Re: Does Permaculture have to be so expensive

[Thilo Pfennig <vinci@alternativ.net>]

On 17-May-99 eric + michiko wrote:

> *Something might be wrong with the way courses are run, if they are
> exhausting and expensive for the teachers and few people are interested in
> attending.

Hi, I think this is a good point. I also understand the costs, but this may
just be a hint, that the courses are not run very economically. 


> Justifying the prices of courses using the ethics of business (market
> value, supply and demand, hourly wage, etc.) does not respond to the
> question of Pc ethics.  Yes, there are other expensive courses.  Yes, there
> will always be some people who can afford a course at any price, but this
> thinking may restrict the flow of information, possibly making Pc elitist
> as someone mentioned.

True, we should come to the point where pc-knowhow can be transfered through
everyday people.

>From my little experience I would separate the knowhow in:

a) Analysis of the worlds economic and household-problems. Coming to the roots
fp the problems

b) Recipes ans solutions for "a better world" or just a better/cheaper
householding

There need not to be anything like "permaculture" for a+b! Permaculture as
a hole is more a holistic science (as a friend of mine said). I do not wnat to
suggest to give up the more holistic or scientific approach. But this truely is
something for the elite of permaculturists. This may lead to a bunch of new
directions in the academic fields of research and students-edutainment in
universities. 

Permaculture will get the more influence the more its ideas are integrated in
the whole system. I think this is very different in Australia, yet? If what I
heard is right?


-- 
Thilo Pfennig 
<http://Alternativ.Net/>