Thursday, April 30, 2015

#U2 News - rehearsing for #tour in #Vancouver

Rehearsing for U2 tour in Vancouver, Bono opens up about injuries

U2
Bono, right, with U2 guitarist Edge, pictured in Toronto in 2009.
John R. Kennedy / Global News
TORONTO — U2 singer Bono, in Vancouver rehearsing for the band’s upcoming tour, says he is still recovering from a bicycle accident last November that fractured his eye socket, shoulder, elbow and left hand.

“It feels like I have somebody else’s hand,” Bono said in an interview with the New York Times.
“I can’t bend these,” he explained, referring to his fourth finger and pinky.
Pointing to another part of his hand, Bono added: “And this is like rigor mortis. But they say that nerves heal about a millimetre a week, so in about 13 months I should know if it’s coming back.”
Bono said his shoulder and face have healed but his arm — now reinforced with titanium — is “all numb.”
The singer, who turns 55 on May 10, suffered the injuries when he crashed his bike in Central Park.
“I really used to think that my head was harder than any surface it came in contact with, and I don’t anymore,” Bono said.
“I didn’t come off a Harley-Davidson. I came off a push bike and smashed myself to bits. There is no glory here.”
Bono
Bono, pictured with his guitar in Toronto in 2011.
John R. Kennedy / Global News
Two months after the accident, Bono told fans “it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again.”
In the Times interview, Bono confirmed he can’t play guitar. He joked his bandmates “don’t seem to mind.”
U2 — which also includes guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. — is inside the Pacific Coliseum rehearsing for the Innocence + Experience tour, which kicks off a few minutes west at Rogers Arena on May 14.
The band is also scheduled to perform in Montreal on June 12, 13, 16, and 17 and in Toronto July 6 and 7.
According to the Times, the tour has sold 98 per cent of the 1.2 million tickets available at 68 shows.
The band will perform on a large rectangular stage and a smaller round stage connected by a walkway. For the first time, there will be an intermission during the concert.
In addition to rehearsing inside the Coliseum, U2 is recording material for a new album in a mobile studio.
“As a person who’s been a lifelong member of Amnesty International, of all human-rights crimes I think that this kind of unwanted mail, if it’s at the top of your list or even halfway up it, your life is really fantastic.”

#Pipturesque of the month



Pipturesque of the month
I love this
see the intensity
feel the passion
listening
concentration
hands
expressions
leaning forward
eager
giving & hearing

I love being in this place
this space
seeing
feeling
their beautiful
their beautiful human connection

I have no clue 
their sharing
confidential triad
but
the beauty - such beauty to capture

Thank you for being with me
in this beautiful space
BECOMING




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My TIPS of the month.


Your tips
not tips of an ice-berg
but tips of a beautiful human

I love encouraging humans
to reach out
touch tips
and
there is always a smile
multiple smiles
humans connecting with touch
not threatening
human touch
motion changes emotion
touching changes emotion



reach out and touch someone today



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Latest Vacancies NationWide





LATEST VACANCIES



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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Social Media


Some music for you from the great man #GillesPeterson & #NedDoheny

Some music for you
from the great man
Gilles Peterson




I KNOW



I only know what I know.
I have only experienced what I have experienced.
I have only lived where I have lived. 
I have only had feelings that I have felt. 
I have only been wounded like I am wounded. 
I only have relationships that I have. 
I have only lived my life. 
I would love to learn from your life. 



PS
I am the little fat one


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I am passionate at conducting developmental/learning sessions at training days/conferences




I am passionate at conducting developmental/learning sessions at training days/conferences and any gathering of humans, large or small. 
I am used to large numbers - and love small groups of course.

I have facilitated sessions for Qualitative researchers, School staff, Prison staff, Youth Workers, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Clergy, business teams, CEO's, Chairs CEO's and the young people they serve - together.
I can get all sorts of humans into a climate of trust and therefore willing to take risks for their own development.
I find that I can share things from my own work, without knowing much about other professions present, 
and participants can take the principles and transpose them quite easily to their own work and challenges.

CLICK 'About' in my www.pipwilson.com to find out more.



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Nepal Earthquake: Eyewitness account

Nepal Earthquake: Eyewitness account from Kathmandu


Nicholas Roxburgh, a 26-year-old PhD student from Ormskirk, Lancashire, was in Kathmandu, Nepal, near the epicentre of the earthquake when it struck.
Here, he describes his experiences of the earthquake and its aftermath.
The building in Kathmandu around me began to sway as I sat at my desk working. At first it was gentle, but then it grew more violent.



