Part 3

So, to recap, so far we had seen the Man with the Giant Top Hat at the entrance to one pathway and the Lady Spy with a Bag at another.

At the third, stood two almost invisible figures dressed in rags. They were thin and gaunt. It was difficult to tell there ages. Perhaps they were six and eight years old. The younger boy clutched the older girl's hand and looked up into her face. Pleading.

What was he wanting? Food? Water? Warmth? Family? Companionship? Shoes? Maybe, he wanted all of these things. 

They both were so unbelievably thin as if they had been cut out from a newspaper. What else was it that gave them such a haunted look? Ah yes, they were in black and white. There was no colour. 

They turned and looked at me and beckoned me with their pleading eyes to go with them. Children of their age should be full of movement and noise and laughter. But they were the opposite. It was if they were children who were aged 100 years or more. They had stopped moving again. They were motionless.

What was happening here? Were my eyes playing tricks on me? Where would these pathways lead? What were these children trying to show me on this particular path?

I wanted to know but first I had to see who was at the head of the other three pathways.

Please follow on.

My blog yesterday seemed to alarm one or two people. Please do not be alarmed. I am writing creatively just now. Your imagination is potentially very powerful. Sometimes imagination can provide you with answers; sometimes not. Every which way, imagination can be great fun.

So, to continue from yesterday...

Other figures came into focus at the head of each of the six pathways. At one path a middle aged women dressed in clothes from the 1930's stood and stared directly at me. Her stare wasn't frightening because her eyes seemed vacant. Over her left shoulder hung a giant handbag and she held a small girl aged about 6 years old by the hand. The little girl stood stock still.

I had seen her before. I was sure. Yes, in Russia, in Saint Petersburg. I visited Saint Petersburg a number of times in the mid 1990's. I loved St Petersburg because it was a magical place. There was something about the way the city was built and its odd light which made it so magnetically attractive. It reeked of exciting history and it was full of characters; many of whom were really special artists.

My favourite cafe restaurant in the whole world is The Idiot in Saint Petersburg which is themed around the novelist Dostoevsky. There are many great cafes and restaurants in the city. One night my friends took me to a restaurant which I think was called "The Lady Spy With A Bag". We had great food and wonderful conversations but strange things kept happening when we were there. People would suddenly stand up and sing beautiful songs. Little people came out of the kitchen and danced round the tables. It was very surreal.

And of course, this woman appeared with a big bag over her shoulder holding the hand of a small girl and they both walked slowly round the restaurant. They didn't say a word but they gently bowed to the customers at each table and then vanished. I presumed that this was the real Lady Spy with a Bag.

I always remember the night. And now, here she was again, standing staring at me at the entrance to one of the pathways. I looked over at her and she bowed slightly and beckoned me. I would follow her later but first I wanted to see who stood at the head of the other pathways.

Follow on if you want to know. 

I really enjoyed listening to Chris Stout and Catriona Mckay in concert last night at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh. They are hugely talented and they have a unique sound, with the violin and cello combining to create harmonies which connect to your very soul.

This morning I am in one my favourite places in the world, on the slopes of Arthur's Seat in the middle of Edinburgh looking out on spectacular views across the sea to distant mountains. The views extend for miles in every direction.

The four elements are there: Earth - the fantastic coloured landscapes which undulate out in front of me; Water - the sea which stretches out into the far horizon; Air - the pure gentle wind which brushes my face and like the music of Chris Stout and Catriona Mckay it seems to reach the very core of my soul; Fire - the distant power station which billows out columns of dirty smoke as it makes energy to keep human beings warm.

I am sitting next to some trees. There is a calmness. No-one is around. This is real beauty. The wind reminds me of the music from last night. I can have my own personal concert on the side of the hill!

The stillness helps me reflect. The journey of my life has come to a crossroads. Actually, it is more like a giant intersection. There are about six pathways in front of me. I am stuck at the moment. I don't know which path to take. I ask friends, family and colleagues for advice. I listen to my own internal voice. But, I am still stuck at the crossroads.

I am becoming frustrated by my own indecision. Which is the right path for me? I don't want to take a quick decision and take the wrong route but I also don't want to be stuck at the crossroads. I am starting to question everything I have ever done. How did I come to this place? Sometimes I want to scream. Do I go this way or that?

