Kagey

I’ve been in India for the last month so I appologise for the lack of posting. However I’ve got some things to show and tell so come back soon!

Keep smiling!

 

I’ve started seeing more DVLA ’don’t pay your tax you don’t use your car’ wheel clamps on the street.  There doesn’t seem to have been much of an outcry at this rather draconian response to non-payment of road fund licence. Surprising since following a clamping the DVLA move fairly quickly to crushing the vehicle.

The motoring organisations seem to support this heavy handed approach taring all non payers as criminals who need to be removed from the roads and or society. In days gone by I can imagine being in the situation of being without the cash to tax a vehicle but having to use it till the money comes in. An offence perhaps but does this kind of poverty warrant the seizure and destruction of a vehicle and further impoverishment?

And what is the natural progession of this kind of ‘name and shame’ justice? How about non payment of council tax, will offenders return home to find themselves barred from their home? Will they have days to find the cash or see their home auctioned to pay back tax and charges? It seems possible.

Mostly the people who clamour for such measures are the least likely in society to ever find themselves prey to the attention of a ballif. If they only knew!

Not so long ago I rented my home to someone who should have paid the council tax as part of the agreement, but he missed a couple of payments. He paid the arears but it was too late, the debt had been placed into the hands of the council’s debt collection agency. I became involved in an attempt to resolve the situation but I quickly realised that I was actually dealing with licenced extortionists. A £300 bill quickly became a £500 bill and rising! The baliff was little more than a bad mouthed thug with the legal right to enter my home and remove anything of value and all the time the bill got bigger. He made his point very forcefully that unless he received money he would be back to seize goods whoever they belonged to. It was a nightmare.

Thankfully I identified a legal error in their proceedings and was able to stop them in their tracks but it was a close run thing.  And as there was no outstanding monies the case was closed.

It was an education in just how frightening debt can be and how unjust the system is for people who find themselves rightly or wrongly in the ‘recovery’ system. It’s also an example of how errors are made and how devastating the consequences can be.

It made me realise just how without compassion we have become for those who cannot afford to keep up the payments.

Benefit Culture live, just like you want it …Regular!

We’ve teamed up with The Sanctuary Cella to bring you a shot of our favourite mix every month. Starting Next Month we’ll be at our favourite venue delivering nights that have become our trademark. Great music to change lives. Starting Sunday 21st October with further dates on 23rd November and a special Eve of the Eve date on Sunday 23rd December.

Check out the line-ups soon!

Latest – Every last Sunday in the month for 2008. From Sunday January 27th Benefit Culture Sundays will be the Last Sunday of every month so it’s going to very easy to remember!

But actually quite a giant leap for for at least 3 people!

It was a brilliant night and a fantastic birthday present. The money we raised will buy an equally amazing gift for three lucky people with help from The Cambodia Trust. For every £100 we raise buys life changing treatment like a prosthetic limb for a landmine victim or treatment for polio.

And there’ll be more… On Saturday the 27th October together with our friends that have become the force behind Benefit Culture we’ll be delivering a biggie in the shape of Voices for the Forest Check it out!

And coming very soon a new monthly gig called Benefit Culture ‘Friends,’ the very essence of where we started in the place we started, The Sanctuary Cella. Watch out for dates!

And if you feel like making it more amazing stick your dosh in here!

Arctic Energy Summit – Anchorage, Alaska

Next month they’ll be meeting with glee to pick over the carcass.  It’s not quite dead yet but once it is there’ll be plenty for the hyenas to squabble over.

Despite the fact that it’s demise is a dire warning of their own mortality they seem completely enthralled by the prospect of more. More. The body in question is the Artic and the cause for excitement is it’s melting. Beneath its once impervious skin is the flesh they desire, oil, once elusive but now just a few degrees away. Somehow it seems to have escaped them that it’s this thirst for oil that is melting the ice that will drown the Gulf Stream and flood the powerhouses of their commerce and our well-being; to create chaos.

Yet for all the dire warnings of continued fossil fuel use the addicts in denial want another fix. They’ve brought in their favourite experts who continue to tell them that all the fuss is hoax, experts who it’s seems are addicted to a different kind of hit; attention and perhaps hard cash.

The usual pushers the oil and gas moguls will be there, splashing the cash and pressing the flesh. British Petroleum within months of spilling oil over the Alaskan coastline are there to promote sustainability, safeguarding the environment and protecting rural communities.

The inhabitants of Alaska are themselves at the sharp end of climate change and experiencing rapid changes which, are decimating its forests and undermining much of what it sits on, permafrost. Permafrost the frozen store of methane which if released will further push the climate towards an irreversible tipping point.

Still if you fancy a trip to Alaska before ice turns black then the Artic Energy Summit are offering Early Birds discounts till September. Best beat the Polar Oil Dogs!

A Couple of weeks ago I joined Tim Vireo Keating on one of his city forages in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.

