A much-needed ‘Medium’…
So you made it. Welcome…and buckle up 🔥
As many of you reading will know, I decided to start this “blog” (for lack of a better term) to truly express and deep dive into my thoughts across the intersectional topic of climate change and human rights.
“But what about startups?” many of you will ask. Don’t worry, I’ll be writing about that too.
At a top level, the topics you can expect me to cover on this medium are:
🌳 Climate Change
🕊️Human Rights & Religion
🚀 Startups & Venture Capital
👨🏼⚖️ The Business of Politics
Think of this as an unfiltered extension of my LinkedIn, which unfortunately has suffered from censorship, restrictiveness, and toxicity (SS1).
Where do the insights come from to be able to write on different topics?
The truth is that many of my insights come from the conversations I’ve had and the books I’ve read from and with people far more educated than me.
But to give some context to my knowledge base:
- My climate change insights come from my academic background having studied Climate Change & Global Development, specialising in ethical consumerism. They come from working alongside some of the leading climate scientists in the world including authors and co-authors of the IPCC reports. They come from half a decade’s work with the world’s largest independent environmental organisation, Greenpeace, and my subsequent engagement with regional and local government Net Zero policy.
- My insights into human rights and religion come from the 100s of books I’ve read from incredible authors such as Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein. They come from being on the frontline of intersectional campaigns at world-leading human rights organisations. They come from growing up in an agnostic Christian family, and then reverting to Islam, and seeing the dynamic shift in community engagement and relationships.
- My startup insights come from my experience having been a 3 x founder, sometimes venture-backed, sometimes bootstrapped. They come from mentoring dozens of startups through different programmes like Techstars, Virgin Startup, and Imperial College London. They come from my interactions with and backing from various VCs, angels, and startup mentors. And it comes from succeeding occasionally… and failing a lot.
- My thoughts on the relationship between business and politics come from a mixture of all of the above, but also the deep and insightful conversations I’ve had with disenfranchised and oppressed people, and highly educated learned people who have spent their lives dedicated to understanding these topics. Having worked across the intersection of climate, human rights, startups, and government, I can see the interconnected nature of each of these topics. And here is a place I can express those insights and thoughts.
How long can you expect to be here?
Well, that’s up to you. But on a post-to-post basis, I don’t expect to write extremely long-form essays, but more a balance between shorter more personal thoughts/insights from my experiences and immediate thoughts, and more informed and resourced long-form pieces.
I don’t want people to get bored of these thoughts. I love engagement and being educated. So please do comment, forward links for me to read, and don’t be afraid to challenge these writings.
This is a two-way dialogue, my thoughts and your thoughts coexisting to share information across a plethora of topics which expands our collective awareness and intelligence. I expect to post a minimum of once a week, often more if I find myself particularly fiery.
Why Medium?
This is a question I’ve asked myself time and time again, and I can tell you this certainly isn’t the first time I’ve considered starting a place to extend my thoughts away from short-form social media.
Simply put, I’m frustrated.
I’ve really enjoyed seeing my growth on LinkedIn over the last couple of years, from an unknown voice to a Top Voice, from 0 to nearly 20,000 followers, and continued opportunities arising out of that. I’ve also 10xd my Instagram following having leant more into my human rights and climate knowledge and background.
Across both platforms, I’ve made a name for myself for being unapologetically opinionated and vocal about the political nature of climate and human rights. I’ve been unafraid to call out content creators for their double standards and sometimes their outright racism, sexism, classism, colonialism, etc.
This is all well and good, but there’s a problem.
These platforms have shown their true colours and in true 1984-eqsue style have blatantly censored, shadow-banned, and oppressed the voices of people who are vocal about the problems with the status quo.
Meta even confirmed that they bend their knee to the demands of censorship from governmental parties, and Human Rights Watch have reported major censorship of pro-Palestinian voices too. And let’s not get started about X (previously known as Twitter) and Elon.
I want to continue to explore these complex topics without feeling restricted, but more importantly, I want to be able to write in-depth, giving multi-faceted topics the time and thought they need.
NB. I have heard that Medium also restricts certain voices, so I’ll try it out here and move if I find it similar to other platforms.
To put it bluntly, I want to write, and allow people to join the community who care and want to hear more.
And with that, I’ll close this welcome off!
Thanks again for popping over and see you at the next one 👋🏻
-Thomas ✌🏻
