It’s been a hell of a week for Londoners. Live 8, G8, Olympics and bombs. I think we’ve seen pretty much everything now.

I’ve been busy recently and not had time to write any updates, which has meant that world events keep overtaking what I was going to write about. Could the world just stand still for a minute, and let me catch my breath?

It’s very weird to think that these world events have mostly been taking place in my home city.

I’m going to start at the beginning, with something completely different to all of the above.

The week before last, I went to Serbia for a seminar about how youth organisations could be involved in local development projects. The seminar itself was good, but for me what really made it was the other participants, most were from the Balkans region, and seeing the work that they are involved with. It’s easy to get jaded when your working for an organisation that’s been around for a hundred years, and is carrying around baggage that is at least that old. You can forget the great work that it does, and has done, to improve young people’s lives. But for many of the other people on the course, what they are involved in is very new; it’s a chance to really make changes. They have difficulties to overcome, not least that in their countries there are all sorts of pressing problems and the needs of young people can drop off the list of priorities. But they are actively making a difference. It really helped me to reflect on the work that we do.

Despite how it might appear from the outside, life in the UK isn’t cosy for all young people. And because for the majority, life is good, when it’s isn’t good it is very easy to drop off the map and get lost. The seminar has given me lots of new ideas on how we can reach the lost ones, and help them take advantage of all the opportunities that they have. Because they do live in one of the richest countries in the world.

The other aspect for me about the trip to Serbia was just the experience of being in Serbia. I had a great time, I met some fantastic people, and I really felt like i'd got to know another culture.

I’ve spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe, and I have travelled a lot in other parts of Europe. But I’ve never really been outside of my ‘comfort zone’ before. And I’ve never been to country that my current Government has bombed. It gave me a lot to think about in terms of the role that the UK plays in the world, and personally about my understanding of world events.

And now that leads me nicely onto Live 8.

The Make Poverty History Campaign has definitely raised awareness of the issues, but for all the people who’ve bought white bands, how many of them actually understand what the aims of the campaign are? Make Poverty History is a great slogan, everyone can say that’s a great cause, but not everyone understands how it can happen.

We need debate and discussion and education and action. Why does formal education wait until Masters level before it really starts to deal with development issues? I studied stuff that could (and probably is in some schools) be explored by teenagers.

Why do I sit in the pub with my friends and talk about these things, and they say this and this and this, and I reply, but have you thought about that and that and that? So they look at me oddly, because that and that and that haven’t been widely discussed in the media, and they hadn’t though about them. But they could be discussed. Making poverty history, it sounds so easy, but it’s not, and the debate has only really scratched the surface.

And we need the people concerned to be involved. That is one of the things that has bothered me the most about all these campaigns, that it seems that very few Africans have been involved. I’ve had to come here to find out what Africans actually think. I would have like to think that we Northerners have moved on from “We know best, now sit down and do as you’re told”.

Live 8 was great, because it has meant that people are sitting in pubs talking about these issues. But they are talking about things about six steps behind what they should be talking about. It was a missed opportunity to bring people forward those six steps. And from there we could be doing some really fantastic things.

We’ll fly past the Olympics quickly. I live in the East End of London, and despite my usual healthy cynicism about big flashy regeneration projects, for once, I’m actually really excited about this. That might be because I’ve been sucked in by the propaganda, or it might be because I really need better transport links where I live, and I’m willing to believe anything anyone tells me if they promise I can get to Kings Cross in 7 minutes!

And now for the And Finally…

I’m still in shock about what happened on Thursday, that’s partly because it was really close to home. I have a list of stories of near misses from friends and colleagues. It’s also partly because I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen next. There are choices to be made, and if we’re not careful the wrong choices will be picked. London is resilient; we have, unfortunately, seen scenes like this before. I’m hoping that what everyone is saying will turn out to be true, that we will pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and get on with it. Like we have done before, and like no doubt we will have to again.

Now we just have to be strong to ensure that people don’t make the wrong decisions.