Categories: uncategorized
Date: 02 April 2005 23:04:08
Thank you for the messages of support etc, just leaving it up to Him upstairs to decide, since He knows more about things than me (even things about me).
Anyway, to the title of this post referrs to the white band which is the symbol of the MakePovertyHistory campaign. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting they're a bad thing (I wear one myself, as does this site!) or that they don't mean anything. I just hate it when things like this which mean so much get trivialised. Yesterday I was walking down the main pedestrianised street in Manchester and walked past several people holding baskets of 'fashion wristbands' which they were selling to passersby. These 'fashion' bands were the same style as the silicon white bands sold for the MPH campaign, in all different colours. I had noticed, in Swansea, that some other charitable causes were selling similar style bands of different colours- pink for breast cancer, blue for anti-bullying, etc. All good causes. But, these 'fashion' bands had messages on them such as 'peace' and 'faith' which undoubtedly mean nothing to those wearing them. These bands are apparently a big craze among the 'young' people (well, relatively speaking, school age if you like), so much so that my Mum, who had a silicon MPH band she bought at church, was asked by children at work why she was wearing one!!! People see them as a fashion accessory, along the lines of those snap bracelets which were around when I was in school, rather than as a statement of a desire to end extreme poverty. I'm not saying that the makers of these bands are in the wrong (apart from mass producing these things and pursuading kids that they have to have one to be 'cool', but I don't want to get started on that one...) just that we have to be even more careful in trying to get our message across. It is naive to think that the campaign won't come across hurdles, and maybe this is one of them. But, at the same time, it could work to our advantage. If people are aware of MPH, and that the symbol is a white band, then these kids with their fashion bands could be advertising it without realising it, just by wearing one!
Anyway, rant over, I'll leave it there. Apart from that, yesterday was a good day. Mum had some holiday time to use up, and so we had an afternoon wandering round the shops in Manchester, before heading off to Runcorn to see Eliza Carthy, one of my favourite folkies. This was the first time I'd seen her live since my first cropredy in 2001, and it was worth the wait. Absolutely fabulous; two, sometimes three fiddles together, with a number of different accordian/melodian related whatsits, and even a tuba! Amazing, no question. Some new stuff mixed in with old favourites (well, from my point of view anyway!). Great night. Next up: Show of Hands at the Swansea Grand Theatre in a few weeks. Ooh, the excitement. And then, who knows? There's a possibility of a few more before Croppers...