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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Why anarchism is better than conventional diplomacy | Carne Ross | Books | The Guardian
  • Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 20:15:44 -0400

Thanks for the feedback, Steve. This is a fascinating topic.
LL

On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 6:24 PM, Steve Hart <stevenlawrencehart@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Al
>
> Yes, Andrew is presently in Thailand. I may get hold of him later today on
> skype.
>
> That search link is a good start. There is heaps of material on these
> subjects on YouTube.
>
> Basically you to need to register a "Common Law Trust" best place for this
> is with a recognised entity perhaps in British Virgin Islands. Do a search
> for any legal entity / conveyancing business lawyers in BVI who does this
> and check thoroughly the whole procedure.
>
> The detail of it does become a little complex when we try to understand it
> in comparison to the systems we have be corralled into from the so call
> mainstream systems. Common Law etc etc is above all others. Good models
> need to be fully understood to interpret how to best function and operate.
>
> Steve
>
> On 19 July 2017 at 23:15, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Why anarchism is better than conventional diplomacy | Carne Ross | Books
> |
> > The Guardian
> > https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/18/why-
> > anarchism-is-better-than-conventional-diplomacy-carne-ross?CMP=fb_gu
> >
> > Carne Ross: 'Diplomacy only works if it includes those affected – and it
> > often doesn't'
> >
> > After watching the destructive and unjust workings of international
> > relations, former diplomat Carne Ross explains why direct democracy now
> > makes more sense to him
> > <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/18/why-
> > anarchism-is-better-than-conventional-diplomacy-carne-
> ross?CMP=fb_gu#img-1
> > >
> > Carne Ross pictured at Marinaleda, Spain, a cooperative municipality.
> > Photograph: Storyville/ BBC Four
> > <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/18/why-
> > anarchism-is-better-than-conventional-diplomacy-carne-
> ross?CMP=fb_gu#img-1
> > >Carne
> > Ross <https://www.theguardian.com/profile/carne-ross>
> > @carneross
> > <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/18/why-
> > anarchism-is-better-than-conventional-diplomacy-carne-
> ross?CMP=fb_gu#img-1
> > >
> >
> > <https://twitter.com/carneross>
> >
> > Tuesday 18 July 2017 11.38 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 18 July 2017
> > 13.29 EDT
> >
> > I wrote Independent Diplomat shortly after resigning from the Foreign
> > Office. I had worked on Iraq and WMD for more than four years at the UN
> > security council, but resigned in 2004 after giving secret testimony to
> the
> > Butler review on the Iraq war. It was a difficult time for me. My future
> > was unclear; I had thought I would be a diplomat all my life.
> >
> > Independent Diplomat is a short and precise little book and I wrote it
> > quickly, fired up by my anger at the lies and the war, and my frustration
> > with the system of diplomacy itself. I knew there was something very
> wrong
> > about the way that diplomacy was practised. I had seen and felt it. But
> > what was it, and how could I convey that to readers who might know
> nothing
> > about an unnecessarily obscure, but crucial, function?
> > Sign up for the Bookmarks email
> > Read more
> >
> > Diplomacy has remained largely the same as it was in very different eras,
> > but the problems have changed. There is a glaring deficit in diplomacy
> that
> > I realised only after my time in the UN security council, the world’s
> > supreme body to prevent and resolve conflict. Almost without exception,
> > when the council discusses a conflict – in Iraq, Kosovo or Western
> Sahara –
> > the people from those places are not present. At best, their views may be
> > relayed through the politicised and thus biased prism of the UN’s own
> > reports. As I was later to learn, reported views are usually very
> different
> > from the actual opinions of people “on the ground”. Their voice was
> > entirely absent.
> >
> > This exclusion is unfair. It is also foolish to expect good, enduring
> > decisions about anything, let alone the complexities of war, to be made
> > when those most concerned are ignored. This came home to me when I was
> > posted to the UN mission in Kosovo, where the democratically elected
> > government was expressly excluded from the diplomatic process to decide
> the
> > future of … Kosovo. I saw directly how this stupidity helped fuel the
> > political frustration that blew up into deadly riots in March 2004
> > <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/mar/18/balkans2>. It wasn’t the
> > only reason for the violence – there never is a single reason – but it
> was
> > a big one.
