Other emerging efforts

I want to write about the possibility of co-housing in Hilo. I think it would be the easier of the movements listed to get going in Hilo. We could easily start canvassing residents in neighborhoods in Hilo to gain popularity and support for a co-housing project. We could get an election to change a neighborhood through its association and regulating bodies with residents demanding it. Once we get people on board and a view of agreement established we would then be able to modify the rules for a neighborhood to serve a co-housing movement. We need to get people to support whatever movement we choose to do or nothing will ever work. We could use the benefits of others doing so to gain creditability and sway views. People are the reason for anything happening and what drives a movement. People will do what they think is right and if the movement for a co-housing is not presented In a way that appeals to everyone in some way we will have hard times doing anything. Hilo has a huge potential to make changes for itself if it is aware they can and should. Communication channels of all types will be needed to get it going. We could use the local and state news corporations, newspapers, internet, schools, colleges and public hearings. Together we could do it we just need time and resources and maybe a little bit of donations and support financially, but we could do it!

When Cultures Meet

I chose to write my perspective of the encounters with Native American people and the Western European cultures in the late 1700's. I am on a Chickasaw scholarship and will share my knowledge of our unique history as a people and a nation. The Chickasaw tribe made its first encounter with the European explorer Hernando De Soto in 1540 in what is now the Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Kentucky area of the United States. The first encounters were friendly and had good relations since the meeting of cultures and communication had no influences from De Soto just a contact through passing. In the later part of the 17^th century the first Euro-settlements within the Chickasaw Nation of prehistoric times habitation areas took place. The outside communication influence was definitely negative and created new perspectives for the Chickasaw people of their views of land ownership and materialism. We as a people had sophisticated laws, religion, and hierarchical power structure and were previously to western contact agrarian people similar to Hawaiians. We have facial tattooed warriors and restrictions of natural resources based on cyclic events and had a balance between what we needed for ourselves and what nature needed to grow simultaneously like Hawaiians did during the Kapu system. The Chickasaw people came to rely more on European supply and tools for society and less on their own passed down information of the environment and its secrets to life through prejudices, restrictions and racism and theft. The information passing of these valuable skill sets slowly deteriorated over passing generations and in that we lost our tradition and oral history and information passing leaving us with a shell of a culture now being rebuilt from pieces of stories through families over time. We also from the cultural meeting of another culture adopted ways of another society and tried to integrate them into our own and it did not work well. Chickasaw Native Americans became completely dependent on western society for survival and have been ever since. The exposures of other cultures presented disease and illness that ravaged our people and its culture and we were captured and forced to walk the trail of tears to Oklahoma. The Chickasaw people are now residing in Oklahoma not anywhere near our real homelands and had the Mississippi river taken and several other valuable natural resources. We have been exploited for our honey from the Tupelo blossoms of the Mississippi for its rich honey. We as a nation have suffered for being exposed to European culture without knowledge to save ourselves from their ways and technology. Today we as a nation are growing in size and strength but weakening in our bloodlines and maybe a few thousand pure Chickasaws still exist today and will probably decline until we only exist in quanta of blood and not as ourselves. I hope we will learn from this story about a people being forgotten and lost to save the ones left that are savable. We have to be conscious of our advertisement and exposure to another culture when encountering them and sharing information to change the views of each other. Seems like over looking or missing the higher information contained within that is not being seen about nature, humanity, society, and values with understanding got lost in translation or were not considered. The world is now a global village and we have, as information holders, the responsibility of doing what is right and needed to protect and save ourselves as cultures, people, and societies for our children of tomorrow and look at everything and most of all listen. I will close this with a cool saying I have heard: "You can use a ounce of prevention, or a pound of cure" I will assure you curing is much harder then preventing look at our history and you decide for yourself….

exploitation of Native Americans was terrible and we are still recovering from such dehumanization.
Thanks for reading Jon Ellison (Wolf Clan)

Other Traditional Cultures

I read about Borneo and the Penan cultures who have inhabited Borneo since 350 BCE. The link to the website is www.borneoproject.org which was in the Best Indigenous Cultures webpage. The Penan culture stood out to me when trying to decide because I loved the Borneo Planet Earth special they did and how they were worried about the species and cultures survival in the series. The Penan Culture has been based on rain forest survival and included plants, trees, fish, birds, and animals for their way of life traditionally. They have been driven further to the interior of Borneo due to logging, and farming. The government apparently recognizes the culture as having indigenous rights to survival from the resources of their native's lands, but must be recognized by maps, zoning and paperwork declaring this. The problem is the people are not able to access these resources to file or claim their land tenure. The government from bribes and other means of extortion allow companies to harvest and over farm lands where no representation can be produced for land control and rights. The people are being pushed aside and their means of life stolen. The Penan culture has nowhere to go, and have resorted to violence, protest, and blockades to entry of their last remaining rainforest resources and natural systems. The Penan culture has a right to life and I hope the world and their government will recognize this and save what's left of their once pristine rain forest and the animals that live among them!

