Here is my sermon from today's Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook:
The disciples were in a place of scarcity – ‘we have worked all night long but have caught nothing.’ Jesus says that the place of scarcity can be the place to find abundance – ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch’ (Luke 5. 1 - 11). When the disciples do as Jesus requests, they receive abundance – ‘they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.’ In order to receive God’s abundance, they have to utilize their abilities, skills or gifts as fishermen by sailing out into the deep water and putting down their nets.
The disciples found that the place of scarcity is the place where abundance can be found and this is also the witness of scripture. Sam Wells, the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, has said that ‘the Old Testament was written because God’s people in exile found it not a time of despair but one of renewal, not a time simply of losing the land but more wonderfully of gaining a new and deeper relationship with God.’ ‘The New Testament was written because the early Christians found that the execution of their Lord and Saviour was not the end of the story but the beginning, that his agony was the foretaste of glory, that his killers meant it for evil but God meant it for good.’
The key for the disciples in moving from scarcity to abundance was the use of their skills and abilities – their God-given gifts. John McKnight and Peter Block are pioneers of asset-based community development. In their book ‘The Abundant Community’ they talk about our consumer society as an economy of scarcity because it ‘constantly tells us that we are insufficient and that we must purchase what we need from specialists and systems outside of our immediate community.’ Instead, they argue that ‘we can do unbelievable things by starting with our assets, not our deficits. We all have gifts to offer, even the most seemingly marginal among us. Using our particular assets (our skills, experience, insights and ideas) we have the God-given power to create a hope-filled life and can be the architects of the future where we want to live.’
This is true too for churches, which thrive when the gifts of all their members are released and they build on one another’s assets. The currency of the kingdom of God is of things that never run out. ‘The secret of happiness is learning to love the things God gives us in plenty. There’s no global shortage of friendship, kindness, generosity, sympathy, creativity, faithfulness, laughter, love. These are the currency of abundance.
The Church of today needs to rediscover his teaching because God gives us the abundance of the kingdom to renew the poverty of the church. In our generation God has given his Church a financial crisis, and this can only be for one reason: to teach us that abundance does not lie in financial security, and to show us that only in relationships of mutual interdependence, relationships that money obscures as often as it enables, does abundant life lie.
We are part of HeartEdge, a growing ecumenical network of churches and other organisations working across the UK and overseas, initiated by St Martin-in-the-Fields and launched here, at St Stephen Walbrook, in February, which is seeking to do just that; to support the Church through rediscovery of this teaching.
The challenge for us as a church and as individuals is this, Are we going to live in the economy of scarcity, ‘the economy that is fine as far as it goes, but turns out not to go very far – the economy that only includes certain people, only buys certain things, only lasts a limited length of time – the economy of anxiety and scarcity?’ Or are we going to live in the economy of abundance, ‘the economy where the only use of wealth is to make friends and set people free, the economy in which you are never homeless and you cannot be destitute because you have spent your time and money making friends who will always welcome you into their homes – the economy of abundance, where generosity is the best investment? Which is it to be?’ If we live in the economy of scarcity we will spend our lives fearing for our jobs, our livelihoods, our reputations, our health, our families, our lives themselves. If we live in the economy of abundance we won’t fear anything. We’ll have the things that money can’t buy and we’ll know the things that hardship and even death can’t take away from us. We’ll have learned to love the things God gives us in plenty. We will be living truly abundant life.
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Simon Lole - The Father's Love.
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Thursday, 20 July 2017
Friday, 9 December 2016
Update: Sophia Hub Redbridge
Ros Southern writes:
'Coming up this week
Have a great weekend,
Best wishes,
Ros Southern
Coordinator, Sophia Hubs'
King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man.
'Coming up this week
- Tomorrow Saturday 10th - Ilford Green Pop Up Christmas market 11-3 with stalls, activities and a lovely cafe info here
- Tomorrow Saturday 10th - launch of Ilford independent Street food market- only halal one in UK, start-up pitches Info here
- Tuesday 13th Entrepreneurs' club 1-2.30 at Enterprise Desk - Amal Simothy with an accountant's business tips. info here
- Tuesday 13th evening. Redbridge Chamber Christmas bash. Info here
- Thurs 15 December - building a stronger Redbridge economy run by FPComms. Info here
- Timebank Christmas Spirit Skills Swap - an event for residents, businesses and community groups to give and take. Monday 19th December 6-9.30, Ilford info here.
- Organic Ilord has bounced back, older, wiser, better. A guest blog by Toni Lotter here
- Public speaking tips by Usha Chudasama of Healing Feeling - from hard earned experience
- Retweeted East London Radio's tweet about The Hospice bloggers
- Janice and Weininger Irwin of recent BBC 2 Programme are running an event at Ilford Sports Club on Saturday
- Nesta research - what works for Corporate/start-up collaborations?
- World Economic Forum - What happy and successful people focus on
Have a great weekend,
Best wishes,
Ros Southern
Coordinator, Sophia Hubs'
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Monday, 27 June 2016
Statements on the EU Referendum result
On the St Martin-in-the-Fields website, Sam Wells states:
'We now face a new future grateful to be in a democracy where the people’s voice speaks – even when it says what many experience as horrifying. The decision means the nation will leave the EU; it doesn’t automatically mean a war on immigration or economic catastrophe; it must not be allowed to bring about a rise in intolerance and exclusion. It’s up to the whole country now to show that what we have in common is greater than what divides us.'
Angus Ritchie asks some apposite questions of those of us who voted to remain and view the prospect of Brexit as horrifying:
'By far the best piece I have read on the referendum is John Harris's extended essay in The Guardian. Harris, who voted to Remain, warns at the "deep anger and seething worry" which has gripped so much of the country, outside the economic powerhouse of London ...
Harris demands that we listen to a world beyond the metropolitan and middle-class. It is easy to denounce the "bigotry" of the Leave campaign without acknowledging one's own social and economic location. Remainers need to be careful not to fall into our own Pharasaism, for we have sins which require repentance. We speak of social solidarity now, but how much has it inspired us to action on behalf of those in our own land who have been left behind by capitalism? And, when we have acted, have we been motivated by a genuine desire for change or by a shallow self-righteousness - more interested in signalling our virtue than in achieving genuine change?
It is tempting to respond to this week's vote with shrill denunciations, flattering ourselves that this counts as a "prophetic" response. But Harris's essay suggests a more appropriate reaction. We need, first of all, to listen - and to listen in particular from the Nazareths of England and Wales; the unglamorous, left-behind places, which modern capitalism does not value.
For, as these areas will soon discover, the triumph of the Leave campaign is unlikely to address their plight. The challenge for Christians (however we voted in the referendum) is to listen to their genuine and justified grievances, and to help them organise for justice - making common cause with the migrant communities which the worst of the Leave campaign encouraged them to scapegoat.'
