Stick it to the Man. Live off the Grid. Break free from the Matrix. Free your Mind. Garden.

Source: TED

It is humorous and even a bit sad that I need to comment on the importance of the Rule of Law for creating a sustainable community. When one set of rules apply to 99% of people but not to the most powerful 1%, you have a recipe for social discord and ultimately social destruction.

We sit in the uncomfortable moment when the old social system is breaking down. This system granted immunity to the top 1% from the Rule of Law (MF Global is the latest example). Whatever system(s) replaces this corrupt, old system, we need to remember the importance of the Rule of Law or else we shall see a repeat of social injustice and an unsustainable culture.

Source: Ann Barnhardt

I have talked to several cattle industry contacts who had accounts with MF Global. They have been calling me looking for guidance and assurance that everything is going to be okay and that they are going to be made whole. Sadly, for me to tell them any such thing would be boldfaced lying on my part. And so I tell them the truth.

As of this writing, the amount of customer segregated funds that are missing and have been stolen from MF Global customers stands at a staggering $1.5 Billion, more than double the initial estimate from Monday of $700 million. I will not be the least bit surprised if the $1.5 Billion figure is ultimately revised up even more…

…People are honestly trying to justify MF Global and Corzine’s theft by stating that FCMs have sure had it rough these past two years because they have made no money on interest. Uh, like that is some sort of an excuse for STEALING CUSTOMER FUNDS?

As I laid out earlier this week, MF had some seriously inflated margin requirements. It appears that Corzine did this because he viewed the excess cash in the customer segregated accounts as “interest-free capital”. Why borrow money from a bank at interest when you can use your customers’ money interest free? Who cares if it is illegal? You’re Jon Effing Corzine. You are Barry Obama’s top Wall Street fundraiser. The laws don’t apply to YOU.

Source: Equiterre

A farmer’s basket full of healthy, locally grown vegetables, delivered directly to your workplace once a week? Find out how easy it is to host a drop-off point for the Quebec community supported agriculture (CSA) network.

Our family farmer program, started in 1995, provides food to an estimated more than 30,000 people each year. It helps Quebecers adopt a sustainable diet, and encourages local farmers.

Ingredients for a healthy workplace

We can help you set up a drop-off point in your workplace. Many hospitals, businesses and academic institutions already have a family farmer, including, in 2010, RONA, Standard Life, CHUL, Demix and Ubisoft.

Simply follow the steps outlined in our set-up guide to establish a relationship with a family farmer.

For more information, contact our community supported agriculture (CSA) team at 514 522-2000, ext. 295 (toll free, 1 877 272-6656) or by email at infoasc@equiterre.org

Sustainability is another word for “immunity from government tyranny.” We cannot possibly be “free” of something we despise, if we are still entirely dependent on it.

Source: Land Destroyer Report

Believe it or not, growing your own food or visiting your local farmers market is more revolutionary and constructive than burning down your own city and killing security forces…

They need us, we don’t need them. That’s the big secret. We get our freedom back as soon as we take back our responsibilities for food, water, security, the monetary system, power, and manufacturing; that is independence. Independence is freedom, freedom is independence. We’ll never be free as long as we depend on the Fortune 500 for our survival.

Fixing these problems unfolding overseas starts with fixing the problems in our own backyards. Boycott the globalists, cut off their support, undermine their system, and they lose their ability to commit these atrocities. That will be a real revolution and it can start today. Not burning cities and masked rebels waving flags, but communities no longer dependent and fueling a corrupt system we all know must come to an end.

Where are farmer markets in Montreal? Jean-Talon is the city’s largest farmer’s market, but there are others.

Source: Centre for Sustainable Development

The eight member organizations of the Centre for Sustainable Development invite the public to a week-long open house at their brand new green building in the heart of Montreal’s revamped entertainment district, the Quartier des spectacles.

If you care about such issues as clean transportation, climate change, micro-credit or fair trade, you won’t want to miss it.

Schedule of activities

THRIVE is an unconventional documentary that lifts the veil on what’s REALLY going
on in our world by following the money upstream — uncovering the global
consolidation of power in nearly every aspect of our lives. Weaving together
breakthroughs in science, consciousness and activism, THRIVE offers real solutions,
empowering us with unprecedented and bold strategies for reclaiming our lives and
our future.

On November 11, 2011 THRIVE will be released worldwide on the Internet.

Source: Planetary Activation Organization

Come celebrate the environment during the 4^th annual Éco-fête NDG

Saturday September 10^th, come join us for the 4^th annual Éco-fête, a great annual event in the neighbourhood. In addition to Éco-quartier, there will be plenty of other environmental organizations presenting kiosks and conducting workshops aimed for children as well as adults.

