A few questions
I've added a few questions to the front page of the Crafting Gentleness site ...
posted by Anthony at
10:00 AM
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0 comments
Thursday, April 24, 2008
The Third City
I just picked up a second hand copy of a very curious and interesting book, The Third City: philosophy at war with positivism, by Borna Bebek (CV).
'Between Jerusalem and Babylon, between Athens and Atlantis - the symbolic good and evil cities of the philosophers - lies the third city, which is 'real life'.
Since the Renaissance, Western philosophy has been ruined by two-dimensional thinking: its exponents have invented 'practical' utopias according to their own tastes. But wiser thinkers have always known that perfection is to be found within the third city itself ... Avoiding the false extremes of idealism and materialism, we must allow ethics once more to merge with epistemology.'
Skimmed it a bit. Curious and interesting ...
'Between Jerusalem and Babylon, between Athens and Atlantis - the symbolic good and evil cities of the philosophers - lies the third city, which is 'real life'.
Since the Renaissance, Western philosophy has been ruined by two-dimensional thinking: its exponents have invented 'practical' utopias according to their own tastes. But wiser thinkers have always known that perfection is to be found within the third city itself ... Avoiding the false extremes of idealism and materialism, we must allow ethics once more to merge with epistemology.'
Skimmed it a bit. Curious and interesting ...
posted by Anthony at
8:07 AM
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0 comments
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
amsterdam
I was at a conference in Amsterdam last weekend. I hope to write a little bit about it when I get a chance ...
posted by Anthony at
12:57 AM
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0 comments
"An ancient town in Laos grapples with modernity"
Food for thought ...
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=18,6230,0,0,1,0
"An ancient town in Laos grapples with modernity"
By Seth Mydans, IHT, April 13, 2008
LUANG PRABANG, Laos -- As the sky grows light along the Mekong River here, it is no longer the quiet footfalls of Buddhist monks that herald the day but the jostling and chattering of hundreds of tourists who have come to watch them on their morning rounds.
"Here they come! Here they come!" cries a tour guide over his loudspeaker. "Hurry! Hurry!"
The monks appear, a column of bright orange robes as far as the eye can see, walking quickly and silently with their begging bowls, and the tourists cluster around them with their cameras and reach out from rows of little stools to hand them food.
Luang Prabang, a place of mists and temples in the mountains of central Laos, was until recently one of the last pristine remnants of traditional culture in a region that is rapidly leaving its past behind.
Today it displays the paradox of preservation, saved from modern development by packaging itself for tourists but in the process losing much of its character, authenticity and cultural significance.
Like some similar sites around the world, this 700-year-old town is being transformed into a replica of itself, its dwellings into guest houses, restaurants, souvenir shops and massage parlors, and its rituals into shows for tourists.
"Now we see the safari," said Nithakhong Somsanith, an artist and embroiderer who works to preserve traditional arts. "They come in buses. They look at the monks the same as a monkey, a buffalo. It is theater."
The Buddhist heart of Luang Prabang - the tranquility that attracts visitors from abroad - is being defiled, he said. "Now the monks have no space to meditate, no space for quiet."
Luang Prabang was named a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1995, and its strict guidelines on renovation and new construction have helped preserve the small streets, small structures and relatively light traffic of a past era. No tall buildings mar the cityscape.
"The problem is that they took care of the hardware but not the software, the culture," said Gilles Vautrin, a restaurant owner from France who has lived here for nearly a decade.
"The city is being gentrified," he said. "It will be a museum city. It will be a hotel city. Maybe the tourists will like it, but it won't be the same Luang Prabang."
The morning scene of monks seeking alms is spectacular, a seemingly unending procession that includes the occupants of the town's 34 temples.
But as they walk down the main street, Sisavangvong Road, they must thread their way through crowds of tourists and the vendors selling food for donations who call out their prices, "Dollar! Dollar!"
Looking straight ahead, the monks pass Pizza Luang Prabang, Pack Luck Liquor, Walkman Village, German Ice Cream, Cafe des Arts Restaurant and Bakery, Khmu Spa and Massage and Tatmor Restaurant n' Bar.
The scene may be jarring, said Rik Ponne, a program specialist with Unesco in Bangkok, but "it is not a complete disaster."
"This is a very interesting moment in time in Luang Prabang when we have probably reached the carrying capacity," he said. "It is a question of whether the Lao government is willing to make policy decisions about maybe limiting tourism on the site or limiting its impact."
This would be a difficult choice in one of the poorest countries in Asia, where tourism is a major source of foreign exchange.
But if steps are not taken to control the changes, Unesco warned in 1994, Luang Prabang could become "another tourist town where soft-drink billboards dominate the landscape, where the sound of tour buses drowns out the soft temple prayers, and where the town's residents are reduced to the roles of bit-players in a cultural theme park."
