Things That Matter...

Pottery and philosophy have been combined in a new exhibition at the Russell-Cotes Museum. Mosaic artist Cleo Mussi blended different ceramic styles, forms and colours in her new collection 'A-Z Hand Book'. The image of a hand is a symbol and the idea of a hand book developed a guide through an alphabet of images. Pieces were presented in traditional A-Z format, set alongside a series of inspiring text created by the writer, Paul Patterson. The art exponents presented not only hand images and letters, but deep philosophical meaning. The exhibition started with A, which stands for alphabet. Two mosaic palms containing letters and patterns. Paul Patterson describes its philosophical meaning: "Letters of the English aphabet, a system of vowels and consonants capable of combining to move men to tears, force change, give us meaning, capture a moment, put in print and tell a story." Human feelings, characteristics and acts such as love, care, wisdom, kissin...

The number of Bournemouth elderly people interested in a computer literacy project has almost tripled. Only a year ago Bournemouth Age Concern started a programme, Purple Project, to help the elderly to gain basic computer skills. Today it provides sessions at West Howe, Christchurch, Winton and Ferndown. There are more than 10 million elderly people in the world that use internet to check e-mail and read news. According to internet users statistics, the amount of users who are over 55 is increasing rapidly in the UK. Bournemouth is renowned for its aged population, which is almost 40% of all residents. Kerith Wyllie, Purple Project Coordinator, said: "The Project provides various activities in the community for the over-55s to help them keep active physically, mentally and socially. The increasing number of people attending these courses shows that older people are really interested in new communication opportunities. Retirees have lots of free time, they want to...

Dorset businesses hoping to fight back against the recession got together to enhance their public relations skills at a workshop yesterday. The Dorset Chamber of Commerce & Industry organised the two hour training session entitled "How to make PR work for you." Speaker Emma James from Tasty Marketing explained to local businessmen how to achieve free publicity, press coverage and profile building. She also spoke about the importance of developing a relationship with media and how to maximise appeal for press releases. Miss James assured the panel that having good communications with the media and the general public would provide 'the icing on the cake for business - new customers, returning customers and recognition.' "It can help local businesses by increasing their understanding of what PR is and the potential of what it can achieve for them. If you don't talk to the public, someone else will. Businesses, here and now, need to engage with t...

Religious communities in Bournemouth have followed the events in Gaza with a huge interest, providing different opinions, criticising or supporting Israeli actions. Bournemouth Imam and Muslim community leader Mr Yassin Majid, said: "The Muslim community is very sad for the people of Gaza and empathises. There is not problem between Muslims and Jews, the problem is who occupied land. "I do not support Hamas, but I believe that Palestinians resist Israel in order to get back their country which has been taken a long time ago. "Hamas won a democratic election with the 70% of votes. This represents a real picture and real wish of Palestinians not to not just be guests on their own land, but owners. For too much time Palestinians have lived in extremely poor life conditions, there is no food, no medicines and even no electricity. Enough is enough," said Mr Yassin. Many believe this was no spontaneous operation, no mere response to the recent firing of rockets...

The Bournemouth's language school sector is increasing its profits as the recession takes hold around the world. Local English language schools promote the conurbation as a world class centre of excellence for UK based international education. Big profits or substantial losses are equally possible for language schools in Bournemouth as they rely on international student fees to prop up their finances. Economic forecasting research commissioned by the British Council said that past experience shows that demand for higher education increases during an economic downturn, as more people seek to ride out the recession by studying to improve their qualifications and career prospects. There are a number of factors that may impact on the students' choice of study destinations: domestic education provision, price sensitivity, exchange rate fluctuations, etc. The reception administrator at Bournemouth Business School International, Tracey Grayling, says that the credit crunch does not re...

A former drug addict was caught with the drugs again in spite of all progress he made in life, Bournemouth Magistrates heard. Dean Doulton Mosley, 35, of Sandford Road, Wareham, admitted keeping drugs in his house. Police found drugs after searching his house on August 20, last year and arrested him. Alieun Jobartea, prosecuting, said that Mosley had repeat offences since 1992 and in 1999 suffered from a heavy heroin addiction. He also "was stealing in order to support his drug addiction." Sharon Taylor, defending, said that Mousley had made great progress following the time he spent in a rehabilitation centre in 2005. His last sentence was to work as a local community drug centre assistant and for the last 18 months he participated in methadone reduction programme. Miss Taylor said Mosley passed his driving test in May last year and got two jobs. "He was working with his mother in Wimborne market and he also worked at a golf club as a grassman. The amount of drugs found...

‘Medical Equipment Service’ is a new volunteer-led service organised throughout Dorset in the months of November and December. Funds are raised from street and store collections. On the base of these donations, Red Cross supplies equipment for elderly and disable people to make their life more comfortable. The equipment includes wheelchairs, walking frames, commodes, walking sticks, bed pans and many more. Anyone who requires this equipment is able to loan it on a donation basis. Moreover, in order to collect additional donations, ‘the Red Cross in Dorset organised fundraising events such as autumn fair at Lulworth Castle with the Dorset Country Show and hosted a fashion show in Dorchester’- says Tracy Roberts, Red Cross Devon and Dorset Fund Raiser. This project is very meaningful for Dorset as it has a higher than average retirement age population 27.5% (according to Annual Population Survey October 2006- September 2007). On top of the provided services, the British Red Cross in Dors...