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'We now face a new future grateful to be in a democracy where the people’s voice speaks – even when it says what many experience as horrifying. The decision means the nation will leave the EU; it doesn’t automatically mean a war on immigration or economic catastrophe; it must not be allowed to bring about a rise in intolerance and exclusion. It’s up to the whole country now to show that what we have in common is greater than what divides us.'
Angus Ritchie asks some apposite questions of those of us who voted to remain and view the prospect of Brexit as horrifying:
'By far the best piece I have read on the referendum is John Harris's extended essay in The Guardian. Harris, who voted to Remain, warns at the "deep anger and seething worry" which has gripped so much of the country, outside the economic powerhouse of London ...
Harris demands that we listen to a world beyond the metropolitan and middle-class. It is easy to denounce the "bigotry" of the Leave campaign without acknowledging one's own social and economic location. Remainers need to be careful not to fall into our own Pharasaism, for we have sins which require repentance. We speak of social solidarity now, but how much has it inspired us to action on behalf of those in our own land who have been left behind by capitalism? And, when we have acted, have we been motivated by a genuine desire for change or by a shallow self-righteousness - more interested in signalling our virtue than in achieving genuine change?
It is tempting to respond to this week's vote with shrill denunciations, flattering ourselves that this counts as a "prophetic" response. But Harris's essay suggests a more appropriate reaction. We need, first of all, to listen - and to listen in particular from the Nazareths of England and Wales; the unglamorous, left-behind places, which modern capitalism does not value.
For, as these areas will soon discover, the triumph of the Leave campaign is unlikely to address their plight. The challenge for Christians (however we voted in the referendum) is to listen to their genuine and justified grievances, and to help them organise for justice - making common cause with the migrant communities which the worst of the Leave campaign encouraged them to scapegoat.'
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Beth Rowley - Nobody's Fault But Mine.
Saturday, 6 June 2015
Simon Evans Goes to Market
How do you make economics funny? How do you put the comedy in commodity? That is the challenge that comedian Simon Evans has set himself with Simon Evans Goes to Market. The first series was interesting, thought-provoking and informative, as well as being funny. 'The market in radio comedy being what it is - [he] was rewarded with a second series.'
'In this new series for BBC Radio 4, he looks at the markets of four goods that might perhaps be referred to as 'Bads' - coffee, alcohol, tobacco and sugar. Addictive, stress inducing, even deadly - but a big part of our daily life that we just can't do without.
With the help of a variety of experts and regular co-host, presenter of More or Less, Tim Harford, he shows how economics really is part of our everyday life.'
Miranda Sawyer notes that Evans' humour 'doesn't quite fit the comedy norm' as he's 'not particularly leftwing, he has no time for cool posturing and he likes to know about stuff.' He laces 'proceedings with his clever jokes, some scripted, some off the cuff', and 'illuminates a subject as he riffs about it, takes it seriously and gets the laughs.'
'In this new series for BBC Radio 4, he looks at the markets of four goods that might perhaps be referred to as 'Bads' - coffee, alcohol, tobacco and sugar. Addictive, stress inducing, even deadly - but a big part of our daily life that we just can't do without.
With the help of a variety of experts and regular co-host, presenter of More or Less, Tim Harford, he shows how economics really is part of our everyday life.'
Miranda Sawyer notes that Evans' humour 'doesn't quite fit the comedy norm' as he's 'not particularly leftwing, he has no time for cool posturing and he likes to know about stuff.' He laces 'proceedings with his clever jokes, some scripted, some off the cuff', and 'illuminates a subject as he riffs about it, takes it seriously and gets the laughs.'
Thanks to Paul Trathen for a good night out.
Florence + The Machine - Ship To Wreck.
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Thursday, 19 March 2015
Abundance in scarcity
We live in a time of austerity where our government is implementing a series of sustained reductions in public spending, intended to reduce the budget deficit. Initiated in 2010 the austerity programme is currently expected to extend to at least 2018.
As a result, we live in a time of relative scarcity compared with the preceding years of a booming economy. There are important questions to be asked, particularly in the light of the coming General Election, about the fairness of where the cuts have fallen.
The reality of living in a time of scarcity has parallels to the feeding of the five thousand where Jesus and those with him are in the wilderness with no food except for the five small barley loaves and two small fish offered by a boy in the crowd. Jesus’ disciples essentially despair in the light of their situation as there is nowhere to go to buy food, they have insufficient money for the numbers involved and the boy’s lunch is too small to share with any but a few.
Jesus, however, brings abundance in the place of scarcity. He prepares the crowd to eat, gives thanks to God and begins to share the little that they have. As the sharing commences, the food is found to be sufficient for everyone’s needs with 12 baskets of leftover bread gathered together at the end of the meal.
How did this happen? We don’t know. It was a miracle certainly, but whether the miracle was a supernatural multiplication of food or whether the miracle was that the sharing of the boy’s lunch enabled others to also share food that they had but were keeping to themselves, we simply don’t know for sure. The result, however, was one that we need to find ways of experiencing in times of austerity; abundance in the face of scarcity.
In my previous parish we formed a Sophia Hub. This is essentially a support service for those wanting to benefit the local community by starting a social enterprise. Within the package of support provided, we included a Timebank. This is a form of volunteering in which the time people give is banked and exchanged. The members of the Timebank offer their skills to other members and make requests of help or input that they would like. Every hour that members spend in helping another member in some way is banked and can be spent by receiving help from others in the Timebank. No money changes hands but the 60+ members have now exchanged more than 340 hours since the Timebank was set up.
At a recent Timebank skills swap event that following offers were made: training on selling through Ebay, help with using social media, crotcheting with plastic bags, basic maths help, meditation, massage or Reiki sessions, legal consumer advice, bread making, creative writing, marketing advice, mobile website building, English as a foreign language, French conversation, making toiletries from natural products and a stress management workshop. By exchanging their time and skills, these are people who are experiencing abundance in a time of scarcity.
St Paul quotes Jesus as teaching that it is more blessed to give than to receive and Christ sets us an example of one who gives all that he had without counting the cost or asking anything in return. Yet, the reality is that when we give, we do receive although often not in the same way that we have given. Jesus spoke about this reality when said, ‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’
This is a promise about abundance in scarcity which is demonstrated by the feeding of the five thousand. But it is predicated on our willingness to give, to share, as members of the Timebank do in Seven Kings and, perhaps, as those in the crowd on the mountain in Galilee also learned to do on the day of this miracle.
As a result, we live in a time of relative scarcity compared with the preceding years of a booming economy. There are important questions to be asked, particularly in the light of the coming General Election, about the fairness of where the cuts have fallen.
The reality of living in a time of scarcity has parallels to the feeding of the five thousand where Jesus and those with him are in the wilderness with no food except for the five small barley loaves and two small fish offered by a boy in the crowd. Jesus’ disciples essentially despair in the light of their situation as there is nowhere to go to buy food, they have insufficient money for the numbers involved and the boy’s lunch is too small to share with any but a few.
