You may have already received info about this in our newsletter, but I think this group deserves a special notice to people sharing a concern for matters environmental. This discussion group has not been given a fair chance at a start, yet has so much potential.
My recent garbage war and recycling nightmare is just one story in the naked city of environmental crisis. We need this kind of discussion group to think new ways to accomplish waste management responsibly in this economy.
Though few have yet attended, we have had some great discussion from innovative persons already.
I know Jazz Fest craziness is on us, and this is short notice, but I think this is too important a discussion not to have. Join us please:
Tuesday April 21, 6:30pm-7:30pm LESS WASTE, MORE LIFE DISCUSSION GROUP- This Simple Circle Discussion Group is a time to share and discuss your ideas and concerns regarding waste, landfills, methods to reduce, reuse & recycle, the pros & cons of recycling, when to purge or downsize, and local reuse/recycling resources. For more information, please contact Karen Kempf, The Green Project's Environmental Education Coordinator, at kkempf@thegreenproject.org or 504-945-0240.
Essays, links and visuals highlighting an alternative, resilient place at the strategic crescent of one mighty river.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
News about solar..
From 1 BOG (Block Off the Grid)
We've launched 1BOG in your neighborhood! We're meeting with installers next week to finish choosing the best one for everyone signed up in New Orleans. Through our careful selection process, we'll make sure that our 1BOG members are getting quality solar at a discounted price. The the best part about 1BOG is that you get to sit back, relax, and let us do work for you. The only thing you can do right now is help spread the word about the program. The more people we have signed up, the better the discount from the installer. You can send this video to your neighbors, friends, and family to let them know about 1BOG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ociudXkZzAg
David Llorens, the general manager and a founder of 1BOG grew up in Louisiana and I was lived in New Orleans for a while so we're both excited about the opportunity to help increase renewable energy to the area.
Our goal is to make solar as easy and affordable as possible. We're want to answer all of your questions, so ask away!
We've launched 1BOG in your neighborhood! We're meeting with installers next week to finish choosing the best one for everyone signed up in New Orleans. Through our careful selection process, we'll make sure that our 1BOG members are getting quality solar at a discounted price. The the best part about 1BOG is that you get to sit back, relax, and let us do work for you. The only thing you can do right now is help spread the word about the program. The more people we have signed up, the better the discount from the installer. You can send this video to your neighbors, friends, and family to let them know about 1BOG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ociudXkZzAg
David Llorens, the general manager and a founder of 1BOG grew up in Louisiana and I was lived in New Orleans for a while so we're both excited about the opportunity to help increase renewable energy to the area.
Our goal is to make solar as easy and affordable as possible. We're want to answer all of your questions, so ask away!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
King Creole
Another gorgeous weekend in New Orleans; does anyone know how amazing the weather is here from around Mardi Gras to late Jazz Fest?
I biked to market, bought greens, carrots, strawberries (festival variety from Mendez family), olive bread from VooDough Bakery, HUGE broccoli from Perriloux family and had an iced CDM coffee from Welcome Booth. CCFM cookbook author Poppy Tooker swapped jokes and had a general lovefest with shoppers and her pal Dickie Brennan who came to sign his recipe page and hand out samples.
Off to Tales of the Cocktail film fest this afternoon. Great idea from the folks who bring us the best beverage event in the city: a mini film festival with food and drink. I am off to see my favorite Elvis movie at 4 pm, while chowing down at Zoe's at the W.
Next week is French Quarter Fest: all looks great, except for the question on any local music lover's mind:
Where's our (cultural mayor) Kermit?
I biked to market, bought greens, carrots, strawberries (festival variety from Mendez family), olive bread from VooDough Bakery, HUGE broccoli from Perriloux family and had an iced CDM coffee from Welcome Booth. CCFM cookbook author Poppy Tooker swapped jokes and had a general lovefest with shoppers and her pal Dickie Brennan who came to sign his recipe page and hand out samples.
Off to Tales of the Cocktail film fest this afternoon. Great idea from the folks who bring us the best beverage event in the city: a mini film festival with food and drink. I am off to see my favorite Elvis movie at 4 pm, while chowing down at Zoe's at the W.
Next week is French Quarter Fest: all looks great, except for the question on any local music lover's mind:
Where's our (cultural mayor) Kermit?
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Democratizing Finance
© InterPress Service
and Hazel Henderson,
www.hazelhenderson.com
The financial meltdown generated by Wall Street and the ³too big to fail²
culture of global money-center banks and financiers is generating local
initiatives and demands to decentralize and democratize finance.
