by David Parkinson
Walls are for making distinctions in the physical world. On one side of the wall: warmth; on the other side: cold and wet. One one side: freedom; on the other: captivity. One side: mine; other side: yours. Walls also make divisions in the worlds inside our heads. Sometimes these are useful ones and sometimes harmful. We’re dualists through cultural indoctrination, talented at cutting the world with knives that split things in two. The more we cut the more we end up with fragments of what was once whole. Love/hate, good/bad, rich/poor, friend/enemy, and so on. We fall in love with these simplistic pieces of the world, to the point where they mean more to us than the real world — if we can even tell what it means anymore for the world to be real.
The amazing wealth we possess has allowed us to build strong, thick, high walls between us, and between the human and the non-human world. We have become adept at insulating ourselves from traditional human challenges: the need to shelter from the elements, to feed ourselves, to live together in communities with a high degree of interdependence. We have achieved the luxury of choosing our means of solving these problems, and of doing so as a matter of individual choice. We do not hunt or gather as a collective, nor do we travel together or live together in any meaningful way. Our wealth has allowed us to exile children and old people from the family home, since they interfere with the main business of living. And almost everything we do is mediated by money or other technologies.
This is only an idea.
It’s not a well thought-out plan,
in any well-thought-out-plan sense,
and it doesn’t smack of erudition in any way.
But I’ll go with it, anyway.
It does let a foot in the door of right direction.
That said, what if we were to allow
little chunks of residential lots,
even forty-or-so feet square,
to be surveyed and sold off
as residential real-estate
properties in their own right,
as places to put that little cabin
or two-storey, slightly-more-than-cabin thing?
It’s just an idea.
But you get the idea.
Eventually, we as a society have to get rid of rent.
Without rent, people couldn’t flip real estate,
fueling artificial and insane price increases.
Basically, they would no longer have renters to pay mortgages for them.
Period.
One argument put to me
against such an idea was
the additional burden on our public-works infrastructures:
water, sewage, additional traffic, and whatever else.
We can weigh that in our minds,
perhaps even explore it a bit further,
but we could also weigh this other idea—
Home.
Now there’s a concept.
—Richard Wright
The best definition of “Sustainability” I’ve come across so far is “the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Our economy, environment, and society are the three pillars of sustainability. As with a three-legged table, each pillar must be in perfect balance to uphold a stable existence.
Shoring up any one of these pillars at the expense of another will cause the entire table and its contents to fall. Currently, the three-legged table that supports the world as we know it is heavily slanted towards economic gain at the expense of our societies and environment. The result can only be the instability of the whole, threatening the very pillar we were led to value most.
Economically Killing Our Economy
The key to bringing balance to our worldly table is understanding the unbalancing roles we each play in our own little corners of the planet. Here in Powell River, we have seen how shopping out-of-town for the short-term economic gain of the consumer has directly affected the ability of our local businesses to thrive. This in turn negatively affects the fabric of our society by destabilizing our local economy at its root. Consumer preference for big box stores consolidates the work force to a minimum number of jobs while reducing consumers’ choices.
Many manufacturing centers across Canada are struggling economically because consumers prefer cheaper goods, produced overseas. Our culture of “cheapest price or bust” is biting us right in the bottom line as employment-insurance premiums rise and fewer people are able to spend at previous levels.
by David Parkinson
This article pays homage to Ivan Illich, about whom counter-cultural author and thinker Ran Prieur writes, “Ivan Illich was so smart, and wrote so clearly, that I can barely stand to read him—it’s like looking at the sun.” That’s an accurate description of the effect of reading Illich: I have to stop after every few paragraphs because the writing is so dense. Unlike a lot of intellectually rich material, though, it is written in language as clear and simple as the thoughts allow. It’s the depth of thinking that makes it a joy to read—and Illich’s amazing prescience: he diagnoses our situation from his vantage point more than thirty years ago and points towards solutions which seem more apt now than then.
