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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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Don’t Talk Unless You Can Improve The Silence

John Elkington · 31 October 2023 · 1 Comment

On our penultimate day in Jordan, we visited the Citadel and the Roman Theatre, alongside their museums. We were also steered around the old quarters of the city by Iain Stewart, who I first came across via his BBC series on geology and by speaking at a virtual conference on mining and minerals he chaired for Britain’s Natural History Museum. he now holds the Jordan-UK El Hassan bin Talal Research Chair in Sustainability at Jordan’s Royal Scientific Society.

Iain and his wife, Paola, took us under their wing, among other things steering us uphill to Amman’s Rainbow Street and then on to Trinitae’s Soap House. Fabulous scents and soaps. Inadvertently, we were slightly late back for the last supper with our Exodus group, but it seemed to go down without too much of a storm.

Overall, I couldn’t recommend the Exodus 12-day tour of Jordan more warmly. There were occasional glitches, of course, with the Gaza horrors raging in the background, but the trip more than satisfied the desire to visit the country that ignited when my original nuclear family went briefly across the border with Israel back in 1959, when I was nine and we were living in Cyprus.

Without being greedy, I can’t wait to go again.

Mural, seen from Citadel
Umayyad Palace, gateway and mosque atop the Citadel
Panorama from Citadel
Shady characters: the only group shot in this blog series, looking down into cistern
Inside the restored dome
Releasing shorts? A trepanned skull in the Citadel Museum
A loving couple, was my interpretation
Relics of the silver screen era in a cinema in the old town
Mural 1
Mural 2: the unmistakable scent of jasmine
Astrogirl
Jorge Luis Borges pops up in Amman
Iain kindly pays for my halva (or halwa or halawa), among other things
A corner in the market
Iain down in what he styles Ali Baba’s Cave, or shop for repairable objects
Spotted as we walked uphill to Rainbow Street
Baking as we go in to our last supper
Inside the terminal, with sparrows flitting overhead in the One World lounge

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Comments

  1. Marianne Everett says

    13 November 2023 at 7:22 am

    Good day John and Elaine,
    My long comment disappeared in nowhere land. This time a much shorter version. The silence has been deafening since Elvira left to return to Chehalis. l even hear the gurgling start of the heating announcing a mighty chilly start followed by some stunning sunny autumn days. E had warned me that your blogs had flown, I didn’t believe her but sadly she was correct. Is there any way I can refind them and savour your photos and descriptions of the Jordan days once more?
    Thank you both for your company and I wish you both health in the many years that are awaiting you.

    Reply

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Introduction

I began this blog with an entry reporting on a visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, on 30 September 2003. The blog element of the website has gone through several iterations since, with much of the older material still available.

Like so many things in my life, blog entries blur the boundaries between the personal and the professional. As explained on this site’s Home Page, the website and the blog are part platform for ongoing projects, part autobiography, and part accountability mechanism.

In addition, my blogs have appeared on many sites such as: Chinadialogue, CSRWire, Fast Company, GreenBiz, Guardian Sustainable Business, and the Harvard Business Review.

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John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is currently Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements.

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john@johnelkington.com  |  +44 203 701 7550 | Twitter: @volansjohn

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