A STROLL WITH FIONA LOVATT DAVIS (for MOTHER EARTH DAY)

Source: Fiona Lovatt Davis

She's a mother that loves the earth and it's people.
Twenty years in the educational sector has cultivated in her the desire to change people's lives positively for the greater good of humanity.
Well, presently she's a peace operative; caring for, mentoring, and mothering so many people around the world(including me). I had a Stroll with Fiona Lovatt Davis for Mother Earth Day and this what we discussed:


Ebenezar: Thank you for having this stroll with me, its really an honour. Please can you tell us more about yourself?

Fiona: O Brother, I have five decades of life behind me as a teacher, mother, and agent of change. I barely know where to begin. I have learnt so much from children and young people over the years. I have seen the wide-eyed open wonder of young children and the fears and uncertainties of adolescents. They have taught me to wonder and to act, girding me on to be the kind of person I would like to see in the next generation: people who will add, rather than subtract, in the equations of beauty and social justice so I write, I plant gardens, I speak, I initiate projects and I mentor maybe 200 young people in the fields of their choice. I continue to learn.


Ebenezar: After your retirement from the educational sector. You dedicated the rest of your life to being a Peace Operative. Do you think violence also has negative impact on the Earth? All these missiles and Nuclear weapons, are they contributing to the degradation of mother earth?

Fiona: Of course the big things shock us and force us to consider how prcious this planet and the diversity of life is. And the small things matter too: that plastic bag stuck in the drain can be a flood next rainy season, or it might kill a creature out in the oceans. We are responsible for the things we can correct by our own hand.
When I use this label, "Peace Operative", it is a term I have made up to counter that strange phrase "Security Operative". I don't have a uniform. I'm not great at obeying man-made orders. I look for what I can do, with what I have, wherever it is I happen to be, and I begin now. Sometimes people join in. Some of it is done in secret - like planting fruit trees at night in hungry neighbourhoods.
I can't change anything that I see on the "news" on television, but I can attend to the immediate needs right outside my door.

Ebenezar:  I know of your Love for gardening, eco housing and Biomimicry. Do you think many more people in the world need to think 'green'?

Fiona: Gardening feeds people. Eco-housing provides their shelter and it means many people can be housed at low cost without a need to squabble overthe resources of the earth. Biomimcry teaches us to notice all the wonderful economy and engineering in nature and to use it in our own designs as humans. These simple actions are never going to be a harm.
The alternative to thinking "green" is to think "dust". Anyone who lives near the desert knows the value of a tree.

Source: indiancountrytoday

  
Ebenezar: Do you plan to write more books,or do you have any projects you're working on presently? And how far have you gone with 'Books without borders'?

Fiona: Books without Borders has been a wonderful privilege: to know that the gifts of ordinary New Zealanders have supplied materials to 190 libraries across Nigeria and through the Pacific in a decade. No money and no funding was every sought or involved. That has been a project where people have done what is right and possible.
I have half a dozen projects on the go at once and the social networks enable me to touch base on many more. I love, for instance, introducing a biological engineer to a botanist working on insecticides, and adding a chemist and a manufacturing engineer so that the four of them can collaborate on an oil rich plant that will keep mosquitoes from housing. Everyone wants to eradicate malaria and everyone has a piece of the puzzle. Social networks can be where we express our passions, share our knowledge, and get inspired. That's how I met you Wikina.

Ebenezar: What are some habits you think people all over the world can inculcate that would help make earth more inhabitable? Or do you think Earth is damaged beyond repair?

Fiona: O do not despair. Get on Google Earth some time and see how insignificant mankind is in the scheme of things. You will still see our planet as blue and green. It is not the city scape and the industrial nightmare we imagine.
The ones who make the least negative impact on the planet are the ones we need to learn from. We need to learn about character and effort from the poor of the world. We need to learn about moderation. We need to live consciously because we, of all creatures, have been granted a consciousness and a will. If we're only going to use that to go shopping for more things we don't need then we're part of the problem.
You once despaired Brother and now that you've got active on a few projects of your own, you find that you're able to make a difference. The gift of youth is health and time. Use it. Use it now and tap into the wisdom of older people who have been holding out all this time, waiting fo you guys to be ready.

Ebenezar: Despite the perils of visiting Nigeria--considering the strings of attacks, and militants kidnapping-- you still stayed in Kano(a state in nothern nigeria) for 10 months?? What motivated you to do that? And many people want to know; are you coming back to Nigeria? Or you'd be taking your voyage some other place.

Fiona: O I am yearning to return to Nigeria, to the north in particular where there are half a dozen projects on the boil. I want to be in Nigeria for the renaissance, for the blossoming of the country. During the clamp down by UK and US agencies, drawing out their citizens in a frenzy of fear, it seemed like I was the one of the few people who was in Nigeria of my own free will, at my own expense, and not making a buck on the side in exploitation. I know that's not true, but it makes me smile to think how safe I was wherever I walked through Kano.
I am taking that walk out of love for my sisters in humanity, the women and their children. In the midst of all the strife and hardship these woman raise beautiful children, well mannered children, children hungry for knowledge, children who accept a book as a door to development and liberation. As a lover of knowledge this seems the best place to be if one wants to make a difference one day at a time. So let us take some zobo and gurassa and give thanks for the day.

Ebenezar: Thank you very much for having this walk with me ma...I wish you God's grace and strength as you continue your projects to develop the world.

Fiona: Thank you too brother. All the best
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The Earth is our home, we have no other. We can't wait for little green men from Mars to come and tend it for us.
We need to start thinking green for ourselves :)
Till my next stroll. . . Be good, Be Green. . .Jesus Loves You

By: Ebenezar Wikina(@Poeticjazz)
THE STROLL, APRIL 2013
All Rights Reserved