15th October 2012 is the day when Bloggers from Yorkshire and all over the world unite in writing about one subject. The subject for this year’s Blog Action Day is “The Power of We” a celebration of people working together to make a positive difference in the world.
The organisers say that Community, Equality, Transparency/Anti-Corruption, Freedom, and People Power will be the sub-themes that Bloggers will write about on 15th October 2012.
Freedom generated by ‘Working together to make a positive difference’ is amply displayed by the team at Kidz in Kampz who raise funds for displaced children who left Burma seeking refuge in Thailand. They were herded into camps and not allowed to leave and Kidz in Kampz is a charity raising funds that directly help the education, health and well being of these children.
Community Hedon whose blog introduced us to the concept of blog action day.
People Power is being harnessed by Yorkshire business A View from the Hill. They aim to bring volunteers into contact with charities and match needs with wants. As a Community Interest Company they run informal and free networking events that help charities engage more effectively with people who want to help them.
Equality is a harder concept to extemporise when every person and community is different. We can’t be equal in every way but should not be differentiated, discriminated or demeaned based on differences.
Transparency/Anti-Corruption our Winges
Now we are getting to the heart of the matter. The examples of corruption and lack of transparency are too many to enumerate and whilst Yorkshire folk are known to be blunt and direct we could all remain transparent and supportive of community interest.
Let us start a campaign against being ‘economical with the truth’. We need to be able to trust the police (Hillsborough), our financial community (Bankers) and statistics which are so often corrupted to make a vested interests point.
We can’t trust ‘nest feathering’ politicians in Europe, Westminster or local councils so we must weed out the bad and support those with integrity, probity and rectitude.
If we get the politicians we deserve, what did we do to deserve our media? Let us have strong investigative journalism that exposes hypocrisy and fraud not a cheque book media obsessed with celebrity and their own corporate power.
To end on a positive note 2012 has seen great sporting triumphs with relatively drug free Olympics and Paralympics. Whilst money played its part in training and funding a good balance seems to have been struck with sponsorship and advertising. Of course we Yorkshire folk did our country proud – more power to the many ‘we’ people involved at all levels.