March 2011
3 posts
I have the Tumblr feed set up for http://www.craftinggentleness.org now, linking to @CraftGentleness on Twitter.
Commoning.
Calling libraries the ‘Information Commons’ doesn’t quite feed the more helpful notions of the commons, or of education, in my opinion. The notion does nothing to challenge the idea that education is just about information delivery, which does nothing to challenge the idea that students are just empty vessels to be filled up (which cliché popped up again in an episode of Fringe I...
Moving right along ...
2011 is well under way, and it’s time to reinvigorate the Crafting Gentleness energies. There are a number of concrete developments happening, but they won’t be happened for another few weeks yet. When the seedlings blossom, shortly, all being well, we will let you know about them here. So, no, we haven’t gone away, and yes, we are planning wonderful and exciting things :)
June 2010
1 post
Thoughts on Tuesday in the Guildhall Square
I was born on the 28th January, 1972. Two weeks late, and hungry, so Mum tells me. Two days later, while Mum was still in the hospital recovering, the news came in that paratroopers had shot 13 civil rights marchers on the streets of Derry, on what would become known as Bloody Sunday. By the time I was two my family had emigrated, like so many others. I spent my childhood years playing on the...
April 2010
2 posts
5 Ways to Save the Planet (Blue Planet Green...
The website Blue Planet Green Living interviewed me for their 5 Ways To Save The Planet item. These are my responses:
BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?
McCANN:
Stop trying to save the planet. This sounds a little counter-intuitive, but there are a few things behind my answer. The first is the idea that it’s not our job to save the planet — the planet...
Facebook Fan Page for Crafting Gentleness
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crafting-Gentleness/102666726439583?ref=ts
March 2010
4 posts
Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology...
The copyright for the edited volume ‘Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology for the 21st Century’ (published in 2001) has reverted to the editors: Daniel Christie, Richard Wagner, and Deborah Winter. They have made the book available online for downloading at no cost to encourage course and program development in peace psychology worldwide. For a pdf file of the book, use the...
blgpst: all in good time
Blogging is a little slow at the minute here, but it will be picking up fairly soon. We still have a few weeks left of the university semester before classes end (in May), and I’ll hold out for the clearing in the trees before giving this my full attention. There are a few things waiting in the wings … I’ve been making a list of blog post ideas that I’d like to do something...
MA in Community Education, Equality and Social...
Another world is possible: learning from each other’s struggles
For decades community groups, the women’s movement and other social justice movements have been the driving force behind equality in Ireland, while global justice activists have highlighted the crisis of climate change and neo-liberalism. As economies falter and social partnership collapses, what do we already know about...
a bit of spring-cleaning
We’ve made a few changes to the Crafting Gentleness site. Hopefully now it’s easier to get around. Incorporating the blog on the front page of the website is a bit of a temporary experiment, until such time as we get around to redesigning the site completely. Crafting Gentleness is now a site for more than just Anthony McCann’s work. Mary Kennedy has joined the team, and we have...
February 2010
14 posts
blgpst: pedagogy of gentleness
In my research I am seeking to understand power and agency, how we make a difference. I am trying to do that in ways that allow an attitude of gentleness, rather than an attitude of control, to be my default baseline. Gentleness is here understood as the quality of relationship that happens when the expectation that uncertainty can be or should be eliminated does not dominate in our relationships...
blgpst: Peacebuilding and Storytelling: Personal...
In October, 2009, a short talk by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie was posted on the Ted.com website. In this talk Adichie addressed our vulnerability in the face of stories. In particular, she addressed the power of “single stories” – authoritative, centralized stories that masquerade as the final truth about people and their lives. She spoke of the consequences of the single story: “it robs...
International Inner Puppy/Kitten Day! 13th...
Ok, so the Valentine’s madness is well upon us. Join us in celebrating another day, the 13th, International Inner Puppy Day! Katy Rugg and myself decided that the 13th of February, the day before St. Valentine’s day, can be a very depressing day for people who don’t have a special romantic someone.
In response, we anointed the 13th February International Inner Puppy Day, in...
Did you ever get the feeling that something big is rumbling down the tracks? I got a feelin’, that this year’s gonna be a good year, that this year’s gonna be a good ye-ih-eer, that this year’s gonna be a good year.
“In search of ‘tradition’” article now linked from craftinggentleness.org. Thoughts on my Dad’s dying, what it means to be a son, personal-political value of tradition and more. Draft only.
My LinkedIn ‘public profile’ is now linked from anthonymccann.com
blgpst: making a difference, small is beautiful
I did my gentleness talk the night before last, and it was a nice event, with maybe 10 people in a small room. I have one regret, that I didn’t spend a good bit of time at the beginning getting to know people. That was silly. I’ll learn my lesson for next time.
The talk took place in AZIL, a bookshop-cafe in the heart of Ljubljana. I had a bit of a job finding it to begin with,...
