LUMES 2006

Let's dance!

2008-06-23T18:54:00.001+02:00

"Where the hell is Matt?" or the happy-feeling video!

2007-11-26T18:03:00.000+01:00

Tuesday 6th of November, 2007: Conclusions, Reflections and Results

Food Consumption Sustainability Index: 85%

Today was the last day of my week-long eco-labelling experiment. Although I intended to buy fair-trade labels wherever they were available, I ended up only buying fair-trade coffee, chocolate and potato chips. I guess this was inevitable as most fair-trade products are of the non-edible variety. Everything else was organic – largely with the KRAV label or the Danish okologisk certification.

The process itself was exciting: particularly for the first few days. I exposed myself to new tastes and products that I hadn’t bought before. The discipline of the project forced me to change my diet, simplifying it further (switching from fruit muesli to porridge oats for example), although it has always been very simple. I also naturally took a much greater interest in articles about organic food in the newspaper and finding definitions about what exactly “organic” means. I was curious to read food labels more closely, however my lack of Swedish language skill soon thwarted that process.

Regrets? I have a few: I later found out that there is organic bread at my supermarket and more sophisticated fair-trade breakfast muesli. I could have reduced my consumption of leftover conventional foods if I had planned more thoroughly and finished the conventional perishables before the start of the week.

The economics of the experiment: I made a table with all the organic/fair trade products I bought during the week. I tried to compare the eco-labelled products with the equivalent conventional product if bought in the same quantity. This gave me a percentage price difference.

As I mentioned earlier, eco-labelled food sometimes seems more expensive than it needs to be since it is not sold in larger quantities which could benefit from economies of scale. There is also generally more effort put into packaging: for example, it is impossible to buy organic instant coffee in a plastic refill bag, you can only buy it in a glass jar. Eco-label foods are apparently aimed at a higher-end consumer, who is not as budget conscious, and favours “quality” in both product and packaging, and the convenience of smaller quantity units.

Nevertheless, the results were interesting. Peanut Butter was significantly cheaper. For milk, biscuits and rice-drink, the price differences were negligible. But at the other end of the ledger, Kiwifruit, avocadoes and tomatoes were 2.5 times (150%) more expensive than their conventional equivalents. Overall, I paid 160SEK more for the products bought during that week than I would have spent if I had bought the conventional foodstuffs. Although, I should note that the coffee, garlic, hazlenut paste and digestive biscuits were bought in quantities that will survive well beyond one week.

The nature of this experiment was two-fold. First of all, I wanted to use a disciplined commitment to changing my food consumption habits for one week to teach myself about organic food and eco-labels. The blog was a means of forcing myself to maintain my discipline through disclosure of the boring details in a transparent forum and avoid the temptation to take short-cuts.

Secondly, I wanted to road-test the “one week lifestyle change experiment” as a tool for self-learning and lifestyle change for skeptics like myself, who struggle with “economic rationality” as a consumer conflicting with the values that they would support politically as a citizen. For example, as a citizen, I would vote for any politician who would propose eco-taxes on polluting agricultural practices such as industrial dairy farming. However, as a consumer I struggle to buy the small package of organic butter while it is considerably more expensive than the conventional butter (but again this is partially an issue of economies of scale that could be fixed if there was greater demand for organic butter – from people like me!).

I was trying to persuade myself about the merits of “full-immersion” lifestyle change experiments, and to that extent, I have exceeded. My enthusiasm for eco-labelled foods is more qualified: ultimately, it still depends on the food being “within range” of the price of the conventional produce. I will continue to regularly buy organic milk, eggs, bananas, biscuits, peanut butter, carrots and lentils. But more importantly, I believe that my awareness has been raised sufficiently to take an educated interest in new products as they continue to appear on the market.

I am unsure of the extent to which I can make people change to eco-labels when my own support remains qualified. However, hopefully my advocacy for people conducting their own one-week long experiments will encourage people to self-educate on other lifestyle issues and make change happen in their own lives, in the areas where they have the vision and potential for improvements.

2007-11-10T23:23:00.000+01:00

Monday 5th November, 2007

Food Consumption Sustainability Index: 85%

My diet is pretty boring: cereal and fruit in the morning, peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, and lentil soup for dinner, and I won’t bore you with any other details than that. Other than to say that apart from bread, and a sandwich at the making change happen festival, I have kept to my promise of not buying any non-eco-labelled products for these last 7 days. I have used a few left over veges: onions, potatoes, tomatoes; but overall I think I have been true to the spirit of the exercise and open to the learning opportunity that it represents. On that note, I will say a bit more on what I have learned about organics.

You may know this already, but in terms of environmental impact:

1. Organic farms do not release synthetic pesticides into the environment — some of which have the potential to harm local wildlife.
2. Organic farms are better than conventional farms at sustaining diverse ecosystems, i.e., populations of plants and insects, as well as animals.
3. When calculated either per unit area or per unit of yield, organic farms use less energy and produce less waste, e.g., waste such as packaging materials for chemicals.

But could the whole world go organic? Even organics supports agree: no - not if we want to continue expanding meat production. Organically produced nitrogen could only reach the level of half of the synthetic nitrogen fertilizers being used in the world today. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v428/n6985/full/428796a.html
But as 1kg of lean meat requires 25-50kg of grain, the scope for more efficient food systems remains large. So it is less a choice between organic and conventional vegetables, and rather a choice between organic vegetables and a heavy-meat diet.

But, as most of the people I know who eat organic fruit and vegetables have already cut down on their meat consumption considerably, it seems incongruous to call organics a trendy fad reflecting upper-middle class guilt. If a commitment to organic produce is accompanied by a concurrent reduction in meat and dairy products, then it is hard to argue against its internal logical consistency.

For a good article covering the views of critics of organics:
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2006/12/11/borlaug/index.html

Economic Sustainability Tip Of The Day: Um, it’s hard to think of anything else that is of a comparable price, but if you want to start somewhere cheap, try potatoes: They are about twice the price of conventional ones, but at only 7SEK more per kilo, you can afford to buy the best – and these are very nice potatoes.

2007-11-09T23:51:00.000+01:00

Sunday November 4th, 2007

Today I did some research about the KRAV eco-label on their website: http://www.krav.se/english.asp to try to understand some more about this shadowy, omniscient, omnipresent endorser of all that is good and meritorious in Swedish food production.
The first thing I learned is that KRAV is organised as an incorporated association with 28 members representing the full range of interests when it comes to food production. Their standards are subject to the approval of a global umbrella organisation called the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. KRAV employs 70 people, about half of which are engaged full-time in inspecting the producers that receive their certification. That’s to say, in the case of organic crops, ensuring that they are not produced with conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, GMOs, human waste, or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives.

