Archive for posts on Politics

Copenhagen, as told by my Facebook and Twitter updates Friday, January 1st, 2010

Kinders Al Kinley Colleague just said to me, “enjoy the weekend (the last one before Christmas)”.
27 November 2009 at 15:18

Kinders Al Kinley Drinking a beer and packing to go to something epic. ftw #cop15
11:21 PM Dec 1st, 2009

Kinders Al Kinley felt a bit teary leaving work. Can’t believe it’s here at last. We’re going to Copenhagen to save the world…
01 December 2009 at 19:46

Angelique Orr likes this.

Nikki Brown
Keep us all updated on facebook when you can, yes? I want to talk to you about your job at some point. I would very much like to do an internship with a charity at some point. As soon as I was old enough for charities to take me I’ve been doing voluntary work for various ones (next one is probably Oxfam!) and doing an internship seems like it might be a good idea when I’m well enough.
01 December 2009 at 19:56

Kinders Al Kinley
Maybe we can talk about it at Srafcon in Jan. Still not sure if I’m coming. But yeah, come and work for Oxfam! http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/volunteer/latest_intern.html
01 December 2009 at 20:00

Nikki Brown
Come to Srafcon! We’re lovely hosts. I’ll have a look at that link, thanks. :)
01 December 2009 at 20:06

Betsy Robson
Yay! Good luck! I love you! back to the USA soon?!
01 December 2009 at 22:47

Kinders Al Kinley
Man, I’d love to, but I promised no flights in 2010… anyway, it’s totally your turn to come to Oxford. I’ve got you a Christmas present that says so. xx
01 December 2009 at 22:53

Rory Patrick Aloicious McMannus
has the whole world gone fucking mad? www.nevertrustacop.org
02 December 2009 at 12:28

Kinders Al Kinley
Because of or despite the people planning to set Copenhagen on fire?
02 December 2009 at 12:56

Rory Patrick Aloicious McMannus
despite them and because of the people standing patiently and asking the Police officer for his badge number because they’re pretty sure he’s not allowed to do that while also waiting patiently and asking the men making billions (in profits and/or campaign contributions) if they’d mind very much just making millions for a while becauase some people in Bangladesh are getting flooded constantly. Sheesh!
02 December 2009 at 13:13

Kinders Al Kinley
Do you not think there’s any value in persuading people to do the right thing through engagement and discussion and education? Is destruction the only way to affect change?
02 December 2009 at 13:29

Rory Patrick Aloicious McMannus
The meeting is between governments, the only discussion is between nations wanting to safeguard their economic interests and get elected again in a few years. There is no engagement, you’re out on the street being herded along a pre-agreed route by riot cops. There’s no need for education, they all know what’s going on out there climate-wise they … See Morejust don’t give a shit, their prioroties are to continue genrationg profits for the multi-nationals that fund their parties and own their country’s newspapers. Come on Kin! No one changed anything without a little destrcution.
02 December 2009 at 13:47

Kinders Al Kinley
The represented governments include those from countries who have it in their best interests to prevent climate change. Part of the problem is indeed that developed countries are more interested in doing what’s profitable than what’s fair, but that’s why we’re out there campaigning, and I think we’ll do a better job of winning them over by engaging… See More them than by shutting down the discussions. We’re only out in the streets when we choose to be; we’re also there in the negotiations; engaged with the negotiators in person. I don’t think you’d be surprised by how poorly educated ministers are on any given topic including this one. The effect is pretty startling when somebody finally tells them what they need to know. I agree that a little destruction is powerful but it needs to be part of a broader set of actions. Surely pure destruction is purely destructive - ?
02 December 2009 at 19:28

Sibylle Shacklebolt Have a safe trip, Kinders! I hope you’ll be warm enough. I’ll look for you on the news :)
01 December 2009 at 20:12

Kinders Al Kinley has occasional evenings of uncontrollable win.
03 December 2009 at 22:30

Kinders Al Kinley RT @karinab - @kindersk was the gineau pig for a dry run of our Monday event. Try and guess what it is.
8:52 PM Dec 4th, 2009

Kinders Al Kinley Full day #1 in Copenhagen. It’s not even the weekend before the conference yet and I’m exhausted.
04 December 2009 at 23:05

James Maroney
good news on Obama though; keep up the good work Al!
05 December 2009 at 01:07

Kinders Al Kinley #CoP15 conference center is obscenely large. It’s all about to begin. Exciting!
06 December 2009 at 10:43

Kinders Al Kinley just had the most intense period of activity of his life
06 December 2009 at 19:19

Zoe Richmond and Gabriella Hood like this.