Jesus, however, brings abundance in the place of scarcity. He prepares the crowd to eat, gives thanks to God and begins to share the little that they have. As the sharing commences, the food is found to be sufficient for everyone’s needs with 12 baskets of leftover bread gathered together at the end of the meal.
How did this happen? We don’t know. It was a miracle certainly, but whether the miracle was a supernatural multiplication of food or whether the miracle was that the sharing of the boy’s lunch enabled others to also share food that they had but were keeping to themselves, we simply don’t know for sure. The result, however, was one that we need to find ways of experiencing in times of austerity; abundance in the face of scarcity.
In my previous parish we formed a Sophia Hub. This is essentially a support service for those wanting to benefit the local community by starting a social enterprise. Within the package of support provided, we included a Timebank. This is a form of volunteering in which the time people give is banked and exchanged. The members of the Timebank offer their skills to other members and make requests of help or input that they would like. Every hour that members spend in helping another member in some way is banked and can be spent by receiving help from others in the Timebank. No money changes hands but the 60+ members have now exchanged more than 340 hours since the Timebank was set up.
At a recent Timebank skills swap event that following offers were made: training on selling through Ebay, help with using social media, crotcheting with plastic bags, basic maths help, meditation, massage or Reiki sessions, legal consumer advice, bread making, creative writing, marketing advice, mobile website building, English as a foreign language, French conversation, making toiletries from natural products and a stress management workshop. By exchanging their time and skills, these are people who are experiencing abundance in a time of scarcity.
St Paul quotes Jesus as teaching that it is more blessed to give than to receive and Christ sets us an example of one who gives all that he had without counting the cost or asking anything in return. Yet, the reality is that when we give, we do receive although often not in the same way that we have given. Jesus spoke about this reality when said, ‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’
This is a promise about abundance in scarcity which is demonstrated by the feeding of the five thousand. But it is predicated on our willingness to give, to share, as members of the Timebank do in Seven Kings and, perhaps, as those in the crowd on the mountain in Galilee also learned to do on the day of this miracle.
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Thursday, 22 January 2015
Guildhall Art Gallery: Dichotomies of spirituality and consumerism
To coincide with its 15th anniversary, Guildhall Art Gallery has undergone a radical rehang for the first time since the current building opened in 1999. The £600,000 renovation improves the visitor experience through illuminating the artworks with a new state-of-the-art lighting system, and creating more flexible themed display spaces.
Julia Dudkiewicz, Principal Curator, says ‘The rehang has been a labour of love and it has been a great privilege to work with such outstanding and internationally significant collections. The Guildhall Art Gallery is a real hidden gem in the heart of the City. It was one of the first public galleries in London, predating Tate Britain by 15 years, and today houses one of the largest and best collections of Victorian art in the world.’
The Gallery shows a changing display of about 250 artworks from its collection of paintings, drawings and sculpture, in addition to a programme of temporary exhibitions. A rich variety of Victorian paintings can be seen as you enter the Gallery, displayed in original nineteenth century style. The collections illustrate the key artistic movements and influences of the Victorian period, from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, to Orientalism, Classicism and narrative painting. Among the Victorian paintings on display include Rossetti's La Ghirlandata, Millais' My First Sermon and My Second Sermon and John Constable's large landscape, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows.
Dudkiewicz has explained that the Victorian room showcases dichotomies on each side of the room, Materiality (Home and Beauty) contrasts with Spirituality (Faith) and Imagined Realities (Love and Imagination) are contrasted with the Realities of Life (Work and Leisure). Further dichotomies can also be found in the Undercroft Gallery where London is explored in terms of 'the effect of the elements on the city (ice and fire), destruction and reconstruction, spirituality and consumerism, and public versus private space.'
The new collecting policy of the Gallery focuses 'on the often controversial themes of money, wealth, the economy, trade, commerce and capitalism.' This policy is currently represented by Mark Titchner's Plenty and Progress wall sculpture. However some of the Victoriana also relates as Dudkiewicz notes in relation to scenes of street children by Augustus Edwin Mulready: “Poverty has not gone away. Is the heart of the City a proper place to make people think a little of social and spiritual issues, that money and materialism are not everything in life? We are going to try.” In his commentary on City panorama entitled City of Holy Dreams Chris Orr states, 'a large number of churches in the City of London are now being choked and outgrown by the new temples of commerce and finance. Cities are maelstroms of competing ideas.'
Julia Dudkiewicz, Principal Curator, says ‘The rehang has been a labour of love and it has been a great privilege to work with such outstanding and internationally significant collections. The Guildhall Art Gallery is a real hidden gem in the heart of the City. It was one of the first public galleries in London, predating Tate Britain by 15 years, and today houses one of the largest and best collections of Victorian art in the world.’
The Gallery shows a changing display of about 250 artworks from its collection of paintings, drawings and sculpture, in addition to a programme of temporary exhibitions. A rich variety of Victorian paintings can be seen as you enter the Gallery, displayed in original nineteenth century style. The collections illustrate the key artistic movements and influences of the Victorian period, from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, to Orientalism, Classicism and narrative painting. Among the Victorian paintings on display include Rossetti's La Ghirlandata, Millais' My First Sermon and My Second Sermon and John Constable's large landscape, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows.
Dudkiewicz has explained that the Victorian room showcases dichotomies on each side of the room, Materiality (Home and Beauty) contrasts with Spirituality (Faith) and Imagined Realities (Love and Imagination) are contrasted with the Realities of Life (Work and Leisure). Further dichotomies can also be found in the Undercroft Gallery where London is explored in terms of 'the effect of the elements on the city (ice and fire), destruction and reconstruction, spirituality and consumerism, and public versus private space.'
The new collecting policy of the Gallery focuses 'on the often controversial themes of money, wealth, the economy, trade, commerce and capitalism.' This policy is currently represented by Mark Titchner's Plenty and Progress wall sculpture. However some of the Victoriana also relates as Dudkiewicz notes in relation to scenes of street children by Augustus Edwin Mulready: “Poverty has not gone away. Is the heart of the City a proper place to make people think a little of social and spiritual issues, that money and materialism are not everything in life? We are going to try.” In his commentary on City panorama entitled City of Holy Dreams Chris Orr states, 'a large number of churches in the City of London are now being choked and outgrown by the new temples of commerce and finance. Cities are maelstroms of competing ideas.'
The topography of cities has been Orr’s long-time preoccupation, frequently referencing historic panoramas whilst, at the same time, commenting on the fallible nature of human perception. He also loves narratives which are culturally ingrained in us, like Bible stories ... because they give a golden opportunity to the artist to directly open a dialogue with the viewer.'
