How not to stage a flashmob protest

If you’re going to stage a protest it’s better to make sure that it registers where it counts.  Turning up at a Sports Direct till with a pile of tracksuits, then only offering £1 for their purchase, might echo the transaction Mike Ashley completed for the naming rights of Ibrox, but if the tycoon even gets to hear about the so-called flashmob protest he’s likely to pity the forsaken attempt to undermine him.

Ashley has invested around a couple of million in Newco Rangers but it’s pin money for him, which he can easily afford to gamble with.  He is also not afflicted with any emotional attachment to Newco, or pretty much anything else, it seems.  In short, this is a guy ‘Rangers’ fans can’t lay a glove on.  They would be far better to figure this out and start to deal with the reality than provoke an unwelcome response.

Neither Ashley nor the Easdale brothers strike me as people who will be easily cowed or bullied into forgoing the rights they have purchased, while others, including thousands of fans, kept their hands in their pockets.  The many genuine fans who are distraught at the humiliating mess Newco has become have been led up the garden path by would-be sages.

Africa

The world is paying a little more attention than usual to the many problems in Africa at the moment but I heard one authoritative voice last week suggest that ebloa is only around the third or fourth most severe problem the continent faces.

But, things are getting better in large swathes of the continent, thanks to improving governance in some areas, better infrastructure, more widely available healthcare, and more children, especially girls, given access to education.

20 people from Celtic Foundation are in Malawi building classrooms and toilets at the moment, while CQN’ers built three school kitchens there this year (more on the soon), but sometimes these many parallel developments conflict.

One such occasion is the John Bande Foundation School in Blantyre, Malawi, which through Mary’s Meals is supported by the Noreen Davies Hikers & Bikers, a group of people from Lanarkshire and Glasgow.  The Hikers and Bikers support a feeding programme at the school, which makes it possible for kids to attempt the school, instead of working for food.  It’s a mature project but the recent building of a motorway right on the edge of the school property has made the building dangerous; learning and feeding is no longer possible.

The Noreen Davies people are raising money to erect three new buildings.  You can read more of the story here, with pictures of the school and road.  If you can give them a £1 or two, do so here.