Gaza one year later

On December 27, 2008, Israel began one of the bloodiest attacks on Gaza Since 1948. The three week assault killed some 1400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. One year later, little to no rebuilding has taken place and the siege in Gaza continues.

Speaking in Watertown, Massachusetts on December 6, 2009, linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky delivered a talk entitled “Gaza: One Year Later.”

Conclusion - it aint easy but is simple

You want freedom.

You have to live it, take it,

Get together and make it,

Communities, local, direct, fair , whatever,

But not corporate, not TV, not Ad,s, not consumerism,

Not hedging bets.

More Clash

Jack Bird & Others

Dear Jack,
R U Alright or already dead?
Remember those pigs, you beat?
Never made you happy, even if ur now 113..
Only obeying orders though,
Orders of the thoughtless eaters.

Who feeds the animals on Christmas Day?

1979 - 1989, for me loved feeding the animals on Christmas Day, got out of going to church too. Somehow it felt more "wholly" than "holy" a concept i have never grasped.

To Tessa

remember Christmas 85 ? x

Another interesting Guardian Commentator

There is the issue that the greatest market for China's goods is the US, China is the new industrial base, low paid workers producing stuff to keep the wheels of over consumption turning, the wheels of capitalism fuelled by the advertising industry.... and "added value" in the form of packaging and promotion...

"Consumerism's basic world-view: a simple cosmology, told with great effect and delivered a billion times each day not only to Americans of course but to nearly everyone in the planetary reach of the advertisment: humans exist to work at jobs, to earn money, to get stuff. The image of the ideal human is also deeply set in our minds by the unending preachments of the ad. The ideal is not UNION, Jesus or Socrates. Forget all about Rachel Carson or Confucius or Martin Luther King, Jr., and all their suffering and love and wisdom. In the propaganda of the ad the ideal people, the fully human humans, are relaxed and carefree -- drinking Pepsis around a pool -- unencumbered by powerful ideas concerning the nature of goodness, undisturbed by visions of suffering that could be alleviated if humans were committed to justice. None of that ever appears. In the religion of the ad the task of civilizations is much simpler. The ultimate meaning for human existence is getting all this stuff. That's paradise. And the meaning of the Earth? Premanufactured consumer stuff. "

Brian Swimme

From Democracy Now

Leading Climate Scientist James Hansen on Why He's Pleased the Copenhagen Summit Failed, "Cap and Fade," Climategate and More

We speak with the nation’s leading climate scientist, James Hansen. He wasn’t at the Copenhagen climate summit and explains why he thinks it’s ultimately better for the planet that the talks collapsed. We also speak with with Dr. Hansen about his new book, Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity, and much more. [includes rush transcript]

The Century Of The Self - Part 1 of 4 - By Adam Curtis
58:25 - 3 years ago
"This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." - Adam Curtis

PEsticides still killing birds

Pierre Mineau: let’s get rid of the pesticides that are killing birds
Canadian scientist Dr Pierre Mineau talks about the ongoing struggle to protect birds from pesticides that ‘don’t belong in this millennium’.
Reports of mass bird mortality from pesticide use made environmentalist Rachel Carson speak of a ‘silent spring’ in her groundbreaking 1962 book.
The Ecologist
http://www.theecologist.org/Interviews/383184/pierre_mineau_lets_get_rid_of_the_pesticides_that_are_killing_birds.htm

Goering on war

Herman Goering, Hitler’s second in command, explained the concept of war when he was standing trial at the Nuremberg Trials for war crimes, when he stated, “Why, of course, the people don’t want war,” and that, “Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.” When Goering was corrected that in a democracy, “the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives,” Goering responded:

Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.

Labour Manifesto 1997

Labour Manfesto 1997
1. Education will be our number one priority, and we will increase the share of national income spent on education as we decrease it on the bills of economic and social failure
2. There will be no increase in the basic or top rates of income tax
3. We will provide stable economic growth with low inflation, and promote dynamic and competitive business and industry at home and abroad
4. We will get 250,000 young unemployed off benefit and into work
5. We will rebuild the NHS, reducing spending on administration and increasing spending on patient care
6. We will be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, and halve the time it takes persistent juvenile offenders to come to court
7. We will help build strong families and strong communities, and lay the foundations of a modern welfare state in pensions and community care
8. We will safeguard our environment, and develop an integrated transport policy to fight congestion and pollution
9. We will clean up politics, decentralise political power throughout the United Kingdom and put the funding of political parties on a proper and accountable basis
10. We will give Britain the leadership in Europe which Britain and Europe need

From Indiependent

e: No more makeovers
[info]cioran27 wrote:
Thursday, 17 December 2009 at 07:38 am (UTC)
Yes, no problem throwing billions in executing Israeli and US policies. Theatre of absurd in fact: seeing Milliband kissing Tzipi Livni (yes or no, one or two?); agitated BBC 4 Today commentator attacking somebody over 'shameful pretext of arresting Tzipi' and mentioning laws that must be changed. When reminded that Israel used the same pretext to arrest Eichmann, well, hm, we suddenly ran out of time.

