os200915 ACE Makes the World Look Big:  Why the American disaster doesn’t discourage me  

He thinks globally although the air he breathes is smokey with ash. It appears the world is coming to an end, but he finds an organization in Argentina called ACE, where life appears to be going on and it is business-as-usual for artists and craftspeople.  

Yes there is hope somewhere  

By chance I found the equivalent of my imaginary Emeralda Region. It’ in Argentina. It reminds me of when I discovered there is a real Emeralda located in South Vietnam, a five-star getaway named Emeralda Resort Ninh Binh which opened in 2011.

As I read the text about the Argentina space on the homepage of https://www.proyectoace.org/en/home-2/ it felt like I was reading a description of the Gates Prize and its features and amenities.

It took a while to figure out that it is a physical residency – not in a paradisiacal setting like the Great Lake of Emeralda Region, but a real place near Buenos Aires.

Still, the feeling lingered that, Yes, there is a place like I imagined Emeralda could be. However, my concept is one heavily weighted toward art blended with science, technology, engineering, and math. Emeralda awards leaders in those fields. Most artist getaways do not.

To know that these two places exist and that they have plans to continue makes me hopeful. What I need is a structure for collaboration I can offer people in the USA and thus make a kind of insurance policy for hope.

We are living under a shroud in America, the sun is literally behind a haze of smoke from the burning of west coast America extending into Canada. Metaphorically we have lived under a cloud of a corrupted government since the 2016 election and dates back decades.

It is the decline of American educational policies that caused it, and I hope we survive and change the trend that threatens this country and is wreaking havoc in all parts of the world.

To know there are places in the world where the sky is clear of smoke gives me hope. Americans will not lead in restoring Earth’s human and other life sustainability, but leaders and populations in other – mostly small – countries will.

ACE is a reminder there is hope in the hearts and minds of their participants.