supergravity

I don't believe in hell but I might be changing my mind thanks to Westfield Stratford City

2011-12-03T18:17:00.001Z

I don't believe in a place called hell but having experienced Westfield Stratford City, Europe's largest shopping complex, I am re-evaluating my position.

Shopping malls don't appeal to me at the best of times and I know December is an especially bad time of year to go anywhere near one. So, I should have known better. I do now.

I needed to get something checked out on my MacBook Pro and decided to go to the new Apple Store in Stratford - 2 tube stops away. What seemed like a quick, convenient trip, turned into an adventure into the underworld.

Westfield is amazing for its huge, clean, bright and buzzing atmosphere. It is a modern cathedral of capitalism. On one hand, I admire the ingenuity of creating such a structure and appreciate it's an engine for east London regeneration. On the other hand, I see a spectacle of mass consumption and consumerism - a soulless compound that lures people in with promises of a better life and sells them crap instead.

Why I hate shopping malls in 3 rants...

1) People who walk really slowly or block busy pedestrian thoroughfares annoy me. There are way too many of them there (Get out of my way...I'm trying to get in and out of here).

2) I saw the funniest (i.e. stupidest) thing. Shoppers were waiting in line at the Hollister store as if going to a club (see picture). First of all, I grew up near Hollister, the town in California. It's a hole. Second of all, the clothes are ridiculous. These people were waiting in line. Morons.

3) Hallelujah should be sung by either Leonard Cohen or Jeff Buckley...never, ever by Mariah Carey. Thanks to the piped in Christmas music, I still can't get it out of my head. I feel dirty.

I'm obviously a grumpy middle aged git. I just think somehow we humans can do better to celebrate life than through the medium of shopping for its own sake. I'm not interested in everyone having a possession-less life (I like my MacBook Pro), but, we have gone too far.

So what's better? The Slow Food movement and going to concerts and drinking with friends all seem better somehow. Oh yeah, excercise. That's a good one too.

As fancy as it is, Westfield Stratford City represents a form of hell...on a personal level and in terms of living on a planet with natural limits. There has to be something better...

For more articulate views on what I'm getting at, check out videos of The Story of Stuff and Tim Jackson's TED Talk below.

The Story of Stuff

Tim Jackson's economic reality check - TED Talk

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Until next time,

Jason

Notes from NESTA's Neighbourhood Challenge launch today #nchall

2010-10-26T11:54:00.001Z

Brief and incomplete notes from NESTA’s Neighbourhood Challenge launch today

Philip Colligan, Executive Director – The Public Service Lab

On the Neighbourhood Challenge...

· Will identify areas of low social capital

· Need to have capacity and capability to deliver

· Work with 10 projects – 1) looking for impact and 2) must be up for learning and sharing

· Method: lower barriers to entry, let lots of people in – work ideas up – communities assess ideas and select

Nick Hurd MP

On Big Society...

1. Decentralised

2. Reform public services

3. Social action – support and strengthen

· Community organisers - Government will identify and support 5000 community organisers

· Community grant programme - will attract matched funding from local philanthropists

· Big Society Bank – get ideas up and running

Lynne Berry, WRVS

· Importance of intergenerational services - when older people feel safe in communities, the whole community feels safe.

Alan Rosenblatt

· Importance of online and offline connections (online = free, social media, scale; offline = human interaction and experience)

· Link different worlds – fluidity between online and offline

· What are you asking your audience to do?

My perspective...

· Developing confidence and leadership skills will be important for the Neighbourhood Challenge, especially when working with people from areas of low social capital

· Meaningful cross sector collaboration also key to success if projects are going to last – develop networks: citizens, business and government – local, regional and national

· Scale – not all community groups plan or want to go to scale...rather deepen their impact where they are located. Distinguish between dissemination of ideas, “franchise models” and centralised scaling up – 3 very different approaches

New Post: Social Profit or Social Revenue? #socent

2010-09-13T23:15:00.001Z

Some common sense business thinking thanks to Deborah Meaden on Dragon's Den tonight. She said something that struck a chord about the distinction between making a profit and generating revenue:

"There are some people in life that don't know how to make a profit

and people misunderstand being in business and generating revenue

with this instinct that true entrepreneurs have to make money.

I have a horrible feeling that you don't know how to make a profit..."

Succinct and brilliant! The successful entrepreneur works to make sure that revenue exceeds costs. This has me thinking about social profit and social revenue and environmental profit and environmental revenue.

Unless social enterprise managers measure social and environmental impacts and know what break even and surplus look like and how to get there then they might end up being good intentioned and busy but not making real progress. And no one wants that...

