Intelligent Hip Hop is not an Oxymoron Which is not a Spot Cream

These videos are serious and a bit funny too. I'll add some funny ones that are a bit serious later.

The Society of Friends International- Defying Conventional Wisdom for over 300 years!

I'm a member of a group called Society of Friends International (SOFI) which has been set up by 1st generation immigrants from the subcontinent. It’s become very successful with members from all over the world. When it was set up having "International" in the name must have seemed ambitious but it's worked out well. In fact it's so popular that there is a freeze on new members. The idea is simple:

It brings people together for cultural events containing music and poetry and of course food but there has been stand up comedy and dance. Its greatest success are the well-organised and varied group holidays that have attracted many new members and have bonded people together through shared experience. The context of being somewhere new has made it easier for SOFI members unfamiliar to each other to approach one another and chat.

Most attractive to me and many others is the deliberate spirit in which things are done. Life is busy, so it's a vehicle in which valuable things often pushed in the background can be expressed: religious tolerance, the encouragement of inter-generational mixing and the collective exploration of things that are new. The new things tried means there is a strong possibility of failure and discomfort. The stand up comedy that was booked was awkward because it there was almost no respite from taboo-busting material that was often just plain vulgar. However it was tried, something that was totally alien to many members in terms of form and definitely content was experienced, now it is no longer so strange.

The SOFI newsletter is open for anyone to contribute to. It is an outlet for talent, views and humour which the older generation with their history of hard work and struggle are not credited with. Equally valuable is the news of members it carries. Through it joy can be shared and support networks for difficulties friends many be experiencing can quickly develop. This accepting notion of friendship is so simple but so necessary today. Strangely, I can imagine people thinking it is radical, particularly in London which can be very lonely for the young and the old.

The current trend of individualistic pleasure seeking has its place but things have been skewed a little too much towards it. The clearest example of this is the ever-growing festival going crowd, who despite gathering in their thousands to enjoy themselves, do not enjoy themselves together, it is the individual experiences they seek. The drugs allow them to escape from themselves and their rigid perception of things; the people around them are the backdrop- there to enhance the experience rather than to be part of it. It's perverse to me that an opportunity to meet so many different people is passed over and in favour of a very private drug-induced experience. People are so much more interesting. My experience of festivals left me perplexed at how opportunities to have far more potentially rewarding experiences are wasted. People are to be taken sparingly, but binging on alcohol and drugs is far less daunting. The perversity of this seems inescapable.

However, SOFI and I have to be humble as the most radical experiment in friendship are also called the Society of Friends but are probably better known by their alias which is the Quakers. They have been around a bit longer- since the 1650s and now have a quarter of a million members spread thinly across the globe (their presence is most common in Bolivia, USA, Kenya and Britain). They are committed to the principle that individuals must make up their own minds. Though it sounds simple, the seriousness with which they have pursued this ideal meant they have always been an incredibly radical group. It was a bold experiment.

The combination of practising friendship and making space for individuals who do not agree with prevailing orthodoxy or with views of people within the society itself has led to interesting results. It’s a wonder to me that the society has survived. I’d expect the value the group places on respect for individual views to put too much strain on friendship between members; and friendship after all is the central point of the group. Their bravery in questioning things leads them to participate in or support civil disobedience which must take its toll, but they have survived and are still going strong. Another aspect of the group is that it is run on democratic lines and no decision is made until everyone agrees but this has not led to inaction, in fact they have initiated a huge number and variety of ventures. They ignore rank and status, in the past members were called “thou” regardless of titles any friend possessed. Their way of dealing with persecutors was to meet them face to face, surprisingly this sometimes worked, even with fierce opponents who were challenging the very foundations of society.

A clue to their survival apart from their mutual respect is the fact they update their outlook from time to time in response to changes in the world around them. Here’s how they describe the process: “Pressure for revision has always come from the generality of Friends, but each revision has met with resistance from some who had lived with the old words and had found them entirely satisfying. Nevertheless, it has been the experience of Britain Yearly Meeting that necessary change has, despite occasions of great tension, been effected in love and unity.” Their shared faith is also a balm that soothes fractious differences: “Friends find unity in the depth of the silence, when the worshippers are truly gathered and deeply centred on the things of the spirit. We struggle with differences in our meetings for church affairs and here, too, as we consider what action we are called to take over issues that confront us, we know the experience of unity in conviction and purpose. It is a unity which is not to be found in optional attitudes but in discovering the place in which we can stand together.”

