Pape’ete

Topics of the day: Transition towns, islands and times, bikes, WILPF, India

I slept over at Roti’s house so I don’t really know what Raphael did today (I think he cleaned the flat and wrote an abstract of his thesis in English (for Terii Vallaux)). I distracted Roti, talked to her about WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – she suggested I join them for their international summit (?) in India next year to present “my” ideas – don’t really think I’d be ready for that and the money (for the (polluting) flight) would probably be better spent on something practical (planting trees, building irrigation systems, class rooms, a small biogas plant (running on cow shit – in India)…) and politics in general, wrote for the blog and a newsletter ((“Transition Times”) which we want to distribute around Pape’ete on our day of action – the first issue is going to focus on different types of bicycles (to transport children (seats and trailers), adults (rickshaws/bike-taxis) and things (like tools and groceries)). I also read a bit about transition towns – a grass roots initiative which is starting to spread across the world (already more than 1500 towns participating worldwide). The aim is to reduce or in the long run eliminate fossil fuel dependency by localizing electricity (and heat) generation, encouraging public transport, minimizing (and recycling) waste (locally) and encouraging agricultural self sufficiency (the production of local food without using petrochemicals (organic/permaculture)). In a nutshell: “forming groups to look at all the key areas of life (food, energy, transport, health, heart & soul, economics & livelihoods, etc)”.

I found a lot of interesting websites… there is so much happening online (and even more in real life) which is really encouraging – we’re not alone (and I’m not talking about extraterrestrials on earth)!

Here’s a link: www.transitiontowns.org

Final thoughts of the day: Wouldn’t it be amazing to participate in a grass roots (transition towns) movement? There is so much information out there that just needs to be put into practice – by YOU… yes, of course… I know you don’t have time (so much work) and when you get home you just want to sit down and have your peace and quiet – must be my youthful foolishness making a suggestion like that – but it’s at least worth a thought, isn’t it?! Even if you just donate an hour of your precious time every week – that’s only about 8 minutes and 34 seconds a day.