RESURGENCE BLOGS

Kongzi's Crystal Balls

2012-01-06T02:43:00.000-08:00

It is a tradition of sorts for seers to commit themselves to prophesy at this time of year. A New Year is a new start – an ideal vantage point from which to gaze in to the future and make sweeping predictions about what on Earth happens next.

The picture is of the secular Chinese prophet Kongzi – better known to us in the West as Confucius. While the warring states of China were tearing themselves apart, It was Kongzi’s habit to roam round the various kings and courts, about 500 years before the birth of Christ, advising them on how best to run their affairs.

Amongst his most famous sayings are: “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves,”, “The only constant is change….” And “Study the past as if you would define the future”.

The last one that strikes me as the most pertinent for this New Year.

Firstly because Confucius was Chinese. If I had to make any predication at all about the future I would have no hesitation betting that China will continue its charge to become the most powerful nation on Earth. In many ways, China already has this status. However hard we try NOT to remind ourselves, the vast majority of products we will have purchased for our loved ones this Christmas will have been made in China. What does this simple reality tell us about our past, present and future?

It tells us that today in England we are no longer willing or able to manufacture items considered essential for economic growth and wellbeing at a price that consumers are willing to pay.

I often fantasize about challenging someone to stand naked in Piccadilly Circus with £250 to spend ONLY on clothes they can find that are actually made in England. I wonder: how long would it take them, and how far would thy have to go, to get themselves fully clothed? And here – in Blake’s land of Satanic Mills that gave birth to the industrial revolution! Oh how things have changed!

Ever since China attached itself to the World Trade system, from the late 1970s onwards, wealth has been gradually shifting from West to East as the momentum behind the manufacturing monster that is now China has grown inexorably greater. And, since our thirst for consumerism is fueled by cheap products (a condition Karl Marx cutely called commodity fetishism), so our addiction to cheap Chinese labour has grown ever greater.

In order to prevent its new found wealth leaking back westwards, communist China has exercised its supreme state control to maintain barriers to free trade and has consistently massaged its exchange rate to maintain its status as the world’s cheapest source of labour. China is now easily the world’s biggest one-stop-shop mass producer.

As a result, prophesies about the future seem to point one of two ways. Either the West continues to go bust and China becomes all powerful – initially economically but gradually militarily, too. Or, globalisation breaks apart and there is a return to protectionism in which each nation-state is pitched in a battle of survival where eventually self-sufficiency will become all the rage and we will start growing vegetables again in the moat surrounding the Tower of London.

On a global level either outcome could be construed as good news.

A liberally inclined God may look down on such a world and see some long overdue justice in the swing of economic might Eastwards after nearly 1,000 years in which the tide has been generally pulling West.

And if economic globalisation collapses, the idea of reuniting production with consumption can only be good for the Earth itself – after-all we can’t sustain making things on one side of the world and shipping them to the other forever without causing even more gross, irreparable ecological harm.

From a British perspective, I am convinced there’s a lot to learn from the past to help us through either eventuality – but not much from the study of British history. Rather it is the story of China that has most relevance today.

In a world where China is the biggest global power, a better understanding of the past as seen by them would be a smart start to forging a new, more constructive understanding and dialogue between our cultures. How about an apology for the many atrocities we have committed there (e.g. the Opium Wars) coupled with a little less bleating on our behalf about human rights? That would be a start….

In the event that globalisation breaks down, there are few better examples I can think of about how to build an effective self-sufficient society than those of the Far East before seventeenth century western powers began to mangle them up. Late medieval and early modern Korea, Japan and China contain many fine lessons about how to build successful, self-sufficient societies.

That’s why I believe Kongzi’s dictum “Study the past as if you would define the future” has particular relevance just now. So, my New Year’s message for our dear Education Secretary Michael Gove, is simply this:

If history is to be a compulsory subject in the national curriculum (which I believe it should be) then if we want to be a relevant, strong and successful society in the future then please, please, please make Chinese history, beginning with the study of Kongzi himself, at least as central to the subject as the Normans, Tudors, Victorians and World War II…

Read weekly postings by Christopher Lloyd on the What on Earth website.

Christopher Lloyd is the founder of What on Earth Publishing Ltd, the company behind the What on Earth? Wallbook. His books include: What on Earth Happened? and What on Earth Evolved? Christopher divides his time between writing books, journalism, and lecturing mostly in schools, museums and literary festivals.

Surprising Harvests

2011-12-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

Living in a Buddhist Centre – Life Happens II

I finally summoned up my courage (after weeks of procrastination) and uprooted a mystery plant, that had self-seeded and grown, to Triffid-like proportions, in the corner of my basement garden. For most of its life, I had assumed that it was a sunflower – the leaves were big and pear-shaped, mid-green, with lighter veins, slightly furry and gently serrated at the edges, the stem was thick, woody and hairy...But then it had developed side shoots (like small branches) and grown really bushy...

Odd, I thought, this plant has ambitions to become a small tropical forest all by itself, whereas sunflowers are usually single stemmed, tall and leggy... Then it grew more side stems, and strong sturdy suckers...I thought it may be protesting about the lack of light by growing more and more sideways, upwards, outwards, across... It grew to about four metres (16 feet), high: tall enough to reach the sunlight over the top of the basement. I tied the now leaning, top heavy, stems up to the inside of our cast iron railings. But what was it? But then I thought – relax – let it flower. Let it have its moment of glory as any self-respecting sunflower should!

The flowers came and were anti-climatical. Tiny. It was so disappointing. The flower heads were just bigger than the bottom of teacups, there were seven of them. And, whilst the petals were yellow, so were the centres, with small stigma and tiny, undeveloped, seeds. Sunflowers usually have those lovely dark, often chocolate brown, stigma and anthers at first, followed by the beautifully geometric Fibonacci spirals of plump seed cases, so this was a disappointment.

This giant plant came out surprisingly easily when I pulled, only to reveal dozens of white, muddy tubers attached to the roots. It was almost surreal. I was working in twilight, so at first I couldn’t see properly what these bumpy protuberances were, or where they were coming from. I hadn’t expected such an abundance of what almost looked like button mushrooms: spherical, bulbous, asymmetrical and round, earth-covered, glowing, phosphorescent fruit. I gathered a carrier bag full, of these surprising creamy, muddy, fungus-like Jerusalem artichokes, underground critters that had grown all by themselves, beneath the concrete pavements of Bermondsey, without anyone knowing or caring that they were there. And how good they were, boiled, with butter and garlic for my supper!

Later that evening, my own seemingly stubborn and untamed mind did just the same as the plant. I was sitting in my room, letting my mind go and just watching my thoughts. I hadn’t got the energy to go and sit on my meditation mat, but I believe it’s OK to not force yourself to formally meditate if you don’t want to. A friend of mine at our parent monastery, Samye Ling, recommends: ‘Just sit, and relax and watch where your mind goes. Avoid all that Buddhist flim-flam’. No pressure. Nothing fancy, just let yourself be. No sitting in uncomfortable positions, no special room to be in. It’s a do-nothing, pro-idleness stance.

So I was sitting, reflecting, in my comfy chair, but actually feeling utterly depressed and miserable and my mind was racing. I was thinking about how unforgiving and angry I am towards those who I feel have deliberately and unfairly hurt me. (And I was feeling merciless even though, in more tolerant states, I know that those who have been brutal act this way because of the brutalisation that they have suffered). I was having all sorts of negative hate-filled thoughts. Then I thought, if I was in the religious tradition I was brought up in, I would be blaming myself for these thoughts. I would say I was sinning. But, I thought, I am in the Buddhist tradition now and I can be kind to myself. I can accept all this negatively in myself. I don’t have to try to be lofty and repress my misery. So, for once, I tried to stop trying to not have these thoughts. Instead, I tried to think what are these feelings of hatred like? Can I be kind to myself even though I am doing what I am not proud of? Can I stay with these emotions I despise and feel ashamed of, and not blame myself for having them?

As usual, I didn’t get very far, or stay in that soothing mode for long, because my mind likes to flit. But then I became conscious of just breathing. I was suddenly aware of sitting and breathing, having let go of identifying with my thinking. What a release that felt like! What was different was that I hadn’t consciously willed getting to that place, but maybe because I have practised meditating, where I have trained myself to come back to my breath, again and again, and that moment of release just came. I would normally have stayed, hooked into negative thoughts.

That return to my breath felt like a blessing, (isn’t it strange how we need to use theological language, even though we don’t necessarily have a theist perspective, to try and explain what these magical moments are like?) It seemed that all that time I had spent on a mat, trying to meditate, had paid dividends. I escaped some sort of entrapping cycle of negativity without really trying to. This was equivalent to the miracle of my unexpected crop of artichokes. My meditation practice has worked (to some extent)! My mind was beginning to change! And even though I don’t meditate in order to achieve any specific benefits, I was glowing.

Amanda Root was an academic at Oxford University and now lives and works at Kagyu Samye Dzong Tibetan Buddhist Centre, Bermondsey, London. Her article Life Happens was published on the Resurgence website.

Photograph: Franckreporter, www.istockphoto.com

Our Future on the Line

2011-12-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

The last two weeks have been crazy. I’ve been here at the UN climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, with 10 other delegates from the UK Youth Climate Coalition. We’ve been working with the international youth climate movement to try to get a good deal for young people; it’s our future on the line, and we were determined to remind negotiators of this.

In the early hours of Sunday morning – 36 hours late – the conference reached its dramatic conclusion. With impassioned speeches and frantic huddles, the outcomes that we’d been waiting all year for were literally hammered into reality. As I sat at the back of that plenary hall at 5 am, and the Chair rattled through the decisions, banging her gavel after each one, I reflected on my time in Durban.

The job of young people at these conferences is to inject positivity and hope into a process that is often painfully slow and dull. We’re here to outline the vision of the future we need, but when the process seems destined to obliterate that vision, it’s really hard to stay positive. So, in the last few days of the conference, we found our collective voice, and the conference sat up and took notice.

On Wednesday, six young Canadians turned their backs on their environment minister while he was making his speech. For this, they were loudly applauded by delegates, but were led out of the conference and stripped of their accreditation.

The next day, my friend Abigail from the US stood up and interrupted her lead negotiator’s speech with the voice of American youth, and told those gathered that he could not speak for her or the millions of others like her who want a safe future. She too received an ovation and was escorted from the conference centre.

On Friday, my friend Anjali delivered an impassioned intervention that again received loud applause, and later, hundreds of young people satdown in protest outside the plenary hall and demanded that their voices be heard.

So were our voices heard? Well, undoubtedly, we made an impact. Richard Blackfrom the BBC, wrote that “Outside the halls of government, it was a very good meeting for the youth. Unfailingly charming, youth delegates brought a freshness, a ‘Yes-we-can’-ness, to the often jaundiced proceedings”.

Are we pleased with the outcomes? It depends who you ask, and what their expectations for this conference were. For me (and I don’t speak for the rest of the delegation on this), it could have been a lot worse. A month ago, we were talking about the entire process unravelling here in Durban, and that didn’t happen. Instead, we saved the Kyoto Protocol, which was vital for continued international cooperation on emissions reductions. We also got a timetable for a new global deal, and the ‘Green Climate Fund’ was born, which will help get money flowing to poorer countries to help them deal with the impact of climate change.

However, the world is still very much on course for catastrophe. While we may be one year closer to that catastrophe, we’ve kept open the possibility of changing course to avoid it. The best way I can sum up my feelings right now is that we’re fighting a fight for my generation’s future. We could have completely lost that fight this weekend, but we didn’t. And for that, I’m glad.

Blogs at un.ukycc.org

Following us @ukyccdelegation http://twitter.com/ukyccdelegation or

Email your thoughts and hopes delegation.enquiries@ukycc.org

Matt Williams, UKYCC Youth Delegate to the UN climate talks.

The Ancient Art of Meditation

2011-12-01T06:28:00.000-08:00

A potent symbol for peace in an ailing modern world

With stress on the rise and Flash Mob meditation gatherings spreading across the UK to galvanise a better world, the British School of Meditation prepares to launch at the Isbourne Holistic Centre in Cheltenham in response to the mass growth in meditation in the UK.

Amid all the pressures and strains of the current financial crisis and growing dissatisfaction with an outmoded material society, the ancient art of meditation is emerging as a potent symbol for peace and calm in an ailing modern world.

“In today’s frantic world more and more people are turning to meditation as a way to calm their busy minds,” says renowned meditation teacher Mary Pearson, author of Meditation the Stress Solution, who co-founded the British School of Meditation with Helen Galpin. “Stress is a huge problem and many people are looking for a way to reduce their stress and live happier lives.”

Meditation is also becoming widely recognised as a tool for positive change and wellbeing, for bringing people together as a community and for generating a major shift towards more conscious and sustainable living. To this end, hundreds of thousands of people have been gathering in open urban spaces around the globe for Flash Mob meditation sessions in recent months, including several in London as well as in other UK cities – from Bristol and Brighton in the South to Aberdeen in North Scotland.

The many benefits of meditation include stress and anxiety reduction, calmness, enhanced clarity and focus, better sleep, lower blood pressure, weight loss, looking younger, and a boost to the immune system.

“We are really thrilled to be hosting the British School of Meditation courses at the Isbourne,” says Janie Whittemore, Centre Manager of the Isbourne Holistic Centre. “We’ve seen a major rise in interest in meditation here at the Centre in recent months, it’s a fantastic tool for maintaining calm and focus amid the stresses of busy modern life and there’s a clearly a real need now for more qualified teachers to take it out to the masses.”

While meditation is becoming increasingly popular, Mary Pearson and fellow meditation teacher Helen Galpin looked at the existing provision for training meditation teachers and discovered a distinct lack of face to face training available. They duly founded the British School of Meditation to supply this demand, providing OCN accredited courses, and playing their part in spreading peace in the world.

“Teaching meditation has helped both Mary and myself find peace and happiness in our lives,” says Helen Galpin, who is also director of The Nutrition Centre chain of shops in Gloucestershire. “It’s a great joy to be able to help people find time to ‘just be’ and switch off from the daily grind.”

The British School of Meditation runs an introductory day for its first teacher training course on Saturday 14th January in response to the unprecedented demand for teachers.

Meditation Teacher Training course details
Introductory First Training Day on Saturday 14th January 2011 (10am-4.30pm)
Part One: Saturday 25th February 2012 & Sunday 26th February 2012 (10.00am-4.30pm)
Part Two: Saturday 21st April 2012 & Sunday 22nd April 2012 (10.00am-4.30pm)

For bookings/further information visit: British School of Meditation

Will Gethin has worked as a holistic explorer and travel writer since 2004, writing articles for the Independent, the Evening Standard and various conscious living magazines. He has worked as a communications consultant, promoting humanitarian and intercultural organisations like IT Schools Africa, The Makhad Trust and Tribe of Doris.

Will Gethin founded a Guest Speaker programme at the Isbourne Holistic Centre, bringing leading edge spiritual authors and presenters such as Peter Owen Jones and Satish Kumar to Cheltenham to present educational talks and workshops.

A lifetime’s journey

2011-11-29T03:52:00.000-08:00

Sharing a passion for tackling climate change

I’m in the middle of COY. For those not used to United Nations jargon, this is the International Conference of Youth, or to break it down even more, it’s an event for young people from all over the world to meet before the international climate change talks.

We come together to share our personal stories of what we’ve all been doing in our own countries, to discuss the future, and to have fun. In a word: awesome.

The Conference of Youth is entirely run by, and run for young people. It’s a place where activity is constantly happening; the vibe is electric as people share their passions for tackling climate change. And what’s best is that it’s all young people, with all the liveliness and energy they bring.

I’ve met a Durban footballer who plans to talk to people about climate change at all of his matches. I’ve met Americans and Canadians who fought, and won, the Tar Sands campaign. Most of all, I’ve met the amazing climate caravan of young people who have travelled 4,400 km, overland, all the way down from Nairobi in Kenya to here in Durban. On their journey they danced, sang and energised people to fight climate change. Here’s the moment <http://www.twitvid.com/63TPL> when the caravan arrived at the Conference of Youth. We’re in there somewhere, dancing badly as only the British can, we promise.

