This weekend I moved to the new house: N10 River Street. It’s the nest of my 21st Century family: daddy, mummy, upcoming Foetus (this is the provisional name of the baby to avoid any gender determination which might offend sensitivities) and I, the uncle… Yes that kind of uncle!
The four storey Georgian house is amazing and I have obviously been settled in the noble floor.
This is suitable as I reach the lattter years of the 30’s but that’s not the real exciting part of the story. The move was it.
Wouldn’t you like to get rid of everything for a fresh start?
I did. I was packing for the move considering how much stuff I had and pondering how to fit everything in boxes when I realised I didn’t need all of them.
I took the opportunity to throw away what has been accumulated over the last five years. I left old memories behind.
I dumped shoes, clothes, financial statements, silly publications, old mobile equipment, magazines and porn – fortunately the internet provides plenty of it and for free.
I kept the clothes I need, few CDs, almost all my books. In less than four hours I was lighter and ready to move to a new life; so much space to create a new one.
Your physical space is connected to your mental space. Free the first one to leave the second empty and condusive to creation
Such a feeling of space for creation is in sharp contrast to the main debate in the sector – especially in the US.
In the last few weeks philanthrocapitalists Gates and Buffet launched a pledge to persuade other billionaires to commit half of their fortune to social causes… through the Gates Foundation naturally.
Despite a one-man campaign run by Michael Edwards to prove this a travesty of justice, 40 billionaires have already confirmed including Oprah Winfrey.
The Telegraph published an article claiming that, in 10 years, the club of philanthrocapitalists might gather a fund larger than 70% of the state economies in the world.
It seems their solution is to filling the room with dollars. They claim their tons of money will fix the world. This is not new at all. They just make it bigger than anymore else as ever done.
If 50 years of Aid Industry hasn’t taught them anything I leave them with such an deception. They might think they are the smartest guys in the room because they are the richest people in the world, but I take another view.
They stuff the world with their money as it were a warehouse. Their fat saturates every corner as it clouds minds: innovation perishes while waste, corruption and parasites thrive.
We should try something else. Let’s see what solutions we can generate when we leave the room empty.
Cosa fa VITA?
Da 30 anni VITA è la testata di riferimento dell’innovazione sociale, dell’attivismo civico e del Terzo settore. Siamo un’impresa sociale senza scopo di lucro: raccontiamo storie, promuoviamo campagne, interpelliamo le imprese, la politica e le istituzioni per promuovere i valori dell’interesse generale e del bene comune. Se riusciamo a farlo è grazie a chi decide di sostenerci.