(or the end of one year and the start of the next)
I'm sitting here as the sun disappears on the shortest day of the year, with a red cinnamon candle burning. Red for love, happiness, warmth, generosity. I am not sad that this year is over, though it hasn't been my worst by a long chalk. I had hoped to be a leaseholder by now, but that looks likely to happen next month so I can wait a little longer.
Unusually, I took a few extra days off work this week to give myself a longer soul holiday this year. Normally I work right up to when my employer closes for Christmas, and I would have no objection to working on Christmas day (or any other day) as long as I was compensated in some way. But this year I need to use up the leave I had been saving in order to get my kitchen re-done. I intend to use these days as soul yoga time. It's a phrase my friend Ciel came up with years ago, meaning doing things that are gentle stretches for your mind and mental health. Sometimes it can include physical activities, if your mental health responds well to them. Today I decided to go for a walk, instead of staying home all day with only the garden birds for company.
I started by taking one of our town buses to the end of its route, where I'd never been before. It was an interesting ride, and easy to know where to get off as it was a large supermarket. Then I looked at the road signs and picked a direction that would lead to somewhere I was familiar with.
I have osteoarthritis, and depending on the weather I can walk about 3 miles on a really good day before I get some pain or discomfort. Today was not a really good day, but an OK day, and my spidey senses got me onto a familiar bus route after about a mile which then gave me the confidence to take the rest of the distance one bus stop at a time. I managed about 2 miles before getting back on a bus, and I'm happy with that.
Back home, my de-stash continues; I had some dusky pink aran yarn that has now been turned into a jacket for a 2-3 year old and I finished a matching beret this afternoon. Then I started a cowl with some alpaca mix yarn which will be for a friend when we have lunch next week, and I'll try and get a pair of fairisle gloves done for the other friend who will be joining us. There is a lot of half-used 4-ply yarn left over from socks and fairisle seems a logical thing to use it all on.
And then I have a secret project that I want to work on in 2017. It involves knitting rather small things and leaving them anonymously as gifts in public places. I have been inspired by a church group who last week hung up hundreds of knitted angels around their town which were free for anyone who wanted to take one.
I think we can all give a little more next year.
Enjoy the rest of the Solstice everyone!
Showing posts with label charity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charity. Show all posts
Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Sunday, 19 April 2015
Immigration, without the hysteria
Did you watch the Opposition Debate on the BBC last Thursday? For my American and other non-Brit readers, the UK will be voting in a new government on May 7th, and the whole of our media has gone election crazy.
Though 4 of the 5 leaders tried to stick to the topics as they were presented, it wasn't long before Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) was blaming immigration for all of the UK's current woes. It was good to see the other leaders rally together, and present an almost united front to oppose UKIP's far right theology, but all too many people get hysterical on the topic of immigration and I think it needs some careful unpicking to get to the roots.
The news coverage of the boatloads of migrants from north Africa crossing the Mediterranean Sea and landing in Italy, and the migrants waiting at Calais in France for a chance to jump under a lorry's axle or inside its load to get onto either a ferry or through the Chunnel surely shows the desperation and the lengths that these people are prepared to go to for a better life. Some British newspapers have given too many column inches to some extreme right-wing views this week. I can't claim to have the same readership, but I can put forward a different view.
UKIP, by Farage's own admission, would drastically reduce the UK's overseas aid budget. They see it as handing over money to people in other countries with no real benefit to the UK. They are misguided.
The purpose of the overseas aid budget is to reduce immigration. If we can help these developing and struggling countries tackle some of their social issues, by giving them aid in a variety of forms, their populations are less likely to want to leave. Our pounds sterling go much further when spent in African countries to help educate children, provide safe drinking water and sanitation, or assist with housing and health programmes, than it does when spent on people who actually make it across our borders and then ask for help.
UKIP want the UK to leave the EU, so that we don't have to accept European migrants. European migration works for all European member countries, not just those in the east. You may not want to go and live in Poland or Slovakia or Bulgaria, but your children might especially if they decide to study higher education in a European country. Many young Brits already go to France, Germany and the BeNeLux to study at university level: if you have to pay a fee here at home, then why not pay a similar amount in a different country and have some extra experience to add to your CV at the end of your studies as well?
And what about when you retire, and the British summers just don't give you the amount of sun that you would like. Moving to Spain, the south of France or Portugal has long been the option of British retirees, who take their state pensions with them. If we leave the Euro Zone, you wont be able to take your state pension with you, and your medical care wont be covered either. Does it still sound like a good idea?
"They come here and take our jobs" How many times have we heard that over the last 100 years? It's not a new complaint, and you can go back further than 100 years and still see it in historical records, if perhaps not using those exact words. It's also not just uttered by Brits; in countries all around the world, an influx of "others" usually creates a backlash with a similar sentiment. It's convenient, but it's normally not true.
Migrants want to work, it's the driving force behind the risks they take to get to their chosen destination. They want to work, earn some money and then send a portion of it back to their families in their home country. Some want to work and save so that when they return home, they will be able to buy a home, perhaps with a bit of land, to support themselves and their families. Typically, Poles tend to stay in the UK for just 2 or 3 years before returning home. They are fiercely patriotic for their own country, and have no intention of staying in the UK indefinitely.
So what are these jobs that the migrants are taking from under the noses of our young men (who generally are the ones complaining the loudest)? I accept that immigrants can be found in all employment sectors, but immigrants usually fill gaps in our employment market that Brits can't or wont fill themselves. Bus drivers, dentists, cleaners, daffodil pickers. Don't blame the immigrant for obtaining the job; ask why the employer didn't give the job to a Brit - could it be the attitude that some work is beneath us, or the level of English is better in a Polish student than in a native speaking English man or woman?
Housing, schools and our health system are undoubtedly struggling at the moment. It is easy to blame that on immigration, as if a single factor could account for all the ills in our society. We know we have been building the wrong kinds of housing in the wrong areas for decades, yet we have done very little about it. Selling off council housing stock and then wilfully preventing those councils from re-investing in building more housing with the proceeds is one of the main reasons why there is so little social housing today. That's not the fault of immigrants, that's the fault of a middle aged white woman.
Schools, particularly primary schools, have fewer places because the planners didn't take into account social mobility across Europe, and because there are not enough teachers. Why would anyone want to be a teacher in a British school today when they will spend most of their time on paperwork and coaching children to jump through hoop after hoop of tests, for very little pay or recognition? Neither of those things are the fault of immigrants.
