This is a platform for our affinity group, our squat Positivenest, our projects like Program Awakening, and the videos and posters manufactured by Spirit of Squatters Collective and a few others. Our idea is to bring a lot of positive messages and constructive solutions to the alternative movement. We try to avoid pessimistic news, except when we are fighting for freedom of speech. Real life starts when we turn off our computer, our tv, etc. If you want to contact us, email mgriks@gmail.com
Here You can see 24 short videos and longer documentary (last on the list) from previous climate Actions Camps in Antwerp and Liege Tomorrow, wednesday 6 july the Climate Action Camp in Antwerp will start. Last night the location was occupied and the camp started. Tents for workshops, vegan kitchen, showers, loo's, ... are ready. Everyone is welcome for a week of meeting people, workshops, debate and action!
Practical: Bus 36 from Rooseveldplaats near the Antwerp central station to the busstop Hof ter Schelde. With bike, use the pedestriantunnel No dogs
Twenty-first century. Time of great change but also the risks and concerns. Can we survive? Would humanity will cope with the mess that has created mainly during the last century? How far, how long, what disasters we have to experience that people would make the breakthrough of their mentality? There is still hope that if we act united in all possible ways, we can avoid the destruction of our planet, the extermination of generations to come, global warming, water contamination, deforestation or other consequences of our "civilized" life. There is a power that gives the strength to the hope, gives faith that everything will be fine. This power that's love, what especially now we have to distribute in any way possible and as much as we can. Of course, we should start with ourselves, our beloved, then our children, first close and then further family, then all human beings, animals, plants and the entire planet. If we start to love properly, it will not be limited just to ourselves, or eventually only to our family. Developed love does not stop just at feelings for our partners, but on understanding that if we would like to be happy we have to live altruistically so do good to other people, animals, plants and the entire planet. Everything in the universe is interconnected. Our health is increasingly dependent on the health of our planet. We can imagine that we letting in negative energy in to our body by eating every piece of meat, what had to be paid not only by animal suffering but also by the world hunger, climate change, deforestation, poisoning soil and water etc. We wouldn't buy for a child happiness by purchasing cheap Chinese toys, produced by other children from who's childhood was taken away. Giving for beloved heart-shaped chocolates will not pass energy of love if You was aware that to produce it, children were abused at the cocoa plantation. If we understand good in almost all religions and all philosophical systems they're teaching us love. Why, nevertheless, it is still too little of that feeling to save the planet? Why so often still it is just selfish feeling limited only to ourselves ? Why religions that suppose to spread love to often causes bloody wars? We could probably write a book about it but here is not the time and place for that. I would go straight to the heart of the problem and solution. To make our love mature and altruistic I'm encouraging you to familiarize yourself with positive tantra, which by the fact that would ascend us to higher levels of consciousness will give us healthy, happy life for ourselves and our loved ones, and eventually open our hearts and eyes to the needs of our times. Regardless of religion, philosophical system,will bring a feeling and power of love in everything what we do. So why wait ? Start today. Save yourself and the rest. Give happiness to yourself and others ! Happy life You get by doing good Griks 20/02/2011 Translated 16.05.2011 Corrected ... is waiting for You:English native speaker ;)
I guess this is something that we try to do as a "Spirit Of Squatters Collective". One of the best posters now is made as video and in that hopefully and efficient way, on the long therm would help for poor people all around the world. Main reasons for disasters are more often consequences of climate change. Main reason of hunger is not lack of food but lack of justice. In the movie we are showing the reason, consequences and SOLUTIONS for even more problems that those mentioned above. Charity start at home...Music: Janusz Reichel and La Aferra
Food Production and Climate Change: Industrial agriculture, factory farming and ecosystem collapse It is well documented that our modern methods of food production – industrial agriculture and intensive factory farmed meat – are heavily reliant on fossil fuels and create large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. On the opposite side of the coin, our capacity to produce food will be severely reduced by the consequences of climate change. Around the world, small farmers and networks like Via Campesina are fighting for food sovereignty and small-scale sustainable agricultural production. Meanwhile, agribusinesses and agrochemicals companies such as Monsanto are sitting around the tables of the intergovernmental climate negotiations pushing for a further intensification of industrial agriculture as their 'solution' to climate change.