---

Follow Dragon's Den on Twitter: @BBCDragonsDen

Next 20 Years Will Be the Age of the Eco-efficient Economy

2010-09-06T11:15:00.001Z

From the paper "The emergence of the eco-efficient economy" by IBM Institute for Business Value

Executive summary here: ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/gbe03300usen/GBE03300USEN.PDF

Three core conclusions emerged from the collaborative discussion:

• Eco-efficiency is poised to become the biggest economic game-changer for organizations over the next 20 years.

• Direct and collaborative action from a range of stakeholders will be needed to address the challenges and opportunities posed by ecoefficiency.

• There is a strong imperative for stakeholders to advance the ecoefficient economy.

Best practice recommendations

1) Leverage innovation to deliver “green” infrastructures that are highly efficient and overlay the physical infrastructure with digital intelligence

2) Implement sustainable solutions that promote resource efficiency and reduce the environmental and social impact of operations

3) Embrace intelligent systems that use open standards to provide near realtime information for better management of the infrastructure, water quantities, or, even, entire transportation systems.

---

My question: What are the opportunities for social entrepreneurs and social enterprises in the eco-efficiency economy?

Please respond with your ideas...

Is the east end becoming the social enterprise Silicon Valley?

2010-09-02T08:02:00.001Z

My article in Social Enterprise...

http://www.socialenterpriselive.com/section/comment/people/20100824/the-east-end-becoming-the-social-enterprise-silicon-valley

OpenIDEO.com and the Design Quotient

2010-09-01T13:46:00.001Z

Thanks to Hugh at Forum for the Future's Gatecrashing the Energy Sector scheme (http://www.forumforthefuture.org/projects/gatecrashing-the-energy-sector), I learned about the OpenIDEO.com platform "Where people design better, together" (http://openideo.com/).

I just checked it out and encourage you to do the same. It seems like a good way to create and test ideas. In particular, I like their Design Quotient of inspiration, concepting, collaboration and evaluation. Enjoy...

<p>Introduction to OpenIDEO / OpenIDEO.com from IDEO on Vimeo.</p>

URL:

Cheers!

Thought for the Day: The Personal Trainer

2010-08-31T22:39:00.001Z

Tonight I did a lot of sweating...tiredness spreads throughout my body...and I bet moving in a fluid fashion will not happen tomorrow. My initial session with a personal trainer went well, I think.

In an hour I got up to...

Cardio - running on the treadmill...several hills and sprints
Strength - pull ups, dips, medicine ball, barbell
Core + boxing combo - abs, jabs, cross punch, bag work
Stretches

It was tough and I wanted to leave about half way through.

Lesson from the experience:

Challenge - my trainer pushed me harder than I push myself alone and for that I'm grateful (not at the time of the workout, though)
Vanity - I attempted to do what he suggested over and over to avoid looking bad even though I would have preferred to go to the pub
Expertize* - The trainer knows how to put together an effective and efficient routine and gained my respect as a result
An outside, critical perspective helps - a coach, trainer, friend or colleague can make a big difference to performance in a short space of time. Unfortunately, I believe this nonsense enough to go back for at least a couple more sessions in the next 2 weeks.

I'm off to bed. I need some sleep.

(*To my British friends, I'm American and rarely get the opportunity to write in American. This is my blog and I'm going to enjoy using lots of z's (that's zee, not zed, by the way) and other such American-isms.)

Social Entrepreneurs, Step Out of the Way...

2010-08-30T23:55:00.001Z

A thought about social entrepreneurs and those who develop growing social ventures.

I don't have hard stats so I'm basing this on experience, observation and instinct...individuals who start social ventures often lack the necessary skills to implement robust structures, systems and strategy to grow their businesses into financially and socially sustainable enterprises. Is this a generalization? Yes. Does this make social entrepreneurs bad or wrong in some way? No.

In the dot com days, entrepreneurs would often start up businesses, grow them to a certain size and then recruit someone else, often an MBA type, to run the day-to-day operations while they either worked in a division that suited their strengths or went out and started something new. (Note: I acknowledge that there's a financial incentive here too).

In the social economy, social entrepreneurs usually stay at the top for too long to the potential detriment of what they try to achieve. Managing a board, staff, volunteers, partners, finances, operations, sales and marketing all start to get in the way of the original vision. Do social entrepreneurs need to be experts at all areas of a business? No, but they should know their limits and hand over the reigns when appropriate. "Just getting by" and "making it up" work well as a start-up concepts but do not help when sales significantly increase and quality of service matters.

So what do I suggest? Either get skilled up or recruit someone with the know how and the values to take the social enterprise to the next level.

