User:John D. Croft

Current Occupation:
I am currently working as a professional Consultant in the field of Ecologically Sustainable Community Economic Development, based in Europe/ Previously I was employed as Senior Project Officer (Community Economic Development) by the Community Capacity Building Division of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development in Western Australia, and worked in this field for the last fifteen years. My work with the department was also in the field of Community Economic Development, a field in which our branch has been recognised as one of the leading Australian agencies. In 1997, for instance, we were acknowledged as a finalist in the Western Australian government’s award for excellence in the delivery of government services to regional areas.

I am also co-founder of the Gaia Foundation of Western Australia, an organisation committed by its three principles to work in the areas of personal growth, building community and service to the Earth. Members of the Foundation undertake personal projects that meet these Foundation objectives. Started in 1987, the Foundation has conducted over 500 successful projects in Western Australia. We currently have 171 registered members members in Western Australia and are currently engaged in more than 50 projects.

I am also a Board Member of Sophia College, which provides training in community development, and a range of holistic counselling and Buddhist and artistic therapies. In addition I am currently an emeritus member of the Living Earth Solutions, an Eco Village Design Consultancy Cooperative, working with Max Lindegger, who was co-founder of the Global Eco-Village Network, and the Co-Designer of Crystal Waters Eco-Village, Queensland, which has just recently won a United Nations International Habitat Award for Sustainable Design. We are currently working on developing an EcoHamlet for the town of Collie, Western Australia.

Qualifications:

 * B.A. (Geog) University of Western Australia 1970 (Biogeography and Human Planning) (offered Honours in 1969)


 * Dip Ed (Best student UWA) 1974


 * B.Ed (equiv) (Winner of Joseph Lauwerys Prize as best student) London University Institute of Education 1977


 * Completed Ph.D. thesis on "The relationship between non formal (community) education and community development in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea" (London Uni & UWA) 1986

Experience:
I am currently engaged in supporting Community Economic Development (CED) aiming at economic resilience, social vitality, political capability and environmental enhancement, through providing traning, consultancy and support to individuals and groups working in this field. In this capacity I have been coordinator of a Small Town Economic Planning, giving grants to community based organisations in that state wishing to adopt CED based approaches. I recently was involved in producing a series of case studies on best practice for CED in Western Australia. I am currently working with Communities interested in Communitywise Auditing, giving local people an understanding of the development of social, economic and financial capital. I was also responsible for writing and publishing the internationally renowned LETSYSTEMS Training Pack, and has been involved in assisting over 30 LETSystems, as well as being involved as a key organiser and speeaker at conferences in Australia and New Zealand.

I have worked in the area of integrated rural and regional development, community development and community education in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Europe over the last 31 years. For 10 years I worked overseas. During this time I worked as a researcher for a British Ministery of Overseas Development Project in English Speaking Africa, at ILO in Geneva and UNESCO in Paris, with the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture (BP3K). From 1980-83 I worked as Non Formal (Community) Education Coordinator in a World Bank funded program in Papua New Guinea, where I was also employed by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, advising the Papua New Guinean government on its 2nd Five Year Development Plan. I have a wide experience of rural areas in Western Australia, and has been involved in a number of projects including the establishment of Business Enterprise Centres, Telecentres, the Community Enterprise Development Association and the Australian Association for Sustainable Communities.


 * I have been involved in community building and environmental activism both personally and professionally at different levels including


 * teaching: previously at University of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University and Curtin University, and in a variety of formal and informal settings


 * training and consultancy: for the Department of Community Services, the Department of State Development and for youth, womens', community building and environmental action programs in Australia and overseas.


 * community building and environmental action practice with non-government organisations in association with a range of government and other agencies


 * administration and management: having been involved as manager, director and chairman of a number of organisations in this field.


