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Where did all that time go?

Fabzgy — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 13:01:06 +0000

In the last four months I divided almost all my time between the local organizational work within the GartenCoop and spreading the word about CSA and food sovereignty.

In the GartenCoop I helped moving our accountancy-system towards GNUCash, co-organized the general assembly of the GartenCoop on the 18th of March, produced the monthly radio show GartenCoop on Air, started the construction of a chicken tractor, planted grapes at our farm, organised a concert on the International Day of Peasant’s Struggle and gave workshops about the use of our internal website.

For spreading the word I was part of a group travelling in Hungary, Czech Republic and Austria and giving public talks about CSA. I was taking part in the Reclaim The Fields Assembly in Turin – holding a workshop about CSA. Participating in the Steering Comittee Meeting orgnizied within the second axis of the Nyeleni Movement for Food Sovereignty, preparing a european conference about “CSA and other distribution system for Food Sovereignity” in October 2012. Was invited by a Food-Coop Conference in Warsaw and gave a talk in Berlin to reinforce the CSA idea there.

This was a very intensive time for me and I feel like I need a little change in my life. Not very radical – just another trip to South America (Brasil, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay) in the end of the year. Getting my mind free and do sth. different from my present occupations. In Brasil I will pick up my journalistic work doing an internship with the alternative news agency PULSAR. Until I will try to travel less and really enjoy the summer in the Rhine-valley.

You’ve been had big time!

Fabzgy — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:49:32 +0000

Just a couple of days ago I talked with some british folks about renewable energy and the german energy policy. Apparently German polititians finaly understood what the people have demanded for decades already. At least since the protests against the planed nuclear power plant in Wyhl in the early 1970s there is a big movement against nuclear power in Germany.
Ever since, the polititians repeated their mantra: “Without nucelar power we will have blackouts.”

Ignoring the fact that other major european countries do not use nuclear power in their energy mix. Ignoring the huge potential of renewable energy. Ignoring the dangers that nuclear energy brings even to high-tech countries.

My british friends made a deprecatory comment like: “Yeah it is nice to shut down your nuclear power plants and then import the nuclear energy from France.“.
That seems to be the narrative framed by the british media – or at least thats what stick with the people. Even though I don t know my friends for a long time I would guess that they are quite aware of politics and especially sensible for environmental news. So I was in fact quite surprised by their comment.
I answered, that even though we shut down 8 nuclear reactos after Fukushima, we still export energy to our neighboring countries. Reading the Newspaper this morning I could not resist a big smile when I read, that even while facing an unusual wave of cold wheater in central Europe, we are actually exporting energy to France – the biggest nuclear energy producer in Europe.

How did that come? Due to a German Renewable Energy Act, introduced by the green party and the social-democrats in 2000, Germany managed to boost the share or renewable energy supply on total electricity consumption from 6.4 % in 2000 to more then 20 % in 2011. Our Minister of Economy (head of a marginal 3 % liberal party) Philipp Rössler wants to undermine this law by cutting down on the secure payment of little solar power plants who are mostly owned by individuals or families as a personal investment or by cooperatives who try to build up local energy supply. Ignoring the fact that in these days of high energy demand the nuclear energy actually provides almost 10 000 MW in peak hours (that is the equivalent of seven nuclear power plants).

Face it! The future is renewable!

Shiny January

Fabzgy — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:41:42 +0000

After dealing with a lot of burrocracy in the last weeks I managed to sneak out of day-to-day work and enjoyed the sunny weekend outside.
On Saturday morning I woke up with a sunray in my face and decided to go hiking. Fetching my map of the region I decided to take Bike/train/bus and start my hike in “Glottertal”.
I decided on the following tour:
On the first 10 km I met one cyclist and a couple of hikers. After reaching the Rosskopf dozens of Freiburgers and tourists met my way which formed a nice contrast. With every step I came closer to Freiburg I met more people taking some time for enjoying the forest. On the first part of my trip I ve even met a fox in the woods.
Now I want to share two pictures with you.

After approx. 15 km I recognized that my favourite cafe had already closed. So I went back home where a deliciouse Pumpkin-soup was waiting for me.
On Sunday I took my bicycle and rode 50 km in the valley. Now I m tired and I m going to sleep very very well ….

getting older …

Fabzgy — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:32:39 +0000

A couple of days ago an old friend from primary school visited me at the GartenCoop. We harvested corn salad for a couple of hours and then went to our regular coordination assembly. I have already announced to the other participants that I will just stay for an hour because I did not want to expect from my friend to listen to these debates for too long. We were a surprisingly diverse crowd this time and a lot of issues were raised. Even though he probably did not understand every detail he endured 2,5 hours of our meeting (we had beer so it was not too hard in fact).
Afterwards we went back home to enjoy the lovely pumpkin soup prepared by my granny and had a little wine. In fact due to the discussion beforehand he was pretty much up-to-date with what I am dealing these days in my life. The GartenCoop consumes lots of my time but I do enjoy it!

During our conversation after dinner I figured out that due to my involvement in the long term project GartenCoop I basically lost my desire to travel the world and get to know every corner of this world. I would not say that during my studies I did not like Germany or the places I lived. The problem was that I did not have any projects which fascinated me to that extend the GartenCoop does. For the first time in recent years I do not already plan my travels but plan my year entirely in Germany.

My friend just commented: Yeah – we are getting older…

Home Sweet Home

Fabzgy — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 19:56:10 +0000

Yesterday I returned from my trip. In the end I really got sort of homesick or better: I was nervously looking forward to start working again. Working again on the Radio. Working on the GartenCoop project. Working again around our house. Do the stuff I meditated on my bicycle for so many hours now.

