Generous Updates: News, Blogs, and Actions

News: The Wall of Life

2009-06-30T13:09:59Z

The nice people at ‘The Wall of Life’ contacted us because they liked our website and thought that we – that’s you, that’s us – would be interested to know about their campaign, launched last week with support of top faith leaders and celebrities.

What they want to do is to get 60,000 people to join ‘the wall’ in support of organ donation in the UK. The face of the campaign is two-year-old Louisa McGregor-Smith. Louisa celebrates her second birthday in July 2009. But she is only alive today because of a life-saving heart transplant when she was just five months old. That transplant was only possible thanks to the generosity of an organ donor and their family.

The Wall of Life is a unique way of showing your support for organ donation. It is also an exciting new way for us to acknowledge and celebrate the hundreds of individuals who sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register* every day. Decide whether you want to help someone to live after your death and join the NHS Organ Donor Register. Then join our community of online supporters by uploading your picture to the Wall. Please make sure you tell your family and friends about your donation wishes.

It doesn’t matter if you joined the register sometime ago, you are still welcome to join the Wall of Life. And if you carry a donor card, that’s great, but please still do join the register to ensure we know your donation wishes should the time ever come.

There is a desperate shortage of donated organs for transplant. Each year around 3,000 organ transplants are carried out in the UK, but the need for transplants is increasing faster than the number being performed. There are now over 10,000 in need of a life-saving transplant operation and, on average, 3 people die each day while waiting.

Louisa was saved because someone chose to give life after their death. Show that you too would like to help someone live after your death and join the Wall of Life today.

Click here for more on ‘The Wall of Life’ campaign.

For other news about the slow-but-steady rise in organ donations – ‘altruistic acts’ as they’ve been described – follow the links here:

And to make this one of your Generous actions, click here now.

*The register is a confidential, computerised database that holds the wishes of more than 16 million people who have decided that they wish to donate their organs after their death.

Blog: Geoff Crawford – featured member

2009-06-30T12:48:29Z

Our featured Generous member for July 2009 is Geoff Crawford. Geoff’s been part of the Generous community since its early days. We grabbed five minutes on the phone with Geoff to talk Generous things – like chickens.

You can download an MP3 of our conversation with Geoff here (3.4 MB) or you can stream the audio in your browser here using the player below:

Geoff blogged about getting his chickens on the Generous site here – and his wonderful ongoing blog about the chicken-keeping adventure is here.

Remember, we can all tell our Generous stories by making our profiles as full as they can be (including adding photos – go to ‘Profile’ once you’re logged in) and by leaving comments and tips below the actions, news and blogs on the site. It all helps us to get to know each other better. It all helps build the wisdom of the crowd.

Action: Support your local fête or fair

2009-06-29T09:21:57Z

Try to pop along to a fête or fair happening near you, because supporting local events in your area helps build local networks, relationships and, ultimately, community.

Fêtes and fairs are potentially really Generous happenings. They signify an amazing investment of social capital. As well as the connections and conversations, the fun and games, you might even pick up a bargain and a yummy cake, too – and all the money you spend contributes to your local economy.

So, as the summer hots up, we say: it’s time to get your local fête or fair buzzing – by being there if you can, and then telling us about it on Generous and Flickr-ing your photos as well*.

*When you’re doing Generous actions why not capture them on camera and upload the results to www.flickr.com? That way we get a fuller sense of our community activity, at the same time as adding more visual interest to our homemade website!

*In order for the Generous site to find your images and magically draw them in from Flickr, you’ll need to ‘tag’ them a certain way. So, any photo you upload relevant to a particular Generous action will need to be tagged with “livinggenerously:action=X” where X is the ID number of the action.

For example, for Give something away and declutter your life, the tag would be: livinggenerously:action=44 and for this action it would be livinggenerously:action=197

Go on! Show us just how Generous you are!

Flickr photo source – thanks Anguskirk

Action: Sit down for a Big Lunch on 19 July

2009-06-29T08:52:00Z

On 19th July The Eden Project in Cornwall is asking the people of Britain to stop what they’re doing and sit down to lunch together. That’s right – the Big Lunch is a party in your street, in everyone’s street.

Why? Well, for lots of reasons really, but mainly to put a smile back on Britain’s face.

Imagine a summer’s day on which millions of us, throughout the UK, sit down to have lunch together, with our neighbours in the middle of our streets, around our tower blocks and on every patch of common ground. The food, entertainment and decorations we will have either grown, cooked, or created ourselves. This will be a day to break bread with our neighbours, to put a smile on Britain’s face.

Click here to find out more. And if you don’t think you and your friends and neighbours can get something together in time (it might be a be late for this year), click here to find out where your nearest Big Lunch is happening.

This is what the Big Lunch says about the idea:

‘Most of us are shy, many of us lead single lives and even when we are together often go our own way. We all know about the problems in our society and don’t need to be preached at about them. But inside almost everyone there is a notion that despite our differences, the ties that bind us are important.

‘The shared enjoyment of eating together, laughter, play, music and conversation bring us together and for all the fact that we are so fabulously different in our outlook and experience on many things, we know a simple truth – together we are strong. Wouldn’t it be great if for just one day we remind ourselves about all that is good about us and bring about a moment that ignites a spark?

