We were talking about a sweeping wave of change, in a prior post. And waves don’t stop, so nor will I.

We’ve all heard about the Millennium Development Goals of the UN. It so happens, I’m not a big fan of institutions such as the UN. Especially not when, though it is a ‘voluntary’ organisation for countries to join, and establish somewhat of a ‘world-government’ type deal (or so is my interpretation), it’s regarded as a ’second-choice’ in terms of political decision time. (remember the Iraq War?)

Anyway, the UN also has some good ideas. They have, in the years running up to 2000, decided to form a set of goals that are for the betterment of mankind in general (eradication of poverty / ensure environmental sustainability / achieve universal primary education / promote gender equality and empower women, for example). This, I find, is a ‘good’ thing, ‘we’ (Westerners) ought to break through the inequality we find in our world which is, for a good deal, maintained through Western behavioural patterns. So; 1-up for the UN.

Now, despite the good efforts, Ban-Ki-Moon, the tribal chief of the UN, has warned the people of the world that because of the economic crisis the goals are under pressure (see the full report here). Yeah. Right. The eradication of poverty for instance, in 15 years, can indeed be done, but the simple fact of the matter is that as long as western companies (and thus governments) still make money on this form of inequality, this will not be achieved easily (remember the ’secondary choice’-thing). Same with the gender equality idea. This is not even achieved in ‘developed’ countries. Next to that there’s this counter movement of ‘new-feminism’ in which gender equality became some sort of chauvinistic idea, but I’ll leave that to your own judgment. In my opinion men and women are not equal, yet, should be given equal rights and men and women should be judged on their individual qualities when it comes to whatever it is you’d like to judge them on. Let’s be happy men and woman are not equal, it would be a monotonous world.

As it is, maybe we should look around and see what small initiatives are doing, and how you and I as individuals could support those initiatives. In this case, for instance, by supporting them in an effort to win an award where UN money is given away, in name of the Millennium Awards. (Because like it or not, the money will go somewhere anyway.) And I’ve got just the NGO to do that for!

As part of ‘doing my part’ I’ve joined Satara to assist in the further development of their strategy, communication and business-wise. Satara works on Ghandi’s philosophy “We need to be the change we wish to see.” We’re currently working on a spring/summer 2010 collection, produced in India, empowering women that are manufacturing the collection (by hand). We do this through paying honest wages, education and setting up a more secure social system. Satara’s profit is re-invested in a local education project in order to stimulate and enable local parents to send their kids to school instead of being forced to be dependent on their income to feed the family. (read the whole story here)

This is Moniek van Erven, telling you the story of Satara;

You can help out by voting for Satara both on- and offline;

Vote online via the following link.

Or via text-message;

Text ‘nhd satara’ to 4999 (in the Netherlands) (remember the single space between nhd & satara)

You can find more on the UN Millennium Awards here (Dutch) and here (English).

As it is, this was shameless self-promotion, but it’s for a good cause, hope you’ll help us out! Thanks in advance.

Love and Peace.

Because they need it, now more than ever. I’ve been following the health-care debate, more or less, more so, I’ve been mesmerized by the stupidity that seems to come along with protest in the U.S. We’ve seen people wearing M-15’s at several protests, because they have the ‘right to bare arms’, we’ve seen people do nothing but shout at each other, people, I might add, who were forced by their employers (dutch), we’ve seen (of course) Fox send some of her puppets on he subject, of which the most interesting one was;

This is all public debate, which we can settle down on and say, well, it’s a hot issue, governmental participation in health-care, in the U.S. it is anyway. That doesn’t mean one ought to disrupt and try to destroy the entire debate by stating such absolute horse-shit (excuse my french), but we’ve seen this before. In Europe we’ve decided some time ago that it might not be a bad idea if (close to) everyone would have a health-care plan. But let’s be honest, and understand that, with media-outlets such as Fox we can count on some less subtle (or blatantly stupid) debates. So it goes.

But what has seriously hit my face with a metal plate was the following video;

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I mean, is this the country that ought to be in charge (because they are) of the economical reform of our international finance structure? The stupidity of the news-outlets, OK, of the people perhaps, OK, actually no, that’s not OK, in a ‘democratic’ country, but seriously, a senator, are you $%^&* kidding me?! I cannot believe this, really, how can you, being an American citizen, not get up and kick off some sort of revolution? How can you sit there and think, well, what would you think?! I’d get my bags and leave the country. I’m seriously mind-boggled. I have some U.S. based friends, and talking to them didn’t make me wiser, the acceptance, or in-ability to care, is something I can’t understand.

