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If I had a dime for every time some person touring around the country or the world has contacted DBPG asking us to tell them “where the permaculture demonstration sites in Florida” are … well let’s just say I’d be paying for my morning cup of coffee in dimes, which would be OK w the minimart guy because they are perennially low on change!

When people would contact me with this request, I used to feel like a deer in headlights and a sorry excuse for a bioregional / permaculture portal.

Now I simply apologize, tell them I can’t help them because it doesn’t exist. There ARE many wonderful *examples of permaculture design principles and ethics* here in Florida but I don’t want any of them getting turned into “The Ideal One” in people’s minds, because it’s not a correct understanding of what permaculture is about.

People keep envisioning some utopian rural farm. Agrarian paradise. Like that’s all there is to permaculture.

The idea of some “ideal right-way permaculture demonstration site” is itself a noxious artifact straight from colonizer culture AKA white supremacy culture. Stress-inducing, pressure-inducing, perfectionistic.

Probably the first step in a permaculture design life, even before site observation, is to #decolonize our minds

We need more people to simply start applying the permaculture design principles and ethics in their home neighborhoods/regions. Apply them in their homes, schools, churches, workplaces, apartment complexes, organizations, business plans, life plans … Whatever that looks like moment to moment, in all its messy glory.

On that note I offer a condensed “permaculture basic training” that’s designed to get you started right here right now — wherever you are, whatever mix of skills and personality characteristics and tangible assets you have available to you or not, and break free of that eternal perfectionism disease that is one of the hallmarks of capitalist/industrialist/colonizer culture.

I offer a one-hour, three-hour, and one-full-day options. Prices are sliding-scale, pay what you can — starting at $25; some trade/barter also accepted. Contact me to join a class or have your own! 512-619-5363 phone/text; jnazak at yahoo dot com email

Note to anyone considering taking a full Permaculture Design Certificate course: My mini workshops will help you get the most out of your full PDC investment as well. I work cooperatively with two permaculture design colleagues who have been teaching PDCs for years.

Cheers, and I look forward to giving you personalized guidance via my mini condensed workshops. You can participate wherever you are, as I utilize eco-friendly, freely available, low-bandwidth technologies for education and communication. (On that note you might appreciate the permaculture-design concept of “appropriate technology.” I know I do! It’s one of my favorites.)

P.S. The 15 characteristics of #whitesupremacyculture include perfectionism, sense of urgency, and other attributes you will recognize because we have been taught to believe they are “just human nature.”

A bill recently proposed by a Florida State Senator would compel anyone blogging about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to register on a special list, or face legal penalties. It might only be directed at bloggers who are PAID to write about Governor DeSantis. But how would “paid to write” be defined? Might it include any blogger who in a sense gets “paid to write,” in that we use our blogs to promote our creative products, services, and so on? A question worth asking.

Either way, here I am. A real live blogger in the wild. Assuming any of my seven followers (I love you all!) are seeing this post.

Furthermore, the proposed bill doesn’t just cover the governor, but other elected state officers too; it “defines ‘elected state officer’ as ‘the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature.'” Anyone blogging about any of them would have to register, and furthermore disclose who is paying them and how much.

The senator proposing this bill is State Senator Jason Brodeur. He’s young, 47 — just one year older than the governor. (Mentioning age because I usually associate this kind of stuff with rich old guys.) And this senator was born in Daytona Beach(!).

It has happened before in history that a sycophant of a dictatorially minded head honcho will propose laws that go further than the head honcho himself would. BTW I read that Brodeur was born in Daytona Beach and is 47 years old. He represents District 10 which covers Seminole and part of Orange. Someone in our local Facebookland circles probably knew/knows him. (Added later … and maybe would stand a chance of being able to talk some sense into him.)

There, now I just blogged about two elected state officials.

Speaking of our infamous governor … “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” is always hilariously incisive. But this episode might be my favorite ever, going into detail about why Governor DeSantis merits the latest nickname that former President Donald Trump has bestowed upon him, “Meatball Ron.”

Video length approx 20 min.

And yes, all human beings deserve compassion, including these guys. But so do all of the people they’re hurting by the ways in which they’re choosing to wield their power.

BTW speaking of video streaming … As we enter Earth Day season, I have a simple eco tip for you, courtesy of Simon Robson, writing on boredpanda.com (“I Went Low-Fi To Tell the Story of High Definition Carbon Emissions for Earth Day”):

Dad you know, if watching videos by streaming on our phones, we can reduce our bandwidth footprint (streaming energy and carbon emissions) by a whopping 75% by switching our streaming settings from HD (1080 pixels) to SD (720) with no noticeable loss of viewing quality?

I actually have mine set at THE LOWEST option, “Data Saver,” which on my phone is 240 pixels, and I still don’t notice any difference. I had actually been keeping mine on the low-bandwidth setting since this issue first came to my attention some years back, but forgot to do my settings when I had to get a new phone back in October after mine died for good. So it was good to be reminded!

Another setting we can play with is the video play speed. Particularly handy for shrinking the view time of longer videos.

