|
|
|
Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 03 July 2008 23:25
Posts: 27,
Visits: 260
|
|
| Please use this thread to share your memories about the Drop the Debt Human Chain in May 1998. 70,000 people gathered in Birmingham that day, where the G8 was meeting, to ask for billions of dollars worth of debt to be dropped. Since then $88bn of debt has been cleared, but the Drop the Debt campaign believes another $400bn should also be removed. I was working for Reform, the magazine of the URC, at the time as well as taking pictures for other religious publications. I remember meeting friends who had gathered at Carrs Lane Church Centre, feeling a strange buzz of excitment. No one knew how many people would turn up and whether the chain along the route would be complete. When the time came for the chain to link up, I got to the roof of a church and realised just how many people had turned out to show their support for the campaign. It was truly amazing. I was then really lucky to stumble across the place where Clare Short, then Secretary of State for International Development, was going to address the crowd. When the chain broke up, this small circle of orange chairs surrounding a stage and microphone was engulfed by thousands of people who were cheering, chanting and waving placards, waiting to hear what Ms Short had to say. It was a magical day, and though each one of those people who were in Birmingham in 1998 could claim that they have wiped around £125,000 of debt, there is still a long way to go. On Sunday, May 18, there are celebrations in Birmingham to mark the 10th anniversary of the human chain and to remind people that the campaign is far from over.
Andy Jackson
Editor, www.surefish.co.uk
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 2 days ago @ 19:15
Posts: 135,
Visits: 773
|
|
I was there, together with a coachload of folk from the Hexham Methodist Circuit in Northumberland. We had shared part of the journey with busloads of Newcastle United fans on the way to Wembley for the FA Cup final (which we lost, unfortunately... ). The atmosphere in Birmingham was amazing - I was in the same hall to hear Clare Short, and we were gobsmacked to hear that the world leaders had run away, to hold their conference in a centre in the Welsh Borders. Obviously they were afraid of 70,000 Christians. To his credit, Tony Blair said he would come back at the end of the day to meet our organisers and listen.
The sad thing was the ignorant opposition of some passersby - "Charity begins at home!" "I've got debts - you gonna write them off for me?" It illustrated the tabloid self-centred world in which many folk lived, and unfortunately that is still true. The job of education never goes away.
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 07 June 2008 22:50
Posts: 3,
Visits: 15
|
|
| I was there! I travelled by coach leaving from Colchester arranged through local churches (I was a student at Essex University at the time). Although I was not at one of the most exciting points of the chain during the 3 o'clock moment - I was under the road in an underpass!!! The chain was only one person wide at this point (as you don't get to see much under a road) but we were all joined together to make sure the human chain around Birmingham was intact. Clare Short made Birmingham proud that day. It's amazing to think how far we have come.
|
|
|
|