globalpilgrim

Church Water Rates

2008-07-23T13:12:00.000+01:00

Changes in water charging structures in a number of regions mean that churches are beginning to be charged on the same scale as businesses, leading to large (for example, 1300%) increases in annual water bills. There is an online government petition that you can use to register your concern - http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ChurchWaterBills - which petitions the Prime Minister to instruct water companies to return to charging churches as charities rather than as business premises. Please think about signing the petition and ask anyone else who you would feel appropriate. Shortcut to: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ChurchWaterBills/

Facebook down

2008-07-18T23:22:00.001+01:00

Has anyone else noticed that Facebook has gone?

Facebook.co.uk shows the root directory of an Apache 1.3.39 server... seems someone is not going to be happy. Has it been hacked?

Women Bishops - wading in...

2008-07-13T20:21:00.004+01:00

I've been asked by some good friends to put my thoughts about women bishops down in my blog. Here goes. I feel this could be a risky business and invite some flak. It could also start an interesting discussion. Let's see.

So, I was asked the question, 'Am I in favour of women bishops?' And I said 'No'.

Quite unapologetically no. I'm not a fan of the idea of women bishops.

Ah ha, another misogynistic chap who is scared of women and won't sit under their authority. Well, no. I'm actually very much a fan of women priests - what a great idea.

And (to cut quickly to the chase), I think Jesus was a big fan of women too. In much the same way he was a fan of men.

A cursory glance through the four gospels finds women quite frankly at the cutting edge of the Kingdom of God, leading the way in raw faith, in evangelism, in giving, in ministering and worship of Jesus. In all honesty, if, 2000 years ago, I had had a clean cultural slate, I'd might have been tempted to pick women to be the leaders of the church (though I wouldn't have wanted the choice). So, why am I bothered with this 'women bishop thing'. Well, let me deconstruct the argument somewhat.

Fundamentally, there are two competing sides here:

One, the progressive wing of the church is seeking to update church thinking and structure and ensure that women can be bishops because, rightly, 21st century culture is not as misogynistic as, well, the prior 2000+ years were. That's great. And, actually, I think it's a great idea to have women at such a level in the church - I'm not against it.

The opposing argument is that on authority - traditionalists who see the Bible as 100% infallible, and who therefore deduce (I suspect from Ephesians 5) that men cannot be under the authority of a woman. Out of that stem some arguments about Episcopalian and Congregationalism, but I won't go there. That's not the intention.

Really, I think we are looking the wrong way down the barrel.

For me, it's not about WHO can be a bishop. It's about WHAT IS a bishop.

Even, what is needed to lead and oversee a church.

Jesus' teaching about the church, in fact his whole approach to God's relationship with human kind, was marked by the concept of Family. We pray 'Our FATHER', not our God, King, or whathaveyou. Our Father. Jesus' picture of the Kingdom is marked by family. And, hence, I strongly believe that a healthy looking church is going to be one that also is marked by family.

I was fortunate to grow up in a family where my parents stayed together. And I think it's done me some good having a father and a mother who both, unquestionably, loved me and played important roles in my life.

Single parenting, from what I gather, is a difficult task. Trying to be a mother and a father to a child, or two, cannot be easy - in fact, I daresay it is downright a nightmare. Can a mother help her teenage son through the whole 'girls' thing - she can guess what it was like to be a teenage boy, but her guess will be based on her experience as a teenage girl. You can't change that. And how do you discipline - are you both a tough dad, a gracious mum (if you think that's a good model) - surely discipline needs a balance of both, but one person can't fulfill both roles.

(I should say, at this point, that when I see a single parent family I try to look deeper - most single parents don't set out to be a single parent; mostly, its bitter circumstances that have bought them to that point, and it can be the part of the church to support this small family, give Mum/Dad a break, help out etc - that's Kingdom stuff).

Where was I: Roles. And that's the key to my point. Roles.

What is the role of a Bishop? Even, what roles does the church need.