The theme running through his work is the counterproductivity of social and industrial systems: how any system addressing some human need eventually acquires its own internal logic and, if not resisted, works against human interests. Illich investigated this trend in education (Deschooling Society), medicine (Medical Nemesis), transportation (Energy and Equity), and in very general terms in Tools for Conviviality and its sequel, The Right to Useful Unemployment (and its Professional Enemies). It’s a superficially simple concept with profound consequences for the way I see the world.
by Cadence
To earn respect from others, one must first show respect. To show respect to someone, you first have to learn it. Knowing the essence of respect, knowing its many aspects, paths and facets, and knowing how to practise respect-giving will solicit so full a response in the person to whom you are extending it, a response triggered so deep in that human soul, that it shatters all we think we know, and change occurs in both the person receiving and the person giving.
This change is caused by the interchange, the dialog and trading of ideas, the sharing of feelings, the contract written by our handshake, a nod, or a smile of agreement or acceptance.
This change will forever and always be for the good. Its role is that of a carrier, the connection, close as it can be, between two humans. It is what we most need. It is energy vital to our souls. Food! It nourishes us and fills us. It is what becomes us, this human interaction, communication, this meeting of minds. And if, in very special moments, there also is a meeting of hearts, that is a rare gift.
For such high achievement, a person must be equally a communicator and a listener, to learn and know the essence of interchange between two persons. What does it mean truly to hear someone? For so, in deep listening and sharing, understanding is achieved. Friendship and bonding occurs and there respect is found, waiting patiently.
Our individual choices and action anchor our process of transition into our desired new realities. Each act of love, each loving response, will mold and move this energy into the highest potential for every living thing near us.
Right now, we can individually accept personal responsibility for the way we walk upon this planet. Changing the patterns of our interactions with others begins with recognizing that we are all responsible for the current energies as well as for transition into new social connectivity and true respect between souls. Read more »
by Claudia Medina
There is a rising tension inside you. The kind that twists into your belly and constricts the muscles. A general state of weariness, a sad pulling in your heart. It could be the daily stress of working hard to pay the bills, the rising cost of living, the sense of overwhelm you feel when you turn on the computer, the TV, the radio. The images and words of intensifying crises, bombarding you. Intensifying the worry you feel for the future. The sense of despair over what’s been lost. The feeling of uncertainty as to where we are headed. The cell phone keeps ringing; the email box is stuffed full of virtual messages you seem never to keep up with. There is advertising everywhere you turn. You feel inadequate, too fat, too thin, too…something. Not enough of anything.
You decide to step away from it all. You are lucky—there is a forest nearby. You turn the phone off, and start walking through a trail lit by streams of sunlight.
The ocean breathes a soothing, rhythmical beat as you move. At first you just walk, your mind still ringing with the stressful cacophony of the day. Gradually though, the sounds of birds calling to each other, a raven laughing, an eagle making an announcement, a stream flowing gently, all of these start to break through the mental noise. Your muscles relax slowly, and your step becomes lighter. You notice the soft, warm wind caressing you; instinctively you breathe deeply. It feels good. So good that you do it again, more intentionally, slowly. You start to see what’s around you. Magnificent old trees standing guard. A squirrel darting past, the intense green of swordferns swaying, delicate flowers trembling, and the beckoning red of a salmonberry. You taste it, savor the earthy sweetness. Your senses are coming back to life, absorbing the sights and sounds, the tastes and smells of the mossy, moist, living space around you. Read more »
by Laura Kew
Almost 65 years ago, the first atomic bomb dropped. On August 6, 1945, the world changed forever when the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki put the world on notice that the nuclear age had dawned. From the moment the first pictures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were published, the people of the world began to organise to demand that these weapons never be used again. Today, the choices between war and peace, health and security, even the survival or demise of humankind on earth, are as stark as ever.
Dr. Sylvia Keet, a member of Physicans for Global Survival who encouraged our mayor to become a member of Mayors for Peace, organised the first Powell River Citizens’ Peace Panel, part of the national organization Citizens for Peace. Dr. Keet also organised the first Peace Lantern Ceremony here, a tradition which continues. Now retired to Vancouver Island, she will return as guest speaker at the Annual Hiroshima & Nagasaki Remembrance Commemoration and Peace Lantern Ceremony to be held Friday, August 6th, 2010. An ancient tradition, the Lantern Ceremony now commemorates those who died in the world’s first two nuclear attacks, expressing hope that nuclear weapons will never be used again. Each lantern symbolises a personal commitment to create peace in this world and hope for the future. Participants can create a lantern, and send it out on the water at dusk.
by Ellie Langford Parks
Do you want to change the world? If so, you are not the only one. There are 23,000 non profit organizations in BC, with 1.5 million people volunteering. They raise awareness and dollars for worthy causes: AIDS/HIV, environment degradation, climate change, health, peace, homelessness, local food and many more. If you are working to make the world a better place, here are a few things to consider.