Meanwhile, at the global level, the G-20 countries¹ demands to democratize
the voting structures of the IMF and the World Bank are essential to reflect
the changing balance of economic power. The G-7 and G-8 group of countries
are no longer relevant now that the G-20 group (Argentina, Australia,
Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan,
Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United
Kingdom and the United States of America, and also the European Union) has
taken center stage.
While national safety-nets are unraveling due to budget cuts, local
leadership is rising, offering many creative alternatives for communities to
nurture healthier homegrown economies:
€ Local barter-clubs, like Freecycle.com, Craigslist and LETS, and scrip
currencies are proliferating as they always do when central bankers and
the International Monetary Fund fail or apply the wrong remedies and make
matters worse. Some of the most successful complementary currencies are
Switzerland¹s WIR and in the USA, BerkShares, with equivalent to $2 million
issued in the first two years and accepted by banks and businesses in
Massachusetts. Similar complementary currencies are matching needs and
resources and clearing local markets in Britain, Canada, Australia,
Argentina, Brazil and other countries.
€ People-to-people lending and microfinance projects are booming in many
countries. Women¹s World Banking, Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, now emulated
in many countries, FINCA and ACCION in Latin America, as well as the newer
online versions, including Microplace, Kiva, as well as lenders Prosper.com
in the USA and Zopa.com in Britain. Credit unions, operated in Europe and
North America for a century, are becoming more proactive. They are filling
new local needs, reaching out to poorer people and adding microfinance and
lending to small businesses.
€ Associations of small local banks and businesses are wielding more
political clout, as are credit unions. In the USA, they are demanding equal
treatment in the government¹s TARP, TALF, and other bailout funds currently
showered on the big banks whose reckless lending triggered the financial
mess. Venture capital and venture philanthropy firms, including the Rudolf
Steiner Foundation, Acumen and the foundations of Ebay founders Pierre
Omidyar and Jeffrey Skoll, are investing in social enterprises which meet
social needs while making modest profits. Such social capital is now
creating a new hybrid sector in many economies.
€ The Business Alliance for Local Living Economics (BALLE) is such a
network in North America, as well as the New Voice of Business, Green
America, the Social Enterprise Alliance, the Fourth Sector Network and the
Business-NGO Working Group. Entrex.net focuses on helping small businesses
with their Private Company Index (PCI) which outperforms most stock indexes.
Britain¹s New Economics Foundation (NEF) has been generating both local
initiatives, such as the Transition Towns movement, as well as its Green New
Deal and alternative indicators to correct GDP, measuring wellbeing and
ecological sustainability. NEF¹s proposal to save Britain¹s 11,500 postal
offices by adding local banking functions is backed by trade unions, small
businesses, public interest groups and pensioners.
€ Time banking, a brainchild of Edgar Cahn in the USA (see
www.ethicalmarkets.tv), is now helping local people connect and share
services in Japan, Europe and other countries. Neighbors contact each other
via a local ³time banker² to provide meals and help for shut-ins, babysit
each other¹s children, watch over property, mow lawns and share appliances.
Car-sharing has now spawned many new companies such as Zip Car in the USA
and others in Canada and Europe where people can make ride arrangements
rapidly on Blackberrys and laptops.
€ China is host to many such local initiatives, linking small businesses
on networks, including Baidu.com, Alibaba.com, as well as Qifang.com which
provides affordable loans to China¹s 25 million students. Circle Pleasure,
a private company selling prepaid consumer cards, has formed a joint venture
with Qifang for people-to-people banking, the first private company to
receive a banking license from China¹s Central Bank. In many countries in
Africa, cell phone banking has taken off. Cell phones are the basis for the
³phone ladies² in Indian and Bangladeshi villages, who rent out use of their
cell phones to other villages. Rural farmers and fishers can consult prices
being offered in nearby towns and markets on their cell phones to make sure
they take their goods to the best places to sell them.
How far can people-to-people finance go in bypassing big, greedy banks and
ethically challenged Wall Street financiers and their political allies? A
long way, thanks to all the communications tools now widely available.
Using these new information-sharing tools is helping people realize again
what money is: just one form of information. Today it is possible to trade
using pure information exchange. For example, in rural areas in Florida,
radio stations have call-in programs where farmers can say ³I have spare
time on my tractor to exchange for fertilizer or pepper, melon, eggplant
seeds.² The farmer gives her phone number and the trades are exchanged
off-line. Similarly, the growth of farmers¹ markets and contract-supported
agriculture allows local consumers to buy fresh produce directly from nearby
farms.
