tehmina.org

Recently, I have become very interested in the concept of viral marketing, that is, using the power of word of mouth, human to human, to get messages and ideas across. The Cluetrain Manifesto sets out exactly how and why companies and organisations who like to act like companies, together with their platitudinous management speak and their computerised apologies and promises should take note of this movement. I found the following statement immensely powerful and inspiring:

“We are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. We are human beings – and our reach extends your grasp. Deal with it.”

In Mumbai, India, young Parsi boys attend the Dadar Athornan Madressa, a school where they receive secular education in addition to instruction in the arts of being a priest. In this gallery of images of contemporary Parsis, there is one of three of the boys in front of the school by a blackboard with a verse from the medieval Persian poet Firdawsi – the thought for the day as they enter the school:

Look at the Heavens,
How they roll on;
And look at man,
How soon he is gone.
A breath of wind and then no more;
A world like this, should man deplore?

Wouldn’t it be great if train companies just told the truth?

I’ve just been reading some comments on the Smile bank website about public transport. One of the comments was:

“Please can we have an M25 railway? That would really help my journey to work, and also mean that people travelling around the country wouldn’t have to go all the way into London then out again just to make a connection.”
(Liz Blaney)

Now wouldn’t that be an idea.