Regenerative Futures Fund:

The importance of technology in all that we do

For more information please contact the Regenerative Futures Fund

[Any text in square brackets in this article is an editorial comment]

I normally write my pieces on my smartphone, – very easy to do.  I can type away, and no one knows what I am doing.  I could be texting, I could, almost be doing anything. I must be a Martini writer.  That is any time, any place, anywhere.   Our multipurpose technology allows me to add stuff, as I wish.  I am doing it, casually, throughout the day.   Amazing!  The secret about how I use my smartphone is out!

However, one day I was in a meeting…

I remember it well. A woman, I have no idea who she was, was typing on her iPhone.  ‘How rude’ I thought. She then stopped, and appeared, to be actively listening.   

She started typing again.  

The chair (not a 4 legged one), spouted.  Mrs. Jones “Stop texting during this meeting, it is very rude, and bad manners.  Your phone should be switched off”

For a moment, I thought, ‘He must have been reading my mind, but if he had? He may not have said that. ‘ I could go on, but let me tell you the rest of the story.

Indignantly she said.

“Chair, I must object.  On my iPhone, I have the agenda, I also have the minutes of the previous meeting, and as the debate progresses I make notes on my iPhone, so that when I leave the meeting, I may be able to do something to help. What is being said is important, and I don’t want to wait for the minutes of the previous meeting to be produced”

The red-faced (literally!) Chair promptly apologised.

That lady is actively creating, taking someone else’s words, and converting them into ideas, tasks, thoughts, and inspiration.

Usually, my creation, new creation, or more accurately when I write a story, I use my iPhone or iPad.   But not this time, I took my laptop off my piano. 

No! 

Not to write or make music, but to play with the sweet melody of words. Words that will sing a song about this story.   That is how important this message is.  Perhaps pen and paper might be better.  But, my scrawls!  No one, but no one, would be able to decipher it.

The downside of a smartphone is that  I can’t type as quickly as I can write.   But for me, the mobile phone is my nerve centre.  I can use it for all sorts of things.  I could switch the central heating on, and open the garage door.  It is almost the nerve centre of all of our lives.

Therefore, when we do business, most of it is done on a smartphone.  That is Over 60% of people use this technology to:

• Scroll Social Media,
• Read websites
• Look for stuff to buy
• Check out organsiations and businesses

Therefore, almost any activity in our day-to-day lives must be smartphone-friendly first,  not just Smartphone-responsive.  Currently, we use mobile phones for 95% of our computing activities.

While smartphones are currently the fad for everyone, in 10 years, it may be something else. We always need to embrace new technology.

‘The Regenerative Futures Fund’

You may wonder what the subject is about. As a starting point, it is titled…

  “Regenerative, Futures Fund”.  

And I did wonder too.  

Expectations are a classic debate,  one about closing High Street stores and redeveloping town centres into housing or hotel development or something else along those lines.

My planned story would have included other ways.  Other techniques as an alternative to converting shops into houses, that would regenerate an area. And I could have easily produced counter-examples, to make the story enjoyable.

But that was not the subject. That is the exclusion part of the project.  The bit Project Managers will say ‘It is the bit that is out of scope’ 

The in-scope bit…

So what is it all about?  So let me start from the beginning

One of the great people of all time is Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  

His ‘I Have a Dream speech‘ crystalises most of the story.  However, it is still only a part of it.  The key here is:

– the ‘Dream’. 

If you have not read the speech, then please do.    Simply, he was in the right place at the right time.

Background to the dream

But, many people are in the wrong place, at the wrong time. It is difficult for them to grow, and the numbers in this group are escalating.  In a similar way to COVID-19, it is a disease.  In this case, it is not a medical issue, but one of our own, that is society’s making.  That in my view, is caused by the systems we have created and use.  

It traverses skin colour, sex,  ethnicity, politics, residential status, and religion.  The disease is spreading and no one is excluded.  And as a response, our politicians and others, appear to put together short-term solutions that don’t work or provide a partial solution to a specific issue.

