Seth Godin The concept of broken

Watch these videos they are very entertaining, he explores the concept he put forward of “Broken Ideas”.

Anything in Kensington and Fairfield which is “broken?

Kensington Regeneration BME event

I’ve been mulling over whether to write this entry since attending the above event on Saturday last.

Some background might be useful, part of the Kensington (and Fairfield) are of Liverpool has been the subject of a £62.5 million New Deal for Communities grant which lasts for ten years and has fifteen months to run. In 2000 when we got the grant the area had a  BME population of 5% but it is now reckoned to be nearer 25%. The rapid influx had a lot to do with the government’s dipsersal of refugees and asylum seekers, to areas with low cost accomodation.

So this facilitated conference has been held before the New Deal finishes, but I’m not really sure at the behest of who (or is it whom?). Some of the BME individuals there seemed to be a bit bemused at why the event was taking palce now and nowseveral years ago. The structure of the event also left a lot to be desired, the usual range of commented flipcharts, post it notes, wish lists etc etc. been there done that got the cynicism.

The two things that did strike me, firstly was the level of cynicism regarding the event at elast on my table and the usefulness of it (with such a short length of time left before KNDC winds up, thenthere be timefor any of the recommendations from the event be implemented), and secondly during the feedback sessions the level of agreement about what the area k might needs (I think wasnt solely a BME request and sneither should it be), what everyone seemed to hanker for which was a large well resourced community centre/space. This idea didn’t just spring new born from this conference, in fact it has been kicked about from day one of the New Deal.

There are plans for a very expensive and not particualrly useful Neighbourhood Centre, but given it rests on a level of housing sales and  development, and the centre won’t contain any community facilities, if it does get built and it is a bit BUT at the moment, that project alone will not satiate the desires expressed at the conference. 

What was more worrying that two of the people who reported back to the meeting were Lyn Spencer and Alan Kelly both officers of KNDC and both unguiltily telling everyone there, “Wouldnt it be nice if we had one (communtiy space that it is)” when in reality due to their lack of vision and creativity  there wont be one for the foreseeble future in the area (unless we sort it ourselves that is). Apart from the two aforementioned people there were a few others who should have been holding their heads in shame over the lateness of this BME “inititiative” evetn and the conclusion we need a community centre.

My final criticism is that the whole consultation process has been determined from a white middle class perspective in that most of the problems faced by the BME community are faced by the community at large (white black yellow, etc etc ) and by singling out BME comments like “it’s hard for a refugee to find a job”,  or ” I feel threatened using public transport” can be said equally by anyone in the community (as a fat white middel aged man I find it hard to get a job) by everyone else, the ghettoisation and giving the BME different treatment suits (White) middle class people who run things like this and actually by bending over backwards to the BME, creates a level of resentment which plays into the hands of things like the BNP. Imagine just imagine they built a brand new multi million pound community for the BME Community, who or what would they really be satisfying…..I have a feeling it would be their consciences.

The sooner the BME community realise the problem is class and socio economically related and stop listening to people who are out to tick boxes and earn diverstiy brownie points the better. Its time to face up to the fact that we are all in the same boat, it’s leaking and we didnt buy it, it was povided for us.

Chip Fat Car

Just bought a new car (new to me) on ebay, old Vauxhall diesel estate, which mysteriously runs on Chip Fat, and used chip fat at that.

For the princely sum of £350 I now have a car which runs on used chip oil. No I’m not joking I can either mix it with diesel half an half or add a little bit of white spirit to chip fat on its’ own and leave it for a week.

I have even found a supplier, somewhere I used to work and they are happy to unload it in 20 litre barrels to me. So happy filtering. So the car should pay for itself in no time.

Even Jezzer knows how to do it!!!!!

The only problem is there is a constant smell of cooking chips……mmmmmm

Riverside Tenants and Residents Conference 2008

KensingtonVision recently worked with the Riverside Tenants and Residents Federation filming their conference at the Liner Hotel on October 3rd

The highlights being the popeye impersonation by Tom “Salty” McGuire