The day before Obama’s speech on health-care something else happened.

Van Jones, the country’s ‘Green Energy’ reformer has decided to step down from his post after continuous allegations of him being a ‘communist’. Oh, and he signed a petition which suggested that 9/11 was ‘an inside job’. First of all, I thought they’d passed the ‘communist’ thing some time ago and moved towards socialist-allocations. But OK. Next to that, if you’d look at the success of documentaries that suggest ‘the ugly possibility’ of 9/11 one could argue it is an opinion shared by a good majority of the people in the Western World. Taking into account the tactics employed during, and after the 9/11 reports, one cannot conclude otherwise than that the U.S. government was not very eager to reveal ‘the whole truth and nothing but the truth’. ( Here ‘Beck’s report on ‘revealing’ Van Jones please note the use of linguistics and way the video is build-up, oh also, both Marx and Lenin’s thought are mandatory part of Dutch History course)

It’s a sad time in the political sphere of the Western World, with extremist politicians standing up all over the spectrum, an increasing poverty of quality in media and duality increasing on a daily basis. I hope everyone will understand my (quickly) written plead for contemplation.

Peace and Love.

I’m often catagorised as an idealist, dreamer, utopian, even hippie, as a result of my being. In my simple (and humble) opinion there are a lot of opportunities for change in ‘our’ way of living. In terms of our social attitude towards each other, the way we treat natural resources, the way we design our products (from choice of material to how it is designed to engage with the consumer), the way politics engage with citizens, just to name a few.

Now, I’m sure I’m not the only one, I talk to loads of people, from all sorts of social backgrounds and current settings that see the same world I do (more or less, perception is reality), and I truly believe Internet is the enabler of the change a lot of us would like to see. Internet is also facing a great challenge in the years ahead though. I might have (if not, I guess I should have) written about the possibility of the American ‘cable-TV-Internet’ bill that has been proposed by the telecom and cable-TV guys over there (AT&T mostly). (some info here, and an active website for net neutrality, which is the key issue for the success of Internet as a carrier/enabler of change, here) The bill would basically persue to annihilate the current freedom of choice we have on Internet. The idea these bright guys have is that the decision of what websites should be available ‘high-speed’ to consumers, should be made in boardrooms, not on the Internet itself, by the users thereof, collectively functioning as a control, relevance, (or push) factor of (web)success.

I’m happy to see that opposed to the current push towards Internet bans, and moderation by governments (here, here (Wikipedia article on general Internet censorship), here, here) are opposed by some good news (here, here in the U.S. for instance and here). The thing is, mostly, that the Internet is bigger than it’s users, because, as a single user, you’re merely a dot in the ‘cloud’, yet as a community, we’re the most powerful institution in the world. Governments with the illusion that they have the ability to control the internet must be drunk on Absinth.

The simple fact of matter is, if you push people into a corner, they’ll dig. They’ll go underground, and you (i.e. governments) won’t be able to find them. Bas has written a good piece on that 2 days ago. His point is, when you push the users of Internet into ‘illegality’ by illegalising the way they use the Internet (and have been using for a very long time), you’ll push them further and further away. His example of the amount of hackers in countries with a strong Internet ‘protocol’ is, to me quite convincing. The number of hackers in countries as such is seemingly much higher than in countries that have relatively free Internet.

Back to that wave of change you’re on. Because, you are too. Whether you like it or not. If you’re using the Internet you are part of the biggest ‘Tribe’ in the world, and thus, part of the change we’re pushing (some a bit more active than others) into this world. Initiatives such as Couchsurfing, provide, except for a cheap way round the world, also the intention and opportunity to meet new people, become more familiar with new cultures, debate viewpoints of the world and, as is the mission of Couchsurfing, “We envision a world where everyone can explore and create meaningful connections with the people and places we encounter. Building meaningful connections across cultures enables us to respond to diversity with curiosity, appreciation and respect. The appreciation of diversity spreads tolerance and creates a global community. With the apparent success, over one million members and growing , Couchsurfing is a vehicle of movement that is here to stay.

Also more ‘hands-on’ approaches of change through Internet, can be found all over. We look at Avaaz, who roam round with a mission that ‘goes a little something like this’;

Avaaz.org is a new global web movement with a simple democratic mission: to close the gap between the world we have, and the world most people everywhere want. Across the world, most people want stronger protections for the environment, greater respect for human rights, and concerted efforts to end poverty, corruption and war. Yet globalization faces a huge democratic deficit as international decisions are shaped by political elites and unaccountable corporations — not the views and values of the world’s people.

