The Fruits of Their Labors: The Temple of Heaven Visits Ruins of Chinese Agricultural Villages in California

     19th Century Chinese settlers inaugurated the cultivation of many of the fruits and vegetables which make California famous.

     The settlers were driven out in the 1890s. Archeology of their dwellings reveals much-loved-porcelain, typically decorated with symbolic fruits and vegetables. 

     Lucey Bowen accompanied a model of the Temple of Heaven, the chief monument to successful planting and harvesting, on a tour of these sites. Her art works and video were created in 2015 to celebrate the Chinese contribution to California agriculture, as well as to Chinese ceramic tradition.

Strawberries

Cabbage

Wine Grapes

Hops

Citrus

Pears

Peaches

Pomegranites

Peaches

Dried Fruits

Why an Art Movement began in a Cafe or Monday in Zurich

Morning Coffee at Cafe Odeon, one of homes to Dada Art Movement.

     In Switzerland, the Museums are closed on Mondays. So whilst my spousal unit lectured at the University, I re-enacted Art History. Zurich has a half dozen cafés and taverns that are associated with the short-lived but influential artists movement called Dada in 1916.
     In case you don't remember Dada, Wikipedia will tell you that its practitioners included Hugo Ball, Marcel Duchamp, Emmy Hennings, Hans Arp, Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, Johannes Baader, Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, Huelsenbeck, George Grosz, John Heartfield, Man Ray, Beatrice Wood, Kurt Schwitters, Hans Richter, and Max Ernst. And that the movement influenced later styles like the avant-garde and downtown music movements, and groups including surrealism, nouveau réalisme, pop art and Fluxus. Dadaist artists expressed their discontent with violence, war, and nationalism, and maintained political affinities with the radical left.
     The Dada artists used cafés, taverns and their soirees to share ideas and performances. Feeling I could use some of that inspiration, I drank, ate, wrote and painted in two of the cafés for 5 hours. I've discovered as I become more and more serious about writing, that the thing that keeps me from writing is loneliness. In Switzerland's cafés I can be surrounded by strangers and still concentrate on writing or drawing.
     The food reflects the changes of the 100 years since World War I. At Odeon I happily ate an omelette filled with cheese and bacon. Happy because French influenced Lausanne limits breakfast to croissant and other breads, and I'm a protein breakfast kind of gal. At the Terasse, now hopelessly bourgeois with ladies lunching and tea-ing, I indulged in a hamburger of flavorful Swiss beef.

Bronze Heating Ducts at Odeon.

     I am hopelessly bourgeoise, and 100 years younger than Dada. I have difficulty appreciating how a anti-materialist Art Movement could begin in such comfortable surroundings!

#ILoveLausanne III: A Good and Bad Day @GoodFestival

Mise en place for dinner tonight!

    Above you see the results of a mad dash up to the Wednesday Market before madly dashing down to the Olympic Museum. It reminds me of the blessings of good food and good friends to eat it.

     At the Good Festival, I continue to be overwhelmed with the resources available to structure businesses to do good and be profitable. Ernst and Young sent Chiari Rinaldi to talk about investor's increasing interests in "ESG:" the environmental, social and governmental impact of businesses. Phillip Mantell, of SINA, an organization that works in Uganda, spoke about the mis-fit between post-colonial education and countries where employment is difficult to find. SINA addresses this with a process that turns victims of the situation into victors, through coaching into entrepreneurship.

     I did not know that crowd funding has risen to a high art, but it has, and before you do it, you ought to avail yourself of its arcania.

    And then came the downer: Olivier Kennedy of Enigma, a marketing group. 

    I suppose I should not have been shocked. My journalist father once worked for a trade publication in the advertising business. He'd written an award winning biography of play write Eugene O'Neill and they wanted heroic profiles of the 1960s greats of the New York City agencies. In the end, he concluded they were all whores for large corporations. Hard not to make that conclusion, given the tobacco giants of the day. But you saw it all on television's "Mad Men."

     Olivier Kennedy's memo is that although the days of television and newspapers are gone, the new methods and media of the 21st Century can be used to shape belief. His group can do this for you. 

     Hello The Hidden Persuaders, it isn't nice to have you back again. 

