Performance Exam

1 – Study

2- Orchestral Excerpt

3 – Main Piece ('Wings' by Joan Tower)

Stephanie Hovey, Leeds University.

Avatar Film

Last night Toni and I went to see the film Avatar in 3D. It's one of the most breathtaking and moving films I have seen. Some people seem to think that this is a film without a plot, however I would say that not only are the visual effects amazing, but there are many plots cleverly interwoven. I can't say more without spoiling it for you!

Clifford Village Band

Steph is in the Clifford Village Band, and they've just won a local competition which means that they will play in the Limetree Festival in Ripon in August (2010).

Here's the promo video for the competition, featuring them and other artists.

 

Here's the article about them winning in the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Quakers and Business

I sometimes wonder whether I am really a Quaker at heart. I like the way that they value, use, and are comfortable with silence. I like the way that they like to think things through rigorously and seek to live in a principled way. I like the way that they seek to make decisions by consensus and give those who disagree, but do not want to get in the way of a majority decision, the ability to “stand aside.”

So I read with interest a recent article, written in the light of the likely takeover of Cadbury in the UK, called “The Quaker Brand.”* Cadbury was one of a number of businesses set up by British Quakers in the 19th Century. The Quakers were keen to provide good working conditions for their staff, and a visit to their Bournville site in Birmingham is fascinating – and not just for the opportunity to eat lots of chocolate!

What interested me particularly in the article was that the reason that the Quakers became such good businessmen was because, being outside the Anglican Church, they were banned from universities (until the middle of the 19th centrury). This effectively excluded them from careers in law, science, or medicine – and of course their pacifism excluded service in the armed forces. There was also good networking within their religious community. These developments resonate with the Jew's dominance of financial activity in Europe in earlier centuries due to their exclusion. It is interesting to see the way in which the closing of doors to certain activity can shape whole communities in a way that brings benefit, although it can be (very) painful at the time.

I find it a scary thought that the focus of British intelligentsia on law, science, and medicine continues today to the detriment of creative industry. As I have sought to live out a vocation in the world of business for most of my working life, I also find it alarming that this establishment position was colluded with by the Anglican Church which in earlier centuries had a stranglehold on most of the education system. The Christian faith calls for a positive theology of work, but this perhaps explains why many (Church of England) churchgoers say that they find a complete absence during church worship of connection with, or affirmation of, their work.

Yes, maybe I am really a Quaker!

*The Week 30th January 2010

Ever feel others are better than you? Read this.

How to stop comparing.

Thanks, Bruce

Cameron’s “raison d’etre” – to end moral relativism?

I may be a bit behind on the news, however I'm interested in comments by Janet Daley in the Sunday Telegraph.*

She has obviously been waiting for David Cameron and the Conservative Party to develop a clear sense of direction, and believes that they now have as she writes, “So let's give credit where it is due. What the Conservatives are saying now is nothing less than a full-frontal attack on moral relativism: the doctrine that says that no one has a right to criticise (or “stigmatise”, in the fashionable parlance) any life choice, however selfish, irresponsible, feckless or socially destructive it may be.”

I'm not into “moral relativism,” Perhaps its time for a pendulum to swing back the other way (if we can do so in a way that is accepting of human beings who do not fit other people's absolutes).

*Article 24th January, referred to in The Week 30th January 2010.

Haiti debt-fuelled disaster

Is it true? I'm hearing that a contributory factor to Haiti's financial poverty, which has made the impact of the recent earthquake worse, is that they only finished paying of debts to French banks around 1950. After slaves in Haiti won their freedom by rioting, apparently these debts were imposed on the people of Haiti by Napoleon as compensation for the losses incurred by the European owners of the plantations there on which the former slaves had worked.

Our celebration in 2007 of the conribution to the abolition of slavery in Britain by William Wilberforce and others brought home amongst other things the way in which slavery contributed to European coffers while impoverishing other people.

Search “Wilberforce” in the blog for related articles.