Helena Norberg-Hodge, who trained as a linguist and later studied with Noam Chomsky, is the author of best-seller, Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh. She kick-started the local food movement in this country by establishing the Food Links programme which was then taken on by the Soil Association. She also helped to set up farmers’ markets in Europe, North America and Australia.
With Steven Gorelick and other colleagues, Helena and John have spoken at seminars and workshops in many countries, including Spain, Mongolia, Thailand, Bhutan, Mexico, China, France, Canada, South Korea, Japan and India.
They founded the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC) which promotes locally based alternatives to the global consumer culture by writing, filming and practical action. Helena has sent news about a forthcoming film, the Economics of Happiness:
“We’re finally nearing completion. We’re planning launches in the US, Europe and Asia in January and February. We’re also finalising promo materials; We’ll send details as soon as possible. In the meantime, there is quite a lot of information on the website: www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org.”
‘Going local’ is a powerful strategy to help repair our fractured world – our ecosystems, our societies and our selves. Far from the old institutions of power, people are starting to forge a very different future…
The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, government and big business continue to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, all around the world people are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they’re starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm – an economics of localization.
Featuring
Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten, Michael Shuman, Juliet Schor, Richard Heinberg, Rob Hopkins, Andrew Simms, Zac Goldsmith, Samdhong Rinpoche
Read more: http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/about-the-film
A promising introduction can be seen on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkdnFYDbiBE
Today it was announced that The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been asked to devise measures of progress and will lead a public debate about what matters most to people. Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/2010/11/25/cameron-to-propose-wellbeing-test-91466-27713314/#ixzz16GkeAgMY
So the film will be ‘knocking at an open door’ – to some extent.
New Era Network 