COMPOST and re-localizing democracy

Re-Localizing Democracy and compost

The Axiom Think Globaly act Locally reminds us that in an era where our attention is being drawn to problems of global magnitude, it is increasingly obvious that the solutions must be local.

But what does that mean in the midst of a national election cycle with all its hype and spin?

Being an active member of the electoral process in a National Election year does not mean simply listening to the talking heads spin the latest hype into a confusion. Most importantly than listening to the news and politicians is listening to and engaging with friends, family and community about important issues. This is the process by which we gain a deeper understanding of the issues. Lest we forget, a democracy is about a government By The People. If We The People are merely watching the news, we can hardly be said to be citizens. Indeed it is the engagement of the people that allows a democracy to function.

So, this all seems to beg the question: how do you stay positive and involved in a national system geared towards hype and spin?

Grassroots is a beautiful metaphor for re-localizing democracy. It is a term that is often bandied about and rarely examined. It offers us a remarkable model to follow to grow healthy communities and movements for change.
The roots of grass relying on a complex ecosystem of micro-organisms, including bacteria, nematodes, fungus, earthworms and insects that all form a hustling bustling community that creates the nutrient rich soil needs for healthy plants to grow. So to grow a grassroots local democratic movement we need only look under our feet for inspirations.

In the case of humans, the root system of a healthy democracy is called Civil Society. This is the activity that fills in the gaps where government and Corporations fail, addressing the needs of people. Civil Society include Churches, Non-Profits, Small Business and various clubs and groups. When people are active in applying our energy towards what we believe in to create a better world, we mimic the little critters that hustle and bustle beneath our feet to provide the plants around us the nutrients to grow. We all know that Plants provide oxygen that allow us to breath fresh clean air. Often times we forget that functioning local organizations that are powered by individuals create the spaciousness of democracy that allows us to grow and prosper. So perhaps the saying I began the article with could be re-writen to say: think globally, compost locally! It is the compost of people and activity that fertilizes the roots of healthy democracy...And the artificial fertilizers of corporate television and big media only serves to degrade us into apathy, just like chemical fertilizers strip the soil of its ability to function as a living organism.

So how can we compost our culture to re-localize democracy?

Forming or joining groups that address the specific needs of a community is the first step towards re-localizing democracy. To compost you need to heap biomass together to start the process of decomposition...with people you have to get together to start the process of democracy! This is happening all over Tennessee and the Cumberland Green Bioregion as well as the Rest of the United States and North American Continent. People are forming groups and using new internet technologies to enable better communication and closer connections. Information flows and the possibility for democracy grows

Forums like the Ecology-34 on Meetup.org are now the cutting edge for discussions on sustainability and democracy. The Cumberland Green Bioregional Council, the host organization of that forum is a perfect example of a grassroots group empowering local participation in the sustainability movement.

The next step after forming or participating in groups that are addressing specific community needs is finding a forum to link individuals and groups together to gain a better understanding of the variety of issues being addressed. This is the foundation of democracy and what our legislative branch was formed to do.

So are there any local examples of people starting to compost for grassroots empowerment?

The answer to that is...YES many and how!

In the case of the Cumberland Greens Bioregional Council, we have undertaken hosting a Continental Congress of bioregional groups in order to create the forum to discuss the next steps in creating sustainable, healthy places to live. Providing an open space to address common needs and share information is essential for democracy, and weaving together the different strands of a general movement towards sustainability, peace and justice is essential to creating the kind of social change it is going to take for voices of reason to begin to be included in the political cacophony that currently characterizes the United States.

In the midst of hyped, spun and often corrupt National Politics people from Nashville to Hohenwald and back again are working hard to create public forums to discuss empowerment issues on the local level. A milestone on this pathway to re-localizing democracy, and a great big compost heap of a gathering is the Tenth Continental Congress of the Americas that is set to take place form the 3rd to the 11th of October in 2009.
The Tenth Continental Bioregional congress will provide an open space venue to discuss the issues related to grounding our economic and political process firmly within the bounds of ecological reality in order to create the potential for healthy, place based communities that model democratic process, good stewardship of the earth and empower people with right livelihood. We will be doing our best to hustle and bustle about helping create the fertile soil for a healthy democracy

For more information on the bioregional congress email Greg Landua greg@thefarm.org or check out the website at www.bioregional-congress.org
For more information about the Cumberland Greens Bioregional Council email Eric Lewis islandsprings@cafes.net or check out the ecology-34 meetup.com group for the Nashville area.

photos gone

Sorry to my readers that I have not been posting photos with my blog entries...for some reason blogger is not allowing html editing at the moment...
I am currently switching over to a wordpress based platform @ Gaiaemerging.org with my own independent url...so int he meantime stick with me and I promise I will make up for the lack of pictures with great content...
Like: COMPOST AND RELOCALIZING DEMOCRACY...

