Chronicle
Consumerism is pushing society further and further in the direction of competition, isolation and "what-you-buy-is-what-you-are". Yet (despite the claims of advertising) increasing material wealth hasn't brought increased happiness. The latest/newest/most expensive possession is no substitute for friendship, community and all those other things that we can't buy.
Anticonsumerism is not about "giving everything up", "becoming poor" or trying to dictate a
"morally acceptable" standard of living. But it is about seriously questing the sacred cow of always wanting more.
Sooner or later we have to face up to the fact that society cannot coninue down the line of endless consumerism-based economic growth. Now is the time to begin popularising the idea that enough can, in fact, be enough.
PAX CHRISTI INTERNATIONAL ROUTE
1998 IRELAND / NORTHERN IRELAND
August 1 - 9, 1998.
The Route gathers some 120 young people in a different host country every year for
one week during the summer. This year the host country is Ireland.
Participants explore an international theme designed to further cross-cultural exchange and to help bridge barriers, be they racial, social or ideological.
Following an opening weekend, the group is divided into 10 sub-routes. These scatter to different regions and examine a more local reflection of the main theme, visiting a wide variety of places and organisations and usually travelling from place to place on foot. After five days, the group meets again to pool what they have learnt and present it to the others. The closing weekend is a time for celebration.
The opening weekend will take place in Dublin and the closing weekend in Laois in the middle of Ireland. Sub-routes include: Wexford, Wicklow, Antrim, Mayo, Kerry, Dublin, Donegal, Belfast, and Armagh.
Further information: Richard Sheehy, House 27, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland. Tel: +353-1-608.12.60. E-mail: sheehy@tcd.ie
This network was formed at its first meeting in Clones, Co. Monaghan in October 1997. A surprisingly large number of people turned up. Six different groups of individuals involved in establishing ecovillages in Ireland were represented.
Previous to this meeting, there had been a conference entitled Eco-Villages and Sustainable Communities in 1995 at Findhorn, Scotland. This conference, originally planned for 300 people eventually accommodated 400 and turned a further 300 away!
The three goals of the Irish Eco-Village Information Network are:
1. To assist in the exchange of information about the development of sustainable human settlements in Ireland.
2. To make information widely available about eco-village concepts and demonstration sites, as part of the Global Eco-Village Network (GEN).
3. To support the development of sustainable human settlements.
Contact IEVIN, c/o Mieke and Stephan Wik, Streamstown, Westport, Co. Mayo. Tel. 098-28423. Web site: http://www.ecovillages.org/ireland
The US Department of Agriculture is proposing "organic" standards which would destroy consumer choice. The following practices would be classified as organic: genetically engineered crops; intensive animal farming; routine use of antibiotics and other drugs; irradiation of food; use of many chemicals on crops which are currently considered unacceptable; more liberal use of non-organic ingredients in processed organic foods. Proposed costs of organic registration are to be raised so high that small and medium farmers will be squeezed out. The proposals will also make it illegal for any independent organic certifying agency to propose a higher set of standards than those outlined above. The US organic movement suspects that the move is a response by agri-business to counter the rapidly increasing popularity of organic food in the US.
Contact: The Biodynamic Agricultural Association (Demeter), The Watergarden, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, TEL; (056) 54214. (Taken from Pobal an Dúlra, no. 32.)
On June 7, 1998 Swiss people will have had the opportunity to vote for strict limitations on genetic engineering, its applications and accompanying legislative frameworks (legal protection for biotechnological inventions - i.e., patents on life).
The referendum, the initiative of the largest ever gathering of organisations in Switzerland, proposes the following additions to the Swiss constitution:
A prohibition of:
-the creation of and trade in genetically modified animals;
- the release of genetically modified organisms into the environment;
- the patenting of genetically modified animals and plants or parts of them or processes or products involved.
However, Switzerland is home-base for giant transnationals such as Nestle, Novartis and Hoffmann-Laroche. The Swiss people have been under siege from a massive 35 million Swiss Francs barrage of pro-biotech propaganda through all media channels. Among the psychological manipulations are the portayal of the Swiss as backward (everyone else in Europe has had these debates and concluded in favour of gene-technologies), and a 'yes' to strict limitations on gene-technologies would be a 'no' to progress.
Contact: Greenpeace Switzerland, 10 rue de Neuchatel, CP 1558, Ch 1211, GENEVA 1. Fax: + 41 22 741 03 64; tel: + 41 22 731 00 18; email: phr@artamis.org