Celtic Quick News will be 10 years old next year and to mark the occasion, through Mary’s Meals, we’re going to construct a kitchen and shelter facility at the Kholoni Primary School in Mchinji, Central Malawi, which currently has no food preparation facilities.
A brick-built building, the kitchen will consist of one main cooking area with two small locked storerooms. In one, firewood for the stoves will be kept and, the other will store food and utensils. The kitchen will be fully equipped with stoves, pots, serving equipment, mugs and spoons and the 1221 children will be provided with a daily meal of a vitamin-enriched maize porridge. The kitchen will also have teaching facilities, to allow it to be used as a classroom outside meal times.
17% of people in the world live in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 per day) but there is plenty of good news, the proportion of world living in this condition halved in last 20 years (this was a UN Millennium Development Target). Life expectancy (at birth) of low income people in 1990 was 52, but in 2011 it was 60. Infant mortality dropped by a third during this period and maternal mortality almost halved.
Since humans first walked the earth a significant proportion of them have lived in extreme poverty, but while someone once said, “the poor will always be with us”, for the first time ever the decades ahead could see all of humanity escape from extremely poverty.
Malawi, according to the UN the 17th least developed nation on earth, is one of the world’s extreme poverty front lines, but even here, the trend is encouraging. In 1990 child mortality between 0-5 years was 244 deaths per 1000 live births. By 2000 this had dropped to 174 per 1000. Last year the figure was 71 deaths per 1000 from 0-5 years. The UK passed that figure more than 70 years ago, but the rate of improvement in Malawi is nothing short of incredible. It is fertile ground for the right kind of help.
Mary’s Meals, a Scottish charity established in 2002, feeds 822,142 kids in 16 countries every day. They keep costs low and employ local staff in kitchens, ensuring 93% of money donated reaches those in need, possibly the highest rate of any comparable organisation. It costs £7 for Mary’s Meals to feed a child in Malawi – for a whole year. 20% of Malawi’s children (600k) are fed by the organisation, often their only meal of the day.
In 2012, a sample of 44 schools found that enrolment had increased by 30% two years after the introduction of Mary’s Meals. Academic achievement improves too. The benefit is not just escape from hunger, it is access to education for children who would otherwise have to work for food. It also provides an increase in productivity and economic capacity when the children enter the workforce.
CQteN St Patrick’s Day Party
The kitchen will cost £7000 and I’ve told Mary’s Meals we’ll raise enough money by St Patrick’s Day, which gives us three months. We have a lot of work to do but the focal point will be the CQteN Dinner on Friday, 14 March 2014, which will be the biggest and best St Patrick’s Day Party in Scotland.
We’ve hired the Kerrydale Suite at Celtic Park. Tickets are available for £50, tables of 10 are also available. To reserve a ticket or table email me, celticquicknews@gmail.com. The event has been discussed in the comments section for some weeks without a formal launch and we quickly sold out the smaller capacity of the Kerrydale Suite. We have now taken the entire suite so additional tickets are available.
Between now and then there will be the odd auction to help us along, and we will continue to support the work of the Celtic Foundation (who have a Children’s Hospice Association Scotland auction on now), the Kano Foundation, and the many needy causes a lot closer to home than Malawi.
The UN are currently considering Development Targets for 2030, with the eradication of extreme poverty likely to feature. Poverty is a complex subject, so even after 2000 years development, we know there will always be comparative poverty, but within our Generation of Domination, extreme poverty, less than $1.25 per day existence, could be eradicated.
There is no more appropriate way to mark the 10th anniversary of the blog. This will be our payback for all the hours, days, weeks and months of pleasure (and toil) we’ve gotten out of the these pages over the years. Put 14th March 2014 in your diary, we’re having THE St Patrick’s Day party!
For more information on Mary’s Meals take a look at the video below:
Get your CQN Annual below. From now on £5 from every Annual sold will go to the CQN Malawi School Kitchen appeal.
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eddieinkirkmichael it wouldn’t surprise me if the word hun is made a sectarian offense and it was clear that was the way we were heading with the OB Bill which was brought forward at the insistence of the Glasgow police to even up the one sided sectarianism which is in fact anti-Irish racism in the main IMHO of course.