     Oddly, he did not want to discuss the spontaneous facebook campaign, #MeToo. But politicians? Yes. I am sure that agencies in the United States are offering similar services. 

     Memo to self: 1. Quit being so naive. 2. Re-read Marchiavelli.

     Back to the good stuff: 

*Steffan Raetzer reminding us and himself to use your anger and outrage as fuel.

    

*Mary Mayenfisch, an Irish woman after my own heart, is a Human Rights lawyer who assembled and extraordinary panel who spoke about leading for change:

Caroline Puffrey of UNIL

Veerle van Wauwe, Transparence SA, who has created a clean gold supply chain.

Daniele Gostell Hauser of Amnesty International

Natalie Wilkins of Thriving Talent

     The last presenter before I headed home to rest my weary brain was Jonathan Normand of B Lab (Switzerland). B Lab has a methodology for measuring who well a corporation scores on the "ESG" goals I spoke of several paragraphs ago.

     Happy to say that today will feature techniques to help these entrepreneurs of good sustain themselves. I'm going to sustain myself tonight by cooking dinner and having a great conversation with strangers! More tomorrow!

#ILoveLausanne II: The Good Festival

Focus on Food at The Good Festival

     If you are like me, you wonder if the forces of evil aren't winning in battle for the world. I'm feeling a smidgen more hopeful today.
     Fortune smiled on me when I wrangled an invitation to the third Good Festival, at the Olympic Museum, on the shore of Lac Leman. I applied and received a call from Rajiv Srivastava, one of the founders. I explained my interest in culinary history, and in particular the reception of immigrant cuisines and immigrants. He assured me there was a great interest in food issues among participants, and indeed there is, as you can see from the flip-chart notes above. 

     A hazy autumnal morning on Lac Leman, viewed from the Olympic Museum, goes well with an espresso. I drank both in and listened to English, French, German spoken all around me. I overheard snippets of conversation about projects from Africa to Nepal.

     Then Rajiv laid out the plan for the day and days ahead. The Festival operates as a fast vehicle to #GetGoodDone. Coaches and participants describe and practice the elements that make for sustainable innovation that is a force for good. We quickly put the first steps to building diverse teams into action, clustering at points of interest like Food, Education, Arts and Culture, Environment etc. We shared our concerns and projects.

     In my three months here, I've read and seen much interest in food purity and security. "Bio" is a watchword in both major supermarket chains, Co-Op and Migros, as well as at the Wednesday and Saturday Markets. These were part of the issues raised by Anna DeCosterd of mysweetmoette, whose goal is to connect city dwellers with local food producers. Jason Papadopoulous has a vision for building the ability to grow food and medicine from food wastes through urban, indoor farming. Flavia and Vlad have created Foodcrafters to showcase producers who adhere to integrity in their products and business practices.

http://beta.dmafb.me/en     

     We broke off our ice-breaking conversations for rapid-fire presentations on the fundamentals of a sustainable business doing good, from people who have done so, or coached others to do so. Professors from EPFL's business school, PriceWaterhouseCooper accountants, founders; each offered nuggets of wisdom.  If I had to choose the one that resonated, it would be Don Difang's Domeafavorbuddy. This is an app that enables people to "pay it forward" in real life.

     Back to food. Anna, Jason, Flavia, Vlad and I and Flavia Spasiano, one of the coaches, coached each other, offering our thoughts on their projects. We could see the value of looking from diverse perspectives. The next step for them will be composing a short video, what I've come to call an elevator pitch, for their projects. I'm glad to help, and hope there will be some time for them to comment on my questions about immigrants and immigrant cuisines.

     And on to dinner, at the Jeunehotel. Over veal and rosti, and joined by my significant other, I spoke with a Vietnamese MBA student from Zurich. Gourmet Magazine introduced me to Tao Kim Hai, the first Vietnamese writer for Gourmet as well as the New Yorker; a perspective on France and Vietnam from 75 years ago. She is writing her dissertation on creating a clean food supply chain for the vegetables used in Vietnamese cooking. The Swiss government has found excessive pesticides in those imported from Southeast Asia. I am excited to speak further with her; the Invited Cuisine of Honor at the Dijon Gastronomic Fair is Vietnam. 

     And now I'm off to the Wednesday market and the back to the GoodFestival. Stay tuned for more!