Hip Hop Thought for the Day

Our thought for the day is offered today by Lupe Fiasco – The Cool (http://www.lupefiasco.com/)

"Baba Says Cool For Thought" (feat. Iesha Jaco)

They thought it was cool to burn crosses in your front lawn as they hung you from trees in Your backyard.

They thought it was cool to leave you thirsty and stranded.

Katrina.

He thought it was cool to carry a gun in his classroom and open fire, virginia tech columbine,

Stop the violence.

They thought it was cool to tare down the projects and put up million dollar condos,

Gentrification.

They think its cool to stand on the block hiding products in their socks making quick dime bag

Dollars.

They think its cool to to ride down on you in blue and white unmarked cars, bustin you upside Yo head.

Freeze....cause the problem is we think its cool too.

Check your ingredients, before you overdose, on the cool.

useful thoughts

Big changes happen through a collection of small events.

The following marketing blogs deconstruct and disrupt conventional thinking:

http://michaelbatistich.com/
http://trendspotting.posterous.com/

5th November West London Skies

View from our rooftop when the london skies light up.

Radio Nurse

I spotted this object in the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.

The Radio Nurse was the idea of Charles Lindberg, the pioneering 1920's US aviator and advocate of eugenics commissioned this baby monitor in 1932 after his son was abducted and killed.

A beautiful object formed from ugly necessity.

Rathaus Munich

I have always enjoyed the Rotten Boroughs section in Private Eye and when I came across this impressive council administration building I felt that the name was very appropriate for our current local authority fiefdoms in the UK. I advocate our town halls to be renamed THE RATHOUSE.

Oktoberfest 2011

Another world of hedonism in Munich. Bavarians celebrating in their own unique style..

 It takes some getting use to the general conformity to the lederhosen and dirndl but young, old, rich and poor all follow the fashion of the traditional dress.

Ideas on Capitalism 3.0

There are many new and useful thoughts on the next generation of supporting society and the planet. A growing school of thought that aims to be disruptive in the traditional view of economic systems, that being Impact Investing. The markets stranglehold on value, on product, on market, on return and on investment seems to be lacking both creativity and holistic (joined up) thinking. This reminded me of a lecture delivered by the now elusive but then highly influential Jed Emerson who was the pioneer of what he terms the 'Blended Value Proposition'.

In one of his seminal papers, Jed Emerson once said that:

Companies move from marginal profitability to sustainable economic performance as a function of not focusing upon the parts, but rather the total value they have the potential to create. This value comes not only in financial terms but also in environmental and social terms. The intersect of these three constitutes the real value potential of companies.

This wise and sage statement lead me to thinking about the next inevitable stage of capitalism. With austerity riots in Greece and the Arab Spring western democracies are displaying the usual arrogance of laissez faire power brokers but we the people should look at why these things are happening and what are the root causes. Who are the puppet masters and who's strings are being pulled?