permaculture

[Jonathan Storvick <jstorvick@gmail.com>]

As-Salaamu Aleikum, Chris,

Thank you for these words.  I agree that this discussion has incited some
distasteful remarks.  Whether one is for or against open-source information
sharing, it behooves us all to remember that we are essentially working
towards the same goal - healing the earth and ourselves.  Infighting over
opposing views regarding this issue is unlikely to achieve any positive
results.  Thank you again for the beautiful words by Gibran, they are much
appreciated from these quarters.

Cheers,

Jon Storvick
http://autonomywotears.blogspot.com




On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 9:16 AM, Chris Wardle <cjwardle@gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear permaculture colleagues,
>
>
>
> While the discussion has basically been characterised by goodwill from all
> sides and some excellent options and evidence have been presented for open
> public access for the PDM, I am disturbed by the somewhat holier than thou,
> litigious, belligerence and antagonistic responses this debate has spawned.
>
>
>
> We are all welcome to our opinions and must take responsibility for the way
> in which we express them. I am guilty myself of coming across too strongly
> at times, but I hope the author and his publishers are following this
> debate
> and we can get a view from them. At the end of the day it is their decision
> to make, not ours.
>
>
>
> As for my view - for what little it’s worth - I don’t see a lot of
> difference between the arguments put forward for intellectual property
> rights and those attempting to justify plant variety registration.
>
>
>
> However, if we were to concentrate on our commonalities rather than our
> differences, perhaps these words from Khalil Gibran's epic poem 'The
> Prophet', offer a way of contextualising our disparate and at time
> desperate, views on other people's work.
>
>
>
> *"... Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, “he who works in
> marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is a nobler than
> he who ploughs the soil.*
>
> * *
>
> *And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man,
> is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet.”*
>
> * *
>
> *But I say, not in sleep but in the over-wakefulness of noontide, that the
> wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the
> blades of grass;*
>
> * *
>
> *And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made
> sweeter by his own loving.*
>
> * *
>
> *Work is love made visible.*
>
> * *
>
> *And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that
> you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms
> of those who work with joy.*
>
> * *
>
> *For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that
> feeds
> but half man's hunger.*
>
> * *
>
> *And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison
> in the wine.*
>
> * *
>
> *And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle
> man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night."*
>
>
>
> Sent with love and salaams from Pakistan,
>
>
>
> Chris Wardle.
>
> ~~~~~
> Online at Facebook/Skype/Twitter/LinkedIn: cjwardle
> Mobile: +92 333 784 1679
> ~~~~~
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