Self-reliance for urbanites in the heart of BKK On the 30th of June, we visited Grandpa Urban Farm in the heart of Bangkok. What solutions are available for urbanites? How can people in the heart of big metropoles like Bangkok acquire more autonomy and resilience? Grandpa Urban Farm bring some relevant answers to those questions and issues! The goal of this article is to share a bit about the history, the vision and the solutions that we saw at Grandpa Urban Farm.
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Volunteering at “Namkhan permaculture eco-farm”, Luang Prabang, Laos In this article, we try something new. We use our professional experience and newly gathered knowledge to establish a diagnostic / report of the Namkhan eco-farm project. We refer to permaculture ethics and principles. We also look at the key permaculture domains, i.e. domains that require transformation to create a sustainable culture. Based on those references, we reflect upon our personal experience as volunteers for the “Namkhan Permaculture Eco-Farm” project near Luang Prabang, Laos. First, we want to inspire from David Holmgren’s “Permaculture Principles and Paths Beyond Sustainability” and recall that permaculture can be seen as “Tools to Assist in Ethical Decisions: In attempting to lead an ethical life we need conceptual tools that will allow us to find what is appropriate, is practical for the situation and context, and yet will have some enduring value in chaotically changing times. Permaculture, and especially permaculture design principles, are conceptual tools which many people are finding useful in this journey (…) [of] ethical adaptation to ecological realities.”. With our analysis, we want to provide objective feedback and suggest some ideas. We also want to better understand our feelings about this project and eventually justify them. An interview with Thi Tran Lanh from the SPERI network We had the chance to meet Thi Tran Lanh, an impressive woman engaged with the Social Policy Ecology Research Institute (SPERI) to defend and empower ethnic minorities in the Mekong sub-great region.
Lanh is a charismatic person radiating with passion. She is a convinced activist dedicated to the cause of ethnic minorities. She fights intensively against governments’ and lobbies’ attempts to exploit the land of local communities. She fights for the right of communities to live on and cultivate their ancestral land as well as the right to sustain their cultural traditions. This article aims at introducing Lahn’s work with ethnic minorities:
Enjoy your read! Feel free to provide feedback 😉 Mathatitu Yoga Ashram, Varkala, India While Mathieu was doing the Permaculture Designer Course (PDC) in Aranya (read his article here), state of Telangana, I was doing a one-month Yoga Teacher Training Class (TTC) at Mathatitu Yoga Ashram in Varkala, state of Kerala. Indeed, our journey in India was the chance to learn from different areas and enrich ourselves individually to share this treasures together afterwards. Actually I also want to do a PDC myself and I already booked for the octobre session in Quailsprings, California, USA. Anyway, I rather took the chance to do a TTC in India in order to nurture my passion for Yoga by learning from Indian yogis about the philosophy and roots of Yoga. Initially I never planned to become a teacher, I just wanted to do a long retreat and the TTC are the best deals for such kind of long programs. However, I realised this would help us for our trip, to find more projects to volunteer at. We realised many permaculture projects also have interest for yoga. For instance, I might teach in Laos next month in the permaculture farm we go to, which happens to also be a Yoga centre! This article aims at sharing
As it is a very important part of the trip for myself but also for the project, I also want to explain why it fits in our project: this involves a reflection about how yoga and permaculture share important principles. Finally, I give a short reflexion on the importance of spirituality in our society. Permaculture Design Course (PDC), Aranya Farm, Hyderabad, Telangana, India |
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