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by Eric Schlosser (Houghton Mifflin; 2003;)
 The economic news in America is not good. But that may be less a reflection on the economy than the news.
Yes, there are segments of the U.S. economy that are booming. But the news media are silent on these sectors, because taken together, they form a kind of taboo economy - which we know as the black market.
As journalist Eric Schlosser points out in an illuminating and passionate new book, the black market is growing — comprising as much as 10 percent of the entire economy. And what happens in that black market mocks our most cherished ideals of democracy, justice and human rights.
"Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market" shines light on three of the darkest corners of the underground economy: marijuana, pornography and undocumented labor. Schlosser’s examination of these three hot-button subjects outlines the difference between what Americans say they value and what the hard data of economics say they do.
Schlosser wrote one of the most talked-about journalistic exposés of recent years, the critique of the fast-food industry in "Fast Food Nation." His new book wades into some subjects that inflame public opinion but also, he said, distract the public from larger economic concerns.
His contrast, for instance, between pot and porn focuses on who makes money in each endeavor and how that drives current legal priorities.
"The interesting thing to me," he said in a phone interview, "is how a commodity is treated when there are fringe Bohemians and other people on the margins of society involved in it, and how it’s treated when major corporations are involved."
One of Schlosser’s more provocative contentions in the book is that large media companies, particularly those in the cable and satellite industries, profit enormously from pornography. Because of that involvement, he says, the Justice Department is disinclined to launch a punitive campaign against porn, as it has against marijuana.
The prohibition against marijuana, says Schlosser, has ballooned the population of the prison system, warped our sense of proportional justice, and done little to reduce pot consumption.
"I am not coming at this as a major advocate for smoking marijuana," he said. "I’m not waving the pot banner high. I’m trying to look at this from a rational point of view, and it’s clear to me the laws against the use of marijuana have nothing to do with the pharmacological properties of the drug and more to do with who’s using it."
Schlosser maintains that there are two different questions when it comes to pot. The first is whether you should smoke it or not. The second is whether the current trend of long prison sentences without parole is wise and just.
"You can convince me that you shouldn’t smoke pot. But you can’t convince me that our current laws are reasonable, rational or fair."
"Reefer Madness" takes dead aim at the hypocrisy surrounding the pot issue by listing the number of children of prominent members of Congress who’ve been busted for pot. "Their fathers are calling for very punitive measures against drug dealers, unless it’s their child. Then suddenly mercy and compassion are called for."
In the section on undocumented labor, Schlosser falls just short of calling the economic situations of millions of undocumented, non-English speaking workers in agriculture and other industries slavery. But he does point to the widespread practice of indentured servitude in which workers are held against their will, to pay off smugglers.
"It’s interesting to see how the poorest workers are being treated, because it’s an indication of how all workers are being treated."
Within the passionate but measured tone of "Reefer Madness," Schlosser clearly owns up to a point of view, one based on factual findings as an investigative reporter. Still, he says, despite the dire situations outlined in his book, he remains an optimist.
"There are a lot of very logical, rational reasons to be extremely bummed out at the moment. But in the longer term, look at the kinds of problems we’re facing right now, and the social institutions that need to be changed. Other people at other points in history have overcome even more formidable institutions to make change.
"You look at decent wages for farm workers, getting people out of prison who don’t need to be in prison. Those are doable reforms. That’s no great revolution."
Reprinted with permission from The Santa Cruz Sentinel. Wallace Baine can be reached at wbaine@santa-cruz.com.
by Ken Avidor (CarBusters; 2001, 112 pages)
 Car Busters’ second book, "Roadkill Bill" by Ken Avidor, is "a comic strip on cars, technology and philosophy from the viewpoint of a frequently squashed rodent." Avidor gives voice to the suffering soul of humanity that feels bulldozed and paved over by industrial technology run amok. You may have already seen some of the strips in Car Busters magazine or on the Roadkill Bill website. The book has collected these strips together for the first time.
by Diana Leaf Christian
(New Society Publishers 2003; 249 pp; $22.95; www.newsociety.com)
 As I opened the package from New Society Publishers and laid my hands and eyes on this publication, it felt and looked like a treasure. And as I began to read the pages, I knew this book would be something that I would go to again and again for inspiration and information. "Creating a Life Together" is an apt title for the task of our times in the Global Village where we find ourselves at the beginning of the new millennium. The author puts it this way: "Why Now? I believe we’re experiencing a culture-wide, yet deeply personal, phenomenon, as if some kind of ‘switch’ has simultaneously flipped in the psyches of thousands of people. Aware that we’re living in an increasingly fragmented, shallow, venal, costly, and downright dangerous society, and reeling from the presence of guns in the schoolyard and rogues in high office, we’re longing for a way of life that’s warmer, kinder, more wholesome, more affordable, more cooperative, and more connected."
Here is a book packed with real life examples and practical step-by-step directions from the people who are living in communities all across this country. Consider it a toolbox loaded with everything needed to get you from your unique personal impulses of spirit to the manifestation of your vision into physical form. The author has gleaned these tools by asking what is different about the successful ten percent that actually created their communities and what were the things they did right. Through her thorough research, here is an overview of the innovative ways that communities in North America learned the head skills and the heart skills that brought about their communities. This well documented material includes the topics of Vision Statements, Finances, Buying Land, Decision Making, Selecting People to Join, Communication, Process and Dealing With Conflicts (just for starters!). It is packed with facts and figures and liberally interspersed with personal stories that makes for fascinating and enlightening reading.