Already the core of the city is losing its population as development drives up prices and local residents move away, leasing their homes as guest houses and restaurants.
"You cannot find people living in houses like family," said Vilath Inthasen, 25, a native of Luang Prabang who is a manager at Couleur Cafe. "Now we start to live outside the city."
Vilath spent eight years as a monk here and like many others he used his time in the temple to prepare himself for what has become the town's only industry.
"If you are a monk you can learn English and go into tourism," he said. "Most of the people who work in restaurants are former monks."
While the changes bring jobs and money, he said, they are disrupting the way of life he grew up with.
"I am afraid our culture will start to disappear," he said over the sound of a buzz saw next door. "Now bars can stay open until midnight. Normally we don't do this in Laos."
This disappearance of culture is critical because Luang Prabang is not simply an architectural monument, like the temples at Angkor in Cambodia.
"There is nothing really outstanding in Luang Prabang," said Laurent Rampon, the former chief architect and head of the cultural preservation office in Luang Prabang.
"When you look at the architecture, it is interesting but normal, very normal; the temples are a little bit rough, not refined," said Rampon, who is now an independent architect and consultant to the city.
"What is really interesting in Luang Prabang is all that together," he said. "It is the ambience of the city, the daily life, the temples and the monks.
"In Luang Prabang, when the ambience is gone, it will not be Luang Prabang anymore."
As in neighboring Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, it is war and repression that, for several decades, held back the development that has despoiled cities and historical sites around the region.
A poor, landlocked nation with a population today of just 6.5 million, Laos was a battleground during the Indochina war of the 1960s and 1970s and has been isolated from the world economy since then by a Communist government.
When tourist brochures describe Luang Prabang as a place where "time stood still," it is poverty and hardship that have allowed the past to linger.
Preservation and poverty go hand in hand, said Rampon.
"The paradox is that Unesco gives out the Heritage Site label partly to reduce poverty, but reducing poverty is reducing heritage," he said. "If you want to preserve heritage you must keep poverty."
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=18,6230,0,0,1,0
"An ancient town in Laos grapples with modernity"
By Seth Mydans, IHT, April 13, 2008
LUANG PRABANG, Laos -- As the sky grows light along the Mekong River here, it is no longer the quiet footfalls of Buddhist monks that herald the day but the jostling and chattering of hundreds of tourists who have come to watch them on their morning rounds.
"Here they come! Here they come!" cries a tour guide over his loudspeaker. "Hurry! Hurry!"
The monks appear, a column of bright orange robes as far as the eye can see, walking quickly and silently with their begging bowls, and the tourists cluster around them with their cameras and reach out from rows of little stools to hand them food.
Luang Prabang, a place of mists and temples in the mountains of central Laos, was until recently one of the last pristine remnants of traditional culture in a region that is rapidly leaving its past behind.
Today it displays the paradox of preservation, saved from modern development by packaging itself for tourists but in the process losing much of its character, authenticity and cultural significance.
Like some similar sites around the world, this 700-year-old town is being transformed into a replica of itself, its dwellings into guest houses, restaurants, souvenir shops and massage parlors, and its rituals into shows for tourists.
"Now we see the safari," said Nithakhong Somsanith, an artist and embroiderer who works to preserve traditional arts. "They come in buses. They look at the monks the same as a monkey, a buffalo. It is theater."
The Buddhist heart of Luang Prabang - the tranquility that attracts visitors from abroad - is being defiled, he said. "Now the monks have no space to meditate, no space for quiet."
Luang Prabang was named a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1995, and its strict guidelines on renovation and new construction have helped preserve the small streets, small structures and relatively light traffic of a past era. No tall buildings mar the cityscape.
"The problem is that they took care of the hardware but not the software, the culture," said Gilles Vautrin, a restaurant owner from France who has lived here for nearly a decade.
"The city is being gentrified," he said. "It will be a museum city. It will be a hotel city. Maybe the tourists will like it, but it won't be the same Luang Prabang."
The morning scene of monks seeking alms is spectacular, a seemingly unending procession that includes the occupants of the town's 34 temples.
But as they walk down the main street, Sisavangvong Road, they must thread their way through crowds of tourists and the vendors selling food for donations who call out their prices, "Dollar! Dollar!"
Looking straight ahead, the monks pass Pizza Luang Prabang, Pack Luck Liquor, Walkman Village, German Ice Cream, Cafe des Arts Restaurant and Bakery, Khmu Spa and Massage and Tatmor Restaurant n' Bar.
The scene may be jarring, said Rik Ponne, a program specialist with Unesco in Bangkok, but "it is not a complete disaster."
