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Forward the revolution

All crisis are consequences of wrong decisions or displaced behaviour, symptoms showing that something went wrong somehow in the system. Crisis are therefore sometimes the best opportunities -and maybe the only one- to realise that the way we have been following was a dead end. The last economical crisis that shake the world for a couple of years is a wake up call. A signal, send to our brains like a headache, or a stomachache when we wake up after a crazy night of excess.

Modern societies went too far, we went too far, pushing our greediness over the limits of nature. Growth, richness, competition, wars, hunger, injustices, unhappiness...new sets of values founded some hundreds years ago that we still sustain today without thinking too much about the real consequences...

The human race does not evolve today, it grows, as monster grows. We are growing, eating everything we find, whether we are hungry or not, attracted by an instinctual need of destruction. And we know it. The human beings are on their way, destructing their own home, impoverishing the soils that give them food, contaminating the atmosphere that allow them to breathe and killing their own brothers. We are aware of it, people talk about it. We even have the solutions already, renewable energies, responsible consumption, respect and love...And yet, changes are just drawings in the imagination of a few.

Where did it all started ? Hard to say...the easy answer would be to say that the human nature is like that. We are all born selfish, irrespective with a thirst of destruction. I take a look around me. I see a new born, his angel face...is he so cruel ? I don't think so...

To me, it started a long time ago...and that might be why some people think it is some kind of innate characteristic. It is just a thousand years of bad behaviour ! A long time ago then, when humans had no impact whatsoever on the nature. They were not even hunting...they just ate fruits and other plants they were finding on their ways. Their were nomads as well. Harmony. Women and Men taking the fruits from the tree, loving it and adoring it for its gifts and sharing it with the other members of the tribes. Clean water was running not so far away, they were also sharing it, as their homes, caves, huts... A beautiful world...and then, things change. Discovery of the fire, settlements, people starting to get specialised...one for the fruits, another for the water, another one who hunts...coming to a point when one had a lot of apple and wanted a bit more of water. Exchanges started and with it the idea of property. Fruits were no longer a gift from the nature they were the product from Mister X. It is simply written...but the same idea rules today. We exchange – or we sell- products, things that come from the nature, that has been given -for free-by our Pacha Mama. And we are paying for it...paying meaning we are working for it, from 8 to 17 o'clock when you have been born in social pseudo democracy...more for the others.

Getting up in the morning, getting stress by the clock...tic, tac, tic, tac...Coffee to open a sleepy eye, short night yesterday, no time to eat, the clock keeps going after me...countdown that never ends. Traffic jumps, more stress, getting angry, hitting the steering wheel...arriving late, a nice word from the manager who is as stress as I am. He had to get up earlier than me and he can't be late. Eight hours to do whatever, it doesn't really matter, I just need the money to pay the rent, the insurance, the taxes, the fuel for my car, the loan for it, the bills for the water getting more expensive every month -I should ix the leak in the bathroom but I have no time for it-, the food,the beers and the cigarette I need to relax...But wait a minute. Why am I doing all this ? It seems like my whole life is about working and paying to live. And most of my expenses are lodging, food and water.

No need to be a philosopher to realise that something is wrong...something went wrong with our way of living. We got everything from the nature, even the manual and the values we need : to give, to share and to live. The tree gives us the fruit, we love it by respecting the tree to ensure he gives more fruits in the future. These fruit is are for everyone, we just have to share them. Our way of thinking went far away from that. But nothing is over, there are no apocalypse,we are our own salvation, we can become nature again.

Some persist saying the human nature is perverse...there is nothing to do about it. These people forget to take in consideration the evolution. Even if everything what Darwin wrote about it might not be true, it is today clear that livings evolve. There is an evolution for all species on earth. We do evolve as well...and we must evolve today. Yes, humans have been greedy and selfish, yes, they have tried for centuries to destroy their brothers and sisters. It is just as a young boy who fight with his sister, with violence sometimes until he becomes conscious he loves her very much and he doesn't want to hurt her. To become conscious. Humanity is becoming conscious of its impact on the nature, on the planet and also on its own behaviour towards other livings. Consciousness leads to change, change is evolution.

