I discovered that I have been linked at Declan’s blog, STV for BC – Vote Yes!, which encourages us to vote yes for the shift to a single transferable vote system of electing government. Declan’s blog is the one that was getting all the attention from Elections BC last week.

Also, following up on the Olympics logo story, Marja-Leena send me a link to this article quoting an Inuit Elder on inuksuit (the proper plural) and why what the Olympic Committee has on it’s hands is not infact, even an inukshuk. As if the goofy smile wasn’t a hint.

More coverage here

Michael is a great friend and colleague and one of the most important lessons I’ve learned from him over the years is this notion of living life as a practice of invitation. Today he posts a really nice example of how he might respond to a request to help create an invitation. I quoted this post today in a conversation with Dave Pollard who is crafting an invitation for his current initiative, AHA!

It’s great advice, elegantly offered.

From a post on the OSLIST, a poem from Neruda:

This is the logo for the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler winter Olympics. It was unveiled on Saturday in Vancouver.

Now I’ve nothing against inukshuks, and I have plenty of Inuit friends and colleagues, but this is just plain wrong. These Olympics are being held in the territories of the Squamish and Lil’wat peoples, of whom there are many excellent artists. This is a huge opportunity to show the world an image from the rich tradition of west coast art, and instead the Olympic committee chose a figure from a culture that lives thousands of miles away.

Using an Inukshuk to signify winter games in Vancouver is like using the Egyptian pyramids for selling the London bid for the summer games. The two have nothing to do with one another and Vancouver and Iqaluit are separated by about the same amount of distance as London and Cairo.

Given the significant presence of Squamish and Lil’wat and Tsleil-Waututh people in the Olympic promotions, and the fact that there is a big partnership on several of the facilities with these Nations, it strikes me as just plain dumb to use another indigenous symbol to represent the games. For a committee that has been trying to go out of its way to court First Nations, choosing this design says to me that they haven’t a clue what they are doing.

To think that this thing, a smiling inukshuk, is going to be on EVERYTHING including the medals makes me feel sick for the local First Nations artists and designers who have been denied this once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase the 9000 year old legacy of their work. The committee has dropped the ball badly on this one. I’m hugely disappointed.

Prince Rupert, BC

Here is a powerful idea from Australian Aboriginal playwright Jack Davis about how to reconnect kids with nature:

Imagine doing this. A kid has responsibility for a fern species, a tree, an insect, a bird. You identify closely with this thing and do everything you can to steward it’s survival. In an interconnected world, giving someone responsibility for a small part will quickly lead them to an appreciation and engagement with the whole. You can’t protect something in isolation – you need to also care for it’s context.

Now imagine if we did that in organizations too? And communities. And families. Imagine what we would learn as we worked to protect our totem in a living system.