> > <https://www.facebook.com/dialog/share?app_id=
> > 180444840287&href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%
> > 3D2Hc2_jY4KhY&picture=>
> > <http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?description=&;
> > url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2Hc2_jY4KhY&media=>
> >
> > Writing the book clarified my own way forward. I set up a non-profit
> > organisation to address that “diplomatic deficit”, also called
> Independent
> > Diplomat <https://independentdiplomat.org/>. Its first “client” was the
> > then-prime minister of Kosovo Bajram Kosumi, who I took to watch the UN
> > security council discuss his country. It was the first time he had been
> > allowed to do so. Today, Independent Diplomat, which is staffed with
> former
> > diplomats like me, regularly arranges meetings between security council
> > diplomats and parties affected by conflict, everywhere from Mali to
> > Myanmar. Dictators and repressive governments get to speak at the UN,
> > because they are the state. But we bring other leaders, those heading up
> > democratic opposition parties, women’s groups, leaders of guerrilla
> armies
> > – all of the dismissively-named “non-state parties” – to the UN, to tell
> > the diplomats what’s really going on. And, to their credit, the diplomats
> > listen.
> > Ex-diplomat Carne Ross: the case for anarchism
> > Read more
> >
> > The discussion is intense. One opposition leader, his voice shaking,
> warned
> > the council diplomats that there would be genocide in his country. I have
> > only belatedly learned that those on the ground usually have the best
> idea
> > about how to solve conflict. Ultimately, such realisations led to a
> belief
> > in a very different kind of politics: anarchism.
> >
> > Today, diplomacy’s public face has changed: diplomats must now scrutinise
> > Donald Trump’s tweets as much as they do wordy treaties. But the private
> > exchange between governments at places such as the UN or EU has hardly
> > improved since my book was written a decade ago. The reforms that the
> book
> > demands remain essential. But this alone will not be enough to solve the
> > world’s manifold problems, from political violence to climate change. For
> > that epic challenge, no one should rely on the creaking machinery of
> formal
> > diplomacy or the governments that run it. A wider mobilisation is
> > necessary.
> > Extract
> >
> > Ambassadors and diplomats tends to emphasise their intimate relations
> with
> > the local authorities, as a mark of how well they are doing their job.
> When
> > I was a diplomat, ambassadors took great care to relay to London detailed
> > accounts of every mutter and hint of their late-night conversation or
> round
> > of golf with the president or prime minister. Usually, these accounts
> would
> > be given a high classification and restricted circulation, in order to
> > underline the unusual access the diplomat has secured (even if the
> > information contained was banal). They were often spiced with little
> > personal details (the president’s favourite whisky; his fondness for the
> > British royal family, etc) in order to demonstrate the intimacy and
> > uniqueness of the exchange. The product of such behaviour is to reinforce
> > the sense that diplomacy offers a rarefied and unique level of
> > communication, where one élite talks to another, elevated from the
> > cacophonous hordes beneath.
> >
> > More about the book
> >
> > “This is a rare and honest book about real-life diplomacy, reported from
> > the coal-face. Ross diagnoses much that is wrong with the way diplomacy
> is
> > practised today, and offers some cogent – and urgent – solutions.” George
> > Soros
> > Buy the book
> >
> > - Independent Diplomat: Despatches from an Unaccountable Elite
> > <https://bookshop.theguardian.com/independent-diplomat.html> by Carne
> > Ross is published by Hurst, £9.99.
> > - Accidental Anarchist <http://www.accidentalanarchist.net>, a
> > documentary about Carne Ross, airs on BBC4 on Sunday 23 July.
> > permaculture mailing list
> > permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> > subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info:
> > https://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Kia ora Ehoa
>
> [image: Picture]
> *Steve Hart*
> *Ecology Architect*
> *Designer, Teacher, Builder of Ecologically Sustainable Resilient
> Environments, through Urban Design, Architecture, Landscape Architecture
> and Systems Ecology.​*
> Skype: tipenemanawa
> Phone: +64 220 75 62 11
>
> Permaculture Global Design:
> www.permacultureglobaldesign.org
>
> The Permaculture International College
> www.permaculturecollege.eu
> https://permaculturecollege.academia.edu/SteveHart
>
> GAPPS The Global Alliance for Permaculture Partnerships and Solutions.
> www.permaculturepartnerships.com
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--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared




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