By browsing through KRAV’s annual report for 2006, I learned that by buying KRAV milk I had helped to reduce eutrophication of waterways by 3 000 000kg, and reduce chemical pesticide consumption by 35000kg. I also learned that the country with the highest rate of spending on organic foods is Switzerland, with 950SEK per consumer every year. It is then a long way back to Denmark, in second place with 475SEK per consumer, and Sweden at 446SEK. So very much still a rich country’s club!

Overall, the report gives the impression of an industry (eco-labelling, and to a lesser extent organic farming) booming in these times of increased environmental awareness. The report also mentioned the possibility of KRAV moving into carbon labelling, but said that such a development “is dependent upon the level of interest among the market stakeholders. – There’s no point in us developing additional labelling if it is not requested by consumers and producers”. It will be interesting to see, when the 2007 report comes out, whether progress has been made on this issue.

For our Halloween party tonight, I bought some “fairly traded” Sackeus Indonesian “Exotic Chips”. Sackeus is a new fair trade brand that I hadn’t come across before. Under their logo on their website they have written “The True Fair Trade Company”, but unfortunately the rest of the website is in Swedish so I can’t investigate the rationale behind this faintly aggressive sub-title. But the chips were tasty, and I took the opportunity to promote my project amongst the other party-goers. This is paradoxically more for my own benefit than theirs: I know my own ethical disposition, and I loathe hypocrisy. I know that if I tell lots of people that I am doing something, then I am much more likely to force myself not to cut corners, even when I am in the supermarket by myself and no-one is directly surveying me. I would like to somehow connect this conception of ethics with Jurgen Habermas’ theory of communicative rationality, but I might be stretching the concept a bit far here. In any case, the power of communication should not be dismissed, even when the only person you can hope to persuade is yourself.

It’s a bit like the power of the self-fulfilling prophecy that I think could hold a key to more sustainable behaviour, especially in societies like North America (I know I am painting with broad strokes here) where there is a lot of pressure to appear optimistic and positive-minded. If only the environmental discourse could be shifted from negative issues of climate change destruction to the positive message of how sustainable life styles improve your quality of life then the climate change sceptics and the lifestyle change refuse-lings would be framed as “negative”, and ultimately socially excluded. The happiest people I have ever met in my life have almost always been the ones that consume least and live closest to nature, but somehow that idea gets hidden behind the negative attitudes towards “scaremongering”. If only sustainable living became aspirational and connected with positive images, it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy for so many people.

Economic Sustainability Tip of the Day: KRAV bananas. Between 15 and 20SEK. Hardly anything more in price than conventional ones, but much less likely to be propping up a banana republic, destroying tropical rainforest or poisoning local workers.

2007-11-08T01:47:00.000+01:00

Saturday November 3rd, 2007

Today’s Food Consumption Sustainability Index: 85%

I am seriously starting to miss the savoury, tart sensation of vegemite on toast with a good cup of tea. I was thinking about whether vegemite might qualify as a sustainable, de-facto eco-food somehow given that it is made from leftover brewers’ yeast extract and some added vegetables. What can be more sustainable than a healthy (full of vitamin B and minerals) spread that is based on recycled leftovers? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegemite
But given that this experiment is all about trying new foods and investigating eco-labels I decide not to compromise things further by trying to justify a product that travelled 20000km by plane to be on my dinner plate here in Swedn... (but thanks all the same Mum).

Otherwise, still no great adventures in my diet. The same porridge oats, banana, sour milk and rice water for breakfast. Peanut butter on toast for lunch. Meanwhile, I try some organic, fair trade Anglamark milk chocolate as I study, and I must say I am a bit disappointed. Price-wise it is competitive with other 100g bars of chocolate, although usually I would buy the 200g bars which are much better value. But this chocolate is possibly the first example where the taste really is inferior to the conventional product. Oh well, KRAV has other chocolate options out there, so maybe I will just have to experiment further. There are worse tasks in the world...

I did however make a lentil soup from organic lentils, carrots and garlic. Unfortunately, I decided to use conventional onions, potatoes and peeled tomatoes, mostly because I wasn’t sure if I would have to throw the soup away due to the faint whiff of decomposition that they gave off after a 36-hour soak in water since Thursday afternoon. The bubbles that were starting to form on the water surface (methane?) were also more than a little disconcerting. In any case, it hasn’t made me sick so far. And I did top it off with organic lemon juice, (although that also smells and tastes suspiciously like lemonade concentrate).

Economic Sustainability Tip of the Day: Vegemite or Marmite – one pot usually lasts about 6 months even if you eat it almost every day. A little really does go along way, and what can be more sustainable than a food made from recycled industrial waste? Just as long as you don’t rely on a friend or family member to fly it over for you – slap an eco-label on that black gold!

2007-11-07T01:31:00.000+01:00

Friday November 2nd, 2007

Today's Food Consumption Sustainability Index: 60%

Today is the day of the Making Change Happen festival organised by my LUMES classmates. I have volunteered to help with odd-jobs here and there and in the busy process I make my first non eco-label food purchase of the week: a sandwich that I had helped make in Smalands earlier that morning. The irony that this only “unsustainable” purchase is something that I buy from Oleg, on behalf of Smalands, is not lost on me. Meanwhile, I did try the organic lemonade, but unfortunately it was not much to write home about.

In between all the work, I do nip home for a cup of tea and a snack. At my boarding school, once you reached age 16 you were entitled to the privilege of a senior common room and a steady supply of free milk, bread, butter, teabags and spreads. Since then I have turned to toast and tea to fill my belly and open my weary eyes, and the story has been no different during this week. As I mentioned earlier in the week, I discovered a great Danish “Green Choice” organic peanut butter that is very good value. I also have taken to the Fair Trade Hazelnut paste which has a taste indistinguishable from nutella, although at 32.50SEK for 400g it is a bit more expensive than the 350g nutella priced at 21.90SEK.

The Fair Trade instant coffee that has kick-started my day for the past few days is also of a very satisfactory taste and quality. However, its high price is exacerbated by its small volume (100g) and the fact that it is only sold in glass jars and not plastic refill sachets… Are the glass jars made in developing countries also? Or is this just a means of offering a premium product for high-end consumers who are happy to pay more than double the price of regular instant coffee? Torsten argues that only 1SEK in every 10SEK of higher prices for eco-labels actually results in higher income for the producers in developing countries. In the case of fair-trade coffee, I think he may have a point.

