Do you really want to volunteer to work in a library?

I had an enquiry today "Do you have anything on the causes of terrorism?" "I'm sure we do, what kind of information are you looking for, is about a specific place or group?" "I've just told you it's about the causes of terrorism" "Yes I understand that, is it for a project, do you have a reading list?" "Just show me where the books are" So i take the person over to the appropriate shelf and show them several books that might be of interest, they spend 30 seconds glancing at them and then say "This is not what I want", and I say "you need to look at them a bit more, I'm sure that they will help you", and they say "I don't even like books I don't know what  I am doing here, and you are not being very helpful"
By this time I had taken an educated guess that this person didn't know what they were looking for and didn't understand the subject. So I take a different tack and lead them over to Britannica and explained about searching newspaper articles online for relevant information but by this point the person had lost interest and was getting quite hostile. I left them standing in the middle of the room. The whole infuriating episode lasted about 20 minutes.  Five minutes later they approached one of my colleagues and asked them for the very same information and said to them in a voice loud enough for me to hear "the other man wasn't very helpful"!!!!!
It took all my 20+ years experience not to throttle them.

Faversham Boatyards

Standard Quay in Faversham is one the 2 remaining boatyards where Thames Barges can be restored and built. This has been happening for over 300 years but plans are afoot to turn it into some kind of a heritage theme park, for more details see
http://standardquay.com/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/10/standard-guay-thames-barges
This is a beautiful part of England and should be left as it is!

The battle for Wisconsin!

The Unions, with significant public support, are mobilising in Wisconsin against Governor Walker's, a Republican, proposals to end collective bargaining rights and to basically 'bust' the unions. His ideological campaign is being partly funded by the Koch Brothers, billionaire right-wing 'Tea Party' supporters.
The unions are seeing this as the most important battle since 1981 when Reagan took on the air controllers and activists are pouring into the state from all over the US. Over 70,000 marched last Saturday and there are plans for demonstrations in all the state capitals.

This really rings alarm bells for me not just because of our own ideological battle with the Condems but because of the activities of LSSI, the US based private library company, in the UK, who are vehemently anti-union.

Bankers, ethics and Spearmint Rhino!!!

Ah! the cultural life of a banker, the Royal Ballet, an exhibition at the RA, or even maybe a recital at the Wigmore Halls?
No! we find them spending their ill-gotten gains in a jumped up knocking shop

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/20/banking-executive-pay-bonuses

Morally bereft, surely not?

Recession! What Recession?

Isn't it good to know that some companies are making money out of the recession and its not just the usual culprits, pawnbrokers, money-lenders, bookies and banks etc !!!
Fried Chicken shops and the Lottery are both booming, one from the country's obsession with unhealthy, fatty and high salt content foods and the other by stripping money from working class communities.
According to an article in the Guardian recently, for every school in Tower Hamlets there are 42 Fried Chicken outlets and some children in the borough eat 16 takeaways a week. They also say that the borough is considered by nutrionalists to be an 'obesogenic environment', an unfortunate Americanism! Most outlets I know off have £1.99 deals directed mainly at school kids, which provide about as much nutritional benefit to developing minds and bodies as 'agent orange' does as a growth enhancer to plants!
And what do the Condems do to try and tackle the issue, they involve the big food companies in formulating public health policies relating to food quality and safety! A bit like asking Myra Hindley about childcare provision!
The National Lottery is also making a 'killing' out of working class communities, with the average amount being spent by individuals £5 per week, now this doesn't sound a lot but  if you say live in a community of 2,000, that's a lot of money every week, money that could be put in to opening a food bank or credit union.
Now that really would be the 'Big Society'!

The Morning Star's secret football training centre!

I'm off to Kerala and Tamil Nadu in August and as I usually do before travelling I looked on Google Maps to check out the terrain and to my amazement came across http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=kerala+KUMARAKOM&aq=&sll=9.995816,76.26812&sspn=0.038122,0.055017&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Kumarakom,+Kottayam,+Kerala,+India&ll=8.104183,77.418337&spn=0.019162,0.027509&t=h&z=15
I wonder if this is the place that Camus trained to be a goalkeeper?

My Big Fat Stereotypical Wedding!

