This is an archive of the Dadamac.net website, as it was in 2015, it is no longer being updated.

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Returning from Schumacher Collage and Dark Mountain

Last week I was at Schumacher Collage for a short course led by Dougald Hine and Paul Kingsnorth of Dark Mountain. This quick blog is simply to pull some links together for ease of reference later. Deep Time Walk I joined others on a Deep Time walk, as described below: In this time of ecological crisis, we need practical, experiential ways of reconnecting with our Earth as a great living being so that we can begin to treat our planet with the deep respect she deserves. At Schumacher College, Stephan Harding has shared his Deep Time Walk with hundreds of...

Care of the Elderly in Rural Nigeria

During this week's UK-Nigeria meeting John Dada forwarded his and Teresa Tafida's June 2014 report about Care of the Elderly in rural Nigeria. As a health care professional working in the elderly in the UK with it's own challenges, I feel that never before has it been so important to link the local and the global expertise, knowlege and resources for the benefit of the elderly - no matter where in the world they reside. The existence of the internet has provided us all with a real opportunity to help enable us to achieve this. Care of the Elderly: Experience...

Grazing rights

The breakdown of mutual dependance The recent violence in Manchok, when a village was attacked, was partly the result of a dispute between settled farmers and nomadic herders or pastoralists. During more peaceful times the two groups can live and work together, both groups benefiting from each other. The herders can leave their cattle to graze on a local farmer’s fields while the farmer benefits from the manure. But when there is a context of violence in the country these trusting relationships break down. In addition over the years there has been a lot of pressure on grazing land due...

Pattern Language and Dadamac

I celebrate the work of John Dada and his team at Fantsuam Foundation (FF) both for its own sake and for its wider relevance. I often struggle to explain that wider relevance, and it seems that pattern language ideas could help me when I try to share some of the insights that come out of Dadamac. I don't know enough to attempt to explain pattern language, so I'll simply offer you pointers to find out more through the work of two people who have influenced me. I was also helped by Helmut Leitner who gave me a series of weekly...

Working towards Dadamac Glocal

We (Nikki Fishman and I) are working towards an event on January 10th 2015, which is provisionally called Dadamac Glocal. It's a bit of a challenge to know the best way to describe it, other than it's going to be a great way to start the new year. Details will be shared nearer the time. An invitation to join us We're excited about what we've done in the past linking the UK and Africa. We've been on a steep learning curve, and that made it hard for us to explain exactly what we were doing and why it matters. Now...

Andrius - Links ref collaborating, communicating, rubbing minds.

I shared these links in a recent Skype call to Andrius Kulikauskas. He's my informal studies supervisor. He's interested in what I'm thinking related to what I'm doing. We try to meet online about once a week. It'll be useful to have these links easily to hand here for my own reference and to share with others. The links all relate to my interests in collaboration, learning-by-doing, and people learning from each other (especially from different perspectives). They are things I'm actively involved in which have taken some of my time over the last few weeks. Holacracy I went to...

Margaret Wheatley, and Supporting Pioneering Leaders

My thanks to Tom Hitchman of Perspectivity for directing me to Leadership:Margaret Wheatley-finding our way - Supporting Pioneering leaders . I'll be pointing people to her work in future, partly because she write so clearly about things I've been struggling to express. She writes: I no longer spend any time trying to fix or repair the old or to improve old leadership methods. I spend all of my time now supporting those giving birth to the new , those pioneering with new approaches to organizing and leading. They practice consistent innovation and courage - wherever they see a problem, they...

Work in Africa - reply for Stewart Hase

Following the 2014 Heutagogy Conference Stewart Hase asked about my work in Africa, so I wrote this short outline for him. The start I've been connected with Nigeria since 2000. Initially it was through the late Peter Adetunji Oyawale . The first time I went to Nigeria was for his funeral in Ago-Are, Oke-Ogun. When I came home I carried on doing the kind of things he'd wanted me to do to help his project when he was alive. I knew nothing about Nigeria or development but I had a few things I could offer: I knew his vision. I...

Dadamac April Update

It's time to bring separate parts together again so everyone can have the same overview. January 10th 2015 We're planning early for a positive start to 2015 - both for the Dadamac Community and for a lot of people not previously connected with us - so please mark your diaries. It's an event in London on Saturday January 10th 2015 about: small change and big change local and global perspectives individual and organisational action opportunities for all kinds of involvement practical implementations of big visions powerful and exciting outcomes There'll be a clear focus and framework, with enough fluidity for...

How to fight Boko Haram - Avaaz - please read and respond

From: Wale Samuel with Avaaz < avaaz@avaaz.org > Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 10:37:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: How to fight Boko Haram Dear friends across Nigeria, Following Boko Haram's horrific attacks on our girls, a deep sadness has fallen over our country. What if these were my children, nephews or cousins? At times like this, it is hard to be hopeful. But as a passionate education Campaigner, I and my friends in Nigeria see within this crisis a golden opportunity to not only beat these extremists, but transform the future for all of our children if we come together and...

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