Sepp Holtzer - inspiration for mountain farmers

Sepp Holtzer has been at the forefront of permaculture in Austria and now the world through the influence of his many books, website http://www.krameterhof.at/en and guided tours that he gives on his extended property in the Austrian Alps. And he has been doing that long before he was even acquainted with the term of permaculture. In doing so many people call his model of agriculture Holzer permaculture.

He is now working on presenting his techniques and sensitive way of working with the land to a large audience around the world and on Monday the 24th from 2PM on Radio Ara we will hear an interview of him conducted by Katy Fox and Rodrigo Vergara from the Center for Ecological Learning Luxembourg (CELL - http://cell.lu).

It will unfortunately only be in German but hopefully a small presentation in English will also be available since his model can benefit many in sensitive areas such as Rosia Montana of Romania where a gold corporation is threatening to destroy four mountain tops in the greatest ecological, social and architectural disaster in Europe after Chernobyl. Mountain tops that could very well be suited for Holzer permaculture. Take a look at the area and just imagine hundreds of species of edible leafed trees, fruit and nut trees, fruit bushes, pumpkins growing on rocks, chickens and goats running freely in certain areas and you might see Paradise where Hell is planned in Rosia Montana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m4G2wxskXE

Here is the same type of terrain transformed according to Holzer Permaculture:
http://youtu.be/Bw7mQZHfFVE

Solidarity with Rosia Montana

With so many struggles coming into public conscience these days Rosia Montana is also getting more well known and with good reason, being the biggest environmental issue of Europe since Cernobyl. In today's program on the 10th of October you can hear more about what happened in Romania during the 10 days of the Reclaim the fields camp but especially what happened during the direct action day on the 28th of September when the (dis)information office of the gold corporation was occupied by a handfull of people that managed to close it down for the day. There was no violent police intervention other than some pushing and shoving which makes you wonder if the direct actions could have went a bit further with squating some of the amazing local houses which are now abandoned. If activism was so simple everyone would do it on a daily basis so maybe we should, at least in Rosia Montana, Romania.

You can also hear about the nyleni forum that was presented outside the office of the corporation and on which you can read up more here: http://nyeleni2011.net

The local community of resistence in Rosia Montana is currently waiting the outcome of this outrageous disccussions going on in the Romanian parlament around the subject of whether the company will have the right to expropriate them or not. I will keep you updated of any developments but until than don't shy away from going into the streets to meet people that are faced with similar struggles closer to home. 15th of October is a day of worldwide direct action against big corporations and corupt governments (which ones aren't at this point?): http://www.occupytogether.org in which you can also take direct action just by going out into the streets and meeting other people from other walks of life. Take it from there. There is also the growing movement centered around establishing a free space in Luxembourg of which you can find out more at http://freespacelux.blogsport.de Briefly on the attempt to occupy an abanoned house on Friday, the 7th of October in Luxembourg city during the program.

I also dedicate this program to the struggle of this 95 braves that opposed the violent corridas in the south of France and that resited the blows of the violent corrida supporters as strongly as the Rosia Montana locals have been resisting blow after blow from the gold corporation for the last 12 years:
http://youtu.be/X_dP8_73KPM

Today's program can be downloaded and used as you see fit from here: http://dl.transfer.ro/Rosia_Montana_Program10oct-transfer_RO-10oct-ea9551.rar

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

Occupied

The last program here on Steps Beyond focused on free spaces but in both cases that were mentioned, the Candy Factory and Christiania there are some agreements and links between the communities living there and the governing bodies of Copenhagen. Next week´s program would be more focused on occupied places in which the people living there have no bureaucratic or else links with the government. Not so many of these places around so after searching all over Copenhagen and asking around I will probably manage to include only two such places that have no internet representation. One will be the squatted buildings next to the building that was given to the Candy Factory in Raghilgade and another will be an occupied harbour and trailer area next to Christiania. In both places because of the lack of communication between the people living there and the  government the sittuation is uncertain so the places might not be there for long.

But 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/

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. Let´s hope the cops won´t come to ruin the party but if they do it will all be on "tape". http://das-gaengeviertel.i

nfo/

Unfortunately I will miss a camp outside Berlin which is exchanging volunteers with the place pictured above in Makvärket. If you will be in the area I am sure they will be happy to have help out and learn from all the great things they are preparing to build, mainly with clay and other natural materials. Here is a blog for the place called KuBiZ: http://lehmofen.blogsport.de/

Nomad Radio

Steps Beyond goes on the road, beyond Luxembourg and beyond the Greater Region . The radio program is now on the move, leaving Luxembourg today, heading for Copenhagen where we should arrive in two days. We will meet people there that spend a lot of time in free spaces such as The Candy Factory (Bolsjefabrikken), The Floating City or Ungdomshuset (The Youth House).

So next week's program on Monday from 14:00 on Radio Ara (<click for livestream) will again be dedicated to free spaces, program that will hopefully come to supplement the information that is lacking in Luxembourg regarding organising such a thing and inspire people into supporting such a great bottom up initiative. If you have any requests for interview subjects in relation to the free space topic just drop me a line here or on facebook and I will try to accommodate all demands.

For more information and inspiration related to the topic you can check this other post about the last radio program on free spaces: http://stepsbeyond.blogspot.com/2011/07/free-spaces.html

On a personal level I am also looking forward to share in the experience of very well functioning alternatives to commercial venues in Copenhagen so I can better prepare for the Reclaim the Fields camp in Romania that will take place from thr 21st until the 30th of September. Meant to bring people at a grass roots level together to propose sustainable alternatives for what is planned to be one the biggest ecological, social and archaeological disasters of Europe since Chernobyl and all in the name of profit of a gold corporation. You can find out more about the area Rosia Montana here: http://www.nodirtygold.org/rosia_montana_romania.cfm and more on the camp here: http://www.reclaimthefields.org/node/329

If you are in the area you can already experience the area and the alternatives to a potentially terrible mining disaster by going to the festival prepared there by volunteers, the FanFest: http://fanfest.ro/index.shtml