-The greater potential for our well-being of political, economic & spiritual community drives Paul Crosland to stand in general elections & to write the “Relearning PCECSC trilogy“(or #PeskyTrilogy for short):Volume 1 - The Myth Of The Heartless Tory; Vol 2 - The Pioneering 108 Vagabond Custodians preparing for The Festival Of The New Society 2066; Vol 3 - Politics As A Spiritual Practice. These books will form the shares in “Refuge Tree Woods” where we gather to refine our organic plot…
Are you on track with fulfilling the purpose of this life of yours now?
What does British mean to you?
Do you know anyone whose life I could change for the better by my presence at the right time and/or £250 from the cash machine (& if not, why not?)
Here's the key link to my selected stream of recorded consciousness
I'm taking Buddhism seriously now after 14 years of meditation (allegedly) i.e. to use Vessantara's phrase, I'm entrusting more and more to the three jewels (The Buddha, His teaching and the community following that path). I'm grateful that I can eke out a small inheritance to support me for another year in regular visits to the London Buddhist Centre and to a retreat centre in Norfolk whilst I continue to work -at the most personal level yet- on conflicts in my life (& supporting others in conflict around me, I hope). I plan in 2013 to go travelling and enquiring of people I meet what "getting to be 100" means to them. Let's meet up and incorporate into that meeting an interview on this topic, please.
More specific goals/working grounds are:
1) 6 points of family harmonisation
Here are some of the background films relevant to my December 2012 commitment:
"I stand for working together responsibly with family resources and needs within the family."
6) In preparation for ordination into the Triratna Buddhist Order (one day in the next 10 years, I guess) Deepening my Sangha connections & going for refuge
7) Some walkabout/pilgrimage eg living on £3/day and picking litter in every East Anglian village through which I pass.
8) Some new skills eg guitar or mandolin, so that I can better play the troubadour, replete with unrequited love.
My wished for Memorial Service:
For the programme cover:
The videos for the service are on the playlist entitled "My funeral Wish List" at http://YouTube.com/toothpaste007
Here's one that I hope will be played towards the end:
And here's one not officially on the list (due to risk of misinterpretation) that holds up a kind of mirror to me:
"A Time of Ashes" (as referred to in the blurb below this blog's title) comes from Robert Bly's difficult (for me) groundbreaking book about men, Iron John. In this third chapter (which I got into having twice given up after reading two chapters over as many years) Bly took up the issue of naïveté, numbness, depression and katabasis. The full chapter title is "The Road of Ashes, Descent, and Grief".
The Greeks spoke of katabasis as an abrupt drop when a man no longer feels like a special person. My video on this loss of specialness is from Timeon in the "My Buddhafield" playlist & is also on my funeral playlist; hopefully not to be played by my human remains until 2045?
Bly states that these days katabasis comes about through addiction to alcohol, drugs, food, sex, etc. “The man loses his health and ends up with thin legs, flat energy, deprived of wife and children, deprived of friends, house, money. He loses his job, self-respect, and every mark of his former art and life.”
Bly goes on to say that in the nineteenth century, men characteristically failed to notice the female suffering, and in this century, men have added another inattention: they characteristically have failed to notice their own suffering. Men endeavor to stay above it, away from it rather than dealing with it by going down and into it, to learn from it. He encourages men to take the downward path as an elective to avoid the crisis or potential disaster that can arise from katabasis. Depression is a form of katabasis. The epidemic of anxiety is wreaking havoc in the lives of millions of men. Exploring one’s grievances and getting in touch with one’s grief can be the antidote.
It appears that psyche arranges a severe katabasis if the man does not know enough to go down on his own. Bly suggests that, “With intitiators gone from our culture, we do not receive instruction on how to go down on our own… To live the life of ashes is very different from dropping into katabasis. It doesn’t require a fall in social status. It is not so explosive; there is something about ashes that is steady, even lethargic… Ashes and cinders in fairy tales are code words for the ashy, sooty, depressed, ‘out of it’ time.”
