系統思考可持續發展有機園藝超越

佔據運動帶來的問題是, “什麼是您的需求?“恐怖分子提出要求，因為佔用是不是恐怖分子的移動, 為什麼尊稱響應，將允許媒體和憤世嫉俗束之高閣運動的空洞問題? 到現在為止, 它應該是不言自明，人處於飢餓體驗生活不受約束由, 依賴, 和權力結構的中間人，神化的貪婪，而對我們的生活狼吞虎咽, 不只是後一個下層的血，但精英本身EKES一樣肯定排水利用他人soullessly幹的.

據運動沒有數字單槍匹馬創建一個新的, 廉潔制度 無中生有 在其自己的蒸汽. 然而, 如果運動利用了美國公眾的支持，支持它, 他們的注意力轉向的問題, “什麼我們創造未來?“, 佔據可以創建一個接地體驗表現, 集成的願景是實際, 優雅的生活肯定. (關於這個問題的，在隨後的職位。)

民粹主義者和進步運動有弄巧成拙的傾向提出了實質性的替代在現實世界中，是功能，原則上沒有反對的體制性，結構性不公. 這不是我不能同情與沸騰的挫折, 怨恨, 幻滅, 和憤慨. 經過一個點雖然, 一個有停止站立 針對 一切，並找到一願意傲然屹立 為 沒有賣的視力. 那麼它是言行一致的時候了. 遠見的表現，是一個漫長的努力，大, 即時滿足預期將出片狀和未提交的雜草，直到這些人都願意停止抱怨和壯大骨幹.

代表腐敗，但佔據運動尚未創建替代結構同情運動的信任的人，也將是貪污腐敗的雙重約束對機構內佔據運動的許多鄉親有深深的怨恨. 有常設的信息，使捐贈佔據, 還沒有收到的捐款方式. 雖然可以成功地爭辯說，有沒有一個沒有被損壞，最終非營利, 如果佔據運動想要得到的東西 完成 作為一個實用性的問題, 它與現存體制結構的工具，別無選擇，只有創造性地開展工作，才可以從根本上重新定義和重新裝備替代結構如何工作. 這是改變一個的原則，希望看到世界 (而不會失去你的幽默感).

喜歡還是不喜歡, 我們都進行辱罵系統的無意識的種子，並沒有意識到我們的產品, 這些傾向的深基坑開挖, 系統複製幾乎可以保證，如果沒有其他原因比不可避免極性是在偶的境界化身. 嵌入式宇宙玩笑是傾向成為我們反對的是什麼. 我們有一個很大的痛苦, 參與有關自我反省反省到我們用我們帶來的範例. 我會畫“漸進活動家憤怒的風險, 消極, 和批評，因為如果沒有別的, 爭議的存在，將可望提取到清晰需要檢查的任何憤怒的根源挑釁. 如果我引起不適和憤怒, 這是因為有一個集體心理或情緒上的傷口，我感動.

例如, 一個是作為一個真理，什麼是在一個在整個以及在整個微觀分, 佔據有其份額overbloated自我. 在洛杉磯, “領導者”很容易辨認，因為他們的魚缸利基壟斷代表整個攝像機和話筒前的空間. 幽默的諷刺在於自封領袖的存在，在什麼是應該是一個群龍無首的運動. 與此同時, 利己的媒體負面報導的密友愛優於餵食狂潮佔據洛杉磯. 飢餓是顯而易見的，因為營地內的最不喜歡的媒體帳篷內的. KPFK勉強趕到，從現場的廣播開始時，大會表決通過. 這是一個令人費解的決定戰術，因為KPFK是一種同情的盟友，與佔據已培養了積極的合作關係. 誰知道呢佔據不會找到盟友主流媒體. 你可以看到描繪福克斯在正面光佔據? 我也不能.

我們失調的全球社會，像單板無縫集成與間/內代社會正義的經濟和生態的可持續發展不能粘貼. 我們不能指望的基本功能失調權力動態，膚淺的工作方式，因為地方仍然. 密集的陰影挖掘和治療工作，通過殘酷的自我誠實需要在內部和外部兩個領域的地方. 沒有任何實質性的內部工作，試圖改變外部世界，改變串聯意識的永續農業的主要弱點之一, 石油峰值, 佔據, 過渡鎮*運動和它是一個原因，為什麼許多進步的組織和運動揮動，揮舞在他們的努力，使有關制度變革. 是我的高標準? 是的, 但賭注, 這是前所未有的全球史.

*注意: 轉型城市模型包括心臟和靈魂委員會的形成，但我不知道如果這些分組有調解人是不夠熟練導航深, 有時粗糙, 水域的心理和集體無意識, 更不用說的實力，以幫助人們自己的動機，他們不討論自豪. 直到我們擁有我們的影子, 我們的影子擁有我們. 這項工作過程, 不面向產品, 所以沒有定義總站.