Our health service would simply grind to a halt if we were to sack all of the immigrants working in it. From GPs and surgeons to cleaners and ancillary staff and every post in between, immigrants working alongside nationals do an amazing job with the resources available to them.
So what can we do? We are an island, with finite space to fill with housing. Austerity has taken a significant chunk out of the social welfare system, and many people are still finding things tough despite being told that we've turned a corner and prospects are improving. The first thing we should do is stop the hysteria. We need to talk about immigration calmly and sensibly, without demonising the immigrants and making them scapegoats for our own political failings and short-sightedness over the past decades.
As someone who loves to travel and would quite like to live and work in another country one day, I would be a hypocrite if I said we should close our borders. More than that, I'd be stupid and unrealistic. Make something hard to get hold of and you immediately increase the demand. Our streets are not paved with gold, and we need to do more overseas to ensure people know that.
We could:
But just stop with the name-calling and rhetoric that is not dissimilar from the Nazi ravings of last century. We are better than that.
Though 4 of the 5 leaders tried to stick to the topics as they were presented, it wasn't long before Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) was blaming immigration for all of the UK's current woes. It was good to see the other leaders rally together, and present an almost united front to oppose UKIP's far right theology, but all too many people get hysterical on the topic of immigration and I think it needs some careful unpicking to get to the roots.
The news coverage of the boatloads of migrants from north Africa crossing the Mediterranean Sea and landing in Italy, and the migrants waiting at Calais in France for a chance to jump under a lorry's axle or inside its load to get onto either a ferry or through the Chunnel surely shows the desperation and the lengths that these people are prepared to go to for a better life. Some British newspapers have given too many column inches to some extreme right-wing views this week. I can't claim to have the same readership, but I can put forward a different view.
UKIP, by Farage's own admission, would drastically reduce the UK's overseas aid budget. They see it as handing over money to people in other countries with no real benefit to the UK. They are misguided.
The purpose of the overseas aid budget is to reduce immigration. If we can help these developing and struggling countries tackle some of their social issues, by giving them aid in a variety of forms, their populations are less likely to want to leave. Our pounds sterling go much further when spent in African countries to help educate children, provide safe drinking water and sanitation, or assist with housing and health programmes, than it does when spent on people who actually make it across our borders and then ask for help.
UKIP want the UK to leave the EU, so that we don't have to accept European migrants. European migration works for all European member countries, not just those in the east. You may not want to go and live in Poland or Slovakia or Bulgaria, but your children might especially if they decide to study higher education in a European country. Many young Brits already go to France, Germany and the BeNeLux to study at university level: if you have to pay a fee here at home, then why not pay a similar amount in a different country and have some extra experience to add to your CV at the end of your studies as well?
And what about when you retire, and the British summers just don't give you the amount of sun that you would like. Moving to Spain, the south of France or Portugal has long been the option of British retirees, who take their state pensions with them. If we leave the Euro Zone, you wont be able to take your state pension with you, and your medical care wont be covered either. Does it still sound like a good idea?
"They come here and take our jobs" How many times have we heard that over the last 100 years? It's not a new complaint, and you can go back further than 100 years and still see it in historical records, if perhaps not using those exact words. It's also not just uttered by Brits; in countries all around the world, an influx of "others" usually creates a backlash with a similar sentiment. It's convenient, but it's normally not true.
Migrants want to work, it's the driving force behind the risks they take to get to their chosen destination. They want to work, earn some money and then send a portion of it back to their families in their home country. Some want to work and save so that when they return home, they will be able to buy a home, perhaps with a bit of land, to support themselves and their families. Typically, Poles tend to stay in the UK for just 2 or 3 years before returning home. They are fiercely patriotic for their own country, and have no intention of staying in the UK indefinitely.
So what are these jobs that the migrants are taking from under the noses of our young men (who generally are the ones complaining the loudest)? I accept that immigrants can be found in all employment sectors, but immigrants usually fill gaps in our employment market that Brits can't or wont fill themselves. Bus drivers, dentists, cleaners, daffodil pickers. Don't blame the immigrant for obtaining the job; ask why the employer didn't give the job to a Brit - could it be the attitude that some work is beneath us, or the level of English is better in a Polish student than in a native speaking English man or woman?
Housing, schools and our health system are undoubtedly struggling at the moment. It is easy to blame that on immigration, as if a single factor could account for all the ills in our society. We know we have been building the wrong kinds of housing in the wrong areas for decades, yet we have done very little about it. Selling off council housing stock and then wilfully preventing those councils from re-investing in building more housing with the proceeds is one of the main reasons why there is so little social housing today. That's not the fault of immigrants, that's the fault of a middle aged white woman.
Schools, particularly primary schools, have fewer places because the planners didn't take into account social mobility across Europe, and because there are not enough teachers. Why would anyone want to be a teacher in a British school today when they will spend most of their time on paperwork and coaching children to jump through hoop after hoop of tests, for very little pay or recognition? Neither of those things are the fault of immigrants.
Our health service would simply grind to a halt if we were to sack all of the immigrants working in it. From GPs and surgeons to cleaners and ancillary staff and every post in between, immigrants working alongside nationals do an amazing job with the resources available to them.
So what can we do? We are an island, with finite space to fill with housing. Austerity has taken a significant chunk out of the social welfare system, and many people are still finding things tough despite being told that we've turned a corner and prospects are improving. The first thing we should do is stop the hysteria. We need to talk about immigration calmly and sensibly, without demonising the immigrants and making them scapegoats for our own political failings and short-sightedness over the past decades.
As someone who loves to travel and would quite like to live and work in another country one day, I would be a hypocrite if I said we should close our borders. More than that, I'd be stupid and unrealistic. Make something hard to get hold of and you immediately increase the demand. Our streets are not paved with gold, and we need to do more overseas to ensure people know that.
We could:
- Allow people to come here, but not give them financial support in the form of social housing or benefits. Make it clear that if you have nowhere to stay and no money to live on when you arrive, you'll be sent home straight away. This might not be a popular move, but it seems the most sensible to me, and is one that plenty of other countries work with.
- If an immigrant commits a crime, send them home straight away at the start of their sentence, rather than insisting they serve all their time at our expense and then trying to find them to send them home once they have been released.
