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the Friend

INDEPENDENT QUAKER JOURNALISM SINCE 1843

CONTENTS – VOL 168 NO 42 3 Quaker week celebrations 4 Meeting for Sufferings 5 Early Day Motion tabled to increase armed forces recruitment age 6 Welcome to Utopia Paul Green 7 A day without oil Sunniva Taylor 8-9 Letters 10-11 An interview with Geoffrey Durham 12 Quiet among busyness Andrew Rendle 13 The Word Rowena Loverance 14 Nuclear disarmament – and the sanctity of life Frank Boulton 15 From summer school to shindig: 50 years of Northern Young Friends Bronwen and Roz Currie 16 q-eye: witness 17 Friends & Meetings

Cover image: A typical traffic jam in central Beijing. Beijing is notorious for its smog and is rapidly earning the distinction of having the highest vehicular pollution in the world. Particulate emissions from cars now account for nearly a quarter – an estimated 23.3 percent – of the city’s total suspended particles.’ ©Greenpeace / Natalie Behring-Chisholm See page 7.

Images on this page:Top: Some Muswell Hill Quakers, with Lynne Featherstone MP and Nikita Yerenkov Scott holding trees, as they celebrated 100 years of their Meeting by planting 100 trees. Everyone from the oldest to the youngest helped, including people from the preschool and other groups that have used the Meeting house over its history as well as former members of the Meeting family. Bottom left: A young man plants his tree. Bottom right: The Haringey borough mayor, Eddie Griffith, with Muswell Hill’s warden Wendrie Heywood, after he formally opened the Meeting’s garden. He was being shown the changes to the preschool’s outside play area following redevelopment work funded by Haringey Council and the EU. Photos: Trish Carn.

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Editorial

Editor: Ian Kirk-Smith

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the Friend 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJTel: 020 7663 1010 Fax: 020 7663 1182 www.thefriend.org Editor: Ian Kirk-Smith editorial@thefriend.org • Production editor: Jez Smith jez@thefriend.org • Sub-editor: Trish Carn trishc@thefriend.org • News reporter: Symon Hill news@thefriend.org • Arts editor: Rowena Loverance arts@thefriend.org • Environment editor: Laurie Michaelis green@thefriend.org • Subscriptions officer: Penny Dunn subs@thefriend.org Tel: 020 7663 1178 • Advertisement manager: George Penaluna, Ad department, 54a Main Street, Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL Tel: 01535 630230 ads@thefriend.org • Clerk of the trustees: A David Olver • ISSN: 0016-1268 The Friend Publications Limited is a registered charity, number 211649 • Printed by Headley Bros Ltd, Queens Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 8HH

the Friend, 15 October 2010