The Palikade Permaculture Project - Plantation 1st Phase

From https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1333965536633140.1073741833.147992775230428&type=3

The Palikade Permaculture Project – Phase 1 plantation
In March 2016, we (Astrid Rao and Sneha Shetty) attended a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) organised by Academy for Earth Sustainability and conducted by Narsanna Koppula , where we were introduced to the intricacies of water harvesting and soil conservation (WH & SC) among many other themes of permaculture.

In WH & SC, we learnt about "vegetative consolidation" of water harvesting structures i.e. consciously designed multi-level planting of trees, shrubs and ground cover on the water harvesting structures. The purpose is to strengthen the structures, increase biomass, enhance soil health, create micro-climates and many others. The loose soil of the newly created bunds also provide a good base for new saplings to grow in.

At our 18-acre farm in Kamshet, which we call 'Palikade', we decided to start with designing the land forms for WH & SC. We have only the rains as a source of water here, so we decided to grow indigenous/ native, hardy, rain fed trees as well as quick growing leguminous shrubs that would fix nitrogen into the soil, provide us loads of biomass and create microclimate. We started growing saplings of the latter in our nursery in April. Then we made a plant palette of what would grow well in our area, choosing species that would serve many functions. It would be a tropical food forest that would provide for food, clothing, shelter and other needs of not just the human residents but all the stake holders including the birds, insects and micro organisms (in Narsanna's words). This was a great opportunity to grow native trees that have been on my wish list for years (yes, i am a serious tree lover).

We began the water harvesting structures in April - boundary trenches, contour trenches, a couple of ponds and a percolation tank at the highest point in the property with the hope that they will hold the water and let it percolate into the subsoil, thereby using the soil itself to hold water. We also intend to grow a mix of cereals, millets, pulses, oilseeds and green manure on the land meant for growing annual crops & orchards in future. This is to regenerate the soil ('make the entire land a compost pit' – Narsanna's words). In the coming months, we will continue to plant a live fence on the boundary, comprising of various plants serving multiple functions.
Permaculture has the answers people – and Narsanna Koppula (founder of Aranya Agricultural Alternatives, Hyderabad) is a leading light of our times.

In the last one week, we have planted more than 2200 saplings and cuttings (of about 90 species), sowed hundreds of seeds and will continue to populate the bunds with ground cover (grasses, climbers and shrubs) of various types that will all do their bit to contribute to the fertility of soil and up our sustainability quotient.

Wishing you a very Happy Van Mahotsav – we at Native Place and Nirvana Adventures are happy to contribute to the mammoth task that the Maharashtra govt has undertaken to plant 2 crore trees by the 1st of July 2016. We are grateful that we could source about 1,000 plants from Government nurseries (Forest Dept- Shirota, Social Forestry - Pune & PWD- Pune) at very affordable rates. Thanks a ton, guys!

Peace Bliss & Happy Landings
From Native Place and team at Nirvana Paragliding Club , Kamshet , India
www.nirvanaadventures.com
www.nativeplace.com

See some photos from this activity on https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1333965536633140.1073741833.147992775230428&type=3

Few pics below:

(see facebook album linked above for all pics)

--------------------

Note from Nikhil:
Feeling very lucky to have gotten to do a little participation in this huge project and getting to pick the brains of the designers. I walked barefoot in beautiful natural surroundings, got totally wet and totally muddy, was all over the beautiful sticky mud and can now say I have truly experienced the magic of monsoons. 

Palikade is a work of art and some very deeply thought out planning that can serve as an example for any student of planning or engineering. So many steps taken to harvest water, to make it go exactly where it needs to, to enrich the soil to the fullest; so much care taken with each sapling, ensuring the various indigenous species are well-mixed and spaced out with the prevalent flora, fully grown tree's canopy, height, root zone, nutrients etc kept in mind, sunlight, shade, wind direction, access, slopes all taken into account. I got to see high level engineering in perfect harmony with nature here, hats off to Astrid Rao and Sneha Shetty for meticulously planning and executing this project and the sheer amount of love and fun they brought into it. Even for the planting operations for our drinking, cleaning, cooking etc we were using rainwater directly collected from the roof of the small house there!

The local farmers from the village who were working on the project were also enjoying every moment, have understood many concepts of permaculture and were actively discussing about applying some ideas on their side. They also contributed their tacit knowledge about the wild medicinal herbs in the area, local growing habits, seasonal variations etc, all of which went into informing the project design. The ladies requested for and took saplings like drumstick home to plant for their kitchen gardens. So even the strong local connect that Astrid has established with the community here since over a decade, and the informal spreading of sustainability concepts, is something very exciting and we can look forward to more wonderful things happening here in the near future.

Astrid and Sneha

On handling paramparaa / traditions

Imagine you get a big, old box/chest that was used by your
predecessors and now it's in your possession.

You open the box.

