PHILOSOPHY IN PUBS, AUGUST 2013

On the first Wednesday evening of every month, Leicester PIPs (Philosophy in Pubs) meets upstairs in The Crumblin' Cookie on the High Street.

Our stimulus tonight is the statement, "The world is what you think of it. So think of it differently and your life will change" (from Paul Arden's Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite (Penguin, 2006). The stimulus is provided - and the session facilitated - by Clare Carr.

Last month's stimulus was "Can you choose what you believe?". This month's veers at times toward "Can you choose what you think?"

This is the first session of Leicester PIPs I have attended in five months. It's good to be back!

Visit Leicester PIPs page on Facebook (and check out The Crumblin' Cookie too, while you're there).

10,000 TOYS ARE HEADING TO SYRIA

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Sharen Ravat, centre, at St Philip's Church with the Rev Sonya Brown and Suleman nagdi and some of the toys

10,000 toys are heading to Syria

by Fiona Dryden

Generous folk have donated more than 10,000 toys for children devastated by the ongoing conflict in Syria.

Sharen Ravat, a multi-faith chaplaincy co-ordinator at Leicester College, was so deeply affected by the plight of children in Syria she decided to launch the initiative to help bring some joy to families, many of which have lost members.

According to the United Nations, the conflict has led to the worst humanitarian crisis since Rwanda, more than two decades ago.

The drop-in session held at St Philip's Church, in Leicester, on Sunday collected more than 10,000 toys – enough to fill seven van loads.

Sharen said: "The toys have been given to the charity Hand in Hand for Syria, which will take them to children in hospitals and refugee camps in Syria.

"I pay tribute to the wonderfully generous people, including many children, who donated toys for this vital cause.

"What was particularly heart-warming was that so many of Leicestershire's different faith communities came together.

"Collectively, they demonstrated their shared values of compassion and love for children they will never know. I hope that these toys will bring a smile to their faces."

The Federation of Muslim Organisations was one of the many faith organisations supporting the campaign.

Spokesman Suleman Nagdi said: "We were privileged to be part of this superb charity effort, which focused on children. I pay tribute to Sharen Ravat, who single-handedly had the vision to arrange this appeal." 

Fadi Al-Dairi, from Hand in Hand for Syria, said: "The people of Leicestershire will make a lot of children smile."

Hand in Hand works in partnership with projects overseas that have been established by members of the local community.

PLAN FOR TWO-DAY FESTIVAL UNVEILED

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Plan for two-day festival unveiled

by Dan Martin

Organised by Leicester City Council, it will be an amalgamation of celebrations already held in the city, as well as a number of new events.

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: "For the first time, we are bringing together a lot of separate events which will effectively double the size of the celebrations across the city.

"If it proves a success, as I am sure it will, we will look to make it a bigger and even better event last year."

The idea was conceived last year as part of a city council review of festival funding.

This year, the budget has been cut from £366,500 to £308,500 and will fall to £288,500 in 2014.

The events making up the City Festival will be mostly free and the mayor hopes it will become an annual event to bolster Leicester's bid to become UK City of Culture in 2017.

Humberstone Gate West and Gallowtree Gate will host the eighth annual Sports Fest on the Sunday, with coaching sessions on offer in basketball, football and boxing.

There will also be live music and dance, including Chinese dragon dancing.

On the Sunday, from 11am to 4pm many city streets will be shut so cyclists can take part in the annual Sky Ride.

On the same day the market will host Our Leicester Day, a celebration of the city's community groups, clubs and societies.

On Bank Holiday Monday, the city's history will be celebrated with the Old Town Festival at Magazine Square, Newark Houses Museum and Leicester Castle. There will be medieval re-enactments, the opening up of historic buildings and a food fair.

Leicester Mela, traditionally held in July, has been moved to the Monday and will take place around the Clock Tower with a Bollywood and Bhangra celebration of South Asian culture.

Town Hall Square will host the Journeys Festival over two days. Involving art, drama, music and poetry from refugees, it will tour the East Midlands.

Finally Orton Square, outside Curve theatre , will host End of Pier Delights on Sunday and Monday. It will be a seaside celebration for youngsters.

http://www.visitleicester.info/cityfestival/

BBC RADIO LEICESTER, THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: BAHÁ'Í COMMENT ON ZERO HOURS CONTRACTS

I pop into BBC Radio Leicester this afternoon to record a Thought for the Day with Producer, Rebecca Bryers. This one's for broadcast on Jonathan Lampon's breakfast show, Wednesday 7 August - and here's how it sounded on the day:

JL: It's time for Thought for the Day, which comes today from George Ballentyne, a local Bahá'í.

GMB: Good morning

This week we learned that over a million UK workers are on zero hours contracts, a figure four times higher than previously thought.

If this way of working fits in with your way of living, it can be a perfectly good way of staying in gainful employment. But for some other workers, they are always on standby, without guarantee of any pay for any work in any period. They must turn up at their place of work if and when required, often at very short notice, with barely time to make arrangements for dependants.

For some, this can make it difficult to access the kind of financial services (credit, loans, mortgages and so on) on which our daily dealings depend.

In the words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, one of the central figures of the Bahá'í Faith, "arts, sciences and all crafts are (counted as) worship. The man who makes a piece of notepaper to the best of his ability, conscientiously, concentrating all his forces on perfecting it, is giving praise to God. Briefly, all effort and exhertion put forth by man from the fulness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to do service to humanity. This is worship: to serve mankind and to minister to the needs of the people. Service is prayer."

As a Bahá'í, it's my hope that our society does not forget the dignity and nobility of good, productive work - and the dignity of the worker - even in these difficult times.

JL: Thought for the Day there, which came from George Ballentyne, a local Bahá'í.

