The Biggest, Baddest Bikeshare System In The World

In Hangzhou, China.

h/t Grist.

What We Can’t Teach: Courage & Commitment In Campaigns

This blog post just rocked my world – What We Can’t Teach: Courage & Commitment In Campaigns by Joy Cushman.

Just one excerpt below – but this one is really worth reading the whole way through. Seriously.

Commitment is not asking “Is this winnable?” I actually think that question is killing our movement and I want to scrub it off flipcharts and whiteboards in every corner of the country. By choosing “winnable” fights we are winning battles and losing the war. Commitment is saying “In the face of unfathomable odds I will stick with this for as long as it takes to feel dignity in my life again, and to see dignity restored to the faces of those around me.” What would have happened if the Egyptian protesters had asked “Is this winnable?” before their 18-day protest started? It would never have started!

It’s the paradox of organizing that only action in the world can actually reshape the political terrain to make the impossible possible.

And what would have happened if the Egyptian protesters had organized a one-day national day of action and everyone went home? So what are we doing folks? Where are we going with all of these national days of action? Where are we going with all of these one-day nonviolent direct actions? Is it just about getting arrested? I have a natural and very healthy fear of getting arrested and would have to work up a great deal of courage to do so, so I won’t be joining you anytime soon unless you’re more committed than that. If you’re committed, that means going back the next day, and the next, and the next.  Or is it just about rallies and marches? As a chronic introvert I’d rather stay at home and read a book if you just want me to be a body, a headcount at an event. Unless, that is, I know that at the rally or march you might ask me to do something purposeful, really important for my country and the world. Ask me to take risks, to get outside my comfort zone, but not just for the sake of that alone. Ask me—then trust me—to make something real of your campaign or movement in my own community.

Link Loving 05.06.11

• Chav: the vile word at the heart of fractured Britain. Polly Toynbee.
• Pensioners seek work at Fukushima arguing they should face the dangers of radiation, not the young. Yasuteru Yamada.
• What happened to the G20? Ryan Case.
• More than 50% of greenhouse gas emissions generated by the United Nations institutions are from air travel. Greening The Blue.
• The advantage of being bilingual. Claudia Dreifus.
• The Tory plan for a permanent majority. George Eaton.
• The good banker. Joe Nocera.
• Mitt Romney isn’t taking prisoners.

Khaled Al Sabawi Brings Green Energy To Palestine

Link Loving 04.06.11

• Follow the money behind financial reform.
• We don’t have an energy crisis, we have an exergy crisis. Kristi van Riet.
• Iowa Republicans worry about their relevance in the 2012 presidential election. Karen Tumulty and Philip Rucker.
• The value of dissent. Tim Hardford.
• The origins of religion – how the urge to worship sparked civilisation. Charles Mann.
• The Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill did not make it into law – but it ain’t a victory yet. Sokari Ekine
• Interview with Beatriz Pérez, part of the Spanish Democracy Now! movement. Anthony Barnett.
• This is suitably idiotic.
• What it was like at Climate Camp South Coast this spring.

Invitation: Creating Change Through Positive Stories

Creating Change Through Positive Stories – Youth Residential

Wednesday 15^th to Sunday 19^th June 2011 (arrival on Tuesday evening)

A five-day residential for young change-makers to develop their own stories and explore the story of their future. Set in the beautiful countryside of Norfolk, young people will have the space and supportive guidance to let their ideas and visions of positive change flourish.

What will the residential consist of?

The human mind learns through narrative. Our politics, science, spirituality, law – even our energy system, is reliant on the stories we tell ourselves about the world around us. With the convergence of crises we currently face, and the potential for positive change that this offers, we think it is time for a new story.

For us as young people, we need to be able to tell this new story, to share it in a compelling way with those around us, and find our place of leadership within the story of the future.

In this residential, we’ll be

• exploring our personal journeys and learning how to articulate them;
• discussing various ‘new’ stories being told by leaders and storytellers around the world, building on these stories and adapting them to our own lives;
• practising with one another to become confident to take this story into the wider world.

There’ll be a mixture of structured workshops to help you develop these skills, open space sessions to let your ideas take shape and  a number of outdoors activities to enjoy.

Scheduled workshops

• Telling your own story, using the Public Narrative
• Learning from the Heroes Journey
• Understanding the power of myth
• The Story of Now – what’s happening in the world today?
• How does change happen? What are our theories of change?
• A brief history of social change.

Open Space activities

• Walking a local ancient pilgrimage route.
• West Lexham sustainability in practice.
• Ideas that you bring and want to share.
• Communicating through the arts – music and drama.

The final two days we’ll be joined by a number of professionals who are leaders in their fields from policy experts to campaigners as well as other storytellers who will bring their expertise (and questions for you!) on how to build a positive vision of the future.

This Too Shall Pass

A great king summoned his wise men. He ordered them, “Create for me a saying that will stabilise my inner state. When I am unhappy it will bring me joy, and when I am happy it will remind me of sadness. It cannot be too long, as I want to keep it with me always.”

The wise men consulted and contemplated deeply the king’s command. Finally, they returned to the king bearing a small box. In it there was a ring, and inside the ring was inscribed the following words: “This too shall pass.”

Attar

Public Debating: The Ice-Cream Case

From the movie Thank You For Smoking –

What Happened?

“After so many years of defending ourselves against life and searching for better controls, we sit exhausted in the unyielding structures of orgnisations we’ve created, wondering what happened.

What happened to effectiveness, to creativity, to meaning? What happened to us? Trying to get these structures to change becomes the challenge of our lives. We draw their futures and design them into clearly better forms. We push them, we prod them. We try fear, we try enticement. We collect tools, we study techniques. We try everything we know and end up nowhere.

What happened?”

Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers

Link Loving 03.06.11

• For some people, seeing pain in someone else is more than emotionally distressing: they feel the pain in their own body too. Helen Thomson.
• Adverts create false memories. Jonah Lehrer.
• Is history cyclical? Megan Erickson.
• People who think The Onion is real.
• Brett Scott made a visit to Tesco HQ and it’s not exactly like Google.
• Amy Poehler‘s Class Day speech at Harvard. (h/t Hanna Thomas)
• How locals are saving their shops. Johny Cassidy.
• How do CEOs spend their time?