As someone who has lived in community for over 25 years, when asked why, I would have to say it’s because I want to add my unique part into the grand evolution of life on the planet. I know that in interaction with others, the sharp edges of my being get knocked off and I become a more well-rounded human being. In this book it’s called the "rock polisher effect."
When I read a chapter like "Community Vision: What It Is, Why You Need It," I’m inspired! The chapter on "Communication, Process and Dealing with Conflict: The Heart of a Healthy Community" makes me sit up and take notice of my actions: "When we see governments or corporations using manipulating, controlling, or punishing behaviors — through threats, terrorist attacks, or outright war — it frightens and disgusts us. But when we do the small-scale versions of these same ploys ourselves, we don’t see it. What about our own choice of words and tone of voice this morning with our partners or child?"
Lofty ideals do come down to simple daily actions and whether you are creating a co-housing community or working in the community of your office co-workers, the tools this book gives you are keepers. While we can all say it’s hard work sometimes to have nourishing sustainable relationships be successful, I’m of the mind, and heart for that matter, that creating a healthy and thriving community is an inside job and the more tools I have to get the job done, the better.
Reviewed by Judie Anders judieanders@msn.com. Judie is a CSA Farmer and Environmental Educator and has just moved to SLO County.
by Willma Gore
 "Just Pencil Me In" is the first book to address the unique concerns encountered by those who’ve reached the "better half of life" and are faced with moving. Although it’s hard to imagine why people who love their homes — in the mountains or at the shore — would want to leave them, a number of us find ourselves relocating nonetheless, for financial or for health reasons. Boomers often try to get their parents to sell the homestead and get into more manageable quarters closer to their offspring. The book’s tips on relocating are valid for any age in any area.
The book’s author, Willma Gore, has owned several homes, raised three birth-children and helped raise five step-children, has rented a senior complex, a single apartment, house-sat and shared space. She lived in Porterville with her husband Charles for 19 years. She has moved six times since she turned 70 and has a lot to tell us about finding adventures and new friends with each move. She has lived in Inyo, Los Angeles, Orange, Tulare, San Bernardino and San Luis Obispo Counties and has found rewarding experiences in each location.
As practical as it is, Gore’s book still manages to make us laugh and to uplift us with its positive approach to what many find a difficult time. She offers practical tips on how to happily manage family treasures, how to get rid of "stuff," find the ideal location and even take to wheels if you can’t decide where to settle.
Gore’s profiles and travel articles appear regularly in the San Luis Obispo County Journal and her column for seniors, "Senior Spectator" ran bimonthly in the SLO Gazette during its two years of publication.
It’s refreshing to see that someone has finally addressed the inevitability of change and tried to teach us a thing or two about dealing with it. I think the word "proactive" would be apt here. Why should we dread the changes in our lives? In "Just Pencil Me In," Gore manages to be practical, informative and entertaining — all in the same small book. It is available at local bookstores or at Quill Driver Books, (800) 497-4909, or by contacting the author at (805) 528-1885.
Audrey Yanes
by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke
(New Press; 278 pages $16.95; www.thenewpress.com)
 While walking down the bottled water aisle in the grocery recently, a quick check of the shelf tags showed the preferred brand price had shot up 20 cents in less than a week. Why? Perhaps a better question is why should anyone be buying drinking water from the store at all? Shouldn’t every citizen of the planet be guaranteed safe, fresh drinking water as a basic right?
This is the premise of "Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water." The World Bank and the United Nations have decided water is a "human need" rather than a basic right, which makes fresh water supplies open for plunder by multinational corporations such as Suez, Vivendi, and Coca-Cola. These corporations are not only bottling water, but also wrestling to control its distribution worldwide.
Governments are complicit by allowing water utilities to be privatized and by making bad deals with private multinational corporations when they do, say authors Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke. These deals are being made in every country including the United States. The authors say George W. Bush is not just interested in constructing a pipeline from Alaska for transporting oil and gas, but also in the possibility of transporting fresh water to the continental United States. That and other schemes to pipe, dam, ship, and pilfer fresh water seem ridiculous, but they are being seriously explored, at the future’s peril.
When learning the cycles of water in elementary school science, not much was said about water being a finite substance. If aquifers aren’t replenished, they are depleted. Pavement disrupts the hydrological cycle. Pollution and salinization further deplete fresh water resources. Damming and a laundry list of ecological problems such as global warming and tapping rivers like the Colorado for use further compound the problem.
This problem is worldwide and soon to be a crisis. Population growth, especially in arid areas, is increasing the water consumption. But households and municipal use accounts for only 10 percent of global water consumption. Irrigation uses — or wastes, if you will — 65 to 70 percent of fresh water. The other 20 to 25 percent is used by industries including car manufacturing and the high-tech industry. It’s our problem too every time we flush. The authors call the net result "human- driven assaults on the planet’s fresh water systems."
These are just a few of the sobering stats and horrific scenarios presented by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke. What they are trying to do is engender interest, thus preventing further commercial exploitation of fresh water. Concluding the book are two succinct chapters on how to become involved, including their action list: "Ten Steps to Water Security."
There is no bibliography, although papers, books, and other information sources are cited through the chapters and in the concluding "notes."