Human beings have been driven in the last centuries by the idea of exchanges, possessions, trade and financial enrichment while forgetting their own roots. This way of living was not safe for the planet nor for the human itself. Crisis started hitting the human society as a consequence. The last on is not over...and it might hurt very strong our systems, our traditions and beliefs. It is a « no » addressed by the humans to themselves, as the body warns the brain. Evolution is on its way, from violence to peace, from barbarism to civilisation, from ignorance to consciousness, from indifference to love. This crisis is a call for (r)evolution. Revolution being the action of getting out of its own world to analyse it and forward the change.

It is time to change, to forward the evolution , embracing new opportunities, new ideas and thoughts to find harmony with the planet and all the livings on it. It is time to open our minds and our doors to the change.  

Hitchhiking

The human beings are born nomads and they will remain eternal wanderers in their hearts. They settled down for more security, comfort...but the call of the road has been always there, hidden in their hearts. Human beings are until today, frustrated travelers whose dreams are fed by the road. This feeling that lies in each one of us is not just about traveling, seeing new palces and meeting new people...this feeling is about the unknown, uncertainty, the adrenaline of the mysteries, the nomad is always attracted by the road less traveled.

This road goes rarely on the air. Airplanes are a medium far too easy to discover a new places...too easy, and most of all too expensive for the planet...on flight can go up to 2000 tonnes of CO2...which egal one year of heating a house for instance. Traveling by car is tiring, lonely and also not quite sustainable...unless you decide to share it with strangers who stand up on the road. Hitchhiking might not be as healthy and sutainable as biking or walking...it remains the best way to meet other people, strangers that you would never meet in other situation.

Hitchhiking is the best option to travel freely...with the wind blowing you in the direction of destiny and to open the doors of humanity. Each car that stops is  a new story worth to be tell, a new stranger smiling at you and ready to share his car, his stories and many times much more. Hitchhiking is about sharing...millions of car are driving veryday to all directions in the world. It is nowadays hard to find a road where no cars pass by...there is always a chance to share a ride. Looking at it seriously, it is non-sense to see all these people going in the same direction, listening to the same radio, not sharing their car...making a gift to another person, saving money and fuel...reducing its ecological impact...

One of the main obstacles of hitchhiking today is FEAR, people are afraid because of the stories we hear...and because mainly of a lack of trust in the other that is fed by the media. Hitchhiking -as everything- can be unsecure...but as Ed Buryn said:“The "danger" of vagabonding resides in having your eyes opened - in discovering the world as it really is.” It is indeed the bigegst danger you can face, knowing that this danger fades away automatically when you open yourself to the world, when you leave your prejudices behind and decides one for all to share your life  with your brothers and sisters.

there is this unique moment...a touch of magic that comes when you have been waiting for hours on the side of the road, cold, warm, rain, it doesn't really matter. You are there, enjoying the present. You don't wait for a car, you know it will come, you are just there, thumbs up with a big smile that shines when a car comes...and then it happens...you cast a glance behind your shoulders...and there it is. A car stopped. Your heart starts hitting your soul, your eyes are big and shiner as never. At that moment, all the trust you put into humanity came back to you. The road is open and free...you are hiking towards the unknown...and you are not alone!

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

Happiness and Love are Contagious

The road is the goal, the aim of live – because only when you are living completely conscious and aware in the moment, in the here and NOW, you can be yourself – free of fears, worries and troubles of the past! Everything is passing the only thing that never leaves us - like our brother - is the MOMENT! Is the NOW!
We are all earthlings, brothers and sisters from the same mother earth. We are all one, all together and in each one of us we can find everything - the eternal love for all of us and our marvelous pachamama ("mother earth" in the indigenous language from the people of the Andes). When one gives the earth and its people trust its like setting a step into the air who holds you! By living what we are: loving, smiling and aware beings the journey inwards, the longest journey of all is just about to begin! One has always the wonderful opportunity to continue the pathless land, the land of unbounded consciousness. Each one of us has the freedom to do in every moment of live whatever we want, and it lays in our hands to be responsible for our actions. 
We live in a world which is fascinating diverse of cultures, languages, people, habits and routines. Yet besides all differences we have on our colorful globe, there is so much more we share and have in common than divides us!

