July 25th 2021 

Clark Johnson’s film Percy stars Christopher Walken as Percy Schmeiser, the real-life Canadian farmer falsely accused by Monsanto of growing their patented seeds. This slow burning thriller recreates the real events based around the 1998 court battle between Percy and the multinational corporation in true David and Goliath style

In his insightful and intelligent portrayal of the Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, Christopher Walken plays up the personal moments of his life: his intimate relationship with his carefully cultivated seeds, his wife, his son, his grandchild and his community.  

Percy Schmeiser’s problems began in 1998 when Monsanto claimed his canola harvest (rapeseed) was grown from patented seed containing a genetically modified gene which makes the plant resistant to their powerful pesticide Roundup. Tests on canola samples obtained from Percy’s fields without his permission confirm his crops are contaminated with the gene. According to Monsanto, the money from his harvest and all his painstakingly saved seeds belong to them. 

Percy tells the court he has not had a failed crop in fifty years because he always saved and planted his own seeds, like his father and his father before him. His witnesses say a split sack containing Monsanto’s seeds could have blown from his neighbour’s truck as it passed Percy’s fields. Or, that during a raging storm, he inadvertently took in windblown plants containing the patented seeds from his neighbouring fields. The court’s verdict is that no matter how the company seed got into Percy’s crops, he is obliged to pay Monsanto the money from his harvest, his saved seeds, and legal fees totalling $105,000.

Read more: Percy vs Goliath

By Phil Smith, 10th November 2020

 “We are on this planet together – are we really going to watch screens?”

Introduction

We are living through a crisis of separation enforced by the technology of communications. Everything we do to connect through machines drives us apart from each other and everything else. Finding ways to be there, in and with a pattern in the terrain, is a means to reconnect to forces of attraction.

‘The Pattern’ (Crab & Bee, Triarchy Press, 2020) describes a hyper-charged journey during which shifty methods for being there were devised. There is not much room in the book for explanation. This essay is an attempt to give some reasons for a practice that is mostly about not doing, more about attending, about being there and being with: stepping back and acknowledging places as primary agents; approaching places with the minimum amount of mission, function or question; going to listen to what places have to say. 

Considering the apparent vacuity of these methods, they do seem to generate an awful lot of information and responsive activity from extraordinary partners; maybe even a few constituents of an art of living in the magical mode. One result is that a pattern steps forward; a diagram in the landscape combining fortuitous entanglements of various elements with the efforts of humans to embellish – with wells, road signs, temples, place names, information boards, towers, stories and chalk horses – places that connect intensely with everything else. A second outcome is a tentative journeying towards being there: eating buds from the brambles, picking gems of plastic trash from the gutter, splashing water from solution holes and holy wells on your face, standing still and letting the animals come forward from the shadows. Putting your body in there and adding some art – tying threads, sprinkling ash, scrying puddles – until, mostly gently but sometimes violently, things from there begin to make their art in your life. By going there, you get caught up in the existence and excess of these places’ unhuman others; in the process you may lose some of your separation from them. 

During the UK lockdown, roads that were usually noisy with traffic were empty for weeks. Pedestrians could walk in the middle of the road rather than on the pavements. As the quiet fell deeper, the terraced houses along these streets began to present themselves as personalities rather than as an anonymous backdrop; they began to act up, asked to be noticed, coughed up residents onto their front lawns. These moments can be enjoyed for themselves, but as they string together, human entanglements with such powerful things with personalities get more intense, while the thickening web of connections offers more support. Then comes a chance to become a part of an ensemble, to dispense with the need for great vision or purposeful mission, and feel a way with unhuman others, making things up together as we all go along. If that sounds like something you would like to explore... read on.

Read more: The Pattern

The Dalai Lama recently said that the future belongs to women. But there are women from our past who continually shape our thinking, and deserve to be remembered today. One such woman is the author and activist Mary Wollstonecraft.

An Iconic Feminist

Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, wrote her story at the tender age of 19 on the shores of Lake Geneva. She created her masterpiece in response to the challenge issued amongst her travelling companions Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Claire Clairmont and Byron’s physician Dr Polidore to create the most frightening story. Mary’s tale emerged victorious and her book became a precursor of the modern horror novel.

