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  • From: Michael Pilarski <friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com>
  • To: Skeeter Michael Pilarski <friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com>
  • Subject: [permaculture] North American Permaculture Convergence - Coming soon!
  • Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:24:38 -0700 (PDT)


Letter from Michael Pilarski and Koreen Brennan re. a North
American (US and Canada) Permaculture Convergence
 
Greetings, fellow permaculturists and world changers,
 
We respectfully invite you to participate in the first ever
North American Permaculture Convergence. There have been many discussions
about
having such an event for many years. We are initiating the process but invite
everyone to come on board. We think most people would agree that it makes
sense
for the convergence to serve Canada as well as the US and for the convergence
to rotate around the US/Canada.
 
Are there things that we can accomplish on a national scale?
Absolutely! We have been meeting regionally long enough to have created some
workable patterns that could be used on a broader scale. We can do some
strategic coordination, exchange experience and share resources. This is a
chance to meet and network with pc folks from other regions. We can talk about
certification, mentoring, networking, design, consulting, guilds, research,
publishing and much more.  We can
explore how to increase the impact of our profession on a national level about
sustainability, healing the environment, social and economic justice. How can
permaculture be more effective in serving our communities and the Earth!
 
We intend to create channels by which people who can't, or
don't want to, travel to participate and we respect that viewpoint as well. We
will use on line conference tools and other technology to ensure that anyone
who wants to, will have a voice and can participate.
 
Our starting point is to assemble a group of respected
permaculturists from around the US and Canada to act in an advisory capacity
and to spread the word to their networks.
So far, 14 people have agreed to be on the advisory council:
Peter Bane,Permaculture Activist, Bloomington, Indiana.
Brandy Gallagher,
OUR Ecovillage, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
Jude Hobbs, Cascadia Permaculture Institute, Oregon.
Penny Livingston,Regenerative Design Institute, California.
Loren Luyendyk,Global Permaculture Design Group, Santa Barbara,
California.
Chuck Marsh,Useful
Plants Nursery, Southeast Permaculture Convergence, Earthaven Ecovillage,
North
Carolina.
Patricia Michael,Patricia Michael Design, Austin, Texas
Jerome Osentowski,Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, Colorado.
Michael Pilarski,Friends of the Trees Society, Northwest Permaculture
Convergence, Inland
Northwest Permaculture Guild, Montana.
Scott Pittman,Permaculture Institute USA, New Mexico.
Wes Roe & Margie Bushman,Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, Southern
California
Wayne Weiseman,Permaculture Project LLC, Carbondale, Illinois
Paula Westmoreland,Ecological Gardens, Permaculture Research Institute Cold
Climate.  Twin Cities, Minnesota.
Of course there will be many more
with representation from all the regions.  We are just getting started. Our
intent is that the advisory
committee is largely composed of elders in the movement.
 
Next step would be to form a steering committee of competent
people who are willing to do the work, including tech-savvy people who can
make
the event accessible to all the people who can’t make it in person. Next is to
select a venue and assemble a regional team to do the local groundwork. For
decision-making we will look at the Acorn model that Jon Young talks about in
his 8 Shields work, consult Starhawk’s Empowerment Five-Fold-Path and other
participatory methods. We would suggest that the convergence is sponsored by
as
many pc organizations as possible, rather than just one. There will need to be
a strong hosting group in whatever region hosts the first convergence. Some
time back it was proposed that different regional convergences take turns
hosting the national convergence.
 
The timing and venue are unknown since the process is just
getting underway.  Most people on
the above list think we should aim for 2014, partly due to lead time and
partly
to not conflict with the International Convergence in Cuba in 2013. Pilarski
favors a grass-roots venue which is already implementing permaculture, rather
than paying for a standard conference hotel. As an example, I am currently
dialoguing with the Ecovillage Center (Albert Bates, et al) at The Farm in
Summertown, Tennessee which has hosted many permaculture workshops, Gaia
University events and the 2009 Bioregional Congress. 
 
