Spotlight session with Ben Solanky

Recently I was invited to share my perspective with one of the teams from Christian Aid. Here's the interview.
 

Holibobs

A few photos from a short time away before a season of change. Again.

Thank you Matt

Today I say farewell to my Co-director and Co founder of Empathy Action.

We had the initial idea for this charity around 7.5 years ago and the last five and half years have been about building a foundation for this.

The idea that we're never going to solve the world's biggest problems without concerned people and that there is a growing dispassion, apathy, quick to judge any effort as futile and not worthwhile, and the countless delegating of our responsibilities... we had a vision to see an end to poverty, brought about by concerted, compassionate, community action. We'd both grown within deprived backgrounds. We've also both seen the sheer force of concerned people to that deprivation to make a world of difference that lasts into the next generations. It was more than just the actions and efforts. It was almost like looking directly into the face of "hope".

It's funny as some of the early names that we thought we right for the organisation were "The Ripple Effect" or "The Empathy Foundation"... (there were a few cryptic ones like "Petrachor" or "Pebble"... but we'll leave that!). But our name 'Empathy Action' says it all. That's exaclty what we both said. It says what we want to do. I recall that exact moment when we realised that we needed to stop being clever with this and embrace our name... this is who we are.. and start to grow with this identity.

We realised this as we were in the business of partnerships at that time and we saw the ones that worked were down to the energy and drive of the people. I once heard someone "say we need good champions and the resources to make a world of difference, but if you were to ask me to choose, I'd choose champions as good ones will find the resources."

We sought to anchor the whole movement in empathy and particulalry based on the old proverb "to understand another you must first walk a mile in their shoes". We'd been involved in projects that were using empathy and we saw what a powerful force it could be to help build understanding and cultivate that compassionate action.

One of Matt's finest moments was stating these beliefs on the global stage at a UN summit (see the video beneath).

The other thing is we're both volunteers...  and that's perhaps the real miracle of all this... the whole operation is entirely built on that 'will' to see a different world. Our whole team choose to do this. And it's not just the team too but its that bunch of others who have enabled each of us to step out and up to serve. Both Matt and I have both been supported financially and much much more by a small bunch of people who got behind us. Somehow that togetherness has taught us much more than any course that we could have done to bolster our credentials. It certainly not the money that has motivated us (nor our team)... but something much deeper: our belief and conviction of this mission. 

Thanks Matt and I will miss directing along side you but know that you will always be a co-founder and my friend. I promise that the best is yet to come for Empathy Action building upon the strong foundation that you have laid.

Excelsior!

By Parties unknown

I was recently shown this picture called "By Parties Unknown" by Hale Woodruff. It depicts a lynched black man left on the doorstep of a church.

The significance of 'a tree' and 'hanging from a tree' are deep within the Christian tradition. But for me it's the unknown person here that seems to be powerful when I look at this picture.

My friend who shared this with me said the following (she cites James Cone's reference to it in his book 'The Cross and The Lynching Tree'):

For Cone, this imagery is something that black artists and poets and writers and musicians could see clearly and spoke about clearly, but theologians and ordinary Christians did not...

You can’t see it too well here but where the rope in the Parties Unknown image meets the ground, flowers are growing. There is beauty to be found in the midst of pain.
 
As James Cone writes: “The beauty in black existence is as real as the brutality, and the beauty prevents the brutality from having the final word. Black suffering needs radical and creative voices, prophetic advocates who can tell brutal and beautiful stories of how oppressed black people survived with a measure of dignity when they were not meant to. Who are we? Why are we here? And what must we do to achieve our full humanity in a world that denies it?”

Black Lives Matter - an interview with me by my church

[UPDATE: Postscript and link to follow up chruch service at the end of this post]

I was interviewed by my church last week about the issue of racism.

This was a really hard subject for me to discuss as it’s something I’ve spent my whole life trying to cover up. 

