Brenton Eccles

A Week Experiencing Changing the World

Reflections on setting out across the nation with the world’s cream of the crop (in terms of personality, and more) to bring about change in the world, for those who have no voice.

It’s now over a week since the road trip ended [and as of publication, over a month], and having been meaning to collect my thoughts on the whole experience I feel that the time is now well due.

I’ve sat down a couple of times in attempt to do this and, for whatever reason, each time I have found myself not quite able to find the right place to begin. I know that even as I sit at this kitchen table in the light of this beautifully overcast day that I’m going to get distracted and write this in blasts of inspiration.

I suppose it might be worthwhile to attempt to articulate this in the form of  an after the fact diary, a narrative of sorts to describe the week that was – it was my original intent to do it in this way on the road, but I didn’t find enough time to write much between the campaigning and sleeping. I’m going to begin with where it began, on the Saturday morning in Melbourne. (more…)

Realising a sense of responsibility to act

It’s been around a whole forty-eight hours since the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY road trip (8^th – 15^th May) concluded with our arrival back to Melbourne. I had originally intended to write every evening as the trip progressed, but it didn’t happen because we were just so busy and any free time I might have spent writing was spent in much needed sleep.

I did, however, get time to do some writing – and that’s what I’d like to highlight:

Monday May 10th – Colac, Victoria

It’s now the early hours of the third day of the road trip and, while everyone’s asleep, I’ve awoken early. It’s time to talk about the trip, and perhaps also on our progress as a movement to change the world by making poverty history. I’d like to begin with the lead-up to the launch morning.

On Friday, the day before we began, I recieved a finalising e-mail from my group leader – Amy – to question which of us might like to play a celebrity as part of our flashdance in city square to Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’. I decided to oblige, with the suggestion that I’d wear makeup and dye my hair purple. This was among packing and creating a sense of personally being ready for the trip.

All this organisation for the trip, which I successfully got done in time, was among needing to (on late Friday night) travel to Stawell to collect one of my best friend’s from the end of his nursing placement.

After arriving there quite late (past 10pm) we both then continued to Melbourne, where I’d booked us a moderate hotel to stay in for the night – which we checked in at around 2am after driving around residential central Melbourne to find a free spot to park my car for the week (here’s hoping it doesn’t get broken into, towed or anything of the like).

Upon arriving at our hotel I had my friend dye my hair for me, and while it was developing in my hair I found a few random tasks to do – while my friend went to sleep – and started thinking about the beginning of the road trip.

I don’t recall having doubts in the trip so much as I might have experienced a sense of, perhaps, not being up to the task. I suppose I questioned whether I was strong enough to be a successful ambassador for MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY and by association the poorest of poor in this world.

The tags ambassadors wore throughout the week. Little things like this cemented a sense of responsibility to act, for me.

All of that thinking and that slight slip in allowing my own sense of doubt to overcome me was in many ways emotionally crushing. By the time I did get in to bed I was really quite upset, to the point of waking up my friend – and it was his conversation which made me realise just how priveliged I am to be doing what I’m doing for other Australian’s, for myself and for the entire planet.

I am one of a small number of dedicated people who has recognised that the capacity to end extreme poverty exists and who has likewise answered the call to do something about it.

Especially recently, I have realised just how priveliged I am to have what I have been given in life. Just to be born into a rich country, just to have caring individuals surrounding me – just to have the power to control my own destiny. That’s also frightening, because with those priveliges I really cannot see how responsibilty to use them appropriately can be ignored.

It is with realisations like this that I can only be positive about the work that I am engaging Australia in, alongside other dedicated young people – it’s truly energizing just thinking about it. Likewise, for the trip itself, even from it’s very beginning…

You might have figured by now that by the time I was asleep, it was quite late. I recall it being around 4am. Obviously, I only got about 5 hours sleep – certainly better than nothing. However, not enough to make waking up for an early flashdance easy.