The Quakers seem optimistic to the point of naivety in their faith in human decency. It can be seen in their hope that things would change as a result of a few people practising friendship, which was and still is assumed to be a private matter of minor consequence in public affairs. However, it has effected real change and must have lent some flair for enterprise and organisation, some of their achievements are listed below:

• Set up the first anti-slavery society
• First people to plead for the abolition of the death penalty
• First group to propose a free national health service
• Initiated prison reform leading to recognition and treatment of mental illness
• Went to jail to establish the right of conscientious objectors
• First group to invent the idea of offering humanitarian aid to civilians devastated by war (in 1870-1 they brought food and clothing to both sides in the Franco Prussian War)
• Collectively awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1947
• Currently fighting for everyone to have the option to divert the portion of tax currently going towards funding war to peace building initiatives
• Set up Amnesty International
• Greenpeace
• Cadbury Plc
• Clarks, shoe manufacturer
• Barclay’s Bank
• Friends Provident
• Lloyds Bank
• Oxfam
• Rowntree’s
• Sony (formerly Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo); TTK's founding board chair was Tamon Maeda, a Japanese Quaker.

A company with no Quaker links:

• Quaker Oats! (despite having a Quaker in it’s logo)

A pattern of their history is that they never sought control of the organisations they created. This was because they discovered friendship, equality and giving orders were incompatible. This was especially true as organisations grew beyond a certain size. Businesses they formed and controlled were initially very successful partly because they benefitted from the goodwill and trust their integrity engendered- they did as they promised. However this same integrity meant the quality of relationships with employees and customers they sought were incompatible with expansion at all costs or with maximising profit. Most Quakers have now moved into the service and caring professions. Similarly, Pennsylvania founded as a Quaker colony, remarkable for its unusual peaceable attitude towards Native Americans and for its exceptionally democratic government is no longer a Quaker Colony. They lost control of it because their approach meant they were unable to play politics.

The experience of Quakers, whose tolerance of internal disagreement is outstanding, suggests there is no need for friends to think alike, if that is, friendship is seen as an exploration rather than a search for security and if each partner is recognised as having equal dignity. While making their minds up for themselves, they made the listening to the opinions of their friends an essential part of their method, and the ‘Quaker Faith & Practice’- a core publication of the society emphasises that they be of both sexes. This was a radical outlook when Quakers were first formed, unsurprisingly by a man and a woman.

Unfortunately I have no record of them organising package holidays, a strange oversight in such an admirable society..

Nothing says I'm important like mutilated jasmine.

I'm off to Karachi so there will be a run on demand for jasmine flowers. God knows how many will die in order to be strewn in my path when I arrive. You'd better buy some jasmine quick before their prices rise on the international market. Just an insider tip.

Well Done Gran.

Last weekend we had a fundraiser that also doubled as a night of appreciation for the founder of the charity organisation responsible for it. She's run it for almost 40 years and it was about time she got some thanks. The founder is a family friend who is like my grandmother really, so I got to do a little speech in her honour. It was a promotion from my usual chair stacking, banner sticking and general errand running. I wanted the audience to properly "get her" so I put a bit of effort into it. The reaction was interesting, I was surprised by the bits the audience were keen on and the bits that seemed to pass them by. And I also realised eye contact seems a bit scary for many in the audience, especially for the "youngsters" as they are called, so I ensured it was always fleeting.

My gran was funny as usual. Some of the women who run the organisation are actually a hinderance and cause her some grief. One of them loves doing speeches and thrusting herself forward whilst actually doing very little if any real work. Her speeches are about admin really but go on far too long and can be patronising. Anyway I enjoyed watching my gran taking out her hearing aid for the duration of that lady's chat on the mic. She did it so she wouldn't fume and get stressed- it was a sensible precaution but it made me chuckle. She wasn't having her night spoilt.