“The word ashes contains in it a dark feeling for death; ashes when put on the face whiten it as death does…some men around thirty-five or forty will begin to experience ashes privately, without ritual, even without old men. They begin to notice how many of their dreams have turned to ashes.”
Bly gives us, “…By contrast, the old men in traditional initiation lead the young men to the Beneath Father, near where the ancestors live and where snakes are… Initiation asks the son to move his love energy away from the attractive mother to the relatively unattractive serpent father. All that is ashes-work. When a man enters this stage he regards Descent as a holy thing, he increases his tolerance for ashes, eats dust as snakes do, increases his stomach for terrifying insights, deepens his ability to digest evil facts of history, accepts the job of working seven years under the ground, leaves the granary at will through the rat’s hole, bites on cinders, learns to shudder, and follows the voice of the old mole below the ground.”
How do you sum up your life mission (or even just your intermediate aims & objectives) in just 500 characters.
"This is the wording that I have just removed from the beneath the blog title, as it is now out of date, though I still stand for the same things:
I set up my St Leonards studio/office (at the Southwater Community Centre) as a result of the 2010 Pier Fire. I work as a Community Development Artist/Activist, promoting 3 non-monetary economies: 1) gifting eg freecycle and "please take", 2) sharing everything we own eg via the acclaimed freelender website & 3) timebanking. I'm recruiting & joining teams who co-create community; innovating in getting stuck communications unstuck & taking responsibility."
The award was in 2010 and the team did not find the right piloting conditions; members being stretched between too many other projects. Now that I've ended most of my projects in Hastings & St Leonards it is time to look in particular at finding new partners in London for a co-created development based on the ideas that won the Jailbrake competition. If you work for a Youth Offending Team or other location where Restorative Justice seems particularly relevant, please phone me (Tel 07807066202) to discuss my presenting to your team and/or how else we might take this forward:
FAQs
1) How quickly can I expect to hear back from you?
- Within a week
2) Why not sooner?
-I'm sometimes keep away from my email for that long or take that long to gestate a reply.
3) Would you prefer a phonecall?
- usually; reach me on 0780 70 66202
4) Would you ring me back to save my phone bill?
-usually I have many spare minutes that I'm happy to use
5) If I'm having difficulty tracking you down or planning a future event in which I'd like to include you, do you have an online calendar?
- funny you should ask that; the link to it is on this page of this website http://additionalinfo.blogspot.co.uk/p/paul-croslands-calendar.html
6) What is your agenda for the current year?
-it's here http://additionalinfo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/what-do-you-wish-for-from-coming-year.html
7) What have you been doing recently?
-see my facebook, YouTube and Twitter outputs for news; links again on the left side of http://additionalinfo.blogspot.co.uk
& my latest 100 YouTube uploads (starting with the most recent) is here:
The full set of public videos (which started in January 2008 with Mark Boyle's departure for India on foot with no money) is here:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UUUqx0gIWHhZZ7iMzSQQ5FeA&feature=plcp
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And this playlist, entitled "My Buddhafield", begins with Jayaraja, one of a few main spiritual mentors to me:
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I try my hardest to appreciate all feedback given and this is the feedback received on the footer that was at the bottom of all emails on 13th November 2012:
My review of 'Les Miserables' (2012, starring Hugh Jackman, Russel Crowe et al): Take one of the greatest novels about a convict-saint, distill it into a musical about social justice, film it in filth and the full width & depth of France's heritage and you have a film capable of igniting a social revolution of compassionate wisdom; if only we remembered that the best films are not just for watching - they are for living (& dying for) http://iwantyouradvice.blogspot.co.uk & '2066 -the movie' - join in by uploading your life plan onto YouTube so that your peers can support you 1) encouraging you and 2) holding you to account.
