AN INTUITIVE VIEW OF THE WHOLE
by Sedley Sweeney founder Cooperation for Cortes SeIf-Sufficiency
Modern man does not experience himself as a part of nature but as . an outside force destined to dominate and conquer it: He even talks of a battle with nature, forgetting that, if he won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side.
E.F: Schumacher,. Small is Beautiful (l)
NATURE, INTERRELATION, INTERDEPENDENCE
An "Expert" might be defined as "One who learns more and more about less .and less until, eventually, he knows all there is to know about nothing" Thus has modem science advanced on narrower and . narrower fronts in growing isolation from the .whole picture of Nature. At the other extreme is the "Impert", one who tries his hand at more and more, "and in the process begins to realize how little he knows about the interwoven wonders of the . Universe. At the same time he absorbs the sight, sound, smell, taste and gut-feeling of all that goes on around him until, in the end he may possess a measure of intuitive. wisdom; that sixth sense that makes so little sense to the scientist. Such intuitive wisdom (2) (3) in so-called "backward" people can still be witnessed world-wide, 'although globalized western society is doing its best to wipe it out through modern education. Subsistence farming, with local family and village cooperative self-sufficiency can no longer be tolerated in our greed driven economy where material wealth and' growth are the overriding aims. Trees, water, air, soil, birds, fish, animals, minerals, fossil fuels, vegetables, and genes; each is seen in terms of cash profits and quite disconnected with the rest. Many of these essentials can be patented to prevent them from becoming the property of others, except at,a high price. Although most such resources are limited<;l and disappearing, and are all interdependent on the rest, it is still permissible to strip them bare. "Science will find a replacement" is the cry. Even disease, conflict and human misery are seen by some as sources of , income, while there is little money to be made. from peace, health and grass-roots cooperation.
"What -" one might ask - "is the ultimate purpose of all this wealth?" Is it security? - few if any billionaires feel free to move about unguarded. Is it pleasure? large estates? beautiful homes? Luxury cruises? unlimited food and drink? sex?the admiration and envy of the less fortunate? - all these pleasures are completely ephemeral and unsatisfying. An escalator to heaven? - more likely a skid-road to hell!
Happiness, on the other hand, is a completely different gift. It stems from peace, serenity, contentment, respect for self 'and others, from loving human relationships, generosity and sharing. These qualities, as so beautifully explained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, (4) come from enlightenment (intuitive Wisdom?) which, in turn springs from the discipline of detachment from material desire and the development of compassionate human relations in which one shares the suffering of others and tries to help them to be happy. This compassionate sharing lies at the root of the Buddhist faith, and is reflected in the serenity and generosity of the Tibetan people. In this detachment from materialism, they, and many other folk living close to Nature see the whole picture and intuitively recognise the interrelationship between its innumerable parts. Instead of striving to rule the world, they are happy to accept their responsibility to preserve and share it with the rest of Nature.
SHARING COMMUNITIES
I have been privileged to witness the serenity and generosity of several societies; hill farmers in South Wales, Tibetan exiles, villagers in rural India and Nepal, the Klahoose First Nation and many others on Cortes Island. For all their problems and imperfections, these people tend to measure 'their wealth in terms of what they share and give away.
Personal relationships and cooperation within their extended families, villages and grass-root areas are more important than the accumulation of material assets. Happiness and calm are more important than competition, personal achievement or short-term pleasure. Involved in all aspects of family and village life from earliest childhood, simple people can achieve a remarkable depth of intuitive wisdom without formal education, and given access to but a small amount of land, can provide the essentials of happy lives.
HILL FARMING IN SOUTH WALES
My farm in Wales bordered' into the Brecon Beacons; over 200 square miles of unfenced rolling hills on which we shared grazing rights. The rules were precise and strict; the number of sheep and ponies each farm could turn to' the hill, grazing boundaries, shearing dates, the grouping of farms for gathering and shearing were all fixed. We all knew exactly where we' stood.
Each hill farm had a copy of the Beacons "earmark book", and apart from this nothing was written down! No money changed hands for the mutual help and there were only two formal meetings a year, the annual harvest festival and the village, sports which everyone attended. Otherwise, one met friends and neighbors on Fridays at the livestock " market in Brecon. There was no hierarchy of any sort. We all relied on three imperatives; the breed of our sheep who knew their beat on the hill, our Border Collies and the integrity and cooperation of our neighbors." On the extremely rare occasion when a hill farmer broke the rules, his neighbors gently leaned on him until he saw the light.
VILLAGE LIFE IN INDIA AND NEPAL
As is happening worldwide, subsistence farmers in India and Nepal are being relentlessly driven from the land, and the migration to towns and cities in - search of al,most non-existent jobs is creating the most appalling slums. Everywhere the rich are getting richer and the poor desperately poorer. Mono-cropping for sale and export is taking over from local self -sufficiency. Although vast surpluses are harvested, more and more people cannot afford the food they grow. Exceptions to this trend can be seen in remote tribal villages beyond the range of the "trickle-down" economy, as well as in some enlightened projects where sharing and cooperation are the keynote.