"This is a very interesting moment in time in Luang Prabang when we have probably reached the carrying capacity," he said. "It is a question of whether the Lao government is willing to make policy decisions about maybe limiting tourism on the site or limiting its impact."
This would be a difficult choice in one of the poorest countries in Asia, where tourism is a major source of foreign exchange.
But if steps are not taken to control the changes, Unesco warned in 1994, Luang Prabang could become "another tourist town where soft-drink billboards dominate the landscape, where the sound of tour buses drowns out the soft temple prayers, and where the town's residents are reduced to the roles of bit-players in a cultural theme park."
Already the core of the city is losing its population as development drives up prices and local residents move away, leasing their homes as guest houses and restaurants.
"You cannot find people living in houses like family," said Vilath Inthasen, 25, a native of Luang Prabang who is a manager at Couleur Cafe. "Now we start to live outside the city."
Vilath spent eight years as a monk here and like many others he used his time in the temple to prepare himself for what has become the town's only industry.
"If you are a monk you can learn English and go into tourism," he said. "Most of the people who work in restaurants are former monks."
While the changes bring jobs and money, he said, they are disrupting the way of life he grew up with.
"I am afraid our culture will start to disappear," he said over the sound of a buzz saw next door. "Now bars can stay open until midnight. Normally we don't do this in Laos."
This disappearance of culture is critical because Luang Prabang is not simply an architectural monument, like the temples at Angkor in Cambodia.
"There is nothing really outstanding in Luang Prabang," said Laurent Rampon, the former chief architect and head of the cultural preservation office in Luang Prabang.
"When you look at the architecture, it is interesting but normal, very normal; the temples are a little bit rough, not refined," said Rampon, who is now an independent architect and consultant to the city.
"What is really interesting in Luang Prabang is all that together," he said. "It is the ambience of the city, the daily life, the temples and the monks.
"In Luang Prabang, when the ambience is gone, it will not be Luang Prabang anymore."
As in neighboring Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, it is war and repression that, for several decades, held back the development that has despoiled cities and historical sites around the region.
A poor, landlocked nation with a population today of just 6.5 million, Laos was a battleground during the Indochina war of the 1960s and 1970s and has been isolated from the world economy since then by a Communist government.
When tourist brochures describe Luang Prabang as a place where "time stood still," it is poverty and hardship that have allowed the past to linger.
Preservation and poverty go hand in hand, said Rampon.
"The paradox is that Unesco gives out the Heritage Site label partly to reduce poverty, but reducing poverty is reducing heritage," he said. "If you want to preserve heritage you must keep poverty."
posted by Anthony at
12:30 AM
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0 comments
Pacifist Cal State teacher gets job back
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/08/BADRVG6CI.DTL
(03-07) 18:22 PST HAYWARD -- A Cal State East Bay math teacher and practicing Quaker who was fired for refusing to sign a state-required loyalty oath got her job back this week, with an apology from the university and a clarification that the oath does not require employees to take up arms in violation of their religious beliefs.
"It's the best possible outcome," said Marianne Kearney-Brown, 50, a graduate student in mathematics who was teaching a remedial class for undergraduates. "My concerns have been addressed."
As a Quaker, Kearney-Brown is committed to nonviolence and was unwilling to sign the state oath of allegiance that required her to "swear (or affirm)" that she would "support and defend" the U.S. and California constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." She tried inserting the word "nonviolently" in front of the word "support," but was told by university officials that altering the oath was unacceptable.
...
Kearney-Brown said she initially tried to tell herself that signing the form was no big deal because it would just get stuffed in a file cabinet.
"But I thought, if I'm going to sign it, I'm going to take it seriously," she said. "All I was asking was, 'Does this oath require taking up arms?' If nonviolence is incompatible with this oath, I can't sign that. ... It was a visceral thing."
more
(03-07) 18:22 PST HAYWARD -- A Cal State East Bay math teacher and practicing Quaker who was fired for refusing to sign a state-required loyalty oath got her job back this week, with an apology from the university and a clarification that the oath does not require employees to take up arms in violation of their religious beliefs.
"It's the best possible outcome," said Marianne Kearney-Brown, 50, a graduate student in mathematics who was teaching a remedial class for undergraduates. "My concerns have been addressed."
As a Quaker, Kearney-Brown is committed to nonviolence and was unwilling to sign the state oath of allegiance that required her to "swear (or affirm)" that she would "support and defend" the U.S. and California constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." She tried inserting the word "nonviolently" in front of the word "support," but was told by university officials that altering the oath was unacceptable.
...
Kearney-Brown said she initially tried to tell herself that signing the form was no big deal because it would just get stuffed in a file cabinet.