Gifts of Humanity

Now back to the positives. In my view every human being on this planet is great. We all have wonderful gifts.  Gifts to contribute to our world.  But given, how we are now organised, those gifts are not harvested or are only partially utilised.  The world would be much better and richer if all our gifts were maximised.

The Disease

To resolve the issue, we need to eradicate the disease.  One that is a side effect of the Industrial Revolution and further automation.

The disease is such that:

– We can’t vaccinate against,
– we can’t socially distance it,
– and sadly, we accidentally, segregate people that have it.

Government Policy Impacts on Our Lives

Current UK government policy in my view will increase it.  One example is the withdrawal of winter fuel allowance.  Many Grandmas and Grandpas in Scotland this year and early next year may die in Scotland because of it.  Anyone with any common sense knows temperatures drop very low here. It follows, that more winter fuel is used, and in today’s economic climate in the UK, that switch-on costs serious money, unlike other countries.

The disease of the very young and the old…

Additionally, everyone is different, for instance after waiting for a bus for over an hour, on a snow-filled day, I start to shiver excessively, and some parts of my body start their slow shutdown down.  Meanwhile, other people, including my lovely wife, are all quite happy, and not feeling any issues.  Luckily, a nearby hotel in Inverkeithing provided a free hot coffee, and after a few glasses of wine, we returned home in a taxi, safely.

That disease is called Hypothermia.

However,  that is not what I am talking about. I and the event organisers are talking about something much more serious. It is the real killer, and it is called…

“- o – – –  t -” 

To find out more, you can read the event report below.  That report outlines what the event organisers had to say, and provides some ideas and a long-term strategy,  one based on the organiser’s dream.

Nearly £6 million raised for Regenerative Futures Fund:

The Event

Mary Robson (Chairperson)  raised the issues, or questions to the two poets/authors and a Chief Executive.  That is…

What does one need to be put in place to allow for transformational, long-term change in our communities? 

And who gets to imagine and act out this change? 

Then she talked about something that helps people take back control.  It is a method that I suggest takes away from:

• your last two pieces of bread burnt to a cinder in the toaster.  
• your daughter’s just lost her precious doll that cannot be found. 
• you are running out of money to feed the meter
• you are trying to work out how tonight you will feed your children
• the car stops for lack of fuel, as you have just spent your last fiver on eggs, bread, and fish fingers for tonight’s tea.  No butter, nor spread. That crumpled fiver or worn dull, an overworked plastic note, could not do the trick.
• For people at work, their job has gone mad, always rushing,  and pushing, there is never any time. It is all a stressor.

And the list goes on.

A method used for Future Fridays (A side project). It is very similar to the one that was used while I was in primary school…

That is to calm everyone excited or suffering from:

The stress and strain
the rushes of life
the headaches and pain
the complaints from one’s partner, hubby, or wife
the hell of robbing Peter
to him, how do I pay?
the feeding of the meter
Is that what I say?

Why is each day, about a handful of dimes?
We do not make hay
When the sun shines
small storms make life, deeply grey
It has been this way for years, years! and years!!
I must with sadness say,
Our world is full of pain and woeful tears 

Every day with vigour I pray
That this dreadful disease will simply go away,
And only then there is
An end to our people’s weeps, tears, pain, and fear.
There must be a way
to bring hope, freedom, and joy to the poor everywhere.

You may have noticed, but I have written a poem here.  That is part of their secret sauce, using aids to tell their story, a short story. In this case a poem. BUT, I digress. So back to the plot, the calming technique.

This technique may be known as silent time. An opportunity for dreams, or more correctly…

‘Still time’ to explore your dreams and your future.  That is ‘Still’ as in…

‘Still the night’ 

Some churches sing Still the Night,  as an alternative to the well-known carol, ‘Silent Night’, during Advent and at nativities.  

But there is another word from our ancestors,  circa 1590-1600, and  I must add three words from a fantastic pop sung by the Tremolos… ‘Silence is golden’. However,  the words, ‘Silence, silent or still’ do not quite say it all. It may surprise you but there is one word.  One from 1590 that will do and that comes later in this text.

