Ben

Ben works for the sustainable transport charity Sustrans and has a background in social justice and environmental campaigning. He is currently project managing a DIY Streets initiative in North London. The rest of the time, he can be found playing outside, reading, writing, and avoiding theme parks.

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@benjaminaddy on Twitter

Lend Your Voice and Do Something

It can often seem hard enough for us, living in a free and democratic country, to overcome the obstacles to writing a blog post, making a film, publishing a book, or kick-starting a campaign. We are inundated with reasons not to do something; what about the competition, will people laugh at me, will I get paid, do I have the time?  So, how about doing those things in a country where your blog, film, book, or campaign could get you imprisoned, tortured, or killed? Would you stay quiet?

There are writers, filmmakers, artists, and campaigners whose daily fight is not to muster up the energy or willpower to put their ideas into motion, but to simply survive. For these individuals, their message is so important that they are willing to risk everything. We

can easily take for granted our freedom of expression – our right, broadly speaking, to capture and publicly document our stories. For those living under authoritarian regimes these decisions cannot be taken so lightly.

The stories of bloggers facing house arrest in China, journalists killed in Russia, poets tortured in Bahrain, and filmmakers imprisoned in Iran should inspire us to follow through with our own goals. We can stand in solidarity with those who risk their lives, by not allowing our own opportunities to slip by on account of our insecurities or time constraints. You can also join the fight to give a voice to the millions who are currently silenced by the threat of violence or imprisonment. Below are just a few organizations working on behalf of those who dare to ‘speak up’ – why not lend your voice?

Pen International

Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch

Front Line Defenders

Committee to Protect Journalists

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Tuesday, 22nd May, 2012

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Getting Educated

I haven’t taken a science or maths class since I was fifteen years old. What happened to those aspirations of becoming a vet or a marine biologist? Why did I make the choices to study English, politics, and history at A’Level? In retrospect, having to make those decisions at such a young age is crazy. In a world where people are encouraged to embrace opportunity, and a single career is no longer a thirty-year commitment; our education system should not hold our children back.

Providing our kids with a broad education will make for better-rounded young adults who can make (better) educated and thoughtful decisions about their future. I want my mine to have the opportunity to open their horizons through education, not be limited by it. We need a middle ground between a system that is too general to be meaningful and one that focuses children at too young an age.

Having to make narrow choices at sixteen forces many out of engaging with education. Equally, for those who decide against further education a broader scope would provide a more complete set of resources. Our modern and complicated world requires individuals to be adaptive, resourceful, and imaginative. Allowing our children the time they need to develop an understanding of the world around them will foster change and opportunity.

So where do we start?

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Monday, 9th January, 2012

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Change: It’s About You and Me

We stand at a tipping point. All 7 billion of us hold the planet in the palm of our hands. It is this century that will, in all likelihood, determine the future of both the human species and the planet itself. It is an extraordinary burden, but it is one of our own making. The solution doesn’t simply rest with governments and international organisations – real change will only come about by grassroot action and behaviour-change.

Those in power clearly have a role to play, but we need leaders to emerge from our neighbourhoods, businesses, and schools. We can no longer afford to see the world’s problems through the disparate viewpoints of human rights, climate change, international development, conservation, and security. We need to come up with a term that encompasses all of these elements to reflect the interconnected nature of the world’s problem.

By empowering populations around a central point, we create a magnifying glass through which our efforts can be directed and intensified. For example, when campaigning against factory farming we must realise that we are fighting climate change, which aids in the preservation the natural world, and therefore promotes peace. The solution is local, on a global scale, and all we have to do is act.

So next time someone asks you why you recycle, ride a bike, campaign against the death penalty, promote sustainable agriculture, buy Fairtrade, send a charity Christmas card, or volunteer at a local school – there is a simple response.

Tell them that you are changing the world.

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Sunday, 10th July, 2011

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The Apprentice

Where do you turn if you want make a start, or change, to your career, pursue an interest, or develop a new skill set? For the most part, it would seem education is the route that many take to achieve their goals. Is this the only answer? What about the apprenticeship? Not volunteering or interning, but a full or part time job – an exchange of time, skills, and enthusiasm between employer and employee. This isn’t about altruism or charity. An apprenticeship provides the employer with an enthusiastic employee who, in return, receives a precious new skill set.