I’ve learnt so much here and made some amazing friends. The message I’ve taken away from it, is that this isn’t just a weekend, but the beginning of a lifetime’s journey!

You can follow our progress in South Africa by reading our blogs at un.ukycc.org, following us @ukyccdelegation http://twitter.com/ukyccdelegation or emailing us your thoughts and hopes delegation.enquiries@ukycc.org

Helen Markides, UKYCC Youth Delegate to the UN climate talks.

Securing our Future, Saving the Planet

2011-11-28T05:44:00.000-08:00

Young people at the UN climate talks
A few evenings ago I watched “A Time to Kill”, a film set in the American Deep South starring my favourite two actors, Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman. In this film the rape of 10-year old black girl precipitates alarming scenes of racial hatred and the revival of the local Klu Klux Klan. It struck me that this film, set in 1996, implies that such events were to some small degree plausible at that time.

Little to my knowledge – I was 7 years old in 1996 – the concept of racial supremacy and gross injustices such as those depicted apparently persisted in the public consciousness, or at least that of American film directors. But today, Barack Obama is in the White House, Nelson Mandela is free and we have achieved racial freedom in South Africa – all things that might have seemed impossible a few decades ago. And if such huge and seemingly insurmountable challenges can be overcome, I hope that the next challenge to be overcome will be climate change.

This week, I’m travelling to Durban, South Africa to the climate negotiations, as part of the UK Youth Climate Coalition's delegation, to join with other young people from around the world to show leaders that we need a solution to climate change, that we won’t cease in our ambition and won’t stop asking for one. We will get to a solution no matter how hard the path, because young people aren’t the bystanders in this process; we’re the ones who’ll be dealing with the consequences of the decisions which can jeopardise our future, or secure it, can gamble with our planet, or save it.

Nor do we lack the tools to deal with this problem and to create the wide, grassroots movement asking for change that must be at the core of any transition to a better society. A few days ago, I came across this Facebook post by a friend:

“Just sorting through my old school exercise books and have found an I.T. exercise to explain the advantages and disadvantages of computers vs. filing cabinets. Computers apparently lose: they can get viruses; they use power; you need training to use them; they can crash; and they're more expensive. How things have changed?”

How things have changed – computers now feature daily in the lives of people throughout the world and are increasingly deployed in the fight against climate change. This is just one tool at our disposal and we arguably have all the other necessary tools to fight climate change: the technical knowledge and skills; the finances – all that is missing is the political will. In the coming weeks, I and the rest of the UK youth delegation will be putting everything into the United Nations process at the 17th round of the UN climate negotiations in Durban, lobbying, advocating and campaigning for a fair and ambitious solution.

Hopefully in South Africa (no stranger to change) we can demonstrate the urgency and strength of feeling that our generation holds, and motivate politicians to take up their tools and get to work on this grossest of injustices.

You can follow our progress in South Africa by reading our blogs at un.ukycc.org, following us @ukyccdelegation http://twitter.com/ukyccdelegation or emailing us your thoughts and hopes delegation.enquiries@ukycc.org

Cat Stace, Youth Delegation to the UN Climate Talks, UK Youth Climate Coalition.

Inside Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

Stefan Simanowitz spends a week with the protesters in New York

“You know, deep down I never believed that this movement could change anything” Shaun Bickard admits as we march along Broadway last week with 15,000 noisy demonstrators. “But after today I’m beginning to think it can.” Bickard, a 41 year-old electrician from the Bronx has never regarded himself as an activist. He visited Zuccotti Park, the heart of the Occupy Wall Street protest, after seeing footage online of four women pepper sprayed by a policeman. “At first I just came to check it out. Then I came back and I joined the march on Brooklyn Bridge where I ended up getting up being one of the 700 arrested,” he explains. “When I stepped out of jail I found that my support for the movement had turned into full-on commitment.” And it is stories like this that have transformed Occupy Wall Street from a small protest of into a significant nationwide movement in the space of four short weeks.

Last Wednesday’s march from Zuccotti Park to Foley Square was a high-water mark in terms of mobilization for the movement as workers from fifteen of New York's biggest unions came out in solidarity. Up until then, the protestors had confined themselves to Zuccotti Park, the concrete plaza in the centre of New York’s financial district that has provided a permanent base for the protest since 17th September. Whilst the park provides a crucial practical and symbolic focal point for the movement it cannot accommodate the numbers that turned out for the march. Indeed on Saturday afternoon, expecting a large turnout, Occupy Wall Street held its 3 o’clock general assembly in the larger Washington Park. But these are the type of logistical difficulties the movement relishes.

Occupy Wall Street is attracting increasingly large numbers of people of all ages and from all backgrounds. The mood is upbeat and the festive atmosphere has been aided by a spell of the unseasonably warm weather which topped 80 degrees last weekend. But despite the positivity there is also a strong undercurrent of anger. “Damn right I’m angry” says 48-year old Lawrence English. “I’ve got three kids and haven’t worked for over two years. Our government cares more about corporations than it does about people. This ain’t just an occupation, it’s a hostile takeover.”

Despite their anger the protesters are committed to non-violence and determined not to allow themselves to be portrayed in the media as an unruly, destructive mob. Even in the face of well-documented incidents of police brutality the protesters have remained peaceful. Following widespread criticism of the police’s strong-arm tactics – particularly the mass arrests on Brooklyn Bridge - it seems that the NYPD have been ordered to take a more restrained approach.

In Zuccotti Park – nicknamed Liberty Plaza – several hundred protesters congregate day and night, their numbers swelling in the afternoons and early evenings as people gather for the two daily General Assemblies. Described as “a horizontal, autonomous, leaderless, consensus-based system” the General Assembly is modelled on the assemblies that have driven recent social movements in Tahrir Square and Madrid’s Puerta del Sol. Anyone present at the assembly can propose an idea or express an opinion and decisions are reached by a show of hands. The method does not make for quick decision-making and is slowed down considerably by the fact that New York City has not granted the protesters a permit to use “amplified sound”. This means microphones, speakers and even hand-held megaphones are banned and the General Assembly has had to adopt an innovative system dubbed the “human mic” whereby each sentence is repeated by those around the speaker and then repeated again by the next ring of people until the sentence ripples across the park.

The organisation in Zuccotti Park is impressive. There are no leaders or governing body but smaller working groups have been set up to support specific initiatives ranging from food, medical, and legal committees to arts and culture and direct action. ‘Stations’ around the park provide information and services including sleeping bags, clothing and toothpaste. A generator provides power to ensure all events in the Park are filmed and ‘livestreamed’ and a charging station enables protestors to recharge their i-phones, cameras and computers.

Volunteers circulate picking up rubbish and there is even a library and a broadsheet newspaper – the Occupied Wall Street Journal. An open-air canteen serves up free food, its menu constantly replenished with donations from local shops or well-wisher or bought with donations. As well as a variety of staples such as peanut butter-jelly sandwiches and rice and beans it can offer surprises such as sushi and ice-cream.

One of the main criticisms levelled at the movement is that it lacks focus and concrete goals. Indeed ask each person in Zuccotti Park why they are there and you will get a different answer. You will hear talk about unemployment and welfare cuts, healthcare costs and environmental destruction, cuts to public education and unfair taxation. But despite the multiplicity of issues raised there is an underlying cohesive sense of anger at corporate greed, government mismanagement and inequality.

So far the movement has not attempted to offer a clear set solutions or concrete list of demands. Whilst these may emerge there is no sense of urgency to focus on anything other than growing the movement. Addressing the General Assembly on Sunday the political philosopher Slavoj Zizek acknowledged that “[t]here are truly difficult questions that confront us. We know what we do not want. But what do we want?” But for Zizek the central message of is a clear one: “We are allowed to think about alternatives.”

For those involved these early stages of the movement the mood is intoxicating and contagious. But as the warm October weather slips away and tactical differences become more pronounced there are dangers. “Don’t fall in love with yourselves” warns Zizek. “We have a nice time here. But remember: carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after.” There is much discussion around the question of what a “win” would look like for Occupy Wall Street. Some think that they have already won whilst others believe that the movement has only just begun. In some ways both are true. Over the past month Occupy Wall Street has succeeded in permanently altering the political topography of America. How much more it achieves in the coming months remains to be seen.

“I’m here because I remember the Great Depression” eighty-year old Joan Davis tells me, her voice breaking with emotion. “My sister and I would often go to bed hungry and I still remember the look on my dad’s face the day he was forced to sell our farm. Things in America have needed changing for a long while and just maybe these people and others across the country can make a real difference.”

Stefan Simanowitz is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. He writes on politics and culture for publications including the Guardian, Independent, Washington Times, New Statesman, Financial Times, Metro, In These Times, Huffington Post, Global Post, New Internationalist, and Mail & Guardian.

Photographs courtesy: Stefan Simanowitz

V&A Press Conference

2011-10-11T01:49:00.000-07:00

Rabindranath Tagore: Poet and Painter

A pleasant start to the day – I went to The Nehru Centre in central London for the press conference on the forthcoming Rabindranath Tagore display at the V&A.

To celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the birth of Tagore, the V&A’s display on this poet, playwright and social reformer will run from 12 December 2011 until 4 March 2012. It will focus on the four themes of Tagore’s work: animals and imaginary creatures; landscapes; human figures and human faces and characters.

On display will be approximately 50 of his paintings from the period 1928 to 1939, several of which have never before been displayed outside India. All of the works are on loan from the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi or the Visva-Bharati University of India, the university founded by Tagore.

The display is curated by Professor Raman Siva Kumar of the Visva-Bharati University and organised in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

I am particularly looking forward to visiting the display as I am aware of Tagore’s tremendous achievements and impact, particularly on Resurgence. I am also looking forward to a lunchtime lecture on Tagore by Resurgence’s editor-in-chief Satish Kumar on 25 January from 1pm – 1.45pm. Entitled, ‘An Artist Activist’, the event should paint a picture of the man who continues to influence so many.

For further information, please visit the Victoria and Albert Museum on http://www.vam.ac.uk/

Sharon Garkinkel is the PR & Marketing Executive at Resurgence magazine.

New Green Deal for Israel

2011-10-04T04:57:00.000-07:00

What a great start to the day... breakfast briefing at the Big Green Jewish’s offices in London with Sagit Porat speaking on ‘a New Green Deal for Israel’.

Participants came from a number of Jewish organisations including the Union of Jewish Students and the JCC for London.

Interestingly, in her talk, Sagit, who is a member of the Israeli Green Movement, spoke about how Schumacher’s influential “Small is Beautiful” has been a guiding inspiration for her and others. Before joining Resurgence, when I thought about ‘small’ and ‘beautiful’ in one sentence, my taste buds awakened and I automatically thought of a wonderful restaurant on the Kilburn High Road. That’s another story. Now, I know more about Schumacher’s philosophy and it is refreshing to learn about its influence in Israel, a country where green politics is a key issue.

This summer was a season of protests both in the UK and Israel. We are all familiar with what happened across this country, but the protests in Israel were fuelled by something different: social justice.

Sagit told us how Israel’s green party has been leading a team of activists, with the support of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, in creating a new economic programme for the country which would include the concepts of the ‘Green New Deals’ from across the world. The draft of Israel’s proposal: ‘The Economics of Tomorrow’ was released this week. Amongst other things it calls for a total change in Israel’s energy sources.

With two years until the next planned Israeli election, time will tell how much of an impact the new green vision will have in Israel. Still, I left this morning’s event feeling proud of what Jewish people contribute to the environment. A look at the Big Green Jewish website highlights what Jews have done in the past and continue to do for the environment.

David Brown, and his team at the Big Green Jewish website are to be applauded for their efforts in raising awareness of environmental issues across the Jewish and wider communities.

Sharon Garkinkel is the PR & Marketing Executive at Resurgence magazine.

For more information visit the Big Green Jewish website: http://www.biggreenjewish.org/

Healing the UK Riots

2011-08-30T04:03:00.000-07:00

The recent riots in UK cities have prompted concern and outrage, even where I live on the other side of the planet. During the height of the disturbances I was speaking with the genteel executive of a local charity in New Zealand who suddenly lost his cool, clenched his knuckles and exclaimed, “the British police should shoot a few of them! That will stop the riots instantly. They need to know who’s in charge!”

It struck me that buried deep within this utterance are clues both to how the violence emerged and how it can be transformed.

Although the causes of this violence are complex, there are key threads. In the UK, many of us have been creating a society of self interest at the expense of a genuine understanding of a ‘we’ for generations. Of course, we do self-interested ‘we’ very well, the ‘we’ of my family, my team, in effect my tribe. But it is rare for us to reach out in altruism to people we don’t know, don’t like or don’t approve of. And this is all that is necessary to feed suspicion, hostility, and an ability to dehumanise our fellow humans. The current framework of wider society is based on self interest, even when this is dressed up in political and economic clothes.

This has led to fragmentation which is the root of violence, and not just the stuff of public disorder. This emphasis on the individual has produced discord deep within our own consciousness. We might think of this discord as a self maintained wounding of our spirit.

We have become attuned to ‘me’ at the expense of others and this has generated a mindset of deep division that is prepared to grasp and hurt in order to feed the insatiably greedy self focused mind. Taken to extremes this is looting, remove any vestige of empathy and it is violent disorder and assault. It changes faces according to context but shares the same causes and conditions.

Self-focused fragmentation is a common condition but is manifested differently depending on the circumstances and amplified by suffering and delusion. There seems to be a prevailing sense of alienation in many of us right now. It’s about time we all took this seriously and asked if this alienation keeps us safe or makes us happy. The answer is surely not.

We have created a veil of excuses in which we hold the causes of fragmentation, including social violence, outside our self and demand that someone else do something to fix them and take responsibility for changing ‘my’ world. This is symptomatic of a fragmented mind, twisted by grasping and self indulgence and missing vital logical links. We must not externalise because it misses the point. We all created the riots, we are all needed to transform the causes and conditions that gave rise to such pain.

The capacity to heal society is alive and well and is to be found deep within each one of us. We can touch this healing every time we smile, every time we appreciate someone, show compassion or help a stranger. In each one of these actions, and all altruistic and heartfelt behaviours, we are healing the riots and preventing them happening again.

This is an extract from Tim Robert’s article Healing the UK Riots which you can read in full on the Resurgence website.

Tim Roberts served as a British police officer for many years, is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Chester and lives and works in New Zealand as a consultant in Leadership Development.

Follow Tim on twitter @TimRobertsCo

The North Atlantic Right Whale

2011-08-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

A conversation with researcher and conservationist Laurie Murison

“Most of our knowledge about the North Atlantic right whale has been lost and is only now slowly being re-learned.” This is not surprising considering that this animal is one of the rarest on Earth. Having studied right whales in the Bay of Fundy since 1982, Laurie Murison is certainly qualified to tell the dramatic story of this beautiful and highly endangered animal.

“An amazing property of whale blubber, as far as humans are concerned, is that it becomes oil when cooked and, after cooking, remains an oil rather than reverting back to fat. It also burns extremely well.” These valuable properties may have initially been discovered by accident. Maybe one day a dead whale washed ashore and ‘cooked’ in the sun, turning its blubber into oil, and was later found by a human who had a brilliant idea…

“Commercial whaling began 1,000 years ago in the Bay of Biscay.” The Basque people became efficient hunters. They had stations on shore to spot whales and alert the long boats, the boats men rowed out, killed the whale and towed its body back to shore. Right whales were the ‘right whale to hunt’ (hence their name), for several reasons. They came close to shore, were slow moving, spent time at the surface and, because of the density of their blubber, floated when dead, allowing for easy transportation back to shore. Most importantly, their bodies yielded huge quantities of oil.

In the 1400′s, Europeans began hunting right whales further afield in North American waters. “During the 1500′s and 1600′s, the age of exploration and exploitation of the high seas, oil very quickly became part of European life.” Even by the 1600′s, right whale numbers had plummeted. Whalers began additionally hunting bowheads, humpbacks and sperm whales, but the price for a right whale was exorbitantly high. “One right whale catch could pay for the majority of a whaler’s costs for the entire year, so this incentive only served to accelerate their decline.” Whaling expanded from the North Atlantic into the North Pacific and then the Southern Oceans.