…And then without further ado Mary introduced three extraordinary women…

Leah Black [Originally seconded from WHALE Arts, a cultural Anchor Organisation in Wester Hailes,  to the Edinburgh Voluntary Organisation Council in August 2022] – to initiate Edinburgh’s Regenerative Futures fund.  Funded from July 2024 and is hosted by Foundation Scotland.

Two Creators sit alongside Leah, Shasta Ali (writer, poet, and antiracism campaigner), and Vicky Nyanga-Ndiaye (writer, poet, and founder of Project Esperanza, the migrant support charity).

All there to discuss the importance of collective imagination and why we need to shift away from short-term thinking.

Then Mary handed it over to Leah Black.    

She explained that she is the founder and Head of Regeneration Futures Fund (Hosted by Foundation Scotland) a ten-year community fund for Edinburgh that puts decision-making power in the hands of the most often excluded. She is an experienced leader and Chief Executive.  One that weaves between communities, Charities, Funding, Public Sector, Philanthropy, creativity, imagination and complexity

The fund supports approaches to improving the lives of people living in poverty and experiencing racism.  It contributes towards a just green transition, by enabling equity, power-sharing, and long-term change.

The aim is to launch the 10-year fund in 2025, with the first phase of capacity building launching in 2024. It will provide funding and support 10-15 community organisations in Edinburgh for 10 years.  At the end of this article, you will find the locations in Edinburgh that may benefit from the scheme.

The fund for each organisation will be up to £100,000 a year.

And the great news is that nearly £6m has already been raised for the project.

You can find out more about regenerative futures on their website.

regenerativefuturesfund.org.uk

And on her blog

https://leah-black.medium.com/

[As we all know Wester Hailes has been designated an area of deprivation since 1974, and that is the case some 50 years on. Similarly, other deprived areas of Edinburgh need attention too!]

Leah mentioned her work with the Community.  The many challenges, the frustration. The anger when things don’t quite work out.  

You will have noticed a bit of poetry, earlier in this piece.  It just popped out, as I wrote. It is the creation, in this case poetry that calms the storm.  Soothes, and quells the anger. It could have been a musical composition, a new song, a bit of carpentry, some knitting, writing a book, or washing the dishes, but now I am stretching the definition of creation!

I sometimes play ‘Finlandia’  or compose a tune,  to relieve the tension.  But I really must remember to put my headphones on!  My neighbours may not appreciate the tunes or the volume of the music!

The side story is Future Fridays,  an event that Shasta Ali and Jennifer Williams led. That is a time for a moment of stillness, a time to dream a dream. A dream of one’s own and that of the Community.  A dream where locals influence change. A change from the grassroots,  one that is not imposed from above, but one that the community drives. A dream of a new future.

Some participants are encouraged to write poems and short stories. These are published for those who have not had their works published before.

But for all of this funding is needed.

And,  as we are all aware for funding one needs measurable outcomes.  The bean counters need solid evidence that money is well spent.  That is:

• a record of outcomes, 
• an audit trail, to provide comfort to the stakeholders, and it is also short-term.

Often the long-term story is forgotten.  The bottom line is that for humans to progress we are driven by our ability to create, and our dream to fuel any change.  Change that will improve all our futures.

[Editorial Comment]

[Biblically, Moses’s dream was to exit Egypt with his people, but he never saw it. However,  the following generations did. Moses ‘missed the boat’.  However, NASA had the dream of flying to the moon.  Yes! NASA had the good fortune to fire their very crude ship (spaceship or in this case rocket), one that successfully landed a man on the moon, and returned to planet Earth]

[All because of many people sharing the same dream.]

[Human endeavour needs dreams, if we don’t have one, there is no boat to miss, nor a ship/rocket to sail/fly/launch, and we never reach the destination of success.  The biggest thing about this is that the dream leads the way.  A way that  allows humans to progress.]

[End of Editorial comment]

The team chatted about outcomes, fluffiness, and short-term funding.  The obvious lack of long-term planning.  The pros and cons of funding – including the agony of surprise funding opportunities.  A task that is a challenge,  one that can be completed if one has no sleep for a week!