In the end I stayed one entire week in Vienna. There were too many amazing projects and processes to be discovered and there are still some unchecked on my list so I will come back sooner or later. I manged to visit the CSA Ochsenherz who has started as the GartenCoop this year and has as well 200 members. I attended the first meeting of RTF Austria. I visited the recently squatted Epizentrum. I was part in a direct action on the Stephansplatz and danced, debated, visited a lot more stuff. In short: Vienna (or better the people I have met there) are great!

But in the end I had to leave. I rolled up the Danube river towards Passau where I visited an old friend with his little family. Before I got there I visited the former KZ Mauthausen. It was my first time at a former “Konzentrations Lager”.
It made me incredible sad. There was a pain within my heart to see these documents of abundance of planned cruelty. It was so disgusting. Even though I knew beforehand what has been going on in these camps – being there was another experience.

The last days got pretty cold in the tent and I run out of time. So I decided to go back from Passau via train. That worked out pretty well – in the end I managed to get back from Passau to Freiburg for 12.50 €. So now I m back in the Breisgau with loads of motivations and plans …

Vienna

Fabzgy — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:34:27 +0000

This morning I arrived in Vienna at the flat of some other RTF campers.
The way from Budapest to Vienna along the Danube river was in fact not as relaxing as I expected it.
First of all because of the strong headwind which on some days really almost erased my efforts. I m sure if distance would not be calculated acoring to the soil under mi tires but according to the air which passes my head I would already be back home.
In addition to the headwind it started to rain on the first day. Not constantly but every now an then. It always puts you in the clasical cyclist dilema: “Getting wet due to rain or sweat inside your rain gear?” Most of the time I decided for the rain. It definately smells better then the sweat.
Sleeping was pretty nice though – wild camping next to the danube. Just in one night the wind almost took my tent away. Remember: Always put your tent in a protected space.
In Slovakia I had the best fsih for years (not hard since I have not been eating meat or fish for a long time). I had catfish with potatoes backed in the ofen with a little sour cream and a glas of white wine. Awesome. I loved it!
Enough for now – in Vienna I feel like I m going to stay for some more days. The people I am staying with are awesome. The university just begann and there are tons of political events happening in the next days. So could easily be that I m getting stuck here for a few days and don t go all the way back to the source of the Danube … vamos a ver!

Budapest

Fabzgy — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:16:32 +0000

I`ve did 450 km in the last three days and that`s how I feel. I`m pretty exhausted. Hopefully I ll manage to go to one of these thermal baths here in Budapest to relax my muscles.
The difference between the eastern countryside and Budapest is breathtaking. There are many more people, buildings, cars, etc. than I`ve seen in all the rest of Hungary together so far. Including even all the Trucks who passed me on the road.

This picture I took three days ago – leaving Cluj-Napoca, Romania:

Don t be fooled by the road signs. 397 km is the direct way on the E60 which I would not recommend at all.

These signs are almost everywhere in Hungary and on the E60 you can find them every 2 km. So I tried to avoid these roads which easily forced me to make 50 additional km.
Tomorrow I am planing to leave in direction to Vienna. From now on following the Danube cycle way.

Hit the road Jack …

Fabzgy — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 14:51:32 +0000

The Reclaim The Fields Camp is finally over. A bunch of the activists gathered yesterday in Cluj to have a last beer together and today most of them went home or continued there travels somewhere.
Few of us are still in Cluj, Romania where we are staying at a nice Pension. The owners have been part of the Reclaim The Fields Camp as well and now let all the activists stay over for a donation. Pay as much as you like. Great place!

The camp was a really great experience. More than 200 participants took part in dozens of workshops, direct actions [1, 2] and the building ot the ReclaimThe Fields process.
Every day the camp self organized threee meals, the cleaningof the toilets, refilling of different water tanks and lots of other tasks. Squatters from Barcelona shared their experience with the PEDAL caravan from England to Palestine. Participants from community gardens shared debated with activists from seed campaign networks and participants who have not found(ed) their project yet squeezed out every drop of information of the people who came from established projects.
All in all it was a wonderful experience and I m really happy that I made my way down here.

The way back is going to be another story. In the next days I m going to ride pretty much straight to Budapest where I am planning to visit the SPA and meet some people from the camp again.
I assume that I ll write some lines from there again … stay tuned!

Reclaim The Fields Camp

Fabzgy — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:52:11 +0000

After a 28 hours Bus ride I arrived in Sebes on Thursday. Obviously the bus was late but my hosts thankfully waited for me for 1.5 hours
I had a nice evening in Alba Julia with its lovely citadelle and my nice hosts. On Friday I rode mz bike up to the Reclaim The Fields Camp in Rosia Montana. We are stazing at a lovelz plateu 30 min walk from the town. It is verz drz up here since it did not rain for months.
On saturday we did a nice demo in the village: http://linksunten.indymedia.org/en/node/47503

From the Vineyards to the roads of eastern europe

Fabzgy — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:03:39 +0000

Hi there – just for giving you a quick update. The three weeks of working in the Kaiserstühler vineyards are over. I had a lot of fun with our crew picking grapes and eating lunch in the mountains.
just to give you an impression of what we were looking at almost every morning:

The next week I m planing to be at the Reclaim The Fields Camp in Romania until the beginning of october. From there I m going to ride back by bicycle.

Approx. Route:
Sebes – Alba Iulia – Rosia Montania (Camp) – Arad – Szeged (Hungary) – Osijek (Croatia) – Budapest (Hungary) – Bratislava (Slovakia) – Vienna (Austria) – Passau (Germany) – Freiburg.

I m trying to be back at the 20. of October or sth. like that…