the water crisis"

I wonder whether they're going to have an event in Bhopal???

Pretty things

I've been in a rather sombre mood lately...a variety of reasons that I won't go into right now. So I thought it high time that I talked about things that make me happy.

I'm generally a happyish kind of person. Yes, politics and the London underground always seem to have the ability to annoy me and get my blood pressure up, but the list of people/things/events that make me smile is far far greater.

Anyone that knows me will be able to immediately pick on my love of traditional Islamic/South Asian/Arab art. I enjoy the ability to lose myself in the geometric symmetry that is so perfect in an imperfect world. I love the swirls of floral patterns from Mughal architecture that capture the beauty of nature in stone and marble as well as through paintings. I could very easily spend hours in the V and A taking random photos or copying designs for no reason in particular other than they give me joy whenever I go back to look over them.

Our home is a mish mash of different influences. I have religious art on the walls, mosaiced mirrors and candle holders, floral ceramics and glassware from Turkey, Morocco and India. If I had the money I'd completely 'redo' the house and garden, but since I don't, it's the pretty little things I have that make the house our home. I still have a bare wall awaiting its guest; A Kashmiri wall hanging of 'the tree of life'. I want to have one especially made, or find something that I think will fit into the general look I'm going for. I haven't yet succumbed to ordering something from the internet as you never quite know what you're going to end up with until you physically see it. So the wall remains bare as it has been for the last three years. When I do eventually find what I'm looking for, it will hopefully be well worth the wait:)

I recently came across a few really pretty things that I'd love to have, although I need to make a bit of room in the kitchen/cupboards before I purchase any other nick nacks


This pretty cake stand is from Watts London and I love the rest of the 'Kinnersley' collection. I've been looking for a cake stand for a while now and this one ticks all the boxes.

I was also watching a programme about the Mosque in Granada, Spain where Munira Mendonca, a local artisan was being interviewed


Again her work is all the more lovely for being hand made and not mass produced. I may just contact her to ask if she runs art classes..

If any of you managed to visit the Hiroshi Suzuki exhibition, you lucky things! The closest I got, was staring longingly at the posters lining the walls of the underground. If only I had a few thousand pounds to spare on his work :)







To help you create a more boudoir look to your room, you can't go wrong with this over the top chair from 'Belle Interiors'



More pretty things coming soon

Capitalism or bust

I had a meeting yesterday, in Westfield shopping centre. For those of you who don't know Westfield, it's the largest shopping centre in Europe with a designer section called 'The Village' and the usual list of high street brands.

The meeting was only arranged there because it was local to the person I was meeting who is 8 months pregnant; and there are a whole load of coffee places to sit at and talk shop.

After the meeting, I had to grab a few things from Boots and pick up a birthday present for my nephew. The shopping centre was surprisingly busy for a weekday and come 4pm was buzzing with school kids from the local area. I hate shopping on my own, whether it's for groceries, clothes, anything. It's always nice to have company and someone elses opinions. So I limited my spending and bought only the things I needed and no money spent on a whim. Yesterday was not a 'shopping experience' rather a necessary whizz around with a quick bite to eat in the middle.

A lot of people I know don't like Westfield, for the same reason they don't like the Bull ring in Birmingham, The Trafford Centre in Manchester or Bluewater in Kent. Unlike the high street, which is open air, with an eclectic mix of chain stores, independent shops and cafes as well as the fast emerging poundlands (a sign of our times)..these huge buildings have no 'soul'. If you want one symbol to sum up capitalism at its best then shopping 'malls' fit the bill.

I remember the first day Westfield opened. I had a day off for a hospital appointment and popped in to see what all the fuss was about. There is nothing mind bogglingly different about Westfield. Same shops, same look, same facilities. I mean we all shop, eat and go to the loo right?

The only interesting thing about Westfield is its collection of designer brand boutiques. They are positioned away from the main shopping area in a section called 'The Village'. Haute Couture and high end fashion brands have never really struck me as being well suited to shopping centres. Surely the whole allure of high end fashion is exclusivity. What is so exclusive about Westfield? Yet here they sit almost side by side to Zara and H and M, albeit with a champagne bar in the middle.