Tim leads regular events in New York highlighting the abundance that is all around us.  His passion is for the wild edibles that nature delivers free to those ready to look and gather.

We didn’t need to look too far.  As if to make the point we stopped just 10 yards inside park gate.  Here with the sound of traffic still clear Tim pointed out an impressive variety of common edible plants to be picked for free. Weeds to many of us these plants are packed with nutrients and can help to cleanse and detoxify the body. Venturing further into the park we picked and ate leaves straight from a Sasafrass tree, delish! Then we harvested a few young roots from its multitude offshoots to make Sasafrass tea to accompany our dinner that night.

In a break from gathering Tim explained some of his passion for foraging. He loves bringing people into the park to show them an alternative to the idea that the earth’s resources are running out. A view he believes is the misconception that leads us to compete for dominance over food, energy and land. His experience has led him to observe that in functioning communities when resources are plentiful the impulse is to share. We just need to see what’s under our noses. He recalled how on finding a sack of perfectly good but out of date tomatoes on the sidewalk his first thought was how he could make a fantastic spaghetti sauce to feed all his chums. “When nature gives in abundance we need to find ways to receive it, adapting and living according to its cycle. It’s way of thinking many of us have lost, he says. We’ve been conditioned to demand what we want, when we want it, from the earth rather than accepting what it gives in plenty.” With bags full of greens he set off to add his harvest to the dinner in the making at ‘Grub’ a community dinner in Brooklyn.

I joined them later, a friendly bunch of anarchic kids in an industrial unit madly decorated with recycled materials and smelling of great food. Together with Tim’s wild edibles there was a banquet of food lifted from the bins of grocery stores, out of date but cooked with love and tasting delicious!

Watch the short film from Grub ! “First the Dishes, then the Revolution!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4eOSAQKDc4

If you’re in New York I recommend you join one of Tim’s forages contact him on info@rainforestrelief.org

I was going to write another piece on the lunacy of global expansion and the irrelevance of another G8 meeting. But to be honest what is the bloody point?! They certainly aren’t listening to what we think so I’m up our allotment if you want me…

Last night we picked these babies on our patch, strawberries that taste like god made them … and perhaps he did. We didn’t plant them; they were there when we got our allotment. We cleared some choking weeds and fed them well-rotted horseshit and they taste like … strawberry! An explosion of complex flavours that make you savour every last after taste.

So in the words of Titus Oats, “I’m going out, I may be a while.”

(Written before the server crash… more soon)

Sign the petition to say no to deforestation!

There are times when an image changes our understanding, speaks a thousand words.

I came across this graph the other day (1). It shows the carbon emissions of the major polluting countries verses the carbon released through deforestation. The image speaks for itself.

Today and every day thousands of hectares of ancient forest are trashed. When just one hectare of forest is cleared up to 200 tons of carbon is released into the atmosphere (2).

Something which, when intact is a positive carbon sink becomes through it’s destruction a hugely negative contributor to climate change. Carbon emissions from forest destruction out weigh even what the US pumps out.

It would be too simplistic to suggest that “Avoided Deforestation” could completely mitigate the emissions of the US or China but one thing is clear. Cutting down ancient forests to grow palm oil for bio-fuels is folly of the highest order. Yet this is the outcome of the west’s current affair with so called green fuels.

We need quick, cheap solutions to mitigate our impact upon the atmosphere. Clearly the first on the list is to stop cutting down the very thing that’s saving our arses. Extending the World Bank’s BioCarbon Credits scheme to include Avoided Deforestation would provide the incentive to developing nations and landowners to protect their forests and our climate.

Sign the petition to Say No to Deforestation

(1.) http://www.environmentaldefense.org/documents/5051_CF%20Forestry%20article1.pdf
(2.) http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1031-deforestation.html

This week a friend sent me an email petition to bring an end to the cruel Chinese fur trade. It contained a link to an undercover video of incredible cruelty. So shocking is it that I couldn’t bring myself to subject my friends to the images… I kept the petition alive by sending it on to the organiser. If you wish to see what is behind the trade in fur trimmings then watch this

If you would rather not see dogs skinned alive then please help the campaign to stop it. Make a donation to PeTA

After a few weeks of soul searching and finger pointing by the media it’s clear that the nation is tainted by the slave trade.

From royalty and church to the benefactors of the industrial revolution we carry the guilt like a genetic trait. How we deal with the legacy of our genetics is the measure of our development, we can despise these historical lines within and without ourselves but what is done is done.

Today slavery is alive and well and permeates much of our lives. Modern slavery is under the wrappers of the cheap commodities we’re so addicted to. Next weekend for instance millions will devour tons of chocolate in the form of Easter eggs with much of it still contaminated by forced labour.

The best appolgy for the past is personal action today. Ask questions, buy fair trade, Resist Free Trade!