Given the rather limited coverage of anything but Geldoff love-ins, I
thought some members might be interested in 1)a BBC report of the
Eco-village  2) a personal diary account of an activist father and 'his 2
kids'

 Larch


1) The BBC report

Eco-village 'is model for us all'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4654077.stm

By Lisa Mitchell
BBC News in Stirling


Thousands of protesters heading for the G8 summit at Gleneagles are
camping beside the River Forth in Stirling.

It's a campsite with a difference.

With the co-operation of the local authorities, they are living
according to alternative social and ecological principles.

They claim they are not idealistic dreamers but that their model has
practical implications for the rest of us.

It is difficult to get an answer to the simplest question at eco village.

Each decision is by committee and the going is slow.

I can't help being a capitalist because I live in a capitalist system
Katharine Foster
The first principle of what they call Hori-zone is that there is no
hierarchy and no leader. The people govern themselves by collective
agreement.

It works by "co-operation not competition," said 29-year-old Katharine
Foster.

The charity worker says that in her normal life in Fort William, she
does not use supermarkets, recycles, avoids high street shops and cycles
almost everywhere.

"I can't help being a capitalist because I live in a capitalist system,"
she said.

"But I detest it because of the power imbalance it creates.

"Hori-zone is about a new way of living."

Environmentally sensitive

The campsite was set up by a loose group of anti-G8 campaigners,
including Dissent Network.

Over the past two years, several attempts to find farmland close to
Gleneagles for the eco village failed.

We're trying to leave as few footprints as possible
Kevin Smith, Dissent

Stirling Council came to the rescue with a loop of land in a river
meander, over-looked by the Wallace Monument and Ochil hills.

Kevin Smith, of Dissent, said the Stirling community has been "very
receptive".

The climate change researcher from London said the main focus of the
camp was to be environmentally sensitive.

"We're trying to leave as few footprints as possible."

People have organised themselves in "barrios", each of which looks after
its own affairs, from cooking to recycling.

They feed back concerns, comments and decisions to a council.

The idea is that they can all theoretically have a say on how the camp
is running.

They take turns to empty compost toilets and recycling banks. Power for
lighting comes from wind turbines and solar panels. A fixed bicycle runs
a music system.

The council provided six glass banks, two can banks, two paper banks and
50 wheelie bins for rubbish and has been impressed by the organisers'
approach to the site.

We're very supportive of what they're doing and it's something we'd like
to encourage
Brian Roxburgh, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency

"So far, we're very encouraged by their responsible attitudes to
recycling. They want to leave the site as they found it," said a
spokeswoman.

There is also an area to treat "grey water".

This is from washing up or preparing vegetables. It cannot be used for
drinking but is not highly contaminated.

A natural filter has been built near a tree line, where plants filter
the water and the trees benefit from it.

Brian Roxburgh, of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, has been
working with the group on the design and use of the grey water ditch.

He said the eco village might have something to teach the rest of us
about water conservation.

"They're making a good point," he said.

"We're very supportive of what they're doing and it's something we'd
like to encourage.

"We would be interested in using grey water in homes for flushing the
toilet.

"At the moment, houses use highly treated, good quality drinking water.
By using grey water, it would conserve our reserves."

'Positive example'

The camp has also made a point of using bio-diesel, or treated vegetable
oil, in its mini-buses and buys its food locally.

One supplier is Green City, a workers' co-operative in Glasgow.

The organic wholesale food company sells lentils and oats from Scotland
and other dried goods, like coffee and tea, from fair trade producers in
developing countries.

Worker-owner Scott Erwine said the protesters on the eco village are
setting a "positive" example, but that it is not isolated.

"There's a sea-change in people's way of life. They are looking for
something sustainable in the long term, but also good for their health
in the short term.

"And it can be good for business. Last year our turnover was £3.5m and
sales are up 30% this year.

The slave trade was to the 18th century what oil is to us now
Katharine Foster

"For example, we sell biscuits made by a small bakery in Tobermoray in
Mull. In return, we supply them with flour.

"It's an alternative to the capitalist model that works."

The protesters know they have a mountain to climb before their lifestyle
is embraced by the mainstream.

But they are hopeful.

"The slave trade was to the 18th century what oil is to us now," said
Katharine Foster.

"Everything they had depended on slaves. But over the course of decades,
everyone from landed gentry to housewives realised the injustice and
rose up against it.

"I believe it's only a matter of time before the same thing happens with
the damage we are doing to the planet."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4654077.stm



2) The Diary

Phil Broadhurst (39/40) and two of his daughters, May (10) and Rosa (7)
joined the Make Poverty History demonstrations in Scotland last week.
This is Phil's diary of the week. (May's diary will follow later... and
maybe Rosa's too, although she'd rather play than send e-mails, and I'm
keen to encourage that!)

We arrived at our campsite outside Edinburgh on Friday night. It was a
Haven Holiday Camp with a Showbar promising Top Entertainment! (That
night we heard the first of several Abba compilations sung by various
Top Cabaret Artistes!)