Inside the box there are several kinds of things. You enjoy your time
sifting through them, checking them out. Many interesting things. Many
of the things seem to also have a higher purpose of reminding about
what is important in life, what should be kept in mind, etc. There are
also some papers, letters in the box, written by the previous handlers
of the box, with some having explanations about some of the
constituents of the box.

A hands-on gender sensitization/normalization activity for boys

I was raised in a household with 3 women (mom, a 7 years elder sis, a twin sis) and one where we did most of the chores. As the littlest and clumsiest runt of the litter, I was assigned tasks that carried the least risks. Which included hanging all the washed clothes to dry and folding them when dried; and to run to the shop nearby to get essentials (packaged products ie.. for picking the right veggies etc my mom couldn't risk it).

I was thus handling everyone's bras and panties from a little age; my mom taught me to especially check the crotch section of chaddis with my fingers to make sure they've dried properly before I fold them. Never experienced any kind of shame or ridicule from it.. it was the same as doing the gents' chaddis and banyans.

[Solutions] The Untold Success Story: Agroecology in Africa

The Untold Success Story: Agroecology in Africa Addresses Climate Change, Hunger, and Poverty The Oakland Institute today released 33 case studies that shed light on the tremendous success of agroecological agriculture across the African continent in the face of climate change, hunger, and poverty. "Released just two weeks ahead of the COP21 Conference in Paris, these case studies provide irrefutable facts and figures on how agricultural transformation–respectful of the farmers and the environment–can yield immense economic, social, and food security benefits while ensuring climate justice and restoring soils and the environment," said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute. "We are told over and over that Africa needs a new Green Revolution, more synthetic fertilizers, and genetically modified crops. These case studies debunk these myths and highlight the multiple benefits of agroecology, including affordable and sustainable ways to boost agricultural yields while increasing farmers' incomes, food security, and resilience," said Frederic Mousseau, Policy Director of the Oakland Institute, who coordinated the research for this project. The case studies bring forward a large variety of techniques and practices used to achieve these benefits: plant diversification; intercropping; the application of mulch, manure or compost for soil fertility; the natural management of pests and diseases; agroforestry; the construction of water management structures; and much more. The success stories from all over the African continent have farmers—including many women farmers—in the driver's seat of their own development. Agroecology is not a one-size-fits-all set of practices. Rather, its techniques are adapted to meet specific needs and ecosystems. Farmers who practice agroecology are innovators and experiment to find the best solutions for themselves. Agriculture, forestry, and other land use are responsible for nearly a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. According to the International Panel on Climate Change, emissions from these sectors have almost doubled over the past 50 years, and could increase by an additional 30 percent by 2050. The use of synthetic fertilizers is the fastest growing source of agriculture GHG emissions, having increased 37 percent since 2001. Ibrahima Coulibaly, President of CNOP-Mali and Vice President of the ROPPA (Network of Farmers' and Agricultural Producers' Organisations of West Africa) said, "Our governments must now take decisive steps to actually support agroecological practices instead of promoting industrial food production systems that are contributing to climate change while making farmers poorer and more vulnerable to market fluctuations and weather hazards. We need our governments to ensure our children a future in which they can feed themselves with nutritious food in a healthy environment." View and download the case studies View and download Frequently Asked Questions ### The Oakland Institute is an independent policy think tank, bringing fresh ideas and bold action to the most pressing social, economic, and environmental issues of our time. www.oaklandinstitute.org Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/oak.institute Follow us on Twitter: @oak_institute

Time to think beyond UGC approval

This article started as a reply to : As Delhi High Court Tightens The Rope Around IIPM, Will Fake Universities Take A Hit?

http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2014/09/delhi-high-court-tightens-rope-around-iipm-will-fake-universities-take-hit/

There is an unexamined assumption, and with that, a flawed perception here. Bad as IIPM may be, I think the rationale being used is barking up the wrong tree. How can we assume that any university that has not been officially certified by a centralized standardization agency (which itself is not clear of flaws).. is Fake? Whatever happened to the third bastion of the Autonomous institution : independent in choosing what discourse it gives to those coming to it?

Who gave any UGC or its compliant colleges the right to claim that they alone can define what it means to be an MBA in India, or any academic achievement for that matter? Especially glaring on the author's part here is the missing out of that inconvenient little detail that the best ranked institutions in the world that were referred to in the article, do not obey any centralized agency's diktats; they are autonomous, and they are successful precisely because they are autonomous, precisely because they can design their pedadgogy and everything related on their own. All (or most! Enlighten me if I'm wrong) of the best colleges in the world don't depend on any "UGC" for their legitimacy. Their programmes and their alumni create their legitimacy. Word of mouth, reputation emerging from the success of alumni and proof in the pudding hold higher value on the international higher education scene than any centralized government agency's stamp of approval. 

In light of such a global reality, our attack on IIPM without even bothering to examine and compare their actual programmes with those of the hundreds of pathetic colleges that the UGC has given its stamp of approval to, smacks of hypocrisy.