In terms of how they work, and what the extend of their reach is, one should sit down for a bit. I’ve spoken about Internet being the enabler and agent of change, and Avaaz has modeled this into a very, very hardcore system, in one year alone, Avaaz went from their Beta verion to 3.5 million members and growing 9,000 a day(!!!), this is what they say about it;

“Technology and the internet have allowed citizens to connect and mobilize like never before. The rise of a new model of internet-driven, people-powered politics is changing countries from Australia to the Philippines to the United States. Avaaz takes this model global, connecting people across borders to bring people powered politics to international decision-making.”

If you’d like to know more about Avaaz or even become a member, please check here.

As said, we’re riding a wave, and the waves is one that weather specialists would call a tidal wave, and it’s not going to stop, we have reached critical mass, we need to realise it.

For now, love and peace for all.

As I was standing in in front of a traffic-light, round 22.17 at night, and stood there for a good 3.46 minutes, without any other traffic participants crossing in front of me, I started wondering. About all sorts of stuff.

The idea of our wasteful behaviour was brought to my attention (once more) by a (new) friend of mine, who was talking about a documentary about how big corporations don’t wish to sell their products under a certain price, in order to maintain the year-long efforts in building up a reputation that would justify profits margins of 70-190%. It happens to be the case that I wrote a thesis on the relationship between a company’s reputation and it’s general ‘corporate social responsibility’. And I can’t help but feel the hope sink towards the bottom of my being, when big corporations such as Samsung (here/here examples of how they are ‘good citizens’) for instance, seem to think that throwing money around in a seemingly altruistic fashion will cover their ‘efforts to maintain a price worthy reputation’. (or something of that kind, I am not entirely sure how to name this kind of behaviour)

These efforts consist of systematically wasting brand new products that are not sold and thus dumped, dissembled and partially burned. We see DVD players, HD TV’s and MP3 players go down in price and most people get happy, as it is now available for a bigger public. Yet, for the corporations that manufacture these products (being ’stock-market-companies’), these kind of ‘free-market’ dynamics create a problem. A reputation problem. The products that are sold under the general price-level of the company will give the brand a ‘bad name’ or so it the thought. But destroying the products, where we ‘the people’ don’t see or hear anything about it, will only show up in the books, somewhere deep and buried.

She also talked about fashion-labels ‘un-stitching’ their labels and shipping their clothing off to ‘development-countries’. This I see as somewhat of an attempt to do something about the unequal dynamics in our world, not too bad. But also, here we again, talk about a matter driven by the fear of ‘losing face’, but mostly, bad business-strategy. If, apparently your product is not good enough to sell your stock (or mis-priced, mis targetted or whatever), perhaps you should thing about what and how you produce, how you market it, and how you price it.

But I’m drifting off.

Apples.

Do you eat the center part of an apple? If not, why not? Have you ever tried, or do you simply don’t eat the center part of an apple because you were taught to do so? (when mum was still citting the apples for you and gave them to you in one of those brightly coloured bowls, yesh, we’ve all been there) Just think about it. Why would you not eat the center part of an apple, it’s tasty, it’s healthy, and ehm, it gives eating an apple yet ANOTHER dimension. It’s great.

To illustrate what you could do to stop the wastefulness of our Western being. I don’t want to ask people to simply start ignoring red-lights when you think it to be safe you see. It’s in the little things, and starts with yourself. Anyway, I’m off eating an apple.

Love and peace.

Ok, I’m not an economic wonder, nor do I claim to understand the current financial system from left to right, top to bottom, but I must say, WOW, I’m impressed.

As I understand it, banks have been the major factor in destabilising the current world economy. This, of course, cannot have been done without the help of our dear governments, in terms of law and regulation of this world economy of ours, yet, the lobby and money thrown at them (the government), is, no doubt, a circumstance to be taken into account. From what I heard, Goldman Sachs was one of the financial institutions that was under a lot of pressure and almost went bankrupt, hence they received a ($10 billion) bailout (because the system is never wrong, it’s ‘the market’ that suffers from global tendencies that arise out of nothing). Than, they were among one of the first to repay this ‘bail-out’. One could argue, look at those good guys, they want to ride the bicycle without side-wheels. Yes, one could indeed say this. One could also argue, that perhaps, they feared the government looking over their shoulder and saying, “Ehm, perhaps you guys should change your ways”, perhaps. Who knows what they were thinking, I sure don’t.