Parody and paradox everywhere. Brown and Milliband in full three-peace westminster gear being photographed in Afghanistan. Brown attempting to shake hands with soldiers (who don't extend their hands). Darling clownishly postponing the face-off with reality until after election. The country is sinking and the main news this morning is that children should not be given alcohol.

Field hospitals are being erected in city parks for the fallen warriors of the merry season; half a nation fall under tides of alcohol; hordes of disoriented people confused the meaning of a religious holiday with end of year sales pitch; blind frenzy of materialism encouraged from the top; but we shouldn't be surprised, consumerism is official religion here, a medicine, a snake oil really for any ailment. No ideas, no idelogies, no spirit, disturbed values, no intelligence and no introspection. Spend, get drunk, get over hungover with couple of morning beers, spend more, follow the lead from able government so deep in mud of mind-boggling controversies that this once proud country simply does not deserve.

Easy Climate Change

Quotations

---

 
"Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins ... Society is in every state a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." --- Thomas Paine, Common Sense;

"The people have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want & the courage to take."
— Emma Goldman

"The Revolution evaporates, & leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy. The chains of tormented mankind are made out of red tape."
— Franz Kafka

Corporations - Jefferson's View

“I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
— Thomas Jefferson, 1816

“Thomas Jefferson, along with James Madison worked assiduously to have an 11th Amendment included into our nation’s original Bill of Rights. This proposed Amendment would have prohibited ‘monopolies in commerce.’ The amendment would have made it illegal for corporations to own other corporations, or to give money to politicians, or to otherwise try to influence elections. Corporations would be chartered by the states for the primary purpose of ‘serving the public good.’ Corporations would possess the legal status not of natural persons but rather of ‘artificial persons.’ This means that they would have only those legal attributes which the state saw fit to grant to them. They would NOT; and indeed could NOT possess the same bundle of rights which actual flesh and blood persons enjoy. Under this proposed amendment neither the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, nor any provision of that document would protect the artificial entities known of as corporations.”
—Dr. Michael P. Byron [8]

Buy nothing Day

New Economics

You can download the full report here: http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/other-worlds-are-possible 

The paper by Max-Neef perhaps best articulates the thrust of the arguments presented in the report. In it, he argues for a new economy based on five postulates and one fundamental value principle.

Postulate 1: The economy is to serve the people; the people are not to serve the economy.

Postulate 2: Development is about people and not about objects.

Postulate 3: Growth is not the same as development; development does not necessarily require growth.

Postulate 4: No economy is possible in the absence of ecosystem services.

Postulate 5: The economy is a subsystem of a larger and finite system, the biosphere; hence permanent growth is impossible.

Value principle: No economic interest, under any circumstance, can be above the reverence for life.



You can download the full report here: http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/other-worlds-are-possible

Old Farming Books Free To Download

For instance this on the the Clifton Park System

see http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/elliot/cliftonToC.html#contents

Pasture resources

Ley Farming by Sir R. George Stapledon and William Davies, 1948, Faber & Faber, London. Sow a piece of land with a good pasture mixture and then divide it in two with a fence. Graze one half heavily and repeatedly with cattle, mow the other half as necessary and leave the mowings there in place to decay back into the soil. On the grazed half, you've removed the crop (several times) and taken away a large yield of milk and beef. On the other half you've removed nothing. Plough up both halves and plant a grain crop, or any crop. Which half has the bigger and better yield? The grazed half, by far. "Ley Farming" explains why "grass is the most important crop" and how to manage grass leys. Leys are temporary pastures in a rotation, and provide more than enough fertility for the succeeding crops: working together, grass and grazing animals turn the land into a huge living compost pile. Stapledon draws on the work of Robert H. Elliot of Clifton Park, whose work with deep-rooting leys was the culmination of hundreds of years of development in grass rotation farming. Full-text online at the Small Farms Library.

The Clifton Park System of Farming, and laying down land to grass -- a guide to landlords, tenants and land legislators by Robert H. Elliot, introduction by Sir R. George Stapledon, 1898, 1943, Faber and Faber. The master-work of the ley farming rotational grazing system of laying down cropland to grass -- actually a complex mixture of grasses, legumes and deep-rooting herbs (aka weeds). The grass ley provided beef and dairy produce, as well as enough high-grade soil fertility for a succession of grain and root crops after the grass was ploughed up -- truly sustainable farming. Full-text online at the Small Farms Library.

Citizens Renaissance

Excellent and interesting site for instance

"Far from being the greenest part of the population, middle-class voters are actually more sceptical than most about the need for action, perhaps because they fear they have more to lose from increased bills and taxes. Voters in the richest AB group are the only ones to place the economy ahead of the environment as a government priority: 50% say the economy and 47% the environment."