This is a sobering book guaranteed to make you think even more acutely before sipping, showering, flushing, or gardening.
— Linda Dailey Paulson <ldpaulson@yahoo.com>is a Ventura-based writer and reviewer.
Urban Wilds: Gardeners’ Stories of the Struggle for Land and Justice
by Cleo Woelfle-Erskine, ed.
(water/under/ground publications; 2003; 122 pages; www.urbanwilds.org)
Perfectly titled, "Urban Wilds: Gardeners’ Stories of the Struggle for Land and Justice" is exactly as described — a thin book containing various writers’ examinations of urban gardening and its connections with and struggles for environmental and economic justice throughout North America, with side trips to Cuba and Slovenia.
The book embraces the DIY ethos. Information is much more important than apostrophe placement or perfect grammar. How can a man incarcerated for life still help his neighborhood? What’s a better street tree, sycamore or avocado? What is a swale and why should I care? The answers lie in creating gardens, gardens, and more gardens.
The essayists included in this collection clearly have dirt under their nails and a clear, practical vision of how gardens can create and benefit urban communities. "The gardeners are proud that they’re growing their own food, but most of them don’t cite that as their number one reason for gardening," as editor Cleo Woelfle-Erskine, gathers from an interview with Dan Ross, executive director of Nuestras Raices, based in Holyoke, Massachusetts. "It’s important to recognize that it’s not just about food. It’s about building community and building connections. It isn’t just agriculture, it’s culture. If you recognize that you end up being more sustainable within a community because you build greater networks and you tap into a lot more resources."
Perhaps the most troubling essays are those in which squatting on the land is suggested. Troubling, not because of the legalities, but the potential health problems. To be fair, there is information provided about the inherent dangers of working contaminated urban properties, but scant information about soil testing. The importance of soil testing, especially for lead, cadmium, and other chemicals capable of bioaccumulation in plants that are eaten, cannot be overstated enough. Would they had done so. The result can be debilitating for the unsuspecting wildcrafter or guerilla gardener.
Urban Wilds also contains practical information about long-lived community gardening projects in the Bronx, suburban Boston, and Oakland. And even in Los Angeles. People are using wisely what parcels of land they have and are sharing the benefits with less fortunate neighbors. Some are forming urban land trusts to ensure these gardens’ longevity. Some communities’ gardens create jobs by providing entrepreneurs space to grow produce they can sell at farmers’ markets. City and county agencies are also beneficiaries of these projects. Biodiversity reigns.
The stories are inspiring. One community took a school’s under-utilized grounds and now has six acres on which hay, alfalfa, pumpkins, and other cash crops are grown and on which small animals, including rabbits, chickens, and goats, are kept as well. The city wins; it doesn’t have to pay property upkeep.
Practical ideas about related issues such as simple solar power and making the most of vertical space are explicated with helpful diagrams. Want to create an orchard on that ugly median strip? Details are provided, complete with illustrations on grafting. Take what you will from the book to use in your own neighborhood, whether backyard beekeeping or creating your own wetlands. Additional resource listings appear as an appendix.
What "Urban Wilds" provides is permission to affect change outside our doorsteps. It is as simple as planting a seed, and this book sows its seeds extravagantly. Whether these germinate and how profusely is up to each reader.
— Linda Dailey Paulson <ldpaulson@yahoo.com>is a Ventura-based writer and reviewer longing for optimal organic gardening space and enough sunshine to grow big, juicy tomatoes.
by Tom Atlee
(317 pages; $15.95 order at www.taoofdemocracy.com or send check to Co-Intelligence Institute, P.O. Box 493, Eugene, OR 97440 published by Writers’ Collective)
Tom Atlee and I share a couple of things. We are both 56, current or previous residents of "Cultural Creative"-entrenched Eugene, Oregon, and consider ourselves lifelong Activists.
You have probably not heard of either of us. As Activists, so many of our peers fail to stand out next to the luminaries in the political world who seek the highest offices (Arnold??). But we often do the grunge work of identifying causes to get behind, signing up adherents, and attempting against the odds to get attention to our concerns. Activists are, in general, underpaid, underappreciated and, among some elements of society, considered downright inconsequential.
But 56 years on the planet has taught Tom Atlee a thing or two, and "The Tao of Democracy" is his seminal opus, a book to empower activists locally or internationally. When all of us in America are being brainwashed by the Bushies into thinking we can impose real democracy in Iraq (or Iran, or Afghanistan, or Cuba, etc.) at the butt end of an assault rifle — along comes a book to suggest that a "co-intelligent" approach to creating democratic decision-making in communities and nations can and will result in far simpler and sustainable solutions.
Atlee’s epiphany occurred in the mid-80s when he was involved in the Great Peace March of March, 1986, which started in L.A., and, by Colorado, had gone virtually bust with its sponsor going bankrupt. 400 of 1200 marchers wanted to remain, but group dynamics quickly degenerated into confusion and indecision. What rescued the march was a process held in an abandoned fertilizer factory (sounds like Iraq) which gave everyone a chance to share feelings and ideas toward resolving a question about the march itself. A "group mind" consensus was reached that simply wouldn’t have arrived at any other way — without it, the march would have been "toast." But it persevered.
Since that time, Atlee has assembled many examples of co-intelligence/citizen deliberation which have been able to effect hugely positive changes throughout the world — in a prison population in Maine, a corporation in Brazil, a sustainability group in Seattle, a dying village in India, and a separatist province in Canada (near where I am writing this review).
