A Wounded Planet in Need of Love

Almost eighteen years ago, Julia Butterfly Hill embarked on a non-violent tree sit for 738 days, from December 10, 1997, until December 23, 1999. Luna, the tree she ascended unto, a thousand-year-old red wood tree, 180 feet high, in the Headwaters Forest in Northern California was under threat of being logged together with other trees in the area. Julia’s enduring example and extraordinary activism was deeply rooted in her ‘acute vision of a wounded world in need of a nonviolent healing’.

She had a vision above the scope of fine narratives, beyond the teas and committees of business as usual. Hers was indeed to also symbolize a respect for the sacred, atop Luna, separated from the rest of a world driven by greed and exploitation, from a generation lacking profound disposability consciousness. “By not allowing my feet to touch the ground once during all this time, I’ve separated myself from the world down there.”

In December 2008, inspiring activist Tim DeChristopher disrupted an illegitimate Bureau of Land Management oil and gas auction by outbidding oil companies for parcels around Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah. An unprecedented trial ended in his 21 months in jail. His experiences of the systemic evil in prison and subsequent enrollment in Harvard Divinity School after his release on April 21, 2013 transformed his activism in diverse ways. The core of his message deeply rooted in the embodiment and reflection of love to heal a wounded planet.

With Tim DeChristopher in Montpelier

Whether it’s Butterfly Hill whose deep connection with the sacred espoused healing for a wounded world or DeChristopher who preaches joining our collective divinities to confront the climate crisis, this proposition is true: that any question about solving the problem begs for an answer with an intrinsic value found within a person. So how did we even get into this mess in the first place?

Al Gore in his book ‘The Future:Six Drivers of Global Change’ brilliantly describes how our dilemma began from a philosophical text book centuries ago after the launch of the Scientific Revolution by the thinkers of the times:

“Francis Bacon, who more than any other emphasized the word “progress” in describing humanity’s journey into the future, was also among the first to write about human progress with a special emphasis on subduing, dominating, and controlling nature-- as if we were as separate from nature as Descartes believed the mind was separate from the body........ By tacitly assuming our own separateness from the ecological system of the planet, we are frequently surprised by phenomena that emerge from our inextricable connections to it".

Centuries later, this philosophical error has driven insatiable greed, deceit and exploitation of the planet in search of profit and progress. They have been in shapes and forms that confound our thinking and begin to question how indeed civilized we are as a civilization.

For example, reporters at the Los Angeles Times, the Columbia Journalism School, and the Pulitzer-Prize winning Inside Climate News, revealed that ExxonMobil knew all about climate change in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. But they not only lied about it but also funded individuals and institutions to deny climate change and fight against climate action. And when I provided direct support for  Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org at an ExxonMobil gas station in Burlington, Vermont a month ago to stage a one-man #ExxonKnew action there, it finally dawned on me that the answer lies within the transformation of the human heart by a transcendent love for our planet.

Providing direct support for Bill McKibben in Burlington

Our cumulative wisdom, intellectuality and technology do not match the daunting challenges of our time. Our planet doesn’t demand our saving it, it needs we loving it, for indeed we are only loving ourselves in the process. We believe in Nonviolent Direct Action dismantling strongholds such as capitalism but ultimately it is love that changes the human heart; even legal binding agreements and laws do not. Love is the greatest ethic, the peak of all intellectual and religious debate, it is where our common humanity converges.

Feelings and experiences cannot be tested for truth, only words and propositions are. And we would agree to the fact that given a planet in need of a nonviolent healing it begins with the reflection of the love that inextricably binds us to our ecological system as one. The proposition is true and the practice would ultimately heal.

How Egg Frying and 4th Graders in Vermont Transformed My Thinking

Strange things are happening in my kitchen these days, this month of October -- my culinary skills are becoming predictably questionable. I cooked a soggy rice last week which I literally had to force down my own throat for dinner. Then I  watched the koko (Ghanaian porridge) paste I purchased from the African market to mix for breakfast thicken on the fire into a miserable banku of a sort.

I added cups of water, carefully stirring the mixture with a ladle, to reverse the reaction back into a thin consistent porridge. Maybe putting into practice fleeting high school Equilibrim lessons. The exercise wasn’t only fruitless and futile, I was worn out, totally spent fixing a 5mins harmless breakfast. I accept that life isn’t always fair.