I’m not proud of this nor do I blame anyone. It’s just I’ve realised how incredibly adept and masterful I’ve become in this covering up process.

My brother wrote a powerful post following the Black Lives Matter marches (see beneath).

I guess I’m just sad that it has come to this and harbour a sense of shame that it has been something that has happened my whole life. Whether it has been my survival instincts or just how I needed to navigate life. It makes me sad.

There is a "however" though... something else...

... I believe that this sadness does not have the last word on this matter. Instead I choose to believe that hope has the last word on this... and faith is all I have to see this hope right now.

_______

Why didn't I take part in the protests yesterday???

(by Alwin Solanky June 7th, 2020)

What a great question… After all I’m a PoC; a BAME, someone of South Asian heratige. I feel that I DO have A LOT to say, but feel trepidation that I won’t be heard.

I’m a lighter shade of brown than George Floyd, Breonna Taylor Ahmaud Arbery. I’ve probably never faced the intensity of abuse they had in their lives and I'm still alive. So why am I feeling so raw?

Even as I’m writing this, I can feel the judgement of others, this is why I don't post about racism. The truth is I've had so many racist experiences during my lifetime that I can't possibly write them all down here. I would dearly love to be heard but I feel that what I say will fall on very deaf ears, like it has time after time. I don’t have the platform that some of you who I’ve known for an age have.

I’ve experienced little incidents and microaggressions since probably the first day I went to school. From the teachers who thought I was not as intelligent as others with other skin tones and smiles turning to closed pursed lips, to those that tried to give me a chance to speak only to be ridiculed by my fellow classmates. By trying to say something, I’m normally talked over with a, "that doesn't happen rhetoric". This has been going on for so long that I almost stopped trying.

I'm exhausted from trying to make my voice heard. I have tried to say things on various platforms but how many have ever liked, shared or even read what I have to say? I have not been the popular person, the person who is sought out at the party, when there is a gathering is one of the first people make a beeline for or even on here, when something is important to me ever paid attention to?

The legal definition of justice is to act or to treat an individual justly or fairly, meaning that everyone should be treated the same way, independent of their race, ethnicity, creed, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, or gender. Essentially, this means that everyone must receive the same treatment regardless of who they are. But I feel that this does not apply to me because of who I am. Let me make one thing crystal clear: I'm NOT feeling sorry for myself in the slightest, in fact I despise myself for even trying to say something because I feel I’m on a hiding to nothing. Yet there is that little voice that says please say something it deserves to be heard. That voice is trampled on by those that I thought would help. This is why I feel I have no voice and yet there is hope that some of you are in a more privileged position than me would at least back me, but from past experience I doubt that this is the case.

Yesterday those that protested did a wonderful thing: you risked your health for something that has been trying to be said for years, however will you still say Black Lives Matter, tomorrow, next, week, month, year, decade etc? I’ve been wanting change since a policeman spat at the feet of my father when I was probably only four or five, I can still see the look of horror and disbelief that it happened. He was holding my hand at the time. I have been told on the few times I have shared this, that this type of thing does not happen including adults in positions of responsibility.

To answer the big one. I lost my father last year and my elderly mother who is vulnerable and not in the best of health. I do not want to risk any chance of her getting infected by COVID-19 due to my actions in protesting with others. She is my only parent left and I don't want to lose her. You may see this as a cop out, fair enough, my mother too has been on the end of some pretty dreadful racial abuse, that's a story for another time which needs to be listened to.

*********

[POSTSCRIPT (27th July): there was a follow up church service that can be viewed here]

John David Price (dad) part 1

A few weeks ago my father in law passed away. He was less than a month before his 87th birthday.

Today we cremated him.

He loved the garden. He loved watching the birds. 

Angie read some memories, a psalm (same one as at my papa’s thanksgiving) and ended with this quote (a final ever tweet from someone just before he died):

‘A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory’

Rest in peace (in that garden), Dad. We will miss you.