Return From The Wilderness blog

2009-02-26T21:15:00.034Z

Last week Catherine and I went and saw Lyle Lovett at Royal Festival Hall. I didn't want the show to end. Well crafted songs, a talented band and a sense of subtle humor made for a powerful and enjoyable show. At one point Lyle got laughs from the crowd when he said "I'm happy when what I say and the truth coincide". Well, I've been saying I'm going to return to blogging for a long time and now it has finally come true. Like the Lyle Lovett gig, I plan to deliver a quality, sometimes humorous blog worth checking out.

So, what better way to start than by focusing on some of the world's biggest problems?

For this post I asked a few friends to comment on themes from the economic and social development section of the UN web site. Thankfully I received 3 interesting responses from my friends Elizabeth, Rob and Martin.

Here's what's on their minds followed by my witty, insightful and modest perspective...

Elizabeth: I'm interested in the relationship between education of women/girls and lifting societies out of poverty. (Yes, the Three Cups of Tea idea.) "Feminization of poverty."

Me: Well, I do believe that empowering women and girls is a way to decrease the population rate, improve health of children and advance human rights. If we want thriving societies, girls need access to the same opportunities as boys and women deserve to be empowered in homes, communities, schools and work.

Speaking of health, I recently got involved with the ColaLife campaign to use Coca-Cola's distribution channels to send medicine and other "social products" to difficult-to-access parts of the globe (but where you can still get a Coke) to help reduce preventable health issues.

Rob: i guess my pick would be science, technology and productive sectors. i'm a technologist at heart, and i really believe that our power as a species is our ability to use and create technology. technology has caused a lot of our current problems, and i also believe that it can fix them as well. thankfully we have a president who now believes in science, and we can continue to push new technologies forward that can save us on this planet. some technologies that could have a huge impact if developed: solar energy, stem cells, nanontechnology.

Me: I used to believe that rock n roll's gonna save the world but now I get that it's more likely to be supercomputers and solar panels. Actually, I believe in the power of people to get us out of our messes and we just need the right tools. At UnLtd Ventures, I'm working with 4 finalists of The Big Green Challenge - a £1M prize fund for groups to help reduce climate change in their communities. The finalists use a variety of technologies for their projects related to wind, solar, water, recycled waste oil or rooftop gardens. No single approach is a magic bullet that will reduce climate change but collectively these technologies will do their part to help the planet be a hospitable place for humans to exist.

Martin: As I am in the energy field I vote for Sustainable development, human settlements and energy, though really that is 3 topics, ( Why do I think of Michael Myers: "The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire. Discuss." ) though they are related, but then the whole list is inherently related. And for really interesting topics regarding human settlements and energy you should talk about biofuels and the destruction of the crops of indigenous farmers in South America and what happens when the only fuel around are trees and the only food (fuel for people?) is made of dirt! The whole bruhaha regarding energy/oil/ coal has been the latest cause of wars and grief, but wait until we run out of water THAT is going to get some people fired up... As Mark Twain said.... "Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over."

Me: Apparently humans use 3 planets worth of natural resources. Since we have just the one planet that obviously puts us in serious natural resource debt. To balance things out, we need to live within our means. Reducing consumption, re-using and recycling materials and improving efficiency (turn off lights, better use of supply chains, etc.) are all part of the solution. I'm interested in and applaud Obama's energy and environment plans and think it's a good thing that the UK set up the Department of Energy and Climate Change. However, it's going to be critical that countries like China and India get on board with the sustainability agenda. As a side note, I've yet to see it but I hear good things about the film The Age of Stupid which looks at the consequences of not dealing with climate change while we have a chance.

To finish, I'll leave you with a verse from Lyle Lovett's "If I Had A Boat"

The mystery masked man was smart
He got himself a Tonto
'Cause Tonto did the dirty work for free
But Tonto he was smarter
And one day said kemo sabe
Kiss my ass I bought a boat
I'm going out to sea

More to come soon.

Eye Candy

2007-05-08T22:58:00.000Z

2007 Skoll World Forum Notes

2007-05-08T22:32:00.001Z

2007 Skoll World Forum Notes

Said Business School, Oxford

What did I learn?

· If social enterprise/economy organisations want to approach the private sector, it is important to speak the language of business. Business people typically don't want to learn the language of the 3rd sector. The private sector has power in terms of resources and influence and it is the responsibility of social entrepreneurs to make it worth the business community's while to channel resources into the 3rd sector.

· Having seen Al Gore deliver his "An Inconvenient Truth" presentation in Cambridge on Monday and Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, on discuss micro credit on Tuesday, I got that their message is simply to take action because no challenge is too great. Muhammad Yunus said that if you can help one person out of poverty, you could do it for everyone…you just have to do the same thing over and over again. Both Gore and Yunus took on massive-scale problems, global warming and poverty, and broke them down into manageable pieces. They are in action, focused and get the same message out again and again. Yunus said he doesn't try to convince anyone of what he's trying to accomplish – the listener already wants to help, he just delivers the message that opens their eyes.

