‘Awakening the dreamer’ – tackling sustainability

“Never doubt that a small band of committed people can change the world. Indeed, nothing else ever has.”
— Margaret Mead

“There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”
— Victor Hugo

A reader has passed on info about the ‘Awakening the dreamer’ symposia which are happening around the world. He says people are gathering to work out how “bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this planet will be the guiding principle of our times.” There is a sharing of very practical visons and strategies for bringing about change.

Melbourne Symposium
The Abbotsford Convent, Collingwood, will host a symposium on 27 January 2007 from 1 – 6pm at 488 St Heliers St (Mel ref 44 G5).

Want to know a bit more?
In Melbourne, you can get all your questions answered, as well as a short preview of the coming Symposium, in a one-hour session.

• Wednesday 10 January 2007
  Arrive 6pm to meet, greet & eat for a 6:30 start, end by 7:30.
  Please bring some food to share if you can!
  CERES Environment Park Education Room
  8 Lee St, Brunswick East
  Melbourne.
• Thursday 18 January 2007
  Arrive 6pm to meet, greet & eat for 6:30 start, end by 7:30.
  Please bring some food to share if you can!
  St Kilda Eco-Centre, St Kilda Botanical Gardens,
  Cnr Herbert and Blessington Streets, St Kilda.
  Melbourne.

Melbourne Symposium Cost
$75 full ($55 concession)
*Refreshments will be provided

Also on site:
The Convent Farmers’ Market 8am-1pm & restaurant ‘Lentil As Anything’.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

• Report on the current state of our planet;
• reveal the factors underlying our current global paradigm;
• discover the emergence of an inspiring new activated world;
• generate principles and ideas for creating a new emerging global paradigm;
• identify alternatives and actions individuals and leaders can take.

Participants are invited to explore ways of positively contributing to the future of a sustainable global society. The Symposium takes participants:

• from their varying levels of denial about the state of our planet;
• through to despair and outrage as they learn the truth;
• to realising the opportunities available;
• and into a space of real commitment for action in our community.

How to book: online, fax, or post. You are asked to please register by 20 January 2007 to assist with planning.

BACKGROUND: The Pachamama Alliance

The Pachamama Alliance is a U.S. based NonProfit born out of a relationship developed between people from the modern world and the leaders of remote indigenous groups in the Amazon region of Ecuador. This relationship was actually initiated by the indigenous elders who, out of their deep concern for the growing threat to their ancient way of life, and their recognition that the roots of this threat lay far beyond their rainforest home, actively sought the partnership of committed individuals living in the modern world.

According to a majority of the world’s experts, there is now overwhelming evidence that our modern society is headed for a catastrophe, though there is always a chance of course, as some point out, that the experts are wrong, and that human ingenuity will come up with some kind of technological fix that will avert a global disaster.

Indigenous people of South America, who still live in their traditional Earth-honoring ways, refer to our modern worldview as our “dream” and have urged us, for the sake of all life, to “change the dream of the North.”

It has become clear to them that our political and commercial institutions are unable to effectively address this crisis, primarily because they don’t realize that they are looking at an interconnected world through a fragmented lens. The villain here is not ‘big business’, the corporate media, the military-industrial complex, or even those who for personal profit seek to clearcut our forests, overfish our oceans, pollute our atmosphere or drain our aquifers. The villain is an outmoded worldview — a way of seeing the world in which such unthinkable acts appear reasonable, sensible, and even intelligent.

Do you think there is there a chance we can change the way people view the world and accept as inevitable ‘unthinkable acts’?