EQUALITY & DIVERSITY OFFICER

Monday, 12 December 2011

THE POWER OF A DANGEROUS IDEA

Secular commentators dismiss religion as a malign force in the world. But from Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi to the Arab spring, faith is inspiring the new peaceful protest. Read Mehdi Hasan's article on the New Statesman website.

Friday, 9 December 2011

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (1,247)

Regular update on the number of pageviews received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

United Kingdom 710
United States 216
Germany 82
Russia 79
India 43
Ukraine 40
France 29
Canada 26
Australia 13
Spain 9

This week's total: 1,247 (last week's: 1,559). These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's stats software doesn't show me numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country.

The world map at the top of this post is the graphic that I see on the stats page. The darker the green, the more pageviews from that country. I can see different versions of that map for "now" (whenever that is), "today", "this week", "this month" and "all time" (which seems to mean the last 12 months). They're updated each time I look at them.

UNIVERSITY SET TO PAY TRIBUTE TO REV JESSE JACKSON

From today's Leicester Mercury:

University set to pay tribute to Rev Jesse Jackson

Civil rights campaigner the Rev Jesse Jackson will receive an honorary degree from De Montfort University next week.

Rev Jackson, who twice ran for president in America in the 1980s, will be the keynote speaker when the university hosts a major conference on preventing terrorism on Tuesday.

The conference has been organised by Parliament's powerful Home Affairs Select Committee, chaired by city MP Keith Vaz, which is looking at the causes of terrorism and radicalisation in the UK.

The university's vice-chancellor Professor Dominic Shellard said: "We share Rev Jackson's values throughout our university community.

"We are very pleased to welcome him to DMU and honour his numerous achievements as an inspirational advocate and campaigner for civil rights in the USA and around the world."

Mr Vaz, who represents Leicester East, said: "This conference is set to contribute significantly to the conversation on radicalisation and I am looking forward to hearing from Rev Jackson when he delivers his keynote speech next Tuesday.

"The roots of violent radicalisation remains a subject of great national interest and this prestigious institution, with its reputation for hosting and furthering national debates, is the perfect location."

The conference's findings will be passed to the Government as it creates its Prevent Strategy, which is designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

Rev Jackson's keynote speech will look into the lessons to be learned from the US experience of tackling radicalisation.

After the conference, he will receive his honorary degree at a ceremony at the St Mary De Castro Church, adjacent to the university campus, in front of hundreds of invited guests.

Other speakers at the conference include Ian Paisley Junior MP, who will discuss his experiences in Northern Ireland, as well as Home Office security minister James Brokenshire and Dr Dipu Moni, the Foreign Minister for Bangladesh.

The threat from the far right as well as religious fanaticism will also be considered.

Heightened security is expected to be in place across the campus due to the number of high-profile political figures at the event.
Rev Jackson last visited the city in 2008.

Thursday, 8 December 2011

SIKH TEMPLE INSTALLS SOLAR PANELS

From today's Leicester Mercury:

Sikh temple installs solar panels

A Sikh temple has become one of the first faith centres in Leicester to install solar panels.

The Guru Nanak Gurdwara, on Holy Bones, in the city centre, has installed solar electric and hot water panels to cut energy use, fuel bills and carbon emissions at the temple.

With reduced energy bills and extra income from Government incentives for generating renewable energy, the Gurdwara expects to earn £1,500 a year from the installations.

Joginder Singh, a manager at the Gurdwara, said: "We did it for two reasons – to cut down on pollution and to save some money. We are keen to use the solar panels to raise awareness within the local community about sustainable energy."

Wednesday, 7 December 2011

OCCUPY LEICESTER

The outpost in Leicester High Street continues to grow. This photo was taken around 2200 this evening, on the way back from the regular monthly meeting of Philosophy in Pubs (PIPS) at The Crumblin' Cookie.

Visit Occupy Leicester's website.

Join Occupy Leicester's Facebook group.

Follow Occupy Leicester on Twitter: @OccupyLeicester

PHILOSOPHY IN PUBS

First Wednesday of the month means the regular meeting of Philosophy in Pubs (PIPS) at its new home, upstairs in the Crumblin' Cookie in Leicester's High Street. This evening, nine of us are gathered to discuss the question, "Should we always be a Good Samaritan?"