Kinders shared The Guardian’s Editorial on Google Reader

Kinders and Emily Subden are now friends.

Kinders favorited The world speaks out against climate change on YouTube

10 December 2009 at 03:58

Kinders Al Kinley is not feeling so loved today
10 December 2009 at 17:22

Alex McCarthy ✯
Aww. *hug* for Kinders!
10 December 2009 at 18:02

Zoe Richmond
There’s no ‘like’ button next to your name. But if there was I’d press it.
10 December 2009 at 22:16

Gabriella Hood
you are loved.
11 December 2009 at 00:21

Kinders Al Kinley
Thanks dudes, you rule. I feel loved again today. Part of me doesn’t want to leave here. Part of me can’t wait.
11 December 2009 at 22:58

Kinders Al Kinley feels loved today; have had a splendid day.
11 December 2009 at 22:51

Angelique Orr, James Maroney and Natalie Brook like this.

Kinders Al Kinley Week1 of CoP15 can best be described by the word “extremes”: most here have been shouted and sworn at, applauded, praised; felt elated, demotivated, frustrated, moved, excited, helpless; cried, fought, laughed and hugged. Despite some hellish days, I feel inspired and privileged to be here at this intensely significant… event. Excited for march/party tomorrow, and week2 to close a fascinating and amazing year.
11 December 2009 at 22:54

Kinders Al Kinley Finds that awful days are always overpowered by the awesomeness of the things I have the privilege of being involved in #CoP15
11:04 PM Dec 11th, 2009

Kinders Al Kinley owes apologies to lots of people for being a miserly grumpyguts today. #CoP15
13 December 2009 at 22:11

Guppi Bola
Chin up Al, coffee tomorrow? xx
13 December 2009 at 22:22

Kinders Al Kinley
Crikey, when?! Be nice if we get a chance :)
14 December 2009 at 06:27

Adam Tomkinson
Apology accepted.
14 December 2009 at 14:18

Sibylle Shacklebolt I’ve just seen people got arrested for protesting (what on earth). Are you okay?
13 December 2009 at 23:03

Kinders Al Kinley
Yeps. Only about 0.07% of demonstrators got arrested. The other 100,000 had an amazing time!
14 December 2009 at 06:26

Kinders Al Kinley is saying a fond goodbye to the #BellaCenter. I’ve gone from being UN invited today to uninvited tomorrow. #CoP15
14 December 2009 at 16:53

Kinders Al Kinley Just watched probably my last ever Fossil of the Day at #CoP15
14 December 2009 at 17:36

Kinders Al Kinley Proud to have been a Bali bear today
Save the humans
14 December 2009 at 21:58

Leisa Ashton MacLellan
I wondered if that was you- saw it on BBC- you are famous!!!!
15 December 2009 at 20:20

Kinders Al Kinley can’t believe it’s nearly all over.
16 December 2009 at 11:51

Kinders Al Kinley In our hotel, not allowed into #CoP15, it’s snowing and Dire Straits are playing. 2009 is nearly over. Feeling decidedly melancholy.
16 December 2009 at 13:51

Kinders Al Kinley signed the biggest petition in history. Join me. http://bit.ly/54XhuI #CoP15
17 December 2009 at 09:15

Kinders Al Kinley has the official pop mob sore throat
18 December 2009 at 09:01

Kinders Al Kinley Reading Obama’s speech before he speaks it. Bizzare. #CoP15
18 December 2009 at 11:43

Clare Fisher
loving your updates Al, have you got a blackberry or you permanently on the comp?!! oxfam xmas party last night we missed all you guys …
18 December 2009 at 14:49

Kinders Al Kinley
My routine is kind of, run somewhere, check emails, run somewhere else, check emails, run somewhere else… How was the party? Bummer to have missed it (third year running) but things are pretty exciting here too!
18 December 2009 at 22:29

Kinders Al Kinley featured on Have I Got News For You today… #CoP15
18 December 2009 at 21:25

Thom Wyatt
Which part? Were you a bear?
19 December 2009 at 04:34

Kinders Al Kinley
Yep :)
19 December 2009 at 09:43

Thom Wyatt
I’d wondered. You back in the uk now?
19 December 2009 at 18:23

Kinders Al Kinley
Nope. Some point this week, TBC
20 December 2009 at 10:39

Kinders Al Kinley My first Oxfam blog post :)
Being Nicolas Sarkozy | Oxfam International Blogs
Very few people have the opportunity to be the President of the French Republic in their lifetime, but today I was lucky enough to take up the mantle, at least for half an hour and be Nicolas Sarkozy.
18 December 2009 at 21:48


Kinders Al Kinley It’s all over. #CoP15
19 December 2009 at 09:49

Kinders Al Kinley Relief that exhausting #CoP15 is over now overtaken by bitter sadness that the deal is a massive #fail
19 December 2009 at 10:09

Kinders Al Kinley is coming home from #CoP15 early. I may have never been so happy
19 December 2009 at 16:19

Kinders Al Kinley necessarily got a lot off his chest last night. Time for 2010, I think.
20 December 2009 at 10:48

Kinders likes Juliana Russar’s photo.

Kinders and Becky Huinker are now friends.

Kinders Al Kinley met Kumi Naidoo at the airport #CoP15
20 December 2009 at 17:11

Kinders and Rully Prayoga are now friends.
Kinders and Christian Gade Bjerrum are now friends.
Kinders and Brian Cugelman are now friends.
Kinders and Bert Maerten are now friends.

Kinders Al Kinley CoP15 as told by Dr Zeuss…
Copenhagen
21 December 2009 at 10:37

Kinders Al Kinley Back home and already bored silly. Anyone fancy an all-delegation meeting?
21 December 2009 at 14:03

Kinders Al Kinley
Video: When George Monbiot met Boris Johnson … | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Environmental columnist George Monbiot challenges Boris Johnson’s green policies in an extraordinary meeting of world mayors in Copenhagen
21 December 2009 at 18:05

Kinders and Jason Wojciechowski are now friends.
Kinders and Anna A K Hinrichsen are now friends.

Kinders shared 3 items (1, 2, 3) on Google Reader

Kinders and Gabriel Leon Wulff are now friends.

Kinders Al Kinley hasn’t been this excited about Christmas since his age was a single-figure.
23 December 2009 at 10:23

Nidhi Shrivastava likes this.

Kinders Al Kinley spent the night having nightmares that people from work were calling incessantly to ask about their hotel in Mexico… :|
25 December 2009 at 13:12

Bert Maerten likes this.

Frida Eklund
Mwrahahahaha!!!
25 December 2009 at 20:23

Kinders shared Letters: Copenhagen: time to stop the finger-pointing on Google Reader

Kinders Al Kinley
A Message to World Leaders from Global Youth
Following the failure and collapse of the 2009 Copenhagen UN climate summit, the international youth climate movement has the following message for world leaders: “You’re not done yet. And neither are we.”

