There's was no room for them at the foodbank

When they reached Bethlehem, there was no room for them at the inn.

Over 200 years later we remember those events.  We call it Christmas.  Now there's no room for them at the foodbank.  Despite the sterling efforts of a host of volunteers, a least one local foodbank has a waiting list.

Nationwide, over half a million people now need help from foodbanks.  This fact alone ought to be sufficient for any government to examine causes and seek remedies but on Wednesday voted against such an examination.

You can find out who here:

http://agirlcalledjack.com/2013/12/19/the-296-mps-who-voted-against-investigating-food-banks-use-and-uk-hunger-the-list/

Regrettably it included two local MPs, David Jones and Guto Bebb. 

The government has even gone so far as to reject an EU grant to help pay for foodbanks. http://rt.com/news/uk-refuses-eu-help-467/

In a civilised society, the right to food and shelter ought  to be unquestionable.  We know that lack of food affects educational attainment, and future long term health with obvious costs to individuals, families and the state.

Yet, so overwhelming is the government's ideological drive to achieve headline national recovery through austerity that it appears that an undernourished population is a price it is willing for others to pay. 

Christmas reminds us that food is more than nutrition.  It is the basis for a great deal of social contact.  Even in some of the poorest parts of Africa, people have shared food with me.  Many people equate Christmas with a feast of food as well as the festival of the Christ child.  At the centre of Christian faith and practice is the sharing in Communion.

When Jesus wanted to protest against the oppression of  peasant farmers and fishermen by Herod Antipas in the 20's AD, he did it by feeding five thousand people with loaves and fishes demonstrating that when food passes through the hands of divine justice, there is food enough for all.

Many Christians have responded to the current crisis by working in and for the foodbanks but now it time to both ask why this is happening and to bang the drums of protest until there is change.




Stuart Elliot has suggested that we should mount a Foodbank Fast in the New Year commiting ourselves to living at the level of a foodbank parcel.  More info here:

https://www.facebook.com/FoodbankFast

If enough people took part, it would send a powerful message to those in power.

Mike Harrison

How on earth can we help Syria?

The news from Syria is by turns, frightening, saddening, depressing and downright confusing. 

It's beyond dispute that there have been war crimes.  Both the regime and the opposition appear implicated.  The death of the British doctor, Abbas Khan, who went to Syria to use his medical skills to help victims of the war and has spent may turn out to be the latest in a string of crimes against humanity. 

Foreign Office Minister, Hugh Robertson, said, "We can't at the moment be absolutely certain about the circumstances in which Dr Khan met his death, but what is clear is that he went to Syria on a humanitarian mission, was imprisoned by the Syrian authorities and met his death while he was in prison in circumstances that are at best extremely suspicious.


It's beyond dispute that there are 2.5 million refugees in neighbouring countries, particularly Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and it is estimated that there are 6.5 millions people displaced by the war internally.

Christians are often targeted by radical elements.

The winter is making the lives of those already suffering intolerable as those of us in Wales prepare fort Christmas.



How to help is a challenge. With the opposition hopelessly divided and increasing radicalised, where can we start.  

In these situations, I am helped by the fact that my daughter, Eleanor, is Director of Global Giving UK, an online charity which identifies small organisations worldwide which are making a significant impact on people's lives and acts as a conduit for donations.  So I asked her to help me find a route through the maze.

Her response:

The big challenge is getting the public to donate to Syria. Its a big hole in most big charities' work.  It costs a lot and no-one wants to give. Its causing a financial problem for OXFAM, Medecin San Frontieres etc.

Home Secretary, Theresa May, is offering 100% match on donations to UNICEF's Syria campaign and people are still not giving.

Interestingly, Global Giving UK reached out to lots of small UK Syrian outfits that have opened since the crisis began but no-one wanted to go through our vetting process!

We have given the funds raised on our site (in the UK) to this local project so far - an award winning Lebanese charity that is helping Syrian refugees due to the crisis. They continue to help Palestinian refugees as well.

http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/projects/protect-warm-and-feed-100-prs-and-sr-children-from/

If further substantial funds come in we will also add others to the portfolio.