This is as much a manual for positive change as it is a philosophical treatise on democratic principles. I certainly hope it doesn’t get lost on the shelves somewhere, because it has the essential wisdom to make a huge difference.
William L. Seavey is a distributor of HopeDances, an author, a solar consultant and solar activist. His most recent work is the "People’s Guide to Basic Solar Power." He lives in Grover Beach and Santa Maria and can be reached at groverbeachboy@aol.com.
The Peace Book
by Louise Diamond
(2001; $3; www.thepeacecompany.com, or call toll-free at 1-888-455-5355)
As the threats of global terrorism and polarization in American society continue to grow, the teaching of peace is emerging as one of the most important issues of our generation. The Peace Company is encouraging people to "Give the Gift of Peace" this holiday season with "The Peace Book," a tool that provides readers with 108 simple ways to create a more peaceful world.
In 1986, the author and president of the Peace Company, Louise Diamond, dedicated her life to peace leadership and conflict resolution. She has worked as a professional peacebuilder in conflict hotspots around the world, including Israel/Palestine, Cyprus, Bosnia and India/Pakistan, and is a respected expert. This remarkable 200-page book, which until now has never been formally announced to the media, is in a new 3rd Edition with an updated introduction relevant to the War in Iraq and other current problems of increasing hostility in our society.
"The Great Peace Give-Away is a means to use the power of personal and professional networks to change the world, one ‘peace’ at a time," says Diamond. Unlike most of the materialistic gifts being bought this holiday season, "The Peace Book" cannot be purchased in any store — it is meant to be given away. "Peace Sponsors" purchase a box of books from the Peace Company, paying only $90 for a case of 30 books, plus shipping and handling. (Smaller portions of a case are also available.) Sponsors are encouraged to spread the seeds of peace by giving the books to family, friends, co-workers, members of their faith congregation, schools and other community organizations.
The objective of The Peace Book is to provide people with the tools to "wage peace" and to realize that each action, each person, CAN make a difference. The Great Peace Give-Away aims to put "The Peace Book" in the hands of enough people to create a critical mass shift in our society, from our current pervasive culture of violence to a culture of peace. "We hope to have 3 million books in circulation by 2005," says Diamond. "We all know that the seed of peace exists inside of us," she says. "Reading ‘The Peace Book’ is an adventure and a discovery process that awakens the seed to plant in our lives and in the world."
The Peace Company offers a collection of practical tools for waging peace, including consulting services, training programs, books, CDs and peace flags. To get more information, please visit www.thepeacecompany.com, or call toll-free at 1-888-455-5355.
by Malcolm Gladwell
(Boston: Little, Brown & Company; 2000; 279 pages; $24.95)
 How are a steep rise in teenage smoking despite huge sums spent on anti-smoking campaigns, a significant drop in criminal activity in New York City, and Paul Revere’s ride that began the American Revolution alike? They are all illustrations of social phenomena reaching their critical mass, or the point at which a series of small events tip over into a social epidemic of major proportions. This is what author Gladwell calls "the tipping point."
Fascinating as a suspenseful mystery novel, this book shows how such social epidemics start, grow, and are sustained. What could be more engrossing for people dedicated to making a positive difference in our social-political and natural world?
Gleaning his material from social research, interviews, and case studies of widely differing kinds of phenomena, Gladwell leads us on a merry chase after the details of three factors that make all the difference between changes that take off and those that fizzle out. Whether considering a first-time novelist becoming a best-selling author, getting continuously high ratings for Sesame Street, or the spreading of teenage suicides, three rules have crucial interlocking influences.
The first rule, "The Law of the Few," shows how social epidemics depend on a few exceptional people. Three types of change makers, Connectors (those with wide personal networks), Mavens (those who collect all kinds of information and love to share it), and Salesmen (those who can persuade others to adopt or change), are profiled in stories that alternate between hilarious encounters and amazing examples of charismatic exploits. We need one of each type on our team for all activist projects!
The second secret ingredient for significant change is what Gladwell calls "The Stickiness Factor." The first rule deals with the messenger of change, but "stickiness" refers to the quality of the message itself. Case studies show that the message is "tipped" into wide-spread acceptance through tinkering, with the presentation of the ideas. Small adjustments are tested with the populations that change agents seek to influence until a fit between message and receivers is achieved.
The third rule, "The Power of Context" says that social behavior is a function of social context. Considering how a crime epidemic in New York city was reversed, Gladwell proves that neither major social-justice factors often cited by liberals (unemployment, racism) or the theory of criminal personality were as significant as little things (like graffiti, trash, and broken windows) that create an environment triggering anti-social behavior.
Another aspect of third rule is the effect of close-knit groups. Methodist founder John Wesley created communities to change people’s beliefs and behavior. Gladwell explores factors that develop the kinds of groups most effective in reaching the tipping point for starting an epidemic. Understanding this aspect is crucial for social change movements.
Taking the three rules together, we have a formula that accounts for paradigm shifts, and how to reach the threshold where they will occur. For an eye-opening experiment, try taking any major movement currently taking off and apply the rules yourself. For example, the Internet activist group, MoveOn, reached a tipping point when it brought together Wes Boyd, a Maven, with Eli Pariser, excellent Salesman and Connector. Using the interactive medium of the Internet combined with online discussions and petitions, they have created small groups of local activists that connect with the national political context. The stickiness of their message comes from MoveOn organizers constantly testing what members think about issues and candidates, and giving feedback on the success of group actions.