在世界上所有主要的精神傳統, 有戒律的神聖權力，個人的管理, 我們的lifeforce, 也提高身體健康和情緒以及貝. 違反這些戒律最終花費了我們精神上以及作為生物. 這些戒律: 1) 目前住在, 2) 只追求真理, 3) 天主的旨意，放棄個人意志, 4) 愛情是神聖權力, 5) 孝敬自己, 6) 尊敬的整個生命, 和 7) 全部是. 這些戒律對應的韋達經典的七個脈輪, 七個基督教聖禮, 卡巴拉傳統的生命之樹. (參考: 卡羅琳Myss)

全部是 顯然，在理論上聽起來很美妙的真理之一，但很難在實踐生活. 任何分裂團結或違反整個神聖, 如種族主義, 同性戀恐懼症, classism, 或性別歧視, 是違反戒律，因此, 神聖的法律. 社會的, 經濟和生態正義有著千絲萬縷的聯繫. 濫用和級聯侵犯精力充沛/精神是不容許的行為，我們應該視而不見，否認因為一個是在整個什麼是在整個一個. 敵人不是“那裡”. 它從來沒有. 人的心臟是為好，在世界上的邪惡的門戶; 調解意願和選擇，我們通過我們的創造力體現.

我們生活在一個全球性的文化，在其所有的各種形式的虐待是非常寬容的. 雖然身體虐待是令人震驚的愚蠢, 它是一個較為普遍的惡性生長, 但隱藏, 口頭, 有活力, 情緒化, 虐待和心理形式, 這是因為非身體虐待的過程中摧毀了被虐待的人往往更具破壞性 (或動物, 社會階層, 國家, 生態系統, 等等) 由內而外. 與流行的神話, 大多數吸毒者不造成傷害，因為精神病或因為他們太虐待. 吸毒者濫用，因為他們可以，因為沒有人認為他們為他們的掠奪行為負責; 動機, 植根於利己的價值觀和態度的權利, 在於電力需求, 統治, 和控制，而不是通過他們對別人強加從內部培養真正的權力. 濫用違反公眾意識的表面時，它的表面在有關亂倫的色情故事, 色情, 謀殺性奴役或高潮. 這種暴力行為不會消退，除非和直到濫用不再容忍社會或際間. 大多數吸毒者感覺完全有權為他們做的行為，只是打擊更具懲罰性的法律或廣泛的一小部分上懲罰那些在法律制度陷入不會幹潮虐待的受害者. 從來沒有抓到絕大多數的濫用, 更單獨起訴; 他們只需將新的受害者.

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Rather than use hyperbole for literary effect that would lead you to believe that I’m prone to fabrication, I’m letting the story that the e-mail tells exemplify more social patterns in the extreme to make them obvious.

A few years ago, I volunteered as a consulting garden/landscape professional for the first “Gardens of Gratitude” in Los Angeles. I’d be tempted to rechristen the project-driven event if it wouldn’t be dishonoring the spirit of abundance and sharing that Devin Slavin (a classmate in Ecological Agriculture program at New College of California 1n 2005) wanted the idea of “Gardens of Gratitude” to embody. The intention behind making materials and expertise low and no-cost was to make edible sustainable gardens accessible to low-income folks, not to subsidize the acquisitive greed of the haves (who in all likelihood could afford the materials and services when they wanted to pay for them) at the expense of neglecting the have-nots in areas such as East Santa Monica, Westlake, MacArthur Park, Southcentral, Watts, or Pacoima. The opposite of gratitude isn’t ingratitude, it’s entitlement.

Entitlement is one pervasive manifestation of America’s shadow and it is what St. Teresa of Avila called a “reptile in the soul” according to Caroline Myss. Until you own your shadow aspects, they own you.

From:

To: (e-mail addresses deleted)

Date: Sun, 五月 3, 2009 1:30:43 PM

Cc: (e-mail addresses deleted)

Subject: Re: Gardens of Gratitude – Thanks for signing up

Greetings Sean & All:

Thank you for welcoming us into the event. Just to let you know, our knowledge is minimal (book-learned permaculture curiosity), and being a corner lot, our blank palette is large and L-shaped. For that day, we’ve segmented off one 12×20 full-sun rectangular section of the yard to work with, and have been doing some sketches.

Our goal is to do this without spending much at all.

Uh-oh. That last sentence was a red flag.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing when culled from a book without any grounding in experience but anchored to high expectations. The only way that this family could visually achieve the upscale “architectural” results that they strove for would be on the back(同) of whoever was generous and/or foolish enough to subsidize their enterprise. Translated, the first and second paragraphs meant: “We have high expectations shaped by ideas cherry picked from books sans application contexts and we’re hoping to siphon off good quality freebies from whomever and wherever we can get them.”