But the last straw that broke the camel’s back and lost me a confidence and half was an attempt at frying some eggs a few days on. It went terribly bad, a downgrade of scrambled eggs gone wrong. Never in the history of cooking in any Vermont kitchen, documented in college text books has life been daunting like in our kitchen on Spring Street. Frying eggs were the least of my troubles, I execute it effortless on countless occasions. So how on earth did it become a mission today?

But this experience puts into parenthetical focus a reality in life that we unconsciously ignore until prompted, trumpeted brilliantly by Mark Twain-- “It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." This rhetoric is reiterated by the poet, civil rights activist and teacher Melvin B. Tolson, “nothing educates us like a shock”. And so when I entered the classroom of the 4th Graders at Bishop John A. Marshall School (BJAMS) in Morrisville to present to the children on climate change and how they can take action in their school, and was once again jolted by this reality, it left an indelible mark on my thinking. Hold your assumptions lightly!

With my co-presenter Collen Hanley at BJAMS

One of the 4th Graders, Natty, wielding an unrehearsed articulated diction blew my mind about his knowledge and awareness of global warming. At the beginning of the interactive lesson, the smooth speaking lad had explained to his colleagues the problem of carbon pollution and the warming effect it has in the atmosphere, with precision and concision. With a dropped jaw, I watched in disbelief as little Natty delivered a Climate Change 101 lesson. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying children cannot be that smart, but hey,for the sake of Albert Einstein, adults like yourself grapple with climate science. Are you smarter than a 4th Grader? No please!

Two days after the presentation, their teacher wrote us an email: “Thank you for a wonderful presentation. My kids and I loved it. Indeed we have been talking about it ever since you left. They have actually created inventions to reduce the production of CO2 - I can take pics and share”. And as if this wasn’t enough, the  4th Graders sent a thank you letter through the mail box with additional questions on global warming and solar energy.

Hitherto, being impressed by the kids of the Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes, I had earmarked them as my favorite school in Vermont. But with the display by Natty and his classmates in October, I blink my mind’s eye and exhale, ‘hold your opinions lightly’.

Of Al Gore, Vermont Schools and Mushroom Soup

If you are in chicken stew bondage, I have good news, mushroom soup is liberating. I had been eating chicken stew for the first 5 weeks of my stay in Burlington; not out of necessity but a sheer lack of motivation to try something new. I finally got my independence when one of the volunteers of my host organization 350VT decided to give me a life of options. Since then, my life has been beautiful. Mushroom soup at August First restaurant has turned my life around. I have always had mushrooms in Ghana in soups but not mushrooms as soup. What a discovery!

But one thing about Vermont restaurants that I find entertaining is how the portion sizes are so small especially when the food is actually tasty. In Ghana, I’d sacrifice variety for portion sizes in a single meal without apology. So when I told the waitress at the Mexican Restaurant on Battery Street to serve me only rice and beans so she can enhance both portions, I added a sentence-- “I hope it’s not a weird request”. She returned a smile and half.  

Vermont hasn’t only entertained my now inviting taste buds, I have had a wonderful month of September visiting schools and presenting on climate change. And in the coming months, even more appointments. Having been personally trained by former US Vice President Al Gore to deliver the Climate Reality presentation that communicate the basic science, impacts and possible solutions of climate change, invitations by schools to my host organization to share slides with students have been very exciting. That reinforces how progressive the Green Mountain state is.

Hanging out with the boys in Plainfield

And when I had told middle school children to ask me lingering questions about the presentation, they have rather asked more questions about Ghanaian culture-- food and language et al. The sheer innocence in the stew of voices of children probing to probably know more about the presenter than the presentation not only interests me. It also opens my mind to the reality of how telling an African story to a swell of American children has long term real life consequences on their perception, perspectives and assumptions.