Check out the Facebook page for Philosophy in Pubs Leicester.

Follow the Crumblin' Cookie on Twitter: @Crumblin_Cookie

REDP EXIT STRATEGY AND SUSTAINABILITY

This morning REDP's Core Partners are meeting at Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living, to consider our Action Plan for an exit strategy and sustainability when our initial period of funding ends in June 2012.

Leicester Council of Faiths is one of these four Core Partners, along with:

We consider our current position, plans and future prospects under the following broad categories:

Policy and Procedure
Audit and Performance
Workforce and Training
Accountability and Scrutiny
Health and Safety
Training and Equality-Proofing
Website
Research
Market Profiling
Project Delivery
Seminars and Events

You'll have to make do with that for now. I'm not giving the game away at this stage! You'll just have to keep up with developments.

Tuesday, 6 December 2011

ARE YOU PREPARED FOR PERSONALISATION?

At the King Power Stadium (home of Leicester City FC) today for the latest regional event arranged by the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP). Leicester Council of Faiths is one of the four Core Partners in REDP. "Are you prepared for Personalisation?" has been designed with three main outcomes in mind:

To identify the risks and opportunities that Personalisation presents

To demystify the agenda by drawing on expert opinion as well as user experience

To provide practical information about developing the services and business models to meet the needs of this new emerging open market environment

More than 100 people have registered for this event. Most of them are here on behalf of Voluntary and Community Sector organisations from around the East Midlands; many others are signed in as "independent". More than 50 agencies, groups and organisations are represented here today. Most of the entries on the list below are live links to the relevant website (in the East Midlands, if one is available). A small number don't appear to have any online presence, local, regional or national (I have checked every one of them) - but they're listed all the same.

Representatives of more than 60 agencies, groups and organisations from the Voluntary and Community Sector attended our last big regional event (on the Equality Act 2010 and its Duties, in Nottingham at the end of June). That makes more than 110 such bodies across both events - and only 12 of them attended both (that includes REDP's four Core Partners, who are contractually obliged to be at these events). Quite a spread, then!

Our main speaker (who carries most of the load in the morning session) is David McKenlay, from the Office for Disability Issues. The highlight of his presentation is the first public opportunity to discuss the Coalition's Disability Strategy.

After lunch, there are four workshops, each lasting 45 minutes. Each one runs twice, so everyone gets the chance to attend two of them.

"Life without contracts!" (Paul Cohead, Direct Payments Service Users Ltd)
"What's with this Micro Provider?" (Becky Daykin, Notts Independent Living Consultancy)
"Partnership's, can it really work?" [sic] (Karen Duke, Derbyshire Disability Action Network)
"Is it for me?" (Rupert Earl, Vice Chair, Spinal Injuries Association)

This is our first big event since Dee Martin retired as CEO of Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living. She's attending, but enjoying being able to sit on the sidelines, where no one is paying her particular attention or making a special fuss over her - that is, until Iris Lightfoote (current Chair of REDP) calls her to the front to take a bow and say a few words (one of which is "bugger").

Friday, 2 December 2011

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (1,559)

Regular update on the number of pageviews received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

United Kingdom 679
United States 409
Russia 129
Ireland 119
Germany 81
India 42
France 34
Vietnam 28
Ukraine 20
Canada 18

This week's total: 1,559 (last week's: 1,548). These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's stats software doesn't show me numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country.

Thursday, 1 December 2011

TEMPLE GOES THE EXTRA MILE

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Temple goes the extra mile

The Baps Shri Swaminarayan Mandir opened to the public for the first time at Diwali on October 26, and I found the facilities entirely friendly, as a disabled person myself.

The mandir is an extensive and peace-inducing space which is accessible, from the parking in a disabled space to the temple itself.

The staff and trained volunteers go out of their way to meet your every wish.

No words will be enough to describe what they are willing to do.They go out of their way – they are willing to go the extra mile.

Miss Shardia Karia, Leicester