Off to the airport with Richard Branson's new 'Screw Business as Usual' to read, which promotes the idea of Capitalism 24902 - 'every single business person has the responsibility for taking care of the people and planet that make up our global village, all 24,902 circumferential miles of it'. A smart image. It reminds me of the American idea that 'if you want capitalism, then you need to spread the capital'. I wonder if 'taking care' though was the wrong word, too loaded with the status quo that the book is all for breaking through; maybe it is a more empowering quality like 'nurture'. However, by the I time I change planes in Hong Kong, I don't suppose I'll be pondering that one too deeply.
Interestingly, I was reminded today of Botany Bay's associations with the explorer James Cook, who (re-)named the bay on one of his famous voyages to Australia. Cook was born in Marton, Middlesborough, where I began my career as a teacher at the Marton VI form college. I remember waking up in the cold Middlesborough winter mornings and seeing his name on the way to work and thinking how far away this all was from Australia, and how much everyone in the school - teachers and students - wanted to excape from the system we were all stuck in. So many years later, and in the Foyer Federation, we are trying to be intrepid explorers to find and share new ideas. That's a nice thought for the journey ahead.
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