Category: Political

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Anarchocyclist Blog

I’ve been reading Anarchocyclist for a few years now. I’ve linked to it before in a few posts here, and for a short time it was in my blogroll. It was in my blogroll because I thought he was going to start a garden and post about it, but the garden never materialized.

This blog is located in British Columbia, I think in the greater Vancouver area. When I first started reading it doviende was working on a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics (I also studied Math) and planning an urban garden. He had even contacted his local authorities and began negotiating a city permit for a front yard vegetable garden. Yes, apparently the city of Vancouver issues permits for these, and they are not that difficult to get.

Anyway, circumstances changed and studying Math was no longer a priority and the Chinese language was much more interesting. This led to travel to China for language study. In the last several weeks he started a class in Punjabi and started planning a garden again! In particular he has been looking into a community garden (allotment). On the assumption a garden will soon materialize, I’m going to put the blog back in my blogroll.

This is an example of a garden blog that has a lot more than just gardening. He certainly sits on the extreme end of the political-gardening spectrum, is an interesting person who writes well and has a lot of interesting things to say. His blog is worth checking out.

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Tibet Protests

Tibet Flag

I would like to join the chorus of voices condemning the Chinese government in their recent acts of violence against protesters in Tibet. The number of people left dead has no justification, in addition these people have legitimate grievances and deserve to be heard.

In recent years the Chinese government appears to have adopted a policy of not constructively engaging His Holiness The Dalai Lama, preferring instead to let him die of old age and expect the issue of Tibet will vanish at the same time. Not only is the Chinese government short sighted in this respect, by not taking advantage of the Dalai Lama’s help in peacefully and justly settling the issue, but the world won’t forget Tibet and the resolve of it’s people.

For more information on the campaign to save Tibet, see here.

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Dwindling Resources

Mike on Planb just made a really thought provoking and well written post on the problems South Africa is having with their power grid, and as a result everything that depends on electricity. This has certainly been in the news here, but the magnitude of the problem is much more clear in Mike’s post.

It’s worth mentioning Mike has been anticipating this for years, and has designed his house and farm so that as much as possible will keep functioning the event of a power outage.

The Internet connection is another story…

In many ways we should be looking at South Africa as an indication of the future we will all likely see. Shortages of food, water and energy are all looming on the horizon. It’s what’s being called the end of ‘The Goldilocks Era’. It can only help to be prepared the best we can, and of course growing a portion of our own food or supporting local agriculture is an important part of that.

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Geert Wilders New Dutch Film

Just a brief off-topic post to allow me to express how thoroughly disgusted I am at the release of such a racist film in this country.

I think I am joined by the vast majority of Dutch people in my feelings, and probably most people elsewhere in the world too.  I would like to offer my personal apology to any Muslim or other person offended by this film.  A film like this doesn’t have any place in a civilized society.

A country that directly elects it’s members of parliament with a popular vote can inevitably see someone get elected from the political fringes with only a small number of votes, and that’s what’s happened here.  The only way a person like this has a chance of advancing themselves politically is by drawing attention to themselves in this kind of way.

The best way to deal with a person like this is publicly state your polite and firm disagreement, but otherwise ignore him.  I would urge everyone not to give this person any unnecessary attention.

Comments on this post are closed.

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Illegal Seeds

Association Kokopelli, probably the largest seed saving organization in Europe has been fined €35,000 for selling illegal seeds.

In this case illegal means traditional and rare seed varieties, which were not on the official EU-approved list.  These are deemed illegal to sell on the grounds that it gives the seller an “unfair trading advantage”.

The size of this fine has the potential to put Kokopelli out of business.

For more information and links, have a look at Jermey’s post here.

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