 

The Penan culture has a strong means to communicate outside their home and culture. The Penan people have recently been protesting to humanitarian groups for an effort to save themselves and their remaining ecosystem and animal diversity for the future of their existence for their way of life. The website talks about shopping smart to avoid exploitation goods produced in Borneo to reduce the economic drive to exploit natural systems for more resource. Some organizations involved with saving the Penan and their forests are Berkley, Earth Island Institute, and the Penan people. The Penan people have sought outside influence to communicate more effectively with their governments and the corporations exploiting their resources to stop harvesting and deforestation or land for goods and farming crop production. The people are currently protesting destructive damn building projects going on right now. The Borneo steering committees have formed and stepped in to control all outside influence and financial help for these causes to be appropriately allocated in efforts to make a difference. A recent article published by Bloomberg talks about the corruption and cronyism and displacement of Borneo people and their resources. The communication efforts are showing signs of effective change and influence. I hope these forests and their inhabitants both animals and people can be saved and restored for the world to enjoy. For more information please goto their website and read about their plans and current actions to save Borneo and the Penan culture.

Broadening the Ecovillage Movement

Hello bloggers,

I read more of the Gaia Readings and hers the link www.gaiaeducation.org/docs/Beyond%20You%20&%20Me%20Ebook.pdf

For this assignment I had to look at a incredible range and wide spectrum of Ecovillage effects that are rippling through societies worldwide. The sheer magnitude I had no idea was on a scope of that magnitude. The articles talk about local and community effects and benefits in all forms. Nationally the Ecovillage movement is growing and truly impressive in size. I had never considered that it would be organized on a scope of the entire planet, but had know that the main goal is to make the planet sustainable and healthy to promote better living and growth for humanity. The ability to become intertwined into politics and world view are to me a truly great view of potential for this lifestyle and choice of living to become a standard and base model for living worldwide for a infinite growth potential for humanity being sustainable societies of tomorrow. I also learned about the problems with particular views of our society and perceptions of our culture in other peoples perspectives. I think it's a difficult thing to get people to see America for what it is truly without being confused in translation for others. The idea we never work or have machines do everything for us is nice to hear but totally insane! People are taking what the article talked about that's called Reality Tours which are tours designed to take people from underdeveloped countries and show them more developed nations and how they have neg/pos aspects of their societies as well and that people are similar and also have problems. Utopian society would be nice but the reality is that we are far from there as of currently and more people are needed to help repair, relearn, rethink and reinvent our current world to a sustainable world for tomorrow for our kids and community members of our global village. The political views are interesting to knowing that they are concerned with quality of life for outcomes of votes and backing for their goals of creating a healthier and more sustainable earth and community for everyone to benefit from. This reading was a little slow but interesting none the less and especially about their global movement and communication diffusion through global societies. The unique perspective they drive outward to change our world is amazing and I had never know about really any of it until this reading. The idea of never worrying about life sustainability would be amazing to have no rent, no food bill, no utility bills and not worry about these life stresses we all experience on some level in our lives. Go Green or Go HOME! Lol

Thanks for Reading my post and Mahalo Jon M Ellison

Virtual Visit to an Ecovillage

I looked at several of the Ecovillage locations and decided to look at Ithaca Ecovillage since I had read into the book and there were several videos and sources online to check out. I think that I would like to visit this Eco-village to see more about the actual lifestyle. I would love to get a more intimate detail and experiences you can only get by doing them. The experience would be great and would likely inspire me to create one here in Hawaii to live on. I feel the sense of connection with earth and the importance it play on our quality of life. Ecovillage at Ithaca is a pretty impressive size for its affect on earth to be sustainable.