We’ve acquired some piles of free dirt (about 6 pick-up loads) that my husband has dutifully sifted. We also found some medium-sized rocks to help with berms, since our vision is to create one natural-looking elevated wall to hold in the height, with the elevation sloping down to the sidewalk and some DG pathways.

Hmmm….let’s get this straight. You want a sculpted wall and decomposed granite pathways and you want materials and labor for these features for free? There’s charity and generosity on the one hand, and then there’s milking an event for everything it is worth.

My husband wants a more drought tolerant architectural look–not an obvious food garden, so no overt raised beds. But since we have hardpan, we need to pile on the good stuff… So in our efforts to compromise, I’ll be interspersing any edibles into the schema. I will have a mini tangerine and a loquat onsite for that day, and probably tomatoes. Any other stealth edibles advice is welcome!

Can’t have an obvious food garden in full view of neighbors. It sounds oh-so untidy and low class (God forbid). What will they think? (Who gives a flying fig as long as the plants are happy and skillfully cared for? A tended, well-loved garden always looks better than a soulless, stiff planting arrangement designed to appease the neighbors and win their approval.)

Here’s where it gets interesting since the subject wanted to mingle plants that have contrasting horticultural requirements. Once established, the tangerine and loquat would probably do just fine among drought tolerant plants as long as the trees were periodically deep soaked, but tomatoes and garden variety (雙關語意) edibles would not be getting their needs met among the drought tolerant plants. If the soil were watered frequently enough to satisfy the garden veggies, the drought tolerant plants would eventually succumb to fungal disease and rot. Although the couple in question might stubbornly resist following the advice they claim to want, they would have to pick either the annual edible plant palette or the perennial drought tolerant plants in lieu of conceding garden design to someone who knows what they’re doing.

Also, I think we have some snakey sand bags from Cal-Earth in the garage which can be moulded into low holding walls… TBD. That could be fun to play with!

Here’s our questions to be more ready for the day:

• BASE PREP:

All grass is gone and we’re down to the hard pan. We were thinking we would just pile the new dirt on top of that, with one side bermed, and the other sloping to the sidewalk. (The piles of dirt are a few yards away dumped on the unsolved section of the yard). We read the gardens of gratitude links about Instant No Dig Garden Beds 和 Double Digging… We were wondering:

     – Can we drill holes into the hard clay to help make more permeable and skip the hard labor? (the carpenter has a pneumatic drill…)

     – Or get out the pick-axes to loosen the hardpan (we’d rather not!!!)

     – Should we have cardboard onsite to place on top of hardpan (as we saw on the Mar Vista Garden tour last week)? Or is that just for lawn-suppression?

     – Any other prep tips we should know about?

I’m not going to comment on what they could have done more specifically about that alleged hardpan because I don’t know enough about their prospective garden site. This family didn’t specifically request a site analysis and I wasn’t about to volunteer one for known takers. Without that site analysis, more specific comments would be conjecture.

That said, there’s a possibility that lugging in the 6 pickup truckloads of soil and then sifting it (為什麼? To cull stones or remove glass?) on relatively short notice was a waste of effort because these folks were working under the incorrect premise and assumption that they have “bad” soil. I haven’t a clue why this mystifying judgment is prevalent. Los Angeles has buried some of the most fertile agricultural soils in the world under endlessly contiguous miles of asphalt and concrete. It’s not the soil’s fault that it’s been abused for almost a century. Hardpan due to compaction and ignorance is one of the least of the wounds inflicted on this land. If this family had not gotten greedy about availing themselves of freebies and if they had been patient enough to allow sufficient lead time working in tandem with the rhythm of the seasons without compulsively feeding their addiction to instant gratification, it would have been possible to use organic methods to condition that “hardpan” so that the soil would have been workable.

Drilling holes in the soil? I wonder if this carpenter and his wife ever considered that drill bits manufactured for wood aren’t made to bore holes in soil and 2) the inevitability that the drill bits (he’ll go through a lot of them) would strike unseen pebbles and rocks buried in the fill. Oops.

So many people find the idea of prolific, beautiful gardens bursting with color and life alluring and yet they’re not willing to put their backs into the effort of planting and maintaining them. There is no such thing as a free lunch. In spite of the eternal nature of this truth, people look for ways to circumvent the effort if they can’t get someone else to do the hard work for them for free (我. Gardens of Gratitude volunteers) 或, if need be, for cheap. (The quick excuse at the ready is “I don’t have the time” but when you consider how much time is spent watching TV and fiddling around on technological toys and dig deeper, the excuse actually translates to “I don’t have the interest or skills and besides, nature scares me when it’s icky”.) Gardening and landscaping are like so many other life endeavors – you get out of it what you put into it and there are no shortcuts to working with natural systems like gardens, which are human-designed and created pseudoecosystems, but natural systems nonetheless. Nature sets the tone through microclimate, geology, and climate and ultimately calls the dance. Get over it.

