Burma - if you want to help and are inclined to donate

Mum asked for a blog post. I'm not sure that this was exactly what she had in mind, but anyway.

A friend of mine was in Thailand 12 months ago, made a spontaneous decision to visit Burma, and fell in love with the country. Something about the people and the way they lived under the junta moved him more than I can possibly describe. Since then, he's been trying to work out what he can do that would be meaningful and - given the political situation - feasible.

I was completely unsurprised to receive an email from him a day or two after the cyclone hit. I was even less surprised to hear he was jumping on a plane and heading to Burma.

Since then, he's been sending updates about the situation, when he can get internet access. He'd previously advised us not to donate - yet - even if we were so inclined, as the aid simply wasn't getting through. So I was intensely curious to know what his thoughts were when the junta opened the doors to international aid, and this morning I received the following email:

I am still in Burma, and I am safe and well. Not going to say much about the current situation here except that:

* As far as I know, foreign aid is not getting through. I think that more efforts to provide foreign aid (UN, international NGOs) may actually be counterproductive.
* The only relief efforts that I know have had success is from private donors, and to a lesser extent, local NGOs.
* Very little of what's happening here is trickling through to the international media. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

If you want to know how you can help, I would recommend donating to Foundation for the People of Burma: http://www.foundationburma.org . At present I see very little point in donating to international NGOs.

He then told us we could feel free to forward the email, but to please remove any direct references to him, both for his protection and that of the people he's working with. If you were wondering, that's why I'm not referring to him by name.

So. If you are inclined to donate money to relief efforts in Burma, his advice is there.

Spring!

England has been waking up over the last couple of weeks. More, since Sunday, it's actually been sunny and warm! What with that, and May Day last week, and the college Ball on Saturday, I think it is most definitely spring. So here are some photos.

An explanation of some of the May Day activities: At 6 am, the Magdalen College Choir sings from the top of Magdalen Tower. My sister, N, was visiting for a few days around May Day - we got up and headed down to Magdalen, but the police blocked the street off just before we got there (not sure why they did this). We could see the top of the tower, though, and the speakers the college had set up meant we could hear, too, when the crowd wasn't too loud. We also saw a streaker (well, he kept his boxers on), who jumped the barrier and tried to get closer to the tower, only to get tackled on the tarmac by half a dozen police officers. He was grazed but grinning as they put him in the police van. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera, so I have no photos for you.

The beating of the parish bounds and the coin toss are actually part of Ascension Day, which happened to fall on May Day this year (40 days after Easter). I just watched the end of the beating of the bounds, when they arrived back at the college. The whole thing takes three hours: first, a service at one of the churches in the parish (our college chapel is the other), then each member of the congregation takes a willow wand, various members of the clergy take religious icons (such as the cross you can see in one of the photos), and the whole group walks to specified points, beating the willow wands on the ground, marking the walls with chalk, and saying prayers. They finish up at Lincoln College, where they are served with lunch and ivy beer. Students from Brasenose College - which is also located in the parish - are allowed to come through the door between the colleges (usually kept locked) and drink ivy beer. This is in recompense for when, several hundred years ago, we let one of their students get killed by townies after curfew. Yes, we have long memories here - what did you expect?

After lunch, some of the college students throw hot coins from the tower on Front Quad to school kids waiting on the grass below. Why hot coins? Well, apparently Lincoln students were not always the nicest of people (in case you hadn't worked that one out already), and used to toss hot coins to beggars in order to be mean. (Some people say it's to teach the kids a lesson about greed, but I don't think the coins are so hot these days!)

In the evening, the Lincoln Choir sings from the top of our tower - this is a fairly recently instituted tradition.

The other photos are from several walks over the last couple of weeks.

Spring breaking through

Goslings!

Before the excitement begins

The end of the beating of the bounds (there were more people, but those photos just look like a crowd)

Prepared for the coin toss


Catching coins

Lincoln College Choir

Radcliffe Square

St Cross Cemetery

Trees in bloom

Ivy on Christ Church

Messing around in boats

Oops!
(aka what happens when you mess around in boats...)

Pass the Pimms, please!

Flowers!













And ducks!