The Economist recently ran an article about the publication of a new study that again shows the link between generousity and wealth. There have been various reports that look at such factors including where a charity's money comes from, what percentage of a persons income they generally give away however this latest study does include a very very interesting fact.
It used a method of making test subjects to imagin/feel that they had a different amount of income/belonged to a different socio-economic background. When they did this they observed that those from upper class backgrounds believed that a larger percentage of income should be donated when they were "lower class" (this was still not as much at the actually lower class people and when lower class people thought of themselves as "upper class" they were less generous and yet more generous than the actual upper class people.
In general this is a very interesting study into how our back ground and income actually affect how generous we are with our money.
Saturday, 31 July 2010
Friday, 30 July 2010
Storytelling
A couple of days ago I was in London with my friend Dom. Whilst we had taken a brief respite from the long walks in St Martin in the field crypt cafe and enjoying possibly the greatest cappuccino I have ever had, our conversation turned to story telling.
At this point I should mention a few facts about Dom, He's 23, comes from New Mexico and has a beard and hairstyle that pays strong tribute to Captain Jack Sparrow and is the best storyteller I know. Whenever he starts to tell you about one of his adventures (and they are always adventures) he pulls you in and makes you feel like you were there. He's total engrossing, you can't help but want to know what happened next, what was it like, how does the story end!
What I noticed about Dom is that when he is telling stories he always includes how he was feeling at the time the story was going on. By telling stories I mean everything from stories he likes to tell and parables to his own experiences and even other peoples. In all of these examples he will tell you how the characters were feeling at the time.
I myself don't really do this...and when I say that I mean I never really do it! I might a bit when I'm writing about something, especially when emotions are the centre point of the piece of writing. However when I'm talking to people I always focus on the event, what happen, who did what, where did it happen, what did it look like etc. As such I rarely describe what I felt at the time, how did that change, how we're other people feeling.
I do wonder if it's partially because I don't think of talking about what I did yesterday as telling a story but it is really. Having read Donald Millers book (a million miles in a thousand years) he describes our whole lives as stories and that we should try to live the best one we can, so surely it makes sense to describe my life as a story as well.
At this point I should mention a few facts about Dom, He's 23, comes from New Mexico and has a beard and hairstyle that pays strong tribute to Captain Jack Sparrow and is the best storyteller I know. Whenever he starts to tell you about one of his adventures (and they are always adventures) he pulls you in and makes you feel like you were there. He's total engrossing, you can't help but want to know what happened next, what was it like, how does the story end!
What I noticed about Dom is that when he is telling stories he always includes how he was feeling at the time the story was going on. By telling stories I mean everything from stories he likes to tell and parables to his own experiences and even other peoples. In all of these examples he will tell you how the characters were feeling at the time.
I myself don't really do this...and when I say that I mean I never really do it! I might a bit when I'm writing about something, especially when emotions are the centre point of the piece of writing. However when I'm talking to people I always focus on the event, what happen, who did what, where did it happen, what did it look like etc. As such I rarely describe what I felt at the time, how did that change, how we're other people feeling.
I do wonder if it's partially because I don't think of talking about what I did yesterday as telling a story but it is really. Having read Donald Millers book (a million miles in a thousand years) he describes our whole lives as stories and that we should try to live the best one we can, so surely it makes sense to describe my life as a story as well.
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
A round up of the issues to consider when debating higher education funding.
Tonight will see the first Live Blog/debate being held on this blog discussing the issues relating to student loans, top up fees, graduate tax and higher education funding in general. Soon I will post/link to some blog posts that people have contributed to aid the discussion before the debate but before that I thought I'd share a round up of some of the different values and goals that different authors have view points have stressed.
Everyone agrees that Higher Education has to be available for all and that whatever option is chosen it has to make this available. I have not heard a single person say that their view point will hinder universal access and everyone arguing for an alternative idea says that their choice will allow more people from worse of backgrounds to have the option to go to university.
Another key idea is that universities should be able to provide top quality education and how can different types of funding provide this. As such ideas such as top up fees to raise more funds, the current Browne review (which is addressing the lack of funds for university) and market mechanisms to ensure top quality education is provided, are all argued as ways to achieve this.
