Movement 98

More documents

Recommendations

Info

J along the way. I learned an incredible amount and it's very tough for me to say I would not have had this experience for the world, because clearly I would rather be happily married and have life be all jim-dandy but that hasn't happened. So, the way I see life is that it hasn't happened for a reason." I point out-incorrectly, I later learn-the Chinese character for chaos and change are one and the same. and ask if she finds that true in her own life. "Absolutely. I think we should embrace change. When it's wrapped up as chaos we tend to avoid it. I think most people's lives are spent trying to avoid pain, which is a very real and sensible thing to do and understandable. " She points to her own experiences this year, "l had to confront whatever it is that made (her husband leave her). whether I liked it or not. Which means that although I've had my confidence fairly bashed I maybe have a bit more insight into how I want to do stuff in the future because it's about not being reactive. When change is forced upon us, we tend to resist it but it's not always when change is being forced on us that we tend to make the great leaps. " The letters she receives tell stories of how others have had to confront their own pain. "On the whole it's tended to be people saying 'oh your experience corresponds with my experience'. There's a common thread of people saying 'you can be confessional and coy, but I can be really confessional and the great thing is that my letter is not going to get printed' I read these letters and tend to be astonished by these people's rawness. Some of the letters have reduced me to tears, even when l've been feeling quite robust. People respond to your honesty with their own honesty and that's very gratifying and the most powerful aspect of it. Whatever the circumstances of their story, it's that they tell it to you straight. And that's a privilege." This sort of a response, I think, is indic.ative of a need that people have to be more honest with themselves and with others. Cleprly, a 600 word column in a Sunday magazine hasn't caused this alone, but I do think that Kathryn Flett's writing has given people much to consider. As she says, "l think that without honesty you're screwed really. lt's a fine line between being honest and bludgeoning people senseless with 'l feel this'. You've got to strike a balance but if you don't start from a base level of emotional honesty you haven't got a hope in hell." @ Graeme Burk is the editor ol Movement christian Aid on Ethical Trade and their creat Supermarket Recei pt Collection campaign Change at the Checkout B ritain's supermarkets are filled with products picked and processed by workers from Third World countries. Christian Aid researchers have investigated conditions for a range of foods and found the workers are getting a bad deal; women poisoned by pesticides on grape plantations; workers earning poverty wages picking apples; people packed into rabbit hutch housing on tea estates. lf they dare to complain, workers face harassment and sacking. One year ago, Christian Aid launched its'Global n.,,. ,..- Supermarket' campaign to persuade the UK's i;-- --t -'.r biggest food retailers to improve working condi- ,ri:i';: .l lii tions for workers in Third World countries. lt asked the powerful British Supermarkets to work v 'i9 ;: r-r r-iii':'Dris r,..'i]'. ' with suppliers to improve conditions and to guar- '' 1ii antee that their own-label products are produced l-'0n.,;51 --.i. ''.rt0L,jj-;t ou"o,t,,-.. to minimum standards of security. t..oi.;: -.$Li Tens of thousands of consumers have taken 5,.-'..;F1J 4lrep up Christian Aid's call. Across Britain church rr** 'u'-i t:ilFrri congregations, students, youth groups, guides, .i-.15! I0IAI groups of employees, women's groups and clAri0: individual consumers have been putting pressure on their supermarkets, asking them to adopt a code of conduct to guarantee decent working conditions and to have the code externally verified. Their demands have been backed up by millions of pounds' worth of till receipts handed into supermarket managers and tens of thousands of letters sent to supermarket directors. The message from them has been clear: that if the supermarkets want consumers' loyalty, they must show loyalty to the people who produce our food on the other side of the world. A year on, no less than seven out of the top ten British supermarkets have drafted ethical policies. Six have adopted a code of conduct and agreed in principle to external verification. Several have launched pilot projects overseas - testing their own commitment to the principle of giving Third World workers a better deal. Christian Aid is calling for in the next year: o the adoption and monitoring of codes of conduct in three-quarters of the major supermarkets' suppliers of own-brand products o the introduction of third party checking where it has been agreed in principle o publication, in annual reports or other publicly available forms, of the results of these efforts . training for the supermarkets' own staff on ethical issues. What can you do? S;-.tg,;,. ,_ .- *a' I rfiui.-rH i 4i. .'';i 5- i : ri 7; o _..,.:i0i tSi..,;, 1 . Get members of your SCM Group/Chaplaincy Group/Church to collect supermarket till receipts 2. Bring the receipts you collect to the group, where they are gathered together 3. Sort out your receipts according to which supermarket they come from. Then hand them in to the local managers, with an explanation that the people who have spent all this money in their stores care about the way Third World workers are treated - and want the supermarket to use its huge economic muscle to do something about it. For further information about this campaign, contact Christian Aid at PO Box 1OO, London SEl 7RT or PO Box 11, Edinburgh EHl 1EL. movemcnt 18 . ?c 1y i;. i5 i. i! .,Jl | .4, B,98 r0.08 i,l0
