Can you depend on a stranger?

I just got an email about this scheme in Leeds where I used to live, Short Stop Accommodation.

http://www.lassn.org.uk/short_stop.htm

They run a team of people who open their homes to asylum seekers who are temporarily homeless. A free warm bed and hot meal and a smiling face when your world is turning to shit, or shittier than the normal shit in the middle of shit. Some friends were very active in the Asylum world and told me stories of the horror these people experience. One man was fleeing from the Congo I think, where he'd been tortured for years and seen numerous horrors and believed that his wife and daughter had been raped and killed. He's still in the process of claiming residency and threats he could be sent back. Only to now find that his daughter is alive but being sent to Australia because the UK has said it's quota is full and Australia agreed to accept a small number of children. He would be denied going there, and she denied here. How cruel. The housing situation is desperate too, with the small amount of money they receive to live while being denied the ability to work (or face being detained or worse), it's no wonder a lot of them face homelessness at some point. But in the middle of all that stress, it must be horrible.

I'd like to think that I can depend on a a stranger. And that I can be that stranger too. Would you?

Have you ever been in one of those situations where your life is going to hell and a kind touch is so welcome and surprising. Lifesaving. Or been in a stinking bad mood and the smile and nice comment from a stranger on the bus has lifted the day. I want to be that person. I've certainly learnt who my friends are when it comes to personal and family disasters, especially the prolonged type ones. You come to treasure them, and often it's simple things that make the most difference. Simple things that everyone can give, but don't think they have enough room in their life to do so. Certain boundaries are welcome though, you don't want to give away your soul.

But it sure makes life interesting :D!

I've had people live in my house all my life. It's been a fixture :-). Most of my stories come from those times, when we've taken someone in or some other weird thing has been undertaken to help a near stranger or friend :-). Yes, it got too much, but that's because my mum was ill and was trying to solve all the worlds problems in one go. So, although we do have one guy currently living with us (his wife ended things), not something I can do here. Sooo. I need to move out. Or as soon as I do :p ... strangers here we come.

And if there isn't a scheme in whatever city I end up living in, maybe it'll be worth while starting one. If I end up homeless through some shitty series of events I'd be so grateful and touched if someone did this for me. And if you're in Leeds this January, they are doing more volunteer training, give it a go.

Coffee Time

This takes up a lot of my day. I don't seem to have anything better to do. Even when I am working I find time for this :-). But alongside the coffee (which is more necessity to keep me lucid) are two online newspapers that I don't think I could ever do without. I'm addicted. The second one I'm sort of aspiring to be like, certainly I want to take part in their school maybe next year. Maybe I'll even get those documentary skills. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/ 

The best source of all my news and discussion. I don't agree with everything they write, but it's the closest mainstream paper I'm going to get. And I learn a lot daily. You could too. 

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/

Al Giordano started this a decade ago and it mainly covers South America or the 'Americas'. But that particular blog covers the US politics. Investigative journalism, sigh. And change achieving, double sigh. Working with people, triple sigh. He kept me sane during the American primaries as I was following it during my final year and really having Lots of coffee breaks as I was supposed to be typing away at essays. He has an amazing insight and praxis that is a joy to read and reflect on, especially putting everything else into perspective. It's his journalism school, which is free of course courtesy of donations, that I'm going to work hard to get accepted into next year. Yes, if no other goals, this one really is worth it. If I keep telling myself that ...... ;-). 

Going Through the Formats

Since the theme seems to be things that have inspired me, or at least reached me on some level. Here is Muse and their new album The Resistance.

They're political, of course. But I like the sound. The guy is very talented.

Paranoia is in bloom,
The PR transmissions will resume
They'll try to, push drugs that keep us all dumbed down
And hope that, we will never see the truth around
(so come on)
Another promise, another seed
Another, packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed
And all the, Green belts wrapped around our minds
And endless, red tape to keep the truth confined
(so come on)

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious
so come on

Interchanging mind control
Come let the, revolution takes its toll
If you could, flick the switch and open your third eye
You'd see that
We should never be afraid to die
(so come on)

Rise up and take the power back
It's time the fat cats had a heart attack
They know that their time's coming to an end
We have to unify and watch our flag ascend

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not enslave us
We will be victorious

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They can not control us
We will be victorious

Or another of my favourites, very favourite.

