Steps Beyond - crushing corporate interests (or just me?)

I´ve been alone or I felt alone on this trip since my ability of sharing and getting people to see inside my head are very limited. Although the two days spent with a friend in Mannheim probably added a lot to this travel and kept me going. Maybe from this inability to share my thoughts I get my obsession of sharing everything else of physical substance with everyone. To compensate. And maybe this is a first step towards getting better at sharing the important things, the trials and tribulations of showing something that is out of site. This gold corporation hard at work to get the mining disaster going in Romania is bent on drowning the indy media information with multimillion advertising campaigns. And is no use or point to try and rescue and present the voices of the locals or the activists by one´s self. So please do take it up on to yourself to bring up this issue to the right people. If you know nothing of this huge social, environmental and archeological planned disaster in the east of Europe, in Romania than read the following:
http://reclaimthefields.org

http://reclaimthefields.org/content/current-situation

OR better yet tell other people who would have the time and resources to come see by themselves the situation in the area during the Reclaim the Fields camp between the 21st and 30th of September.

So far I´ve hitchhiked 898 km and have 900 more to go, got to invite people to the camp on Bermuda.funk in Mannheim, on Radio Z in Nurnberg and I am looking forward to reaching out in Budapest. You could do the same and start a trip towards this Mecca of environmental importance since it would be the largest mine of it´s kind in Europe and without mentioning the cyanide pollution of waterways and the air, the dust cloud alone created in the destruction process of 4 mountains must be a monster.

Most of all please get in touch and help me combat the daily downs brought about by slow hitchhiking, nasty Bavarian cops who basically raped me searching for drugs (they found the perfect guy too, not smoking OR drinking), not getting in touch with people I had planned to get in touch with and so on. I need to feel I am not by myself on the edge of these fucking polluted roads where luxurious cars pass by in a hurry with only one passenger on board. Stuff like that gets to me more than ever.

And I truly, truly hope some of you reading this will make it to the camp. Much love from Linz from where I will head onwards to Vienna and Budapest early in the morning tomorrow.

Radu

Occupations - round two

The last program might have been a surprise to some of you here in Luxembourg waiting for a small report on what is happening in more active places such as Copenhagen and Hamburg that I wasn't able to deliver.

I at that time found out some very disturbing news, no computers seemed to work for me to edit on and I was indeed very tired by that point so I planned to send the following recoding to Luxembourg instead which I finally got the sense not to do. Still funny though and you can hear it now here:

Sad recording from Hamburg by Voluntarian

The program on Monday will deliver some good ear candy to all y'all dreamers and believers that such a thing as a free space can happen here in Luxembourg. Check it out at http://ara.lu/listen on Monday the 12th of September at 2PM.

From the last description of the program:

"just to give an idea of what people can do if left to their own I also interviewed people in Makvärket, a former abandoned ceramics factory 70 km outside Copenhagen that is now under use by a small group of young people that self organise to create workshops and concert halls. More on the place can be found here: http://makvaerket.wordpress.com but also on http://www.wwoof.dk/ and http://www.helpx.net/

During the Markvaget interview I mention the Ecological InspirationHouse in Copenhagen and also the work of Flemming Abrahamson both of which you can find out more about at the following links:
http://www.fornyetenergi.dk/enfornyetenergidk.aspx
http://www.byoko.dk/
http://www.byoko.dk/UserFiles/File/byoko_gb2006.pdf

As an unexpected bonus there will be a feature from the Gangeviertel, a squated center in the center of Hamburg that managed to stay open for two years so far. http://das-gaengeviertel.info/

 

There is also a short interview with an indigenous inhabitant of the region of Brazil where a corporation is planning their own sort of occupation through which to destroy a huge affluent of the Amazon. Of the dangers of this project more in the program.

I am also on my way to Rosia Montana for the Reclaim the Fields Camp there between the 21st and 30th of September during which time I hope to record the different alternatives and the real public oppionion to such a monstruous perspective as having 4 mountains dug out for gold. On it more in my previous post here:

http://stepsbeyond.blogspot.com/2011/09/rosia-montana-alternatives.html

But you can just join the camp there on which you can find more info here: http://reclaimthefields.org

Addi! Au revoir! La revedere!

Roşia Montană - Alternatives

Roşia Montană is a small commune in the Romanian mountains currently scheduled for complete destruction by a Canadian mining company. The Romanian government is bent on making it happen since there are some political and personal gains of a few state officials to be had by doing so. What a large part of the population is now trying to do by means never before employed on such a scale at a grass roots level in Romania is create alternatives to the mining disaster that would blow out four mountain tops. From eco villages to quiet retreats and from agro tourism to archeological tourism the place could benefit more if the mountains were left where they are both to preserve the diminishing bio diversity, the local customs and tradition deeply engraved in the buildings that the people live in which are also scheduled for destruction but also the intrinsic value of the place. Not only the buildings but also churches, cemeteries and historical tunnels made in the area by the romans who were never working at the capacity and scale this "modern" company is planning to do so. They used human scale solutions to extract for human needs while this company is working on a gigantic scale, planning to destroy 1600 hectares of wild mountains to extract the precious metal for the profit oriented needs of a few.

There will be a camp starting in the area formed by grass roots activists from all over the world as well as concerned Romanians that want to get involved in showing the alternatives. Reclaim the fields comes itself as another alternative to the countless others that people with no support from the government are creating. You can read more about it by following the above link.

I will myself be traveling in an alternative way, by hitchhiking and stopping over in Mannheim, Germany; Nuremberg, Germany; Linz, Austria; Vienna, Austria; Budapest, Hungary and finally reaching Rosia Montana in Romania by the start of the camp which will be on the 21st of September. I will be talking about the camp on free radios on the way and the first one scheduled is Bermuda.Funk radio in Mannheim where I will actually arrive tomorrow for the first interview. The alternatives are there and we just need to make a jump of faith to see them (believe you me, I am in no way ready for a 1700km journey but I am willing to take the plunge for the trip itself which will still be incredibly revealing something that I think could be applied to the case in Rosia Montana as well - politicians just need to wizen up and see who is actually supporting them in being where they are).

So if you also want to see the situation in Rosia Montana for yourself and judge by first person account than please feel free to join the camp which will be self organized so hope to see as many of you fine readers and listeners there: http://reclaimthefields.org