Kindling 2014

Kindling ideas – of delight and revolution

A friend of mine was railing against the rise of UKIP in these elections as an indication of ‘the death of ideas’. More accurately, it is evidence of most people not bothering to vote – but still, there is some truth in it. We have, as a country, allowed ourselves to be seduced by wall-to-wall coverage from the BBC that an outspoken individual uttering political platitudes is the same as someone with vision. The lowest common denominator should not be the determinant of a society that has honesty and justice at its heart.

So it is rather reassuring that there are ideas out there … and I was fortunate enough to be able to gather some of them (and their people) into a tent at the wonderful Wood Festival. This was the second year I have run the Kindling Tent – and already it feels like it is picking up momentum. While most people enjoyed one of the country’s most perfect and family friendly festivals, I spent two days in my canvas cave being washed with wonder as the clever, wise and brave shared their passion with the audience.

Poet George Roberts designed this flyer,

and a lesson learned for next year is that we need lots more and we need to put them on the backs of the doors of all the compost toilets – just as Nick Lunch did to promote his fascinating vision for Westhill Farm. George also launched a deeply interesting collection of poems and ideas during his session.

Sessions are brutally controlled (by me) – everyone had 30 minutes during which they could do what they wanted but would be kicked out immediately the time was up. And next year I am going to shift it a little – because most people had so much to say that they spoke for all 30 minutes … leaving no time for debate. So I will advise people to aim for 15 minutes of speaking – allowing more time to get ideas bubbling with more people.

Jackie Singer opened proceedings, but the weather failed to present me with the joke I had hoped for … first festival of the year, I presumed it would rain, so with Jackie talking about and doing a water ritual, I thought it would be really funny for her to be competing with the beating of rain on the roof. But no, lots and lots of sun!

There have been mutterings about nepotism in my selection of speakers … but then again, this is all done for love and I will only be able to ask people I know as then I will know they can do what is needed. So the fact that my wife, Zoe Broughton, was talking should not be taken as an indication of favouritism – because she is genuinely ace. Her history in video activism is fascinating and if you have a chance to see her speak: go see her.

Oliver Tickell recently took over the helm of The Ecologist and really managed to get an interesting debate going with the crowd. Following on from him, Al Chisholm talked about the really important campaign looking to get Oxford dis-investing from oil companies.

Roman Krznaric was one of my ‘must get’ names for this year – his latest book on Empathy is brilliant and his talk, calling for an empathy revolution is witty and challenging.

Who could follow that? Luckily it was George Marshall – an old friend who set up COIN and is now about to have published one of the most important books on the psychology of climate change denial – ‘Don’t even think about it’. He was (and is) wonderful.

Jess Worth has been at the heart of some of the most entertaining direct action I have been a part of – tackling the sponsorship of the arts by oil companies. She even did a soliloquy

Keeping art to mind, Stephen Hancock was naughty and funny and rude and serious – he can call it what he likes, but I always think of him as a revolutionary poet. George Roberts made us cry (again) and the first day finished with Amy Fensome telling us why bats are just so special … and leading into the first ‘bat-walk’ Wood has seen.

The bat-walk was a bit of a disaster … Amy had come with 5 detectors and we expected up to ten people … Nearly 100 turned up – and with at least half of them energetic children, there was little hope we were going to hear or see anything … I think most people had fun as we talked about bats, but it was not until most had gone that we got to see and hear a pipistrel up in the carpark!

It would have probably been better had I not stayed out dancing to a wonderful set(t) from DJ Badger until the early hours – but it was fun to see the Kindling Tent quite so packed!

Sunday morning began with a gentle introduction to the art of the didgeridoo from the best of Oxford’s tree surgeons, Richard Upton. Following on from that was a set of local campaigns and organisations that are all so brilliant – Nick Lunch, Phil Pritchard talking about the Earth Trust; Lucie Mayer being calmly resilient on behalf of the City Farm and the incomparable Rina Melendez talking about the refill revolution that is SESI.

James Atherton, manager of Lush cosmetics shop in Oxford came with a bag of goodies and quite the funniest introductions to their charity pot – which raises an eye-watering amount of money to environmental and animal causes each year. They even got us into a massage train … I think we need more of that next year!

There has to be an A-lister at an event like this, and we were very lucky to have Phil Ball – one of Greenpeace’s Arctic 30 – talking about the drama of arrest at gunpoint and life in a Siberian jail. It was touch and go as to whether this action-man would make it due to a debilitating back injury received while …. rolling over in bed and turning off his alarm clock!

It was a testament to the quality of Clare Cochrane that she could do her session having just watched most of the massive crowd leave after Phil – but she was wise and affecting, talking about Reclaim the Night and reminding us that feminism is still very much needed as an idea.

Sasha Norris has done many amazing things, and could have talked about TV work with the wildlife glitterati, but instead talked about her projected to get individuals planting trees. And finally – a little bedgraggled and quite exhausted, it was my turn – to talk about the wonder of wildlife and reasons why we need wild love.

I am thrilled with how the Kindling Tent was received. And even more so to hear bits of feedback – ‘it was the heart of the festival’ said one. One shy young man spent much of the Sunday session in the tent and said to a friend of mine how it had been so great to find people who thought and had ideas, how none of his friends back home would ever be interested in this.

