The Big Idea

Scenes of Kernow

2011-11-21T13:22:00.000-08:00

Summer may seem long-gone as the year runs towards its close, but the Summer I spent in my usual snappy way has yielded something to show of the scenery of Cornwall, which I hope the browser can enjoy in the form of this slideshow, here in The Big Idea sequence. Who knows where the time goes? I hope that for you the time goes pleasantly, with something worth appreciating.

2010-10-14T02:51:00.000-07:00

memphasis@btopenworld.com

Follow the link to www.paypal.com and subscribe via the above email address. If you would supply a forwarding address, the disks you order can be sent to you within 28 days of placing an order.

2010-10-14T01:35:00.000-07:00

Terminal atrophy

2010-07-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

We are an Innovation Nation. We are also currently a ConDemnation and like it or not, no one voted for the ConDem coalition, no one wants their obnoxious Agenda and no one will mourn the hastening of their ignominious departure. That said, they might redeem themselves with good works instead of the Damnation they have it in them to bring upon the heads of all of us. One worthy action which I seek is out-lined in my submission on Parliamentary Prejudice. If this shower cannot set their own house in order then the task before them of setting the country in order is way beyond them, and even at this early stage the signs are there that the time approaches for them to throw in the towel and admit there is no Mandate for them to govern if there is no electoral support for their project. All else is of passing relevance here. Emancipate the disenfranchised and accede to the wishes of the electorate and then a mandate can show through. Without it, puppetry and shadow-boxing is a diversion but no substitute for bowing to the will of the people in fresh elections. That is who it is for.

Coming home to roost

2010-04-25T02:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.wereyouthere.com/individual-topic-post.php?topicid=879&category=3&tpostid=1055

Please follow the link. You might be inspired by what you find!

The story of our family is one of exile. Two world wars dominated the social experience of successive generations in the 20th century, and my family was no exception. Exactly how we came to be diametrically the opposite side of the world from our parents in my early years, is the story I have to tell.

My paternal Grand-father had a bad experience. He was at the Somme in the First World War, was gassed, by our own side, and invalided out. His breathing never recovered properly, and TB took him later in life, at the age of barely 50 years. My Father and Uncle were fortunate to have a Father but sorely disadvantaged with my Grand-father's reduced capacity to work. The welfare state was still a long way off. My Father knew full well what had brought his Father down, and vowed always to settle differences by peaceful means. As the country prepared to do it all again in 1939, my Father actively sought to reconcile the gulf between the factions which took Europe and the world back into war. My Father and Mother met while they were both engaged in this important work of reconciliation.

As a School teacher, my Father converged with many of the young people evacuated from Britain's cities and had a caring role for many who were away from their homes, their families, parents and the familiar surroundings of their tender years. The life they led in the country was demanding, with shortages and rationing featuring strongly in the lives of everyone in the war years. In 1941 Mother and Father were married and by 1943 a family had started with the birth of my eldest brother.

The subsistence life of growing their own food, the country school and internal exile
came to an abrupt end three years later, when my Father was ousted from his job. The war-time community was broken up, as many of the Evacuees met with even bigger shocks, being deported and cleared from this country as child migrants, to the far corners of the now-defunct Empire, because no one had the energy or application to restore these displaced people to the lost world of their early child-hoods. We were making way for the heroes of World War II, back to inherit the spoils of war and rule the roost of a country which was in big trouble, having been unable to feed its population for years.

Exile was the destiny of our family also, as the grim realities of not being able to feed a family of four and no prospect of work as the armed forces demobilised on a massive scale and swept the country with their demands on the services and their own needs as heroes. We set sail for Papua New Guinea in 1947, a journey of three months and our lives were tangential from the post-war Britain of conquerors, for the next 20 years.

Life for us in New Guinea could not be more different. As the youngest son, I remember fresh fruit straight from the tree, a scorching hot sun year-round, torrential rains, dangerous snakes and crocodiles and huge breakers on the shores of a beach which we had to ourselves on most afternoons. This was all to come to an end, as we returned to school in England and our parents continued their work for a young Commonwealth territory which was approaching independence.

Post-war Britain was bleakly austere, but change was on the way and the youth of the 60s had their own take on what life could be like. The progenitors of austerity had to make room for a new generation with new aspirations. After an exile of 20 years we were coming home to roost.

Forty years later, the evacuees have also moved on. The child migrants may not know who they are, not know where they came from, but their legacy, though not told, bears down upon those who seized the ascendancy and sent them into exile - a story which each of them has to tell of how their heritage was stolen from them never to be returned. They too are coming home to haunt the perpetrators of war and the self-serving ways of those who won the war but lost the peace.

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Paradise Island

2009-12-16T07:27:00.000-08:00

Rodney Yates

2009-11-17T09:51:00.000-08:00

Rodney Yates

Restorative Relaxation

2009-10-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

A leisurely saunter across Loch Alsh to the Highland Isle of Skye, to Loch Scavaig, Loch Coruisk, the formidable Cuillin Ridge via Elgol, then across to Sligachan and on down to Kyleakin Harbour and the Skye Bridge at sunset.