Apprenticeships thrive in some areas, for example among the trades and with more traditional craftsmanship, but surely this model is applicable across the board? Not everyone can actively learn in a classroom. Many people cannot balance the education-work lifestyle. Others are simply put off going into an academic environment for a whole host of different reasons. An apprenticeship fills this gap; the kid just getting out of school, the university graduate looking for direction, the mid-career changers, and those seeking a new chapter after retirement.

I can’t think of an industry that wouldn’t be able to accommodate the apprenticeship model. There are boundless opportunities out there that would bring about enormous benefit to companies, organisations, and individuals. Apprenticeships are ultimately about doing. Perhaps the Do Lectures could help facilitate a Do Apprentice? Ask a handful of speakers each year to commit to providing a structured apprenticeship to recent school leavers, who may not otherwise be presented with such an opportunity.

I have asked friends and family what undertaking they would pursue if provided with the opportunity to engage in an apprenticeship. Answers included landscape gardening, web design, agriculture, film making, human rights advocacy, and journalism. What about you? If you could take up a one year paid apprenticeship what would it be?

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Tuesday, 24th May, 2011

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30,000,000 Years and Counting

Homo sapiens. We have been 30 million years in the making. Molecular evidence indicates that somewhere between 4-8 million years ago gorillas and chimpanzees split off from the line that would eventually lead to humans. The oldest known tools, which date from approximately 2.5-2.6 million years ago, were discovered in Ethiopia and are known as the Oldowan stone tools. Around a million years ago we started walking upright with the help of locking knees. After 50,000BC human development made, what Jared Diamond refers to as, the ‘great leap forward’. We started to wear animal hides, draw in caves, developed hunting strategies, and we began bartering. By this stage, these ‘modern humans’ would be physically recognizable to us today and we would spot many of their characteristics in ourselves. The entire evolutionary process, to the present day, has been a drawn out tumultuous combination of misfortune and lucky escapes. That we are here at all is down to the fact we have become highly attuned to survive in, and live amongst, our natural environment.

However, since the industrial revolution we have found ourselves in a very different position to at any other point in human history. We are quickly loosing many of the characteristics and motivators that have dictated our current level of development. With the rise of the industrialized age we have changed our behaviour to such a degree that if we were to stretch the last 50 years to evolutionary proportions, we can assume that the outcome would be far from what we would recognize as “human”. Change would not have been dictated by a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, mindful of our place in the food chain, and answering the call of our most primary needs. Instead, the motorcar, convenience, and a sedentary lifestyle would have been the determining factors in our physical evolution. I imagine that we would be hairless, pale, lacking in strength, our eyes would be positioned more to the side to assist with driving cars, our fingers would be better adapted to pushing buttons, we might have additional fat on our rear ends to aid comfort when sitting, and our legs would be shorter since we would have little need to be mobile. Is this what the future holds for us as a species further down the evolutionary line?

It isn’t surprising – despite the comparative ease of the modern world – that we suffer from a host of problems brought about by our ‘new’ lifestyle, including repetitive strain injury, bad backs, heart disease, eye strain, obesity, and depression to name but a few. These are the repercussions of a change in the way that we use our bodies and interact with the world around us.  We shouldn’t turn our backs on progress; after all, this surge in development is the result of the most successful element of our evolution – our brains. However, it is worth remembering who, and why, we are as Homo sapiens. We need to get out occasionally; leave the car at home, climb a tree, build – and cook over – a fire, forage for food, walk across open country, gather and chop wood, grow food, swim in a lake, interact with our natural environment. To not do these things, at least occasionally, is to loose sight of who we are on a very basic level. I am sitting here writing this article on a laptop in London. I don’t have the balance right, for a start my back hurts from sitting at this desk. Evolution takes longer than 200 years, and we are rushing to catch up with progress when perhaps what we should do is simply slow down.

