First things first - the project is now back on a sound footing with a lottery grant of £10k to help us look at what we do and how we do it! After 10 years of hard work we really do need to go through what I am sure will be a worthwhile but painful exercise! The Red Ribbon Appeal also boosted funds and will pay for the various pieces of information that goes out throughout the year.
Unison has preoccupied my time a great deal as I am acting as the Equalities Officer since my lovely pal Marie escaped from the Council and consequently the union. Early retiral is great but she has so much to offer and a vast experience to boot. I have a lot of concerns now Marie is no longer an official in the branch but am sure the retired members section will welcome her with open arms!
The Unison LGBT policy weekend in Edinburgh at the beginning of the month was a great success and a lot of work to boot! Gladly I handed
over £300 from the Fife Unison Branch to BEST! What a good organisation we have here!http://www.burma-trust.org/freedom02.php We hope to have active links with the student studying PHd at St Andrews University! For those who don't know here is some information about events in Burma and BEST with Murray here to the fore in activism! Burma has been ruled since 1962 by highly repressive, authoritarian military regimes. Since 1988, when the armed forces brutally suppressed massive pro-democracy demonstrations, a junta composed of senior military officers has ruled by decree, without a constitution or legislature. The most recent constitution, promulgated in 1974, permits both legislative and administrative restrictions on religious and political freedom.
"The national races shall enjoy the freedom to profess their religion, provided that the enjoyment of any such freedom does not offend the laws or the public interest."
Most adherents of religions that are registered with the authorities generally are allowed to worship as they choose; however, the Government has imposed restrictions on certain religious activities and frequently abused the right to freedom of religion, through its pervasive internal security apparatus.
The Government generally infiltrates or monitors meetings and activities of virtually all organisations, including religious organisations. It systematically restricts efforts by Buddhist clergy to promote human rights and political freedom, discourages or prohibits minority religions from constructing new places of worship, and, in some ethnic minority areas, coercively promotes Buddhism over other religions, particularly members of minority ethnic groups.
The study of religion and politics within Divinity presupposes religious practices to be understood through interpretive models and social epistemologies in constant interaction with political models of governance in society.
Recognising the democratic deficit and the deep-rooted historical links between Scotland and Burma, Trustees of BEST, Prospect Burma and the Dean of the Department of Religion and Politics at St. Mary's College have negotiated a scholarship for suitably qualified Burmese students to be educated, at postgraduate level.
So a little catch up on a terrible cold wet and windy day here in Fife!
