Planes, Ash and Politics

It makes all of us feel small and a little nervous, it has suddenly made the world seem a much larger place than it was last week, it has frustrated travellers and businesses in their hundreds of thousands - and there is NOTHING that can be done, it has caused whooper swans to sit it out in small huts and sheds instead of migrating and it is delighting those who live under runways or who love birdsong or who marvel at the sight of a blue sky with no white streaks.

For just a short while we are getting a glimpse of what a low carbon world will look, sound and feel like. We can't travel where we want when we want at any time. We can't assume fruits, flowers and vegetables will be flown in to stock the supermarket shelves and we will notice, just a little more, other life around us. Perhaps the recent surge in interest in grow-your-own will be very welcome if food stuffs really do have to be locally transported.

I feel truly sorry for those stuck in airports, or paying thousands just to get a taxi. It must be horrible. But once everyone is back where they want to be maybe we should all take time to think about this. Going to Barcelona for a weekend was so simple 2 weeks ago, very doable from Bristol. Now Barcelona, Teneriffe and Paris seem much further away and maybe we should think about short trips for pleasure and if they are really necessary. It takes SO many resources to get people around the world and it is so easy to take it for granted. But fuel for the planes, taxis, cars, buses etc to get people to places is not insignificant and it is very damaging.

The thought of fresh food being thrown away in Africa because the planes are grounded makes me weep - what kind of crazy world have we manufactured? Flowers flying from Kenya???!

Surely Kenyans can be better employed growing food for Africa - but every time I say that I feel it is so obvious there must be huge reasons I don't know about to make it not work. But if we had to pay for the sunshine, the warmth, the nutrients in the soil, the water and a true cost for fuel then they wouldn't be so cheap and it wouldn't be cost effective to fly them around the world. The earth provides resources for free - it is time we started counting the true cost of the way we organise our economies and our daily lives.

Here is a poem by the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy:

SILVER LINING

Five miles up the hush and shush of ash,

Yet the sky is as clean as a white slate —

I could write my childhood there.

Selfish to sit in this garden, listening to the past

(A gentleman bee wooing its flower, a lawnmower)

When the grounded planes mean ruined plans,

Holidays on hold, sore absences at weddings, funerals ... wingless commerce.

But Britain’s birds sing in this spring

From Inverness to Liverpool, from Crieff to Cardiff,

Oxford, Londontown, Land’s End to John O’Groats.

The music’s silent summons,

That Shakespeare heard and Edward Thomas and, briefly, us.

Labour is the only party to commit to building a third runway at Heathrow.

Baroness Scotland, trust, compromise and faith

The first day of the Churches Media Council conference looking at how faith fits into the media landscape.  Baroness Scotland gave the opening address and she was fabulous.  The title of her talk was Faith in the Public Space and she gave 3 reasons why she thought faith was essential to society.  The first - faith can help build and maintain a cohesive society based on deeply held values.  She believes people of faith can respect and honour each other but still old true to their own beliefs.  Embedded in each faith is respect and tolerance, and all people of faith need to put that into practice to bind together an increasingly fragmented society.

The second reason is that faith gives sustenance to public service.  All faiths have inbuilt a notion of service to God, community  and neighbour and it is often the faiths who are there with most marginalised and excluded.  They build social capital  and secure cohesion.

The third reason is that we still have a lot to learn.  Both banking and politics have to depend to a certain extent on honourable behaviour - which has been  shown to be lacking recently.  She quoted the Bible saying: Be conscious of God and always speak the truth.  She believes there is a deep thirst in society and that people desire to kneel before God and humbly acknowledge there is something greater.  She believes people of faith in the media have to be enablers of good news and allow people to see God working in society, and not to just reflect the negative.

This is a very largely paraphrased summary of her talk which was deeply personal, authoritative and wise - I was very impressed.

There then followed three short presentations on: What are the media dong to ...God (Mona Siddiqui), young people (Nims Obunge) and politics (John Lloyd).  Interesting talks.  Some of the main points I took away were that  people in politics teach us the great art of compromise, something we all need to practice - and that doesn't mean dilute your own beliefs.  The media is biased against young people, particularly blacks, and demonises them - but the media is largely populated by middle class whites, so how can we represent them?  The media carries a moral burden to report well and with standards.  That religion isn't given the same intellectual scrutiny as other subjects.

Lots of talking and debate, very enjoyable and interesting.