Whatever positive change your group is attempting to achieve in the world, this book will be a tremendous help, and may save you many costly mistakes.
Liana Forest is an independent educational consultant specializing in collaborative dialogue, cooperative projects, and crafting creative community. She is involved in helping to develop a Community Food System Project for SLO County, and may be reached at 528-4510 or bearforest@earthlink.net.
by Suzanne Ashworth
(2002 Seed Savers Exchange, Inc. 3076 North Winn Road Decorah, Iowa 52101; $24.95
 There comes a moment when a person interested in or about to be engaged in an activity has an opportunity to enter a relationship. The armchair gardener, the apartment dweller with a new plot in the community garden, or the average-Joe who picks up tomato seeds at the drugstore one weekend and sticks them in the ground each have the chance to take a step toward "committed" gardening with a profound impact. Suzanne Ashworth’s comprehensive volume details the life-affirming methods that connect gardeners and eaters to the past and the future.
Seed saving requires a commitment. This is not the commercial commitment of dozens of dollars spent on uniform hybrids every spring or the multitude of gadgets sold in the gardening section of Wal-Mart. The seed saving commitment calls upon our entire connection with our food’s history, from stone-age agriculturalists through the generations of humans and the plants they’ve cultivated. Saving seeds is conservative and revolutionary. In terms of individual types of plants, seed savers can both save the genetic heritage of wonderful, endangered varieties of food plants (conserving) and develop new varieties (revolution). On a broader, societal scale, home gardeners can preserve the people’s right to organic, open-pollinated produce grown in a way that doesn’t utilize petrochemicals or biotechnology, and rebel against government-funded, globalized, corporate takeover of our food supply.
"Seed to Seed" provides the instructions for growing to seed and successfully saving the seed of 20 major vegetable families (encompassing over 150 varieties). Everything is in this book (and nearly all of it has been tried by the author), from flower structure to pollination methods, from breeding for specific traits and optimum population sizes to seed cleaning and storing.
Taken as a whole, "Seed to Seed" is an amazing compilation of detailed research. As a new gardener with only recent access to a community garden plot, I could easily be frightened of the level of commitment required to grow the seeds of all the vegetables I love, yet I am just as easily inspired to start slowly, to save the seeds of just one kind. Just to show that it can be done, just to raise my fist a little higher.
Wendy Smyer Yu
by Barbara Wolcott
(Capital Books, 2003; $25; 245pps)
 In the fall of 1998, Jacobs Engineering Company began a precedent-setting environmental cleanup project in Avila Beach, on the central coast of California. The company won the bid to do the work but had to do it in an explosive atmosphere following years of wrangling by federal, state and county agencies, coupled with community activism.
The underground contamination of nearly a half-million gallons of crude oil, gasoline, diesel and PAHs came as a result of Unocal Corporation’s operations of Avila Beach as an oil port for nearly a century. The contamination pooled under the small business district where pipelines ran from the storage tanks on the bluff to the pier for loading on oil ships for transport.
Cleanup at ocean’s edge is complex like no other due to the fact that there are so many agencies mandated to regulate protection of the coasts. More than 40 different permits were required and each of those came with an overseeing authority for the duration of the project. Engineers accustomed to working on their own would have had great difficulty surviving the gamut, but Jacobs Company hired a professional ombudsman to keep the process moving. The project was so successful that engineers were able to devise a unique system that cut the projected cleanup from a projected five years to less than two. The extraordinary attention to the big picture earned them high praise from the townspeople, Unocal and the embattled agencies.
In her book, "David, Goliath and the Beach Cleaning Machine," author Barbara Wolcott tells the story through the experiences of the people involved. Even those involved the longest in the conflict had no idea how many more people were involved until they reviewed the manuscript for correction. Avila Beach is a textbook lesson for cleanups to come in a world strung with over a half-million miles of pipelines in the US alone.
Interest in the book has criss-crossed the world with queries and sales coming from England, France, Germany, Israel and Asia, from the Pacific Rim to the Middle East. The successful story of Avila Beach is one that attracts legal interests, environmental activists and educational institutions such as USC which is considering the use of it for adjunct reading in some engineering classes.
Purple Mountain Majesty
(A poetry chapbook)
by Morgan L. Paige (Leaftime New Sources; 2003; $7.00; 24 pages)
Morgan L. Paige is a lecturer and facilitator on personal development, parenting, and spirituality, with a background in alternative education and ministerial services. She is also an award-winning writer focusing her articles and poetry on issues related to recovery, childbirth, parenting, and holistic education. Co-owner and director of Leaftime New Sources, her business is dedicated to holistic education and healing resources.
As our nation hurled toward war earlier this year, one Saturday afternoon Paige embarked upon a meditation walk in the unspoiled open spaces surrounding her home.
Soon inspiration moved her to address in poetry the trying issues of our nation and the global family. Not long afterward, while at a retreat, she found herself writing prayer poems in her journal. Her poetry chapbook, "Purple Mountain Majesty," is the noteworthy result. The heavy issues of the first poems are balanced by the positive counterpoint of the later Light-filled poem-prayers, offering readers much substance in an affecting volume short in length, but significant in subject matter.
