Ready for my next adventure: I will travel more than 2,000 kilometers by train. From Berlin to the North of Spain. About 26 hours on wheels. Three years ago, I’ve committed myself to not flying anymore unless there is a really, really good reason to do so. I want to pave ways for the “new […]
Category: Social & Life
Times of Change
In the past months, the world seems to have changed. More than once I thought: „Wow, I could not have imagined this happening a year ago.“ Most recently: Germany’s vote in the EU elections. Some media commentators think that climate protection was the issue that made all the difference for the German vote in the […]
Reviewing Developments in Hambach Forest
Words fail to convey my happiness and joy when I learned that Hambach Forest would not be logged – for now. The court had ruled that before any logging could take place it needed to evaluate whether (1) the forest should be protected under the Fauna Flora Habitat Directive of the EU and (2) if […]
Lobbying for Planet Earth at Bundestag
Power to the people! In Germany you can talk to your representatives in the Bundestag. Even as a normal citizen. With the volunteers from the citizens’ climate lobby we do exactly that: We lobby for the needs of the one whose lobby is far too small: Gaia – our planet earth. The Lobby Goal […]
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 […]
Words Create Worlds
Language is one of the invisible architectures that shape our world view and group dynamics without us really noticing it. To express our thoughts we use language. At the same time language restricts us to the words that are already there. To Be? No! Not to Be: e-Prime Hacking our language is actually not new. […]
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 […]
Solidarity with Oppressed Authors
“The most powerful thing one can do for a journalist or author in prison is to make their story international. To show solidarity,” said Can Dündar during a panel discussion of Turkish authors at the Frankfurt Book Fair. “It gives imprisoned writers hope to know that their story is out there, although they are in […]
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 […]
Occupying Hambacher Forst
I spent two days and two nights in the Hambacher Forst, an ancient forest near Cologne that has to give way to the brown coal excavators. Forest occupiers have been living here since 2012. The community wants to save the small remains of the old and beautiful forest. They live in tree houses to make […]
Legal Reflections
Stopping Coal Infrastructure: Police-Countered Crime This year in August the Klimacamp (climate camp) took place in the Rhineland, only a bit more than one hour from the city where I grew up. One group of climate activists had proclaimed that – besides many legal actions – some of them would enter the open-cast brown coal […]
Get an Insider’s View of a Co-Working Space
KoHub is a Co-Working Space on the chilled island of Koh Lanta in Thailand. It is located on Long Beach, just 3 minutes from the tropical water line. I loved to sit on the bamboo chairs of the deck because I enjoyed the beautiful view into a garden with a giant Buddha statue made from […]
Work-Life Balance in Paradise
While working in paradise I discovered my ideal work-life balance. The early sun-set and the opportunity to watch this wonder of nature were a big motivation to really cut down working hours and call it a day by 4 pm at the latest. I found my effective 6 hours of work super productive and I still […]
Future of Work – Expectations, Challenges & Dreams
How do young people envision the future of work? That’s what I asked my fellow co-working space members in the Ko Hub on Koh Lanta in Thailand. Some of them are Digital Nomads and have been travelling for years. Most but not all work location independent and earn money through using a computer and the […]
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 , […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
Children in the Slum
Don’t let everybody see your big camera when travelling. Never take the camera or other valuables to a slum. Better don’t even go to a slum. These kinds of advices I threw completely over board. I had the great opportunity to visit Southlands Slum in Nairobi with my friend Tomo. She works for the Japanese […]
Mindset of Helping Each Other
One afternoon during my volunteering experience at OTEPIC in Kitale, Kenya heavy rains set in. It was the onset of the rainy season. We gathered in a small hut on the premise to have lunch in nearly complete darkness. The hut had neither a window nor electricity. After the rain, it had gotten cold and […]
Meet the 16 Otepic orphans
16 kids live in the Otepic orphanage. All of them go to school. The orphanage is situated outside of Kitale. The kids live on the ground floor of a house with a large garden. Planting vegetable and fruit in the garden is only possible during the rainy season because there is no water supply for the […]
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 […]
Clubbing with Special Care
On Saturday night we went clubbing in downtown Kitale. For pre-partying, we went to the allegedly cheapest pub in town, where a bottle of beer still costs about 2 Euros. Africa is not a cheap place in many regards. The pub was dark and fairly crowded, a pool table in the middle, a TV with […]
Heros’ Day in Slum
The air carried a stinging smell of rotting vegetable and animal droppings. I made my way through the dusty roads following Millicent and Lucy, my two new African friends. Sometimes we needed to jump over small canals, half filled with a dark liquid garbage mixture that I did not want my foot to slip into. […]
My New Home in Kitale
My new home in Kitale is a bungalow in the African Theological Seminary. The place is heavily influenced by American evangelists. And Melinda Gates is actually coming here next week. However, it is a very comfortable place: I live in a bungalow with a kitchen. My bedroom has an adjacent bathroom. The bungalow is situated […]
One Day in the Nieklitz Summer Camp
In August, the project “Wir bauen Zukunft” in Northern German Nieklitz invited for a summer work camp. For two weeks, volunteers helped in the 10 hectares biotope, planting, tidying, constructing, repairing… The camp was organized in an open space format. In the morning, after a hearty breakfast in the outdoor kitchen and dining area, the […]
Gathering of the Rainbow Family in Bavaria
I did it! I went to a gathering of the Rainbow Gathering! For over a year I had been looking for opportunities to join one of these “family reunions”. Now it became true. Getting to the secret spot only vaguely communicated through offline channels was easier than I thought. Friends in Munich knew a friend […]
Working with a Smile: Summer Work Camp in Nieklitz
I felt like I entered into the enchanted remains of a long forgotten world when I opened the great wooden gates of the biotope park in Nieklitz, 70 km east of Hamburg in Northern Germany. Behind those gates, nature had reclaimed its space in the past three years without any touch of a human hand. […]
Video interview with Ceylan, co-founder of “Wir bauen Zukunft” in Nieklitz
Ceylan Rohrbeck, co-founder of “Wir bauen Zukunft” (we build future) gives insights into this new project in Northern-Germany. The group will not only construct sustainable buildings but use the former biotope as a place for co-working, co-living and as an educational center. In German. (English subtitle will follow)