Dear GKD members,
I thought you would find this issue of The Greenstar Edge (July 2001) of
interest, especially as it focuses on the use of solar power - something
that GKD members have emphasized over time.
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Contents:
1. Greenstar to launch village center in Ghana
wireless communications, music, dance, artwork
provide an economic model for Africa
2. Sweatshops and Butterflies
cultural ecology on the edge
3. Practical Solar Power for Everyone
simple tools for anyone to get started with
renewable energy
4. Voices and Images from Jamaica and India
free video, music, poetry, artwork from Swift
River and Parvatapur:
5. Connections: partners with Greenstar
Hewlett-Packard
The Hoffman Agency
Technology Empowerment Network
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** 1. Greenstar to launch village center in Ghana
A new solar-powered community center, in development for almost a year,
will be launched in Patriensah, Ghana on August 4, 2001.
The installation will include computers, cameras, software for
creativity and education, and a powerful commercial solar power array
to provide electricity.
Also included will be a satellite telephone, with a special data
connection that will provide a direct link to the Worldwide Web.
Photos of the village and its people, animated panoramas, and details of
the project:
http://www.e-greenstar.com/Ghana/
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** 2. Sweatshops and Butterflies
"What do the isolated poor have to offer, in a fast- moving global
cyber-economy? The old answers were cheap hands and abundant natural
resources. But those vestiges of post-colonialism create dependency,
drain human potential, devastate the environment and cannot be
sustained....
There is an unknown, unrealized asset of the disconnected that exists
precisely because of their disconnectedness. It is priceless, unique, of
universal value, and easily exchanged worldwide.
That asset is their voice, their vision, their intimate connection to
tradition, to the earth, their families, community, their history,
wisdom and legends: their culture. The more isolated a village, the more
likely that it is home to music, artwork, poetry, traditional herbal
knowledge, legends and ways of living that are of supreme value to the
whole human family: real, authentic expressions of life that have been
lost in the connected noise of industrial culture."
See the complete article, featured soon in the British journal
Sustainable Development:
http://www.greenstar.org/butterflies/
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** 3. Practical Solar Power for Everyone
Here are some resources and tools you can use, right now, to get started
with solar power in your home, business and daily life.
Greenstar's energy expert, Dr. Charles Gay, has selected the products
that can make the most meaningful energy difference, at the best price,
the highest-quality. The foundation of a green lifestyle. Charlie Gay
should know. As a solar power pioneer for nearly three decades, and
former head of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy
Lab, he has made it his business to know what ordinary people can do to
use energy better.
More: http://www.e-greenstar.com/SolarPowerStore/
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** 4. Voices and Images from Jamaica and India
On a recent visit to Swift River, Jamaica, Greenstar presented the first
royalty check from sales of music and artwork created in the village.
The royalties contribute to the ongoing operation of the Community
Centre in the village, including education, health and disaster
preparedness services.
To view a short music video, complete with lyrics, recorded by a young
girl in the village who recites Jamaican dub poetry. click here:
http://www.e-greenstar.com/Jamaica/Tamalee/
We also spent time with several young people in the village, showing
them how to use a digital camera, and giving them some ideas on how to
take interesting photographs of their village and its environment.
These pictures capture what the young people of Swift River find
significant, interesting and beautiful about their village. Click here
for to see some of these initial photos:
http://www.e-greenstar.com/Jamaica/peoplepix/
In India, Greenstar was fortunate to capture images of a fragile
traditional art form: chalk paintings.
Created by young women for village festivals as part of their passage
into womanhood, these paintings are created in the dirt of the village
squares, and only last as long as the next rain.
See some of this beautiful artwork here:
http://www.e-greenstar.com/India/chalk-paintings/
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** 5. Connections: partners with Greenstar
Hewlett-Packard has fielded one of the most innovative corporate
initiatives in the world, to make a difference in the developing world.
The e-inclusion program seeks to provide appropriate technology to help
bridge the digital divide. Hewlett- Packard is co-operating with
Greenstar to supply its advanced products to Greenstar villages; read
more about it here:
http://www.e-greenstar.com/HP/
The Hoffman Agency is one of the leading public relations agencies in
Silicon Valley, and represents some of the world's premier companies,
including 3Com, HP and Google.
Lou Hoffman, head of the agency, has agreed to provide services to
Greenstar, to help develop a professional business message. To learn
more about Hoffman, click here:
http://www.hoffman.com
The Technology Empowerment Network grew out of an effort by the World
Economic Forum (which holds the annual event often called "The Davos
Conference") to address the needs of developing countries in a global
corporate context.
TEN, now an independent group led by the global accounting and
consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tomatsu, selected Greenstar as one of
two special sponsored projects in its first year. Greenstar
representatives were invited to Davos, Switzerland, to speak to an elite
international audience about the ideas behind "cultural ecology." The
other group receiving special support from TEN is Schools Online
(http://www.schoolsonline.org)
TEN is helping Greenstar in many ways, including connections to the
energy, environment, international development, high technology and
media leaders. The Hoffman Agency (above) is one of the key resources
identified for Greenstar by TEN.
To learn more, click here:
http://www.greenstar.org/pressroom/Greenstar-Davos-release.htm
Or visit the Technology Empowerment Network website, at:
http://www.techempower.net
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Afterword:
Perhaps the best illustration of what Greenstar does is in a video
produced by students from India.
We introduced the idea of Greenstar to students at a university in
Hyderabad, and took them to the small village of Parvatapur to listen
and learn. We gave them a laptop with some editing software, a digital
video camera, and some samples of Greenstar's work elsewhere, and asked
them to make a short film on any topic they chose.
To see a short version of this movie, click here (3.4 Mbytes):
http://www.e-greenstar.com/India/India-Intro-s.mov
To see the complete student movie, click here (14.3 Mbytes):
http://www.e-greenstar.com/India/India-Intro-l.mov
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"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect
wood or assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for
the endless immensity of the sea."
-- Antoine de Saint Exupery
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This message is drawn from: The Greenstar Edge: A free Newsletter July
2001: Web version at http://www.greenstar.org/newsletter.htm Now over
7000 subscribers strong, in 80 countries worldwide. Investing today in
the future of the West Bank, Jamaica, India, Ghana, Brazil and Tibet.
Solar-Powered Community Centers for the Developing World
Visit the Greenstar websites:
http://www.greenstar.org
http://www.e-greenstar.com
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