Time to speak French

To those who might have read this blog: my apologies but it seems that very few people were coming here and that all of them also understand French (!).
As it takes time to translate and a lot of the subjects link to pages in French, it makes more sense to keep only the French version of this blog, which will continue to be updated and that I invite you to read here.
As for this English version, it will no longer be updated.
Thanks to all!

How you spend your money

How you spend your money is how you vote on what exists in the world.

Vicki Robin (Your money or your life)

So here's to make people who keep saying "we have no influence or power over the production, we can't change it so might as well take advantage of it" think...

Time for closure?

It seems only the French version gets any comments, leading me to believe nobody reads the English version.
As translating everything takes time and makes the whole things less often updated, I wonder if I shouldn't get rid of this English version...
If you happen to read this and would like to keep doing so in English, please says so - otherwise I'll probably close this one within a week...
Thanks!

What I'm reading now

Nicole Krauss
The History of Love

While I was voraciously reading two marvelous novels by Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely loud and incredibly close and Everything is illuminated, I was already eyeing this book by Nicole Krauss. It came as a nice suprise when I found out later that these two writers were actually a couple.
I know it doesn't mean anything and isn't important, but it's still a lovely wink.

Anyway, I'm now in the middle of this book and in the ever so gracious time when you discover such a new writer.

Simple Living, a voluntary choice

Many changes lately in my daily life… Sorting, getting rid of, recycling, giving, modifying, slowly adjusting habits to beliefs, etc. In short, trying to get back to the real things, to release the unimportant and unessential – and knowing that a move is in order this year gives a good motivation!

I discovered only in the middle of all this, while surfing on the net, that despite what some might say all this wasn’t really original at all but well known (in the sens of a minority of course – yes, it makes sense)(does too). I should have guessed when Reginakakou came last summer with lots of praise on a book about the art of living in a simple way…

So, I was unknowingly taking the path of the Voluntary Simplicity. What’s that? A way of turning to less possessions, getting rid of what’s not necessary, live with more space for real contacts and humanity – this way of living is often associated with ecology and turns its back to capitalism (and all the incentives of the market, free or not). Refusing to systematically turn to what we can buy and/or get, that which makes us become unable to take care of ourselves.
“Voluntary” does not make the name pretty but means it’s a choice, a way to define our own lives by ourselves – and not through commercials, for example. To reclaim power over your life instead of following the mainstream eyes wide shut.

The immediate benefit is getting more autonomy. When you realize you’re incapable of producing anything by yourself and that for whatever you want to do in your life you need to buy something or pay someone, it gets scary… Learning how to make things yourself has many advantages, and not only for yourself. And gives great satisfaction – or huge laughs when your first tests, for example of home-made bread, turn out to be total catastrophies!

More info :

Pour en savoir plus :
Voluntary simplicity on Wikipedia

The Simple Living Network
Réseau québécois pour la Simplicité volontaire (fr)
Decroissance.info - Website on the subject, (fr)

The Beach Boys go to war

OK, usually here it's supposed to be more about Mother Nature and such, but still, sometimes a little bit of politics goes into everybody - and some might say that it's always been political here, depending on the definition you give to the word. So, thanks to the information from the great Pastitsio Queen, here's an anecdote from the US.

John McCain, Republican trying for the White House, was asked yesterday during a meeting in South Carolina when the US would send an "airmail message" to Iran. His reply: singing the beginning of "Barbara Ann" from the Beach Boys using the words "Bomb Iran". But don't worry, apparently he just wanted to lighten up the crowds about this tough subject... No comment.

Here's the You Tube video of the event (44 seconds).

What I'm reading now

Maxence Fermine
Amazone

Last year, in the middle of my love affair with Alessandro Baricco's books, I discovered Fermine and his wonderful The Black Violin, Snow and The Beekeeper.

Now it's time to continue the dream travel with this next book...

That’s quite a footprint – an ecological one

During a recent weekend, we were about nine friends around the table, and suddenly we started enquiring on each other’s ecological footprint. We had a test received from the Brussels Institute for Environment about the food part of the ecological footprint, that counts for about a third of the total one. We each took it and, big surprise, we were only two out of nine people that didn’t use up more than the available resources in their eating habits…

Startled by this, I went and calculate my total ecological footprint. Big surprise, 1.7 planets Earth would be necessary if everybody was living the same way as I am today – and that is after having changed already quite a few behaviors. I’m tempted to say that the landlord of the apartment we’re renting is not fixing the dramatic isolation or that we’re just about to change electricity providers for a “green” one, but I don’t think the planet would care for such lame excuses: the result for it is the same. So here we go for keeping modifying habits and try to change that bad result…

So what’s this ecological footprint thing? In short, it is the total (earth) surface necessary to produce the products and energy used by each person and manage the trash it generates. How big a part of the planet we appropriated without realizing. Many things enter the calculations: electricity, cars or bikes, how much water, meat, etc. For the complete definition, check the Wikipedia entry.