Vivid, relevant imagery vivifies Paige’s protest poems, which range from "The Dis-easing of America" to "Conscientious Objections," "Homeland Insecurity," and "In-flight Disbelief," to name a few. "Homeland Insecurity" begins:
"This false cover for systematically
Stripping every citizen of our God-given dignity
Is a slippery thing, a crude oil coated floor."
"Inflight Disbelief" recounts unexpected inconveniences and intrusions resulting from activity as benign as knitting on an airplane. Through penetrating poems formatted as letters to the president, this collection of poems explores the distortion, paranoia, grandiosity, violence, and suspicion discoloring our national vision. Poem-prayers to God/Mother Earth/Universe offer a balancing perspective that suggests a saner way.
Reviewed by Jane Elsdon
by Jim Merkel
(New Society; 2003; 288 pages; $17.95)
 This is the book! The former San Luis Obispo resident/activist who has been hailed as the "Edward Abbey of the Central Coast of California" has finally put his thoughts and actions and ideas in a book! Rather than publishing a review since the book doesn’t come out until September of this year, we will include the foreword of the book by Vicki Robin:
Open to page 136 of "Material World" (the book of photos by Peter Menzel showing people and their possessions from around the world). Don’t have a copy? No problem — I’ll tell you what the picture is. It’s the Skeen Family from Pearland, Texas, selected because they are "deep in the heart" of the American experience. Their income approximates the average US level. They have two children, Michael, age 7 and Julie, age 10. Like all of the 30 families representing 30 countries that were selected for this coffee-table book, they stand in front of their home with all their furniture and appliances arranged in the cul de sac behind them. It’s a nice but modest array, nothing compared to the stage set of many sitcoms. Every family from around the world was asked what their most valued possession was; for the Skeens, as for many Americans, it’s the family Bible.
Now turn to page 14. Mali, in Africa. The Natoma family of 11 (two wives, eight children, one father) sits on the roof of their mud and straw adobe home, surrounded by cooking pots, baskets and various kitchen and farming implements. Perhaps half of these everyday items were made by the family themselves. In the background is a bicycle, which is Papa’s most prized possession. The clothes on their bodies and on a makeshift drying rack (a pole balanced between the house and the mud wall) are colorful. Their faces sport big smiles. They have a radio but no TV, no telephone, no VCRs and no automobiles.
These two families are separated by many thousands of miles, many years of development and many layers of creature comforts. If you are like me, you can appreciate the simplicity of the Mali household and even wonder at their apparent delight in circumstances that would send most any American into helplessness and despair. Almost everything arrayed behind the Skeens would have to be plucked out of the picture to put them on a par with the Natomas. Best to close the book.
But we can’t close the book. You, I, the Natomas and the Skeens, along with perhaps 6 billion other humans and hundreds of billions of other creatures, live together on one planet. The "have-nots" can be out of sight and even out of mind, but they breathe the same air, drink from the same scant supply of fresh water, and birth children who will grow up to work with our children to finish the job we’ve barely started. They will have to find a way for all of us to live well within the Earth’s means.
Jim Merkel, a former weapons engineer, accepted this challenge 15 years ago. He whittled away at his stock of possessions and reduced the sheer volume, complexity and toxicity of the stuff that flowed through his life. He did it with gusto and good spirit, guided by passion and curiosity. His engineering background gave him the mentality and the tools to assess which of the changes he was making actually lowered his impact on the Earth. He lobbied his City Council [San Luis Obispo] for bike paths so everyone who wanted could choose to do without a car. He organized Earth Day celebrations that attracted hundreds of volunteers and thousands of people. His high spirits, humble integrity and winning ways were dished up along with his facts and figures about the devastating impact on the Earth of the American lifestyle.
He learned everything he could and experimented with every method he could find. In the process he met Mathis Wackernagel, who taught Jim about the Ecological Footprint, a relatively accurate way to actually measure how much of the planet’s resources it takes to support us in the style to which we have become accustomed. He also sought out Joe Dominguez and myself after reading "Your Money or Your Life." Our method for lowering consumption while increasing quality of life was another key piece in the puzzle he was pondering: how do we get people to live within the means of nature and not feel deprived? Jim also jumped at the chance to go on a study trip to Kerala, India, to learn from the people in that state who have a quality of life almost as high as ours in North America — but do it on just over $300 a year per person.
From these building blocks he dreamed a big dream - starting a research and education center to teach people the skills of living lightly and the ways to know how much of everything it takes to support their lives. But from here on, how about I let Jim tell you his own story? What I really want you to know is that Jim makes living on less seem like so much fun that you’ll want to try it yourself. He shares compelling facts through telling vivid stories about his own successive awakenings to both the peril and the promise of living on this Earth.
People, animals, plants, soil and the all the rest of the critters together make up this precious mantle of life on our exquisite planet. We all live here together — now, and now and now. So now what? Jim has some answers. Listen to him and you’ll see how plausible sustainability is — and how necessary. You’ll want to do your part, because by then, Jim will be your friend and his plans will seem like the greatest adventure on Earth.
Vicki Robin is coauthor, with Joe Dominguez, of "Your Money or Your Life."
Global Solutions
by Richard A. Stimson,
(High Point, NC (336) 884-1038)
As the new century, so far, presents further outbreaks of violence instead of the hoped-for peace and prosperity, this new book looks at the root causes of global problems and points the way to solutions.