I have been fascinated about questions indirectly phrased about whether Africa is a country or continent. Well, assumptions are either challenged or confirmed, but how beautiful it is to hear these genuine inquiries and give answers back to drown doubts and stereotypes. What a breath of fresh air it was. At this stage, I believe it isn’t far fetched to write to Al Gore seeking permission to insert into his climate presentation a slide or two about ‘cultural awareness’. While that request may be exclusive to me considering my local circumstances, I’m quite sure Mr. Gore will consider it with a grin. At least my climate reality presentations wouldn’t metamorphose into a one credit cultural studies class.

September wasn’t just about chicken stew sorry stories. I had a great time at Earth Walk in Plainfield, spending the whole day with a bunch of awesome staff, children and teens. It goes into my archives as the best day in my entire Fellowship so far. I enjoyed the time in the woods cooking, telling authentic ‘earth stories' and carving my own spindle and fire board for a bow drill.

I believe October would even be better. Guess what? I get to see Al Gore speak at University of Vermont. And off course, chicken stew, I wouldn’t smell you in my fridge again. Mushroom soup has taken your place in my heart.

Vermont: Explain Yourself

With other leaders from the Community Solutions Program

I  entered Reagan National Airport like a cow in a china shop, guileless. The airport is small but so choked with travellers that I was literally dehydrated after the long check-in which was a mission indeed. But as soon as the aircraft kissed the tarmac, dancing on the Burlington runway, I was invigorated. Minutes before landing, while dangling in the sky, I had been greeted by the lush green landscape and then upon disembarking, the joy of seeing solar panels sitting on roof tops. Incredibly green, progressive Vermont!

I didn’t really have much expectations coming to the Green Mountain State for my four months Community Solutions Fellowship with 350Vermont, but at this stage, I had figured out many more. First impression they say is the last impression, mine was everlasting. Having received a warming welcome by my amazing community mentor and 350Vermont volunteers organizer Brittany Dunn, I ushered into my first week in Burlington. Hoping that through adventure and glorious serendipity, Vermont will explain itself.

My first weekend was spent at the Farmers Market at the City Hall Park, an indoor local farmers market providing the community with producer grown and produced products. What made me tick about the farmers market was the fact that food items on display were locally grown and the powerful sense of community and belonging expressed by the people who thronged the space to interact and buy. The closest inspiration of a community market back in Ghana that I have visited is the Accra Green Market. What an amazing experience it was visiting with the team from our organization Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM) within the last two years.

The first Sunday was spent at the Unitarian Universalist Church. As a devout Christian and an activist, it was truly a humbling experience communing with people from all walks of life, conscious about social and environmental justice and are either people of faith or are finding their own path. But maybe, the ‘kairos moment’ was rather the selfie moment -- in front of the Church’s incredible parking lot inundated with solar panels, the largest solar infrastructure I have ever seen on a parking lot. It wasn’t just progressive and impressive, it was inspiring and transforming.

I didn’t have to ask for more in my first week in Vermont before it got delivered. Meeting JT Lukens, a Solar Community Organizer at SunCommon presented an in-depth insight into the solar friendly policies in the state, coupled with the financing strategies driving the solar revolution in Vermont. It was also indeed a great opportunity to share the Ghanaian renewable energy journey, challenges and potentials, as well as the work we are doing with Solar People in Ghana with an amazing and passionate team of  young entrepreneurs, technicians and marketers to promote the solar technology.

There is definitely more to Vermont that I haven’t experienced so far in Burlington. I hope to travel more to Montpelier to meet non-profit organizations; attend conferences on solar energy; eat more sandwiches to fatten me up a little; get the attention of Juniper, my housemate’s dog to take a photo with me. And in the course of this adventure, if I face any conundrum, I won’t hesitate to yell, Vermont: explain yourself!

Tech Needs Girls, the Planet Needs Them More

Children and women are affected by climate change the most; technology transfer will help solve the crisis.

Somewhere in July this year, I received an invitation from my friend Regina Agyare; it wasn’t for a birthday party or a graduation ceremony. Regina is a world class Ghanaian software developer and the CEO of Soronko Solutions, a software developing company in Ghana. Soronko had started a project called ‘Tech Needs Girls’, a movement that is inspiring, empowering and training girls in communities in technology.

My task according to the invitation was to visit one of her Tech Needs Girls hub in Maamobi, a community in Accra, to talk to the girls about the environment. I had heard about these girls, some of whom were from very difficult backgrounds, but have broken many social barriers and already started coding under the tutelage of the Soronko team. I wasn’t particularly flattered by the invitation; I was humbled. Regina was connecting the dots. Children and women are affected by climate change the most; technology transfer will help solve the crisis.