Robson’s piece on boredpanda (which also showcases some of his low-bandwidth line-art) also has a link to the “Earth Definition” website earthdefinition.org, where we can learn more about addressing our digital carbon footprint.

March 10: Blog legislation update: Local blogger Mark Barker reports that Brodeur’s bill has been squashed. (For now.)

#NextdoorNonsense

A woman in my neighborhood posted on ND, letting people know that a man had been seen following women on a certain street in our neighborhood near the bars. She witnessed this while walking her dog. It was striking how many people berated the woman rather than asking her if she was ok, telling her thanks for the heads-up etc.

The most recent response, from a woman(!)

“YOU should not be walking in the dark making yourself vulnerable.”

My response:

Actually, people just should abide by the law, and not harass or menace or attack people.

No need for innocent people to be imprisoned inside their houses when some basic awareness, self-defense tips, and maybe pepper spray, will do.

We need to not shame & blame people for doing the basic everyday things like taking a walk, whether to run errands or go out to Main Street or just enjoy our beautiful beach neighborhood. Also, dogs need to be walked.

If we want to shame & blame someone, then we could shame & blame the violent criminals.

Also, we could push for the expansion of mental-health services for those who need help.

By the way, anyone in the Surfside Village/Main Street neighborhood who wants to walk but is afraid to walk, please text me and I will be happy to walk to your destination with you. I’m a 60-year-old woman so Im not superman or anything, but FWIW I have lived & worked in this neighborhood for years, and I walk at all hours.

Side notes:

• Interesting: It just occurred to me there is a parallel in how we blame the victims of capitalism. “They made bad life choices” etc.

• The woman making the post was sensitive to the danger of falsely accusing a person who might not have had bad intentions. For example, her post included something along the lines of “apologies to the man if you see this and aren’t bad-intentioned.” And when a vigilante type commented that people should carry their cellphones and take pictures, she said she wouldn’t feel comfortable posting the photo of a man who might be innocent.

• Crucial point: It used to be that when walking, especially at night, I was only focused on being alert so as to keep other women (and myself) safe. In recent times, I have realized I additionally need to stay alert as I walk, to do my best to make sure my presence as a white woman does not end up putting a Black man, or Black male child, in danger.

Ugh. Pharmacy supporting policies that limit women’s bodily autonomy is the only pharmacy in (relatively easy) walking distance. Oh well! Guess I’ll be doing without. I can work around it; there never were many things I needed from there.

Essential Items & where I get them:

Vitamin Supplements: I mostly have been getting them at my local organic produce shop, Natural Concepts Revisited LLC. I don’t care if they cost more there; I’ll do without other stuff to make up the difference if needed.

Packaged snacks: I have cut way back, and also am working on more DIY, or else buy from my local mom & pop minimart who do their best to fill the basic-needs gaps for our non-car-owning or otherwise mobility-limited residents.

Batteries, lighter, etc: Rarely need, but when I do, buy from minimart.

Prescriptions: thankfully i dont have any but when i needed some (for example eyedrops for my cararact surgery last year), I used CVS which is not far away, just over the bridge and on the east side of Ridgewood

Cleaners, detergents etc — I mostly make my own from a mix of ingredients readily available for free or cheap from various sources. Essential oils, baking soda, detergent left in “empty” detergent bottles in the recycling bins at curbside etc. I have been buying my baking soda from my neighborhood minimart for a long time so I don’t need the drugstore for that.

Wine: I used to treat myself to an occasional bottle of sale-priced yummy red wine from there, but I have cut back on drinking, and anyway the neighborhood minimart or bar/pubs are fine for that category of my consumerism.

Anything else, I don’t really need or can get from the slightly-further-away drugstore chain.

Update Thurs 3/9:

Perfect timing — Check out Anti-Racism Daily’s article today, which includes action steps!!

“TAKE ACTION

” • Take the time today to support one abortion clinic, doula network, or abortion fund in a state with reproductive healthcare restrictions.

” • Take direct action to ensure that people in your community can continue to access reproductive healthcare despite repressive laws.”

(See the article for the full story & links to the actions.)

“As the suburban development pattern gobbles up more land, it channels people who want to experience nature into fewer and fewer places. The last remaining wildernesses are ‘flooded’ with people. This has led to stricter national park management, including reservation requirements. One of the best ways we can protect our most iconic wild places is by protecting the wild places closer to home from the land-hungry Suburban Experiment. People who love wild places should be Strong Towns advocates too.” — from latest edition of Strong Towns email newsletter

And I would add: Suburban sprawl development is extremely difficult to fight, because of the various economic distortions that subsidize such development.

As inhabitants of the wealthy industrialized nations, our next (last?) frontier is to rewild already-developed areas, including our own urban/suburban home sites, rural sites longtime industrial-ag use, and so on.

Great piece by one of my favorite bloggers, David at Raptitude:

“Consumers complain about the creep of inflation as though it’s some impersonal, natural force, like tidal flooding or high winds. But it’s driven by human choices. Some of it’s surely due to orchestrated price-fixing, artificial shortages, and other corporate-side conniving. I have no idea how much can be attributed to those things, but I do know that some of the inflation, maybe enough of it to make all the difference — comes from the sort of consumer-side entitlement I demonstrated during my errand run that day.

