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The Great Cauldron of Story and the Landscape of Change

Submitted by Pamela on 17 March 2013 - 2:55pm

I've been listening appreciatively to The Great Cauldron of Story - and why fairy tales are for adults again (guided there by a couple of my co-explorers in the Landscape of Change). In addition to the podcast there is a quick, visual representation overview of some key ideas in Sketchnotes: Maria Tatar on Fairy Tales and the Going Back to the Fireside In Section 9 - All kinds of people needed in What's the Good of Landscape of Change? I wrote: In the artistic area I see artists - musicians, visual artists, storytellers, dramatists and more, creating artistic expressions of...

Thought dancing

Submitted by Pamela on 16 March 2013 - 10:02pm

Thought-dancing is like real physical dancing in the way that some people love to do it, and some people don't - and that's fine. Like "real dancing" thought-dancing is best experienced rather than described, but I'm going to try anyway. I'm going to describe the kind of thought-dancing that I do with the partner who led me to think of the term. It's not a discussion, It's something more expressive, exploratory and free-form. Choreographing with text I usually meet my thought-dancing partner on Skype, and we tend to use text. Text is great because of the way it naturally generates...

What's the Good of Landscape of Change?

Submitted by Pamela on 14 March 2013 - 11:03pm

"What's Landscape of Change anyway?" one of my friends asked when I said I was pleased with its recent progress, and then failed to explain coherently what the progress was. When I couldn't answer the simple "What is it?" question he tried to help by narrowing it down. "What good is Landscape of Change?" he asked, and then, narrowing it even further, "If I was to put it in a box what kind of a box would I put it in?" Even as he asked that question he rejected it observing that, given Landscape of Change was something I was...

Fresh Fish and Green Veg!

Submitted by Frances on 13 March 2013 - 10:59am

Learn about the rich green vegetable called 'ugwu' and the fresh fish in a barrel in the Fantsuam headquarters! Earth ponds and fresh fish Attachab, the piece of land about 15km from the Fantsuam headquarters near Kafanchan, is beginning to develop as an example of permaculture principles. One of these principles is the 'development of self contained horticultural systems modelled from natural ecosytems'. John told us at the meeting on Tuesday about the completion of two new earth ponds which had been dug at Attachab ready to be stocked with eight week old fish. The earth was dredged by hand...

Fantsuam spreads its wings

Submitted by Frances on 7 March 2013 - 12:03pm

ICT4D This 'alphabet soup' stands for Information and Communication Technology for Development Plan, launched in Abuja in May 2010. Nigeria participates in this develoment programme in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Community for Africa. John, who is part of a sub-theme group for rural development and deployment, attended a meeting last week and was asked to assist some other states to develop their own ICT policy appropriate to their local situation. Consequently John is travelling this week and next to Oshun state and Niger state to help others with their ICT development. I reported a a few weeks back...

In response to David Pinto's question about audience.

Submitted by Pamela on 4 March 2013 - 4:51pm

David Pinto wrote: "As background 'research' for my book I sought out a film I have seen a while back, Two For The Money, with Al Pacino. Great movie, in my opinion (snip). However, the film didn't do that well, and the critical response is poor, at least from the IMDB site . SO I am definitely out of sorts with mainstream opinion. Does that mean I am wrong in my viewing of the film? Was the particular line the director and writer and actors took, wrong? Clearly it was, in terms of mainstream engagement, which presumably was their target...

Explorers Emerging in Landscape of Change

Submitted by Pamela on 2 March 2013 - 10:24am

I've found some other "explorers" this week. I've discovered that I simply need to ask. Introducing the idea When my ideas about the "Landscape of Change" started to emerge, all I wanted from people was feedback on the reality and usefulness of the concept. It didn't take me long to discover that the concept did make sense - but then I wasn't sure what to do about it. That was back in 2011. Personal explorations In some ways all the work I've done since 2011 has been part of my personal explorations of the Landscape of Change (LofC). I've also...

Improving internet access, gender balance and foods for hypertension.

Submitted by Frances on 28 February 2013 - 3:20pm

The many varied concerns of Fantsuam Foundation in Nigeria: Internet access John had to leave the regular weekly Dadamac meeting on time in order to get to another meeting at a nearby village. An IT expert was expected from Jos to give among other things definie costs for the eqipment required for the local consortium to set up their bandwidth project. This project has been given extra impetus as the Government has made it a national requirment for all students to have internet access. It is incredible to learn that due to its enterprise and innovation, Fantsuam Foundation has better...

Celebrating my crazy-sane friends and contacts

Submitted by Pamela on 24 February 2013 - 11:37am

This is an appreciation and celebration of the crazy-sane people I know. I'm not naming any - but I'm reflecting on them. I'm exploring facets of their personalities, considering why I include them in the category of crazy-sane, what I mean by it, and why I treasure them. Unreasonable people The "crazy-sanes" I know are "unreasonable" people. I don't mean that they lack reason (some are full of reason and logical thought). I mean unreasonable in the sense of the George Bernard Shaw quote: The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt...

Reflections on directions

Submitted by Pamela on 22 February 2013 - 8:01pm

If things happen in an emergent kind of way then every now and again it's a good idea to reflect on what's emerging. Two phone calls this morning provide pointers. The connecting theme is simply my own learning journey and how it illustrates and informs my ideas about deep patterns of change. One call was from Jemima Gibbons of FRSA London Reboot. The other was from Francis Sealey, of GlobalNet21 meetups. Exploring the Landscape of Change Jemima Gibbon's call was about FRSA London Reboot 2: Stimulate, Expand, Amplify! on Wednesday, 27 February 2013. I've been invited to do one of...

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