The answer is of course common sense commercial capitalism. Ms. Chocolate barfi blogs may not find herself ordinarily frequenting Gucci or Louis Vuitton on a regular basis when in the West End. Yet in Westfield you almost do it by accident. In one shop and out the other on automatic. Realisation only hitting when you look at the price tag and think 'have they added a nought?' The very fact you have to look at the price tag immediately informs the attentive sales person that you are not where you belong (if the shop was in Knightsbridge) but here in Westfield, you are the buyer who can be persuaded to buy into a little bit of luxury because well, doesn't it feel good to walk around with a Miu Miu bag in amongst all the Radleys and Nicas. Who cares about not eating for a week.

I'm happy to say although salivating at a Miu Miu bag, I was not persuaded to part with £600 for a bag. My mother for one would never forgive me for spending that much money on something that will only end up carrying my snotty tissues and leaking pens. Instead, I ate a piece of cake costing £3.99 (even hummingbird cupcakes are cheaper) and a coffee. Yes, I was happy that I had emerged into the sunlight with only two bags of goods and my self defined semi-socialist head held high.

On the way home on the tube, I happened to stand next to someone with a 'Capitalism is crap' badge on his jacket. A kindred spirit I said to myself. Although I think we were both mistaken; he was reading a digital book which probably cost him a few hundred quid.

In the end, high end boutiques and high street chains are happy neighbours in Westfield. Although I'm sure 'The Village' is a message saying 'we don't like people from outside our village, we just tolerate them for the tourist season. Makes economic sense'

A cynical political move by Serbia

Watch this interview with Emina Ganic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiKICoJlH40


UPDATE Ejup Ganic has just had his bail refused. Do they think he's going to do a runner?? Also no access granted to his lawyers...why?? I thought that was a fundamental right!

So, Britain is in the middle of another political and diplomatic row. I'm not actually going to feel sorry for our government, since it's now pandering to the whims and cynical political aims of the ultra nationalist Serbian government.

Former Vice President of Bosnia, Ejup Ganic was arrested at Heathrow on March 1st a the 'request' of Serbian authorities based on an allegation of war crimes. If it wasn't so serious, I'd actually laugh. Serbia playing victim here?? Boy have they got a short memory...Srebrenica anyone? Kosovo?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/serbia/7354307/Britain-in-diplomatic-row-over-Bosnian-leaders-arrest.html

Serbia is accusing Ejup Ganic alongside another 18/19 other Bosnians of ambushing a Yugoslav army convoy that was leaving Bosnian territory under UN supervision. 40 soldiers were killed.

The point is, the UN tribunals refused to Ejup Ganic based on insufficient evidence. This does not mean he managed to hide his crime, or that they could not find a direct link. If a person in this country is tried in a court of law for murder then the evidence and testimony must be absolute! No ifs, no buts...

It is very easy to sit in London in 2010 and forget what was happening to Bosnian Muslims during the Balkans conflict 18 odd years ago. They were being systematically ethnically cleansed...the thing we thought we'd never see again in Europe. Only now are Bosnians getting some redress in the form of the trials against Serbian war criminals. Radovan Karadzic is currently being tried, and trying very hard to turn this into a farce.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/02/radovan-karadzic-siege-sarajevo-myth

If Ejup Ganic is to be tried, it must be in the Hague and NOT SERBIA!!!...

I'm back!

Well it's been a long time....I can't believe it's already March; maybe that's why I actually feel like writing ...the sun is out, it's not too cold and I didn't have to wrap a chunky scarf round my neck to keep warm. I even have the window to my office open..yay!

So what have I been up to in the last few months...hmmm...well, for one, my contract at my last work place ended and no they didn't try to extend it. I was a bit miffed but then actually realised that I wouldn't have wanted to stay. I'm surprised I stayed for 3 years, I'm usually bored by the end of the first year of any job if it's not eclectic enough. So...it was a bit scary not having another job to go to. Instead I thought I'd have a couple of months off to rest...and then start looking for something else.

