Reading Green May 27, 2010
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Green in the City,Miscellany,Politics,Reviews , 3 commentsMy friend Jim over at The Daily (Maybe) is a long-time committed socialist, and came to the Green Party that way. Now he’s asking for some suggestions for reading on Green politics and philosophy. I’ve given a few, but the comment box on Blogger is very annoying, so lets do this properly.
To me, Green philosophy starts with the fundamental ‘ecological’ idea that we humans are an intrinsic part of the eco-system, no more, or less, important than any other species. We do have a unique ability to modify it, which we need to be very careful about. Gilbert White’s detailed day to day observations of the environment around his parish of Selbourne at the end of the eighteenth century, were probably the first in English to start to see ecological systems as a whole, and the interdependence of organisms within them. He talks about trees, soils, births and deaths, rainfall, worms and all the minutiae of life.
The influence of EF Schumacher on Green thinking and the institutions he left us with can’t be underestimated. Small is Beautiful, and his ideas of appropriate technology and keeping economys to a scale that ordinary people can deal with underpins a lot of Green Party policy. In some ways, its problematic in an age of globalisation – the internet does a lot to promote localism but is a massive technology – but still very relevant. The charity he founded, Practical Action probably does more to promote sustainable societies than any green political movement ever has.
When I first came to the UK, it was the Schumacher Society which rekindled my interest in Green politics. The challenge Schumacher poses us in Britain today is how to apply his ideas at urban scales, and this is where many of the Briefings published by the Schumacher Society become useful. These are well-considered policy documents, looking at a range of issues – sustainable cities, democracy, carbon economics, health. They should be compulsory reading for anyone involved in forumulating Green Party policy.
And then there’s the deep ecology end of the spectrum, for which you should read Arne Naess’ Ecology, Community and Lifestyle. I’ve always been a bit uncertain about this – as a philosophy its attractive, but as a guide for living life in London today, or for political parties, its more difficult. Naess believes that a fundamental change in the way we think and act is needed to allow us to live within our environment, and that political parties are not the way to achieve that except in fairly singular circumstances as campaigning organisations (eg a party to campaign against nuclear power) and doesn’t think its useful in bipartisan systems like the US or, probably, the UK.
Jonathan Porritt’s Seeing Green is a British classic, and Caroline Lucas cites it as an early influence. On specific points its perhaps a little dated – I don’t know that many Greens would advocate coal as a transition fuel from oil and gas to renewables now – but worth a read.
I also mentioned Dryzek’s The Politics of the Earth, which I reviewed on here a few years ago. It looks at different ways of discussing environmental politics including descriptions of most of the major strands of Green (and not-so-green) though. Its real value is in showing ways of engaging with various constituencies on Green issues.
Jim – my copy of Small is Beautiful seems to have been recycled somewhere, but you’re welcome to borrow any of the others.
Is Climate Change a Religion ? November 5, 2009
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a commentTim Nicholson, formerly the Director of Sustainability at the property firm Grainger plc is clearly a sincere and strong believer in the dangers posed by climate change, and when his former boss told him to get on a plane to bring his forgotten Blackberry over to Ireland, Nicholson rightly felt he was being treated with contempt. The boss sounds like an utter prat, and you have to wonder why he ever bothered to hire a director of sustainability in the first place.
He won a victory of sorts this week when a judge ruled that ‘a belief in man-made climate change, and the alleged resulting moral imperatives, is capable if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations.’
Its good that he’s managed to get some satisfaction (and compensation) out of this situation, but I’m not sure that this is a victory to be welcomed.
Under The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, it is considered harrassment if an employer does something, because of an employee’s beliefs, which violates the employees dignity or creates an ‘ intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for ‘ the employee.
The judge also set out some criteria by which a ‘belief’ could be included under the regulations.
• The belief must be genuinely held.
• It must be a belief and not an opinion or view based on the present state of information available.
• It must be a belief as to a weighty and substantial aspect of human life.
• It must attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance.
• It must be worthy of respect in a democratic society, not incompatible with human dignity and not conflict with the fundamental rights of others.
Humanism would fit, being a Jedi Knight would not.
There is no need for the belief to be, in any sense, true. Of course, if it did, then we would have the the courts trying to establish religious matters which, while probably entertaining for some, would be a disaster.
The notion that a belief in climate change should come into this category is a troublesome one.
