DVD: The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 16 Feb 2006, 12:58

This arrived yesterday from Community Solutions. Well worth a watch - if for no other reason, then just to draw inspiration from it and feel like the challenges we face are surmountable.

However, it does become apparent that Cuba's strong central government control was key to their successful navigation down the energy descent slope, and the film leaves one wondering whether what's been achieved in Cuba could really be emulated so easily in free market economies like ours, where there will be institutional resistance to some of the measures...

Anyway, here's a chapter Index to give you an idea of what's in it:

1. Intro - "The special Period" defined (basically post peak collapse)
2. Opening credits & further intro & context
3. Havana - US 'Community Service' visitors arrive and provide further context
4. A short history of Peak Oil
5. The Special Period
6. The Special Period - Food distribution
7. The Special Period - Health 7 Education
8. Agricultural Solutions
9. Agricultural Solutions - Urban gardens
10. Agricultural Solutions - Rooftop & patio gardens
11. Agricultural Solutions - Sustainable Practices
12. Agricultural Solutions - Land Reform
13. Energy Solutions
14. Energy Solutions - Transportation
15. Energy Solutions - Renewable Alternatives
16. Energy Solutions - Housing
17. "Infinite Small solutions: Think globally, act locally" - summing up
18. Summary continues - end

It can be ordered from here: http://www.communitysolution.org/cuba.html

Pixie · Post by **Pixie** » 17 Feb 2006, 21:20

Would it make a good follow-on from End of Suburbia this Sunday at the Common Place? (Time permitting of course...)

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 17 Feb 2006, 23:31

Yep - the plan is to show it at 7pm... http://uk.geocities.com/joepowerswitch/ ... _feb19.doc

Pixie · Post by **Pixie** » 18 Feb 2006, 18:44

Great! Looking forward to seeing it

Pixie · Post by **Pixie** » 21 Feb 2006, 20:15

This film is absolutely brilliant - very positive and very inspiring. I loved the clever solutions Cubans have come up with to problems - not enough buses? no problemo, turn trucks into long ones carrying 200 people...can't carry water up ten flights of stairs to your flat? that's ok, we'll winch it up...no electricity for fridges? so we just cook what we need today...no parts or fuel for tractors? find the oldest farmers in Cuba and get them to train the rest of us in breeding and working with draught animals...

Mention was made in passing of early problems - eg with thefts of food from gardens, but this soon passed as more and more people started growing their own food. According to this film farmers are now highly respected members of the community.

Our government may be unlikely to respond in such a way but there's nothing to stop local communities becoming more Cubanesque.

Keela · Post by **Keela** » 10 Feb 2008, 21:52

I know this is an old thread, but I've just watched it from here: http://www.stage6.com/user/fidelista/vi ... d-Peak-Oil

Worth watching.