HarrietGendall

My challenge is drawing to an end... I slept very comfortably last night, since my back has somehow learnt how to relax against the floor. Tonight will be the last on the floor for a while, as I began the challenge last Sunday night. Yet, for some reason I am becoming quite attached to the simple rectangle of carpet that has soaked up my dreams and my nightmares this past week. Perhaps my bed will never feel the same again...

Anny has had a long six days living on a budget of £3 per day (£21 spread out across the week). This has meant that she has had to walk or cycle everywhere (often in the pouring rain), and yesterday I found her soaking pans of chickpeas and black-eyed beans that she'd dug out of the depths of her cupboard, since she spent her last few pounds on cider. However, when we went to see the fireworks in Sefton Park last night we made a deal that I would help feed her for the rest of the weekend in exchange for a can. OH, and the explosions were absolutely b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l... 

Sarah and Liv deserve a medal for sticking to the cigarette quota of 2 rollies a day for their poverty week challenges. Whilst Erica Anny and I have already caved  in, they are well on their way to success.

                                                                       ..............

Great News! - I have managed to get the Global Poverty Project to come to University of Liverpool and present their inspiring talk, 1.4 Billion Reasons!! The provisional date for the presentation will be either Monday 6th December / Tuesday 7th December 2001 at around 7pm in the Courtyard in the Guild of Students (150 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool)

http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/pages/presentation

Here's what they say about it:

There are 1.4 billion people in the world living in extreme poverty. That's 1.4 billion people living on less than $1.25 a day. The Global Poverty Project has developed a multi-media presentation, 1.4 Billion Reasons, that is travelling the globe engaging and inspiring audiences to understand and get involved in the movement to end extreme poverty. The presentation is built around five sections: What is extreme poverty?Can we do anything about it? What are the barriers to ending extreme poverty? Why should we care? What can I do?                                                                                                                                       ..............

I am sitting in the library again, writing an essay on the Peruvian Terrorist Movement 'The Shining Path'...Was their defeat inevitable?

Realistically I should stay here all night if I am to write a good evaluation... but JEHST is performing in Djangos tonight, and I am torn between witnessing the grit of his socially and politically conscious British hip-hop and achieving this academic endeavour...

Listening to:

Unexpected Delight - Flying Lotus ft Laura Darlington: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5DUTtj1zSg

and 

Cosmic Gypsies - Jehst & Task Force ft. Braintax: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1_MmFyHeN8

I am sitting in the Library in a heavy daze, hopelessly tired after getting just 2 and a half hours sleep last night. I didn't fall asleep until 3.30am, partly because I stayed up late with friends and wine (I am afraid to admit it, but Erica and I crumbled and exceeded our daily smoking allowance), and partly because my body-clock is severely out of sync with the rising and setting sun. When my alarm went off it was still dark... my head was pounding and I could barely open my eyes...I had to get up at 6.15 to be at BBC Radio Merseyside in time to go live on air at 8.20. I threw on some clothes, drank a giant mug of columbian fairtrade coffee (it's fantastic stuff), and caught the bus down to the city centre. I met Chris outside (check out his blog, he's rolling a dice each day to determine how much money he spends each day), and we made our way past the picket line where BBC journalists were protesting against the 'BBC Pensions Robbery' - how the government cuts will effect BBC employee wages and pensions. The radio studio was thus empty apart from a caretaker, 3 presenters/producers and a newsreader. It was a great atmosphere though, extremely relaxed and very friendly. We went ahead with the 5/10 minute interview with no preparation, sandwiched between a few Motown classics. Both of us were apprehensive, made more so by the realisation that the BBC Radio Merseyside Breakfast show attracts an average of 1/2 a million listeners! Thankfully, all went surprisingly smoothly. I think we got the message across well, delivering our own personal stories and emphasising the importance of local lobbying and establishing a dialogue with political representatives in order to stimulate change in government. Through our participation in the poverty challenge we were able to talk freely and sincerely about poverty - reminding us of how lucky we are to have freedom of speech and minimal media censorship.

Listen Again to the radio interview: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio/bbc_radio_merseyside/20101105

Reporters Without Borders / Reporters Sans Frontieres: http://en.rsf.org/

Censorship Killed the Radio Star...

A women's radio station in Herat (Afghanistan) has, since its launch in 2003, struggled to balance the demands of a highly conservative culture on the one hand, and their equality-driven objectives on the other. The radio station has been forced to accede to the male-centric norms in Afghan radio production to avoid being labelled unprofessional.

In 2007, radio commentators in the Philippines who report on organized crime and corruption were under continuing threats and violence, following a death threat of an RGMA Palawan radio station manager. Radio broadcaster Ferdinand Lintuan, was one of five journalists killed in 2007 in the Philippines. 

But there's hope...

In Huaycan, a shantytown on the outskirts of Lima (Peru), an alternative citizen's Catholic radio station plays a central role in the citizen making of the poor. The radio station's journalistic work helps to mobilise local leaders and monitor democratic processes, such as municipal elections and the district's participatory budget. 

Since Nepal's first independent radio licence was granted in 1997, local involvement in community radio has brought changes to the lives of ordinary people and has become an important vehicle for popular views. 

