Randon Thoughts

Those in authority fear the mask

stepneygreenman — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 22:49:42 GMT

All of the "Censored" faces in people's profiles on here has reminded me of this meditation on mask wearing: "Those in authority fear the mask for their power partly resides in identifying, stamping and cataloguing: in knowing who you are. But a Carnival needs masks, thousands of masks; and our masks are not to conceal our identity but to reveal it... The masquerade has always been an essential part of Carnival. Dressing up and disguise, the blurring of identities and boundaries, transformation, transgression; all are brought together in the wearing of masks. Masking up reveals our commonality, enables us to act together, to shout as one to those who rule and divide us "we are all fools, deviants, outcasts, clowns and criminals". The wearing of a mask symbolises the rejection of the cult of personality so crucial to consumer capitalism and reminds us that beneath the mask of the present social order, lies the real face of capitalism and the state: bombs, armies, prisons, courts, profit, enclosure and oppression. While the elite groups of state and capital become evermore faceless, their fear of the faces of everyday resistance grows. The search for the resisters intensifies with endless CCTV cameras unmasking the streets with new devices that can pick out and identify a single face in the growing crowd. Yet, somehow, the victims of their power - the poor, the oppressed, the broken and desolate - are always voiceless and are always faceless. Today we shall give this resistance a face; for by putting on our masks we reveal our unity; and by raising our voices in the streets together, we speak our anger at the facelessness of power."

Blair attacks sexual freedom too

stepneygreenman — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 19:42:56 GMT

With all of the anger and debate on tribe at the moment about the new TOU coming in, in response to recent changes in US obscenity laws, it is important for those of us on the other side of the Atlantic not to get too complacent. There are similar plans afoot in the UK: http://www.sfc.org.uk/news-violentporn01.html http://bac.lfshosting.co.uk/ Another unfortunate thing that Bush and Blair seem to agree on!

Dreaming of woodland

stepneygreenman — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 12:56:00 GMT

Going postal

stepneygreenman — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 10:55:17 GMT

Recently, we sent a letter out from my office, in the College's internal mail service to someone working in one of the local teaching hospitals linked to us. St Thomas' Hospital is a fairly significant London landmark. It is a mile away from this office. And, let's not forget this went out in the *internal* mail. So, imagine our surprise when we recieved a slightly confused email from the parish administrator at St Thomas Episcopalian Church, North Charleston, South Carolina, who had just received the letter from us....

Foretting my own name

stepneygreenman — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 18:55:19 GMT

It's not often I completely lose my temper with someone, and even rarer when it happens at work. Yesterday was an exception... A freelancer who is writing a report for an organisation that I collaborate with on a number of projects came to interview me about my work a few months back. Yesterday I got the draft report back from him. It completely misrepresents everything we do. When I challenged him on this, he got very defensive. Apparently, so he tells me, his report was based on his verbatim notes of our meeting. Strange that! Given that he managed to get my name, the name of the college that I work for and the name of my project wrong! Is it any wonder I can't take him seriously... ?

Bounced by a dead footballer

stepneygreenman — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 14:20:31 GMT

Well, I should have had my fifteen seconds of fame this lunchtime, with a short interview on Sky News, but the whole story we were interviewed for seems to have been bounced for now by George Best's death. That'll teach me to grasp at media whoredom....

Remembering Damilola Taylor

stepneygreenman — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 22:21:40 GMT

On 27th November, it will be 5 years to the day since Damilola Taylor; aged 10 was attacked, stabbed and left to die on the stairwell of a housing estate in Peckham, South London. At the time, many people were shocked by the child-on-child violence which cut short a very promising and remarkable young life. Damilola was a bright and ambitious boy who wanted to be a doctor. At the age of 10, just before his death, Damilola wrote, ‘I will travel far and wide to choose my destiny and remould the world. I know it is my destiny to defend the world, which I hope to achieve in my lifetime’. Damilola’s father, Richard Taylor said recently, "It is five years since our dear son was attacked. For much of that time we have felt grief. Now, more than ever, we want our son’s death to mean life, opportunity and hope for downtrodden and underprivileged youth in Britain and Nigeria". Damilola's family and friends set up the Damilola Taylor Trust in the aftermath of his death. The Trust works in London to offer young people alternatives to gang cultureand crime. They also work (with a project that I currently run at King's College) to help under-privileged young people from inner London train as doctors and fulfil the dream that was taken from Damilola. In Nigeria, the Trust works to feed, house and clothe street kids. As a rule, I'm not usually one to solicit charitable donations from people, but I have a huge amount of respect for the work Richard and Gloria Taylor are doing to try and bring some good from their son's murder. I'd like to encourage all of you to visit http://www.damilolataylortrust.org and consider making whatever donation you can to their work. It will help my students to realise their ambition to qualify as doctors. Some of them, in turn, are commited to going out to Lagos next sumer to put their clinical skills to good use supporting the work of the Trust with street kids out there.

The end of procrastination

stepneygreenman — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 12:24:53 GMT

Well, I've been sitting staring at this blog facility for ages now, trying to work our what to do with it. In the end, I realised that it was the empty space that was freaking me out. So, here's something to start the whole thing off. Hopefully, the next posts will be less daunting. Expect musings on politics, spirituality, the joys of living in London, the frustrations of trying to complete a part-time PhD and random rants when I need to let off steam.