RANDIE ALLIE

We're not opposing anything. We're not opposing elected officials. But we need more balance. The scale is too weighted down on the side of modernism. That mostly has to do with technology. But you don't need too much technology to grow food. You mostly need sun and water. Too much careless mining and too much paving for the sake of technology will disrupt the balance you need for growing food. So you are helping to get us back to balance. Modern and old fashioned in harmony. Thanks for helping to adjust the balance on the scale. \

DeborahAllisonStudio.com

I'm glad you are liking your new place. Your studio next to a gallery you're featured in sounds spectacular! There's an online art/environment/whatever conference starting tomorrow. You may be too pure of an artist to have an interest in such matters (like Pete of the newspaper mural collaborations) :-). But I sure would like to know you were on some board or other where you could advise thousands of people! I hope to check out your website soon.

T

PLANNING FOR MADRID

"Wha gone bad a maanin, cyaan cum good a evelin." Jamaican Proverb

If something was not right at the beginning it won’t come out right at the end!

That's where we are with planning in Madrid. All our institutions are failing in planning, and the Old Goat Rd Development project could be the tonic to get us to think through this failure. It can make the community much better or much worse.

GENERAL INFORMATION:

- The Old Goat property is not IN Madrid. It is OUTSIDE Madrid's "Planning Area."

MLA

- The MLA is an organization of property owners inside the Madrid Planning Area. That planning area does not extend to the Old Goat property. The MLA should be clear on that.

- The MLA's purview is within the Madrid Planning Area. That means what lies inside the planning area and what lies outside it is separated by a BOUNDARY.

- The MLA should have an opinion about tits boundary. If the boundary is just a meaningless term to the MLA, we should be clear about that.

MADRID WATER (MW)

- MW is the hardest working and most important Madrid institution.

- MW is obliged to consider the long term trends that might affect its ability to supply water in the future.

- If it's is trending toward dependency on outside water resources as a justification to condone sprawl past town borders, we should be clear about that. 

MCP (Madrid Cultural Project)

- To be a cultural project for the village of Madrid obligates it to understand the planning and zoning issues within Madrid Planning Area.

- It's traditional emphasis on the Madrid Ballpark is misplaced. Children don't only want to play; They also want to be useful citizens who participate in the vision for the town.

MALLS

Some market housing, some government housing, some basic clothing places (with far fewer choices than now). Maybe police sub stations, roof gardens, places to eat very local, place to walk as we do now. No AC. Knock openings in walls for cross ventilation. These places will be demonstration for how to have some class on 80% less fuel. Knock holes in the ceiling to provide some 2 story spaces. It has to be a government scheme--partnering with business with the government in control. Th profit motive doesn't belong in this at all.

TOWARD A DESCRIPTION OF THIS FACEBOOK SITE

Marcus Garvey history is so fascinating, so powerful, that we have to marvel at how so few people today are aware of it.

Being partly blind might not be the only reason why I don't read. As to remembering what little I read, that's another thing I can't explain.

But let's propose that Marcus Garvey was the greatest visionary and organizer for the African world that has ever lived.

Scrolling down through the articles here will undoubtedly take you to an article or two that sums up the history in a short version that is better than nothing.

Up there among the most useful publications is "The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey" by his widow, Amy Jacques Garvey. Professors Emeritus Rupert Lewis and Robert Hill are looked on as leading authorities on Garvey history. There are videos and documentaries in great volume, and an online search on Marcus Garvey will yield a lot of instructive material.

But there is another, usually forgotten, aspect to Garvey's history, and that concerns where he was born and educated. That place is St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica.

St. Ann's Bay is also exceptional. Columbus stumble onto the Caribbean in the 1490's, thinking he had circled the world and arrived in India. Thus the name West Indies (I think). He was stranded in Santa Gloria (St. Ann's Bay) for two years, and three of his ships are still buried there. It was the first capital for the Spanish, and so is referred to as Jamaica's first capital (despite the British take over from the Spanish in 1655, and never having regarded it as THEIR capital. That little bit of confusion helps to cloud and obfuscate the entire history of "Santa Gloria."

St. Ann's Bay seems to have been a respectable port town for the British, and its location in the exact center of the north coast also made it a reliable location for regional governance along at least half the northern coast. It is therefore the capital of St. Ann parish, one of 14 parishes that divide the nation.

But St. Ann's Bay has fallen on hard times. The decision from the 1960's to invest major resources on the sun and beach hotel-based tourism in neighboring Ocho Rios led to rapid and profound decline of once proud St. Ann's Bay. Although Marcus Garvey's remains were exumed and returned to Jamaica from London in the 60's, and he was made Jamaica's First National Hero, Jamaica's governance system disregarded his essential vision for a great African Unity. Continental Africa's spate of national independence was largely inspired by Garveyism, but there, too, his esential message of self-help succumbed to globalist, neocolonial memes. All of this is reflected in the utter disregard for Garvey heritage in the town of his birth.

My hope is to make Garveyism reflect in the way St. Ann's Bay sees itself. I argue that if we want to interpret Garvey's early influences, we must preserve the physical, visible infrastructure that he grew up with, and not just allow it to be demolished for easy short term gain by National-Chinese economic imperialism that has already devastated that "material culture" remaining from Garvey's time.

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THIRD WORLD FIRST

I believe the world order has to be recreated in the image of the third world with a topping of first world assets and approaches. Yet it is vainly attempting, if anything, to be just the opposite. Unaffordable and unsustainable. But it takes someone with a feeling for the land--not a city guy--to wrap his mind around that.

ALL JOBS ARE NECESSARY

Gail Tverberg says:

May 7, 2020 at 9:53 am

{Keep telling yourself, “All jobs are necessary to keep the economy operating. We need to maintain sufficient ‘demand.'” This includes university and other research projects that are just plain silly. We have had a lot of people researching Carbon Capture and Storage for a long time, not to mention other “green” ideas. These are just as necessary as massage parlors, gyms, and day care centers.}

But you ought to be able to change how the jobs funtion by tweaking them to be more in conformity with an overarching systems approach.