"Global Solutions: An internet community takes on globalization" is the product of more than two years’ discussion in a forum with some 70 members in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mali, Australia, and New Zealand.
It explains the growing gap between rich and poor, between and within countries, offers routes to greater democracy, exposes the global corporate oligarchy, addresses the tyranny of the banking structure, details the concentrated control of media, explores spiritual approaches to sustainable living, and suggests solutions through civil society, alternative life styles, education, and useful information sources.
"Global Solutions is an impressive, well-researched and honest summary of our sorry global predicament but one which provides many of the road signs and vehicles for achieving practical solutions: a vital resource for all activists on their historic journey to achieving global justice."—John Bunzl of London, England, founder and director, International Simultaneous Policy Organisation
This new book may be purchased free by downloading it from: www.fixgov.org.
by Paul Harremoës, David Gee, et al, Editors.
 (Earthscan UK; 288 pages; £17.95)
by Devra Davis
(Basic Books; 316 pages; $26)
 Environmental science and the environmental movement have now been around long enough to look back and learn from past successes and especially, failures. These two books provide that practical historical perspective, along with many lessons which should, in a rational world, guide humans into a healthier future.
The many European authors, mostly scientists themselves, contributing to "The Precautionary Principle in the 20th Century" adhere to a useful format as they examine 14 hazards such as asbestos, PCBs, the ozone layer, overuse of antibiotics in farming, hormonal disruption, the collapse of fisheries, radiation and "mad cow" disease. For each, they examine when scientists first warned of potential harm, what was subsequently done or not done, what the results were, and how we might learn from each scenario. Starting with the famed example of prevention of a cholera epidemic in 19th-century London by the simple removal of a well pump handle — even before the disease was known to be transmitted via water — the stories illustrate how "better safe than sorry" has in fact been a rarely-applied rule. But that old dictum is essentially the "precautionary principle" in a nutshell. More often than not, however, the calls for scientific certainty before protective action — an "anti-public health attitude" — result in "paralysis by analysis." The editors’ summary of a dozen "late lessons" from these case studies contains as much hard-won environmental wisdom as has been condensed anywhere, and should be reviewed by every environmental scientist and activist.
Providing a more impassioned and personal polemic, Devra Davis recreates a number of landmark environmental struggles, often from a firsthand perspective. As an epidemiologist, Davis has been involved in many modern environmental debates. In "When Smoke Ran Like Water" she focuses mostly on the health hazards of air pollution and ozone depletion, with discussion of lead toxicity, environmental causation of breast cancer and infertility, and more. Most valuable — and disturbing — are Davis’ lucid insider’s descriptions of research practices and how those standards have been corrupted and ignored as often as acted upon. Again, each time something worrisome is learned about a hazard, the financial interests involved, be they automobile or chemical or other industries, create a "zone of incomprehension" in a fight where "not everybody plays fair." The result is delays of decades before protective policy and action takes place, justified by the seemingly benign mantra "more research is needed." In the meantime, degradation the environment, human health, and even some well-meaning scientists’ careers continues. Davis is prone to hyperbole at times, but her message is documented and powerful.
Taken together, these two books paint an unpretty picture of the past, but with just enough signs of hope included to warrant the continuation of the myriad efforts to put precaution before profits in the future.
Steve Heilig writes for Whole Earth Review and can be reached at heilig@sfms.org.
by Daniel Pinchbeck
(Broadway Books, 2002; 321 pages, $24.95)
 It’s a common enough revelation: tasting, for the first time, the existential clarity of psychedelic experience. We spiritually impoverished and numbed Americans just don’t know what to make of it. As the scales fall from our third eyes for a brief, glorious look at the world as it seems like it always really was, we have two choices: ignore it or embrace it.
Ignoring it, of course, is what our dominator culture would like us to do. It’s an illusion, a hallucination. Forget about it and keep shopping. And that’s what most of us do. By consigning the psychedelic experience to "recreation" — as a trip to a pretty but ultimately meaningless land inside our heads — we are complicit in keeping our own willful metaphysical blinders in place.
Daniel Pinchbeck’s early psychedelic experiences were unremarkable in this regard. Eating mushrooms and wandering around a college campus is, by now, a pedestrian experience; an iconic rite as much a part of growing up as the French class we were blowing off to take that little detour. But just like that French class, the magical lessons are all too soon forgotten in the press of the "real" world.
Revisiting psychedelics (now more respectable as entheogens) later in life, Pinchbeck has embarked on a revisioning of these powerful tools of consciousness exploration, but this time in the timeless context of shamanism. In the process, he discovers himself and rediscovers the rest of the universe. Here is the essence of this marvelous book: through the experience of seeking and receiving instruction from shamans learned in the entheogenic traditions, Pinchbeck is proposing the outlines of a syncretic shamanism native to the globalized metaculture of hypercapitalism. He believes he has identified none other than the means to reconnect our insane, violent, and material civilization with the timeless wisdom of the living cosmos.
It’s the kind of thing you come back to your dorm room ranting and raving about, but with a difference. Pinchbeck’s explorations are carefully conceived and are diligently undertaken, embarking from a posture of gently detached skepticism. "Breaking Open the Head," his account of these journeys, charts a personal spiritual flowering in all its confused, contradictory, and lovable detail.