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Friday, 11th March, 2011

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On the Bike

I have always loved the bicycle. From my second-hand chopper through to my single speed mountain bike, I have relished the grace and freedom that can be experienced on two wheels. However, it was the arrival into my life, at nine years old, of a Diamond Back BMX that truly set my heart racing. Despite outgrowing it during my early teens, the bike has stayed with me over the subsequent years. It stands as a constant reminder never to take life too seriously. As adults we can become so easily wrapped up in our frustrations, limitations, and obligations that we loose sight of the joy that can be derived from simple lessons learnt in our childhood.

I remember the BMX as a beautiful machine. Even at that young age, I felt that it was something special; the frame, wheels, brakes, pedals all seemed to be the genuine article. Some of the older kids in our neighbourhood were jealous, but most were simply excited to get their hands on it for a few minutes and have a ride. The bike afforded me a small degree of respect from those who I had previously tiptoed around. Therefore, with the exception of occasional trips to the BMX track, I mostly rode around my local area. We made jumps out of bricks and planks of wood, carried friends around on the rear pegs, left long skid marks in our wake, and endlessly sought out the highest kerb, step, and drop off. The bike was my first taste of real independence.

I still have the Diamond Back sitting in my parent’s garage. I haven’t ridden it in years, but I can vividly remember the texture of the grips, the curve of the brake levers, my distorted reflection on the chrome frame, and how the rear pegs felt through the soles of my trainers. I am hard pushed to recollect, in such detail, the various sensory nuances of all the other bikes that came before or since. The BMX is rooted in my memory of childhood. The freedom, the lessons, the limits, the friendships, and the laughs. The bike only played a small role in all of this, but it is there nonetheless – everyday, as I ride down the hill to work. My knees pumping, small stones spitting out from beneath the tyres, hands wrapped tightly around the grips, and my eyes watering as the wind hits my face.

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Monday, 17th January, 2011

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The Work Week…Revised

Working with communities is an integral element of my job. The neighbourhood I am currently engaged with is made up of around 1000 households. While I am responsible for project managing the initiative, much of the energy needed to sustain the undertaking will come from within the community. So far the response from residents has been good, and we have a group of 40-60 people who regularly turn up to events. However, this number still only accounts for a small percentage of the neighbourhood – why is it so difficult to engage the majority?

The above is an example of why our current work culture does not allow for a fully functioning society. We have become caught in the forty plus hour, five-day-week mentality. As a result, we are becoming increasingly stressed, spending less time with our families, and ignoring those causes which need our help. We are “doing” less outside of our jobs. Our communities desperately require us to play an active role, to go that extra mile, but the work week leaves us with little to give. This is an incredible waste. How many lives have been improved, natural environments saved, ideas realized, books written, and life-long relationships forged as a result of time spent away from “work”?

If a selection of large forward-thinking companies took it upon themselves to introduce a 4-day work week, the societal shift toward an improved life/work balance could begin. This process would then require governments to slowly formalise the shift and make the necessary economic adjustments. Beyond the above benefits of a four day work week, we would also experience a reduction in emissions from commuting, both a cost and energy saving in lighting/heating office buildings, and not to mention the financial benefit that would be felt by the retail, tourist and service industries. There are economic counter-arguments to this position, but the four day week does not seek to fly in the face of reality – rather, it simply looks to readdress the life/work balance.

In the meantime, many companies and organizations have opportunities for employees to take part in flexible working – for example, a condensed work week. Perhaps you own a company? Have you thought about offering employees a half day off once a week, fortnight or month? We need to change our culture, and general mindset, in order to realise the opportunities that are available to us. It won’t come about in time to help with my project in North London, and widespread legislation will not be arriving anytime soon, but it is something we should all strive towards. Let’s just not take thirty years going about it.

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Saturday, 27th November, 2010

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Remembering Food

Our relationship with food is complicated and deeply personal. We turn to it for our survival. It determines our quality of life. It can be our business and our pleasure. You can taste food – smell, touch, and look at it. Food, along with water and sleep, binds us together. We build our lives around it and establish deep rooted memories that are inextricably intertwined. However, we are often oblivious to this process. We go about our lives in the usual way until, all of a sudden, we stop to find ourselves lost in a moment. Something that we are eating has triggered a reaction in our brains and, in an instant, a forgotten thought is brought into sharp focus.