I dive into my imagination with the music in my ears. Then a way forward starts to emerge. I imagine a character on each path. I imagine what they look like and what they stand for and then relate it back to my predicament. Some clarity is starting to emerge.

The first character is a tall man with the biggest top hat which you could ever imagine. He is dressed in a shabby suit which looks like it has been worn for over one hundred years.

I will write about these characters over the next few days and give them some shape and meaning. I hope that they will shed light on each path. Once I can see light out of the confusing darkness of this intersection then I can make a decision about which road to travel on the next stage of my journey. Music will always be my companion whichever way I go.

Right, that's it. My holiday this year will be in Greece.

I got up for my usual lazy Sunday morning read of the newspapers and I was greeted with headlines about a complete meltdown in Greece. The headline in the paper I read screamed: "I fear for a socil explosion: Greeks can't take any more punishment" and contained dramatic phrases like "the precipice of economic and social collapse"

The view also seemed to be that the Greeks were now to blame for all the ills of the world. What nonsense. The economic problems in the world are to do with major faults in the global economic system. Greece has simply borne the brunt of the financial tsunami. The people of Greece are suffering the most and is certainly completely idiotic to blame them.

So, in support of the people of Greece, I think that we should all make a conscious decision and go on holiday to Greece and spend our money to help their economy. I think we should select our destination carefully and make sure that the money we spend goes directly to the people themselves.

We should encourage them to set up local social enterprises, cooperatives and community ventures which we can support by holidaying there and spending our money on their goods. They in turn would obviously benefit. This is a really constructive way to help out.

I feel like reaching out and finding contacts and creating a big map of Greece which shows people how to support local people in a really positive and constructive way.

Anyone want to join me?

My continuous mantra is that if we want to change the world then we all have to do something. It is easy to complain or protest but the key question is: what are you actually doing on a practical and positive basis to create real change?

I have given many talks on homelessness since 1993 and when I have asked if anyone in the audience thinks that homelessness is a good idea, not one person has ever said yes. All the people I have spoken to - schoolchildren, youth, politicians, footballers, very rich people, poor people, academics, business leaders - everyone - do not think that homelessness is a good idea.

If it is such a bad idea why do we have homelessness throughout the world? It is obviously a systems failure and people feel that they are powerless to end the problem. They are simply inhibited by the sheer scale of homelessness and possibly they feel that they do not know what to do. Yet, the people who do decide to do something can make a significant impact even through small actions. 

If we all are to make an impact across the globe then we will eliminate homelessness altogether but at the moment not enough people are prepared to do something constructive. I sometimes despair about this. It is brilliant news that Eric Cantona announces today that he standing for the President of France on the issue of housing and homelessness.

The whole issue of homelessness has been propelled onto the global agenda and it will remain as a high level issue during the French Presidential campaign. The cynic might argue that this was an ex-professional football player who is looking for a bit of profile. This is not true. Eric Cantona has been the international global ambassador for the Homeless World Cup since 2007. He supports our work and believes passionately in the issue. He is a fabulous supporter. 

He knows that by simply announcing that he is standing for President on this ticket that the whole issue will be debated and hopefully policies and procedures will change in France. Who knows they may be copied in other countries. 

He has made an intervention which will create a change. This is inspirational. Applaud him. We need to create a world without homelessness. We all need to do something. Think about what you can contribute. Be inspired by Eric Cantona and change the world accordingly.

When I give talks about social entrepreneurship and the Homeless World Cup in particular, I sometimes talk about the journey which we have decided to take.

I describe it like taking a long journey across a range of mountains. The journey has wonderful moments when we reach brilliant summits with amazing light and there is this fantastic feeling of achievement. Then of course you have really bad moments when you make a mistake and fall and everything seems dark and gloomy.

Of course, the journey is never easy. Getting to that summit requires perseverance and determination. It can be really challenging with seemingly impossible routes to the summit. But we always get there somehow. And then it is onwards on the next leg of the journey, down the other side through difficult terrain into the valley before the next huge mountain appears in front of us.

This is how I describe the journey of the social entrepreneur. It is a hard journey we take. The journey for the Homeless World Cup has never been easy but it is one which is essential and one which will continue.

As I was thinking about this journey earlier today, I suddenly had a thought. What if there were no mountains. Rather than talking about the difficult path we have decided to take, why don't we talk about removing the mountains altogether? Remove the mountains and the journey becomes so much easier.

