How about now after 3 years of the real world bringing this bad boy back?

Here is an interesting story from the BBC

Here is the link if you want to read it all:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2008/09/births_outside_marriage_a_real.html

I found the article interesting as it put forward the case that in the the next few years half the babies born in the Uk will live in a single parent family. With this in mind the stats then show that 'A baby born to married parents, on average, spends 1.6 years of their first 16 years with a lone parent. A child born to cohabiting parents spends 4.7 years with just one parents and an infant born into a single mother household spends 7.8 years.' 

They have also linked this to suggest that ' The experiences of the babies in the British Household Panel survey indicates that being brought up by a lone mum or dad, particularly before they start school, translates into lower grades, worse job prospects and poorer health.'

It appears that this will be something that we will have to look at and address but do you think it is true. 

Are young people from a single parent back ground seriously worse off and if so what if anything can we do about it?

Reality T.V

In my preparation for a talk I'm doing on Friday on reality T.V I've been - of course - having a look at what Charlie Brooker thinks. It is of course, achingly funny and very very true. Why he is not the leader of our country I do not know. What these videos and try not to laugh. I'll happily pay you £5 if you don't.

Hill$ong

Enough said:

Modern Slavery

I was pretty annoyed to see that Martin had already got around to blogging this but I was going to as well so here goes... Last week the following sports report appeared all over the world (source Sky Sports news):

"In an exclusive interview with Sky News, the Fifa president said the current post-Bosman practice of tying players to long contracts amounts to "modern slavery".

And the player himself - who says he wants a move to Real Madrid despite being under contract with United until 2012 - says he agrees with the comments.

His response came in an interview with Portuguese television.

Ronaldo told the station TVI: "I agree completely with the President of Fifa. Now I have to wait and see... but I do not know where I will begin the season."

United insists Ronaldo is not for sale, must stay to see out his contract and are expecting him to return to their Carrington training complex next week.

Since the landmark Bosman ruling, players are free to leave clubs when their deals are concluded.

But, says Blatter, that has inspired owners to tie footballers to long contracts so that the only way for them to leave is to pay up the remainder or get the buying club to do so.

He said: "I think in football there is too much modern slavery, transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere. And we are trying now to intervene in such cases."

Asked if he felt sympathy for Ronaldo's current position, Blatter said: "Absolutely, absolutely".

He added: "Definitely as a footballer and the Fifa president, I'm very in sympathy with the player Ronaldo."

Sepp Blatter

Wow. I'm not quite sure words can express how deeply offensive I believe Blatter's comments to be. Lets take a look at some of the facts over at 'Stop the Traffik' which deals with REAL modern slavery:

• At least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide. Of these 2.4 million are as a result of human trafficking. A global alliance against forced labor, International Labour Organisation, 2005
  
  
• 600,000-800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors. US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2005
  
  
• An estimated 1.2 million children trafficked each year. UNICEF UK Child Trafficking Information sheet, January 2003
  
  
• The majority of trafficked victims arguably come from the poorest countries and poorest strata of the national population. A global alliance against forced labor, International Labour Organisation, 2005
  
  
• Trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are caught in the trap of slavery. Anti-Slavery
  
  
• Human trafficking is the third largest source of income for organised crime, exceeded only by arms and drugs trafficking. UN office on drugs and crime
  
  
• It is the fastest growing form of international crime, already generating 7 billion dollars per year in criminal proceeds. There are even reports that some trafficking groups are switching their cargo from drugs to human beings, in a search of high profits at lower risk. UN office on drugs and crime
  
  
• People are trafficked into prostitution, begging, forced labour, military service, domestic service, forced illegal adoption, forced marriage etc.
  
  
• Types of recruitment; include abduction, false agreement with parents, sold by parents, runaways, travel with family, orphans sold from street or institutions.

Ok maybe I was wrong. Maybe Mr Blatter is indeed right. I guess that Ronaldo who earns 120k a week (around 5 million a year) and over 3 million a year in other endorsements and image rights is the equivalent of a modern slave. My heart breaks to see the torment he must be going through during these hard times. If only there were more stories and publicity to highlight his plight!
Disgusting...

Update: You can read Phil McNulty's good views on the BBC Sports page here

handguns long version

I think channel 4's clip to advertise their documentary is pretty powerful.

Thought i would share it with everyone to see what you all thought?

Adulthood Review

So there I was, a Friday afternoon with a couple of hours to kill - this is where having a cinema across the road from your office comes in handy…

In I went ticket clutched in one hand - penny sweets in the other, (as a side issue - when did confectionery become as expensive as petrol?!) into the dark depths of the cinema. I like Friday afternoons, the cinema is nice and quiet, nobody kicks the back of my chair, and the big tough man 2 rows behind hasn’t decided that this is the best time to call his mate and tell him very loudly what he’s got planned for the rest of the week.

