Marjana Kos
Helena Norberg-Hodge, local author and filmmaker (The Economics of Happiness), has added another international award to her already impressive list of honours.
An early recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (aka the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’) and, more recently, the Goi Peace Prize (among previous winners are Bruce Lipton, James Lovelock and, ahem, Bill Gates), she was the 2017 winner of the Arthur Morgan Award.
This prize, which recognised Helena for her ‘tireless advocacy for communities across the planet’, is presented by Community Solutions, the organisation behind the powerful and hugely successful doco The Power of Community, which looks at the grassroots self-reliance movement in post-embargo Cuba.
This award was one of the highlights of an overseas tour, in which Helena hosted five Economics of Happiness conferences (four in the US, one in Japan) organised by her international non-profit organisation, Local Futures in collaboration with local partners.
South Korea Conference
A sixth conference, in South Korea, had Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson as keynote speaker. Other speakers at these events included localisation advocates Satish Kumar, founder of Schumacher College and Resurgence magazine, Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics, George Ferguson, the progressive former mayor of Bristol, UK (he received his salary in the local currency), and founders of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) Judy Wicks, David Korten and Michael Shuman.
Helena also taught courses at Schumacher College and did numerous other presentation, including one to 20,000 people in Rimini, Italy, at the annual meeting of the 5 Star movement. For more info, see the Local Futures newsletter.
Marjana Kos is personal assistant to Helena Norberg-Hodge
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