On the other hand, no complaints about Kung Markatta organic Earl Grey tea. Not only does it have the KRAV label, but it also has the Danish Okologisk insignia as well as the Fair Trade logo. Not bad considering that it is priced in the same range as a 20 bag box of conventional Twinings Earl Grey (roughly 0.60 SEK per teabag). Although again, economies of scale favour Twinings as they sell 100 teabag boxes at 0.44 SEK per bag – which does make a difference when you drink as much tea as I do. Damn those free high school handouts!

Economic Sustainability Tip of the Day: Sorry to be repetitive, but those Kung Markatta tea bags come in a box covered in pimped-out eco-labelled bling, and are economically competitive for a 20 teabag box.

2007-11-05T01:58:00.000+01:00

Thursday, November the 1st, 2007.

Today’s Food Consumption Sustainability Index: 75%

Halloween last night, but unfortunately no organic pumpkin on the menu. In fact, it is hard to find pumpkin at all in Sweden. I was shocked when my Swedish corridor mates told me they had never eaten pumpkin before. I always thought pumpkin was a Northern European food – possibly because we always eat it with potato in New Zealand, and everyone knows the Swedes love their potatoes.

Anyway, I digress. The highlight today is an all-organic salad of tomatoes, cucumber (yum-yum), feta and rucola. I haven’t had feta for so long, so it is hard to say if this one tastes better than the usual, but it tastes pretty good to me. The tomatoes are plump, consistent and juicy, and without that disconcerting matte-like sheen and vaguely chemical smell that comes with the conventional ones here. But maybe that’s all in my mind…

The salad is accompanied by avocado on toast. The avocado is not a revelation, but it is flawless and that in itself is enough to put me in high spirits: nothing depresses me like a bad avocado. Unfortunately, my bread remains stubbornly conventional - I am yet to find organic loaves at COOP or ICA.

Overall, I am really enjoying the experiment. I guess the initial idea was that the “change” I would be making would be for the duration of the week-long experiment. I never presumed that I would actually “buy-in” to all these products in the long run. But now that I have forced myself to dive in at the deep-end, I take a genuine interest in what I am consuming. I find myself reading articles on organics in the newspaper, I take a look at the eco-label websites, and I regret not being able to read all the nutritional information in Swedish on the back.

No doubt I will lose the rice-water and oatmeal at the end of the week, and the organic garlic might be a bit too small-scale to perceive any benefits, but I will be much more aware of these products as I walk around the supermarket in the future, and open to the idea that I personally might be receiving more than is calculated on the weight/price ratio.

Economic Sustainability Tip of The Day: Organic Milk – 90% more nutritious and only 5 ore more expensive. Why doesn’t everyone make the switch?

2007-11-03T20:45:00.000+01:00

Wednesday 31st October, 2007

Today’s Food Consumption Sustainability Index (Rough proportion of eco-labelled food that I ate today): 40%

How often do you stumble across a smell that triggers pleasant childhood memories? For me, about once a year would be a rough estimate. Well, today I was transported back to lazy summer days, cricket, and cicada song by a humble cucumber. This was not just any cucumber, but a 15SEK KRAV-certified organic beauty – sleek, sporty and elegant like a 1963-model Jaguar E-Type Roadster. But unlike that old gas guzzler, this cucumber smelt crisp and juicy, and was my first experience of the much-touted superior taste of organic fruit and vegetables. The fine aroma of my KRAV cucumber not only turned on my taste-buds, it also provided a sound argument in support of the greater nutritional value of organics.

An opinion piece appeared in the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday, arguing that it has been scientifically proven that organic food had more nutritional value than “mainstream” foods.
(http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_melchett/2007/10/organics_better_admit_it.html )
In particular, I found this passage about the decline in nutrients found in conventional fruit and vegetables quite alarming:

“you would have to have eaten 10 tomatoes in 1991 to get the same level of copper as you would have got from one tomato in 1940. Between 1940 and 1991, apples lost 66% of their iron, broccoli lost 75% of its calcium, and in news that would dismay Popeye, even spinach lost 60% of its iron”

The article suggests that the natural pesticides that plants produce are inherently linked to the nutrients that are most beneficial for human health, and so when plants are sprayed with pesticides they fail to produce the goodness that we require. This helps explain why my organic cucumber had so much more taste and smell than the water paper that I usually buy.

Meanwhile, I woke up this morning to my first organic breakfast: Organic porridge oats garnished with organic bananas, organic raspberry “fil” (thick, sour milk), and thinned out with organic rice water. This worked out ok, considering all the ingredients bar the bananas were completely unknown to me before today. But it was when I tried to use the “rice milk” to whiten my coffee that things got particularly messy. I mean, I have had soy milk in my coffee before, and I can deal with the curdling. But this rice “milk” had almost no effect on the colour or the taste of the coffee, other than a diluting effect, and as someone who likes to have 1/3 of their coffee as milk, the end result was dispiriting.

I had bought the rice water in a fit of eco-aesthetical self-righteousness. I reasoned to myself that it must be better from a climate perspective to drink organic rice water than organic milk. But now I remember reading about all the methane produced by rice paddies. I don’t know what the scale is like, but I can imagine it is similar to the methane produced by cattle (per litre of “milk” produced). In any case, the system boundaries of this project was technically limited to eco-labels, on the rather broad assumption that one organic product was as good as the next. Ok, this reasoning for reverting to dairy is quite spurious, but then I found this article in The Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article2753446.ece that says that organic milk has 90% more antioxidants than conventional milk. And given that organic milk is only 0.05 SEK more expensive, I am content to abandon my short-lived experimenting with vegan white coffee J

Otherwise, the day was spent finishing off old, non-organic lentil soup, tomatoes and mozzarella. Ok, the project seems to have hardly begun you may argue, but it would hardly be very sustainable to throw away my left-overs. In any case, I feel like I have already learnt a lot, and the crisp aroma of that time-machine of a KRAV cucumber will take some beating!

Economic Sustainability Tip of The Day: “Green Choice” KRAV, ecological peanut butter is available at COOP for only 26.50, whereas the conventional “Skippy” peanut butter goes for a hefty 35 SEK for the same-sized jar!

One-Week Eco-Labelling Personal Change Experiment

2007-11-02T02:00:00.000+01:00

Tuesday 30th October 2007

The aim of this experiment is to delve into the world of eco-labelling – not just through research (Torsten beat me to it with his undergrad thesis), but by living and breathing eco-labels for one week. In practice, this will mean buying only food products labelled “organic”, “ecological”, “KRAV”, or with the free fair-trade label. How do they taste? What sustainability goals do they represent? And crucially, how does the price compare with the “conventional” alternatives?

