on blogging....


Our communications colleagues are urging us to write blogs... and of course Duncan Green’s OxfamBlog from Poverty to Power, shows us how it can be done, effectively and usefully for the reader.  I follow Duncan avidly while marvelling how a single person can be so widely read, so connected and with such a pulse on what is going on, at least what is going on in the UK’s international development scene.  I’d like to think that he has an army of junior Oxfam volunteers feeding him stuff, and that he has infinite time on his hands because his private life is sad and lonely – though the sense of humour and slight self-deprecation suggests otherwise.  Other bloggers maybe equally prolific e.g. Enrique Mendizabal on  onthinktanks... but am not sure all his blogs are as grounded and relevant to us readers, some are extremely perspicacious, while others tend to ramble, the posts tend to be serious, with none of Duncan-type humour.  As for me,  I am not likely to forget our own IT guru, Sanjana’s indictment of my rather random, and not very frequent, blogging history.  I can blog when I am angry, or when something pleases me unexpectedly –  so I blog about Colombo’s tree-destroying, pavement building beautification and the ridiculous pronouncements of our civil servants on issues relating to violence against women  or about how our much maligned national health service deserves better press.  But on the more ‘even keel’ days, I really don’t feel I have anything to say.   I can resolve to be a more regular blogger in 2013 (in 2012 I managed 25 blogs the highest number yet in an year), but it’s likely to go the way of many past new year resolutions (yes, I am aware this is February!!!) , but any tips on how one can reach and maintain an acceptable blogging momentum would be most welcome... 

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