My Blog

Dadamac and Coalition of the Willing - how we fit November 5, 2010

Hi John

Following the greetings at Dadamac Day yesterday I want to help you and Tim (and others in the Collaboration of the Willing, and in the Dadamac team) to understand better how your interests overlap.

The ideal starting point would be for you to see the 15 minute film “Coalition of the Willing”. Tim co-wrote the script - and I got to know him through my involvement in the follow-up event: Movement Camp. Chris Watkins and Michael Maranda are also deeply involved.

I know you are unlikely to be able to see the video, because of  bandwidth constraints at the Knowledge Resource Centre, so I have printed out the script later on and have highlighted relevant bits, but first I’ll give you a somewhat over-simplified overview.

Context

The context is climate change - which I see as inextricably entwined with all the issues of depleting resources, the need for developing sustainable communities, using appropriate technology, and sharing knowledge freely, so it is very relevant to your local work concerned with sustainable communities. It seems equally important for the whole planet - including us - you (and your local, largely subsistence-farming, communities around Fantsuam) and me (and my local, largely “white collar worker”, community in outer London), and I believe we all need to work together on it. (http://www.dadamac.net/blog/20091015/pam-we-want-street-lights).

The film is a call to action

The film is about the need for individuals to take action, and how we can work together globally, independent of government action, to develop a different lifestyle - more sustainable and with less consumption.

Obviously, because of local poverty, people around Fantsuam in general, and the Attachab eco-village site in particular, generally have low carbon footprints and low consumption levels, but they are looking for a better standard of living. If we can create a good model there (as you have been wanting and trying to do) then maybe it will help not just local people but people elsewhere across the world.

The film is a call for action by all of us, and it ties in well with us on all three levels:

  • With you - the practical projects you are doing locally in and around Fantauam.
  • With us - the knowledge sharing work you and I are trying to do through the Knowledge Resource Centre at Fantsuam, through our weekly online UK-Nigeria team meetings.
  • With me - the work I am trying to do in London and online to get people to see how Dadamac’s work “in the cloud” and “on the ground in Africa” ties in with their global visions - i.e. our current “Dadamac Goes Glocal” theme.


First half of the film

As a focus the film uses a description of the 1960's - seeing it as a flip-over point into greater individualism (which then got high-jacked by big-business into a buy-more-stuff mentality). This introduces the idea that individuals, with a different mind-set to the generations before, can make things happen. Granted, the “Swinging Sixties” - like the agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution - probably had (how shall I put it)  “limited influence” in your local area (except of course for the temporary influence of the railways) - so there’s not much local relevance on that theme.

However, another part of the message is that there is no point relying on government to do what is necessary - which would certainly resonate with how life is in your locality.

The film also introduces the idea of using the Internet to enable people to work together  - to creatively tackle problems in dramatically new ways -  exactly in tune with Dadamac thinking and actions.

The second half is very relevant for Dadamac

The second half is more practical and rooted in the present and the preferred future. It starts by referring to open source  software, which of course has been our preferred approach for a long time. It goes on to apply the ideas of “open” in a wider context, saying “The open source approach to collaboration enables people from all over the planet to engage and create together”.

The film suggests a three part structure,  each part very relevant to us:

1 - Green Knowledge Trust
(An online repository where the Knowledge Resource Centre can find relevant information for Attachab eco-village and for Zittnet’s appropriate power work.)

The first part of the system is a Green Knowledge Trust....an online repository of practical knowledge, a ‘how to’ guide for ordinary people

tasked with setting-up functional, low-carbon societies. ..... a place where people share high-quality knowledge on low carbon living.


2 - Open Innovation Centre
(For collaborative group working - teams who could help us understand how to turn knowledge into reality).

The second part of the system is an Open Innovation Centre. ... Organizations post problems on the site and ask for solutions. ... submit ideas and form groups. ... work-up genuine concepts. As the projects take shape, they'd attract the attention of experts from about the world, who'd contribute their unique skills to the projects.


3 -  Catalyst System
(Helping us to find people and resources to actually implement these projects. They would find us through the information we posted. We are already working towards our online visibility with the project details that we post on www.dadamac.net and all the work that Marcus and Jim have done to record local information while implementing projects at Attachab.)