By the 17-1800′s, oil was used in England for lighting and, as the industrial revolution took off, oil was needed to lubricate machine parts and allow longer working days in the darkened winters. “It is an interesting question to ask how differently the industrial revolution would have developed was it not for oil. That explosion of technology got us hooked on the stuff!”

By the late 1800′s, modern whaling was born with the invention of the exploding harpoon head, steamships and new methods for transporting ‘sinking’ whales. This was bad news for many species of whale, but took the pressure off right whales to some degree. In addition, whale oil was by now being replaced by petroleum. “But when the industrial world stopped exploiting whales, the fashion world soon took over. The wonderful, flexible properties of baleen were discovered!” This material was used for such inventions as corsets, hoop skirts, parasols, furniture springs and horse drawn carriages.

In 1935 a decision was made to protect all right whales, no doubt helped by the fact that they were no longer commercially valuable. At this time it was believed the North Atlantic population numbered about 50 individuals, with 400 in the North Pacific and more in the Southern Oceans. In 1937 the protection took effect and this multi-country agreement became a precursor for today’s International Whaling Commission. Illegal whaling still continued unfortunately, for example the North Pacific population fell to about 30 individuals due to illegal whaling by USSR.

It is possible that places such as the Bay of Fundy helped the North Atlantic species survive the whaling years. The bay, with its colossal tides and dense fog, never had a history of whaling and no sightings were made there before research in the 1970′s and 80’s. “It may well be that whales who spent more time in remote areas such as the Bay of Fundy lived long enough to breed, thereby keeping their entire species alive.”

During the 1980′s, North Atlantic right whale numbers increased from approximately 200 to 300. In the 90′s they suffered a decline, probably due to a lack of food and increased accidental mortality. “2001 was a baby boom year with 32 calves being born!” From 2001-2011 an average of 22 calves have been born each year. And that brings their story up to date with an estimated North Atlantic right whale population of 450-500.

But what of the future for right whales, where does their story go from here?

“This is still unknown. We do not know if the North Atlantic right whale has sufficient genetic variation to survive in the long term, let alone the North Pacific species. The Southern right whales have recovered more rapidly. But all right whales face continued threats from other human activities such as ship collisions, entanglement, pollution, climate change and loss of food and habitat. We may be able to control shipping and fishing to some degree, but with the larger and longer term global problems of pollution and climate change, we have no idea what impacts will be felt in the future…”

In another hundred years time, I wonder what the history books and computer applications will have to say about right whales…

Laurie Murison is the executive director of Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station, on Grand Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. To find out more about the organisation's work, go to: http://www.gmwsrs.org/main.htm

Amanda Banks is a freelance writer from England, recently engaged in writing about the life and work of cetacean conservationists in North and South America. To read more of her posts about conservationists, go to: http://amandabanks.com/blog/

Copyright in photographs belongs to Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station.

Visual Jazz: Appreciation

2011-07-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

The glitterati of Boston and Massachusetts ceramic and art society were there at the opening. In the speeches you would have thought I was as important as Picasso.

The response is full-on and enthusiastic. One collector told me she had bought a piece of mine from my last show here and then found the colours of her house did not work, so she bought a new beach house for the pot and designed the décor around it.

Another collector spent a very long time communing with the pots. He gazed deep into the vessels, and was stroking them, feeling with his hands where my hands had been in the clay, noting all the thumbprints and fingermarks, and delighting in his visceral connection.

Some people had been following my work for years, and noticed developments and how it is evolving. Considering this is my first solo show in the USA, I wondered how they knew it so well. They said it has been featured in many books here, and over twenty-five years ago I was in a show of British Ceramics in Dallas which people remember. And some had been at a big arts conference, NCECA, three years ago in which I was the International Guest Presenter.

I was truly surprised to find that so many people here know my work well. I had thought that to most of the people at the opening I would be a new artist, but it was certainly not the case.

Lucy introduced me to all these people who seemed like immediate friends. It is a fairly intimate connection for me when people respond to my work so well. I know I am going to like them because they understand the essence of me. (Which is why I have always had a soft spot for Tony Blair as he is on record in a Sunday newspaper holding a piece of mine saying it is one of his favourite things.)

Red spots were now appearing rapidly.

And then Lucy, myself and some of the guests had dinner in the gallery. It was a lovely gesture and a great way to get to know everyone, to talk, and then in pauses to look up and see the colourful ceramics dancing.

So all of my fears were totally groundless.

Now it is early the next morning and I have been invited to go pilot gig rowing here today with a club in Gloucester, which being America is only ten miles from Manchester and 40 from Weymouth. Bideford is not far either!

It should be a perfect balance to the arty activities in which I am expressing my individuality; in rowing I am in the boat with 6 others and we have to be in perfect harmony otherwise the boat slows. The sun is shining, the weather is warm and lets hope the sea is not too bouncy. I will find out if there are traditional boat builders here too, being kept alive by the resurgence of interest in sea gig rowing as a sport.

Sandy Brown is an internationally renowned ceramicist who lives and works in North Devon. She is the Art Advisor at Resurgence magazine.

Find out more about Sandy Brown http://www.sandybrownarts.com/sandybrownarts.htm

Visual Jazz exhibition takes place at Lacoste Gallery from 16 July to 3 August 2011

http://www.lacostegallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?artistid=84

Visual Jazz: Communication

2011-07-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

As I write this, I must admit to being a little nervous about how the opening will go; part of me dreads being there for fear of not being understood. There will be speeches made by the high-ups of the Boston artworld, and people will want to talk to me about my work and I wont know what to say. My fear is that I will shrivel and mumble and talk gibberish.

Then I tell myself perhaps it wont be that bad; I was anxious before the Harvard day and my fears melted away when I met the people there who said they were honoured to meet me, and that they had admired my work for years. So maybe it will be OK today, but I am still worried. If Lucy were to telephone and say I am not needed (actually I was told that by one gallery many years ago, that artists just get in the way at openings and invite all their friends, which is partly true I think), I would say “thank you” and go for a walk. But that would be cowardly.

I do this as a way of communicating. I cant sing, I am not much good as a dancer, I have tried to play the piano but struggle, but I can play and improvise and place clay and colour in an original way. And as it is a way of communicating, then surely I must want to continue the dialogue with those who understand? “But what if they don’t?” comes the fearful voice.

I will have to trust – just as I trust when I do the work in the first place – that whatever happens will be OK. If I am attached to wanting some sort of particular outcome, then I am just making it hard for myself. So maybe I can enjoy the opening by not being attached to having to be understood or admired. Yes, I think I can do that, as an observer of the human condition. And I do like my own work myself – I am very pleased indeed with it, so it will be fun to go and see it again and to share a glass of wine with some new friends.

Sandy Brown is an internationally renowned ceramicist who lives and works in North Devon. She is the Art Advisor at Resurgence magazine.

Find out more about Sandy Brown: http://www.sandybrownarts.com/sandybrownarts.htm

Visual Jazz exhibition takes place at Lacoste Gallery from 16 July to 3 August 2011

http://www.lacostegallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?artistid=84

Visual Jazz: Exploration in Clay

2011-07-21T02:54:00.000-07:00

I am so pleased with the title of the show, Visual Jazz. It just came to me in a flash. I have often been aware of an understanding and empathy with saxophonists who say, on hearing back the music they have just played, that they have no idea how they did that. Improvisation is like that, it allows playful experimentation and exploration, drawing on everything we have done before. The more I look at my work, the more that the title Visual jazz conveys the way I work, in free expression, using clay and colour, and a childlike connection to the moment, without worrying if it is going to work or not, or if it is going be good or not. None of that is relevant at the time.

In the latest pieces in the show I have incorporated some rich earthy brick clay into the body, and then partially overlaid that with layers of pure white porcelain. I have a box of toys, in which I keep things which will make an interesting texture as I press them into the clay. Such as a jacaranda seedpod from Trinidad, the square end of a piece of cut wood, bits of curled wire from old electric storage heaters and the sole of my shoe.

Pressing these textured bits and pieces into the clay is FUN. I don’t plan, I don’t think about balance or structure or form, I actually don’t need to as a need to control gets in the way. I can safely leave it to my intuition, much as I can leave the editing of Resurgence to Susan and Satish, or the display of my exhibition to Lucy. I, or what I think of as my I-ness, just gets in the way and interferes.

So I have learned to stay back, and just watch what comes. And interestingly, there is always a structure. There is always a balance; just as there is a balance in a tree, or a rose leaf. It may not consist of straight lines and formulae, it may be asymmetrical or off-centre, but nonetheless the sense of balance is there in an organic way. We all know this, it is in the core of our being, which is often why we recognise it when we see it in art, even if we don’t know that that is what we are doing.

As the pots dry they shrink, as earth does in a drought, and the porcelain surface crackles and crinkles delightfully geologically. Its whiteness is asking for colours; and they show clearly and fully. So I have titled the pieces using musical terms, such as Riff, Andante Ma Non Troppo, Bose Bouncing and Razzma tazz.

Sandy Brown is an internationally renowned ceramicist who lives and works in North Devon. She is the Art Advisor at Resurgence magazine.

Find out more about Sandy Brown: http://www.sandybrownarts.com/sandybrownarts.htm

Visual Jazz exhibition takes place at Lacoste Gallery from 16 July to 3 August 2011

http://www.lacostegallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?artistid=84

Visual Jazz: Creating the Exhibition

2011-07-20T02:47:00.000-07:00

Before the workshop, I have been resting for a few days in Concord. It is a beautifully preserved town with an English feel despite it being the birth of the revolution. While I have been enjoying walking about the leafy streets admiring the weatherboard houses, huge broadleaves trees and interesting bird sounds, Lucy Lacoste, the gallerist, has been working on the exhibition display. She has a particular ability to call on an intuitive intense focus on each piece, and is creating a vivid strength of environment for each artwork in the show.

She works slowly, very slowly, she has been working on the display for nearly five days, with her tireless indefatigable helper, Linda. Lucy lays out all the work on the floor in what looks like a jumble, and spends time absorbing the form and colour and sense of each piece, so that her creativity can come into play with the exhibition layout. She does not like having artists around while she is doing this, and was visibly relieved when I said I would stay away and leave it to her as she knows the space. I was tired when I got here, so it suited me too!

During the five days she was working on the display she was as focussed and as intense as I am when I am in the studio creating the work; although I dropped in to the gallery a couple of times to see if I could be of any help lifting pieces, Lucy was polite and kind but it was clear her mind was elsewhere. She was thinking about each piece and how it would look in relation to each other piece around it. It is a great art, the art of display and exhibition ‘hanging’, and can only be done quietly and without distractions.

And now that the display is done and the work on show it is clear that Lucy has done an excellent job. Each piece sings.

She was a potter herself originally, and so understands the medium and the people in it. She has the great respect of all the ceramic artists in the USA and shows the best of them, so I am in very good company. She shows adventurous work, and is not afraid to experiment, to welcome new directions.

Sandy Brown is an internationally renowned ceramicist who lives and works in North Devon. She is the Art Advisor at Resurgence magazine.

Find out more about Sandy Brown: http://www.sandybrownarts.com/sandybrownarts.htm

Visual Jazz exhibition takes place at Lacoste Gallery from 16 July to 3 August 2011

http://www.lacostegallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?artistid=84

Visual Jazz: Harvard Visiting Artists

2011-07-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

The first in a series of blogs by internationally renowned ceramicist Sandy Brown, on the lead up to her exhibition Visual Jazz.

I am in Concord Massachusetts for the opening of my exhibition Visual Jazz at the Lacoste gallery here. Yesterday I did a workshop and talk as part of the Harvard University Visiting Artists programme, demonstrating being free and fearless with clay and moving ones arms about in a loose relaxed fashion. The lively acting director of the studio told me when we met that she had been using images of my work for years in her talks to her students.

The Harvard Ceramic Studio is very interesting because of its open policy – amazingly it is open 24 hours a day for students, many of whom are studying on other university courses here, or are employees of Harvard University, or have regular jobs. They have great need of the late night opportunities provided.

It is remarkable in the breadth of its intake; participants in my workshop here ranged from some internationally known ceramic artists to one woman who said it was her first day in the studio. As several of the top ceramic degree courses in the UK are being shut down this model offers ideas for a possible way forward. It is largely self-funding in spite of its connection and support it receives from the University. This gives it an independence and strength.

There are many Ceramic studios in the USA that offer residencies and workshops and I have been invited to do more here in the future, which is very tempting.

Sandy Brown is an internationally renowned ceramicist who lives and works in North Devon. She is the Art Advisor at Resurgence magazine.

Find out more about Sandy Brown: http://www.sandybrownarts.com/sandybrownarts.htm

Visual Jazz exhibition takes place at Lacoste Gallery from 16 July to 3 August 2011

http://www.lacostegallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?artistid=84

At the heart of healing

2011-07-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

High summer and the 5th meeting of the Cornwall Resurgence Group was set to be outside around a fire. Mark arrived first as I was tending the fire and I made him tea while we chatted about gardening. I was showing him around our garden when Simon arrived and I made more tea – from a ‘chocolate mint’ plant from the garden which turned out to be the most delicious mint tea I have ever tasted.

We retired to the top of the garden laden with food. My (not quite vegan) kebabs, Mark’s delicious stew made with home-grown veg and Simon’s mixed fruit crumble warming in the oven.

Finally, for this meeting I had read the right issue of Resurgence, cover to cover. I kicked off with a comment about how I preferred this issue to the last. It is based around storytelling and on opening it I felt all the excitement of having a ‘Christmas Annual’ from a favourite source: the promise before me of favourite authors, lovely illustrations and even a special on Schumacher – a personal ‘hero’.

It didn’t really take and the conversation switched to why there were only 3 of us at the meeting. A couple of people had contacted to say why they couldn’t come and it is quite a small group anyway. Raymond, the artist from Boscastle had died since the last meeting – taken by a nasty cancer. I confessed that I had thought about cancelling the meeting, but didn’t feel it was right. (In fact now I’m not going to cancel it even if it’s just me!)

The conversation evolved into one about Resurgence and its unique demographic in the context of expanding its readership. Our group seems to be very specifically clustered around the 50-ish age group. We share interests in gardening, nature, ecology, ‘slow food’, authenticity and self-awareness, along with an appreciation of arts and crafts, with all of us ‘creatives’ in some sense.

The magazine is integrative in a culture that leans towards specialisation. Its readership has been shrinking in an age where magazines are seen as a luxury and new media is becoming the norm. Although Resurgence is adapting to this and has a strong online presence, neither Mark nor Simon had accessed it due to different media consumption patterns. I suspect that although the magazine is now online, its unique formula has yet to find appeal for younger consumers. But please correct me if I am wrong (comments below).

The conversation moved onto media consumption patterns. We compared notes on laptops, computers, TV and so on – coming to the conclusion that one day all of the channels will be available on just one device that will be too complicated for anyone to work…

But then as the cloak of night settled in around us, we found ourselves inside ‘archetypal time’. Three authentic ‘Resurgence’ blokes, opening ourselves to each other, disclosing personal things about life, the universe and everything. We compared our spiritual values, which were surprisingly diverse, sitting round a fire in the heart of ancient Cornwall. But what was so special is that we were totally accepting of the diversity of each other. There was no ‘my God is better than your God’ here, just a total being in the moment, a sharing and acceptance of each other, a deep relating between men. Time disappeared.

Eventually Mark looked at his watch and found it was midnight and we broke up the meeting as we all had work the next day. But I was left wanting more of this.

This excellent meeting of three male minds round a fire was most unexpected and enjoyable. I also think that this open intimacy of mind between men is at the heart of healing many dis-eases of our culture.

I kept the fire going all next day as a tribute to these fine guys who shared moments – and in memory of Raymond.