Tim Woodcock reviews Elvis Costello's latest compilation CD, Extreme Honev Sweetness and Spite ELVIS COSTELLO - Extreme Honey (the very best of the Warner Bros years) Warner Bros Records "The Circus Animals' Desertion" ..Those masterful images because complete, Grew in pure mind, but out of what began? A mound of refuse or the sweeping of a street Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can, Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut Who keeps the till. Now that mv ladder's gonq I must lie down where all ladders start, ln the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart. w.B. Yeats (1939) This I whole eighty-minute album could be summarised by its first five seconds: the delicious harmony oi a potential doo-wop number and then the disruptive crash and snarl of a drum. Elvis Costello is all sweetness and spite. This is mostly due to his extraordinarily distinctive voice which could never be described as pleasant but is too captivating to be dismissed. A rough measure of how good an artist is, I think, the number of records you once had-the three Elvis Costello albums I had were lent to friends and never returned. Costello has been'best of-ed' several times before: but this is a selection hand-picked by the man himself to celebrate his ten years on the Warner Bros. label. The period saw Warner Bros become Time Warner, Thatcher fall and Blair rise; and Costello learn to drive a car and write musical notation (so says the indispensable sleeve notes). issue 6 fresh albums and his whole back-catalogue, write soundtracks for Alan Bleasdale's dramas, collaborate and tour with the Brodsky Ouartet, and direct London's eclectic Meltdown Festival. ln this time the only commercially successfu'l album was 1994's back to basics Brutal Youth. Therefore, say some, it has been a decade of digression - once a shouty speccy punk, always a shouty speccy punk. And it would be folly to argue that the 3-minute, 4-piece slices of rage are not his forte. But he has diversified, experimented and irreversibly matured. Even working with The Attractions second time around was something new: "l wanted to make a record out of pieces that I had taken some time think about. with a few songs that I couldn't have written when I was twenty-two". ln pop music only a select handful of mainstream artists combine longevity with credibility. And unlike Bowie or McCartney, Elvis Costello has drifted from his roots in a consistent direction (that is, towards classical music). The most satisfactory result was the Juliet Letters project, in which a sublime string quartet is fused with Costello's voice singing letters of some sort. The apparently upbeat words, "Banish all dismay, extinguish every sorrow/ if l'm lost or l'm forgiven/ the birds will still be singing" bely the actual meaning: the dour arrangement indicates that this is an ironic suicide note. Conversely the unstoppably bouncy "The Other Side of Summer" invites you to sing along, in fact insists you join in, "Iit'sJ tragic without reason/ there's malice in this magic". lt is a curious habit, but Costello likes to write lyrics that work against the melody. The words are as far from clich6 as one can get, and are loaded with meanings that only reveal themselves after numerous listens. The cumulative effect is that even the impenetrable lyrics (for me 'Poor Fractured Atlas', '13 Steps Lead Down') take on an arcane power. Even if you have no idea what he is on about it has an effect - you may still get the neck mohican. The political songs are rare but understated masterpieces (remember 'Pills and Soap' or 'Shipbuilding'?). Heie he hopes to outlive Thatcher so that he can 'Tramp the Dirt Down' on her grave. There is something of an overgrown Sixth Former in the words: "When England was the whore of the world Margaret was her madam/ and the future looked as bright and as clear as the black tarmacadam". There is surely a more constructive way of venting such anger, but Costello has no desire to be a spokesman or a sloganeer; for him such songs are "very personal songs.. the ones I write because I don't want them in my head a second longer". On faith he is equally sour: "Please don't let me be anything I can't explain/ movement 1e I can't believe/ I'll never believe in anything again" ('Couldn't Call it Unexpected no.4'). Such eloquent cynicism almost becomes its own moral code, "Nonsense prevails, modesty fails/ Grace and virtue turn into stupidity". Hope springs sporadically. But the light relief of 'London's Brilliant Parade' and 'Veronica' are anomies. The problem-as ever-is how much can you identify the artist with his work? Certainly Costello is playful and knowing, and would love us to think he is just like the characters he speaks through. But it should be noted that the characters tend to gravitate towards the same twisted outlook. There is the existentialism-for-effect of "l want to vanish/ this is my last request/ l've given you the awful truth/ Now give me my rest"-and you think perhaps it is all a showbiz persona: each evening he goes takes off his trademark glasses and scowl. But then there are marvellous personal notes such as: "1 989. very cold so start to grow hair and beard. Seems to scare people, so grow it longer". This myopic misanthrope is someone of extraordinary talent and output. I wish we could be sure that we're enjoying his malevolent creations without them encroaching on us. @ What shall we do? What shall we do with all this useless beauty? (Elvis Costello, 1994)
Page 1 and 2: fnovefnent I I I I ll ,] I' il I I
Page 3 and 4: It's time to get our Vour hairshirt
Page 5 and 6: Cutting The Crap in Edinburgh lI /A
Page 7 and 8: that not everything about my icon w
Page 9 and 10: The question of gay and lesbian cle
Page 11 and 12: Hope Has Two Daughters \ A /:li; i'
Page 13 and 14: interesting because here in lreland
Page 15 and 16: Virtual Relationships a I ir l R V
Page 17 and 18: apparent." This is plot synopsis ra
Page 19: a writer you never can go back." Bu
Page 23 and 24: The writer of Judge Dredd and a bun
Page 25 and 26: Rosie Mifes on the collection of wr
Page 27 and 28: t lll!8stq$F ffiij'' " "' ri. $' af

Movement 98

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?