The enjoyment of food should not be limited to what it looks like on the plate or how it tastes in the mouth. The recollection of a memory, brought about by food, can provide sustenance long after the the nutrients have been absorbed. Whether we realise it or not, we pin memories to the food that we eat. The smell of something cooking can immediately elicit feelings of childhood nostalgia. A taste on our tongue can bring to mind a long forgotten holiday, person or location. Ultimately, this process has little to do with the actual food itself, rather the simple associations we give to it through our own individual experiences. It is for this reason, among many others, that it is important for families to enjoy meals together. To take part in the ritual of eating allows us to forge bonds that will last lifetimes and bridge great distances.

In a time of celebrity chefs, cooking television shows, and gastro-pubs it is easy to loose sight of what it is that we love about food. It isn’t the glamour, the convenience, or the one-up-man-ship that defines our relationship – it is the who, the where and the what. The foods that evoke the strongest memories for me are those that I associate with my Grandmother. The sight, smell, taste, and texture of sharp pickled beetroot, finely chopped coleslaw, flakey homemade cornmeal pizza crust, rough cut dry baked ham, cold egg custard (baked and served in the blue and white enamel dish pictured here), and freshly picked cooked rhubarb all bring to mind memories of her. I only have to taste, smell, or catch sight of one of these foods and I am immediately in the kitchen, sitting at the small round white table, watching her move around the room. I can hear her voice, recollect exactly what she is wearing, and see her kind eyes looking right at me.

Food is to be shared. Throughout the entire process – growing, harvesting, selling, buying, cooking, eating – we share in the responsibilities, the work, and the enjoyment. We might take it for granted most of the time, but food doesn’t seem to want to give up on us. It has a way of sticking around, of becoming an integral part of our psyche that bides it’s time before occasionally rearing it’s head and giving us the extraordinary gift of memory.

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Saturday, 4th September, 2010

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Fuel for Life

On the 17th November 2009, Adam Bagerski reached Mexico having hiked around 2700 miles south from the border with Canada. The trip had taken 148 days. I remember, back in 2001, sitting in a restaurant in North Carolina listening to Adam describe his plans to hike another long distance route, the Appalachian Trail. I had been captivated as he described how it started in the depths of Georgia and wound it’s way up along the ancient Appalachian mountain range, 2179 miles, before finishing on Mount Katahdin in Maine. Later that night, I might have left the restaurant feeling a little envious that I wasn’t about to embark on this remarkable journey. However, such thoughts quickly gave way to those of inspiration and excitement – is this not the very reason why we surround ourselves with friends?

Adam’s most recent endeavour, the completion of the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) from Canada to Mexico, wrapped up the Triple Crown of long distance US hikes – having tackled the Appalachian Trail of the East Coast in 2001 and the Pacific Crest Trail of the West Coast in 2005. The CDT runs through Rocky Mountains, by way of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. To the west water flows to the Pacific and to the east it runs to the Atlantic. Less than fifty people attempt to hike the length of the trail each year, and the task is made that much harder by only being around 70% complete – the remainder of which you are on your own. When I asked him why he did it he said that -

“The simple answer is not to work. Summer vacation is not over-rated. It never was, we were just too young to understand it’s whole value”.

He then went on to describe his desire to complete the three long distance trails before turning thirty -

“It was a goal, as simple as that. You have to have them in life to feel like you are moving towards something”.

In the build up to, during, and then after each hike, I found myself giving a good deal of thought to Adam’s trips. I suppose at the juncture of each journey I took the opportunity to look at my life – not in any fundamental way, more of a nuanced reflection on how I felt about the direction I was heading. Taking the time to consider the positives and learn from the negatives of our decisions and undertakings is vital to our development. The experiences of our friends put those of our own into a perspective that prevents us from becoming conceited or overwhelmed. I asked Adam what he considered to be the highs and lows of his trip. He mentioned the days when the temperature wouldn’t rise above freezing, or the times when he couldn’t get relief from the heat, or the relentless mosquito bites that drove him to distraction. However, he felt the greatest challenge was posed by the times he found himself stuck in his own head -

“Your hardest day could be your lowest day mentally. The terrain could be easy as pie, but if you brain is down and out its hard to gather motivation for the longest day you’ll ever have”.