Simon Mitchell lives on the edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall and loves growing things in his garden, then eating them. He writes about ecology issues, makes beautiful websites and publishes books. He also runs a Resurgence Readers’ Group. Pick up his free eco-zine at: http://www.nettlesoup.org.uk/

Harm into Harmony

2011-07-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

Examples of human-inflicted harm surround us. But if we hope for a better future we must cultivate visions of a restored balance. Nurture harmony in our own lives as well as seeking inspiring examples: A child day-dreaming in a field of wild flowers, or the family-run small holding that has turned to edible forest farming, or perhaps a person who has won the tenuous trust of a wild creature’s heart.

I know such a person, who has dedicated the last twelve years of her life to cultivating a marvelous and trusting friendship with a wild dolphin off the coast of Ireland. Though the sea is cold and often rough, day in and day out she braves the elements and the two friends head out into the wilds. They explore reefs and shoals and waving kelp beds, and perhaps most interesting of all, this dolphin introduces her to other creatures in the marine community – seals, sunfish, basking sharks, porpoises and even other dolphins, all presented with that wry dolphin smile. This magical trust is not something that could be bought for any price. It has been earned.

If there is one thing about humankind that might make it special, it is that we hold at least the potential to befriend all wild creatures and in some manner, speak, walk (or swim) with and care for them all.

I leave you with a recommendation: a diminutive but most marvelous book on this worthy topic called Kinship With All Life, by J. Allen Boone.

Leah Lemieux is an author and lecturer who works on dolphin protection, education and conservation initiatives. For more information on her work visit: www.RekindlingTheWaters.com

Opening Peru's Secret Treasure Chest

2011-07-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

A conversation with conservationist Stefan Austermühle.

Peru is known for its inland treasures, for its mountains and rainforests, ancient ruins and rich culture. But there is an undiscovered treasure in Peru, or more accurately, in its oceans. Stefan Austermühle of the conservation organisation Mundo Azul and the marine eco-tourism company Nature Expeditions, told me more about this unrecognised marine hotspot.

This part of the Pacific is vaguely known to have a high biomass (meaning biological mass, i.e. a lot of anchovies). But what remains unrecognised is its astonishing biodiversity (meaning many different animals, i.e. not just anchovies.) The water here is dense, it is a "Floating soup of food", but with no existing culture of marine tourism to promote it, no one knows of its bounteous beauty.

The richness of the Peruvian coastal waters is the result of two ocean currents. One is the Humboldt Current, which flows northwards along the Peruvian coast, bringing with it cool, oxygen rich waters from Antarctica. The other is a strong upwelling close to the Peruvian coast which draws up nutrient rich water. These two currents combined cause a very high production of algae, and consequently form the basis for an extraordinarily rich diversity of marine life. There is one big party going on here, and everyone is invited, be they a charismatic whale or a humble mollusc.

The figures which Stefan gives are, quite simply, staggering. "Over 30 species of cetaceans either reside or migrate here to feed. That's 37% of the total number of cetacean species in the world. There are 1,000 species of fish, 600 crustaceans and 1,400 molluscs. There are sea lions, fur seals and sea otters. There are 87 species of marine birds, 27 of which are albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels, and seven are gulls."

When Stefan takes tourists out on trips with Nature Expeditions, they are at a loss for words. More than 1,500 bottlenose dolphins reside along one short stretch of coastline near Lima, which means there are a staggering six dolphins per kilometre. Viewing the dead desert meeting the sparkling ocean and watch dolphins leaping out of the water against a background of dramatic sand dunes, takes people's breath away.

Kayak tour operators from other countries have told him that they have never in their life seen as many species of marine birds and animals as they see in Peru on a two hour kayak trip. Divers are amazed to see rocks covered in a carpet of life not just one animal deep, but two or thee animals all sitting on top of each other!

One of Stefan's personal favourite nature experiences is swimming with sea lions. In Stefan's words, "Swimming with sea lions is great. Sea lions make contact with you, they gently nibble at you to see what strange creature you are. They are funny, they play, they sneak up on you and shoot away when you turn and look at them!"

In could be assumed that it is a blessing for Peru's ocean to remain unknown to the world at large. After all, surely this means that it will not become spoilt. However, as Stefan says,

"The ocean here is being overfished, contaminated and destroyed, and no one knows about it. Nobody sees the plastic bags and other waste floating in the waves. Because no one sees it, there is no one to shout out 'Wait, what are you doing to this beautiful ocean!' Conservation only works when people are aware of the fact that beauty can disappear. When no one is aware, no one cares, and when no one cares, unscrupulous people are free to continue destroying."

I asked Stefan what he hopes Mundo Azul and Nature Expeditions can achieve in the future. He replied, "Helping people to discover the beauty, so that they care and take action to protect it."

There is a huge potential in Peru for marine eco-tourism. The more successful Nature Expeditions and other companies become, the more well known Peru's ocean treasures become. Stefan hopes this will start the metaphorical snowball rolling on its way to providing incomes for local people and, importantly, gaining the worldwide recognition which the area needs to ensure its protection for the future.

Stefan Austermühle is the director of the conservation organisation Mundo Azul, and the marine eco-tourism company Nature Expeditions, in Lima, Peru. To find out more about each organisation go to: http://mundoazul.org/ and http://nature-expeditions-peru.com/

Amanda Banks is a freelance writer from England, currently engaged in a three month project writing about the life and work of cetacean conservationists in North and South America. To read more of her posts on conservationists, go to: http://amandabanks.com/blog/

Photographs, copyright: Mundo Azul

Reflections on Humanity

2011-06-03T05:02:00.000-07:00

A conversation with cetacean conservationist Peggy Stap

Having just spent the last month working alongside Peggy Stap of Marine Life Studies, California, I decided to ask her for her thoughts on humans and our role on this planet.

She responded, "Sometimes I hate to say that I am human. Even in my own circle of friends and family, some people are doing what they can and some are not. It is frustrating. But we can only keep trying to find ways to help people connect with the world around them. Everything and everyone is interrelated and dependent on one another, only together can we keep our oceans healthy for the future."

Peggy notices that some people may say they care, but this is not always reflected in their actions. She also notices that some people are so unconnected from their relationship with the planet that they do not care at all, in thought or action. Peggy believes that it is up to those of us who do care to help those of us who do not. She believes strongly in the role of education to bring home to us all the effects of our actions; effects which will have as great a consequence on us as on the rest of life on this planet.

Peggy believes that the message we need to get across is that, "Every little thing every single one of us does has an impact, like whether we use plastic bags and balloons or not." As she explains to students on a regular basis, if she influences just two people and those people then influence two people, who then influence two people... very quickly that influence has expanded to 1000's of people.

I asked Peggy what she thought of the view that it is our leaders and the corporate world, with their greater sphere of influence, who should be the ones making changes. She answered, "If we want our leaders to do more we need to tell them so. We must write letters and emails, sign petitions and make phone calls. If we want businesses to change their habits we must buy from ethical businesses and write to manufacturers. We must be prepared to play our part."

Peggy gets a little cross with people who are good at complaining but not so good at taking responsibility for their own lives. She recounts various stories of people who may have a TV in every room of the house but still think they do not have enough. She would love to transport them out of their comfortable lives to see the reality of the world and the hardships which many people face, in order for them to learn how to appreciate their lives and take responsibility for them.

A few days ago Bob Talbot, film maker and friend of Peggy's, said, "People are involved in conservation for three reasons: they care and believe in what they are doing; they are lost and do not know what they believe in; they are satisfying the needs of their ego. These three reasons are not mutually exclusive, there are of course crossovers."

His thoughts can probably be echoed in every walk of life from corporate boss to factory worker. Whether we are a conservationist, politician or average person on the street, we are all human and suffer from the same potential for both weakness and strength, darkness and light. It is our choices and actions which allow either our strengths or our weaknesses to flourish, and these choices are our own responsibility, no one else's. As Peggy says, "When I am on my deathbed it is me, and me alone, who will either suffer from having stored up anger towards others and guilt for my actions on this planet, or be at peace from feelings of good will, knowing I have lived my life trying to make a difference and leaving the world a better place." I think she has given a near perfect definition of what it means to take responsibility for your own life.

Peggy Stap is the founder and director of Marine Life Studies, a cetacean conservation, research and education organisation in Monterey Bay, California. To find out more about the organisation's work, go to: www.marinelifestudies.org

Photograph: courtesy Amanda Banks. Peggy Stap (left) with education co-ordinator Jenna Contuchio (centre) and writer Amanda Banks (right).

A Celebration of Life and Achievement

2011-05-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

I've attended many specialist festivals on the Dartington Hall estate over the last ten years, all of which have been stimulating, nourishing food for mind, heart and soul. But of all the festivals visited within those stunning grounds and buildings, Tagore 150 was the most rounded, holistic and nourishing I've experienced. A dynamic, inspirational programme of music, discussion, theatre, daily Culture Cafe's, dance, celebrated authors, philosophers, artists, scientists and activists bringing to the frontline the huge body of work of one astonishing human being.

Rabindranath Tagore was a man, an activist, an artist, a radical teacher, an environmental champion, a dancer and best loved of all a writer of many great literary works culminating in his award of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. This was a festival and celebration of life that he would have been proud of.

Before the festival I knew very little about Tagore's work and life. After the festival I feel I have stepped deep into the personal and professional world of one very fine individual and the celebration of an extraordinary career brought vividly to life through the words, ideas and art of over 100 different contributors throughout the week-long celebration.

What's important to me when faced with an individual's overwhelming achievements is not to be daunted and deflated in the face of such a visible, powerful body of work, but to be inspired by it, energised and galvanised to keep pushing ahead, keep moving forward; to keep the faith in the darkest hours of life. To be motivated by the belief that however small my contribution to this world is, what I do will ripple out into the future like a pebble on water. I've no idea where the fluid, rippling rings of my life's work will end up. If the pebble is dropped into the ocean, my life's work might perhaps one day become a mighty wave connecting to all living things. The wave of Tagore's life is still moving out, inspiring the world, one person at a time, to dare to offer their unique talents to society in the hope that they may also inspire reverence and respect for a life well lived.

Well done to all the volunteers, staff, artists and to Victoria who produced the festival from start to finish.

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback.

http://www.casparwalsh.co.uk/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/caspar-walsh

The Emerald Forest

2011-05-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

This is now quite an old movie, released in 1985 and made by John Boorman, also the director of ‘Deliverance’. Based on a true story, it stars his son, Charley Boorman, who was recently seen on TV out on thrilling motorbike adventures with his friend Ewan McGregor.

This movie made quite an impact on me at the time and is one I ordered on DVD, as I really wanted to see it again. For my mind, there aren’t nearly enough movies that can be described as ‘eco-adventures’, but this certainly is one that is well worth watching – even 26 years on.

Charley plays ‘Tommé’ a young boy who is whisked away by the ‘Invisible People’ while his father, Bill, is working in the Amazon, in charge of clearing land to build a dam. Ten years later the parents are still searching, the only clue being a yellow arrow feather fired by the tribe as they left. Bill and his wife have searched and researched everywhere to find a clue to the location of the ‘invisibles’ deep in the forest.

Tommé has grown up a native, completely integrated with the tribe, his parents existing for him now only in ‘dreamtime’, his ‘real’ father now the tribal chief. On a coming of age quest to find precious green stone, he meets ‘Daddé’ (Bill) and helps him escape from the ‘Fierce People’, an extremely carnivorous and violent tribe who have been driven into the ‘invisibles’ territory by land clearance.

‘Daddé’ recovers slowly at the ‘invisibles’ home but Tommé refuses to go home with him. They move Bill to the ‘edge of the world’ where he will be found by the other ‘termite people’, who cause all the trees to be destroyed. While they are out the Fierce People raid their village and take all the girls to exchange for guns and bullets from a local sex slave trader. Tommé’s betrothed is also kidnapped and the tribe find they cannot raid the bar / brothel as it is too well protected by electric fences, guns and the Fierce People. Tommé sets off beyond the edge of the world to find ‘Daddé’ (and to meet Mommé), to ask for help to get the girls back.

The film somehow reminds of Avatar, a recent favourite. The cinematography is spectacular, transporting the viewer deep into the verdant jungle. Its people are believable and real and beautifully costumed – acted by indigenous Indians. Although there are subtitles as they speak ‘local’ this only adds to their believability in this authentic movie.

Many movies seem to exist in order to subtlety endorse the accepted ‘values’ of Western democracy – such as the much touted ‘family values’. The Emerald Forest does not. Conventionally, after gross sentimentalisation and emotional wallowing, the family always gets back together as a unit in the end. Full credit to John Boorman who defies convention and has Tommé staying with the tribe. This movie extends some of the themes seen in Deliverance, particularly the battle between mankind and nature and the effects of capitalist greed. There should be more films like this.

This is definitely a movie for people who always watched ‘Wild Westerns’ and wanted to be on the Indians side rather than the cowboys. It supports the underdog; it puts us in the forest with the natives. The movie concludes its 26-year-old message:

“The Rain Forests of the Amazon are disappearing at the rate of 5,000 acres per day. Four million Indians once lived there. 120,000 are left. A few tribes have never had contact with the outside world. They still know what we have forgotten”.

May

2011-05-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

Throughout our lives we too draw the test to ourselves. When the lightening strikes, everything is in that instant illuminated. Our strength, our weakness, our courage, our vulnerability, all becomes visible. We learn our limits, the sweep of our power and that which we can endure.

Lightning strikes come in many guises. Illness, accidents, unemployment, separation, financial difficulties, bereavement, bullying, they inevitably test us in the arena in which we feel most vulnerable. We each have our own lessons to learn and we will be tested again and again until we learn them.

Often at this time we seek objects in the woods that symbolise the lightning strikes both past and present that have tested us and continue to do so. These we mark with a flame to show the burn. We share our stories of strikes past, how they hurt us and how they made us grow. Together we learn about the gifts that the lightning brings. This helps us sit now with the strikes present, with the tests that we now face and seek to endure. We combat fear with trust, self doubt with expectation. Then we make a fire out of all we have gathered. Standing together around the hearth we take turns to suggest ways of raising the fire within ourselves. We leap, we roar, we chant, we dance. We stand in silence holding hands, drawing the heat into our bodies. Then we are ready. Ready to face our tests.

Ian Siddons Heginworth is an environmental arts therapist, founder of the Devon-based Wild Things community programme and author of Environmental Arts Therapy and the Tree of Life, Spirit’s Rest Books. www.environmentalartstherapy.co.uk

Radical Ideas for a Radically Different World

2011-05-11T03:14:00.000-07:00

'I slept and dreamt that life was joy
I awoke and saw that life was service
I acted and behold, that service was joy'

Tagore

There was never a guarantee I would even find standing room at The Great Hall let alone get a seat for the Deepak Chopra event. I confess I am not a trend or guru follower – something about the rebel in me. But I am always open to new ideas and possibilities. I was given Deepak's best selling book, 'Synchro Destiny' and found it hard to get into, so I came to the event as a curious journalist not a follower.

I found a seat with a mix of other journalists. There was yet another issue with sound in The Great Hall space, Deepak's tie mic didn't work so his honeyed voice had to be forced through the main PA. I spent the entire event straining to concentrate on his treatise on the relevance of Tagore today whilst wincing at the piercing sibilance hitting the audience every time his words required an 's'. I heard moments of clarity and brilliance from his delivery, but ended up feeling frustrated that I'd missed out on something special. Despite my gripe, the audience clearly revelled in his presence, words and indisputable charisma. He could've sat up front for 45 minutes and meditated and he would still have received a very warm reception.

There was a short break, then Deepak moved into his next event discussing the power of healing. I hovered on leaving but my gut said stay. It was in this next gathering that I was to discover what the fuss and legend attached to Chopra was all about.

His tie mic was fixed, the knife-like 'S's' were softened and he hit his stride from the first word. I was captivated throughout. He talked passionately about his time as a young doctor in training in Calcutta and how he encountered so much death accompanied by the painful stages of dying – from denial, to apathy to panic. Death is not a subject spoken nearly enough in our culture – in the UK. Deepak brought a sharp reality and a tangible sense of hope for all our paths as we journey inevitably into the metaphysical stages beyond life.

