DVD: Community Power

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

Video trailer:

Video response instructions:

• On this page, there are links to various goals and outcomes that are aligned with this course. After you watch the DVD, review the lists and pull out 3-5 attributes that you think the movie touched on. Explain how you think the movie represented that attribute. (If you open the skills and attitudes in a separate window, you can easily copy and paste the phrases you select)

• Choose one of the attributes you listed and give an example of how you have represented that attribute in your academic or personal life.

1. Apply permaculture principles to land and community development in small and large-scale designs
   • Cuba had committed to the ‘green revolution’, a system that requires the massive use of fossil fuels in the form of natural gas-based fertilizers, oil-based pesticides, and diesel fuel for tractors and other farm machinery. Cuba’s agriculture was more industrialized than any other Latin-American country.
2. The Creative Process
   • Problem: when taking a bus to go to work, people had to wait 3-4 hours. Often, there was no power when they arrived at work. Also, even if they got to work and had electricity, there was nothing to do. After work, they had to wait another 3-4 hours for a bus and if it’s full when it arrives, they have to wait again for another one.
   • Solution: Government imported 1.2 million bicycles from China and manufactured 500,000 more to distribute all around the country so that they can get to work.
3. Development of Skill and Technique
   • Australian permaculture experts came to Cuba to assist in developing new ways to garden and raise food after hearing about the crisis. In October of 1993, they started to design rooftop gardening and then developed a training course to teach others.
4. Plan, carry out, and critically reflect upon civic action to address a public problem in a manner that demonstrates personal integrity and ethical conduct.
   • The problem everyone faced was scarce of food. According to the United Nations, anyone in the Cuban population is granted through this system of 3 of 4 weeks of basic consumption to meet the minimum level of calories ingested in a month. To complete the 4 weeks basic level, it could come in the form of subsidized in your workplace (lower prices). So, you pay for meals at subsidized prices which allows you to pay only on the weekends or nights for meals. Also, people started cultivating vegetables wherever they could.
5. Collaborate effectively with others in a manner appropriate to the discipline.
   • Gas purchases were restricted to every other day and the speed limit was lowered to combat the shortage of gasoline.

• The attribute I choose is the development of skills and techniques. An example of how I have represented this attribute in my academic life is taking a wide variety of classes. From the sciences to art to math to reading, they all allow me to develop many new skills. The more different skills I develop, the better person I can be. An example of how I represented this attribute in my personal life is playing many different sports. I have played baseball, football, soccer, basketball, and much more. Each sport I play develops multiple skills and some skills can overlay into one another which helps me be a better athlete.