In relating his thoughts on the highlight of the 2700 mile hike there was no hesitation -

“For me, hands down, the most memorable moments are the ones that last a lifetime. The friends you meet and the bonds that are formed. You meet the best folk in the world out there. A day spent on the trail is equal to a week in the real world. The more time you spend with these folk the more exponentially the friendship grows. You will always know these people. They become war buddies without the war and I don’t know what is better than that.”

In the build up to Adam finishing the CDT, and thus completing the Triple Crown, I wondered how he would feel about it all. There are always more hikes, other adventures, and new journeys, but I felt nervous for him.  Perhaps I also felt a little sad personally that this journey was coming to an end – one that I had vicariously been a part of for almost ten years. That is not to say I regretted not taking him up on his offers to join him on the trail – for I took my own my path and have had, and continue to have, my own adventures – but there was something comforting about having him out there, in the woods, doing something most people couldn’t imagine. The question of how he felt was the first thing that I asked him once he got through with the CDT -

“Not good. Not bad. It was a long time coming. There is always a sense of sadness when a chapter of your life comes to an end, but there is always a sense of excitement because it means a new chapter is about to start. As you do these things more and more, they become – in a way – less important. It’s always the first one or two (hikes/businesses/adventures), which change your life. The rest just become fuel for how you want to live your life”.

So much of our existence is determined by those around us. Friends are integral to the very fabric of our society – we rely on one another for companionship, advice, laughs, tears, and support. However, friends are also essential in challenging us to step outside of our comfort zones. To encourage, through actions and behavior, the grasping of opportunities. The action itself is not of enormous importance, and by no stretch of the imagination does it need to be emulated, but it must give pause for thought. This is not about jealously, insecurity, or sycophantic pandering. Friendship is defined by inspiration, for without it we would never take the first step on our most exciting adventures -

“All I’m doing is chasing my dreams. Anyone can do that, everyone once in their life should”.

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Tuesday, 17th August, 2010

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Hello is a five letter word

Over the past forty years, it has been argued that the UK has become an increasingly lonely and fragmented place. In many regions, across the country, communities have become fractured and left isolated. The transition from small rural villages and towns to large dense urban environments has only exacerbated the problem. Increased pressures of the workplace, a reliance on the car, poorly planned housing developments, and the loss of local shops have all contributed to this reality. The statistics might make for sombre reading, and while it will take national intervention in the areas peripheral to the problem – housing, sustainable transport, employment, and education – it is left for us to effect a sea-change within our own communities. We can start to to do this with a simple, yet powerful word – hello.

Over a relatively short period of time we have lost hello. We walk – when we are not driving our cars – with our heads down or white headphones sticking out of our ears, completely oblivious to those around us. This is such a wasted opportunity. Hello gives us interaction, acknowledgement, and acceptance. It can be the foundation to a lifelong friendship or simply a fleeting moment of recognition. The act of raising your head, looking into the eyes of another person, and then greeting them sets the tone for your immediate surroundings. Where you live becomes welcoming, inclusive, and open – all of which are the foundations to building a functioning community. We, as humans, require interaction and are naturally communicative animals. We thrive on a sense of belonging and seek affirmation from others that we are of consequence.

Hello is free and easy. Anyone can go out and do it right now – that fact alone is empowering. It doesn’t take a government agency to step in and tell us how to build community. We know how to do it – we have been doing it for centuries. Hello can lead to chatting, which can lead to conversation, which can result in friendship. Communities are built on relationships. Our cities, towns, and villages need not be lonely places, they should be the very antithesis of lonely – veritable hubs of human communication and interaction. So, this week say hello to a few people while you are out in your community – however you may choose to define it: your block of flats, your street, your shops, your city.

You never know what hello could lead to.

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Tuesday, 10th August, 2010

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