Fogo was poor and life was hard. We came very close to being resettled. The plight of the islanders was laid out through a much-vaunted series of films on the community.
All our businesses are locally owned. All of them. The Bridge Studio, one of four live-in artists' studios dotted around the island, overlooks a secluded inland pond. The Inn is the work of Todd Saunders, a Newfoundland-born architect who subsequently made his name in Norway, where he currently lives and works. The Fogo Island Punt Chair, one of several original designs for sale to support the community, is named after the island's fishing boats and inspired by local boatbuilding techniques.
Running parallel with the hospitality business is a number of other initiatives, led by Fogo Island Arts. Designed to be wholly off the grid, the four studios two more are in the works are occupied by artists throughout the year. Residencies run between one and three months, culminating in a talk and exhibition at the Fogo Island Gallery, contained within the Inn. Other local art and craft forms, notably quilting and textiles, are also represented.
As well as the various businesses featuring design, Shorefast has an important educational role. The island's social enterprise ensures that local skills and talent are nurtured and supported. The thesis is that the basic unit of change is a community—and communities have been hollowed out over the last 50 years by wrong-minded globalization. So what does community economic development look like?
What are the best practices? I think travel has a bright future but it will be very different. I think the future of travel is community-based and carbon light.
It is. But travel is also about getting a shift in perspective. Travel should not be about transactions. What we need is travel that is about relationships. I think it all came too fast. I just think that in many ways, he was better off than I am. He had very rich relationships with nature, very rich social connections. He knew who he was. The possibility of money and technology, we let it run away with us too fast. We could have everything if we could just grow up fast enough to understand these things are just tools.
We need to hurry up and figure out how to reconcile our physical embodied selves with the increasing presence of abstract forces in our lives. This article is intended as general information only and is not to be relied upon as constituting legal, financial or other professional advice.
A professional advisor should be consulted regarding your specific situation. It just takes a small shift in priorities," she said. Cobb said she doesn't believe many of the odd inductees into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame have had a focus on social entrepreneurship, and she hopes her addition signals a change in focus across the country. And how do we use business in a way that strengthens the most important things, like nature and culture?
So I think that it's a good sign, it's a signal, that we're just better aware. This type of business pursuit isn't without its challenges, Cobb said, but having faith in community is a good place to start. I think it was Henry Ford who said, 'Whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't, either way you're right,'" Cobb said.
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