Forget about IIPM themselves : I have no clue about their actual programmes and if they're just empty pretenders and really lying through their noses to rip off students, then so be their fate. But I would prefer to see that fate decided by the inevitable consequence of alumni and walkouts spilling the beans, rather than a questionable governing agency's stamp of disapproval.

Learning is universal. The UGC does not hold monopoly over how learning, especially higher education, happens. How will we now treat the many emerging educational experiments that are trying to give a fundamentally different kind of higher education to the youth entering their gates? If an autonomous institution imparting valuable education to the youth coming to it, is not even trying to win any UGC's stamp of approval, will we then ruthlessly attack them also as being FAKE? Will be label them also as F.A.L.T.U ? (if you haven't seen the movie then please do) Will we blame them for failing to "win" a recognition that they have never even bothered trying to win? I am especially alarmed by the apparent assertion of this article that any institution to emerge in the future which is not ratified by UGC, is automatically going to be Fake.

This nation's history reminds us of a rich moment of this sort. Around 1920, heeding a nationwide call from Gandhi, several intellectuals and students all over the country walked out of the British-certified institutions and started autonomous independent colleges, like the famous Gujrat Vidyapith in Ahmedabad. They started teaching without bothering to beg for anybody's stamp of approval, taking the discourse in their own hands. And they taught better, fundamentally better, than the mainstream colleges of that time. They nurtured and shaped many of the minds who would go on to co-create an Independent India. Today they may be acknowledged by our governments, but back then they were precisely the "Fake" institutions we're being warned against. What if they too had been chastised with the ferocity being leveled at "unapproved" institutions today?

Look at the higher education scenario in India today. Most of our graduates come out not only learning nothing of value to prospective employers; their ordeal renders them incapable of even the most basic entrepreneurship. And citizenry? Forget it! If you're worried that an IIPM operating without UGC approval will fleece students, then look around you : there are scores of colleges peppered across the country happily fleecing the youth of this country with full UGC approval! The UGC and bodies like it have royally screwed up higher education in India. To continue valuing its holy stamp of approval over and above facts on the ground, is only going to take the Indian education sector ever lower down the tube. 

But a breaking down of traditonal barriers by increasing internet penetration, combined with a realisation among scores of employers that the official degree is simply not giving them the talent they're searching for, is creating a ripe moment for another 1920s-style walking away from traditionally certified structures and blossoming of new ones in the most unexpected of places, that fundamentally rethink the way education is defined and delivered in the 21st century. Perhaps it's really time to think beyond the UGC, time to look again at the "Fake" institutions so our youth can have a Real education.

Videos regarding nonviolent peoples movements

A bunch of useful videos shared by Ekta Parishad regarding a youth camp for training in non-violence, democracy and people's movements

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzgSd8sAqSA (Intro and discipline)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGAP47mU8aM (group formation)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1UljiqPm0U  (Physical strengthening)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbpaiiJCC8I (Struggle-Social Action)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn8S_MS5xGY (Social Analysis)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euAwPC7PR_Q (Modeling non-violent values)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM58ooHIjOs (Rajagopal 12-point interview)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXBTzc0GXvM (Rajagopal Interview)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppg0FKkGj80 (Bottom-up development)

Local Futures (Economics of Happiness) Newsletter, September 2014

The newsletter was clipped short in the email (lots of great content!), so please see it in full here:

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/857593/e5565baae7/1620022255/156fe052aa/

Greetings from LOCAL FUTURES

In This Update - NYC November 8th: Localization, Climate Justice, and Hope - People's Tribunal on the Rights of Nature - Planet Local Photo Contest – Winning Photos Announced - Global to Local Workshop held in August in Ladakh From our Local Bites Podcast:  - Episode 5 - Seeds of Resilience, Seeds of Sovereignty  From our Planet Local Series: - Banco Palmas: Community Banking in Brazil  - The Chikukwa Project, Zimbabwe - Vrihi & Basudha, India From our Economics of Happiness Blog: - Land Grabbing and the Threat to Local Land Rights - Keeping Your Cool in a World on Fire - Shamans, Ice Cream, and Climate Change Other Events: - Techno-Utopianism & The Fate of the Earth Policy Watch: - The Role of The World Bank and the IMF in the Ukraine Conflict Articles of Interest: - Helena Norberg-Hodge's talk at the Economics of Happiness conference, Bangalore, India - Over-regulating the local: Small farmers now need a license to sell their produce

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/857593/e5565baae7/1620022255/156fe052aa/

Schools in Medak, AP grow their mid-day meal

http://education-for-change.blogspot.in/2009/01/medak-schools-grow-their-mid-day-meal.html

Around 15,000 students from 150 schools of Medak district have been growing and eating healthy green vegetables, hand picked from their own school gardens.