He connected his understanding of death to lives half lived in jobs that 80 per cent of the population of the world are dissatisfied with. I was shocked that only 20 per cent of the population of the planet love what they do for a living. He went on to drop the statistical bomb that more people die at 9am on a Monday morning than at any other time. I suddenly felt very blessed to be doing what I love and making what I believe is a difference in the world. His point was that we must use our lives and the time we have to follow our deepest dreams for change within ourselves and for the world as a whole. It was a call to arms delivered with passion, clarity and empowerment.

I left the Great Hall converted (still defiantly independent!), connected to the masses of readers of Chopra's work and followers of his philosophy; feeling reassured, empowered and determined to carry on with my chosen path to help others find their unique paths into lives of service and joy.

That evening, legendary Sarod player, Wajahat Khan played a mesmerising Gitanjli inspired set accompanied by a fantastic tabla player and Wajahat's two sons on sitar. The music was interspersed with stories of Wajaht's father (composer of the Gitanjli musical work), Ustad Imrat and the early days of Indian music played at Dartington; a period inspired and directly linked to Tagore's time on the estate. Wajahat made the bold but entirely believable statement that the seed of UK World Music was sown on the Dartington Estate. Peter Gabriel's Womad is a direct descendant of the early musical heritage of Dartington. I now have fresh eyes on the estate's link to World music and feel that much more proud to be living just down the road.

The 'Poem's on the Move' dance group was yet another first for me. Contemporary dance, as a writer craving literary, coherent narrative, is not a form I'm drawn to, but I couldn't deny the beauty of their Tagore poetry inspired dance to a powerful, moving soundtrack. It was clear their heart was in their work and this transmitted directly to the audience. I want the music they played in my car!

There is a theme in the events I saw on this day. It's all about being open and willing to engage with new ideas, to let go of the attachments to what I'm comfortable and familiar with and deepen my understanding of and connection to the wider world. My eyes, mind and heart have been nourished and opened just a little bit more and my work and writing has been inspired and energised.
Encore!

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback.

http://www.casparwalsh.co.uk/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/caspar-walsh

World Class Poetry Day

2011-05-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

“Love adorns itself; it seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty.

Love does not claim possession,

but gives freedom

Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it.

Love's gift cannot be given,
it waits to be accepted”. Tagore

Sharpham Poetry Fair – a houseful of poems

I've been to the Sharpham Estate many times. The beauty of the building and its location on the Dart never fail to move me, actually the place blows me away. As I turned the corner to the entrance, gentle music drifted from speakers and I was greeted by the view of the river below and the bright green growth of the woodlands lining the Ancient river's embankment. A river brought into national and international consciousness by Alice Oswald and her tribute to its waters and the life touched by it. Alice was present and organised the poetry day at Sharpham including an impressive selection of local, and global poets.

As I entered the main building and walked through to the foot of the grand staircase I was hit by that familiar festival feeling – which event to go to? I wanted to be in more than one room at once. There were a series of stairwell performances mixed with open performances in the various rooms on the ground floor including a captivating, interactive digital tribute to Tagore by Jerome Fletcher and J.R Carpenter.

Matt Harvey made his second appearance at the festival. I've probably heard his 'Thwoc' tennis tone poem, created during his residency at Wimbledon Tennis Club, performed live at least 5 times. I try and resist it, wanting something new, but each time he gets to the match point of the piece I am humbled into submission by the fact that this is a gentle work of genius. He told me after the event that his father was illustrating the poem and a book was in the pipeline. This I want to see.

Yet another festival first for me was Zena Edwards. Zena mixes her soulful voice, street speak and a prodigious gift for sharp, emotive poetry like a DJ – powerful, moving and magical. Her song, words and rhythms filled the stairwell and brought the house to fierce life. I moved closer, sat on the hard floor and looked up the stairwell to the audience leaning over the balcony, realising this space was refreshingly unique in providing a performance platform that could be seen from above below and at eye level. I found myself drawn to watching the crowd as much as the performer. Poetry surrounded me in the form of artist, performance space and audience.

The final performance of the evening was due to be from poetic champions Simon Armitage, former poet laureate Andrew Motion and Brian Patten. Brian and Andrew made it but Simon had broken his leg that morning, the announcement drawing gasps from the crowd. Motion and Patten filled the space Simon sadly had left, beautifully. These men make poetry look easy but it is clearly a result of many years hard graft. I had heard Patten's work on Radio 4's 'Poetry Please' many times, but to hear him in person was a powerful connecting experience, bringing me closer to the realms of death, friendship, shirts and dresses!

At the end of the event I found myself sitting outside in the warmth of the May evening on the same table as Andrew Motion, Matt Harvey, Tagore translator, Anuman Biswaz and London poet Malika Booker. It was for this writer and part -time poet a surprisingly relaxed (there is understandable awe and a little angst in this kind of company) and connected end to an evening of blazing, moving and thought provoking poetry.

Celebration for the power of the written word and its ability to connect us all to the beautiful, finer details of everyday life and the divinity that exists within it and us all.

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback.

http://www.casparwalsh.co.uk/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/caspar-walsh

Tagore Tales - The Secret of Success

2011-05-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

Mahatma Ghandi was visiting Tagore. Following lunch, Gandhi went to take rest when some of the ashram workers, followers of Tagore, approached him.
"Can you help us, Gandhiji? We are worried about the health of Rabindranath Tagore, he is not keeping good health. The Doctors advised him to take rest, but he refuses. We do not want his health to fail."
Gandhi asked, "Why do you want me to tell him to rest?"
"We know he will not go against your advice."

After Gandhi had rested awhile, he went to Tagore's residence and saw that he was deeply immersed in his work. When Tagore looked up and saw Gandhi standing there he asked him, "Are you not comfortable that you have come out from your rest so soon?"
Gandhi replied: "I have come to ask you to take rest after your lunch so your health does not fail. You are not keeping fit these days."
Tagore replied: "How can I do that? I must tell you the truth so that you will understand. When I was 12 I took a vow never to rest at any time during the day for any reason. Up to now I have kept that vow. How many more years do I have to live? Why would I break that vow now?"
Tagore's determination and commitment to his promise moved Gandhi. For 67 years Tagore had never rested during the day. Gandhi was impressed by his commitment to his goal and told him, "Now I know the secret of your success!"

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback. www.casparwalsh.co.uk
http://www.casparwalsh.co.uk/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/caspar-walsh

The Soul and Heart of Environmental Art

2011-05-04T13:29:00.000-07:00

"I touch God in my song
as the hill touches the far-away sea with its waterfall.
The butterfly counts not months but moments,
and has time enough.
Let my love, like sunlight, surround you
and yet give you illumined freedom.

Love remains a secret even when spoken,
for only a lover truly knows that he is loved"
Tagore, excerpt from 'Fireflies'

Having feasted on many events in the first few days of the Tagore festival, I scaled back and made the decision to go to only one on Tuesday. A tough decision. I opted for Chris Drury. It was the best possible choice. I had seen Chris's work for the first time in Resurgence and was immediately struck and captivated by the simplicity and beauty of what he is creating in the world. Artworks in stone, wood, water, ice and even mushrooms... ! draw easy comparisons to Andy Goldsworthy and Antony Gormley, artists I've admired for many years. Chris's work equals both Goldsworthy and Gormley. He very much ploughs his own furrow, creating completely original, environmentally inspired works of art.

I arrived a few minutes late to the event because I 'd spent ten minutes looking for a parking space. The festival is very well attended – the eco worrier (no spelling mistake) in me was muttering and wondering how many of the rides were shared?

Chris's event was presented as a slide show of some of his recent works across the world with different groups, communities and tribes. He narrated his way through the creation of stone and wood works in a UK hospital inspired by the images of a cardiogram. Massive reconstructions of the formations and flows of arctic wind on the freshly snow covered ice sheet where he used satellite images of the wind flows uploaded onto a GPS satellite navigation system. He then attached the GPS to a skidoo (motorised sled), and followed the lines carefully, scaled up large and 'drawn' in the snow by the skidoo's skis. He then photographed the reconstructed lines of wind in ice from a high vantage point. Utterly inspiring and ingenious.

I literally drew a sharp in take of breath when he talked us through the slides of his recreation of a nuclear mushroom cloud out of sprigs of sage from the New Mexico desert where the first nuclear tests changed the world forever. The dried sage (used in cleansing rituals around the world) was hung from the ceiling in a multitude of pieces, forming a facsimile of the mushroom-shaped cloud that became synonymous with mankind's most destructive bomb. Chris repeated the concept in Italy using dried mushrooms, lit stunningly from beneath. I have never seen anything like it. I absolutely loved this work.

A sharp observation from the audience from a long term environmental campaigner highlighted the recent acceptance from environmental groups that the heavy message of environmental catastrophe simply wasn't getting through to the masses. What was though, was environmental art. For me the kind of art Chris creates opens up the heart and soul before the cynical mind can distract me from a deeper truth, leaving me much more open to the messages that relate or connect to that work.

Chris clearly has a message and a passion for the natural world and is constantly looking at ways to connect technology, nature, life and death and create artworks that move and inspire. He warned that as an artist it was a bad idea to approach environmental art with a world changing agenda; 'it kills the heart of it.' He said he always looked for the connections in nature, the bridges between objects and ideas and this was his driving force. The eco message comes later, as a bonus not a primary driver.

As I'm writing, I realise I wish I'd gone to meet him and buy his book so he could sign it for me. I will buy it anyway. His work, the heart and soul of it, filled The Barn Cinema with hushed reverence from the audience and left me feeling nourished and connected and even more ready to bring my own creativity deeper into the world in the hope that hearts and minds will be opened and if I'm lucky, agendas aside, there will be a greater reverence and respect for our life and impact on the earth.
Tagore would be proud.

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback. www.casparwalsh.co.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/caspar-walsh

A Feast of Ideas and Passions

2011-05-04T03:47:00.000-07:00

Tagore 150 at Dartington Hall
1^st to 7^th May 2011

I stand under the golden canopy of thine evening sky

and I lift my eager eyes to thy face

I have come to the brink of eternity from which nothing can vanish

– no hope, no happiness, no vision of a face seen through tear
Tagore, extract from 'Brink of Eternity'

A full day of food for thought, belly and heart – and a little more food for the belly than usual! The curry tent and its hypnotic music is becoming a regular haunt for this writer with its generous portions of wholesome spicy, home cooked vegetables served by a friendly duo who clearly love their work.

Wandering through the grounds listening to discussion sparked by events and talks, bumping into old friends, making new ones easily through the shared, unspoken understanding that by the nature of being at the festival we are of the same tribe, idea, belief and passion, wanting a better world full of creativity, connection and a desire for deep change. The weather held and at times offered bursts of sunlight followed by welcome warmth cutting through the cool days of May after so much April sunshine.

I have heard and read much of Jane Goodall and her work but had no idea just how much she has done and is doing in the world to help make it a better, more loved and respected place for humans, animals and plant kingdom alike. And it is clearly a better place for her life within it.

In defiant defence of our world and all the beings within it, Jane is indeed a force of nature. The Great Hall was packed. Her message delivered clearly and simply. No one could mistake her feelings of despair for the world we have created; she made the 'we' very clear. But she possesses an unflinching faith for the possibilities of change and the hope she has for a better world. Very much in line with here her Roots and Shoots charity motto 'Never Give Up.'

It would be easy to be overwhelmed by the staggering accomplishments of her life and for me to think, “how could I get close to that, why bother?” but she clearly believes we are all capable of making an important difference in the world no matter how small – and in fact we must. It's not simply up to the politicians to do this. We are the leaders we've been waiting for. I couldn't agree more.

Questions from the floor seemed at times to be more about personal platforms for individual work and beliefs and at one point a gallery questioner almost seemed to be moving into a heckle about the destructive force of technology, demanding a response from Jane. She held the question firm, making it clear that for her, technology used correctly, was a key part of our future and has a place in helping to alleviate poverty and the reliance on fossil fuels. I couldn't help thinking about her momentous discovery of the chimpanzee who had created a tool to eat termites and how this changed the world view of humans being unique because they are the only species to create tools.

She then unseated religion and belief as being another key division between animals and man with her story of seeing a group of chimps dancing by a massive waterfall, hurling rocks into the water, staring up at the cascading water in wonder and how this echoed mankind's nature based beliefs and the worship of mystery and beauty in the natural world.

Jane received a much-deserved standing ovation.

Stephan Harding and Philip Franses delivered an ambitious 45-minute talk on the relationship between Einstein and Tagore using Goethe as the bridging point. I heard somewhere that it is good to read or engage with material, words or ideas that requires thought, every day. This certainly demanded some mind bending concepts to get my head around, imagining riding beams of light and ending where you began before you've even left your starting point (part of Einstein's discussion on light as an immeasurable force). I left a little baffled but boosted by the colour they brought to the talk and their evident, shared passion for blending science and belief in a positive and workable way.

There is a feast of ideas and passions at this festival and I would be wise not to gorge myself too early in my hungry search for creative, spiritual and intellectual satisfaction. Time to wander and sit and digest and let the ideas percolate and of course, eat a little more curry...

Tagore Tales
Rabindranath Tagore. William Rothenstein in his book Men and Memories quotes a story of what happened when Yeats arranged a small dinner for Tagore before he left for India. After dinner, “we asked Tagore to sing Bande Mataram. He hummed the tune but after the first words he broke down; he could not remember the rest.

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback. www.casparwalsh.co.uk

The Vision Becomes a Reality

2011-05-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

Tagore 150 at Dartington Hall Estate

1^st to 7^th May 2011

“O Sun of India's sky,
O World-Poet,
O Moon of Bengal's heart,
You were beautiful in your inner life,
You were beautiful in your outer life,

You were beauty incarnate in God's entire creation.
Gloriously and triumphantly you secure your place
In the world-assembly with your creative force,
Supremely meaningful and fruitful in various walks of life.”

- Sri Chinmoy from 'My India'

Illustration by Norman Young

There could be no better or appropriate place in England than the Dartington Hall Estate to hold the celebratory festival marking 150 years since the birth of the great artist, philosopher and social activist, Rabindranath Tagore. The festival has been two years in the making and spearheaded by Tagore adorer and Resurgence Editor in Chief, Satish Kumar. The high level of organisation involved; the vision and passion to honour Tagore and his life's work is now buzzing through Dartington Hall and the surrounding grounds. There is a palpable sense of pride at the many events on offer and the list of luminaries who have signed up in great number to discuss their unique interpretations of Tagore's work and life.

I am drawn to the festival as a writer and I confess, prior to the first day on Sunday the 1^st of May, I was for the most part, ignorant to the scale of Tagore's work and its impact on the world.

My many teachers told me about the great writers and poets, but only ever about the English ones. I never heard the name, Tagore once mentioned. He began to get my attention proper soon after I moved to Dartington in 2008 in relation to his significant influence on the founders of the Dartington Hall Trust, the Elmhursts'. But Tagore still remained pretty much, just a name, making little impact on my ill educated western mind. I had also not heard of Tagore's epic work of poems 'Gitanjali', which won him the Nobel prize for literature in 1913.

An interpretation of 'Gitanjali' was presented on Sunday evening in the Great Hall as an audio visual event to mark the opening day of the festival. Within five minutes of being immersed in the beautiful montage of slides projected onto the Great Hall walls, Tagore's poetry writ large alongside, exemplary live music and dance and pitch perfect recitations, I became fully and acutely aware of what the fuss was and still is, all about. The poems featured within these sublime ninety minutes were clearly devotional and expressed the pure joy of Tagore's life in relation to nature and nature in relation to the fullness of blissful, human experience. Believe me, it's not easy to write poems about bliss. Poems about pain and heartache flow easy compared to the unique ability to express a view of the world through joy and a pure heart without reverting to shmaltz. Tagore achieves simple, clean and beautiful devotional poetry with apparent ease, producing something brilliant, clear and memorable. The show received a much deserved standing ovation.

Preceding 'Gitanjali' was the staged performance piece, 'The Awakening' bringing together three women from Tagore's poetry, fiction and drama. Four very accomplished dancers brought this work to life accompanied by a storyteller and traditional musicians. Aside from an early problem with sound, this was superb. Another first for me. Their skill as dancers was mesmerising; each with their own individual style. Having the story unfold through dance, alongside recitations kept me fully engaged throughout and falling a little in love with the colour of the outfits and the beauty of the dancers.