- Possibly introduce a new tax rate for immigrants, so they pay slightly more for the first 5 years of their stay. Also introduce a slightly higher business tax rate for those companies who employ a higher percentage of foreign nationals. Only slightly higher for both though.
- Do more overseas to improve the locations from which the greater numbers of migrants are arriving. Some are fleeing poverty and war, and we can do something about both of those. We need to implement education programmes that do not paint the UK as a financial utopia, but give a realistic view of how hard it can be to live here with very little money.
- Work within Europe to create a fairer dispersal of immigrants. It is not fair to expect Italy to accommodate everyone who happens to land on their shores, but equally we can't take everyone who wants to come here.
- Encourage more people to return home, or migrate onwards. We already know many people intend to return home after a few years, so we could make this an easier option for them, assisting with travel costs rather than assisting with living costs while they are here.
- Encourage more Brits to expand their horizons and work, study and live overseas. It's not something often talked about in immigration debates, but it could be a real benefit to the UK to have citizens who are outward thinking and have a better understanding of our place in the world. We have always been a nation of travellers and explorers, and we could use the European migration possibilities to our advantage instead of only ever criticising them.
But just stop with the name-calling and rhetoric that is not dissimilar from the Nazi ravings of last century. We are better than that.
Saturday, 31 January 2015
Elderly, cold, hungry and alone
There is an elderly chap, we'll call him Joe, who spends most of his days in a small room. Like many others of his generation, Joe has outlived his parents, siblings and even some younger members of his extended family. Friends drifted away many years ago.
Joe tries to make ends meet by being creative. He has a little enterprise where he makes twine from scraps that other people discard, and the twine is useful to occasional interested parties. But making the twine is getting harder as Joe's fingers are developing arthritis, and his eye sight isn't what it used to be. Joe doesn't complain; no one would listen if he did and he prefers to keep himself to himself these days.
Getting up at 3am every day for breakfast is getting harder, especially in the winter. The thermal underwear he was given a few years ago by someone passing through is full of holes but it is still one of his prized possessions. But Joe dare not stay in bed and miss a meal - he doesn't have the means of making a snack to keep him going until the next meal time rolls around, whenever that might be. After breakfast, Joe sits by the window looking out at the sleet falling from a grey sky not too dissimilar from the walls surrounding him. He wonders how many more winters he will see, and whether any will be from the other side of the glass and grey walls. What will happen if his sight goes completely? Will they move him away from his familiar surroundings that he can navigate now if he needed to, to somewhere "more suitable" but completely unfamiliar?
You out there reading this, are you thinking "there are charities who can help Joe"? Unfortunately, Joe is just one of thousands of inmates in America's prisons serving a long sentence with little to no chance of parole. Joe's crime was committed decades ago, when he by his own admissions was "young and stupid". No one got killed, but criminals had to be made examples of. Even if Joe was able to apply for parole, he would not meet the requirements of having a stable address and prospects of employment to parole out to. He is in a catch 22 situation that is only partly of his own making.
This is not a European stereotypical call for all inmates to be released. Some of us over here are more sensible than that, and clearly there are some inmates who continue to pose a threat to themselves or others regardless of their mental or physical age. But they are not the majority.
TDCJ is one of the few corrections agencies that have an official age designation for "geriatric inmates". You may find it hard to believe that it is the age of 55. Prison can preserve a body or accelerate its demise. TDCJ recommend around 450 inmates for early medical parole every year, and yet fewer than 1/8 of those inmates are approved by the Board or Pardons and Paroles (BPP). The BPP believe that it is better to keep these individuals inside a prison and have the tax payer fund their increasing medical bills, rather than release them into a community where the remaining friends, family and social support networks are often willing and able to help.
My husband knows a number of Joes in his prison. We help where we can, but the system discourages inmates from sharing, selling or giving away physical items. My husband officially became a geriatric inmate himself recently and we have another 10 years to hang on before we get to ride the parole roller coaster. In a country that prides itself on opportunity, there is a large pool of unproductive but willing labour at the country's disposal. Imagine, instead of 2 million inmates sucking the life out of the country's finances, what if there were even 1 million less of them and 1 million more contributing to the economy even in a small way and paying some of their own medical bills. Maybe not the land of the free, but more the land of the hard working repentants?
Joe tries to make ends meet by being creative. He has a little enterprise where he makes twine from scraps that other people discard, and the twine is useful to occasional interested parties. But making the twine is getting harder as Joe's fingers are developing arthritis, and his eye sight isn't what it used to be. Joe doesn't complain; no one would listen if he did and he prefers to keep himself to himself these days.
Getting up at 3am every day for breakfast is getting harder, especially in the winter. The thermal underwear he was given a few years ago by someone passing through is full of holes but it is still one of his prized possessions. But Joe dare not stay in bed and miss a meal - he doesn't have the means of making a snack to keep him going until the next meal time rolls around, whenever that might be. After breakfast, Joe sits by the window looking out at the sleet falling from a grey sky not too dissimilar from the walls surrounding him. He wonders how many more winters he will see, and whether any will be from the other side of the glass and grey walls. What will happen if his sight goes completely? Will they move him away from his familiar surroundings that he can navigate now if he needed to, to somewhere "more suitable" but completely unfamiliar?
You out there reading this, are you thinking "there are charities who can help Joe"? Unfortunately, Joe is just one of thousands of inmates in America's prisons serving a long sentence with little to no chance of parole. Joe's crime was committed decades ago, when he by his own admissions was "young and stupid". No one got killed, but criminals had to be made examples of. Even if Joe was able to apply for parole, he would not meet the requirements of having a stable address and prospects of employment to parole out to. He is in a catch 22 situation that is only partly of his own making.
This is not a European stereotypical call for all inmates to be released. Some of us over here are more sensible than that, and clearly there are some inmates who continue to pose a threat to themselves or others regardless of their mental or physical age. But they are not the majority.
TDCJ is one of the few corrections agencies that have an official age designation for "geriatric inmates". You may find it hard to believe that it is the age of 55. Prison can preserve a body or accelerate its demise. TDCJ recommend around 450 inmates for early medical parole every year, and yet fewer than 1/8 of those inmates are approved by the Board or Pardons and Paroles (BPP). The BPP believe that it is better to keep these individuals inside a prison and have the tax payer fund their increasing medical bills, rather than release them into a community where the remaining friends, family and social support networks are often willing and able to help.