What I do know, is that I find it very interesting that in a time like this a bank, that was so severely hit by the economic turmoil of the last year-and-a-half, can make a $2.7 billion profit, and before that, had already decided to set aside $11.4 billion, for salaries and bonuses, adding up to $386.400,- on average for every employee, secretaries included (how sweet, but what about the cleaners?). What I also know is that, for me, this whole spectacle brings forth a funny feeling in my tummy.

The thing is, not so much that is seems to happen, cause well, it does. The thing to me, more so, is the fact that it happens, and the lack of response from the world. It is all just accepted, as if it is normal. The money, according to David Vinair, came from “risks taken in turbulent markets and speculation in stocks and currency” besides that, “there is less competition”. (There’s that funny feeling again) I mean, I’m not doing business with the kind people of Goldman Sachs, because well, I barely have money to start with, yet, my mind feels slightly numb at reading this kind of news, and the powerful institutions we have looking out for our well-being (yes, I mean governments), seem to sit back and take it, because their power only goes to a certain point.

Fair enough.

Oh wait, no, it’s not that fair. Small business-owners go bankrupt, starters on the housing-markets can’t get mortgages because banks are sitting on their money, people loose their jobs and people who had a mortgage are now increasingly finding trouble to repay the money and keep their house.

Can anyone tell me why we accept this? I’m lost.

Peace and love.

Alright, it’s been a while since I actually wrote something concerning my personal life. And I’d like to keep it that way, more or less.

The more or less part is based on the fact I’d like to address travel. Because I’m traveling to India in, ehm, 17 hours. After I had finished my thesis (according to me, not my coordinator), I was stoked and annoyed with the fact (very dualist I am aware), and decided to get out of the country for a while, as it has been a very intense last 10 months. I’ll leave out the details, you’ll just have to believe me. (BTW, really stoked about the visual identity of Cradle of Design I received just now, looks great and will be ‘alive’ August)

Alright, travel.

The thing is, I’m quite surprised about the reactions people have been giving me about ‘just leaving’. A selection; “Wow, you’re nuts” (that’s not a very original one though, and not necessarily concerning the travel part), “How do you afford that?”, “I wish I could do that”. I think you can, both afford it, and do it (Yes we can type deal, but than for real).

First of all, it doesn’t have to be all that expensive; put some time in finding a ticket. I found a ticket for 420,- euro’s two-way. (here) It took me 3 days and the great help of Femke, but still. Than, I became a member of an organisation called WWOOF which is an NGO that enables us Western kids to really engage in ‘cultural understanding’. You work on an organic farm in a local, small community, 5 hours a day, in exchange for food and a spot to sleep. This ‘work’ ranges from building sheds, milking cows, teaching kids English, sweeping the place, cooking or planting seeds. It gives you the opportunity to get a taste of the local community and learn about organic agriculture (no use of chemicals and/or pesticides). Next to that the people (seem to be) (are) very willing to teach you things such as yoga and/or meditation, local cuisine, language and culture.

The thing is, besides that it’s very cheap travel, it also helps you to not just ‘do’ a country (the typical backpacker-attitude where we all just gather on the other side of the world and get wasted on both alcohol and hallucinates (don’t get me wrong, nothing wrong with that, but you can do at home too) but really visit a country and gives you an opening into a culture in order to ‘live’ it (although for a very short time). (articles on ‘vagabond-travel’ here & here)

Next to that, the I wish I could, is, for me anyway, just an excuse. I’ve once learned, at some point, that if something scares the living shit out of you, it’s probably because you haven’t got a clue what to expect and it’s easier to just let it sit there in your mind and move along the steady path of current life. In my opinion, this results in people (I’ve met loads of them and so have you I guess), saying, oh yeah, but you’re young, easy life, etc. Well, sure, I am young, sure, I have an easy life, but I’m also building a company, I’ve also graduated, I’ve also done loads of network building in the last months, some projects etc. ect. It’s not an excuse not to do other stuff. If you feel like leaving for a while, do it. Life is too short to have to say; “Oh, I wish I had done this, or that.” It’s a choice, sure, but well, if you feel you ought to do something, go f&%^* do it. The only time is now and if you have the opportunity, grab it. Don’t be afraid of things you don’t know, all learning comes with pains and gains, and scary things are most likely the ones that’ll teach you most.

I think we can all agree on the idea of life being a journey, and I found this quote from Vonnegut the other day;

“Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.”

Now, I don’t necessarily believe in the monotheistic view upon God or anything (more so that it is all one, including all of us, which in itself is monotheistic again, circle, circle, let’s talk about that some other time), but the opportunities arising in our lives are too often past by and left alone, which is a bloody shame.