His contemporary representations of the rapidly changing London skyline feature in an exhibition exploring Tower Bridge as an enduring source of artistic inspiration for painters, draughtsman, printmakers and photographers. The show (which is part of the 120th anniversary celebrations of the opening of Tower Bridge) brings together a diverse chronological selection of artworks exploring the different ways British and London-based artists have pictured the Bridge.
The earliest views by the Victorian maritime painter W. L. Wyllie are juxtaposed with the modernity of Frank Brangwyn‘s working river, through the dramatic wartime imagery of Charles Pears and the poetic conceptualism of Judith Evans and Arthur Watson's The Spirit of London. In addition, the London-based Ecuadorian New Expressionist Mentor Chico has been especially commissioned to create a vibrant, up-to-the-minute painting of the relationship between Tower Bridge and the City entitled Forever Imagical Tower Bridge 2014, conveying the vibrancy of the Bridge in relation to the City visitors, vessels and vehicles.
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Ralph McTell - Streets Of London.
His contemporary representations of the rapidly changing London skyline feature in an exhibition exploring Tower Bridge as an enduring source of artistic inspiration for painters, draughtsman, printmakers and photographers. The show (which is part of the 120th anniversary celebrations of the opening of Tower Bridge) brings together a diverse chronological selection of artworks exploring the different ways British and London-based artists have pictured the Bridge.
The earliest views by the Victorian maritime painter W. L. Wyllie are juxtaposed with the modernity of Frank Brangwyn‘s working river, through the dramatic wartime imagery of Charles Pears and the poetic conceptualism of Judith Evans and Arthur Watson's The Spirit of London. In addition, the London-based Ecuadorian New Expressionist Mentor Chico has been especially commissioned to create a vibrant, up-to-the-minute painting of the relationship between Tower Bridge and the City entitled Forever Imagical Tower Bridge 2014, conveying the vibrancy of the Bridge in relation to the City visitors, vessels and vehicles.
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Ralph McTell - Streets Of London.
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
Humanising Work: Co-operatives, credit unions and the challenge of mass unemployment
Humanising Work: Co-operatives, credit unions and the challenge of mass unemployment is a new book by Chris Beales (Rainmaker Books, published October 2014. ISBN 978-1-909863-02-6 E-book £2.49 Paperback £5.99 (+ £2 p & p) 83 pages. Available from Amazon and Kobo).
Does the search for meaning in work matter? – and is it even possible to ask such a question against a backdrop of mass youth unemployment, widespread poverty and growing inequality? Drawing on the experience of the Mondragon co-operatives in Spain and other innovative models of employment and enterprise from around the world - and the visions and values derived from his faith - Chris explores how ‘work’ might be humanised and education and employment made not only responsive to what the Economy needs but also purposeful, satisfying and rewarding for people.
Also by Chris Beales: Practising Jesus. Rainmaker Books, ISBN 978-1-909863-00-2 Now available from info@rainmakerbooks.co.uk for £5.00 (+£2 p&p) pb 170 pages.
Does the search for meaning in work matter? – and is it even possible to ask such a question against a backdrop of mass youth unemployment, widespread poverty and growing inequality? Drawing on the experience of the Mondragon co-operatives in Spain and other innovative models of employment and enterprise from around the world - and the visions and values derived from his faith - Chris explores how ‘work’ might be humanised and education and employment made not only responsive to what the Economy needs but also purposeful, satisfying and rewarding for people.
Also by Chris Beales: Practising Jesus. Rainmaker Books, ISBN 978-1-909863-00-2 Now available from info@rainmakerbooks.co.uk for £5.00 (+£2 p&p) pb 170 pages.
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The Clash - Clampdown.
Tuesday, 21 October 2014
An introduction to Transition Town Redbridge
Here is information from Transition Town Redbridge about their introductory event this Saturday:
'"Transition" is one manifestation of the idea that local action can change the world. The aim of Transition is to help you be the catalyst in your community to make where you live more resilient, healthier and bursting with strong local livelihoods, while also reducing its ecological footprint. It’s something that can only happen from the ground up, driven by ordinary people.
Transition Town Redbridge was formulated in 2013 and is hosting its first ‘mini-conference’. An Introduction to Transition Town Redbridge will be talks, discussion and other tasters of how to get involved in our Transition Town.
Time: 2pm – 3.30pm
Date: 25th October 2014
at the ‘Enterprise Exchange’, Top Floor, (3rd floor), The Exchange, Ilford.
Draft Programme
2.00pm Food in Transition
2.30pm The Brixton Pound / Alternative Economies
3.00pm Saving Energy / Cutting Bills
3.10pm The Sharing Economy
3.15pm Seven Kings Time Bank
Please drop in and find out more about Transition Town Redbridge due to have its official launch early in the new year.'
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'"Transition" is one manifestation of the idea that local action can change the world. The aim of Transition is to help you be the catalyst in your community to make where you live more resilient, healthier and bursting with strong local livelihoods, while also reducing its ecological footprint. It’s something that can only happen from the ground up, driven by ordinary people.
Transition Town Redbridge was formulated in 2013 and is hosting its first ‘mini-conference’. An Introduction to Transition Town Redbridge will be talks, discussion and other tasters of how to get involved in our Transition Town.
Time: 2pm – 3.30pm
Date: 25th October 2014
at the ‘Enterprise Exchange’, Top Floor, (3rd floor), The Exchange, Ilford.
Draft Programme
2.00pm Food in Transition
2.30pm The Brixton Pound / Alternative Economies
3.00pm Saving Energy / Cutting Bills
3.10pm The Sharing Economy
3.15pm Seven Kings Time Bank
Please drop in and find out more about Transition Town Redbridge due to have its official launch early in the new year.'
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Deacon Blue - The Living.
Saturday, 19 April 2014
There is a need for models of sacrifice in society
Madeleine Bunting highlights the ideas of theologian Sarah Coakley in today's Guardian. Coakley argues that sacrifice needs to be restored as a central biological, ethical and theological principle. Far from sacrifice being an outmoded ritual, it is central to human experience:
'She cites recent evolutionary theory that puts sacrificial co-operation on a par with mutation and selection as a fundamental "principle" of evolution. "Individual evolutionary loss can be group evolutionary gain," she says.
Rather than imagining our genes as selfish, struggling in a race for the survival of the fittest, we can see evolution as requiring ceaseless sacrifices, small and large, to ensure the survival of the group ...
What makes Coakley's ideas so challenging is that, as she suggested in her 2012 Gifford lectures, "there is a need for models of sacrifice in a society" – that the existence of people dedicated to an "altruism beyond calculation" plays a critical role in challenging, inspiring and provoking the social order around them ...
We are living in an age of sacrifice on a near apocalyptic scale: a great extinction is under way with hundreds of species being eliminated as their habitats are destroyed. Looking at another dimension of this age of sacrifice, we have developed a global economy in which people's wellbeing and communities are routinely sacrificed for the sake of economic growth and efficiency – strange gods built on fantasies that allege rationality.
