Meetings, April-July, 2008
Meetings most probably in the Three Horseshoes Inn, Llanfaes, at 7.30 p.m. Admission free but there will be a discreetly placed bowl for donations. Suggested donation £3.00, but less (or more) will be welcome.All meeting subject to confirmation. Further information from
Peter Brooke, 4, Camden Court, Brecon LD3 7RP, Tel. 01874 625617Thursday, 3rd April. Sarah Agarwal: Fear and Loathing in South Africa - possible causes of violent crime.
Sarah Agarwal worked in Johannesburg during 2006/07 as a Project Manager with a peace NGO - Gun Free South Africa. Sarah will be talking about some of the complexities surrounding the high levels of violent crime in the country. Her work was funded by UK Quakers. She will be accompanied by Manase Motsepe, a former activist in the ANC. Manase will be willing to answer questions on current South African politics but would prefer to see them beforehand (they can be submitted through me at the address below)Thursday 17th April: Alan Marr: The End of the Welfare State.
Alan, who earlier gave us a very interesting and sympathetic account of the much-maligned Neville Chamberlain, discusses the collapse throughout the world of the idea that the state should provide cradle to grave care for its citizens.Thursday 1st May. Ken Jones: The Independence of Reuters, Myth or Reality?
Reuters is both the oldest and largest international news agency. It has around 2,500 journalists (in all sorts of activity) in about 150 countries in 24 languages. The Reuters Trust principles dedicate Reuters to preserving its independence, integrity and freedom from bias. But are these principles now threatened?Thursday 15th May. Nina Fishman: Prospects for Europe in the first half of the 21st century. (This meeting has moved about a bit. In the last notice I suggested June 19th but it has now been brought forward)
Nina Fishman is a labour historian, author of The British Communist Party and the Trade Unions, 1933-45 (Scolar Press, 1995). She is presently working on a biography of the Welsh miners' leader Arthur Horner. She has long argued that the British labour movement should take much more heed of what is happening in mainland Europe.
- Thursday 29th May - Change in programme. Ruth Rickard: Some background to the "Tibet Question".
- Ruth has travelled in India and Nepal and has been studying Tibetan Buddhism for some years as a practitioner and as a student of religions at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.".
Thursday 12th June. Dafydd Jones: What is Christianity for?
Dafydd is a Christian minister, based in Brecon and involved in leading informal services, retreats, and giving spiritual direction to individuals.Thursday 26th June. Robin Baldwin: The path of yoga - A Philosophy behind knowing and understanding Ourselves
After arriving in Brecon from New Zealand as a large animal vet, Robin has made quite an impact especially with his poetry which is informed by a great attentiveness to the world about him - what it is rather than what he can get out of it - a skill which he has developed through one of the yoga disciplines which he learned under a personal teacher.Thursday 10th July. Barbara Harriss-White: Looking East - Capitalism in the Himalayas
Barbara, a professor in Queen Elizabeth House, the department of Development Studies in Oxford, has spoken to us previously on the politics of energy, poverty and capitalism and on small commodity production in India. This will be an illustrated talk (so probably not in the 3 Horseshoes) about a recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh, the heavily militarised and largely Buddhist extreme North-East of India which borders Tibet/China, Bhutan and Myanmar/Burma.