Bridge
Six Bridges of Separation: Kyle Sandilands
Kyle, Kyle, Kyle! When will you realise there is more to this world than yourself!
Now I don’t know Kyle- I only know what I read in the media. I think he is a likeable fellow. Good humour, or at least well-intentioned. Always ready with a smile and few gags.
Sometimes I feel sorry for Kyle. He has been through a rough patch recently. Many of us have been down the same road ourselves, so I can empathise.
I saw a report today in Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph that Kyle “vows to take down Clover Moore” over increased regulation of opening hours for licensed venues. Living in Kings Cross myself, I know what a loss to the city cutting back drinking hours would bring. For a start, the zoo that visits Kings Cross from about 11 pm toward the end of the week would disappear. That would be a loss.
Sandilands has a personal interest in fighting the proposed changes to the legislation, having bought into the Kings Cross nightclubs Piano Room and Trademark alongside his business manager Andrew Hawkins just two months ago.
I would like to challenge Kyle on this issue. I think he could better spend his time talking about the needs of those in extreme poverty. But here’s the rub: I don’t know him, and I am only in town until Friday. I would need to speak to him this week, and on air.
So please help out. Build the bridge to Kyle Sandilands (can we prove that we really are all connected by six bridges of separation?), and lets make not only Sydney but the world a better place.
Six Bridges To Kevin Bacon
Here is something you might not know about the 10 City Bridge Run. It is an initiative about participation. Not through running, but bridge building.
It relies wholly on sponsorship. Starting with nothing but an idea, the premise was to see what change might be possible working only through the participation of others. And we are off to a good start, but still need more support to complete the journey successfully.
Sponsorship is recognised through the book “Above the Line” which will feature 1,000 of the 24,000 photographs collected of people making bridges between themselves and others during the next 30 days from when the running commences. The 24,000 photographs will be presented to the G20 Summit leadership (President of Korea) as a ‘pictorial petition’ for better design of the global economy through the consideration of the needs of those in extreme poverty.
It presents a new business model described as a social business. It is not a not-for-profit. It is not a movement. It is about the collective ‘we’ showing our interest or care to make a difference. It is ‘for-purpose’, in this case to raise awareness of an individual’s capacity to influence extreme poverty.
Granted, most people are giving a lot already in their own ways, and engaged in a lot of great work supporting their communities and causes. But please note that here, sponsorship is very small. As little as $24, and as only as much as $240.
It is not a spectator sport. Please join me on the journey. Please consider becoming a sponsor yourself.
Right now I am wondering whether it is possible to connect Six Bridges To Kevin Bacon. Anyone can play this game! All you have to do is forward this blog post to someone you know…the hard part will be working out how many steps it took to reach Kevin. (I am going to start by forwarding it to six of my friends on Facebook).
So what happens once Kevin is reading this? This is what I would like to ask Kevin personally, but I need others to build the bridge to get the message to him:
Hi Kevin, would you please support me on the 10 City Bridge Run by becoming a Span Sponsor for $240? Thanks for your consideration. I hope you will join me on this journey.
To everyone reading this- Thanks for taking part. This is more than a game. We have the potential to create a big difference. Drop me an email or become a sponsor and then I can let you know when we hear back from Kevin.
Kevin- you are already a legend, and you would be a top bloke in my book if you would be a mate and support this initiative.
6 good reasons to start in sydney
Good friends of mine asked why I hadn’t planned to start running in Sydney. Their argument was compelling and so I changed my plans to begin my journey here and then travel to New York. Here are the six main reasons that changed my mind:
- It reflects the originating point of the 10 City Bridge Run
- Many people have contributed to the birth of this project from Sydney in all sorts of ways, including the Global Launch event the previous week
- Australia is an important country from within the G20
- Before talking about poverty elsewhere, we should first note what happens in our own backyard
- The bridge metaphor is powerful in demonstrating the need to “close the gap”
- I can observe the United Nations conference on the Millennium Development Goals (20-22 September) from Sydney and get a sense of what impact, if any, it has for Australia
“Closing the Gap” is a phrase that has been used in relation to the comparative disadvantage between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. For example, average life expectancy differs by 17 years. Why?!
The metaphor of the bridge is a powerful way of communicating that to ‘close this gap’ it takes effort on the part of all of us, not just policy from governments and money from corporate organisations or philanthropic institutions.
Granted, the situation of extreme poverty is different from that of Indigenous disadvantage in Australia. Is it possible to see similarities in the root causes?
The question to address now is: where to run?
Sydney provides plenty of choice, and there are two courses which I favour. Let me know which you prefer, or of another if you can think of one:
- Sydney Harbour Bridge Run, covering 24 km and crossing 7 bridges. A spectacular run along many of the best kept secrets of Sydney. This is the same course as I ran last year for the 9 City Bridge Run.
- The Spit Bridge to La Perouse, covering a longer distance than 24 km and crossing two prominent bridges. I like this option suggested many months ago by Peter Lain. It is slightly longer, but gives a good voice to the bridge metaphor by finishing in La Perouse where Captain Cook first landed in Sydney
Welcome your feedback! Interested in a creative and challenging run that shows the character of the city, an historical perspective as well as a contemporary context of the issue.
Bridge as metaphor…useful as a way of seeing?
The structure of a bridge is a metaphor I have drawn upon to help define what this work is communicating. Do you think that is appropriate given the complexity of the issue of poverty, and the many stakeholders involved?
Gareth Morgan in his classic 1997 text Images of Organization writes:
Metaphor is often regarded just as a device for embellishing discourse, but its significance is much greater than this. The use of metaphor implies a way of thinking and a way of seeing that pervade how we understand our world generally.
Take how I have defined sponsorship for example: all the parts that make up a bridge are important. Without one bit, the other bits would either collapse, cease to be functional, or be structurally weakened. (Note: Post amended to reflect the new crowdfunding site at http://www.pozible.com/lifebridge) I have drawn upon the architectural definitions of:
- Support: The structure that props up a bridge. Even if a plank is rested across a gap to make a bridge, the two ends are what provides the support.
- Span: Span is defined by wikipedia as the distance between two intermediate supports for a structure. The span is a significant factor in finding the strength and size of a beam as it determines the maximum bending moment and deflection.
- Foundation: The portion of a structure that transfers the weight of that structure into the ground.
What this means in plain terms is that it is the span that provides the functional purpose of the bridge, but without the necessary number of supports a point of weakness is reached through bending under an unevenly distributed load. None of this will matter if the foundation established is not sufficient to carry out the ‘heavy lifting’ needed.
Thanks to those sponsors who have made a contribution to date. None of this would be possible without your engagement. Please also note in relation to support, span, and foundation each is vitally important for the reasons mentioned above.
A bridge is also a structure which enables different functions. As a metaphor, a bridge between people enables the passage of ideas, it connects people who are in different places, it enables help to be connected, it opens up the opportunity for people to be helped, it reduces isolation, it is a more efficient way of getting to another point, it increases the range of options available, and the list continues…
Far from being a facile word-game, I contend that ‘bridges’ are critical in the quest to eradicate extreme poverty. Certainly, just building bridges would be an act of folly if they are built with no purpose or are merely ornamental. To my mind, the process of inquiry of ‘what is not working here, and what are we doing ok at?’ is related to building a bridge. The hundreds of books and articles that have been written about the eradication of extreme poverty are in themselves bridges, as much as the conferences and forums that are held to address the issue.
Let’s build bridges with purpose, and where possible direct our efforts into strengthening and even crossing the bridges established by others in order to make our interest, inquiry and efforts all the more productive.
What is a bridge to you?
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