AMARPURKAS RURAL, POLYTECHNIC (5)Amarpurkashi village in Uttar Pradsesh is the home of Mukat and Jyoti Singh. For over 30 years they. have struggled to set up a Polytechnic based on the needs of the rural poor. In spite of years of stiff opposition from every level of government, they have now succeeded in establishing all stage~ of education from primary to high school and a small university campus in the village. The schools are attended by children from several surrounding villages within 10 miles, and the university from far further afield. In all stages of education the emphasis is on local self-sufficiency, sharing an mutual cooperation. Amarpurkashi still suffers from the national policy of promoting cash-cropping, larger land holdings and the movement of surplus manpower to the towns to engage in industry, considered to be the main source of Indian wealth.(6) Nevertheless, one cannot visit Amarpurkashi without experiencing the warmth and trust of their human relationships. Each year the community is host to a number of volunteers from Europe who not only help the project, but benefit greatly from the experience.
LADAKH (7)
The people of Ladakh (Little Tibet) in northern Kashmir live over 13,000 feet above sea level. On average they get only three inches of rain a year and are frozen for eight months. Yet, they not only survive, they thrive! Bringing water from the glaciers via long channels to their villages, they grow exoellent cereals, vege!ables, fruit and flowers. Their yaks, sheep, cattle and goats are grazed up to 17,000 feet on the alpine pastures. Until recently little or no money was involved in their economy; the extended family, with village and inter-village cooperation produced all their needs. But, some 15 years ago the Indian government opened a road into Ladakh, and promoted the tourist trade. Since then the picture has been changing rapidly. The capital, Leh, has become a dormitory town with modern shops, hotels and tenement housing which are utterly unlike the beautiful village buildings. Wealthy tourists make the Ladakhis feel inferior, promoting the urge to leave the land and come to Leh to earn wages. Grain and other food staples are now imported by road from India, and many of the locals cannot afford to buy them. The traditional clothing of the people is thought to be inferior to jeans and Nike shoes. The village subsistence farms are now undermanned, as the traditional extended family is split up when the men leave for employment in Leh and other towns.
Over 26 years ago, Helena Norberg-Hodge, a Swedish linguist, came to Ladakh, learned the dialect and devoted her life to preserving the traditional culture and intuitive wisdom of this harsh but beautiful land. Like Mukat and Jyoti Singh at , Amarpurkashi, she has concentrated on preserving the human relationships and cooperation of the extended family, village and inter-village culture. Her Ladakh Ecological Development Group has been promoting appropriate technology within the means of the village communities The Women 's Alliance, with over 3000 members is dedicated to preserving and strengthening the local culture, agriculture and manual skills. School books, plays and cultural works are being published in the Ladakhi language. The Farm Project gives people from around the world the opportunity to live and work for a month or more with a Ladakhi family. Although western technology and the cash economy are still growing, there is no doubt that Helena 's work is gaining respect throughout Ladakh and in Indian government circles. A visit to Ladakh's village communities is still a glimpse of a life-style much needed, yet all but lost in the modern world.TIBETAN REFUGEES
I have worked, on and off, for over 30 years with Tibetan refugees in India and elsewhere. In the late '60s I visited many Tibetan road workers' camps in the Indian Himalayas. These people had recently suffered terrible losses in their exodus from Tibet; they were living in squalid conditions and were paid almost nothing for their hard work. Yet their cheerfulness, generosity and hospitality, together with their obviously close family ties, demonstrated a true wealth far greater than one might find in the affluent West. Their Buddhist faith, love and compassion made all who came in contact with them happier, and 'appeared to make them happy too. If this is not wealth, what is ?
NEPAL (8)
The government of Nepal has striven for many years to eradicate ignorance, poverty and ill health. Massive injections of money and effort have been poured into education and development in a succession of large projects. These excellent , intentions have failed to produce the required results in spite of education, the growth of industry, high technology and the so-called Green Revolution. Many initially apparent successes have created larger problems than they have solved. The rich, educated, influential towns-people comprise but a fraction of the population, and are steadily growing even further away from the masses of poor villagers. Education, technology, industrial and agricultUral production, trade and economics are geared more and more to modern methods which suck the profits away from rural communities and into the hands of the powerful few, The so-called "trickle~down" effect of this wealth creation is quickly absorbed by middlemen, and fails to raise the. living standards and self-respect of the poorest sector. To reverse this trend the need is for a completely new and integrated approach to rural education and development. This, being village rather than town based, can inspire such self -respect among the rural people, enabling them to regain control of their own lives and economies, turn their villages once more into self-reliant, rewarding and happy communities, and prevent urban drift.
The late General Aditya Rana 's Anara Model Farm Project, based near a poor Terai village aimed at this result by working from the grass-roots upwards, using locally available resources. During the six months I spent helping Rana with his project, I was deeply impressed by the good intentions at all levels, the creative manual skills amongst the villagers and the warmth and trust showed by all I met. The poverty, particularly in Kathmandu, was appalling. The erosion and flooding caused by bad forestry and ill-planned irrigation projects made Rana's model farm an essential step in the right direction.
