AIQI

How confident would you be in identifying crisp flavours in a blind tasting test? Well, you probably shouldn't be. At least my team failed rather miserably, outside of the easy "salt and vinegar" kind. But then who knew that pesto and thyme flavour crisps even existed? Well, we do know. And despite the gustatory difficulty of that round (see, I'm beginning to sound like Stephen Fry already!), it was nonetheless only one of the many enjoyable series of challenges.

Our brains were also racked in identifying real and imaginary Olympic sports, matching Shakespeare quotes to plays, the beginnings of the Village People, the numbers of JS Bach offspring, and many more fiendish queries. I bet even Mr Fry would have missed a few. But the winning team won, all the other teams did really well too, there were prizes, pizzas, a raffle, and outstanding guest compering. And what is more, a good time was had by all.

On social media activism and love of disco

(Please note that this post is not related to Amnesty International, but it is relevant to our interests. And as for any post on this blog, all views expressed are those of the author, not AI.)

The role of social media in activism is hardly a new topic. The arguments against "mere clicktivism" (i.e. signing petitions online, "liking" a Facebook page) are well known, even if not very convincing in my view. For surely it's better to be a clicktivist, rather than a complete passivist? And as so much of our life seems to take place online these days, it shouldn't be a surprise that that is where much of human rights work is also happening.

As we all know, online activism takes many forms, many of them humorous. The latest campaign spreading on Facebook is an attempt to relegate two organizations with racist views away from the top spot on the Google results page, when searched for using their well-known initials. And so, we have the English Disco Lovers and Bass National Party. These are not real movements as such, of course, but they do help remind us that the loudest voices aren't speaking for what most of us feel. And yes, part of the reason for writing this post was to create links to these two pages, helping them in their Googly goal.


And to come back to the clicktivism critique, won't at least some of the many current Facebook activists at some point move to more demanding ways of activism? And maybe graduate from Disco Lovers to supporting campaigns such as HOPE not hate?

AIQI

It's been a couple of years from the previous one, so the time has surely come for another Amnesty quiz.Yes indeed. The acronymically named AIQI quiz night will be on Wednesday January 30th, at The Star of Bethnal Green pub. The full address is 359 Bethnal Green Road, E2 6LG, London. The fun starts at 6.30pm (with a view to finish by 9pm).

Tickets are £5. The plan is to have teams of five quizzers. You can either come as a ready-made team of five, or in smaller numbers: we'll create teams on the night. 

You can purchase your tickets in advance here (and please do if you can!).

So why not give Stephen Fry a call, and gather the rest of your dream team together? And if Stephen is busy, just come with a smaller Fry-less team, or on your own. This will be another fun event. And see, there's even a Facebook page!

To get you in the mood, you can try to answer these practice questions to test your knowledge:

1) In which pleasant Stratford pub did the first City and Tower Hamlets group's quiz night take place?
2) In our group's official name, does "City" come first, or "Tower Hamlets"?
3) Who came up with these silly questions anyway?

The answers are: 1) King Eddie's, 2) "City", although to be fair, even our email list does get this question wrong, 3) erm, never mind that - there will be much better questions at the actual quiz.

Whitechapel Write for Rights

The first of our two Write for Rights events was last weekend. We had a good turnout again at the Idea Store, where we have held this event for quite a few years already. People were keen to write messages, though some cases were more popular than others. This year, school student Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan was by far the best-known of our cases, and received several messages of well wishes as she is being treated in a hospital in Birmingham.

And don't forget the second event next Saturday, 15th December, at Bow Idea Store, 1 Gladstone Place, Roman Road, E3 5ES, from 10am to 4pm.

Write for Rights 2012

Yes, it is that time of year again! As is traditional in December, we will be asking members of the public to write postcards to selected individuals and organizations around the world. Formerly this event was known as Greetings Card Campaign, now it's called Write for Rights. Another new thing this year is that we will have two such events!

 

First one - Saturday 8th December - Whitechapel Idea Store, 321 Whitechapel Road, E1 1BU. Time 10am - 4.30pm. 

Second one - Saturday 15th December Bow Idea Store, 1 Gladstone Place, Roman Road, E3 5ES. Time 10am - 4:00 pm

We will be encouraging the public to write cards to send to our chosen cases and helping children make their own cards to send. 

 

Come along at any time to help out, or just drop by and write a quick card!