My husband knows a number of Joes in his prison. We help where we can, but the system discourages inmates from sharing, selling or giving away physical items. My husband officially became a geriatric inmate himself recently and we have another 10 years to hang on before we get to ride the parole roller coaster. In a country that prides itself on opportunity, there is a large pool of unproductive but willing labour at the country's disposal. Imagine, instead of 2 million inmates sucking the life out of the country's finances, what if there were even 1 million less of them and 1 million more contributing to the economy even in a small way and paying some of their own medical bills. Maybe not the land of the free, but more the land of the hard working repentants?
Saturday, 2 August 2014
Not giving it all away
After years of people telling me "you should sell those!" about the things I make, I have recently has some people say "why don't you give that away, why do you want money for it?".
There is a very simple answer. Time. I don't claim to be the best knitter, writer, maker or the best anything, but what I produce comes from more than 35 years of learning and investing in myself. Just as no one would expect a plumber to fix leaking pipes for nothing, why should people expect any other hand-made item to always be free - or practically given away at the lowest possible price which does not even cover the material costs let alone the labour time?
I do give a lot of what I make away as gifts. People in general don't see that, because they are not the recipients. I also spend time helping others learn to knit, sew, make etc without charging, because it is important that these skills are used and passed on through the generations so they are not lost. Equally, I pay for the raw materials, and wouldn't dream of quibbling over the prices I am charged.
It's not just in the area of physically making things that I refuse to give it all away for free. My time is precious to me, and while sometimes I might work a few extra minutes for no pay in my day job, that doesn't mean I am always going to be the first to voluteer for overtime - whether paid or as TOIL - because I have other things that I do in my life that are way more important than the day job I do. Sometimes if you give too much, people begin to expect it all the time and get pissy when you say no.
My beliefs centre on the concept of maintaining yourself so that you can then assist others. It might sound a bit selfish, but if you are not physically, mentally and financially in a good place, how can you help others without bringing the whole house of cards down? This applies to my time as well. I need time for myself, in order to function well for and with others. How I spend my own time is down to me.
So, I'm not forcing anyone to buy my items, or pay for my time, and generally people don't need to. But if I occasionally ask for some recompence, it's not because I am being greedy. I just need to balance things like everyone else does.
There is a very simple answer. Time. I don't claim to be the best knitter, writer, maker or the best anything, but what I produce comes from more than 35 years of learning and investing in myself. Just as no one would expect a plumber to fix leaking pipes for nothing, why should people expect any other hand-made item to always be free - or practically given away at the lowest possible price which does not even cover the material costs let alone the labour time?
I do give a lot of what I make away as gifts. People in general don't see that, because they are not the recipients. I also spend time helping others learn to knit, sew, make etc without charging, because it is important that these skills are used and passed on through the generations so they are not lost. Equally, I pay for the raw materials, and wouldn't dream of quibbling over the prices I am charged.
It's not just in the area of physically making things that I refuse to give it all away for free. My time is precious to me, and while sometimes I might work a few extra minutes for no pay in my day job, that doesn't mean I am always going to be the first to voluteer for overtime - whether paid or as TOIL - because I have other things that I do in my life that are way more important than the day job I do. Sometimes if you give too much, people begin to expect it all the time and get pissy when you say no.
My beliefs centre on the concept of maintaining yourself so that you can then assist others. It might sound a bit selfish, but if you are not physically, mentally and financially in a good place, how can you help others without bringing the whole house of cards down? This applies to my time as well. I need time for myself, in order to function well for and with others. How I spend my own time is down to me.
So, I'm not forcing anyone to buy my items, or pay for my time, and generally people don't need to. But if I occasionally ask for some recompence, it's not because I am being greedy. I just need to balance things like everyone else does.
Tuesday, 20 May 2014
Ethics of trying to help
This is a post about a dilema.
There are a lot of inmates, not only in the USA but around the world, who have no one on the outside. When I say they have no one, I mean that their family and friends have moved on with their lives and rarely communicate (if at all) with the inmate. For inmates serving relatively long sentences, this often happens around the 5-7 year mark, and often also coincides with a change in behaviour of the inmate. They either throw themselves into the life of an inmate, which can open up situations of violence and illegal behaviour, or they can come to the conclusion that they want to make it but they will have to do it on their own.
I could never criticise anyone related to an inmate who chose to move on with their lives. Ultimately, the inmate is the one who is supposed to pay for their crime, not the entire family and extended friends network. And for those who chose to stick around, it does often feel like you are serving a sentence with them - not to the same extent of deprivation or punishment, but a sentence nonetheless.
I've been writing to inmates for the best part of 25 years, and over time I have found a number of ways to contact inmates. Before the widespread use of the internet, I used magazines, and some magazines would allow inmates to place small ads free of charge. I have also known of websites that would list inmates for free, thus providing the means for them or their friends and family to reach out without having to find extra money on top of the household bills and phone calls and stationary and postage etc
And then there are websites that charge for a "service" of giving inmates the opportunity to appeal for correspondence. I have often wondered why some offer this for free and others charge a fee.
I have seen the fee justified by some websites as covering "administration costs". But I have to question just how much of the fee really does go on administration, and how much becomes profit. And there is the rub: should free-world individuals profit by exploiting inmates when there is no real need to do so? Even under the premis of helping to reduce recidivism?
Take a well known website, Write A Prisoner. It's been around a while, and offers an advert for $40 per year to any inmate (unless they happen to be located in a state that does not permit inmates to solicit for correspondence via the internet or printed publications). It's not a sleek-looking site, in fact it looks like it was built about 15 years ago and hasn't had much effort put into keeping it in the current century. Currently there are just over 900 inmate adverts on the site. That's 900 x $40 as a baseline. That's $36000 a year just for placing the ads. But look a little closer and you find that there are charges to update information on each advert, charges for adding a photo or changing a photo, charges for adding extra words above the 250-word standard profile, charges for adding artwork etc etc
These adverts are submitted in electronic format. No one at the website has to sit there typing in the details from a pdf or a sheet of coffee-stained paper. There is the option to email the inmate the first time you contact them through the site; the site prints off the email, pops it into an envelope and sends it via traditional mail. Some of these are received and some are not. Still doesn't justify the $40 fee though, and we haven't even looked at the revenue share from the commercial adverts.
