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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] [Fwd: RE: permaculture Digest, Vol 82]
  • Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:11:39 -0500


I never saw the message at all nor did I receive anything from Alex
regarding why his post didn't make it to the forum. I would certainly have helped out if I had had the opportunity.

(comic relief mode: ON, green light blinking, systems: GO)
As for censorship, maybe we should change the name of this forum from Permaculture to Permacensorship to make the Nazis happy. (comic relief mode: OFF, red light blinking, systems: STOP)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: permaculture Digest, Vol 82
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:26:59 -0800 (PST)
From: Alex McCausland <alex1mcc@yahoo.com>
To: ktho@comcast.net, holger@tierramor.org, slowfoodguy@yahoo.com,
venaurafarm@bellsouth.net, paul@heliosville.com, paul@richsoil.com,
fdnokes@hotmail.com, coordinator@cban.ca, toobeeorknottoobee@gmail.com,
toby@patternliteracy.com, lflj@bellsouth.net,
dickpiercedesigns@gmail.com, scott@permaculture.org, lbsaltzman@aol.com,
qazingulaza@gmail.com, erda@nor.com.au, thejulianeffect@gmail.com,
ossi@kulma.net, johnston.albertg@gmail.com



Dear folks who have posted on the Permaculture list recently, concerning
the copyright of the PDM issue: Sorry to send this message to you out
side of the list, however i have tried to post it on the list 3 times
and have also written to the list administrator to ask why it hasn’t
appeared, however no reply has been given and it has still not appeared,
so i am sending it out to you as i feel it’s an important issue and i
want people to consider it. The conversation has moved on somewhat
since, but can you please forward it to the list anyway, so that
everybody concerned can consider the issues raised. I don’t know who
manages this list, but i don’t think CENSORSHIP helps reach the best
conclusion to the debate. Salam.

_RE: Khalil Gibran offers a context for commenting on other people’s work_

Excuse the lost temper, and loss of respect, but what people (especially
those representing Tigari) are saying makes me angry as hell, and I’ll
explain why... It’s an extreme situation we are in here in Southern
Ethiopia, where the FUNDAMENTAL necessities of life are lacking. Sure
it’s nice for y’all there in the developed world to reduce your carbon
FP amidst grand prognostications of the impending doom of industrial
civilisation, some day in the future (sure, that IS gonna come... one
day). But for now, what we are trying to do, here in Africa (RIGHT NOW),
is make sure that PEOPLE DONT STARVE. 3 years of failed rains is no joke
when the nearest well is 5km down-hill... you won’t want to use the
shower every day. We are trying to INCREASE our carbon foot print here.

But actually, i am going to come clean here, my gripe with Tigari goes
beyond their clinging to the information monopoly of the DM (as has
already been pointed out there are more accessible sources which are
better distributed, such as Rosemary’s books which she goes to every
length to distribute as widely as possible). But Tigari have also been
clinging, according to a FUNDAMENTALIST logic, to the PDC itself.

As some of you may be aware, the SCOPE program in Southern Africa has
been implementing PC in colleges schools and communities for nearly 14
years. John Wilson introduced PC into Zimbabwe in 1994, leading to the
establishment of the Fimbadzanai Training centre and the SCOPE
initiative. SCOPE, has in recent years has become Re-SCOPE, expanding
its activities to many parts of Southern Africa reaching as far north as
Uganda, but focussing on Malawi, Zimbabwe, S. Africa also working in
Zambia, Namibia and Mozambique. One of Re-SCOPE’s lead trainers, Tichafa
Makovere, came to work in Ethiopia last year, to lead PDC trainings at
the Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge in Konso. One of John Wilson’s earliest,
brightest and most dedicated students, Tichafa has trained over 500
Zimbabweans alone in Permaculture design, and taught in 7 countries
around southern Africa. Recently he led the Re-SCOPE PDC in Uganda
training students from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania. Tichafa was
formerly the president of the Permaculture Association of Zimbabwe. He’s
also a headmaster and a farmer... you can see his CV *_here_*. But
Tigari has refused to recognise that he is capable of leading a PDC.

We offer a certified 72h course at our site in Konso, S. Ethiopia.
Tichafa leads it. Our certificate bears the logo of the SCOPE program.
The rainbow-snake (a difficult symbol to explain to most people in
Ethiopia) is not allowed on our certificate, because according to
Tigari, Tichafa is “bioregional” (which, we strongly suspect, is a
veiled way of saying that he is not competent to teach PC at the level
of a white man – Africans don’t have enough bull-dozers, or gadgets).
Tichafa’s curriculum is taken from the same DM as any other teacher’s.
(The range of environments in Africa BTW encompasses most conditions on
the earth and Tichafa has worked in most of them.) We wanted to fund our
courses for the community by training foreigners, NGO staff etc. But
that has been made far more difficult to do without Tigari’s support. We
had been hoping to bring this up at the IPC9, but due to financial
constraints we were unable to attend.

“BILL’S dance”, if he allows us to take it seriously, on the ground, is
THE solution to the MATERIAL woes of MILLIONS of people all over Africa
and the world, teaching them how to make use of the resources they do
have. But it seems not only are they supposed to pay for the information
with resources they lack, but even those that HAVE got the critical
knowledge, in the critical place, are not supported in passing it on to
those that need it the most! Without wishing to seem “holier-than-Bill”,
much as i LOVE my own father, i’d hardly respect the old fellow if he
was so obtuse and belligerent with such elitist tosh in such
circumstances. There’s something more than social skills lacking there...

So thanks for the Kalil Gibran quote. Let me quote Allah (SWT) for you
in response (for free): “Have you seen him who denies the recompense?
How he rejects the orphan and urges not the feeding of the poor?”
(English translation) You may call this fundamentalism, but those who
believe in the after-life will note that Mollison is selling himself WAY
SHORT. He could have untold rewards for allowing the free distribution
of his book to the impoverished corners of the world, but no, he/Tigari,
prefers to keep the “meagre” income that it generates (apparently so he
can go on trips occasionally and give away the odd free copy here and
there). He’s had his reward already then, and it seems like a pretty
measly reward to me.

Permaculture in Konso Schools project:
*http://arc.peacecorpsconnect.org/view/397** *

www.permalodge.org <http://www.permalodge.org>





  • [permaculture] [Fwd: RE: permaculture Digest, Vol 82], Lawrence F. London, Jr., 11/20/2009

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