Personally, as much as everyone complains about clay, I’d rather work with clayey soil than sand. It takes a lot longer to build up the organic content and create good tilth in a sandy soil that leaks water and nutrients like a sieve.

• COMPOST:

In addition to our acquired topsoil, we need to enrich with compost, right? 如果是這樣的, should it be in separate piles, or mixed in with the dirt? If mixed, what are the proportions, 等等? Where to acquire FREE compost if possible? We saw some sacks available on the Mar Vista Gardens tour, but didn’t note where they were from. Let us know.

• Same for MANURE: how much for our 12×20 space, and where to acquire FREE if possible?

• WOOD CHIPS, 等等: Should we have mulch piles on-site ready for spreading at end of the project?

     We’re running out of room. Could that come later? Also, where to acquire FREE if possible. Our official Culver City source seems to have closed…

Again, this family is working under the premise and assumption that they need compost, manure, and wood chips for their allegedly “bad” hardpan soil. How did these folks arrive at their conclusions about what soil amendment materials they need for this landscaping project? What were their assumptions and why did they make them?

Eager about and enamored by the prospect of dabbling in their idea of Permaculture, they didn’t research drought tolerant plants or edibles to determine what those plants need to thrive. By their own admission, they don’t know much of anything about Permaculture or gardening, let alone the horticultural needs of plants. That kind of reading isn’t as sexy as jumping onto the Permaculture trendwagon but the blunt truth is that a lovely garden is not the end result when all the plants are struggling to survive because their needs are not being met. Attractive home gardens and landscapes, especially ones that increase property values in the long-term, are not accidents of short-lived attention, fashionable interest, and design on aesthetic whims. (Hint: Designing a daisy-shaped garden for the sake of designing a daisy-shaped garden without considering the needs of the plants, the mature sizes of the plants, or maintenance is setting yourself up for failure.)

Of the three materials that this family is requesting free source information for, I’d only recommend the wood chips for mulch and I wouldn’t skimp by going for free material unless my back was against the wall. Chipped material can be acquired gratis from a cooperative tree trimming company but since beggars cannot be choosers, the recipient 1) would not be able to specify quantity (you take whatever they give you), 2) cannot request specs on the tree and shrub species in the mix, 或 3) expect to have a request for a minimal leaf litter to wood chip ratio honored. If you refuse to compromise on special requests and place conditions on the tree trimmings you are willing to receive, take a number and expect to wait until a tree trimming job that happens to meet your exacting specifications crops up. That wait could take months. If the need for mulch is time-sensitive, it’s best to just pay for it.

The vast majority of tree trimming jobs generate both leafy and woody material in equal proportions. Mix the finely chopped wet green stuff plus the moist woody stuff, leave it in a pile about a cubic yard in volume, and in a few short months you have…TA-DA!…compost! Pure wood chips that are coarsely chopped (我. pieces 2-4 inches in length) don’t break down as quickly as free tree trimmings and where mulch is concerned, you want that 3 至 4 inch protective layer on top of your soil to last at least a few years as opposed to only several months but no more than a year. Left to its own devices, nature generates its own mulch. It may be minimal or plentiful depending on the ecosystem and plant community, but it’s there.

順便, I didn’t put the word “free” in all caps for emphasis on how cheap and stingy this family was. The text and its formatting is how it appeared in the e-mail verbatim. I kid you not.

• SPRINKLERS:

We have sprinklers which we don’t use, but are still hooked up. We have not retrofitted to any of the low flow dribblers or whatever–don’t have the expertise (My husband is a carpenter, not a plumber). He doesn’t want to use auto sprinkling at all, but go to hose, and says he’s willing to hand-water. I think we need a FREE pro consult on this–If the workings are there, do we want to take advantage and make life easier?

I hope this family actually tested the sprinkler system to check to see whether it still worked. I didn’t offer up my services and don’t know what sucker, um, I mean person…yeah, if anyone, stepped up to the plate to offer professional advice to tailor the irrigation system. The type of retrofit would entirely depend on the type of plants chosen for the project and since the planned plant palette was going to be mixed, you can bet that the results would be as well.