The modern system of food production uses vast amounts of toxic petrochemical pesticides and fertilisers and heavy, oil dependent machinery to plough, irrigate and harvest the land; it transports food thousands of miles across continents from production to consumption, refrigerating it for days or weeks while it is in transit, on the supermarket shelves and then at home before it is eaten.
Traditional farming relied on planting a diversity of crops that attracted a range of insects, some of which are natural enemies of insect pests. Industrial-scale agriculture prefers large monoculture plantations; this leaves fields without the usual range of insects, and crops became vulnerable to insect pests, requiring an increase in the use of pesticides. Much of the sprayed pesticide drains off into the groundwater and is a major source of water pollution in every agricultural region of the world. Pesticides also cause soil depletion and erosion by killing off millions of microscopic organisms and their habitats which maintain the fertility and structure of the soil. The depletion and erosion then requires ever-increasing amounts of petrochemical fertilizers to maintain the level of output. Despite the number of livestock we rear, industrial farmers use artificial fertiliser made from natural gas instead of using animal manure (poop) to bind nitrogen in the soil. This causes the release of even more nitrous oxide, which is a very strong greenhouse gas.
Aside from the high levels of petrochemicals used to maintain the system, industrial agriculture and intensive animal farming necessitate widespread deforestation and land-use change. Burning down forests and savannahs to create new fields for keeping livestock and producing grain (much of it for cattle feed) causes massive CO2 emissions, and the drying of swamps for similar purposes releases vast quantities of methane. These practices heavily contribute to climate change. As industrial methods of agriculture deplete the soil there is an ongoing need to burn down more and more forest to provide new land, and new soil, on which to grow crops. Furthermore, deforestation causes less water to evaporate in an area, which leads to less rainfall. The result is poorer harvests which force soy and cattle-farmers to use the remaining rainforest even more quickly, perpetuating a downward-spiral.
The industrial system has, over centuries and all across the world, "enclosed" farmland, forcing subsistence peasants and small farmers off their land so that it can be used by corporations for growing profitable export crops such as cocoa, sugarcane or soy. Millions of people lose their land and communities, and their independence and ability to grow their own food: they can then access food only through the market, forcing them into waged labour as their sole option for survival. Increasing agricultural output, using petrochemicals and new technologies, has little effect on global rates of hunger because it ignores the issues of access to land and purchasing power and diverts attention away from real solutions such as land redistribution and sustainable and affordable farming.
As for meat production, on top of the well-documented evils of factory farming – the inhumane conditions, the genetically modified animal feed, the hormones and antibiotics animals are pumped with and the practices used in slaughter – the intensive production of meat and dairy worldwide is responsible for about 18% of the greenhouse gases caused by humans. That is more than the percentage caused by global traffic and transport combined. Within the European Union alone huge numbers of animals (153 million pigs, 123 million cows, 99 million sheep, more than 500 million battery hens and almost 11 million tons of chicken meat) are produced for food consumption every year.
Animals produce greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4 - around 62 times stronger than CO2) during the digestion process, while other greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide (N2O - around 275 times stronger than CO2) come mainly from decomposing manure.
Factory farming of animals is also more energy intensive than traditional ways of raising food animals, requiring large inputs of fossil fuel, industrial fertilizers, and other synthetic chemicals. The ratio of fossil fuel energy inputs to food energy produced—not including food processing and distribution—averages 3:1 for all US agricultural products combined, but for industrially produced beef the ratio is as high as 35:1.
In many parts of the world meat consumption is considered a luxury. Increasing prosperity in the global south leads to the adoption of Western patterns of meat consumption, adding pressure on the land to produce all the extra grain needed for cattle feed, meaning ever less land is available for actual food production. Overall one third of the world's arable land is used for animal feed production.
