permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

Sustainable World Radio: Friday mornings at 
9:00-10:00 am PST on KCSB 91.9 FM in Santa 
Barbara, California and streaming live on 
www.kcsb.org. Also found 
on  www.sustainableworldradio.com, or www.radio4all.net later in the week.

        Join Jill Cloutier of Sustainable World 
Radio Fri. Mar 28, 9am , Interview Starhawk 
(www.starhawk.org), Earth Activist and 
Permaculture Teacher goes to Marda Permaculture 
Farm in the Heart of the West Bank to teach a 
Permaculture Course. Starhawk of Jewish descent , 
with a deep commitment to healing both the People 
and Land found herself DEPORTED FROM ISRAEL ON MARCH 12. Hear Starhawk Words

Starhawk Bio
Permaculture Teacher  (Earth Activist Training 
www.EarthActivistTraining.org ), global justice 
activist and organizer  in challenging World 
Trade Organizations in Seattle (1999), Quebec, 
Cancun) , helping in New Orleans after Katrina , 
one of the most respected voices in modern 
earth-based spirituality and Goddess religion and 
author of 10 books on earth-based spirituality 
including Web of Power :Notes from the Global 
Uprising and Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature (2004)

READ MORE BELOW

STARHAWK words on her Deportation from Israel ( 
Quotes from Denied Entry  March /08 www.starhawk.org)

I have been denied entry March 13 ,2008 , even 
though my intentions this time were strictly to work
with permaculture and ecology groups, including 
the three Israeli groups that have sent me formal 
invitations, and even though Israel claims to be 
a refuge of last resort for everyone born Jewish, 
as I am.  The fact that I’m here, not there, is a 
measure of how much the Israeli authorities fear 
a movement of nonviolent ( International 
Solidarity Movement www.palsolidarity.org )

 "The Israel/Palestine conflict enacts on a mass 
scale some of the same dynamics as family 
abuse.  Israel is like the abused child who grows 
up to be an abuser. Abusers generally feel like 
victims­and truly the Jewish people have been 
victimized, again and again in history, 
culminating in the still unhealed  wounds of the 
Holocaust.  Every rocket attack, every shooting 
spree in a Yeshivah, every suicide bomb in a bus 
reinforces that sense of fear and persecution 
that seems to cry out for violence in return."

WORDS FROM  Tami Brunk International Coordinator 
Marda Permaculture Farm, West Bank  on 
Permaculture Course Mar 28 - April 4 
www.bustan.org/2007/02/permaculture_farm_in_the_occup.html

This past week has been deeply challenging for 
the Marda Permaculture Farm--a young project in 
the heart of the West Bank with a dream to 
promote self-sufficiency, dignity, and on-the-ground solutions
for the people of Palestine. The people in rural 
Palestine face massive unemployment, alarming rises in
cost of fuel and food, and dwindling water and 
land which are diverted for Israeli settlements.

A team of dedicated volunteers from Palestine, 
Israel, the U.S. and the UK has spent the last 
several monthsjoyfully planning the Farm's first 
intensive Permaculture Fundamentals workshop 
which would have brought as many as 50 farmers, 
NGO professionals, scientists and agricultural 
engineers from across Palestine as well as 
international permaculture students from New 
York, Oregon, Jordan and multiple other countries to attend.

MORE QUOTES STARHAWK
The renowned peace activist and permaculturist 
Starhawk commented of the rural Palestinian villages that she visited in 2002:

"Now, looking at the land from the perspective of 
permaculture and ecological design, I find myself 
impressed by the elegance of Palestinian 
agriculture, so integrally suited to the land and 
climate, frugal in its use of water, making use 
of the plants native to or adapted to this 
region, somehow preserving enough fertility in 
this stony soil after ten millennia of 
cultivation to produce figs and grapes and oil 
and bread. The "scientific" agriculture practiced 
in some of the settlements, with profligate use 
of water, energy, and chemicals, seems to me 
another form of assault on the land. And the 
Israeli side of the border was green, I now know, 
because they'd taken all the water, as the Sharon 
government is now confiscating the 
aquifers."  www.olivecoop.com/info/permaculture.html

Towards an Activists Spirituality by Starhawk 2003

"No sane person with a life really wants to be a 
political activist. When activism is exciting, it 
tends to involve the risk of bodily harm or 
incarceration, and when it's safe, it is often 
tedious, dry, and boring. Activism tends to put 
one into contact with extremely unpleasant 
people, whether they are media interviewers, riot 
cops, or at times, your fellow activists. Not 
only that, it generates enormous feelings of 
frustration and rage, makes your throat sore from 
shouting, and hurts your feet.

Nonetheless, at this moment in history, we are 
called to act as if we truly believe that the 
Earth is a living, conscious being that we're 
part of, that human beings are interconnected and 
precious, and that liberty and justice for all is a desirable thing."

"...To equalize that power means changing an 
enormous system. And systems don't change easily. 
Systems try to maintain themselves, and seek 
equilibrium. To change a system, you need to 
shake it up, disrupt the equilibrium. That often requires conflict.

To me, conflict is a deeply spiritual place. It's 
the high-energy place where power meets power, 
where change and transformation can occur.

Part of my own spirituality is the conscious 
practice of placing myself in places of conflict. 
As someone in the Pagan Cluster said after the 
February 15 antiwar rally in New York, which was 
seriously harrassed by the police, "When everyone 
else was running away from trouble, we were 
running toward it." I run toward it because I 
generally believe I can be useful there -- 
sometimes de-escalating potential violence, 
sometimes just holding a clear intention in the 
midst of chaos, sometimes just as a witness.

Our magical tools and insights, our awareness of 
energies and allies on many planes, can deepen 
and inform our activism. And our activism can 
deepen our magic, by encouraging us to create 
ritual that speaks to the real challenges we face 
in the world, offers the healing and renewal we 
need to continue working, and a community that 
understands that spirit and action are one".
This essay first appeared in the Fall 2003 issue 
of Reclaiming Quarterly, <http://www.reclaiming.org>www.reclaiming.org.

Resources
Starhawk's Writings www.starhawk.org
Starhawk's Earth Activist Training www.EarthActivistTraining.org
Healing the earth: the Starhawk interview.
www.thefreelibrary.com/Healing+the+earth:+the+Starhawk+interview.-a0147467087
YouTube - Goddess in the Mud www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xPQkjwft0U
Pagan Video  Interview with Starhawk 2007 
http://2witchesblog.wordpress.com/2007/05/22/pagan-video-tuesday-interview-with-starhawk/


Sustainable World Radio: Friday mornings at 9:00 
am PST on KCSB 91.9 FM in Santa Barbara, 
California and streaming live on www.kcsb.org. 
Also found on  www.sustainableworldradio.com, or 
www.radio4all.net later in the week.