But shock horror! As I enter the screen I am not greeted with a row after row of gloriously empty seats each one awaiting my backside, instead I witness possibly the first ever sold out screen I have ever been a part of – and there is one seat left, 3rd row from the front next to a very stern looking teenage girl. Eek.
After being greeted with some rather nice subtle sniggering and name calling from my fellow cinemagoers, and a quick glance around the cinema it became rapidly apparent that I was the senior member of the audience. What was going on? Didn’t these young people realise that this was a film for ‘me’ to learn about what its like to be ‘them’? Something was going wrong – this wasn’t how it was meant to be.

And then finally (after a good 20 odd minutes of car and mobile phone commercials) the film started. Phew. So the question now is – was it any good?

Well… Unfortunately it’s a yes and a no. Whereas ‘Kidulthood’ was, as I previously mentioned, was an opportunity for us oldies to watch and go ‘I cant believe young people are like this these days, drugs, sex, bullying and mugging – this is shocking – my eyes have been opened to reality!’ ‘Adulthood’ appears to be going for a different tone altogether.

Following on 6 years from the first film, ‘Adulthood’ picks up with the character of Sam – all round meanie and bad guy from ‘Kidulthood,’ who had just been released from prison. Sam wants to move on and forget about the past, but unfortunately for him the people he has hurt and not so willing to let him off the hook…
Right – back to the cinema screening I was in – and this is where I think it becomes important. ‘Adulthood’ contains a lot of scenes that many would consider harsh or shocking – knife fights, muggings, drug abuse, sex, threats etc. Whereas ‘Kidulthood’ contained all of these, it sort of did it in a way that was saying ‘this is what life is like for a lot of teenagers.’ Adulthood on the other hand does the same and says ‘this is what life is like for a lot of teenagers when they are in that awkward in between bit of being young and being adult.’ But the crowd I was with, wasn’t there to see a story of redemption, nor where they present to witness a slice of ‘real life.’ No it was very clear from the get go that this audience wanted to reveal in the glorification of knife fights, muggings, drug abuse, sex, threats etc.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not having a moral dilemma, I didn’t think the film was out of order in this department, I’m more worrying that the target audience of ‘Adulthood’ has shifted towards 14-16 year olds who perhaps are not seeing the film for ‘how it was meant to be seen,’ (if that doesn’t sound too pompous.) Indeed the major speech of the film from one of the characters, which talked about how she wished could be young again, was near inaudible due to the chatter of the audience. It appeared that the crowd wanted some more up-tempo action.

Maybe it was because ‘Kidulthood’ captured something of what its like to be a young person today that ‘Adulthood’ suffers. Is it a story of redemption? Is it simply a day in the life of one person? Does it offer hope for a future? I’m not sure if the film answers any of these questions quite well enough. We never really find out what motivated some of the characters from the previous film to change, and the film doesn’t really seem to care.

If you want to experience something gritty about being a young person then this is always worth a viewing, I just couldn’t quite shrug the disappointment that this is an opportunity missed to speak to young people through a media they understand. I’d go and rent ‘Kidulthood’ and watch that instead.

Overall Rating (out of 5 stars) ✮✮✮

For more info on the story here is a description from Noel Clarke – writer, director and main character:

‘“The point of this film is that Sam finds redemption, not because he is looking for it, he doesn’t come out of jail saying, ‘Oh I’m sorry for what I did, let me find people and apologize. He has to learn that things have affected other people and he can’t just come out of jail and say ‘I just want a peaceful time, I’ve serve my time and that’s it. That’s not it, you’ve got a young girl without a dad, friends without a friend, a girl without a boyfriend, mothers without sons and he needs to learn how his actions affected other people. Not only does he need to learn, but to deal with it and face the facts. When they come after him and want to keep the cycle of violence going, being the worst person in the first film, he has to be the person to say, ‘I appreciate that you’re after me and we could keep this going for years, but I’m actually just going to go, I don’t want anything to do with this and I’m going to walk away’. I think a lot of the problem with people these days is that no one is willing to walk away. It’s not necessarily being a coward, it’s the fact that if I hurt you, you might go get your friends and hurt me, and if you hurt me I’ll go and get my friends and hurt you and at some point, someone has to say, you know what, forget this. Otherwise at some point, one of us is going to end up dead.