[Editorial note]

[Schemes have been introduced to improve the Wester Hailes, but 50 years on, there is no community council, however,  there is a Community Trust.  

The Edinburgh Neighbourhood Project is closed, Edinburgh Community Grants are gone (a 404 is generated on the Edinburgh Council website), and the local trust has registered a land plan in 2023.]

[End of note]

Leah talked about the need to involve the community.  After all, the community is the biggest stakeholder. 

 [Editorial note and opinion] That community involvement is important for other reasons too.  Wester Hailes will become an Edinburgh Council twenty-minute zone in 2030, as will other areas of Edinburgh.  To achieve this Edinburgh Council will certainly have a lot of work to do, and organise many consultations. On the other hand, they may survey people without telling the audience the full purpose and the whole story about the reasons for their questions. From what I have observed and have read in local Edinburgh news sources, it is my view Edinburgh Council staff when performing surveys typically withhold critical information when talking or writing to residents.

[End of Editorial Note]

Poem by Linda Craik, read by Shasta Ali

Following Leah’s talk she handed over to the chair who brought on Shasta Ali a writer, poet, and antiracism campaigner.  She started and announced that she would read a poem. One that was published at, 6 pm Monday 26th August 2024 in an anthology “There will always be questions”.   The poem bears the same name and is written by Linda Craik.  I have tried to recover the poem from my scrawled notes…

“There always will be questions
More than answers
But that  is no excuse
Not to imagine the dream
Working together is the key
To achieving a positive outcome

‘Respect other views
But don’t let go of your own
Because maybe, just maybe
Your view will be the most positive one
Every plan starts off as someone’s dream
It then evolves with a bit of imagination
To become a real thing
To regenerate a community
it starts with a dream

The audience claps enthusiastically,  followed by a short lull.

’Thank you Shasta and Linda”

A discussion about the importance of creativity followed.

The speaker then says…

“Let us have an experience of:..”

Then she mentions the magic word, created circa 1590.

It starts with a “Q’ and ends in e.

That is ‘Quietude’ and here are the dictionary definitions…

Quietude  https://see-it-here.com/Quietude 

Quietude is a noun. the state of being quiet; tranquility; calmness; stillness: ‘After the storm passed, there was a lovely quietude.’ The phrase and the word spell out the state of perfect peace. Far better than the words Silent, or still.  Just with one word the phrase ‘Silence is Golden’ is replaced. Quietude!

Quietude led by Shasta

She said…

’Normally, this takes about ten to fifteen, to twenty minutes

‘But don’t worry,  this will take two or three minutes.

[I have reduced summarized this short experience. Much more was said.]

‘Close your eyes and relax’

“We will spend a few minutes in Quietude”

“Imagine the year is now 2044” 

My mind wanders…

‘Now that is a challenge’

‘Will I be on the planet in 2044? 

‘My age would be 88 or more’

‘Will I be here?’

‘I could be called home’

‘What’s that?’

“Have a nap if you like”

“Take a deep breath”

“is it nature you are enjoying?”

“A building?”

“Is it the vastness of the space?”

“What does grow”

“Keep walking”

“Keep feelin”

“What can you hear?”

• animals
  – traffic
  – birds
  – children

“What is the World like?”

“What colours, scents, and smells?”

“Take a look around you”

“What is the future?”

”Feel the wind”

”What do you experience’

“Look around again, and remember”

“Take a deep breath”

“Open your eyes again”

“Some wake from their [power] nap’”

Some wake from [their Tardis], their [future] time machine.

A new speaker takes the stage, Vicky Nyanga-Ndiaye writer, poet, and founder of Project Esperanza, the migrant support charity) to read a poem  ‘Unpolished and Black’“.  The text below is an extract and not the full poem

I am Unpolished and Black?
No place to call home
Looking. Back on it now
I realise that life was awful
Sleeping on night buses
With no place to call home
The living conditions were more than normal
But being in that situation seemed very normal
The bad days were unbearable
Almost beating my child to death
For not using Yesterday’s cooking oil
Because a gallon is more than I can afford

‘God Help my Children!