The project begins with a trip to my former local supermarket – the ICA-Tuna next to Sparta Dormitory, and home to the most beautiful check-out girl in all of Lund. As my bike glides gently down the hill from LUMES, I find myself wondering whether she will be impressed by my newly-sustainable dietary preferences. I had previously taken pains to hide from her my most shame-inducing purchases: canned tuna and conventional, battery-farmed eggs. But for the next week I will stride proudly to the check-out counters with my organic bounty. My basket as my bayonet, I will be transformed from an eco-worrier in to an eco-warrior!

My aunt runs a small organic farm in New Zealand, but my knowledge on organic farming methods is less than rudimentary. I have a vague image of pesticide reduction, but I couldn’t even tell you if they ban pesticides religiously, or just promote alternative methods with less reliance on chemicals. I assume this makes the food healthier – you don’t need to rinse it with water any more, right? I am hoping they use less fertilisers, as this would reduce their carbon footprint, but as organics are generally produced on a smaller scale than “mainstream” farming, I guess they have proportionally more transport fossil inputs due to lower economies of scale. Well, I’m not even going to get into the carbon footprint of foods. I’ll leave that for someone else’s experiment…
My first goal should be to find out whether “ekologisk” is Swedish for “organic”, or whether it has a different meaning. I should also find out more about these KRAV guys – I need to believe that my hard-earned pacific pesos are going to a good home.

My first lesson in eco-shopping is a warning: never trust the price/kg calculations. Sometimes they mix up price/kg with price/piece, and often the price/kg calculations are just flat wrong. This happens suspiciously often with higher priced organic foods such as tomatoes, when the “organic premium” price differential makes them particularly economically unattractive. Tut-tut, the consumer advocacy people should really chase them up on that.

My first sacrifice of the week: no mozzarella in my salad. Organic mozzarella doesn’t seem to exist, so I plump for some organic feta instead. Greece: 1, Italy:0.

First dilemma of the week: 1kg of organic apples, 2 bags – one from Italy and one from New Zealand. The price is the same (20SEK/kg). I fall back on CO2 calculations for the tie-break, but I remember from my sustainability science paper on food miles that 1kg of food shipped from New Zealand to the UK produces the same amount of CO2 as 1kg of food trucked from Southern Europe. Patriotism rather than eco-label endorsement will have to settle the matter. New Zealand: 1, Italy:0.

The ICA-Tuna girl is sadly absent today, so my sustainability sacrifices will go unnoticed. This is a surprisingly large blow to my motivation. But I strive on gamely. The bill from today’s shopping: a stoic 206.50 SEK. But I won’t know what that means until I do all the accounts at the end of the week.

Economic Sustainability Tip of the Day: Goteborgs “KRAV” Digestive Biscuits: 17.90SEK – The same price as the conventional ones, but twice as sexy!

LUMES 2006 Batch becomes an old batch...

2007-06-29T23:06:00.000+02:00

I lately remembered the Little Witch (forgot her name) on tv. when she touched her forefingers she was stopping the time. I really hope I was her especially when I realize some times of my life are gonna be over but I want to keep it forever.
We will keep this blog at least forever for the next sustainable generations..
However, I am pretty sure that this blog will be safe and we will come back-read+write-when we remember or have time(I have no worries especially when we have our Oleg). LUMES 06-08 has finished it's 1st year on their Programme. We are already getting mails from the new batch (we are looking forward to see, yeahh!) asking all the necessary and concerned stuff that cause them to scratch their heads. No worries Lumies we are here!
It is like yesterday, I remember entering the class with Åsa being 2 weeks late because the Sweds taking ages to give Schengen Visa to someone who wants to study (and drink snaps,). There you were all staring at me with big smiles on your faces, clapping hands (as we mostly do to everything we like, makes me feel happy being with all of you in such a lovely class). First thing I watched that day was presentations (not surprised, eh?) of people while sitting next to a very beautiful girl with long blond hair and eyes like I have never seen that deep light blue (I thought my love_ grandmother has the deepest blue ones!) called Adrianne. Next to her someone who tired to help me by giving the hand outs he has (that time I understood that person someone must be who is living close to me, we, neighbors always hold up for eachother, right Theo?).
It is not a long time ago, but I remember every bit of this LUMES which I'm just so proud to meet all of you. We are a good team and hope we will always be wherever we are in this small 'fragile' world.
Have a prefect summer holiday and don't forget to read Callinicos (just kidding!).
See you all on August 20.

A little high, a little low!

2007-05-24T14:43:00.000+02:00

Is this real life ..
Is this just fantasy
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality ..
Open your eyes..
Look up to the skies and see …
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go!
A little high, a little low!
Anyway the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me,
To me ………

9 months! Thats 270 days n odd. Is this how a slow down version of a time machine would be ? (**scratches chin, wondering**) Come on, its not me tripping again!! But the drift that sweeps through Lund, continues to take me along with the seasons it blows through .. With the red leaves that I was welcomed with .. later, it blew hard around me that I shivered while I struggled for warmth and care … It was just yesterday, I thought I did that, but no, it was not yesterday .. Days have passed and the change: I never thought that I would like to get baked brown (ier?) in the sun and would yearn for the cool breeze … some days I wish it didn’t ‘breeze’ at all .. What do you call all those tiny flowers that bloom in the grass .. Oh God! I could sit there, whole day just gazing at them ..

I didn't know who Linnaeus was; guess even then I was daydreaming when nomenclatures were taught, but didn’t know it would matter. Didn’t know that Jimmy Hendrix was God; ignorance could get you out caste-d, I kneel before thee in penance … Enlightenment can come as a shock, worth it? Time will show. But then where is the drift heading - Rome, India or some far away land across the 7 seas, dragons and mountains ( ahemm?? Hahaha) I don’t know. The senior Lumes folks seems to have rubbed some of their blues on to me. Suddenly I am wary of time - the number of days or is it too much of sun - can an overdose of Vitamin D cause PMS syndromes? Dunno, gotta google.

Folks, if I havent told each n all of you, how much I love you, esp during my delirious state at our birthday party, well, today with no sun and being my normal self, want to tell you that, I really truly deeply appreciate each Lumie. I think I have expressed my happiness for being the person you are in different ways - only question: did it come across wrong - if so, noo .. It wasn’t meant sooo ..

Hugs, extra mushy !

Alloooo is there anyone here?

