Coastal Currents 2012 - see page 42 of the programme

(Discussion of "Karma Vipaka")

(Photos by Gary Heasman)

Edits to be made to the above Community Loyalty 2-sided card:

1. To activate this community loyalty card, please write below the house number, post code and cost of where you live: (http://additionalinfo.blogspot.co.uk/p/cost-of-living-in-st-leonards-east.html)
2. St Leonards Sharing Consortium accepts "street creds" from streetbank.com as a currency, exchangeable for St Leonards Timebank hours. 

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An introduction to Paul Crosland's professional background (as shown on ITV1)


The relevant Hastings Observer articles can be found here about how I brought this work to Hastings & St Leonards when I saw the pier fire as the most accessible & important community development opportunity in the UK, bar one.

For Coastal Currents 2012, I have prepared a diverse playlist that has "method in its madness"; comments on how you found it will be greatly appreciated - please add them below Tony May's at the bottom of this blog post:

1. Was the playlist interesting/entertaining/inspiring for many of the recommended minimum 30 minutes?. If you didn't last 30 minutes, please let us know where you gave up and why, for this  is part of the research going into design of a new (Community Development )Broad casting/Interconnecting Channel.************* (Also how long would/did you spend  at the open studio no 19 in September 2012, as advertised on p42 of the 2012 Coastal Currents programme?)
2. Would you watch more than 30 minutes if you were paid to, and how much would you want to be paid (in St Leonards Timebank credits?)
3. Have you resolved to join the events on the 2nd anniversary of the Hastings Pier Fire -5th October 2012?
4. Have you paid your £10 refundable deposit for the day workshops on Friday 5th &/or Saturday 6th October?
5. For the 7pm for 7.15pm event entitled: "The Pier Fire Investigation - progress so far" (priced at 2 timebank hours) will you be claiming your discount by bringing along your "Community Loyalty Card"?
6. Do you know who designed the St Leonards Sharing Consortium "Community Loyalty Card" & do you know someone who might want to design the next one (Hard cash available)?
7. Have you identified other ways in which you want to use a "Community Loyalty Card" or start up a community loyalty scheme with your neighbours?
8. Does any of the above (NOT) make sense to you?

All comments welcome below & for queries that you want answered phone/text Paul Crosland on Zero7807066202. 

Mediation as a central life-skill; today's quotes:

1. "Mediation starts for me with how I relate to living where I live, at this point in time, with all that I have been given, all I desire & all I want to avoid. The conflict is accentuated by my placing a particular aspirational picture in my room & believing in a way that I could grow into a better human being".
2. "For me, perhaps the most interesting, growthful, and (retrospectively) valued part of any relationship is when something arises that represents, to either of us, a bigger challenge than one expected, or a different kind of challenge from the ones anticipated."
3. I trust our long-term relationship enough to ask this (sharp?) blunt question: "You're very attached to your ego-centric bulls**t, aren't you? Me too".
4. "Talking about marriage etc - In time, I'd probably prefer it if your strategy to hold onto a belief in your sexual attractiveness did not depend significantly on me. This is because I am easily swayed in seeing superficial sexual attractiveness elsewhere. Now, if you are asking me a question about Loyalty/Fidelity - which apart from in the film, Frida (*below) are usually seen as the same thing - then we can have a useful conversation. What I'd want to clarify is whether Fidelity of Body, Speech and Mind is your bottom-line, or not?"
5. "If you want to start mediating, reflect on one of your relationships in life (be that with someone living, dead or your idealised self & ask: i) What, so far, have we co-created?; ii) What do we like about it?; iii) What have we found more difficult than we like? iv) What change are we asking for?; v) How was 1-4 for you?"
6. "The most 'successful' people in the world are those who get others' support for their activities whilst helping their supporters to be less self-responsible & less caring about a sustainable future. Through this lens my very limited 'success' is no failure. The lens I hold up in awe is that of Dr BR Ambedkar, for whom success would surely have been defined as groups of "downtrodden" people living more harmoniously under the principles of Liberty, Equality & Fraternity (& not their 'near-enemies' from the French Revolution).  (And this is a link to a short talk illustrating how Dr Ambedkar's ideals are being upheld - especially by the empowerment of women in Norhern India- within The Indian Dharma Trust)
7. Some communication is so laden with assumptions and blame statements rather than with clarity & taking responsibility that it can seem an overwhelming task to "detoxify" what was said to you by them (or even what you just said to yourself about yourself - your depression arising from your own destructively critical way of talking to yourself!). How about I help you with that and you help me, or someone else with it too, or with something else that you'd prefer to do that takes as long? (Mediation provided by Mediation Support Ltd on a Timebanking basis: contact me via the web here or phone Zero7807066202)
8. "Your ability to understand me is heavily influenced by your willingness to understand me. Would you be willing/able to find a way to generate that willingness that doesn't involve me doing anything first? Advice on generating empathy is widely available; I have preferred websites for doing that which I could let you know about if you remain stuck."

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Linking the "Walking Buddhas of SE England" project to "The Angel of the North"

And if you'd like some more context for the above film, here's the playlist of the project:

"The Speed of Trust" & how we can build it quickly between ourselves

Everything looks very different (especially my videos) depending on where you stand in relation to trusting me, and that the best way of building trust with me is:

1. Build mutual understanding 
2. Take responsibility for your own emotional baggage 
3. Build an action plan to address unmet needs 
4. Plan a review meeting to discuss whether the plan met the needs  
5. Repeat 1-4 ad infiniteum until you learn a better way to live. :-) 

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Recommended reading: "The Speed of Trust" by Stephen R Covey. Ironically this book is packaged as if it were written by his far more esteemed dad; I for one was fooled! If you can get past this apparent deception and absorb a tenth of this book it will save you so much stress and wasted resources*. (Available for free from the Southwater Area Community Centre Streetbank depot). *I'm currently involved in a mediation case where it holds the prospect of saving £200,000.
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My services (through Mediation Support Ltd, Southwater Community Centre) as a mediator are available to you on the basis of "an hour of my time for an hour of yours" - this is brokered through a formal or informal timebank eg http://stleonardssharing.info so that you spend your hour doing something you like to do for your local community eg having a cup of tea with your neighbours two doors away. The importance of your taking neighbourliness to the next level, and beyond, can hardly be overstated in my opinion. If younwant research evidence let's start with that showing the lower rate of burglaries -and pier fires, I presume- the more we generate the environment wherein we know (& love?) our neighbours.