Photos: Christian Aid/Yeeshu Shukla

Nepal Earthquake: Eyewitness account from Kathmandu


Nicholas Roxburgh, a 26-year-old PhD student from Ormskirk, Lancashire, was in Kathmandu, Nepal, near the epicentre of the earthquake when it struck.
Here, he describes his experiences of the earthquake and its aftermath.
The building in Kathmandu around me began to sway as I sat at 
I ran to the bathroom and threw myself on the floor. Dust and plaster from the ceiling began to fall around me as the quake continued. Fearing the building would collapse I made the decision to move. Keeping down on the floor I got myself under the desk, where I stayed until the movement stopped.
I immediately grabbed my bag and headed for an exit. Moving down the stairs from the third floor I made my way through dust and debris to the front door and out onto the street. Initially there was an eerie calm before people began to cautiously emerge, dust filling the streets.
Just a few doors down from the building where I had been staying, a hospital stood — relatively undamaged, its staff out on the street fearing collapse. Within minutes injured people began to arrive, in cars, taxis, on foot, being carried by others.
It was immediately clear there had been casualties. The lifeless bodies of two young children were carried in, while countless others arrived with a variety of horrific injuries — many having been hurt by falling masonry, others having been pulled from collapsed buildings.
I made the decision to head to the British embassy, passing a collapsed building on the way where people pulled at the broken remains looking for those buried beneath. They thought at least seven had been killed there, with just a sole survivor being rescued from the rubble.
Having arrived at the embassy I tried to make myself useful — helping to cook for those arriving and transcribing messages. Communications can be hard in Nepal at the best of times and the quake had knocked out the phone network and internet access.
Nicholas has lived in Nepal for nine months, based in the rural area of Dolakha while working on a PhD exploring rural water system management. He was due to return to the UK on Tuesday. Nicholas’ brother Alasdair Roxburgh is Campaigns Manager at Christian Aid.
As night fell, many crowded into the few areas of open space in Kathmandu, using tarpaulins as a temporary shelter against the elements.
As dawn broke on Sunday, the aftershocks continued to rock the city, each one sending people running for cover.
During the day it began to rain, leaving those who have been left homeless — or too fearful to return to their homes — exposed in the cold wet weather.
People have spent the day working together to find survivors in collapsed buildings, sharing water and food where they can, and forming temporary shelters.
As I write, the rain continues to pour onto the canvas above and the aftershocks continue. I’ve lived here for nine months now, working in rural Nepal, close to the epicentre of the earthquake.
While much of the media attention has focused on the capital city and on Everest, I fear for those living in these more isolated areas. Communications to these remote rural regions are poor, but I understand that there have been landslides. Access to these areas is tricky and I can only imagine the urgent needs they must be facing now.
For this country, the immediate need is clear — shelter, food and water, along with support that will help rebuild this beautiful country.
Christian Aid has launched an emergency appeal to provide urgent relief to victims of the earthquake, working through local partner agencies. To find out more visit the Christian Aid website.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Glasgow - how the city halved its murders by 'caring people into change'




Glasgow - how the city halved its murders by 'caring people into change'



Ten years ago, it was western Europe’s murder capital. 

How did the city face up to endemic knife and gang crime – 
and why did it discontinue a key programme?

I am interested in this stuff.
I have spent most of my life
working with beautiful humans 
on the edge
in pain
in violence
in dysfunction
in deprivation

I did a study on Gangs and Deprivation in 1979
I strive to understand the lives of all of us
especially those in greatest need
creating difficulties 
for themselves
for their communities
Beautiful Humans  .........

In a squat redbrick community hall in the shadow of a pair of vertiginous north Glasgow tower blocks, half a dozen men sit on plastic chairs around a sturdy wooden table. The carpet is threadbare, the overhead lights harsh. Through shatterproof glass windows, dusk has turned to night.

“I can’t get a job anywhere, not with my history,” a lean man in late middle age says, his eyes turned downward. A little further along the table, a lad in his early 20s with a tattoo on his neck emphatically nods: “I need to get my shit together.”

There are echoes of the 12-step programme in the raw honesty, the white knuckles and supportive arms on shoulders. But this monthly meeting is being organised by a Scottish police taskforce, the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). The man with his head bowed has a conviction for murder. Opposite him is a onetime major drug dealer. Another has done time for assault. Everyone around the table is on the same, long road: trying, with help from the VRU, to wrest new lives from the ashes of old, chaotic, violent ones.