The irony of this is that climate change is currently responsible for an increasing and dramatic loss of natural homes and animal habitats, contributing to the extinction of millions of species that we haven't yet domesticated for our personal consumption. Many animal and plant species are unable to adapt fast enough to higher average temperatures and changing weather patterns that in turn affect the food chain and cause even more species to die out. Dr James Hansen, now ex-chief climate scientist at the NASA space institute, has said that “climate change will become the primary cause of species extinction...The tipping point for life on the planet will occur when so many interdependent species are lost that entire ecosystems collapse.” The iconic image of climate change is the desperate polar bear swimming until he dies amongst melting ice caps. This is a tragic image, but also one which does not do justice to the range of eco-systems that are collapsing because of climate change and the natural disasters it causes.
Warming temperatures, increased rainfall, floods and droughts resulting from global warming threaten to disrupt farming systems around the world, dramatically reducing the amount of arable land available for growing food. Countries in the Global South will be hit hardest simply because of their location – those that are closer to the equator naturally have higher temperatures, and those temperatures are closer to or already higher than the temperatures suitable for agriculture. Seasons and weather patterns are already becoming unpredictable and extreme. Climate change also disrupts and alters pest and disease patterns, posing risks to agriculture everywhere.
In a few places, such as northern Europe and North America, higher temperatures will initially encourage higher yields, but this will be far less than enough to replace the volume of land that will be lost from the other effects of climate change.
Until recently, agriculture has been neglected in UNFCCC negotiations. However, further intensification of industrial agriculture is now being proposed as part of the solution to the problems of climate change, to which it has contributed in the first place, and proposals are being made to include agriculture as a source of credits through the Clean Development Mechanism; for example, agrofuels and genetically modified plants are both being proposed and employed as 'solutions' to climate change.
Agrofuels are promoted as a 'green' alternative to fossil fuels, made from sugary or oily plants such as sugarcane, rapeseed, oil palm, soybean or jatropha, for use in cars, airplanes, and for electricity generation in power stations.
Large areas of land are needed to grow enough agrofuel to replace a small amount of fossil fuel. Agrofuels are becoming the main reason for rainforest destruction. They cause significantly greater greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels because entire ecosystems are destroyed to make space to grow them. Agrofuels come from large-scale industrial agriculture; as industrial agriculture is one of the biggest single causes of climate change, expanding it to grow fuel is a dangerous idea.
A UN spokesperson has warned that 60 million people may soon become “agrofuel refugees” – people forced off their land to make way for huge areas of agrofuel crops. In Argentina alone, 200,000 families have been forced off their land for soya – many more will be displaced by the new agrofuel soya boom. Moreover, the rapid expansion of agrofuels was one of the main causes of the 2007-2008 food crisis, when many food prices rose by over 100%, triggering riots around the world as people could no longer afford to buy rice or corn. Using food crops to make fuel for cars and using land to grow agrofuels instead of food causes food prices to rise, meaning less people across the world can afford to feed themselves.
Genetically modified (GM) crops are already being promoted by corporations as a solution to the food insecurity that will result from the effects of climate change. We are told that GM crops will increase productivity and that GM technology will create plants that are resistant to droughts and other agricultural problems caused by climate change.
What we are not told is that GM contamination of the food system causes a loss of biodiversity and weakens agro-ecosystems, making them vulnerable to plagues, creating pesticide resistance in insect pests, and the loss of crop varieties reduces an ecosystem's potential to adapt to climate change. GM crops in fact themselves contribute to climate change as the expansion of GM crops is used to justify further deforestation. Most GM crops produced today are used to feed livestock and sustain an emissions-intensive animal farming industry (and therefore also covertly poisoning the food-chain). And conveniently for chemicals companies (like Monsanto, who already owns 95% of all the GM crops in the world as well as producing the attendant pesticides and fertilisers needed to grow them), GM crops necessitate a further increased use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers.