This is the ugly sacrifice that consumer capitalism attempts to conceal with its glamorous illusions and ideology of desire and entitlement, of self-fulfilment and self-expression. Capitalism offers speed, convenience and choice, but behind all of these lies sacrifice, from the poor working conditions of an exhausted workforce to the water-stressed cotton fields.
The urgency of us grasping the importance of sacrifice in human experience must surely be a vital part of any sustainable future.
Any proposal to slow down or reverse our destructive impact on the natural environment leads to talk of sacrifice on the part of consumers in western developed economies. Only when we understand how sacrifice can be a force for good have we any hope of restraining our destructive capabilities.'
Among other excellent Easter-themed coverage is John Dugdale's listing of 10 key Easter scenes to be found in writers ranging from Shakespeare to Yeats and Goethe to Tolstoy.
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Linda Perhacs - The Soul Of All Natural Things.
'She cites recent evolutionary theory that puts sacrificial co-operation on a par with mutation and selection as a fundamental "principle" of evolution. "Individual evolutionary loss can be group evolutionary gain," she says.
Rather than imagining our genes as selfish, struggling in a race for the survival of the fittest, we can see evolution as requiring ceaseless sacrifices, small and large, to ensure the survival of the group ...
What makes Coakley's ideas so challenging is that, as she suggested in her 2012 Gifford lectures, "there is a need for models of sacrifice in a society" – that the existence of people dedicated to an "altruism beyond calculation" plays a critical role in challenging, inspiring and provoking the social order around them ...
We are living in an age of sacrifice on a near apocalyptic scale: a great extinction is under way with hundreds of species being eliminated as their habitats are destroyed. Looking at another dimension of this age of sacrifice, we have developed a global economy in which people's wellbeing and communities are routinely sacrificed for the sake of economic growth and efficiency – strange gods built on fantasies that allege rationality.
This is the ugly sacrifice that consumer capitalism attempts to conceal with its glamorous illusions and ideology of desire and entitlement, of self-fulfilment and self-expression. Capitalism offers speed, convenience and choice, but behind all of these lies sacrifice, from the poor working conditions of an exhausted workforce to the water-stressed cotton fields.
The urgency of us grasping the importance of sacrifice in human experience must surely be a vital part of any sustainable future.
Any proposal to slow down or reverse our destructive impact on the natural environment leads to talk of sacrifice on the part of consumers in western developed economies. Only when we understand how sacrifice can be a force for good have we any hope of restraining our destructive capabilities.'
Among other excellent Easter-themed coverage is John Dugdale's listing of 10 key Easter scenes to be found in writers ranging from Shakespeare to Yeats and Goethe to Tolstoy.
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Linda Perhacs - The Soul Of All Natural Things.
Thursday, 15 August 2013
Sophia Course
Sophia Hubs are proud to offer you the Sophia Course, if you want to be part of the economic and social regeneration of Seven Kings & Newbury Park.
This free, practical and transformative course will support and nurture new social enterprises and entrepreneurs from the local community using: Existing skills of participants; Local assets and expertise; Specialists; and Resources and wisdom of local faith traditions.
Venue: St John the Evangelist, St Johns Road, Seven Kings, Essex IG2 7BB
Dates: September 10th, 12th, 17th and 24th at 2.00pm
OR
September 12th, October 3rd, 10th and 17th at 7.30pm
For more information and to book your place, contact the Sophia Hubs team on 020 8598 1536 or sophiahubs@yahoo.com. We look forward to welcoming you!
Sophia Hubs are a network of local incubators for new businesses and social enterprises, using the wisdom and resources of the faith traditions, leading to sustainable social and economic development and change.
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Linkin Park - Iridescent.
Sunday, 7 April 2013
Sophia Hubs: wisdom-based incubators for social enterprises
Sophia Hubs are a network of local, wisdom-based incubators for new businesses and social enterprises, harnessing the wisdom and resources of the faith traditions, leading to sustainable social and economic development and change.
Sophia Hubs aim to enable people of all faiths and none to participate in economic and social regeneration, inspired by shared values of justice, collaboration and sustainability.
Funding is being sought to begin a pilot Sophia Hub in Seven Kings and Newbury Park which will aim to deliver:
- entrepreneurial skills programme, offering a challenging but supportive and safe environment and testing social enterprise ideas, with active training by successful entrepreneurs, wisdom mentors, and faith leaders.
- connecting investors with new enterprises by setting up “pitch sessions” where new enterprises pitch their needs to prospective investors, or by arranging one-to-one meetings between enterprises and investors.
- people with specific forms of wisdom useful to the development of social enterprises (often from faith communities) offering their time to ground enterprise ideas in a wider context of social change, work-life balance, and community enhancement.
- ideas exchange through organising seminars and workshops exploring the connections between wisdom and work: invited speakers will come from various belief systems and a range of entrepreneurial approaches.
- reflective and applied developmental course exploring wisdom perspectives which help form the conditions for developing new projects.
The Sophia Hub will be embedded in local faith communities by use of faith buildings; entrepreneur and mentor recruitment via faith networks; and creating enterprises which meet the expressed needs of faith communities locally.
Using local business, community, faith and individual networks we will identify local business people from the faith communities in Seven Kings and Newbury Park and train them to act as mentors to new entrepreneurs. Those who train as mentors will be people of different faiths drawn together for their training and, as entrepreneurs using the Sophia Hub will be recruited via local faith communities, when these entrepreneurs are matched with their mentors we will again be bringing people of different faiths together.
We will launch this process later in 2013 with a public event at which identification of potential mentors will begin but which will also involve information about Sophia Hubs, discussion of the wisdom of the different faith traditions as it relates to work, and will enable networking to occur across members of different faiths present. Additionally, the Sophia Hub will on an on-going basis organise further events where dialogue between the wisdom of the different faith traditions can develop in the context of live projects. These events will also bring people of different faiths together for first encounters which through the development of business and networking relationships will become everyday interactions.
To date funding has been committed by Area Committees 5 & 7, the Mission Opportunities Fund in the Diocese of Chelmsford, London Over the Border and Near Neighbours. The aim, as further funding is obtained, is to begin the pilot Sophia Hub during 2013 with the aim of delivering on an annual basis: 3 developmental Sophia courses; delivery of business start-up training and mentoring plus investor connections and incubation space to 8 local people intending to set up a social enterprise/small business; and 4 new social enterprises/businesses set up, sustained and developing.
The initiative will cover Newbury and Seven Kings Wards. It will be based initially at St John’s Seven Kings but will seek to utilise faith and community facilities and networks throughout its catchment area.
A local pilot management group has been set up. Involvement is sought from all the faith and community groups in the area. For more information, contact me on 020 8599 2170 or jonathan.evens@btinternet.com.
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Peter Tosh - Fools Die aka Wisdom.