Dear Paul,
As you know, I find these convoluted email footers deeply irritating and pretentious, and, as an attempt to shove your views down the throat of anyone who says 'come round for a cup of tea', the very antithesis of non-violent communication.
All you need is a standard 'yours' type sign off, as used by everyone, with a telephone number and email link. 'Nuff said.
Yours, in the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, the Holy and Undivided Trinity,
Chris
[default email footer]
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
'Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.'
In the Grim Darkness of the far future, there is only war
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdlCr7nENV8
Justice has a price. The price is freedom.
http://dreddthemovie.com/main.html
Forward to Mars!
http://mars-one.com/en/
The Church of England, A Christian Presence in every community
http://www.churchofengland.org/
'Everything is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds.'
**********************************
So this now is the information that I still wish you to be able to read if you want what I consider to be the basic contextual information and further linking information for working with me:
Yours in peace (through nonviolent struggle; much of it with myself)
Much metta (kindfulness) /mindfulness
Paul
(AKA Toothpaste007 on YouTube)
My new catch phrase to avoid getting into deep water without a mediator to support:
"That sounds mediable; let's mediate it, or can we get mutual understanding and win-win-win without needing another bloody mediator?"
If it's a really important email that you sent me, please expect a reply within a week and then check that "message sent was message received."
If your email is more urgent than that please can we begin talks about how we might "stress each other out" less.
For better quality connection/ mutual understanding, please phone/text 0780 70 66 202.
I usually prefer calls & will call back
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've reached the (provisional) conclusion that most people don't want to hear about collective responsibility for crimes & misdemeanours such as Hastings Pier Fire?
I guess this makes it time to up the ante and inform everyone who is interested in de-escalating the conflict that the script is in a book called "Inside the No" by Myrna Lewis.
Having been "flooded out of my flat" in the week leading up to the 2nd anniversary of the Hastings pier fire, I'm postponing (long-term) the plans for http://hastingstube.com and scaling down the 2nd anniversary event (ie leaving others to lead on the petition).
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE 7pm - 9.30pm EVENT IS STILL GOING AHEAD ON FRIDAY 5th October; it will draw together some threads and hand on the baton.
And here's the last voicemail I received from a stranger who didn't leave his name:
In the short term I plan to live in Kent, but will be looking for openings in Cambridge or Sheffield in particular, where I am drawn to Triratna Buddhist Community activities, (including (innovative & timely?) team-based right livelihoods and households with (if you can bear a concept-full set of bullet points from me now):
shared meditation sits
shared meals
articulated/reflected values
appreciation of diversity in how we deepen our Buddhist practice, seeking integration, positive emotion, letting go & generating a simpler wholesome and wholehearted (post-capitalist?) lifestyle (as an ark for a sinking society?) on a journey towards.... enlightenment?
(NB For those asking about India, I'm also doing some fresh questioning of when is the "right time" for 6 months in India developing project support for certain students I know from disadvantaged backgrounds and following how they fulfill their 10 year personal plans -made with me in December 2010- as on http://nagaloka-dream-cycle.blogspot.co.uk/p/dreams.html )
And, if you are into social exclusion or want to change the way I live, I'm interested in what good it does you to have so many opinions about how I lead my life?
Perhaps you want to influence decisions I make because you have views on how my decisions impact on your life?
I end this post with three related questions:
1) How correct are your underlying assumptions about how my decisions impact on your life and/or on my own?;
2) How much self-responsibility are you taking for how you are triggered by me?
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Booking for all these events is by phoning/texting me (Paul Crosland) on Zero7807066202 and receiving a confirmation text message or on a 'click here and fill in the form at the bottom of the page' basis.
