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Monthly Archives: November 2008

The Shock Doctrine: No Conspiracy Necessary

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand world history of the last 50 years is Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine. Her extraordinary account begins with the exploits of one Dr. Ewan Cameron, president of the American and World Psychiatric Association, who’s theories on treating psychiatric patients by erasing their personalities became influential in the [...]

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Transition Town Tramore

Sunday, November 23, 2008

After the success of the Permaculture course at the Dunhill eco-centre I returned to Tramore at the weekend to deliver a talk on edible forest gardens organised by Transition Towns Tramore. More than 60 people turned up, many of them experienced gardeners, and it was interesting to find their response was good to the idea [...]

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Book Review: Plan C

Friday, November 21, 2008

Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak oil and Climate Change Pat Murphy New Society 2008 Pat Murphy is the Executive Director of Community Solutions who produced the seminal film “The Power Of Community” which charts Cuba’s transition to a low-energy society after the collapse of the Soviet Union. That film still rates as the [...]

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Media madness

Thursday, November 20, 2008

If you had been listening to RTE radio 1 this morning you would have been treated to a great example of media double-think and extreme “disconnect”, as Kunstler might say. On the one hand, we had a genuine gloom-and-doom story at the top of the news with the reporting of the visit to Ireland of [...]

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At the Tipperary Institute

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Last week I made my annual pilgrimage to the Tipperary Institute to give a 2-day course on permaculture. This year I had students from both the B.A in Sustainable Rural Development as well as from the new BSc in Environmental and Natural Resource Management, running this year for the first time. This year we were [...]

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