Wall of Films : 500 documentaries hand-picked to change the world

Welcome to my world.. :)

http://www.filmsforaction.org/walloffilms/

Get bold with the real solutions

One feedback i just submitted to an aap google form:

Get bold with the real solutions even if we're sure the mainstream media will oppose them. To hell with those devil worshippers; they don't reflect the thoughts of the people. AAP has been like a dhobi ka kutta, na ghar ka na ghaat ka as far as the divide between civil society and mainstream is concerned. We tried to woo the latter, and got screwed. Now let's return to the truth; to adopting the perspectives and solutions that civil society advocates, even if they're unpopular. Have faith in the idea that the people will learn the truth eventually. And if you think the masses will never learn, then sincere request which is for your own happiness: please leave this country.

Blow the whistle

How to make people think?

How to make people think?

Ask them a question. Ask them what they feel about so and so issue. 

All this time they're constantly being told what to think. For the first time in a long time, let them hear someone asking them what do THEY think. 

Once they've poured out the answer that was residing in their head, 

DO NOT react, even if you disagree with them. Acknowledge them, and Let them be. 

Because now the opinion, the idea has flowed out of their head and been put into words : it has come out of the darkness into the light, where it can be evaluated much better. 

After this, later that day, while they're sleeping, they'll start thinking, pondering, questioning : 

Is that what I truly believe? Is that how I really want things to be? Could there be something else here? 

Who knows, by the next morning, the same person might be thinking about an issue in another way completely.

So get your questions ready, go out there and make people think.

Economics of Happiness Conference, Bangalore, 15 March 2014

http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/conference-2014-india

Localisation : The most strategic way to tackle our escalating social and ecological crises?

 

Over the past 30 years, giant banks and corporations have become wealthier and more powerful than ever before. This has happened because governments, in the name of 'economic growth', have supported ever-increased global trade while neglecting local business potential.  Through a series of 'free trade' treaties, trade and financial deregulation continues today, weakening and impoverishing governments and whole countries. This is the essence of economic globalisation. 

 

Despite the rhetoric of inevitability that supports it, globalisation is a process of planned change — the consequence of government policies that support the profit-driven agendas of big businesses and banks.  These policies include the building up of transport, communications and educational infrastructures tailored to the needs of global corporations; the over-regulation of local and national businesses; and the use of misleading indicators like GDP.

 

Since globalisation is at the root of so many problems, localisation — a shift away from the global and towards the local — is an obvious part of the solution.  

 

The central principles of localisation

 

•    Localisation is the diversification and decentralisation of economic activity.  •    Localisation strengthens human-scale business — especially for basic needs such as food, water, and energy, but also in housing, banking and healthcare.  

 

•    Localisation relies more on human labour and skill and depends less on energy and technology.  

 

•    Localisation requires less transportation, less packaging, and less processing, thereby reducing waste, pollution and fossil fuel use. 

 

•    Localisation adapts economic activity to the diversity of ecosystems, restoring cultural and biological diversity.

 

•    Localisation fosters a deeper connection between people and nature.

 

•    Localisation rebuilds social interdependence and cohesion, providing a more secure sense of identity and belonging, which in turn is a prerequisite for peaceful coexistence.

 

•    Localisation challenges conventional notions of international development, instead reclaiming and regenerating diverse knowledge systems, languages, aesthetics and wisdom traditions.

 

 

Global to local policy changes:

 

¥    The renegotiation of international trade treaties, this time putting local needs first. This means the re-regulation of global trade and finance, along with the relaxation of regulations that currently stifle local trade and finance.

 

¥    A shift in taxes and subsidies that currently favor the large and multinational. Rather than tax labour while subsidising the use of energy and technology, policies need to promote the creation of jobs and livelihoods while minimising the wasteful use of energy and other resources.

 

¥    A re-direction of public investments in infrastructure. Billions are still being invested in creating and improving trade-based infrastructures — superhighways, shipping terminals, airports — while the needs of local economies are being neglected.

 

¥    Government control and regulation of the creation of money and debt.   Leaving these key elements of modern economies in the hands of unaccountable banks and financial institutions has led to reckless speculation and economic collapse, as well as a widening gap between rich and poor.

 

***At the grassroots, a powerful localisation movement is emerging worldwide. India itself has a rich history of innovation and activism. Here and elsewhere, the localisation movement is showing that strengthening community and the local economy can undo many of the problems created by the mad rush towards globalisation.  

 

Central to this new thinking has been the local food movement, which is already demonstrating that shortening the distance between farmers and consumers creates a multitude of benefits, including: healthier and fresher food; more income for farmers; more agricultural and biological diversity; and less pollution and fossil fuel use.  Perhaps most importantly, small, diversified and locally-adapted farms actually produce more food per acre than large industrial monocultures, while reclaiming the food supply from multinational corporations.

