Title: Cultures of Community: Life Hacks
By: Rachael Chong
Transcript:
Hello you're listening to, Cultures of community with Rachel Chong. The theme of today's show, Life Hacks. The term Life Hacking comes from the blogosphere internet culture and is basically bringing the idea of hacking something that's typically done in the context of programming and applying it to real life. It's finding a clever alternative or workaround solution to what seems to be sticky situation. Today on the show we're going to highlight interesting workaround tricks from communities around the world that are solving nitty gritty implementation problems in creative way. Welcome to Oracabessa fish sanctuary in St Mary parish on Jamaica's north east coast. In two thousand and ten this was established as a no fishing zones and it is managed by a private community organization, Oracabessa foundation, and the local fisherman's cooperative. Around the coast of Jamaica communities of fishers are doing just this coming together to establish no fishing zones called fish sanctuaries by agreeing to ban fishing in certain areas marine ecosystems are allowed to recover from severe over fishing sustaining fish populations in the bay something many fishers can agree to but not all one of the clearest divides in the Jamaican independent fishing community seems to be between the boat fishers and the spear fisher. Here is one spear fisherman's perspective on the fish sanctuary.” It’s easier than to say, yes man, sanctuary is good but the guy that is fishing in a small row boat they will tell her that it’s hard for them.”. And yet the participation of fishers in these non-fishing zones is essential in Oracabessa John Garci of the Oracabessa foundation and David Murray the president of the St Mary's fishermen cooperative have found a life hack to involve the spear fishers in the work by making sure spear fishers are represented among the number of fishers who work as wardens to patrol the bay the fish sanctuary engages and often marginalized community it depends the most on the reef ecosystem. And cultures of community. We tend to talk a lot about local organizations that are engaging communities around them with creative initiatives and projects but no matter how well planned or envisioned initiative might be. Interpersonal dramas and the conflicts that arise in the midst of conflicting interests on the ground can end up being the demise of a good idea and sometimes even the seemingly perfect solution of life hack.