A very sad loss to all. One of his quotes, for those interested in
globalisation, was "Democracy is only possible when no-one travels faster
than the speed of a bicycle". Monbiot said something similar in The Guardian
recently when he said "to improve the wealth of poor regions, dig up the
motorways". Look at what the Autostrada Del Sol, which runs down the spine of
Italy did for, or rather to, the south of Italy. It was supposed to
regenerate the South, it actually encouraged the most educated, the most
entrepreneurial, the wealthiest, to migrate to Turin, Milan etc. Read the bit
in 'Far from Paradise' (John Seymour & Herbert Girardet, 1986) on the
southern hill farmer who saw the chance to earn 10X his income at the Fiat
car plant in Turin. OK he earned a lot more, but rent, food, clothes, all
cost more too, and he was paying more tax on top. After a few years he did
the sums and realised he was better off, in quality of life, down south.
Unfortunately in this Faustian bargain, when he returned to his old hill
farm, all the terraces had eroded through lack of maintenance, and this
option was no longer available.
So maybe we should all grab our pickaxes, strap them to the back of our
bicycles, and have an Ilich Memorial Day. Pick a nice quiet, safe time, say
early morning on New Years Day, and meet up somewhere. Watford Gap Services,
the M.1, anyone?
Hillary Shaw, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT
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