So there you have it.  It's one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in recent times.  Because of the confusion, we're all paralysed in our giving. 

It's time to unfreeze our donations so that the Syrian refugees don't freeze.  All of the big international charities Christian Aid, Oxfam, Save the Children, Medecin sans Frontieres are active and need your help.  If you want a small charity, there's a link above but please do something.

Mike Harrison

Engagement Officer

Human rights home and away

Should the Prime Minister have visited Sri Lanka given the country's questionable human rights record? Given that the Prime Minister has brought considerable media attention to the issues by becoming the first world leader to visit the north of the country recently and also visiting the offices of a newspaper burnt down on more than one occasion, I think that, on balance, I'm in favour of his visit providing that he continues to press the issue when he returns from the Commonwealth summit.

Unfortunately while supporting freedoms abroad, closer to home his government is using the Anti Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill to reduce freedoms at home. If passed, in future it might take just a few grumpy, blinkered, its-nothing-to-do-with-me, I'm-all-for-a-quiet-life types, of whom there is not exactly a shortage, to ban legitimate protest in England and Wales.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/councils-to-be-given-powers-to-ban-peaceful-protests-that-might-disturb-local-residents-8940535.html

Councils to be given powers to ban peaceful protests that might disturb local residents

www.independent.co.uk

Peaceful protests could be outlawed on the sole grounds that they might annoy nearby residents under contentious new powers being granted to co

What goes on in a bedroom?

5 of us in a three generation household in Llandudno. If ours was a rental property, our fourth bedroom which was is filled by a succession of family and friends would count as a spare bedroom for the purposes of the bedroom tax. The elderly couples who live either side of us would each have three spare bedrooms. We won't, of course, be directly affected by the bedroom tax because we are owner occupiers and not in receipt of any benefits beyond the old age pension and older person's heating allowance.

It will inevitably be the poorest who are most affected by the bedroom tax. They are therefore not allowed to have family and friends to stay. Many with members of the family has who have a medical condition which means they need a separate room will also be caught by this tax.

If your MP claims the allowance in this article while voting for the bedroom tax, please write to them and complain. In fact, write to your MP anyway, it will encourage the good ones.

NAMED: The 169 MPs who voted YES to the Bedroom Tax after claiming up to £25K EACH in...

agirlcalledjack.com

BY JACK MONROE. 15 NOVEMBER 2013, 0900HRS. 169 of the MPs that voted YES to the Bedroom Tax on Tuesday evening, claimed up to £25k EACH in their own "spare bedroom" expenses. The highest claim

Sharing the Wealth

Recently Bishop Gregory posted a link to a website showing the massive inequalities in wealth in the United States of America.

http://www.upworthy.com/9-out-of-10-americans-are-completely-wrong-about-this-mind-blowing-fact-2?g=2

It led him to wonder what the position was in the UK. The data was readily available and is shown below.  The kink offer more detail.

http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2013/05/30/distribution-of-wealth-in-the-4th-most-unequal-country-in-the-world/


 




 Even more startling is put yourself on the Global rich list.  It only takes a minute to to the calculation.  The link is here: 
http://bit.ly/aAkUxR

When you've done it, think about the fact that the local food bank n Rhyl has a THREE MONTH WAITING LIST.

Now stop feeling guilty and do something!

Mike Harrison
2/10/13 

Housing Problems and Poverty in North Wales

Rent arrears and homelessness are on the increase. Figures published by the campaigning group False Economy are published in today's Independent. In contrast, Faith in Affordable Housing is offering positive contributions to the solution and a ideas for what Christians might constructively do with surplus churches.

 

http://www.housingjustice.org.uk/pages/fiah.html

 

Exclusive: 50,000 people are now facing eviction after bedroom tax

www.independent.co.uk

More than 50,000 people affected by the so-called bedroom tax have fallen behind on rent and face eviction, figures given to The Independent show. 

 

 

Meanwhile the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published figures showing very high rates of in-work poverty in North Wales. 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-24146012

There is more poverty in working households in Wales than in non-working ones, especially in rural areas, claims a study by a leading research charity.