Berlin Citizens Discover Direct Democracy

Mediaspree Versenken from Pappsatt

A group of activists against privatisation and gentrification gathered the highest amount of signatures so far for a public voting in Berlin for their call to have the Berlin river Spree for everyone. While the local government is selling out the whole river area in the district Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain in favor of a "Media Spree" filled with glass house offices and hypermarkets, the public has the change to vote against the sell out of their living area.

All political parties, including the greens and the socialists, oppose the initiatives wishes for a publicly accessible riverbank and ignore the call for protection of the very lively scene culture around the riverside.

Relatively new forms of public voting allow Berlin citizens to bring up topics for a public voting, and different initiatives to bring up a public issue saw the light. We have had a public voting over brilliant issues, such as the rename of a street to give it the name of the '68 student leader Rudi Dutchske (result: pro Dutschke), a voting over the closing of the famous Berlin airport Tempelhof (result: pro closing).

In the case of the Mediaspree voting, it can become a case example of new forms of public involvement and grassroots organization against a too commercial sell out of public space. A relatively small group of activists get's the chance to oppose such a hundreds of millions megaproject. And rule over their politicians. Let's see what the people will vote.

Day of vote: 13 July 2008
More info: ms-versenken.org and Mediaspree eV

Carrotmobs: Flashmobs of Consumer Power

Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

If shops and corporations do not react fast enough on our demand for ethical products and environmental responsibility, we will organize our consumer power to demand it. Well, that's what is really happening, and when we realize what difference that can make, the effect gets much stronger and we can really change things for the better.

Carrotmobs are actions we are going to hear more of. They organize consumers on a certain time and place to buy in a certain way for a special cause, may it be demanding more fair trade products or an energy or waste reduction. In The Netherlands the group Stoerevrouwen, a hip collective of women, is organizing 'shopmobs' to demand fair trade and organic products in the shops. Their shopping army suggests our cause of ethical consume is not less than a warzone.

Actually a few people are enough to get a large mob going. Since my personal experiences with political flashmobs in 'last dictatorship of Europe' Belarus I am convinced of the strong tactical power of flashmobs and other forms of smartmobs where new technologies, grassroots organizing and hipster coolness go side by side. Let's use these tactics to change the products in our stores. Or for whatever good cause. Smartmobs are going to be back, back, back.

Carrotmobs via: Goodtruebeautiful
Image: Stoerevrouwen in action

Grass Routes at the SelfHub in Berlin

The SelfHub is a 'club for people with ideas'. It fuses the best of grounders centre, library, cafe and office lounge. The SelfHub is part of an international network of Hubs around the world and the first one in Germany.

We found this an excellent place to present our vision and create an inspiring evening for everyone in Berlin interested in our projects. Be there! Spread the word! Change the world with style!

Notification: the event is moved to the 15th of May!

Click here for more info

Artistic action pushes climate negotiations on Bali

Activists from Avaaz and an international coalition of youth organizations, along with local and national NGOs, created a human body activist art project on Kuta Beach in Bali.

Artist John Quigley organized the crowd of over a 500 people to arrange their bodies to form an image of the world being washed away by the rising tide. Above this image, more people spelled the words "Act Now," a message designed to target the UN Climate Negotiations at the beginning of their critical second week.

I am philosophizing a lot these days if the ecological crisis we are heading towards will only hype more green consume, or that we as humanity will be able to establish a new political elite driven by the concern of and respect for our planet?

Picture by: Step it Up

Switching off the light on global scale: join Earth Hour on March 29, 2008

It's night and the sky is... orange....green...or pink. In a large part of the world real darkness is unknown, caused by electric light pollution from cities, street lamps and green houses. Researches shows that unlighted highways are as safe as lighted, and offices and green houses can also function without lamps at night. There is more and more awareness for the topic, and some great initiatives to turn of the light.

During Earth Hour on Saturday, March 29 at 8 pm, cities across the globe will be powering off electric light for one hour. Lights and unnecessary electrical items will be turned off from San Francisco to Bangkok. 24 cities, thousands of businesses and millions of people are expected to participate.

And if we can organize this successful for an hour a year, why not do it a bit more often?

Romantic nights stop global warming
The event takes place from 8 pm-9 pm local time, regardless of the location. There is no reason for not joining. The only thing that could happen to you is paying a bit less on your energy bill. A good opportunity for romantic candle light dinner and a moment where people on global scale will be aware of the energy they use. With all the attention for climate change, this event has a huge potential.

sources: Grist Magazine, Triplepundit, Earthhour.org

Virtual activism: plant a tree in facebook or second life

It is a lot of tree planting actions these days, and I am wondering where all these forests are growing. Cleaning up our emissions, or just filling up the empty spaces of cut down Amazon forests?

The latest sprout on the tree planting hype is The Virtual Forest campaign by UNION FENOSA. The idea is simple, you plant a virtual tree in the virtual community Second Life, and for every second participant they plant a tree in reality.

But behind this campaign seems to be an energy company. Other virtual forests I recently read about were from a bank, the so called Facebook Forest Group where you plant a tree with every fifty new members, and the German online community Utopia, planting a tree for every new member.

I am really starting to wonder if all those planted trees are making a difference or just green wash our 'green sins'? Are we planting faster than we cut? Is there any serious research on this jet?

through: ecostreet

Over 20 Supermodels Support the EJF Organic Cotton Campaign

More than 20 top models, including Irina Lazareanu, Coco Rocha, Catherine McNeil, Caroline Trentini, Siri Tollerød and Behati Prinsloo, have now been photographed in EJF’s ‘Pick Your Cotton Carefully’ campaign t-shirts. Most of the pictures were are taken by fashion photographer Eric Guillemain. The successful campaign by the Environmental Justice Foundation for cleaner cotton production has been gaining attention worldwide.

The organic cotton t-shirts are designed around the theme of “childhood, lost innocence and hope” to represent more than a million children around the world forced to labour in cotton production.

The shirts are for sale and support the EJF cotton campaign www.ejfoundation.org/shop