I think that Roy Greenslade has it right in his blog entitled: “Why do the Scottish media avert their gaze from anti-Irish racism?”
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/dec/13/raceandreligion-scotland
I made this comment to him:
“Roy, you are right this is a taboo subject in Scotland.
I had a public petition kicking about the Scottish Parliament for about 3 years asking the parliament to investigate and establish the reason why RC’s in Scotland were twice as likely to serve prison time as their Protestant or non-religious peers.
The Public Petitions Committee never mentioned the word Irish on the record in all of that time except for one member, Green MSP Robin Harper who e-mailed me privately and confided in me the reason for the imbalance was that Irish RCs coming across at the time of the Great Famine never got out of the ghettos, a breeding ground for crime!
Anyway eventually the PPC got an academic to do a report and when Dr Susan Wiltshire reported that the disproportionately high number of RCs in jail might be to do with anti-Irish feeling in Scots society and even in the judiciary the petition was immediately closed without further ado.
I have long known there is residual anti-Irish racism in all walks of life in Scotland but don’t you dare say that to anyone!”
derbyshirebhoy
20:08 on 13 December, 2013
UEFA BANNERS AND POLITICS
FIFA, UEFA and all the global continental football representatives are criminal organizations functioning under the auspices of sport. They are totally corrupt institutions without any redeeming qualities. Their objective is to maintain their oligarchy and protect their incomes. They have no affiliations nor subject to any laws except those maybe of a Zurich rotary club. They will not allow any member organizations from any country to come under the jurisdiction of any laws of their respective countries or any international law. Such deviations incur draconian penalties. Its all part of the protection racket. The Mandela banners are just hypocrisy. Hiding under the cloak of respectability.
Real political statements are not encouraged and Lawwell is using this principle and background to make sure the GB dont screw up his nice little earner either.
Gordon64
20:38 on 13 December, 2013
petec
How are you pal.
I took my good lady into town today
to buy her chrimbo present.
Had a lovely meal at Lavita
and headed back to the Vogue
where it was free drink all afternoon.
Needless to say i’m a bit worse for drink.
(Got the boy Spike Island for his stocking).
____________________________
I’m ok, I could be a lot better, I am who I am, cue a tube.
You keep making Mrs G64 the most important thing in yer life after God and Celtic.
They might be giants? Bada B and VP are not the Nephilim, they are just rather Tall Celts.
Liger.csc
Stairheedrammy
20:32 on
13 December, 2013
….PFayr supports WeeOscar
20:43 on
13 December, 2013
I know the value the G.B. have brought to the Club.
What is the ongoing cost?
Ground closed for home games in Europe?
When is enough enough?
Sorry,lads.
Getting dragged oot for Xmas shopping.
……oops, I mean Mrs G64 just after God and just before Celtic.
HH
eddieinkirkmichael
They probably will make the word “HUN” offensive even though there is nothing sectarian about it whatsoever. Personally I always preferred Orc, but did always refer to them as HUNS until recently. They do not like truth, they burn books, well “Downfall” when it was explaining to them why they were dead and did it to the themselves. Personally I think banning words is a step away from burning books.
Macjay
Those were not your questions
macjay1 for Neil Lennon
Dunno.
I suspect it be one of them ole watershed moments for Celtic at the minute.
I have stated this in public to my friends at work – I firmly believe that if Celtic were to draw them in the cup. The tribute act would go through. But the reasons for that happening would most likely even themselves out over a season, so I’ve been told…
The Govanites Redux being pamped into the lower leagues did not dispel people’s dislike for us. The ruling classes’ dislike for us…
Look at the press over the past 2 weeks…
Did you think they had thrown their big sticks away?????
STV – seat smashing debacle, Police Chief Inspector, possible arrests, still photos of Celtic fans looking like anarchists…
… next segment, Ally McCoist believes that Jon Daly is as good as anyone he used to play with (with an ‘in the air’ proviso I think) – no quote, no film, nothing substantive – just footage of their goals.