Hand watering is often a good enough option but the system failure often lies in whoever handles the hose. For busy, scattered, distracted suburbanites, the committed intention to hand water the plants wears off in direct proportion to the garden project’s novelty. Remembering to deep water drought tolerant plants on a frequency of once every 2 至 4 weeks (actual frequency depends on time of year, solar exposure, 土壤類型, and weather) can be another challenge if the irregular ritual of watering doesn’t become a habit. 往往不是, people forget. The other challenge with hand watering is that the tops of the plants usually get sprayed, leaving the roots where the water is really needed to slowly dry out after the last of seasonal rains. Few well-intentioned hand waterers bother to check soil moisture below the mulch layer, if one is present.

• THIRSTY TREE:•

Any tree experts out there who can help advise us about our thirsty parkway magnolia which is sending sausage-sized roots up to the surface of the yard, and blasting the sidewalk out of its way in doing so? Since we stopped watering our hardpan, it’s gone wild looking for water. We’re trying to coordinate with L.A. City about sidewalk repair, and hoping to talk to the city arborist, but much redtape and perhaps many moons before we get info there. So if anyone has info here. (This challenge is separate from the 12×20 area delineated for the workday…)

Any info is much appreciated!

Thanx from the Cheapskate Family (surname changed to protect the guilty)

Harry & Virginia & boys

Want to raise some sidewalk, maybe destroy a nearby cement block wall or even a building foundation? Plant a Ficus or a Magnolia tree nearby.

The City of Los Angeles Public Works has a warped interpretation of job security. One department is charged with planting and maintaining trees that destroy infrastructure so that another department charged with infrastructure repairs and periodic rebuilding never runs out of tree related damage to address. Too bad the City is going broke and like other fiscally stretched governmental entities is postponing repairs and maintenance wherever and whenever it can.

The poor magnolia was ill-chosen for its planting location and as a result there is no solution that this family could implement that wouldn’t cost them something. But seeing that spending anything – time, strenuous effort, or money – is almost completely out of the question, there wouldn’t be any point in anyone offering these folks any advice since they wouldn’t be willing to follow it anyway.

If the family whined and complained long and loudly enough to the City’s arborist, a crew might eventually come out, sever and remove the “offending” roots, and then repour concrete slab to patch the sidewalk. The operative word is eventually. The family’s sons will likely have flown the nest by the time L. 一. Public Works slogs through their backlog, which even conservative estimates peg at a decade long wait. If that’s a bit much, Public Works suggests that residents take matters into their own hands by paying for a licensed arborist’s services out of pocket on top of a tree permit issued by the city, neither of which, I note for the record, will ever be FREE.

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What patterns did I notice in the landscape trade? For one, I observed an addiction to collecting knowledge. Not wisdom – 知識. People can stuff their heads full of the stuff and never apply it for beneficial use. Perhaps feeding this addiction makes people feel like they are accomplishing something even when nothing is manifesting for lack of an investment of real sweat and labor. In Los Angeles, the city of projected dreams, tourists and the rich and privileged (or those who are trying to look that way) flock to idealized simulacra of Los Angeles such as City Walk in Universal City and the Beverly Center. There’s a pattern and principle in nature: “There is no such thing as AWAY.” The social fantasies of Los Angeles are propped invisibly upon the backs of low wage laborers that keep the machinery of the illusion working smoothly. Scratch the plasticized & painted veneers of the simulacra, allow the laborers to find new workplaces that respect their dignity and humanity at healtly wages, strip away nature’s “free” subsidies of water and power, and then ask, “What’s left?“

When some people figured out that I know my stuff, they pumped me for information…and pumped….and pumped….and pumped. They wanted the specifics of “what” connected to the precious mechanics of “how”. Depending on the context, sometimes I’d generously go all out because I genuinely wanted to help. It’s fine once in a while and I like being generous, but only up to a point because I can’t pay my bills with raving complements and thanks others gave me for the help they received. In other contexts when it was socially appropriate to communicate it, I let folks know that sustainable gardening and landscaping was what I did as a pro and then I observed that mouths would run on while pocketbooks would slam shut with the resounding finality of a solid-state walk-in safe. For reasons I haven’t figured out, the West L.A. crowd tended to want as much expertise as they could squeeze out but only for the bare minimum they could get away with paying, if not for free. I’m all for helping people get what they want but not at the price of vampiric exploitation – mine or anyone else’s.

“When you’re good at something, you don’t do it for free.” – The Joker (Heath Ledger) in The Dark Knight

The annoying and heartbreaking part is that, 往往不, these folks wouldn’t even use the free advice they solicited. What was more astounding is that others wouldn’t even use the advice they DID pay for.

