Categories: uncategorized
Date: 08 June 2005 03:19:56
... since last posting Wales won the grand slam, and I can speak a lot more Welsh than I could. I assure you that the two are in no way related.
the trip to palestine/israel has marked my thinking. I'm currently trying to work out the logistics of moving a certain percentage of the people who turn up at Linden on the morning i talk about it into 22% of the room (like the palestinians were moved in 1948) and then shrinking that to 15% of the room (as it is with the aparthied wall). What's properly depressing is that the symbolism of moving about in a room doesn't really cover it; it was, and is, about leaving places, security, home, all of it. Also to do that on the day I have to do maths. Crap. It'll be the 3rd of July (in case enquiring locals want to know) unless I go to Edinburgh... Please pop in to hear about it, it'll be more and less complicated than that (ie there'll be powerpoint maps and pictures of people and things. Er... in colour!). I have discovered I can describe pretty much the entire conflict in 5 minutes with my palm and fingers representing Israel/Palestine. I can show you which bit became the west bank and everything. I suspect this means I don't have a full grasp of all the issues... I know what I saw and heard though and I can talk pretty comprehensively about that (plus the finding out I've done since coming back. I tend to underrate that).
I'm looking forward to greenbelt. It's not that I don't find the greenbelt thing elsewhere - I'm lucky like that, but there's something about the scale, the resources, the inspiration, the fact that they're making it up as they're going along and currently doing rather well. Big on justice, small on telling you who you should be. Big on grace and small on judgement. Big on little people, small on heroes. What else could we want to be.