Note to anyone who might have been brought here by a search for GNU: This is not the Free Software Foundation site. If it's the GNU Operating System you're looking for, follow this link.
We at gnusystems have been doing bookkeeping, consulting and training in the Sudbury-Manitoulin area since 2000, when partners Pam Jackson and Gary Fuhrman moved from Sudbury to Manitoulin Island. Pam is working much less now but still does occasional training and remote sessions. You can reach her at (705) 210-0529.
We're also involved with the cultural network toward community resilience and sustainable living on Manitoulin Island, and contribute what we can to the global transition toward genuine sustainability. See the Turning Signs blog about for more about the transition.
| We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations. — Preamble to the Earth Charter |
The fundamental problem of our society and our species today is to discover a way to flourish that will not be at the expense of some other community or of the biosphere, to replace competition with creative interdependence. At present, we are steadily depleting the planet of resources and biological diversity; the developed world thrives on the poverty of the south. We are in need of an understanding of global relationships that will be not only sustainable but also enriching: it must come to us as a positive challenge, a vision worth fulfilling, not a demand for retrenchment and austerity. This is of course what we do day by day when we refuse to accept the idea that we must reject one part of life to enhance another. Projecting a new vision is artistic; it's a task each of us pursues in composing our lives. — Mary Catherine Bateson,
Composing a Life (1990, 239) |
Pam and Gary of gnusystems are Bahá'ís – that is, we belong to a religious community focused on encouraging the human race to get its act together. Contact us – gnox (at) gnusystems (dot) ca – if you want to hear more about it; or visit this Building Community site to see how the Bahá'ís of Canada are doing that. Some more Bahá'í sites: