Brian Wilson (Greens) and St John’s pupils

MLAs from all different parties, including Ministers Edwin Poots, Brian Wilson and Sammy Wilson, + Enda Kenny the head of Fine Gael and Gerry Adams, MP came to the Long Gallery, to meet the KIDS from:

Ballymacrickett Primary School, Glenavy, Co. Antrim

Buick Memorial Primary School, Cullybackey, Co. Antrim

Hazelwood Integrated Primary School, North Belfast

St. Colms High School, Draperstown, Co. Derry

St John’s Business and Enterprise College, Dromore, Co. Tyrone

St Theresa’s Primary School, Loughmacrory, Co.Tyrone

and to take the adults’ Pledge ASAP.

Bradley (Buick PS) Emily (Ballymacrickett PS) and Emma (St Colm’s PS) with Baglady in BBC Stormont studio talking to Talkback’s Wendy Austin about the pledge

Thomas Burns [SDLP South Antrim] was there for Ballymacrickett and sent out a press release about the day;
North Antrim’s Daithi McKay [SF] Rev Robert Coulter [UUP] and Mervyn Storey [DUP] for Buick;
Patsy McGlone [SDLP, mid Ulster, + former Environment Committee chair] was there for St Colm’s but I seem to remember he’s going to talk his pledges over with the family – a VERY good idea.
Pat Doherty[SF] West Tyrone supported St John’s and St Theresa’s

Other MLAs who pledged: Gerry McHugh; David Hilditch, Sammy Wilson, Gerry Adams, Fra McCann, Michelle McIlveen, Cathal Boylan and Mickey Brady.

Delegates from each school told of their personal ASAP pledges, and their environmental and sustainability work and how they connect up with me, Baglady. At all stages there were MLAs listening including Brian Wilson [Greens, and the first MLA to pledge ASAP in August 2009 Daithi McKay was the 2nd.

Sam Gardner was 3rd to pledge a few weeks ago, and Naomi Long's promised...! we know there'll be lots more from our 2nd round, later this summer...

The sun came out exactly on time and shone upon us. We all had a bit of lunch around the big tables, and talked. Except me, Emma [St Colm's] Emily [Ballymacrickett] and Bradley [Buick] who went to the BBC studio to be on Talkback with Wendy Austin. We have to get back to Wendy for her pledge when she’s had more time. It takes a bit of time and thought.

I’ve just been looking at the film done by Shane Martin, and it’s great! I think we were all equally amazed at how enjoyable and light-hearted it all was. Maybe it could be easy to make the changes we need to approach living ASAP. And maybe politics is getting more people friendly.

But the changes are urgent. Want proof? Please scroll down to see the 2 short films below; send your comments. In time, Jonny and I will prepare some questions to help us all think creatively together, and DO.

So keep taking up/talking up ASAP and tell us how you go! And as I said at Stormont, there’s no more time for tokenism when taking pledges. We must all mean what we say. So we’ll be checking on everyone’s progress in the nearish future.

pledge and pass on pledge and pass on pledge and pass on

best, S the B

You can see all the photos from the day here:

The schools with Baglady on Stormont steps

KIDS and top teachers from all over NI strode into Stormont to the Long Gallery to tell the MLAs how to live ASAP… well, the early stages of it.

It was a very cross-political party event, and loads of MLAs have Pledged ASAP: well DONE yous.

Just checking recent KIDS pledges: they’re thundering in from Harpers Hill, Coleraine; Dunclug College, PS and even Nursery school (Dunclug seems to have a lot of great tots, the youngest ever baglady – Aimée Brett, aged 3 – was there in 2004 and started her work at ONCE!!).

Daithi McKay and Gerry Adams with pupils of St John’s Business and Enterprise College

Keep spreading the story everyone! Who do you know on the far side of the world that would LOVE to join us in living ASAP…… ????

BUT/AND

from now on we’re going to be welcoming more and more voices from around the world

talking ASAP

watch out for Baglady’s speech at Stormont for [World] ASAP Day

we’re saying World cos we mean global busyness

pledge ASAP and pass the message on…

thanks

keep the plates spinning…. the torch blazing….. L, S the B

14mins past midnight Monday the 14th,
first day of ASAP Pledge Week hurrayyyyyy!!!
and THEN…

next Monday’s ASAP Pledge DAY!!

which is the 21st of June

Midsummer’s Day, the longest day of the year.

