This year, as in the previous two years, events were held in London in commemoration of International Men’s Day, on the last Sunday before the day – 17 November, in this case. The day started with a March 4 Men, ably led by Mangesh Bhalerao of SIFF (Save the Indian Family Foundation) and filmed by Ewan Jones – here (video, 11:35). As before, the lengthy march was from the Royal Courts of Justice to Parliament Square. The chronology of the video:
00:00 – 7:30 Outside the Royal Courts of Justice
7:31 – 9:16 The march
9:17 – 10:07 Parliament Square
10:08 – 11:35 Chanting by the statue (still in Parliament Square) of the suffragist Millicent Fawcett
After the above events, a conference – Messages 4 Men – once again, organized by Elizabeth Hobson, our Director of Communications, and Wonder Natty (she’s the lady speaking at 3:20 in the March 4 Men video), was held in the West End, and judged by everyone I spoke to as very successful. Perhaps the best-known of the 21 speakers to most AVfM followers would be Alison Tieman, Dr Randomercam and Sargon of Akkad. My own speech title was, “Abortion is a men’s issue, too”, the transcript of which I recently posted on AVfM. The speeches were filmed and later edited by the award-winning director responsible for the filming of speeches at the last four ICMIs, Anthony J Corniche III (Tom). Our playlist of all 21 talks is here.
My warm thanks to Mangesh for leading the March, and to Elizabeth and Natty for organizing the conference. A great day was had by all, and we look forward to next year’s event.