Write A Prisoner claims to fund some community projects from its revenue. There is a Scholarship for the children of inmates and children impacted by crime. The Scholarship is $250. There is no information on how many have been awarded since 2010. They also advertise "Welcome Home Kits" for inmates who are being released but not to a family home. Apparently 43 such kits have been distributed, although they could not be sent to inmates in every state as many do not even permit those picking up a released inmate to take some free-world clothes for the inmate to wear when leaving the prison.
There is a Book Donation scheme. Write a Prisoner says they have donated $ 3,437.00 across 39 books-for-inmates schemes in the US. They do not say whether that is solely in cash, or if they count the value of the books as a like-for-like donation sum.
Why am I saying all of this? Do I have an axe to grind? Not really. I'm not against anyone making an honest buck from their own hard graft. I just have a thing about those who say they are doing something, but where there is no hard evidence for it happening. And then we come to the concept of writing to inmates in the first place.
Believe it or not, it is absolutely possible to write to an inmate without falling in love with them, or they with you. It is totally possible to correspond with an inmate less than once a day, by traditional mail, for many years, without them asking you to send them anything at all. But you only have to glance at the forums attached to these websites to wonder if they should be called "Date a Prisoner" instead. There is a conveyor belt of women (and some men, but few and far between) who "want to bring some sunshine into an inmate's life", who treat writing as some kind of game or therapy, get caught up in the "romance" of the situation, and then after approximately 2 years find that either he isn't what they had told themselves he was, or he has been released and had no intention of going home to them. Especially when they have never met the inmate face to face. Then the phrase "Hell hath no fury" really comes into play!
I wonder how many penpal correspondences would become relationships if the websites did not post photographs of the inmates. If people wrote based only on what the advert says - because naturally no one enters into a correspondence with the intention of finding love.... do they?
For a website that wants to be taken seriously, it is basic Marketing 101 that brand is everything. Anyone dropping into these forums would be forgiven for running to the hills with the amount of hybristophiliacs gushing about their latest phone call or visit, or making plans on what they will do the second their penpal steps out of prison. Their understanding of the issues and difficulties faced by newly-released inmates is next to nothing, but still it will be wedding bells and babies and someone to pay the bills and live happily ever after with. People wonder where stereotypes come from: they come from real people, unfortuneately. They don't want the reality of the situation, because, you know, "haters gonna hate" and all that jazz.
So when looking for an inmate to correspond with - which by the way, I still do think is an extremely worthy cause and can be highly rewarding for both parties - I think it is worth asking yourself whether the ethics of the website parading these inmates like a beauty pageant is really what you want to subscribe to or be associated with. If you care about the concept of helping those who are unable to help themselves, perhaps one of the free services would be more appropriate. Like Lost Vault.
There are a lot of inmates, not only in the USA but around the world, who have no one on the outside. When I say they have no one, I mean that their family and friends have moved on with their lives and rarely communicate (if at all) with the inmate. For inmates serving relatively long sentences, this often happens around the 5-7 year mark, and often also coincides with a change in behaviour of the inmate. They either throw themselves into the life of an inmate, which can open up situations of violence and illegal behaviour, or they can come to the conclusion that they want to make it but they will have to do it on their own.
I could never criticise anyone related to an inmate who chose to move on with their lives. Ultimately, the inmate is the one who is supposed to pay for their crime, not the entire family and extended friends network. And for those who chose to stick around, it does often feel like you are serving a sentence with them - not to the same extent of deprivation or punishment, but a sentence nonetheless.
I've been writing to inmates for the best part of 25 years, and over time I have found a number of ways to contact inmates. Before the widespread use of the internet, I used magazines, and some magazines would allow inmates to place small ads free of charge. I have also known of websites that would list inmates for free, thus providing the means for them or their friends and family to reach out without having to find extra money on top of the household bills and phone calls and stationary and postage etc
And then there are websites that charge for a "service" of giving inmates the opportunity to appeal for correspondence. I have often wondered why some offer this for free and others charge a fee.
I have seen the fee justified by some websites as covering "administration costs". But I have to question just how much of the fee really does go on administration, and how much becomes profit. And there is the rub: should free-world individuals profit by exploiting inmates when there is no real need to do so? Even under the premis of helping to reduce recidivism?
Take a well known website, Write A Prisoner. It's been around a while, and offers an advert for $40 per year to any inmate (unless they happen to be located in a state that does not permit inmates to solicit for correspondence via the internet or printed publications). It's not a sleek-looking site, in fact it looks like it was built about 15 years ago and hasn't had much effort put into keeping it in the current century. Currently there are just over 900 inmate adverts on the site. That's 900 x $40 as a baseline. That's $36000 a year just for placing the ads. But look a little closer and you find that there are charges to update information on each advert, charges for adding a photo or changing a photo, charges for adding extra words above the 250-word standard profile, charges for adding artwork etc etc
These adverts are submitted in electronic format. No one at the website has to sit there typing in the details from a pdf or a sheet of coffee-stained paper. There is the option to email the inmate the first time you contact them through the site; the site prints off the email, pops it into an envelope and sends it via traditional mail. Some of these are received and some are not. Still doesn't justify the $40 fee though, and we haven't even looked at the revenue share from the commercial adverts.
Write A Prisoner claims to fund some community projects from its revenue. There is a Scholarship for the children of inmates and children impacted by crime. The Scholarship is $250. There is no information on how many have been awarded since 2010. They also advertise "Welcome Home Kits" for inmates who are being released but not to a family home. Apparently 43 such kits have been distributed, although they could not be sent to inmates in every state as many do not even permit those picking up a released inmate to take some free-world clothes for the inmate to wear when leaving the prison.
There is a Book Donation scheme. Write a Prisoner says they have donated $ 3,437.00 across 39 books-for-inmates schemes in the US. They do not say whether that is solely in cash, or if they count the value of the books as a like-for-like donation sum.
Why am I saying all of this? Do I have an axe to grind? Not really. I'm not against anyone making an honest buck from their own hard graft. I just have a thing about those who say they are doing something, but where there is no hard evidence for it happening. And then we come to the concept of writing to inmates in the first place.