"But I thought, if I'm going to sign it, I'm going to take it seriously," she said. "All I was asking was, 'Does this oath require taking up arms?' If nonviolence is incompatible with this oath, I can't sign that. ... It was a visceral thing."
more
posted by Anthony at
12:15 AM
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0 comments
Monday, April 14, 2008
Linguistic pedants of the world unite
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/andrew_mueller/2008/04/
linguistic_pedants_of_the_world_unite.html
Andrew Mueller, Guardian Online
For centuries, travellers have crossed America to explore it, conquer it, settle it, exploit it and study it. Now, a small but righteous crew are traversing America in order to edit it. Jeff Deck, and his friends at the Typo Eradication Advancement League (Teal), are spending three months driving from San Francisco, California, to Somerville, Massachusetts, on a mission to correct every misspelled, poorly punctuated, sloppily phrased item of signage they encounter en route. Equipped with marker pens, stickers and white-out, they are seeking to scourge America's landscape of floating apostrophes, logic-defying syntax and other manifestations of laziness and/or illiteracy. ... more
linguistic_pedants_of_the_world_unite.html
Andrew Mueller, Guardian Online
For centuries, travellers have crossed America to explore it, conquer it, settle it, exploit it and study it. Now, a small but righteous crew are traversing America in order to edit it. Jeff Deck, and his friends at the Typo Eradication Advancement League (Teal), are spending three months driving from San Francisco, California, to Somerville, Massachusetts, on a mission to correct every misspelled, poorly punctuated, sloppily phrased item of signage they encounter en route. Equipped with marker pens, stickers and white-out, they are seeking to scourge America's landscape of floating apostrophes, logic-defying syntax and other manifestations of laziness and/or illiteracy. ... more
posted by Anthony at
11:21 PM
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Quaker teacher fired for changing loyalty oath
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/29/BAQPVAUVO.DTL
Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, February 29, 2008
California State University East Bay has fired a math teacher after six weeks on the job because she inserted the word "nonviolently" in her state-required Oath of Allegiance form.
Marianne Kearney-Brown, a Quaker and graduate student who began teaching remedial math to undergrads Jan. 7, lost her $700-a-month part-time job after refusing to sign an 87-word Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution that the state requires of elected officials and public employees. "I don't think it was fair at all," said Kearney-Brown. "All they care about is my name on an unaltered loyalty oath. They don't care if I meant it, and it didn't seem connected to the spirit of the oath. Nothing else mattered. My teaching didn't matter. Nothing."
A veteran public school math teacher who specializes in helping struggling students, Kearney-Brown, 50, had signed the oath before - but had modified it each time. She signed the oath 15 years ago, when she taught eighth-grade math in Sonoma. And she signed it again when she began a 12-year stint in Vallejo high schools. Each time, when asked to "swear (or affirm)" that she would "support and defend" the U.S. and state Constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic," Kearney-Brown inserted revisions: She wrote "nonviolently" in front of the word "support," crossed out "swear," and circled "affirm." All were to conform with her Quaker beliefs, she said.
The school districts always accepted her modifications, Kearney-Brown said. But Cal State East Bay wouldn't, and she was fired on Thursday. Modifying the oath "is very clearly not permissible," the university's attorney, Eunice Chan, said, citing various laws. "It's an unfortunate situation. If she'd just signed the oath, the campus would have been more than willing to continue her employment."
Modifying oaths is open to different legal interpretations. Without commenting on the specific situation, a spokesman for state Attorney General Jerry Brown said that "as a general matter, oaths may be modified to conform with individual values." For example, court oaths may be modified so that atheists don't have to refer to a deity, said spokesman Gareth Lacy. Kearney-Brown said she could not sign an oath that, to her, suggested she was agreeing to take up arms in defense of the country. "I honor the Constitution, and I support the Constitution," she said. "But I want it on record that I defend it nonviolently."
The trouble began Jan. 17, a little more than a week after she started teaching at the Hayward campus. Filling out her paperwork, she drew an asterisk on the oath next to the word "defend." She wrote: "As long as it doesn't require violence." The secretary showed the amended oath to a supervisor, who said it was unacceptable, Kearney-Brown recalled. Shortly after receiving her first paycheck, Kearney-Brown was told to come back and sign the oath.
This time, Kearney-Brown inserted "nonviolently," crossed out "swear," and circled "affirm."That's when the university sought legal advice. "Based on the advice of counsel, we cannot permit attachments or addenda that are incompatible and inconsistent with the oath," the campus' human resources manager, JoAnne Hill, wrote to Kearney-Brown. She cited a 1968 case called Smith vs. County Engineer of San Diego. In that suit, a state appellate court ruled that a man being considered for public employment could not amend the oath to declare: his "supreme allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ Whom Almighty God has appointed ruler of Nations, and expressing my dissent from the failure of the Constitution to recognize Christ and to acknowledge the Divine institution of civil government."The court called it "a gratuitous injection of the applicant's religious beliefs into the governmental process."