The most intriguing thing about the Ecovillage at Ithaca is the farming and food production. I think its very interesting to be able to produce most of your food consumed. The quality and taste is a lot better than the store and leaves you knowing where your food came from and what it was grown in. China has fruit orchards and the industrial pollution is so bad they have to bag or wrap each individual fruit on the tree to prevent them from being polluted and ruined. I fear these types of things. Or round-up ready crops are another scary issue with agriculture. I would like to know where my food comes from and how it's grown before I consume it and for now that's not an option I have, but I plan to do something like this for my own sustainability agriculture for my family. I would like to also incorporate their sense of community and trust. I think of the fifty's generation when I look at the Ecovillage model and see a great sense of relaxation. To not lock your house and not worry about your car or anything like that for that matter is amazing and would be a amazing experience.

Thanks for Reading Jon M Ellison

Salad garden Update: New Sprouts and Fruiting Early Girls

Hello Green thumb bloggers

The garden is looking good today. The sprouts are finally coming up and the early girl hybrid tomatoes are finally ripening after about 70+days even though the package says 60 or less. I have them in a not fully exposed place leaving them I think a little smaller then normal and ripening a little bit later due to lack of light. Here's some photos of the garden today and yes I know I need to weed it out a little.



So the bad news so far for the garden project is that my sprouts of cucumber have all been eaten by mice so will try those again in the germination box until they are better established. I hope they will stay after I get them a little older than putting them into the ground. I started this first batch in the ground so maybe they will make it after they are more established in pots first. The lettuce never came up and had to start over and this time I got some fancy red starts from my friend in trade for some okra and watermelon starts. I am doing a experiment to see what is best for the lettuce and to reduce possibility I will not have lettuce to make my salad! I have 2 plants In the ground, 2plants in pots I put in the germ box, and 2 plants in pots I leave outside. I will see what method works best for my location, climate, and pest problems. I will see if they taste sweeter or not and compare size to determine the best method along the journey. Here are the pics! The last pic you can barely see the lettuce starts just down from the strawberries in bottom right corner of the photo.

The new additions to talk about are the peppers and cilantro cutting and sprouts of Okra and Cilantro from seeds I planted.


They all seem to be adjusting and is looking good. The peppers are fom starts and not sure what they are its from a mix seed bach from a friend and consisted of jalapeno, cayenne, habanero, chili here's the pics. The starters of okra are being tried to ways in ground seeds and germination box from seed, the pests have eaten one of the in ground starts but the other seems fine but they are both smaller then the ones in the box. This is all I have for todays updates hope you enjoyed and go gardening eat free!

starts peppers & Okra & Cilantro

Thanks for Reading Jon M Ellison

“Beyond you and me: Reading Response 1.”

Hello Eco bloggers.

I read the Gaia Education PDF www.gaiaeducation.org/docs/Beyond%20You%20&%20Me%20Ebook.pdf online from the link listed here. The article was interesting and informed about several institutions that are involved with Eco villages. Gaia Education is a project of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), which consists of a international team of teachers developing curriculum and education courses on the Sustainable Development of Urban and Rural Settlements in the US currently.

The Ecovillage Design Curriculum or (EDE) is also indorsed by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and is an official contribution to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD). I did not know or had even heard of these groups until this reading. Hildur Jackson of the Gaia Institute is the main coordinator and organizer. She has been involved with this project since 1987 with her husband and actively involved with GAIA since 1993 and has also been serving the Danish Ecovillage Network also. She originally designed GAIA for healing and then later changed toward Ecovillage direction in drive for change after living and building a permaculture organic farm. Here's the link where her bio is listed http://www.gaia.org/gaia/gaiatrust/hildurjackson/ . Co-Housing is another new thing I learned about in the reading and found it interesting that it is less expensive and more effective in dealing with community social problems and also teaches conflict resolution and community interdependency with raising children. This amazed me that children with more than one person helping raise them resulted in better problems solving skills then their single household counterparts. I also learned about other cultures that have always embraced the idea of group living and Ecovillage mindset. Trust was also an amazing surprise to me because I figured with more people around would create less trust like NYC for example, but I read that this style of living creates more intrapersonal interaction between community members allowing for a relational bond to develop leading towards more trust between its members. This whole article was an eye opener for me and has changed my perspective on living closely among other people and sharing most everything within the community. I see the huge amount of work and struggle Mrs. Jackson has endured over the decades to get where she is today. The world is lucky we have such people out there that sacrifice for our benefit to learn for a better tomorrow.

