Since my last entry on this page I have been busy with the G8 Bike Ride and have not been involved with the Mid-Herts Peace Group. Also, since the mailing list I had set up was not being used I decided to shut it down - it has been disabled as of today.
I went to the meeting last night where we watched a video of Dr Scilla Elworthy's inspiring lecture "Peace keeping at the sharp end". The next meeting will be on 2005-03-16.
A report on the 2004-11-19 Peace Direct Link Group Conference is available here.
It turned out that I did not have to go to an exhibition after all, and so was able to attend the meeting on Wednesday night where we concentrated on the idea of becoming a Peace Direct link group. We collected email addresses of everyone present and I have updated the mailing list accordingly.
The next meeting will be on 2005-01-26 20:00 at Friends Meeting House
It was apparently decided at the last meeting (after I left) that the next one will be on 2005-01-12. Unfortunately I will not be able to make it as I have promised to attend the opening of a friend's exhibition.
Last night we had another meeting in WGC but I could only stay for about half an hour before leaving for a HertsLUG meeting in Stevenage. But at least I was there to hear reports from our two members who had attended the Peace Direct Link Group Conference where one of the presentations was by Mohammed Liman Ali and Danielle Smith about the situation of the Saharawi people of the Western Sahara.
Last Sunday I attended an event called "Flowers for Fallujah" where a group of us attempted to lay white flowers at the Cenotaph. The police were only going to let 5 people across the road, but all of a sudden they lost control and there was a spontaneous sit down protest which blocked Whitehall southbound for 5-10 minutes - here are some photographs.
Of the eleven addresses I initially subscribed to the mailing list, two were invalid, and one was for someone who didn't want to be on it. At the next meeting I will try to answer any questions people have about email and mailing lists in general.
I just set up a mailing list for use by our group.
Last night I attended another meeting in WGC. In the previous meeting we had all filled in a sort of questionnaire, the results of which had been analysed to try and come up with some more concrete proposals of what we as a group might actually do.
One of the main things we discussed was the possibility of working with Peace Direct by becoming involved with their Solidarity programme. We decided that two people from our group should attend a Peace Direct training weekend later this month. I would quite like to be one of the two but I have so much other stuff on my plate that it would be better if someone else went instead.
Our next meeting will be on 2004-12-01 20:00 in the Friend's Meeting House.
This evening I attended a One World Week event at the WGC Friend's Meeting House. Teresa Parker spoke about her experience in Palestine/Israel as an Ecumenical Accompanier. Although it was not a Mid-Herts Peace group event as such, many of the audience were the same people who attend the Peace Group events. For more information about the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel see EAPPI (Britain and Ireland).
I think the next meeting will be on 2004-11-03
Last night I went along to a showing of "War No More" put on by Mid-Herts Peace Group at the Friend's Meeting House in Welwyn Garden City. About twenty people turned up, and although this entry in the Herts Direct community directory states that "The group incorporates all ages, particularly youth", I was (at age 40) one of the youngest, and quite a few years younger than the average!
"War No More" is a 14 minute educational and campaigning video by the Movement for the Abolition of War. I would say they have done a great job with it, and it prompted some useful discussion.
www.zenatode.org.uk Ian Gregory 2010