"It is hard to portray just how bad in the situation in Venezuela has become. Schools are closed, hardly anybody is working, and food shortages are endemic. Food riots and attacks on food stores are taking place all over the country. The government has set up committees to distribute food, but many complain that the bulk of the food is going only to government supporters. Some 80 percent of normal food supplies have disappeared from retail stores, and many are facing starvation. The government has no real plan to deal with the crisis which can only get worse". https://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-06-20/peak-oil-review-june-20-2016 This grim snippit of news from Resilience doesn't seem to mention the success of grass-roots permaculture. So where are they? I'm guessing anybody involved in growing their own food is not advertising at the moment - but it would be nice to know that they are there, somewhere, and that despite a failing government, their immediate needs are met, and connections with neighbours and their community provide some security and resilience, even if not as much as before? Perhaps those doing permaculture in the city are ruined from theft; perhaps those in the countryside are doing fine, whether they are doing permaculture of not. I didn't find much searching for info. A short article lamenting how much of the population was reliant on government handouts. https://mainstreampermaculture.com/category/venezuela/ Anyway, many questions, few answers. If anyone has any insider info, it'd be great to hear of it. When collapse comes, is this what it's going to look like? Or perhaps things are different over there.
Good questions Goshenw. I see a few Permaculturists on the PRI Global maps and a couple of projects but I didn't see any recent updates. Perhaps things are just too chaotic there to be posting on the internet. With Venezuela's vast oil reserves, I am of the personal opinion that they're undergoing an engineered collapse (which doesn't mean we may not see something similar). Have you read any of Dmitri Orlov's experiences during the collapse of the Soviet Union or his comparisons to our current plight? He provides some good insights on our present path and where we're headed.
Yes, I have read the '5 stages of collapse'. But we're of 'civilized' countries in the west; it'll never get THAT bad will it?? I mean, going as far as social collapse... I think we imagine we'll get as far as economic / commercial collapse, and people will say - "hang on - look at these guys other there; why are they so happy and living so well, with little income". I guess my fear is, what if they don't. What if there's not enough of us to make any difference what so ever. That's my biggest fear; but we keep on. It's the only thing we can. For what it's worth; I'd imagine there'd be a LOT of permaculture stuff going on over there, at least outside the most heavily populated areas, and these people are probably coping ok; we just don't hear about it, because it's not news. But it's a hunch.
Civilization is hideously fragile... there’s not much between us and the Horrors underneath, just about a coat of varnish. ~C.P. Snow Yes, we keep on ... it's the only ethical action. I agree, believing there are pockets of not only Permaculture but basic community pulling together during Venezuela's crisis.
And here's some news from Venezuela! https://www.resilience.org/stories/...s-difficult-times-the-grassroots-are-stronger ‘Five years ago I knew perhaps eight people doing urban agriculture, but now I know about 500 people,’ he said. ‘Our community garden is still active, even though it was affected by the drought,’ Eliodina Villareal, a communal council spokesperson in an opposition-dominated part of Merida, explained. Further, food exchange, with neighbours swapping goods like pasta for margarine, has become common. ‘People are starting to understand how food works. There is no way to move forward until communities become involved in food and production. And that means that the communal councils and communes are less abstract now,’ Boothroyd Rojas said.
Yes, I saw that! Thanks! I knew some positive news would come out soon enough, even if it's still hard going. "For those rural movements and groups who have also been organizing, their time to play an important role in Venezuela has come" I've almost finished reading another JMG book (Economics as if Survival matters), and he mentions (I'll paraphrase); that no matter what kind of political dysfunction is going on; people generally are still capable of the whole range of human natures: generosity, greed, love, anger etc etc. It's up to us to harness and direct these into as positive actions as we can, despite what's going on at a political level. The situation in Venezuela seems to demonstrate this perfectly, indeed the article shows that those in power are obstructive, rather than supportive of efforts to self-organise (surprise surprise).