Over the sea to Skye

2009-07-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

Across the water after the fashion of Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald

20 Years in the life

2009-07-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

A Pictorial Account of the activities of the

Nottingham Schizophrenia Fellowship

who we were ~ where we went ~ what we saw

The Long Road to Social Inclusion

2009-07-04T02:51:00.000-07:00

Campaigning is under way to secure a better deal for the beleaguered multitude of people with discrimination issues in this society, notably the much-stigmatised and marginalised people with first-hand experiences of mental ill-health. If you would like to lend support to the Campaign, please follow the suggested links and sign your endorsements of our activities.

Link to:-

http://hypoconcer.ning.com

Enfranchising the Disenfranchised

2009-06-24T17:48:00.001-07:00

The current sculpting of social policy is based upon the carve-up of Political, Social and Economic power into polarities that ensure government policy is shaped by vested interests and the Economic clout of lobbyists in securing aprotected view-point that then goes on to prescribe and direct policies that manipulate the people who stand outside of these forcing-houses. These excluded people then struggle to have a voice to articulate their distinctive stand-points, and finish up resorting to blogging and remonstrating on sites like this one. Hence the need for this Campaign.
WHO ARE WE THEN?

WE are claimants, the ill, the disabled, the unemployed, the homeless, pensioners, the young, the old, the socially excluded, the designated pariahs of journalistic fame - which includes 'foreigners', 'asylum-seekers', 'ex-offenders', 'schizophrenics', 'anorexics', the 'mentally ill', in fact every brand and shade of religious and cultural persuasion which is not your own!

WHAT DO WE WANT?

We seek and deserve to have a voice in shaping the conditions under which we serve as Citizens of this country, conditions which affect our lives, our futures, our social security, our surivival, our potential-fulfilment capacity and our creativity.

HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET IT?

The Campaign goes under the name of M E M P H A S I S - the Movement EMancipating People to Have A Say In Society. This has particular relevance for people with continuing mental health needs, who bear the brunt of mis-construed and mis-directed negativity towards them. There will be more on the Campaign to de-stigmatise and release these people from current subjections and impositions as the Movement gains momentum and we really start to roll.

We are not a discrete group and our disparate and divergent nature is as it should be. We have in common that we are ostracized and socially excluded, frequently on the instigation of more organised and single-minded Political machines which drive policy and do not consult us when our lives and perspectives are most deeply affected.

WE AIM FOR EMANCIPATION TO SPEAK ON OUR OWN BEHALF ON THE MATTERS WHICH SHAPE OUR LIVES AND OUR FUTURES

This site can be found at:-

http://hypoconcer.ning.com

Rapid Transit Extension Campaign

2009-05-05T05:32:00.000-07:00

STOP OLD TORIES

SAVE OUR TRAMS!

VOTE LABOUR

4th June 2009

Sign below in Support

Protecting the Rain Forest

2009-05-05T01:20:00.001-07:00

The Sumatran Tiger is under threat of Extinction because the people of the region cannot resist obliterating the Rain Forest by logging it into oblivion and destroying the habitat that the rain forest has afforded these Magnificent creatures for 1000s of years.

Man-kind evolved from the rain forest: it is not our right to place these important regions of the world in peril.

As a Strategy for lessening the impact of Climate Change on the Earth, the protection of the rain forest is vitally important. If the governors of the global Economy concentrated more on the defence of these regions and were less obsessed with Quotas for CO2 emissions, then some progress with combating Climate Change could be made.

A Protection Order on all remaining Rain Forests would put us well on the way to saving our planet. Without this, we are ourselves Doomed to Extinction in a short space of time.

The stark message is clear: Protect the Rain Forest!

2009-05-04T15:46:00.000-07:00

A publishing service in the Armoury of the anti-stigma campaign

2009-03-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

I operate BIPED on a voluntary basis. It is a Publishing service for people with mental health needs, working specifically with motivating people to be Positive with their creativity, by improving opportunities and widening scope for furtherance through quality presentation of their Creative writing and Artwork, which is then made available for dissemination. This instils a sense of achievement and improves self-esteem as they explore the possibilities of their chosen medium and develop their aptitudes and skills towards greater achievements.

In encouraging the pursuit of their artistry there is an ulterior objective - that of dislodging the negative and abusive perceptions which are out there, and will persist unless they are displaced by an upsurge of flair and imagination, best encouraged and expressed by ourselves using our strengths, not from the second-hand hearsay and under-currents which denigrate by association and dwell upon our imperfections - which is effectively what stigmatising is.

This Project has small and modest beginnings and needs Sponsorship from charities if it is to grow and extend its activities, and gain momentum to achieve the goals and objectives shared across the board - to remove stigma and discrimination as a factor in the lives of our people. A creative solution which is embedded with our improving prospects as artists exploring new techniques and renewed with fresh inspiration to express something of ourselves through our gifts - and from there to have something from us which we can contribute in our communities - is as a statement from us as well as a reinstatement for us. What could be more Central to objectives within supportive institutions than that?

A publishing service in the Armoury of the anti-stigma campaign

2009-03-16T13:27:00.000-07:00

BIPED

2009-03-16T13:04:00.000-07:00