Catalyst System – a social-networking site designed to crystallize the global movement for change.....to put you in touch with real-world projects, locally, nationally and all over the planet.  There is GPS technology giving you a graphic representation of where projects are located .... zero-in to find out more about the people involved. ... Use the classified feature to find grants and sponsors, then link up with like minded people and not-for-profits campaigning for change.


I am sure you can see why I was attracted to the film and its emphasis on collaboration to tackle globally shared problems in local ways. Obviously the people who made the film didn’t exactly have Attachab in mind. They were probably thinking more of the unsustainable mess we are in over here in Europe and America. However they are thinking global.

Encouraging first steps

In recent weeks I have been in discussion with people from “Coalition of the Willing”, trying to see if they would recognise how our vision, fits with theirs. I am hoping that we will be able to work together in practical win-win ways. I know  you are feeling as encouraged as I am that we got such positive messages for Dadamac Day from Tim, and also from Chris Watkins (Appropedia - major collaborator for the Green Knowledge Trust) and Michael Maranda (major collaborator on the Catalyst System).  

For our agenda

I suggest that we try to get something of this onto our agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, especially now the team have a new glocal awareness following Dadamac Day.

I have copied the full (highlighted) script below.

Pamela
~~~~~~~~~~~
The script:

Beyond Copenhagen

In December 2009, leaders of state from about the world met in Copenhagen,
Denmark to negotiate a historical accord to save the planet from catastrophic
warming. The outcome of the summit is a victory for major polluters and the
status quo. What happened? How is it that, presented with clear evidence of
a looming catastrophe, the international community settled for such a
tepid response?

We know that industry strives for profit and governments strive for growth.
A full-scale war on global warming calls for industry to drastically reduce its
carbon footprint. The short-term result would be rising production costs and
reduced profit. Not the best outcome, especially in times of recession.

But the major stumbling block is the enemy involved. A war on global warming
needs to be a war on consumerism – the status quo in our developed societies.

So really: a war on the mainstream constituency of the capitalist state.

Reality check: no government will declare war on its own citizens.

Don’t hold your breath for a ‘shock and awe’ campaign on global warming.
Governments today just aren’t up to the task.

Fortunately, the war on global warming isn’t in the hands of government alone.
It’s time for a new approach – an approach that mobilizes the creative energies
of the global population and turns the way we see the problem on its head. We
need to find a way of waking people from their consumerist daze and showing
them how empowering a war-effort could be. People could contribute so much
more than just turning off the lights.

Back to the 60s

To appreciate the way ahead, we need to look back to the 1960s. When we think
of the 60s, we think of the birth of a new individualism. The 60s revolutionaries
kicked against the social values that they’d inherited from the decade before.

Throwing themselves into the unknown, they conducted radical experiments with
new forms of life. They liberated their desires through sexual expression and free-
love, threw open the doors of perception through drugs and radical philosophy,
and made music and art to celebrate the spiritual transformation of a whole
generation. The 60s countercultural revolutionaries shrugged-off the straight jacket
of mass-market culture and embraced a new era of individual expression.

However, our perspective on the 60s tends to be overly focused on individualism.
This is on account of the way that capitalism adapted itself through the 1970s
and 80s.

The 60s caught capitalism completely off guard. How were companies to sell
products to a generation that had rejected consumerism? The answer was to
tune into the movement and to sell to the ‘individual’ in everyone. The strategy
worked. The marketing machine captured the spirit of 60s individualism and
made it its own.

Today this leaves us doubly compromised. On the one hand, we’ve become used
to defining ourselves by the things we buy. Leaving ideology behind, we now derive
a sense of personal identity and empowerment from the goods we purchase and
consume. We’ve become revolutionary exponents of ‘over-the-counter’ culture,
fired by the rallying cry: “Go on, break the rules, define who you are
– with our sneakers!”

On the other hand, we’ve inherited an incomplete picture of history. Blinded by
individualistic short-sightedness, we’ve failed to see what the 60s revolution was
really all about.

Swarm politics

The 60s was only superficially a decade of individualism. If the countercultural
revolution transformed society, it was because individuals, knowingly or unknowingly,
acted en masse as a swarm.