#7: The Future is Local
Building stronger networks of trust and care in your local community is one of the most resilient practices you can lean into.
COVID has inadvertently brought many people more in tune with their local community. Instead of daily commuting or even international travel, we’ve stayed home more. Where I live in Fiji, our recent containment has meant that for almost everything we want - it has to come locally. The only online shopping I do is calling the neighborhood artist (who also sells honey), or messaging folks I know to see who has gone fishing recently. There is no Amazon. There is no way to access the large supermarkets in the capital. Robin Wall Kimmerer said recently, “I like the phrase ‘sheltering in place’, which suggests that we might have come to pay attention to the things that we have, rather than the things we don’t have, spending time in our garden or in the woods, finding solace in landscape.” Indeed, localization has often come in juxtaposition to dangerous external extractive forces trying to pry apart communities.
(Street murals in Vancouver. Photo by Ted McGrath)
For so many people, especially those at risk during COVID, it has been their local communities who have helped them pull through. One of the countries that has done the best regards to COVID response is actually Senegal. They applied lessons from health outbreaks in the past, mitigated their vulnerabilities, and really leaned into truly grassroot networks of public health. The trusted badienou gokhs (a community godmother or Auntie) provided education and support to people who already knew them so well. Youth volunteers and women’s groups also helped council people on hygienic practices and available medical care. If there’s anything we’ve learned during the past year and half of this pandemic, it has to be that building stronger networks of trust and care in your local community is one of the most resilient practices you can lean into.
(Senegal. Photo by Ewien van Bergeijk - Kwant)
I love this article from Indian researcher/activist Ashish Kothari who explains some of the incredible alternative economies that are already functioning around the world. Moligeri Chandramma made sure that “no one in her village faced food shortages during the lockdowns, nor did they suffer from COVID-19.” She is part of a Dalit (oppressed caste) and Adivasi (Indigenous) collective who grow and share an abundant diversity of local plants to ensure people are supported. We’ve seen local solidarity economies spring up all over the world during the time of COVID, and I hope many of these great ideas will evolve and continue as they are needed. In this highly globalized world, people love to ask Kothari about scale - how do you scale up good ideas? He responds, “What people can do—and this, indeed, is how successful initiatives spread—is understand the underlying values and apply these in their own communities while networking with like ventures to spread the impact.” If you want to learn more, I highly recommend checking out the Global Tapestry of Alternatives.
Highlight
How Chileans went from jumping subway turnstiles to rewriting the Constitution. (from Waging Nonviolence).
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Movements & Resistance
Around the world, people’s movements are making major strides in fighting for their rights and the protections of people. By a slim margin, Peru is likely to see the election of Pedro Castillo, a former teacher, to the presidency. He has defeated in the polls the far-right daughter of the former dictator. Colombians have been on strike for a few months now, risking much for social justice - and they are now starting to see some wins. Resistance to the military coup continues in Myanmar/Burma, with the movement engaging still in lots of grassroots actions, and even forming an alternative government (the NUG) to showcase the leadership that is needed. There were stringent measures in place in Hong Kong to limit people marking the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre - but people still found creative ways to conduct vigils. We also can’t forget people’s incredible organizing and direct actions in Glasgow, Scotland to stop immigration raids.
Climate
A bad day/week for Big Oil means a good day for the future of the world. There have been successive victories for the climate movement recently - such as a Dutch court ordering Shell to drastically cut their emissions or the final cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline. 10 years ago, the pipeline seemed like a done deal, but thanks to brave organising (lead by Indigenous communities) and with the support of allies, this behemoth of a climate disaster is finally over. (Now we just need the rest of the pipelines cancelled). A new report from the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty shows that it is entirely possible to transition to renewable energy and ensure energy access. The main hurdle is now just political - but it IS possible.
(Climate victory in the Netherlands)
Land & Biodiversity
One of the fundamental things we have to shift in order to have a better future is to revisit the ways people should be nurturing relationships with the land. Read this incredible story of how the Lakota are building an equitable food future for their Peoples. Watch Eric Enos' animated video telling of how in Hawaiipeople are turning back to traditional practices of taro farming and what this also means for their cultural practices. In Chennai, India people are creating Miyawaki forests (or small dense urban forests) to provide between biodiversity and lungs for their city. A new UNEP report shows that countries are closing in on the target set in 2010 of protecting or conserving 17% of the Earth’s surface. And if you want a truly beautiful story, hear about how whales appeared during an Indigenous ceremony to honor and mourn the hundreds of children’s bodies found buried in Canada’s residential schools.
Good Reads
To Save the Earth, Dismantle Individuality by Judith Butler >>
How to Heal in the Anthropocene >>
The World We Need – Stories and Lessons from America’s Unsung Environmental Movement >> “The World We Need offers a vivid look at the people protecting America’s communities against environmental degradation and racism. Their strategies for saving lives, protecting land, and creating opportunities provide a model for activists everywhere.”
Listen: ‘When they take 100 trees, we plant 4,000’ — a conversation with Mubarak Awad on nonviolence in Palestine >>
Thelma Young-Lutunatabua is the Editor of Radical Reimagining
Global editorial support provided by: Rebecca Solnit, Brianna Fruean, Louise Hazan, Nathalia Clark, Zeph Repollo, Lerato Ngakane, Rukiya Khamis
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