 

The same logic that underlies the local food movement applies not only to other aspects of primary production (for example, fisheries and forestry), but to other quite different areas of economic life.  Amongt the countless initiatives already underway are:

 

Via Campesina  Transition Towns  Decentralized renewable energy  Local business alliances  Local banking  Alternative currencies and local bartering  Local stock markets  'Gift economies'  Ecovillages  School gardens  Non-school education   Eco-building        Biodiversity economics  'Counter-development' Anti-Corruption  Inner Transformation

 

We believe that these and many other initiatives like them can gain strength by forging alliances under the localisation banner.  Together, we can build a movement that will challenge the might of the mega-corporations and bring the economy back home. 

 

We invite you to join us!

http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/conference-2014-india

Bitcoin's fall: we need an alternative, not a substitute for money

Bitcoin's fall / flaws being predicted on Dec 5 2013 :
http://stormcloudsgathering.com/bitcoin-what-youre-not-being-told

And it crashes on 10th February 2014 :
http://scgnews.com/bitcoin-flash-crash-80-drop-in-seconds-down-20-after-stabilizing

These guys know their stuff, they called it, and it happened. So now I
would advise the reader to pay attention to the other things they've
been writing / videoing about: http://stormcloudsgathering.com

I think this also brings out a deeper message, and these happenings
are reinforcing it for me.

Bitcoin came about as a result of a hunt for an alternative currency.
But the way of transacting : the buying and selling of materials and
services in an environment of conditionality and selfishness that
we've taken for granted to be the only way things can get done... that
was kept the same. The core was the same, it wasn't rethought.

So Bitcoin was a substitute. Not an alternative.

I don't think that's going to cut it. This is kind of like seeing
there's some problem in education, and substituting the existing
teachers with higher quality replacements, and expecting that that
will solve the problem. That doesn't solve the problem, because we
didn't change the system itself. The education will fail the students
regardless of what substitute teacher we bring in; similary, the
substitute currencies will fail.

The people who went in for Bitcoin, and wanted a decentralized
currency, I don't think they're recognizing that centralizing is an
inevitable consequence and a requirement for the system of
transactions where there's conditionality and selfishness involved.

What we need here is an alternative to that system of transacting. An
alternative that doesn't have conditionality and selfishness inherent
in it. We have to keep in mind that even barter, commonly mistaken to
be the only original mode of transaction, also has conditionality and
selfishness inherent in it. And that's why I hear the cliche, "So
you're saying we should just go back to barter??" The assumption here
is that barter was the origin and we all came from it, hence "go back
to". The brain shuts down there, and no consideration is given to
thinking how families, extended families, indigenous communities, and
even ecosystems and communities in the animal/plant world operate
every day.

I do have a solution in mind and at heart, but I don't think I can do
justice to it in writing it here... I can feel it but would need more
time and space to write it. But there are some wonderful resources I'd
like to point you to. The real alternatives, which do not have
conditionality and selfishness inherent in them, have different names
but common core values. The names go by "Gift Economy", "Giftivism"
etc.

http://charleseisenstein.net/
http://www.servicespace.org/
http://moneyandlifemovie.com/

Universal Basic Income - your living is your birthright, no one should force you to earn it

Thanks to Shiv Hastawala for sharing this in some emails...


This short video shows the Unconditional Basic Income experiments done in India (Delhi and Madhya Pradesh) and interviews the recipients of the cash transfers.

The interviewees reveal positive effects on health, labor supply (quality), financial stability, improved environment, resource access, equity, investments, debt reductions and most of all, EDUCATION!!

This is a game changer. It clearly debunks most of the arguments against taking care of the basic needs of the human population. Even though these experiments were done on a small scale with significantly small amounts of cash transfers, they are a good start for the Indian community (and even the world).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MtYtwiG-uAM

...

I just came across this idea of Unconditional Basic Income. This is an amount of money that is paid to every individual (of the nation pertaining to this so-called law) every month as a means to meeting basic human needs regardless of their participation in the labor market. The European arm of this organisation has already gained around 280000 signatures for this petition and the bill will most likely be presented to the European Union soon. Why it caught my attention was because this could be a real step in the transition towards a NLRBE since meeting the needs of all people is one of the major aims of this model.

However, what I found most intriguing was that experiments on this subject are already being carried out in India but most of us are not aware of it. I am quoting the text from www.binews.org in italics below. Hope you find it interesting:

Although barely reported in the media, two basic income pilot projects are have been underway in India since January 2011. One pilot is being conducted in part of Delhi and the other in eight small rural villages in Madhya Pradesh. The Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) began planning and raising money for the rural project in 2008. The Delhi government eventually joined in, working with SEWA to organize an urban pilot project in Delhi.

Publicity about the project has been deliberately kept low because opponents have been using scare tactics to disrupt and to discourage participation in the project. They have spread rumors that the pilot would lead to the reduction or elimination of existing government support for the poor.

Families participating in the urban project receive 1000 Rupees per month (about US$22). Some participants have reduced access to other government transfers; some participants receive the grant all with full access to other government transfers. In the rural project, adult receive 200 Rupees a month (about US$4.40) and each child under the age of 14 receives 100 Rupees a month (about US$2.20). The project organizers will study the consumption, expenditure, and nutrition of the different groups of participations to a “control” group receiving no additional transfers to determine the impact of cash transfers.