But where do I start the conversation with these girls about the environment? Do I just talk about sanitation and proper waste disposal and leave, or do I paint them the bigger picture- climate change? Should I break down Julia Butterfly Hill’s powerful message on Disposability Consciousness into the simplest terms? How do I even tell them about the climate crisis? More than half of these girls are barely 15yrs; how would they come to terms with the reality? Would they believe me at all? These were questions that vibrated within my head as I made my way to the learning and training hub that afternoon.

When a team member from Soronko picked me up half way in a cab and we exchanged plesantaries, I got an inspiring assurance, “the girls are going to be happy to see you, they are really amazing”. Surely they were, and by then I had decided in my head to tell the story as it is.

I will tell them about the climate reality, the reality they must know now, the reality about the future created for them by past and present generations driven by greed, profit and insatiable economic injustice. “We’ve knocked back the ‘good’ times - the greed times – and now we are lurching about like drunkards trying to pretend we just need a cup of coffee and then we will be fine to drive”.

Then again I should be careful not to paint a picture of gloom, panic and despair. Our Chairman, Al Gore, admonishes all Climate Reality Leaders to present a message of faith in our generation to solve the crisis and hope for the future. I now know where to start. I won’t only tell the girls about switching their bulbs off when not in use, harvesting rain water or even avoiding wastage of water when they brush their teeth. 

I will also tell them about the sun, the light it gifts and how technology can harness that light to give electricity in their homes. I will tell them that is what will save the planet and will safeguard their technology-driven future.  Tech needs girls but the planet also needs them.

I had an awesome hour with the girls. The sunrays from the windows washed across my face as I attempted to explain solar energy. And when I was asked a question by one of the girls during the Q&A section about where else our electricity in our homes come from, I knew we had made progress.
I left the hub with a short message for the girls, “tech needs girls, but the planet needs you more”.

Of Climate Reality, Football and a Village I Love

I have not written a blog post the whole of 2014. This surprises me considering my deep affection for blogging. But life has been very busy, busier than I had imagined this year would be; and I could hardly keep track. One of my resolutions for this year was to visit 12 new villages in Ghana to talk to children and young people about the environment. My goal was to train a new generation of young people who are passionate about the climate and are driven enough to take action. The vision is to see the youth environmental movement spread to every nook and cranny of Ghana and I believe we could start from villages and peri-urban communities where environmental awareness is very low and opportunities extremely less.

Earlier this March, I became a Climate Reality Leader — personally trained by former US Vice President Al Gore, to educate the public about the causes, dangers and possible solutions to the global climate crisis. Johannesburg was a huge inspiration for me and the hundreds of people who flew from all over the world to learn from Chairman Gore.

At the Climate Reality Leadership Corps

My first Act of Leadership after Climate Reality was a presentation to the youth group of OrphanAid Africa, more than 70 young people between the ages of 18-26 who had chosen the environment as a topic to discuss for the month of March. To many of them, global warming was a distant term they only hear in literature and from the media; but to others too, it was a stark reality they were confirming once again through the photos of wild fires, drought and floods. By the time I finished the hour long session, the room was dead silent you could hear a pin drop. A young girl stood up and asked, “Sir, what can we do to stop global warming?”I smiled.

Climate Reality presentation for young people from OrphanAid Africa

Soon the time came to visit my first new village. I made a 7hrs journey to Amoako village in the Jasikan District of the Volta Region of Ghana. My friend Emmanuel had fallen in love with this awesome little community during his national service days. For the love of the underprivileged kids and the startling absence of opportunities to support their development, he chose to stay to serve the village. I wanted to see this village and meet these amazing children.

The road to Amoako village from Nketsi, the nearest village is 8km and can only be accessed by foot or a motor bike

I heard the boys of school going age in the village really loved football. Well, football is my second passions too, so why not play football and use soccer as a tool to talk about the environment?  Prince, my team member from the Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM) made the trip, and being a football addict himself, the stage was set. We had a great soccer game and afterwards an interactive chat about the environment laced with ice breakers. What a fulfilling day it was! Amoako is a village without electricity, we will travel back there in August to promote solar energy using football.

