Guayaquil

Just got back from a project in Guayaquil called Junconi (junto con ninos - together with kids), an amazing project working with street kids. I{ve seen a lot of second rate projects in uk and here, but this one is excellent-. really impressed. more later.

Pics of Cuenca Nov

Oops

will write something soon. both really busy..

Pics of Cuenca from Oct

Puerto Lopez & the Coast..

Cuenca

We are in Cuenca now, a gorgous colonial city high in the mountians in the south. All is going swimmingly. Casey is working with a theatre group in vest and pants. The performance is the last week of october. Its a version of Los Ciegos (the blindies) by Maurice Maeterlinck. There is also the possibility of some paid sound engineering work setting up a theatre near the coast. Also doing some workshops with Proyecto De Muchachos Trabadores (project for working kids) on conflict resolution.

Erica is chipping away at the beauracracy as always and working with the Central Bank Museum. She´s also setting up another project twinned with Ryedale, however unlikely that sounds. But we´re both waiting for things to kick off. Heading down to the coast to do some snorkling and see some whales.

2009 Study Abroad video with students from the university of georgia..

Cuba & collective incentives

Our good friend socialist Fabian came back from Cuba yesterday understandably excited. He regaled us for hours with stories of the ideal society. A few things stuck in my mind, mostly in relation to incentives:

1 - he says things are extremely well organised, which means that people want to organise things (unlike Ecuador).

2 - propaganda has put meant a generation knows nothing but the revolution, but we also know nothing but capitalism.

3 - he said that everyone wants to work in tourism because you get tips. If everyone makes the same money, who would ever want to clean the bins..?

4 - If the US got rid of the embargo tomorrow what would happen? maybe a short story in the offing, but (like Ecuador scapegoating the US - rightly or wrongly) there would be no collective enemy and the black market, already huge, would take over the country.

5- he says people are motivated, not by individual gain as every economist would tell us, but by collective gains. If this is true then we don't need to tinker with the incentives as everyone has been telling us (carbon credits anyone) but we need to realise the satisfaction in things that only groups of people can grow. So maybe there is a future for collective ownership and action, even if we don't want such drastic measures of getting there..

Jungle pics. swimming with caimans, piranas & anacondas..

Pics from Guayaquil (the mythical port shown in Pirates of the Carribean)

Pics from Joy & Alan's visit to Ecuador..

Short stories..

i am trying to write some short stories. i'm going to put them together into an audio book, with sound effects, like an audio play, but without any people or words. They're a bit war focussed because of the course, but i have others (including monkey tennis). One of the stories will hopefully be about pursuading everyone in the west to give £1 if isreal & palestine stop fighting; then everyone who lives there can have new cars. something like that.

Story about the first televison in the village and how it killed the sense of community and shared culture. everyone says the world is going to end. the same thing happens when cities were invented, now more people live in them every year.

Story about starting the great war in Latin America that will lead to the first genuine South American Unions, plotted by the same people who took the paintbrush out of hitlers hand.

Story about the physical high graound and metaphorical. A soldier discovers he only has to change the actions of his comrades and the batlefield changes. He comes up with a brilliant alternative to partitioning countires and ensuring more wars - he focusses on creating more civil wars..

and on..

Guayaquil..

We went to Guayaquil last weekend for our birthdays. It’s a hot port city which in any other country in South America would be the capital; huge inward migration, slums, drugs and gangs. The distribution port of large amounts of a rich countries natural resources sent overseas for peanuts (either 1500 or now, take your pick). The people have lazy accents, everything is ferociously air conditioned and there's not much to do. All is all a splendid weekend..

But it was interesting to see what they have done with regeneration. with the crime levels as high as they were the local publicity hunting mayor came up with some schemes. He privatised large parts of the city. which keeps out the scumbags. and it works. If you a look past the armed guards (and I the only brit who always wants to grab any gun he walks past?? just to see what would happen?) and the tarted up 'historic' streets. I'm not sure it would work in libertarian Europe or the US but is it really so far from standard gentrification??? I posted this to the guardian:

With highly competitive local authorities, it’s not surprising that gentrification means poor families will move out of an area; either because they are forced to, or because families grow and they can't afford a bigger house in the same area. So people in Leeds move to Bradford, this happened before gentrification. The only difference is people now have someone to blame..

The alternative is sink estates where only the hopeless are concentrated together. They may have knocked down Tinsley Cooling towers in Sheffield, but the alternative was to leave them there - not great options either way. If the community can come up with viable alternatives I hope the LA is brave enough to try them. How different is this situation from the indigenous tribes fighting against oil companies in the heart of the Amazon jungle? What constitutes progress? How can to have a collective response to individual ownership???