Music update
The first single from the album ... “Now” ... shows that Paramore is back in full force. "It just feels like the perfect way to start this new journey we are embarking on not only as a band but as a movement," the band wrote. "To show people that you can lose battles but come back and win full-on wars. You can rise from ashes. You can make something out of even less than nothing. The only thing you have to do is keep moving forward."
"My grappling with spirituality is … I’m not a church going person. Any first year divinity student could debate circles around me with religion. But I’m not talking about religion, I’m talking about spirituality. It’s important to me to try and understand what my perspective is on a higher power, and to understand what role that sort of belief might play in my life. It’s critical to me to think about this stuff – a lot." (M. C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger)
The Relatives’ sound bridges the gap between traditional Gospel, Soul and Psychedelia. In the early 1970’s, they recorded three obscure singles and a previously unreleased session—all of which are compiled on the acclaimed 2009 anthology, Don’t Let Me Fall. The release of the anthology brought The Relatives back together as a band, planting the seeds for their 2013 Yep Roc release, The Electric Word, which was recorded and produced by Jim Eno of Spoon.
Ricky Ross will be releasing a new solo album ‘Trouble Came Looking’ in April and touring Scotland, Wales and England in April – May to support it. Ricky began writing ‘Trouble Came Looking’ as the wheels started to fall off the economy. It’s a modern Celtic folk album about the helplessness we all felt as governments signed off billions to protect the banks and institutions, and then sat back and watched as normal people lost everything.
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Hiss Golden Messenger - I've Got A Name For The Newborn Child.
Hiss Golden Messenger - I've Got A Name For The Newborn Child.
Monday, 11 February 2013
Still you make what purchases you please
Lent begins a series of progressions or stages starting with the temptation of Jesus and tracing Jesus’ road to the cross and beyond, step by step, through Lent, Holy Week and Easter.
As Lent begins we are invited to join Jesus for forty days in the wilderness. Our victory in the temptation comes through confession and the Word. We are also invited to look across the wilderness to the promised land of Easter. We progress with movement to the cross. Jesus laments over Jerusalem displaying the heart of God. We are invited to put our trust in him and take our victory in Jesus but we also sense something of the hope, apprehension and desolation which Jesus’ friends felt in Lent and Holy Week, before being ambushed by the wholly unexpected, deep joy of Easter. In short, Lent prepares us to experience Easter.
The beginning of Lent is itself marked by Ash Wednesday which is always six-and-a-half weeks before Easter. Palms kept from last year’s Palm Sunday are burnt and the ashes mixed with holy water to make the greyish paste used to make the sign of the cross on the foreheads of those attending services on Ash Wednesday.
Ashes are a symbol of being sorry for things we have done wrong and want to get rid of forever. The ashing is also a reminder to that we all come from ashes, and to ashes we all will return. The marking on our forehead with ash marks our renewed commitment to Christ. We want to show we are sorry for the wrong things done in the past year.
None of this is intended to be simply personal or simply about the past. For instance, Operation Noah have made an Ash Wednesday Declaration supported by the leaders of many churches calling for repentance over the prevailing ‘shrug-culture’ towards climate change.
‘Traditionally, Christians commit themselves to repentance and renewed faith in Jesus Christ on Ash Wednesday,’ said David Atkinson, Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Southwark. ‘We must live out that faith in relation to our damaging consumer economy, over-dependence on fossil fuels and the devastation we, as a species, are inflicting on God’s world. We believe that responsible care for God’s creation is foundational to the Gospel and central to the church’s mission.’
Some of those themes are visited in this sonnet which was inspired as Malcolm Guite set about the traditional task of burning the remnants of last Palm Sunday’s palm crosses: ‘I was suddenly struck by the way both the fire and the ash were signs not only of our personal mortality and our need for repentance and renewal but also signs of the wider destruction our sinfulness inflicts upon God’s world and on our fellow creatures, on the whole web of life into which God has woven us and for which He also cares.’
Receive this cross of ash upon your brow,
Brought from the burning of Palm Sunday’s cross.
The forests of the world are burning now
And you make late repentance for the loss.
But all the trees of God would clap their hands
The very stones themselves would shout and sing
If you could covenant to love these lands
And recognise in Christ their Lord and king.
He sees the slow destruction of those trees,
He weeps to see the ancient places burn,
And still you make what purchases you please,
And still to dust and ashes you return.
But Hope could rise from ashes even now
Beginning with this sign upon your brow.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Cockburn - If A Tree Falls In The Forest.
As Lent begins we are invited to join Jesus for forty days in the wilderness. Our victory in the temptation comes through confession and the Word. We are also invited to look across the wilderness to the promised land of Easter. We progress with movement to the cross. Jesus laments over Jerusalem displaying the heart of God. We are invited to put our trust in him and take our victory in Jesus but we also sense something of the hope, apprehension and desolation which Jesus’ friends felt in Lent and Holy Week, before being ambushed by the wholly unexpected, deep joy of Easter. In short, Lent prepares us to experience Easter.
The beginning of Lent is itself marked by Ash Wednesday which is always six-and-a-half weeks before Easter. Palms kept from last year’s Palm Sunday are burnt and the ashes mixed with holy water to make the greyish paste used to make the sign of the cross on the foreheads of those attending services on Ash Wednesday.
Ashes are a symbol of being sorry for things we have done wrong and want to get rid of forever. The ashing is also a reminder to that we all come from ashes, and to ashes we all will return. The marking on our forehead with ash marks our renewed commitment to Christ. We want to show we are sorry for the wrong things done in the past year.
None of this is intended to be simply personal or simply about the past. For instance, Operation Noah have made an Ash Wednesday Declaration supported by the leaders of many churches calling for repentance over the prevailing ‘shrug-culture’ towards climate change.
‘Traditionally, Christians commit themselves to repentance and renewed faith in Jesus Christ on Ash Wednesday,’ said David Atkinson, Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Southwark. ‘We must live out that faith in relation to our damaging consumer economy, over-dependence on fossil fuels and the devastation we, as a species, are inflicting on God’s world. We believe that responsible care for God’s creation is foundational to the Gospel and central to the church’s mission.’
Some of those themes are visited in this sonnet which was inspired as Malcolm Guite set about the traditional task of burning the remnants of last Palm Sunday’s palm crosses: ‘I was suddenly struck by the way both the fire and the ash were signs not only of our personal mortality and our need for repentance and renewal but also signs of the wider destruction our sinfulness inflicts upon God’s world and on our fellow creatures, on the whole web of life into which God has woven us and for which He also cares.’
Receive this cross of ash upon your brow,
Brought from the burning of Palm Sunday’s cross.
The forests of the world are burning now
And you make late repentance for the loss.
But all the trees of God would clap their hands
The very stones themselves would shout and sing
If you could covenant to love these lands
And recognise in Christ their Lord and king.