These projects are similar to the Namibian basic income pilot project and to the U.S. and Canadian governments’ Negative Income Tax experiments conducted in the 1960s and 1970s, but the rural project adds an important new innovation to the method: the project is being conducted on the village, rather than on the individual, level. All residents of eight Indian villages will receive the basic income, and their behavior will be compared with residents of twelve “control” villages. This method will allow project designers to study village-wide effects of the transfer.

Guy Standing, professor of economic security at Bath University (UK) and an honorary co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network, helped to conceive and organize the project. He argues that it needs to be conducted with scientific dispassion. But he’s hopeful of the outcome. Asked about the results of the Namibian pilot project—which he was also a part of—Standing said that organizers documented many positive effects: “Child school attendance went up dramatically, use of medical clinics went up. Those with HIV/ AIDS started to take ARTs (Antiretroviral Therapy drugs) because they’d been able to buy the right sort of food with the cash. Women’s economic status improved, and the economic crime rate went down. Income distribution improved.”

For more about the projects see an interview with Guy Standing in The Times of India:
http://www.timescrest.com/opinion/social-insurance-is-not-for-the-indian-open-economy-of-21st-century-5775

...

Universal basic income (UBI)—the unconditional provision of an amount of money to every citizen—is an idea that has gained ground in several Western countries. Switzerland is planning a referendum on the subject; and a vigorous debate is on in the US and European countries on the feasibility of UBI. There have been instances in individual cities in the US and Canada where UBI has been tried out, with a degree of success, in the past.

There are good reasons to pursue the idea in India, the primary one being equity. There is a strong case to provide UBI to all Indians, a significant number of whom do not have a regular source of income. The second reason, which is equally important, is the damage that a bloated government is inflicting on the Indian economy. A vast number of “welfare schemes”, “flagship programmes” and the like eat into a huge amount of government revenue. In fact, the reason why India is in such dire fiscal straits is the explosion of such programmes and the money that has to be borrowed to keep them running. The macroeconomic consequences have been devastating. If a lump-sum is handed out to every Indian family, this flab can be cut easily.

It is not a utopian idea. One way to fund UBI is to dramatically reduce expenditure on subsidized goods and services such as food, healthcare and education. The freed up money can then be used to provide UBI. The numbers are simple. If, to pick an arbitrary number, every Indian family is handed out Rs5,000 every year, then for a population of 1.2 billion, the expenditure works out to Rs1,20,000 crore every year. This is not a big, unrealistic, sum. By comparison, the budgeted amount for total subsidies alone in 2013-14 is Rs2,31,000 crore—almost double of what is required to provide UBI of Rs5,000 to every Indian family. The entire non-Plan expenditure stands at Rs1,10,9975 crore, more than nine times what is needed for UBI. Now shaving off non-Plan expenditure in toto is not feasible, but surely if providing UBI is a political priority, the sum required can be easily found.

Financial affordability is one thing, political feasibility is another. But even on that count UBI can be a winner. Take a careful look at all the major welfare schemes being run currently—including the gargantuan Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). In the end, they serve as ways of transferring some money to the poor. This is seen to be a vote-spinner for any party in power. UBI can be a far more attractive idea politically. Giving regular income to the poor, far in excess of what they can earn through the MGNREGS or any other scheme, is more promising.

These issues apart, UBI promises to be a humane idea: It can end the uncertainty that so deeply afflicts the poor in this country. MGNREGS promised to be a good idea. But as it stands currently, it is a corruption- and inefficiency-ridden scheme. The poor may want work but may not get it. And even if they work, chances are they will not get the money due to them.
There are, of course, design issues that need to be confronted head on. What is the amount that must be provided as UBI? What should be the principles on which this sum is decided? Will establishing UBI make India a country of layabouts who refuse to work because they have a guaranteed income? These are contentious issues that need to be debated. But the logic of introducing UBI remains strong.

The reasons for providing UBI in Western countries are different: stagnant wages, an effective demand collapse and associated sociological problems. In India, these issues are different but the background remains the same: helping the poor and ensuring that government intervention in the economy—devastating in recent years—is minimized.
Source: http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/lrBg4qDddoKgtlx1zgNwQJ/A-universal-basic-income-for-all-Indians.html

John Perkins quote

Watch the 1 hour interview that covers nearly every aspect about the present world economic (dis)order, his own life journey and the movement afoot for a better world : http://vimeo.com/18090634

Watch the movie Money and Life : http://moneyandlifemovie.com

Find out more about John Perkins and his work: http://www.johnperkins.org/

If you want to share this on facebook, please go here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152268150346934&l=1793d04b90

Democracy Upgrade : moving on from democratic dictatorship

Reblogged from http://joyb.blogspot.in/2012/05/democracy-upgrade-republic-revolution.html
An amazing speech/essay by my hero, Birgitta Jonsdottir, Icelandic activist and member of Parliament:

The marrow from my speech at FutureEverything 2012 - a big thank you to Jodi Rose for making this beautiful PreziTation for me to use as a frame for the keynote.