See more at http://www.citizenrenaissance.com/

UPdates from Church Farm

51 facts from the last month at Church Farm

1)     Cooked and entertained over a 1000 people with a diverse mix of culinary treats from breakfast, cream teas, Moroccan to spicy curries

2)     Feedback from 1 of the new co-farmer’s social worker was “ we are thrilled with the service that is being offered to our client”

3)     5 Co-farmers have helped out in the kitchen, and serving in the café. 2 help out every week.

4)     Recent compliments about our enterprise from visitors such as Sir Patrick Holden http://www.soilassociation.org/Aboutus/Whoweare/Director/tabid/68/Default.aspx, Sir Julian Rose http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Rose and Tony Juniper Prince of Wales Rainforest, http://tonyjuniper.com/?q=node/1

5)     Become market trader with a weekly slot at the Sunday Cambridge market

6)     Updated and refreshed the website www.churchfarmardeley.co.uk

7)     Launched our own ready meal range

8)     Rural Care have cut wood for sale, prepared furniture for café, collected and boxed up eggs, bagged animal feed so it is always available for public  to buy, helping prepare vegetables for use in café, helping to harvest vegetables for sale, clean out chicken sheds and put in new  straw.

9)      Launched gift vouchers – the perfect presents available in denominations of £5, £10, £20 & £50

10)  Run our first bee hive course

11)  Sold a chicken coop

12)  Distributed 29,000 leaflets (another 80,000 going out this week)

13)  Opened our Garden Tea Room and The Snug as overflows for the café using other people’s cast offs

14)  Started selling Church Farm meat at Luscious Organics on Kensington High Street

15)  Been educated on potatoes, cattle hooves, ladybirds and more in a series of seminars, hand outs and tutorials

16)  Arranged another partnership with London based venue to deliver our Christmas turkeys

17)  Shadow Agricultural Minister calls Church Farm an impressive project

18)  Attended numerous Christmas fairs, food festivals and sold zillions of pies

19)  Stock our own liver pate, dripping and suet

20)  Have our very own Christmas Pudding Range courtesy of Cathryn’s – her cakes are a sell out

21)  Commissioned Church Farm jute bag for life – watch this space

22)  Started a mobile shop, a few teething problem, lessons learnt

23)  Sold wreaths, made bird boxes, wild flower seeds, planted bulbs

24)  Offer soft, snowy white fleece for sale in the shop

25)  Cooked and entertained over a 1000 people with a diverse mix of culinary treats from cream teas, Moroccan, Italian, spicy curries

26)  Had over 750 visitor to our website in the last two weeks

27)  Helped Brownies achieve a badge with an accompanied walk in the dark

28)  Bought two moose costumes (there are till space available on the Moose Rota – make a child happy this Christmas)

29)  Delivered 269 veg boxes – this week we are delivering 44 boxes

30)  Launched a meat box scheme, 7 boxes ordered in 2^nd week

31)  Said farewell to some good people, hello and welcome to new adventurers joining the farm intern programme and farm store/ office team

32)  Sold 91 turkey, geese & ducks to date, still a lot to sell – PLEASE ask everyone you meet have they have ordered their turkey

33)  Sold laying hens

34)  Had piglets

35)  Run a forest garden course

36)  Weighed, priced and moved from container to store (and back again) around 60 chickens, 12 lambs, 2-3 beef cattle, and more sausages than Anne and Edina care to remember

37)  Battled on in foul weather, floods, power cuts, broken down vans, winds, sickness and health

38)  Painted chairs and tables (a few more if you can spare a bit more time please tell Euan – special thanks must go to rural care, Ruth and Lucy for perseverance)

39)  Commenced building of church farm poultry slaughter operation

40)  Moved the egg processing area to a new home

41)  RC has a new partnership with North Herts College working well. 3 students regularly attending and a 4th person interested in starting soon. Carrying out work and learning skills not possible to do within a college environment.

42)  750 hit to Church Farm website in 2 weeks

43)  2 new co-farmers started within the last months and 2 existing co-farmers have requested a second day to attend the farm.

44)  Profile of the Agrarian Renaissance project has been raised through Transition Farm in Exeter, International Soil Association Conference

45)  3 interns helping RC on weekly basis, adding to their learning experience and greatly assisting Rural Care staff.

46)  6 regular volunteers contributing to the work that Rural Care helps to complete

47)  Second round of appraisals have just started to monitor co-farmer’s progress at Rural Care and to help them set achievable goals

48)  Planted 1000’s of strawberry plants

49) 22 bird species spotted in 20 minute walk by expert bird watcher

50)  Been complimented on the condition of the cattle from the Red Poll members events

51)  Have a waiting list of people wanting to join the intern programme