“The key is that it all comes down to choices. The film is about choices. Henry makes a choice early on when Dabs says we’ve got to go get this guy Henry says, ‘Are you crazy? I don’t want to get this guy’, and he suffers for it. Moony makes a choice when Jay says ‘forget your studies; let’s go get Sam. Moony makes that choice. Lexi makes her choices. For me, this whole film is about choices, it’s about how every single choice you make, especially in that sort of world, is going to affect what happens to you and to other people”.

Sigur Ros

Everyone loves Sigur Ros. So everyone will love the fact that with their new album out on June 23rd you can stream the whole album on their official page - and now with the magical power of technology - you can stream the whole album below before the release. Enjoy the different feel of 'Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust'

Leap of Faith best route to salvation

Its a bad clip i know but i found this new clip of Todd Bentley! check it out

Todd Bentley Raging Revival

So what do we think?

Is this an 'out pouring?'

or a nutt job?

Public inquiry: Charlotte Ashton, 25, TV presenter

TV presenter and former SocietyGuardian.co.uk columnist Charlotte Ashton tells Mary O'Hara about the myths surrounding teenagers and society's attitude towards young people

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/may/12/youngpeople

I am trying to work through a journal at the minute. The aspect i am trying to look at is something that challenged me while i was working with the Northern Ireland Youth forum. The question is what is the difference between Youth work and youth ministry? Age old question but one which has caused resulting tension.
Some people would believe that i am being trained as a Christian Youth Worker rather than a Youth Minister. But is this a case of their ignorance or are they actually right?
Does the question come down to what vales i integrate into my work or is it more to do with a title?
After two years at Ridley and the question still is un answerable!

Visual Worship

So in little over a month I have to run two 2 hour workshops for St Albans diocesan youth service on 'Preparing and using visuals in worship.' If anyone has any idea a) what that is or b) any ideas of activities I could set and c) any resources I could pillage - I would be very appreciative! (Ben I'm hoping you've got something up your sleeve!)

Thank you very much - and don't all rush to my aid at once...

Potter box

potter box

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_Box

www.usu.edu/journalism/ faculty/oldham/Ethics-%20Potter.ppt


Looks good!

Ethics link

Yo Yo Yo!

The website we all need for ethics WITH downloadable books is here.

Go crazy - and remember - anything is permissible.

Also - I couldn't find the 'potter box' on the net - all I got was Harry Potter box sets, so here's his model if you can't find your hand out...

Happy writing people.

Films and theology

I thought I'd share a bit of my conclusion to the second part of the essay I've attempted... I found out after the PFG that the second part is purely an analysis of the film I'd chosen and not linked with young people at all. Result!

Anyway, I was reading some passages on C.S Lewis the other day and came across a study guide of the Narnia books, and inspired decided to reread the 'Silver Chair' - the best one, no arguments. And towards the end of the book (pg 159 to be exact) I came across this and thought it fitted quite well (you can disagree obviously)...

To summarise, in the ‘Silver Chair,’ two children are transported to the Green Witch’s falsely empirical and bounded universe. They go on to challenge the Green Witches realism

‘Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things – trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important that the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing… Four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow.’

I believe that films begin to challenge that ‘black pit of a Kingdom’ which rationality and materialism assume to be the only possible one we can encounter. Film remains a hint and a guess, but these should not be disparaged, and picked well, film provides the occasion for views to experience common grace.

Discuss...

baptism prep

someone was asking for baptism prep material think it was Ben this site has some stuff that may be good as a starting point but needs padding out a bit there is some other good stuff on the site aswell

http://www.youthworker.org/

The onion model of culture

The Onion model of Cuture and information for the Culture essay.
It's a downloadable PDF so its a look and keep!


I found this quite helpful and thought you all might want a look.

too funny, and a bit scary

mid years

did everyone get theyre mid-years in on time??? hope it went alright

Need your help urgently!

I need a video clip of a person talking about an experience of meeting God, something not cheesy, not using Christianese but describing a spiritual encounter with God. And I need it for tomorrow! Anyone have one - or an idea of where I could get one from?!

Thanking you all kindly

Pancakes

pancakes reflect our group in the way that you put in the ingredients and the outcome is a tasty treat for a pfg group in this way we come together and put in our ideas and everything makes sense!!

Kill Hill

In our Youth Hall we have a Graffiti wall, where the Churched young people have drawn and written messages and pictures about their faith.

I oversee a group of unchuched young people from a local estate who come on sunday evenings to use our facilities in an open youth club.

A few weeks ago one of the young men in the group created his own image on a space in the wall using his finger and some paint from a picture that was still wet. It reads, 'Flatz Kill Hill NW7', referring to the area and building they live in, based in Mill Hill.