I want to do the Kindling Tent again next year (and have had calls to take it to other festivals too … not sure I can cope with the logistics of that!) – and I would love to have your thoughts. What could be done better? Who should I invite? What subjects might be interesting to explore?

Thank you to the various Bennets who make Wood happen for allowing me to have such fun in my own little corner – see you in the field next year!

 

site stats review and strangeness

The helpful folk at WordPress – who host this blog – have sent me a summary of the stats for last year. And for a beginner in this world, I am quite pleased … they appear below. But before I get there I want to reveal something that the stats-keepers have also been collecting. And that is the search terms that people put into Google et al – and then end up arriving at my site. I would be interested to know which you think are the most unlikely – and also the most impressive … here are some of my favourites (editorials in brackets):

  1. contrary between swallow and sparrow in ancient egypt (I am just copying what is there … if you can understand how this got to me, please share)
  2. where do hedgehogs originate
  3. the cute storybook with hedgehogs in the bottom of each page
  4. punk beijing china hedgehog
  5. gothic hedgehog tattoos
  6. natural looking dog paw prints tattoo with shading (dogs???)
  7. hedgehogs chewing on leather
  8. dead sparrow
  9. new book about opera (well that one should be obvious …)
  10. unsocialised lemur (how did this end up with me???)
  11. stephen fry (this was the second most popular search – and I am guessing there are some disappointed people out there … )
  12. osborne thieving bastard
  13. ben fogle tattoo (I am not sure if this was someone looking for a tattoo of Ben, of just to see if he had a tattoo … it had better be a hedgehog if he does! And how did it get used 23 times?)
  14. hedgehog jokes (nearly twice as many people searched for this as they did for hedgehog hugh … there might be a message in that)
  15. hedgehog taxidermy ebay (I guess that one is not too hard to explain – but interesting that I am not alone)
  16. slug slime feet
  17. hedgehog marijuana (have I even mentioned marijuana? And what is hedgehog marijuana anyway … I would be happy to experiment)
  18. parasitology jokes
  19. fat eating capitalist cats
  20. flagelist (help me on this please …)
  21. hedgehog hugh!! (I love that someone has searched for me with exclamation marks!)
  22. prodded poppies
  23. scared of 5 rhythms
  24. greenpeace hedgehogs
  25. how much is a hedgehog worth (they are priceless … and that is enough of this … here follow the year in stats)

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 9,800 times in 2010. That’s about 24 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 45 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 64 posts. There were 41 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 93mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was April 12th with 314 views. The most popular post that day was countryfile and empathy.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were britishhedgehogs.org.uk, urchin.info, care2.com, facebook.com, and hedgehoghelp.co.uk.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for hedgehog jokes, stephen fry, hedgehog feet, hedgehog hugh, and hedgehog tattoos.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

countryfile and empathy April 2010
2 comments

2

How much is a hedgehog worth? February 2010
8 comments

3

Stuff about me … November 2008
5 comments

4

hedgehog feet April 2010
5 comments

5

Why the exotic pet trade is wrong and undercover investigations are so important January 2010
5 comments

Hedgehogs help save the world, again

This is just a quick note to reveal yet another attempt by the hedgehogs to help stave off planetary annihilation. It is not that long ago that the Big Issue carried on its front cover the bold claim ‘Save the Hedgehog, Save the World’. I had brazenly purloined that from Heroes – and feel that it is more important when attached to hedgehogs, not cheerleaders. My favourite bit about the cover was that the following was pushed over to the margins, to make way for me and the hedgehogs – ‘Obama and me, Desmond Tutu speaks’ –  I had managed to marginalise two of the most important people on the planet!

But now, even more serious, hedgehogs are back.

There is a plan by the current government to help maintain our standing in the world by buying large bombs. They want to replace the Trident nuclear missile system with something even snazzier. It is a bit like a poorly endowed middle aged man buying an expensive sports car – he sits in it thinking he is cool while everyone around him is thinking of a joke … what is the difference between a hedgehog and a Ferrari/Porsche/Range Rover etc etc …. the hedgehog has its pricks on the outside … boom boom (goes the trident replacement).

So, the UK is trying to maintain its geopolitical standing with go-faster stripes and the loud revving threats of – ‘don’t mess with me or I will drive me car very fast at you and kill you’ – because that is what would happen if we entered into a nuclear exchange – we would all die.

But it is not just about the absurdity of this stance – there is also the cost. Whether it is a sports car of a new nuclear missile system, these things don’t come cheap. And in the case of Trident, we are looking at £97 billion pound. Banks and bombs – always money for banks and bombs … but what else could that money be spent on? A very interesting question, and one that Greenpeace has asked my dearly beloved to ask many many people – and feed the resulting films up onto a video wall … there is a great range of opinion – from a retired General (who thinks that troops could do with proper kit rather more than a very big bomb that they will not use) through to George Monbiot, George Marshall Alastair McGowan and a host of others who have very good ideas about how to spend that money. And me … I point out that just one millionth of that figure would help us to find an answer to the problem of declining hedgehog numbers in the UK and around the world – so by funding research into the complexities of life, rather than funding arms manufacturers to destroy life, the world would be a much better place. So, see what the hedgehog says on the video wall – and vote for your favourite … no pressure now!