That’s what we’ve always been up against…
U
Seems some folks fail to derive any pleasure from Celtic FC.
neganon2
19:20 on 13 December, 2013
Away and support another team
Maybe someone inside Celtic Park will refuse to pay the fine on the basis that’s it’s not illegal to display a banner with the picture of a political prisoner on it? Would Celtic really be prepared to pay a 50 grand fine if someone displayed a banner of Douglas Bader ? John McCain? Winston Churchill?
What are we ?
Another club making up the numbers in the CL ?
Or the greatest football club in the world that stand up for
the underdog and what is is right in the world ?
When has he ever offered any support to anything Celtic?
Big Nan- the Rowantree foundation did a report on poverty and inequality in Scotland around 2 years ago- one of their findings was that in Scotland Catholics were only on a par in regards employment and promotion within Government organisations such as the NHS. Within private and smaller firms there was still a discrimination that was often proudly admitted by senior employees of these companies- I dont think it ever made the press
My take on the GB
I am sure that as long as I live I will never see a better Tiffo than the one put on by the GB at the Barca game .
They brought noise and atmosphere to CP but IMO they overstepped the mark on more than one occasion .
It is just my personal opinion as I do not know what the GBs intentions were when they set up .
That display will live with me till the day I die and will always be a highlight of the GBs place in our clubs history but alas I think the negatives were beginning to out way the positives at the games .
It seems the GB have their agenda and wished to pursue it ,they admitted this on one of their recent banner displays and in the end they pay a lot of money for their displays and it is their choice but I just keep thinking back to the barca Tiffo and thinking of how the GB could have gone on from there and cemented their place in the clubs history .
Then again I am not in the GB so maybe they have issues with the board that they feel they need to express and were not willing to be cheerleaders for the board .
The end result for me though is that the club and the GB have lost a great opportunity
As for the club selling the fans out ,surely even the most ardent board dissenters must admit that the flares ,smoke bombs and seat destruction can not go on
PFayr
Haven`t been to Celtic Park since `79.
4-2 win over the hun.
Just underlines my devotion:-)
Twisty
Someone in CP take a stand against footballing authorities
Don’t hold yer breath old pal
Neganon2 – Sorry, popped out for a bit there.
I don’t think you have a simple mind, don’t think I do either, but our interpretation of the banner is simply different.
The Honest Mistake loves being first, 20:28 on 13 December, 2013
Totally agree with you (with all that you disagree with ! ).
Despite what we imagine, we are are very small player in the European area.
However, we should (as should any other club and group of supporters) be treated equally – without favour and all that.
For us, that means our national association AND the European body should treat everybody equally.
However, we are not daft: one hates us (and is completely incomptent) and the other doesn’t give a monkey’s (and is completely incomptent).
Celtic FC is far from perfect (and there’s hardly a single Celtic fan in the world that would dispute that).
However, the administrators of the game, from SFA to UEFA are corrupt.
And that’s before we get to FIFA.
The MSM – although they annoy me intensely – don’t really matter in the larger view.
It’s been a long, long time since I can think about Football as the “beautiful game”.
It used to be.
I was one of the lucky ones that saw it.
Gardez la Foi
Sixtae
Whits the legalities of the UEFA fine ?
If Celtic were to refuse to pay what would happen ?
PF
Oh I know bud. I was being flippant. I would have said I was being facetious but I can’t spell facetious. ;-)
Stairheedrammy, I know for a fact that a Fife Council senior HR person advised a friend against putting the name of her son’s school on an application form as “some of the managers bin all forms from schools that start with St”.
So the Rowantree report is not surprising nor is the fact that it was buried.
The Honest Mistake loves being first
My son got a one of their tops. It was a belter. Apparently they were relegated in 2004, protested (don’t know why) and no longer in any league.
What is it about officials and teams in green and white?
Just checked to see if Deportivo Moron in Argentina played in blue and white. They don’t
The Blogger Formerly Known As GM
20:42 on 13 December, 2013
Wow.
