Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
"In Colombia, the ecovillage movement is ceasing to be seen as the alternative, hippy, or maladjusted parts of society, but rather are coming to be known as ‘the people.’ The are the 99-percent, the cultural center and point of reference."
What makes up community well-being in a time of financial constraints and climate uncertainty? This was the question twenty five people turned up to explore at Sustainable Bungay’s first Green Drinks of the new year at the Green Dragon in January.
You are never finished. That is one of PPS’s 11 principles for creating great community places. For anyone working to create a great “third place” in their neighborhood, it is critical to remember that there will never be a time when the work is done. Real-world communities are incredibly dynamic, ever-changing things. A public space cannot be finished any more than the city in which it resides can be. At their best, public spaces are the most tangible reflections of cities and neighborhoods and the people who make them special. They are stages for public life, and should reflect the people who live, work, and play nearby.
For a minute, I thought I had stepped into that scene from Lawrence of Arabia where T.E. Lawrence, approaching the Suez Canal, sees a ship sailing across the sand. Only I saw it in a farm field with cattle. I had parked on a levee at the north end of Twitchell Island, in the middle of the great Sacramento-San Joaquin river Delta, east of San Francisco. In front of me was prime farmland – a busy mosaic of pasture land and row crops as far as the eye could see – and just beyond a slight rise in the distance I saw a big cargo tanker plowing its way slowly across the farm field. Of course, it was plowing the middle of the San Joaquin River instead.
Before the triple disasters of March 11, 2011 most people had to be persuaded that transition was important. Now, the questions are about how – not about why. The organizers work consciously with excitement and joy. “I love what I am doing, and it attracts others.” Work always begins at a small scale and then travels through friendship. “People who are sympathetic to the idea of transition are attracted to ideas about new ways of living. There’s a combination of sympathy and passion – transition is not something to be pushed. It is something people feel. Of course, as we work, there are many failures, but that’s okay — we continue to make joy.”
One of the most important skills we have lost, that facilitates the learning and practicing of all the other skills, is the skill of sharing. This is particularly true if you are on the receiving end, we are still fairly good at telling other people what to do or at doing a good deed, but so many people are no longer comfortable with asking for help or to borrow something. I wonder how much of this stems from the fact that you are then ‘in debt’ to the other person?
The current system of aggressive nation states and trade blocks – largely subjected to still more aggressive corporate powers, such as Cargil, Monsanto and so on will prove easy to subvert, since they deal exclusively in price. We return to capital worth in labour and resource. Value has been resonant with social justice in all cultures, and I think most people have come to understand what “real economics” and valued capital might mean. Worth may be a potent social dynamo: both morally and by weight and measure. Corporations and trade blocks are exclusively oil powered, or oil-replacement (a fantasy) powered – not a durable foundation!
In Kyrgyzstan’s Pamir-Alai mountains, remote villages are tucked high among the awe-inspiring panoramas of one of the world’s most rugged biophysical environments. Short bursts of summer and long winter dormancy ensure that the ecosystem, and the livelihoods that it supports, exist in a delicate balance.
If you’re a lazy pessimist, times are good. After all, you don’t have to look far to see evidence that things are tough and poised to get tougher.
An interview with Transition New Zealand’s James Samuel. Community energy, food forests, and social media…
Community building in the United States is on the verge of something special. As we observe trends in economy, demographics, energy consumption and cultural prefernces, we see the outlines of a New American Frontier slowly emerge from the settling dust of the Great Recession.
One of the things Ferananda Ibarra and Jeff Clearwater stress in their New Economy workshops is the importance of not framing the terms and concepts of this economy the same way the old Industrial Growth Economy is framed. It’s much like getting sucked into debating conservative or Orwellian terms like “right to life”, “entitlements” or “freedom” (as in “free” trade etc.) in the frames in which proponents of a particular worldview on these subjects argue from. Or trying to explain how to meditate using intellectual language. You’re at a disadvantage before you start.
