permaculture

["Nicholas Roberts, Permaculture.coop" <permaculturecoop@gmail.com>]

>   3. Re: Movement thinking (was Designing a Movement) (Cory Brennan)
>
> Could you give an example of what you're thinking when you say "it might 
> also be true that the military system could use permaculture for  purposes 
> that might conflict with PmC ethics and Afghanis might resent PmC for  that 
> reason or even attack future permaculture teachers who arrived in their  
> country."
>
> Like spell out a scenario? It will be easier to discuss ethics if we can 
> narrow down differences and get into specifics. Examples that actually 
> occurred would be the best.
>
> Cory

hi Cory, Patrick actually already gave some detailed examples of
things that are happening now, its not a big leap to see that the
techniques and strategies of permaculture such as perennial
polyculture, organic farming etc can be stripped of the ethical
framework and embedded in a geopolitical mission with its own
neoliberal ethical framework and become a tool for geopolitics...
there is also my post on the marriage of organics and gmo, perennial
polyculture and GMO and employment prgrams etc.. called McGaia, see
below

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=590

In recent decades humanitarian aid has regularly been
made conditional on the adoption of neoliberal economic policies. Recently,
however, there has been a troubling tendency in war-ridden countries to
interweave this aid, classified as ?reconstruction?, closely with the military
machinery of the invading powers. Afghanistan and Iraq have been the testing
grounds for this militarised aid. In both countries the distinction between 
the
US?s civilian and military activities has been completely, and deliberately,
blurred.

The soils of war

The real agenda of agricultural reconstruction*

Asia has seen its fair share of disasters in recent years, both
man-made and natural – floods, cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes, war.
After each calamity, - outside agencies have provided “aid” to put the
pieces back together. For many years this aid has come with the
unpublicised agenda of promoting neoliberal economic policies and
facilitating the entry of multinational corporations. This remains
true today. What is new in Afghanistan and Iraq is that US development
assistance has also become an intrinsic part of the US military
campaign. This is an alarming development. Aghanistan and Iraq are not
unique cases born from unusual circumstances, but constitute a likely
template for US activities overseas, as it continues to expand its
“war on terror” and to pursue US corporate interests.


SOILS OF PEACE

can I suggest folks who want an honest permaculturalist report from
Afghanistan, Rosemary Morrow anyone?, check-out her new documentary,
The Garden at the End of the World... the situation there is worse now
than before the invasion, much worse... its looking like the best
thing we can do is simply leave, get out, leave them alone... but we
wont do that because of the containment strategy of USA against China
and Russia, the Great Game continues in Central Asia
http://permaculture.tv/garden-at-the-end-of-the-world-permaculture-in-afghanistan-with-rosemary-morrow/