Busy I was, busy I remain. Mostly because I'm trying to get everything done in 3 days rather than 5 days this week. I'm taking tomorrow off to go to an exciting festival called Shambala for the long bank holiday weekend. It's a really groovy, small festival with about 2000 people and is run by the same people who run the best record shop and reggae nights in Birmingham. In effect, it's that time of year when people who we normally see at the Jibbering reggae nights of a Saturday evening in Kings Heath or Moseley, take the weekend off and all meet up in a sunny field in Northamptonshire. My partner J calls this festival 'Moseley goes camping' and it's true that we're pretty likely to end up randomly camped next to neighbours of ours!
Anyway, I can't wait. We'll spend 4 days there soaking up the great music, the carnival atmosphere and taking time to reconnect with some old friends of mine who I haven't seen properly for ages. In particular The Hairies (that's my old friend D and his delightful partner H) as well as another friend from my People & Planet days who seems to be going through a pretty rough patch at the moment. Shambala will be the perfect space to reconnect because it's so laid back and we'll be staying in our very own tipi of Kiwiness - so we'll be cosy and chilled, even if it does carry on raining as it right now!
I'm giving a workshop at Shambala tomorrow - which means I got a free entry ticket worth £90! wohoo - but haven't really planned what I'll do with it yet. I'm first up on the programme for the whole festival which is a bit daunting but also means that I probably won't have a huge audience since most folk will still be arriving and getting set up for the weekend ahead. My workshop is on Biofuels and why they're mostly bad. I guess I'll explore with people what they can do to stop the current EU directive on Biofuels going through - it would lock the european union into putting 10% biofuel into all european road fuel.
Biofuels are being sold as a magic bullet to help reduce the carbon footprint from car transport, but in fact they are a completely false solution to climate change. Biofuels often have higher CO2 emissions than fossil fuels and they are leading to a massive land grab which fuels the destruction of rainforests and the biodiversity therein. And worst of all perhaps, by diverting food crops such as a wheat and maize from our plates to our petrol tanks, they are fuelling rising food prices which is having a devastating effect on poor people. Poor people are less able to deal with price rises in staple food crops because they spend such a high percentage of their household income on food, so any rise in food prices has a disproportionate effect on those who are least able to cope with it. It's insane that the EU wants to use crops to feed cars and not people, especially at a time with multiple food crises emerging all over the world, let alone in Europe! Anyway, I hope to be able to finish the workshop on a positive note as I'll be exploring with participants some of the real solutions to climate change.
Aside from working on that, today I've got a crazy day ahead of me. I have to finish off editing my first issue of Change Your World (our activist magazine which goes out to about 3000 people). I've recently taken on the role of editor which is a huge responsibility and I need to make sure that this first issue is the best in a long time!! (not that I'm competitive or anything - cough cough - I just want to be really good and for people who took a chance on making me editor to see that they made the right decision). It doesn't come out til October, but today I'm editing all the copy which has come in so far. This issue will focus on our upcoming Renewables campaign - pushing for a home-grown energy revolution - and on the issue of Leadership.
This evening I'll be staying behind late at work because I've also agreed to be on the recruitment panel for the new Campaigner for Birmingham Friends of the Earth. It's a long and arduous task of going through every single application and CV with a fine-toothed comb. Our first job as a panel is to shortlist some interview candidates and I think we also have to devise some excellent interview questions tonight. I hope it doesn't take too long because I need to get home with enough time to help J finish off making her penguin costume for Shambala. On Saturday night, ALL Shambala festival goers transform themselves with weird and wacky fancy dress costumes and have the greatest party in the UK - it's gonna be fun!
p.s. watch out for some cool photos when we get back on Monday.
1 comment:
dude. that sounds like so much fun. I admit I'm a tad envious of your life these days. it sounds fulfilling....
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