permaculture

[Robyn Francis <robyn@permaculture.com.au>]

i do wonder why the ongoing negativity, especially after reading 
Christopher’s response.

It’s easy to be naysayer and point vaguely to a couple of permabiz 
personalites, but they have little opportunity to dominate the agenda at an 
IPC amongst so many other voices from all over the permaculture world.  Have 
you looked at the line up of speakers for this IPC? 
http://ipcindia2017.org/speakers.php <http://ipcindia2017.org/speakers.php>  

I try to get to IPCs when I can afford the time and find the money. Like the 
majority of folk who base their livelihood on permaculture work I live a 
modest lifestyle and have little in the way of ‘disposable income’ to spend 
on trips and conferences. I’ve managed to attend 7 of the 12 IPCs since the 
first one here in Australia in 1994. For 2 of these I’ve helped 
cross-subsidise my attendance by teaching some courses in that part of the 
world to help cover travel costs. 

I admire and support the work of Wes and Margarethe and the IPC support group 
that work so hard to raise funds to support people from poor nations to get 
to IPCs.  It’s these subsidised attendees that are the most inspiring 
speakers, doing incredible work and making a huge difference for the lives of 
so many people, some for their entire nation, often in extreme financial 
hardship and severe resource constraints.  Christopher mentioned just a few 
of these in his email. 

For the last IPC in the UK I nominated Ego Lemos from East Timor, one of the 
poorest nations on the planet, to be awarded a scholarship to attend.  Ego is 
truly a permaculture hero that probably most people on this list have never 
heard of.  Ego did a PDC when Steve Cran went to East Timor after the 
Indonesians left (leaving a war zone of devastation, pillage, bloodshed and 
disaster) in 1999-2000. Ego set up Permatil (permaculture NGO for East 
Timor). Since then he has done incredible work with youth, villagers, 
farmers, schools, women and permaculture education.  With a small team of 
committed Australian volunteers Permatil wrote and published a fantastic 
permaculture book - originally written in English, translated into Indonesian 
and also one of the very few books translated into Tetun (language of East 
Timor). The Timorese government has distributed a copy of the book to every 
agriculture extension officer in the country. Ego is writing a curriculum for 
permaculture to be taught in all schools in East Timor. He is now a valued 
advisor to the Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Education. Permatil is 
crowd-funding to publish an updated version of the book as “Tropical 
Permaculture Guidebook” available for free download, chapter by chapter, as 
PDFs, as East Timor’s gift to the world. http://permacultureguidebook.org/ 
<http://permacultureguidebook.org/>  and you guys are quibbling about 
donating $20 (hopefully more) towards sponsoring such folk to the IPC cos 
somewhere on the planet there’s a couple of PC personalities you don’t like. 
Give me a break

The stories of people like Ego, who have struggled against incredible odds, 
are what gets shared when we support delegates to IPCs. The sharing of works 
both ways, sponsored people go home with new courage, confidence and an 
arsenal of new information and everyone else is infused with hope and 
gratitude for those who are dedicating their lives to make this a better and 
more humane world. 

 It’s important to get out of our little bubbles and see what the rest of the 
permie world is doing. 

Please don’t be miserly nay-sayer. If everyone chipped in a few dollars to 
show their support for our amazing pioneers in difficult places, this IPC 
could be a game changer for many communities around the world. 

Many of these permies earn a pittance ($50-$100/month) and without our 
support would not have this opportunity, for many it is a once-in-a-lifetime 
privilege to travel and attend something like this. 

Here’s the link again to make your donation 
https://www.crowdrise.com/fundraiser/campaign-updates/1308928#!/status/1 
<https://www.crowdrise.com/fundraiser/campaign-updates/1308928#!/status/1>


Robyn Francis
Permaculture College Australia Inc
Djanbung Gardens, Nimbin NSW
Professional Development and
Community Education in Permaculture.
robyn@permaculture.com.au
www.permaculture.com.au

> On 29 May 2017, at 8:37 am, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On Sun, May 28, 2017 at 5:53 PM, christopher nesbitt <
> christopher.nesbitt@mmrfbz.org> wrote:
> 
>> I have to back Wesley on this and take issue with the objections and
>> attacks on both the IPC, in general, and, especially, these scholarships.
>> The attack made by Lawrence and then half supported by Steve are coming
>> from people who have not seen or feel he benefit of this kind of support.
>> 
> 
> 
>> I
>> am, honestly, very surprised at the open hostility to bringing in people
>> from the developing world to the IPC in India.
>> 
> 
> Noone did that; you made it up; noone has any objections to bring in 3rd
> world people to an IPC. Its just a matter of the quality of that IPC and
> those who dominate the agenda....for  big profits from Permaculture for
> themselves, at all costs, nevermind the effect on the International
> community./
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Lawrence F. London, Jr.
> lfljvenaura@gmail.com
> https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared
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