One client in the Big Rock area of Malibu name-dropped and bragged of having hired Rosalind Creasy for a consultation. On the appointed day, Wendy S. and Ms. Creasy went around the property while Rosalind fired off tailored advice off the top of her head. Fast forward 2 至 3 years later when Wendy S. hired me for some specialized labor. As she picked my brains as we made the rounds around the property, I could almost hear her make mental comparisons with Rosalind’s advice. When I gave her the same advice about caring for her forlorn containerized blueberry plants as Rosalind had given her, she piped up to say as much.  Do you see the irony yet? Even after consulting with Rosalind Creasy, Wendy S. still hadn’t used the advice she had been given so many years ago. The client’s windswept and neglected plants were no better off for hearing the advice all over again from me for one reason: it was simply and clearly not a priority to implement the expert advice she had sought. I wish that I could say this experience was singularly unique. It’s one thing to negotiate fees because someone genuinely wants your services, respects what you do, and respects your profession as a source of livelihood. It’s another thing to feed off someone else’s life energy as a symbolic parasite when you don’t respect anyone else’s need to make a living.

The client went through the laundry list of tasks she wanted done around the property. In short, she wanted her own private farm & garden worker and at bargain basement wages. Actually, upon reflection what I think she really wanted were the benefits such a worker would confer with all of the romance and bounty that country living on a farm invokes without the hard work, body aches, or the inconvenience of having to get her own hands dirty. When I told her how much it was going to cost at a fair rate, she backpedaled, made excuses for why she couldn’t afford the services, and struggled to save face after I called her on her unrealistic expectations and her hopes to exploit me for cheap, knowledgeable labor. Since this woman wasn’t willing to pay what the job was worth, she was still trying to save face indirectly through an associate long after I dissociated from her.

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當保護, 保護生物多樣性和棲息地的非營利性團體促進其原因, they know full well that people tend to relate best to charismatic creatures that fit their subjective standard of “吸引力”. 對於大多數, 蝙蝠不激發 ‘awwww, 多麼可愛!’ 因素，都隨著他們所激發 ‘ewwwww, 如何噁心!'. 這是不幸的，因為蝙蝠是無名英雄. 下次你周圍有群蚊子, 只要記住，如果你住的地區能夠承辦蝙蝠，你會花費更少的時間亂打吸血昆蟲和小康享受戶外如果蝙蝠是你的鄰居.

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Check this out:

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對 7月28日, the New York Times published an article about the rise of microlending (銈://萬維網 NULL.nytimes NULL.com/2010/07/29/business/smallbusiness/29sbiz NULL.HTML?src=me&ref=business). 多年來, microlending has been considered an economic staple in “developing” countries. (當然, the next question is, what are developing countries developing into?) When you consider that the same “structural adjustment” (renamed “Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (銈://萬維網 NULL.imf NULL.org/external/np/exr/facts/prgf NULL.htm)” but soon to be replaced by the “Extended Credit Facility”) imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on Africa and third world countries is very likely in the karmic cards for the United States, the time is nigh for small towns and communities to save themselves economically.

為什麼? 還有誰做? US cities (銈://錢 NULL.cnn NULL.com/2010/05/28/news/economy/american_cities_broke NULL.fortune/index NULL.htm) (瓦列霍 (銈://articles NULL.latimes NULL.com/2010/jul/27/local/la-me-bell-cuts-20100727/3), 鐘, 和 Maywood (銈://latimesblogs NULL.latimes NULL.com/lanow/2010/06/sheriffs-dept-to-patrol-maywood-while-city-employees-now-face-lay-offs NULL.HTML) in CA for starters) are going bankrupt and most of the states are very close to going bankrupt (銈://萬維網 NULL.huffingtonpost NULL.com/2010/06/25/state-budget-crisis-46-st_n_625285 NULL.HTML). 在痛苦的扭曲, states are passing budget cuts onto city and county governments (銈://萬維網 NULL.huffingtonpost NULL.com/2010/05/29/states-local-budget-cuts_n_594630 NULL.HTML). 所以 (銈://萬維網 NULL.google NULL.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPcuKLCFev6Vg7ZRNE7asQid3CtAD9GSG7303)me states have appealed to the federal government for financial help (銈://萬維網 NULL.google NULL.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPcuKLCFev6Vg7ZRNE7asQid3CtAD9GSG7303) 而 country itself may very well be on the road to bankruptcy (銈://萬維網 NULL.telegraph NULL.co NULL.uk/finance/2943328/US-could-be-going-bankrupt NULL.HTML). 而所有, the DOD can’t account for $8.7 billion in Iraqi oil funds (銈://萬維網 NULL.時間 NULL.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2006708,00 NULL.HTML) 和 bank bailouts starting in 2009 可能成本 $4 trillion (銈://錢 NULL.cnn NULL.com/2009/01/27/news/bigger NULL.bailout NULL.fortune/). Obviously that’s a lot more than the initial $700 billion handed over on a silver platter to the banks through a blatant financial coup d’etat in late 2009. While the exact pathways of the money trail may be obscure, many of us viscerally feel the corruption and graft even if we can’t necessarily name names and pinpoint addresses of the thieves.