I send the text to Becca a couple of hours before I go in to record it. She feels obliged to ask me to tone it down a bit - twice. I feel righteously indignant about this issue and have used a quotation from The Promise of World Peace to illustrate that, but it was all a little too hard-hitting as a Thought for the Day. I rewrite the piece on the hoof - literally - on the half hour walk from Christians Aware in Saxby Street down to St Nicholas Place (Well, not all that literally, since I don’t have hooves and even if I did, it would probably be quite hard to use them to type on an iPhone). Becca talks me down off my high horse and helps me deliver something more suited to the format and time slot.

FESTIVAL OF CHARIOTS ATTRACTS THOUSANDS

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Festival of Chariots attracts thousands

Thousands of men, women and children joined in to heave three huge chariots through the city streets yesterday as Lord Krishna was displayed to his devotees.

The 16th annual Rathayatra Festival of Chariots, staged by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, saw the parade draw in about 10,000 people from all over the country.

Some had travelled from afar afield as India, and dropped to their knees as the effigies of Lord Jagannath (Krishna), his sister Subadhra and older brother Balaram, were slowly pulled past.

The worshipers were in Leicester today to witness the celebration of the 5,000-year-old festival, which included singing and music and culminated in a large feast at Cossington Park.

Devotee Madhava Das, 29, who lives in the city, became a monk eight years ago.

Since then he has lived a disciplined lifestyle, visiting other parts of the country to share his beliefs.

He said: “This is the one time of year when those who maybe don’t go to the temple can see the deities, which come out once a year.

“It’s so people can see them - and by pulling at the ropes of the chariot it signifies that they are pulling the Lord into their hearts and lives. The music is essential too.

“We chant a mantra to glorify God and to celebrate life and spirituality.”

The three giant chariots, measuring up to 30ft tall, were taken from the Clock Tower, along Belgrave Gate, over the flyover and finished in Cossington Park, where a feast was waiting.

Live music, dancing and singing - which took place on a large stage - was also on the bill at the post-parade festival.

Ben Dowdeswell, 33, and Lee West, also 33, from the Derek Frearson Seven Star Praying Mantis Kung Fu group, who meet at the Peepul Centre, in Orchardson Avenue, entertained the masses with a Chinese lion dance.

Ben, from Barwell, said: “This, for me, sums up the great diversity of Leicester - a bunch of white guys dancing around in a Chinese lion costume at a Hare Krishna festival.

“I think it’s great, it’s our third year and they keep calling us and getting us back - so we must be doing something right.”

Two weeks ago more than one million people gathered in India for the largest staging of this worldwide festival.

Ezrsebet Varga, 46, who had travelled from London to take part in today’s event, said: “This festival has been celebrated for thousands of years, and people come from all over the country.

“In India it’s huge. More than one million people went recently.”

In 2010, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) were left with no place of worship after an explosion destroyed the temple in North Evington.

Now, the group members are hoping to set up a restaurant, heritage room and an informal library at the former HSBC bank, in Granby Street, Leicester.

A planning application for the former bank has been submitted to Leicester City Council.

WARNING FOR MOTORISTS AHEAD OF FESTIVAL OF CHARIOTS

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Warning for motorists ahead of Festival of Chariots

Motorists are being warned about possible delays due to the annual Festival of Chariots that takes place in Leicester tomorrow.

The Hare Krishna Festival of Chariots, known as Rathayatra, is the second largest festival of its kind in Europe, with 10,000 people expected to attend

The procession is due to start at the Clock Tower at 11.30am before moving along Haymarket, Belgrave Gate, Belgrave Road, Cossington Street and Rendell Road.

It is due to arrive at Cossington Park at about 2.30pm.

As well as delays along these roads, there will also be diversions for some buses. Passengers are advised to check with their bus company for further details.

The festival includes people pulling three huge chariots carrying the Deities of Lord Jagannatha (Krishna), his sister Subhadra, and Lord Balarama from the Clock Tower to Cossington Park, accompanied with music, singing and dancing.

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (3,366)

Here are the top ten countries from which the blog has received visits in the past week.

1. United States 1176
2. Indonesia 802
3. United Kingdom 335
4. Saudi Arabia 298
5. France 219
6. Russia 131
7. China 118
8. Venezuela 112
9. Germany 83
10. Ukraine 72

This week's total: 3,366 (last week: 3,293). These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's analytics doesn't show the numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country and they don’t show the cumulative total including those additional countries, which is undoubtedly larger than the number shown above.

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" (i.e. in the last two hours), "today", "this week", "this month" and "all time". They're updated each time I look at them.

GROOVY GIRL SIGNS UP FOR PEACE

A new wooden sculpture, in the style of a Totem Pole, has fetched up in Wigston's Peace Memorial Park. When Grace sees it on one of our frequent visits to the park, she says, "Oh cool; it's got the Groovy Girl sign on top!" Nice bit of brand appropriation - and there's the groovy girl herself.

JESUS PEOPLE, LOVING PEOPLE

A striking sight today, of two Jesus Army minibuses parked in Springfield Road to the side of London Road United Church, within sight of Bishop's Lodge, the residence of the Bishop of Leicester. Makes it sound like a rather sacred spot!

Also known as the Jesus Fellowship, this organisation has weekly meetings at three separate spots around Leicester. Their motto is "Jesus People, Loving People". Just about all of us could do with a bit more loving in our lives these days.

DELIGHT AS RIAZ GIVEN HONOUR

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury: 

 

Delight as Riaz given honour

A charity working to strengthen interfaith relations has congratulated a member of staff who has received a major award from De Montfort University.

The director of St Philip's Centre, The Rev Canon Dr John Hall, expressed delight after Riaz Ravat, deputy director of the centre was honoured as Alumnus of the Year. He accepted the award at a graduation ceremony at Curve.