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Take tea and support Point One Campaign at Tynwald buildings
TEA, coffee, cakes and snacks will greet weary workers leaving the office as they pass the Tynwald Buildings tomorrow (Thursday).
Tea at Tynwald, which runs from 4.30pm to 6pm tomorrow (Thursday, October 4) is to publicise the Point One Global Poverty Campaign to increase the island’s contribution to overseas aid.
Helen Ashcroft, who is organising the event said: ‘Whether through the food we eat, the tea and coffee we drink, the markets and businesses we work for, we interact every day with developing countries.
‘We have a responsibility to help the everyday people in developing countries who go through hardship we will never have a risk of experiencing.’
The food and Fairtrade tea and coffee will have links to developing countries, and will be free to all comers who pass the event on Prospect Hill.
Local teacher Kristina Crawford, who founded the Point 1 Campaign said it was inspired by a quote from Martin Luther King’s speech A Christmas Sermon on Peace which said: ‘Maybe you want tea: that’s poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you’re desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that’s poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that’s given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world.’
The Point 1 campaign was launched at Mannifest in August and already has about 1,500 signatures calling for government to spend 0.1 per cent of gross national income on overseas aid. The campaign argues the island’s overseas aid has not only benefited over 4.3 million people, but shows the island is a responsible nation contributing to the global economy.
In 2004 Tynwald committed to spending 0.7 per cent of gross national income on overseas aid but currently gives approximately 0.07 per cent GNI, less than £28 per person. This is a smaller percentage than almost every other developed nation including Jersey and Guernsey.
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Weather for Isle of Man
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 8 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
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