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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nI’ve photographed the Valentine street party at Piccadilly Circus most years, though I missed the first one, but it seldom takes place actually on the 14th February, as since the event began in (I think 2003) there have been only two years where that has been a Saturday – 2009 and 2015. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 2010 article in ‘Resurgence’ described the intentions of the event well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Valentine\u2019s Day, which has its origins as far back as the Middle Ages, is traditionally a day where people show their affection by sending each other handwritten \u2018love notes\u2019. But again, this simple affirmation has been hijacked by corporations to the point where cards, chocolates, jewellery \u2013 even weekend breaks \u2013 are now expected.<\/p> But not everybody wants to participate in this orgy of consumerism. Now in its seventh year, Reclaim Love is a global movement away from celebrating Valentine\u2019s Day with flowers and chocolates towards a day of celebrating Love itself. All around the world people are taking to the streets, parks or organised venues to link hearts and minds to send a warm message of love, unity and joy out into the world<\/p>Resurgence magazine<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The event was conceived and coordinated by Irish poet Venus CuMara, and spread to a number of cities around the world, where at 3pm UTC also join hands in a large circle and recite together the mantra \u2018May all the beings in all the world be happy and at peace<\/em>\u2019, an English translation of an ancient Sanskrit prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before and after this there is a great deal of celebration, with drumming, dancing and various free gifts of food and often t-shirts bearing the mantra. I have a couple of these, though have to admit I have seldom worn them, though I did give one away to one of my sons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn’t possible to hold a public gathering in 2021, but Venus asked for people to meditate at 3.30pm and hosted a livestream. I missed the event in 2020 as I was busy elsewhere, but it was very small, probably because of the abysmal weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last time I photographed Reclaim Love was in 2019<\/a>, when we were all delighted to see Venus who despite suffering from cancer which is spreading through her body, was in great spirits and able to speak about her message of love. She had missed the previous year’s event<\/a> as she was in Indonesia being treated for her cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Venus asked people to go to Piccadilly Circus for Reclaim Love on 12 Feb 2022 in a video on the Facebook<\/a> page, though this was only posted the previous day, and she apologised for not being able to be there in person. I went along to see if anything was happening a little after 3pm and found nothing, waited a few minutes and then left as I had another event to attend. Later I saw a photograph of around five people who were there at 3.33pm, the ‘circle’ time. Perhaps next year there will be more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Venus CuMara Reclaim <\/a>L<\/a>ove 13 at Eros<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier in the day I’d walked with protesters from Parliament Square to a rally opposite Downing St calling for the urgent release of London resident Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo, where he arrived has been held and regularly abused for 13 years without charge or trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He arrived at Guantanamo on the 14th February 2002, and there has been subjected to several hundred incidents of beating and torture, including one notorious occasion in June 2006 where he was taken to a special secret interrogation site; three men who were taken with him for similar treatment that day died from asphyxiation, but he survived similar treatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Long cleared for release he continued to be held, probably because his evidence would be embarrassing both for the US and UK authorities. He has a British wife and resident status, and a campaign led to the UK government eventually making requests for him to be freed after he was cleared for release in 2007 and again in 2009. Despite this they UK had also spent over a quarter of a million pounds in legal fees to prevent his legal team gaining access to evidence to prove his innocence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was eventually released at the end of October 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Valentine Day – 13 years for Shaker Aamer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Valentine’s Day 2015 – Reclaim Love and Release Shaker – two events I photographed on St Valentine’s Day, February 14th 2015. Venus CuMara Reclaim Love 13 at Eros I’ve photographed the Valentine street party at Piccadilly Circus most years, though I missed the first one, but it seldom takes place actually on the 14th February, … Continue reading Valentine’s Day 2015 – Reclaim Love and Release Shaker<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[6979,6971,4912,488,6970,6978,6976,3079,6968,6974,6975,17,155,6972,6966,3608,583,83,160,6969,16,156,3078,6977,6967,1073,152,153],"class_list":["post-13024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-own-work","category-political-issues","tag-bring-shaker-home","tag-celebraing-love","tag-consumerism","tag-dancing","tag-drumming","tag-end-the-torture","tag-free-shaker","tag-guantanamo","tag-irish-poet","tag-joining-hands","tag-large-circle","tag-london","tag-love","tag-mantra","tag-o-i-l","tag-one-in-love","tag-peace","tag-peter-marshall","tag-piccadilly-circus","tag-poetess","tag-protest","tag-reclaim-love","tag-shaker-aamer","tag-show-your-love","tag-st-valentine","tag-torture","tag-venus","tag-venus-cumara"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13024"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13035,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13024\/revisions\/13035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2015\/02\/14\/20150214-d797-Edit.jpg\")
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\n\n\n\nValentine Day – 13 years for Shaker Aamer<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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