FEELING GOOD

Birds flying high you know how I feel

Sun in the sky you know how I feel

Reeds driftin' on by you know how I feel

It's a new dawn

It's a new day

It's a new life

For me

And I'm feeling good

Fish in the sea you know how I feel

River running free you know how I feel

Blossom in the tree you know how I feel

It's a new dawn

It's a new day

It's a new life

For me

And I'm feeling good

Dragonfly out in the sun

you know what I mean, don't you know

Butterflies all havin' fun you know what I mean

Sleep in peace when day is done

That's what I mean

And this old world is a new world

And a bold world

For me

Stars when you shine you know how I feel

Scent of the pine you know how I feel

Freedom is mine

And I know how I feel

Inspiring film

I want to be a documentary maker. Or at least, it's an idea at the moment when I don't have many that I like. Just no skills, and no idea how to go about getting them. Or what to film, apart from social justice stuff, and education. But maybe it's like this one, you end up in the middle of it, and the inspiration and the subject comes to you.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

If you've not seen this, then prepare to be inspired and gobsmacked. And angry and outraged and amazed.

My Reading List Begins

  
A Doctor in Galilee: The Life and Struggle of a Palestinian in Isreal

A friend bought this for my birthday. So far I've read the first 3 chapters. So many issues, so many social struggles, so much to learn. My bookshelf is growing and although I want to understand the world, and injustice, to not be ignorant, there's too much and I seem to struggle to force myself to read the words, I have a kind of block. So it may take me a while to read. Not that it stops me from recommending things to friends and insisting they read the stuff because it's brilliant. The plight of these people is awful though, and so misunderstood, deliberately spread to be misunderstood and causing such a divide. Anyway, this book is the memories of a doctor from Galilee :). He tells of his time growing up there and working there, trying to put in public health systems and the resistance and discrimination he faces all the way by Israel. One hot topic. But I can't see how people can't be moved by the story when they actually know the details and not just the rhetoric. The introduction, by Jonathan Cook, is heartbreaking though, as he goes through the systemic discrimination and the historic details and policies of Israel.

The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical


This is another amazing book. A random guy, or sort of friend, acquaintance I met once and never likely to meet again gave it to me. Though he was nice, and I wouldn't mind seeing him again. He was living with a guy on my course. He was a printer, and his philosophy in life was simply love I think. That and he got involved in everything, he tried things, he rambled through life, was creative and took part in campaigns. The friend who gave me the above book met him randomly on a protest for No Borders, he'd seen a leaflet calling for help and thought why not, seems something worthy, even though it was at 8am (eek, for me at least). But he's not a christian, even though this book is the sort of journal of a christian. Anyway, it's about a different type of christian or person. A different way to live. And get involved in great things. One of my favourite tales is when he stood up at the Republican conference when G. Bush Jnr. was about to give a speech (before he was elected) and ripped of his suit to reveal a t-shirt with a quote on it, at the same time as shouting the quote (basically don't steal from the poor) before getting dragged of stage and put in a closet by the secret service. He then hilariously overhears them discussing what to do: they can arrest him if he is an activist, so when confronted and they ask him if he is one, he replies no, I'm a prophet. And they have to let him go.

Lots more books that have inspired my last year, but for now, chow.

@ Home

I'm stuck at home. And stuck because I have stuck myself here. My life's empty at the moment. The tumbling has stopped, and I don't know which direction to throw myself off next, just that maybe I'm ready for it to start spinning again. Or maybe not.

I'm 22 and have only a dissertation to complete, start, before I get the letters MA after my name. Not that I'd ever remember to put them there, or care.

I've always pushed myself to move forward, to always have projects on the go. But now I feel like at a dead-end, or rather maybe that the road has completely disintegrated around me, as if it was all an illusion. I need my get-up-and-go. Anyway, my life feels like it's at a beginning, the old is all old, everything about what I was detached. I'm not even crossing the start line though, not even sure if I want to, or what the race is or what I want it to be. I'm drifting. And that's been fine. Just now I'm getting bored.

So what next.