Quite to his surprise, he becomes a mystic; a postmodern shaman’s apprentice and a very serious psychonaut. And his brilliance lies in presenting this journey in a well-wrought, thoughtful way. He takes baby steps from the nausée of the material world all the way into a whacked-out super-reality populated by hyperdimensional entities. It’s easy to walk by his side, and he brings along some of the widely acknowledged giants of human thought. Chief among them is Pinchbeck’s favorite philosopher, Walter Benjamin, whose work serves as an intellectual foundation that leads us to explorations of the ideas of fascinating philosopher-mystics like Georges Gurdijieff and the inheritors of ancient tradition like the shaman Maria Sabina. We start in familiar territory, and one step at a time he takes us into the invisible word that’s all around us.
That’s his genius. This is no Terence McKenna-style dive off the deep end, into waters sensible only to the initiate. Pinchbeck writes with an innocence and honesty that lets anyone walk by his side, yet in due course he takes us all the way.
Gregory Dicum is a writer living in Northern California. Email him at gdicum@pobox.com.
by Naseer H. Aruri
(Seven Stories Press; 2003; 265 pps; $18)
 In this fully revised and updated version of his highly acclaimed book "The Obstruction of Peace: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians," Naseer H. Aruri dismantles the many myths about the failed Middle East "peace process."
Aruri analyzes the evolving relationship between the United States and the two protagonists — the Palestinians and Israel — and argues that the US government, rather than serving as an "honest broker," has allowed Israel to use violence and to violate international law to maintain its illegal occupation.
"No student or scholar of the Middle East, and no concerned citizen, should pass up the opportunity to read this remarkable work of scholarship and intellectual courage." —Edward Said
"A powerful corrective to illusion and misrepresentation." —Noam Chomsky
Naseer H. Aruri is emeritus professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. His many publications include "Occupation: Israel over Palestine" (1983), "he Obstruction of Peace: The U.S., Israel and the Palestinians" (1995), and "Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return" (Pluto, 2001).
(An Expedition Deep into Imperialism, Global Economy, and other Earthly Whereabouts)
by Chellis Glendinning
(New Society; 2003; 182pps; $16.95)
 We reviewed this awhile back when it was published by Shambhala Books. But it has been reissued by New Society. So we thought it be fitting to publish the review again.
The woman who brought us the powerful "My Name is Chellis and I’m in Recovery From Western Civilization" has given us another wildly potent book. In this expedition she weaves three story lines. One is a historical account of the current empire with dates, names, places and facts that clearly depicts a harrowing future (but very consistent with all the familiar assumptions and internalizations from previous empires). The second is a travelogue with Snowflake Martinez, a Chicano vaquero and friend. They travel by horse "off the map" - talking about their histories and "with open hearts, want to understand the distance that lies between us." The third story line is Chellis’ personal account of her childhood - the memories of grandparents adorning themselves with artifacts symbolic of the British Empire as well as the disturbing accounts of her father raping both her and her brother (for 12 straight years!). The weaving is brilliant.
As I write this I am very distraught because the book opens a different perspective of my childhood and who I am. The book demands that we ask ourselves: How deeply did we buy into the colonialists’ psyche? What elements of the dominator Empire still resides in us? and Have we made a commitment to thwart the mega machine and to make amends with the colonized? It’s a weaving of the personal with the political, the colonizer with the colonized, as well as history with the present. We cannot console ourselves into thinking that this empire building is from the past and that our personal lives have not been tainted by it. Chellis reveals to us in subtle and not so subtle ways as to how we are interdependent - how what’s happening to indigenous cultures now happened to us "a long time ago ... only slower."
The empire she describes: the colonizers, the dominator mentality of haughty arrogance, and the global economy affects all of us. We parade the colonizer within us as we are being colonized. The empire does not just affect the sweat shop worker in Indonesia working for Nike but it’s the destruction of our ag land, communities, and neighborhoods, killings in schools, teenage suicides, taking of drugs like Prozac, cocaine. and caffeine, the psychological abuse we tolerate when we internalize the fantasies on television commercials and magazine ads. The colonizers have become colonized yet "few are able to see empire." As Chellis writes: "Blindness is rampant. Denial, repression, outright refusal. And the more that is forgotten, the more that falls away, that dissolves and disappears, the more there is to remember."
One more: "Imperialism’s technologies, psychologies, and ideologies lunge like freeways toward the linear horizon, never knowing their place or purpose or end point, producing in their wake a disruption so massive it cannot, as is, be made sustainable."
This book may break open your heart to incredible anger and sorrow hidden inside waiting for some articulation. This book is that articulation. Read it if you have the courage.
by Andy Singer
(Carbusters; 2001; 100pps; $10; distributed by AKPress: www.akpress.org)
 This is a fun book. It’s chock full of CARtoons by Andy Singer (that are also featured in this issue of HopeDance) with commentary and quotes from various experts from the industry, i.e., Jane Holtz Kay (author of "Asphalt Nation"). I just keep laughing. Granted, I still drive a car but to see our plight with such refreshing comedy/horror is outrageous.
Andy Singer is the Michael Moore of the auto/comic world. We will not change unless it’s fun to do and we will not listen about change unless there is much humor involved with the changing. This book is a great beginning. With chapters like CARs R us, inCARcerated, CARnage, CARmageddon, CARtels, this fun book will keep you laughing and thinking alot longer that Marx’s "Das Kapital"! |