2007-05-02T17:07:00.000+02:00

Hmmm i came around many times, and after a while i considered this blog kind of dead (therefore, "kind of RIP"). It's quite surprising to me, especially when i remember the discussions and enthusiastic comments of the people around concerning this site on which everyone could (should?) write a little something. I know we have much to do in class. I know many who don't feel like writing about anyting. But still.Shall this blog survive? Is there anyone visiting like me, hoping that it goes back to life? (amen)
In case there are some, here is some advertising:
please visit our Make Change Happen Festival website to follow our work :) let comments, proposals, whatever you think could be interesting for us!
Thanks and i hope to hear more about this blog!

Love,
Marie

The COOLing Song

2007-02-16T23:22:00.000+01:00

Hey, to celebrate the end of Project 2 in ‘System Analysis’, here’s a piece of climate action music: The Global Cooling Song by Raffi (maybe you were jumping to his Baby Beluga tune, when you were kids), featuring David Suzuki (a bow to my Canadian friends and to Yo personally :-))

Systems Analysis

2007-02-04T00:04:00.000+01:00

After all the hype we have been hearing about this course... Is it living up to our expectations? We've been warned that Systems Analysis may be the catalyst to break up the great friendships we have already made, and deliver us to the dark side. I'm not sure I'm buying it. So far, the professors have been entertaining us with impromptu joking around, filling our bathtubs with beer at the friday pubs, and most notably keeping us to a mandatory 9-4 class schedule. I was expecting some kind of psychological dismantling (as this is a course to make us think differently). Where's all the drama and excitement? Maybe it will start to happen when we get into our group work and start mentally dismantling each other. Now don't let me fool you into thinking that I crave the drama, or that I hope we will no longer be friends. I guess I'm just realizing that you can't believe all the hype. Although I have been having dreams in stock and flow terms... That has been a little bit creepy and they told us it would happen. What is this some sort of brainwashing?

Well, I guess its all about "working hard and having fun"...

See you at class!

The Fool.

2007-01-27T14:36:00.000+01:00

Speaking of quotes, I came across this quote which struck me with happiness and sorrow in a single blow; it took me 31 years to realize this....

Theodore Rubin: "I must learn to love the fool in me—the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool."

1970s Animated Music Video - Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell

2007-01-12T01:48:00.001+01:00

Hopefully this little ditty will cheer us all up...Some good old Canadian tunes

Sustainability sciences

2007-01-11T00:16:00.000+01:00

Is Lumes programme sustainable for students, especially after Christmas break?
To analyze this important question, why not creating a beautiful Causal Loop Diagramme?
Here we go:

Because I am very tired, and that I have to finish my own analyze of my own CLD, I am desperatly waiting for your analyzes throught the comments.

Cheers

2007

2007-01-09T16:31:00.000+01:00

Well here we are, we have survived to 2007! For me, this has been a tough transition leaving 2006 (probably the best year to date for me) behind and moving ahead to 2007 (an ODD number...). I have abit of a superstitious bone in my body that has to do with horoscopes and numerology. I am averse to ODD numbers for some reason, which may be part of the reason why I hated MATH so much growing up, I couldn't choose between ODD and EVEN numbers. But I guess since 7 is ODD, but also regarded as a lucky number, I am abit torn about this year. I'm sure it will be full of challenges and set backs; but will overall be one of the most memorable years of my life. It's also supposed to be the HOTTEST YEAR on RECORD... So I guess we will have to wait and see what is in store for us. I feel very lucky to be here with all of you now.

Swedish girl

2006-12-20T15:08:00.000+01:00

I think I know Sweden an Swedes enough now to write this little post. After one year and a half spent here (yeah, Jönköping + Lund...), I met a lot of different people, trying to understand them and their culture and their habits etc... I guess I am sometimes disappointed. Especially by Swedish girls... Explanations.

It is not a secret for anyone, I like women. When I first got here, Sweden was like Heaven, I have to admit. I was in a class of 26 students, only 4 boys, and only one french frog. I got in touch with most of them, getting into close relationship sometimes. And through my different experiences here and there, I met some others, building a friends network quite important. Okay, I've been heartbroken, I broke some hearts, but this is life, it is everywhere the same I guess, so no blaming to swedish girls for that.
But why am I disappointed?

Okay, here is the average swedish girl I know:
- they tell you they'll call back. Never trust that, coz they never do.
- If they make a promise, tell them to write it on a paper and sign it, because they never keep it.
- don't worry if you receive the answer from a SMS only 15 days after you sent it, it doesn't mean they don't care about you, it's just their way to say they love you and they care.
- Don't plan vacation with them, they usually cancell a week or two before.
- If you start talking and flirting with a swedish girl in a bar, you have to stay focus on your work a 100%. Don't go to the bathroom, don't talk to someone else, just keep her eyes on you, because in ten seconds, she is able to be kissing another guy(s). (well, being french sometimes help to avoid that)
- Be careful when you start talking to a swedish girl. The first question you should ask is: 'do you have a boyfriend', because what a kick in the ass when after one hour talking, almost kissing, the boyfriend shows up.
- If they tell you yes for a coffee or a dinner, call them back the day after, because they'll never accept afterwards, or they will forget about it.
- If you don't have a father who is rich, your chances to just talk to a swedish girl living in Stockholm are... Well, unless you're fu..ing lucky ;)

Well, all of the above are based on real experiences, and it doesn't mean that every swedish girls are like this, and I'd like to say also that my dear Vivianne has not been taken in consideration to the creation of this 'average swedish girl' ;)
Of course, they have also very good points, but you all figured it out already. I guess this post is more made for guys... Sorry girls.

Finally, I just wanna say that even if they are rude sometimes, I like them. Certainly a melancolic ex-heartbroken who is writting now. Cheers.

Christmas pause

2006-12-20T00:20:00.000+01:00

Well, we have no more studies this year… A lot of our classmates left Lund for their homes, to spend Christmas with their families, or for holiday travels, or both. They don’t have time or topics to post to this blog as much as before. Lund stays quiet… It cried a lot the last week, for all the merry students parting (not partying this time!) from it until the next year… or leaving for good. But now Lund tries to stay cool… Very cool, actually, I would even call it cold. It tries to smile its cold sad smile with brief moments of winter sun shining through crystal-clear air on freezing cats sitting a top of the laundries’ thermal vents… and on a guy who stops to caress those cats and to talk to them in Russian.