All these local solutions and people-to-people safety-nets raise the
question ³How did we allow big banks and centralized finance to grow so
large that they become predators on the real living economies which produce
the world¹s real wealth²? Local people around the world are realizing that
they can simply bypass big banks, stock exchanges and create all these
services locally. The old, bloated financial sectors must downsize, cut
their bonuses and take the losses from their reckless bets in their global
casino. A truly efficient financial services sector should be less than 10%
of a country¹s GDP. Those in Britain and the USA grew to 25% of GDP,
metastasizing with their ³financial engineers² preying on the real economy.
Now students are looking for jobs as real engineers, teachers, doctors and
entrepreneurs.
In a very real sense, we humans don¹t have a financial crisis but a crisis
of perception. We are beginning to see our world differently than
mainstream media portrays. We see our choices with new eyes. We know that
money is not real wealth. We learn as we watch central bankers printing
money on TV. Real wealth is generated by productive people using the
Earth¹s resources wisely. Money is a great invention. When it is managed
properly, locally, nationally, globally or electronically, it is a useful
medium of exchange. Hoarding money is no longer a reliable store of value.
We are all rediscovering the many stores of value in our own communities.
We find wealth beyond money. We can change our values for the new times we
live in and restore the love economies to their central role in our lives.
******************************************************
Hazel Henderson, author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy
(2006), is president of Ethical Markets Media, an independent social
enterprise covering local economies, new currencies and the growing green
sectors (www.ethicalmarkets.com). She co-created the Calvert-Henderson
Quality of Life Indicators, updated regularly at www.calvert-henderson.com.
She lives with her husband in St. Augustine, Florida.
and Hazel Henderson,
www.hazelhenderson.com
The financial meltdown generated by Wall Street and the ³too big to fail²
culture of global money-center banks and financiers is generating local
initiatives and demands to decentralize and democratize finance.
Meanwhile, at the global level, the G-20 countries¹ demands to democratize
the voting structures of the IMF and the World Bank are essential to reflect
the changing balance of economic power. The G-7 and G-8 group of countries
are no longer relevant now that the G-20 group (Argentina, Australia,
Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan,
Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United
Kingdom and the United States of America, and also the European Union) has
taken center stage.
While national safety-nets are unraveling due to budget cuts, local
leadership is rising, offering many creative alternatives for communities to
nurture healthier homegrown economies:
€ Local barter-clubs, like Freecycle.com, Craigslist and LETS, and scrip
currencies are proliferating as they always do when central bankers and
the International Monetary Fund fail or apply the wrong remedies and make
matters worse. Some of the most successful complementary currencies are
Switzerland¹s WIR and in the USA, BerkShares, with equivalent to $2 million
issued in the first two years and accepted by banks and businesses in
Massachusetts. Similar complementary currencies are matching needs and
resources and clearing local markets in Britain, Canada, Australia,
Argentina, Brazil and other countries.
€ People-to-people lending and microfinance projects are booming in many
countries. Women¹s World Banking, Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, now emulated
in many countries, FINCA and ACCION in Latin America, as well as the newer
online versions, including Microplace, Kiva, as well as lenders Prosper.com
in the USA and Zopa.com in Britain. Credit unions, operated in Europe and
North America for a century, are becoming more proactive. They are filling
new local needs, reaching out to poorer people and adding microfinance and
lending to small businesses.
€ Associations of small local banks and businesses are wielding more
political clout, as are credit unions. In the USA, they are demanding equal
treatment in the government¹s TARP, TALF, and other bailout funds currently
showered on the big banks whose reckless lending triggered the financial
mess. Venture capital and venture philanthropy firms, including the Rudolf
Steiner Foundation, Acumen and the foundations of Ebay founders Pierre
Omidyar and Jeffrey Skoll, are investing in social enterprises which meet
social needs while making modest profits. Such social capital is now
creating a new hybrid sector in many economies.
€ The Business Alliance for Local Living Economics (BALLE) is such a
network in North America, as well as the New Voice of Business, Green
America, the Social Enterprise Alliance, the Fourth Sector Network and the
Business-NGO Working Group. Entrex.net focuses on helping small businesses
with their Private Company Index (PCI) which outperforms most stock indexes.
