the Friend

CONTENTS

3 News

4-5 Meeting for Sufferings Communicating better Meeting for Sufferings: the year ahead Engaging the whole Society in BYM’s work Report from BYM trustees

6 The Silent Society Alan Ray-Jones

7 Comment Helen Drewery and Symon Hill

8-9 Letters

10-11 Peer panels Youth justice steps in from the cold

12 q-eye: observations from the Quaker world

13 Restoring Paul Rowena Loverance

14-15 Response to draft climate change bill Laurie Michaelis

16 Meeting for Sufferings Laura Wirtz

17 Friends & Meetings

New Subscription Prices from 1 July 2007 UK Europe Rest of World

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the Friend , 8 June 2007

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8 June 2007

Cover: Peer panel See pages 10-11 Photo: www.stuartrayner.com Elsa Dicks cutting her cake at her barbecue Photo: Colin Billett See page 3

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5/6/07 2:49:39 pm 5/6/07 2:49:39 pm News

1,000 students tell UCL provost to ditch arms shares

Malcolm Grant, University College London provost has been presented with a petition signed by over 1,000 UCL staff and students calling on him to sell UCL’s shares in an arms company. With nearly 846,000 shares, UCL is one of the largest-known university investors in the arms trade. The provost also received a hand-signed copy of a book, Titanic Express, by UCL alumnus Richard Wilson, in which he describes how his sister died as a result of the arms trade. Richard Wilson is just one of the UCL graduates who has given his backing to Disarm UCL, which calls for the college to divest from arms trader Cobham plc and to adopt an ethical investment policy. Malcolm Grant now has the chance to read Richard’s account of his sister Charlotte’s death at the hands of a militia in Burundi. Her killers told

her that she was dying because of ‘the white people supplying the weapons in Africa’. Richard Wilson said: ‘By handing this company over £900,000 with which to do business, UCL is making itself complicit in that business, and its impact on the world. In producing components for military aircraft which are then sold to some of the most depraved regimes on the planet, Cobham is as responsible for the deaths that result as the people who produced the bullets that killed my sister.’ According to a UCL student spokesperson: ‘...there is no reason at all to invest in business that kills. Financially UCL would do equally well if it were to invest in ethical business. UCL prides itself to be a global university. We want a global university to show a global conscience.’

Reed Elsevier ends arms fair involvement

Peace activists celebrated last week when the publisher Reed Elsevier announced an end to its participation in the arms trade. Reed, best known for academic publications including The Lancet and New Scientist, owns a subsidiary company running arms fairs. In a statement on 1 June, the chief executive of Reed Elsevier, Crispin Davis, said: ‘It has become increasingly clear that growing numbers of important customers and authors have very real concerns about our involvement in the defence exhibitions business. We have listened closely to these concerns and this has led us to conclude that the defence shows are no longer compatible with Reed Elsevier’s position as a leading publisher of scientific, medical, legal and business content.’ The decision follows high-profile campaigning coordinated by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), with the support of academics and medics. In February, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust protested by selling £2,000,000 worth of shares in Reed. CAAT spokesperson Anna Jones said, ‘The decision shows that the arms trade is an abhorrent activity and that it has no place within a reputable business.’

Farewell to Elsa Dicks

There was a special farewell barbecue in the courtyard of Friends House on 2 June for members of Meeting for Sufferings to wish Elsa Dicks a happy retirement. This followed the staff farewell the previous day at Friends House. MfS clerk, Rachel Carmichael, spoke movingly of all Elsa has done as Recording Clerk, noting that, when the staff were asked what sort of person they would like to succeed Elsa, almost all the answers came out ‘somebody else like Elsa’! Elsa reflected on her time doing what she regards as the ‘best job in the world’ with a speech that was in turn both affecting and entertaining. She noted at one point that this was a far easier talk than the speech she had to make when naming the new Quaker train at Bristol Temple Meads. There she had to compete with a stream of platform announcements! We’re sure that all our readers will join us in wishing Elsa a very long and happy retirement – although retirement, as Elsa herself said, is not a notion she really subscribes to. So we may safely assume that we’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the future. Simon Risley

Photo: B eryl S hil to n

the Friend , 8 June 2007

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