But Hill said Kearney-Brown could sign the oath and add a separate note to her personal file that expressed her views. Kearney-Brown declined. "To me it just wasn't the same. I take the oath seriously, and if I'm going to sign it, I'm going to do it nonviolently."
Then came the warning. "Please understand that this issue needs to be resolved no later than Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, or you will not be allowed to continue to work for the university," Hill wrote.
The deadline was then extended to Wednesday and she was fired on Thursday. "I was kind of stunned," said Kearney-Brown, who is pursuing her master's degree in math to earn the credentials to do exactly the job she is being fired from.
"I was born to do this," she said. "I teach developmental math, the lowest level. The kids who are conditionally accepted to the university. Give me the kids who hate math - that's what I want."
Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, February 29, 2008
California State University East Bay has fired a math teacher after six weeks on the job because she inserted the word "nonviolently" in her state-required Oath of Allegiance form.
Marianne Kearney-Brown, a Quaker and graduate student who began teaching remedial math to undergrads Jan. 7, lost her $700-a-month part-time job after refusing to sign an 87-word Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution that the state requires of elected officials and public employees. "I don't think it was fair at all," said Kearney-Brown. "All they care about is my name on an unaltered loyalty oath. They don't care if I meant it, and it didn't seem connected to the spirit of the oath. Nothing else mattered. My teaching didn't matter. Nothing."
A veteran public school math teacher who specializes in helping struggling students, Kearney-Brown, 50, had signed the oath before - but had modified it each time. She signed the oath 15 years ago, when she taught eighth-grade math in Sonoma. And she signed it again when she began a 12-year stint in Vallejo high schools. Each time, when asked to "swear (or affirm)" that she would "support and defend" the U.S. and state Constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic," Kearney-Brown inserted revisions: She wrote "nonviolently" in front of the word "support," crossed out "swear," and circled "affirm." All were to conform with her Quaker beliefs, she said.
The school districts always accepted her modifications, Kearney-Brown said. But Cal State East Bay wouldn't, and she was fired on Thursday. Modifying the oath "is very clearly not permissible," the university's attorney, Eunice Chan, said, citing various laws. "It's an unfortunate situation. If she'd just signed the oath, the campus would have been more than willing to continue her employment."
Modifying oaths is open to different legal interpretations. Without commenting on the specific situation, a spokesman for state Attorney General Jerry Brown said that "as a general matter, oaths may be modified to conform with individual values." For example, court oaths may be modified so that atheists don't have to refer to a deity, said spokesman Gareth Lacy. Kearney-Brown said she could not sign an oath that, to her, suggested she was agreeing to take up arms in defense of the country. "I honor the Constitution, and I support the Constitution," she said. "But I want it on record that I defend it nonviolently."
The trouble began Jan. 17, a little more than a week after she started teaching at the Hayward campus. Filling out her paperwork, she drew an asterisk on the oath next to the word "defend." She wrote: "As long as it doesn't require violence." The secretary showed the amended oath to a supervisor, who said it was unacceptable, Kearney-Brown recalled. Shortly after receiving her first paycheck, Kearney-Brown was told to come back and sign the oath.
This time, Kearney-Brown inserted "nonviolently," crossed out "swear," and circled "affirm."That's when the university sought legal advice. "Based on the advice of counsel, we cannot permit attachments or addenda that are incompatible and inconsistent with the oath," the campus' human resources manager, JoAnne Hill, wrote to Kearney-Brown. She cited a 1968 case called Smith vs. County Engineer of San Diego. In that suit, a state appellate court ruled that a man being considered for public employment could not amend the oath to declare: his "supreme allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ Whom Almighty God has appointed ruler of Nations, and expressing my dissent from the failure of the Constitution to recognize Christ and to acknowledge the Divine institution of civil government."The court called it "a gratuitous injection of the applicant's religious beliefs into the governmental process."
But Hill said Kearney-Brown could sign the oath and add a separate note to her personal file that expressed her views. Kearney-Brown declined. "To me it just wasn't the same. I take the oath seriously, and if I'm going to sign it, I'm going to do it nonviolently."
Then came the warning. "Please understand that this issue needs to be resolved no later than Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, or you will not be allowed to continue to work for the university," Hill wrote.
The deadline was then extended to Wednesday and she was fired on Thursday. "I was kind of stunned," said Kearney-Brown, who is pursuing her master's degree in math to earn the credentials to do exactly the job she is being fired from.