 * consultancies with many other enterprises bodies and organisations (eg. Ministry for Planning, Department of Resource Development, Petroleum Industry Council etc)

In the period from 1983 to 1986 I was Executive Officer for the Australian Association for Sustainable Communities (AASC Western Australian Branch), working with 36 groups interested in that time with Eco-Village Development. During this time I had authored two books "Moving into the Country in Multiple Occupancy Communities" and "Rural Resettlement: Options and Issues". With Dr Patricia Sherwood of Edith Cowan University, I also worked on producing a video on Eco Village Multiple Occupancy Projects in WA, and produced quarterly newsletters for the AASC. In that time I worked closely with Mr Ian Glew for the preparation of a policy on Multiple Occupancy of Rural Land, passed by the State Planning Commission in May 1985 as Policy Paper No 15. During this time I also worked with Homeswest for the First Fremantle Housing Cooperative, and Boranup Community, the first legal Multiple Occupancy in Western Australia.

I have also been the co-producer of the Video "Sickness Country", looking at the plight of Aboriginal (and other) peoples produced by the Uranium Industry in Australia and have produced many TV broadcasts and training programs in Community Development.

I am a frequent keynote or guest speaker at numerous conferences and international symposia ranging from such groups as the International Transplant Nurses Association to the New Zealand Green Dollar Conference.

My current interests include approaches that integrate personal growth and empowerment, community building, community economics and environmental action within the new paradigm of "deep ecology" and have written and published widely in many fields.

Personal Biases
I tend to take an ecological view on all subjects - tracing flows of energy, cycles of material circulation, diversity of systems, strength of communities, linkages of interconnectedness, change and adaptation as central in biological and social systems. I am an internationalist, humanitarian, secularist, and thus take issue with POV that is unduly nationalist, elitist and fundamentalist in nature.

August 2007
6 August 2007
 * Talk:Medieval demography (top)
 * List of disasters (→Classical antiquity disasters) (top)
 * Egyptian New Kingdom (←Redirected page to New Kingdom) (top)
 * Bronze Age Collapse (←Redirected page to Bronze
 * Historical basis for King Arthur (→Artuir mac Áedáin) (top)
 * Decline of the Roman Empire (→Joseph Tainter)
 * Fall of a civilisation (top)

3 August 2007
 * Talk:Civilization (→Dubious) (top)
 * Talk:Altruism (→Why the deletion) (top)
 * Altruism
 * Talk:Canaanite religion (→Phoenix vs. Pheonix) (top)

2 August 2007
 * Talk:Shardana (→Sherden/Sheriden Redirect) (top)
 * Shardana (top)

July 2007
30 July 2007
 * Talk:Emissions trading (→false claims) (top)
 * Societal collapse (→Manifestations of societal collapse)

29 July 2007
 * Eve (Bible) (→Eve in Modern times)
 * Enki (→Enki, restorer of balance)

28 July 2007
 * Community (Undid revision 147470753 by 222.67.168.242 (talk))

27 July 2007
 * Talk:Deep ecology (→NPOV)
 * Talk:Canaan (→Mesopotamian inscriptions)
 * Genesis 1:1 (→Text) (top)
 * People of the Sea (←Redirected page to Peoples of the Sea)
 * Shamayim
 * Self-generating (←Redirected page to Self organisation)
 * Nag Hammadi texts (←Redirected page to Nag Hammadi library) (top)

26 July 2007
 * Geography of Western Australia (→Indigenous practices)
 * Reproduction (→Life without reproduction)
 * Afro-Asiatic languages (→Etymological bibliography)
 * Sahara pump theory
 * Arioch (top)
 * Tidal (Bible) (top)
 * Chancellor Bay (→Origins and career) (top)
 * Canaan (→Names of Canaanite kings or other figures mentioned in historiography or known through archaeology)
 * Talk:Akkad (→Armenians?) (top)
 * Akkad (→Naram-Sin)
 * Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) (top)
 * Timeline of the Big Bang (→String Theory epoch)

25 July 2007
 * Civilization (→Persia (Iran)(550 B.C -- 330 B.C))
 * Image:WA Biogeography.jpg (Created the map myself using Powerpoint drawing tools) (top)
 * Image:WAClimates.jpg (top)
 * Nonviolent communication (→See also)
 * Community development (→Community development practice)
 * Ay (→Tutankhamun)
 * Heracles (→Birth and childhood)

