Think Act Vote (?!X) Futures Interview Artwork by Vicky Fallon
Sarah Ditty
Sarah Ditty is a freelance ethical fashion writer and founder of popular ethical fashion blog Launderette. She regularly contributes to magazines such as Grit, Creem, Argon and SOURCE Intelligence. With a background working in the fashion industry and a master’s degree in Globalisation and International Development, Sarah manages to find the most stylish, cutting-edge brands and designers bringing together luxury fashion with environmental and social sustainability.
?!X: What’s the Future You Choose?
SD: The future I choose is one built on values of collaboration and altruism, a future where we respect people and planet in equal measures. The future I choose doesn’t ignore failures but honestly embraces them as important agents for positive change. The future I choose places higher value over long-term sustainability rather than short-term gains. The future I choose to build is one that is more promising, more just and more beautiful than what came before.
?!X: What’s a ‘think’ to create this future?
SD: As a writer, my “think” is inspired by Slovenian cultural theorist and philosopher, Slavoj Žižek: “Words are never ‘only words’; they matter because they define the contours of what we can do.”
?!X: What’s an ‘act’ to create the future you choose
SD: Standing up for what you believe in. It may sound cliché, but it is needed now more than ever. Over the last three decades, as employment and livelihoods have become increasingly “flexible” and evermore precarious, we have been made to believe that there’s little space for demanding our many of our rights. This is only a perception. We have to demand better from those in power.
?!X: What’s a ‘vote’ to create the future you choose?
SD: Since I work in ethical fashion, my “vote” is to support those in the fashion industry working towards a more environmentally sustainable and socially responsible future. This means buying their products and supporting their efforts in whatever ways possible.
?!X: Future Soundtrack – What song would you take with you into the future?
SD: Otis Redding – A Change is Gonna Come
?!X: Can you share with us up to 5 weblinks that you find interesting and inspiring?
Anila Babla is the Digital Marketing Manager for Loco2 and loves all things sustainable travel related. It was only when she was older that she realised that not every kid had an “art cupboard” but it was already too late, she was bitten with the craft bug! She works on design projects in her spare time to keep sane, and make sure her artist’s eye/hand isn’t getting too rusty! Although her website is in its “rusty stages”, 2012 will be the year of website updating!
Anila provided a beautiful illustration for the ?!X Futures Project. Bringing to life Joy Green’s Future “one where the cities are full of birds, the oceans are full of fish and the wild areas are coming back. And we all know how to grow vegetables!”
?!X: What’s the Future You Choose?
AB: I would love to see a future of more sharing, less owning, more creating, less consuming, more understanding and less judging. Oh and more cake and more tea
?!X: What’s a ‘think’ to create this future?
AB: I love Miroslav Holub’s poem “The door” and the idea that change in self involves taking chances and the positive consequences of change. Holub expresses change as an individual’s commitment to embrace new opportunities presented to them, leading to a new perspective of life. The door, being the central metaphor of the poem, represents a barrier, which holds us back from instigating a change.
Go and open the door.
Perhaps outside
there’s a tree, or a wood,
or a garden
or a magic town.
Go and open the door,
Perhaps outside
there’s a dog rummaging
Maybe you’ll see a face
or an eye
or the picture
of a picture
Go and open the door
If there is a fog outside
It will go.
Go and open the door.
Even if there’s only
the darkness ticking
even if there’s only
the hollow wind
even if
nothing
is there
go and open the door.
At least
there’ll be
a draught
I also read quote recently that I liked: “A diamond is merely a lump of coal that did well under pressure”.
Illustration by Anila Babla
?!X: What’s an ‘act’ to create the future you choose
AB: I love Baroness Cox’ motto – “I cannot do everything, but I must not do nothing”. I like the idea of finding something you’re passionate about and just doing something.
?!X: What’s a ‘vote’ to create the future you choose?
AB: Maybe in time I’ll be world weary and cynical but for now I value the theological concepts of agape and shalom and have a lot of hope for the world and this generation! So that’s what I pledge allegiance too – the more the merrier!
?!X: Future Soundtrack – What song would you take with you into the future?
AB: Wow, no easy task. I think that it is a close call between R.E.M’s Nightswimming for autumn/winter
and Band of Horses Great Salt Lake for spring/summer.
Two songs I never tire of.
?!X: Can you share with us up to 5 weblinks that you find interesting and inspiring?