"I was born to do this," she said. "I teach developmental math, the lowest level. The kids who are conditionally accepted to the university. Give me the kids who hate math - that's what I want."
posted by Anthony at
11:13 PM
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0 comments
Monday, April 07, 2008
A momentous week
I have started conversations about gentleness with local nursing researchers and mental health care practitioners about the intersection of my politics of gentleness work with what they are doing.
After watching one of Professor Kathy Sykes' excellent Alternative Therapies TV programmes on the BBC, I've made contact with the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy team at the University of Oxford. They're interested in chatting, but are deep in clinical trials at the moment. They referred me to Professor Paul Gilbert at the University of Derby/Kingsway Mental Health Research Unit, who has edited a collected volume on Compassion, and he's one of the leading lights in the area of compassion research. There's a book review of some of his work here. After I emailed them to thank them for the programme, Kathy Sykes' producer also said he would be help to facilitate any conversations he could, which was lovely.
I received an email saying hi from Holly Stevens at The Storyteller and the Listener Online.
Professor Stuart Hill (see below) gave his last public talk before what I'm guessing will be a very active retirement :)
A friend (thanks, Ursula) forwarded me the following inspirational talk by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor on Ted.com: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229
I've started playing and singing in public again after a number of years not doing it; a couple of songs at a concert for the silver band I play with, and a couple of songs at local Sunday Session for the EchoEcho Dance company.
I've started formally outlining my own programme of gentleness research for the next few years for myself. It's pretty broad, but if the support I've been getting from people so far is anything to go by, I should just trust the process and take a leap of some sort sometime soon.
After watching one of Professor Kathy Sykes' excellent Alternative Therapies TV programmes on the BBC, I've made contact with the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy team at the University of Oxford. They're interested in chatting, but are deep in clinical trials at the moment. They referred me to Professor Paul Gilbert at the University of Derby/Kingsway Mental Health Research Unit, who has edited a collected volume on Compassion, and he's one of the leading lights in the area of compassion research. There's a book review of some of his work here. After I emailed them to thank them for the programme, Kathy Sykes' producer also said he would be help to facilitate any conversations he could, which was lovely.
I received an email saying hi from Holly Stevens at The Storyteller and the Listener Online.
Professor Stuart Hill (see below) gave his last public talk before what I'm guessing will be a very active retirement :)
A friend (thanks, Ursula) forwarded me the following inspirational talk by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor on Ted.com: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229
I've started playing and singing in public again after a number of years not doing it; a couple of songs at a concert for the silver band I play with, and a couple of songs at local Sunday Session for the EchoEcho Dance company.
I've started formally outlining my own programme of gentleness research for the next few years for myself. It's pretty broad, but if the support I've been getting from people so far is anything to go by, I should just trust the process and take a leap of some sort sometime soon.
posted by Anthony at
3:16 AM
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0 comments
Sunday, April 06, 2008
May 2007 Estonian Talk PDF
I've posted a .pdf file of a more or less verbatim transcript of a talk I gave in Estonia last May. It can be accessed from the main page of the crafting gentleness site or at http://www.craftinggentleness.org/estoniatalk07.pdf
posted by Anthony at
4:32 AM
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0 comments
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Ten common mistakes to avoid in trying to create a better world
Professor Stuart Hill, Foundation Chair of Social Ecology at the University of Western Sydney, a Blue Mountains resident and Australia’s leading educator in social change, will explore this topic in his last public talk before retiring.
On Saturday 5 April he is the keynote speaker at a public discussion day. A passionate instigator of lateral thinking and holistic problem-solving, Professor Hill will consider initiatives to address these common mistakes. After his address at the Mid Mountains Community Centre in Lawson (from 10.00am till midday) there will be an opportunity for questions. Further discussion and workshops (for graduates of Social Ecology, their friends and interested members of the public) will continue in the afternoon.Where and when? The Mid Mountains Community Centre (Joy Anderson Hall), New Street, Lawson at 10.00am until 5.00pm, Saturday 5 April.
What are these ten ‘mistakes’ – and what is needed to avoid them?
1. Getting the usual ‘experts’ (mostly older males) together to talk & plan
Need to involve mostly ‘different’ people and to start by focusing not on plans, but on values, beliefs, worldviews and paradigms.
2. Taking problem-solving approaches
Need to redesign existing systems (and design new systems) to make them as problem-proof as possible.
3. Getting stuck in activities ‘pathologically’ designed to postpone change
Need to recognise postponing pathologies, expose them for what they are and take collaborative action.
4. Trying to solve problems within the discipline or area responsible for creating them
Need genuine transdisciplinary teams.
