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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] on an ethics of permaculture (and the us military)
  • Date: Sun, 08 Aug 2010 13:13:31 -0400

On 8/8/2010 10:22 AM, kevin skvorak wrote:

i want to respond with a little bit of detail about the military question,
as i think the current thinking on it remains a bit muddled, in my opinion.

my main observations on this would be:

Thanks for this amazing post, Kevin. My eyes have been opened. We have missed a lot from you during your absence. I won't respond to each paragraph or I would be at the computer for a good bit of time (like hours) and I have work to do outside, but I will do that in bits and pieces.

You did open quite a can of worms referring to the "plant quarantine" the US-Israeli group demanded, ostensibly to have access to plant germplasm they might use (steal) to create patented GMO material with drought resistant qualities for sale throughout the mideast and elsewhere where drought is a problem. Maybe some of these gmo plant varieties would be of great benefit to people and maybe they could be donated or sold at an affordable price to them or maybe with huge profit margin or withheld from some people. It does sound like the major players in this scenario were not being completely up front
with everyone. Then again the Arab/Jordanian people could just share
the plant germplasm with everyone according to the open source principle, for the good of all, with no profit motive, only cost recovery, i.e. any gmo varieties developed from that germplasm would be fully tested for safety on all fronts and could not be patented (partly so others could use the genetic material of the gmo to develop enhanced varieties). Maybe Toby can comment on whether this is a sound plan.

It does seem sometimes that implementing permaculture strategies, much less permaculture ethics, in Iraq, Afganistan and Pakistan as well as in other Middle East countries might be akin to David and Goliath, the tail wagging the dog and at worst Don Quixote revisited, because of the economic and military issues presently at work. I think there's hope. I say this partly from inspiration I derive from President Obama and his insistence that we try harder, do more, keep the faith and continue to hope and work for positive change, i.e. keep on keeping on and never give up, ever.

Factors complicating matters in Afganistan and neighboring regions where related conflicts have spread could include:
1) the assertion that the Pakistan ISI is aiding the Taliban and using them to keep Indian interests out of Afganistan, and there is the issue of Kashmir. In yesterday's news was the announcement of the murder by the Taliban of eight doctors who had volunteered for humanitarian assistance in an area of Afganistan (northwest) known to be dangerous.
This also happened years ago to members of the Medecin Sans Frontiere
in a similarly dangerous area. So, who is siding with whom? Is this just another case of corporate and big money interests using military resources available to them to get what they want without any regard for the people of Afgaistan, indigenous folks from varying ethnic, tribal and religious backgrounds?
2) opium and heroin and who controls production and trade
3) vast untapped mineral reserves in Afganistan (and possibly also Pakistan)
4) oil pipelines from oil-rich former soviet countries needing to be installed through Afganistan to connect with:
5) a huge new port and trade corridor going inland on the coast of Pakistan serving eastern countries (i.e. China) and the western world.
6) the current flooding in Pakistan
7) the issue of the Baluchis in Iran and Pakistan and their contention that they are not getting their fair share of profits from oil/gas/mineral resources in their region (they were in the news recently)
8) this list could probably go on for several more pages
9) maybe all of the above should be ignored and disregarded and instead focus 100% and only on the spread of permaculture in practice and permaculture wisdom and knowledge for the benefit of the people of Afganistan and in other middle eastern and eastern countries in desperate need of this technology and means of survival.

i want to offer another short example, and i know people will see this as a
personal attack, but be that as it may here goes.

a few yrs ago Geoff Lawton was working on another effort in Jordan. In this
case a USAID funded effort that required, in order to get the funding, that
it be an effort that included israeli participation. (the project as i
understood it was something to do with "plant quarantine" and i suspect the
Israeli and US interest was in access to genetic material from arab
countries traditional drought resistant varieties for israeli GMO
programs) it turned out that Geoff at al were not able to persuade very many
Jordanian NGO's to partner in the effort, something that should have been
obvious to him as first glance at the proposal, yet it was something he
didn't seem to want to think about. he just seemed to want to remain blind
to the social ecology involved, much less the potential consequences to the
PC movement for being identified in the minds of jordanian and arab folks on
the ground as being aligned with a project like this.

so, for me, this question of "ethics" it is about effectiveness in the
movement. if an average arab, afghan, US, any person anywhere has their very
first exposure to PC being a press release from the Pentagon about their new
green PC intiative to 'help' the people of afghanistan, (or whatever the
latest military effort is) do you believe this is going to advance, or
setback the movement of PC ideas into these communities?

There's no need for preconceived notions or paranoia about the Pentagon, influencing people's interest in and acceptance of any new, human-oriented, effective, permaculture-based long term survival strategies that they propose, offer or implement in the field.

That's enough for now. I realize this is somewhat challenging stuff.

Which is good for all of us.

I don't believe tho that any of what i have written should be characterized
as personal attack. i do not want to engage in personal attacks, flame
wars, or online abuse., nor do i want to suffer it myself. i do believe
these are legitimate and needed conversations for everyone involved in PC if
we are to grow in our effectiveness.

And that is an understatement.




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