Mother of two, Tabitha Potts is the director of Mimimyne and has worked as a TV researcher for BBC Television Drama, TalkBack Productions and other independent TV production companies. She has also worked as a radio drama producer in BBC Radio Drama as well as co-authoring “Bringing Up Baby: The New Mother’s Handbook“, a light-hearted look at childcare through the ages, with the TV personality and author Daisy Goodwin. Shortlisted for several awards and having been featured in several publications including Junior Magazine, the Sunday Times and the Express, Mimimyne sells eco-friendly organic baby clothes, funky kids wallpapers, eco gifts and toys and gorgeous kids furniture.
Tabitha has been interested in environmental issues for a long time (her parents grew their own vegetables, recycled and composted long before it was fashionable, as well as making their own cheese, bread and elderflower wine!). When she had her two young sons and started looking around for eco-friendly products to buy for them to use and play with, it was her realisation that there were not that many sites around which gave equal importance to great design for kids and the environment that inspired her to start London-based eco store Mimimyne.
?!X: What’s the Future You Choose?
TP: A future where the environment is nurtured rather than exploited. That means that not only do individuals take responsibility for the way they live, flying less, eating organically or eating less meat, shopping more sustainably and depending less on cars for transport,but that businesses and politicians need to have the will and vision to think big, finding ways for us to travel, live and work more sustainably on a large scale and building the environment into political and corporate decision making. As individuals we can create some change, but we can create more as a group. Putting pressure on corporations and governments is the only way to bring large scale change. Developing countries are very vulnerable to economic exploitation and environmental degradation and a future that does not create more solutions for human beings living in poverty will not be able to save animals, plants, glaciers or rain forests for future generations either. I want to live in a world where economic considerations do not outweigh environmental considerations and where people and businesses are rewarded for creating sustainable and non-polluting, non-toxic products and working alongside nature instead of exploiting its resources. I also want to live in a world where technological ingenuity is not the servant of profit but is put to use in finding solutions for the current very frightening situation we find ourselves in.
?!X: What’s a ‘think’ to create this future?
TP: I think the animal whose plight has most horrified me is the tiger. According to the WWF we have lost 97% of our wild tigers this century. Now that we have almost succeeded in driving tigers to extinction in the wild through hunting, poaching and destroying its habitat through commercial plantations and illegal logging we are about to lose a creature whose grace, power and strength has fascinated poets and artists for centuries. This poem by the poet A D Hope contrasts the ’authentic roar’ of the ‘jungle tiger’ with the ‘plaintive, savage hunting cry’ of the paper tigers of business and politics. The poem exhorts readers to try and remain true to their ideals even though they might ‘destroy the mortal parts of you’ and ignore the cry of the paper tigers. I think we need to pay less attention to paper tigers and more to jungle tigers.
?!X: What’s an ‘act’ to create the future you choose?
TP: I think you have to try and build the environment into your daily life however you can. Recycle and reuse, shop for sustainably sourced fashion or buy vintage clothes, don’t throw things away but repair, donate and recycle them, grow your own fruit, vegetables or herbs (even on a windowsill), use non-toxic cleaning products, think about sustainability and then ask others to do it too (nicely!). Suggest a recycling policy in your office, sell sustainable products if you run a business (like I do), encourage your school to create a vegetable garden or recycle printer cartridges or used batteries, ask your employer if they could provide a bike rack for employees – little things make a difference and change people’s vision of what’s possible. I don’t pretend to be an eco warrior but I do try to do things in daily life and in my work which help the planet rather than harm it.
?!X: What’s a ‘vote’ to create the future you choose?
TP: I’ve often felt ambivalent about politics, as a young person I felt politicians were self serving and didn’t appear to care much about the issues that were important to me and nowadays the things that I get passionate about are community issues (I’m helping campaign for a local adventure playground in my local borough of Tower Hamlets to stay open, for example) and environmental ones. I think that’s why Avaaz and 38 Degrees appeal to me so much, they take that feeling of involvement, the issues that people really care about, and get them listened to globally and the UK, and make changes happen. Join groups like these and find a cause that you care about. Or try and make a change at a local level: I applied for a grant to build a small herb and vegetable garden for a local playgroup, for example, and I see toddlers there every day learning how to grow herbs and vegetables. You don’t have to be a powerful or wealthy person, you just have to have an idea and the commitment to follow it through.
?!X: Future Soundtrack – What song would you take with you into the future?
TP: Gorillaz – ’Rhinestone Eyes’
?!X: Can you share with us up to 5 weblinks that you find interesting and inspiring?