5. Patriarchal and ‘driven’ do-good approaches are rarely what is needed
Need inclusion of those most affected by proposed improvements.
6. Planning ‘mega-scale’, heroic initiatives with no follow-through or provision for ongoing support
Need diverse, mutually supportive, do-able initiatives that have long-term support.
7. Over focus on knowledge and data, and neglect of wisdom and experience
Need to be much better at recognising, valuing and involving the wisest and most experienced in our society.
8. Over focus on ‘productivity’, profit and quick dramatic results
Need much more focus on ‘maintenance’ activities and caring for one another.
9. Homogenisation tendencies
Need openness to appreciation of the value of hererogeneity and ‘functional’ diversity within all systems; and lateral and paradoxical thinking.
10. Neglect of the arts
Need recognition of the arts as being essential part of achieving genuine and sustainable improvement.
What is Social Ecology?
According to Professor Hill, Social Ecology programs at UWS provide ‘a holistic framework that emphasises the interrelationships between the personal, social, environmental and “spiritual” domains for understanding our past and present, and for collaborating with others in visioning and implementing an improved future. ‘Most of the learning is experiential and involving projects concerned with working with change - change within one’s place of work, local community or environment, and in one’s ways of being and doing in the world; and most often in all of these. Most of the research involves working with others in processes of change - often using an approach called “participatory action research” or “collaborative inquiry”, and usually integrating feminist perspectives.
‘Social Ecology asks us to clarify our values and act in accordance with them, while taking into account what is needed for the healthy functioning of our local community, the people of the world and future generations, and the natural environment and its inhabitants.
‘Social Ecology graduates are particularly well prepared for work that requires: ability to work with people effectively; communication skills for informing people and changing behaviours; collaboration and taking leadership in change processes; conducting analytical studies of complex situations; and planning and implementing improved futures.’
Stuart B. Hill
Professor Stuart Hill is Foundation Chair of Social Ecology at the University of Western Sydney. Prior to 1996 he was at McGill University, in Montreal, where he was responsible for the zoology degree and where in 1974 he established Ecological Agriculture Projects, Canada’s leading resource centre for sustainable agriculture. He has published over 350 papers and reports. He is coauthor (with Martin Mulligan) of Ecological Pioneers: A Social History of Australian Ecological Thought and Action. His background in chemical engineering, ecology, soil biology, entomology, agriculture, psychotherapy, education, policy development and international development, and his experience of working with transformative change, have enabled him to be an effective facilitator in complex situations that demand both collaboration across difference and a long-term co-evolutionary approach to situation improvement. Professor Hill has worked in agricultural and development projects in the West Indies, French West Africa, Indonesia, The Philippines, China, and the Seychelles, as well as in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Until 2004 he represented professional environmental educators on the NSW Council on Environmental Education.
On Saturday 5 April he is the keynote speaker at a public discussion day. A passionate instigator of lateral thinking and holistic problem-solving, Professor Hill will consider initiatives to address these common mistakes. After his address at the Mid Mountains Community Centre in Lawson (from 10.00am till midday) there will be an opportunity for questions. Further discussion and workshops (for graduates of Social Ecology, their friends and interested members of the public) will continue in the afternoon.Where and when? The Mid Mountains Community Centre (Joy Anderson Hall), New Street, Lawson at 10.00am until 5.00pm, Saturday 5 April.
What are these ten ‘mistakes’ – and what is needed to avoid them?
1. Getting the usual ‘experts’ (mostly older males) together to talk & plan
Need to involve mostly ‘different’ people and to start by focusing not on plans, but on values, beliefs, worldviews and paradigms.
2. Taking problem-solving approaches
Need to redesign existing systems (and design new systems) to make them as problem-proof as possible.
3. Getting stuck in activities ‘pathologically’ designed to postpone change
Need to recognise postponing pathologies, expose them for what they are and take collaborative action.
4. Trying to solve problems within the discipline or area responsible for creating them
Need genuine transdisciplinary teams.
5. Patriarchal and ‘driven’ do-good approaches are rarely what is needed
Need inclusion of those most affected by proposed improvements.
6. Planning ‘mega-scale’, heroic initiatives with no follow-through or provision for ongoing support
Need diverse, mutually supportive, do-able initiatives that have long-term support.
7. Over focus on knowledge and data, and neglect of wisdom and experience
Need to be much better at recognising, valuing and involving the wisest and most experienced in our society.
8. Over focus on ‘productivity’, profit and quick dramatic results
Need much more focus on ‘maintenance’ activities and caring for one another.
9. Homogenisation tendencies
Need openness to appreciation of the value of hererogeneity and ‘functional’ diversity within all systems; and lateral and paradoxical thinking.
