Sound Of Sirens

Check them out!

The Global Oneness Project is a web-based video initiative exploring how the simple notion of oneness can be lived in our increasingly complex world.

We’re traveling the globe interviewing creative and courageous people who base their lives and work on the fundamental understanding that we are all connected and thus bear great responsibility for each other and our shared world. Our living library of films is available for free from our website or on DVD for events and educational use.

We are committed to documenting what is being born during this time of planetwide transformation. While we are confronted with unmistakable signs that our current way of life is no longer sustainable, inspiring and innovative people and programs are blossoming in all areas of our collective society. From a pay-it-forward café in Ahmedabad, to a youth program that brings African wisdom to Los Angeles, from the General Secretary of the Andean Nations, to the spiritual guardian of Ayers Rock, our film subjects live and work with many of the following values, attitudes, and beliefs:

* We are responsible to each other, the earth, and future generations.
* There are enough resources for us all, if we share.
* Free exchanges of information allow for greater, collective creative potential.
* Love, care and compassion have the power to transform the fabric of society.

We hope that by showing the diverse ways oneness is expressed—in the fields of sustainability, conflict resolution, spirituality, art, economics, indigenous culture, and social justice—others will be inspired to create solutions to personal and community challenges from their own lived understanding of oneness.

www.globalonenessproject.org

Roberto Perez, a cuban permaculture designer, talks about how Cuba survived Peak Oil. Also there is a documentary about this: ‘The Power of Community - How Cuba survived Peak Oil‘.

My main point would be the sense of community, of culture and music that exists in Cuba. Wonder what that cultural base would be in European countries or the US…

Related articles on Sound Of Sirens:
Energy Watch Group: Peak Oil ist ‘jetzt’
Life is Rhythm is Dance: The Afro-Cuban Rumba

Vortrag und Diskussion in Berlin
Donnerstag 29.5.08, 17-19 Uhr
Universität der Künste,
Hardenbergstr. 33
1. Stock, Raum 102

U- und S-Bahn Zoologischer Garten

Seit den 1970er Jahren gibt es Community Gardens in New York City. Trotz der steigenden innerstädtischen Grundstückspreise, sind sie als Landnutzung und Institution bis 2010 gesetzlich gesichert. Ihre Entwicklung als gemeinschaftlich genutzte innerstädtische Freiräume wird vorgestellt und in Hinsicht auf die bislang ungesicherte Situation von Gemeinschaftsgärten in Berlin, insbesondere im Zusammenhang mit der Räumung des Rosa Rose Gartens in Friedrichshain, diskutiert.
Waiting for development?

17 Uhr: Vortrag, Edie Stone, Direktorin der Green Thumb, New York City
17.45 Uhr: Vortrag, Frauke Hehl, Gemeinschaftsgarten Rosa Rose, Berlin
anschließend Diskussion.

Einführung und Gastgeber:
Professor Dr. Gert Gröning, Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Gestaltung (GTG)
Moderation:
Carolin Mees, Doktorandin „Community Gardens in der South Bronx”

It’s about style, it’s about status and it’s about opportunities deriving out of a ‘consumer-oriented look at the next 12-18 months’:

“Eco-friendly goods and services sporting bold, iconic markers and design, helping their eco-conscious owners show off their eco-credentials to their peers.
At the heart of ECO-ICONIC is a status shift: Many consumers are eager to flaunt their green behavior and possessions, because there are now millions of other consumers who are actually impressed by green lifestyles.”

For those of you who are not familiar with this stuff: This is called a trend-briefing. Here you find the whole thing of may/june 08: www.trendwatching.com/briefing/ Have a look where we’re heading…

People working in this field are called Consumer-Ethnographers. And sometimes I get the feeling that they look at ‘consumers’ a bit like the old ethnographers were investigating ‘the brutes’ back then…quite similar notions and quite similar blindfolds sometimes… Interesting species, these ‘consumers’, aren’t they. And if investigated properly the knowledge of their behaviour will make you rich (first and foremost) and better than the others.

Doesn’t change much, the way of perceiving and thinking, does it. I figure, burned down to the basics, again you’re at growth, competition and expansion oriented folks, manipulating, instrumentalizing and exploiting people and nature. As eco and sustainable you call the development, as ‘eco-embedded’ it would ‘have to become’ - in my book there won’t be any sustainability as long as there is an ethnographer investigating a consumer in order to…

This is nowhere near an understanding of our interconnected nature with our surroundings. This is repeating the same patterns.

But check the trendwatching site - and see for yourself how you feel about this stuff…

Die Energy Watch Group veröffentlichte im Mai ihren neuen Bericht. Ausserdem ist heute, am 22.5.08 der Rohölpreis so hoch wie noch nie. Und in den letzten 12 Monaten ist der Preis um 100 Prozent gestiegen. Eigentlich ein guter Grund sich entsprechende Sound Of Sirens Artikel nochmal durchzulesen.
Hier ein kurzer Auszug aus dem neuen Bericht der Energy Watch Group:

Die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse

Peak Oil ist ‘jetzt’

Seit einiger Zeit tobt eine heftige Debatte um das weltweite Ölfördermaximum („Peak Oil“). Institutionen mit großer Nähe zur Energiebranche, wie etwa das Consulting-Unternehmen CERA, betreiben eine Kampagne zur „Entlarvung“ der „Peak-Oil-Theorie“. Die vorliegende Studie gehört zu einer langen Reihe von Arbeiten, die innerhalb und außerhalb der ASPO (Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, etwa: Vereinigung zum Studium des Fördermaximums von Öl und Gas) entstanden sind und zeigen, dass das Ölfördermaximum keinesfalls mehr als „Theorie“ bezeichnet werden kann, sondern eine Realität ist, die sich bereits vor unseren Augen abspielt.
…Den Analysen unseres Szenarios zufolge ist das weltweite Ölfördermaximum 2006 eingetreten…
…Die wichtigste Erkenntnis ist, dass die Ölförderung nach dem Peak einen steilen Rückgang erleben wird.