Many writers encourage the idea that those who benefit from higher education should be the ones who pay at least for the majority of the costs. However there are different views about how direct these benefits should be and as such some argue for just those who go to university, some for businesses as well and some for the whole of society.
In a change from the previous points, the desire to avoid discouraging students from either not going to university, choosing a course that would have less of a financial cost on them or even leaving the country to avoid having to pay of higher taxes/student loan/higher tax rate in general. This point is sometimes labelled "brain drain" and can be used to refer to a general lowering of education standards within the country due to the above factors. This point is obviously linked into the first point about higher education being available for all yet sometimes people argue that this will occur even under systems that stress they would be available for people from any back ground.
Not directly linked but often discussed is the numbers of people who are in higher education as this obviously impacts budgets, availability to all, quality of education etc. As such policies regarding further education can also seep into discussions and should certainly be considered when debating higher education as well.
Well I hope you enjoyed my round up, bellow I have some links to articles for further reading include two put forward for the debate tonight.
Some responses to Vince Cable suggesting the Browne review looked at a graduate tax.
Lee Griffin on Why now is the time for a radical change to higher education funding
Joe Jordan on Why the graduate tax idea is acceptable...for now.
The Debate thread
[If you are taking part in the debate tonight and want to put forward a blog post to be published/linked to on your views please email it to wilsonswordsblog@gmail.com]
Everyone agrees that Higher Education has to be available for all and that whatever option is chosen it has to make this available. I have not heard a single person say that their view point will hinder universal access and everyone arguing for an alternative idea says that their choice will allow more people from worse of backgrounds to have the option to go to university.
Another key idea is that universities should be able to provide top quality education and how can different types of funding provide this. As such ideas such as top up fees to raise more funds, the current Browne review (which is addressing the lack of funds for university) and market mechanisms to ensure top quality education is provided, are all argued as ways to achieve this.
Many writers encourage the idea that those who benefit from higher education should be the ones who pay at least for the majority of the costs. However there are different views about how direct these benefits should be and as such some argue for just those who go to university, some for businesses as well and some for the whole of society.
In a change from the previous points, the desire to avoid discouraging students from either not going to university, choosing a course that would have less of a financial cost on them or even leaving the country to avoid having to pay of higher taxes/student loan/higher tax rate in general. This point is sometimes labelled "brain drain" and can be used to refer to a general lowering of education standards within the country due to the above factors. This point is obviously linked into the first point about higher education being available for all yet sometimes people argue that this will occur even under systems that stress they would be available for people from any back ground.
Not directly linked but often discussed is the numbers of people who are in higher education as this obviously impacts budgets, availability to all, quality of education etc. As such policies regarding further education can also seep into discussions and should certainly be considered when debating higher education as well.
Well I hope you enjoyed my round up, bellow I have some links to articles for further reading include two put forward for the debate tonight.
Some responses to Vince Cable suggesting the Browne review looked at a graduate tax.
Lee Griffin on Why now is the time for a radical change to higher education funding
Joe Jordan on Why the graduate tax idea is acceptable...for now.
The Debate thread
[If you are taking part in the debate tonight and want to put forward a blog post to be published/linked to on your views please email it to wilsonswordsblog@gmail.com]
Now is the time for radical change to higher education funding By Lee Griffin
Graduate tax or top-up fee loans? To me there’s barely a hairs breadth between the two policies. Both suffer from cashflow issues, with a person’s education not being “paid back” for decades, and both cause students looking in to their future to ask “Is it really worth the gamble?” The differences that are there are small, with a slight rebalancing of how much individuals pay dependent on income (though they may still end up paying more than they actually costed the system to educate them)
In the current economic climate there are those crying that this is the best situation, that we need to accept these “bold” new changes. Rubbish.
For a start we shouldn’t be making our first change on these matters to start a legacy of students paying for their own education in some kind of inbred American style. Once we start to make HE a commodity where the most successful end up paying more in to the system than they actually took out you must start to get individuals asking why they are subsidising certain degrees, or certain institutions.
