My book has a title and I think I got round to a first line. The title is 'De-Escalate' as in 'all you need to do is lower the emotional temperature' or 'calm down' or 'go limp' or 'just stop fighting'.
I can't really see the point of writing any more, either people get it or they don't. How can my extensive words here and elsewhere in real life, arguing on the street, saying too much in pubs, be put any better in a few lines? If people haven't understood my reasoning, then I can't help them. Writing any more would upset my apple cart all over again.
Other people write about home education already.
Cranky and tired.
No weekly meet ups with my friends.
Too many changes all at once.
New groups and ways of doing things.
Cold weather.
Still flat-lining somehow, in spite of all the Poetry Festival and wall to wall studying.
Maybe I need a cold and many hours with day time tv and Al Jazeera documentaries about feel good topics.
Other stuff, that's the real problem area.
So -- go away and write about it or make an anti-Ebola donation to the UN, or both.
Showing posts with label UN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UN. Show all posts
Thursday, 9 October 2014
Sunday, 3 June 2012
Bahrain UPR at UN leads me to read Swarthmore lecture 2012
One thing leads to another very quickly these days for me. Only a few days after watching most of the Bahrain UPR on livestream, then watching the UK UPR only 3 days later, guess which book is brought to Meeting the day after publication?
My take aways are: the lunches; the long termism; the 100 or 200 years of work necessary to move on collectively from an injustice; the letting go; and the importance of writing laws/conventions and declarations.
Lunches: They invite only who they wish to and with a specific purpose in mind. Asking 2 people from each regional group makes it easier, no one is literally isolated. A self service lunch is better and when someone chooses to have pudding first the writer knows they are relaxed! (pages 37-44)
Long termism: Workers at Quaker House in Geneva often stay for many years. They have a memory and familiarity with the UN work based in patience. The local Quaker Meeting meets there so the house is always a spiritual centre.
"Sometimes results are obvious but often we work for years with no apparent progress." pages 4-5, I'd like to quote the whole passage really, so much insight.
The 100 or 200 year time scale: I cannot find the right pages, but for example abolition of slavery took a very long time. Abolition of the death penalty is still very much a live issue. (Sorry about the appalling pun, I only noticed it a few days later! This is a family trait, blame my genes.)
Letting go of an area of work: Once a topic has been taken up by several other groups and is accepted as a mainstream issue QUNO relinquishes it to focus more closely on other concerns.
Importance of writing laws and standards which can then be relied upon and used as accepted yardsticks by others in their times of need: 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and think of all those many agreements quoted in the BICI Report by Professor Bassiouni.
Snakes and Ladders - A personal exploration of Quaker work on human rights at the United Nations
By Rachel Brett
The 2012 Swarthmore Lecture
Published 26th May 2012 by Quaker Books
My take aways are: the lunches; the long termism; the 100 or 200 years of work necessary to move on collectively from an injustice; the letting go; and the importance of writing laws/conventions and declarations.
Lunches: They invite only who they wish to and with a specific purpose in mind. Asking 2 people from each regional group makes it easier, no one is literally isolated. A self service lunch is better and when someone chooses to have pudding first the writer knows they are relaxed! (pages 37-44)
Long termism: Workers at Quaker House in Geneva often stay for many years. They have a memory and familiarity with the UN work based in patience. The local Quaker Meeting meets there so the house is always a spiritual centre.
"Sometimes results are obvious but often we work for years with no apparent progress." pages 4-5, I'd like to quote the whole passage really, so much insight.
The 100 or 200 year time scale: I cannot find the right pages, but for example abolition of slavery took a very long time. Abolition of the death penalty is still very much a live issue. (Sorry about the appalling pun, I only noticed it a few days later! This is a family trait, blame my genes.)
Letting go of an area of work: Once a topic has been taken up by several other groups and is accepted as a mainstream issue QUNO relinquishes it to focus more closely on other concerns.
Importance of writing laws and standards which can then be relied upon and used as accepted yardsticks by others in their times of need: 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and think of all those many agreements quoted in the BICI Report by Professor Bassiouni.
Snakes and Ladders - A personal exploration of Quaker work on human rights at the United Nations
By Rachel Brett
The 2012 Swarthmore Lecture
Published 26th May 2012 by Quaker Books
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