For now, I wish you all love and peace, hope to see you upon return, take it easy.

A bit opportunistic perhaps, but I felt like writing something on the subject of my thesis, so I did. The thesis is in its final stages and consists of a range of interviews with; David Fellah, Herbert van Hoogdalem, Dan Germain, Mikal Hallstrup and last, but surely not least, Sir Richard Branson. Also, a survey with 150 respondents, loads of literature review and the text here would, I think, be classified as my conclusions without the sources. Hope you enjoy it.

Throughout the process of compiling the thesis I came across several often returning ‘tag-words’ if you wish. One of them; ethics, others; transparency, genuine behaviour and long-term strategy. These four ‘drivers’ so to say, are very important in implementing a CSR strategy. In my personal opinion, Dan Germain put it very well, CSR is not a strategy, it is part of the DNA of a company. Yet, I would like to say, it is not the DNA of the company, it is the DNA of the people behind the company.

The most important part, when it comes to social behaviour, is that it needs to be true, the truthfulness, of CSR, no matter what it’s business or communication consequences, is vital in even considering implementing a strategy as such. Although currently CSR is becoming somewhat of a ‘trendy thing to be in’ and a popular thing to implement, in the base, it should be a feeling of people who control the larger sums of money in this world, to do ‘something good’. This, in times of declining world economies, based on unclear, confusing financial constructs, leaving, hardworking, honest people bankrupt, job- and homeless, is a message received with a heartfelt cheer by activists, political left and right-wingers, consumers and non-consumers.

This, as touched upon earlier (in the thesis that is), is also the risk. In times of superficial entertainment, de-humanised wars (on the Western side of the equation), increased negative outlooks on world economy, the return of ‘pirates’ in our daily news and the continued callings of the ruling western spiritual leader- the Pope, to not use condoms in Africa, news, which is ‘true, ‘good’ or ‘positive’ is received with great enthusiasm and appreciation, without looking much further into the matter.

Companies have a responsibility to, if they choose to, be truthful, transparent and ‘in for the long run’, when it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility. The interesting conclusion I came to, through talking to the ‘business-leaders’ for this thesis, is that most of them claimed companies have more ‘power’ to instigate change than governments do. This, I personally believe to be true, it is also interesting to see the response coming back in the questionnaire, in which the respondents show an obvious ‘pro’ corporate responsibility and are willing to pay more, with money being the ruling paradigm in our world, I find this a very interesting development. This also indicates, I believe, a system change, in which companies are going to be ‘platform creators’ in which civilians are to participate, thereby, together, creating a world of which one can be proud.

The ‘change in the system’ cannot be ‘announced’ with any light concern to the ruling ideas that are here now, and therefore, I found a nice and ‘simple’ illustration to accompany it, I believe (based upon the 6 product-phases Eger has once proposed).

When we look at the process of becoming who we are today we, as a species, have had a long journey (and still a long way to go?). When we first got up on our two hind legs (homo erectus), we had to start evolving ourselves in several ways, in a physical way, which lead to the emergence of the species of homo sapiens (Performance). After that we started to optimise our bodily functions that lead to increasing mental development (Optimisation). Through that optimisation we began to develop skills other homo sapiens had not (itemisation). Through that we were lead to segmentation by the skills we had attained, worker class, bourgeoisie and royal (segmentation). When this wasn’t enough anymore we started to individualise which lead to the last couple of decades of the self (individualisation). Which brings us to where we are now. Awareness.

As such, I believe, we humans are increasingly ‘aware’ of what is happening around us, mind me, we are merely at the beginning of this stage, but as seen in (and enabled by) the increase of communication means we have at our disposal, internet ‘activism’, for instance, is an increasingly important mean to people who wish to ‘change the world’ and, even in mainstream news gathering, becoming a force to be reckoned with.

If a company or brand chooses to indulge itself into a strategy that addresses social behaviour of the company itself, it needs to be heartfelt, I would even say, they should not even want to communicate it. Although this, especially coming from a communication student, is perhaps not the most ‘financially profitable’ way of going about it, surely would indicate it’s sincerity.

The core beliefs of wanting to be a ‘Good Global Citizen’ should come from within a company, otherwise they cannot be lived, and therefore they will, most likely at some point, fail to be responsible, resulting in a massive spanking. Corporate Social Responsibility can be a very useful and profitable addition to a company strategy, what is vital it to realise how much you will lose if you do not treat a strategy as such with honesty, sincerity and loyalty, it is a long-term, costly and hard process and one not to be taken lightly.

