In the beginning ...
The first conceptions for astraea arose in late 1998 when Pam and Tom were reflecting on where to head in life with their young family. Living in Bangkok at the time, they had seen the devastation of the Asian Financial Crisis where Tom had been working close to the action for two years helping to restructure and refinance companies as part of a small investment manager.
Life was good for them, but they could see the dirty poverty of good people in communities around Thailand. Was it possible to achieve economic prosperity without consuming nature and ensure everyone was looked after? Is there a way to balance economic demands with environmental protection and social equity?
Prosperity for privileged people came at the expense of others, who grew food, made clothes, built homes, offices, industry and infrastructure and so on. That kind of social pyramid seemed to have been around for centuries, but surely humanity had the capacity to move beyond that model. Space technology was a part of life. Air travel, mobile phones, the emerging internet were evident in everyone's lives so surely humanity could share the wealth of understanding and nature's bounty instead of shovelling it all to those of us at the top while polluting Earth.
Tom enjoyed his career helping raise equity and invest in private businesses and had developed the talent for opportunity research and analysis, due diligence and understanding organisational dynamics required for businesses to thrive. Having the benefits of training, skills, network and some modest savings he wanted to explore finding solutions to the toxic economic and social system. So with little idea of the way forward, but knowing that it was the right thing to do, a chose to pause for a while to reflect and explore changing course, and started sketching out ideas for "Astraea", an ancient name evoking the opportunity for universal peace and equity.
The initial concept was simply one of exploring and sharing ideas to help people choose and enjoy life. The emerging internet offered open and cheaply accessible access to "everyone". Leaving Bangkok in early 1999 the family settled in Ireland where Tom's family had a long history and a home-base. Settling in to a 200 year old worker's cottage refurbished by his parents, several initiatives were launched in the first year, including growing food, by the end of which Astraea had been started to focus on ideas for change.
The world has changed since then, but the emergency on planet Earth is more visible. Pam and Tom have bobbed along living more gently on the world, raising children and sharing hope and help in a range of endeavours. Astraea continues. Ideas have been shared. Yet challenges have grown as the pyramid of power has grown, increasing its stranglehold on nature while ensuring that those with property remain in control of those without.
Despite those challenges, we have helped many people see the opportunity to live more lightly yet more fulfilled lives by letting go of fear and greed and choosing to reconnect and share Earth with nature by living more in tune with universal truths.
Pam describes herself as a director, mediator and yoga teacher. She's all of those and a whole lot more. She is a founder of astraea, runs a holiday cottage business, works the land and has been guiding yoga students for over 20 years. (LinkedIn)
Tom describes himself as System Change Entrepreneur, Meta-systems Theorist, Small-holder, which is short hand for the paragraphs above describing initiatives to make the world a better place, searching for universal answers, and growing food and fuel in a hands-on way. (LinkedIn)
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