permaculture

[<neotern-1@yahoo.com>]

Hello,

I'm new on the list, so maybe it's a good idea to
start of with a brief introduction...

I'm a 31 year old Belgian male, ex-industrial engineer
(only the diploma, never worked it), ex-artist (short
career stopped because of no sense), ex-cultural
installer (more fun than art, see
http://home.pi.be/~bv313716/cultinst/index2.htm), and
now fresh and very motivated permaculturist-to-be,
still without land but that should change soon. My
wife Yuriria (or Yuri), who is Mexican, and I plan to
move to the Mexican countryside early next year and
take care of a piece of mother earth over there. Until
then we're living in Brussels, Belgium.

I have a question concerning the Permaculture Designer
Courses, but before that, I have to say that getting
in touch with permaculture (through Bill Mollison's
"Permaculture Designer's Manual", and afterwards by
contacting Mr. Cardon in Mouscron, Belgium, who has a
magnificent permaculture garden since 30 years) really
changed our perspective on a lot of things, opened our
eyes, and a door to a meaningful future, so nothing
than the biggest of praise and thankfulness to
permaculture and permaculture activists around the
globe.

One thing about permaculture is bugging us a bit,
however. I hope not to offend anybody on this list
saying this, but we feel that the prices for the
Permaculture Designer Course are somewhat exorbitant,
and in fact, are an obstacle for the spread of
permaculture around the globe - and the globe really
needs permaculture. 
We see prices ranging from 600 US$ (in Oaxaca, Mexico)
to over 1,400US$ for 72-hours or 15-day courses
(granted, food and stay included, but still...), and
are a bit puzzled. We ask ourselves who can afford
this. If we look at this from a Mexican point of vue
for instance, no-one in Mexico but the (very) rich
could afford to spend this kind of money on a course.
(A standard labourer would be paid about 4 US$ per
day, or 120$ per month). What's more, those (very)
rich, if they are interested in permaculture, seem
above all to get settled in the countryside paying
peanuts to some poor locals to work in their nice
permaculture garden while they sunbathe, living of the
fruit of earlier exploitation of some other poor
locals. Which doesn't help anybody or resolve any
problem in the end. The people and communities in
Mexico who really need help from permaculture will
never be able to pay this kind of money. They already
have the greatest difficulty getting their hands on a
piece of land as it is (a lot of them go to the USA,
working as illegals, to be able to buy some land).

So we were wondering what's the reason for these high
prices... Squeezing money out of rich people (always a
good idea of course) to help distribute permaculture
maybe - but this seems a bit absurd: permaculture (or
rather, the planet) doesn't need more money, it needs
more permaculturists, it seems to us, the more the
better. Or does it cost that much to organize a
course? But if we imagine a course where 15 students
participate, that would be 15 times 600 to 1,400 US$,
or 9,000 to 21,000 US$, which seems (much) more than
necessary.

We see only the theoretical side of all this, of
course, never having organized this kind of courses
etc., so we had hoped that some people on this list
would be willing to say something about this, clarify
a bit, show another point of view maybe... Or start
organizing dirt-cheap courses for the poor :-))

Best regards,

Bart


=====
"There is not much to be done against them, but everything without them."

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