Less well-known is the story of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, who died giving birth to Mary Shelley just over 200 years ago. Today, Wollstonecraft is a touchstone for activists who recognise her as an iconic proto-feminist and advocate for votes for women one hundred years before the suffragettes, along with state funded education for girls and boys, diversity and human rights.

In Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) followed by A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) she calls for justice for one half of the human race. She questions the validity of marriage, since it benefited women neither the vote or financial independence. In 1792, she embarked on her own unconventional relationship with Gilbert Imlay, an American merchant living in Paris. And, from there she penned influential critiques on the French Revolution.

Read more: Mary Wollstonecraft

In Menory of John Lupton - 17/04/23

Part one of a series about a microcosm of lives in London and Birmingham in the late 1970’s.

It was a Saturday morning in June and later that night David Bowie was playing the Earls Court Arena on his 1978 Isolar II World Tour. My shcool friends and I were determined to see him. We bunked onto a succession of smoke filled, cigarette-strewn London underground carriages arriving at Earls Court. After crossing the road from the station to the arena we joined what was already a restless queue waiting to buy tickets for the performance. Not to be put off, we set up camp; singing songs, smoking and laughing with the other assorted young hopefuls.

I was sitting cross-legged on my sturdy leather-patched donkey jacket to contemplate the wait when a tall, stunningly handsome man with dark floppy hair and electric blue eyes walked over and sat close to me. “Can I make you up?” he asked. To my amazement it was almost impossible to understand what he was saying. “Can you say that again?” I replied, somewhat surprised. Firstly, I could not believe that this beautiful man was talking to me, and secondly that his thick Birmingham accent did not compute with the visuals. “Can I make you up? I want to make your face up,” he repeated slowly. “I’m an artist.” He petitioned me with a dazzling smile. Pulling over a large overnight bag he started unpacking eyeliners and eyeshadows, chunky and fine brushes, lipsticks, pan sticks and powder puffs.

At the sight of all the shimmering colours I began to seriously consider his offer. He was the first artist that I had seen that looked like that! Up until then, I had only met secondary school art teachers with alcohol and personal hygiene problems. His Birmingham accent was triggering memories of the puppet characters on a Central TV show called Pipkins which I childishly made references to by trying to role-play all of the animal characters to avoid acquiesce. Although we both laughed at my delaying tactic, his desire was not distracted. Finally, giving in, I said, “Ok, make me up!”

Read more: Make Me Up!

Monday 3rd June 2019

Extinction Rebellion has collaborated with folk singer Sam Lee and The Nest Collective to perform a musical rebellion in Berkeley Square. The song of a nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) was live-streamed throughout the Square to a large crowd highlighting the plight of a bird not heard in Central London for around three centuries and nearing extinction in the UK. The chart topping RSPB’s single featuring the songs of critically endangered birds was also heard. The assembly joined Sam in his re-worded rendition of the original song made famous by Cole Porter, and written in 1939 by Eric Maschwitz and Manning Sherwin about the nightingale in it’s notional home.

Cosmo Sheldrake, the musician son of biologist and author Rupert Sheldrake and Buddhist overtone chanteuse Jill Purce, created a poignant soundscape by naming insects, amphibians, mammals and birds that have disappeared in what the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science journal has described as “biological annihilation via the ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction.” Cosmo named the Atlas Bear, the Tasmanian Tiger and the Passenger Pigeon amongst many others, all now extinct.

A circle of candles representing the distinctive Extinction Rebellion logo lit up the glorious Square, where London Plane (Platanus x hispanica) trees have stood for 300 years. Participants were invited to take the candles on to other places and other protests. Satish Kumar, veteran editor of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine told the gathering that we can only save the Earth by taking personal responsibility. “What we do to Nature, we do to ourselves,” he said, praising the efforts of David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, and reminding us of Rachel Carson’s early warning about the effects of pesticides in her 1962 book Silent Spring.

Read more: A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square

A documentary film about people-powered change to be worked with, not consumed.

Down to Earth https://downtoearthfilm.com is the story of one family’s call to freedom after questioning the home, school and work system. As they quit the rat race we follow them on a five year journey in search of the wisdom of sages and shaman, or Earth Keepers, hidden in the remote tribal communities of Australia, the Amazon, Africa, the Andes, India and Ireland.