The notes below are my personal notes and not necessarily accurate or complete. Where there is a lack of content, I was probably engaged in the conversation, checking email or not paying attention.

Wednesday 28 March 2007

Session with Peter Gabriel, co-founder, and Gillian Caldwell, Executive Director, of human rights organisation, Witness

The have a new service called The Hub. Idea: with videos and photos, it is difficult to bury human rights abuses. PG saw the Rodney King video and noticed its impact on society.

Witness plans to train people how to use cameras; it is not enough to just get the camera out there. They are finding they have to be a production facility and library. Fortunately cost of cameras has gone down. Before their work could only reach a small number of groups and touch a small number of people. But now with the internet, they are creating a "YouTube" for human rights that can allow people to upload and have their footage seen. Most importantly, they can influence people that can change the situation.

The Hub plan:

Core partnerships with human rights groups. Call it video advocacy. Work with the media where they can. Measure with concrete evidence over 3 years.
Seeding program – training program
The hub – wiki for human rights. The central point for multimedia for human rights violations

Goal: Deter, reduce and address human rights violations
Empower people so they can articulate their vision for solutions
4 tier process for distributing content

1st tier: filter (for pornography and other inappropriate content)

2nd tier: un-reviewed (for relevance or quality)

3rd tier: reviewed (by community of constituents)

4th tier: featured content

PG mentioned that this service is not meant to compete with any other human rights groups but to support.

Session: partnering with business

· Sophia Tickell, Chair, SustainAbility (moderator)

· Blaise Judja-Sato, Founder & Chairman, VillageReach

· Duncan, GlaxoSmithKline

· John Schaetzl, GE Asset Management

· Hannah Kettler, Gates Foundation

· Christopher J Elias

· Maggie, SustainAbility

Blaise: VillageReach (VR) based in Seattle and founded in 2000. Studied value chain to see where he could contribute in Mozambique. He started with vaccines but realised they needed transportation, communications and to build capacity. VR worked with government and communities to fill gaps and setup social enterprises to work along the value chain.

· Challenge: Government was reluctant to engage. Private sector groups unwilling to go where market untested. Issues with funding – donors didn't understand model. NGOs reluctant to engage.

· Hybrid model: charitable work, commercial operations (set up social ventures to add value to the value chain). Eventually set up partnership with large corporate but could have benefited from partnerships with energy company and DHL or Coca-cola who are experts in supply chain management.

Chris Strutt, PATH: Partnering re: technology work with 60 commercial companies. Their business sector partners are essential to reach scale. They played a brokering role with United Nations and companies. One needs to understand perspective of business – their context and culture. PATH became an importance player in brokering but had a challenge around financing. Chris suggested organisations need innovation capital to explore new areas. Industry can help by influencing their peers – can get them on side faster and demonstrate value that can be created by working with the social sector. Chris encourages social entrepreneurs to be more open to disruptive approaches – give up the status quo and think of new ways to come up with solutions.

Duncan, GSK: Start with: What are the company's objectives?

3 ways to provide access of vaccines:

1) Research & development – look for partnerships for funding (keep in mind they need to make a profit) and expertise

2) Licensing

3) Community investment program – global programs

Hannah, Gates Foundation (GF): They paid out around $8bn in less than 10 years. They do lots of learning by doing. Philosophy: All lives are equal regardless of where people live. This philosophy helps with making decisions and grants. GF focus on diseases that have significant global burden but focused on poorest of poor. Advantage able to take longer-term risks and investment. Hannah made it clear that they are a funder and not a doer. Some grants go to academic institutions. Private sector can't realize global health goals on their own and need the social sector. They've been growing up and down the value chain. GF have changed from focus on outputs to outcomes. How do you go the last mile and scale up? Hannah suggests social sector needs to systematically leverage the power of the private sector.

John, GE: Represents the private sector at the session. The purpose of business is to make a financial return. They put capital at risk, which is at the heart of what investors do, in order to get a reward. Social sector needs to understand private sector perspective if they want their help.

Moving capital session

John Elkington: Most SEs believe they don't have access to finance. How SEs get support:

· Personal fundraising

· Public fundraising

· In-kind help

· Foundations

Penny Newman, Cafédirect: Runs a £22M company that pioneered fair trade as a business model. They work with 37 producing organizations and 1 million growers and help them achieve a better life. Wanted to make fair trade into a business model to connect growers with people that drank the coffee or tea. They did a public share issue and became a PLC, which she strongly supports. Penny asked: Can we have a different stock market? We should look at different ways of trading our shares.