What happens when someone has a perfectly genuinely held belief which doesn’t fit rational evidence – a belief which most of us would consider just plain wrong. Perhaps a medic believes that homeopathy works, and feels insulted if their colleagues don’t respect that?
As a result of this ruling, the climate change sceptics who think its ‘just a matter of belief’ will be vindicated.
Of course, the answer is that no employer should violate their employees dignity or create an intimidating environment for any reason. This is a dubious regulation, and the ruling helps noone.
Stick to paper October 5, 2009
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , 3 commentsHere’s why I won’t be turning to e-books any time soon.
Right now, on Waterstones.co.uk, the e-book of Iain Banks’ Transition is £14.09. The hardback is a mere £13.99. And the paperback is only £9.09.
Prices for Iain Banks Transition at Waterstones
I love my books, but they’ve completely outgrown my capacity to shelve them. Particularly for textbooks, I’ll be happy to give EBooks a go when, and only when
- They are a lot cheaper than paper books - about 50-60% of the hardback price.
- I can make notes on them
- I can be absolutely sure that, once I’ve bought an ebook, noone would try to take it back, as happened recently with Amazon’s Kindle.
- There’s an easy way to back them up so I don’t lose the books if I lose the device my reader
- Publishers promise a free upgrade path for my books if they decide to stop supporting the device or format I’ve bought.
In my naive 20s, I paid to upgrade my LPs to CD. I’ve put up with all the clever little software licencing rorts over the years, but with books, that’s enough.
Okay, I’m just paranoid June 4, 2009
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a commentBlimey! I had a reply from Transport for London about their threats to send photos of anyone using their help points to the police. It turns out that they were just trying to stop people pushing the buttons and shouting. Fair enough I guess, especially when some regulation probably stops station staff just giving the little gobshites an earful.
From Transport For London:
King’s Cross station has been suffering from the misuse of the Help Points in operation there, with abusive shouting down the line getting to be a regular event. I’ve spoken with the station supervisor there who confirmed that officers from British Transport Police will attend and try to apprehend offenders, but unfortunately not always in time. As the Help Points are covered by CCTV, occasional warnings are made specifically directed at culprits caught on camera, that footage will be passed on to the police.
I’m sorry if it was not made clear to whom the announcements were directed and if this caused you any concern. I can only apologise and confirm that these announcements are directed at individuals rather than the public at large, and that CCTV footage is only passed on to the police when an offence has been committed.
Hamlet, again May 25, 2009
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a commentFinally, I’ve been to Teatro Technis, a small Cypriot theatre is just up the road. I’m not quite sure how I’ve managed to be so remiss for so long, but it was worth the wait.
It’s brave of the semi-professional Tower Theatre Company to stage Hamlet in between the wonderful RSC / David Tennant production last Christmas and the Donmar’s version with Jude Law this summer but they’re clearly up to the task.
Paul Jacobs’ Hamlet is physical and expressive, perhaps with a nod to Tennant’s.
Ophelia is sometimes a bit wishy-washy, and certainly wasn’t particularly note- worthy in the RSC production, but here Haidee Elise gives us a forceful tragic figure whose anger and frustration with Hamlet’s rejection of her is deeply moving.
Elise is listed as a costume designer in previous Tower productions, and I wonder if she had a hand in the beautiful costume she wears after Polonious’ death, as she goes mad with grief. All the costumes are sumptuously designed, albeit clearly on a budget – Edwardian dress with a twist of colour patched onto dark suits.
To keep to time, scenes with Fortinbras are removed, and the players much reduced. Combined with a Claudius who’s anger is barely controlled, the political aspects of the story are given much less emphasis and this Hamlet is more simply the family tragedy.
I saw the last night of this, on 23 May, so it’s too late to recommend it. This is the second play I’ve seen by the Tower Theatre Company. I expect there will be many more.
Dido, Queen of Carthage May 3, 2009
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a commentPerhaps I should be grateful that my first Shakespeare was Macbeth, not the Taming of the Shrew. If this play is anything to go by, there’s a good reason that Shakespeare is venerated as the greatest English playwright, while Christopher Marlowe is an Elizabethan curiosity, occasionally staged for historical interest. Dido, Queen of Carthage was Marlowe’s first play, probably written for a company of boy actors.
The story is based on book 4 of the great Roman epic, the Aeneid. Aeneas, lost at sea after fleeing Troy, finds himself shipwrecked on the shores of the newly-built city of Carthage. Manipulated by the gods, he and the Carthaginian Queen fall in love. Eventually he is pushed to his senses by Jove and leaves for Italy, allowing his descendents to found Rome, and eventually destroy Carthage. She never regain hers, and kills herself.
