patience is everything.
“In this there is no measuring with time, a year doesn’t matter, and ten years are nothing. Being (…) means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come. But it comes only to those who are patient, who are there as if eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly silent and vast. I learn it every day of my life, learn it with pain I am grateful for: patience is everything!” (Rilke, Letter III)
women reclaim our seeds.
(PANAP) »» “Rural women had been vested as the community seed stewards, performing as selectors, keepers and propagators of seeds - roles that are regarded as the core of self-reliant agricultural production of traditional farming communities. Seed selection and keeping are highly exacting tasks with precise steps, scientific to the core. The decision on what seed type to conserve is held by women who know what characteristics of the crop are most useful to the household and local community.
The campaign on Women and Seeds is an on-going platform to raise awareness on the important roles and knowledge systems of women in agriculture; to recognise her strengths, resilience, innovativeness and contributions in what are regarded and valued as sustainable agricultural practices in ensuring food security for her family and communities.”
informal.
“Pastoralism is often regarded as an antiquated practice ill-suited to the modern economy, yet trade between pastoral communities in Africa - much of it informal and illegal - generates an estimated US$1 billion each year, according to a new book published by the Futures Agriculture Consortium. /// “If we shift our gaze from the capital cities, where the development and policy elite congregate, to the regional centers and their hinterlands where pastoralists live, then a very different perspective emerges. Here we see the growth of a booming livestock export trade, the flourishing of the private sector, the expansion of towns with the inflow of investment, and the emergence of a class of entrepreneurs commanding a profitable market, and generating employment and other business opportunities; and all of this driven without a reliance on external development aid,” said the authors of the study. /// Pastoralism contributes between 10 and 44 percent of the GDP of African countries. An estimated 1.3 billion people benefit from livestock value chain, according to the International Livestock Research Institute. /// “Pastoralism contributes to the livelihoods of millions of people across Africa, in some of the poorest and most deprived areas. It is a critical source of economic activity in dryland areas, where other forms of agriculture are impossible,” Ian Scoones, from the Institute of Development Studies, told IRIN. /// Ced Hesse, a researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), told IRIN that in East Africa alone, “pastoralism directly supports an estimated 20 million people” and produces “80 percent of the total annual milk supply in Ethiopia, provides 90 percent of the meat consumed in East Africa, and contributes 19 percent, 13 percent and 8 percent of GDP in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, respectively”.”
-“Pastoralisms economic contributions are significant but overlooked,” IRIN.
yup, burbs.
“Around the country, the suburban poor live in low-income and working-class neighborhoods, Kneebone says. “But it’s also occurring in places we think of as more affluent,” she says. “And, in fact, it may be even more hidden there because we don’t expect to find poverty in those communities.” »> And when you consider dispersed geographical space. Oiy. This article from NPR’s Morning Edition.
participatory budgeting.
“With that, Johnnel became one of the youngest budget delegates in a municipal innovation called Participatory Budgeting (PB), a deliberative process through which Vallejo residents are proposing, vetting, and ultimately voting on projects to be built with a portion of citywide funds. Neighbors come together in assemblies to brainstorm ideas, form sector-specific committees to check the feasibility and cost of proposals, and vote in elections where all residents (age sixteen and over) can choose their preferred projects. (…)
Participatory Budgeting is perhaps the greatest innovation in municipal governance in the United States in the last five years, and it has grown rapidly. Originating in Porto Alegre, Brazil—where 20 percent of the municipal budget is now allocated this way—PB has spread quickly throughout Brazil and Latin America over the past two decades. It’s currently in place in roughly fifteen hundred municipalities throughout the world, but U.S. municipalities have been late adopters. /// Participatory Budgeting came to Vallejo via Chicago and New York. In 2010, after hearing of PB’s success in other parts of the world, including Toronto, Alderman Joe Moore of Chicago decided to allocate $1.3 million in discretionary money via PB. Alderman Moore was thrilled with the results: residents of his ward chose a wide array of projects, including sidewalk repairs, community gardens, and public murals. He also saw a political benefit, crediting PB with his smooth reelection. /// The next stop for PB was New York City. Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito recalled, “I was invited to a presentation in Brooklyn. Joe Moore was on the panel. When I heard about the concept, it clicked with me.” Mark-Viverito, a former labor organizer whose district includes East Harlem and parts of the Upper West Side of Manhattan and the South Bronx, became one of four council members to implement PB with discretionary funds, starting in 2011. A local organization, Community Voices Heard (CVH), worked closely with Mark-Viverito to make it a reality. /// Mark-Viverito and her colleagues committed roughly $6 million to PB in its first year, to widespread acclaim. Ann Bragg, an East Harlem resident, CVH member, and PB budget delegate, agrees that the process has been a success. Bragg explained that the process has been “a way for people to empower themselves… . You have a chance to decide what you want, as opposed to elected officials making decisions for us.” Bragg was pleased when a project she supported, a new Meals on Wheels truck for seniors, was approved in PB’s first cycle. (…)
Of course, PB has not been universally successful. Even in Brazil, participation has lagged in certain localities, and certain processes have not adequately incorporated residents’ input. But, Lerner explained, two key factors seem to explain where PB succeeds best: “political will from above and community support from below.” /// Where political leaders are supportive of the process, and existing community organizations can mobilize residents to participate, PB can best achieve what Lerner calls “a joint governance process between community and government.” /// Sondra Youdelman, executive director of CVH, the lead community engagement partner for PB in New York City, noted, “In the best districts, you’ve got a real commitment from the city council office to dedicate staff time and energy to this process. And it’s far more effective when there’s a community organization in the district that’s focused on targeted outreach and is interested in broader-based community engagement.” /// The importance of strong existing civil society raises perhaps PB’s biggest challenge: it is resource intensive and particularly challenging to accomplish in places where little organizing is already happening. (…)”
“Participatory Budgeting in the United States: What Is It’s Role?” Nonprofit Quarterly.
“Can We Make an Anti-Racist Reddit?” »» “Racism and the ever-present and pervasive microaggressions that reproduce and sustain it are not going to disappear with the advent of a new tagging system, but there might be ways of tilting the scales a little bit so that people think critically about what they’re submitting. Technology has a certain capacity to frame social interaction, and that framing can have a specific political or social orientation. The hard part is getting the technology to reflect anything other than dominant narratives. (…) At the heart of the augmented reality thesis (and the digital dualist critique) is the acknowledgement that no technology is an oasis from the social, cultural, and political forces that surround it. The Internet is not an insignificant cultural artifact (like so much fungus on a log) nor is it an undefined Wild West. And, as the comparison between Reddit and Tumblr suggests, one network might encourage behavior that another discourages, making it extremely difficult to say whether “The Internet” as a whole encourages us to do anything. The racist jokes made at Ramsey’s expense are encouraged through the implicit promise of a receptive (read: racist) audience, and the history of pre-existing memed interviews that went viral. Perhaps the best way to end this trend is the tried and true method of calling it out for what it is: racist.”
