Cold War Lessons

Today I met a friend of mine in town. He's in his late 80s and suffering from Alzheimer’s, but always stops to talks to me. He has led an amazing life.

To start with, he was one of the first people to work on Nuclear weapons, but also a founding member of the Oxford University Humanist foundation. He told me that he believed that the best way to prevent war at the time was to have a nuclear deterrent. This was what the Cold War was about.

There were 'at the brink' moments when world leaders debated whether to use the weapons or not. It got so close (the Cuban Missile crisis). I'm just pleased that when it came to it those in power thought better of killing thousands of people. It would have been world war three (and perhaps the end of the world).

It is wonderful that the Cold War is over now, but we should not forget it. There is so much we can learn from people who lived through the Cold War. Speak to your parents, your grandparents and ask them how they felt. I'm going to try and sit down with my friend, write up an interview and find out what he thinks about non-proliferation. You'll be the first to read it.

Greenham Common: photos from an ex-Nuclear base

Here are the photos I took on Saturday up at Greenham Common. It's an ex-U.S. airbase which was used up until the end of the Cold War. It was eventually returned to the public as common land at the end of the 1990s, but the bunkers, stores and big lumps of concrete are still there.

I was chatting to someone who used to work at the base today. It made me remember passing by and seeing the protesters in their caravans outside. There were always people there, for years and years in all weather. You can read about the history of the camp here.

Mum says that she remembers massive U.S. planes flying over her school field in the middle of lacrosse practice. They were so loud that mum and her friends couldn't hear the teacher shouting instructions (must have been very loud!) so they all just stood there until it passed.

I've spoken to a number of people about how they felt during the Cuban Missile crisis ("we didn't know whether we would wake up in the morning"), but I can't begin to imagine the real sense of fear which so many people had to live with during the cold war.

Earlier this week the BBC reported the release of secret public information films which would have been released in the event of a Nuclear launch. It's chilling to think about, especially typing this only a few miles from what would have been one of the biggest U.S. airbases in the country.

Nothing says it like toast

I've never thought of toast as a way of campaigning, but there's a first time for everything.

This evening I've been in the kitchen trying to write messages on slices of bread. It may sound weird, but I'm planning on using the results for a photo storyboard for a campaign video idea I had earlier today. Click here to see the results. The idea popped into my head on the way to work so I scribbled it down. Morris, another member of the youth council studies film at uni, so hopefully he can help create some impressive campaign videos.

Drawing on bread is harder than you'd think. Pressing into the toast with a knife works pretty well - after it's been toasted a reasonably clear message can be made out (though I found out it looks better in reverse). I'll keep working on it!

I also managed to do the slightly more serious job of creating a rough campaign timeline (it's all colour coded and organised).

Brainstorming

I made some of my logo sketches into designs on the computer. They took ages, but I’m quite pleased with them : )

We had a long Skype meeting followed by a good brainstorming session for the campaign. Here’s some of the things we came up with.

• Film Nights (Dr Strangelove, Thirteen Days, The Hunt For Red October) – any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
• T-Shirt design sessions (we thought it would be a great excuse for everyone to have a bit of fun, be creative and raise awareness as they wander around campus in their creations for a day).
• A competition for members to write or express why Nuclear Non-proliferation should be a main concern of the British Government this year (with different categories - essays, paintings, posters and videos / songs).
• Informative workshops – with campaigners on the issue (perhaps from groups like CND) speaking to members and a chance to ask them questions.
• Round table event: with a number of experts and a big speaker.

My sister agreed to paint an example T-shirt. I’m looking forward to seeing it!

Searching for inspiration

I woke up early and searched the internet for Nuclear Non-proliferation information. There are loads of petitions, resources and videos on non-proliferation out there.

Here’s a petition for a nuclear free world and here is the Nuclear weapons section of Obama’s Prague speech.

After dropping my sister off at work I set off for Greenham Common to get some more inspiration. Greenham is an ex-US army air base where they kept Nuclear weapons during the Cold War. I managed to get a few photos of the site, it’s really odd that an army base is now being used as a nature reserve, somewhere for people to come and cycle or walk their dogs.

The big meeting

Today was our first big youth council meeting. We’ve had regular meetings on Skype for a while now, but it’s not the same as seeing everyone. We met at UNA HQ in London - a very impressive building – and discussed our plans for the year.

The UNA staff were friendly and spoke to us about lots of exciting opportunities for the year ahead. We had loads to discuss, so when we had to leave the building at six we moved to a nearby café and carried on.

We decided that Nuclear Non-Proliferation should be one of our main campaigns this year (we’ll be sending out a campaigns survey to members shortly to see which other issues they’d most like to campaign on). UNA-UK are keen on campaigning on Nuclear Non-proliferation and WFUNA Youth (the world organisation of United Nations Youth organisations) are running a campaigns competition with the chance to present a campaign plan to a UN conference in Mexico.

There is a real mood for reducing the number of nuclear arms around the world. In his Prague speech earlier this year, President Obama called for a nuclear free world. Since then there have been signals that the US and Russia are working on an agreement to seriously reduce their nuclear stockpiles. However, it certainly won’t be easy - North Korea tested Nuclear weapons this year and there are concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme.

It was a long day and I got back pretty late. I managed to jot down a few ideas for events and posters. Things kept popping up in my head – it was difficult to get to sleep.