William Heath’s blog

Still on the theme prompted by the IBM GIO summit on “security & society” I’ve just finished the Barack Obama book Audacity of Hope. He has some very pertinent observations on national security, and the control paradigm vs sustainable security. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday we visited the co-housing project at Laughton Lodge near Lewes in Sussex. We’d been told there was a 5-bed place for sale which sounded quite appealing but it was a subdivided unit which I found cramped. I need generous space.

We went on a beautiful May afternoon (which is as dumb as going to the supermarket when you’re starving. Always shop when replete, and visit places to live on a miserable wet February day).

It’s an impressive set-up. They bought a 1930s hospital set in 23 acres, converted it and added some new builds. They’ve got lots right. There are a series of warm, well-insulated cosy light living spaces. The culture feels good. People are welcoming and open-hearted wherever you go. The day we were there children played happily and independently all over the site in several natural groups. I must have seen half a dozen musical instruments in a 90 minute visit.

Common parts include a hall, kids’ room, footie pitch and rented office accomodation. Cars and a vast array of bikes are parked at the edge of the site (but you can get close access too). There’s a footpath to the school in the local village.

As gardens have grown up the old hospital now feels lived in and shabby in an appealing way. Some of the courtyards have acquired a fair amount of character. There are places to sit out, people reading or doing homework, playgrounds, a trampoline, treehouses as well as allotments, chickens and horses.

As my late and now bestselling friend Richard Craze put it, you’d be out of your townie mind to think this was Utopia or an easy choice. Several people echo the view that city dwellers can be unrealistic about moving to the countryside. Co-housing is not independent living, nor is it the commune style of shared housing. Decision-making with consensus is tortuous.

People are subdividing some homes. There’s clearly a financial incentive for this, but I doubt it makes aesthetic or lifestyle sense. I fear it rides on the back of what the community offers without adding to it. No doubt it’s subject to joint decision-making, and perhaps some of the profits form development get put back.

They have water from a borehole, and made the laudable decision to do community heating and hot water with wood chips. But they dont produce their own biomass and have some problems with external woodchip supply. It’s not yet clear to me how the shared economics work, but I can imagine it’s hard to upgrade the central facilities if some of the residents are feeling hard up. But they have some rural office space they rent out.

It gave us a huge amount to think about. It feels like it has been a great deal of work for those involved; they’ve faced difficulties, and continue to. They need more trees (and I didnt see any apple trees, but maybe I missed them).

Afterwards we went to Lewes, which I normally see once a year by night on November 5th. Mulling over the afternoon with a pint of seasonal mild at the nearby Harvey’s brewery it felt like the Laughton community has the right way to live. Definitely worth persevering (not that they can turn back), possibly worth joining (if they had a fullsize place for sale and if they’d have us) and probably worth emulating. Best of luck to all at Laughton! Thanks for being so open and welcoming!

Lovely old Auntie sent me a nice apology after I complained about a misleading headline which would perpetuate the fallacy that terrorism is the greatest threat the US faces:

Dear Mr Heath,
Thanks for your message. We do accept the point you are making. The problem is that we work within very tight constraints with our headlines, which must be between 31 and 33 characters in length. That means they are sometimes less than perfect. In this case, we did clarify the wording of the report in the summary that accompanies the headline:
‘Al-Qaeda remains the greatest terrorist threat to the US, according to a US state department report.’
..and also in the opening paragraph of the story: ‘Al-Qaeda is still the greatest terrorist threat to the US and its allies, according to a report from the US state department.’ That, we acknowledge, is not an entirely adequate explanation. Our headlines should not mislead and you have picked out one which might
have done so.
Our apologies and kind regards,
The BBC News website.

—–Original Message—–

COMMENTS: “Al Quaeda greatest threat” headline
———————————–

By shortening the story (Al Quaeda is greatest TERRORIST threat US faces) to fit the headline you perpetuate an inaccuracy which has serious consequences.

If we behave as if terrorism is the greatest threat we face then we ignore greater threats (depends who you listen to but according to eg Oxford Research Group these wd be

1. Climate change

2. Competition for resources

3. Marginalisation of majority world

4. Global militarisation).

Your headline wrongly reinforces the contentious fallacy that terrorism/AQ is the greatest threat the US faces. This fallacy brings dangerous behaviour from the US and the headline plays into AQ’s hands.

[On other hand, wdnt have spotted this if I didnt use BBC news all the time so main feedback is well done nearly all of the time]

Fair enough. Cheers!

What happens when you make a movie using an erratic script by a creative nine-year-old whose head is a toxic stew of violent images? This:

Intriguing. Twice is enough, I found.

The Wimbledon Friends invited me over to share a Quaker perspective on human rights in the information age. So I had to brush up a bit on the wider background, which is more interesting than I realised. I never understood the practice of legally defined rights spanned millenia, different cultures and religions.

Click on Ashok’s column to see the slide set

I also promised some relevant links - see below:

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s my suggestion for “Friends’ Radio” - a branded new channel for discourse about current events and world culture. It’s a place to practice the values of discernment, measured self-expression and respectful listening.

Friends’ Radio slides 340kb pdf

The idea is to create an Internet-based multimedia service with low distribution costs and exceptional attention to programming quality. it would appeal to Radio 4 listeners who prefer inerviewees not to be interrupted, World Service listeners who feel that non-confirmist British NGOs have a contribution to make which is valuable and distinct from an FCO-funded operation.

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Here’s me on YouTube Taiwan trying to add the Oxford Research Group’s insights into the IBM GIO deep dive agenda:

Does this do it justice? Will it work? I’m greatly encouraged to see it on the IBM GIO blog anyway; I was beginning to get worried after we didnt ask this question during the session, and I also got zero replies to it by email from the participants (unlike the IdealGov posse who really came up trumps with their comments).

Over at IdealGov I posted a briefing list about a forthcoming “security and society” event. I’ve had some really helpful feedback from FIPR and Friends’ house. Read the rest of this entry »

Had a good conversation with my friend Kate today. She reckons within two hours of London there are plenty of affordable parts eg much of Sussex and Kent, also Northants, Warwick, Somerset.

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Here’s an article about Microsoft, Stefan Brands and U-Prove I wrote for The Register today; my first bit of freelancing for some years. People who comment on The Reg articles seem to be pretty short-tempered; I wonder how one best writes for them without compromising the notion that we’re most effective if we’re measured in how we express ourselves and if we listen respectfully to the views of those we disagree with.