Variety means richness, nevertheless there is something stronger, something which is connecting all this billion people on our planet, the spirit of love and happiness which is omnipresent and an equal dream for each single part of our humanity. We who can write and read, study and work, travel and stay wherever we want are very privileged. We who are unbound of the needs to struggle for survival and free to think and evolve to contribute value to this magnificent melting pot of cultures, ideas and people - to our Earth - our society. A life of the richest 20 percent of the worlds population who lives without borders, with cross-culture experience in friendship and union, peace and well-being. But all this should not be just for a few of the almost 7 billion world citizen, it should be provided for everyone! And we can make the difference today, by thinking global and acting local. We can give our money to social and sustainable banks, buy fair-trade and second hand products, buy local, organic and seasonable food. Further we can reduce our carbon food-print buy eating less meat or no meat at all. Buy less, reuse and recycle more. Drive together, take the bike, hitchhike, couchsurf (www.couchsurfing.org), get yourself a renewable energy supplier, switch of the light wherever you can and so much more. I believe that only by constantly learning from each other and to rethink every conditioned habit in our culture we can create a new culture, our culture. Sharing is everything. In a peaceful union of free minds we will have unlimited power to love and to leave worries, hate, wars, environmental destruction and problems to the past! Education is the key and we can learn everywhere and from anyone. Traveling is to embrace the world with open arms and minds – because minds are like parachutes – they only function when the are open!

Our world is marvelous - and it´s so rich of everything if one wants to see it, to accept it. Every single human being has a wonderful light in himself, even if some keep it for themselves and are afraid to share this love for themselves and all other brothers and sisters. We can share love like a candle can share his light with thousands of others and its power will not be diminished. The contrary is the case – it will just get lighter and lighter! Warmer and warmer and more real - more of what we really are - people who love to share and to live in harmony and peace. We are the masters, teachers of our mind. This implements that we are captain of our own life, the creators of our own reality and that we are responsible for our action and even more important for our non-actions a like! By unabridged acceptance of what we truly are we can experience ultimate love and freedom to our self and everything what surrounds us, to the world and our nature – finally to reality, because complaining about it means to reject it. Aristotle said already: “The whole is more than the some of its parts”. Once we all realized this, there will be space and power for new levels of consciousness which we can not even imagine today. One day love and freedom will have importance like water and sun to us already today. So spread love because sharing happiness, love and trust is what will bounce back from the world which is like a mirror. Love and Peace to you!

Why to become a Vegan? 

A Vegan diet has many advantages, for us humans, the animals and finally for our mother earth. When you stop eating meat you significantly improve your health, dramatically reduce your environmental footprint by up to 80 percent, and greatly lessen the suffering of animals. 

Improve your health, the medical evidence is clear, consistent and overwhelming. Vegetarians and vegans are far less likely to get cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or osteoporosis. Further they have lots more stamina, consume far less pesticides, a superior immune function and last but not least are fare less likely to be overweight. The largest epidemiological study ever conducted (the China-Oxford-Cornell study) found that those eating the amount of animal foods typical for Americans have seventeen times the death rate from heart disease, and, for women, five times the rate of breast cancer, than those who get 5% or less of their protein from animal foods. If all this is not enough information already, lets have a look at the facts about the livestock industry:

• 100 Billion animals are killed each year around the world for livestock, leather, animal experiments etc. (about 300 Million tons of meat)
• 51 % of all Green House Gases are produced through the Livestock Industry (in comparison 14 % from all transport like cars, ships, plain, trains etc.) 
• Europeans eat per average 120kg of meat per year per person, this is about 10-15 times more than 50 years ago (in comparison in Africa a person eats per average just 5kg per year) 
• 90 % of all the food the animals in Europe consume are coming from Brazil
• 70 % of the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest is caused by the livestock industry, mainly through soya plantations 
• 15.000 Liters of water are needed to produce 1kg of beef meat 
• You can save more water by not eating 1kg of beef than you do by not showering for 2 years!
• The equivalent of Green House Gases (GHG) emitted from one kilo beef meat is like driving about 200 kilometers with a car 
• 10kg of vegetables are needed to produce 1kg of beef meat 
• To produce enough food for a human, meaning enough proteins, you need between 5-12 times less farming space with vegetarian/vegan diet in comparison to a meat eater and this means also less water, less fertilisers, less transportation etc. 
• The majority of the food available today is used for the livestock industry, if we would not feed animals but humans instead the world could feed easily 12 billion people 
• The majority of mass produced chickens today are killed after only 5 weeks of miserable life 
• In the past 50 years, fishers have exterminated 90 percent of large fish populations 
• Most animals in the livestock industry are full of antibiotics and other medicine in order to survive in terrible conditions, the fear of each animal during his short life period and the shock when they get killed stays in the meat and is transmitted to humans when they eat the meat