Thanks for Reading Jon M Ellison

Salad Garden Update....Sprouts

Hello Everyone its Jon

Today I went out to the garden for a quick water before I start my day and saw that alot of plants are sprounting and took some pics. The garden is coming along nicely and has been a great experience so far. I have gotten some strawberry starters which I feel is kind of cheating but felt it would be easier then waiting a very long time for seeds to sprout and mature, either way we have three 4" starters of strawberry from Kula. I also got my watermelon going and will be thinning out the mound for proper spacing in a few days. My cucmbers are slow to sprout and only just today have I even seen signs of life with a few little sprouts just breaking ground. The tomoatoes are going nicely for tyhe early-girl hybrids that I had going already, but the big boy hybrids are just sprouting as well and will need thinning soon. I also have carrots, okra, lettuce(fancy)that have yet to rear their heads. I wanted to just stop in and give an update and upload a few pics to see the progress, thanks for reading Jon M Ellison

“Scavenger Hunt Answers”


1) Who grows plants for laau lapaau? Mercedes Ritte
2) Whose dream is it to get an MFA? Alohi
3) Who survived an accident? Jessica Raphholz4) Whose a hula instructor? Robbie
5) Who was on "Hawai'i 5.0"? Anita Tupein
6) Who is taking the course from the island of Molaki? Mercedes Ritte
7) Describe one thing you read in someone's profiles that impressed or inspired you (include the name of the person whose profile it is).

Mercedes Ritte has an impressive intro man she has had experience in all sorts of green practice and was a very impressive and motivating read through. Gardening and off grid living farming and live stock she has done it on all ends seems like. That is very cool and I hope to be able to get a couple of those skills under my belt sooner than later.

Thanks for the post and for reading everyone, Jon

Gaia Experiential Learning Activity

Gaia, Experiential Learning Activity -- Page 86

I looked at I thought the gardening activity sounded good and easy to do with a little effort! I have a small space in my backyard we have already started a garden on. We have tomatoes just starting to fruit but that’s it. I plan now from this assignment to plant some more tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber and watermelon. The activity talked about making a garden to set a goal to harvest and make a salad and eat it. I have never done this so should be a challenge to make sure my crops are tended and protected from bugs and rodents. I have planted gardens previously but always never worried about making sure it survived and finished. I have grown a lot of stuff throughout my life but always seemed to have a mishap of some kind every time. I will need to get some manure and some soil and then I will make mounds for the vine variety and till the soil for the rest of the seeds. This should be fun will update my post with pics and stuff along the growth to share with fellow bloggers. Enjoy and

“Life’s a Garden, Dig it man”

Thanks for Reading Jon

After the Crash

I have finished the Course Chapters which by the way are on youtube also. I feel like I have been hyper-informed after the videos. I did not realize how messed up we were economically and its connection to oil. I would definitely change other behaviors after learning about our system from the Crash Course. I would first change my perspective on saving and preparing for shortage and disruption for food and transportation. I am currently managing a small garden now and will be expanding it to to reduce my food dependancy from the markets. I plan to covert a car to electric and use solar to charge it effectively instead of grid use. These are steps to ensure I will lower my foot print while preparing for high prices and shortages of oil and food as a result in the fuuture. I will continue to reduce use and lower my usage to do my part while preparing for what could be a seriously society change according to the video and check list. I have a lifestyle that is pretty prepared by learning about survivalism in my environment and learning about making and fixing things, building solar, wind, and water power systems. I have a tripple set of camping gear and have lots of survival tools, books, and equipment from enjoying the outdoors. I would like to add that the video and checklist are both marketing gold from their websites showing that they are using fear tactics to buy gold and also gives incentive to selectively mine data to fit their perspective and money to drive for. I do believe their is a little truth in all that's said but I also think he has not factored in all the elements that are unseen or unknown. He seems real but also mentions his data sets are reliant on thousands of ressearchers who all of which have their own agendas for grant money and jobs ect. Ect. I would hope he is very wrong but feel there are some concerns. I heard a good saying I live by "a pund of cure or an ounce of prevention" I will prepare and hope it was in vein. Thanks for reading Jon

Behavioral Change

I can change my behavior during this term by eating less meat weekly while limiting my driving for un-neccesary things like cruising and eating fast food. I know that being more aware of shower time and leaving lights on when not needed could use a little work. I think staying aware of my consumption will be the best change because I do not want to waste and would  avoid it if I were aware during the times I actually am wasting resources. I hope to change because my calculation for carbon footprint says I use 14 global acres and would like to see it reduce permanently. Thanks for reading Jon