Transition Culture has moved
I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
29 Mar 2009
I am delighted to be able to announce that I recently became a Fellow of Ashoka, the international organisation that supports social entrepreneurs. There are over 2000 Ashoka fellows around the world, doing amazing work. I had never thought of myself as being a social entrepreneur, indeed I am still trying to work out quite what the term means, but it is a great honour to receive the support of this organisation, and what they can bring to the Transition Network is potentially fantastic.
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27 Mar 2009
Many people got in touch with Transition Network to ask how they could get copies of Rebecca Hosking’s seminal ‘A Farm for the Future’ programme. It can be viewed on Video Google now, but it is proving tricky for us to distribute copies of the film. You may therefore be interested to know that due to popular demand, the programme is being screened for a second time on BBC2 Saturday 4th April at 5.20pm. Set the recorder, and enjoy this wonderful programme a second time.
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26 Mar 2009
Meribeth Dean from Canada visited Totnes a while ago to research an audiopiece for the programme Dispatches for the Canadian Broadcasting Company. The podcast of the programme is now available online here. It also contains an interview with Robert Hirsch. It’s rather good, give it a listen. The programme starts with Hirsch and then moves into the Totnes piece. I particularly like being referred to as ‘thin’ and ‘in his late 30’s’ (I’m 40).
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24 Mar 2009
If I had written it as a Transition Tale in the Transition Handbook, it would have ranked as being even more ridiculous than the Beckhams’ cob retirement house. However, here we are, and Michelle Obama has started to dig up part of the White House lawn and turn it into a vegetable garden. According to the New York Times;
…whether there would be a White House garden had become more than a matter of landscaping. The question had taken on political and environmental symbolism, with the Obamas lobbied for months by advocates who believe that growing more food locally, and organically, can lead to more healthful eating and reduce reliance on huge industrial farms that use more oil for transportation and chemicals for fertilizer.
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20 Mar 2009
While I love the film The Age of Stupid, and am completely in agreement with the aims of the campaign that is emerging from it to get a strong and deep agreement at the Copenhagen climate talks, there is something about the ‘Not Stupid’ campaign that sits uncomfortably for me. At Eden, where I was, there was a sign saying ‘Eden Project – Not Stupid’. I’m sure the Eden Project isn’t stupid, but this labelling of things as stupid and not stupid feels deeply alarming to me. Since the film premiere on Sunday, I have heard about two people I know who saw it, who were moved by it, felt touched and affected, yet who are planning trips by plane, one to Hong Kong for Christmas, and one to the US for a spiritual retreat.
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