Lund also stays hopeful. Because many students will return the new year, and some new students will come too. All our classmates (but one, and we wish Odushka a lot of success in Stockholm and we’ll see her here the next September, hopefully!) will be back in Lund in the beginning of January. Those, who stay here, plan to organize LUMES Christmas celebration, we’ll have a big beautiful apartment to chase Santa around, all at our disposal, yahoo! I bet it will be as lovely as my dream of it here. I miss my friends, both those in and out of Lund, and I want and hope to see them all soon!.. Merry Christmas, everyone (let’s think it’s a cultural event, not simply a religious holiday, ok? ;-)), and A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR of us all together!!!

Contemporary Culture and Environmentalism

2006-12-12T01:00:00.000+01:00

So, inspired partially by Mike’s Making Change Happen project, Laurent’s culture post, Yo’s IQ post and Turaj’s Van Morrison song (I still think it was more about emotional enlightenment rather than Smith and Rousseau), I decided to delve into the murky world of politically-charged songs and message music... In general, popular music has struggled to combine political issues with universal themes that can appeal directly to the human heart. Furthermore, in a liberal democracy, it is generally assumed that there are two sides to every story, and it can be easy to alienate half your audience if you “pick a side”...

However, “The Pioneers” by Bloc Party seems to be an exception that proves the rule. This song works because it picks a theme – human hubris and the rational detachment from society and evironment inherent to enlightenment scientific attitudes – that doesn’t attack any one person, nationality or social class in particular. And as we all know, the concern it expresses for the implications of these attitudes is very contemporary.

Here are the lyrics - I think they are pretty self-explanatory after Turaj’s course:

If it can be broke then it can be fixed,
if it can be fused then it can be split
It's all under control
If it can be lost then it can be won,
if it can be touched then it can be turned
All you need is time

We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?

A sense of purpose and a sense of skill, a sense of function but a disregard
We will not be the first, we won't
You said you were going to conquer new frontiers,
Go stick your bloody head in the jaws of the beast

We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?
Breathe in, breathe out

So here we are reinventing the wheel
I'm shaking hands with a hurricane
It's a colour that I can't describe,
It's a language I can't understand
Ambition, tearing out the heart of you
Carving lines into you
Dripping down the sides of you

We will not be the last.

The lyrical structure is a subtle progression from absolute certainty in scientific methodology in the first verse, to increasing self-reflection on the dynamics of a competitive system of knowledge in the second, and ultimately despair and confusion once the limits of human capacity have been acknowledged in the third.

Beyond the message, what makes this song particularly striking is the use of the singer’s voice to convey urgency through the short, sharp, staccato phrasing of every sentence. This urgency is also conveyed in the gradual build up of instruments. The first verse commences with sparse, angular riffs from two electric guitars before a martial drum-beat kicks in on “all you need is time”. Eventually, the bass-line appears as the first verse is repeated. In addition, the repetition of the scientific mantras “it’s under control”, “all you need is time”, and “we will not be the last” reinforces the irony of the statements themselves as the urgency of the vocal delivery undermines the listener’s faith in the “pioneers’” certitude. It sounds like the singer is reassuring himself, and not doing a good job of it. Indeed, the song can be read as an endorsement of “strong ecological modernization” or fundamental structural reform as it implicitly asserts the futility in trying to “solve problems with the thinking that created them”.

Anyway, if you are crazy enough to have read this far, you might want to listen to the song on youtube. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8N_n5npm7I

But be warned, music that tries to convey tension and confusion is not necessarily easy on the ear the first time you listen to it. But it rewards multiple listens. And I am sure you will agree that the video explores several interesting interrelated themes in the space of three minutes...

Aah, only 139 days to the concert… just around the corner... the anticipation!!!

XMas!

2006-12-11T20:08:00.000+01:00

My dear friends,
I won't give you any special quotations tonight, i'm just curious to know how you celebrate Christmas in your own culture/country/family (if you do celebrate Xmas of course), what it means to you, and what your plans are for the coming one!!!
I propose tou to use the comments to answer, otherwise it will turn messy if everyone writes a complete post on that!
Lots of Xmas Love to everyone!
Marie

oh yes, nevermind, some favourite Xmas quotations!
"last Christmas i gave you my heart..."
"i'm dreaming of a white Christmas...."
"let it snow let it snow let it snooooooooooooooooooooow"

héhéhé

2006-12-11T16:41:00.000+01:00

Precious lessons
Ok, I can’t stop writing anymore. I’m not going to tell you how I have ended up here because remembering those days still bothers me somehow, but I want to tell you how happy I am for being here. First let me confess that coming back to university after two years working wasn’t so easy that I thought before.

I remember after finishing the first course at LUMES, how much I was angry about the course and the exam. I was complaining about timetable, lectures and the exam’s format. But one my lumesy friend said to me: “Hey, you knew the rules of game before, if you are not satisfied, go back home, otherwise stop complaining and work harder”. Actually I didn’t know the rules completely before, and in that time, which I didn’t have a place, I didn’t have my student card and in short I was under a lot of pressure, I needed something more sympathetic rather than that sentence. But I thought to myself “yes, she is 100% right”. I really needed a punch to find myself! And fortunately I did! Getting B in the second course wasn’t just a mark for me; I proved a lot of things to myself. I really appreciate my friend’s comment.

I would say even the conflicts might be useful to learn. Last week, I started a debate based on a scientific article, but unfortunately it ended up with “shame on people who don’t want to pay 10 SEK for xmas present!”. First I was a little bit disappointed of how subject changed. I received some impressive emails, and the attitude of some students was so offensive. I didn’t understand why they took it personal. At the end, only 13 voted for carbon emission credit among about 60 students, but as they were more in comparison with other groups, most students including me, just paid their 10SEK to get rid of the junk emails. But it was interesting for me to see different reactions, bad or good both were interesting for me. I became happy that most of my friends have realized what the subject was really about.

All in all, I have to say, these four months were full of new things to learn, from different friends, from different parts of the world. I think this is wonderful. There are a few ambiences in which you can learn a lot in a short period of time, in addition to go to the party almost every week! I’m really happy about it. I really believe we can do a lot of things after our graduation because we are learning and experiencing several new things. I love you my lumesy friends :x

-Maryam

Becoming a LUMESian in 4 quotes

2006-12-10T16:09:00.000+01:00

At my university, I was struck by how many of the other environmental students had had transformative, almost quasi-religious, experiences in nature when they were younger. I've been wondering if this was unique to my culture or more universal. I really want to know Why do we all care? Why are we all spending two years of our lives here in Lund trying to figure out how to change the world? Because maybe if we knew why us, we could spread whatever pushed us here to others.

