CANADIAN poet singer/songwriter and former Buddhist monk Leonard Cohen was recently honoured for his work at the Prince of the Asturias Awards in Spain.You can find what he said on YouTube, and I strongly recommend it to you.In his moving speech he spoke about the soil and the soul of a people saying: "An identity card is not a man and a credit rating is not a country!" That made me reflect upon how easy it is to use convenient labels to stereotype people, and indeed communities. We all too easily think of a nation in terms of credit worthiness in these days of confusing financial statements, yet a nation is about its people.
It also made me pick up on the word 'identity' having recently attended a SW Innovations Centres breakfast meeting at the revamped Cockington Court. I'd not been to Cockington Court for a while and so the new little craft/shopping centre came as quite a pleasant surprise. The whole complex sparkled in the early morning January unseasonal sunshine and seemed to have a mystical energy all of its own.
The speaker at this early morning meeting was Peter Redstone from the Barefoot Partnership, who romped through a quick introduction to creative thinking. In doing so he mentioned in passing the identity of a community as part of a creative thinking process. Sitting next to me was Mark Green from Fruition Design, and Jim Thompson from the FSB. Both, like me, believe strongly in community cohesion and have already established some creative thinking focus groups around Torbay.
Getting people to look at things differently and constructively is hugely important. You see, the thing is there are lots of good things going on in Torbay all the time, but all too often they lack community engagement. Even in the middle of January we have an event like the Health and Fitness Show at the Riviera International Conference Centre, which was designed to offer a platform for good living and positive thinking. What a great way to start the year to see so many local businesses offering a huge range of healthy lifestyle services and products.
In the theme of exciting things, have you been to look at the new Parkfield Centre in Paignton?
What a stunning arena with its international standard BMX track, skate park plus perhaps one of the best indoor climbing walls in Devon — and an external traversing wall which made me realise how unfit I am after only a few minutes of hanging off the grips. Outstanding stuff!
Then, of course, for entertainment you have the pure joy of bumping into the Channel 4 programme The Hotel. What a blast of fresh air in a busy world! Eight programmes on prime time television with loads of lovely shots of the beautiful English Riviera. How good is that? The series is being followed by English Riviera TV (www.englishriviera.tv) featuring the main characters plus a brilliant interview with Cllr Dave Thomas.
The programme comes hot on the heels of Sky Atlantic's Brixham-based series, Fish Town, and of course will attract many more viewers because it is a Channel 4 programme rather than a pay to view. It is also elegantly narrated by Downton Abbey actor Hugh Bonnevile! One of our four-star hotels reported a booking as a result of The Hotel because the visitors watched the programme, thought Torbay looked fantastic and came to stay.
Torbay is fantastic and it upsets me when people focus on the negative when so much good stuff is going on! The big question, to which I have yet to find an answer, is how we generate a Torbay identity which is attractive to all sectors of our kaleidoscope community. I guess, in part, it is thinking about others and looking at things in alternative ways. While we all want to be happy, that should not be at a cost to others. We could start with a sharing and caring attitude, plus a warm smile even when smiling is the last thing you want to do!
There you have it, a new strap line 'Smile on the day – you're in Torbay!'. Well, it is at least a start and a good way of avoiding walking around with a face like a slapped kipper...