The Violence Reduction Unit is a product of Glasgow’s own turbulent recent past. The unit, initially part of Strathclyde police, was set up in 2005 to tackle the city’s endemic knife fighting and gang crime. At the time, Glasgow was western Europe’s murder capital. A decade later, Glasgow’s murder rate has more than halved, from 39 in 2004-05 to 18 last year. Similar drops have been recorded for attempted murder, serious assault and possession of an offensive weapon.

The precipitous decline began when police acknowledged that the only way to stem the tide of violence was to tackle the culture that spawned it, says John Carnochan, a former Glasgow murder detective involved in setting up the VRU. While young men grew up in unstable, violent homes, joined gangs, carried knives, drank and fought, death and mayhem was almost inevitable.


The VRU attempted to break this cycle. Their strategy – borrowed from anti-gang violence initiatives spearheaded in Boston in the 1990s – combined creative thinking with old-fashioned enforcement.

Doctors, nurses, dentists, even vets were all enlisted to look out for the signs of violence and domestic abuse, and to counsel the young men who arrived at every hour of the day with fresh knife wounds.

There were legislative changes, too. The VRU lobbied successfully for increases in maximum sentences for carrying knives. Where previously those caught with a blade were allowed back on their street while their case slowly progressed through the justice system, now once caught they were fingerprinted, DNA-swabbed and held in custody until court.

Paul joined the VRU’s small team last year. The 37-year-old father of three has a calm, quiet self-possession that belies the chaotic story of his life. Born to an alcoholic mother and abusive father, he grew up in a North Glasgow house “where no one ever showed any emotion”. When his grandfather dropped dead in front of him, nobody asked how he felt.

Within a few years he was running away from home. By his early teenager years, he was in a gang, talking drugs and getting into fights.

One night, a street fight went badly wrong. Paul (not his real name) was quarrelling with a childhood friend at a bus stop. His erstwhile pal fell under the wheels of a bus. He was crushed to death. Paul pled guilty to culpable homicide and was sent to prison.

 A police officer in Crosshill, Glasgow. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
Released back into the same environment he had left, filled with drink, drugs and violence, Paul decided he had to change. “I’d been in prison and I’d been in care and I didn’t want my kids going through what I went through,” he recalls.

Then he met the VRU. In 2008, the unit – extended the previous year to cover all of Scotland – had set up the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) in Glasgow’s East End, where sprawling housing schemes had hosted the worst of the gang violence. More than 600 gang members were “called in” to listen to hard truths from police, paramedics, the mother of a young man killed by a gang with machetes, and former offenders, including Paul.

“I felt excluded all my life,” he says. “Now here was the police, who used to exclude me all the time, and they were trying to include me.”

Funded primarily by the Scottish government, CIRV combined the carrot and the stick. Gang members were given a choice: renounce violence and get help into education, training and employment, or face zero tolerance on the street.

The results were remarkable. Among the 200 gang members who became directly involved with CIRV, violent offending fell by almost half, according to a 2011 study. Weapon possession was down 85%. Even among gang members who had not attended a call-in, violence had fallen by almost a quarter.

 Karyn McCluskey of the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for the Guardian
The walls of Karyn McCluskey’s cluttered office, located in a 1970s office block in downtown Glasgow, are decorated with photographs. There is a picture from a stint at the Met in London in 2010 – her long, sandy-coloured hair and knee-length boots stand out among a sea of men in uniforms – alongside stark, black-and-white photos of blood-soaked young Glaswegians in doctors’ surgeries.

“People ask me, ‘Why do you spend your time getting these bad boys jobs?’ I always say, ‘I’m not doing it for them, I’m doing it for their kids,’” McCluskey says.

In 2004, McCluskey was a young intelligence officer on Strathclyde Police. Then commissioner Sir William Rae asked the recent recruit from West Mercia to pen a report on how to reduce the city’s headline grabbing rates of violence. McCluskey’s paper lead directly to the creation of the VRU. A decade later, she is the unit’s director.

A long-time single parent, McCluskey has no shortage of empathy for the young men – they are overwhelmingly men – whose names and faces come across her desk. She goes to the christenings of ex-offenders’ children; more than once, our long conversation is broken by a phone call from a charge seeking advice. But she is hard-headed, too, which perhaps explains why home secretary Theresa May is one of her many fans.

If jail on its own worked, America would have no crime
VRU director Karyn McCluskey
McCluskey believes inequality breeds violence. She wants “a revolution” in how we tackle violence – by focusing on the traumatic environments in which so many offenders are reared. Reversing the effects of 20 years of deprivation and neglect is not easy, but it has to be done.

