Friday, July 10, 2009

The Horse Boy

This is an amazing story of an autistic boy and his unusual rapport with horses. This leads his father to take him on a horse-trekking ride across Mongolia in search of shamans and traditional healers who might be able to help his son.

Just finished reading this and it is a real page turner and a beautiful, mysterious and moving true story. I highly recommend it!

Spirituality & Practice

This website lists really good films, books, interviews and much more. This weeks feature describes some exquisite Iranian films.

Earthnews on the BBC

This is a great site for daily news about animals, oceans, plants and all aspects of nature and the life of the Earth. You can subscribe to RSS feeds if you like and get the headlines!

New Economics

There are a lot of interesting and exciting new ideas about the economy. Here are just a few that seem to have a lot of potential:

Bernard Lietaur and the Future of Money
- this is a must read! Lietaur is a Belgian economist and has a deep understanding of economics, its underlying structures and history and how it is all interconnected. His ideas are radical and yet they really make the most sense! His website has several white papers as well.

The Economics of Peace Conference - Praxis Peace Institute and RSF Social Finance - The challenge before us is to align the efforts and energies of the millions of individuals, businesses, and organizations that are working to transform our failing economy. "The Economics of Peace" Conference will provide a space for such independent networks and organizations to form deeper levels of collaboration and to begin describing the next economic paradigm. In essence, it will be a place for the imaginal cells of a movement to begin transforming economic relationships to better serve people and planet.

Riane Eisler and The Real Wealth of Nations
- another whole systems thinker, Riane points the way to a sustainable and equitable economy that gives value to caring for our greatest economic assets: people and our natural environment.

Slow Money, Inquiries into the Nature of Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered by Woody Tasch. Woody's work has developed into an organization called Slow Money Alliance. They are having a national gathering in September.

Both Resurgence Magazine and Yes! Magazine have had recent issues devoted to new ideas, local economies and more....

BALLE - Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, the brainchild of Judy Wicks, founder of White Dog Café.

Also, look at: E.F. Schumacher Society, Time Banking, Berkshares, and Green For All, for even more innovative and wholistic perspectives.