100 Seconds to Midnight

This is not a time for pessimism.  This is a time for optimism.  This is a time for tremendous hope and joy and optimism and action.  But to embrace the possibilities of tomorrow we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse.    Donald Trump speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 2020 President Trump I do not agree that we should dismiss expert opinion nor should we use inflammatory language in doing so, but on the time for optimism and action you might have a point. Optimism on the day we leave the EU, you're joking right?!! Err, actually no, I'm not. This week I listened to 'What happened when Trump removed the experts?' on the BBC Radio 4 podcast 'Beyond Today'.  In this episode author Micheal Lewis talks about how Trump and Boris Johnson are tapping into anger for their political gain, and that, in his view, one of the most important issues facing us is how we control our emotional respon...

If there's ever a time to wake up, it's now Jerry Brown, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists At half past three on the 24 January 2019 I was the very grateful recipient of a one to one mentoring session aimed at kick starting my creative career, the photograph symbolic of my time having come. A year later and I can't help but feel that I've allowed it to slip by, in part due to feeling overwhelmed by living in a world that I increasingly don't recognise nor feel part of, a place where greed and consumerism are rife and pride in humanity is harder to find. I have made some progress with the launch of my creative career, but hurtling towards my 50th birthday I often become unstuck by technology that I don't understand and, a past master at self sabotage, it doesn't take much to throw me off course. I am very proficient at putting blocks in my way and sitting behind any number of excuses as to why not to do something. Yet over the past year there has al...