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The programme is as follows
Friday 5th October 10am-5pm -HastingsTube Workshop1
7pm for 7.30pm "The Hastings Pier Fire Investigation So Far"
(Films recapping the meeting with Sussex Police and local residents last year will be shown from 7.10pm-7.30pm and correspondence with the Ministry of Justice handed out, as well as copies of requests for the HPWRT)
Saturday 6th October 11am-5pm HastingsTube Workshop2
(The programme will be approximately as per Friday 5th; particularly for those who struggled to be available on the Friday daytime, or who wanted to go into the matters raised on the Friday 5th workshop again whilst the issues are still fresh)
Food,
Friendship, Music,
Caring,
Sharing,
Groups,
Events,
Social
Justice, Liberty
Equality
& Fraternity
-Connecting
you with these on your doorstep:
HastingsTube.com
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Booking for all these events is by phoning/texting me (Paul Crosland) on Zero7807066202 and receiving a confirmation text message or on a 'click here and fill in the form at the bottom of the page' basis.
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The intended play has been postponed to the 3rd anniversary -so save Saturday October 5th 2013 in your diary now!
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:
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?)
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?)
Have you paid your £10 refundable deposit for the day workshops on Friday 5th &/or Saturday 6th October?
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"?
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)?
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?
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 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".
"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."
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".
"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?"
"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?"
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)
"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."
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:
Build mutual understanding
Take responsibility for your own emotional baggage
Build an action plan to address unmet needs
Plan a review meeting to discuss whether the plan met the needs
Repeat 1-4 ad infiniteum until you learn a better way to live.
:-)
**********
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.
************
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.
I've been reminded recently of a controversial aphorism: "Help the Strong". This morning I realised what my working definition of "the strong" is ie those who have been receptive to one of your two-day trainings or to some other formalised structure to support individual growth eg Hastings Buddhist Centre, as supported by a guy called Vidyakaya*.
Rather than give everyone who attended your training here a copy of your book, prompted by my partner", I want to practice freelending (and possibly timebanking at the same time). Buying a stock of just 10 books from you, I'll promote the book to those who came to your last years training, lend the book for a month to anyone who wants to borrow it (including an advert for it in the forthcoing fortnightly newspaper I'm launching at St Leonards Warrior Square Station), and deliver/collect it on my bike using timebanked hours where possible.
Dear X Let me just mark this stage of the "story" by stating that I believe you can achieve great things in St Leonards in the context of a strong team that is deeply committed to working through conflicts. To use Maria's words (paraphrased): "Wherever there is more than one person, there is conflict. Wherever the conflict is expressed there is a dispute. Wherever there is conflict or dispute, an authentic exploration of needs and values enables healing that no other process achieves." The vision that I had for you, Patsy Solanki, Sue C & Ms Z last autumn was of "a sisterhood", providing mutual support that enabled you, amongst other things, to get the best out of me in making my contribution to "a more caring and sharing St Leonards", to which I am deeply committed, though often feel under-resourced. Thus, some difficulties in life I too postpone handling, striving to treat people with respect as I do so. Of course I balance this by asking: Why postpone your integration (& integrity) any longer?
Also http://YouTube.com/toothpaste007 - I've experimented in many ways with filming. I'd really value it if you subscribed and let me know what filming could enhance your connection with others and help develop a "more caring & sharing community" around you?
Here now is my Community Development Portfolio (which helped secure me a close second place out of 5 candidates for the Neighbourhood Enablers Team co-ordinator post (for which I didn't even apply, until I was asked to by those due to do the interviewing).
If you are keener to see a diverse group of people explaining how they got involved with the Community Development work led by Paul Crosland, this film
shows the amazing synergy that began with the launch of "Hastings & St Leonards Action for Happiness". Mark Williamson, the national CEO of Action for Happiness visited us as "a leading local group" in September 2011; the circle process being facilitated by Paul Crosland in what has been hailed as "an exemplary style":
And here's the Hastings Trust Mission, Vision and Strategy that I love and constructively question how it is being put into place:
Our Vision Our vision is for Hastings to be a place of connected, creative and sustainable communities that people are proud to be a part of. Our Mission
Our mission is to identify and create opportunities for people to work together, improving the quality of local lives now and for the future.