Session: research – scale

Francesco Perrini, Bocconi University: venture philanthropy

· Narrow view: SE concept as the most recent innovation in the nonprofit sector

· Extended view: SE concept as a new, independent and inter-sectorial field of inquiry. The ability to actively contribute to social change with creativeness…

· Venture Philanthropy – a high-risk financial capital provision, combined with technical and managerial expertise transfer, which offer the potential for financial returns, as well as contributing to foster social change through entrepreneurship

Greg Dees, CASE Fuqua School of Business

· Scaling impact with ecosystem thinking

· Ecosystem = interdependence of players

· Impact is not proportional to organizational size

· Efforts to grow should be driven by a compelling impact strategy

· It takes an "ecosystem" to scale and sustain social impact (!)

· Players and roles: resource providers, competitors, allies & complementors, predators & opponents, beneficiaries & customers, relevant bystanders

· Environmental conditions: politics & administration, economics and markets, culture and social trends, geography and infrastructure

· Ecosystem change – lasting alteration of player behaviour created by: changing one or more environmental conditions, widespread diffusion of innovation

· Common elements of ecosystem change – coalition building, communications effectiveness, credible alternative, contingency planning

· Benefits – improved understanding of opportunities for ecosystem change, environmental needs for replication, potential for new alliances, alternative resource strategies, testing different operating models. Ultimate goal have disproportionate level of impact.

Roberto Gutierrez, Social Enterprise Knowledge Network

· Different paths for scaling social entrepreneurship

· Integrative drivers: leadership, culture, strategy

· Implementing mechanisms: HR, governance, finance…

· Leadership – social conglomerate: coordinates ventures, builds strategic alliances, promotes visibility of enterprise

· Skills: coordination, political, negotiation; style: political

· Corporate social entrepreneurship: uses both internal and external resources, creates social and economic value

· Social investment – strategic philanthropy

· As innovations progress on the continuum, the degree of central coordination and resources needed increases

· Dissemination—affiliation—branching

· Public sector: showing impact is key to maintain a program when governments change – influence on legislative process is notable

· Consultancy—program development

· Combination of social entrepreneurship with social service provision and social activism is common

· Convergence among social enterprises from different sectors: value creation, stakeholder management, organizational structure, capital mobilization.

· Partnerships and organizational ecosystems that create social and economic value are increasingly common

Jason's March 07 Update

2007-03-27T11:43:00.000Z

Hi Folks - Just a quick update about 3 things.

* I thought I'd share a couple of pictures I took yesterday. In the
afternoon I found out that the actor Jude Law was filming in Borough
Market near where I had a meeting so I got a shot of him. Then last
night I saw Al Gore give his "An Inconvenient Truth" presentation in
Cambridge which was very inspiring. Today I'm going up to Oxford for
my 3rd Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. The singer/
musician Peter Gabriel will be at the awards ceremony so I'm planning
to get a shot of him too. Just for the record, this is not my
typical week. I'm usually attending meetings somewhere in the South
East of England or strapped to my computer at work.

* I've completed the second year of classes for my Masters in Social
Enterprise Management. Now after a couple of papers for social
accounting and a research proposal due in May, I'll move into my
dissertation. At the moment it is going to focus on some sort of
combination of strategic management, value chain analysis and social
networks. When I'm done in March 2008 I'll tell you what its all
about in a page or less.

* In mid-April Catherine and I are going to fly to Santiago de
Compostela, in northwest Spain to celebrate her birthday. Apparently
it is beautiful and unlike the rest of Spain (side note: apparently
it is the 3rd most popular destination for Christians behind
Jerusalem and Rome). Then in May, Eric Smith and I will meet in
Copenhagen, Denmark to party and run half of the Copenhagen Marathon
(we were looking for a half marathon but this is what we've come up
with as an alternative) as well as do a little sight seeing in
Sweden. Finally, for my Stateside friends, I'm excited to be flying
out in October for Tyler and Maci's wedding (and Ty's 40th) in
Brawley, CA. Since I'll be out that way, I'll likely extend the trip
and make my way up north.

Have a good one.

Adios amigos,
Jason

Jason's Update Du Jour

2006-08-10T10:45:00.000Z

Hello Friends and Family,

Here's a lesson I learned this week about computing. It is best to avoid spilling coffee on your laptop if you want to keep it running. Luckily after drying out, my iBook is OK. Hopefully my computer will not start requesting lattes or cappuccinos when I start it up. I have a recommendation...back-up your data.

