Good News Hambi

The Good News from Hambach Forest

On Sunday September 30th again thousands of protesters and supporters joined the walk in Hambach Forest. Again thousands broke away from the official demonstration route and went into the forest. Many re-errected barricades and dug ditches to make it more difficult for the  machines to evict the remaining tree houses Paragraph11 and GhostTown. Possibly more […]

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Hambach Forest: Lies and Nepotism

Most of the information about the currently situation in the Hambacher Forest is in German. I want to make some of the recent events accessible for the international world. To start with I summarized the incidents that astonished me most. Here we go: Deutsche Bahn Supports Coal Nepotism The national train company Deutsche Bahn that […]

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Sunday Walks in Hambach Forest

During the last Sunday Walk in Hambacher Forst I saw a transformed forest and civil society. It was sunny and the activists in the tree houses were extremely happy to see hundreds of citizens who had entered the forest despite the police prohibiting it. They came with Michael Zobel’s Sunday Walks which have now become […]

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Reportinghack

Hacking Live Bullshit Interviews @ Hambi

In a live interview a reporter from Welt24 spoke about riot tourism and said that environmental organizations had called for massive civil disobedience for the weekend. Both is bullshit!! Since I happened to be in the forest, I used the opportunity to jump into the live interview, grab the microphone and correct him on the […]

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Change Agents

7 Ways to Create the More Beautiful World

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” I love this quote by Arundathi Roy, Indian author and political activist. It reflects the experience I made during the past two years when I travelled the world to find future-proof solutions for tomorrow. And […]

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Prof. Dr. Silja Graupe

Neoliberal Indoctrination in Economics

Do text books of economics in standardized university education use elements of indoctrination? That is the question Silja Graupe, vice president of Cusanus University and professor for Economics and Philosophy investigated. Her findings are alarming. Prof. Graupe analyzed textbooks that are used around the world, translated into over 40 languages with millions of copies sold. […]

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Hidden Architectures

How Something Worthless Reigns the World

Currencies constitute a means of exchange. When we think of a currency today we usually think of money. However, anything that is used for exchange could be a currency. Just think of the war time in Europe, when cigarettes or coffee were used. Currencies serve as symbols. They symbolize value. Today there is a trend […]

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Beyond Capitalism and Communism

Economy for the Good of All Beings

“All economic activity caters to the common welfare.” This phrase sounds like a utopian ideal. Too good to be true. Yet this is article 151 of the Bavarian constitution which legally took effect in 1946 (and is now obsolete in large parts due to the German Constitution). But there are economic alternatives. Last weekend some […]

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Invisible Architectures

How Architecture Influences Group Dynamics

Recently I have been thinking a lot about what shapes our view of the world without us really noticing it. I like to call these phenomena “invisible architectures”, referring to Jean-Francois Noubel, a researcher on the field. Here I focus on the invisible architectures that are relevant to (almost) everybody in a given society. I […]

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A Tour of Frankfurt Bookfair

Mega Event of International Publishing Industry

The Frankfurt Book Fair is THE global gathering place for the international publishing scene. By default it is a B2B fair. But even if you are an author, translator, self-publisher, a creative mind or a simply a reader: you will find something interesting here. As an accredited blogger I had the opportunity to join the […]

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Klimacamp Rheinland

Climate Activism & Police Violence

The Klimacamp Rheinland (climate camp Rhine Land) is a 10-day open camp organized by different groups of climate activism. Thousands of mostly young people gather for education, political action and experimenting with new low-carbon-emitting forms of living. The Klimacamp takes place close to Europe’s largest brown coal surface mines in the Rhineland, North-West of Cologne. Even […]

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OuishareFest 2017

Sharing Economy – Sharing Future

Can you imagine a place where exchanging business cards, using compost toilets, pitching start-ups, doing meditation and covering face and hair with colorful glitter in preparation for a wild dance don’t contradict but complement each other? That is OuiShareFest! The Meditating Eco Manager Geek What really astonished me about OuiShareFest was this: eco folks, business […]