Results tend to be shocking, but help to realize how we’re living. And at the end of the test is usually offered a few guidelines to change habits and reduce the footprint. It appears clearly there that saying “the industries and governments have to do the change, we have no influence whatsoever as single human beings” is not true.

So, are you ready to check the direct impact your way of living has on the planet? Here are some tests:

Earthday Network (by country and language)
Australian Conservation Foundation
Agir 21 (in French)
WWF Belgique (in French)
Bruxelles Environnement (in French)

"But it's free!"

It happens a lot that I have to fight to not get stuff. I'm not talking about the times when you decide firmly not to buy something, but about having to repeat that you don't want something before ending up with many of these free things that keep popping all around.

Ordinary legal harassment – an example.

Let's say you're weak and go get a bottle of perfume because yours is out or almost. To start with, you already feel bad buying this when perfume is not natural at all and full of mean substances etc., but before you're strong enough to do without that silly perfume you pay this weakness by having to suffer the kind of places that sell it.
When your turn is up at the counter, you have to be fast because it's immediately put inside a plastic bag, even though it's very small.
- No thanks, I have my own bag.
Mistrust passed in eyes full of surprise.
- Are you sure?
Once this issue is sorted out, beware, the worst is to come when you just bought perfume.
- No thanks, I don't want any samples.
(a silence of shock and disbelief)
- Are you sure?
- Yes.
- You don't want to try new fragrances?
- No thanks, I know which perfume suits me, and I have it now.
- But miss, it's free!
The time comes when you have to calm everybody down in the middle of this panic situation: offer to give the free samples you don't want to the person just behind you. Until now, nobody ever turned that down…

But it happens everywhere.

At the place I still sometimes go to get a sandwich for lunch, they give small chocolates, which always leads to this chorus of "Are you sure? – But it's free!".
Worse, once these chocolates were forced into my bag.
- Thanks a lot but I don't want them.
- You'll probably want them later in the afternoon.
- I don't think so.
- Come on, everybody is entitled some pleasure, plus it's free!
That day I lost the battle and ended up giving the free unwanted chocolates to a colleague.

It would seem that our grand and brilliant society of wanting more and more of everything can't stand the idea of someone turning down anything that's free. That behaviour appears shocking.

Conclusion: it appears I'm quite a hooligan.

The Meatrix & Store Wars

If you’re not into long depressing documentaries on the industrial food like the ones I mentionned last month, here are two well crafted animation short based on well-known movies.

The link to The Meatrix was passed a lot by email, so many already saw it. Based on (ha-ha) The Matrix synopsis, it shows how Leo the pig discovers the reality of its meat condition behind the illusion of the happy farm. Two sequels go deeper into the problems. In The Meatrix II – Revolting, Leo and his friends visit a dairy farm to try and fight its ways. And The Meatrix II ½ shows how fast food hamburgers are processed… Behind the short movies, a lot of information and clues on how to not participate to this industry.

More into vegetables ? Grocery Store Wars was created for the Organic Trade Association, it’s longer but still less than five minutes. In this one, the cucumber Skywalker tries to save Princess lettuce from the vegetables under the influence of the dark side of the farm. Satr Wars goes to the supermarket… and also informs you on your foods after the film. May the farm be with you…

Trolls and Legends

Let's enjoy this long weekend by going to Mons (Belgium) to the festival Trolls et Légendes that we missed in its first edition two years ago. This year, the theme - there's always got to be a theme in festivals, for some reason - is Wizards and Magicians.
Finally, a chance to stroll along the medieval shops, see all the different activities and, with a little bit of luck, go to the public meeting with Alan Lee. Then, when night comes, dance shamelessly on the beautiful sounds of the great Omnia and Faun, and rediscover Urban Trad.
Sorry, can't stay now, I have a parallel universe to go to...