Believe it or not, it is absolutely possible to write to an inmate without falling in love with them, or they with you. It is totally possible to correspond with an inmate less than once a day, by traditional mail, for many years, without them asking you to send them anything at all. But you only have to glance at the forums attached to these websites to wonder if they should be called "Date a Prisoner" instead. There is a conveyor belt of women (and some men, but few and far between) who "want to bring some sunshine into an inmate's life", who treat writing as some kind of game or therapy, get caught up in the "romance" of the situation, and then after approximately 2 years find that either he isn't what they had told themselves he was, or he has been released and had no intention of going home to them. Especially when they have never met the inmate face to face. Then the phrase "Hell hath no fury" really comes into play!
I wonder how many penpal correspondences would become relationships if the websites did not post photographs of the inmates. If people wrote based only on what the advert says - because naturally no one enters into a correspondence with the intention of finding love.... do they?
For a website that wants to be taken seriously, it is basic Marketing 101 that brand is everything. Anyone dropping into these forums would be forgiven for running to the hills with the amount of hybristophiliacs gushing about their latest phone call or visit, or making plans on what they will do the second their penpal steps out of prison. Their understanding of the issues and difficulties faced by newly-released inmates is next to nothing, but still it will be wedding bells and babies and someone to pay the bills and live happily ever after with. People wonder where stereotypes come from: they come from real people, unfortuneately. They don't want the reality of the situation, because, you know, "haters gonna hate" and all that jazz.
So when looking for an inmate to correspond with - which by the way, I still do think is an extremely worthy cause and can be highly rewarding for both parties - I think it is worth asking yourself whether the ethics of the website parading these inmates like a beauty pageant is really what you want to subscribe to or be associated with. If you care about the concept of helping those who are unable to help themselves, perhaps one of the free services would be more appropriate. Like Lost Vault.
Friday, 26 April 2013
Ironic conservatism
I used to submit articles to an online site called Helium, and before they dramatically changed their submission rules a couple of years ago, I was making decent pocket money from it (enough to cover what I send my husband each month and contribute to the flight costs). Then in 2011 they changed their rules and decided that they only wanted articles written in passive 3rd person tense. I find that really difficult to read - it's like an instruction manual from 1930 - and equally difficult to write because it's not a natural style. They also now demand a 1-year exclusivity agreement on all new submissions and editied older submissions, which I am not prepared to agree to because it's my work, not theirs. So I stopped submitting, and now just enough to keep the page view earnings open to me.
Today Helium deleted an article of mine that has been on there since around 2009, with the explanation that is it a knowledge article written in the first person. I'm actually quite pleased, because Helium wont let contributors delete their own work. Given the subject matter of the article, I do wonder if there is some other conservative bias at work, but it doesn't matter. I'm going to post it below, see what you think.
How to make the world a better place using just $100
Though I'm sure many people will be writing from a prospective or hypothetical viewpoint on this topic, this year I have already spent a little over the equivalent of $100 and if just one cent of that goes towards making the world a better place then it will all have been worth the time and effort I have given to it. However, I doubt that I will ever personally see a return on my investment. That's OK with me, just as long as someone somewhere does.
This year I decided that instead of just sending Christmas cards to people I know, both here in the UK and overseas, I would reach out to some people I don't personally know as well. It is an extension of something I took part in last year, a Christmas card circle organised by a lady in Germany, that collects and distributes the names and addresses of American inmates, mostly on Death Row, for those with compassion to send cards to. You can submit and accept as many names as you feel able to deal with. Last year I offered to send 10 postcards to assorted inmates; after writing my name and address (most Department of Corrections don't accept mail without a return address on it somewhere, although you can use a post office box) along with their details on the cards, there really wasn't room for more than a couple of sentences on the cards, so I just put that someone was thinking of them across the miles and that I hoped their holiday season was peaceful.
To my surprise, I received 6 replies. As I already have incarcerated penpals, I had to think hard about the consequences of taking on any more. I made the decision to look up their crimes, which ruled out a couple of them from my own boundaries of people I will correspond with. After some deep thought, I ended up with just one name, who over the past year has turned into a real character and I have no regrets at all about continuing to write to him. It turned out that just before I sent the card, he had been moved off Death Row, and in the past year has managed to make it into the Honour Dorm at his prison. I don't know if I have had any influence in that, directly or indirectly in his behaviour, but we have come to be friends and I know from experience that mail call and dependable correspondence is a useful tool in encouraging an offender to make better decisions.
So this year, I reached out on my own. I offered to send Christmas cards, and also Yule cards to those who do not observe Christmas, to the incarcerated loved ones of several women that I talk to regularly on a web forum. This takes a certain amount of trust on the part of the ladies; to give out the details of their loved ones means that in Texas at least I would be able to look up their crimes as well, and also as a woman myself, there is a worry that a new female writing to a loved one may trigger some romantic interest on the part of the inmate. I understand those worries, because my husband is also incarcerated and I too am wary about giving out his full name and number. But I put the offer out there, and received a good response, amassing some 20 names. To this I added the names of some of the inmates my husband has mentioned over the past year as guys he works with or gets along with, and of course my existing penpals.
I bought cards, none too religious in sentiment or picture, and wrote a few words of encouragement in each. I signed them from both myself and my husband, so there would be no room for misinterpretation of my intentions. The postage came to around the equivalent of $50, so with the cost of the cards on top and the extra small gifts for my penpals, I have spent approximately $100 on making other people's holiday season just a little more personal and brighter.
But it could go deeper than that. Just as dropping a stone into a pool creates ripples, so does the act of giving and passing on a kind thought. If just one of those cards find an inmate on a day when they are feeling forgotten by society, their friends and family at a time of year when traditionally people get together, that card may be enough to keep them from sinking into a depression, giving in to feelings of hopelessness, or attempting to end it all. If one of those cards touches the heart of an otherwise cold man, and is enough to stop him lashing out at a guard for just one day, then perhaps that guard can return to their family at the end of their shift and enjoy Christmas without doing so from a hospital bed. If one of those cards renews enough hope in an inmate to try one more time to contact their own family, or build or mend bridges that appeared to be long gone, then perhaps next Christmas that family will be closer and stronger than before.
The ripples don't end there of course; in a very small but no less important way, those cards have kept people in employment. The artists, manufacturers, paper mill workers, shop assistants, postal workers and mail room staff at the prisons all depend on people buying and sending those cards throughout the year, but in the current economic climate, good sales figures this Christmas may be the make or break point.
