Robert Simpson's Page

How did you hear about Open World Café?

I heard about Open World Cafe from my friend Joshua Konkankoh who lives in Yaounde, Cameroon and is Founder of BetterWorld Cameroon ngo and director of the Ndanifor Community Garden Project, amongst other things.

About Me:

I belong to the '68 generation, so have always been subject to a certain "blessed unrest". I trained as an architect but found myself better at building spiritual community through gardening and the visual arts. This has been my sadhana and my anchorhold.

About my business:

Today I work as an activist and social entrepreneur in the locality I have know since the early '60s, which is the country around Farnham on the Surrey and Hampshire county borders. My work has led to the establishment of a peri-urban food growing project that produces locally grown vegetables for Farnham people. I am now working to establish Farnham as a Transition Town promoting local community resilience to the twin impacts of Climate Change and Peak Oil. In Bentley village, where I live, I am leading the launch of our Greening Campaign to reduce the C02 emissions of the village.

What I want:

My hope is that we will all create a more effective democratic and ecologially informed local governance for the bio-regions within which we live. Also that our local focus will have global outreach in the form of direct, intimate transnational links with communities in the South through which we can share our different journeys of transition.

What I´m doing about it:

So what I'm doing, working with others, is to prepare a seedbed for the graceful transition to a new positive future. Because I think our profoundest disconnection is with food production and the land itself, that is where I am focussing my effort. My next step is to establish a community supported agriculture (CSA) project as part of the evolution of a local food system.

For me, Leadership is . . .

Empowering others to take responsibility for the change they want.

For me, Sustainability is . . .

Creating independence through interdepedence.

For me, Open World Café is . . .

A place to share, encourage, learn and inspire actions.

My contribution to Open World Café is . . .

Spreading the word

My Favourite Quote:

Be the change

My favourite movie, and my favourite book

Soil and Soul: people versus corporate power. a book by alastair McIntosh

My passion is . . .

More celebration

My greatest fear is . . .

More inertia