July 2010
Turn On Turn Off
Get off your arse and change the world 50 years of oil spills
Digital Detox
This month we challenge you to a digital detox. Start by turning off the TV, then pen a postcard instead of an email, postpone your phone calls or leave the laptop out of your leisure time. Aside from the constant ringing, tweeting and flickering that’s interrupting our lives, all this internet shizzle is changing our brains. “Technology is rewiring our brains,” sai Nora Volkow, one of the world’s leading brain scientists. Constant bursts of information are not just disrupting in themselves, they’re undermining our ability to focus even when we’re not online.
So shut it all down, give your brain a break and tell us what happens (on a postcard of course). And you can always download and print the Otesha UK Handbook Media Chapter if you’re stuck for something to do.
We're taking our digital detox so seriously that we've removed our usual facebook and twitter plug from the bottom of this newsletter.
It’s a long long way to John O’Groats
Our LeJog Cycle Tour is setting off from Lands End on July 2nd for two months on the road. They’ll wheel into John O’Groats on 28th August, by which time their leg muscles will have more definition than a dictionary. On the way they’ll be stopping at schools, youth clubs and anywhere else that’ll have them to perform the award winning Otesha Play, pitch their tents, lend a hand, teach and learn how to live more sustainably.
If you want to hear about their worn brakes, weary bones and wondrous adventures, email liz@otesha.org.uk with the subject line ‘End to end’.
You can also come and see the Otesha play for yourself. These public performances are already confirmed and there’ll be more cropping up along the long long way:
Saturday July 24th - Bristol, at Windmill Hill City Farm , 1:00pm
Tuesday July 27th - Newent, Transition Town Newent, 1.30pm in the bandstand by Newent Lake
Thursday July 29th - Coventry, at Garden Organic Ryton, 2:00pm
Thursday July 29th - Coventry, at the Peace House, 6:00pm
Wednesday August 4th - Leeds, at the Breeze Festival, Armley Park, 12-4pm
Thursday August 12th - Edinburgh Fringe Festival, on the Royal Mile, times TBC
Sunday August 22nd - Alness, at Transition Town Alness, times and location TBC
Keep checking the website for more performances and details of the ones here.
History Pin
Historypin is a digital time machine, a new way to view and share history. Historypin aims to collect all the dusty old photos forgotten in attics and all the stories stored in wise old heads and create an online archive. You can search by place, by subject or by year, you can see the archive overlaid on Street View and compare it with what exists now. And you can add your own photos and stories by pinning them on the map. Definitely worth a browse.
Tripping up Trump
Donald Trump wants to build a golf course in Menie, Aberdeenshire. The families of Menie want to carry on living there, unsurprisingly. Trump and Aberdeenshire Council have threatened to use Compulsory Purchase Orders if the families don't agree to sell 'voluntarily'.
Trump received outline planning permission after claiming he had all the land he needed. Once planning permission was granted, he suddenly changed his mind and approached Aberdeenshire Council for help with his bid to take possesion of his neighbours' land and homes. 74% of Scottish people are against Trump on this basis. Just 13% support him and over 15,000 people have already signed a petition to Aberdeenshire Council in opposition.
In order to protect the families of Menie, the Tripping Up Trump campaign has bought some land right in the middle of Donald Trump’s proposed private housing and leisure development.
Join the Tripping Up Trump Campaign, stand with the local families and become ‘One of Menie'. You will eventually be added to the deeds of The Bunker, helping to make Compulsory Purchase Orders almost impossible for Aberdeenshire Council and the Trump Organisation to carry out.
And finally
This month we’re turning off our phones, unplugging from the internet and going down to the end of the land to get the Land’s End to John O’Groats Tour started on their mammouth adventure. Even Victoria Pendleton is cheering them on .
Jo, Hanna, Liz, Edd, Mohamed, Daniel, Iona, Sam, Mike and Louise
The Otesha Project UK
www.otesha.org.uk