Beds beds beds.... I found myself dreaming about the perfect bed... A treehouse bed, a bed floating on a lake, a hammock on the beach, a four-poster bed in a palace, an ice-bed in an igloo with fur rugs... 

I have decided that the best way to make my sleeping-on—the-floor challenge feel more comfortable is to think about all those people in the world who do not have access to a bed. I have been particularly affected by lending my thoughts to the following sleepers...

- In England alone, almost 500 people sleep rough on any one night in England, 200-300 people sleep rough on any one night in London, and around  3000 different people sleep rough over a year in London...

-In Cape Town, in both the private and the public sectors South Africa is struggling with a tremendous shortage of hospital beds; this is a reality for many people in developing countries.

 -Yesterday in Haiti more than 1 million homeless were advised by officials to abandon their tent camps in Haiti's rubble-choked capital before after a severe Tropical Storm warning. Most of the earthquake survivors who have spent nearly 10 months either baking hot or soaking wet under plastic tarps and tents have nowhere else to go.

-In Pakistan there are an estimated 20 million homeless following this year's devastating floods...hundreds of thousands of homes have been destroyed and many flood victims are living in muddy camps or overcrowded government buildings. Thousands more are sleeping in the open, next to their cows, goats and whatever possessions they managed to drag with them.

 -In many countries, the threat of malaria means that sleeping under a mosquito net can mean the difference between life or death... 

Listening to: Erol Alkan & Boys Noize - Waves (Chilly Gonzales Piano Remake)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uetgOn_tUI

Last night's sleep wasn't good... I am becoming progressively tired, and my back is extremely sore. I have tried every sleeping position, and each is equally as uncomfortable.

We are still all on track with the smoking quota, but feeling the withdrawal effects. I seem to have replaced nicotine with food and caffeine... today I have had 3 cups of coffee, 2 cups of tea, 2 glasses of grape juice, four rounds of toast (with various toppings: avocado, fried egg, peanut butter and hummous)...and it's only 4pm. I feel awful because in a situation of real poverty I wouldn't have the option to feast, and furthermore, I am not even fully depriving myself of cigarettes, I still have two a day to look forward to. As I was sitting contemplating the timing of my next rollie, I got a text from NHS direct that said... "Need help quitting smoking? Call Fag Ends on 08001952131..." ... can they see me pacing up and down?

On top of this I have two 3,500 word essays due in for Monday... I am always guilty of leaving things until the last minute. If it weren't for the workload I could be running around the park kicking up piles of orange autumn leaves to take my mind of things...

On the plus side, last night's debate 'This house believes solving poverty is not about money" went extremely well. We eventually concluded that money was needed to address the issue, but that most important prerequisites for alleviating poverty should not cost a penny. These include good governance, reshaping of global political economic and social order, changes to the trading system, changes in the west in terms of energy consumption, changes in expectations relating to material desire and resolving gender and race and class issues.

Listening to: Fisherman's Blues by The Waterboys.

My second night sleeping on the floor was surprisingly blissful. Perhaps because I was so tired from the previous night’s restlessness, I slept straight through from 2am to 10am.

It is now 2pm on Tuesday and I have not yet had a cigarette today. I feel extremely motivated, as I have just written to my two MPs Sarah Newton (Falmouth & Truro, home) and Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside, University). I am looking forward to hearing their views on poverty, climate change, the Robin Hood tax and international aid.

I am in the library working on an essay that analyses the work of two anthropologists, Michael Taussig and Eric Wolf. In different ways, they both insist that we need to understand the lives of people in non-Western cultures in order to understand and criticise the capitalist economy in which we live. Fittingly, taking on the poverty challenge is reinforcing this exact notion. I am compelled by a quote from Taussig’s The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America (1980: 69)…

All is one,

And one is in all.

Into the one goes all,

For everything divides into two;

A single thing is always divided.

            Thomas Zepata (Columbian poet; gone blind, yet with a clearer vision than most)

This eloquently expressed and acutely important poem teaches us that whilst ‘wholes’ appear destined to become alienated subdivided counterparts (the developed versus the developing world), ultimately we are a unit, one world, “All is one, And one is in all. Into the one goes All”... If we are to overcome poverty and suffering the first step towards doing this is to realise our common destiny, by living out common experiences. I have begun by giving up my bed, to show my solidarity with the majority of human beings, those who have never even slept in one.

Last night Olivia received a phone call at midnight from our friend Callum. He had broken his leg playing Rugby, and wanted her to come and pick him up from the hospital. Of course Liv abandoned her poverty challenge to help him out. We believe that this gesture does not mean that she has ‘broken’ her challenge; more positively it has highlighted the need for better transport in developing countries as part of a strong healthcare system. Oxfam have pioneered a new scheme in Malawi, where they equip HIV/AIDS workers with bicycles so that they can treat patients with far greater efficiency. This picture shows Violet who, before receiving her Oxfam Unwrapped bike and stretcher, was accustomed to carrying patients up to 30km to the nearest hospital on her back.

Inspired to keep going by - 'Sleeping Rough':

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seyV8rWRREw

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9rfdMydn0M&feature=related