Marlowe’s Dido is a pathetic creature, absolutely enslaved to her love for Aeneas, giving him her kingdom, re-rigging his ships and then taking the rigging away to prevent him escaping. Even in her seduction of him, she is annoying. Would a mighty queen be so surprised when he fell for her? At least Virgil has her consider the political implications of the alliance, when her sister tells her that Aeneas would be a useful ally.
The cast do a better job than the play deserves, although Anastasia Hille as Dido does occasionally overplay it, and the agonising about Aeneas’ departure became tedious after a while, but that’s the material she had to work with. Mark Bonnar (last seen as Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night) is a fine Aeneas, genuinely torn between his love of Dido and his duty to his destiny.
Unfamiliar Elizabethan verse isn’t always easy to follow, but there was no difficulty understanding the cast and keeping concentration through this three-hour production. Even the extended Latin quotes from the Aeneid were well-spoken (at least as far as I could tell from dim sixth form memories).
The manipulative gods, playing out their own games with the mortals below, are wonderfully surreal. Siobhan Redmond as Venus and Susan Engel as Juno are disdainfully cruel, completely inconsiderate of the humans despite Venus’ supposed concern for her son.
It was worth seeing for curiousity’s sake, not a bad evening out, but perhaps a minority interest.
Dido, Queen of Carthage plays at the National Theatre until 2 June 2009. Seat C17, in the second row, gave an excellent view.
Flotsam March 8, 2009
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a commentThe stuff that washed up from the ocean of media
End Games, by Michael Dibden – This will be the very last story of Italian detective Aurelio Zen, since the sad demise of the author just after it was published. Conspiracy and murder in Calabria, would be good holiday reading if you’re down that way.
Spooks, Series three – Improbable, but gripping. In one episode the team resort to torture, with much angst and self justification, which seems unlikely. Surely they’d just ship them off to one of our less squeamish ‘allies’?
Some good ideas for designing systems (computer or otherwise) to reduce the number of errors users make.
An oil-industry insider’s view on Peak Oil, suggesting that the recent collapse in oil prices is just a short term reaction to general market collapse, and that fundamentals of supply and demand mean that it must rise again soon. You need to go to the last slide to see a very surprising conclusion from a Houston-based oil analyst!
Britblog is up February 11, 2009
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a commentGo and have a look at the Britblog round up this week – posts on Jeni Barnett’s silliness, liberty, bishops who shouldn’t be, a few sheep and lots of other good stuff.
Disagree? You must be a fool. February 7, 2009
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a commentRecently, the British Humanists have been running a low-key advertising campaign in buses and on the tube. Like the humanists, its undogmatic and doesn’t take personal pot-shots at anyone. This, on the tube, with a quote from Katharine Hepburn, is about as offensive as it gets.
But even that was enough to cause some people to become very unhappy, including one bus driver who refused to drive a bus with the slogan ‘There’s Probably No God. Now, stop worrying and enjoy you life’ (though he was presumably happy enough to drive buses advertising violent movies).
And today, while waiting at a stop in Camberwell Green, what do I see, but two buses with that wonderful quote espousing goodwill to all, Psalm 14.1 “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God”. It’s the Trinitarian Bible Societies response.
Just in case you were wondering, the rest of the verse is pretty unfriendly as well.
1The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Delightful. Can you imagine the furore if the humanists had said ‘Only fools believe in God’? Can you imagine Transport For London accepting that as an advertisement? That’s not something I’d say, or indeed believe, but I really don’t like being called a fool.
No, I’m not going to complain. They’re welcome to say what they like. It does make you think though, not an activity encouraged by this Bible Society at least.
Vaccination Intimidation February 6, 2009
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , 1 comment so farTwo related events :
The Health Protection Agency reports that measles cases are on the rise, largely due to parents being duped by the anti-MMR campaign.
Dr Ben Goldacre, writer of the wonderful Bad Science column and tireless campaigner against the anti-vaccination campaign, is being threatened with legal action by the radio station LBC for having a clip from one of their shows on his blog. It’s the daftest bit of anti-vaccination waffle, in which the presenter, Jeni Barnett, actually encourages a woman who advocates taking unimmunised children to visit people with the diseases.
He’s an ordinary bloke, with not much money, so he’s taken the clip down. You can find it on wikileaks.