Here we go again, another possible pandemic is roaming our lands. I find it ironic this comes as a surprise to a lot of people and people even (in the White House press-conference) ask whether it might have something to do with a “Bio-Terrorist” attack. I can only sit back and giggle. Sorry.

The fact that people are dying due to this evolved ‘flu’ is, obviously, very sad. Yet, it is also so incredibly clear that we, as humans, are the single reason for this to happen. With our ‘continuous growth’ paradigm, a mostly western issue, we have created ourselves the need to keep growing, otherwise we would ’stagnate’. But what exactly would stagnate? Human satisfaction of the current moment? Self-development? The planet?

No. I don’t think so.

A striking illustration of our misconduct, I find, is the existence of ‘mega-farms’. These farms sometimes ‘house’ up to 10.000 cows, who do not get any ‘outdoor-activity’ or ‘raise’ chickens in 40 days (from chick to full-grown chicken), which would, from a natural point of view, normally would take between 90-110 days. The idea is that a chicken that grows twice as fast, will be replaced by a new chicken that can than again, be sold, thus, making twice the money you would with a normal chicken. Good thinking, right?

Ehm.

Well, in a way, sure, we live in a society that is based upon economic continuity and growth, thus having a turnover that goes against organic development seem reasonably feasible. The only problem is, it comes at a cost. The ‘normal’ chicken we eat is pumped with hormones stimulating growth, these hormones, of which the use is denied by the USDA (here), are implemented not only in the animals, but also in the humans that eat them. This, just the same as eating veggies that are sprayed with chemicals, or soil in which they grow is fertilized with non-natural products to limit the degeneration of the soil because of exhaustion, is simply not beneficial for human bodies.

The consequences of our ‘waging war upon the planet’ (argument put forward by Daniel Quinn in his book Ishmael), we can see all around us. Rapid development of obesity as a ‘decease’ (come on…), 2 in 4 children in the UK is now officially diagnosed with overweight, the staggering idea that Coca Cola in some countries is cheaper than water, (an interesting article I found recently about the effects of Coca Cola upon the human body, here), the rise of several animal viruses within the last 5 years (Mad-Cow-decease, Bird-flue, Pork-plague) and now the ones that are potentially also threatening human life; SARS, Swine Flue and it wouldn’t surprise me we’ll be facing another one, but one that actually does kill more than the 903 confirmed cases worldwide (4-5-2009). I mean, on a daily base there are still 15,000 children dying of diarrhea due to the lack of clean drinking water.

I’m sorry I just can’t get worked up about this ‘possible pandemic’. Except for the idea that it is so deeply rooted in our societies, “You are what you eat” type deal, this does worry me, because how to stop something when when a society is based upon the principle that most things and problems are never something directly associated with people themselves but every problem is faced with an attitude in which people say “well, but what can I do about it?”

Well, first of all think about what you eat, your own eating patterns have enormous impact upon, among others, environment, animal ‘guardianship’, social structures (fair trade, all that) and most directly, your own health (you care about that I assume).

Next to that you can ask your local supermarket to actually offer food that has been produced within ’sustainable boundaries’ and with respect towards the animals we use as food.

So to start, my supermarket is Albert Heijn, if you wish to ask them to elevate the standards of their ‘footprint’ go here, I’ve prepared a text for you (in Dutch) if you don’t feel like typing.

Geachte heer/mevrouw,

Ik wil op deze manier aandacht vragen voor de, in mijn ogen, vreemde verdeling van ‘biologisch voedsel’ en ‘normaal voedsel’ binnen uw assortiment. Daarnaast is de prijsstelling van het gezondere en sociaal ‘eerlijkere’ (ook tegenover dieren) ten opzichte van ‘het doorsnee voedsel’, mijns inziens, contra-productief voor het stimuleren van een gezondere levensstandaard van uw klanten (waar u met uw “Gezonde Keuze” producten wel de indruk wekt dat dit een interessepunt van uw bedrijf is), als wel positief voor het in stand houden van de zogenaamde ‘megafarms’ die op vele manieren geen boodschap hebben aan dierenwelzijn of de milieutechnische consequenties die het runnen van een boerderij als deze heeft.

Ik begrijp dat u een beurs genoteerd bedrijf bent en als zodanig winst dient te maken om de aandeelhouders gelukkig te houden, alsmede ‘de Holding’. Maar, mijns inziens, de toekomst van zowel onze planeet, als onze maatschappij heeft bedrijven als u nodig om de huidige omslag te maken die we nodig hebben om als planeet gezond en zonder ons te hoeven schamen voor ons gedrag ten opzichte van andere diersoorten de toekomst in te helpen.