Had enough of the bleak economic prospects? 你並不孤單. The local food movement gained momentum because people wanted tastier, more nutritious fresh food but that food was more than mere sustenance for the body. 這是靈魂的食物. People reconnected with farmers through farmers’ markets and direct purchases on the farms themselves. Through food and a growing sense of extended community discovered through personal connections cultivated with small farmers, folks reconnected with the land itself. If locally grown food is possible, why not localized loans with full transparency? There is no reason in the world why communities should NOT invest in themselves. Why should communities continue to export their wealth into the hands of banks, 巨型零售商店, and other corporate and governmental institutions that do not have those communities’ best interest at heart?

恐懼, anxiety, and depression are clouding the minds and hearts of so many Americans but no one can save us except ourselves – not President Obama or his admininistration, certainly NOT Congress, and forget about the judicial branch of government. 其實, 放棄徒勞的希望 任何 politician can save us from ourselves. With their picadilloes and frailties, our elected officials are just as human as any of the rest of us. Nothing except ourselves can stop us from developing local cultures that meet social and economic human needs without further compromising the opportunities of future generations and the planet’s ecosystems. We’re at a point in time when ordinary people are being called to accomplish extraordinary deeds. Will you heed the prompting of your heart and conscience or run to silence both?

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Working in and around Los Angeles continues to bring us into contact with those who affiliate with the “綠色” moniker, whatever it might mean to them. Make no mistake – as socially diverse as Los Angeles is, it is still a segregated city, though nothing as blatant as Israeli walls around Palestinian villages or the wall barricading part of the southern border of the United States have been erected (yet). The borders are reified through socioeconomic stratification. Those who appear to be out of bounds are dealt with swiftly, and often brutally, by law enforcement.

The gaps between the haves and the have-nots in the United States have widened over the past 30 歲, reinforced by yet another massive transfer of wealth (銈://solari NULL.com/archive/missing_money/). Greenwash on the asphalt outlines socioeconomic apartheid as if to drive home the point that working class communities of color just don’t have their crap together enough to be eco-friendly hip (as though that was something to aspire to).

In case we haven’t made it abundantly clear, technological fixes won’t save humanity or save other species from extinction. Desalination won’t solve freshwater shortage problems in Southern California. We have to learn to recognize abundance in what we already have on hand and to make use of locally available materials.

A meeting with the founder and CEO of an Echo Park green nonprofit illustrated the eco-hip point well. Relieved to find herself in the company of what she believed was a sympathetic audience, she bemoaned that poor and working class communities of color don’t understand the value of value greening their lives. I countered that communities of color do indeed have environmental concerns on their radars, but the verbiage is different. The concerns and priorities differ. If “nice” white environmentally concerned liberals and social progressives humbly paid attention and listened for once instead dictating the terms of conversation by insisting that everyone use language in the same way in order to be recognized and heard, they might learn that equally valid perspectives exist in tandem with their own. This is the narcissistic vanity of many within the green movement – a sanctimonious condescension towards those who aren’t consuming their way into a “綠色” future.

But this is the crux of the problem: to solve the interconnected problems of overconsumption, a global economic system based on debt and cancerous expansion, and environmental destruction entails thinking differently to get different results.  The problem is not merely the manufacture of material goods, it’s HOW we’re making them and WHAT we’re making them from. It entails that having stuff be disconnected from doing in order to create a desired state of being.

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Have you ever watched someone play the entitlement card to get what they want? Do you ever play the entitlement card when you think you can get away with it? How about consciously squeezing someone to try to get something for nothing? C’mon, be honest about it. How far did you push? Did you see how far you could take things? Did you get frustrated and angry when you encountered resistance? Did you even go so far as to retaliate when you didn’t get what you wanted? What’s worse, did you feel justified in applying your own selective “justice” for the slight?

What made you believe that you were entitled to getting what you wanted at someone else’s expense? What is behind your anger and outrage? Now that the economy is at the worst most people can remember in living history and the whole world is feeling the crushing consequences of a dysfunctional, catabolic economic system, do think that squeezing others is the way to go, now more than ever?

Ever wonder what’s the current fascination popular culture has with vampires? That may seem like a non sequitur question out of the blue, but hang in there with me for a minute. Vampires have a prominent place in our consciousness as charming, sexy, seductive creatures of the night. Think about the symbolism, though. Vampires have no reflections, 我. they can’t see themselves. Their parasitic existence cannot withstand exposure to light. They need to drain life in order to sustain themselves (and if you willingly consent to being “food”, all the better). Worst of all, the act of feeding upon others makes more vampires in the process. Popular culture and media have latched on the attractively sexy aspects of vampirism without examining either the substance of the symbolism or the meaning of the prevalence of the imagery.

