UK Feminista Summer School 2011

Link Loving 04.07.11

• The internet is my religion. Jim Gilliam. Beautiful.
• Nobody can live for free – so it is unfair to expect them to work for free. Tanya de Grunwald.
• The state of open data in Europe. Antonella Napolitano.
• Walking Out isn’t about abandoning institutions. It’s about abandoning beliefs. Deborah Frieze.
• Natalya Sverjensky finds a new rule of thumb about WSJ editorials.
• Angry white men and their motives. Matthew Goodwin.
• Community is the new local.
• Ask for their gmail, not their hotmail. Gavin Thomson.

Turn The Story Around

Imagine if the story we told ourselves (in the Judeo-Christian world) didn’t start with the Fall of Man, but rather with the human race entering the Garden of Eden.

Would we treat our natural world in the way we do?

Would we slave away at work we feel no love for?

Would we hold the relationships in the way we do?

Link Loving 03.07.11

• The perils of bad strategy. Richard Rumelt.
• The Slow Squeeze on Science Funding. Alyson Macdonald.
• Adam Ramsay’s speech at the Compass conference last week. Architecture of the left: our generation must build to win.
• Resource nationalism is on the rise again. Javier Blas.
• How government policy encourages the banks to fleece us. Mark Weston.
• Are celebrities a help or hindrance to charities? Peter Stanford and Justin Forsyth.
• David Mitchell with a fantastic piece looking at the public, private and voluntary sectors.
• Unions, why not harness the power of the media? Donnacha DeLong.
• Refounding Labour: how the party needs to change. Rowenna Davis.

What Business Thinks

This Editorial Intelligence podcast is an eye-opener on how business and government see each other.

• They think the business lobby is failing – in fact, activists/civil society organisations are too strong and politicians don’t understand business. Departments outside of BIS or Treasury rarely speak to business representatives.
• What they want is truly radical – massive building spree in the South East Greenbelt, a motorway from Oxford to Cambridge, a repeal of the Bribery Act
• There is a complete disregard for (or ignorance of) systemic limits – environmental, population (immigration)

On the panel –

• John Authers, Global Editor of Lex, Financial Times
• John Cridland, Director-General, CBI
• Patricia Hewitt MP, former Cabinet Minister; Senior Independent Director, BT Group and Chair, UK India Business Council
• Lord Sainsbury of Turville, Former Minister for Science and Innovation and Chairman of Trustees, Institute for Government
• Lord Wolfson of Apsley Guise, Chief Executive, Next Plc.

Link Loving 02.07.11

• Gene Sharp on the barrier of impossibility.
• A short documentary about local food from the Transition group in my home-town, Forest Row!
• Resilience, community and earthquakes in New Zealand. Rob Hopkins.
• The best investment you can make. And it isn’t gold. Umair Haque.
• Tom Baker reflects on his trip to the US.
• Van Jones should dream bigger. (I agree.) David Roberts.
• Don’t ask whether you’re done. Ask whether it’s good enough. Seth Godin.
• LinkedIn is an untapped treasure trove for political campaigns. Gregory Ferenstein.

Joseph Campbell: Myths to Live By

The Next Generation Of Environmental Leaders Has Arrived

I’m 24. Not a ‘youth’ for much longer. In 2008 I co-founded the UK Youth Climate Coalition, and we were the new thing on the block. As the youth climate movement matures, it is fantastic to see a new wave of environmental leaders not taking ‘no’ for an answer – taking legal action, mobilising thousands of young people, and no doubt much more to come. Long live the youth climate movement : )

Youth from nearly every state in the US and over 40 countries began marching for their own future to demand action on climate change starting May 7, 2011. The iMatter March, organized by young people in their own communities, is part of a historic campaign organized by a group of young activists called Kids vs Global Warming. The organization also filed historic legal actions with youth around the USA to demand that our governments protect the atmosphere for the youngest generation.

One of the 159 youth-led marches for a safe climate future

Reminds me of this wonderful Paul Kelly song, with this classic line: “if we fall others are rising”.

Link Loving 01.07.11

• Future World Project.
• Microsoft has officially allowed people to do a start-up while they work full-time.
• A blog featuring puddles.
• Obama’s Afghanistan speech: A missing piece in the puzzle. Joseph Nye.
• Growing your people. Mark Rovner.
• The path on the way to building a reputation. Seth Godin.
• A surprisingly interesting piece on how to be a good trader. James Altucher.
• What Belize can teach us about grassroots conservation. Rob Horwich, Jon Lyon and Arnab Bose.
• Fantastic parody of Adam Curtis. “And then Thabo Mbeki was swept to power.”
• What can people living outside of countries where movements are struggling to bring down repressive regimes do to help? Carne Ross.

Falling Apart

“The whole globe is shook up, so what are you going to do when things are falling apart? You’re either going to become more fundamentalist and try to hold things together, or you’re going to forsake the old ambitions and goals and live life as an experiment, making it up as you go along.”

Pema Chödrön