Hopende in de nabije toekomst een verandering in uw strategie ten opzichte van voedsel verstrekking tegemoed te mogen zien, wens ik u alle goeds.

Hoogachtend,

(Your name)

Well, long story, hope you understand my point though. And please take this little action in order to actively contribute to a ‘better future’ for planet, humanity and animals.

Love & Peace,

Len

When I was young(er), I had something with pirates, the Sea, the Freedom, tattoo’s, beautiful women (even then), and overall, they seemed to be alright, OK, there was some plundering and the occasional killing, but they stole from the people that stole from others (think VOC or imperial Britain, who enslaved and killed millions in the process), so all and all, they were, to me, the Robin Hood’s of the water.

I can’t say I have lost that sympathy for people that call themselves Pirates, now I am supposedly somewhat educated and ‘grown-up’ (although I do deny the latter).

And pirates are hot news, after Johnny Depp’s performance in the 3-piece Pirates of the Caribbean, people got the hots for pirates, with dress-up parties, Facebook themes, pirate language sprouting out of mouths you would not expects it to sprout from. But now, the the imperialists have started killing pirates again, and I think we’re on the verge of something interesting, in two ways.

The first group of pirates I’m addressing here are the ones in Somalia (and greater east coast of Africa). The recent taking hostage of several ‘Westerners’ and their ships, has led to increased (military) presence of western countries in one of the most impoverished countries in the World. (Call for improvement from within Somalia by Abdi-Noor Hadji Mohammed & a report by WorldVision (UK-based organisation).

The current ‘road of violence’ of these former fishermen (because that is what they are), comes from a history of ‘interesting’ developments. As most of you know, I think, we Westerners like out fish for dinner (and lunch). We have the luxury of choice when it comes to food, which is a different story for the fishermen in Somalia. After decades of internal war, Somalia sees itself faced with a collapsing local economy, polluted waters (more on that in a bit) and as a result, more violence (vicious circle?).

So, internal wars, why bother ‘our’ transport and fishing boats with that? Ehm, well, for instance, having Africa’s largest coastal line, means fishing is one of the countries biggest economical inputs. And fishing, with the ‘developed’ countries having over-fished their own waters, is something that results into fish, and we like our tuna sandwich and sashimi, so we go and get it. In the last decade, the amount of countries exploiting the internal dismal in Somalia and fishing in ‘their’ waters, is large. (article) The list includes countries such as China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Honduras, India, Italy and Japan. This, to me, sounds slightly ‘off’ as a country so dependent on fishing for it’s food-supply, should be given the opportunity to use it’s own resources to the fullest and not be raped by countries that, through their own wrong-doing, have a greater need for our sea’s creatures.

That’s one part of the story, the other is that there seem to be an increased number of deaths through poisoning in Somalia. Allegedly, this is caused by illegal and ‘legal’ (nuclear) waste dumping in the coastal waters of Somalia. There is a lot of ‘proof’ for this (here, here and here). The problem with these allocations is that nobody admits the dumps, almost nobody gives them as background information when it comes to reporting on the current ‘pirate-violence’ (please note that the Somali pirates have so far not killed a single person in taking them hostage, although this might soon change).

It might be an idea for us ‘little-people’ to simply ignore the mass-media hysteria that is about to break loose (mark my words, as soon as they killed a Westerner it’s going to be a big one), think twice about the fish you buy (try to eat locally caught fish, you will spare yourself the ethical question of whether you are eating the flesh of the ribs of a starving nation, AND (this is a popular one I’m sure) you help your local economy, and we all know we ‘need’ it)

By getting these pieces of information ‘out there’ I hope people will take the news of ‘piracy’ towards ‘our’ boats with a grain of salt, this is a problem created by the West and, as with a lot of things, attempted to be fixed by brutal force, murder and economic suffocation. With the increased accessibility of information from within a country, we ‘the little people’ have a chance to ignore the ever increasing preset paradigm that is created for us by our governments.. (and not in a ‘conspiracy kind of way but simply because ‘political agenda’s are to be met and continued no matter what (look at Afghanistan, or the Israel-Palestine conflict)) The fact is humanity has only one protector, and that is human behaviour. At the point where we keep buying into the supposed crimes of people that are, and have been, exploited in benefit of (Western) economic growth, we will at some point be unable to stop the ‘us’ & ‘them’ paradigm and I think will dwindle in the wind, sooner or later. It is simple, we are all one part of this planet, despite colour, race, geographical location or belief.