For 2000 years of turbulent church history, the church has persued a decidely male leadership model. The church has been bought up by single fathers. Sure, women have been there (we can't forget Teresa of Calcutta), but it was hardly the norm was it? No wonder when we look at the church we see a church so different from those band of (mixed) disciples Jesus hung out with (do you really think those faith-less, unbelieving fishermen would have left their wives completely to follow Jesus - I have a funny feeling that Mrs Simon Peter was right there with her husband. What sort of a bad-man would deny his wife the chance to hang out with God?) Those disciples had roles that complemented each other. Those 12 men and ? women disciples.

Do we need a church today that simply offers women the chance to do a traditionally male role? Or do we need a model of leadership that brings back true biblical discipleship and fanmily where men and women truly complemented each other?

I don' believe 'Women Bishops' really offer the second. This 'equality' we're going for is really just 'yes, let's have women rise to do what men usually did' - as if what men did was, somehow, better. The point is being missed, and has been for 2000 years. The church needs mothers and fathers - we need two parents. Not female fathers.

Uniqueness

2008-05-01T19:43:00.001+01:00

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.

- Christopher Morley

Monday night in Kampala airport

2008-03-03T21:16:00.001Z

There are times when the little luxuries are just so much more appreciated. Now is one of them; sitting in the airport departure lounge, with a cold beer, watching BBC World News. These two have ended a very good week in a very comfortable way.

Uganda has been good to me. Very good. I’ve enjoyed warm hospitality from my brothers in the Diocese of Kigeze; I’ve enjoyed the cool mountain air of Kabale in south-west Uganda, the camaraderie of Frank, my colleague in Watsan and friend in Tearfund. Altogether, this has been a tremendous trip, with altogether good memories.

I will return to Uganda – next time married and with my wife. There are things for us to be busy with, and places for us to relax and live. Really live.

Uganda has reminded me what it is to be generous, to relax, to laugh, to dream, plan and do. All things seem possible in Uganda – it is no wonder this country is getting ready to go places.

I wish Rev Reuben, Philip, Canon George, Ruth, Rev Eric, Hannington, Paul and Emmanuel well. They have blessed and inspired me by displaying almost super-human kindness, generosity, commitment and integrity. They have demonstrated what is possible. It gives me hope; hope for their communities, Uganda, Africa, even for myself.

Thursday in Uganda

2008-02-28T21:14:00.000Z

Somehow the Diocese of Kigeze has found the key to what they do. Somehow, the Diocese of Kigeze is doing something I’ve yet to see in Africa. They are consistently succeeding. They are consistently delivering and transforming lives.

Over the last two days, we have seen communities changed from the roots up; simple, no-nonsense water supply schemes have been installed. But that is not the change.

The change is in self-perception; these communities have hope and pride. Not arrogant “we’ve done it all” pride, but a recognition that they are worth something, and they have something to be glad about. They’ve done well.

I visited Mary yesterday afternoon, and she told me how her children can go to school, because she sells lettuces she has grown in her well-kept plot that are watered throughout the year from her rainwater harvesting tank. This tank wasn’t built by the Diocese, but built by women volunteers in her community who had been trained by the Diocese to construct these tanks.

Is this not true development?

A roadside spring, protected by a well maintained spring box and garden, beneath a stand of thirsty eucalyptus trees, serves as more than just the source of water for a community. It is the bank, the financial market, the community investment hub, the driver of micro-economic growth. Each month the water users meet to contribute their 100 UShs (~3p) towards the well maintenance fund. Yet this fund is very healthy, and so the capital is issued to households as a loan fund, with which income generating projects can be financed from. Households must repay the loan at the end of a set time, plus interest. The profit they keep. Not only is the spring well maintained and working, the community is helping itself out of poverty and into sustainable growth.

Wednesday in Uganda

2008-02-27T21:12:00.001Z

The power is off. Apparently this is rare, but it’s the second evening we’ve experienced it. And we’ve been here two evenings. Somethings don’t change in Africa; and I don’t mind.

I’ve spotted something about Uganda. It’s the ‘meal’; the Ugandan Meal. After eating the Ugandan Meal, I feel weighed down. It’s heavy stuff. Good stuff, but heavy. Let me whet your appetite:

Potatoes (Irish) like you have never eaten before – so tasty, crisp and mouth-watering. Spinach, cooked to tender perfection. Rice. OK, nothing too special about rice is there? Matoka, an interesting concoction which somehow I never seem to be able to fit into myself – it’s pressure cooked banana, but not sweet at all. Beans, beans, beans. What African countries menu would be complete without beans. G-nut sauce – just like peanut sauce, but pink. Stewed meat – a hit and miss affair; some cooks have got this bit down to an art, preparing tender succulent fillets, other serve stringy meat wrapped with bones.