Don’t be intimidated by the ‘experts’
You likely aren’t an expert, but you can read and understand the experts. Use critical analysis to judge for yourself. Experts are sometimes wrong or biased. Do research, know the facts, know the players, know the laws, know the issue. Knowledge is power.
Consider the level of impact
Impacts can be made at the personal, organisational, community, national or even global level. We can change our personal choices: what we eat, where we shop or bank, where we travel, and what method of transportation we use. Changes in lifestyle choices and in government and corporate policies are important. Shifts are needed at all levels to effect change. By joining groups, coalitions and movements, we increase our visibility and impact.
Keep on learning
A commitment to ongoing learning is essential. There are many ways of learning: from experience, from others, online, from books and videos, and in training workshops and degree programs. Analyse your skills and then go fill the gaps.
Plan trigger events
It is a myth that Rosa Parks decided spontaneously she was not going to give up her seat on the bus. In fact, she and many others in the civil–rights movement had trained at the Highlander School. The movement was planning and waiting for the right moment to mobilise support for the bus boycott. Decide what trigger could help your cause get noticed, plan for it, and be prepared when it occurs.
Create clear, measureable goals Read more »
Lyla Smith
There is an exploited producer at the bottom of every cup of conventional coffee. That’s the message of the Guatemalan Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA).
On Nov. 19 about 120 people were treated to a moving film at the Ecole Cote du Soleil, about Guatemalan Mayan peasants working co-operatively toward agrarian independance.
After the film, committee president Leocadio Juracan Salome (pictured) explained the clear necessity for farm workers to work collectively to empower them all. The subtitle of the program, ‘For Food Security, Land Reform is Needed’ speaks directly to Guatemalan farm workers. In that country 2% of the population owns 75% of the arable land. Working on large farms, often trekking hours to and from the fields, wages typically are not high enough to cover the cost of living. For members of CCDA things are entirely different.
Ratio of land ownership in Guatemala may seem very extreme and third world. But recent BC data shows the wealthiest 10% own 54.6% of this province’s wealth. Or, seen from another angle, BC’s top 50% control 95.7% of wealth, leaving just 4.3% for the rest of us. The other half. Globally the richest 2% own half of the world’s wealth. Rather than shrinking, these gaps are growing in the developed world.
While many Canadians are clearly better off than average Guatemalans, our farmers also face huge negative legislative impacts that threaten small farms and local production.
Maybe we can all learn from each other and work together.
by Ken Thompson
Everyone loves a good deal, yet few consider that many low-priced consumables are mass-produced through exploitation of children in developing countries. Child labour both causes and perpetuates poverty. It is directly supported by multinational corporations actively seeking markets where wages are low, unions are outlawed, and desperate people will work for almost any price.
In North America, out of sight equates to out of mind, but ignorance is not bliss…at least not for the millions of victimized children slaving to supply our insatiable appetite for cheap products. Sweatshops are located in India, Indonesia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Africa, and China--to name just a few.
According to the United Nations International Labour Organization, over 200 million child laborers around the world fall between the ages of 10 and 14.
Twenty-five per cent of Africa’s children are burdened with long work hours for extremely low wages. It is estimated that 15,000 children are trafficked–sold, or lured by promises of good wages and easy work on one of 600,000 cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. Once there, resistance is futile. Escape attempts are met with swift punishment–torture.
Seven per cent of all children in Latin America between 5 and 14 are child laborers. At least 26% of an estimated 18 million children are forced to toil at harvesting coffee beans, working with toxic, explosive chemicals and pesticides, or operating dangerous machinery. Hidden away in unsafe workshops, small children produce fireworks and other explosives; some die; others are injured.
Behind barbed wire and locked metal gates, 18% of all children in Asia labor to produce merchandise. In Kanchipuram, Southern India 1 in 5 children are working factory looms 12 hours a day 7 days a week, with 1 day off per month. Modern-day slaves in the 21st Century; their recompense is a mere 30 US cents per day. Read more »