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Menstrual Education by Eco Femme

Hybrid Business Model: How to Finance Your Own Non-Profit Work

Eco Femme is a social enterprise for female hygiene products. The hybrid business model combines both for-profit interests and non-profit social work: With the commercial gains from selling re-usable cloth pads the all-female team based in the intentional township of Auroville, South-India, finances their non-profit activities in education and research. When I met Jessamijn Miedema , […]

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The all-female change-maker team of Eco Femme produces re-usable female hygiene products in Auroville, India.

Interview with Change-Maker Jessamijn Miedema, Co-Founder of Eco Femme

  Even though they concern half of the world’s population, menstruation topics are a taboo around the globe. We don’t often talk about female hygiene products. However, disposable sanitary napkins and tampons come with tremendous costs for both the female body and the ecosystem. In recent years, re-usable female hygiene products have gained popularity. Jessamijn Miedema co-founded […]

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36 Change-Makers, 5 Weeks, 1 Utopian Township Concentrated into a 20-minutes Video

Ecovillage Design Education Video: 5 Weeks in 20 Minutes

36 participants from across the globe – 5 intensive weeks – 1 intentional township striving for human unity. Serena Aurora managed to fit this wealth of information and emotion into a 20 minutes video. Enjoy watching.     The Ecovillage Design Education course is recognized by the UNESCO and provides students of all ages with knowledge and practical […]

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Volunteering in Sadhana Forest Kenya

Sadhana Forest Kenya, Volunteering Experience

I volunteered for two weeks in the reforestation project Sadhana Forest in Kenya in November 2016. The organization originated in Auroville, India about 15 years ago. It later spread to Haiti and Kenya. During my Ecovillage Design Education Course in Auroville I had the chance to talk to the founder and visit the Indian campus. […]

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Designing Tomorrow's World

Designing Tomorrow’s World

In Design week participants were encouraged to voice their dream projects they want to work on after the Ecovillage Design Education Course. Out of around 50 dreams, we collectively chose four that teams worked on with the method of Dragon Dreaming, a visionary process for planning, implementation and evaluation. It builds upon three principles: Inner […]

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World-Views - Ancient & Contemporary

World-Views – Ancient & Contemporary

In World-View Week of the Ecovillage Design Education Course in Auroville, India we explored the dynamics of internal and external influences on the way we see and perceive the world. We also visited an Ashram and the local village Nadukuppan to study different world views and life situations. Other topics included Ayurveda as a holistic […]

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from MORE to BETTER

Economic Dimensions of Tomorrow’s World

Economy week came with a full load of deep insights and amazing aha-moments about old and new economic paradigms.  We got an overview of the history of production from manufacturers to mass production, different schools of thought like John M. Keynes and Milton Friedman and the current distribution of wealth. We dismantled the concepts of money […]

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Ecological Dimensions of Tomorrow’s World

We challenged conventional ecologic assumptions in the Ecology week of my 5-week Ecovillage Design Education Course (EDE) in Auroville, India. I became aware of the fact that we need to change the narrative of nature to a public responsibility, something like a community project on a global scale. The closed loops that nature presents should […]

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Opening Ceremony

Social Dimensions of Tomorrow’s World

I am in Auroville, an international city that runs experiments on many levels with the aim of unifying humanity as a whole.  I just completed a five week long Ecovillage Design Education Course (EDE) designed by the Gaia trust.  This program provides students of all ages with knowledge and practical skills on how to evolve towards […]

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Otepic kids singnig

Kenyan Kids Sing Anthem of South Africa

Have you ever listened to the National Anthem of South Africa? It is a very beautiful song. The kids in the Otepic orphanage sing it just for joy. They don’t understand the language, which is very different from their native tongue. In fact, they were taught that song by a German volunteer. Isn’t that truly international? Here […]

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