[Scpg] This Wed (June 15) free permaculture mtg on "Invisible Systems"

[LBUZZELL at aol.com]

please pass the  word along...
 

This Wednesday, June 15, the Permaculture Guild of Santa Barbara  will 
offer a free meeting featuring Wesley Roe of the Santa Barbara Permaculture 
Network,  who will show a video on "Invisible Systems"  and lead a discussion. 
We meet at 7 pm at the Watershed Resource Center at  Arroyo Burro beach, 2981 
Cliff Drive in Santa Barbara. The PGSB Steering  Group will meet at 6 pm 
and all are welcome to attend that gathering as  well.


 

BUT WHAT THE HECK ARE "INVISIBLE  SYSTEMS"?


 

Many of us are familiar with how to apply the nature-based permaculture  
principles to outwardly "visible" designs and ecosystems like landscapes,  
water systems and buildings, but we're not so sure about what  
ecologically-designed "invisible systems" might be. In permaculture circles a  lot of 
thought is now going into how to create healthy and sustainable  invisible systems 
such as networks of people, local economies and legal and  ethical 
structures. Some permaculturists are doing "social permaculture"**  ("Care for the 
People") and even applying the permaculture principles to  psychological and 
spiritual "inner landscapes."


 

Please join us on June 15th to learn about the critically important  
"Invisible Systems" and how we can redesign them to support life rather than  
destroy it.


 

Linda

**From: _http://www.thegardenattheendoftheworld.info/?p=443_ 
(http://www.thegardenattheendoftheworld.info/?p=443)  
Social Permaculture has its permaculture roots in _Bill Mollison’s_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mollison)  and _David Holmgren’s_ 
(http://www.holmgren.com.au/)  permaculture  bible, ‘_Permaculture: A Designer’s  Manual’
_ 
(http://permaculture.org.au/store/permaculture_2d_a_designers27_manual_2d_by_bill_mollison.htm) , where they talk about visible and invisible  
structures:
.
……….VISIBLE STRUCTURES  ……….INVISIBLE STRUCTURES
……….Water  systems……….……….…..Legal
……….Organic systems……….………... Finance
……….Infrastructure……….……….…....Trust
……….Structures……….……….………..Ethics
……….Landscape 
.
It’s the ‘invisible structures’ that  [permaculturist] Rosemary Morrow has 
applied and adapted to her work in war  torn countries for 25 years or 
more. It is in these devastated communities  where a permaculturalist must begin 
at the beginning, simply because there is  not a lot of the invisible 
social structures left after war and anarchy (if  any) to hold up any physical or 
ecological building project. To re-build the  visible structures the 
invisible structures must first be put in place. If  not, then the project, no 
matter what it is or how big or small it is, will  fail. The fact that 
international aid has failed in Afghanistan is largely due  to this. 
In the developed world we tend to take  the invisible structures for 
granted. They are hidden away in the foundations  of our social construction but 
are a vital and necessary part of making  society work and for cultures to 
grow and thrive within it, whilst being  resilient to the effects of 
corruption. In war-torn countries social breakdown  brings the lack of invisible 
structures to the surface like sepsis from a  wound, displaying not only 
corruption but also chronic health and hygiene  problems, malnutrition, high rates 
of maternal and child mortality,  homelessness, lack of education, lack of 
skills, almost no jobs, violence,  etc., etc. 
In Rosemary’s _‘Earth Users Guide to  Permaculture’_ 
(http://www.bluemountainspermacultureinstitute.com.au/click-here-to-purchase-resources/all-product
s?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=1&category_id=1) 
, she explains that Social Permaculture ‘is all  about how we live in our 
villages, towns and neighbourhoods’. Rosemary points  out the importance of 
creating and sustaining ‘bioregional prosperity’ – the  wealth of local 
bio-regions – which is, ‘measured by the increase in  biological resources… the 
growth in plant and animal diversity, in community  gardens, and in urban 
forests’. She  explains that, 
……….(the)  three interwoven issues in a  bioregion are:
……….……….control of land
……………….……the economic system
……….………………..and people’s livelihoods 
.
In Afghanistan, as we can see in the film,  the poorest Afghanis have 
little or none of these things. Particularly the  widows. They have no land and 
no skills to work with, and the bioregional and  national economic systems 
are almost non existent; kept down by corruption at  all levels of government, 
bureaucracy and international opportunists. With the  confusion that the 
foreign invasion has brought – the confusion of ‘winning  hearts and minds’ 
with bullets and bombs packed with depleted uranium and a  thousand metal 
shards – the rich industrialised West has not helped one bit in  
re-establishing either the local or the national prosperity that Afghanistan  once 
enjoyed. 
Social Permaculture is all about ‘care  for people’, which is one of the 
three permaculture _ethics_ (http://permacultureprinciples.com/ethics.php)  
(the other two being care for the earth  and share of surplus, or fair 
share). Pioneering permaculture into a place,  any place, is not just bringing 
sustainable design into a landscape but also  into a culture. Driven by ‘care 
for people’, pioneering permaculturalists are  careful not to impose their 
ideas and methods onto the local people. They wait  till they are asked and 
then listen and observe, laying the ground for working  together as equals, 
where there is little room for superiority, unwanted  agendas and everything 
else that comes with these.
.
. 
 (http://www.thegardenattheendoftheworld.info/?attachment_id=593) 


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