Posts Tagged ‘livelihoods’
Beware the “Investment”!
A crash-course in economic literacy as the AI bubble gets blown up with hot air and public funding I recently learnt that a $20 ChatGPT subscription gets you access to about $700 worth of computing power.1 This inspired two ideas: WOW, I’d better turn my whole camera roll into Studio Ghibli-style remakes before this awesome…
Read MoreLiving Connected to Place and Why It Matters Now
Over time, I’ve come to realize that downturns in my mood are often related to feeling disconnected. Maybe I’ve been working hard and not paying as much attention to my family or not seeing friends. I may be talking with others on Zoom, but it’s not the same felt sense of connection as being together…
Read MoreIf All Life Mattered, What Would Decision-Making Look Like?
In April 2013, the Supreme Court of India delivered a historic judgement recognizing the cultural, religious and spiritual rights of the Dongria Kondh Adivasis, an Indigenous community residing in the Niyamgiri Hills of Odisha state in eastern India. The community fighting against bauxite mining in their sacred landscape had articulated that “our way of life…
Read MoreResisting US-India Agri-Imperialism
A “high-powered US trade delegation” recently visited India to “explore opportunities in the country’s huge agribusiness sector and further promote American products among India’s rising middle class.” So reads the opening line of one of a few recent articles (see others here and here) in the Indian elite press announcing this momentous visit, and in…
Read MoreGlobalising Hope – the Courageous Journey of La Via Campesina
Collective work cannot succeed in homogeneity —the foundations for a better world lie in the power of plurality; of thought, of cultures, of perspectives. La Via Campesina, the world’s largest peasant and social movement, with over 200 million members across the globe, has demonstrated for the past 30 years that unity is key to advancing…
Read MoreNew Worlds to Build
George Monbiot recently came out swinging for me in his article ‘The cruel fantasies of well-fed people’, concerning my book Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future. Since that book in large part is a rejoinder to his own volume, Regenesis, I can hardly blame him for aiming a few blows. I just wish they hadn’t…
Read MoreThe Abundance of Subsistence
One late-summer day, a day so hot the mosquitoes weren’t flying, my brother and his wife and I traveled nine miles up the Unalakleet River to seine for humpies, or pink salmon. We laughed and hollered while pulling the net to a flat, wide bar made of perfect skipping and throwing stones at the inside…
Read MoreRemembering Pracha Hutanuwatr and Maria Mies
Sadly, two of my dear colleagues and soulmates ¬ Pracha Hutanuwatr and Maria Mies – passed away recently. I first met Pracha when he visited us in Ladakh in the mid-1980s. We immediately recognized that we were kindred spirits, and he invited me to Thailand and introduced me to his mentor, Sulak Sivaraksa. Deeply spiritual but…
Read MoreFive bad arguments against agrarian localism
Perhaps incorrectly, or even arrogantly, I’m anticipating that my soon-to-be-published book Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future might elicit pushback from those unconvinced by its arguments for agrarian localism. If it does, obviously that’s fine. It’s a polemical sort of book, so counterargument is only to be expected. But my hope is for thoughtful, engaged…
Read MoreRethinking Technology and the Good Society
Despite suffering from debilitating headaches and generally poor health, Weil completed her work during a remarkable burst of activity. She died later that year at the age of 34. The report was published in 1949. The first English translation appeared in 1952 as The Need for Roots: prelude towards a declaration of duties towards mankind.…
Read More