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