Subject: Re: [permaculture] Re: Permaculture on Pitcairn
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 10:36:15 -0700
On Wednesday, July 9, 2003, at 02:04 PM, dwayne wrote:
As things stand, there's
close to zero chance of the world being repaired post-colonialism.
Gonna stick my nose in here a minute (I may regret it). I think John
and Dwayne and Russ may not have opposing viewpoints so much as are
coming from different places. I know John, and he's spent a good bit of
time on Hawai'i and is very familiar with the traditional Pacific
Island cultures that existed before white contact and still, to some
extent, exist. These were very small populations that were doing very
well, thank you, before whites arrived, with highly evolved social and
resource-use systems that generated huge surpluses. Now that they've
been colonized, they are too small and weak to survive independently in
a world geared toward large powerful nations, as Russ very ably pointed
out, from his own experience doing aid work. But if the Pacific Islands
were allowed to once again have their own indigenous culture, which is
I think where John is coming from, they would probably do very well (it
would be nice to get them medicine and electricity and such, but they
might be able to get all they need by exporting the huge surplus that
used to go to their kings and to war).
John's scenario may be unlikely (though there's a powerful sovereignty
movement in Hawai'i) but it could lead to a viable independent culture
on islands that, given western geopolitics, cannot now be independent.
Hope you guys can keep it civil (since I've just cooled off myself).
Toby
Re: [permaculture] Re: Permaculture on Pitcairn,
Toby Hemenway, 07/10/2003