The other option, I am told, is chicken and chips. Not a new experience for me on this continent.

Oh, did I mention fruit? No? Well, just let your imagination run…

Tuesday in Uganda

2008-02-26T21:06:00.004Z

I rarely condition my hair, but I had broken with tradition, seeing as the water was so warm and lathered it up. Then the lights went out. As I fumbled on in the dusky twilight creeping through a slot in the wall, I reminded myself ‘I’m back in Africa – real Africa’.

Somehow I love it. Somehow I love the power-cuts, I love the holes in the road lying in wait to trap the careless and careful motorist alike, I love the endless billboards advertising hangover-free beer. I’m slightly annoyed, but very amused, that alternate shops are painted MTN Yellow and Celtel Red, as South African mobile phone companies race to colonise Africa. Six years ago, Africa got into my bones, and like many of the continents diseases, I’ll never be rid of it.

This time, Africa draws me back to visit the Diocese of Kigeze’s Water and Sanitation programs, started by the charismatic and unstoppable Rev Canon George Bagamuhunda, and continued by Rev Reuben, ably supported by the project engineer Phillip. Moments before my shower, we were sipping tea and munching tasty slices of brown bread with the latter two, being amazed by the scale and energy of their work – Health Teachings, Artisan Trainings and cluster workshops happening in the same week.

If they can do it here, why not all over the continent?

International Impotence fuelled by US Testosterone

2007-10-16T13:58:00.001+01:00

I'm not a huge follower of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and certainly don't have some of the beliefs about it that other Christians may hold, but it does bother me: in short, I see a big rich bully pushing around a poor, weak victim. OK, sure, it is somewhat more complex than that, but, in short, there is a huge amount of injustice that I am surprised the international community continues to tolerate.

Or does it?

Israel was founded as a place that the Jewish people could live freely and without fear of persecution and terror following the brutal experience of the Holocaust. 11 minutes after it was founded, 11 minutes after the British Mandate in Palestine ran-out, the US officially recognised the State of Israel.

Since then the US has continued, at the highest possible authority to support Israel. Today I stumbled across this list of all the vetoes in the UN Security Council that have been moved to criticise Israel and her actions against her neighbours: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/UN/usvetoes.html . 41 times the US has gagged the UN from expressing the majority world view of Israeli injustice and bullying. If it was once or twice, who would question the U.S. representative when he says "that the text does not display an even-handed characterization of the events in Gaza and is politically motivated". But 41 times.

I admire the UN: it is an important and worthwhile institution, yet it needs to be reformed. In the 21st Century - a century in which democracy is supposedly flourishing, there is little reason for the atomic powers of the 1950s to maintain Veto wielding powers. Why not include Israel, India, Pakistan as well? Why have a veto? Why have permanent members? Democracy needs a level playing field to work - the US should know that being the self-confessed experts at spreading democracy (after all, they flattened Iraq).

The US has no right to dominate global politics, and the veto is merely one of the myriad of ways the US asserts its unjust imperial authority. The outcome is that bullys win and victims lose: be it Israel-Palestine, Africa-WTO, the Indian Government vs. the People of India.

In truth, the international community does not tolerate this injustice: the problem is, their arms are tied and mouths are gagged by American might.

The Sox-life of Dutchmen

2007-10-15T12:36:00.001+01:00

Today my links to my father's-land are somewhat strained and shameful with news of the current furore in the Netherlands over socks: specifically, white socks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3397043.stm

A lesser know fact about me is that I have different coloured socks for each day of the week (I've got Monday's blue socks on today, tomorrow: Red) and I have religiously worn them for months now. Unfortunately, my Dutch cousins do not share such as sense of style and order, but prefer to wear white socks.

It appears that at the Dutch Finance Ministry, white socks are de riguer for daily wear amongst many employees. This overtly 1980's fashion statement is not confined to the halls of Dutch fiscal prudence, but, according to one British computer expert cited by the BBC, many Dutch academics are firmly attached to their white socks with some scandalously flaunting them beneath half-mast trousers.