But more importantly it might make universities themselves look at where their funding comes from, some may argue the current top-up system could do the same and I wouldn’t disagree, but with a graduate tax the lure of gaining MORE than the course was worth off of your high earning lawyers, doctors, and other top level professions would surely cause the book keepers to ask...shouldn’t we just cut out the music, and art degrees all together? And hell, nursing doesn’t exactly pay much either...
HE is about more than the piece of paper you get at the end, it’s about the learning, it’s about the growing...my personal opinion is the more people that are able to get integrated with other cultures, ideas, political beliefs during those final formative years of teenage life, the better for society. Who says that we can’t be truly bold or radical right now to do help fund just that?
The state already funds a large part of a student’s course; but if we were truly radical shouldn’t we say that society, and business that benefits from successful students, has to take better responsibility for the benefits they’re gaining? I don’t want to sound like students should never pay something, they clearly get a benefit of their own....perhaps some kind of graduate tax would indeed by useful, but not on the scale of paying back the entirety of their educational funding deficit and then some.
It’s a tough time right now, but it’s also a time of massive economic change. If we miss the boat now to take a real leap and change the way HE is funded we’ll miss it for another decade.
In the current economic climate there are those crying that this is the best situation, that we need to accept these “bold” new changes. Rubbish.
For a start we shouldn’t be making our first change on these matters to start a legacy of students paying for their own education in some kind of inbred American style. Once we start to make HE a commodity where the most successful end up paying more in to the system than they actually took out you must start to get individuals asking why they are subsidising certain degrees, or certain institutions.
But more importantly it might make universities themselves look at where their funding comes from, some may argue the current top-up system could do the same and I wouldn’t disagree, but with a graduate tax the lure of gaining MORE than the course was worth off of your high earning lawyers, doctors, and other top level professions would surely cause the book keepers to ask...shouldn’t we just cut out the music, and art degrees all together? And hell, nursing doesn’t exactly pay much either...
HE is about more than the piece of paper you get at the end, it’s about the learning, it’s about the growing...my personal opinion is the more people that are able to get integrated with other cultures, ideas, political beliefs during those final formative years of teenage life, the better for society. Who says that we can’t be truly bold or radical right now to do help fund just that?
The state already funds a large part of a student’s course; but if we were truly radical shouldn’t we say that society, and business that benefits from successful students, has to take better responsibility for the benefits they’re gaining? I don’t want to sound like students should never pay something, they clearly get a benefit of their own....perhaps some kind of graduate tax would indeed by useful, but not on the scale of paying back the entirety of their educational funding deficit and then some.
It’s a tough time right now, but it’s also a time of massive economic change. If we miss the boat now to take a real leap and change the way HE is funded we’ll miss it for another decade.
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Coalition Government or Conservative, which is better for the Lib Dems?
Thanks to NoetiCat I stumbled across this article suggesting the BBC are now referring to the government as the Conservative government rather than the Conservative lead Coalition. There is of course one of two possible outcomes from this.
The Lib Dems will no longer be as attached to any cuts that are made or unpopular decisions. However there will still an underlying knowledge that the Lib Dems are involved. As such they may still get the credit for good decisions and can boost about them within campaign literature. Although there probably is some truth in the first part of this statement the second half is highly hopeful and I doubt that there is much truth in it. If we had gained a post coalition bounce and gone up in the polls then I might believe it. However the opposite was true and as such it is more likely we would just stay low in the polls.
The second is that we will regain the notion that a vote for Lib Dems is a wasted vote due to the absence of presence in the press. In addition de-associating the Lib Dems with any decisions would suggest that coalitions only lead to the largest party getting their will and the minority partner being irrelevant. In addition it will mean that the conservatives can take the praise for all the good that comes from this government and get a further poll boost (bear in mind that when the Conservatives do badly the Lib Dems usually do well).
As such I believe we should push to have the coalition continued to be referred to as such rather than a conservative government. We may wish to take the easier root for now and releave the pressure of some of the criticism that will come under the current spending cuts, however we will then lose out on the long term benefits that being in government will provide.