’It may be tricky, it may feel slightly uncomfortable to start with. It takes a bit of courage to stop being a stranger. But think of the prize – to be able to walk down the street and into the wider neighbourhood and realise how many good people there are: people who, acting together, can create a real sense of community – a word that in Latin means; “together, in gift”.

‘So… if you’re up for it, try growing something, making something or generally getting stuck in for the Big Lunch. No one is going to tell you how to do it as your ideas will be perfect for you. If you want any prompting we’ve gathered together lots of ideas that might set you on the road for a day that at worst might be fun and at best could start to change your life in unexpected ways!

‘And, if having a Big Lunch just for fun doesn’t feel right for you then find a cause that’s close to your heart and doorstep – be it a hospice, reformed offenders scheme or even a hedgehog sanctuary – then use The Big Lunch as a fund-raiser or volunteer your time.’

Blog: Love miles

2009-06-19T11:04:31Z

This week is a special week. My little boys have their aunty, my sister, with them for a few days. She arrived on the twins’ birthday last weekend and she’ll leave next Sunday. They love her so much. She brings them great gifts – carefully and lovingly chosen; gifts that keep them busy for hours. But even if she didn’t bring them wonderful things they’d still be enthralled: she has a way with children.

The problem is, this kind and lovely aunty lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and we live in Gloucestershire. So what’s the ‘problem’ with that? Well. It’s all to do with flying. It’s where changing our ‘default settings’ to try and be a more Generous family rubs up most sharply against the things we really want to do.

My father was American, so I have lots of family in the States. I have visited most of them in my younger days and I would like my boys to be able to do the same. But what I know now – that I didn’t even give a second thought back then – is that flying is the single most damaging contributor to global warming that I can make direct decisions about.

Since belonging the Generous community I have only made one return flight to the Middle East. On average before that – I joined Generous in 2004 – I would fly perhaps every other year. This reduction is partly due to the fact we started having children in 2004 (and we’ve barely stopped since). But it is also a conscious thing; something we’re cutting back on as we read the conversations on the Generous website and talk with Generous friends in the flesh.

But when those you love are separated from you by a plane journey, ethics and generosity get a little muddled. George Monbiot writes about this in his book, Heat, and he’s coined a great phrase to speak into the dilemma: ‘love miles’.

Love miles are the distances we will want to travel to keep in touch with our nearest and dearest. He argues that it’s only natural – indeed, morally right – that we will want to travel to see them. But at the same time he argues that it is also morally wrong to make these journeys, if we care about the planet.

This conundrum is one I feel in a very real way this week as I see my boys with their aunty and know there will come a day all-too-soon now when they will start to ask to go and see her. And, when they do, I can hardly use The Wire as a defence for not letting them go (Baltimore being such a dangerous city and all)!

More than a conundrum, this is, as Monbiot would say himself, a moral dilemma. In the end, making an effort to live a Generous life is a moral decision that will entail myriad moral choices in its wake.

But before I get too precious about all this I need to remember that ‘to fly or not to fly’ is a line from a modern day drama that only a fraction of the world’s population ever get to play a part in.

You can read more about Monbiot’s view on flying and love miles in an article he wrote for the Guardian back in 2006 and you can see him speaking about it much more recently at a OneWorld.net event this January (go to 1 minute and 50 seconds in).

Heat, by George Monbiot, was published by Penguin in 2007.
His website in support of the book is here.

Related actions
Sign the flight pledge
Holiday generously (go by train)
Offset your airmiles

Flickr photosource – thanks WTL photos

News: Meat-Free Mondays Go Mainstream

2009-06-15T13:29:34Z

Paul McCartney, Chris Martin and Sheryl Crow have launched the ‘Meat Free Monday’ campaign, asking people to forego meat one day a week to slow global warming.

As reported on Generous a while back, the world’s leading authority on Climate Change, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, says going meat-free one day a week is the ‘most attractive’ way for individuals to reduce carbon emissions. A 2006 UN study found that the livestock industry is responsible for 18% of man-made global greenhouse gas emissions, not least because of deforestation in the Amazon – cutting down trees to create land to raise cattle to cut down again to produce meat for

“I think many of us feel helpless in the face of environmental challenges, and it can be hard to know how to sort through the advice about what we can do to make a meaningful contribution to a cleaner, more sustainable, healthier world,” said McCartney. “Having one designated meat free day a week is actually a meaningful change that everyone can make, that goes to the heart of several important political, environmental and ethical issues all at once.”

More on Meat Free Monday here including these not bad vegetarian recipes.

Commit to go meat-free one day a week here on the Generous site.

Photograph: Peta

Blog: Generous wrinkles?

2009-06-15T09:39:07Z

Do adverts on the telly stop us being ‘Generous’? When we suffer yet another commercial break that inconveniently interrupts what we were attempting to enjoy, does it matter? Do we kid ourselves when we say that we just ignore them; that they don’t have any influence over us … that they don’t alter our efforts to shop less, to buy local/fair trade/organic/eco-friendly, etc?

