Interesting Fact No.12

£26 million pennies have been lost on UK streets (and under sofa cushions) since 1971.

And some of you scorn me when I hunt out pennies! :P

Denmark

What's Denmark famous for?
Hans Christian Anderson?
The Little Mermaid?
Hamlet?
How about being the happiest nation in Europe?
Danes have a well balanced work/home life and an optimistic outlook-that's got to be good hasn't it?!

No Sex Please We Are Teenagers

It's interesting to read on the BBC site about the findings of research into the abstinence programmes in the US. Apparently the young people involved are no more likely to abstain than a young person who didn't attend the course.

I attended sexual health training recently and got into a heated debate with the woman running the course about abstinence. In actual fact, I think we were agreeing but our terminology got a bit confused. I tend to think that you are abstaining until you have intercourse but she thought that abstinence means until marriage. The programme I was on was seeking to promote "delay"- ie not advocating never having sex but considering carefully the readiness for sex and giving good reasons to say "no".

I think the trouble with abstinence programmes in the States is that these are run in isolation and there is no sexual health training as well. I personally believe that any programme should be comprehensive, starting at an early age with an emphasis on delay. I also believe that there needs to be a strong governmental directive in order to build on the best schemes running in a few schools but also to raise the standards in others. Sexual health education can be delivered in many ways and usually these are too little, too late, delivered by an embarrassed and under-trained teacher.

In countries where there are low instances of teen pregnancies and the age for first sexual intercourse is higher, they have consistant and early starting sex education. Ofsted agree that this needs to be approached more rigorously, with parents playing a substantial role too.

Over a year ago the BBC showed the programme "No sex please, we're teenagers" in which a group of 12 young people take a pledge of abstinence for 15 weeks as they explore different aspects of intimacy. The programme is a good one in my eyes because as a group, teemagers come with a variety of experiences and knowledge. Together they can explore issues to do with society, feelings, sex and self image. Again it doesn't seek to deny that sex is a possibility (as the abstinence programme in the US usually does) but wants to give young people the time and the space and the supportive atmosphere in which to explore the issues. The "Romance Academy" as it's called is about to start in Norwich. I hope this style of approach to sexual health continues for the holistic welfare of our young people.

Human Trafficking

In the wake of the 200 year anniversary of the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, momentum is growing in publicising the current slave trade, moving people from places of extreme poverty to be sold into forced labour, often prostitution. Scarily there are more slaves around today than there were 200 hundred years ago.

Spring Harvest highlighted in more detail this year the Stop the Traffik campaign but it is good to see that the media is catching on and this topic is being highlighted in the secular world.
Moldova is the poorest European country and there is a BBC news story here and a feature here to promote the Radio 4 programme Crossing Continents which was broadcast last night but is repeated on Monday (you can also Listen Again).
There is additional information on Moldova as a country here and here

There is a human trafficking event at Norwich Cathedral next Wednesday. Details can be found here. (Thanks Carl for the links!)

101 jobs I hate

7) Unpacking after Spring Harvest
8) All the washing to be done after Spring Harvest
9) Locating and eradicating the "funny smell" coming home from Spring Harvest
...

101 jobs I hate

4. Filling up the pepper mill
5. Cleaning out the cat food bowls
6. Cleaning out the cat food cans ready for recycling
...

101 jobs I hate

1) Cleaning the washing machine filter
2) Pairing the great number of odd socks we always seem to have
3) Cleaning the vegetable draw of the fridge
...