GM crops suit well the corporate desire to patent seeds so that they can be exclusively commercialised and highly profitable. Especially for rural communities, the largest in the world and the most affected by climate change, genetic modification of agriculture will prevent them from accessing seeds, causing more poverty, hunger, and therefore the further break-down of communities and environmental refugees. For northern consumers the lack of control and safety measures on GM products will weaken consumer choice and have health impacts such as increasing resistance to antibiotics, and increasing incidents of allergies and cancer. Ultimately, GM crops are yet another step further into a model of intensive monocrop agriculture for global exports basically based on intensive fossil fuel use, and only serve to weaken our capacity to face a major collapse – practically, politically and physically.
But really it doesn’t have to be this way. The international network for farmers’ organizations, Via Campesina, emphasise and demonstrate that small-scale agriculture actually reduces carbon emissions and climate change, as well as minimising the environmental impacts of farming on plants and animals, as well as the air, water, and soil. Organic and diversified farming practices increase bird and mammal populations on farmlands and ensure biological diversity for the planet. In terms of preserving and increasing soil productivity and biodiversity, small-scale sustainable agriculture is far more beneficial and efficient than industrial practices.
Industrial agriculture and intensive animal farming devastate our land, water, and air, and are now threatening the stability of our climate. Massive chemical and biological inputs cause widespread environmental damage as well as human disease and death, while vast monoculture plantations reduce the diversity of our plants and animals. Habitat destruction practices endanger wildlife, and factory farming practices cause untold animal suffering. Centralized corporate ownership of our food production system also destroys farm communities around the world, leading to mass poverty and hunger.
Climate change is already serious and likely to get worse, resulting in land loss, unpredictable changes of natural growing conditions and the extinction of millions of species. Meanwhile, those leading the destruction are sitting at the discussion tables of international negotiations, using climate change as an excuse to further expand this unsustainable and heavily polluting system, proposing solutions that only serve to expand and further centralise corporate control of food production. The problem cannot be solved by simply regulating the use of particular chemicals, or banning gm products in individual countries. The problem is systemic, and as such, requires a solution that dismantles and replaces the entire system.
http://www.MeatTheFacts.org - A shocking look at the state of the planet and the effects of meat consumption on our precious home.
Thursday, July 14, from 19.00 hour, there will be a plaza protest in Tilburg, at the Heuvel, Tilburg
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Against cuts and austerity - for solidarity
Plaza protest: Thusday, July 14, 19.00, Heuvel, Tilburg
The government cuts, the government destroys what we need for our existence. Those austerity policies themselves have to be destroyed. It is time for protest.
The PGB for many people will be stopped. People have to make bigger financial contributions for mental healthcare. Chronically sick, need help? Bad luck, see how you can manage. Need mental healthcare through GGZ? Just pay a lot extra. Fitting education, for children who need axtra attention, will be low-quality because of cuts. Orchestra's, theater companies, other art institutions will be cut back or will even have to close. VAT for tickets will rise, concerts etcetera wil be even more expensive. Jobs will be lost, choice in events wil be diminished.
Again and again, the most vulnerable people wil be hurt. Rich people will keep their tax subsidies for houses, capitalists continue to profit of tax advantages – at our expense. Money that is not availibla for care and public transport, suddenly appears for an expensive JSF fighter plane. We want this harsh austerity policies to be stopped. That is why we take action
The Netherlands does not stand alone. In Spain, there is mass unemployment, and severe cuts are imposed. In Greece, austority measures are pushing many people into deep poverty. It is blackmail: if Greece does not cut, the EU will not extend credits. Those credits don't benefit the poor Greek: they flow right back to pay back earlier debts. People in Spain and greece protest in large numbers against austerity and against their government. They give a good example, they deserve solidarity. For tht reason, too, we take action.