26 December 2009 at 10:46

Kinders Al Kinley La rana. La mariposa. La vaca. Lo siento.
27 December 2009 at 09:27

Frida Eklund
Mexico will be a breeze mate.
27 December 2009 at 11:44

Kinders Al Kinley
Mexico will be a long way from wherever I am in December!
27 December 2009 at 14:57

Kinders Al Kinley has had a lovely relaxing Christmas but is ready to go home tomorrow
28 December 2009 at 19:36

Kinders Al Kinley kind of misses Copenhagen…
30 December 2009 at 18:59

Frida Eklund
me too!!
31 December 2009 at 15:35

Kinders Al Kinley
What’s wrong with us?
31 December 2009 at 16:10

Posted in Climate change, Oxfam, Personal, Politics, Travel1 comment

2009/2010 Thursday, December 31st, 2009

2009 has been a strange and brilliant year for me. It started with an ending, when Katie broke up our four-year relationship. It was devastating, yet entirely the right thing to do, and, as it turned out, 2009 was the best year of my life (so far). I’ve visited the US, Holland, Scotland, Spain and Denmark; I’ve walked from Petersfield to Brighton. And in between each of these I’ve been in this beautiful city of mine, Oxford. I’ve befriended people from six of seven continents. I’ve discovered a hundred things about myself - my sexuality, my dreams, my fears. I’ve had my mind read and my pulse stopped and drunk the best cup of tea I’ve ever had (all in the space of an hour). I’ve chased thieves down the alleyways of Barcelona and danced at Parliament Square. People keep telling me I’ve been on BBC News as well as Have I Got News For You.

I had two resolutions in 2009 - the first of my life. One was to go permanently vegetarian. This I succeeded in. The other was to write Katie a letter every week. It would have been strange to have succeeded at that one.

I have lots of resolutions for 2010. My friends tell me they’re all cliches, but they’re sincere. Most of them are just things I’ve been meaning to do and the opportunity to do them seems to have arisen at the end of this year, but I am resolved to do them nonetheless:

Go vegan
I’ve been steering myself towards veganism since July and, despite a massive lapse in December (due to trips to Copenhagen and my parents’ - shh don’t judge me), I hit veganism at the beginning of November. In 2010, though, it’s going to become permanent, and I’m going to throw myself into learning to cook well.

Read
Ever since I got hold of The Wire I’ve stopped reading in bed, which means that - apart from policy papers and invoices - I’ve stopped reading altogether; and I miss it. I made a point of finishing The Wire before Copenhagen so that, when I returned, I could get back to the habit of burying myself in a book before snuggling down for the night.

Get creative
I used to take photographs and record music and write stories and I don’t any more. So let’s have some more of that again.

Learn Spanish
You know, it’s the second most spoken language in the world. And it’ll set me up nicely for COP16 in Mexico (estoy bromeando).

Run a/two marathon/s
Not really a resolution as I committed to it months ago, but running both the Paris and Berlin marathons is my Big Challenge for 2010.

Find someone to cuddle
2009 was the first year of my adult life that i was single and it was immensely good for me in ways I wouldn’t have predicted. But now I’m ready to find someone to cuddle again.

No flying
I took 10 flights in 2009 - 9 of them after beginning my job in the Climate Change Campaign team… So this year I’m taking none.

Keep campaigning
I’ve made so many friends and found so much meaning in campaigning this year, and I can only see that passion and energy growing in 2010. I’d like to start physically campaigning on more than just climate change.

It’s going to be an exciting year…

Here’s a meme about 2009, for those who are interested.

Posted in Art and photographs, Books, Climate change, Oxfam, Oxford, Paris Marathon 2010, Personal, Politics, Trailwalker 2009, Travel, USANo comments

I can’t believe this is the first time I’m writing about this. Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Today is Blog Action Day, and this year’s topic is climate change. That means that this post is one of over 7,000 in over 130 countries, with a readership of over 11,268,800 readers, writing about this issue today.

I first became engaged in the problem of climate change when I was offered a job fighting it. In fact, even that engagement happened pretty gradually - since it didn’t happen because it was necessary: it happened because it was unavoidable. Every day I’m exposed to two quite polar things: the evidence of the effects that climate change is already having on thousands of people every day; and the massive, powerful and inspiring movement working to combat it.

One of the researchers at Oxfam told me a story about workers at a banana plantation in Malawi. The plantation had been washed away by floods, and many of the (ex)workers, who were mostly women, headed to the towns to prostitute themselves, which of course led in turn to greater rates of HIV and AIDS. It’s astonishing just how broad and significant the far-reaching effects of climate change are. Even in my home town of Felixstowe businesses have been swept straight from the shore.