While I've often thought of the Dutch as generally much cooler than us on the British Isles, I'm having to drastically rethink my position... not that I have a leg to stand on - especially with Orange socks on a Friday.

Boris

2007-10-12T14:08:00.000+01:00

Mayor of London?

A lighter note...

2007-10-11T16:57:00.000+01:00

You remember all those comedy names invented at high school :- Ben Dover, I.P Freely, etc etc. Well, we've found this in the office today: http://www.waynekerrmusic.com

Coca-Cola heads for the sky

2007-10-03T15:35:00.000+01:00

The church of Jesus Christ appears to have sold out to Coca Cola http://newsbiscuit.com/article/second-coming-to-be-sponsored-by-coca-cola-211

The BBC buys Lonely Planet

2007-10-01T15:20:00.000+01:00

The BBC has bought Lonely Planet! What?! I'm a huge fan of both, but for entirely different reasons: the BBC keeps me informed about what's going on, and the Lonely Planet tells me where I can get a decent meal without paying over the odds in strange currency, rest my head after a weary day's travel, and get from A to B, and stop to see something interesting at C. But together? I just don't like that idea. It would be like Ford making chocolate bars, or, for that matter, Cadbury's making cars. The whole point of Lonely Planet is it is for independent travellers who want to do things different to the institution (ok, so it's become an institution in it's own right, but so what). The BBC is the institution. I can hardly think of something more institutional than the BBC. It what makes it so, apparently, trustworthy and reliable. I'm going to have to start using Rough Guides - and that's a shame because frankly I don't like them and don't trust them (after sending me to some practically non-existent "budget" accommodation, and plenty of cockroach infested eateries). Perhaps now is the time for a new truly independent travel guide – alternatively, please, Bradt, cover a little more to keep us off the beaten track.

Burma Demonstration

2007-09-27T09:50:00.000+01:00

If any of you find yourself around Berkeley Square (Green Park, London) today around 12 pm and feel like some lunchtime activism then join Amnesty at a demonstration outside the Burmese embassy. Short notice but things are obviously moving at a pace over there and we need to act quickly. Details below.

URGENT DEMONSTRATION

Burma:
Peaceful Demonstrators at Risk of Violent Attacks

THURSDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2007

PROTECT THE PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATORS
ALLOW PEACEFUL PROTEST

TIME: 12:00 – 13:00

VENUE: MYANMAR EMBASSY, 19A Charles Street, Berkeley Square, London W1J 5DX
Nearest Tube – GREEN PARK

EVENT: DEMONSTRATION IN SOLIDARITY WITH PEACEFUL PROTESTERS IN BURMA

Following a steep rise in fuel prices, which has in turn affected people’s access to food and basic supplies, Myanmar has seen an escalation in mass peaceful protests nationwide in the last week.

Led by Buddhist monks, hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated peacefully on a daily basis. Demonstrations on this scale have not been seen since the nationwide demonstrations in 1988, which were violently suppressed by the authorities with the killing of approximately 3,000 peaceful demonstrators.

Tension is escalating and the military are now increasingly visible and riot police and military have moved into Yangon. A crackdown on the protestors appears to be happening, and violence against the demonstrators has been used.

Visible public action everywhere is crucial NOW to create international pressure on Myanmar not to react with violence. If we respond solidly we can help to protect the peaceful demonstrators.

Protestant Work Ethic

2007-09-26T16:20:00.000+01:00

Perhaps not surprisingly, I have been unable to find a quiz or test on the Internet that you can take to find out how much you agree with the Protestant Work Ethic. Clearly, there is no-one out there who would waste so much time making one.

Nai

2007-09-26T11:36:00.000+01:00

I received this in my Inbox this morning from a friend who's working miracles with drilling machines across Africa. Thanks Scott for inspiration.

You can also find the following story on http://www.charitywater.org/september/nai

This email was supposed to be about water.

About the hospital well we just drilled in Kenya on my 32nd birthday. About the other 2 we're going to drill in October. I was going to talk about our achievements in our first year as an organization, about the lives saved with your money and support. That email will get written, but not today. Today, I want to write about a 7-year-old Kenyan girl called Nai.

