re-discovering things for me

I am re-discovering interesting things for me. Bolivia has been a hugh challenge, bigger than I have ever expected it back home. However, my stay here showed me more than ever that I have to find my way. Not the secure, paid, boring way of life but rather the unsafe, maybe unpaid, interesting, risky, creative way of living. laughing. dancing. enjoying every moment. Not assessing things along its material or profesional „carrier“ value but always revising them acording to their value for my personal development. Things that bring me forward, let me be more self-confident and happy. Like contemporany dance, clownery, travelling, cooking, playing the guitar and the charango, enjoying the nature, talking to my friends and feeling safe in a very insecure, but beautiful world.

agradecer a bolivia

Hoy me di cuenta que tanto agradeczo a este pais. Me siento muy agradecida de poder entrevistar a personajes muy impresionantes de bolivia por mi tesis como Javier Medina, Fernanda Wanderley y Simon Yampara. Me siento muy agradecida cuanto la gente linda del campo comparten conmigo cuando vivo con ellos.

towards a strongly needed shift of perspective

from North to South
modern to traditional
fast to slow
from deficiencies to resources
quantity of things to quality of life
economics of scarcity to economics of abundance
competition to cooperation
from taking to giving and sharing
and from exploiting to conserving and protecting.

too many feelings at the same time.

Bolivia seems to challenge me. Physically, personally, professionally. I have gone through headache, toothache, pain of my feeth, breathlessness, insomnia, stomach ache, sun burn, … but nothing was so painful as the pain of my broken heart. the feeling of being alone. of not being understood. the feeling that something didn’t work out, something I believed in. Thesis crisis after thesis crisis, feeling lost. Just a normal process? I don’t know.

At the same time many angels try to catch me. We are talking and writing a lot. Normalising the everyday hardship. Relativize. What’s your pain in comparision with the ninos de la calle (children living in the street), the lustra botes (shoe cleaners), the beggars? Makes me even more sad to think of them.

The angels believe in my capacity to fly, so why can’t I?

sin hacer algo

hace mucho tiempo he visto alguien sentando asi. mirando asi. esperando asi. sin hacer algo. / como puedo ser que no paramos, para mirarnos en los ojos, para glosar las nubes, mirar la tormenta, seguir tu sentimiento y decir lo siento. / como puedo ser que solo funcionamos, nunca lloramos, contamos, saltamos de una alegria phenomenal. /darme un momento, para explicar. corremos sin una pausa, lindo, no me dejo aspirar..

 

a question about flying …

What makes it justified to take a (long-distance) flight?

Is it your good motivation, good intention, willingness to change something? Is it justified if you want to enjoy, enjoy the sun, the beach, the people, the cheap shopping possibilities? Is it worth asking these questions?

the incredible reality of central american children migrating to the US …

… is captured in the documentary „Which way home“, one I  saw just a couple of days ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kviJ2figeCA

 

some thoughts regarding my master programme

• „ In my view its one of these things we would profit a lot and which comes definitely too short in our programme: discussing our ideas and opinions towards special topics. In general we do not talk enough about good development examples, projects, new innovative ideas which could inspire us.

  Furthermore the program has a rather problemfocus than a ressource orientation. Additionally the question what development means to us should be discussed more broadly. Though I appreciate that we have already interactive sessions during the seminars, I would like the professors to use different group methods and teaching how we ourselves could use group methods to work in development field – until now we havent learned e.g. facilitating methods or techniques to promote empowerment of local people. I would also appreciate a focus on personal development (enhancing individual strengths,
  

  promoting the students individual interest, …)

  A very essential point is that we focussed throughout the whole course mostly on so-called developing countries in asia, africa and latin-america disregarding the fact that also so-called western countries can have similar problems

• Furthermore it would be very important to problematise the role of big MULTINATIONAL CORPERATIONS in global governance and their (mis)behaviour in the developing world. In my view the development field (and we as a rewarded master program in this field) can’t ignore the negative impact these corperations have on local populations!

  Last but not least regarding this point, it would be also essential to talk about GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY and what the developed world can do to improve the situation. I refer here to the possibilities of rethinking our consumption, global ecological threats as climate change and our duty to react, promotion of fair trade, etc. In this sense I would appreciate if you could learn more about the concept of GLOBAL LEARNING which refers to the possibility of teaching children/students about global phenomena, inequalities, and what everyone can do to react to global problems.

  PS: i forgot something which also belongs to the last point: looking at STRUCTURAL REASONS for global inequalities is another missing point. We have hardly looked behind: what is causing poverty, hunger, etc.? We never talked about colonialism and perpetuating of these structures …

  PPS: i would wish a more holistic view on development, taking into account that it has to be also ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE!“

ein anderer verzichter

Roland Düringer bloggt ebenfalls über seinen (wenn auch noch viel radikaleren) verzicht:
aufs Fernseher, Handy, Auto und was ihn dazu bewegt
http://www.gueltigestimme.at/index.php/videotagebuch

Brauch ich das wirklich? Do I need this really?

gutes, vernünftiges Projekt: Nunu Kaller hat ihren einjährigen Shopping-Verzicht auf einem Blog festgehalten und nun ein Buch veröffentlicht: „Ich kauf nix“. Besonders gefällt mir daran, dass sie diesen Verzicht nutzt um auf Kaufrausch, Konsumwahnsinn und schreckliche Arbeitsbedingungen aufmerksam macht!

Hier ihr Blog: http://ichkaufnix.wordpress.com/

Über Menschen, die sich über Marken definieren;
Kleidung zur Konstruktion ihrer Identität brauchen;
Macht der KonsumentInnen,
die Minderheit der kritischen KonsumentInnen und die Schwierigkeit es zu sein, geplante Obsoleszenz, Marketingschmähs, Foxconn und andere Verbrecher auf Ö1: http://oe1.orf.at/programm/356122