More to come later... (Today's word: CCTV)

As always, I feel as pressed for time when writing on the blog. The computers at school are down (falling after the presentation on how everything we did would be finalized by an e-mailed report, and assurances the system wouldn't fail), so I am writing in a cafe for 1£/hour (the standard rate).

This is the third Sunday I've been here, but once again, I've failed to attend church. The reason was a bit better this time, though; as opposed to being tired and lazy, I attended a protest/conference this weekend.

Manchester is the home this year for the Labour party's annual conference. As is well known, Blair's popularity, primarily due to his conduct with the war, has fallen, and he has assured the people he will resign within the year. The demonstration started at this point, with the message "Time to Go", referring to Blair, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Trident missles. The walk went around the are where the conference was being held, and a simulated "die-in", where everybody lied down, took place. It then continued through the main shopping district (remember Arndale from my earlier post?), and concluded where it began, with more speakers to extoll the need to remove the double standards we've set for Arabs and Muslims.

Today was a continuation, with an "Alternative Conference" held at the University of Manchester. I was able to attend workshops and lectures about the current state of Iraq, Debt in Africa, and the need to reform Education on all levels. The speakers included leaders from various peace coalitions as well as MP's (Member of Parliament), authors, delegates from foreign organizations, and the like. I was able to make a slight correction to an MP, who described American farm subsidies as methods of appeasement to the mid-west famer's voting bloc. I pointed out that the farmers in America have fallen from 1/3 of the population less than 100 years ago to less than 2%, so the voting bloc theory would have been a waste of time (as Wendell Berry pointed out, there really isn't a "farm vote" anymore). But that's for another post.

Anyway, that has been my weekend, so I suppose some practice will have to creep in today. I've turned in my class requests, and will update as soon as I know what on Earth is going on. Take Care, and enjoy your day.

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