We have an opportunity not just to solve the problems of the present, but also to shape a beautiful future on an unprecedented scale

What’s equally strange, frustrating and wonderful is that the solutions to this problem are both readily available and very exciting. We have an opportunity not just to solve the problems of the present, but also to shape a beautiful future on an unprecedented scale. Finding and executing answers to climate change means creating new jobs, new communities, new businesses, new friendships, locally, nationally, internationally. It is a chance for a fresh start. And just as exciting - although we would prefer it to be unnecessary - is the movement campaigning for those with the power to support us in this fresh start to do so.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to meet - and be part of - another group in this movement: the UK Youth Climate Coalition. It was moving and motivating to spend several days with a group of people so selflessly and passionately dedicated to doing something so very vital. It was also reassuring: I feel secure in the knowledge that there are so many intelligent, brilliant people fighting for a clean and safe future for us all.

I would absolutely encourage you to do whatever you can, whatever you want to, to help combat the biggest problem humanity has ever faced

Getting involved can mean anything from civil disobedience to signing a petition, from climate camping or scaling the houses of parliament to painting your face blue or just dancing your socks off. But it is immensely rewarding to know that you have been involved in the fight for a better future for everyone, and I would absolutely encourage you to do whatever you can, whatever you want to, to help combat the biggest problem humanity has ever faced. This December, decision makers from around the world will gather in Copenhagen to decide what action to take on climate change. We need to ensure that the deal they come to is fair - insisting those most responsible for climate change support those least responsible, who are also those hit first and hardest - ambitious enough to tackle the problem, and binding. Now is our best - and perhaps last - chance to act.

Below are some great videos, and if you want to find out more I would recommend visiting the websites 350 and TckTckTck.

Posted in Books, Climate change, Films, Oxfam, Oxford, Personal, Politics, Science and technologyNo comments

Power Shift ‘09 Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
A round up of coverage so far:

Friends on Facebook will probably already be tired of hearing about Power Shift, so I’m not going to say too much about it, rather let the coverage speak for itself. What I would like to say is that, not entirely - but predominantly - because of the event, I had one of the best weekends ever (it was also great thanks to sambucca, two shut-ins and a magician who read my mind and [literally] made my pulse stop). It’s unspeakably inspiring to spend several days in the company of a few hundred brilliant people who are all sincerely motivated and committed to such a monumental cause. The crew - all under 25 years old - who put together the program proved themselves to be a group of talented, innovative, passionate people who really are going to change the world with the support of the thousands that they teach and energise.

Here’s the video:

Posted in Climate change, Personal, PoliticsNo comments

Why I’ll vote next time Thursday, June 11th, 2009

I don’t like writing contentious posts - I absolutely shy away from any sort of conflict, although I cope with it far better online than I do in person - but I do like it when a debate begins on my blog. Maybe I should be disagreeable more often.

*The question in full: if in an election 8,145 votes are cast to nominate 2 winning candidates out of 10 total candidates, how many total permutations are there (e.g. 8145-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 or 8143-1-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0), and in how many of those permutations does Candidate A win the second seat by earning only one more vote than another candidate (e.g. 8000-73-72-0-0-0-0-0-0-0)? Feel free to have a go yourself…

In my constituency Green and Labour won seats. Labour’s seat would have been Green had the latter won just 13 more votes. Guess how many spoiled votes there were? But that’s just a statistical coincidence that I found amusing; it would be just as relevant to say that if 7 Labour voters had voted Green the latter would have taken the seat.

Anyway. The statement I wanted to make is that, despite the statistical unlikelihood (which I’ve set my big brother Ed, an actuarial mathemetician, the challenge of calculating)* of the party I would have supported tying for a seat or losing by one vote, the possibility is worth considering, and next time I’ll vote. Abstention was a gamble that - this time - paid off, but next time maybe a further 11 people will cast a vote…

Posted in Oxford, Personal, PoliticsNo comments

An open letter to Andrew Smith, MP for East Oxford Thursday, June 4th, 2009

The second paragraph of this is a condensed version of my previous blog post, Why I don’t vote. The rest is, I think, worth reading!