Anyway, how are you? I'm about to go on a trip and realized I haven't been in touch with some of you in ages. So here's the deal:

* Guyana: From August 12-27 I will be in Guyana, a nation in northern South America. If you don't know about Guyana, don't worry, neither did I a couple of months ago. It's near Venezuela, Brazil, Suriname and the Atlantic and considered part of the Caribbean. You may know it as the site of the Jonestown Massacre in the 70s ('gee, this kool aid tastes funny'). Me and two other consultants are going there at the request of the International Development wing of the United Reform Church to deliver management training to people affiliated with the church in order to set up their own community businesses. Have I become a missionary? No. Am I going because it will be a great experience and I get all my expenses paid? Yes.

* Moving: Louise and I have found a buyer for our flat. After a couple days of negotiations, we got close to our asking price. In mid-September I'll move from Catford to East Dulwich, about 4 miles away in South East London. I'll move in with my friend Karen Montgomery. Karen and I used to work together at CAN and have been friends ever since. It is a modern 2 bedroom flat with an office and good size living room. It's a hip area with several cool pubs and restaurants and a great park. Plus it has quick access to central London. The address is: 115B Crystal Palace Road, East Dulwich, London SE22 9ES, UK

* Work: I am continuing my consulting work. I recently completed projects for a group of large UK charities as well as the Home Office, an office of the UK government. This week I am employed by CAN, my former employer, to do a piece of research about the social enterprise sector.

* Music: My acoustic duo, Eye Candy, continues to rehearse and write music. We recently played with 4 other acts at my birthday party and rocked the house. I've been writing and recording rough demos on my computer and doing some collaboration with other musicians. I've also started practicing the guitar again for the first time in years which is fun.

* Concerts: I've experienced some great music this summer. I caught The Who which was amazing, Foo Fighters with Motorhead and Queens of the Stone Age and a surprise appearance by Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen, Jeff Beck and Buddy Guy, an amazing blues guitarist, at the Tower of London, and jazz guitarist Mike Stern.

* Bits & Bobs: I recently joined my local Amnesty International chapter to do my part to support human rights; am continuing my volunteering with OK2B, a mental health charity, to help with event planning and measuring social impact; am creating a community project as part of the last in a series of courses I've taken with Landmark Education; am working out 3 days per week; and, finally, going out with friends most nights.

I'd love to find out what's new with you. Please drop me a line.

I hope you're having a fun summer and life is good. Take care, mates.

Love,
Jason

2006-05-24T23:15:00.000Z

Notes from the Golden State

2006-04-27T18:24:00.000Z

Dear Friends - I write from Oakland on a sunny, warm California day to
share the Chronicles of Mollring: Jason's California Adventure...

Day -1 (Tues)
Travelled back from Leeds, relieved to have completed my first two
consulting projects. Celebrated my first Anzac Day with the Ng's and
co. In what must be unconvential for the Aussies, drank beer and ate
loads from the 'barby'. Made some dodgy film with party-goers called
'The Birthday Video Message' that is apparently in circulation in Oz
(please see Alan for details). Expecting 'Best Supporting Actor'
nomination at next year's Oscars.

Day 1 (Wed)
Easy flight, actually (woohoo!) worked on paper for MA, arrived in San
Francisco to be greeted by my dad and warm weather. Having been away
from away from a ball park for 4 years, went straight to a baseball
game to see my team, the San Francisco Giants, play the New York Mets.
Got tickets for free, sat behind home plate, drank beer and watched a
great game. One word: heaven. Met with friends for drinks at a bar
next to the bay. My friend Krista asked me to consider officiating
her wedding in September (seeing that I have led the life of a heathen
and do not possess the legal ability to perform such a ceremony do not
appear to be barriers at this point). Finally collapsed in middle of
'witty' conversation with friends from lack of sleep and jet lag.

Day 2 (Thurs)
Wide awake at 6.30am, took Jeff's dog, Scrappy, for hour long walk
around Lake Merritt in downtown Oakland, noticed that Jeff's apartment
is across the street from a posh new apartment building called 'The
Essex' (thought you Brits would like that), went to the cool and funky
JaHva House Coffee Shop for breakfast where I spotted advertisement
for upcoming performance of Destiny - Harpist from the 'Hood
(Unfortunately, not sure if I'll be around to make the gig and didn't
notice CDs for sale to bring back for your listen pleasure). About to
embark on journey to Salinas, Lettuce Capitol of the World.

More later. The adventure continues...

A More Perfect Union

2005-12-12T09:01:00.000Z

This weekend

...I caught The Stars, a band from Montreal, gig at the University of London Union (aka ULU). This is the second time I've checked them out this year and both times they have rocked. The Stars blend well crafted songwriting, pop sensibility, and a bit of indy rock with male and female lead vocals to create a unique sound...and I like it.

