Tories and grammar schools

Nothing like this to get my blood boiling "Mr Mellor - 'a grammar school boy, unashamedly so' - said Mr Cameron appeared to have slapped down grammars gratuitously. He added: 'It's a bit foolish for an old Etonian to appear to want to pull up the ladder of opportunity from ordinary folk.'"
Because the evidence is it isn't a proper ladder of opportunity: as someone who was excluded from that ladder by the arbitrariness of quotas and selection procedures, I have to say it's no way to offer opportunity which should be based on individuals' abilities and development not a questionable selection procedure too early in the development and which excludes many able people. I am sad that David Cameron has backed down to the Conservative Party mythology which, I suspect, is actually about entrenching privilege and making sure that a system is in place to cherry pick enough of the 'lower classes' to keep a veneer of respectability over the system while reproducing in them the values of he elite.
Now I've said that I feel a bit better.
Cameron faces elitism claims over grammar schools | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics:

Corruption of environmental offsetting

Oh dear

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is supposed to offset greenhouse gases emitted in the developed world by selling carbon credits from elsewhere, has been contaminated by gross incompetence, rule-breaking and possible fraud by companies in the developing world, according to UN paperwork, an unpublished expert report and alarming feedback from projects on the ground.

Abuse and incompetence in fight against global warming | Climate change | Guardian Unlimited Environment

Technorati Tags: carbon_offset, corruption, UN

Unionising heaven

Having just set in motion becoming a member of the Higher Education union UCU, I was interested in Walton's comment about unions just out today. I've been noting how the unions I've been involved with in the last five years or so have been in the process of becoming more focused on the all round welfare of members in terms of career development, financial services and deals with organisations to help get goods and services at better rates. Which is probably as it should be. Walton made me smile with this;
"But unions have had to rethink themselves quite drastically, and there are some early signs that this is paying off in some interesting and exciting ways.
Unions have been reaching out to groups of workers who have never been organised before. The union I work for, Unite - traditionally an engineering union - now has a faith workers branch, with clergy from most religions. The union has a recognition agreement with the Church of Scotland, and it is a very interesting and heartening experience to meet a senior shop steward with the title 'Reverend'.
Comrade reverend, do you think the members will vote for strike action if their demands for more divine intervention are not met?
That'd make the old gaffer sit up and take notice."
.
Red Star Coven: The end of black men in blue overalls?:

Anger, reason and the Christ

A lot of Christians are vaguely disturbed by the anger of Christ, for example in clearing the Temple. It may often be due to a misunderstanding or more likely a subunderstanding of what anger is and what sin is. And now research on anger seems to suggest some further potential benefits of at least some anger in addition to giving us energy to right wrongs.
"The research found that, surprisingly, anger made participants more, rather than less, rational and analytical in their reactions. The current research, conclude the authors, suggests that angry people can and do process information analytically but are often influenced by more mental shortcuts. Although it is not always the case, anger-induced action is sometimes the result of quite clear-minded and deliberative processing."
So apply that the the cleansing of the Temple ...
ScienceDaily: Anger Can Make You More Rational, Not Less, According To Recent Studies:

Marooned in the Suburbs

Another article where, I'm glad to say, someone more famous and influential and me says something I have already been saying (and was published saying so in Borderlands Journal). In this case George Monbiot. "The less dense a development is, and the further from the urban centre, the harder it is to serve with public transport. Bus or train or tram services are simply not viable in sprawling suburbs. A relaxation of planning rules is good for the rich. It is a disaster for the poor. This is why planning laws are weakest in the most unequal countries.
It also makes tackling climate change impossible. If people are dependent on their cars, they cannot change their habits even if they want to. And what happens when global oil supplies peak and go into decline? What do people in the car-dependent suburbs do then?"
Monbiot.com � Marooned in the Suburbs:

World(Bank)Changing: A Letter to President-Elect Zoellick

An intriguing open letter to the incoming pres of the World Bank from the lovely people at WorldChanging (in particular, Jonathan Greenblatt)
"...The Bank should return to its core purpose as a bank of reconstruction and development, but infuse a sense of boldness and creativity into this mission. I might suggest a ten point plan, mixing principles, strategies and tactics, to jumpstart the process:
1. Rethink the Religion of Friedmanism. ...
2. Redefine the Metrics of Prosperity....
3. Embed a Culture of Bottom-Up-Led Innovation into Organization. ...
4. Create a Global Advisory Board of Social Entrepreneurs...
5. Launch Tiger Teams Focused on Big Cross-Border Problems...
6. Embark on a Listening Tour of the Global South....
7. Maintain a Focus on Corruption but Pursue Other Priorities....
8. Elevate Development Marketplace into permanent and persistent program....
9. Experiment to Scale Demonstration Models of Innovation....
10. Collaborate with Corporations and Foundation to Explore New Development Models. ...
You have a tremendous opportunity to change the World Bank and change the world as a result. I hope you will embrace this challenge.
Jonathan Greenblatt"

Interesting reading which by implication tells us what some of the big issues are. I think I would add a further point:
11. Investigate and bring recommendations on how to bring democratic accountability to the bank.
WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: World(Bank)Changing: A Letter to President-Elect Zoellick:

Armed with only a Bible, preachers confront Rio's most dangerous men

Muscular Christianity? Inspiring, though but. "...the results of their highly risky visits to Rio's slums are impossible to deny. Pastor Dione claims to have convinced several hundred criminals to swap their weapons for the word of god.
'If it wasn't for the pastor I'd be dead already,' said one teenage recruit, who claimed that before his conversion he had been employed to chop up corpses with an axe. A 21-year-old, Marcelo dos Santos, one of the youngest members of Pastor Dione's team, said: 'My mum gets worried about the early mornings and the shootouts but this is our work, our lives are in the hands of Jesus.'"
Armed with only a Bible, preachers confront Rio's most dangerous men | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited: