international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
news report
Saturday August 13, 2005 14:54
by iosaf
Many of us being Irish will remember the green ribbons which were distributed by Saoirse for Irish political prisoner support during the British / Irish conflict / bother / trouble things in the early 1990s.
Since then green ribbons have been distributed globally by groups calling for support of organ donation issues, recovery of missing children, adoption issues, energy conservation, ending child abuse, christian free speech,
*and since yesterday in the UK at the behest of Nottingham Police chief constable Steve Green, in suport of British Muslims.
It will be interesting to see how widespread the use of green ribbons in the UK is.
Article on Britian's green ribbon iniative:-
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,15935,1548463,00.html
Other uses of Green ribbons:-
Saoirse Irish political prisoner release:-
http://www.irlnet.com/saoirse/
organ donation (livers hearts lungs)
http://www.thegreenribbon.com/
christian free speech:-
http://www.zondervan.com/desk/green.asp
missing canadian children:-
http://www.ontario.childfind.ca/greenribbon.html
anti child abuse:-
http://www.healthyplace.com/communities/abuse/holli/ribbon/
energy conservation:-
http://www.greenribbonpledge.org/pledge/index.html
adoption rights:-
http://www.100megsfree3.com/levgen/grcampaign.html
I remember wearing a green ribbon in Dublin when I was young & because of it being labelled a whole host of things by other Dubliners, my little ribbon became for others a political statement, started some conversations, ended others, I still remember my experiences wearing the Saoirse ribbon in the UK during that period, and all the more intensely for I was not a relative of a political prisoner or a member of any political group party to the imprisoning issues. It was certainly formative, and prepared me for wearing other ribbons later on in life and of course slogan T-shirts, which ought play a vital role in any society wide initiative, and help us all identify with the muslim kids in the park who might just be trying to get healthy and not using the swings and climbing frame for Al Qaeda activist training purposes.