The Green Year →
PracticalEnvironmentalist.com →
blgpst: interview prep
Copyright: The Way of Anger. Hardly an appropriate approach to a talk the night before a talk on gentleness, but that’s the way it might turn out. I just had a preliminary (unrecorded) conversation with a very friendly local journalist, and I found myself get quite animated as I went over some of my issues with performing rights. This issue still really annoys me in so many ways. The more I...
blgpst: bookshops in Slovenia
I love going to second-hand bookshops in places where the English language is a minor interest. Why? Because the bargain bins of such places offer up the most wonderfully idiosynratic finds. Today’s haul lists as follows (1 euro each):
Why Do We Write? Pourquoi Écrire? (Yugoslav Pen Community, 1971): a collection of essays/conference proceedings in English and French from the likes of...
blgpst: exciting environmental developments
As explained below, I spent the weekend at a small conference of people from ‘independent cultural centres’ from around Europe, in Maribor (a small city in Slovenia best known for skiing). After the conference I gave some friends a lift to the capital city Ljubljana. They were heading to visit an old friend, Marko Hren, who has been running the Metelkova (emphasis on ‘tel’) centre for about 20-25...
January 2010
31 posts
blgpst: destination Ljubljana.
It would seem that people in Eastern Europe may be a lot more receptive to my work on gentleness and enclosure than people in Ireland. I suppose this isn’t surprising, as the post-socialist experience means that various personal, social, and political enclosures seem to be more obviously and keenly felt. I suppose it’s a little bit more of the boiling frog syndrome back home -...
Green: American and British consumers purchase approximately 9 billion greeting cards each year, enough to stretch around the world 54 times laid end-to-end. … http://www.greenissexy.org/2010/01/31/from-the-heart-2/
The Maribor conference proceedings/presentations (Indep. Cultural Centres) will shortly be posted on the New Times New Models website. http://www.pekarna.org/ntnm/?lang=en
blgpst: SnowMensch.
Mensch is apparently gender neutral. A little campaigning, and success! A few of us will be building a conference SnowMensch at lunchtime :)
blgpst: final day Maribor conf.
Last day of the gathering that has brought together people from Independent Cultural Centres across Europe. The range of discussions has been interesting - I’ll post a few summaries in a couple of days. I’m still a little disappointed that there hasn’t been a ritual snowpeople-building moment outside the conference facility, but I’m going to do something about that today.
Rebuilding Haiti (CNN) →
Tips for Green building and sustainable... →
Green Eco-Driving Tips (The Independent) →
“Brains before bricks”
– Lorenzo Canova, speaking on experimental cultural policy developments in Italy … http://www.sensicontemporanei.it/
Slovenian national TV just asked for an interview on Monday. Not sure how long for, but it’s a first for me, whatever length it is.
UfaFabrik - Berlin
One of the speakers at the New Times New Models conference was here representing the ufaFabrik, based in Berlin.
http://www.ufafabrik.de/en/nav.php?pid=44
It seems like a centre that facilitates an incredibly diverse range of activities.
What’s particularly interesting to me, and something I wish to follow up on, is that the basis of the project was and is friendship - friendship first....
Why do people say ‘actors’ when they could just as easily say ‘people’?
blgpst: Independent Cultural Centres, commons ...
I’m sitting in Pekarna centre here in Maribor. It was an old military bakery (pekarna means bakery, as I discovered when I asked directions last night! There being more than one bakery in Maribor).
The conference has been very interesting. There was a good session this morning on the struggle for space(s) in various cities around Europe - Zagreb, Ljubljana, Hamburg, and Barcelona. The...
blgpst: gift of an Austrian sunset
So I spent my birthday in the car, driving from Prague to Maribor. It wasn’t so bad; I had planned a little in advance, so I had 6 CD compilations of my favourite songs to listen to, which was fun - I got to sing along to most of them; I also got to go shopping in German for the first time in my life. I finally got to say, “Haben sie …?” That was fun. I successfully managed...
Blogpost - from Prague
It,s alwazs fun trzing to work out the Czech kezboard. Smilez.
Just joking, I eventually found the y key.
There,s enough snow here to cripple the UK and Ireland, but everything seems to be going swimmingly.
Let me recommend the Little Town Hostel in the centre of Prague - rooms sleep three, and the place is well run and quite lovely. Oh, and incredibly cheap as well.
Must dash to drive to...
I just realised ...
I went 37 years until today without once hearing someone snore on a bus.
Fake Maori Scandal →
Obama Heritage Effect Boosts African Tourism →
China considers ban on eating cats and dogs →
Waste worry of 'primark effect' →
Painting your home? Going for green? →
A Green Olympics? →
Green jobs, toxic environments? →
Directing, acting, humanity?
I’m enjoying listening to a radio documentary series on BBC2 at the moment about ‘100 years of cinema’. It’s a little scattered sometimes, but the interview snippets are delightful: Frank Capra, Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Wise, David Puttnam, Ingrid Bergman, Steven Spielberg, and many more. It’s very Hollywood-centric, but that’s the main cinematic tradition many...
Wisdom of the Elders →
“Wisdom of the Elders, Inc.(WISDOM), a 501(c)(3) not for profit corporation located in Portland, Oregon, is committed to Native American cultural preservation, education, and race reconciliation. Working in collaboration with diverse cultural organizations and educational institutions, we record and preserve oral traditions and cultural arts of exemplary indigenous elders, historians,...
Economic growth 'cannot continue' (BBC) →
“Continuing global economic growth “is not possible” if nations are to tackle climate change, a report by an environmental think-tank has warned.
“The New Economics Foundation (Nef) said “unprecedented and probably impossible” carbon reductions would be needed to hold temperature rises below 2C (3.6F).
“Scientists say exceeding this limit could lead to...