The Lib Dems will no longer be as attached to any cuts that are made or unpopular decisions. However there will still an underlying knowledge that the Lib Dems are involved. As such they may still get the credit for good decisions and can boost about them within campaign literature. Although there probably is some truth in the first part of this statement the second half is highly hopeful and I doubt that there is much truth in it. If we had gained a post coalition bounce and gone up in the polls then I might believe it. However the opposite was true and as such it is more likely we would just stay low in the polls.
The second is that we will regain the notion that a vote for Lib Dems is a wasted vote due to the absence of presence in the press. In addition de-associating the Lib Dems with any decisions would suggest that coalitions only lead to the largest party getting their will and the minority partner being irrelevant. In addition it will mean that the conservatives can take the praise for all the good that comes from this government and get a further poll boost (bear in mind that when the Conservatives do badly the Lib Dems usually do well).
As such I believe we should push to have the coalition continued to be referred to as such rather than a conservative government. We may wish to take the easier root for now and releave the pressure of some of the criticism that will come under the current spending cuts, however we will then lose out on the long term benefits that being in government will provide.
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Live Debate: Higher Education Funding
In light of the recent statement from Vince Cable, Wilson's Words blog will be hoasting a live debate on how we should fund higher education. This will both discuss at the present time, with the issues of the current finanical situation, and what we should seek in the future.
The debate will start at 8:00 pm Wednesday the 21st and all contributions are welcome. Certain Individuals have offered to contribute a small Blog post before hand to help stimulate the debate. If you Wish to also contribute in such way then write a small post, no more than 500 words, then either send me a link to your article or the article itself and I will publish it.
More details of contributors to follow
The debate will start at 8:00 pm Wednesday the 21st and all contributions are welcome. Certain Individuals have offered to contribute a small Blog post before hand to help stimulate the debate. If you Wish to also contribute in such way then write a small post, no more than 500 words, then either send me a link to your article or the article itself and I will publish it.
More details of contributors to follow
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Half a year gone
One of the things I have started doing in the last couple of years is making a list of things I want to achieve in the year. In the last few years It has provided me with something to look at and remind myself of the things I want to get done this year and prompt me to achieve them.
I have to now admit that this year I haven't actually paid as much attention to my list and I have just come across it again and been reflecting on what things I have achieved and what I haven't. So hear is a list of some of the things that I have done this year.
I have to now admit that this year I haven't actually paid as much attention to my list and I have just come across it again and been reflecting on what things I have achieved and what I haven't. So hear is a list of some of the things that I have done this year.
- Run a 10k race
- Completed a CELTA course
- Started to Blog regularly
- Been featured in the Lib Dem Voice Golden Dozen (twice)
- Gone undercover at both a Labour and Conservative event
- Been an Usher for a wedding
- Developed a signature dish to cook (it's chicken and chorizo paella incase you're wondering)
- Joined a Political Party
- Helped out in an election campaign
- Increased the ammount I'm giving to charity
VAT will be raised
So the VAT rise has gone through and there haven't been any changes made so that it would be more progressive. So what can we do next? Well pressure MP's across all parties to either drop VAT as soon as possible or to make changes so that there are even more progressive exemptions as I mentioned in a previously post. I'll also try and find out which MPs voted for VAT and who against in case any Lib Dems/Tories did rebel, however due to the 75 majority I doubt it.
Although this isn't great news it is worth noting that after Mandelson's revelations that Darling wanted to raise VAT it seams that any party may have lead to a VAT rise.
Although this isn't great news it is worth noting that after Mandelson's revelations that Darling wanted to raise VAT it seams that any party may have lead to a VAT rise.
Sunday, 11 July 2010
leaving on a jet plane (non political!)
On Friday night I was out to celebrate the end of my CELTA course (a qualification in teaching english as a second language) with my fellow coursemates up in London. I had a very good time at a bar called Red in Covent garden and enjoyed my first cocktail for a very night out for a very long time.
Whilst we were out there was a slight divided between the two groups of people there: People who were going abroad with their CELTA qualification and those who were staying in england, at least for the mean time, those of us who were leaving and those of us being left behind.