’I have been living in a system that has turned me into a criminal

Lots  of claps

A question and answer session followed.  Thoughts are discussed

What is collective Creativity?

• Co-creation
• Equal partnership with all involved
  – humility
  – Most conversations are the core of the process
  – People need to engage with the decision-makers
  [For the above there needs to be a major step change by everyone,  as currently people are consulted after the decision.  That is if they are fortunate, or after the money has been spent, but that is amazingly too late. Time is the most important factor]
• and no one is looking at the longer term and consulting with the people
• There [urgently] needs to be a conversation about system change
  – co-creation is about how we showcase our, stories

And finally, the talk was concluded with a poem, read by Shasta

It partially sums up the rift we have in our world, and was a last-minute change by her…

This poem was written over 10 months ago, but the death toll numbers have increased. [If one looks at an article in ‘Truth Out! the death toll is now estimated to be 186,000] 

See https://truthout.org/articles/researchers-estimate-true-gaza-death-toll-at-186000-or-more/. “

People of Gaza
Ceasefire
You’re tired of hearing about Gaza,
but It is 40,000 people dead
and still
No Ceasefire

The World blinks through hashtags
Lineages removed
Burning a blaze
Ceasefire
Sometimes Gaza climbs inside the word guzzle
Sit in an inhospitable hole
But each hell… repeatedly
Repeatedly, refrain to say…
Ceasefie

A compass will still point home,
Even if home is occupied by uninvited guests
Even if all that is left
Is a rubble of concrete dust
And a heart filled of
A man awaiting a…
Ceasefire

My Father always said
There is a reason that God made night
To rest, to heal, to dream

He taught me to lay my trust in darkness
Believe in the very next day
Fudger, Pray,
Ceasefire

He taught me,  pray, ceasefire
Words being the only weapon of choice,
Ceasefire

A rapturous applause ended the session.

For balance, a poem from the Guardian readers’  letter page.

Guy Naamati, a former resident of Kibbutz Re’im in Israel, shares a poem he wrote in response to the Hamas attack, while another reader describes the pain of seeing atrocities brushed off or even justified

Fri 13 Oct 2023 18.16

Spared, October 2023
“That Love is all there is,
Is all we know of Love”
– Emily Dickinson

It wasn’t us. We weren’t there
When terrorists attacked at dawn
Death and bloodshed everywhere
But we still live. And they are gone

Imagining how it would feel
Taken hostage by a gun
Or shot while dancing in a field
Not to see another sun

Opinion

[Editorial opinion – In the Gaza Ceasefire poem the word pray is used…]

[What is worrying for everyone…  Soon, we will not be able to pray aloud or quietly, as that may not be allowed too! The intervention of the thought police is a very frightening prospect. Our freedoms in the name of safety and sensitivity to others are being eroded]

My conclusion 

For the future the journey is long.

Some will say what is being done is impossible, but as others have said in the past…

• It was impossible to fly
• it was impossible to land a man safely on the moon and return
• It was impossible to sail past the horizon as we may fall off the edge
• It was impossible to have a flat-screen TV

Anyone, advocating any of these impossibilities has been ridiculed. BUT they had a dream, and not only that but other people had the same dream too!

One difficulty is converting a bit of fluffiness into an outcome.  Usually described as successes. However, some achievements cannot be easily measured.  One might need a verified subjective perception score 

The big risk is failure and it can be hard to find success.  But there is a fine line between success and failure.  Therefore, any project management needs the ability to push a project from failure to success, and the wisdom to identify that there may be the odd occasion that:

-no matter how much one does try,
-no matter how much money one throws at it,
-whatever one is trying to do… One may fail

Then close it, and learn from any mistakes, and move on.

In communities, organisations and people that represent the community, already exist.  Examples are Community Councils, Trusts, politicians, rent and ratepayers associations, churches, schools and educational establishments, hospitals, GPS, MPs, MSPs, Councils, and key stakeholders. All community projects should take them all on board.  Sow the seeds, and let the organisations work out how they can help.