“It wasn’t just unwise to say yes to the ludicrous price they were asking, it was wrong. I paid them to keep their prices ludicrously high.

“We commit this sin anytime we buy anything we don’t absolutely need at a price we think is ‘too high.’ Too high for what? Too high for me to buy it, or just too high for me to buy it without grumbling about inflation?”

Read the rest here https://www.raptitude.com/2023/03/dont-buy-the-six-dollar-cauliflower/

On a related note, I do the same with refusing to buy certain products because of the excess packaging or for other reasons (such as product not having replaceable components or being repair-friendly).

Furthermore, we can and should draw the line at accepting unreasonable working conditions, or entire unreasonable jobs. The buck stops here, literally, with us.

BTW speaking of jobs, we always have to make plans so the “masters” have as little leverage as possible to force us to work. I remember during the Covid shutdowns when people working in certain industries deemed “essential” (which the government got to decide) were forced to continue to go to work under hazardous conditions. I’m pretty sure they were “only” threatened with losing their jobs, but that’s not a position we want anyone to be trapped in. And as things start to get more squeezed, we could find the overlords trying to actually criminalize job-leaving. We can’t plan for every possible twist of madness that might be enacted by plutocrats who are used to having all goods and services available 24-7 on demand, but we can build buffers for ourselves and our neighbors. Self-employment is one option. And it’s getting to be a better deal, as the security that used to be the main selling point of a “regular job” gets less and less secure. Time for us all to stand up for creative and occupational freedom!

In summation … In capitalist-industrial societies, we ordinary people often fall into looking to the people at the top of the food chain to change things, but we shouldn’t hold our breath waiting. They (government, corporations, bosses, the owner class) don’t have as much to gain from changing the status quo as we do. (And in many cases they might have something to lose, or at least strongly believe they have something to lose.) So, it’s us, the masses, who actually have more leeway to say no, and more to gain from it.

Sometimes a push-from-below that at first comes across as rebelliousness or spoiled-brattery, is actually a much-needed reality check that ends up helping everyone — even those who felt initially annoyed or inconvenienced by the push.

What if we refused to keep volunteering our time to nonprofits that are, however unintentionally, undercutting the development of good ecological jobs?

What if we (those of us who are in a position to do so) refused to buy any more vegetables packaged in plastic?

What if we refused to sign up for any more in-person conferences, now that we know how great and how much less of a drain on our time & wallets virtual conferences are?

What if … What would you add?

The eco event was sweet and lively with nonprofits & businesses providing information and resources about rainwater collection, bees, native landscaping and other practical beautiful ways to help address the environmental crisis.

Notably absent were any of the people I perennially hear screaming on social media, “WHY isn’t ANYONE doing anything about the ENVIRONMENT?”

The peace demonstration was lively with beautiful flags, banners promoting love and unity; a core of people who have gotten very organized — and I was just meeting them all for the first time.

Notably absent were any of the people I hear perennially screaming on social media, “Where is the OUTRAGE [in regard to recent white supremacist demonstrations]? Why isn’t anyone SPEAKING UP?”

They are. We are. You can too.

Whatever issue is bothering you, there are most likely people already on it (usually because they or their communities are more immediately affected). They are not hard to find. Get involved.

P.S. And on that note … It’s VERY humbling to recognize that, long LONG before I myself arrived on the scene as an eco activist (“formally” speaking, I would say sometime in the early to mid 1990s), other people were very very busy doing the heavy lifting. Particularly, indigenous peoples who protect ecosystems and are defending their very lives and homelands.

Speaking of humbling, this morning I opened up a newspaper-style publication that had been sitting for a couple years on my bookshelves and then for a week or so in my Little Free Library. It was an edition of Planet Drum from 1999. You want humbling; check out Planet Drum Foundation. Their publication itself may not be available online but I got a couple of their print issues by writing or calling Planet Drum. They may or may not have any left.

As just one example of humbling, this newspaper-style publication from 1999 had an article about decolonizing the environmental movement. 1999! Do you know when I first started being aware of decolonization and talking about it publicly? I think it was sometime in … 2020!

Believe me, whatever issue(s) are keeping you awake at night, people ARE working on those issue(s), and whenever you or I arrived on the scene, people were organized and working long before you and I got here. This is not to shame you but to encourage and motivate you.

Further Exploration:

• Planet Drum Foundation: “Planet Drum Foundation was founded in San Francisco, CA in 1973. In association with community activists and ecologists, Planet Drum(*) developed the concept of a bioregion. Planet Drum works to research, promote and disseminate information about bioregionalism, a grassroots approach to ecology that emphasizes sustainability, community self-determination and regional self-reliance. Through its projects, publications, speakers, and workshops, Planet Drum helps start new bioregional groups and encourages local organizations and individuals to find sustainable ways to live within the natural confines of bioregions. We believe that people who know and care about the places where they live will work to maintain and restore them.”