Bringing public libraries to Ecuador

Ecuador has no public lending libraries. So despite a high literacy rate (78%) almost no-one reads. 17% read a newspaper but they're also comparatively expensive. So we had the idea of setting up the first public lending library. We'd need to persuade three groups:

1) the ministry here to manage it and run it

2) publishing houses in Ecuador/ SA to sign discount agreements

3) a spanish or latin american book owner to donate a container load of books

4) a courier company to get them here

5) small logistics funding to smooth the way

If anyone can help with any of these things please get in touch! Thanks..

Santa Semana Video..

Politicas Europeas de Inclusion Cultural..

East of Eden quote

"The American Standard translation [of the bible] orders men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James translation makes a promise in ‘Thou shalt,’ meaning that men will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel — ‘Thou mayest’ — that gives a choice. 

It might be the most important word in the world. It says the way is open"..

EU & US

Will the EU ever become the US? With a single parliment i mean, we';re just about there for the rest of the measures.. Trade, populations, culture, hey we're all the same huh.. Apart from those crazies in the balklands, and maybe turkey (new pakistan anyone?). We'd be the hicks in the north arguing with everyone. So not so different from now then..

Evidence based policy..

I wonder if evidence based policy is ever going to become a reality: we could even blame it on the computers who calculate risk. It would also mean starting again with current laws which if you look at gun laws in the US, or property laws in the UK are fundamentals no 4 year government wants to mess with. And starting again often means revolution or Khamer Rouge or other nasties..

However: Someone gets badly hurt for every 350 trips on horseback; for ecstasy trips, the figure is one in 10,000. As politicaLLY unpaletable as it is, its hard to argue against killing horse-riders..

Ideas for study abroad programme..

We've got students coming here for a month (24th May -19th June), and i'm putting ideas together for potential projects and side-sessions from the main teaching. Three themes so far:

1) case studeis - ireland, rwanda (15 years ago this month), the 'boy's club' problem of refugees (potential huge numbers anda future where nation states matter less), problems beyond socialism & ideological conflicts

2) Short taster sessions - group mediation, types of power, behavioural change, Ubuntu, NVC, cohesion linked to identity and culture.

3) Counter arguments - get them to argue the opposite point of view (could relate to case studies above), attitudinal changes in the 20C of war, media and complicity in recent unpopular wars (related to 'who are the stakeholds & who gains'), do 21C societies need enemies, world values survey and how soldiers and civilians can have the same values.

I'd like to get beyond the usual 'war is bad' hippy bit (in fact it can be a very effective long-term conflict resolution tool), and that NGOs are good and governments are corrupt. Ideas welcomed..

pics from hot springs..

European Union

Erica did her first talk last night at the Ministry of Culture, was kissed by the minister (although he has, as yet, been unable to sign her off officially), and gave an hours talk on the european union and cuture. Pretty impressive, and i'll stick the vids & pics up tomorrow.

But about the European Union - got me thinking. If South America is planning to make a union, maybe they need a big war like we did to start it. They need economic motivations, and they need to cosy up to people they don't like (so not just Chavez and his mates in an anti imperialist rant - like maybe our future 'league of democracies' would be). How we have dealt with diversity, with borders, with trade and money - could this be the future of South America?

I'm not sure people here have the same sense of time and space. Not just the example that we were kept waiting for a meeting for 20 mins directly beneath a poster promoting 'good timekeeping'..

The Ecovia is the main motorised bus lane transport, and has a narrow passage to get in and out. And you wait in the corridor for the bus,  with people walking past you. And then someone will come and stand directly in front of you (when there is lots of space to the side) so that everyone walking along has to bump into you, or stop of push past etc. 

Now - we have been socialised to say "I was here first, your subsequent actions have a direct negative consequence on me that i think you ought to be aware of" etc. We force these bad people until they stop doing being so thoughtless (as a form of society moulding behavioural change), so do the same things in cars through reward and punishment. 

But here in ecuador - i don't think i have any more rights because i was there first. Which makes more sense if you think holistically. (i remember stupid examples of people 'playing the system' in the UK by driving very fast towards traffic pulling out to force them to stop - this it the downside of a system based, erm, system.) I wonder what would happen if we see things more as a whole and less as separate interaction in our lives as a linear path..

Where we live on google maps..

(although you might have seen the street when the plane came down behind our flat!!!)

View Larger Map

or this:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=colon,+quito+ecuador&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=36.452734,79.101563&ie=UTF8&ll=-0.199856,-78.49062&spn=0.011244,0.019312&z=16&iwloc=addr

I promise to pay the bearer on demand..?

