Welcome to Weirdoland

You may or may not know that I have been volunteering at a drop-in for the homeless and under-privileged for a little more than a year now. What we do is pretty simple, we serve food, play board games and have a chat with these people; we basically give them a safe environment where they can socialise without the fear of being judged. I absolutely love it, I have met some very interesting people with very interesting, though sometimes sad, stories. In the time that I have known these people I have come to realise that a lot of them are veterans like Seth (not his real name) who has served in Iraq and Iran and is now homeless. Seth's health is deteriorating at an alarming rate and I haven't seen him in more than a month leaving me worried and perplex about what might have happened to him. Last time I heard of him, Seth had been arrested for begging. Seth like many other men and women has risked his life for his country. We may not all agree with these wars but the fact that ...

Tehran, Iran, 20 June 2009. People are protesting, they want freedom: they shout, they are angry. The streets are crowded with people. In the middle is Neda. Neda Agha Soltan was a very special 27 year old, she was a gifted musician, was spiritual, she had dreams and aspired to be a mother, she loved the arts and travelling, and was hoping to live in Istanbul one day. The kind of person you would want to know. But most of all, Neda, like many other young people in Iran, longed to be free. Neda died before she was given the chance to make her dreams come true. When young Neda left her house in that spring afternoon, she didn’t know she would never see her mother again. “She left the house mid-afternoon. I couldn’t join her but I said I’d keep in touch with her.” said Hajar Rostami Motlagh, Neda’s mother. Hajar, as any mother would be in times like these, was worried for her child. She managed to get through to Neda twice during the protest. When Neda told her mother the str...