...I finished Bill Clinton's book, My Life. In the Epilogue, Clinton writes something that rings true for me...

"In calmer times, our country has been well served by our two-party system, with progressives and conservatives debating what to change and what to preserve. But when change is forced upon us by events, we are all tested, and thrown back to our fundamental mission to widen the circle of opportunity, deepen the meaning of freedom, and strengthen the bonds of our community. To me, that is what it means to make our union more perfect".

CAN-zine

2005-11-25T14:01:00.000Z

Check out CAN-zine, the online news for social entrepreneurs

http://www.can-online.org.uk/news/canzine/

Get Carter

2005-11-20T23:22:00.000Z

This is not the country that I once knew

Former President Jimmy Carter believes that a warring America is abandoning its fundamental values

Sunday November 20, 2005
The Observer

In recent years, I have become increasingly concerned by a host of radical government policies that now threaten many basic principles espoused by all previous administrations, Democratic and Republican.

These include the rudimentary American commitment to peace, economic and social justice, civil liberties, our environment and human rights.

Also endangered are our historic commitments to providing citizens with truthful information, treating dissenting voices and beliefs with respect, state and local autonomy and fiscal responsibility.

At the same time, our political leaders have declared independence from the restraints of international organisations and have disavowed long-standing global agreements, including agreements on nuclear arms, control of biological weapons and the international system of justice.

Instead of our tradition of espousing peace as a national priority unless our security is directly threatened, we have proclaimed a policy of 'pre-emptive war', an unabridged right to attack other nations unilaterally to change an unsavoury regime or for other purposes. When there are serious differences with other nations, we brand them as international pariahs and refuse to permit direct discussions to resolve disputes.

Regardless of the costs, there are determined efforts by US leaders to exert American imperial dominance throughout the world. These revolutionary policies have been orchestrated by those who believe that our nation's tremendous power and influence should not be internationally constrained. Even with our troops involved in combat and America facing the threat of additional terrorist attacks, our declaration of 'you are either with us or against us' has replaced the forming of alliances based on a clear comprehension of mutual interests, including the threat of terrorism.

Another disturbing realisation is that, unlike during other times of national crisis, the burden of conflict is now concentrated exclusively on the heroic men and women sent back repeatedly to fight in the quagmire of Iraq. The rest of our nation has not been asked to make any sacrifice, and every effort has been made to conceal or minimise public awareness of casualties.

Instead of cherishing our role as the great champion of human rights, we now find civil liberties and personal privacy grossly violated under some extreme provisions of the Patriot Act.

Of even greater concern is that the US has repudiated the Geneva accords and supported the use of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo, and secretly through proxy regimes elsewhere with the so-called extraordinary rendition programme. It is embarrassing to see the President and Vice President insisting that the CIA should be free to perpetrate 'cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment' on people in US custody.

Instead of reducing America's reliance on nuclear weapons and their further proliferation, we have insisted on our right (and that of others) to retain our arsenals, expand them and, therefore, abrogate or derogate almost all nuclear arms-control agreements negotiated during the last 50 years. We have now become a prime culprit in global nuclear proliferation. America also has abandoned the prohibition of 'first use' of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear nations and is contemplating the previously condemned deployment of weapons in space.

Protection of the environment has fallen by the wayside because of government subservience to political pressure from the oil industry and other powerful lobbying groups. The last five years have brought continued lowering of pollution standards at home and almost universal condemnation of our nation's global environmental policies.

Our government has abandoned fiscal responsibility by unprecedented favours to the rich, while neglecting America's working families. Members of Congress have increased their own pay by $30,000 per year since freezing the minimum wage at $5.15 per hour (the lowest among industrialised nations).

I am extremely concerned by a fundamentalist shift in many houses of worship and in government, as church and state have become increasingly intertwined in ways previously thought unimaginable.

As the world's only superpower, America should be seen as the unswerving champion of peace, freedom and human rights. Our country should be the focal point around which other nations can gather to combat threats to international security and to enhance the quality of our common environment. We should be in the forefront of providing human assistance to people in need.

It is time for the deep and disturbing political divisions within our country to be substantially healed, with Americans united in a common commitment to revive and nourish the historic political and moral values that we have promoted during the last 230 years.

· Jimmy Carter was the 39th President of the United States.

Stuff I've checked out recently and liked...

2005-11-18T12:00:00.001Z

Film
The Constant Gardener
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387131/

Lord of War
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399295/

Gig
The White Stripes at Alexandra Palace
http://www.whitestripes.com/
Review: http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/051116/33/1ylzf.html

Buck 65 at University of London Union
http://www.buck65.com/

DVD
U2 Go Home, Live from Slane Castle, Ireland
http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/u/u2-gohome.shtml

Organization
Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/

A Week Off

2005-11-01T13:44:00.000Z

I took week off work at the end of October. The time off was very nice and went by fast. Here's a quick and dirty week in the life of Jason guide...