Dear Mr. Smith,

I’m taking the 30 minutes that it would have taken me to vote to tell you why I’m not going to vote, and to tell you what I’m going to do to prove the hypocrisy of those who berate me for my decision before, having ticked their boxes and delivered their ballots, doing nothing for any political movement until the next election comes around.

My vote is worthless. My one solitary check won’t tip any balances. Nothing will change, for better or worse, when I cast my vote. Yes, if everybody had this attitude, the effect would be significant - but I’m not most people; I’m one person. I won’t spoil my ballot, firstly because my refusal to vote isn’t a matter of protest and secondly because my vote of no confidence in the system would be as insignificant as my vote for any party. And, despite the trite retort of some that, if I don’t vote, I have no right to complain, whoever becomes MP for my constituency will still be paid by me to represent me - regardless of whether I voted for them, voted against them or didn’t vote at all.

More importantly, what really upsets me is that the media and the government - seemingly genuinely believing themselves - treat our vote as if it is the greatest and most important, and indeed only, tool we have to make ourselves heard. I can (and have, and will continue to) have far more political impact by writing to my MP, petitioning, protesting, donating and even simply debating with my peers than I could ever have with my futile vote - but we are coaxed into believing that our ballot papers give us some semblance of power, thus deterring us from becoming politically active in meaningful, tangible, worthwhile ways, and into vilifying those who choose not to vote, even if they are far more active in other ways.

This year, I’m going to write to my MP once a month, every month, to tell them what I think about the current issues, to ask questions, to challenge and of course also to congratulate. On top of this I will continue to petition, protest, donate and debate. I will show that the choice not to vote is only one of apathy when coupled with a choice not to be active in any other ways - and that my decision to forgo this activity is the most insignificant political decision I will ever make.

So, you can see, the time that I would have otherwise spent voting has been spent formulating a plan on how, for the next year, I can have significantly more influence, involvement in and impact on local and national politics than anyone who drops their political inspiration at the voting booth. You’ve probably realised by now that this open letter is more for the benefit of my critics than yourself, although it will at least give you some advance notice that, if you continue to be my representative, I’ll be communicating with you often for the next year.

I’m looking forward to it!

Thanks,
Kinders Kinley
Oxford

Some people seem to mistake my attitude to voting as activism in itself. It’s not. It’s just timesaving. I’m not trying to persuade anybody not to vote, any more than I’m trying to persuade them not to spin around in a circle balancing jelly on their heads. Knock yourself out!

Edit: Read Mr. Smith’s reply.

Posted in Letters to Parliament, Personal, Politics7 comments

Why I won’t vote Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

This prompted some interesting discussions online and in the pub, so I’m leaving it here for posterity. Despite the fact that I was wrong.

No matter what my misgivings about democracy, or any nation’s pretensions towards it, I’m all for being a politically active citizen. If you’re passionate about something, of course you should speak out about it - online, in public, and certainly to your MP - who receives their salary from, represents, and ultimately ought to answer to, you. I have done these things and will continue to do so. But I won’t be voting on Thursday, and here’s why: because my vote is worthless. My one solitary check won’t tip any balances. Nothing will change, for better or worse, when I cast my vote.

Here follow the three objections that may have just popped into your head (I base this on the fact that they’re the three comments people always make when I tell them my opinion on voting).

See also:
• Why vote? Comment is Free
• Criticisms of democracy Wikipedia

If everybody did that…
Yes, if most people chose not to vote, it would dramatically affect the result of an election and just about anybody could get into power. But I’m not most people; I’m one person, and, while perhaps there’s a chance that one or two of you might also decide not to vote as you read this, my opinions aren’t well-distributed enough to influence so many people that the balance of any ballot shifts; and my single vote is even less significant than the cumulative votes of the people I have a chance of persuading to act differently - so why would I waste my time casting it? Elections are a farce to sedate those people who can be coaxed into believing that their ballot paper gives them some semblance of power, and thus deter us from becoming politically active in meaningful, tangible, worthwhile ways.