Everyday encounters with real life vampires aren’t as sexy. You can identify them by how you feel after being around them – drained. (And if you’ve noticed that you’re driving others away, perhaps you’re one of these bloodsuckers.) Hang around a vampire long enough and maybe you’ll even feel sick to your stomach, depending on how heavily the vampire has “fed” on you. Vampires take and don’t give back much in return. When they give, they give just enough to make you perceive reciprocity without the actuality of its existence. 比較, they take as much as you permit them to and leave you feeling worse for the encounter. Vampires can only feed on you with your consent.

My view may be skewed because I currently live in Los Angeles, but a new acquaintance who was a project manager in the construction industry chimed in that this megalop0lis has throngs of people who are out to get something for nothing. 換言之, this place is overrun with vampires, or at least people who act like them. Yeeech!

What kind of hole in the soul, what deep unmet need, drives this kind of entitlement? From what I’ve observed, the most virulently dangerous vampires are deeply unfulfilled individuals missing something fundamental. Some lack meaning and purpose in their lives. Others are missing a connection to something bigger than themselves and pieces of their own humanity, like conscience or even chunks of their souls.

Some individuals are sh*ts for the sake of being sh*ts, being rotten to others just because they can. This facile kind of vampire uses people up and discards them afterward. Other vampires, such as child molesters and abusive spouses, groom their targets and use their victims over a period of time. Other vampires have psychological and relational disorders that warp their personal relationships to the individuals they’re closest to. Still other people are not vampires to the core, but they exhibit behaviors that are draining to others around them. An attitude of entitlement is but one symptom – a clue about the nature of the vampire in question.

What else do vampires do? They complain. They don’t want solutions to the problems that lead to their complaints, but rather sympathy and attention. Speaking of attention, they want it – all of it. It’s all about them. Vampires want to be lavished with your life energy, 時間, 錢, love, expertise, 等等, and they feel entitled to what they need from you. Whatever it is that you have of value that a vampire wants, he or she wants it in spades and will raise hell if they don’t get it. Forget reciprocity or equality because neither fundamentally exists from a vampire’s perspective. You’re fodder. What you need and want as a sovereign person don’t figure into the picture because you exist to feed the need.

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Sometimes an idea has to be cooked back down to its origins so that it may be reborn with new vitality and strength.

Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy has reached one of these choicepoints. It is unlikely that the workshop will continue to be offered monthly in Southern CA, but not because the content of the workshop is irrelevant and superfluous. A friend recently commented that this workshop may be ahead of its time. It may be. Then again, because the workshop exists and because Divine timing is always spot on, Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy may just be right where it needs to be right now. The workshop just needs to exist in a different format.

I had hopes that the workshop would be gaining positive momentum while facilitating new social connections between workshop attendees as they learn the mindset that allows sustainability to take root. 換言之, teaching people systems thinking is the ostensible goal of Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy but one of the key intentions of the workshop was to rebuild sorely needed social capital.

Here’s a quick test to see how much social capital you have in your neighborhood. How many of your neighbors do you know? Of the neighbors you have met and liked, how well do you know them and how well do they know you? How many would you trust to watch your kids? How many could you depend on to have your back if the crap hit the proverbial fan? How many of your neighbors can count on you to have their backs? Most of us don’t know our neighbors, let alone trust them. Trust is a measure of the presence or absence of social capital. The psychological, 情緒化, and physical safety and well-being of children (and other vulnerable members of society) in their own neighborhoods and in their families is another measure of social capital.

It was also part of the inherent design of the workshop format that that material would be tailored for its locale. Each and every community would, in effect, be hosting a unique workshop that was intended to create or enhance a sense of place. Considering the disparate communities that the workshop participants have come from, creating a sense of community connected to and grounded within a place wasn’t going to happen through the workshops. Metropolitan Los Angeles sprawls too far. It’s a place without a true center, which may be said to be everywhere and nowhere all at once. Although interpersonal affinities may be felt among workshop participants, authentic community is hard to foster without face time in real time. That may offend all you Twitter and Facebook users, but the need for face time is our collective social reality. It’s just how we’re wired as social beings.

As a recently soured relationship with a former client has reminded me, we are collectively a long way off from where we need to be and where we yearn to be. Regardless of political stripe, I know of no person of reasonably good character who does not want to be safe and for that safety to be extended to beloved friends and family. We yearn to trust and yet we’re surrounded my messages that pelt us day in and day out that 1) we’re not safe, 2) we’re never good enough, 3) we can never have enough, 4) we’re surrounded by crazy people and predators, 和 5) the world is rife with scarcity, fierce competition, incessant threats, and ever-present danger. You have to get “them” before “they” get you, whomever “they” might be.

Is this honestly the world that you want for your children and grandchildren? Is this the world that you want for yourself?

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