Bravo and greetings for all good work from Camilla to PARIS. We appreciate her work.

Thierno Rampnoux

Horizon Afrik-Paris

Good job! Wiserearth is improving itself with new features.

I still think that in anyway the interoperability of this network and others is very important thing, and is not easy. We need local networks, maybe less workfeel but more friendly with common people, but interconected with each others to promote collaboration on the same issues (sustainability, democratic governance, comunity development, ecoeconomy…)

We are trying also to work on this direction. One of our efforts is to buil our local network (in/out the net). If you want to conect is www.pallarssobira.cat/enxarxa . We need work hard yet.

I will collaborate thinking on how to interact with other networks.

This is very good and very interesting.  Yes, I did not see this coming.  It does make good sense.

Now for the advice:  Promotion, time to step it up a notch.  Judging by the randomness of the participants in Maryland there is definitely a disconnect which this site is trying to remedy.

I am not an expert, but I would re design the home page so that it addresses your customer as though you were the friendliest restaurant on the planet and the maitre d’  were greeting you like his best customer.

But keep it simple like Google.  Remember you have about 2 seconds when that new customer comes through your portal.  Gotta know right away what you are stepping into.

Content is great.  Flow is great.

“Blessed Unrest” suffers from the same visual design problem.  I have no idea why I picked it up at the library.  I grabbed it with 5 other books.  I think someone on the staff put it on the recommended table.  It looks like a book about a sharecropper that is unhappy about his peanut crop. 

I hope that you will take this as constructive criticism.  Promote, promote, sell, sell.  You can see I don’t come at this from the movement side.  Hope that this is helpful.  I think I put this comment on the wrong page. Sorry.  Best wishes, you have my full support.  I gave this page a two star to get your attention.  This page is really a 5 star.

whoot

Greed and Poverty

Imagine a world where stability is the norm and instability is the exception.  In this world we are imagining, there are no shortages of life’s basics: food, clean water, shelter and a healthy environment.

Although competition may still exist on many levels, it is no longer concerned with life’s necessities, but

only with the non-essentials–those extra things that make life more fun and exciting.  But this time, these non-essentials are no longer allowed to have a priority over life’s essentials.  Instead, our necessities are a part of a globally-protected agricultural zone.  How can this imaginary world become

a reality? Let’s look at our situation and see: If every square mile of land were occupied, there would be

around 5 acres per man, woman and child.  That seems like plenty of land until you factor in climate, terrain, deserts, swamps, pastures, infertility, forests, barren rock and general misplacement of buildings on top of agricultural lands.  That reduces the available arable land to only about half-an-acre

for each person on the planet.  Again, half-an-acre of usable gardening space/farmland per person seems like plenty of room until we consider various environmental abuses, incompetent soil management, government interference, inequitable land distribution, laziness and greed.  Hopeless,

you say? Perhaps–but maybe not insurmountable.  When nations unite, great things are accomplished.  This world has been given so many bright minds and abundant natural resources.

I really believe that we have the ability to change this world into the kind of place that God originally

intended.  There have been times of relative peace and prosperity when nothing seemed impossible.

Consider the years of post-World War II, when the world seemed to awaken from a nightmare to discover life anew.  Then our dreams were golden, when no dreams were too large, and life was

fresh and hopeful for millions of people all over the planet.  Surprisingly, those countries which had

suffered some of the greatest losses were among the first ones to rebuild.  Their tragic memories

were changed from sorrow to renewed vigor, a zest for living, and ultimately the rebirth of civilizations

that had been destroyed by war.  This rebirth sought a new world full of opportunity and fulfilled dreams, where everyone had a chance to build a life of hope for their family.  These were not idle dreams, but were instead realities that were achieved by millions of families throughout the world.

We are once again poised at such a crossroads.  Will we, as citizens of the world, make a decision to seize this opportunity to fulfill our destiny and our dreams, or will we be satisfied to live in the shadow of former greatness, under a cloud of disillusionment and shattered hopes? How can we

begin to realize these hopes and make them our realities? We need to unite globally with others

who share our vision of an achievable, prosperous and fulfilling life for all of our citizens.  One good

place to begin is by supporting efforts to reclaim arable land for agriculture.  These are lands that have long remained unused through misappropriation and neglect.  Let’s insist that cropland no longer be used for building construction sites.  Let’s further insist that every vacant lot be made available for shared green spaces in every city and town on this planet.  Let’s remove all unnecessary

buildings which are mislocated on arable land, and finally let’s insist that cities, towns, industrial sites and other infrastructures be placed on sites which are unusable as arable acreage.  When

this has been accomplished, we will notice a startling thing–we have now increased our arable

acreage to between 1-2 acres per person globally.  When these crops have been planted, harvested,

and properly stored, transported, sold at a reasonable profit and consumed by a thankful public, we will have achieved an economic substrata that is immune to inflation.  Think about it–all the efforts to

increase our available arable acreage, plant, harvest, store, transport and sell these agricultural commodities globally, will now be standardized into an ever-increasing quest for a sustainable and globally-affordable food supply that is no longer dependent on the former conditions of supply and demand.  Our food supply will no longer be held hostage by the highest bidder and warehoused for

the purpose of price-gouging and price-fixing.  Alarmists will squeal that this will remove any incentive to sell agricultural products.   They base this argument logically on other failed attempts at agricultural utopias.  But they have forgotten that we now have the available ingredients for success

at our disposal.  In addition to all the bright minds, we have unprecedented infrastructures in place

for communication, transportation, storage, security, preservation, fertility, nutrition, mechanization,

in addition to a protected global agricultural zone that is immune from fluctuations that affect non-essential items that are a part of the supply and demand superstructure.  We know, and have known for a long time, which agricultural items have proven to be successful in the past, which are

high-demand items versus low-demand, nutritionally superior, practical and sustainable.  We also know quantities and calories of consumption based on current levels, and which supply levels

fit the ever-improved global diet which includes a much-wider spectrum of all basic food groups.

What then remains for us to accomplish these goals in our lifetimes? First, we need the shared vision of ending hunger and reducing poverty.  We may never succeed in eliminating poverty, but

we are on the verge of at least ending starvation and malnutrition.  These are achievable goals

which need only proper planning by the greatest minds on the planet, the investment of time and

energy necessary to accomplish them, and the agreement to global cooperation and mutual aid

that befits a committed and humanitarian society.  Let us begin now to move in this direction,

trusting that God will empower us to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and

have dominion over all” that God has placed under our supervision.

Mark Overt Skilbred