I suppose God had other plans for me, because no sooner had I got my head around the concept of choosing to be unemployed, I was offered a job by another charity. Yes..I was actually head hunted:)...I would have been a fool to turn this opportunity down, so very happily took on the new job. So it's been just over a month and I'm loving it. The people are lovely and the job is great. It's in an area I'm interested in...health inequalities especially around black and minority ethnic communities. I'll probably be posting articles and reports I come across.

So, a new year, a new job and hopefully a new(ish) me...it's funny how you go through life and seem to 'forget' who you are...well I did..as Cheryl Cole nee Tweedy said in the L'oreal advert...'I got me mojo back'...so not only do I have this new job, I also decided it was high time to take a bit of me time and do something solely for myself. I can't remember the last time I did that. I've always loved henna painting so enrolled on an Ash Kumar course. http://www.ashkumar.co.uk/.
I've completed the foundation course and will be doing the intermediate and advanced levels in March and April...I'll post photos of my work which will hopefully improve as I practice and then who knows ..the sky's the limit as they say.

I'm also rethinking this blog and maybe making a bit more of an effort with it. I don't have any definite ideas yet, but lots of plans which I'm intending on following through.

xx
H

Questiontime

UPDATE

So the BNP scaremongering continues well into election season...I came across this article by Loanna Morrison who is prospective candidate for Bermondsey and Old Southark in London...I was disgusted by her obvious pandering to racist discourse, especially as she's black herself.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2010/02/loanna-morrison-it-is-labours-failure-to-control-immigration-and-its-obsession-with-promoting-multic.htmlSo,


Nick 'slimey' Griffin is on Question Time this evening. It's beyond ridiculous that the word 'debate' is used in the same sentence as the bnp. Part of me thinks the BBC is using this to get ratings. I know loads of people that never watch question time who are now going to be switching on.. let's hope the public give ol' Nick a bit more of a grilling than some of the lazy ass BBC radio 'journalists' did...

The 'Wright' Stuff

After watching a segment on The Wright Stuff, I think I was the most hopping mad I've been in a long while..the subject was 'should teachers who are bnp members be sacked and should there be a law for this?' The analogies used were ludicrous..bnp teacher apparently equates green party teacher...since when has green politics led to psychological trauma?

This is the letter I sent to The Wright Stuff...

Dear Matthew, I am writing in response to today's programme segment discussing teachers who are bnp members.I was absolutely disgusted with the way the panel was flippantly discussing an issue that for so many people from a non white background is hugely important. I grew up in Brent in the 1980s and went to a really good school. As a female, Asian muslim girl, I had no real experience of 'racism' until I was in sixth form and a teacher led a discussion on 'terrorism'. The paper the teacher handed out had only examples of terrorist acts by Arabs/Muslims...and when I was the only one who challenged him in class regarding his one sided presentation, he completely ignored me. I felt angry that this person, who was supposed to be a teacher could use his position to promote a completely one sided view of a serious topic. The following year he had the same piece of paper and the same discussion with the lower sixth group, only one of the boys was a bit more vocal than I had been and complained to the head teacher. Once I found out about this, I approached the head teacher to say this had happened in my class the previous year. After a meeting with concerned parents, the teacher was made to apologise for not presenting a more balanced view and not taking into account how biased his class had been. The reason I am telling you this, is that as a young person it isn't always easy to stand up for yourself, especially if you are the only person in class that is doing so. I was once kicked out of class for telling the teacher how to say a new girl's name properly...so I was mindful of this when challenging another teacher years later.

I was extremely angry that Ann Diamond and the rest of the panel thought this is only an issue of the teacher doesn't propogate his/her agenda. You don't have to live with racism in its many forms, so you'll never experience what it feels like to have someone tell you that because you have more melanin in your skin, you have no right to be in Britain. This is not the same as having a green party member teacher who talks about recycling. This is about a teacher that believes that brown people should be deported, and a teacher that is part of a party that has proven links to fascist organisations in Europe and America. Racism has a huge psychological impact on children, and comes in a variety of forms..not all overt, so hearing you all talk about the bnp's 'democratic' right to hold their views, well that's fine...but where they are in a position of influence and 'power' then they should not be allowed to be near people whose lives they can harm through the many levels of racist behaviour there is."