Take the recent hype over the cream that claims to get rid of your wrinkles, by No.7. When the ‘news’ broke recently, that scientists had done a study and found that for once, a beauty product’s claims were accurate, the result was predictable. In the Boots’ outlet at Liverpool Street, London, over 400 bottles were sold within 90 minutes of the store opening.

But those of us who are hardcore Generous shoppers aren’t so gullible.
No, we’re not.
Are we?
Errrr… yes, just a bit.

When last in Boots (and I’m rarely in there) I passed a huge display of said product. I paused. I have wrinkles. As they say in the States: do the math! Now, please bear in mind I am not one to splash out on beauty products of any sort and don’t even wear make up. The essentials I do buy tend to be of the generous sort. But I paused, picked up a bottle of said product, held it for a few seconds, thought about my skin and the fantasy of turning back time… then realised it was twenty quid and swiftly returned it to its display.

Proof, then, that adverts have power, even over those of us who consider ourselves immune. What if it had cost two quid – would I have bought it? Please don’t ask me that as I’m trying to put the whole sorry episode behind me. But beware – we’re only human, and while we know that wasting money is not helpful to us, or to people and planet at large, sometimes we’re more susceptible to clever advertising than we realise.

And sometimes we just have to learn to re-name our wrinkles ‘laughter lines’, and move on.

Blog: Is anyone out there?

2009-06-03T09:37:54Z

Recently, I was fortunate enough to hear a very well respected economist talk about the ‘road to recovery’ (or not). To give you some idea of his status, he is a professor at the London School of Economics, an ex-member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, a former economist for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and a regular blogger on the FT. Bloomberg even sent a camera crew to the event to relay his presentation live to all of their trading desks (this was in the light of the UK receiving a downgrading by one of the major ratings agencies the day before).

He was duly controversial and quite funny (not a normal characteristic for an economist), but one of his comments was quite intriguing. He talked about financial institutions ‘losing their moral bearings’ and the need for them to regain trust. Banks ‘need to look in the mirror and practise an earnest look’, he argued. It got me thinking about how the whole trust issue is becoming more important – not just for banks, but for other public figures in the business world (don’t even mention MPs and draining moats or duck palaces).

Will we trust Tesco Bank more than Barclays? Who are the role models we look up to in business? In an age where failure is rewarded by huge pension pay-offs (although Sir Fred Goodwin has now apparently been excluded from his local golf club – tough, eh?) is there anyone out there? Do we have to look to part-time activists like Bono to find people with integrity? In an era where many corporations are talking corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ‘green’ agendas, why is it so hard to believe them?

The fundamental question here is whether capitalism has actually failed – and there is a lot of talk recently that it has. I think there is a distinction between ‘financial capitalism’ – the kind that we have seen over the last nine months with excessive risk-taking and little or no accountability – and the other emerging option ‘state-owned capitalism’ – where the risk-takers have ended up! Is there not a third way? I wonder if the likes of John Lewis are successful because they are partnership-based and everyone shares (in some way) in any profits made. I used to work for a company that was owned by its employees and although it was a tough, competitive environment, people were rewarded fairly for their efforts, even to the point where I still receive the odd cheque even now, based on investments in new ventures while I worked there (and that was over five years ago). I remember the chairman of M&S (many years ago – and this is a paraphrase) saying that ‘honesty is always the best long-term policy – and the most profitable one’. The founders of Google – Larry Page and Sergey Brin – have a great corporate motto: ‘don’t be evil’. Now I’d prefer something a bit more positive, but it’s a good start.

If business in the future want to be distinctive, it’s not enough to be offering great prices or competitive products (important though that is). It’s about whether you think they put your interests first, rather than their own; and whether you can believe what they tell you, based on their actions not their words. I don’t think this will be an optional extra. Ironically, the companies that are doing that now are the ones who appear to be riding out the current recession. But we could do with a few more.

So, I ask again – and perhaps you might like to comment and dialogue with me on this: In an era where many corporations are talking corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ‘green’ agendas, why is it so hard to believe them? And who are the role models we look up to in business now?

News: Make do and mend

2009-06-01T10:40:19Z

We came across a great article in Howies’ latest catalogue. It’s called Repair things, darn it and it made us think of one of the little illustrations we’ve got on the Generous website echoing that all-but forgotten art – ‘Make do and Mend’. (We’ve even made the illustration the title for our June email.)

Check out the Howies catalogue rant in full here. Also, check out the tinker.it website to get inspired about the stuff that you would be surprised that you can fix instead of ditch at home. And, if you’re still stuck with something that’s broken that you don’t know how to fix, try posting a message to fixya.com and you’ll be amazed at how quickly you get the answers you need.

Blog: Annie Porthouse – featured member

2009-06-01T10:34:08Z

Our featured Generous member for June 2009 is Annie Porthouse. Annie’s another of our community who’s been part of the adventure since its early days. We snatched a five-minute telephone conversation with her about her Generous passions and struggles.

You can download an MP3 of our conversation with Annie here (4.3 MB) or you can stream the audio in your browser here using the player below:

Annie’s Generous profile is here.
And her website and blog are here.