Ramadan Scandal

Major scandal: I've spilt printer ink on my carpet and now need to buy nail varnish remover to try and get rid of the stains. In my frustration at the ink-spillage, there was nothing to do but happy-slap a burka woman during Ramadan. In the ensuing melee I found that she had pancakes in the lining of her religious dress. It soon became clear to me that this sister was snacking during the fast. What was worse was that she had secured the pancakes to her burka using the syrupy topping. Urghh! It was a mess. That's not all: each pancake had a list of top-ten admonishments to give passers-by who look unclean. Yeah I know, I thought they could do that stuff off the top of their heads too. But no, it seems they use flour and egg mix based prompts.It was an unholy mess of sinnilisciousness. And ink annoyance.

By the way happy slapping is not a scandal, it is a natural reaction to the situation I found myself in. Please don't mention my pettiness, give me Argos vouchers instead.

A Dose of Marcus Aurelius

A Contented Life

If you work at that which is before you, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly without allowing anything else to distract you, but keeping your divine part pure, as if you might be bound to give it back immediately; if you hold to this, expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with your present activity according to nature . . . you will be happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this.

Take away the complaint "I have been harmed," and the harm is taken away.

True colours

I am currently green with envy but blue with scurvy, so am in fact a nice turquoise.

It's just not right.

Brethern and sisteren, the jewel in Chicken Cottage's crown, Tooting branch, has been shut down. I hope it's temporary, there's a police cordon and the windows have been blacked out, plus a police van is parked outside with a satellite dish on top. Serious stuff. I nervously asked a policeman what happened, he said a stabbing took place last night. He then asked if CC is my restaurant of choice, I nodded "I've got to go to Dallas chicken now". He paused seeming to understand the gravity of the situation, adding solemnly "not the same is it?"

People, why can't we just get a long/eat in peace?

Receptionists havin' a laugh

When walking into my Dr's waiting room to pick up a repeat prescription for my mum I was greeted by uncontrollable laughter. The receptionists could barely speak so I waited until they stopped. I kept a smile on my face, being serious would somehow be seen as disapproving "look at me, I can keep a straight face, why can't you?"

They didn't stop.

What to do? So I did some voice projection to be heard above the din and asked for the prescription. The receptionists were embarrassed but they couldn't stop, well one couldn't the other was doing quite well. I found myself hoping she would explode into laughter too, it did make me tense, like anticipating awful inevitability injury at the beginning of Casualty does; was she going to rupture some organ by containing the power of mirth?

The main laughing receptionist, knowing that this was strange, stopped long enough to say "I'm sorry there's something wrong with us" and carried on. She had surrendered to the funniness, I think the awkwardness probably made it funnier. She had nothing to lose now. I could empathise, anyway I shuffled off before I spent too long understanding the scene otherwise I'd look like I was staring.

"HA HA HA HA!" I bellowed on my way out. No I didn't, I'm British and I'd have to pop in again at some stage.
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KiLliNg yOU StoYcAllY

I am now pronouncing "Stoic" correctly but feel I have lost on some matter of principle. Phonetic breakdown (<-- feel free to use as a one-hit wonder band name) is Stow-ic, I said it how it's spelt Stoyc. But you knew that already my smug phantom reader, didn't you? Why do you mock me with phantom tuts and sighs? A shoulder massage wouldn't go a-miss. Why don't you make yourself useful and make me a fried egg sandwich? Again with the tutting.

Other words that I have mispronounced are "oven" and "pizza" (<-- when I was a very young though, I tell you I gave my teacher and the rest of the kids what for). I soon realised my parents weren't infallible, imitation was now out! I sought consolation but they weren't inflatable either. That's when Marvel comics became of primary importance to me, they all can do stuff in there.

I still pronounce "oven" wrong sometimes and wince in expectation of an immigration officer in a cap and an off-the-shoulder number saying "Passport?"- in an Indian accent mind. So many tuts and sighs! It sounds like a human beatbox here. Quite fooonky, funkayy. Yes funky is allowed to be mispronounced. Free at last, free at last. I am quite enjoying the beatbox. Ahh hah! It's is flailing and sputtering- the phatom reader has no power for I have found it's Kryptonite. You is my tool for entertainment/bitch now. Cor, you're makin' a right meal of it, not very stoyc. Hahahahh, can't even tut now can ya? Excuse me while I fetch my limited edition kicking shoes signed by the Dalai Lama.