So those little cards, this year I hope, will help show the world that someone cares enough to make it a better place.
Today Helium deleted an article of mine that has been on there since around 2009, with the explanation that is it a knowledge article written in the first person. I'm actually quite pleased, because Helium wont let contributors delete their own work. Given the subject matter of the article, I do wonder if there is some other conservative bias at work, but it doesn't matter. I'm going to post it below, see what you think.
How to make the world a better place using just $100
Though I'm sure many people will be writing from a prospective or hypothetical viewpoint on this topic, this year I have already spent a little over the equivalent of $100 and if just one cent of that goes towards making the world a better place then it will all have been worth the time and effort I have given to it. However, I doubt that I will ever personally see a return on my investment. That's OK with me, just as long as someone somewhere does.
This year I decided that instead of just sending Christmas cards to people I know, both here in the UK and overseas, I would reach out to some people I don't personally know as well. It is an extension of something I took part in last year, a Christmas card circle organised by a lady in Germany, that collects and distributes the names and addresses of American inmates, mostly on Death Row, for those with compassion to send cards to. You can submit and accept as many names as you feel able to deal with. Last year I offered to send 10 postcards to assorted inmates; after writing my name and address (most Department of Corrections don't accept mail without a return address on it somewhere, although you can use a post office box) along with their details on the cards, there really wasn't room for more than a couple of sentences on the cards, so I just put that someone was thinking of them across the miles and that I hoped their holiday season was peaceful.
To my surprise, I received 6 replies. As I already have incarcerated penpals, I had to think hard about the consequences of taking on any more. I made the decision to look up their crimes, which ruled out a couple of them from my own boundaries of people I will correspond with. After some deep thought, I ended up with just one name, who over the past year has turned into a real character and I have no regrets at all about continuing to write to him. It turned out that just before I sent the card, he had been moved off Death Row, and in the past year has managed to make it into the Honour Dorm at his prison. I don't know if I have had any influence in that, directly or indirectly in his behaviour, but we have come to be friends and I know from experience that mail call and dependable correspondence is a useful tool in encouraging an offender to make better decisions.
So this year, I reached out on my own. I offered to send Christmas cards, and also Yule cards to those who do not observe Christmas, to the incarcerated loved ones of several women that I talk to regularly on a web forum. This takes a certain amount of trust on the part of the ladies; to give out the details of their loved ones means that in Texas at least I would be able to look up their crimes as well, and also as a woman myself, there is a worry that a new female writing to a loved one may trigger some romantic interest on the part of the inmate. I understand those worries, because my husband is also incarcerated and I too am wary about giving out his full name and number. But I put the offer out there, and received a good response, amassing some 20 names. To this I added the names of some of the inmates my husband has mentioned over the past year as guys he works with or gets along with, and of course my existing penpals.
I bought cards, none too religious in sentiment or picture, and wrote a few words of encouragement in each. I signed them from both myself and my husband, so there would be no room for misinterpretation of my intentions. The postage came to around the equivalent of $50, so with the cost of the cards on top and the extra small gifts for my penpals, I have spent approximately $100 on making other people's holiday season just a little more personal and brighter.
But it could go deeper than that. Just as dropping a stone into a pool creates ripples, so does the act of giving and passing on a kind thought. If just one of those cards find an inmate on a day when they are feeling forgotten by society, their friends and family at a time of year when traditionally people get together, that card may be enough to keep them from sinking into a depression, giving in to feelings of hopelessness, or attempting to end it all. If one of those cards touches the heart of an otherwise cold man, and is enough to stop him lashing out at a guard for just one day, then perhaps that guard can return to their family at the end of their shift and enjoy Christmas without doing so from a hospital bed. If one of those cards renews enough hope in an inmate to try one more time to contact their own family, or build or mend bridges that appeared to be long gone, then perhaps next Christmas that family will be closer and stronger than before.
The ripples don't end there of course; in a very small but no less important way, those cards have kept people in employment. The artists, manufacturers, paper mill workers, shop assistants, postal workers and mail room staff at the prisons all depend on people buying and sending those cards throughout the year, but in the current economic climate, good sales figures this Christmas may be the make or break point.
So those little cards, this year I hope, will help show the world that someone cares enough to make it a better place.
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Resolana's November 2011 Newsletter
Just a link really, so that you can read more about all the fabulous work this charity is doing with the women in Dallas County Jail, Tx:
Newsletter pdf
Newsletter pdf
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
#Movember - grow a Mo for charity!
In 2010, The Movember UK Mo Bros and Mo Sistas raised a huge £11.7 million to help fund programmes dedicated to treating, researching and supporting those with testicular and prostate cancers.
Last year, a couple of guys I know grew Mos and I first noticed the #Movember hashtag on Twitter.
This year, I'm getting involved too (although NOT by growing my own Mo I hasten to add!).
I currently know 4 guys growing Mos for Movember, and would very much appreciate it if you could drop by their MoSpace pages and donate what you can afford - or simply just pass on their details to your friends, family, co-workers etc to raise awareness and hopefully some cash too. My MoBros are:
Team Hairy Partridges http://uk.movember.com/mospace/2150030 (my co-workers Max and James)
Team Box http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1381112/ (my friend Suzi's husband and his mates)
And my friend Thorsten who is doing the Mo solo! http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1465332/
I'm also going to make some knitted finger Mos (similar to these: Freckles Family blog ) to sell to the ladies at work, with the money donated to the Hairy Partridges above.
Edit: Here are the finger Mos I made:
So come on, any loose change in your PayPal account can find a useful home with Movember. Ready, steady, Mo!
Last year, a couple of guys I know grew Mos and I first noticed the #Movember hashtag on Twitter.
This year, I'm getting involved too (although NOT by growing my own Mo I hasten to add!).
I currently know 4 guys growing Mos for Movember, and would very much appreciate it if you could drop by their MoSpace pages and donate what you can afford - or simply just pass on their details to your friends, family, co-workers etc to raise awareness and hopefully some cash too. My MoBros are:
Team Hairy Partridges http://uk.movember.com/mospace/2150030 (my co-workers Max and James)
Team Box http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1381112/ (my friend Suzi's husband and his mates)
And my friend Thorsten who is doing the Mo solo! http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1465332/
I'm also going to make some knitted finger Mos (similar to these: Freckles Family blog ) to sell to the ladies at work, with the money donated to the Hairy Partridges above.