I will think about this. When I do my next talk, I will talk about the journey we have taken but also discuss how we can remove the mountain and create a world without homelessness and poverty. Only then we will reach the end of our journey.

I have just finished reading "Alone in Berlin" by Hans Fallada. I always have a break at this time of year and it allows me to relax and catch up with with things which I had been meaning to do but never had the time.

One of them is reading and I'd always been meaning to read "Alone in Berlin" which had been recommended to me but I never had the time!

It is a really great book and I'd recommend it to anyone. It is based on a true story of a German man who lives in Berlin during the War who protests against the Nazi regime by delivering postcards across the city.

The Nazi regime creates a claustrophobic backdrop where people are constantly under surveillance and this fear creates an atmosphere of repeated paranoia where no-one can be trusted, not even your closest family. Indeed, if you aren't spying on someone then you become a target of suspicion, so you end up joining in. In this way, the control-freak State can rule without dissent or opposition.

The same atmosphere prevailed in Tom Rob Smith's books, "Child 44" and "The Secret Speech", which were set in the harsh Soviet regime in the Fifties. I read these earlier in the year and they featured a policeman who was trying to catch criminals in a country which created a regime of terror in order to control its people. Everyone had to be extremely careful otherwise you would end up dead or sent to a prison camp in Siberia.

A very few people risked everything in order to protest against the system. The State control in both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia was so total that almost all protests were futile and easily put down. In the end both of these regimes self-destructed in different ways but the role of the voices of dissent throughout their existence was vital in creating the ingredients for change.

The three books which I read are all novels but the background which they are set against are very real indeed. You can feel the suffocating atmosphere as you read through the pages.

In today's world of mass communication we have much freedom of expression through the internet but there are also strong mechanisms of control in play for all our lives.

It was interesting to see that Time magazine had awarded the "Protester" as the Person of the Year for 2011. Everyone has a right to protest because it is the very basis of any free country. It is important to cherish that right and be wary. I read only yesterday, that one of the protesters had clear proof that all of his e-mails were being read and his phone calls listened to. His claims were denied by the police. I am inclined to believe the protester.

Whilst we certainly have to guard against terrorism, we also have to allow people the right to protest. If we don't then we risk moving away from open societies into ones which are controlled by the thought police. And, having read Hans Fallada and Tom Rob Smith recently, this is not a path which anyone should ever take.

London. 

I arrived in London very early last Thursday morning on the overnight Sleeper from Edinburgh. I has a series of meetings lined up for the day before returning in the evening.

I start humming the Ralph McTell song, "Streets of London". I don't know why but it has been on the radio a number of times lately and it seems stuck in my head. It seemed appropriate anyway!

I stepped out of the station into a cold but bright winter morning. The train had been very punctual and I had a little time to spare so I decided to walk to my first meeting which was scheduled for 7.30.

I stopped to talk to a homeless man who was half sitting on the pavement near the station with his arm outstretched. He looked awful and his words were incoherent. I tried to understand what he was saying. I asked if he had somewhere to stay and in a roundabout way he told me that he was sleeping on the streets. I guess this was obvious. 

I asked him if he knew of hostels or where he could get something to eat. I was trying to help but he wouldn't answer directly. As far as I could make out, he told me that all he wanted was to be arrested so he could spend Christmas in prison. He seemed to be saying that he liked the order and he would get some food three times a day. I suggested that this option wasn't so pleasant and perhaps he should find a shelter. But he was insistent that he would be arrested.

"I want to spend Christmas in prison," he repeated.

He was an older man and I guessed that he may have been in the military in the past. He was fighting his demons with alcohol. I tried to persuade him that there were other alternatives but he wasn't having it.

I tried to imagine how his self-esteem must have been destroyed if his entire ambition was to be arrested and then thrown in prison.

Five minutes later and further down the road, I came across a man dressed immaculately in an expensive looking suit and coat who was talking very loudly to himself. He was standing stock still with a straight back as if was standing to attention. 

It took me nearly a minute to realise that he is speaking on a hands free mobile phone where the microphone is around his neck somewhere. It is still a very odd sight. Why do people speak so loudly when they are on a mobile phone? This man is speaking more loudly than most. He is almost like a town crier. I presume that his conversation isn't private because everyone within a radius of 500 meters can hear what he is saying!