What interests me about this picture is the raw reality that it communicates in contrast to the other messages and pictures. The other pictures communicate a message of happiness, faith and hope. This picture/tag communicates the reality they live in. To me it says, 'We want to be a part of this, as long as you don't try to change us.'

A cry for acceptance, you could say.

Not long ago, a message of 'non-violence' was preached in the church, where the preacher stated that, as Christians, we should be passive and non-violent.

I agreed with him on some of his points, and thought he made a moderately good case - for himself.

In a middle class community, this thinking may be fine and dandy. Non violence suited his lifestyle quite well.

But what about young people who grow up in communities where they feel a need to fight their corner?

What about these young people, living in 'Kill Hill Flatz' who face violence on a daily basis and feel the need to carry weapons to help them feel safe?

What do we do about this as Youth & Community workers?

What do we do about this as the Body of Christ?

Can these young people fit into the Body of Christ as the church depicts it?

'...this faith can have nothing to do with fleeing the world, with resignation and with escapism. In this hope the soul does not soar above our vale of tears to some imagined heavenly bliss, nor does it sever itself from the earth.' (Moltmann, 1967)

Let's not accept the idealism of easy answers.

The answer to all this may be 'Jesus', but I do not believe it is enough to just speak his name and wish for the best.

More for the weekend

Just two things I've come across this weekend, in the Guardian weekend magazine on Saturady there was a good article about a guy who tried to live his life for year abiding by every rule in the bible. Was a good extract from the book that is coming out this week 'The year of living Biblically' by A J Jacobs. Not sure exactly how it could be used but might be fun. You can read the article here

Along with that, you've probably noticed, but for the next few weeks the Independent is giving away free mini philosophy books looking at people such as Kant, Hume and Plato. May also be worth having a look every Saturday.

Peace out - see you Tuesday. I'll bring some pancake mix.

Links

Here are a few links that are worth checking out when we're not busy writing journals - or saving Islington: Ok for some reason the links aren't working, click on them and then remove the www.blogger.com bit beforehand in the address bar.

Ok now fixed!

Free video downloads ranging from short films to adverts

Hollywood Jesus - Pop culture from a spiritual point of view

Christian Film reviews - good for a laugh

We feel fine - the looks at feelings from peoples blogs. Careful as some of the links from site may be dodgey...

Dolphins playing with bubbles - what more could you want?

Human for sale - how much are you worth?

Welcome to the corporate machine...

visualizing the bible

Chris Harrison has done a very cool thing. Beautiful visualizations of the Bible. This image shows cross references.

Conspiracy of kindness

a book i recently finished enjoyed it and is worth a read, heres the synopsis - The "conspiracy of kindness" operates on a simple premise:loving deeds done by unassuming christians convince more people of the love of god than all the words in the world.

from the creators of the big book of blobs comes this great new resource ...
blob flash cards
i use the blob book in loads of different contexts so am excited about getting myself these cards to resource the group work we do here are Urban Hope, st stephen's youth work project

youth crime

In a survey conducted for a recent channel 4 documentary ...
most adults believe that between 70 and 90% of crime in the UK is committed by Teenagers.

what percentage would you say?

see Mark's comments on the programme to find our what the actual figure is.

listen again - The Moral Maze

You can catch this radio 4 programme on listen again here (not sure how long they keep it up for)
mac users can add a listen again widget to their dashboards - i use it loads.

Have we become scared of young people and are we right to be? This week airport-style scanners are announced for Britain’s toughest schools in a clampdown on knives and even the Home Secretary says she’d be scared to walk the streets of East London at night. Add that to the recent cases of attacks by teenage thugs which have affected law-abiding citizens and the fear of violence is palpable. But is it warranted and if it is can society rediscover the moral atmosphere that relies on trust and respect?

Have adults lost the confidence and ability to give any discipline or authority? Has the child protection agenda gone too far and left children knowing their rights and trusting no adults? Or is the coverage of the worst, tragic cases concentrating on violence which is unrepresentative of a whole generation?

this programme sparked off loads of reactions, thoughts and ideas in me especially around the need for youth workers to be catalysts for building intergenerational local community. i agreed with many of the commentators regarding the problems but not necessarily with their solutions - not massively impressed by the person from children's society. The head teacher featured used to be the head of Islington Green which is our local school - i used to do some work there with him.

Binocular Football...

A resource on the schoolswork site - I think it would be fun to do at some point!

Church Evangelism!

How we've always done it...........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM5UlXXRuT8

This is the video i used on Sunday night.
The feedback was not great at all.