In which case i am asking (i'll put it in a freedom of information request if you like) for my money back. If i'm going to be incurring $30,000 worth of debt over the next few years, i think i'll take my bat & ball home.

When the currency failed in ecuador in 2004 - they closed the doors of all the banks, and noone get their money while the currency plummeted. By the time the Sucre had been shored up by the Dollar most people's assets were worthless. We met a lady at the weekend who lost $7,000 (a lot of money here).

So with the eruptions in London this morning. While we MUST retain confidence in the banks, what other options are there?

I remember two stories from the summer: 1) if the ports were blockaded we would run out of food in the UK in 72 hours. Instead of cracking heads, why doesn';t someone target French ports (normally the french do this themselves but..)

2) there was a suggestion in the summer that the cashpoints might run out of money. In the same way as we ran out of petrol (many people here consider petrol a safe way to store money!) why couldn't we run out of pound notes on fine afternoon..? Again, instead of cracking heads, why don't they organise everyone to take out money on the same day, the system would crash (like the trojen at the moment that blackmails companies - if they don't pay, the trojen sends hundreds and thousands of emails and requests to the company website at the same time and crashes it.). Oh  - i forgot if we crash the banks, we own them now and we're the shareholders. 

If they lose, then we lose.

Mobile telephone applications as a development tool..

Nokia are calling for social innovators to make mobile phone applications that help development in poor or rural areas. A few ideas so far (of course i can't actually write the code for the apps, but its an interesting idea).

Info on the standard price of goods so farmers aren't ripped off.

Peer to peer selling, so co-ops can cut out the middle man.

Have virtual networks so meetings can be arranged in the local town, or bargains can be struck before physical meetings.

Education ideas - how about linking open university with interesting modules, people can download and store info on what they want to know.

Health care - Home Doctor application called "name that disease".

Video module for people performing their own surgery.

SMS the hospital with your arrival time.

Recycling, bartering and lending system in rural areas - like gumtree or craigslist.

http://callingallinnovators.com/default.aspx

Pics from Guayasamin..

Ecuador's biggest export.

What is ecuador's main export???

The simple answer is not bananas, or coffee, or oil - but people. 

They send their brightest and best, and anyone who has a bit about themselves, to live on the other side of the world, and make money for other people.

We have moved from Flicker to google..

Flicker moved to google
Originally uploaded by invitation-to

http://picasaweb.google.com/speakingquito

Maintaining our advantage..

We knew when we came here that the hardest bit would be sorting out stuff in the UK. sabbaticals, banks, renting the house, money, insurance, cards (and the current fiasco with my bank and the letter agent prove this). And we knew that when we landed - even in the middle of the night in some strange city - the difficult bit would be over..

So why is that? 

I think its maintenance, not even keeping up with, but just the necesary lives we've built in order to keep things in order. Yes the losses are not as big here if we get robbed or scammed or lose out on something, but the mental energy it takes just to keep the cart on the rails - that can't be worth doing. 

So what if we stop doing it? We would instantly lose the advantage over people who don't do it. people who aren't in the know, and since our society is built on competition (even walking let alone driving down a busy street we would be able to go quicker - there is a facebook group called "i want to punch people who walk slowly") then we have to maintain it. And maintaining - using huge energies treading water - that's what i have a problem with and maybe one of the reasons our cities are violent, citys fat, people unhappy. Cheery hey?

Ibarra

www.locusactionresearch.org.uk

www.locusactionresearch.org.uk website is up and running now. Its should hopefully allow us to put some money through it would being employed directly by the organisations we;ll be doing consultancy for.

The Chinese in our block..

We complained to the landlady about the noisy chinese in our appartment block, she told us this story.

They have paid huge sums of money to a gangleader to come to ecuador on false papers, wait around, then catch a boat to the States. This is quite a common route because Mexico has its own problems, Colombia is in the pocket of the US and venezuela is on the wrong side. So Ecuador is the furthest north.

Unfortunetely for our chinese - the Quito gangmaster was executed at the weekend. so they;'re in limbo, don'ty speak spanish, have no money to get home (or know what boat) and don't know what is going on while they are rapidly running out of money. So now, we don't mind so much that they spend every evening shouting at each other..

We are shareholders in the destruction..

Gone are the days when we can complain about The Man. This mysterious other taking away our money, our successes opportunities,  as well as our weed.. We are now the shareholders in this process either through government or through house prices. So we need government, as well as UK PLC to success which means taking some 'tough decisions'. BTW - am i the only one who reads 'tough decisions' as screwing someone else over..?