24 July 2007
 * Galaxy formation and evolution (→Fundamental questions) (top)
 * Talk:Sea Peoples (→A Theory) (top)
 * Tiras (top)
 * Tyrrhenians
 * Ramesses III (→Tenure and chaos)
 * Papyrus Harris I (top)
 * Battle of Nairi (top)
 * Battle of Qarqar (top)
 * Baal-Eser II
 * Ithobaal I (top)
 * Eilath (←Redirected page to Eilat) (top)

23 July 2007
 * Subsistence agriculture (top)
 * Gezer Calendar (←Redirected page to Gezer calendar) (top)
 * History of ancient Israel and Judah (→Problems with conventional Biblical chronology)
 * Proto-Semitic language
 * Dansgaard-Oeschger event (→History)

22 July 2007
 * Tassili n'Ajjer (→Ecology) (top)

20 July 2007
 * Origin belief (→Australian Aboriginal)
 * Creation (theology) (→Biblical Neo-Creationism)
 * Abdikheba (←Redirected page to Abdi-Heba) (top)
 * Gaia hypothesis (Undid revision 145580476 by 68.201.9.219 (talk))
 * History of ancient Egypt (→Nineteenth Dynasty)

18 July 2007


 * Baketwerel (←Redirected page to Baktwerel) (top)
 * Amenmesse (→Family) (top)
 * Seti II (→A contest for the throne) (top)
 * Modern geocentrism (→History of modern geocentrism)

17 July 2007
 * The Bible and history (→Increasing conflict between the maximalist and minimalist schools)
 * Yam (god) (→Yaw: speculation over connections between Yam and YHWH) (top)

12 July 2007
 * Timetable of the Precambrian
 * Old World (top)
 * Fertile Crescent
 * Talk:Fertile Crescent (→Arabic name.) (top)
 * Talk:Delphi
 * Talk:Nonviolence (→The Victims of Nonviolence)
 * Talk:Akhenaten (→Optional theories)
 * Talk:Noongar (→"Tribal lands") (top)
 * Ontology
 * Manfred Max-Neef

11 July 2007
 * Fundamental human needs
 * Maslow's hierarchy of needs
 * Ecological Self
 * Social capital

9 July 2007 08:09, 9 July 2007 (hist) (diff) Canaanite religion (→Canannaite Divinities)
 * Lotan

8 July 2007
 * Kebra Nagast (→Beginnings of modern scholarship of the book)
 * Talk:Animism (→Cleanup) (top)
 * Animism (→Diversity)

5 July 2007
 * Individual and political action on climate change (→The EU ETS)
 * Talk:Tutankhamun (→Racial comments in the article)

4 July 2007
 * Anthroposophy (→The Christ as the center of earthly evolution)
 * Adolf Hitler's religious beliefs (→Religious neutrality)
 * Germanic mysticism (→Ariosophy)
 * Aryan race (→Origin and background of the concept)
 * ‘Ad (top)
 * Talk:Dark Ages (→Cultural Bias)

3 July 2007
 * Deuteronomist
 * Dating the Bible (→Torah)
 * Biblical maximalism (←Created page with 'Biblical Maximalism defines a range of positions which generally take the view that the whole of the Bible has to be taken uncritically as an inerrant totally accur...')
 * Biblical Minimalists (←Redirected page to The Copenhagen School (theology)) (top)
 * Josiah (→Critical Scholarship on the Reform of King Josiah)

2 July 2007
 * Talk:Societal collapse (→A certain POV)

1 July 2007
 * Moses (→Moses' name)
 * Talk:Akhenaten (→Yahweh, Elohim, and Aten)
 * Akhenaten (→Moses and Akhenaten)

June 2007
29 June 2007
 * Creation according to Genesis (→Use of different words for God)

28 June 2007
 * The Copenhagen School (theology) (top)
 * Historical criticism in Bible studies (→Findings of higher criticism)
 * Spinifex people (→Native Title)
 * Nullarbor Plain (→History)
 * Talk:Coolgardie, Western Australia (top)
 * Wangai
 * Talk:Battle of Pinjarra (→Quality Scale) (top)

