permaculture

[Claude Genest <genest@together.net>]

Sorry if this is off-topic group, but I just got back from an electrifying
weekend in Quebec city where I joined some 50,000  protestors at the "Summit
of the Americas" to denounce the ratification of the FTAA agreement.

I have never thought of myself as a "radical" let alone  a "revolutionnary"
- but after what I saw, felt and experienced this weekend, I know that I am
forever changed and proud to wear that mantle ( or at least not cringe when
being referred to by the media as such !)

Passionate speeches by Maude Barlow and Jose Bove notwithstanding, nothing
galvanized me more than seeing wave after wave of young boys and girls dive
into the frontlines to be repulsed with water cannon and insane amounts of
tear gas.

 On the first day, the gas was so bad that it wafted back into the summit
conference room and delayed the summit's opening by over an hour - on the
second day, area residents had to flee their homes as the gas wafted though
shut windows and doors.

Police tactics were so blatantly inappropriate that residents kept coming
down from their apartments to join protesters in their chant of
"So-So-So...Solidarite!"

The moment that brought tears to my eyes ( I mean real non-gas-induced
tears) was when a phalanx of grey haired matrons calling themselves "Raging
Grannies" made their way up the hill singing the most angelic choir-like
songs - All who wtnessed their courage broke into spontaneous standing
ovations and their actions re-invigorated everyone's spirits.

To know that they too would be unceremoniously doused with that foul gas, I
confess, brought a flood of violent emotions to the surface -

To then go home and watch reports of the event was surreal - I knew the
media distorted things, but had never realized how badly they did so till
this weekend.

More than ever, I am convinced of Permaculture's vitally imporatant  role in
our future and grateful for the positive solutions that it provides.

Keep up the good work everyone, we need you so much and I love you all.


Claude "Che" Genest



> From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflondon@mindspring.com>
> Organization: Venaura Farm
> Reply-To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Newsgroups: permaculture
> Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 10:55:49 -0400
> To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Subject: Suggested topics for discussion
> 
> 
> Having finished fencing on 2/3 of my property I am now deer-free for
> the first time and am ready to work on developing permaculture systems
> and food crops around my house and in my fields. Some of the things I
> am currently intested in are:
> 
> 1) interconnected mandala-shaped permanent notill raised garden beds
> arranged in a pattern suggested by a fractal design that resonates
> with nature
> 
> 2) berming, swales and water/nutrient catchments for erosion control
> and recycling of resources.
> 
> 3) developing crenelated edges around water catchments
> (small ponds, pools and wetlands) for diversity within edge
> zones that will interact with and enhance life in adjoining
> permaculture systems
> 
> 4) waste management systems involving reedbeds and constructed
> wetlands 
> 
> 
> 
> L.F.London ICQ#27930345 lflondon@mindspring.com
> www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech  london@ibiblio.org
> 
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