Nai fell into a fire when she was 3 months old, and her fingers became boxing gloves. It was a cooking fire that did it, millions of which burn harmlessly now across the world in straw huts and town centers. Forever scarred in a moment, forever disadvantaged, I imagine Nai screaming in bursts, not knowing how to handle such intense pain.

I met her only by chance a month ago.

I was two days drive from Nairobi, deep in the Samburu bush with a woman called Jane Newman and my New York neighbor, photographer Lyle Owerko. Lyle wanted to show me Jane's work setting up 25 preschools in a nomadic region where only 3% of kids attended school.

The schools were crude at best, but were bright spots of hope and learning. A large tree in the middle of nowhere normally marked the classroom - the surrounding walls were made of thorn bushes. Blackboards leaned against the tree trunks. I was there to see if something could be done about the water situation in Jane's villages, and our travels took us to a dry place where only about 100 people lived. Serrato.

After meeting Serrato's village elders and talking water, Nai suddenly appeared with her father.

In a moment I won't ever forget, her father grabbed her left hand to show us how, despite deformity, she could still write in the sand. He pointed at the nearby thorn tree and said she attended preschool. Nai wept softly, her hands unwillingly being manipulated in front of strangers.

She'd healed terribly in the years since her accident. Her left thumb was bent back and fused to her wrist with scar tissue; her right hand had no thumb or fingers at all. I touched her hand and grinned at Lyle, knowing we could help her.

My time on the Mercy Ship and more than 25 observed operations had taught me a few things about burns. I took photos and video of Nai's hands, and promised the village elders and her father we'd try to help. We drove away.

Back in New York, immersed in our September efforts to bring clean water to Mogotio, we tried to keep our word. I fired off emails and pictures to a Kenyan hospital, doctors in Ethiopia, and even a Mercy Ship hand surgeon. A co-worker's sister who worked at a hospital in Boston promised to pay for her surgery if we could make it happen. A friend brought a dress for Nai by our office. Our friends and family prayed for a solution.

Suddenly, through a charity: board member, we discovered the CURE Hospital in Kijabe, Kenya. They specialize in orthopedic surgery on children - the perfect place for Nai to get treatment. Oddly enough, the founder's name was also Scott Harrison, causing some confusion in my first emails to CURE!

From New York, we arranged for Samburu Chief George to bring Nai and her father to the hospital. We promised to meet them there in Kijabe a week later to admit her. A few days later, I heard from CURE that we should wait another week to bring her, but it was too late to get word to George, deep in the Kenyan bush. Nai was already on her way.

When we pulled into the hospital, Nai and her father were sitting in the back of the Samburu's bush ambulance waiting patiently. Nai looked confused, having traveled a long distance in a vehicle for the first time. Together, we headed towards the hospital.

The Staff at CURE greeted us warmly and checked Nai in immediately. We toured the facilities, met the staff and surgeons, then said goodbye. We headed north to drill the well at Mogotio.

The next morning, while we watched clean water shoot out of the ground at Mogotio, CURE Medical Director Dr. Tim Mead operated on Nai's hands. Within hours, he released her left thumb from the wrist and to our surprise, also worked on her right hand, cutting into the skin to find a thumb. He shaped her hand so that she could pinch and pick up objects.

Nai's surgery and hospital stay cost only $530. When I saw her last week, she was a different girl.

Here's where I need to stop writing and invite you to see her pictures. They tell the story of her recovery and courage so much better than I can. We've also cut together a small video that we still can't watch without crying.

see pictures and video of Nai's transformation here: http://www.charitywater.org/september/nai

* * *

I talk in big numbers now. In thousands served, in millions that we hope to serve, and of a staggering 1.1 BILLION without clean water which is still as incomprehensible to me as it probably is to you.

But as charity: grows, stories like Nai's are very important to us. I don't ever want to get so caught up in our own mission that we miss opportunities to talk about the great work of others.

----------------------- CURE International in Kijabe, Kenya is supported by donations from people like you and me and sees about 8,000 patients a year. They perform about 2,500 operations annually. Surgeries like Nai's cost $500 and radically transform lives.

