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permaculture - Re: BAD NEWS website address for Permaculture International

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  • From: Permacltur@aol.com
  • To: askpv@ozemail.com.au, permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: BAD NEWS website address for Permaculture International
  • Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 09:22:10 EDT


I have to disagree with April.
I put out two directories and they are extremely expensive to
maintain and they take a large fraction of my available time to keep updated.
I see no reason why people should not be reimbursed for their costs and
paid for their work. For most listees, it is free advertising. Our
directory, TRIP (The Resources of International Permaculture) costs more to
maintain than we get in subscriptions. There is no surplus to give away,
not even considering that I wouldn't mind being paid for my work if the money
were there. I expect that others doing similar work, such as IPJ, are in
the same boat.
One can be overly simplistic in this give away surplus business. We
have extra eggs from time to time. We bring them to a soup kitchen; we do
not give them away randomly or to people who have money to buy them. The
give away surplus principle (which Bill described as optional, not a fixed
principle in the course he gave in Wilton New Hamphsire in 1981, where I took
it), is a very minor footnote tot he law of gifts. That requires all
entities that receive gifts requesite to their functioning to transform them
according to their natures and deliver them in the right place, right time,
right conditions, etc., back to the appropriate other entitites. If you
live in a cashless tribal society, this means that you divest yourself of as
much as possible. Since these societies are ususally at least somewhat
migratory, this is doubly smart. :-) why lug more than necessary. But if
a strong person sees an old person struggeling with a load, s/he carries some
of it.
We live in a cash economy and though we may deplore that fact, we
need to deal with it. One cannot pay printing, postage, overhead, salaries,
etc., to produce and updated directory and then not charge for it.
Some of us have decided what we can afford to give away and placed it
in public domain. An example is the Permaculture Design Coruse Pamphlets we
(Yankee Permaculture) publish. Anyone is free to photocopy them to give away
to others. We have gotten smarter over the years, and no longer use public
domain. Instead we license everyone to copy certain publications we want to
make freely distributed if they will give them away at no more than copy
cost. Still, we charge you for the first copy, and charge extra if you want
a high quality mechanical to get really good copies. (Of course you could
have gotten your copy from someone else who already has it.) We have to
recover some of our costs, including overhead.
Personally, I don't think that $15 is a lot to charge for a worldwide
Permaculture directory. If no one is listed in your area, that is
information too. I think that worrying about that is a degree of
hand-holding contradictory to the self-reliance that is the first measure of
a permaculturist. We make our own choices, live with the consequences,
support one another within practical limits, avoid mutual competition
completely, and find synergistic modes of cooperation when possible. These
are all other permaculture ethics.

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and annual correspondence
courses via email. Copyright, 1998, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 52,
Sparr FL 32192 USA Internships. YankeePerm@aol.com

We don't have time to rush.

A list by topic of all Yankee Permaculture titles may be found at
http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalog.html
Elfin Permaculture programs are listed at the Eastern Permaculture Teachers
assn home page: http://home.ptd.net/~artrod/epta/eptahmp.html
----------
In a message dated 7/27/99 8:48:45 AM, askpv@ozemail.com.au writes:

<<I rang the institute last friday as i had the same troubles myself -
many people ask me for help and i usually direct then to the global
directory.
Rachael returned my call on Monday.
she said there should be a page that comes up and tells you they will be off
line until
2000!!!
she also told me that the Institute is UNLIKELY to publish the Global
directory
on line as it prefers to sell hard copies.
this is not in line with fair share and share of surplus as far as i am
concerned.
People like me offer our addresses free of charge. These people are
prepared to be
telephoned, emailed, visited etc. We do a lot of voluntary work for
permaculture.

The proposal to make the global directory accessable only on print and add
the costs of postage PLUS
the delay of delivery, will make it impossible for many enquirers.
Many people may actually pay the $15 plus postage, wait for delivery to find
it has NO addresses in their locality.

I have offered to share my webspace. any other suggestions welcomed at this
point.
I can do nothing more from here.
If you too think it is unfair - email them. mailto:pcjournl@nor.com.au

I have built up a very successful Permaculture teaching program through
shear generosity. Generosity pays.

April>>





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