"We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no child-hood in it..."
--Georg Eliot (The Mill on the Floss)

This is why I became an environmentalist. I would never have loved the earth this much if it weren't for the idle times as a child climbing trees, building snow forts, racing margarine cups down the rivuleting floods of spring, jumping into leaf piles and floating in the ocean. I would not have loved this earth so much if I had not spent so many hours wandering the woods with my mom, as she asked me, What do you think that is? Why do you think it does that? Where is it going? Where does it live? The woods seemed full of stories and magic, and in the end, I loved the earth.

"Knowing what I do, there would be no future peace for me if I kept silent."
-- Rachel Carson (on why she wrote Silent Spring)

I started out as one of those serious kids who hears about the rainforests being cut down and the whales being endangered in school and demands it all to just stop! When I started taking classes on "environmental issues" and it all became so much more complicated, I felt like Carson, that I couldn't look away.

"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds."
-- Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac)

So often it seems like it would be easier to look away, to not know the things they're telling us about global warming and desertification and poverty and biodiversity loss and on and on - to be able to have the future peace Carson knows she can't have because she knows so much. This, ultimately, is how I think I ended up here in Lund with y'all: to not live alone with this. To not become one of the burned-out American activists who are stuck and given up with the world. Sometimes it means so much just to see you all in class each day.

This brings me to another of my favorite quotes:

"To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts unexpressed, that can make this life a garden."
-- Goethe

Not to get completely mushy on y'all, but I think it means you are all flowers.

My two favorite quotes

2006-12-09T13:41:00.000+01:00

Hmm, may I share not just one but two of my most favorite quotes: one short and one very long? As you probably already know, I’m a big fan of ‘all things Apple’, like fruits, trees, orchards, Apple Macintosh, and many others… And both favorite quotations of mine are somehow related to this passion.

The first comes from a girl whose words from her high school essay were used for one of the Greenpeace International Annual Reports:

“even if I knew the world was coming to an end tomorrow, I would still plant my apple tree”

I think it’s one of the most beautiful lines of text I’ve ever come across…

And the second quote inspires me very much as well, it comes from my favorite author Kim Stanley Robinson and his wonderful book ‘The Years of Rice and Salt’:

“We will go out into the world and plant gardens and orchards to the horizons, we will build roads through the mountains and across the deserts, and terrace the mountains and irrigate the deserts until there will be garden everywhere, and plenty for all, and there will be no more empires or kingdoms, no more caliphs, sultans, emirs, khans, or zamindars, no more kings or queens or princes, no more qadis or mullahs or ulema, no more slavery and no more usury, no more property and no more taxes, no more rich and no more poor, no killing or maiming or torture or execution, no more jailers and no more prisoners, no more generals, soldiers, armies or navies, no more patriarchy, no more clans, no more caste, no more hunger, no more suffering than what life brings us for being born and having to die, and then we will see for the first time what kind of creatures we really are.”

IQ stands for...

2006-12-09T00:15:00.000+01:00

My friends,

I was impressed by Reshmi's story and her quote on Dec 5, and thought we could all share our 'Inspirational Quotes.' Coming from all over the world, from such a diverse backgrounds and interests, LUMES must have the ever-deep-and-inspiring sea of words.
So, here's my favorite...

"I'd like to remember that during the daylight hours, the stars are still shining above us."
Sarah E. Reynolds

Mind the invisibles, and feel connected.
That's how I interpreted, and that's something that I want to exercise in my life.
I believe in the power of imagination and positive verbs,
so if you're motivated, please add your 'Inspirational Quotes.'

yo

Scoop

2006-12-07T22:00:00.000+01:00

Yesterday night, in the cold night, I decided to go to a movie theater. It was long time I hadn't done so, and I knew they were showing a movie from one of my favourite director ever: Woody Allen, with his movie Scoop.

It is pointless to talk about the reputation of this little genius from Manhatan, who knows perfectly how to capture in an hour and a half all the spirit of a place, of a character, of a story. Quite often criticized in the US, he is particularly appreciated in my dear country France for his sense of humor, sometimes very black and satirical.

After having working many years in NYC, he decided to move on to London, other interessting city, culturally diversified. Match point, where he worked with the beautiful Scarlett Johansson, revealed one more time his talent. Understanding the real spirit of the british capital, he simply translated it in one of the best box-office of the year 2005.

Describing Scarlett as his new muse, the two characters came back this year with Scoop, an original movie, between science-fiction, comedy and tragedy.

A very famous journalist, known as the one who gets the scoops first, suddenly died, and on his way to wherever on the Death' boat, he meets a woman that has been poisoned by her boss. The reason she's dead is that she discovered tht her boss was maybe a serial-killer. Upset to not get the scoop, the journalist decides to appear to the wonderful Scarlett, who is a student in journalism. Woody will help her finding the truth, trew hilarious adventures, where the londonian 'bourgeoisie' is well-described. Allen transports us into Kesington, the small shops of London and the countryside so easily, that it could disgust every single future director.

Highly recommanded!

My Turn :-)

2006-12-05T00:36:00.000+01:00

When I got in at LUMES, I was reminded by Paulo Coehlo words, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

I just dont know how I got in here. I remember that the frustration in my life was on an all time high during the month of September 2005. So specific? Well, lets say, some incidents. I kept asking myself what is that I wanted from my life… Where was I heading? Moving along the drift like a dry leaf? I think I spent many a night staring at the ceiling and brooding.. Anger. Frustration. Irritation. Hopelessness. At office, my dead lines became a mirage. Exit September.

Flash back. I grew up running behind all the neighbourhood cats and dogs and hens. Was vaccinated for dog bites and have been chased by cows for getting too pally with their younger ones. Turned into a veggie for the same reason at 15. Would you believe that I took software engineering just because that was the "in" thing then!! Well, why dig the grave .. at the end of the whole charade, the only saving grace was that I got a "decent" job. But what stayed with me while growing up was the frustration at the unjustifiable disparity of life around me!! But then courage was the last thing I had... Last 10 years of my life has been a war with my inner voices;I kept winning till one day - I called it quits.

April 2006. When I received Asa's acceptance mail, I remember sitting frozen at my off desk ..I was shit scared. First thing that struck me was that how did eco-hippies get paid in India :-)) Anyways, since then life has never been the same .. My plan to leave for Lund was a big emotional and personal "Action Drama"!!

I don’t know, but I am here (wonder, I was the only Indian applicant??) and I am enjoying every moment of it, despite of having have to live like an insomniac. And I plan to kick some butts when I get back home !!

*Mushy Hugs*

PS: No Indian spices added. No artificial colouring. All natural :-)

Why enviro?