So why not spoil your ballot?
For the same reason that I’m not voting: what would be the point? My vote of no confidence in the system is as insignificant as my vote for any party.

If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain.
Or, as the European Parliament website petulantly puts it, “If you don’t vote, don’t complain,” as if my refusal to participate in such a futile activity ought to mean also forgoing my voice as a citizen who still suffers or benefits from the decisions made by those in power. Why? Regardless of whether I voted for them, voted against them or didn’t vote at all, my MP is still paid by me to represent me to the greater powers of the nation. On the list of actions you can take that have any political impact, voting comes last. If you want to ban people from complaining, those who do nothing more than vote should come long before those who are active in other, far more effective ways.

Obviously, taking the time to vote isn’t a big sacrifice, so I’m quite willing to be persuaded that my attitude is wrong. Either way, I want to hear your thoughts! Also, check out the follow up.

Posted in Politics12 comments

The right not to eat animals deserves support but I will never respect or support your right to do the same. Friday, May 8th, 2009

The statement, “I respect and support your right not to eat animals, therefore you should respect and support my right to eat animals” is a nonsense, no more reasonable than “I respect and support your right not to rape children, therefore you should respect and support my right to rape children”. It should be obvious that the right to do something and the right not to do the same thing are not comparable. (They are opposites!)

My choice not to eat meat is not contentious. Its most negative effect is on those who make a living from those who eat meat, and by such an argument I might as well be chastised for not engaging prostitutes, or chain smoking. The choice to eat meat is contentious. Even those who feel absolutely justified in doing so must acknowledge that, supporting the confinement, suffering and death of a conscious creature, the issue is at the very least contentious.

That is why the right not to eat animals deserves support but I will never respect or support your right to do the same.

This post was inspired by the comments, including some of my own, on The Guardian’s “We should care because humans and animals are different”.

Posted in Politics6 comments

An open letter to various members of parliament and the UN Saturday, June 21st, 2008

endmoreinfo
Dear [various members of parliament and the UN],

I am in despair at the state of affairs in Zimbabwe. Every day the media reports the most horrific, vile events - and that is all I see: reportage. Neither the public nor the government appears to be taking any action, even appears to show any sympathy. As a politically active citizen, I want to encourage people to support those who are trying to save lives and and livelihoods in Zimbabwe; I want to encourage people to rally governments worldwide and the UN to take action against a despicable regime that, under an obviously fictitious veil of democracy, has become nothing more than a sick and desperate dictatorship. But I see no outlet for this. I see little public or institutional interest, and this is why I despair. We are witnessing the perpetration of the most evil abuses and doing nothing. There are a few petitions with barely scores of signatures; but given the way the government treats the issue - occasionally releasiing statements that are nothing more than a wagging finger, condemning, but not making any attempt to cease, Zanu PF’s actions - it is no surprise to me that people are either ignorant, unmotivated or incapable of responding actively. As a representative of the public, please take every opportunity you get to raise this issue to your peers, who are in a position to spread awareness and encourage action, since it is an issue of extreme importance: it is an issue of people’s rights, futures and even lives.

It is one sad thing to read these events in a newspaper; it is far more shameful and frightening to think that our supposedly socially-advanced government is watching and doing nothing to stop them.

Yours sincerely,

Kinders Kinley

Please feel free to copy and/or alter the text of this letter, sign it and send it to anybody you think appropriate.

Posted in Letters to Parliament, PoliticsNo comments

Dear George, Saturday, June 14th, 2008

David Edgar, in his open letter to George Bush today, made one particularly interesting point that had never struck me:

One of the ironies of the Manichean, “clash of civilisation” model, which has split the world on your watch, is that the very aspects of literal, Wahhabist Islam that westerners have proper worries about - the death penalty, the subordination of women, homophobia, censorship, aggressive warmaking, the divine authority of leaders - are aspects you don’t have that much trouble with.

A real update about fascinating me coming soon, I promise.

Posted in Politics4 comments