What is democracy?

Who is the system to serve?
What is a parliamentary representative?

Who does he pledge alliance to?

Who writes our laws?

What are the cornerstones of Democracy?

What is the purpose of a constitution?

I want you to think about these questions and find out what their content means to you.

I am an activist in parliament. The longer I serve, the more I think about the meaning of the questions I have just posed. The more I understand how the system works, the more obvious it is to me that there is a serious system error. The system is like the hard drive on computers you would have to defrag in order for them to work, the bigger the files the less efficient the computer would work. The problem with our systems is that they are too big, too alienated from the people they are supposed to serve. It is too difficult for the public to be able to influence and have impact on the (re) in the rePublic. Sometimes when the computer is too fragmented the best solution is to zero it in order for it to work, sometimes a complete system upgrade is the only way out. We have reached the point in our democracies that we need to zero the system and install a new system. We need to move away from the big complex to the small fast system, where each and every person has to understand that we are the stuff that makes the system. We are the system. We are the government. We are society. We are the power. We are the law. It is not beyond us, unreachable nor undesirable to be it, the system is a reflection of who we are.

In order to empower people to act on this awareness and to start to apply changes through our only means: through action, we need to have direct democracy with the liquid add-on. We need to craft our constitution for and by the people. (Constitution is the agreement of a nation on what sort of society they choose to be). Law is currently crafted by and for the 1% - we need to simplify our laws and make sure we agree on the spirit of the law, rather then adding on their complexity with endless patchwork.

The cornerstones of society are freedom of information, expression and speech. The Internet is the last free world, that has enabled us to connect, share, be informed, act and resample our creativity. The internet is now under serious attack, as the corporations and governments are trying to place their reins of power on it, in order to industrialize it and to have absolute control over how we connect, share, be informed, act and resample our creativity.

I am a hacker in parliament, I went into the system in order to understand how it works and my conclusion is clear: Install new system with a new form of democracy of the future, where we move away from democratic dictatorship with many representative heads to a direct responsibility of direct liquid democracy. Are you ready to be the co-creator of your society? Do you understand the importance of your participation? We are running out of planet, so for the future of everything it is time to wake up and start co-creating.

(note: by 'zero' I deduce she means 'format')

A frank audit of schooling for the poor

This is for all the people working in educational sector for the poor and who are pushing for getting every child into the present conventional educational model which is the usual kindergarten, 10+2 model with a 10th and 12th board exam.

Wanted to just share a dissenting thought process I've been having. Acknowledging the ground realities of under-resourced schools, do you think it's a good idea to cram 30 children under a tin shed for 4/5 hrs everyday in the name of educating them? For the time period that it will take to build an infrastructure that is worthy of their attendance, wouldn't they be better off being where they themselves wish to be? What evidence is there to suggest that they won't learn essential life skills by being out rather than being crammed into those dehumanising spaces day after day? Who gave us the right to decide that forcing them like this is better for their future?

I'm just trying to highlight the extents of what suffering we can inflict upon these children in the name of helping them, because of failing to pay attention to the devil in the details. Liberal education may be perceived to be for  just the rich in this country right now, but I see a real need and potential for democratic education models for the poor. What if the children crammed into that room were given free access to this classroom 24/7, and were given the right to exercise the "Law of two feet", under which if you don't want to be part of something going on, you simply get up and walk out without anyone restricting your right to control where your body locates itself? I think those kids will be able to get themselves educated much better in such a model, plus they will escape the fate of being indoctrinated into an inherently anti-democratic and inhuman way of life.

A common defense I hear is the mid-day meal scheme. I have a serious issue with that:
Should the mid-day meal provision for these kids who need it, be an institution-membership conditionality? Shouldn't we rather use those funds to set up community kitchens that feed every child living there regardless of whether or not they're enrolled? Why is a life-and-death situation being used as a hook for getting kids into school? To me, this looks like the equivalent of putting a gun on the child's head and telling her parents that their child shall allowed to live only if she gets enrolled in my institution.

And then, of course, the obvious "without a 10th pass/12th pass certificate they won't get admission to college, jobs"...
Then in light of the ground realities of people being able to learn and master valuable skills regardless of certification;
In light of our own realities of large numbers of us thriving in job roles that we were never formally trained for,
Or in light of the fact that majority of the syllabus we were made to "learn" for 12 years isn't of any use to us or we don't remember most of it,

Shouldn't all the millions we're currently spending in education, be rather directed towards lobbying and getting colleges and companies to alter their intake criteria? (which they selectively alter anyways for some extra cash or on basis of referrals) Wouldn't that be a much more efficient usage of resources, rather than a 12-year roundabout method that has a proven pathetic turnover ratio plus disastrous side-effects? Are all the people wanting to make a better future for the children of this country really incapable of convincing some 1000-odd industrial bosses and ministers, that we have to instead resort to making millions of children jump through a series of inhumane hoops? Why are we still sticking to an assumption despite it having been thoroughly disproved? Taking a realistic audit of resources available, efficiency of alternative paths and output realities, where should we rather be directing our energies?