Simple gestures: dear old stairs

Not mentioned in Sports for dummies, I’ll add a simple detail in my daily revolutions, even though my behavior in the matter is far from perfect at the time and it’s not directly linked to sports considerations either: stairs. Our ancestors created these devices eons ago: lacking electricity, they needed an inventive tool to avoid expanding purely horizontally. Made of steps, these wonders allow their users to reach an upper or lower point of the land – or building.
Nowadays, we no longer need to use these archaic things to go up or down. But still. I admit I do love stairs, and try to prove it every time I get a chance. They’re never late, they don’t fall out of service in a second (they don’t fall in a second either), they’re not crowded, they’re not noisy, they hardly use any energy… and they shape your muscles. Needless to say they’re also perfect for every kind of claustrophobe.
Modern prejudice tends to say the opposite, but on a daily basis, stairs do represent a kind of freedom. Using stairs, you keep your own rhythm, your own space, your own responsibility. Quite a revolution! Only problem: like hand writing, we don’t really know how this works anymore. So here’s a trick: start by using them to go down… And when I manage taking them systematically to go up, I’ll make sure to let you know!

What I'm reading now

Yann Martel

Life of Pi

Richard Parker practically became a natural reference since I heard so much about this book.

But the truth is it isn't and it's time I get to the essence of it. So after a difficult start (not easy to go from Primo Levi to this without any pause!) I'm now really getting into it.

Harry Potter and the recycled paper

A good decision for a good wizard: Scholastic, the American publisher of the Harry Potter books, made the decisions to use recycled paper to print the 12 million copies of book n°7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (784 pages).
And that leads to only one answer: respect.

A gift to Sarkozy - France and GMOs

No, I'm not a Greenpeace activist, but I do like their smart, well-thought, human and original actions, and they're those who make me smile the most lately.
So what did they do to make me smile this time? Well, they made a demonstration in front of Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign offices in Paris. As many know, he's the most privileged candidate to the French presidential election, and also a quite dangerous man who already did quite his share in sinking people living in his country. As it turns out in this case, he's also the sole candidate that didn't take any position in favour of a moratorium on GMOs. The only one, yes. All this despite a way of speaking misleading people into thinking he would not really trust GMOs. All talk, no actions, so Greenpeace came to confront him in that and repeat a demand made by many associations that he takes a position in the matter.
On March 16, disguised as street cleaners and with the appropriate van, they delivered in front of his campaign offices several tons of genetically modified corn (in a "return to sender" mind frame). This was filmed and can be seen here, ending with an explanation at the end in both English (if you don't mind the accent!) and French.

For those interested in knowing the actual GMO related positions and propositions of all the candidates to the French elections, you can check it on this site – only in French.

As for the other French demonstrations: there's a hunger strike currently going on (started on March 14). This as well as documents about GMOs and the demonstrator's position can be seen on this French website, where a petition (fr) demanding a moratorium can also be signed.

All this could make people think, again, that French people really are the most aggressive in Europe against GMOs, but saying this would only relay a manipulation often made in the media, mostly French. Yes, it does seem they are the most aggressive, but a fact important to know in this domain is that in Europe their country is the one with the least legislative precautions against GMOs and was the first to start GMO cultures, in 1998.
And there's also this nagging detail of Europe Union's request for a fine on France for breaches of the environmental law in that matter: despite several written warnings, last December France had still not adopted the EU Directive on deliberate release of genetically modified organisms into the environment – a Directive of 2001 that was to be adopted by all EU countries by 2003... All the explanations here in English.

Photo: © Greenpeace

What I'm reading now

Primo Levi
If this is a Man

I had this book for a while, and even before buying it I considered it for years. Some books call you early on, then wait patiently for you to be ready.

And this seems to be now, after seeing recently a stage adaptation of it. I felt I needed more, and more would be the book itself - so there I now embark into one of these books everybody knows about but don't want to read, I believe they're called classics.

Sports for the dummies

Read any magazine and listen to any dinner conversation, the word is out there: you should work out. We all know it so well that we act on it the best we can: feeling guilty, pressure, need to be part of the modern city-crowd and follow the same rules. So: we join an overrated club. Or not. So: we take classes of the latest hip thing with our new colourful sports-clothes three times a week at the given schedule. Or not. So: we promise a friend we'll both take dance classes "at least once a week" – we make that promise every year, and every week one of us calls the other to explain why she has to cancel, again.

Meanwhile, "you should work out". So how to manage that? I'm lately trying three different ways that so far work much better than any of the above ever did.

1) Walk. Anywhere, anytime. This has great side-effects: not being crushed in the crowd of the trams and busses, actually seeing the world (street), being able to listen to music without bothering everybody and bring the rhythm to my feet, not having to wait for these trams and busses, etc. On the bonus side: freedom of movement.