Saturday
Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Natural History Museum
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/

Sunday
Man Push Cart, London Film Festival at the National Film Theatre (followed by Q&A with the Director and lead actor)
http://www.lff.org.uk/films_details.php?FilmID=763

Monday
F-IRE Collective at Queen Elizabeth Hall
http://www.f-ire.com/

Tuesday
Fiction Plane (Sting's Son's Band) at the Clapham Grand
http://www.fictionplane.co.uk/

Wednesday
Oxford
http://www.visitoxford.com/

Thursday
Bath
http://visitbath.co.uk/site/home

Friday
The Gowlett Pub in Peckham
http://www.thegowlett.com/index.html

Saturday
Canal Boat

Sunday
Research for my Master
http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/socialenterprise/index.htm

Media I'm Consuming

2005-08-29T13:03:00.000Z

Music

The Stills - Logic Will Break Your Heart. Bass like The Cure, indie guitars, melodic vocals, driving drums. Nice.
The Dears
The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters. Great funk & jazz
Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
Beck - Guero
Stars - Set Yourself on Fire
Tegan and Sara - So Jealous
Jets Overhead - Bridges (sampler)

Gig
Steve Earle & Patti Smith - Meltdown. One of the best shows I've ever experienced. Steve Earle is a brilliant singer/songwriter. Patti Smith and her band blew me away.

Film
Crash. Got me thinkin'. So much racism, not enough integration. Us and Them.

DVD
Long Way Round - Ewan McGregor & Charlie Boorman

Book
My Life, Bill Clinton
Sad Songs and Other Things That Count, Magnus Nelson (manuscript)

Courses
MA Social Enterprise - LJMU
Recording Techniques & Sound Engineering - Morley College

Social Justice
Saw the film Hotel Rwanda recently. I knew a bit about the violence happening in Rwanda. Art has inspired me to take action. I'm going to join Amnesty International because I believe in social justice.

Fantasy Football
I've joined Yahoo's Fantasy Football League with a team I call Bad is Good. I figure if my team is bad, that's ok. If my team is good, that's ok too. I've chosen the level of competitiveness as 'casual' and letting the computer handle the draft for me. The whole idea is to keep me in the football loop and get me back up to speed with what's going on in the NFL after nearly 3 years away from the U. S. of A.

California Friends Visit Catford - Summer 2005

2005-08-13T16:30:00.000Z

Allie & Rob in London

Genio on the train

Nicole & Ardis on the floor in Catford

John was here too - but no picture...yet

The Arrogance of Power

2005-08-13T09:26:00.000Z

Senator J. William Fulbright wrote a book in 1966 called The Arrogance of Power about American foreign policy in Vietnam. At the time he was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In a section of the autobiography, My Life, Bill Clinton wrote about the central argument of Fulbright's book:

Fulbright's essential argument was that great nations get into trouble and can go into long-term decline when they are "arrogant" in the use of their power, trying to do things they shouldn't do in places they shouldn't be. He was suspicious of any foreign policy rooted in missionary zeal, which he felt would cause us to drift into commitments "which though generous and benevolent in content, are so far reaching as to exceed even America's great capacitities." He also thought that when we brought our power to bear in the service of an abstract concept, like anti-communism, without understanding local history, culture, and politics we could do more harm than good.

Fulbright's ideas hit the mark regarding policy in Vietnam in the 60's and appears to define America's current policy in Iraq...

MA Social Enterprise

2005-08-07T18:35:00.000Z

Looks like I'll apply to Liverpool John Moores University for the MA Social Enterprise program. I went up to Liverpool on Friday and visited Bob Doherty, who runs the program, to check out the school and discuss details. At the end of the day, I headed back to London believing this is a very good step for me and my career. Assuming I'm accepted, I'll commute from London to Liverpool and back every Wednesday. It's 2.5 hours each way and I'm seeing it as an opportunity to study. To be honest, I'm pretty excited about it.

Here's a link to check out the program:
http://cwis.livjm.ac.uk/MGT/social_enterprise/welcome.html

Here's a link to check out Liverpool:
http://www.liverpool08.com/AboutLiverpool/index.asp

Bye for now,
Jason

Greetings

2005-02-12T20:09:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to the exciting world of supergravity. My name is Jason and I'll be your host for this blog. Please refrain from using flash photography as it can disturb the animals but do ask questions along the way. So, without further ado, please sit back, relax, and enjoy supergravity.