permaculture

["Nick Routledge" <fellowservant@yahoo.com>]

News of sorts. Woz able to get together with that fellow who was doing
relief work with the mohajadeen. Interesting chappie, Hannibal.
Middle-aged, not unwise. Degree is in public health. Currently studying at
the Aprovecho Research Center in Cottage Grove, a particularly strong
concentration of gaian sentiment in this part of the world
(http://www.efn.org/~apro/). Hannibal is planning to take the lessons back
to Honduras and farm there. He left the Afghanistan neighborhood in '92
but a couple of weeks ago was at a gathering of Afghan relief alumni in
Portland - apparently there are a whole bunch of them hereabouts. To
paraphrase, of pc in Afghanistan...without any hesitation he said, "Oh,
yes. Absolutely. Very much needed. They've needed it for the last eleven
years." Of local conditions: the Afghans are great farmers, receptive to
new ideas, devoted to the land. Lotsa microclimates - mountains, valleys.
The most pressing eco-issues: erosion, deforestation.

Interestingly, the war simply didn't enter his discussion - except for the
fact that he reckoned that the biggest hurdle for permie involvement would
be the jihad factor. As it happens, that's the one 'hurdle' I feel most
comfortable about. Long story, but I was raised to the sound of imams
calling the faithful to prayer, and have a deep and abiding interest in
Islamic culture, espec. its poetry, art, music. I'm in love with Islam.
Moslems get a bum rap.

Another oddish serendipity. I'm rather closeish to one of the trippier
collections of drought-tolerant nitrogen-fixing seed collections in the
northern hemisphere. More details to come, hopefully.

How about you crumbling empire types down there in the South? ;-) Or is
this whingeing pommie permie gonna have to whinge some more. ;-)

n.

"Where American media goes, so goes the Earth." - Helen Caldicott