He sees the slow destruction of those trees,
He weeps to see the ancient places burn,
And still you make what purchases you please,
And still to dust and ashes you return.
But Hope could rise from ashes even now
Beginning with this sign upon your brow.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Cockburn - If A Tree Falls In The Forest.
Saturday, 8 September 2012
Protection of the Commons: Quilligan Seminars
One of the central themes in Charles Eisenstein's bestseller Sacred Economics is the Commons. James Quilligan, an internationally known policy consultant and economist, who has recently led a highly acclaimed seminar series in London on The Emergence of Commons-based Economy, has the development and protection of the Commons in the centre of his professional work.
Here is an outline of the series of Quilligan seminars. The debategraph, the rawfootage of all the 12 seminars as well as the talking points and introductions are here and reflections by a participant are here. You will also find all the above links as well as other related ones here.
Here is an outline of the series of Quilligan seminars. The debategraph, the rawfootage of all the 12 seminars as well as the talking points and introductions are here and reflections by a participant are here. You will also find all the above links as well as other related ones here.
A further series of five Quilligan Seminars to be held from October 22-26th will all deal with the currency of life and the understanding of gift in relation to the preventing of new enclosures and the protection of the commons.
This series, at present, will consider:
- 'Recovery of the Commons evolving around us' - Mutualising land and capital into commons bodies for community benefit and individual enterprise.
- ‘A Roadmap to sustainable community based healthcare and how together we will make it work’ - Raising awareness of our possibilities for generative action in healthcare. Creating Connections for sustained shared attention and structures of engagement for doing what needs to be done to make sustainable healthcare possible.
- ‘Establishing an Economic System that protects the Commons’ - Plenary and work-groups on Tax, Money, Financial Sector.
- ‘Enhancing the range and recruitment of a critical mass.’
- Conferences on Money and Alternative Currencies with Thomas Greco, (being planned by LETSlinkUK - http://www.letslinkuk.net/). Details at this stage from london@letslink.org.
- Book Launch of Fred Harrison’s ‘The Traumatised Society’ at St James Piccadilly, 3.00 - 5.00pm.
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Good Charlotte - The River.
Monday, 16 July 2012
Sparking off new developments
In a recent interview Peter Heslam has discussed his Cambridge multidisciplinary project, “Transforming Business," the value of entrepreneurship, thinking about enterprise solutions to poverty, and the wisdom of Abraham Kuyper and John Wesley when helping us think about the current economic crisis and recovery in light of the value of thrift, magnanimity and magnificence. The interview can be read at http://www.epsociety.org/userfiles/Interview%20with%20Peter%20Heslam%204.pdf.
In it he gives an interesting summary of the significance of Abraham Kuyper:
"Kuyper dominated the religious and political life of the Netherlands for nearly half a century, and during his career he achieved positions of eminence in a number of different fields. As a scholar he established himself early in his career as an academic theologian and provided the chief impetus towards the founding of the Free University, a university in Amsterdam with a Christian constitution. As a journalist he founded a daily newspaper, and remained its chief editor for almost fifty years. As a politician he organized the Anti-Revolutionary Party, a Christian-based popular people‟s party, and remained its leader for some forty years, during which time he served a four-year term as Prime Minister. As a writer of devotional and religious literature he launched a weekly religious journal, and published scores of meditations and works of applied and pastoral theology. As a church reformer he led a revival of orthodox faith within the national church and later established a new confederation of Reformed Churches, which has vast numbers of sister churches all over the world.
Taken together, his achievements indicate that he enjoyed a distinguished and multi-faceted career. But what is most striking about his career is that in virtually every area of his activity he sparked off new developments. His establishment, for instance, of the Anti-Revolutionary Party in 1879 along modern, democratic lines, signalled the end of liberal domination in Dutch politics and helped to make way for the rise of a more democratic and representative form of government based on modern party organization. Likewise, his founding of the Free University the following year, stimulated the proliferation of a great number of social and educational institutions founded on Christian principles."
For more on Kuyper, read Heslam's book Creating a Christian Worldview:Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism, published by Eerdmans.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Weller - Man Of Great Promise.
In it he gives an interesting summary of the significance of Abraham Kuyper:
"Kuyper dominated the religious and political life of the Netherlands for nearly half a century, and during his career he achieved positions of eminence in a number of different fields. As a scholar he established himself early in his career as an academic theologian and provided the chief impetus towards the founding of the Free University, a university in Amsterdam with a Christian constitution. As a journalist he founded a daily newspaper, and remained its chief editor for almost fifty years. As a politician he organized the Anti-Revolutionary Party, a Christian-based popular people‟s party, and remained its leader for some forty years, during which time he served a four-year term as Prime Minister. As a writer of devotional and religious literature he launched a weekly religious journal, and published scores of meditations and works of applied and pastoral theology. As a church reformer he led a revival of orthodox faith within the national church and later established a new confederation of Reformed Churches, which has vast numbers of sister churches all over the world.
Taken together, his achievements indicate that he enjoyed a distinguished and multi-faceted career. But what is most striking about his career is that in virtually every area of his activity he sparked off new developments. His establishment, for instance, of the Anti-Revolutionary Party in 1879 along modern, democratic lines, signalled the end of liberal domination in Dutch politics and helped to make way for the rise of a more democratic and representative form of government based on modern party organization. Likewise, his founding of the Free University the following year, stimulated the proliferation of a great number of social and educational institutions founded on Christian principles."
For more on Kuyper, read Heslam's book Creating a Christian Worldview:Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism, published by Eerdmans.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Weller - Man Of Great Promise.
Saturday, 16 June 2012
What money can't buy
In Michael Sandel's new book What Money Can't Buy he writes,"We live at a time when almost everything can be bought and sold. We have drifted from having a market economy, to being a market society," in which the solution to all manner of social and civic challenges is not a moral debate but the law of the market, on the assumption that cash incentives are always the appropriate mechanism by which good choices are made. Every application of human activity is priced and commodified, and all value judgments are replaced by the simple question: "How much?"
In a G2 interview he addressed the question of why the financial crisis appears to have scarcely put a dent in public faith in market solutions. "One would have thought that this would be an occasion for critical reflection on the role of markets in our lives. I think the persistent hold of markets and market values – even in the face of the financial crisis – suggests that the source of that faith runs very deep; deeper than the conviction that markets deliver the goods. I don't think that's the most powerful allure of markets. One of the appeals of markets, as a public philosophy, is they seem to spare us the need to engage in public arguments about the meaning of goods. So markets seem to enable us to be non-judgmental about values. But I think that's a mistake."
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The Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love.
Monday, 2 April 2012
The Commons Matrix
The following comes from Peter Challen:
Recovering our mutuality,
The Commons Matrix
Attend to
a common theory of value,
integrally rooted
in both spirit and matter,
found in
philosophy, anthropology,
linguistics, communication, organisational behaviour;
in technology, history, culture,
environmentalism, economics,
law and political theory:
to explore and expose
many of the leading myopic
extant presuppositions
in our present systems,
heading for decline.