I noticed an artist scribbling away next to me trying to capture their rapid movement and energy. I asked him to scan and send them to me to share them with you here:

Tagore Tales

After Wilfred Owen lost his life in the first World War, a letter written for his mother in the event of his death was found in his tunic. It quoted Tagore with these chilling, beautiful words from 'Gitanjali':

“When I go from here, let this be my parting word, that what I have seen is unsurpassable”

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback. www.casparwalsh.co.uk

The Minute and Miraculous

2011-04-27T02:39:00.000-07:00

After the long, lagging winter, the season of singing is at last upon us. Fuzzy buds and blossoms burst from the trees and shoots come burning up from the ground in a colorful profusion. Minute wonders surround us, yet they are so easily overlooked. The petals of magnolia or bluebells when examined closely reveal how they draw and translate their beauty from water and light – into prismatic glory.

In these signs of vernal renewal I find a kind of counter balance issuing from Nature; an answer to the human-created chaos unfolding around the globe. We wage war, poison Earth and sea – yet still, she sings. The exquisite trills of robins, spinning out like dewdrops along a spider’s silken line are, just like the flowers, awash in light.

In spring perhaps more than any other season, we sense reminders of the divine all around us. This ancient, eternal dance of renewal brings into perspective this current blink of history, overshadowed by the rage of homo sapiens. Flowers and birds were here first and in one form or another, they shall endure and in this, there is a certain solace. And for those so inclined, invitation stands, that if even for a few moments, we may set down the human drama and “be as the lilies” – discover to our delight, that there exists a place for us within the symphony.

Leah Lemieux is an author and lecturer who works on dolphin protection, education and conservation initiatives. www.RekindlingTheWaters.com

April

2011-04-12T06:08:00.000-07:00

The tree that the Celts traditionally associated with April was the hawthorn, a tree of love and fertility. But the hawthorn does not usually flower until May which is why it is also called the May tree. The blackthorn flowers now, around Easter. Its soft white blossom is in stark contrast to its harsh black thorns. Known as the crown of thorns, the blackthorn tells us of the difficult tasks that must be faced, indeed, that cannot be avoided. This is the place of shadow that must be honoured before the fullness of spring can be enjoyed.

In the mythology of hawthorn, we hear more of these difficult tasks. The hawthorn goddess Olwen was the daughter of Yspaddaden Pencawr or Giant Hawthorn. She was known as ‘She of the white track’, for white blossom sprang up wherever she walked, leaving white tracks across the land, just as the flowering of hawthorn in the hedgerows does now. The nephew of King Arthur, Culhwych, fell in love with her and was set by her father countless impossible tasks before he could claim her hand. He was helped by the Knights of the Round Table and won his bride.

So Olwen’s white track becomes the bridal train leading us across the land to the place of union. Here where the sun and earth are joined in the marriage that is spring, where the masculine and feminine within us become one, this is our inner alchemical wedding. April is the time of preparation for this, where the sacred tasks are set.

But just as the hawthorn does not blossom until the end of April, it can be hard in the early part of the month to discern our white track from all the others available to us. Its whiteness, as it were, is not apparent yet. The white track is not a road of oughts and shoulds, it is a path of heart. We may not recognise it until we feel it. Stepping onto it thrills us to the core.

Ian Siddons Heginworth is an environmental arts therapist, founder of the Devon-based Wild Things community programme and author of Environmental Arts Therapy and the Tree of Life, Spirit’s Rest Books. www.environmentalartstherapy.co.uk

March

2011-03-16T03:21:00.000-07:00

The ash tree is the tree that the Celts associated most with the month of March. In Norse mythology, it was Ygdrassil, the World ash. This ancient and shamanic image illustrates three levels of consciousness, as well as the journey of a human life.

The roots of Ygdrassil are found in the underworld, the unconscious self. Because it contains all the material that we have chosen to repress it is also our past and in particular our childhood. It is our foundation, the place that we are growing from. In the myth, the world serpent gnaws incessantly at these roots. As a symbol of the dark feminine, the wounded feeling self, this is the gnawing of our wounds demanding attention. This dark material is the compost from which life blossoms. The alchemists call it the prima materia, the dark lead that lies heavy on our hearts.

At the beginning of March, down among the dark roots of the World ash, we can connect very deeply to this prima materia and feel it as raw and intolerable once again. Up among the branches at this time, the buds of the ash tree are black as lead.

The trunk of Ygdrassil is the here and now, this world that we live in, the present. It is here that the alchemical transformation of the prima materia takes place. When we allow ourselves to be in relationship with our feeling self we begin the transmutation of our wounds, changing the lead into gold. This is conscious adulthood, our life work. Here the trunk of the tree becomes the sealed container in which the process unfolds as naturally as the spring.

In the branches of Ygdrassil, we find the future and those elders who having worked their alchemy are now harvesting their gold. In the myth, the lower branches are the home of deer, which graze upon the leaves while the eagle, the higher self looks down from above. As symbols of love and gentleness, the deer are an indication of the nature of this harvest. We may strive for material wealth, but it is in the fruiting of relationship, both with ourselves and others, that we find real gold. This is a harvest of the heart and it can be there in all our futures.

Photograph: Ash Tree Marmit www.sxc.hu/profile/marmit

February

2011-02-16T05:08:00.000-08:00

As the days grow longer and warmth returns, that which has been frozen begins to thaw and feeling returns to the Earth.

The month of February begins with the ancient festival of Imbolc. Meaning ‘in the belly’, Imbolc marks the first stirring of life in the womb of the Earth. Dedicated to the goddess Bride, it is the first fire festival of the year.

Bride, or Bridie, is the virgin goddess and all brides represent her as they walk towards union with the solar masculine. Hers is the new, soft body of the Earth as the water begins to flow again and the soil becomes the womb, dark, moist and enveloping. As she nurses the seed within, it begins to reach out to her.

As feeling returns we too find ourselves again in a womb, but one of our own making. The life that has contained and sustained us until now becomes the soil from which we must spring

The tree that the Celts associated with the month of February is willow. Known as the Queen of the waters, the willow is the most feminine of trees. Its Celtic name Saile, means to leap or let go, which is why the leap year falls in February. Willow calls upon us to make this leap, but the only way is to release feeling, to grieve for all that has passed and so cut the ties that bind us to the past. As we do so, life changes and we surge ahead.

To go willingly into grief, to learn and develop its ways as a practice for life, is a great gift to ourselves and to our children who then learn not to fear it as we did. Once the practice of active grief is learnt, we can feel our way all the way back to our beginnings seeking out the grief that was held there and releasing it now. Letting go, letting go, letting go. Each time we cut the strings that hold us back and bind us into familiar patterns and self-fulfilling prophecies, we take a leap. We leap into the unknown, into a place where anything is possible and long forbidden dreams can manifest themselves at last.

Are you a good guy or bad guy?

2011-02-07T07:56:00.000-08:00

Almost nobody likes to think of themselves as a bad guy. Whether an embezzling politician, a soldier in Rowanda, a Japanese dolphin hunter or just the average person on the street, we fool ourselves with stories of necessity to justify and cover up any of our less noble acts. But where does a clear-eyed look at the role we play in this world leave us? A few questions to ask yourself:

Are you in it for the money?

Is your job, or whatever takes up the majority of your days, something you are doing out of love, care or compassion, or is it simply something to pay the bills?

How much and how often do you give?

What do you offer the world, or those in need, free of any charge? This could mean time, effort, skills or support that is monetary, spiritual, physical or emotional.

Is this once a year? Once a month? Once a week? Every day?

How aware are you of the potentially harmful impact of your daily actions on other people, animals and the environment and how much do you care?

For many, honest answers may start to paint a less than pretty picture.

Example: I know a geologist working for a mining company. He enjoys his time in the remote, rugged pristine places, examining rock samples for traces of precious minerals. He writes songs about the beauty he beholds and he makes a lot of money at this job. He has a young family to feed. But when, and if, the desired deposits are found, the company moves in and utterly despoils the once beautiful wilderness to claim these ‘natural resources’. But by then, this geologist is already far away at the next site….

In the eyes of the world, in the eyes of the Earth, is he a good guy or a bad guy?

If we cannot view Nature with the same concerned care we extend to our own families and loved ones, if we cannot make this change, we have no future.

Leah Lemieux is an author and lecturer who works on dolphin protection, education and conservation initiatives.

www.RekindlingTheWaters.com

I Make, Therefore I Am

2011-01-21T07:06:00.000-08:00

I worry about the society we find ourselves in today. Many people have become spectators of life rather than participants and as a result, find themselves disconnected and struggling to find a purpose.

While there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution there are, in my opinion, things that can be done to provide us once more with a sense of being, doing, contributing and probably most importantly, with that sense of purpose while we are here and knowledge of leaving our mark for when we’re not; something that speaks of our existence and identity.

Today the media is full to bursting, of programmes and articles dedicated to the tangible achievements of the past, where experts extol the virtues of craftsmen and craftsmanship. They talk about the detail, the design, the skill, the workmanship and the fact that many of these items are still in working use, literally hundreds of years later.

We are fully aware of the significance and importance of those exertions, which I repeat; we celebrate on a regular basis. However, we have forgotten that manual occupation is still one of the best ways to satisfy this primeval need and there is nothing wrong in going to bed tired, maybe even aching a little, knowing that the day has been used to its full advantage and there is something to show at the end of it. We have become obsessed with jumping the gun, to get to the destination without going on the journey, let alone enjoying it.

We have become obsessed with the idea that physical struggle is wrong and bad, so much so that we are desperately trying to eliminate it (in the western world at least) to our cost. What we need to realise is that a certain amount of physical exertion, struggle even, is necessary in every human life. When that is not present an emotional as well as a physical vacuum is created, which as we all know, must be filled.

Are our lives any ‘easier’ today? I doubt it. We’ve simply replaced physical struggle with mental anxiety. I would argue that a lot of that anxiety occurs because we are not satisfying that innate need to be manually and creatively occupied. Art, Craft and Manual Production satisfy that need on every level.

Using our hands and indeed all our faculties to create things of beauty, use or both, is of immense value. Using the raw materials we find around us, where a battle of wills ensues between maker and material, grappling and tussling with that material, until a truce – a compromise and an understanding is achieved and something beautiful emerges. It is this struggle that helps define us as human beings and we need this affirmation, pretty much on a daily basis, to keep us sane and healthy.

Gillian Montegrande, is founder of Made by Hands of Britain which is dedicated to showcasing the heritage, traditions and contemporary interpretations of British craftsmanship.

We must not be bystanders!

2011-01-18T04:59:00.000-08:00

We face the biggest crisis in human history. It is not the financial crisis. It is our failure to live within the limits of mother Earth and in harmony with each other that will lead to catastrophe. Don’t be fooled by politicians endowed with excessive self-confidence. We cannot depend on governments to do what needs to be done. They do not focus on the most important issues or grasp the radical solutions that are needed. Nor do they offer the bold, inspiring leadership required for a great transition.

There are 6.7bn of us throughout the world. We have immense power if we use it wisely. We have to campaign and educate politicians and demand that they do what is needed. We will not find the answers by listening to combative politicians or a media that keeps us entertained with hot air, transfixed by consumerism and novelty, yet feeling powerless. We need to inform ourselves about the abundant wise thinking and exciting possibilities for a great transformation. Some of the urgent changes can be brought about by individuals and communities. But the major part of it requires action by governments at every level – from parish to United Nations. We need inclusive and fully representative democracy, not dictatorship by a party or coalition that gets the most seats in Parliament.

Our role must be to campaign, lobby, demonstrate and insist.

There is a growing consensus about what has to be done. It is not only a matter of transforming the global economy so that its purpose is to bring greater well-being to everyone. We need to end the obsession with growth, privatisation, unlimited globalisation and free trade. We also need to transform the costly and unstable debt money system and unsustainable, unjust and unnecessarily complex taxation. Government must accept the need for prosperity without growth. It must protect citizens from the abuse of power by large corporations. We have to demand these changes. To do so we must be well-informed.

Bruce Nixon is author of A Better World is Possible – what needs to be done and how we can make it happen, available free on his website http://www.brucenixon.com/betterworld.html. It provides full information and ways forward on all these issues.

January

2011-01-13T04:50:00.000-08:00

As the sun returns it reaches like a bridge across the divide between Heaven and Earth to stir the cold body of the feminine back into life. This return of the king is essential because it is the masculine, the active principle, that must kick-start the inertia for change. But there is new purpose here too, for the king is returning from descent.

When we descend into the underworld, as we do every winter, it is our dark and wounded feminine, our feeling self, that we find there. All those unwanted feelings hung upon the hooks like old coats, many in child sizes.

Our masculine selves, the active principle within us that thinks and does, now knows about this hidden feminine, having embodied her suffering. This knowledge is transformative because he now rallies to her defence. This is why we make New Year’s resolutions because we return with a strong sense that something must be done to create change.

For the returning sun to awaken the seed it must first break through the cold crust of the earth. This breaking through, this release of power, is also required of us to cross this bridge. But power resides in the house of anger and of all the feelings this is probably the most repressed in our culture.

But our anger is our essential and elemental fire. It is our power to say “No! Stop! Enough!” Without it, we are defenceless. With it, we are empowered. How we use it is up to us. This power is the sun’s power and now we reclaim it from the shadow just as the sun is reclaimed from the underworld. This is the primal push of the masculine towards life made all the more urgent by the lessons learnt in descent. “You will not do that to me again! I am worth more than that! I will break free!” So the horse kicks open the stable door and runs. The dog rips off his muzzle and barks. The eagle breaks out of his cage and soars.

Cycles of Change in Nature

2011-01-06T04:38:00.000-08:00

On the surface, life appears to be ever-changing. Everything is continually being transformed by the interaction between internal forces inscribed in the blueprint of nature's design, and external forces, like sunlight, wind, rain and innumerable environmental influences.

The same blade of grass is not the same from one moment to the next. The process of erosion is always at work, causing the fading of one substance into another. The grass and rocks melt into the earth, only to re-emerge as perhaps the fibres of trees and flowers. Time rules the outer layer of life. The outer material level is subject to the inexorable law which determines the natural span of life of everything in creation.
However, every change is governed by the laws of nature. The cycles of change in Nature are the means by which Nature evolves and progresses. Every change at the surface level is determined by specific laws of Nature operating at a deeper level.

Nature is perfectly organised. Intelligence is evident in every shape, form, line color and texture. Not only does everything in Nature harmonise with everything else, but every structure is harmonious in itself. It is a manifest expression of the propagation of unmanifest impulses of intelligence creating specific forms with precise internal relationships. The order that is evident at the surface of Nature resonates with an unmanifest source of order deep inside us and it is this resonance which gives rise to the perception of beauty.

Barbara Briggs is a writer, poet, teacher of Transcendental Meditation and author of The Contribution of Maharishi's Vedic Science to Complete Fulfilment in Life. This excerpt is from Vision Into Infinity, her first book, which is out of print but will hopefully be reprinted soon. Email Barbara

The Heroes Journey

2011-01-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

All good stories come in three parts: beginning, middle and end or in the case of the Heroes Journey or monomyth: Departure, Initiation and Return. This is a basic breakdown of the the Heroes Journey and how it shows up in the The Matrix, Braveheart and The Lord The Rings.

The Matrix

Call to Adventure: Neo gets the ‘call’ from Morpheus on the special delivery mobile phone sent to his office to save him from the Agents of the Matrix.

Refusal of Call: Neo climbs to the edge of a skyscraper ledge where he has to risk death to escape (cross the threshold) and decides he cannot.

First threshold: Neo follows the white Rabbit tattoo on the shoulder of a beautiful woman and ends up waking up out of his Matrix life of sleep.

Road of trials: Neo is interrogated by Agent Smith, trains as a warrior, is betrayed and goes to battle with The Matrix itself.

Ultimate ‘boon’: Neo becomes the ‘one’ and integrates into The Matrix, defeating it and his nemesis, Agent Smith.