The village sawmill; work for all.
The village carpenter making panel doors with mortice and tenon joints.
CORTES ISLAND (9)
In the summer of 1987 I came home to B.C. after , the best part of 50 years spent abroad. I found my way to Cortes and was soon swept up into this most friendly and lively community. So much was happening; a new emergency first aid and ambulance service was being formed, the small forest committee was actively campaigning for more sustainable harvesting, a seafood cooperative was emerging, the dormant Friends of Cortes Island was revived as a registered umbrella charity for , environmental protection projects, the environmental magazine Watershed Sentinel (9). and its allied projects Reach for Unbleached! and Mill Watch were becoming widely recognized. Since then a volunteer fire department with two stations has been set up, the Cortes Parks Committee has managed to secure new parks, and foreshore monitoring has recorded on-going details of inter tidal life around the island. The Klahoose First Nation treaty negotiations have been conducted (albeit far too slowly) in close cooperation with non aboriginal groups on the island.
Everywhere, people are coming together and realizing the need for local community control of our affairs, which are not served well by bureaucrats, corporations and globalization. In the past decade all these activities have grown dramatically; today Cortes is poised to become a model for locally controlled environmental protection, including a Community Forest Licence on Crown and privately-owned forest land. The new Cortes Ecoforestry Society, in partnership with the Klahoose First Nation are planning jointly to manage these lands for long-terrn restoration and preservation of old-growth forest, and the economic and cultural well-being of Cortes islanders. While we are much more closely tied to technology and , money than villagers in Nepal or Ladakh, their custom of giving without expecting an equivalent return is also strong and growing on Cortes; With this goes the unquestionable multiplication factor ensuring that we all receive far more than we give; what's more, it makes us all happier.
COOPERATION FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY
THE CHALLENGE
Are we prepared for a major natural disaster or the collapse of the corporation/stock-market economy? Should either such catastrophe occur, the need to bring control of our affairs back to the local community level is obvious. There is no doubt that the diverse skills of Cortes islanders, together with the resources of sea and land could supply all our basic needs, provided we are well prepared. There can be little doubt that many citizens are concerned about the future, but feel helpless as t Q their; ability to do anything about it, If they could see clearly a way ahead, many would grasp the opportunity to become involved. Here is their chance! Let us all be prepared before disaster strikes. If we plan ahead, we may avoid the panic 'and irrational responses which might otherwise lead to suffering and strife. In the short-term we could all stock up with a year's supply of basic food staples and other essentials, enabling us to survive while we organize our management of land and sea resources for sustainable self-sufficiency. Quite apart from possible catastrophes, has the time not come when we all need to be much more locally self-sufficient and less dependent on the exploitation of finite resources?
MEETING THE CHALLENGEThe challenge was brought into focus by David Korten in his book "When Corporations Rule the World" (10). A group of Cortes islanders have taken it up and are preparing a project to enable us to bring control of our economy back to community level by establishing local self -sufficiency. The process involves radical changes to our present economy, where possessions, advertising, consumerism and security rule our lives. These must give way to cooperation and sharing as w~ are forced to give up many of our present luxuries. ' As Gandhi put it; "There is plenty for our needs, but not for our greed. "
The Cortes project is being -pursued with little publicity or propaganda. More than lOO people have joined to date. The main publication is the Cortes Earmark Book", a register of potential guilds plus the names, addresses and skills of the members, Anyone interested in teaching or learning a self-sufficiency skill can contact like-minded members by reference to the Earmark Book, which is constantly expanding. The sooner we are prepared, the better we will cope with whatever befalls us !
POSTSCRIPT
RELIEVING THIRD WORLD POVERTY
Although the effects of globalization and technology have, so far, tended to widen the gap between rich and poor, both within nations and internationally, there is now some good news. The recent G8 Summit in Okinawa has decided to extend computer access to every family in the world. The wealth created by this extraordinary, philanthropy will raise the standard of the poorest Third World peasant to that of the affluent West, or will it?
I have my reservations: Is this splendid idea going far enough? Computer technology, on its own, is in the realm of the "specialist", and may be advancing on too narrow a front. Should we not include other skills such as Monsanto's genetic engineering? We could then transplant a few beneficial genes into computers to make them edible!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. E.F: Schumacher: Small is Beautiful
2. Sir George Stapledon: Human Ecology
3. Robert Waller: Prophet of the New Age.
4. H.H. the Dalai Lama: Ancient Wisdom, Modern World; Ethics for a New Millennium.
5. Mukat Singh: (Chief Editor ), International Journal of Rural Studies
6. Govt of India: Dept of Education, NDS Secondary Course, Social Sciences, VoI2B, Indian Agriculture, , pp 17-18 (see appendix)
7. Helena Norberg-Hodge: Ancient Futures; Learning from Ladakh
8. Sedley Sweeny: A Visit to Nepal
9. Delores Broten: Editor, Watershed Sentinel
10. David Korten When Corporations Rule the World.
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