We aim to deliver this through the following areas of activity:
A Asset acquisition, protection and development
• To provide a more secure financial future for [our] communities.
• To provide affordable, accessible and appropriate accommodation to enable more socially focussed organisations to operate for the good of the future regeneration of our communities.
• To contribute to the urban regeneration of the area through the improvement and redevelopment of underutilised properties.
B Routes out of poverty and worklessness
• To enable the community economic development of the area through provision of appropriate support and assistance which enables local people to become economically active and less reliant on state assistance, thereby improving quality of community and individual life.
C Community development and quality of life – arts, culture, heritage and environment
• To enable local people to have greater control over the fortunes of their communities, to work together for the common good, and to improve quality of community and individual life.
• To provide the right environment for environmental, cultural, heritage and arts development thereby enhancing the regeneration of the area, improving the local economy and improving quality of individual and community life.
All of which are underpinned by:
D Secure financial position, management team and governance
• To ensure that [we have the structures to] provide long term support to enable the social, economic and environmental regeneration of Hastings, St Leonards.
E Campaigning, lobbying and partnership working
• To ensure that [we] and the wider third sector, locally, regionally and nationally, is better equipped to provide all of the above for the common good, to enhance social, economic, cultural and environmental regeneration and thereby improve quality of individual and community life.
If you can see that your concerns might benefit from some tweaking of the social media you generate, then come to a workshop at the Southwater Area Community Centre or at your place on request. No money payable; I will value your skills equally to mine and trade an hour for an hour through "St Leonards Sharing" timebank.
1) The "Non-exploitation card" scheme -making purchases in Hastings & St Leonards 20% cheaper for those who make a non-property-profiteering agreement:
& Paul has (allegedly) improved on Damian Hirst's Art:
The video on YouTube has a link to the website where Paul would be grateful, warm & fuzzy if you engaged in voting for the St Leonards Love Statue of your choice on http://love-statues.blogspot.co.uk
NB 8 themes (for the vote on the drama you want written about what's going on here -& elsewhere):
Local community (re)generation themes:
The ongoing loss of justice in relation to those known to have been on the pier on the night of the fire & the consequences of not resolving this to the satisfaction of the community?
What difference the Jerwood Gallery is making, or will -in time- make to Hastings, and whether there is harm to be addressed here too?
What "St Leonards Love Statues" could do for "St Leonards" in the way that Anthony Gormley statues eg "The Angel of the North" have done for their local areas?
How to stop developments squeezing out much that we value here?
How we can best address social exclusion and the roots of social unrest?
“Sustainable Local Futures” - in the new world economic order, undertaking the transition to a local economy that is more independent of world shocks?
“The amazing wealth of original, talented young people ,numerous local, high profile events and projects” promoted by The Respond Academy, amongst others?
"Ethical Outings in Hastings & St Leonards" (in relation to Arson etc) & what role we play across all generations in "character building" and taking responsibility, rather than letting things get worse.
There are three activities that I'm most keen to develop further as a contribution towards Community Development:
1) Sharing what we own
2) Developing Mutual Support Systems through Timebank Brokerage (Focussed Networks of Time Exchanges that build Social Justice).
3) Building a comprehensive Community Justice System (so that no grievance is left over; everyone knowing how to get support to process any dispute or conflict.)
A brief film from me on Sharing:
A brief film from someone in America I've never met about Timebanking:
Summary of the 6 types of Vision I've put out for St Leonards (& Hastings):
At the close of this video (from 7 minutes and 53 seconds in), Dominic asks the key questions that promote engagement in vital dialogues as a pro-active considered choice rather than a reaction to what's going on that is taken on the hoof:
How can we create communities which are resilient enough, robust enough, to deal with this [period] of intense transition that we are in on almost every front:
transition in relationships
transition in parenting
transition in education
But also huge coming social transitions
with the way we distribute resources
with the way that we deal with the consequences of massive climate transformation
with the way in which we deal with the increasingly volatile economic situations
WE WILL BE MAKING DECISIONS
WE WILL BE RETURNING TO TOWN SQUARES
WE WILL BE RE-OPENING PUBLIC DIALOGUE ; if not because of the exciting potential that that gives us for democracy, then simply because the kinds of situation that we are increasingly confronting demand that of us.