“If jail on its own worked, America would have no crime,” she points out. “You need a different approach.”

Part of this fresh tack is enlisting former offenders and gang members to work continually with current ones trying to escape the chaos. One of those former members is Paul, who, having participated in the CIRV project, was recruited by the VRU as a “navigator”. The best part of his job, he says, is when his charges realise that they, too, can change. “You can see the light going on. They have an opportunity to break a cycle that has gone on for years.”

One of the young men Paul works with is 19. His earliest memory is his father holding a gun to his mother’s head: she was using her son as a shield. “Once you understand where he is coming from, it is not hard to want to help him,” Paul says.

Although Glasgow’s crime rates have continued to fall, some question the
VRU approach. “Violence dropped and weapon-carrying
offences dropped, but that was on the back of substantial work by
police and other agencies,” says William Graham, a lecturer in criminology at Abertay University. “So it is hard to say that CIRV was the sole cause of the reductions, though it did show a degree of success.” Some say the publicity-savvy VRU were given credit for a general decline in violence across Scottish society.

But former murder detective and VRU founder John Carnochan warns that people “might forget how bad it was” in Glasgow. “All we have done to that community is to show what life is like without gang violence. We have changed the normal. Same as we changed the normal for smoking. But the challenge is keeping the normal.”

Now retired, Carnochan spends much of his time travelling the world talking about the VRU. “All we did was start to think about things differently,” he says. “It was really difficult but it was wonderful, too.”

We have changed the normal. Same as we changed the normal for smoking
John Carnochan, VRU founder
John Carnochan, now retired, of the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) at their HQ in Glasgow. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for the GuardianCIRV was discontinued in 2011. Although the programme seemed to produce significant falls in violent crime, a source close to the project says the political will wasn’t there to carry on funding it once government funding ran out.
Across Scotland, the policing climate has changed dramatically in recent years. Previously separate forces such as Strathclyde are now amalgamated. The new national force, Police Scotland, has often been accused of adopting a command-and-control approach, focused more on cracking down on crime than addressing its causes. Stop and search has been used excessively, with young men in deprived communities disproportionately targeted.

The VRU approach of “caring people into change”, as one officer puts it, doesn’t necessarily fit well with such heavy-handed tactics. Now the VRU is looking for new ways to ensure ex-offenders stay out of the cycle of drink, violence and, often, early death. They established a small charity to create employment opportunities for former gang members who might otherwise struggle to find jobs, modelled on Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. Early projects included work placements at the Edinburgh Tattoo and last year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. So far, 79% of those involved are still in employment. The eventual goal is to set up a social enterprise restaurant in the city centre.

Back in north Glasgow, the evening’s meet-up is drawing to a close. The last person to speak is the quietest. Michael, not his real name, spent time in prison for assault. Tonight he is exhausted, but not from the all-day benders he used to go on. He was up at 5am for work in a burger van near a building site. His first child was born before Christmas.

“I want to show my wean something I never had.” His voice is low, but the note of pride is unmistakable. When he finishes everyone around the table is smiling.


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The higher you build you barriers ......... The taller I become.



The higher you build your barriers

The taller I become.




NEWS FROM THE YMCA IN NEPAL



NEWS FROM THE YMCA IN NEPAL

Latest News from Nepal 

Dear Johan

Thanks for your kind mail.It is so nice talk in Phone. 
On last Saturday huge earthquake hit Kathmandu and other parts of the country resulting massive destruction. 
I was in fourth floor of Nepal Y building rest of my family member in third floor and orphanage children are in first floor of the same building.

I become nervous and fell in the floor and children began to cry everywhere was panic. There was full of dust and smoke in surrounding places. I began to pray and thanks God nothing happens to us. The water tank which supply water to Nepal YMCA child care center and Laliguras orphanage was totally damaged. 

Now there is a shortage of water also foods. Thank you very much for the emergency fund to rebuild the water supply tank. 
The money also used for immediate clean water for the school and food for orphanage children. There is also damage of window pane of several rooms of school buiding. Repair of school library bookself, TV
and two computers. The money is also used to buy Eletricity inverters for the school and transportation cost of the target areas where Nepal YMCA will work
for the relief and rehabilitation of earthquake victims.

Once again Nepal YMCA is thankful to you for your love and concern for the earthquake victims and Nepal YMCA rebuilding works. I will send the details plansafter we have a board meeting on Wednusday.

With regards

Mukti Nath Acharya
NGS, Nepal YMCAs
Kathmandu, Nepal