Gypsies and Irish Travellers in the UK are upset at the portrayal of their community/ies in the Channel4 programme 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding', they say it doesn't show a balanced view of their traditions and culture.
Well of course it doesn't!, it is just another example of the cheap sensationalistic 'freak show' tv that we all seem to crave nowadays!
I wouldn't watch 'Embarrasing Bodies' if i wanted a serious overview of  the current advances in medical science, would I?

The 20 bus to Debden (or "we're on the road to knowhere!)

I sometimes flick the pages of my London A-Z and what ever page my finger stops at that's were I head, I have ended up in Croydon, Pinner, Thamesmead etc. and now Debden.




Debden is an outpost of Loughton, a 1950's housing estate with very little going for it except for the 'De La Rue' print works which prints Bank of England banknotes and  TJ Kelly's Pie and Mash Shop. I, as you can imagine, made a quick exit and walked the five miles to Woodford Green, through some leafy countryside but mainly along busy A roads. Why? I hear you ask, well "because it's there"!

 

Hidden London - 'Soapsuds Island'



Aerial photograph of Kensal and North Kensington, 1938

 London really is an amazing city, you think you know it then you turn a corner!
'Kensal New Town' is wedged between the Grand Union Canal and Goldborne Road, with Kensal Green Cemetery to north and Trellick Tower to the south. Commonly known as 'Soapsuds Islands' in Victorian times due to the abundance of laundries in the area.
The area now is mostly made up of council housing and an interesting open space called the "Emslie Horniman's Pleasence' which contains the 'Voysey Garden', named after the architect who designed it.
A fascinating area with a real sense of itself!

Camden consults community!

Camden Council is cutting £1.6m from its library budget, this is two years after it cut the library workforce by 40%. They are consulting with library users and have given them access to selective data in order that they can come to an informed decision (sorry i would laugh but its too serious!), there is one slight problem, and i quote
"We are not consulting on whether to make these savings at all, or whether to make less savings from libraries"
the choices include decreasing library opening hours by 40%, closing the central library in Swiss Cottage, or closing some of the smaller branch libraries, what a choice!
This is the new style of community consultation, holding a sham consultation to try and legitimise a decision that has already been made!
Oh! and by the way Camden spent £1m on consultants last year and £3m on temporary staff!
I have only one thing to say to Camden's library users, and to library users everywhere, and that is "Boycott consultations they are not worth the paper they are written on"


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The 'Time Out Speaker's Corner'

In this weeks 'Time Out' 'books editor Chris Moss writes a vitriolic attack, "don't cry over library closures" on what he sees to be the middle class, liberal bandwagon of campaigning against library closures.
And I quote "What are libraries for? Well, from the scene at 'mine', they're for reading newspapers, keeping warm, fucking about on the internet, renting films, killing time and getting the kids out of the house"
"In the main, public libraries are a dust-ridden Victorian project lumbering into the twenty-first century that gives the impression that the underclass mind is being serviced, while the middle class lies in bed with its hardback and soft notions"
He also goes onto say that he couldn't find any good books on 'modernist architecture' or 'Brazil' and that the shelves were full of dross such as "Catherine Cookson and Agatha Christie", elitist moi?
Funnily enough he appears to be happy to see councils cut the public services he doesn't approve off, but he doesn't find it ironic that his council gave him "an allotment two weeks ago", obviously something he does approve off?
What a complete and utter twat!

High salt levels in afro-caribbean food

I cook a lot of Caribbean food at home, but i was shocked to read today about the levels of salt found in some popular Afro-Caribbean dishes served in cafes and restaurants.
Take one of the staples 'jerk chicken with rice and peas' salt levels of up to 7.6g were found, the recommended daily adult allowance is 6g!
I know from experience that some of the seasoning mixes used can be very salty and sometimes contain MSG as well.

Afro-Caribbean people in this country have some of the highest rates of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and other related conditions so it looks as if some health education is needed, i cant see the cafes and restaurants taking the lead as they might be fearful off losing trade?

The ballad of Lord Wei!

Lord Wei, the youngest peer in Parliament and the Condems 'young gun' on 'Big Society' issues has had to give up volunteering three days a week because it is "incompatible with having a life".
"Much of Wei's work has focused on how to free ordinary people from the daily grind to give them more time to do voluntary work and involve themselves in their communities under the big society plans."
"Whitehall sources said that when he was invited to take the role he had expected it to be remunerated but was told only the night before that it was a voluntary post and there would be no salary." (Guardian)
You couldn't make this up if you tried!