The article on the BBC website quoting some guy I’ve never heard of saying essentially that Celtic got pumped because Ragers weren’t in the league is breathtaking.
Alas it’s one of those periods when it’s open season on our club.
Alas much of it is of our own making.
I may be in a minority, but I think pumping Sevco at Celtic Park in the next round of the cup would make our season.
____________________________________________________________
The Sevco is an irrelevance to Celtic, IMO. If we play them, I hope we batter them by at least 10 goals.
It won’t mean nothing compared to 7-1 or 6-2, it’s just beating a lower League club, no disrespect to lower League clubs intended.
Big Nan
20:47 on
% years ago, I was sacked from a very well paid job for gross misconduct. At the time every single person that was aware of the facts couldn’t believe that the firm had taken this course of action for what was essentially a minor breach of H&S regulations. (I had left a machine operator on a site on his own for about 30mins, the firm had a policy of no loan workers on sites)
It was just a coincidence that over the previous 2 months I had started to confront anti Irish racism in the firm, I had reported an Engineer for calling me a tattie muncher and made several other complaints, none of which were upheld.
Was I got rid of because I refused to sit at the back of the bus? I don’t really know, I just took it in my stride and moved on. What has concerned me since though is that I have been told that I am now on a blacklist as a result of that dismissal. I have found it impossible to get interviews for certain jobs in Scotland, yet have been selected for interview with companies in England for similar roles and even offered the jobs.
Paddy
Sadly I concur
HH
Shameful attempts to bully Neganon
This is a blog where diverse opinion ,if stated in a fashion that doesn’t contribute house rules ,should be encouraged
Heres another one- according to the stats from the OB bill- while anti Catholic sentiment makes up the vast majority of the sectarian convictions recorded- a higher proportion of Catholics per population are charged/ convicted once you factor in offenses where the SNP or their police friends determine what is offensive or not- they really are going beyond evening it up- they are targeting us
Celtic fans and fans of every other football club in Scotland should be protesting outside Hampden. They should be demanding to know what the details of the Five Way Agreement and what it was all about and while they are at it; how many personnel involved in this travesty of justice and corrupt collusion are members of a secret society.
I genuinely think across the clubs if a date was named the numbers that turned out would be unbelievable and the corruption exposed to the world press. It could not be ignored, other clubs than Celtic are fed up with this.
Hampden would be a sellout!!
Sixtaeseven.
I agree with you too.
The only pleasure I take from football nowadays is from celtic. Haven’t watched any other games this season. Sad.
Derbyshirebhoy @ 20:08 –
A fantastic summation of how I also feel.
eddieinkirkmichael
I had an American grlfriend that you to call me hun all the time.
The relationship didtn’t perdure… OMG !
;o)
Gordon64
20:56 on 13 December, 2013
What are we ?
Another club making up the numbers in the CL ?
Or the greatest football club in the world that stand up for
the underdog and what is is right in the world ?
___________________________________________
I think we are EVOLVING.
Neil done a fantastic job this season just to get into the CL proper, especially as his spine was SOLD.
Next season we will be incredible IMO, as long as we keep the ones who just joined, at the moment that is just V V D…. Neil is a Great motivator of a player and he knows both Teemu and Derk have been LOW on confidence, even since he signed both of them.
TransitionalSeasonsaremince.csc
The freedom of expression thing – where do you draw the line? What if a small group of extreme right wing ultras displayed a banner of Anders Breivik? Should that be allowed?
Politics should be kept well away from sport
…and PF….as you know, though i greatly admired Neil Lennon the player, and was behind him all the way in his personal battles against the sectarian maggots that infest Scotland, I am not a fan of Neil Lennon as a manager. He’s now turning into Neil Lemming with his I’ll considered remarks about the GB. ( added to his comments midweek about the players, I’m even less of a fan now)
Pigalle,
Are you suggesting hold back on paying, because it would be a futile exercise.
UEFA owe us much more from CL revenues than we owe them, and they would merely deduct it, plus interest and an administration fee.
PF Neg
Just the usual on here nowadays.
He’s been neganon since ever I remember and he will be long past the latest screamers.
Such a shame.
U