Gaining access to never filmed before tribes in the outback, desert and jungle with just a backpack and a camera each was no mean feat. Despite the different locations the family kept making the same connections, having the same conversations, just with different faces. And the Earth Keepers sharing their insights and wisdom for the first time with outsiders acknowledge that, "Now is the time for change.”

We are family

The film grew from director Rolf Winter’s dream of finding a retreat in nature for his wife and three young children, then aged 6, 7 and 10 (see his TED talk below). After spending a year in Hiawatha Forest in Michigan the family encounter Nowaten, a medicine man whose name means "He who listens," living in isolation there. He reluctantly agrees to being filmed, becoming the film’s main contributor.

Nowatan believes there is no purpose in living if you lose the land and forests, because we depend on forests for our spiritual connection and wellbeing. People are lost because they have lost connection with nature, and we are all members of nature. He says, “Life is simple, we complicate it, take only what you need.” 

But, as Rolf says, we can’t all go back to the forest. So the film asks how do we lead a connected life in a fast-paced world? Real change is only going to happen with a changed mindset of you and me. The diverse problems facing humanity can no longer be delegated to our politicians and scientists, who ultimately are a reflection of us, the people. The time has come to transform our lives and create a new story, our own story. How exciting!

Read more: Down to Earth

The Lush Summit 14th-15th February 2018

Lush is the global soap franchise with 105 stores in the UK; its flagship store on London’s Oxford Street, well-known for using primarily ethically sourced ingredients in its bath bombs, bubble bars, floating islands oils, gels and shampoos. Every year Lush  holds a summit for some of its' international staff from 900 stores in 49 countries so they can learn more about the key environmental and social issu

This year Chris Packham, the zoologist, BBC personality and birder, was Lush’s on-the-spot reporter covering the two day event. He tirelessly patrolled the cavernous building on the former site of Billingsgate fish market talking to campaigners working to conserve the oceans, whales and other marine, animal, plant and bird life. I was part of this unique atmosphere with Pat Thomas, director of Beyond GM and GM Free Me, who gave Chris an informative interview for broadcast on the Lush Summit livestream. Pat also chaired a roundtable discussion finding out that young people are concerned about GM food and trade agreements with the US since UK’s impending Brexit from Europe.

Lush does not test products on animals and in 2015 co-ordinated a march on Downing Street to protest animal rights with Common Decency, The League Against Cruel Sports and Animal Aid. Sourcing most of their ingredients from fruits and vegetables, the company no longer puts palm oil into its products and invests in small scale producers growing and processing essential oils and other materials in Guatemala, Pakistan, Kenya and the Lebanon. The Summit also showcased responsibly managed cork, cotton and paper.

Read more: Chris Packham at the Lush Summit

Alchemic Times – seeing beyond the illusion of separation,  by Giles Hutchins

There’s an old saying ‘may you live in interesting times’. When someone said that to you it was seen as both a blessing and curse, because to live in interesting times means to deal with danger and opportunity, to embrace simultaneous breakdown and breakthrough. Which is exactly what this trilemma of social, economic and environmental crises is asking, is demanding, of us.

Our tried-and-tested modes and methods, our constructs and constrictions, the very habituations and acculturations we have become so inured in, are melting amid the alchemic heat of the moment.  This metamorphic moment is now. This is humanity’s hour of reckoning. Each of us is being called to act as conscious conspirators, catalysts in this chemistry.

The ancient Greeks referred to such a time as Kairos, a supreme moment which is not adequately acted upon may pass us by. The good news is, myriad disciplines at the forefront of Western science – such as quantum physics, facilitation ecology, depth psychology and neurobiology – are discovering with increasingly sensitive instruments and sophisticated experiments the innate inter-relationality of life, the weave-and-weft of the world, the intricate sacredness of nature. The hand of science is reaching out to shake the hand of spirituality once again.

This of course is not new. This discovery of inter-relationality is as fresh as it is ancient. The timeless prophets, philosophers, poets, seers and shaman throughout the ages have long understood this innate interconnectedness of life.

Read more: Alchemic Times – seeing beyond the illusion of separation, by Giles Hutchins