Over the past few years I’ve been getting increasingly concerned about some of the language that folks in the voluntary sector are using. In particular, there has been a creeping reliance on the terminology of the workplace. In the organisation in which I volunteer, it’s commonplace now to talk about ‘line managers’, ‘targets’ and ‘key…
A presentation I made to voluntary youth leaders in Oxfordshire today… Click here to access the PowerPoint slides and associated notes.
Tonight, France is in mourning. Last night, between 21:20, local time, and 22:00, Paris suffered a series of deadly attacks, described by President Francois Hollande as “unprecedented”. They were, he said, an “act of war” organised by Islamic State (IS) militant groups. Shootings, bomb blasts and a hostage siege have left at least 128 people dead and hundreds…
My address to delegates of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Forum 2015 in Toronto, Canada Your Royal Highness, Honourable ministers, Chairman, My Lord, Ladies and Gentlemen Good morning. We are the people we’ve been waiting for. I was in the office of a ‘master of the universe’ the other day. Or at least that’s…
Many years ago, I worked as a volunteer in a refugee camp on the border between Uganda and Rwanda. The experience changed my perspective on life and fuelled a thirst for social justice. Over the last few days I’ve been contacted by a number of people, asking if I could recommend any materials to…
In France they know it as a ‘foulard’; in German it’s a ‘halstuch’. In Mexico and the Spanish speaking word it’s a ‘pañoleta’. But where people speak English, they often can’t quite reach agreement about what to call it. I’m referring, of course, to that triangular piece of cloth that a Scout rolls up and…
A little over a week ago, I wrote a blog post on the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I wrote of the victims and survivors of the bombs. I wrote of peace. At the time, I was in southern Japan, spending my holiday working with…
This morning, in just a few minutes time, at 8:15am, Hiroshima and Nagasaki will fall silent as tens of thousands of people pay tribute to the victims and survivors of the world’s first atomic bombs. In both cities will be young representatives of almost every nation in the world – Scouts, participating in the 23rd…