Return: Neo returns, vowing to wake all others from their prison of sleep.

Braveheart

Call to Adventure: Wallace is visited by clan warriors and invited to join them in the defence of their land and freedom.

Refusal of Call: Refuses their offer choosing to build a home and find a wife.

First threshold: Wife is murdered by English warrior in cold blood.

Road of trials: Becomes a warrior. Gathers together an army. Begins battling English. Pushes them out. Betrayed by Robert The Bruce and is captured.

Ultimate ‘boon’: Rouses the Scottish people to fight for their freedom.

Return: The spirit of Wallace is brought back to Scotland after his execution and used to inspire a decisive victory and freedom for the Scottish people.

Lord of the Rings

Call to Adventure: The Ring is given to Frodo for safe keeping.

Refusal of Call: Frodo denies his destiny and tries to get Gandalf to take charge of the Ring. Frodo refuses at first to leave the Shire.

First Threshold: Discovering the Ring Wraiths are approaching, Frodo is forced to flee his homeland.

Road of Trials: Many a dangerous event on the long road through all three films. Gollum. Ring wraiths. Cave Trolls. Orcs. Boromir’s betrayal, many battles and all the while the carrying of the evil burden of the Ring.

Ultimate Boon: Reaching Mount Doom and destroying the Ring.

Return: Having saved Middle Earth but deeply scarred by the Ring’s power, Frodo goes with Bilbo Baggins to the Summerlands. Middle Earth and its people are returned to their former peace.

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback, January 6^th 2011

www.casparwalsh.co.uk

Caspar was interviewed today on Mark Tully's programme,'Something Understood' on the theme of places of safety, BBC Radio4. The interview will be available on 'listen again' until 8^th January: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x31j3

The Language of Nature

2010-12-17T05:15:00.000-08:00

Silence and sound are essential features of life. Everything in nature flows between two shores: from the fullness of silence to sounds and forms, and back again to silence. This is the melodious dance of creation. Is it not true that all particularities of this ever-changing world seem to emerge, are transformed and eventually return to rest in the ground of all things which is infinitely stable? Just as the sound of one's breathing emerges from the silence of unbroken wholeness, so does this world come into being from the unmanifest ground of existence. All works of art too must reflect that unmanifest eternal field of life so that all who view it will hear the song of silence awakening deep within themselves.

Onward and upward, O artists, by way of the inward journey. Life is both surface and symbol. Our task is to translate the language of nature into the language of art. It is not what we paint, what we dance, what we compose that matters so much - it is not the content, but the structure in which it rests. What matters most is how we connect the abstract wholeness of life to each of its particular expressions, the immaterial essence to its material substance.

Every point in creation contains infinity and eternity embedded within it, so one can paint virtually anything, but it is the 'cadence of interrelationship' between infinity and the point which makes the creation of the artist sing.

Infinity exists in every flower, every blade of grass, every wafting cloud. Nature is at once spiritual and material, harmonizing and diversifying. Our challenge as artists is to articulate the deepest value of life. Look around – look deeply within – look, look – be ever open to life's immensity.

Barbara Briggs is a writer, poet, teacher of Transcendental Meditation and author of The Contribution of Maharishi's Vedic Science to Complete Fulfilment in Life. This excerpt is from Vision Into Infinity, her first book, which is out of print but will hopefully be reprinted soon. Email Barbara

December

2010-12-15T06:55:00.000-08:00

As the days grow short the shadows creep in. The blanket of leaves grows dark and lies like a shroud upon the cold body of the earth as she draws back her fluids into herself. Winter sucks the life out of the land with a harsh and oppressive hunger, and all that is soft and warm recoils in the face of her advance. The woodland creatures hibernate, sealing up their dens to salvage and sustain the heat in the heart of themselves. They wrap themselves around it and sleep, little pockets of hot life imbedded in the cold clay. Secret dreamers among the black roots, spirits of fur and claw and snuffling snout, cave dwellers, fire keepers, as silent as grubs they hide from winter’s fierce and probing tongue.
We too are called upon to descend. Into stillness. Into the heat of ourselves. Into feeling. Yet so often we fear descent and struggle to resist it. We fear the death of what we know, the collapse of all that supports us. We fear the shadows that we meet there.
Yet every winter, Nature surrenders painlessly to this descent. She follows the cycle of her own being back down into the heart of herself. Of all the lessons she teaches us this is perhaps the most profound, that descent is not to be avoided but embraced. Entered into voluntarily it is a sweet release and the doorway to transformation. It is the death and dissolution of the caterpillar in the cocoon.

Ian Siddons Heginworth is an environmental arts therapist, founder of the Devon-based Wild Things community programme and author of Environmental Arts Therapy and the Tree of Life, Spirit’s Rest Books. www.environmentalartstherapy.co.uk

Courage, My Love

2010-12-09T04:07:00.000-08:00

I’ve just returned from Japan, attending an international meeting to address the annual killing of thousands of dolphins there. Unbeknownst to most, this bloodbath is actually funded by the commercial trafficking of live dolphins, a few of which are shipped to holiday marine attractions and dolphin-swim parks around the world at exorbitant prices – while the rest are slaughtered as 'pests' and sold for their meat, which contains dangerous levels of toxic contaminants.

Predictably, this situation is enmeshed in a complex web of conflicting political and economic interests, while Japanese media often try to paint this issue as East clashing with West.

Dolphins – surely recognised as one of the most beautiful, joyous and inspiring of creatures, would seem a poignant representative of our troubled blue-green world. We know in our soul of souls that harming these creatures is surely wrong.

Yet with danger comes opportunity. The plight of the dolphins represents a great challenge, extended to the human race as a whole. Can we avoid the distraction of supposed cultural divides and instead connect through something far more ancient, universal and profound – our compassion, our very humanity?

Will we ignore the cries for help, or will we accept this challenge echoing across the seas and continents: to reach within ourselves and discover our archetypical inner hero, and stand up for all that is good and green in our world? Can we engage and inspire a critical mass of people to do the same?

We can. And we are. Courage, my love.

You can see two short dolphin music videos I created from my time in Japan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx8G71vXwnY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYCqOP-ZE-Y

or on my website: www.RekindlingTheWaters.com

Leah Lemieux is an author and lecturer who works on dolphin protection, education and conservation initiatives.

Perfect Symmetry Between Humans and Nature

2010-11-30T03:50:00.000-08:00

Is not everything in nature a reflection of a feeling etched deep within the consciousness of all human beings?

On the boundless palette of the infinite, we behold ourselves. In the clear blue of the sky in mid-afternoon, do we not perceive a symbol of the clarity of human consciousness when fully open to itself? In the flight of birds, do we not have a foretaste of the exhilaration true freedom brings - to soar beyond all earthly fetters? In the rushing of waves out to sea, and the rapid pulsing of blood through our veins, can we not feel the excitement of a new adventure or whatever we wish to make of it?
In the first sprouting of a plant as it pushes through the earth, in the rain - sometimes torrential downpours, sometimes gentle, caressing - is not nature the supreme art form, capturing the totality in every expression?
Just as one may find abstract ideas and feelings in oneself embodied in nature's forms, so should one be able to find deeper, more subtle levels within oneself through an appreciation of art. The mission of the painter, poet, dancer and musician is to guide people to ever-deeper levels of attunement with the source of harmony within themselves. This attunement with deeper levels within oneself will lead mankind to perfect attunement with Nature, because at the deepest level, there is perfect symmetry between humans and Nature. Indeed, they are one.

Barbara Briggs is a writer, poet, teacher of Transcendental Meditation and author of The Contribution of Maharishi's Vedic Science to Complete Fulfilment in Life. This excerpt is from Vision Into Infinity, her first book, which is out of print but will hopefully be reprinted soon.

November

2010-11-23T04:04:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we find rope swings in the woods and this is always an invitation for the child to re-emerge.
We have found here how we constantly swing between the wounded child that we were and the archetypal child that we are seeking to manifest. The wounded child reacts to situations and relationships that trigger its fear, subtle transferences that keep us trapped in familiar patterns and sabotage any hope of escape. But the archetypal child is a beacon that is never truly extinguished, our infinite potential for renewal, for wonder and for real and enduring freedom. The rope upon which we swing is our tenuous link to the elder, high up in the branches above. It supports us and allows us to play. Sometimes it wears thin or even breaks and we fall on our face in the mud. At those times we may need another elder, a therapist perhaps, to help us tie up another rope and reinstate our connection. But this is only a temporary state of affairs for our true elder, the one within, never stops watching over us from above.
This connection between the old and the new is rarely felt more keenly than in November when the trees sow their seeds in the presence of death, in their fallen leaves, in the compost of the old year. Here the elder and the child lie side by side, one on her death bed, the other in her cradle. There is great ambivalence in this, our grief and our hope so united.
Ian Siddons Heginworth is an environmental arts therapist, founder of the Devon-based Wild Things community programme and author of Environmental Arts Therapy and the Tree of Life, Spirit’s Rest Books. www.environmentalartstherapy.co.uk

To be a Pilgrim or a Tourist?

2010-11-05T05:11:00.000-07:00

Global stability, corporate responsibility, self-sustainability
These are the words of the 21st century
How can we be tourists self-centred, self-seeking
When the planet’s most precious possessions are peaking?
And the balance of life, unbelievably frail
Could fail on an inconceivable scale?
Old habits will not do now we know what we know
To attend to our true needs then new seeds we must sow
Transcending as we go amending our worldview from ego to eco
From reliance on coal, on nuclear and oil
To an alliance of soul, of sun and of soil
A new learning curve on the path of mistakes that we’ve made
Where our carbon footprints can biodegrade
And fade as we embark to reverse or notoriety
With zero waste as the mark of our civilised society
Where all the resources we’re used to consuming
Can become the ones that we used to be using
As we install a plan for the future that’s durable
For these crises we face as a race are all curable
If we come together whatever the cost
To recover the mother that we have all lost
With co active convergence we can provide
This emergence of urgent resurgence worldwide
As to not be inert but alert to divert from disaster
And be pilgrims of our Planet Earth ever after

Martin Powell is a poet, based in Devon.
This poem was written for Satish Kumar and was first performed as part of the Resurgence event To Be A Pilgrim or a Tourist? that took place in London, October 2010.
To read more of Martin's poems visit: http://martinpowellpoetry.blogspot.com/
Or watch Martin read a selection of poems here: youtube.com/user/spokenwordnerd

Reining Passions

2010-11-03T02:47:00.000-07:00

And God took a handful of southerly wind, blew His breath over it, and created the horse.... Thou shall fly without wings, and conquer without any sword. ~ Bedouin Legend

For those trying to raise awareness about an issue or cause close to their hearts, it is of utmost importance to direct one’s passion carefully.
In a world where so many seem dangerously deaf and blind to the increasing troubles that beset us, it can be incredibly difficult to summon patience and avoid succumbing to the inclination to vent one’s frustrations on the very people one is attempting to educate. Where cooler heads do not prevail, we may inadvertently find ourselves becoming part of the problem rather than the solution.
The flaring of our passion sustains our will and commitment to support restorative changes, but like a team of wild horses, if not carefully directed and guided, it can easily trample rather than enlighten ignorant bystanders.
Particularly in times of heightened debate or discussion, reining our passions in, like trying to quiet wild horses, is an unmitigated challenge. However, doing so almost invariably rewards our efforts. Rather than alienating others, directed passion is a powerful force of Nature that can engage and inspire those around us to join our efforts to transform our world. Indifference and even opposition can ignite – and unite to discover solutions, as our passions carry our hopes into reality.

Leah Lemieux is an author and lecturer who works on dolphin protection, education and conservation initiatives. www.RekindlingTheWaters.com

The Cove

2010-10-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

I was encouraged to see the connection between my feature in issue 263 on the Oscar winning documentary ‘The Cove’ and the blog posts of Leah Lemieux. It seems the plight of the Dolphins are once again on the local and global media radar. I remember the first time round. I lived in Ireland for a year in 1997. Part of the journey to the Ring of Kerry was to discover for myself the local folklore of the famous Dingle Bay Dolphin, Funghi. Dolphin mania seemed to be everywhere. This incredible sea creature brought a huge boost in local eco tourism as well as a connection to the natural world that has literally changed the lives of thousands.
As a result of indiscriminate tuna fishing uncovered in the eighties, the general public realised that Dolphins were in need of urgent protection. Public sympathy was sparked. My close friend and producer Tor Cotton made the acclaimed documentary, ‘The Dolphin’s Gift’, about Funghi. The film was a success with a suitably earnest narration by John Hurt.
I worked in the press office of the Environmental Investigation Agency in the early nineties and was honoured to work with the man who got the camera on board the ship where dolphins, inadvertently caught in the tuna fishing nets, were routinely having their fins cut off and thrown back into the sea to die. Gruesomely caught on his undercover camera, the fate of the Dolphin was given massive global media profile and the senseless killings, for the most part, were stopped in their tracks. Dolphin friendly tuna logos on supermarket cans worldwide soon followed.
And so, the cycle has begun again. We find ourselves in a new urgent, dolphin saving time with, among many others, the horrific issues raised in ‘The Cove’.
My experiences swimming with Funghi were not life changing but they had a powerful, lasting effect; as do the stories of those who have looked into his all seeing eye and found themselves changed forever. Swimming In his watery world I was deeply humbled, and a little scared; reminded of my natural place on land and the respect I have, and must have, for the sea. The dolphins power and place in the ocean is without question. So we must protect and respect their right to live fully and freely; as they did for millennia; long before we entered their sacred world and changed it forever.

Caspar Walsh is Film Editor for Resurgence magazine and a wilderness and writing teacher. His new novel, Blood Road is available from Headline.

www.casparwalsh.co.uk

October

2010-10-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

As we walk through the forest and feel the old year dying around us we can look down and see the seeds of the year to come nestling among the fallen leaves. All must die, but in the heart of death we find life waiting.
A tree that the Celts associated with this time was the elder and the honouring of the elder within ourselves is a beautiful ritual that we share at this time. Working outdoors in a group we decorate a chair with elder. Then we find or make gifts for the others, to represent qualities that we wish to honour in each of them. One by one, we sit in the chair and the robe of the elder is placed upon our shoulders. The others in the group honour us with their gifts and then we are asked to own the qualities that we respect in ourselves.
Regardless of our age we are all elders of our own lives and of the cycle that is closing now. Our elder hood comes not from what we have done but from what we have felt, from the lessons that life has taught us and continues to teach us. In this respect even a child can honour the elder within themselves.
Others too. Honouring is a gift that we can give to even the most dishonoured. In a world that respects only achievement there are many that live with a perpetual sense of shame, disempowerment and failure. But regardless of whether we live in prison, in a mental hospital, in a night shelter or in a care home, we too are eating from the Tree of life and can honour the lessons that we have learned. We too can be honoured by others for the feeling qualities that they see in us. We too can accept the robe of the elder.
Ian Siddons Heginworth is an environmental arts therapist, founder of the Devon-based Wild Things community programme and author of Environmental Arts Therapy and the Tree of Life, Spirit’s Rest Books. www.environmentalartstherapy.co.uk

Disconnection breeds apathy and destruction – connection fosters care and restoration

2010-09-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

With this in mind, I would like to share a poignant example of the transformation reconnection can bring.

The small coastal village of Futo in Japan became infamous around the world for the brutal slaughter of many hundreds of dolphins. For thirty years, like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Mr. Izumi Ishii was a dolphin hunter. But, one day, Mr. Ishii looked into the eye of a dolphin he was about to kill – and a connection was made. For the first time their pitiful cries touched his heart and suddenly, he could not continue. Mr. Ishii laid down his knife, vowed never to kill dolphins again and began to speak out against the cruel practice.
It took tremendous courage for him to denounce a centuries old tradition in a country where tradition is revered. Mr. Ishii is alone in his community in trying to end the dolphin slaughter.
To demonstrate alternative ways of generating livelihood, he retrofitted his hunting boat and began dolphin and whale watching expeditions, proving to his fellows that dolphin watching is more profitable than dolphin killing. Mr. Ishii now values dolphins not for their meat, but for the wonder they incite.

