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Mark Brown »
The Economist, The FT & Monty Burns
Posted on 1:00pm Tuesday 6th December 2011
Many a good blog has been triggered by the stuff I read from journalists in (what they perceive as) the "real world". None more so than the daily ramblings of The Economist and The Financial Times. I have no particular reason to single them out. If I were in the USA I could have been talking about the Wall Street Journal. What I see there is the world from the viewpoint of a constituency of wealth, privilege and power. How the world must look through their eyes? Oh for a minute in their shoes - and I am by no means a poor man nor a lefty. But it makes you wonder...
Mark Brown »
Risk & returns
Posted on 12:50pm Monday 5th December 2011
What do YOU find risky? Why is it that we find home, life and car insurance so normal yet can't be bothered to mitigate risk arising from energy-use, economic bubbles and climate change? Maybe we are being silly? I was wondering whether Transitioners are over-estimating risk and trying to make High Wycombe too safe. What would we lose in more resilient communities? Afterall, without risk there are no returns...
Mark Brown »
Little Red Books
Posted on 12:57pm Sunday 4th December 2011
It is always a fun and useful exercise for us to imagine how the Transition Movement might look like to outsiders. It is a topic we often return to. Indeed it was the topic of a keynote speech I gave to an AGM at the old Wycombe Environment Centre in 2008. At that time I had an audience of environmentalists and used a set of comparisons inside Rob Hopkins' own Transition Handbook as a tool to describe the differences between perceived "environmentalism" and "Transition".
Mark Brown »
Occupy High Wycombe
Posted on 10:45am Monday 14th November 2011
The Occupy Movement has been making headlines for several months now. You know - this kids outside St Paul's in London? Yet we have already written it off as another flash-in-the-pan demo. Those involved are described as "anti-capitalist" because they question our economic system. Indeed the term "anti-capitalist" is effective in that it fixes in our minds the vision of a certain kind of antisocial-anarchist, peddling ideas so unacceptable that we need not give them a second thought. It is a label. In this case an inaccurate label. A label to discredit the movement and close off our minds to the debate. But we're better than that.
Mark Brown »
Local. Community. Partnership.
Posted on 2:30pm Monday 24th October 2011
Three words. Three words you read a lot about in our blogs. Localisation. Communities. Partnerships. How many of you know that there really is such a thing as a Local Community Partnership? It's run by Bucks County Council & has several meetings every year at locations in YOUR Community. Not heard of it? If you have heard of it, how many of you have been to such a meeting? I know, I know, you have better things to do. But what is the LCP for? What does it do?
Mark Brown »
Food & Footie
Posted on 2:36pm Sunday 23rd October 2011
Populism knows no depths. You have to scratch the surface to find real news. For example follow this link to The Bucks Herald: http://bit.ly/pdCTYq to a story entitled "Do you know the price of food insecurity?" Imagine our local rag running a serious story like that!? The article told of research undertaken by the British Red Cross, who asked the public how they would cope if they were forced to spend between 50 and 80 per cent of their income on food.
Mark Brown »
What I Did in My School Holidays
Posted on 2:40pm Sunday 16th October 2011
Our little girl started at school for the first time this year. She isn't quite up to writing an essay but I am sure if you asked her about her summer hols she will tell you she went to the beach. In fact that beach was in Cornwall. She may also recall her Mum and Dad occasionally calling out the words "solar panels!" and "wind turbine!" What an amazing place Cornwall is. A County living 30 years in the future. To submit comments to this Blog please pay us a visit over at www.transition-wycombe.org.uk/blog or join the debate at http://groups.google.com/group/tthw
Mark Brown »
Parliamentarians & Cheap Petrol
Posted on 12:22pm Saturday 15th October 2011
Recent comments by our local MP in "Spotlight East Wycombe" and the "Totteridge & Terriers Times" have raised a few eyebrows. We have been asked to comment upon his claims that "Cutting or freezing fuel duty might actually mean increased revenue for the Treasury as more people could afford to fill their tanks." Is this true? To submit comments to this Blog please pay us a visit over at www.transition-wycombe.org.uk/blog or join the debate at http://groups.google.com/group/tthw
Mark Brown »
Concorde on Fire
Posted on 3:52pm Saturday 25th June 2011
On Tuesday 25 July 2000 an Air France Concorde took off from Paris Charles de Gaulle bound for New York with nine crew members and one hundred passengers on board. It never made it. I loved Concorde and must express my sorrow for those who lost so much that day. But my memory of Concorde was far happier. Sitting in Heathrow one day I was witness to an earth-shattering roar as Concorde took to the air. The terminal windows vibrated and everyone turned around and watched. It touched everyone. It didn't matter how regularly people flew, no matter how nonchalant they may be, they fell silent and watched....
Mark Brown »
Voices from the Green Ghetto
Posted on 1:27pm Wednesday 1st June 2011
I present to you two visions for social pathways to sustainability. In one we build a social meme: an idea of a sustainable society that spreads like wildfire through our communities. People pick up this meme from their friends and neighbours because it is everywhere they look: at the School Fete, the Car Boot Sale, the charity event, the university. The message is spread by outreach. In the other the message is bottled within a self-contained institution.
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