2) Welcome back that good old dance instinct. Big words meaning I used to dance around the house whenever I felt like it without thinking of anything like aesthetics or social role, etc. But then I became a "responsible couple", or was silently told by society rules that I had to. Or not. So I'm coming back to my old "responsible self" taking care of her dance needs: whenever the dance floor (living room) is free, if the music speaks to me that way, I just follow it trying to avoid those nasty self-conscious feelings.

3) Starting a yoga thing which name makes it sound hippie new-agy organic monkey food or such: the 5 Tibetans. I know, but change the name and the presentation, and you could get the next every-Hollywood-star-does-it thing. So anyway, these are five simple excercises to do every day in the morning. Normal things, easy to understand and do by following the visual explanations. So far, this takes me 5 to 10 minutes every morning. I repeat: maximum 10 minutes a day. That's nothing, and the best is you can work it around your schedule as you wish – might have a problem with our all weekend long guests, though, but that could make for a fun moment!
It comes from the Tibetan Lammas and would be their "eternal youth" secret, balancing the chakras, etc. On a more basic point of view, it gives a lot of energy for the day, and on a longer term it muscles gently and improves the general elasticity. The best is no need to pay anything, to run to a trendy club or to get a special outfit. You can do it anywhere you have some floor space.
So easy it's scary we don't hear about it more – ah right, it's because it's free, sorry I forgot that detail.

More information here:
Life events
Shapeshift
Raffa (fr)
Art & Energy (fr)
Santé prospérité (fr)

What I'm reading now

Terry Pratchett

Wyrd Sisters

My very first of the Discworld series.

So far, so great - let's see where this goes...

Genetically engineered foods vs. the law

Beginning of last month, Greenpeace made an appointment with European Commissioner for Health Markos Kyprianou. The agenda? A small legislative hole allowing Monsanto and such products to enter our daily diet.
The point is we feel 'safe' when it comes to GMOs since it is mandatory that GMO foods are labelled as such. Right. Except for this tiny hole in the law – there's no regulation when it comes to animal products. So animals are fed GMOs, and then we blindly eat their meat, milk, eggs, etc. Whoops? Big whoops!
Hence Greenpeace's visit to the European Commission (initiating the European laws). And why would Health Commissionner Kyprianou listen to them? Well, it seems the European law has its own 'flaws': the European Constitution project mentions the right to anyone to ask the European Commission to consider a new piece of legislation, provided they're backed by about a million signatures from a significant number of countries. OK, Greenpeace has the infrastructure and the will, so they took a year but they did it. Nice to know even though it would be difficult for any given citizen to make himself/herself heard by the powers that are, with the backings of a good organisation it can be done.

Meanwhile, you can check which food products currently contain GMOs in your country on Greenpeace's latest red-orange-green lists.

Speaking about sneaky GMOs taking over the market with the European Union's blessings, the new European requirements specifications project for organic agriculture implies much less restrictions and would allow - among other things - up to 0.9% of the products to be of genetically modified origin. Say hello to GMO organic food!
To make sure this doesn't happen, one way to start is to sign the petition (some 50 thousand signatures already) at Nature et Progrès (couldn't find an English version, sorry).

Picture: © Greenpeace / Jock Fistick

We feed the Earthlings daily

Two documentaries on food industry, even though made in 2005, arrive only now on Belgian screens – and both, for some reason, are Austrian.

Our daily bread (Unser täglish Brot)
No comment at all during Nikolaus Geyrhalter's visit to the different steps of the European food industry production ways. Just watch and listen to the perfect mechanics making our 'daily bread'. Now where did the humans go...?

We feed the world
Same subject, much more talk. What's the path our daily food follows? Erwin Wagenhofer tracks it through France, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil and Austria. On his way, he meets fishermen, biologists, many workers and Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, and this guy Peter Brabeck, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé International - you know, that tiny company...

All talks about these movies made me discover an older one that is now available in streaming: Earthlings. Joaquin Phoenix is the narrator of this denunciation of the way we treat animals in all different production sectors - including where some pets come from. The hidden camera images of the slaughter houses are not to watch just before you eat – and, come to think of it, not right after either. Check it out here (about 1h35).

And enjoy your meal now...

Big Dawn

All modern shows start with a bit of advertising, so here goes: if you happen to be in or visit Luxemburg in March, don’t miss Anne Michaux's Big Dawn exhibition, a personnal vision on today’s reality, emotion through photo illustration.

What's in a name?

So how do you get yourself a name among the millions of already existing blogs? Well, the usual game implies playing around with nicknames and references, private jokes and such. In this case, it’s just another nickname – and a long but a purposefull one: as it turns out, my first name is the same as the name of one of Neptune’s moons. So thanks to the one who came up with it in his usual sky poetry... and welcome to this moonspace