Reading ‘Earth Democracy‘ by Vandana Shiva - which is, by the way, a wonderful book - I stumbled over a beautiful quote from Gandhi:
During British rule in India, Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western civilization. He responded: ‘It would be a good idea.’

So maybe you english speaking folks already know this TV show from Canada, but you see, if you live in Germany you gotta keep looking around outthere, gotta keep reaching out…And so that’s what we do. And yes, we’ll keep looking around for you others, too…;-) Didn’t I write something about ‘earth family’ lately?…

So for those of you who don’t know the show: Check it out. Seems like people care, people want to communicate to people and people want to empower people. 4real! And so some of these people have names that you know, like Joaquin Phoenix or Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, others have names you don’t know. And that’s the trick…’real people, real places, real stories, real change’…feels like something wants to be communicated…
www.4real.com

Please be aware of that. And please be aware that socalled free trade is an invention that destroys lifes, cultures and our planet.
Also we do not have to go to the rain forest, to India or North America, the same thing is happening in Finland, where indigenous people are being marginalized and robbed of their rights, land is being taken and robbed of its resources, governments are backing corporations.
Watch this documentary: Last Yoik In Sami Forests?, check the website: www.elonmerkki.net

The shift, the change will come through us, through people who speak up, who demand their rights, who create lively cultures and lively democracies, who think and act as an interdependent world family, looking for ways from being dependend consumers to responsible producers.

We have to replace the well being of corporations again with the wellbeing of real people and real societies. We have to create and build new self-governing economies. Connect which each other, learn from each other.
Know more: Vandana Shiva on zmag.org
Connect: CivWorld Interdependence Day,
Find support: Post Carbon Institute (Assists societies in their efforts to relocalize communities and adapt to an energy constrained world.)
Transition Towns (Local responses to the challenges of climate change and peak oil. Relocalization, Network and Support)

Are you ready, then shift along…

This first one is from 2006, created by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, two educators from the United States. Their intention was/is to help children learn and grow so that they may become successful digital, global citizens…
Well, I guess this intention is to be discussed, however take a look at what our children should know. Some of the info is quite startling. Plus: The thing already is two years old…
Here you find also a wikispace around the project.

And so now we shift into 2007. That’s the trailer of ‘Shift The Movie’. Again: Really some valid and startling info in here. And some sign that ’shift’ might hit the mainstream pretty soon…Waddayathink?

Recently found a great website with A LOT of translations of the Tao Te King.

Click here!

If you want a suggestion: Check this one from Stephen Mitchell.

And if you are german: Hier ist die Übersetzung von Stephen Mitchells Übersetzung…

Enjoy….!

Forschungsergebnisse aus dem Ausland und dem Inland zeigen, dass nicht schulgebundene Bildung häufig zu besseren Leistungen befähigt als unterschiedsloser Schulzwang, den es seit 2008 europaweit und international in Demokratien nur noch in Deutschland gibt. Dadurch wird das Bildungsbedürfnis eines beachtlichen Teiles seiner jeweils nachwachsenden Generationen blockiert und ein enormes Bildungspotential unwiederbringlich vergeudet.
Aus dem Dossier zur Kampagne ‘Für das Menschenrecht auf Bildung - Freiheit und Vielfalt der Bildungswege’.
Das vollständige Dossier findet ihr hier.

Dazu fallen mir zwei Permakultur Prinzipien ein, die auf der Beobachtung natürlicher Systeme basieren:

Prinzip der Unordnung
Ordnung und Harmonie produzieren Energie für anderweitigen Gebrauch. Unordnung konsumiert Energie ohne dienlichen Zweck.
Ordentlichkeit, Sauberkeit, Einheitlichkeit und Gradlinigkeit bezeichnen eine Unordnung in natürlichen Systemen, die durch Energieaufwand aufrechterhalten wird.

Prinzip von Stress und Harmonie
Stress kann entweder durch Verhinderung natürlicher Funktionen oder durch aufgezwungene Funktionen entstehen und dadurch definiert werden; Harmonie (im Gegensatz dazu) entsteht durch die Erlaubnis ausgewählter und natürlicher Funktionen und die Versorgung essentieller Bedürfnisse.

Aus ‘Permaculture, A Designer’s Manual’ by Bill Mollison, Tagari Publications, 1988

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Wenn euch das Thema interessiert:
Hier findet ihr den Bundesverband Natürlich Lernen! e.V. - mit viel Info, Forum und Engagement
hier die Zeitschrift ‘Unerzogen’
und hier weitere Permakultur Prinzipien

I would argue that a sustainable community culture would need to integrate ingredients as subtle and diverse as the ones to be found in afro-cuban rumba.
Complexity of rhythm, interdependance, improvisation and spontaneity, creative expression…all of that stuff is being lived in performing an afro-cuban rumba.

And how did Ravi Shankar say: ‘The highest aim of music is to reveal the nature of the universe.’ Eso es!

Enjoy!

If you want more info on Afro-Cuban Rumba you’ll find it here (a beautiful blog).
More info on Afro-Cuban Culture you will find here (Afro Cuba Web).

Saw that in London. Couldn’t quite believe it. Some kind of reality check after South Devon, I guess…