UN support for Youth Leadership

News from the NextGEN global circle! in a recent speech, Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the UN reminded the world of the important role youth have "fight" climate change.

The point is well taken...I only wish we could move away from fighting with global warming (; and find ways to work on transforming ourselves...I think that Ban Ki Moon's point even if he did not say it quite that way.

Pebble Mine

Sitting with an old friend watching the Olympics I was simultaneously amazed and reminded about the irony, insanity and insidious stupidity of our current model of profit driven politics. Commercial after commercial showed "Alaskans" talking about how much Alaska needs the mining industry and how important mining is for the economic "diversity" of the state. In fact, the ads went so far as to say the proposed ballot to protect Alaska water from contamination "threatened to cost Alaskans thousands of jobs and millions of dollars"

In addition to the constant barrage of ads on the TV I am seeing adds in the newspapers, magazines and bill boards all over the state in a truly frightening show of how much money it is worth SOMEBODY to keep this mine from being regulated according to strict enough standards to keep the watershed it will impact healthy.

In Alaska right now we are on the cusp of a vote on Ballot measure 4, an attempt by conservation and environmental groups, as well as commercial fisherman and Native Alaskans, to keep large open pit mines from polluting Alaska's watershed and negatively impacting the natural heritage, natural capital and ecological health of the largest state in the union.

More Specifically, Ballot measure 4 is aimed at protecting the Bristol Bay drainage from the proposed Pebble Gold Mine. The mining proposal would open a two mile gash in the earth in order to achieve the economy of scale necessary to make a profit from digging out copper and gold.

The details of the mining proposal can be found on wikipedia in significantly more detail than most Alaskan's are able to find in the public media.

As an Alaskan I am frightened that the largest remaining wild salmon run on the planet will disappear in order to put more gold on the market.

I am concerned that the conversation is missing the point: we are now at a turning point as a planet and a species, and causing massive harm to ecosystems that are valuable for their myriad of natural services is irresponsible and ultimately uneconomic...the numbers don't add up. Spending billions on clean up is not the earmark of a healthy economy

Turning a pristine natural area that has multiple uses, a multi-million dollar, sustainable fishing industry and a huge tourism pull into a Superfund site is irresponsible on the largest scale...
And the only people who will benefit are a small ground of stock holders of a huge transnational corporation.

This same scenario is being played out across the world...it is not the 1st world vs the third world. It is not the USA vs. the poor, or capitalism vs. communism.

It is true that many USAmericans are implicated in the raping and pillaging of the natural and cultural wealth of the planet.
But USAmericans face the same prisoner's delima as the poverty stricken fishermen of the Philippines or Ecuador.

Work to feed your families, or fight against a juggernaught that is steam rolling everything in its way.

buy in and sell out, or live on the street.

At least that is the choice that is most apparent to people around the world...USAmericans, Canadians, Hatians, Russians, and South Africans. Peoples of all nations and creeds, colors and faiths all face the same delima...

So how do we transcend that delima and find a way to stop ugly and stupid things like the two miles pit mine on the top of of of the most productive watersheds on the planet?

It has to start with the hope that we can create an economy that is an alternative to the centralizing, homogenizing, and pacifying economics of greed that rule the day.

This economy victimizes Americans as much as an other country...we are left an obese and stupid people, breathing stale air, alienated from the natural world.

but the idea of victim-hood is exactly what this economy (dubbed The Tapeworm by Catherine Austin Fitts of Solari.com) relys on.

As long as we are victims we face the prisoner's dilemma...one evil choice or the other. One bad politician or the other.

