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THE WIRRAL FAIR TRADER - JULY 2005 NEWSLETTER Is there anything you’d like to see in this newsletter? Suggestions would be very welcome or, if you’d rather write something yourself, that would be even better. WEBSITE We try to keep the website updated fairly regularly. Send us an email telling us what you think about it. To log on go to www.wtj.org.uk
WIRRAL TRADE JUSTICE MEETING 4.00pmTUESDAY 26JULY Friends’ Meeting House Heswall ‘THE WORK OF THE AFRICA COMMISSION’ SPEAKER: MYLES WICKSTEAD This is the commission that was set up by the Prime Minister and Bob Geldof at the beginning of 2004 to prepare the ground for the EU and G8 Summits and to give the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign a good send-off. Many people (and especially those speaking for the government!) have claimed that the commission was crucial to the success (if it was a success) of the campaign. Myles Wickstead was the Head of the Secretariat to the Commission for Africa. He has a long history of working in Africa, including a posting from 2000-2004 as British Ambassador to Ethiopia and Djibouti. Myles’ long career working in development also involved positions as Head of the European Community Food Aid Department at the Overseas Development Administration (1990-1993) and Coordinator of the 1997 British Government Development White Paper “Eliminating World Poverty”. If you still have some questions bothering you after the dust of the G8 has begun to settle, come to this meeting and try to resolve them. Myles’ experience in Africa and in development and his work on the Secretariat make him the ideal person to quiz about those niggling issues that won’t go away, like ‘When are the subsidies going to be abolished?’ Please come in great numbers to this meeting. Please tell your friends and colleagues and publicise it in your church. Check the website also. http://www.commissionforafrica.org/english/about/secretariat.html Myles is in Wirral for this meeting at the invitation of Ben Chapman, MP. MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY We had to cancel the bus we had booked for Edinburgh, but a good number of Wirral Trade Justice members made it to the rally. Congratulations to all who made it. Here is the account Jill Loach did to summarise the experience for those who couldn’t go. (Pictures on the website.) “We gathered under our new orange banner, nine members of Wirral Trade Justice who had travelled to Edinburgh by various means. We found each other at a spot on the very large crowded rally ground thanks to the wonders of mobile phones! We planned to join the second wave of the march round the city forming a human white band (we had all been asked to wear white) and were amazed to find we were in one of many long queues waiting for our chance to walk round the city and demonstrate our common plea. In the end a huge parade of people completed the circuit. Then more and more continued from 12noon to 6pm: certainly powerful encouragement to our leaders and we hope a message to the rest of the world. Over 200,000 adults and children stood and waited, sat and picnicked, listened to bands and singers, heard speeches from Daleep Mukarji (head of Christian Aid), Nelson Mandela via satellite, with Jonathen Dimbleby and Eddie Izzard, visited campaign and charity tents, and movingly observed a minute’s silence at 3pm. They queued for cups of tea, made friends and chatted with the locals on a sunny fun day. We were a peaceful sincere bunch and even the stewards and police were still able to smile as we went home As the day ended the huge wooden letters of MAKE POVERTY HISTORY, to which we had attached our personal messages, were raised on massive cranes to declare yet again the demand, which now we must continue to keep ringing in the ears of politicians. The campaign goes on!” Did we do any good? Well, we didn’t do any harm and we had a good time. AFRICA WEEK AT ST ANSELM’S COLLEGE As a follow-up to the G8 Summit and to press home a developing awareness of the issues, St Anselm’s College devoted a week to the celebration of African culture and to presentations by many people with experience of working in Africa. The highlight for most students seems to have been the performances and workshops by the ‘Mighty Zulu Nation’, whose singing and dancing and drumming was electrifying. Wirral Trade Justice gave support too. We arranged for a Fair Trade Stall, which was well-supported, Alan Vernon presented Christian Aid’s Trade Justice game with great success to the Sixth Form and Jack Heery tried to get over the reasons for the world’s idiotic trading regime to three different age-groups. AUTUMN MEETING We have booked St Stephen’s Church Hall for our AGM and ‘an event’ on Sunday 16 October. Does anybody have any ideas about what kind of an event we should have? Would another speaker be too boring? (Depends on the speaker, I suppose) Printed and published by Jack Heery, 10 Marlfield Lane, Wirral, CH61 1AJ. |