Therefore: come together at the Heuvelin Tiburg, on July 14, on 19.00! There will be some music, slogans will be made visible – but by all means brong your own banners, placards and other means of expression to contribute creatively to the protest. See and hear you. On the 14th of July – and please help spread this call!
verslag: http://www.ravagedigitaal.org/2011nieuws/juli/05/nws.php Ludieke krakers gemept en aangehouden AMSTERDAM, 5 JULI 2011 - Bij de ontruiming van culturele vrijhaven Schijnheilig in de hoofdstad is dinsdagmorgen een gezellig straatfeest ontaard in politiegeweld. De politie hield 150 personen aan.
Tegen half zes in de ochtend was er reeds sprake van drukte op de Passeerdersgracht in Amsterdam. Zo'n honderd sympathisanten namen deel aan een 'feestje' om daarmee het einde van Schijnheilig te vieren. Druppelsgewijs kwamen steeds meer mensen af op het ludieke ontruimingsprotest waaronder activisten, kunstenaars, studenten, krakers en pers.
Op beide hoeken van de Passeerdersgracht stonden krakers op de uitkijk om nauwlettend de komst van de politie in de gaten te houden die, naar men al op had geanticipeerd, vroeg zou arriveren. Rond half zeven glooiden de eerste politiebusjes aan de horizon die slechts een voorbode zouden zijn van de opkomst van een massale politiemacht.
klik op de foto's voor vergrotingen. foto's roeben vkn
Een half uur later werd het straatfeest hardhandig de kiem in gesmoord door de ME, gesteund door leden van het BraTra-team, die er meteen op in begon te rammen. De organisatie van Schijnheilig had vooraf nadrukkelijk aan omstanders en de autoriteiten laten weten dat het een vreedzaam protest moest worden. Men diende op positieve wijze te ageren tegen de ontruiming van hun cultuurbolwerk.
Maar daar had de politie geen enkele boodschap aan. Wie niet uitkeek en net te dicht in de buurt van de ME kwam, kon de wapenstok vol in het gezicht verwachten. Daarentegen hielden krakers zich vrij rustig met een beetje verfgooien en wat andere rotzooi waardoor de ME binnen een kwartier iedereen van de Passeerdersgracht naar de Prinsengracht had verdreven. Enkele activisten die zich aan een ton hadden vastgeketend bij de ingang van het pand werden losgemaakt maar wisten later te ontsnappen.
Een demonstrant werd hardhandig in het gezicht geslagen door een lid van de BraTra
Inmiddels was de sfeer behoorlijk grimmig geworden met een overdaad aan ME, gewonde feestvierders en een tiental politiebusjes op de grachten. Om de boel nog verder te laten escaleren reden twee politiebusjes kort na elkaar in op de verdreven demonstranten op de Prinsengracht. Vervolgens liep de ME ook via de andere kant de Prinsengracht op zodat meer dan 140 mensen in werden gesloten. Wie alsnog weg wilde had pech.
Langzaamaan werd de groep dichter bij elkaar gedreven inclusief de sambaband die al die tijd onverstoorbaar verder bleef spelen alsof er in geen velden of wegen politie te bekennen was. Uiteindelijk na twee uur kreeg de ingesloten groep te horen dat iedereen aangehouden zou worden. Eén voor één werden de op straat zittende demonstranten door stillen opgepakt, dat nog een tijdrovend klusje bleek te zijn aangezien niet iedereen zich even makkelijk op liet pakken. Wie het waagde niet al te bereidwillig te zijn, kreeg politiegeweld voor de kiezen.
Mensen worden de Passeerdersgracht uit gedreven
De razzia ging aan passanten niet onopgemerkt voorbij. Naast veel pers stonden onder luid gejoel toeschouwers en sympathisanten aan de overkant van de gracht toe te kijken naar het machtsvertoon van de politie. "Alle arrestanten vrij!", werd er gescandeerd. Drie stadsbussen vol met arrestanten werden afgevoerd naar Zuid-Oost en het hoofdbureau aan de Marnixstraat.