Am I better off putting my child through this anti-democratic, disempowering, traumatizing system for most of her childhood and youth, or will I have better luck simply investing all that time, energy and resources in creating opportunities for my child that will sustain her even without a bloody certificate?

Globalization Vs Localization

Some definitions we ought to get right:

globalization. n.
1. the deregulation of trade and finance in order to enable businesses and banks to operate globally.
2. the emergence of a single world market dominated by transnational companies.
(Often confused with international collaboration, interdependence, global community.)

"Globalization is really a code name for corporatization. It's an attempt by the largest corporations in the world, and the largest banks in the world, to re-engineer the world in such a way that they won't have to pay decent wages to their employees, and they won't have to pay taxes to fix potholes and to maintain parks, and to pay pensions to the old and handicapped." 
~ Paul Hellyer, former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada

localization.n.
1. the removal of fiscal and other supports that currently favor giant transnational corporations and banks.
2. reducing dependence on export markets in favor of production for local needs.
(Often confused with isolationism, protectionism, the elimination of trade.)

"When production and consumption both become localized, the temptation to speed up production, indefinitely
and at any price, disappears. All the endless difficulties and problems that our present day economic system
presents, too, would then come to an end."~ Mahatma Gandhi, 1934

"Drawing in our economic boundaries and shorten[ing] our supply lines… permit us literally to know where
we are economically. The closer we live to the ground that we live from, the more we will know about our
economic life; the more we know about our economic life, the more able we will be to take responsibility for it."
~Wendell Berry

Sourced from : http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/study-guide

Online action CAN bring real change

This is in reply to the statement I hear now and then about internet activism, clicking on online petitions, forwarding emails, sharing links, taking pledges etc not making any real, practical change in the world.

I'd like to say here that the statement above is false. Not that I'm saying the opposite is true, but that the statement above is false in the sense that it is incomplete and by lack of being complete, it gives a false message to a reader who may think that it is complete.


By personal experience I have seen that merely an email campaign that includes writing stuff, putting stuff together, and emailing large numbers of people, inviting people to participate simply online, while at the time simply living my normal life and doing my normal things, has had real, practical effects.

And I mean a complete reversal of a bad action, I mean actual money getting deposited in a bank account (ka-chink!), I mean people holding positions of authority having to admit a wrongdoing. Real change has happened. And not in the distant past or in another country: it happened around this time last year, in Pune, India. Just by sending emails to a limited group of people. If you want to dig into the details of this, contact me sometime, or see this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2fy7pY3iqc (it's 44min long! and sorry but you'll have to see all of it to understand the matter)

What the complete picture entails, is that the online action can do a job of thawing the ice, heating the pot, of paving the way to on-the-ground action. It can act as a converger of hearts and minds. It can unite people behind a cause. And it DOES make a difference. Maybe not immediately. Maybe not in that particular case. But it does. If not in body then in mind. Because such is the irreversible nature of awareness: once you are aware of something, even if you don't do anything about it, you're very likely to stay aware and not get fooled in that department again. If you've ever done chemistry seriously, you'll know that there is no such thing as 0% or 100% concentration in the real world.

I'd like to invoke an old phrase once more :

Knowledge is power.

And add a line to it :

Awareness makes change possible.

If you're feeling curious, you can go to Avaaz.org or change.org and see examples on their website of petitions that made a difference, that brought about real change on the ground or that set the ball rolling. In scientific circles, it takes only one practically observed event that doesn't follow a theory, to disprove that theory. Let's use that here as well. While all online actions can't be guaranteed to bring real change, it is equally untrue to say that every online action is absolutely hopeless. That is a lie. There is always hope, and it is convergent instead of divergent, meaning at some tipping point, hope WILL convert to action.

Which means that even a failed campaign of today only sets the stage for a successful one tomorrow. In a sense, if you support a cause that you know is right, you can never, ever really fail : that is a practical impossibility.

The change that you want to see in the world does not come from any one ninja master stroke. There will never be one person or one superhero who does all the work for you. There may be one initiator, but it will spread. It's more like drops of water coming together, that form great rivers. The drops will come from many different places. Similarly, actions that bring about change can come from many different places: including your facebook activity.

So, in the case where you CAN and WANT to take part in a physical effort to bring change on-the-ground, DO IT. And in the case where you can't or don't want to do it for whatever reason, don't. Similarly, if you can and want to sign an online petition or share something on your social profile, or forward something to spread awareness about an issue that you care for, then instead of listening to all that "be realistic, yaar" advice,

GO AHEAD AND DO IT

and be the drop that converges into a mighty river.