Absolutely brilliant idea introduced by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on his UK TV program River Cottage last night: Landshare, linking people who want to grow their own food to space where they can grow it.
Check it out at Landshare.net and register your interest.
I have a flat with a small garden—which helps me stay sane living in the middle of a busy city like London—but I’d love to be able to grow more than we currently can and while I’ve signed up for an allotment in Camden I’m over 700th on the list so have an estimated wait of more than 10 years!
I see unused land all over London that could be used for growing food. Now I’ve got my beady eyes on the large disused grassed area at the housing estate across the road!
This is video is of Michael Albert, an economic visionary and one of my favourite people, attempting to describe an alternative economy—Participatory Economics—in 30 minutes. I think he does quite well.
There’s more here, including a Q & A session and a description from Jessica Azulay on how she and others put one of the institutions of parecon—balanced job complexes—into practice as part of their business (see part 8).
Israel has imposed an immoral and illegal1 blockade on Gaza Strip since June 2007, in an attempt to undermine Hamas, who won the elections in January 2006, and as collective punishment of Gazans for electing them.
The blockade means Gazans have been unable to travel in or out of Gaza Strip to see family members or go to universities they’ve been accepted into, or receive medical care. It also means an increasing lack of things like spare machinery parts and all the other things that go into running a civilised world.
This kind of cowardly collective punishment has been carried out before in this part of the world and that is estimated to have cost the lives of a million people, half of whom were children.
Let’s hope Free Gaza is just the beginning of the breaking of this siege.
The 11th Hour is a documentary film, co-written and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, but don’t let that put you off. This is one of the best environmental documentaries I’ve seen and DiCaprio does a fine job.
Intermingled with a rousing montage of earthly images and audio, the backbone of the film is a series of interviews with over fifty politicians, scientists, and environmental activists—including Stephen Hawking and David Suzuki—who cleverly explain the complex bind we’re in, how we got here and how we might get out of it.
It’s a treasure trove of quotable dialogue, and after detailing the down right depressing situation we’re in and the obstacles we need to overcome, the most inspiring stuff comes in the last segment where we are presented not only with practical ideas and solutions for the future but with a whole new way of looking at our situation; this gem from Paul Hawken:
The great thing about the dilemma we’re in is that we get to reimagine every single thing we do. In other words there isn’t one single thing that we make or system that we have that doesn’t require a complete remake, and so there are two ways of looking at that. One is, like, oh my gosh, you know, what a big burden. The other way to look at it, which is the way I prefer, is what a great time to be born, what a great time to be alive, because this generation gets to essentially completely change this world.
If I was a filmmaker this is the film I’d like to make.
I met Tom on the human shield action to Iraq in 2003. He left Iraq when war became inevitable and travelled on to Gaza where he was eventually shot in the head by Hayb, an award-winning Israeli marksman, while trying to save Palestinian children who were having pot shots fired around them by Israeli snipers.
From his diary:
What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven’t done.
Why of course the people don’t want war … But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship … voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. — Hermann Goering
Recent Comments