There is a third way. We work together to build a new ECO-nomy following the principles and ethics of the natural world.

Financial Permaculture can offer a way out...building partnerships and coalitions on all levels and working together. Drawing inspiration from groups like Bioneers and WiserEarth and Pacha Mama, working together with entrepreneurs like Catherine Austin Fitts we can start the long and arduous process of creating transparent, localized shared enterprise.

Nothing good is every easy...and creating alternatives to Pebble Mine and other symptoms of globalized fear and loathing is certainly good....

Solari Intergenerational Dialog

an excerpt from an ongoing discussion @ the solari blog:

What I learned from Mrs. Fitts from my short time perusing this site is the depth of corruption which pervades the government. It seems that it occurred on a grand scale in the 1980’s. To oversimplify in a nutshell, good people will do good things and bad people will do bad things. No laws, due process, policy and procedures will deter such people to circumvent the system. The problem seems largely spiritual.

If I could also comment on people in general, I have noticed the x-gen and y-gen seem to be much more complacent and have much poorer work ethic than the generations prior. To me the epitome of work ethic and assertiveness was possessed by the WWII generation. Not surprisingly they are also the ones who also survived the Great Depression. The rise of modern conveniences and easy and abundant wealth/materialism has resulted in dissolution of American character. I fear that future generations will not have to fortitude to step forward to address these formidable challenges.

Given the depth of monetary obligations, economic collapse appears to be a mathematical certainty.

YIKES!
James, as a Gen-Yer I am a bit concerned with where you are going with your comment…
I could just as easily blame all the worlds problems on the ethical and moral laziness of the thick headed Boomers and WWII Generations who unquestioningly banged their heads against mother earth and created the globalized trash heap we call western civilization…
well done
and how
But instead I will say, why don’t we open up the discussion as to what skills and knowledge does my generation have that yours does not? and Vice Versa…because we are not going to get out of this by pointing fingers…
I am grateful for the hard work of my father, my father’s father and my father’s father’s father.

I am grateful for the fortitude and work of all my mother’s.

I am grateful (in a funny kind of way) for the big mess that’s been left for my generation to clean up…I am grateful for the internet that allows this inter generational dialog to take place…
But my gratitude does not stop the fire in my belly from expressing itself as a strong work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit…
But i refuse to be goaded into taking some half assed corporate job to full fill the older generations idea of “work”. In fact that would be an act of selling out to the Tapeworm.

Instead I am fighting through the tangled web of ethical ambiguity to try and create a path towards regeneration of our culture and world. I call this path ecosocial regeneration, and it is the intersection of many disciplines of knowledge and craft.

…Some of the characteristics you call lazy in my generation are nothing but the necessary response to an ambiguous world of lies and backroom deals…

Why go charging ahead when you cant see whats beyond…
this is the time for thoughtful and careful interventions, not cowboy George Bush-Loan Ranger Antics…
This time calls for teamwork…and my generation is equipped with the skills, knowledge and ethics to serve as leaders in a new movement…You can only move as fast as your slowest member, and the assertiveness and “workethic” of prior generations needs to be softened by acknowledgment of the whole, our membership of a family of cultures and species that we need to survive and thrive.

Unlike the past, real leaders do not simply command…instead they walk the tightrope of empowerment and accountability, creating the opportunities for people to thrive and work together.

Many of us are busy trying to come up with shoestring budgets to save the world while the corporate world barrels towards a cliff like a juggernaut dragging the rest of us with it. The majority of our olders (not elders, for that would imply wisdom) look at us scurrying around hither and yon as if we are nothing but confused children who ought to “get a real job”

If you hear little bitterness in my words it is because I have been struggling my whole life to overcome some insane expectation of my generation to work harder and faster and be stronger…
all the while we point out the real issue at hand…SLOW DOWN…WALK SOFTLY…WORK TOGETHER…

So, who is complacent?
Is it the Gen Xers with thier college debt? who tried to do what their parents wanted?
Is it Gen Y with its wanderlust? trying to walk away form the problem and realizing that if you go straight long enough you end up where you started?
Or is the the boomers and WWIIers who are sitting around griping about the state of things…a system they HELPED SHAPE!

