There are several organisations with offices in the same building as Greenbelt, one of which is Stamp Out Poverty. Stamp Out Poverty are an organisation which campaigns on development finance, primarily looking at ways that financial institutions can generate money for the developing world; money to fund vaccination and treatment of disease, and to eradicate poverty.

One way proposed by Stamp Out Poverty is the Tobin Tax, named after Nobel Laureate James Tobin, which suggests a tax on currency transactions worldwide. The idea being that a small tax (0.05% or so) on global transactions could raise hundreds of billions of pounds in funds for development both globally and within the UK.

Now, they've joined with a dizzying list of other organisations, given the Tobin Tax a snappy new name – The Robin Hood Tax, and roped in Bill Nighy and Richard Curtis for this brilliant video…

Despite the fact that Bill Nighy backing a campaign could persuade me to get excited about most things*, the Robin Hood Tax is at worst a thought-provoking idea, and at best a radical way to make a real difference to the world's most vulnerable people.

What do you think? Will it work?

Read more about it and consider doing something to support the campaign, and Greenbelt's neighbours!

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* Which was fine when he was being a rogueish newspaper editor, but less fine when he was being a Nazi. And a squid-faced pirate.

If you haven't watched this yet, you really should…

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

When asked to write ten resolutions for a greener New Year, GB09 speaker Tamsin Omond instead came up with twelve. Twelve examples of "things that are filling the space between more radical activism and the real world – that are pulling the mainstream into a sustainable vision".

There are some great tips in there for Greenbelters looking to act upon things they heard in Tamsin's talks; things like…

6. I’m starting to like vegetables a lot, especially from my friends’ allotments, terraces or window boxes. And an ex who works on an oil rig(!) has been throwing “meat-free Monday” parties. (http://www.meatfreemondays.co.uk)

Read the rest by clicking here.

Tamsin's talk from GB09 – "WWJD?" – is available from the Greenbelt Talks Shop, and her book "RUSH! The Making of a Climate Activist" is available from Amazon.

Bono – who probably won't be at next year's Festival – had an article in yesterdays NY Times listing 10 ideas for the future.

Our favourite idea is the Festival of Abraham:

Here’s something that could never have happened in the Naughts but will maybe be possible in the Tweens or Teens — if there’s a breakthrough in the Mideast peace process. The idea is an arts festival that celebrates the origin of the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Every year it could be held in a different location; Jerusalem would obviously be the best place to start.

In Ireland, at the height of the “Troubles,” it was said that the only solution for rabid sectarianism was to let 1,000 punk-rock bands bloom: music helped create a free space for dialogue (of a high-volume variety). So no politicians allowed. Artists only.

Read more over here.

As well as exploring GB09 through images over on Flickr, you can now relive the Festival with our interactive Soundscape. Crank up the volume, hover over the various icons and before you know it you'll be back in Cheltenham.

But they don't often feature articles from Greenbelt speakers. Great article over here from Shane Claiborne

"To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians. Christians who have had so much to say with our mouths and so little to show with our lives. I am sorry that so often we have forgotten the Christ of our Christianity."

The gang who did the ice sculpture at Greenbelt and the Fingermaze on the concourse in 08 have come up with a funky idea for Advent off the back of an event they ran last year.  BEYOND are based in Brighton & Hove and last year ran the world's first Advent Beach Hut Calendar – every day in December a different beach hut opened it's doors for an hour in the evening to reveal a seasonal installation themed around a Christmas carol.  The creative folk of Brighton came up with all kinds of interesting interpretations of carols from full on re-creations of stable scenes to huts in the shape of giant angels and even one hut carpeted with dozens of tiny cotton wool sheep.

This year their running the event again and in preparation have created a very artistic Advent Calendar featuring a beach hut design where the doors actually open to reveal a photo taken from last years event.  You can buy them over at the Beyond Church Shop and all the proceeds go towards funding BEYOND to create more art with a spiritual core.  If you want to visit the beach event keep an eye on their website for the full schedule of openings and if your in the north you may want to look out for a similar event being run in Bridlington by Ben Norton of St Max's.

The Duke has been in touch and following his appearance at this year's Festival he has kindly offered Greenbelters a free album sampler. Click here to sign up for his mailing list and then you'll receive links to 11 tracks.

How very generous!

After a couple of month's Only Connect is going good. We've now got over a hundred members all of whom are very different but equally lovely. We've also just done some upgrades on the site so it's a lot easier to find people that you might hit it off with. If you're single click to sign up, if not then if you've got a single mate that shares Greenbelt's values and point them in the direction of onlyconnect.me

by Ben Whitehouse

Artistic director of Stan's Cafe (pronounced Caff and not cafe after a real cafe just off Brick Lane), James Yarker has been named in the Birmingham Post's Power 50 list. One of their most recent projects was a 24-hour Scalextrix race to coincide with the Le Mans race.

He co-founded Stan's Cafe in 1991 with Graeme Rose and has been producing wonderful, unique avant garde performance experiences since then. Greenbelt is very pleased to be hosting, with Christian Aid, Of All The People In All The World. Those on the programming group who have experienced the show are very excited about seeing how people will react to the exhibition over the course of the Festival weekend. This isn't something just to see once during the weekend, this is something to be visited again and again as the show grows and develops through audience suggestions, stats are collected and verified. This is something you'll either be dragging people along to see or you'll be dragged there by someone who has already seen it. (Can you spot that I've seen this already and want to be sure that you see it too?)

To get a sense of what to expect from Of All The People In All The World head over to the Stat Centre, browse the stats already there and suggest a few of your own. You can also follow the development of the show as people upload photographs or mention it on twitter by going to the Rice Show website. You can also follow the show on Twitter and on the Rice Show Radio websites.