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John Perkins |
Sunday, January 15, 2012
From Corporate Empire to Compassionate Capitalism: A Conversation With John Perkins
Friday, January 13, 2012
Citizen Power Goes Solar
In the U.S. and abroad, citizens are banding together to provide clean energy for themselves and their neighbors.
In 2011, we saw a burgeoning
movement of protest spread around the world. But protest is only one side of
the coin – and maybe not even the most important side. That's because ordinary
citizens around the world are not just demanding change, they are making it.
And they’re not waiting for governments to step up to the plate.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
New Euro Year: Part Three And a Recipe
January 3, 2002 La Saumane, Haute Provence, France
(An excerpt from my book-in-progress, Province of the Heart)
Well, I have won the gastronomic hearts of the French, trumping the best their cuisine has to offer—and that with one of the humblest dishes of American fare: the apple crisp. Not only that, rather than burrowing for the recipe through a raft of august tomes like a proper French pastry chef, I took it off the Internet like any other tech-savvy Amercan. (This was 2002, when dial-up was the only option and few in rural Provence went online regularly.) And with American brashness, I modified it—“invented”, as my friend the chef Michel might sniff. (Read my story about him here.) And they gobbled it up, with several helpings apiece.
Monday, January 2, 2012
New Euro Year: Part Deux
January 2, 2002 La Saumane, Haute Provence, France
(An excerpt from my book-in-progress, Province of the Heart)
Today is really the first day of the euro, since yesterday, the day of its formal introduction to the eurozone, everything was closed. It is marvelous to watch an entire society wrenched into the sudden confrontation with a new means of doing something they have been taking for granted their entire lives: exchanging money.
Change (pun intended) does not come easy—the oldsters around here still reckon in the former French franc, which was retired soon after World War II. But for me, the international traveler, using a new currency brings only a blasé yawn. Francs, pesetas, euros: it’s all the same. In fact, the euro is the easiest of them all, since it is roughly equal to the dollar, at least for now. Pesetas are (oops! were) 185 to the dollar, francs about 7.4 to the dollar, so for the mathematically challenged like myself, it was always a matter of either groping for the calculator or rounding up or down with careless abandon in multiples of ten and hoping I wasn’t risking the poorhouse with my purchases. And the numbers were always a bit of a shock: 1000 (pesetas) for lunch, 100 (francs) for a pre-paid phone card. I say, bring on the euro!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
The New Euro Year: Part One
Tired of the inner turmoil... I took up my walking stick. That act alone was magic. -- Jean Giono, Serpent of Stars
January 1, 2002 La Saumane,
Haute Provence, France
(An excerpt from my book-in-progress, Province of the Heart)
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Mme. Pascal |
After many hours at the keyboard a stretch turns into the realization that I must take a walk, move, breathe the bright cold air of the day. Outside it is not as cold as I had thought; the air has that limpid purity that I love so well here and the sun takes the edge off the chill. Walking up the long path through the village, I pass Mme. Pascal’s—closed, but not shuttered. I have the feeling that if I knock on the door, she would come, slowly as always, ducking through the narrow passage that leads from her home to the interior of the store, with a little dip to her walk, thrusting her hands deep into the pockets of her blue cardigan and say, “Bonjour, madame.” And, as today is New Year’s, she would add, “Bonne année”.
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