Humanity has so far only found two ways of distributing money - the state and the market. When we are complicit in the success (or failure) of both we become shareholders. So Britain is the 4th biggest economy, whereas back in the 70s is was all about the death of empire.  Anyone want to go back? The difference may not be felt in our pockets, but maybe in our national pride..

Capitalism is the direct opposite of evolution

Capitalism rewards the strongest. Evolution rewards the most adaptable. In the real climate change we can see here, you can easily see who is adaptable to change, and who cracks up when the electric windows stop working..

Changing from Flickr..

Flickr decide they give you a 200 picture limit, so obviously we'll go elsewhere..

So the last pics are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29765213@N06/

and the new (dup[licate pics) are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/YQB0zHJRoJhdXJdz5aMr4A?authkey=Gv1sRgCLummunlkbqxVA&feat=directlink

Enjoy!  

Ecuador Elections 2009

We're meeting with Participación Ciudadan tomorrow to talk about the forthcoming Ecuadorian elections. Its mandatory to vote so they're concentrating on informing people for what they are voting (rather than the buses which pick people up and feed them in exchange), but all in all - i'm not too sure the use of informing people about something they'd rather sit down and change. Representational democracy is representing whom?

Here a rich person creates his own party, maybe gets two terms and is kicked out for corrupton. One guy running in 2009 was the president in 2004 and literally had to flee the country becuase of the angry mob outside the presidential palace. He got bored exhiled in Brazil so came back and no-one seems to mind he's running again..! On the other hand the ineffectual politicians here generally maintain the line (unless they've got oil money on tap like Chavez), a bit like Obama is doing. A linear view of politics as well as economics. Funny how in a world of increasing diversity - we're polerising our responses to things. 

Selling sweets on the bus

We've done two long bus journeys in different directions and on each a boy has got on selling sweets with a formal patter to the passengers. The first one stated with a question - the person who answers it correctly gets a free sweet (the question was what do you call the inside of a duck egg - it doesn;'t work in english because we call them all eggs, but nevermind..) Then the second boy two weeks later, told the exact same patter.  WHY??

Either they are told a set patter by the sweet sellers (proven sales track record Govnor) or they just can't be arsed to change it. and my bet is on the latter. Maybe because we're told to individualise everything, personalise everything that we (I) find it hard to believe someone waiting everyday for 5 hours wouldn't think of trying an alternative joke?? Also in the West we take modification as a sign that we have understood, mastered and progressed, in which case they don't have the same view of progress here (sweet-seller upgrades to drinks-seller shocker?). hmmm sweets..

English vs American Englash

A few people here have said to me "english is pure. americans use english with slang and bad words" with the idea that english in UK is the unchanged original. Evolution of language i've often thought about with relation to Indian english and its 'turn of the century' phrases, or international english as might be spoken between two non native speakers in africa or asia. And ditto spanish here is more formal and rigid than has evolved in Spain, with differences on route between mexico and chile. Bet Shakespeare would have a thing or two to say. Probably incomprehensible to us these days..

Our recent trip to Banos

waiting for the bus
Originally uploaded by invitation-to

Some new pics up of Banos, a volcanic site and hot springs about 4 hours south of quito. No thinking went on.

videos i made for centre for mediation, peace and conflict resolution..

Here are two 1.5 minute videos i did for competitions on the two topics. It would be really great if we got some money out of this, but i enjoyed doing it none the less.. you can post your thoughts here, or on youtube. Thanks

On Reclaiming Peace from the Hippies - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCRVLqdJr5I

On Human Rights (and why they're only for other people) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoNrzrT0Ic0

Who is actrually in charge..?

Dear Mr CEO.

If you do not use free trade zones (sweatshops built on developing countries soil effectively not under rule of law of that country) to make my shoes, you lose me market share.

If you do not fire half your staff to cut costs, you lose me market share.

If you do not employ illegal immigrant cleaners you lose me market share.

If you will not do this, we will get someone who will.

Only the harshest company/individual/ government gets the full prize. And the prize is the sweetest of all. 

Your etc..

Mr shareholder.

polerisation of power

There seems to be a polarisation of what is allowed by people in power. I'm thinking - everyone in local authorities has to dress in black and drink coffee to seem dynamic and businesslike. Everyone has to work harder in order to get more done. Everyone has to wear rimless glasses. Even MPs maybe used to be more radical? (tony benn and hilary ben anyone?) 

Maybe there is now a convergence or linear path to power - and every decision that we take is either a pass or a fail along this scale. It either expediates or hinders our career. At least until the black swan comes along and everyone is proved wrong..

policymakers trying on different lives.