To sponsor a surgery, or to learn more about their work, contact Craig Hammon: CHammon@cureinternational.org

------------------------ Thorn Tree Project Jane Newman's car broke down not so far from Nai's village in 1999, and she has been fighting for the Samburu ever since. Jane has since left behind her career in advertising and founded the Thorn Tree project. You can buy a mattress for $10, or build a secondary school for $15,000.

Learn more about her work at http://www.thorntreeproject.com/ or email her at: janenewm@gmail.com

The statistical probabilities of teabags

2007-09-20T09:36:00.000+01:00

I've never really considered this before, but today I picked a single tea-bag from out of the box. That's strange as I'm pretty sure it was the first time I've found one there.

Normally, the box is full of the double bags which I have to tear in half before making a cuppa to avoid a tea-induced caffeine buzz. This morning I found a single bag, which made me think...

* Why do I not find single tea bags more regularly? * Is someone only going for a cup of tea when they know that there is a single tea bag in the box? * Does someone collect single tea-bags on their desk? * Do people make tea with two bags? (but that wouldn't use up the single teabags left by others...) * What's going on?

I'm in a terrible quandary about this today. Nevertheless, thanks, whoever it was, for leaving a single teabag in the box.

EU Aid approaching a stop light

2007-09-19T11:00:00.000+01:00

Just so you know... I'm trawling through the assorted and confusing plethora of websites devoted to information about the EU. What I have discovered (there's a reason for such madness) is that without urgent work by 44 European, African, Caribbean and Pacific (EU-ACP) countries to ratify the latest version of the Cotonou agreement (the EU-ACP aid deal), aid from the EU stops at the end of the year and won't start again until the deal is ratified. This shows, once again, the lack of political will and the over-burdensome processes of the EU that thwart our efforts to deliver aid to poor countries of the world. The governments of poor countries, so desperately needing assistance to develop, will have to cease their work as the cash stops flowing - that's teachers not being paid, hospital supplies running low, roads remaining un-built, water supplies remaining broken and poor people continuing to suffer. The UK has done it (we 'expected' to do so by the deadline of November 2006), so writing to your MP won't help as we've done our bit. Write to your MEP instead.

Slicks

2007-09-18T11:04:00.000+01:00

At last, I've done it. Dispensing with my tatty old, leaking low pressure, noisy and slow tyres, I've fitted some slicks to Gerty, my 1996 Raleigh Hybrid, and it's like riding a new bike.

Cycling along, in the nippy morning air of Richmond Park, I rode into a bracing south-westerly headwind at a steady 19mph and made it to work in 3 minutes less than usual - 21 minutes. A good result considering the wind and being confined to the bus for a week.

I've also ditched my dented and heavy rear wheel, replacing noisy and slow bearings with a beautifully machined Shimano wheel - anodised aluminium. Yeah... looks pretty and weighs nothing. The front wheel is to follow, once it rolls of a container.

All in all, very happy (despite the new inner tube having a manufacturing fault which meant it was very flat this morning and intent on staying flat despite my frantic pumping) and looking forward to some good old road rides...

Now, all I need is some good quiet roads to ride on.

Hobbit Names

2007-08-01T14:37:00.000+01:00

To find yourself a suitably amusing alias for the summer visit: http://www.chriswetherell.com/hobbit/

- Bungo Proudfoot

Great Glen Way

2007-08-01T14:34:00.000+01:00

I did it... almost.

I have just got back from Scotland where I walked the Great Glen Way from Inverness to Fort William. I say 'almost' as I skipped a boring bit of pine plantations to give my knee and blisters a rest.

West Highland Way next year - any takers?

Flooding

2007-07-24T12:00:00.000+01:00

All this water, and the devastating plight of residents in Gloucester and Tewkesbury is a real cause for concern. Last night, bottled water rations of 9 litres per family were reported. While it was unclear of the timeframe (per day/ per two days/per visit?) of such a ration is, this amount of water is horrifyingly small. The accepted minimum water supply for refugee camps (as established by the Red Cross and SPHERE project) is 3-5 litres per person per day: that's not much - that everything for drinking, cooking, washing. The desired amount for a refugee camp is 15-20 l/p/d. Even that requires a serious water economy. In our normal water usage, we probably use 150-200 l/p/d in the UK. The people of Gloucestershire not only deserve, but NEED more water. 9 litres to be shared amongst a family of 3 is barely enough (particularly if one of those is an infant as is the case for a family I know well in Gloucester). Imagine sharing that amongst 4 or 5. More water is needed - fast and free.