2006-12-04T23:08:00.000+01:00

Okay, I got the writting spirit inside tonite...

Once upon a time, a little boy who lived in France, was spending most of his week ends with his grandparents. His grandfather had a hobby: hunting. So, when the little boy got old enough, his grandfather tooked him with him one sunday. In the morning, they walked in the forest, trying to find a deer to kill. They could eat it for Christmas. In the afternoon, another hunter found one, so the grandfather and the little boy hide behind a tree, waiting for the deer. Suddenly, they both saw the deer. It was 15 meters away, no more, the grandfather took his shotgun and aimed at the deer. The deer was going to be shot. But suddenly, the grandpa lowed his weapon and turned to his grandson with a smile, and he said: 'have you seen how beautiful Nature is?'
From then, I understood that Nature was the most precious thing we had. I definitly decided to go threw sustainaibility studies when I went to Egypt and I saw this little girl who smiled to me after I gave her candies. I realized that human kind was hurting nature, but also human kind, and that we needed to react. So I went to university, studied engineering, because I needed to understand how all the big system was functionning, then I decided it was time to give me more useful tools. And here I am, in Lund!

PS: my grandfather is certainly the man I respect the most on this planet!

How I ended up in Lund

2006-12-04T22:32:00.000+01:00

Alright, apparently you guys didn't post enough stories on the blog so far and now Adrianne is calling her housemates to use their memories and tell the story of how it all began. Following the fairy tale tradition initiated by Arj here we go:
One upon a time, there was this 7-year old boy who lived in a big city named Berlin. Whenever his family went to visit the grandparents and other relatives in the small village 200km away, he was very excited. There were pigs, chicken, ducks and rabbits waiting for him to be chased and looked at. But one day, his uncle took a gun and shot a sparrow from the roof of the old farmhouse and it fell to the feet of the boy, dead. What a shock, the word murderer came out of his mouth and he burst into tears, determined never to talk to his uncle again in his life...
Well, this is a long time ago and now I have a different perspective on it, but this moment was probably the turning point and from then on I decided to work with animals and nature. However, during High School and later on decisions had to be made and I realized that there are many roads to rome.
So, I decided to study Business Administration, for a simple reason. If u wanna change something, then u have to know what's going on in the world and u have to know the where to start changing it!! Eventually I made my way into the Lumes programme and didn't regret this decision at any point...thanks to all the nice people who open my spirit and allow me for a lot of new and interesting ideas and viewpoints. Let's challenge us and the world around us for the better!

Lively up yourself

2006-12-04T17:31:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time there was a little girl (yes, i like talking about me "à la 3e personne" ;) ) who thought she could change the world with her little hands.

First she thought she could become the first woman elected as president of France. She was around 8 and full of hope and beliefs towards politics/politicians. It seems someone inbetween stole her idea (with the same kind of name, Marie-Hélène Marie-Ségolène, well, not so many differences!), so she kept on thinking and thinking.

Then she thought: "i'll be a journalist! i'll tell people truth about the world and make them smile with my nice stories!". It happened however that truth around her faded away and that things turned sad and hopeless. She joined the Dark Side of the Force, and stopped thinking about a future that did not give her hopes: why believing in journalism and politics when they don't answer the good questions, or, when they do, lie to everyone....

For a while things were fuzzy...let's keep on growing and see what might happen next. One day however she decided to follow the white rabbit, which liberated her from Jail-Paris and led her to Lille, in the Political Science world. Geography and sustainable development appearded then as her mushroom, you know, the one that makes you get bigger and bigger, big enough to see the world from an other perspective :) This idea got stuck in her little head, especially after her first trip the the land of the hippie Vikings.

Now that she's back there, with a lot of happy new mushroomed friends (or, if you are afraid with this comparison, let's say you took the good pill one day!), she just feels good and useful again, believing that she might be able, one day, to change the world with her little hands.

Lots of Love and Hugs to everyone!

PS/ Bdays of the month: Filomena (6th), Yo (10th), Theo (19th)
PS2/ Celebrations before XMas time: St Nicolas Day (6th), Santa Lucia (13th)

Reflections on Professor Tim

2006-12-01T16:11:00.000+01:00

Professor Tim likes the number 3. He likes to give three examples of sustainable practices, unsustainable practices, advantages, dangers, features etc. for any line of thought. The man has a vast reservoir of environmental knowledge and practical experience. He could list endless examples. But he likes the number 3. Often he doesn't get there. Students distract him with questions, or he heads off on another fascinating tangent and the discussion moves in to a new realm. It's not a problem. It is a part of his considerable charm. But I'm interested in why, at least in the English language, we always list things in threes. We say that "the girl is kind, beautiful and intelligent" rather than "kind and beautiful" or "kind, beautiful, intelligent and witty"... why is that? Is it just a question of rhythm? Is it how we show that we have thought things through deeply? Is it to emphasise the plurality or three-dimensionality of any opinion? Is it just me? I like the number 3.

Professor Tim gave us lots of inspiration for our theses. I have more than three ideas now. I don't know if the ideas are any good, but at least I am excited about exploring them. Hopefully we can use Lennart and Mats' paper as a way of exploring this new-found inspiration.

I'm going away for the weekend to meet an old friend. I am looking forward to radiating enthusiasm about my studies and my new friends. It is nice to meet old friends with a smile on your face.

Have a great weekend everyone, and see you on Monday :-)

David

The story of how I got here...

2006-11-29T18:18:00.000+01:00

Ok everybody, so Autumn wants to know the story behind each of us finding our way to a future in environmental studies or sustainability or whatever you want to call it. For the first post of this blog, I will describe the way that I was called to environmental service.

When I was a kid, I was in gymnastics. Thats seriously all I did. I was absolutely obsessed, to the point that I was known only as "the gymnast". When my gymnastics career was over at 16, I had a serious identity crisis. I had no idea where I fit into the world anymore. I graduated highschool and on my family vacation out in the Rocky Mountains of Canada, I saw something that shook me to the core. We were driving through the mountains in between Calgary and Canmore, when I saw a huge LaFarge plant on the banks of a lake. I could see the reflections of the trees and the mountains in the lake, with this ugly grey building with huge smokestacks in the way. For some reason, it really hit me hard at that moment. It was as though the fog was finally lifted and from then on, my path slowly evolved toward environmental studies (which I didn't know existed at the time). Although it wasn't a huge moment, it was defining. I've had many more incredible experiences in nature and dealing with environmental and social justice issues, but that was my first, and the first is always special. I hope that satisfies you Aut...