Do you think people in government could be demanded to try out different lives..? I was thinking of setting up training courses (they probably already have them under different names) for decision makes to feel the impact of their decisions. (I'm also thinking of the anonimity that famous people in the west enjoy in developing countries - trying on normal lives). 

So policy makers on prison reform would have to spend some time in prison as work experience in order to be sufficiently qualified to be offered a new post. That way they would be forced to think of their decisions in a human (as well as logical) way. I'm thinking George Orwell's down & out in Paris being an advocate of homelessness.

hippies..!

I am currently doing a 2 min promo video called 'reclaim the peace', so i'm collecting pictures of hippies, cliches, peace signs. a murder of doves.. If anyone has anything bat it over..

shoe shine boys

shoe shine boys
Originally uploaded by invitation-to

Quito old town looks a bit like this..

Road, she gone..

Road, she gone..
Originally uploaded by invitation-to

And this was the landslide that kept us in the mountains overnight..

Sunday afternoon? no, but still..

Sunday afternoon? no, but still
Originally uploaded by invitation-to

I wonder what they do with the boot when it rains..?

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Liberty

Its funny how tke US and UK talk so often about liberty, yet have loads of rules we commonly break. People talk about the developing world as if the rich have all the liberty (freedom from prosection for example), but in reality everyday people with small sums of money can do much more of what they want. Parks are full of dangerous swings, you can buy food that might be on the turn, you can cross roads in dangerous places. And yes people get hurt etc. and there's no safety net. but the things that kill most of us are not these things. It's depression, lack of friends (they've done studies) work stress, or self handicapping behaviour. 

Freedom from destroying ourselves would be a difficult one to get on the statute books..

social justice

How much is social justice about income redistribution? and therefore, how much can be written off by indivual enterprise??? Here in ecuador colombians are the ones who have are notorious for making a good business. In former communist states they have to explain venture capital on the newly formed (and hugely popular) Dragon's Den. So equality comnes at the expense of success, even as success breads inequality. - It has been 200 years since Charles Darwin was born, and 150 years since he published his thoeries on a voyage to the Galapagos..

NHS

Someone said to me "you live in a developed country, why do you spend so much tax on social programmes? All your infrastructure is working". it made me think about the NHS. When it was first set up in 1948 the government (Tory would you believe???) that it was set up to make the population healthy after the war. It was assumed that once the wartime health needs were met the NHS could close down as it wouldn't be needed any more. 

How funny. 

Now we just assume it will continue spending more and more forever. Almost all of the issues for our generation require a collective response. even nationalising the banks takes us back to nation states. How does that fit with individuals and thier need? 

Infrastructure helps everyone and you can see it (that's why the UN like it) but education is harder to track. Maybethe UK should have spooned the last 10 years of cash on the world's best public transport, instead of health and education projects. just a thought..

Human rights

One of the pieces of work i'm doing at the moment is a two minute video on "the meaning of human rights" and i don't really know where to start. Lots of cliches, lots of hippy stuff - they've been degraded so heavily in the UK with the asylum thing. Are we all born equal? What would a world like that look like. Is it sooooooooo unrealistic as to be useless? Anyway, if anyone has any ideas what it means to them, I think its for $$$$$$'s so worth thinking about (cash=freedom?). Huh. xxx  

Buying social change

If we are serious about buying social change, why do we not reward success..? 

As someone who is now writing funding bids I encourage everyone to lie on their application forms. the only time you will ever be penalised is if you forget to return some paperwork. or you go to Barbados on the cash. otherwise everyone is just happy for the money to fall off the end of the conveyor belt. So i would suggest having peer review (possibly through social audits) of how successful the intervention was creating a hierarchy of social change orgs (not a silly accreditation scheme). good orgs get more money long term, poor orgs change or don't get money. this could be orchestrated by the national lottery in coordination with charity commission or someone. It still seems crazy that end of year reports contain all the information no-one cares about, and nothing about how much has been done with other people's money.. 

Oh - we moved house by the way, things are better now..

Driving my car

So far, as much as i can see, January has been about individual choices versus collective choices (and maybe always has been). the usa exemplifies the individual freedoms, and other countries exemplify the collective (chavez?). so we roll along this continuum swinging from middle left to middle right (depending on the financial situation, and how much people feel threatened). 

From the office window here i can see cars - which i think are a really interesting way of quantifying the results in hundreds of individual incidents (and those people who have done all sorts of studies on behaviours on motorways etc across different countries must think the same), however a supposedly collective society bahave well on the roads (mostly) but are not at all collectively minded. there is no sense (which i think there is in the uk) of us all getting there quicker. Just a thought. 

Oh - I should prbably mention, we're well by the way..