Edit: Here are the finger Mos I made:
So come on, any loose change in your PayPal account can find a useful home with Movember. Ready, steady, Mo!
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Guest blogging again
If you've seen the Good Girl / Bad Girl dolls I'm currently auctioning for charity, then you will know that I support Resolana - a charity based in Dallas TX that works with women inmates in Dallas County Jail. The Director of Resolana, Bette Buschow, agreed to do an interview with me for another blog that I contribute to.
If you'd like to read the interview, click HERE
And if you'd like to see the dolls for auction, click HERE
If you'd like to read the interview, click HERE
And if you'd like to see the dolls for auction, click HERE
Saturday, 22 October 2011
Knitting in Prison - New Zealand
Another rehabilitation-led programme that matches prison inmates with the benefits of knitting.
In New Zealand, the Prisoner's Aid and Rehabilitation Society works across the country to help inmates and their families through the stressed of incarceration. At the prison in New Plymouth, inmates have been knitting for the past 9 months, under the direction of PARS director Barbara Sarjeant. As with other such groups, the inmates have been making beanie hats and other items, and these are donated to a local women's refuge.
See full article at Taranaki Daily News
In New Zealand, the Prisoner's Aid and Rehabilitation Society works across the country to help inmates and their families through the stressed of incarceration. At the prison in New Plymouth, inmates have been knitting for the past 9 months, under the direction of PARS director Barbara Sarjeant. As with other such groups, the inmates have been making beanie hats and other items, and these are donated to a local women's refuge.
See full article at Taranaki Daily News
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Good Girl / Bad Girl silent auction for Resolana
The silent auction runs from midnight 1 October 2011 until midday 31 October 2011 (GMT).
All the details are here http://lookingforthecabinbythelake.blogspot.com/p/good-girl-bad-girl-silent-auction-for.html or just look to your right > at the page links.
And as a taster, here are Amanda and Mandy:
Starting bid is $30 / £20 - winning bidder gets BOTH dolls!
All the details are here http://lookingforthecabinbythelake.blogspot.com/p/good-girl-bad-girl-silent-auction-for.html or just look to your right > at the page links.
And as a taster, here are Amanda and Mandy:
Starting bid is $30 / £20 - winning bidder gets BOTH dolls!
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Sneak peek at my next project
The Good Girl / Bad Girl dolls are on their way! Meet Amanda and Mandy....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30493897@N03/sets/72157627522303951/detail/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30493897@N03/sets/72157627522303951/detail/
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Doll therapy
I've never been into Barbie or Cindy dolls, or really any plastic dolls at all. But rag dolls are different.
I found myself slipping into depression-like behaviour a couple of weeks ago. I was withdrawing, slowing down, tired all the time yet unable to sleep well, and not wanting to talk to anyone on more than a superficial level. I recognise these signs because I've lived with them for most of my life with my dad and myself, and I don't want to become the person depression makes me. It takes a lot of disciplin not to slip further into it, not something I have in buckets really, but this time I decided to try and focus on a project and see if that would be enough to see me through.
So, meet Dawn.....
Though I've been lacking in enthusiasm for many things lately, the Good Girl/Bad Girl dolls made by Resolana and the women in Dallas County jail kept itching at my brain. I want to make a couple to auction off and raise a bit of cash for the charity, but before I can do that I needed to make a prototype, just to get the dimensions and styling right. Dawn is the result, and in making Dawn I have more ideas for other girls and boys now too. I'll introduce them as they emerge.
End note: Resolana are also having a music festival in Dallas Texas on September 24th 2011 - ticket details here!
I found myself slipping into depression-like behaviour a couple of weeks ago. I was withdrawing, slowing down, tired all the time yet unable to sleep well, and not wanting to talk to anyone on more than a superficial level. I recognise these signs because I've lived with them for most of my life with my dad and myself, and I don't want to become the person depression makes me. It takes a lot of disciplin not to slip further into it, not something I have in buckets really, but this time I decided to try and focus on a project and see if that would be enough to see me through.
So, meet Dawn.....
Though I've been lacking in enthusiasm for many things lately, the Good Girl/Bad Girl dolls made by Resolana and the women in Dallas County jail kept itching at my brain. I want to make a couple to auction off and raise a bit of cash for the charity, but before I can do that I needed to make a prototype, just to get the dimensions and styling right. Dawn is the result, and in making Dawn I have more ideas for other girls and boys now too. I'll introduce them as they emerge.
End note: Resolana are also having a music festival in Dallas Texas on September 24th 2011 - ticket details here!
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
More benefits of knitting (and other arts)
Some may think that prisons and knitting make strange bedfellows when it comes to interests or associations. I've posted before about the volunteer group in Maryland called Knitting Behind Bars who run knitting sessions inside men's prisons in the state. A couple of days ago I became aware of another group who use knitting along with other arts and crafts, to offer groups of female inmates in Texas a way of expressing themselves safely and learning social and life skills to help them stay out of jail in the future.
Resolana are the group, a not-for-profit organisation who work mainly in Dallas County Jail and Dawson State Jail in Texas. Take a look at their programmes and also at the gallery of art work by some of the women that Resolana have helped. I particularly love the Good Girl, Bad Girl dolls!
Resolana are the group, a not-for-profit organisation who work mainly in Dallas County Jail and Dawson State Jail in Texas. Take a look at their programmes and also at the gallery of art work by some of the women that Resolana have helped. I particularly love the Good Girl, Bad Girl dolls!
Monday, 28 March 2011
Funding the journey - first items on display
Just a way-marker to direct your attention to the Funding the Journey section of this blog. The first items listed for sale are actually being sold with profits going to cancer charities in the UK. With 1 in 3 people in the UK likely to develop cancer at some time in their lives, it is a disease without mercy or bias that touches many people.
My family has been decimated by cancer. Both my parents, and many other relatives and friends have been taken by the disease over the years. Most recently, my dearest friend Ciel died in January this year after several years of fighting breast cancer. It is in her memory that these crochet Charity brooches have been made and will be sold.
Please do take a look.
My family has been decimated by cancer. Both my parents, and many other relatives and friends have been taken by the disease over the years. Most recently, my dearest friend Ciel died in January this year after several years of fighting breast cancer. It is in her memory that these crochet Charity brooches have been made and will be sold.
Please do take a look.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)