To end on a ‘grassroots’ note, this is what Somali-Canadian K’naan, who is AlterNet’s poet, rapper, and musician, has to say on the subject.

“It is time that the world gave the Somali people some assurance that these Western illegal activities will end, if our pirates are to seize their operations. We do not want the EU and NATO serving as a shield for these nuclear waste-dumping hoodlums. It seems to me that this new modern crisis is a question of justice, but also a question of whose justice. As is apparent these days, one man’s pirate is another man’s coast guard.”

I wish all love and peace, pirates included.

(P.S. I set out on this post to write about the other pirates too, PirateBay, yet this’ll come somewhere during the week)

The world is in recession. You, me, all of us, are spiraling down into economic disaster. So, there was a little gathering in London called the G20. Also, this meeting was sparked by the first visit (to Europe) of the President of Hope; Mr. Barack Obama.

How lucky we are.

Last time I talked about CNN and how they used their linguistic skills to make us understand how incredibly serious our current economic situation is. In London, where all the (appointed important) talking heads of the 20 richest (interesting catagorisation) countries of the world came to talk a bit more. Outside, there were people talking too. They cooled some of their feeling of misplacement and misunderstanding on a building of a financial institution, which is sad. Yet, looking at how “we the people” are being treated in present day politics, also not so strange.

What I found most interesting when looking at the protests, was the fact that there were no signs saying “Give banks more money to save the financial system!!” or “IMF needs to gain more control” nah, none of that in London. Well, at least, not in the streets. In the hallways and conference rooms of the G20 summit (another interesting term) on the other hand, there was $1.000 billion promised to the world financial organisations. This, for your information, will mostly exist of brand new money. Isn’t that great? We need money; START THE PRESSES! But that’s beside the point for now.

The protesters outside the G20, were mostly asking for a change in the system, nuclear disarmment, solve world hunger and so forth. I find this to be an interesting development. So, we are being told that we’re in a great depression (or in “the worst recession since 1930″) but people go out in the streets to protest nuclear disarmment, world hunger, well, the earlier mentioned.

Personally, I think more money, will not solve anything. Our system relies on ever-increasing profits, making mankind’s greedy nature quite susceptible for deceit and “power-play”, pushing ‘the (financially) weaker’ deeper into the corner they are in already, enabling the gap between the have’s and have-not’s to grow every day, creating, even more, breeding grounds for hatred, “unhumanitarian behaviour” (don’t know whether that exists as a catagorisation of behaviour, but you get my drift right?), neglect of human rights and all that can (and often will) result in violence. (Giving examples here feels like over doing it, but fuck it: Haiti, Strasbourg (another “summit”) , North-Korea)

I do like the notion of seeing life as a quest in which you can decide to “go down the rabbit-hole” as far as you like. Yet, in doing so, I also like to believe that as you do, you will also realise we are just one people under the sky, and you try, with whatever mean you have, to treat people equally, not do harm etc.

But, again, sorry, I’m drifting off.

My point is; how we are being talked to. There are several issues in this world that are being addressed by politicians but they are all not the issues we ‘the people’ would like to talk about. The most incredible example in recent weeks is the “re-branding” of the Afghanistan war.

The “War on Terrorism” is now called “Overseas Contingency Operation”. How’s that for ’sanitising’ the one thing in the world we seem not to get over as a species? War, killing of innocent people, economical dominance of the west. But well, this sounds way more comprehensible though doesn’t it? Because the reason for changing the name was:

“Terrorism is a tactic, not an identifiable enemy, and it’s considered inaccurate because it cannot be won by military means alone.”

Whatever they call it, it remains the same. And if, for instance by the increased bombings with unmanned drones, “war” is something which is felt on only one side, namely, the people that die, you shouldn’t call it war either. I’d propose massacre, or something of that category. I understand that there are indeed groups of people that have ‘bad intentions’ with other people, based upon whatever perceived universal truth, the, “Overseas Contingency Operation” is the exact same thing.

And calling it differently, will not change the base-rules of that engagement.

And that is the same with what has happened at the G20. The underlying idea of our current ’situation’ is based upon a false idea of righteousness that has been proven wrong, several times in several gradations. Talking about how to fill up the gaps will not lead to an actual improvement of standards of third world countries, stop wars (the weapon industry remains to be a very influential and ‘paradigm-setting’ industry), or increase the call for a non-proliferation agreement.

And that’s what ‘we the (simple) people’ would really like to see. Or at least I do.

I know not with what weapons
World War III will be fought, but
World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)

Until the next day breaks, I wish you love and peace.