[Reclaimmayday] Closing mail on the "Insulting Remark"Misunderstanding.

anna at phonecoop.coop anna at phonecoop.coop
Mon Apr 9 17:26:35 UTC 2012


Erm... Actually, there clearly are still some misunderstandings. Firstly, it
was not agreed at our last meeting that the Treehouse Café would take the
"substandard" ingredients as there was no one from the café present, so the
decision could not have been taken, though I think it probably was suggested
that it was a possibility that someone could look into. Secondly, meals
there are most certainly not £10+ (except, perhaps, for occasional special,
advance-ticketed, fancy, three- or four-course ones) and I'm sure they're
planning to serve much cheaper food than that at the Mayday event. Off the
top of my head, lunch from the café on a normal day starts at £1.90.

Hope that clears up one or two things. (BTW, most of us already knew that
Heather's no racist and I'm sure she was very upset that you got that
impression of her.)

Anna


----- Original Message -----
From: "richygill" <richygill at googlemail.com>
To: <Reclaimmayday at lists.aktivix.org>
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 5:22 PM
Subject: [Reclaimmayday] Closing mail on the "Insulting
Remark"Misunderstanding.


Hi, I hope this is a closer regarding the "insulting remark" episode.
Heather thought it would be nice if I dropped you guys a note to
explain how I have misunderstood the discussion of 28th March, and to
make sure you know that she is not a racist.


On 28th March a mayday meeting was held. At this meeting the matter of
stalls for mayday came up, I put foreword three names who I had
earlier contacted regarding providing food and donating to the mayday
event fund. These were a Mexican food outlet (Mexican Munchies), an
Indian/Asian food outlet (Bradford Catering), and an individual called
Richard who collects foodstuff that supermarkets and vegatable that
wholesalers and supermarkets deem not good enough to sell on their
shelves but still edible, and was happy to donate and cook for the the
event for free. The same Richard donates this foodstuff to BIASAN and
Bradford Resource Center Users. From these three food outlets alone,
it would have been possible to provide food and raisein the region of
200-300 pounds for mayday funding. An issue was raised that there
would be too many food outlet stalls for the mayday event the three I
had suggested, and two others which were a pizza place in town and the
treehouse cafe. To reduce the numbers it was suggested and agreed that
the donated food from Richard be given to treehouse to use. The next
imtem for discussion was the amount of donation each food outlet would
be asked to make towards the event. Here it was suggested by Heather
that Treehouse Cafe should be given preferential treatment regarding
contributing to event funding. It was at this juncture that I
intereupted to say I thought this was unreasonable, and that sureley
all food outlets should be treated the same. The reason given by
Heather as to why treehouse cafe should be treated different from
other food outlets in the context of selection and contribution to the
mayday event was "because they don't use shit ingredients".
In summary, in the same meeting an organisation (in this case
treehouse cafe) were happy to take substandard food ingredients,
without question. In the same meeting, when challenged why the same
organisation should be given preferential treatment over others at the
same event, the argument provided is based on "because they don't use
shit ingredient".

While loyalty and supporting of friends is admirable, a combination of
selective memory recall(even though two people were typing notes
throughout and a third was taking minutes), impaired hearing, and
subjective comment in response to my mail, only serves to weaken the
argument rather than strengthen and explain. I am reminded here of a
saying on a postcard of a political activist friend of mine which
reads "Deadfish
go with the flow"
Exactly what qualifies anyone to comment on other parts of a community
in terms of "shit" anything? Bradford is the city of my birth, my
home, it might not be perfect but then where is? If anything, living
in a city that has social problems with regard to diversity and
integration, serves to strengthens the resolve of its community to
keep positive
and find common ground with all peoples tastes, such as music,
appearance, food, sexuality or religions. Bradford's food suppliers
are a positive aspects of the city, winning many national prizes and
adding a positive edge to its identity and richness.
The insult is to the many food outlets from the single food seller,
cafe to nationally recognized restaurant chain. These food outlets
provide jobs and livelihoods for hundreds of Bradford people. The
majority if Bradford people are quite happy to buy (not everyone can
afford the £10+ meals at the Treehouse cafe) and eat from these
places, the insult then, is also to the people of Bradford themselves.

With regard to why my original mail was copied the group, copying such
a mail to everyone involved is a matter of keeping groups aware,
otherwise direct mails to individuals can easily be treated as
harassment, intimidation or bullying.

Finally, if the original mail sounded angry that was because there was
a certain amount of anger, the type of anger generated when one feels
an injustice has taken place.

I sincerely hope everyone involved has the intelligence to learn from
this "misunderstanding", one that no amount of textbook economic bilge
can cover up.


--
with kind regards

Richard Gill

Mob: 079-777-06109




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