10. Neglect of the arts
Need recognition of the arts as being essential part of achieving genuine and sustainable improvement.
What is Social Ecology?
According to Professor Hill, Social Ecology programs at UWS provide ‘a holistic framework that emphasises the interrelationships between the personal, social, environmental and “spiritual” domains for understanding our past and present, and for collaborating with others in visioning and implementing an improved future. ‘Most of the learning is experiential and involving projects concerned with working with change - change within one’s place of work, local community or environment, and in one’s ways of being and doing in the world; and most often in all of these. Most of the research involves working with others in processes of change - often using an approach called “participatory action research” or “collaborative inquiry”, and usually integrating feminist perspectives.
‘Social Ecology asks us to clarify our values and act in accordance with them, while taking into account what is needed for the healthy functioning of our local community, the people of the world and future generations, and the natural environment and its inhabitants.
‘Social Ecology graduates are particularly well prepared for work that requires: ability to work with people effectively; communication skills for informing people and changing behaviours; collaboration and taking leadership in change processes; conducting analytical studies of complex situations; and planning and implementing improved futures.’
Stuart B. Hill
Professor Stuart Hill is Foundation Chair of Social Ecology at the University of Western Sydney. Prior to 1996 he was at McGill University, in Montreal, where he was responsible for the zoology degree and where in 1974 he established Ecological Agriculture Projects, Canada’s leading resource centre for sustainable agriculture. He has published over 350 papers and reports. He is coauthor (with Martin Mulligan) of Ecological Pioneers: A Social History of Australian Ecological Thought and Action. His background in chemical engineering, ecology, soil biology, entomology, agriculture, psychotherapy, education, policy development and international development, and his experience of working with transformative change, have enabled him to be an effective facilitator in complex situations that demand both collaboration across difference and a long-term co-evolutionary approach to situation improvement. Professor Hill has worked in agricultural and development projects in the West Indies, French West Africa, Indonesia, The Philippines, China, and the Seychelles, as well as in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Until 2004 he represented professional environmental educators on the NSW Council on Environmental Education.
posted by Anthony at
3:25 PM
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Tuesday, April 01, 2008
"How To Write About Africa"
This piece is pretty sharp (and not to be taken literally). I was wondering what an Irish version of this article would include ...?
How to write about Africa
Binyavanga Wainaina
some tips: sunsets and starvation are good
Always use the word 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title. Subtitles may include the words 'Zanzibar', 'Masai', 'Zulu', 'Zambezi', 'Congo', 'Nile', 'Big', 'Sky', 'Shadow', 'Drum', 'Sun' or 'Bygone'. Also useful are words such as 'Guerrillas', 'Timeless', 'Primordial' and 'Tribal'. Note that 'People' means Africans who are not black, while 'The People' means black Africans.
Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.
In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular. ... more
http://www.granta.com/extracts/2615
(Thanks, Alexandre)
*****************************
How to write about Africa
Binyavanga Wainaina
some tips: sunsets and starvation are good
Always use the word 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title. Subtitles may include the words 'Zanzibar', 'Masai', 'Zulu', 'Zambezi', 'Congo', 'Nile', 'Big', 'Sky', 'Shadow', 'Drum', 'Sun' or 'Bygone'. Also useful are words such as 'Guerrillas', 'Timeless', 'Primordial' and 'Tribal'. Note that 'People' means Africans who are not black, while 'The People' means black Africans.
Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.
In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular. ... more
http://www.granta.com/extracts/2615
(Thanks, Alexandre)
posted by Anthony at
9:31 AM
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"I had decided that it was time to get chickens."
"I had decided that it was time to get chickens. Having read books about these creatures, I knew that there were different breeds, each with its own characteristics. So I went to this man, spoke of the different types of fowl, and asked him, “What kind of chickens should I get?” In the instant after asking, I saw from his eyes that it was the wrong question; it didn’t make any sense to him. I had trained myself to watch peoples’ eyes when I asked my sometimes foolish questions, so I was more or less prepared for his reaction. I immediately asked another, “What kind of chickens do you have?” His eyes sparkled and he smiled, “New Hampshire Reds.” “Why do you have that kind?” “Because those are what my father had.” I decided to forget the books with their definitions and attributes, and listen to my neighbor’s experience. I started with New Hampshire Reds. In subsequent years, caring for a small flock of these chickens, I never regretted my decision. Indeed, I came to have a great affection for these particular chickens."
Lee Hoinacki. 1999. Stumbling Toward Justice: Stories of Place. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. pp 74-75.
Lee Hoinacki. 1999. Stumbling Toward Justice: Stories of Place. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. pp 74-75.
posted by Anthony at
9:22 AM
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