Who is interested in helping get this off the ground?  Let us know. 
Feedback? Venue suggestions?  Who has ideas on setting up systems of
interactive fora to
enable a lot of people to have input? The goal is a broad-based group of
hundreds of permaculturists working together to make this an energetic and
synergistic event.
 
Care of Earth, Care of people, Fair share,

 
Michael Pilarski
friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com  406-741-5809 Rocky Mountain time zone.
 
Koreen Brennan
cory8570@yahoo.com
>From diebrand@yahoo.com Thu Mar 14 07:13:33 2013
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Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:13:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
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Subject: Re: [permaculture] The people of Tibet need help now - Boing Boing
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Larry, Linda, Scott et al.,

I agree that we are moving towards a new awareness. But I’m not sure that it
will be an improvement on the previous awareness. On the contrary, all signs
point to a deterioration of the situation. Comparing the prevailing mood
during my youth in the 60s and 70s with today, I cannot but feel very
pessimistic.

In Europe everything is disintegrating. In the past, many believed in a
peaceful and united Europe where nationalism would cease to play an important
role. My generation believed in ideals of peace, tolerance, social justice
and the fight against fascism and racism. Today, many see nationalism as the
way forward and expression of fascism and racism have become commonplace.
Even 20 years ago, that would have been unimaginable. Having grown up after
the greatest bloodletting of all times during WWII, my generation considered
that war must never again take place. Many of us have engaged in the peace
movement and accepted considerable personal sacrifices.

Today, as the memories of the war recedes, all of this is forgotten and we
are despised as dangerous pacifist dreamers or ignorant do-gooders. Old
national rivalries are rekindled. Reading some Internet discussions, it feels
more like 1913 than 2013. Immigrants are attacked for allegedly exploiting
our welfare systems. The fight for resources leads to neocolonialism: the
Chinese buy up land everywhere and the West tries to control the World
through its corporations. War is again seen as a solution, especially if it
involves bombing villages in faraway places from a safe distance like in a
computer game. Am I exaggerating? Then let’s listen to one of the combatants
who must know: England’s Prince Henry said after his deployment as fighter
pilot in Afghanistan that “it was like a computer game.” Western nations are
now developing unmanned drones and robots to fight foreign wars without
direct human intervention.

And what about technical progress or the potential of the digital age? Will
the Internet shower us with unlimited free services and provide us with the
means for direct grass root democracy? Or will the transparent user be
enslaved by the corporate or State masters who control the Net? Will the
flood of information contribute to forming mature and informed human beings
or will the masses be manipulated by anonymous lobby groups with their spin
doctors who control the information from behind the scenes? (for example,
more than a hundred think tanks receive secrete funding to produce and
propagate lies about climate change). Impossible to tell. One thing is
certain though, moving more and more of our activities onto the Net will give
governments and corporations the possibility for total control of the citizen
for the first time in history.

Incidentally, is anyone familiar with Casaleggio and his Gaia theory? He
seems to be a sort of guru behind Beppo Grillo and his 5 Star protest
movement (M5S) in Italy. One of Grillo’s central ideas is digital democracy
via the Internet. Here too, the question imposes itself: will this grass root
movement be a force for good and put an end to corrupt government in Italy or
will the movement make Italy ungovernable and lead a trend towards a new
fascism driven by a despotic and egomaniac leader?

But returning to Tibet, sure Larry, news from Tibet will get out via the
Tibetan Diaspora, but is it going to affect public opinion or government
decisions? A few years ago, the Dalai Lama was still welcomed by numerous
Western leaders and news about the repression in Tibet would make the
headlines. Today, no leader would dare meet with the Dalai Lama and news from
Tibet has almost completely disappeared from the news. A single
self-immolation in Tunisia has sparked the Arab spring, toppling one tyrant
after the other. After more than 100 self-immolations in Tibet it hardly
makes the news any longer. How could it? European leaders have to go begging
for money to Beijing to help paying Europe’s debts and the US too needs the
Chinese to pay its increasing debt.

But don’t get me wrong, I will always be in favor of non-violent action, no
matter what the current trend. It is the only right way. However, we can’t
necessarily expect that it will immediate improve the World.

Dieter





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