In this event report, our newsletter editor Frances Lloyd summarises the talk by Dr Simon Jenkins looking at the best ways to make a positive impact.
Simon is Associate Professor for Values, Law and Ethics at Warwick University. He teaches ethics and law to medical students and other medical professionals. Effective Altruism (EA) is a social movement, a set of ideas on how to best improve the world and make it a better place. It combines the head and the heart.
In this event report, our newsletter editor Frances Lloyd recounts Paul’s inspiring talk about his courageous work to help people in Ukraine.
Paul has been delivering humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine since 2022
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022, Paul has been going in and out of the country taking humanitarian assistance from the UK to support local communities. This is mostly on his own, but he also works with other charities and individuals. He is just back from his 24th trip. These trips each cost between £500 and £600.
Paul showed us a video of him delivering aid in Kharkiv with background noise of alarms going off which he said is “the backdrop every day and night”. He showed us a map of Ukraine, which is the second largest European country in area after Russia, and has a population of 44 million. The map showed which parts of Ukraine Russia has occupied. 3.7 million people have been driven from their homes and many are refugees in their own country. 14.6 million people needed humanitarian assistance in 2024. The big cities are attacked every week if not daily. Paul started by working with Eden Aid, a charity hooking up Ukrainians with sponsors in the UK. He told us Dania’s story who was in Kyiv with her two children and a dog waiting to get to the UK. He drove over and picked them up. She was horrified at the destruction she saw 15-20 minutes away from her home. By the time they arrived in Poland she started to relax. She is now living in Church Stretton sponsored by a person in the Wirral and has her own home, a job and the children are in school.
In this event report, our newsletter editor Frances Lloyd provides an in-depth account of the thought-provoking talk by Phil Cheatle, Lead Campaign Commentator of the campaign group My Death, My Decision (MDMD).
Phil told the meeting why he had become involved in My Death My Decision. It was due to his personal experience with his mother and aunt. His mother aged 93 knew things were not going to get better and asked him to end her life. Doctors could not help her as she wished. She said “make them see sense”.
We are all living longer. A lot of heart disease and cancer are now curable but there are degenerative diseases such as dementia, motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are the leading cause of death in England and Wales with 1 in 8 of all recorded cause of deaths and 1 in 4 for women over 80.
In this event report, our newsletter editor Frances Lloyd recaps the talk by Professor Colin Kelcey about a traumatic but pivotal event in London’s history.
Professor Colin Kelcey
This was a talk by Colin Kelcey about five particular days in December 1952 when London was enveloped in smog and the city was at a standstill.
This was not the first episode of pollution where impacts on health were noted. In December 1930 in the Meuse Valley in Belgium there was an incident of fog which killed 63 people. Previously in 1911 in the same area a lot of cattle were killed and farmers found that they could only save them by moving them to higher ground – this had been realised from earlier smog events. Cows were like the canary in the mine, unusually sensitive to air pollution. Subsequently at a meeting there were ominous warnings about what could happen, it was said that if there was a similar event in London it could result in 3,200 deaths.
Alec told us that Daoism – sometimes spelled Taoism – is many things: a religion, a philosophy, and a way of life.
Laozi was an educated man living in China in the 6th century. He was a keeper of archives in the capital of China, able to read lots of information and gain a lot of knowledge. He felt he’d seen enough corruption in the way the country was run and decided to move to the mountains. The guard at the border asked why he’d made the decision and, after talking, the guard asked him to write down some of his words of wisdom. This became the Tao Te Ching and was 5,000 Chinese characters. It consisted of succinct mystical phrases called chapters and there were 81 chapters (some very short). It demonstrated his wisdom. Many people saw it as the way to govern a country.
In this event report, our newsletter editor Frances Lloyd recaps the talk by Professor Colin Kelcey, FRS, FRSS, FLS, MRI, about the intriguing and remarkable life of Erasmus Darwin.
Professor Colin Kelcey
Erasmus Darwin was the grandfather of Charles Darwin. Colin showed us a picture of him by the painter Joseph Wright of Derby. Erasmus was a ‘porky’ man who lived from 1731 to1802. He lived at a time when there was lots going on politically and socially. He was one of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment.
In this event report, our newsletter editor Frances Lloyd recaps Susie’s talk about the organisation’s work to help, inform and support people in and around Ludlow.
Hands Together Ludlow’s premises on Lower Galdeford
Hands Together Ludlow (HTL) is a registered charity located at 15 Lower Galdeford, Ludlow. It is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. Susie O’Hagan, Operations Manager, explained that the charity identifies gaps and supports people to help themselves.
An informal talk by Father Christopher Walsh April 18th, 2023
In this event report, Ludlow and Marches Humanists Chair Malcolm Rochefort reflects upon the insightful talk by Father Walsh about Pope Francis and his influence on the Catholic Church.
Father Christopher Walsh, of the Catholic Church of St Peter’s in Ludlow, kindly agreed to give us a talk on ‘Why is Pope Francis special?’. We had the impression, as observers of the Roman Catholic Church from the outside, that Pope Francis had brought something different to the church over the past few years, and his views did not appear to be universally appreciated within the church, so we appreciated an insider’s view on this.