Going Vegan is a non-violence weapon against the injustice in our world and for our planet earth, for the animals and your health.After all this information we can rephrase the iniatialal questions, not why to become a Vegan... but lets ask instead, "What's stopping you to become a Vegan...?"

For information check: www.goveg.com and the eye-opening documentary about the reality of the relation of animals and humans veg-tv.info/Earthlings

Waste and Dumpster Diving
Our modern societies are deeply marked by the abundance of everything, cars, houses, phones and computers...and food.´We have never been producing so much food before. According to Jean Ziegler, UN special rapporteur, human societies are producing enough food to feed 12 billions people. And yet, there are more than a billion of human beings suffering from hunger around the world. "This is why a child that dies from famine is murder." Ziegler adds finally. This tragedy is related to different causes, food is over-produced in Europe with large subsidies from the EU, as a result Africans can't compete and are obliged to buy European food much more expensive; from this over-production in the world, a huge part is given to the cattles who have sometimes a much better life than human beings - over one-third of the world’s cereals are being used as animal feed ; and finally the abundance of food in Europe and United States generates huge amount of waste.

Waste...a simple action, something we do everyday in the modern societies without even realizing it. A report from the UN, entitled The Environmental Food crises: Environment's role in averting future food crises, shows that "up to 50 per cent of food produced in the US is wasted, while a third of food purchased in the UK is never eaten. Meanwhile, food losses in developing world are similarly high with an estimated 20 to 40 per cent of potential harvests lost as a result o pests and pathogens." The situation is critical. It is evident today that we could feed the whole world by just managing better our food.

Obviously, solutions exist. The report advised on the suppression of agriculture subsidies, reduction of the production of livestock, development of organic farms against with prohibition of pesticides that spoiled the lands and management more efficient of water. However, us, the people cannot wait for these measure to be taken. It is our responsibilities to act today in our daily life giving echo to Gandhi's famous phrase: "we are the change we want to see in the world". Indeed, the first step to reverse this absurd situation is to change our behaviours. Food is valuable, it is precious, it is expensive both for the human beings and the planet.

Some tips to reduce food waste:
-Buy only what you need for the next 2 or 3 days
-Share your food with your neighbours and friends
-Keep your fridge at 1-5 degrees to make chilled food last for longer
-Use your leftover vegetables to make a delicious soup
-Watch your portion sizes and make sure plates are being completely cleared at mealtimes
-Froze the leftovers such as vegetables cut in small pieces.

For the most adventurous one, there is a great alternatives to reduce your own waste...and the waste of others...dumpster diving is a growing practice that aims to explore the bins of restaurants and supermarkets to collect the food that has been thrown away the same day and is still proper for consumption. It is a great experience and when you start it you'll never stop! There are plenty of food sleeping in the bins at night especially behind the supermarkets that throw away huge quantities of vegetables, pastries and other dairy products. You will save money, help reducing the waste of this supermarket, make delicious recycled meal, making a good action for the humans and the planet. When the trash doesn't attract you so much you can also directly go to the owners of the restaurants and bakery -those are great they always have bread left and give it away pretty easily!- and simply ask for leftovers.

During our great journey, the  Locomotive of Freedom, we have been dumpster diving for more than 5 months non-stop and we have never been eating so well in our life. Very expensive stuff are thrown away...even delicious cakes and exotic fruits... Here again, the first step is the hardest. Once you get over the prejudices of the people and understand that what you are doing is actually good for the planet and its inhabitants, it is easy as going into a supermarkets...with the difference that you will always be surprised and amazed by what you find!

 To check more on this you can see the Trashwiki and a wonderful documentaries about young conscious citizens who dumpster dive.