So I would like us to learn to get more and more skilful about:
How do we create social dialogue?
How do we create procedures which support social dialogue?
How do we create outcomes from that process which (actually) effectively meet fundamental human needs?
Does anyone want to join me in filming more in this series about (Hastings &) St Leonards being the place we know with the highest quality of life at the lowest cost of living & CAMPAIGNING TO PROTECT THAT FROM INITIATIVES WHICH RAISE THE COST OF LIVING AND FALSELY RAISE THE VALUE OF OUR PROPERTIES. ('Funny Money' is unsustainable and taints us with the 'greed' of which we accuse others).
Sadly, there are Council led initiatives which threaten the low cost of living here. This is part of a questionable regeneration strategy risking generating only another Brightonesque "London by the Sea"?
This film is the first in the new CAMPAIGNING series: "The Cost of Living in St Leonards):
To complete this background information by providing the two pages about freelender.org, Edmund Johnson & I in "The Moneyless Man" by Mark Boyle (being published in 16 languages, I'm told:
Here's "The Moneyless Man"; demonstrating that humans don't need money to meet their needs; money is a strategy (not a universal need) & MONEY OFTEN HAS A HIGHER COST THAN FORMS OF TRADING THAT BUILD MORE TRUST, COMMUNITY & GENEROSITY:
And from April 2010, here's Maria talking about the relative importance of my various Community Development projects -crucially www.freelender.org - and how the Centre for Peaceful Solutions is working innovatively in also generating the skills for the well-being of communities, skills to be held by all, rather than put in the hands only of professionals:
I do much of my work on facebook; the stages of my best work being
Dreaming and Visioning
Planning
Networking & Doing,
Reviewing
(Then round this cycle again and again. I even taught the dream-cycle to a year group of students in the central city of India -Nagpur- in 2010: http://nagaloka-dream-cycle.blogspot.com)
One organisation that supports me in doing much of my work is the company I set up after being "Head of Restorative Justice" for 5 years at Mediation UK -the national charity which used to exist to represent and support community mediation services. The company is called Mediation Support Ltd. If you are interested in developing any of the above areas of work, please drop me an email via the Mediation Support contact form which clearly states what you'd like to happen next to further your interests.
Another structure that (alongside co-director Edmund Johnson) is being offered to communities in East Sussex and beyond is the Community Interest Company (a bit like a charity but easier to run) that we set up in 2008 and whose work has been hailed both by the leading UK Sustainability Think Tank, Forum for the Future, and within one of the seminal "transition books" of our era: "The Moneyless Man" by (out-there) Mark Boyle. The Community Interest Company that you are invited to apply to co-direct is currently called Freelending CIC. One of the fun spin-off of this work in developing how communities can share more (eg tools, clothes, cars, beachhuts, DVDs, conversations) and build-trust is the creation of the "Lend-It-All Man" persona:
For “Creative Timebank Brokerage”, example websites are www.timebanking.org www.stleonardssharing.infowww.east-sussex-veg-people.blogspot.comwww.ethicaloutings.blogspot.com
& Here's part of an interview I made with Sarah Bird from Timebanking UK which shows, amongst other things, that Timebank volunteering has been recognised as taking the pressure off the council Home Repair Service:
For “Door-knocking as a Team-Building Occupation”, my inspiration comes from work which I did whilst employed by www.karuna.org The “two-step” fundraising model they use has great potential as I see it to be applied to increasing our connections with our neighbours. (More background on the skills, ethics and integrity required in the kind of door-knocking that opens hearts available on request; this is what in my opinion Community Development Work could benefit from greatly …..)
