Amnesty Meeting

One of the effects of the wonderful whirlwind that has come into my life in the form of my better half, is that on Tuesday I went to the branch meeting of Amnesty International. As my regular reader already knows, I have often touched on human rights issues here. But not as frequently I would have liked to. Part of the reason for this has been my own fault as I often have taken on more than I ever should have done. However also the promised support was never forthcoming and often I was left to do most and even all the work.

Well part of the changes I have decided to make in my life is to be more discerning in what I agree to do for volunteer bodies and groups. The problem in conservation work is that often is there are many folks that want to get involved with the tasks of coppicing. That is cutting down trees without killing them to encourage new growth and open up an area to enable greater species diversity. But when it comes to scrub clearing or litter picking, there are fewer folks willing, as simply these jobs are just to much like hard work.

The same often goes for jobs like surveying an area for specific species. Often this involves walking up and down an area and systematically searching for the signs of activity, of the species. I know that this can be boring but unless you know where Bats are roosting, as an example, any works that are undertaken could do much more damage than the benefit gain.

Therefore as I have previous experience, I was getting lumbered with this. Add to this the unwillingness of people to learn how to carry out the work properly, or take guidance or instruction, and not from me but professionals, and I was getting seriously fed up with being lumbered with these tasks. I would have been willing to share the load but so often I was left alone, or others would give up after a very short time.

Now I appreciate that this work is being done by volunteers who are giving up their time, but so am I. Another aspect that was bugging me was that often folks were not even trying to do many of the tasks properly. I could give a number of examples, but I am not looking to em barres people or groups here, but by failing to do their best often the work is worse than useless, and frequently it ends up with no real conservation value at all.

The problem can so often be equated to “Too many chiefs and not enough Indians” So many people want to be in charge and direct the work but are not prepared to get their hands dirty. Then they want the credit for the benefits gained. Now this is not a gripe about not being given credit for the tasks I have been involved in, as credit should and does go to the group or organisation as a whole. But I do object to folks that do the least wanting to gain the greater credit. There have been many times when I have wanted to make postings here on some of the work I have got involved in. However, for various reasons (excuses) people ask me not to post pictures or write about the projects. And the main reason often was that with no pictures to show that the minor players were not as involved as they would latter claim...

It was and has been this childish and petty game playing that has just made me unwilling to waste my time with these groups. If I am going to get involved with anything now, I want to ensure that my effort is as effective as I can make it. Therefore, I would rather work with some of the larger national groups where the impact can and does have the greatest effect.

Also with writing about the Environment and Conservation, so frequently these issues are interrelated to human rights issues. Both legal and Illegal logging has a serious impact on the Human Rights of many indigenous peoples. Add into this corruption and violence and there are examples where community leaders are murdered and or imprisoned to protect the interests of the logging businesses. Or where over fishing, or unsustainable fishing is effecting poor native peoples and environmental issues become human rights issues too.

Therefore I am grateful to my better half for informing me of the regular meeting that the local Amnesty group hold. As I would rather put my small effort into helping an organisation like this than a bunch of rather selfish people.

While I have a few ideas of how I may be able to assist, I think that one of the best ways may be simply by trying to help raise awareness of the issues and people involved. This little wood mouse has ways of sniffing out the details of issues.

But the one thing that was most touching was just how friendly and welcoming the people were at the Amnesty meeting were. Also, unlike so many groups where people seem to be involved for improving their own status, everyone was there just trying to do their best for humanity.

I will still talk about the local wildlife, human and non human, and other topics will be thrown in to the mix, but I want to feel that writing this blog has some meaning too.

And to return to the quirky way that my mind works, on the bus journey back to my village from Newcastle, the bus driver stopped and asked us to decant to a replacement bus. There was a fault that had developed. As I had been sitting reading some documents, I had to take off my glasses pick up the laptop and was the last off. As we were walking to the replacement bus, the driver made an apology for the inconvenience. Now having overheard him saying to the fitter who had brought the replacement out that there was a problem with the brakes, personally I would rather that minor inconvenience of changing vehicles than being on a bus that was possibly unsafe. While I may criticise the service sometimes, the majority of the staff, the drivers are excellent.