Herbal Remedies

2007-06-07T19:25:00.000+01:00

How about this for something cool - herbal and spice remedies for all sorts of common ailments... try this :)

Herb	Potential benefits	How to use
Aloe	Helps to relieve constipation	Use as extract; boil and drink the concentrated water. To be used in limited amounts; stop immediately if it causes cramps or diarrhoea
Basil	Helps to relieve nausea and aid digestion; has an antiseptic function for mouth sores	Add to food to treat nausea and digestive problems. Use as gargle for mouth sores
Calendula	Flower heads have antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and healing function. Helps with infections of the upper digestive tract	Use as a compress to treat infected wounds. Prepare as tea to help digestion
Cardamom	Helps with digestive problems, pain, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite	Add to food during cooking or prepare as tea
Cayenne	Helps fight infection, heals ulcers and intestinal inflammation	Add a pinch to cooked or raw foods. For an energizing drink add to fruit juice or water
Camomile	Helps digestion and provides relief for nausea	Prepare tea from the leaves and flowers and drink several cups throughout the day
Cinnamon	Good for colds and for weakness after colds or flu. Also used when feeling cold, for diarrhoea and nausea. Stimulates appetite. Gently stimulates digestive juices, encouraging bowel movements	Either add to meals or in tea, particularly ginger cinnamon tea for chesty colds or tuberculosis (see recipe in Annex 1)
Cloves	Help weak digestion, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting	Use in soups, stews, warmed fruit juice and tea
Coriander	Helps to increase appetite and reduce flatulence. Controls bacteria and fungi	Add herb to meals
Eucalyptus	Has an antibacterial function, particularly for lungs and during bronchitis. Eucalyptus oil from leaves increases the blood flow and reduces the symptoms of inflammation	Prepare tea from the leaves or extract (see recipe in Annex 1)
Fennel	Combat flatulence and expel gas	Add as spice to foods or prepare tea from the seeds. Use in limited amounts
Garlic	Has antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal function, particularly in the gut, intestines, lungs and vagina. Helps digestion and feeling of weakness. Also good for thrush, throat infections, herpes and diarrhoea	Prepare tea or energy drink (see recipe in Annex 1), or use in food
Ginger	Improves digestion, energizes, relieves diarrhoea and stimulates appetite. Used for treating common colds, flu and nausea	Use either as a spice in meals or prepare a ginger tea (see recipe in Annex 1)
Lemon	Is antibacterial and helps digestion	Add lemon juice to food or drinks
Lemon grass	Has a calming effect as well as soothing digestion and alleviating stress	Use as tea
Mint	Has an anti-inflammatory effect and helps digestion	Use as tea or gargle for mouth sores. Chew mint leaves to aid digestion
Neem	Brings down fever	Cut a fresh twig, remove the leaves and boil the bark in water; drink as tea. The bark can also be chewed
Parsley	Reduces intestinal colic. Stimulates stomach secretions and activities and produces a feeling of hunger. The seed is used to remove excess water from the body	Add raw or cooked to food
Peppermint	May help nausea. Reduces colic (abdominal pain and cramps), helps to control diarrhoea and stop vomiting. Used for relieving tension and sleeplessness	Prepare as tea, by boiling the leaves for about ten minutes. Add to food. (Peppermint can easily be grown in the garden and or in a pot near the house)
Thyme	Has antiseptic and antifungal function. Relaxes nervous coughing and increases mucosal secretions. (particularly effective in the gut) Stimulates digestion and the growth of the good intestinal flora in the gut	Use as gargle or mouthwash, as a vaginal douche or as tea
Turmeric/ yellow root	Digestive aid, antiseptic and antioxidant	Use powdered in rice, cereals, etc.

2012 Logo

2007-06-04T21:54:00.000+01:00

Best make my comments known: The 2012 London Olympic Logo is rubbish.