I think we are all going to take some of the blame…smile…WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE

…its time to get back to work, the world needs us, our children, and their children’s children’s children need us, and they need us together, able to work as a team.
The real work is connection…the system wants to alienate us from one another, pointing to abstractions and “character flaws” and saying in triumph…THAT IS THE PROBLEM!

well, i for one refuse to get sucked into that viscous cycle.
Its time to open the dialog and start dealing more intimately with finance, politics and community.

The New Housing and Economic Recovery act is a sharp reminder that we need to take matters into our own hands and start empowering ourselves. The first step in that process is finding venues to come together that can support the kind of conversations we need to have.

If that’s lazy than I am a rapscallion and a vagabond.

when is smaller better?

Big vs. Small is a perennial discussion ECO:nomic thought...

here is is some food from thought passed along from my friend Frank Michael of Solar Smith and Mushroom People:

In http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/about/deep-green-peak-oil-changes-everything-20080804

"Here's the latest in the Deep Green column from Rex Weyler - author, journalist, ecologist and long-time Greenpeace trouble-maker. The opinions here are his own. " Rex has a remarkable passage:

"... The dream of a globalized world marketplace linked by airplanes and trucks will not endure. Monolithic superstores that rely on liquid fuels to ship cheap goods around the world will become the relics of the cheap oil era. These massive chain stores also undermine the local enterprise that communities will need to survive."

You mean Walmart could go down the tubes!!?? Tsk, tsk.

Maybe there's hope for small food producers yet. And makers of all other kinds of goods too! Used to be that ladies without other means of support could make clothes and mend stuff, and small cabinet makers and shopkeepers thrived when I was a kid in Mexico.

Right now a lot of UK dairy farmers and large scale growers are going in the red from the rising cost of fuel. Small is getting more beautiful.

on the road in Alaska

Home sweet home...
For the rest of the month I am in my home state of Alaska. It is an amazing change from the humid and lush hills of Tennessee to the cool snowcapped mountains of Alaska.
While I am here I am hosting two introduction to permaculture courses as well as making the rounds with friends and family.
It feels great to be breathing in the clean fresh air.

Soon I will be posting up information and analysis on the proposed Pebble Gold Mine (or for the pro-development side) and how that impacts both the financial and environmental ecology of Alaska as well as writing an article on trans-organization process and how TS can empower coalitions and communities to form democratic structures to address large-scale environmental and economic issues...

From the Road..

Eco Settlement Ingredients

Word of mouth brought me to www.ecosutra.com chasing after a rumor of an amazing video on permaculture. I ordered the video and anticipate it's arrival, and for now I am enjoying surfing around the ecosutra site checking out their resources.

Here are some of the design elements for a regenerative culture:

Eco Settlement Ingredients -- everything from biodigesters to electric bikes and back.

Regenerative Business and the Fourth Sector

As my friend and collegue Aaron and I were surfing through the web researching legal structures and getting ready to take the next step in incorporating our regenerative and solution oriented project: practivist solutions we stumbled across www.bcorporation.com. I have had the idea for a while now that profitible businesses of the future would have to prove their net impact on society and the environment was positive, and this is B Corp seem to be a solid step in the right direction.


Another group that is tapping into a resonant strategy to support the emergence of a regenerative economy is called Fourth Sector.
The line between for-profit and non-profit blurs as we notice that a whole new sector of the global economy is emerging to pick up the slack left behind by trickle down economics and privatization.

It seems we are on the cusp of what in evolutionary biology would be called a speciation event. Or perhaps we are halfway through and just now noticing. Either way, during this kind of dynamic environment (economic, ecological, social...or as we would say in Gaia University: ecosocial) groups like The Fourth Sector and B Corp are offering us a light house to guide us past the rocky and treacherous waters of getting any shared enterprise up on its feet and making positive change in the world.

Investors are shying away from ventures that are not transparent, cooperative, and utilyzing permaculture and ZERI principles to create zero waste, net positive services and products. Fiascos like Enron and the rapid collapse of the dollar are fueling interest in the fourth sector and new legal structures like the L3C are poping up to meet the demand for different ways of doing business.

In responce to all this activity new financial systems are being created and old ones are being revisited as entreprenuers scramble to create a niche in the new financial ecology that is growing out of the crumbling petrolium based economy.

enter Financial Permaculture