LL earlier copied to this list an inquiry I made at SANET (where I have
been involved before over the years) for people who may be interested
in a project related to a village in Indonesia.
And LL encouraged me to enrol here.
I am in southeast Australia, and here is some of the permaculture we
practice at home:
http://aplaceof.info/04/041108springgarden.htm
and here is recent work in community building in our home village: http://aplaceof.info/tomerong/index.htm
We also have a local permaculture group, meetings and working bees.
.......I mention all that as background - important to be seen to be
doing something in our backyard before trying to do stuff elsewhere.
I was a bit mysterious about the Indonesia project in writing to SANET
because SANET seemed to have a plague or armchair activists scratching
fleas and howling at the time, and I didn't want this
delicately-starting-up little project in Indonesia to have to cope with
such!
But it's clear to me, having looked at the mail in this group for a
couple of week,s that this is a mutually supportive place where I can
seek support more openly. :-)
SO...
I have recently begun to be involved with this organisation: http://www.nabuur.com/modules/freepage/article.php?articleid=5
- which is the sort of organisation that could only be set up with
Dutch and Swedish aid funding and with an advisory board including a
Dutch crown prince, three former environment ministers, a national hero
songwriter, a wildlife photographer, an ex-chairman of Heineken and an
ex-chair of a chemical company. It's a young organisation, lots of
spirit, still finding its way. The notion is of building communities of
virtual neighbours around villages in very difficult situations in the
third world to help them help themselves.
I am concerned that while seeking to do things for a particular small
village, we adopt approaches which have value more widely as a model
and example, not just indulge in some very local sectional
charitability.
See the local representative's comment at the end of his review, about
doing things for this Christian village in Moslem Java: "11. I would
also like to underline that any positive results, knowhow will be
passed on to surrounding communities, regardless of their belief.
Hopefully resulting in a prospering regional situation."
We are making a good and swift start on the subject of rice (see the
Sismanto paper downloadable from web site, and local reps action after
reading it) and regarding general objectives, but I think we are going
to need, in time, a good supportive community of people with holistic
attitudes, with personal awareness and experience in sustainable living
and community building. Just the sort of folks who subscribe here! :-)
I am aware that some people have trouble navigating that web site, let
me know if you have comments or exaspirations in that!
best wishes
Dennis
www.aplaceof.info
[permaculture] Indonesian village,
Dennis Argall, 12/07/2004