I always find London to be a very odd place. It is impersonal and eccentric. It is only 400 miles from my home town of Edinburgh but I someone feel more at home in Melbourne or New York or Berlin or Mexico City than I do in London. Some of my best friends live in London, so I don't have a bias against the city but I do find it unfriendly and very strange at times.

My meetings run along like clockwork. I have lunch with John and Ania, two lawyers who provide fantastic support to the Homeless World Cup every year at no cost. They are really friendly people who are happy to give their time and I am really grateful. I wish the world was full of people like them.

Suddenly, all my meetings are complete and the train is speeding back to Edinburgh. I reflected on how to describe London and I was struggling a little. The train is packed and there is a crowd of teenagers in my carriage who are obviously returning from some school trip. They are noisy and they are multi-tasking on their laptops and smart phones. I don't mind - I like the energy.

Then one of them unplugs their computer by accident and music fills the carriage. Some of them sing along. I fell like joining in as well. Naturally, the song is "Streets of London" by Ralph McTell!

His lyrics capture a part of London which we should pay serious attention to.

(You can read the lyrics of his song here: http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/mctell-ralph/streets-of-london-11077.html )

I am so fed up with people saying that they are going to support the Homeless World Cup and then doing nothing.

After I have given a talk people come up to me full of enthusiasm and tell me that the story of the Homeless World Cup is wonderful. At the end of any talk, I always end by saying that we can't end global homelessness on our own and that if everyone contributes something then together we can begin to tackle this growing problem.  

Afterwards, people pat me on the back and give me their business cards. They ask me to get in touch but then in 99% of cases nothing ever happens!

The 1% who do respond positively have made a massive contribution and I am incredibly grateful. Much more importantly, thousands of homeless people are incredibly grateful. These people know who they are and I suspect that they live good lives and feel good within themselves.

The other 99% want to make me cry.

Last week, I had a huge argument with an old friend called Patrick.  He ranted onto to me about how unfair the world was becoming with the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer with politicians completely clueless about any solution. I didn't really disagree with him at this point. But he went onto to say that the only way forward was to smash the current system. Then I disagreed with him.

My line is that you have to look for an alternative system and build it. Do something constructive is better than being negative. It is easy to be critical but much more difficult to build something which is making a positive practical input. We know that the Homeless World Cup makes a huge impact into the lives of the homeless people who take part. One of the key aspects of this successful outcome is that we put homeless people at the centre of the solution. We are building something which has strong foundations.

Our argument raged on. I kept on asking him to say anything constructive. Try and say something constructive, I pleaded! He could not. He was a very angry man and he vowed to use all his energy to break the current economic system. We didn't part on good terms. We are on different paths.

For the past few weeks one of the 99% has made various commitments to me and then didn't deliver. I have been very patient and spent a lot of time on this. I wasted so much time. I kicked the door. I pulled my hair. 

Then I thought that perhaps Patrick was right after all. It was only a passing thought which was borne out of my frustration. I still think he is quite wrong. But, if people say that we are on the right track then they need to support us when they say they are going to.

I believe that we can create a new system and that we can build that from the bottom up. People have to make a decision about what road they wish to travel on. We need to create a fair and sustainable world. More people are going towards Patrick because they are angry and can't see any other alternatives. But there are. We are on one path and if people are interested in building something constructive then please join with us and support us. Time wasters only add credence to Patrick's destructive path.

If the 1% could become 100% then we would be really making an increased impact. It is your world - it is up to you. Please, if you say you are going to do something then do it. Let's change the world together - it is such a great path to be on.

Got up. Read the papers. Everyone was writing about the "Crisis". There were pages and pages about Europe and the potential damage UK politicians had wrought by deciding to veto the proposed new treaty.

Politicians were quoted everywhere. Financial experts were quoted everywhere. Everyone had an opinion about this crisis. 

But no-one talked about the real crisis. The real crisis is about the increasing number of people throughout the world who are becoming excluded and marginalised. There is a feeling of increasing despair and alienation. I never read a single word about this today.

Political leaders are wrapped up in their own world. It bears no resemblance to the world that many people are living in today. When will they ever wake up and open their eyes? We are building a world which isn't sustainable. Please can we begin to look at this real crisis before more and more people are sucked into the dark and horrible world called exclusion.