22 June 2007
 * Calyute
 * Mokare

21 June 2007
 * Talk:Noah
 * Noah (→The effects of the flood on early science)

19 June 2007
 * Talk:Biblical inerrancy (→Criticism of biblical inerrancy)
 * Biblical inerrancy

18 June 2007
 * J. Alberto Soggin (←Redirected page to Alberto Soggin) (top)
 * Albrecht Alt

17 June 2007
 * Shoshenq I (→Foreign policy)

15 June 2007
 * Talk:Yellagonga
 * Yellagonga
 * Talk:Midgegooroo
 * Talk:Ngaanyatjarra
 * Yamatji (→Archaeology) (top)
 * Jerusalem (→Etymology)

14 June 2007
 * Y-chromosomal Adam (→Time frame)
 * Indigenous Australian languages

13 June 2007
 * Wangkathaa (←Redirected page to Wangai) (top)
 * Indigenous Australians (→History)
 * Talk:Noongar (→Murder of Yagan)
 * Talk:List of watercourses in Western Australia (top)
 * Whadjuk
 * Swan Coastal Plain (top)
 * Old growth forest (→Logging in old growth forests)
 * R/K selection theory (→Ecological succession)

12 June 2007
 * Henotheism (→Israelite beliefs and Judaism)

11 June 2007
 * Famous oracular statements from Delphi (→Later Oracles of the Roman Period)

10 June 2007
 * Creationist cosmologies (→Inaccurate astronomy)
 * Atlas (mythology) (→Variations)
 * Chedorlaomer (→Dating of the events) (top)
 * Qetesh (top)
 * Qadeshtu (←Redirected page to Qetesh) (top)
 * Ninhursag (→Names)
 * Ki (goddess)
 * Anunnaki
 * Nephilim (→Anakim)
 * Sons of God (→Theories)

9 June 2007
 * Late Antiquity (→Cities)
 * Delphi (→Dedication to Apollo)
 * Goddess
 * Witchcraft (→Overview)

8 June 2007
 * Aboriginal history of Western Australia

3 June 2007
 * Moirae
 * Eteocretan language

1 June 2007
 * Southern and Northern Dynasties
 * Funan
 * History of Tibet
 * Axum

May 2007
31 May 2007 06:04, 31 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Deep ecology (→The notion of intrinsic value) 06:01, 31 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Deep ecology (→Land Ethic) 05:59, 31 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Individual and political action on climate change (→What's being done in Australia) 05:58, 31 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Individual and political action on climate change (→What's being done in Australia) 05:57, 31 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Individual and political action on climate change (→What's being done in Australia) 05:46, 31 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Individual and political action on climate change (→What's being done in Australia) 05:45, 31 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Individual and political action on climate change (→What's being done in Australia) 07:32,
 * Talk:Akkadian Empire (→Suggest an Amalgamation of this page) (top)

30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Noongar (→History) 07:32, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Noongar (→History) 07:30, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Tommy Winditch 07:30, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Tommy Winditch 07:30, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Tommy Winditch 07:25, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Tommy Winditch 07:25, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Tommy Winditch (←Created page with 'Tommy Winditch, also known as Yinel of the Werrgajan (=Beverley (Western Australia)), was a Balardong Noongar Aboriginal explorer of Australia.') 07:22, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 07:09, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 07:02, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 06:35, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) James Stirling (Australian governor) (→Western Australia) 06:30, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Pindjarep (←Redirected page to Pindjarup) (top) 06:29, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Admiral James Stirling (←Redirected page to James Stirling (Australian governor)) (top) 06:27, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 06:26, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 06:19, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 06:18, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 06:10, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Midgegooroo 06:07, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 05:58, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 05:44, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 05:31, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 05:26, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 05:24, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 05:04, 30 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Resistance to Survival - 1829 - 1881) 07:12,

