Rethinking Growth

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Who are we? The speaker below shares a story about us, about our being persuaded in our current economic system to "spend money we don't have on things we don't need to create impressions that won't last on people we don't care about."  Clearly, the system is at odds with what we need.  He is questioned at the end about politicians. 

Making some connections from this talk by Tim Jackson to Friday's post where Robert Litt, the Oakland Teacher created a computer lab for free, made possible with donated hardware and a free operating system, Ubuntu Linux. Two completely different men, topics, nations, audiences and goals each connecting to an African concept, and African word. The word seemed to beg for a paragraph of its own.

Ubuntu: "I am what I am because of who we all are."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu explained Ubuntu in 2008: One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.

The source of this TED Talk was an article titled "Rethinking Growth" from newdream.org, a link provided by Councilwoman Barth in her newsletter last week. These are valuable resources and potential community strengthening conversations we could be having.  First we need a new city council with open minds like Lisa Shaffer and Tony Kranz. Lisa's website has addressed some of these very themes.