Pas na enkele uren te hebben vastgezeten kregen ze te horen dat ze waren aangehouden wegens verstoring van de openbare orde. Van de 150 aangehouden krakers en symphatisanten blijven er dinsdagavond nog 67 vastzitten. De rest is in de loop van de dag heengezonden. Van de 67 arrestanten zitten er nog zeven vast wegens openlijke geweldpleging. De rest moest nog blijven omdat ze hun identiteit niet wilden prijsgeven.
Nadat al twee keer een politiebusje in is gereden op de demonstranten wordt het derde busje tegengehouden
Wat een mooie afsluiting had moeten worden van anderhalf jaar Schijnheilig in het voormalige schoolgebouw aan de Passeerdersgracht is uitgelopen op onnodig politiegeweld. In dit pand, waar nu na de ontruiming koper noch plan voor is, heeft het collectief Schijnheilig tal van exposities, filmavonden, concerten, workshops en volksgaarkeukens gefaciliteerd. Ze wisten verschillende dagvaardingen voor ontruiming succesvol te trotseren en hebben tot de laatste snik gestreden voor behoud van hun pand.
Naast de culturele vrijhaven werden in Amsterdam vandaag ook panden en woningen ontruimd in de Van Hogendorpstraat, Bos en Lommerplantsoen, Noorderakerweg, Nieuwe Hemweg, Leeuw van Vlaanderenstraat, Zeeburgerpad, Ceintuurbaan, Singel en 2e Lauriersdwarsstraat. Daar ging het een stuk rustiger aan toe. De meeste adressen werden leeg aangetroffen en er zijn verder geen arrestaties verricht.
Groots protest Schijnheilig; veel geweld politie; meer dan 100 arrestanten
Vanochtend is in grote getale gedemonstreerd tegen de ontruiming van cultureel centrum Schijnheilig. De krakers hadden sympathisanten opgeroepen om vreedzaam te demonstreren. Er waren verschillende optredens met als hoogtepunt een serenade van een band op het dak van de overburen, die een spandoek hadden opgehangen met daarop de tekst 'Burenliefde: Schijnheilig moet blijven'.
Schijnheilig had de deuren open zoals altijd; binnen was een expositie van schuim. Op de stoep hadden mensen zich vastgeketend in lock-ons als levend protestbeeld. De ontruiming leidde tot dit grote protest omdat het een ontruiming voor leegstand betreft. Daarvoor moet een belangrijk cultureel centrum dat brede maatschappelijke en politieke steun geniet wijken.
Hoewel de demonstratie duidelijk als vreedzaam was aangekondigd, iets dat voorafgaand aan de demonstratie nog eens duidelijk mondeling aan officier Leen Schaap is gecommuniceerd, aarzelde de ME geen moment om met veel geweld in te slaan op de verzamelde groep sympathisanten. De groep bestond uit studenten, kunstenaars, jonge academici en activisten. Zij hadden slechts een luchtbedje ter verdediging. Als er al een aantal flesjes door de lucht zijn gegaan, dan was dat in reactie op het extreme politieoptreden.
De vordering vond plaats op dusdanige afstand dat vele demonstranten deze niet konden waarnemen. Ook konden zij niet passeren zonder klappen op te vangen. Meerdere mensen zijn met hoofdwonden afgevoerd. De demonstranten werden, nadat zij naar achter waren gedreven, tussen twee linies vastgezet. Zij bleven vrolijk muziek maken, maar zijn vervolgens allemaal gearresteerd en worden nu afgevoerd in 2 stadsbussen. Een politica, die nota bene toestemming had om het geheel waar te nemen van achter de linies, is hardhandig aangepakt en geslagen.
Schijnheilig verdedigt het recht op demonstratie met klem en vindt het politieoptreden schandalig. Ze gaat politieklachten bundelen en overhandigen aan burgemeester Van der Laan.
Schijnheilig zal hoe dan ook weer opduiken. De Passeerdersgracht was de zesde locatie van het collectief en de volgende zal niet lang op zich laten wachten.
If you think it is important and worthwhile what we are doing, please donate some money. This can help us find more time and improve our activity. Thanks!
NL92TRIO0390212989 in Triodos ethical bank
