A single bus journey in Brighton costs £1.80.
The day of the London to Brighton charity cycle the train companies ban bicycles from making the return journey by train.
BP has dropped plans for UK wind farms
Now that I have delivered you a few facts that bug me, I will aim to get to the point. I took the bus yesterday and, when I mentioned the extortionately expensive fee in the cab on the way home SavageSays told me the BP thing. (I threw the ‘trains ban cycles’ bit in for good value.) This morning I read Nat Tsang’s post on Feeding our cities which introduced me to the very interesting 19.20.21.org.
I understand that companies are legally obliged to maximise profit for shareholders but I wish we could redefine profit.
In my little world £1.80 for the bus is ridiculous. Not being able to put my bicycle on the train is just as unhelpful but what really worries me is that we are so good at wandering around with our blinkers on. Most of the problems I encounter in life, work, the world are caused or exacerbated by people not talking to each other, not inviting discussion and not thinking their actions through. It is a pretty basic human trait to fight for your own survival, for the benefit of the people in your life whom you love, but none of us exist in isolation.
BP shareholders live on the same planet I occupy.
Brighton town centre would be nicer for everyone if there was a little less traffic.
And, I’m sure that people who operate train companies are as vulnerable to heart disease as the rest of us.
I am bolstered by the idea that someone is watching and thinking like the good people of 19.20.21, waking up on a Sunday morning and being invited to think and discuss – however virtually – by Nat works very well for me. How do we take this thinking to those shareholders? How ridiculous is it to ask shareholders to sacrifice a little bit of that profit for a future world for their children and mine? Is it possible? Can we create a global ethical charter that makes us all think just a little bit harder?
It’s been an odd sort of Sunday already: the morning TV took me to Auschwitz, I listened to a conversation with Desmond Tutu and I am reminded of the power of humanity.
In an update to my usual mantra I invite you to reduce, reuse, recycle and to think for yourself and of others.