29 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:History of modern Egypt (top) 07:06, 29 May 2007 (hist) (diff) History of Western Australia (→Centenary and later celebrations) 06:32, 29 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:History of Western Australia/to do (top) 06:23, 29 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Survival to Assimilation - 1881 - 1943) 06:22, 29 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 4: The Period from Assimilation to Self Determination - 1943 to the present) 06:21, 29 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 3: The Period from Survival to Assimilation - 1881 - 1943) 05:54, 29 May 2007 (hist) (diff) List of archaeological periods 04:02, 29 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Isaiah (→Critical scholarship) 03:38, 29 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Creationism (→Types of creationism) 01:35, 29 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Timeline of the Big Bang (→Recombination: 300,000 years) 05:50, 28 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Aboriginal history of Western Australia (→Period 4: The Period from Assimilation to Self Determination - 1943 to the present) 05:42,

28 May 2007
 * Moore River Native Settlement (→References)

23 May 2007 00:24, 23 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:Delphi/Comments (←Created page with 'Where are the assessment comments? Personally I think it deserves more than a B') (top) 04:54,
 * Pre-history of the Southern Levant (→Traditions regarding the pre-historic period)

22 May 2007
 * List of massacres of Indigenous Australians (→1850s-1890s)
 * History of Indigenous Australians
 * Indigenous Australians (→Migration to Australia)
 * Pindjarup (top)

21 May 2007
 * Binjareb (←Redirected page to Pindjarup) (top)
 * Swan River Colony (→Background to the Settlement)

17 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Galaxy (→Other morphologies) 00:39, 17 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Galaxy (→Other morphologies) 00:30, 17 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:Systems theory 00:25, 17 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:Timeline of the Big Bang 02:37, 14 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:Eve (Bible) (→Lilith and Eve) 02:37, 14 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:Eve (Bible) (→chicken 1st or egg?) 02:35, 14 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Eve (Bible) 02:30, 14 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:Bronze Age collapse (→BCE versus BC) (top) 02:30, 14 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:Bronze Age collapse (→BCE versus BC) 05:20, 12 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Twosret 05:20, 12 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Twosret 05:03, 12 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (→"Nazi Sympathizers?") 04:56, 12 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (→"Nazi Sympathizers?") 04:39, 12 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (→First marriage) 13:58, 9 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:Greens Western Australia (→Material moved from main page) 12:08, 7 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Gaia hypothesis 12:02, 7 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:List of homesteads in Western Australia (top) 00:25, 7 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Tiamat (→Tiamat's appearance) 00:25, 7 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Tiamat (→Tiamat's appearance) 00:24, 7 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Tiamat (→Etymology of the name) 00:22, 7 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Tiamat (→Etymology of the name) 00:18, 7 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Tehom 23:50, 6 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Etruscan language (→Classification) 16:38, 6 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Gini coefficient (→Correlation with per-capita GDP) 05:45, 4 May 2007 (hist) (diff) The Bible and history (→Increasing conflict between the maximalist and minimalist schools) 05:35, 4 May 2007 (hist) (diff) The Bible and history (→Overview of academic views) 05:33, 4 May 2007 (hist) (diff) The Bible and history (→Overview of academic views) 05:15, 4 May 2007 (hist) (diff) The Bible and history (→United Monarchy) 05:10, 4 May 2007 (hist) (diff) The Bible and history (→Joshua) 05:05, 4 May 2007 (hist) (diff) The Bible and history (→Joshua) 04:56, 4 May 2007 (hist) (diff) Shasu 04:54, 4 May 2007 (hist) (diff) The Bible and history (→Exodus) 04:53, 4 May 2007 (hist) (diff) The Bible and history (→Exodus) 04:42, 4 May 2007 (hist) (diff) The Bible and history (→Introduction)

April 2007
30 April 2007
 * Septuagint (→Textual history)
 * Ptolemy III Euergetes
 * Documentary hypothesis

29 April 2007
 * Nahar

23 April 2007
 * Fall of a civilisation (→References)

22 April 2007 15 April 03:26,
 * Fairy
 * Pythia (Undid revision 122990268 by 65.191.67.206 (talk))

14 April 2007
 * Greens Western Australia (→Further Developments)
 * Alcoa (→Alcoa in Australia)
 * Jo Vallentine (top)

7 April 2007
 * Deluge (mythology) (→Theories of origin)