It's strange because in so many ways it's much harder to be left, no one wants to lose good friends even if they will still see them, occasionally. No one wants to be hearing about the new adventure others are taking when they are stuck in the humdrum of their daily life.
But leaving isn't easy either, starting something new, being in a new place, a new job, a new stage in a relationship? For some people this comes much easier than others, they can just leave and start a new adventure focusing on the excitement to come.
I am not one of those people.
For me I usually want to try and plan everything before I make that final step so that there is nothing to worry about...of course there is usually something else to worry about and so it just leads to delay after delay but finally I move forward... eventually.
Whilst we were out there was a slight divided between the two groups of people there: People who were going abroad with their CELTA qualification and those who were staying in england, at least for the mean time, those of us who were leaving and those of us being left behind.
It's strange because in so many ways it's much harder to be left, no one wants to lose good friends even if they will still see them, occasionally. No one wants to be hearing about the new adventure others are taking when they are stuck in the humdrum of their daily life.
But leaving isn't easy either, starting something new, being in a new place, a new job, a new stage in a relationship? For some people this comes much easier than others, they can just leave and start a new adventure focusing on the excitement to come.
I am not one of those people.
For me I usually want to try and plan everything before I make that final step so that there is nothing to worry about...of course there is usually something else to worry about and so it just leads to delay after delay but finally I move forward... eventually.
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Welcome to Wilson's Words
Welcome to my new blog, if you are visiting then you may well have been to my old wordpress based blog chrisjw133.wordpress.com
It's probably a good idea to explain why I have shifted over to Blogger especially as most people move the otherway nowerdays. The first aspect was that I wanted to change the name and branding. Whilst having the name Chrisjw133 is a great way to keep remembering my username for certain services (it is my twitter and skype name) it isn't exactly the most catchy or memorable. After considerable thought I settled on Wilsons Words, mainly because it was the best I could come up with that wasn't partisan and didn't type cast what I would blog or write about.
The second was customisation. With Wordpress.com it had some great templates that could have some elements of customisation (usually a header, background and move some widgets around) however it didn't support HTML and CSS editing or being able to embed many different applications (such as using cover live). However Blogger did do this and allows for complete customisation.
Admittedly Self Hosted Wordpress also provides this service and I did consider going across for a very long time but ultimately the factor that decided against this was money. I know it's not a lot but as I may not be in the uk in the near future, as money may be tighter etc I have decided against signing up for another contract at least for the time being. There is still the possibility that I will move back to Wordpress (as it is a very good blogging platform) but for the time being I'm happy with blogger.
The final point is adverts, that's right I have sold out and put some adds on the page in the vauge hope of trying to raise some money for myself. I suspect that I won't raise a lot of money and if people really do find them too intrusive and annoying and tell me so (the email address is on the side) then I will remove them.
Anyway I hope you enjoy my new home here, it feels nice and snug to me! I suspect most of my posts will continue to be political and about christianity but look out for the odd drop of football, writing, filming and music.
God Bless.
Chris
Monday, 5 July 2010
The Theology Of Inspiration
I saw an interesting tweet today from @inspireleaders that got me thinking today. It said "who inspires you the most on twitter and why?". my instant reaction was that no one on twitter really inspires me. Don't get me wrong I really like the people on twitter and I find peoples comments and analysis very interesting and in some cases very funny but I don't really get inspired by them.
There have been moments, some of the stuff from the Salvation Army development fund and there was one which was a quote from Jorge Mortman which said "the opposite of poverty isn't property but is community" that really inspired me but other than that they haven't really started a chain reaction in my thought process that made me go wow, or go out and do something.
I decided to look up the word Inspire as I thought maybe that might help me think about who inspires me and i found something interesting. the word comes from the latin to breath and means to invigorate or to excite.
I am certain that this comes from a theological statement that all inspiration comes from God. When you look at the Bible God's breath is where life comes from to man. The word for spirit in the old testament is also very similar to breath as well and in general there seams to be this connection between God's spirit or breath being something that inspires, causes people to act and even the very source of life itself.
As a Christian I find that pretty exciting.
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