We were soon swept along on the wave of tackyness and before I knew it I
was standing topless, swinging my Co-Op Fair Trade T-Shirt in the air in
order to gain bonus points for our side in the Fun Quiz!  (The first
Solidarity Action of the week!!)

(We'll know we've Made Poverty History when Holiday Camps are full of
people taking off their fairtrade T-Shirts as they party the night away
in Fairtrade Fun Bars to the sound of "Waterloo" and "YMCA"!)

Saturday 2nd July - The Big Day! And it is big! The walk from the bus
stop to the rallying point at the start of the march is the biggest
march Rosa's ever been on!

Everyone's wearing white, and it looks brilliant.

As I enter The Meadows and see just how many of us there are there, a
lump comes to my throat. (It's nice to be tearful because so many people
actually do care - Normally it happens because people don't care.)

We wandered around for a while, looking for people, sad we couldn't find
them, happy because we couldn't find them because it was so big.

We weren't sure if we were at a fun day, a concert or a march... It was
whatever you wanted it to be, I suppose. However you wanted to say Make
Poverty History.

We finally found the Welsh Dragon and got ready to march behind it. Two
hours later we actually did march!

Our Saturday Night Top Entertainment was a G8 Alternatives gig (sadly
not at the Holiday Camp!), the highlight of which was Robb Johnson's
wonderfully uplifting "Be Reasonable" with its chorus "Demand The
Impossible Now!" - A perfect end to a day calling for an end to world
poverty. A demand which we are told is an impossible dream, but which we
know is completely possible and within our control.

On Sunday and Monday we relaxed on holiday and dreamed of a world where
everyone has free access to heated leisure pools, a disposable income of
two pence pieces to waste in the amusements, and Top Entertainment For
All!!

Tuesday was my birthday. We went to Edinburgh to get tickets for the
coaches to Gleneagles. We got them from a church full of christians,
socialists, anarchists and atheists all working together. There really
was a genuine buzz of excitement.

I'm glad that (even at 40!) I'm still able to get caught up in a
beautiful positive optimism that says "We can change the world".

I still believe we can... even though on Wednesday the police said we
couldn't!!

They told us the demonstration at Gleneagles had been cancelled. When we
said it hadn't and we were still going they stopped the coach company
sending any more coaches to pick us up.

So we marched in Edinburgh instead. For all the demands of Make Poverty
History and also for the right to protest in a democracy.

We were joined by several families who'd followed Bob Geldof's call for
a million people to leave their schools and workplaces to march on the
G8. They were looking confused because he wasn't there!

It was a lovely, small, family-friendly demonstration with balloons and
smiles and strangers sharing picnics...

...Until the police decided to arrest the stewards, break the march into
smaller groups, and charge with horses!

We were talking to one of the stewards, who we'd met the day before. He
was saying how he was pleased the protest was coming to a peaceful
conclusion and that we'd made our points. Then three policemen ran into
the crowd and dragged him off. If it happened in another country the
British media would call it a violent snatch squad.

May and Rosa were stunned. And scared. We ran away. May wanted us to go
to the police station to tell them that that steward hadn't done
anything wrong. But Rosa was scared they'd arrest us too, even though we
hadn't done anything wrong. (They were learning quick!)

As we left we looked back and saw someone else we'd been having fun with
earlier getting dragged away by police.

Talking about it now, May and Rosa tell people that "our friends" got
arrested. I love that kids' attitude that allows friendships to be
formed so simply and quickly. We met a lot of new friends on that march.
The fact that we'll probably never see any of them ever again doesn't
matter. They are our friends forever!

Safely back at the Holiday Camp, Wednesday night's cabaret was the
genuinely good Jimmy James and The Vagabonds. They finished their set
with "Love Train" - A fitting call for global peace and unity on a day
when we at least tried to tell the G8 leaders to get on board.

I woke early on Thursday, worrying about friends who'd been in the
Stirling campsite that had been surrounded by police in the middle of
the night.

I found out later that they were OK. I don't know what happened to the
camp as the radio news moved to London.

I don't want this to sound hard or heartless (infact it's the opposite),
but in the run-up to and during the demonstrations I'd given so many
interviews using the "30,000 deaths each day" soundbite that hearing
about 30 deaths in London actually only served to emphasise the tragedy
of it all. (By the next day the figure had gone up to 50 in London...
and 60,000 worldwide caused by avoidable poverty. We need to get to the
stage where every life in the world is valued equally.)

Our truly TOP Entertainment on Thursday night was watching a
spectacularly beautiful sunset on Lindisfarne.

On Friday, among all the coverage of the London bombings, the G8 issued
their expected communiques - The ostriches still see climate change as a
non-urgent long-term problem. And recycled promises on debt and aid
(with strings attached) are announced as if it's going to Make Poverty
History. Bob Geldof and Bono believe the hype. I'm glad to hear OXFAM
and the other agencies don't.

The Make Poverty HIstory Campaign continues!!

We continued on our way back to Wales, stopping at Sherwood Forest on
the way, looking forward to the day when the rich stop robbing the poor
to give to the rich.