Please PLEDGE ASAP

Give UP one thing
Take UP one thing
Live ASAP
HELP save the world! Get the story out!

L, S the B

Today I had a very good surprise, and a very alarming one as well.

The good surprise was that I had a great visit to the 3 P7 classes at Bangor Central Integrated Primary School. This is Bangor Co, Antrim. KIDS [and teachers] from Bangor Wales please join us – ASAP OK? We need everybody.

I think it was Mr Conville’s class. And it was a boy that first mentioned it – Saving The World. A favourite topic of mine. So I asked if anyone else wanted to save the world too, and most of the hands in the class shot up! Wow. This is so cool, it’s deadly…… I’ll explain 6dotters later……

The alarming surprise was when I mentioned to Mr Murray’s class, then Mr Conville’s, that there’s this thing I call the Texas Rubbishberg/er [as in icebergs and hamburgers]. It’s a huge massive lump of rubbish somewhere off the coast of America, the Atlantic or the Pacific…… this lump of rubbish is the size of Texas.

So Mr Conville whizzed online and found this TexasRubbishberger [think of a totally plastic hamburger with a plastic meat and plastic cheese and red plastic sauce..] So he put it up on the interactive whiteboard thing and we all looked. While the KIDS told me how they’re feeling about this rubbish world, Mr Conville went back online.

A few minutes later, he flashed up the updated image. See, the Texas Rubbishburger’s a thing of the past. Now it’s 2 rubbishbergs, and together they make up a lump of rubbish the size of the whole US of A. Google it and C4URself.

EDIT: here are two YouTube films that show just how serious this — The ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’, as it has become known — actually is:

So the meeting at Stormont is going to be much more important than we at first thought. We need to stop just talking about it. We need to DO. And we’ve got lots of people with us.

It’s just a wee pledge, give up one thing, take up one thing. All we need, is our leaders to lead…. SO

watch this space and JOIN IN Adults www.bagladyproductions.org/asap-world/pledge KIDS www.bagladyproductions.org

Can everyone help please, we’ve got a huge story to tell – Northern Ireland to the world in a small series of leaps! Where have I been? What’s happened? Who’s pledging what? Omagh, Dromore, Loughmacrory, St Malachy’s Ballymoyer, then Dublin to edit our all Ireland ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2010 film, then back to Bangor. Filming @ Coleraine’s Harpers Hill Primary School, Fri 11th, and St Columbus, Garvagh. Reports in the next blog or 2 or 3….. and piks ASA we get the legals sorted…. L, S the B

This is ASAP Pledge Fortnight, leading up to
ASAP Pledge Week starting June 14 and
ASAP Pledge Day, on June 21st, at the Northern Ireland Assembly, at Stormont. When our children take their pledges to show our polticians and ask them to join in, support andLEAD

You can be there too! Virtually. Adults go to:
www.bagladyproductions.org/ASAP-world/pledge

KIDS go to www.bagladyproductions.org

and take your pledge: Give up one thing and take up one thing

next blog: news of Baglady’s visit to Omagh, Dromore, Loughmacrory and the BBC’s Wild Day Out!

BL in Portadown, 2005

On Thursday 20th August the Lord Mayor Naomi Long met representatives from Belfast Friends of the Earth to demonstrate her support behind their new campaign, “Belfast Cycle City”. She received a copy of their cycling vision for Belfast and gave it her backing.

The campaign calls for every Belfast City Councillor to support the vision of Belfast as one of the top 10 cycling cities in the UK by 2020.

To accomplish this, Belfast Friends of the Earth are urging Belfast City Councillors to take three actions:

• create a new ten year Belfast Cycle Strategy from 2010 to 2020
• set a 10% target for all trips by bicycle in the city by 2020
• request increased government spending on cycling to £15 per person, in line with cycle-orientated English cities.

Belfast Friends of the Earth Co-ordinator Andrew McMurray : “ The public response to our campaign so far has been really encouraging; thousands of hits to our website and hundreds of signatures in support of our campaign asks. The Lord Mayor’s public support affirms her commitment to a sustainable Belfast, reducing congestion, combating climate change and improving public health. We hope the rest of the City Council will now so the same and press for a Belfast Cycle City”.

Belfast Lord Mayor Naomi Long : “I am very pleased to support the Belfast Cycle City campaign. I believe that cycling represents part of a positive, progressive transport solution for Belfast and I would encourage my fellow councillors to get behind the campaign too. As well as infrastructure improvements, we need to engage with communities on this issue and make cycling in Belfast a safe, healthy and enjoyable activity for all.”

For more information on the campaign, please visit belfastcyclecity.org.uk or contact belfastfoe@googlemail.com.

Lord Mayor Naomi Long, Nuala McKeever and others

I chose August 21st as it’s a weekday, so business people would come if they wanted to; and people, all kinds of people not away on holidays, would come if they wanted to; with luck that late August laidback feeling might prevail. It did.

From the very start, you could tell something really good was going to happen. A wonderful gathering of people appeared and seemed all to become friends instantly.

I wanted to do three things…

• Thank all the people who’ve helped me in the last 8 years, people I know who really care about environment issues (including social justice issues).
• Convey a message that we must get a move on; we haven’t even scratched the surface yet and we’re running out of time and resources.
• Link people in Northern Ireland with people across the Atlantic, the Pacific – all over the world – and with each other.

…and not do three things.

• Use rows: rows promote lecturing, experts, ‘elected’ leaders and a herd mentality.

  We need to break down the separateness that so often exists at these conferences: if you know anyone there, you hang with the people you know. How is this networking?

  we wanted people to see and hear each other, so we all sat in a big circle round the room. Then the whole room introduced themselves – it was quite moving to see people from all age groups, all parts of Ireland, business world and community world and how much is going on, and how many people care.

• Use name-tags (thanks Iona!)
• Have unsustainable food – we took care with this; lunch was still bready and a bit expensive, but we had great fillings from Miriam prepared by Christine and the Stranmillis cooks.

What Happened

Film and stills from people and places all over Northern Ireland, including: Arlene Foster (ex-Environment minister); Sandy Lindsay (who plans to use our Respect Arc with his students at Larne High School); St Colm’s Antrim and Antrim Primary School kids asking Tesco customers: “Do You Ever say No to plastic bags?”

Music from Eric Landry on didgeridoo; Diane Wilson on the musical saw, accompanied by Jonny Mitchell on guitar; and Bo Vance on the tubular bell, to open the event proper.

First Citizen of Belfast, Lord Mayor Naomi Long, speaking at ASAP World

Lord Mayor of Belfast Naomi Long gave an excellent speech about Sustainable work being done in Belfast – City Council. You can read a draft of her speech here.

After lunch, Zand Craig introduced our version of Open Space, for discussion and action planning. You can see a PDF document of the outcomes of this session here. We found Open Space an amazingly democratic and inclusive alternative to more orthodox ways of facilitating discussion, and highly recommend it. You can see some pics of this session below.

Here a SimpleViewer Flash gallery should be displayed. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.

The day wasn’t all serious, though; we had a laughter workshop with Jacky Ingram, scenes from ‘ASAP; The Play’, starring Nuala McKeever, Bill Jeffrey, Sandra Weir, Maggie Cronin and Jim Johnston. After dinner, Julia Waters led a dance to guide the day to a relaxed conclusion.

Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence were there, and featured us on their 23rd August show! You can hear the report here:

In closing…

We’re glad that people felt free both to come late and to go early; and that enough stayed to the end for us all to have meaningful discussions and action planning, and to report that we all felt really good about the whole day.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen – porters, gatemen, the general Stranmillis staff – and to everyone who attended. You know who you are! While not everyone was able to make it to the day – some sent apologies, others were far away – many still attended virtually by sending their pledge.

We plan to take these ideas further, with Pledge ASAP, and further focussed workshops and meetings. Keep an eye out here for further updates!

We don’t NEEDabag, thankyou.

Here a SimpleViewer Flash gallery should be displayed. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.