Rekindlingwaters

Leah Lemieux is an author and lecturer who works on dolphin protection, education and conservation initiatives.

Urgent problems require urgent solutions – (no matter the cost?)

2010-09-21T01:46:00.000-07:00

Photograph: showing the breakdown of PNp (a highly toxic derivative of TNT)

Rapid climate change, accelerated extinction rates, precipitated ecological degradation… our world is crumbling before our very own eyes. Whilst sceptics still abound, wallowing in their own apathetic complacency, no one can deny, for example, the transformation of the Aral Sea, once the world’s largest inland sea, into a barren wasteland – all within less than a single generation. Important fish stocks are, in some cases, down 99% from the 1970s levels. At the current trends, there will be no more virgin rainforest by 2030. By then, most coral reefs will have turned into bleached skeletons of their former selves and large swathes of agricultural soil will be too contaminated with endless arrays and combinations of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, insecticides and nematicides to sustain ever increasing numbers of hungry mouths.
Current mitigation strategies are foreseen to be wholly inadequate in dealing with these pressing matters and most are serving but to delay the inevitable. Government busybodies talk of the stabilising of atmospheric carbon at 450 ppm by the middle of the century, yet this “optimistic” goal is none-the-less associated with a global 2°C average increase; enough to upset and indeed topple the delicate balance of already stressed ecosystems. The future of our planet is entirely dependent on the actions (or inactions) undertaken today. Waiting around hoping for the best is not an option. Urgency is paramount.
Solutions can sometimes be found in the unlikeliest of places. Whilst many people – the general public, government lackeys and moderate environmentalists alike – would baulk at the idea, the application of scientific knowledge in the field of genetics to combat rapid ecological degradation is valid, viable and altogether effective. To date, media scare tactics have enveloped the field of genetic engineering in a dark cloud of frankenstinian proportions. Whilst it is true that, in the hands of capitalistic multinationals with little or no ecological incentives, genetic manipulation has led to the development of fluorescent pigs and featherless chickens; devoted independent scientists across the globe are working furiously to develop techniques based essentially on the natural abilities of biological organisms. For example, bioremediation makes use of the natural biodegradative abilities of bacteria and fungi to break down extremely toxic, synthetic compounds including POPs, PCBs, CHCs and PAHs into their non-toxic constituents.
Molecular biologists are now able to pinpoint the gene systems which grant the micro-organisms these exceptional abilities. Genetic engineering allows for the bio-amplification of these abilities as well as the transferring of these between different species (the so called and much maligned transgenics). These extraordinary feats of scientific ingenuity could, for example, allow the identification of genes conferring the ability to break down and metabolize petroleum-based products in soil bacteria. These abilities could then be transferred into other micro-organisms at the site of environmental disasters such as the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill and speed up the clean-up process.
Whilst it is true that the liberation of transgenic organisms into the wider environment may provoke a number of negative side effects further down the line, it is a fundamental law of nature that all benefits must come with a cost. The power inherent in the application of genetics to help mitigate urgent environmental degradation must not be overlooked. In this, our 11th hour, we must fight fire with fire.
Glyn Barrett is currently training for a PhD in bacterial genetics at the University of Reading.

Autumn

2010-09-17T04:22:00.000-07:00

Even before the leaves start yellowing, we know that autumn is here. We feel the change of direction within ourselves, a desire to return like the snail into the spiral of our being. The sun may still be shining, but it is lower in the sky now and it picks out the cobwebs in the hedgerows and sets them ablaze in the morning when the dewdrops held upon them sparkle like diamonds. The days can be soft, hazy and warm, but the nights are growing colder. Life is beginning to pull inwards, collapsing its systems, folding its wings about itself, settling down and preparing for the endings to come.

The Celts associated this time with the ivy. They considered it the strongest of trees because it can choke and kill anything it grows on, even the oak. It can block paths or pull down walls and when we meet a huge and ancient ivy we do not just meet the plant, with its thick and serpentine sinews, but we confront also that which is hidden within. Something suffocated, ruined and forgotten. So ivy draws us inwards, into the labyrinth of our being, to meet that which still blocks our path to freedom. As the cycle of the year nears its end it is often here that we meet the aspect of our self that we keep most hidden from ourselves and others. As we return from the Summerlands it awaits us.

Ian Siddons Heginworth is an environmental arts therapist, founder of the Devon-based Wild Things community programme and author of Environmental Arts Therapy and the Tree of Life, Spirit’s Rest Books.
www.environmentalartstherapy.co.uk

What could be more profoundly sacred than science?

2010-09-07T04:48:00.000-07:00

Over the centuries, science has lost many of its more ‘spiritual insights’ and ceded this territory back to religion. By disowning its principal revelations – the immensity of space and time, the interdependence of all living things and the preciousness of life – science threatens to return us to the grip of the religious belief systems that dominated Western culture before the 16th century. Its insistence on separating the sacred from the material world has encouraged us to build a psychological wall inside ourselves. This makes no sense to me. If religion is concerned with life’s ultimate truths and science is the never-ending search for truth, then what could be more profoundly sacred than science?

The truth is that science has become increasing pragmatic and functional over the centuries. Largely abandoning its ability to inspire awe, it is now Western culture’s chief problem-solver. Today, science’s primary purpose is to provide answers to many of the most serious challenges facing society. Whether it’s global warming or the latest disease pandemic, we look to science and its daughter – technology – for solutions. And their responses have been remarkably effective.

Mostly funded by government agencies and corporate interests, science and technology have significantly improved the quality of human life. For instance, the average human lifespan has increased by more than 40 years in the past century alone. This impressive record of achievement has transformed science into a belief system that is now worshipped like a religion.

As it has assumed the role of chief problem-solver, science has lost much of its capacity to evoke awe and wonder. Although it can generate exquisitely beautiful images of just about anything, science has become increasingly short sighted and limited. Preoccupied with narrowly defined technical problems, many researchers have closed their eyes to unfettered curiosity and open-ended inquiry about life. Why has this happened? It has happened because science has lost its commitment to deep observation.

Observation isn’t just about seeing. It’s also about using all our sense organs – listening with our ears, smelling with our noses, feeling and touching with our skin and tasting with our tongues. The most complete observation requires total attention and is about immersing one’s whole self in the experience of discerning the other.

At this level, observation is about understanding with our hearts as well as our heads. In the process, the separation between subject and object blurs. The observer becomes connected with the observed and a relationship is forged between them. Indeed, it is only through our senses that we can create and sustain relationships.

Nature writers such as Annie Dillard, Gary Snyder, Wendell Berry and Barry Lopez understand this well. Their work is chock full of sensory awareness and insightful reflection. But this type of observation is almost entirely lacking from contemporary science. As Sherlock Holmes said to Dr. Watson “You see but you do not observe.” Today, science is seeing but it is not observing. And without the willingness to fully observe life, science is unlikely to grasp its true splendor.

Read the full article

Kate Davies teaches environmental science and is director of the Center for Creative Change at Antioch University Seattle.

Reasons for Hope

2010-08-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

Humanity is struggling to evolve ethically on a deep level — to choose compassion over utility and profit. In a world where greed and ignorance has put the survival of all earthly life at risk, increasing levels of compassion and ethical concern may be crucial for our survival; it may be our only hope.

Riding along the cutting-edge of this ethical expansion, scientists have now made an official proclamation acknowledging that current research reveals Dolphins qualify as nonhuman persons — intelligent, sophisticated, sentient individuals of intrinsic worth, sharing the same fundamental grounds for moral consideration as humans, including a right to life and freedom.

Currently, we treat Dolphins as if they were property, not persons; objects rather beings, and at present, many thousands are killed and injured by numerous human practices every year. To successfully make this moral leap and accept Dolphins into our sphere of ethical concern with equal entitlement to life and freedom would necessitate an immediate cessation of practices which harm them. Toward this worthy goal an international group of scientists have founded a Declaration of Rights for Whales and Dolphins.

The incomparable Albert Schweitzer declared that the most fundamental principle of ethics is a “Reverence for Life” and thus the preservation, restoration and enhancement of life becomes the anchor of our ethical evolution. This includes the realisation that the powerful and privileged status that humans enjoy on this Earth entails, not a right to exploit, but a responsibility to protect.

Thus, we find Dolphins a supremely apt symbol for the polarised human relationship with Nature and the internal struggle we are facing within human nature itself — a test of our courage and our humanity.

For more information please visit:
Cetacean Rights http://cetaceanconservation.com.au/cetaceanrights/
Rekindlingwaters
http://www.rekindlingthewaters.com/

Leah Lemieux is an author and lecturer who works on dolphin protection, education and conservation initiatives.

Just Bee

2010-08-13T06:12:00.000-07:00

We are all part of one great whole, visibly or invisibly depending on each other.

Together we can make an active contribution to the great whole.

Without bees life would not taste so sweet.

There was a play on Radio 4 recently called ‘Hive Mind’. It was set in the near future in a world lacking Bees where farmers were paying immigrant workers to pollinate essential crops by hand (as featured in our Health Special in the May/June issue of the magazine), until the evil scientists came along with their ‘HoneyBots’. This was the first time I have experienced this kind of (positive?) propaganda on the radio and I am not sure how it has left me feeling about the use of this medium. In the play, the Honeybots turned bad and ended up killing the children fuelling a full-scale riot which led to their self-destruction and a return to simple hand-pollination.
We are all fully aware of the demise of the Honeybee and are constantly fed alarming statistics about the dramatic extinction rates-which, ironically, has led to a collective de-sensitization to the loss of species and habitats. Popular films such as 2012, The Age of Stupid and Avatar target (at varying levels) the fact that we know we cannot keep taking more from our Earth than we put back. But will the use of media to convey these powerful ecological messages do more harm than good?
By making the challenges and possible outcomes into entertainment do we risk downgrading the problems? Will we be open to criticism and attack from bar-stool Britain? “You’re only saying that ‘cause it was in that T.V Show”/ “That’s not really gonna happen, that was a film/play etc”.
Bees use the medium of dance to communicate the location of nectar to one another. Plants make use of colour, scent and deceptive shapes to get other organisms to carry out essential reproductive activities. Humans employ stories, fables and myths to warn of making the wrong choices, so maybe we will see the afternoon play being used more often from now on as a warning of our wrong doings.

Jon Every is a Botanist, studying Botanical Conservation at Plymouth University.

Even Clouds of Volcanic Ash have Silver Linings

2010-04-20T04:50:00.000-07:00

Two days spent indoors during what have been the clearest and brightest days of 2010 left the sun-worshipper in me feeling mildly anxious. The Eco-warrior in me, on the other hand, was pleased to be soaking up the warm company of like-minded people at UK Aware. As the event drew to a close some curious and ironic connections between clear blue skies over London, volcanic ash clouds from Iceland, free merchandise from 10:10 campaigners and a slightly tamer-than-expected exhibition attendance began to reveal themselves. A clear success for its 3rd year running – UK Aware was certainly more than just about buying eco products. Inspiring activists such as founder of The Big Green Idea Brigit Strawbridge, and international environmental lawyer for planetary rights, Polly Higgins, shared their own personal passions with the public. Nevertheless, the footfall during the gathering was somewhat lower than expected. But who can blame potential punters for being drawn away from a conference centre whilst the weather outside was so stunning.
What interested me though was the reason for the skies of London being in such unusually pristine condition – attributed to the absence of vapour trails from the usual flights to and from airports in the capital. According to Plane Stupid this has saved 200,000 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted by the aviation industry each day that flights were cancelled. This is the same amount that would be produced by 100,000 households in a year! So it seems that the commuter's loss can be the campaigners gain – even if it did dampen the spreading of eco-messages at the UK Aware.
A further irony is added to the situation when we learn that the metal neck tags being handed out at the event to people signing up to 10:10 are made from the jet engine of a British Airways 747 which flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung in Indonesia in 1982 – resulting in the failure of all four engines. Read the full story of tags here. With the return of sunny weather and spring flowers to the UK, Mother Nature has put a smile on many faces this week. Many faces will still be frowning at her tremendous ability to bring international travel to a standstill too. It’s time to listen to Mother Nature’s minor grumbles of volcanic indigestion – maybe she’s trying to tell us something about our lifestyle.
Ian Tennant

Willing But Not Necessarily Able

2010-02-04T08:34:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas, I went for coffee with Martin Powell, a twenty-one year old poet from Devon who's work was selected to open the CNN debate on Climate Change at Copenhagen. As Martin explained to me what sparked his interest in global issues, I was immediately struck by his sincerity and genuine concern about the state of our planet. Soon after 9/11, during his early teens, Martin found himself engrossed in the subsequent cascade of military action, but unable to understand the reason why war was breaking out. Brought to tears by the scenes aired on TV, Martin started expressing his feelings through poetry. He kept his poems private for years, until a friend persuaded him to make use of the work. Martin now plans to make a career from poetry and is currently involved in local environmental projects.

Martin's experience is similar to that of many youngsters faced with facts in our society that don't fit the values of kindness and caring so sternly drummed into them as children. As we develop from children, unashamed to question certain ‘accepted truths’, into adults with the ability to discern right from wrong - there is a precious window of time before we become distracted by the need to earn enough money for one's partner, children, dog…and of course white paint for the picket fence. During this time, youths seem more immune to the excuses used to justify war, unfair economics or environmental degradation and many feel an urge to make a real positive change in the world.

However, the question which remains nagging in my mind, is how can this bank of energy be harnessed before emotional detachment sets in? Of course, youth groups, charities and schemes exist to support such willing youngsters, but the impact they are able to make is severely limited by the miniscule resources available to them and the staff running these organisations are required to spend far too much time struggling for the next round of cash. Once again, human values take second place to monetary necessity.

It seems like a no win situation! But, maybe we can look to Bhutan for a key to the economic lock blocking the way. By introducing ‘Gross National Happiness’ values into the educational system Bhutan is restoring balance to their curriculum and giving credibility to those who stand for peace and sustainability. Let’s hope other countries follow their lead so that future generations will be able, as well as willing, to turn things around.

Links:
CNN debate on Climate Change at Copenhagen
Take Action – share your ideas on how we can re-evaluate the way society measures success at Our Future Planet.
Gross National Happiness by Rajni Bakshi

Ian Tennant

Is the Environment Movement Coming of Age?

2009-11-06T15:33:00.000-08:00

‘A tale of how it all turned out right’ is the strapline to the latest challenging, but comforting report from the New Economics Foundation (nef). Indeed, there was a strong sense of ‘Yes, we can do it!’ amongst delegates of nef’s Festival of Interdependence last Saturday where the new report, titled The Great Transition was being launched.

The festival drew an impressive 1,400 people, some queuing for over an hour along the Southbank in London on a drizzly October day to enter a derelict OXO factory that served as a shabby chic venue for the gathering. This event marked the launch of The Bigger Picture – an ongoing project and series of events in response to our current crisis.

A broad mix of young and old from all backgrounds were treated to a colourful array of activities. From demonstrations of how to create your own currency to dialogues about the future of food production – laughter, engagement, sincerity flooded the raw, four-storey building – showing that life can be fun in a post-consumerist, sustainable society.

Whilst scientists and renowned environmentalists ring ever louder alarm bells to tell us that time is running out, nef are choosing to focus on the opportunity our current crisis offer us. Reporting some of the surprising impacts of the recession that have allowed many of us to rediscover the happiness of doing things that really matter such as sharing more time with friends, preparing food from scratch and enjoying our local environment.

Unlike a corporate or academic event where delegates attend as part of their job, nef’s Festival of Interdependence appealed to members of the general public and the growing personal desire to explore alternatives to the faltering rat race.

It remains to be seen whether the measures proposed in nef’s report really will create “up to £8.65 trillion of environmental and social value” by 2050. However, the attractive force of nef’s Festival of Interdependence left me feeling confident that more and more people are ready to engage on a deeper level about what sustainability means for their lifestyle. Is the environmental movement coming of age? It appears to me that we’re beginning a transition from the ‘Age of Stupid’ to the ‘Age of Reason’.

Ian Tennant