And now for the Walking Buddhas of Hastings, St Leonards & making this the place of grand sculpture in SE England?
(http://www.youtube.com/v/ZoAURxQK9dw)
And here's the Walking Buddha Statue being replicated as part of the re-positioning of Hastings & St Leonards in the new cultural and economic world order:
There are three activities that I'm most keen to develop further as a contribution towards Community Development:
Though I haven't yet inspired a St Leonards team to knock-on doors for the sake of the development of our community, I sense that this possibility is getting nearer after the 2012 St Leonards Community Planning meetings began. Below I'm with Erica Smith of the Hastings Network and with Jeremy Birch, the leader of Hastings Borough Council:
AGAIN:
If you are interested in developing any (or all) of the above areas of work, please drop me an email via the Mediation Support contact form Please reflect first on what you'd like to happen next to further your interests & your care for the well-being of your local community.
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And...,
To say a little more, as a Community Development worker, four things that I'm particularly troubled by in the UK are:
1) "An English man's home is his castle" property protection mentality
2) Mass (individualised) Consumption rather than collective ownership eg How much easier it is for people to purchase stuff than to use the Internet to find the same stuff being shared.
3) That nonviolence is not deeply understood as a life-course.
4) That the vision of community is often so limited by all of the above -AND MORE
THESE ARE SOME OF THE REASONS WHY I WISH TO DRAW ON MY DEEPEST EXPERIENCES OF COMMUNITY which I have found in Indian Ambedkarite Buddhists. The Normans coming out of the sea may be more relevant to Hastings' past. I'm not the person to advance that project. Rather I'm wanting to work on agendas such as the "cities of sanctuary" project to build a healthier approach to immigration. We have so much to learn from my friends in India, particularly "how to live better for less". "how to live better for less" is also St Leonards' unique selling point. This is partly the basis on which I'm inviting Amber Rudd (MP), Jeremy Birch (leader of the council) and Kim Forward (Mayor) to a meeting to discuss how government, local and national, can best support sharing of cars, houses etc and what social policies, cultural links and arts will best position Hastings & St Leonards as a resilient, well-connected place in the face of the coming new world order?
The process said to be necessary to build any community with any depth:
The Stakeholder Analysis in relation to Hastings Pier:
LINKS THAT CAN BE FOLLOWED UP ACCORDING TO WHAT AREA OF COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO BE INVOLVED IN DEVELOPING OR MAINTAINING:
Hastings Observer pieces:
June 2011 -"We need to act if we want justice"
June 2011 -"Group aims to get Hastings smiling again"
September 30th 2011 -"Talks to mark the anniversary
AGAIN:
If you are interested in developing any (or all) of the above areas of work, please drop me an email via the Mediation Support contact form Please reflect first on what you'd like to happen next to further your interests & your care for the well-being of your local community.
At the close of this video (from 7 minutes and 53 seconds in), Dominic asks the key questions that promote engagement in vital dialogues as a pro-active considered choice rather than a reaction to what's going on that is taken on the hoof:
How can we create communities which are resilient enough, robust enough, to deal with this [period] of intense transition that we are in on almost every front:
transition in relationships
transition in parenting
transition in education
But also huge coming social transitions
with the way we distribute resources
with the way that we deal with the consequences of massive climate transformation
with the way in which we deal with the increasingly volatile economic situations
WE WILL BE MAKING DECISIONS
WE WILL BE RETURNING TO TOWN SQUARES
WE WILL BE RE-OPENING PUBLIC DIALOGUE ; if not because of the exciting potential that that gives us for democracy, then simply because the kinds of situation that we are increasingly confronting demand that of us.
So I would like us to learn to get more and more skilful about:
How do we create social dialogue?
How do we create procedures which support social dialogue?
How do we create outcomes from that process which (actually) effectively meet fundamental human needs?
