It’s all about perspective

So what have you been up to the last couple of days? Whilst most of our media have been caught up in the  affairs of our Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s expense claim fiasco, upwards of 200 people are feared drowned off the coast of Libya. Read the article…………heart rending tales of a mother  found dead, still holding her baby.

Somehow puts our tiny world of self indulgent politicians into perspective doesn’t it. What a completely crazy world we live in.

Some incredible stories on the BBC web site however; stories surrounding the hundreds of thousands who have come to the UK, fleeing the most appalling circumstances. Take the one about the slave from Niger or the Father of three from Eritrea. Completely moving.

So why bother here at Sfts? If such stories are already being documented by huge organisations like the BBC, then is there a need for more? After all we could never compete at that level.

We could of course just sit back and watch something like the amazing short film I posted yesterday. Mankind is no Island.If you haven’t taken a look yet then you really must. We need artists and craftsman like that to provoke us.

So again I ask, why bother? When we were pulling together the launch book for Sfts I spent a couple of hours with a Somalian refugee. I was there to get her story; a tale of life and death, of escape across the Indian Ocean, and of leaving loved ones behind.

You know it was the sitting down with her and beginning to scribe her story that had the impact for me. Not just reading about it, but engaging in a new way with the people in my street,my town, my city.

That’s what Stories from the Street offers. Yep the BBC does some amazing stuff, and of course there is a place for armchair reading and viewing, but there is no substitute for ordinary people like you and I actually doing it ourselves. That’s how bridges are built and barriers come down.

So anyone out there got some stories? Go to our website, currently being updated (so apologies if you find it half working) log in and start to write.

Mankind is no island

You know I could have posted on Jacqui Smith today. Just the thought of it however turned my stomach. Second homes, MP’s expenses……yet another example of gross greed when many are so desperate at this time. Not my idea of leadership at all.

My mate Baz rescued the day therefore.

He has just sent me through this link to a most amazing short film. It’s called Mankind is no Island and its the winner of the Tropfest NY 2008. Shot by a guy called Jason van Genderen, entirely on his moblie phone, Baz sent me the link saying, “Steve, I hope this will inspire you to keep going for more stories.”

It does Baz, it really does.

Click above and take a look. It is completely worth the three minutes of your time and will do you  good, whereas me ranting on Jacqui Smith would most certainly not.

Weekends!

Dont you just love them.

The weekend to do whatever you want to do. A few beers, good food, friends, walks, reading the papers, playing with the kids………….and loud music. Saturday has to be the day for turning up the volume and shouting out your favourite lyrics.

 Bono is one of  my huge heroes; suppose because he evokes so much in me……………and memories to. Like when about 20 of us in June of 2005 walked our way from London to Edinburgh. Like a bunch of Old Testament Prophets we walked day and night, along with others calling for a new plumb line in our nation prior to the G8 summit that was about to happen in Scotland.

And of course Bono was there, not with us chuffers I mean!…but at Gleneagles. Emotive moments; the right to protest……………”shout it out”……………….”re boot yourself.”

Then some months later, walking through the wonderland of the South Coast of France, up through Nice and without a doubt walking passed one of Bono’s homes………………a modern day prophet that he is.

Strength drawn from a journey completed for the journey that is ahead.

Music,images, memories, wild extravagant moments, hope stirred,wonderful acts of generosity,a sense of purpose, friendships formed in adversity.

Yo, its the weekend! Time to re boot, chill out…………get charged up.

That’s what I’m doing. Last week was tough, but that’s ok. Strength comes for the journey ahead.

Completely needed.

A rewired economy

Picked up this link today from a storming article written on a blog seeking to catalyse thought, business and social action. Take a look. I quote,

“The problem with the capitalist system is that it offers rewards to people and businesses even when they do not add value. The public are angered by huge city bonuses because these very people have destroyed, not created, value. Where wealth is earned by adding value most people are happy to see people rewarded for their work”.

The challenge then is to rewire our economy to reward value”.

Reckon my Directors would have been well taken by that quote had I found it in time for my boardroom encounter this morning. Why? Because actually they are three good guys who understand completely the values behind Stories from the Street. Yep they are there to answer for the investment that’s been made. They are also there to make sure the numbers add up and a fair and equitable profit is made………………..if we dont all die first!

So today has been a better day than yesterday………..and I didn’t get fired! I might not get paid…………but what the hec, lived that way for years so what’s new

No wild runs across the fields and no thoughts of riots.

A couple of beers tonight instead.

G 20-So would you riot?

Today has been one of those full on crap days. Does anyone else have them?

First of all one place in the UK that I had high hopes of a Sfts book of stories being crafted said no; in the process having some hard things to say about our launch book. I completely and violently diasagree with them but hey I asked for some feedback and I got it. My problem not theirs.

Secondly my computer had one of those near terminal moments-you know when they suddenly seem to have a mind of their own and threaten the equilibrium of even the most level headed of us.

And third, I am having to prepare for a Directors meeting of Sfts tomorrow morning when I have no good news at all to report. You know I feel like one of the Apprentices about to go back into the board room with Sir Alan.

So what did I do? Maybe if Sir Freddie(and by that I don’t mean Flintoff ) lived round the corner I could easily have picked up a brick and took a juicy aim at one of his gleaming windows.

Alternatively I could have hopped on the train to London this w/e to find solace in the mutuality of other angry people-some I hasten to add quite justified at the way gross greed and the worst of capitalism has left our economy and climate.

No, thankfully I did neither. Instead I took off across the fields, running until my lungs burst, shouting into the wind and letting the wild vista of rolling countryside exhaust the worst of the anger in me. Charging through the woods and leaping over streams I vented my frustration and rage.

Then I went home……………….. to my demonised computer…………….and my report to the Directors that says no new share holders, no new partnership towns or cities, very few book sales and one months money in the account.

So yes I could riot, quite easily I imagine.

But I haven’t just yet.