What stands out to me more than anything is that my sense of responsiblity didn’t begin or end with this campaign, it’s just that finally doing something about my socail concern has really reinforced it and inspired me to do even more. It’s kind of cliche, but really, the campaign has only just begun.

If you’re wondering, yes, I will be following up with a reflection on the week as a whole. It’s just that I want to condense it somewhat into a readable form, and that takes time.

Bringing things up to speed (on the trip)…

I haven’t written about the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY training for the road trip since the first weekend of training. It’s time to update you all on the final two weekends that I’ve just been through, which were located down in Collingwood.

Weekend #2 (25th April):
Was a fairly standard sort of day really. We covered the policy asks for the campaign, talked about ‘tough’ questions and did a lot of activities related to bringing in more of a community aspect among us ambassadors.

Weekend #3 (2nd May):
Most of the day seemed like a chance to talk about ourselves, and a final chance to go over the logistics of the trip and preparing some props to take with us. Along with that I got the first workout I’d had in a week, learning a flashdance that we’ll be doing in the centre of Melbourne on Saturday to get the publics attention – to Gaga’s Paparazzi (a rather unfortunate choice, but it’ll still be fun):

We also found out our groups routes. My group will be going down through Geelong, Colac, Ballarat, Bendigo and finally up to the summit in Canberra.

I was so tired during the training that after lunch an a coffee I fell asleep on a beanbag and had to be woken up two or three times by fellow ambassadors, they did it quietly so that nobody else noticed. That’s what full on, restless yet fun weekends do.

This week is the final chance to organize various things before the trip begins on Saturday morning. I’ve sent another press release to the media, this time about our petition (see it at the Act to End Poverty) that we’re going to be working on gaining 40,000 signatures for during the trip.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I’d contacted my local paper with a press release about the trip as a whole, and I was successful in being contacted by them about it. It’s just that they chose a really bad time to call, 9AM on a Monday morning – and I wasn’t exactly in a position to answer the phone, nor to call them back because the paper had easily gone to press by the time I got the chance to.

I’m hoping to get contacted back by my paper about this press release, because I’m going to be around the area and contactable basically all week. I’ll probably follow up my e-mailed press release with a phone call in a few hours.

I could elaborate on the details of the training days and what I’ve been doing thus far much more, but I really cannot be bothered – I’m just ready to get started on the trip and started to feel a little exhausted on the lead up to the trip. So let’s bring it on folks. As promised, I’ll be updating as the road trip progresses on a (hopefully) daily basis.

We have HALVED extreme poverty.

That’s right – for all the naysaying about the relevance and effectiveness of aid, the reality is that it’s actually been successful to quite an extent.

We are freeing countless people continuously from the abject conditions of extreme poverty, but we still need to live up to our obligation to help end those dehumanising conditions for all.

Sign the Act to End Poverty, a public call from Australian’s who want to end extreme poverty and who demand our government stand by it’s commitments to be part of the solution.

The Campaign Shirt has arrived!

The campaign shirt for the MakePOVERTYHistory road trip has arrived. Thought I’d show it off to you all – for those of you throughout Australia you’ll likely see many variations of this shirt on the street over the next two to three weeks.

MakePOVERTYHistory Road Trip Campaign Shirt. (Left: back, Right: front)

Yet another full on week. Full mostly of lots of highs and very few downers. The MakePOVERTYHistory Road Trip begins in 8 days, and I have much to update on before then, however just a short one for now.

It’s a beautiful autumn day. The weather is at that just-perfect temperature, and the wind blows like it’s carrying love to you (yeah, something uber cliche like that), one of my favourite times of year.

Oh, and something I’ll have a post on later that I’d appreciate all of you in Australia participating in. It’s called The Act to End Poverty and it’s a Bill in the form of a petition that we’re aiming to have passed through Parliament as an Act (hence the name). We’re aiming for minnimum 40,000 signatures, and within a few days online have already reached 7300 signatures! I’ll write more on this in the coming days.