• Composting / vermicomposting workshop
• Green cleaning solutions workshop

• Recycled toy exhibit
• Eco story reading
• Corn husk dolls

Join us between 1pm and 4pm at Paul-Doyon Park (Monkland and Girouard). Pass by and share your love of the environment with us!

There is a lot of great information and inspiring quotes in the Indigene Community web site. Their premise is that there is no need to re-invent the wheel in terms of re-learning how to live sustainably.

They argue that Indigenous Knowledge (IK) provides many blueprints for a post-post sustainable world. This organization was inspired by Stewart Brand’s Long Now project.

Source: Challenge Your World

Built in 1955 by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, LASALLE-GARDENS was inspired by Frederick Law Olmstead’s ‘garden-city’ concept. It currently has 2000 people living in 700 apartments & 50 town-houses on a 33 acre property. Peripheral roads require 1/3rd the number of streets in similar population density as in the rest of Montreal. Park-lands surround most buildings where residents are commonly seen playing, walking and interacting. Some members planted over one hundred maples and pines over 45 years ago which currently reach 50 foot heights providing natural beauty, shade and clean air.

Source: Indigene Community

Blueprints for sustainable development and humaine society are still held by indigenous societies and indeed our own indigenous heritages worldwide.   ‘Indigenous’ is not a function of race but of openess, involvement and inclusion for everyone.  Around the world ethno-historical (indigenous worldview) efforts are being made to compile Indigenous Knowledge IK from thousands of First Nation societies and fragments held by all of us in order to reintegrate this into inclusive living-ecology-economy, abundance and connected cultures today for everyone….

Human culture has perverted its original kind and sustainable operating system due to a pervasive colonial (empire) ‘virus’ by which, we are destroying the planet’s ecological capacities and productivity.  Analogy:  When a computer has a ‘virus’, we reboot it back at a time when the Operating System was integrated, whole and vibrant.  Indigene Community website compiles and attempts to describe the indigenous period, principles and practices, which cover hundreds of thousands and millions of years of human life on earth.  Humanity can find abundance and guidance from indigenous roots.  We won’t reinvent our way out of problems using the same understandings which create them.

Filmmakers Donna Read and Starhawk will be at the screening of the film Permaculture: The Growing Edge on June 22 at the Crowley Arts Centre, 5325 Crowley Ave. It is a fundraiser to celebrate the NDG Food Depot’s 25th anniversary. Tickets are $20 and available only at the door.

Starhawk is doing a two-week workshop on permaculture called Earth Activist Training in Audet, Que., from June 25 to July 9. For more information, go to www.earthactivisttraining.org

Source: Montreal Gazette

Beyond agriculture, permaculture is also a way of dealing with environmental and social problems, Starhawk said.

The film documents an oil-spill cleanup that used human hair to absorb the oil, which then became a planting medium to grow oyster mushrooms that convert the oil to sugar for their growth – a way to dispose of toxic waste without creating any waste products.

Permaculture can be an answer to problems like climate change, Starhawk said. Farms can sequester excess carbon dioxide in the soil, reducing the amount in the atmosphere, which leads to climate change, while urban agriculture reduces the amount of fossil fuels needed to produce food on a large-scale and transport it to cities, she said.

“Putting solutions in place doesn’t have to be grim and awful, it’s joyful and fun and it actually enriches your life,” she said. “It’s joyful, wonderful work to plant things and tend plants and it builds community at the same time when you’re gardening together.”

Sharing is an easy way to improve one’s feelings of well-being without needing a lot of money. However, most people have resistance to sharing due to basic trust issues.  Will the person return my item? Will they take care of it? Enter this very practical book from NOLO press in Berkeley to help facilitate sharing and live a better life by pooling community resources.

Source: Amazon

And as the yellow sun faded from the sky, someone would get the extension cords, others would bring out the chairs from their homes as a couple men would bring out a television and fifteen or twenty people would sit outside in the evening’s heat and watch. These people were poor. Sharing was a way of life for them. And you know, they seemed happy.

In the Sharing Solution, you’ll learn that sharing is work. There is a certain amount of trust required and sometimes agreements need to be drawn up. But you will save money, however even if saving money isn’t your goal, you’ll make friends and we can never have enough of those.

There are four hundred or so pages on sharing in The Sharing Solution and they cover just about every aspect of just about anything you’d care to share, from ride sharing etiquette to running a co-op. The book is full of practical advice and though not everything here will apply to everyone, I think there is plenty here that anyone can use. If you want to save some money, make some friends and go a little green, give this book a look. You won’t be disappointed.