One should never forget the dream. Remember – Nothing Is Impossible.  

For any project, there are two fantastic books.  The first is PRINCE 2, a project management tool.  The second is the Bible – not everyone’s cup of tea.  However, one will find a lot of stuff,  used by management teams. 

The big focus, stuff like this takes time.  As in Moses’s dream, he missed the boat and someone else took them out of Egypt, and to quote Luke Chapter 1 verse 37 “For with God nothing is impossible”.  

However,  fifty years have passed, but in Wester Hailes, there have been some small successes.  However, as a creator, along with other creatives, the Regenerative Futures team, with the community teams will succeed. That is a transformation greater than one could ever expect.  The dream realised, through creativity, energy, cooperation, and enthusiasm. 

I nearly forgot, to say what that  disease is?

The answer…

Simply, it is ‘Poverty’.  It is becoming highly infectious, and growing with the increasing number of closures and redundancies.  Any closure, no matter where will multiply misery.

The promise from politicians was leveling up.  Not too sure what the promise is now.  But the reality is, we are leveling down.  To quote a cliche, the rich are becoming richer, and the poor are becoming poorer. Only the people of communities can break the downward spiral.

The way forward is “Creativity, Imagination, Healing, Hope, and Joy”

 Some of the critical downward economic factors for the future:

-net zero, 

the rumoured 2030 great reset (See explanation below)

-the 2030 twenty-minute zones,

• finally how our politicians manage any economic and climate changes.

We are in a time of excessive change, and any reader of economic history will tell you at these times there are always winners and losers.

And any change poorly managed may be painful for many. The trick is to manage the change.

The largest pain is for the poor.  In my view, there is no need to charge extra for fuel in the winter, when the UK is blessed with abundant energy sources.  Ironically, we in Scotland create energy, mainly from renewables (solar, ocean, and wind power)  Scotland exports it elsewhere. The charge is a classic private enterprise strategy of low prices in the summer, when demand is low, and high prices when the fuel is in huge demand. That adds another £150 to the bill when pensioners lose their winter fuel allowance, which adds insult to injury. A double blow to the majority of pensioners, and an additional unnecessary one to those struggling with poverty, anywhere in the UK. The bit I don’t get is why most other countries have lower fuel prices, the Isle of Man being a prime example.

The Great Reset

It is rumoured, that in 2030, in a bid to achieve net zero quickly, our incomes will reduce or prices of goods and services will increase. That is to allow the net zero project to succeed.  Politicians on GB News have discussed this topic. It is part of the great green plan for that year, which includes the implementation of 20-minute zones.

One final thought… A quote from me…

‘The truth is… The citizens of the UK are the salt of the earth, they have hidden riches and talents (not taxable ones), that could help make things fly. It all depends on how things are done. People are the root of progress.  They need help to make things happen and not be overly controlled and constrained.’

And the truth is “We Have A Dream”.  Scottish World Cup Squad – 1982″

Scotland did have a dream and Scotland did well  And that is the secret to economic success, believe in the dream.

Should you wish to help the Regenerative Futures fund in any way, you can do so by completing their contact form

Note 1. Potential areas that may receive funding could be:-

• Niddrie
• Muirhouse
• Sighthill
• Wester Hailes
• Gilmerton.

Note 2. Recent additional proposed challenges for those in poverty

• The removal of the single household occupancy relief.  This is a regressive tax measure.  One not recommended by anyone with any economic knowledge. It hits women more than men, some women being single pensioners,  others being widowed, and single ladies not of pension age.

It would be better to include people in the household above two occupants who are active in the economy.  This would make the Council Tax progressive again. No! it is not a Community Charge, the bill would be for the responsible property owners’ or rent payers’.   Of course, as an alternative, local authorities could be given the power to have a local sales or purchase tax (Not VAT).  There are many other options.

• The increased pension age to 68. This is not good for anyone close to retirement, and a slap in the face for young people looking to retire at 60/65 or earlier to enjoy the balance of their life.  By retiring early,  another job is available now. It also reduces the costs of unemployment, sickness, and other benefits.