[229.1] THINK LOCALLY, ACT GLOBALLY

Yup, that way round. There’s now no local situation which doesn’t generate neighbourhood-sized choices with global implications – about what we buy, what we throw away, who and what we support, and so on. Realising this is part of the genius of One World Week, the UK-wide global education programme which networks together a variety of church, faith and community groups around a galvanising theme and gives them the opportunity to let rip with the imagination on everything from festivals and services to lunches and lobbies. Of course I should have been going on about this last week, as OWW was actually 23-30 October 2005… but this year’s theme (‘Promises, promises…’) inspired by the pledges of the G8, the Africa Commission and Britain’s EU presidency has no real time-tag on it. And while One World Week thinks big (hunger, debt, peace and so on), its strength is precisely in its ability to localise the global. A good example is this practical Promise List of 40 simple actions aimed at putting our domestic choices into a wider perspective. OWW has been running for 27 years and involves tens of thousands of people. It’s one of the country’s best kept tots-to-pensioners educational secrets. But I must confess a vested interest; I worked part-time for the Week (then sponsored jointly by the World Development Movement and the churches) back in 1990-1991, when I was also on the staff of the Institute of Spirituality at Heythrop College. I should also point out that OWW has helped generate many spin-offs, including a global education month in Japan. Now there’s ambition. [Nb. OWW had a server problem today. Try later if the links don't work]

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