Britain¹s New Economics Foundation (NEF) has been generating both local
initiatives, such as the Transition Towns movement, as well as its Green New
Deal and alternative indicators to correct GDP, measuring wellbeing and
ecological sustainability. NEF¹s proposal to save Britain¹s 11,500 postal
offices by adding local banking functions is backed by trade unions, small
businesses, public interest groups and pensioners.
€ Time banking, a brainchild of Edgar Cahn in the USA (see
www.ethicalmarkets.tv), is now helping local people connect and share
services in Japan, Europe and other countries. Neighbors contact each other
via a local ³time banker² to provide meals and help for shut-ins, babysit
each other¹s children, watch over property, mow lawns and share appliances.
Car-sharing has now spawned many new companies such as Zip Car in the USA
and others in Canada and Europe where people can make ride arrangements
rapidly on Blackberrys and laptops.
€ China is host to many such local initiatives, linking small businesses
on networks, including Baidu.com, Alibaba.com, as well as Qifang.com which
provides affordable loans to China¹s 25 million students. Circle Pleasure,
a private company selling prepaid consumer cards, has formed a joint venture
with Qifang for people-to-people banking, the first private company to
receive a banking license from China¹s Central Bank. In many countries in
Africa, cell phone banking has taken off. Cell phones are the basis for the
³phone ladies² in Indian and Bangladeshi villages, who rent out use of their
cell phones to other villages. Rural farmers and fishers can consult prices
being offered in nearby towns and markets on their cell phones to make sure
they take their goods to the best places to sell them.
How far can people-to-people finance go in bypassing big, greedy banks and
ethically challenged Wall Street financiers and their political allies? A
long way, thanks to all the communications tools now widely available.
Using these new information-sharing tools is helping people realize again
what money is: just one form of information. Today it is possible to trade
using pure information exchange. For example, in rural areas in Florida,
radio stations have call-in programs where farmers can say ³I have spare
time on my tractor to exchange for fertilizer or pepper, melon, eggplant
seeds.² The farmer gives her phone number and the trades are exchanged
off-line. Similarly, the growth of farmers¹ markets and contract-supported
agriculture allows local consumers to buy fresh produce directly from nearby
farms.
All these local solutions and people-to-people safety-nets raise the
question ³How did we allow big banks and centralized finance to grow so
large that they become predators on the real living economies which produce
the world¹s real wealth²? Local people around the world are realizing that
they can simply bypass big banks, stock exchanges and create all these
services locally. The old, bloated financial sectors must downsize, cut
their bonuses and take the losses from their reckless bets in their global
casino. A truly efficient financial services sector should be less than 10%
of a country¹s GDP. Those in Britain and the USA grew to 25% of GDP,
metastasizing with their ³financial engineers² preying on the real economy.
Now students are looking for jobs as real engineers, teachers, doctors and
entrepreneurs.
In a very real sense, we humans don¹t have a financial crisis but a crisis
of perception. We are beginning to see our world differently than
mainstream media portrays. We see our choices with new eyes. We know that
money is not real wealth. We learn as we watch central bankers printing
money on TV. Real wealth is generated by productive people using the
Earth¹s resources wisely. Money is a great invention. When it is managed
properly, locally, nationally, globally or electronically, it is a useful
medium of exchange. Hoarding money is no longer a reliable store of value.
We are all rediscovering the many stores of value in our own communities.
We find wealth beyond money. We can change our values for the new times we
live in and restore the love economies to their central role in our lives.
******************************************************
Hazel Henderson, author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy
(2006), is president of Ethical Markets Media, an independent social
enterprise covering local economies, new currencies and the growing green
sectors (www.ethicalmarkets.com). She co-created the Calvert-Henderson
Quality of Life Indicators, updated regularly at www.calvert-henderson.com.
She lives with her husband in St. Augustine, Florida.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
The best and worst signs of spring
Blueberries are coming up in MidCity. M & V have toiled throughout the winter and early spring changing the pH of the soil to be able to grow blueberries. Four of these bushes are blooming along with their chard, onions, tomatoes, peppers, brussel sprouts...
Their new house is also blooming next to the garden and looks like it is close to being done. I, on the other hand, keep running into hot and cold bankers and am on my very last two. If these fall through, I will be very sadly looking for another place to call home. But, let's keep the faith a little longer, shall we?
The other sign made me laugh out loud on my way to work. I was biking to University Square and on Audubon street saw the second sign on a very large house. My heart breaks for them...
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