Recovering our mutuality,
note ahead the...
QUILLIGAN SEMINARS
Away with straight-edged rulers
to save a fractal universe.
In nature's persistent emergence
treat money and land as social commons,
like air and oceans,
the bio-sphere and deep deposits
of past storing centuries,
to serve all generations ahead.
Join our proto-type of
systemic recovery and renewal
at the Quilligan Seminars
in twelve days of May,
2012.
The Quilligan Seminars are an intensive social innovation project of 12 interrelated seminars in 12 days involving leading NGOs and thinks tanks. This series will foster an educational and research collaboration for facilitating transition to a more equitable world. It will demonstrate how differing starting points can lead to a commons ground. You can participate in one or more of the seminars.
James Quilligan is a globally renowned commons theorist/activist, policy analyst, and founder of the Global Commons Trust. He writes: "Modern economics has turned labour into a utility of the market and government. But the principles of the commons (people's negotiation of their own norms and rules for the management of social and natural resources) show us how to transcend utilitarian economics by transforming the traditional division of labour. New forms of value are already being created by these commons, whether they are traditional (irrigation ditches, pastures, indigenous cultures) or emerging (intellectual property, social networks, collaborative innovation)." To learn more about Mr. Quilligan’s work, click here.
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John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band - Isolation.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
The myth of greater private-sector efficiency (2)
Seamus Milne is the latest Guardian columnist to take on busting the myth of privatisation - vital action now that the Government has effectively privatised the NHS:
"Central to the corporate-driven ideology that dominates this government and public debate is a myth: that the risk-taking, entrepreneurial private sector drives technological innovation and industrial advance, while attempts by state bureaucracies to "pick winners" are a recipe for disaster.
That myth is exploded by Sussex University economist Mariana Mazzucato in her book The Entrepreneurial State. Even in the US, heartland of "free enterprise", the public sector has taken the risk to invest in one cutting edge sector after another: from aviation, nuclear energy and computers to the internet, biotechnology and nanotechnology.
The private sector has come in later – and usually reaped the reward. So the algorithms that underpinned Google's success were funded by the public sector. The technology in the Apple iPhone was invented in the public sector. In both the US and Britain it was the state, not big pharma, that funded most groundbreaking "new molecular entity" drugs, with the private sector then developing slight variations. And in Finland, it was the public sector that funded the early development of Nokia – and made a return on its investment.
The lessons should be clear. States such as Germany, South Korea and China are now spending far higher proportions of national income on research and development into green technologies. Even some Tory ministers understand that only state intervention can drive the new motors of growth – but dare not say so publicly.
That's hardly surprising. But the government's economic strategy isn't working. If Britain is going to rebuild a broken economy, its political class is going to have to learn to turn its back on three decades of clapped-out myths and bankrupt ideology."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Get the Blessing - So It Goes / Yes I Said Yes I Will Yes.
"Central to the corporate-driven ideology that dominates this government and public debate is a myth: that the risk-taking, entrepreneurial private sector drives technological innovation and industrial advance, while attempts by state bureaucracies to "pick winners" are a recipe for disaster.
That myth is exploded by Sussex University economist Mariana Mazzucato in her book The Entrepreneurial State. Even in the US, heartland of "free enterprise", the public sector has taken the risk to invest in one cutting edge sector after another: from aviation, nuclear energy and computers to the internet, biotechnology and nanotechnology.
The private sector has come in later – and usually reaped the reward. So the algorithms that underpinned Google's success were funded by the public sector. The technology in the Apple iPhone was invented in the public sector. In both the US and Britain it was the state, not big pharma, that funded most groundbreaking "new molecular entity" drugs, with the private sector then developing slight variations. And in Finland, it was the public sector that funded the early development of Nokia – and made a return on its investment.
The lessons should be clear. States such as Germany, South Korea and China are now spending far higher proportions of national income on research and development into green technologies. Even some Tory ministers understand that only state intervention can drive the new motors of growth – but dare not say so publicly.
That's hardly surprising. But the government's economic strategy isn't working. If Britain is going to rebuild a broken economy, its political class is going to have to learn to turn its back on three decades of clapped-out myths and bankrupt ideology."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Get the Blessing - So It Goes / Yes I Said Yes I Will Yes.
Saturday, 17 March 2012
What is the role of the commons in the economy?
Rev. Canon Peter Challen of the Christian Council for Monetary Justice is one of the organisers for an intensive social innovation project of 12 interrelated seminars in 12 days involving leading NGOs and thinks tanks. What is the role of the commons in the economy? will foster an educational and research collaboration for facilitating transition to a more equitable world. It will demonstrate how differing starting points can lead to a commons ground. You can participate in one or more of the seminars.
James Quilligan is a globally renowned commons theorist/activist, policy analyst, and founder of the Global Commons Trust. He writes: "Modern economics has turned labour into a utility of the market and government. But the principles of the commons (people's negotiation of their own norms and rules for the management of social and natural resources) show us how to transcend utilitarian economics by transforming the traditional division of labour. New forms of value are already being created by these commons, whether they are traditional (irrigation ditches, pastures, indigenous cultures) or emerging (intellectual property, social networks, collaborative innovation)." To learn more about Mr. Quilligan’s work, click here.
James Quilligan's work on managing local and global commons is developing understanding of how in a commons-based economy:
- consumers become the producers of their own resources
- trusts set a cap on the extraction and use of a resource to preserve it for future generations
- businesses flourish by renting a proportion of the resources outside the cap for extraction and production
- governments tax a percentage of these rents, funding a basic income for citizens and the restoration of depleted resources
- the power of decision-making returns to the people, enabling them to participate in the decisions that affect them directly
- the traditional property ownership model is eclipsed by a trusteeship model of sustainability, quality of life and well-being
- the lessons of community based resource management have major implications for post-liberal forms of multilateralism and global governance.
Starting from many different points of engaged intellectual and scholarly concern, research and practice, the various seminars will explore the understanding of the Commons as perceived from each seminar’s perspective, guided by James Quilligan. Together, they represent an emergent curriculum of theoretically grounded and action-oriented studies in the key economic, political, and social issues of the Commons.
During his visit, these seminars will examine together such questions as:
- Economically, what steps are needed to adjust the rules of the present interest-driven, debt-based economy to the sustainable targets of our natural, social and cultural commons?
- Politically, how can the philosophy of individual wealth (ownership, division of labor, reciprocity) be reconciled with the interests of collective wealth (trusteeship, the unity of producers and consumers, complementarity)?
- Socially, would it be possible for people's trusts to create sustainable limits to protect our commons for future generations, then rent the remaining resources to business for production and distribution, and provide these revenues to government for the funding of social dividends and the restoration of the depleted commons?
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Pink Floyd - Money.
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