Oxjam Gig Tuesday 4th December

Please come along and support the group. Bring all your friends. It should be a good night. We also need people to help on the stall. Please let Miriam know if you are able to do this by emailing magicmiz@yahoo.com

Cut the Carbon Rally-Birmingham

By Lee Cookson

August 28th saw the arrival of the 18 Cut the Carbon March walkers, making their way onto the site of Millenium Point around afternoon time. The day was organised by Christian Aid and Islamic Relief to welcome the group’s part of their walk from Northern Ireland to London. To entertain the crowds was support from Lemar, Islamic band SHAAM, and The Epstein, compered by BRMBs Russ Morris.

Oxfam and Oxbrum, with help supplied by Lee Cookson, Miriam Taylor, and Sue Cockcroft went down to help the cause and bring a bit of humour with a serious touch, to interact with the people and get their views on climate change. With a little bit of blue peter know-how, without the “this is what i made earlier”, Lee and Miriam had put together their own room 101 box with working lever and collected some objects, with the help of Will Tucker, that would symbolise everyday items that contribute to the carbon footprint of our society today, for example: cars, boilers, light bulbs, and excess packaging, were picked by each member of public who would decide to commit to using less or getting rid of it completely, by pulling the lever and making it disappear into room 101 hell for ever! While this was going on we gave out info and collected email addresses for Oxbrum’s mailing list.

Overall the day was okay but not the best to interact with because of the loud music from the stage, making it impossible to hear or talk much. Nevertheless, we battled on giving out the good word of Oxfam and supporting the cause.

Social Events – Thusday 27th September & Sat 13th Oct

2 upcoming socials that we are having:

1) Following the success and fun that we had at the Darfur fundraiser, we are making a return visit to ‘Sugarfoot Stomp’ as a social event. Old and new faces welcome!

2) On Sat 13th Oct, is a funk and soul night at the Hare and Hounds pub (upstairs) in Kings Heath.

Upcoming Campaigning – Weoley Castle Carnival Sun 12th August

Quick reminder that we’ll be campaigning at the Weoley Castle
Carnival, Castle Square from 12 till 4 on Sunday. Any extra help on
the stall will be most welcome or if not then please come by and say
‘hello’.

OxBrum Initiation

As a new recruit to the Oxbrum collective I was told that my mission, should I choose to accept it, would be to collect ‘100 Birmingham Voices Against Poverty’, edit them and upload them onto the internet in the form of a podcast.

PODCAST… hmmm…that’s a new one… never heard of that before and if I’m completely honest I’m still not entirely sure of what it entails, but that didn’t matter because I liked the idea; the voice of Birmingham, raw, uncensored and real delivering the messages that they want Mr Blair, as their political representative to deliver to the G8 summit.

And what you may ask did the voice of Birmingham have to say?

Well firstly consensus was clear, everybody should be entitled to a basic standard of living to provide meaning other than victim to their existence. To promote a policy of self-sufficiency for developing countries by making trade fair and to tackle the very real threat of climate change, the voice of Birmingham was conscious, clear and concise, but most importantly its melody was sweet.

The melody may have been sweet but what made it so was the variety of vocal tensions and differing perspectives on how these ambitions might be achieved that created the unique harmony of the Birmingham voice. In particular, the introduction of ideas that I would never have even considered, influencing factors that challenged me to re-evaluate my own thinking on certain issues, this was, on a personal level, most rewarding aspect of my involvement in this project.

And my own personal message to Mr Blair?

Simply listen to the people.

Catherine Bell