The Amoako village Eco-Soccer team

You Made Me A Better Person in 2013. Happy New Year!!

My last 2 Christmas' were very lonely. Two years ago, I spent Christmas Day sick and stuck in London Gatwick airport after eating a bad food in Istanbul-Turkey, throwing up miserably and causing so much discomfort to passengers and cabin crew. I was welcomed home in Birmingham the next day drained and dehydrated. Last year, I spent it at home in Ghana with my housemate in our little space in Odorkor. I was very broke after a hectic year of delivering more with less. We didn't cook any decent meal, we bought on the streets— a mirror of the reality of millions who have no chance at a simple Christmas meal of rice, stew and dry fish.

This year hasn't been particularly special and perfect, but I have gone through 2013 coming in contact with people who have loved, cared, taught and supported me in diverse ways, of which I'm grateful about and want to show my deepest gratitude. Gratitude comes from the word 'gratis', which means 'free'. So in essence, I'm grateful for everything all of you reading this note freely impacted and invested in my life. "Gratitude is the freeing expression of a free heart toward one who freely gave".

2013 was like a dragon with a gift in it's mouth. Taming the animal was to take 365 days of learning, living and leading. I am not saying I didn't achieve anything, what I mean is that our maturity as leaders could take our entire lifetime. We will land, but we will still have weaknesses, no one is ubermensch. I've always seen transformation as a complete change from acorn to an oak tree; or like the sight of a giant ultra modern hospital funded by the P.E.A.C.E Plan to replace a torturing former site of genocide in Rwanda. But what about our daily struggles, suffering and sorrows? They are also part of our transformation! So we shouldn't discard them, we should share them. Always focusing and sharing our successes might generate competition, but continuously sharing our struggles promote community.

We've thought about leadership to be all about influence, charisma and having followers. But how about it becoming the other way round— sharing, supporting and serving others with our entire humanity. How about being a servant, leading from a position of weakness? How about being a listerner, the art of influencing people with our ears? How about avoiding unproductive arguments that sap our energy and focusing on winning people rather than arguments. I have purposed in my heart to learn and practice these.

In the year 2014, I have no huge expectations to be honest. I have only a revelation to spend time building my relationships with everyone around me. My good friend John-Son Oei, a recipient of the Augustman Magazine Man of the Year award and one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Malaysia today who builds houses for poor people opened my eyes to an important truth we often ignore as leaders, as we shared our traditional end of year lessons— "the value of a team set in the right foundations of love, trust and emphasis on relationships over performance".

So that will be my priority. And building relationship with people requires time investment. I see time as John Taylor's "Chronophage", outside Cambridge’s Taylor Library of Corpus Christi College. It has a grasshopper with a huge chomping mouth eating up every minute with a half swag. Time is boring but it's the most expensive gift we can give others because they cannot pay for it.

So many things occurred in 2013; I was transformed by the love and focus of Saddleback Church; the Environmental Movement ran a highly successful campaign against coal in Ghana; I attended my first Bar Camp; Ronny got married; My Australia friend living in Ghana, Eleanor made me lasagne after 18months of not eating it; and Anna Rose sent me her first book 'Madlands' from far away Australia which was to transform my activism and convert my friend who was a climate skeptic.

In 2014, I look forward to leading and serving the Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM), supporting Pass-A-Book-On, Dress-A-Kid, Share-Your-Lunch, Helplan, AYW-G and all the great initiatives up and running here. At GYEM, we call it our 'Year of Growth'— advancing our passion, purpose and partnership and building leaders of courage, competence and character to shift power with tools, techniques and technology. I'm looking forward to our first ever National Power Shift 2014 and Exponential 2014.

I also look forward to the World Cup in Brasil, "the land of keepie-uppies, sarongs & thongs". But before all that, I don't want to miss the reality of thanking everyone reading this note, because throughout 2013 in the midst of the fun, success, pain, pressure, problems, trials, tests, temptations and tribulations, you loved me, you supported me, you chided me, you criticised me, but in all that you didn't make me bitter, you made me a BETTER person.

Happy New Year!!!