Its 2:07 p.m., I should be in bed like my other flatmates who are getting up early to hand in papers, start new internships and do their trainees. I listened to some chords of my guitar, while sitting alone in the kitchen, melted wax of a red candle on the table, the smell of the tasty lentilsoup hanging around with me.
I could write about our pre-action camp in front of the Vattenfall central Berlin on July 15th, my anger on the changed law proposal of the liberals for enforced subterranean CO2-disposal, the Nazi-attacks in Berlin and rightwinged propaganda before the regional elections and the lies of our government on the burden of the essential nuclear phase out, but there is something else seem to be more important. This little impressive booklet on "mental infrastructure - how the growth-concept entered the world and our souls" has given me company about not only how our political and economical frameworks are determined by economic growth, but also our brains, emotions and individual live concepts. For 200 years we are more or less forced - all the way from industrialization - to think in growth and development concepts leading to consumerism and exploitation of humans and our nature. People thought about all: political and economical concepts, incentives and measures, what we forgot was how to change our very identity, our norms and ideals - our culture, which is all grown through by the concept of continous growth.
To live the right in the wrong, in practise everyday,resist destruction, give examples, start small projects is an important part to make a liveable future grasping and understandable, we have to go further though: We have to tell a story. A complete story about a liveable future.....
I wake up in the morning, the first sun rays lighting through the over and over repaired window. I have to smile today its the craft part of my job bundle, I repair the roof of two houses and fix windows of the green house of the community garden in the middle of our neighbourhood, thats Tuesday. Mondays I am having the regional community council on the water and irrigation plans with the other 8 communities of the region and the planning meeting for regreening roads to walk and bicycle paths. Sometimes I stay longer to exchange ideas on the latest bycicle inventions to transport food and, yes, six people on one vehicle.
The meetings never take longer than one and a half hours, because everybody is limited to 10 minutes total time of speak, or have the possibility to share their own time with people, who they think have more important stuff to stay and some good ideas. In the beginning that never occurred, however, people finally noticed its not always themselves, who are the smartest on everything and things became way more efficient.
In the late afternoon I take over the social-caring shift from Peter who is joining the regional food and education meetings by that time. I go over and have a look at our older generation, have a tea, play some chess and help whereever help is needed around the house, healthcare & the garden, with the windturbines, fixing bikes, cooking meals, often it is listening to their lives. When the sun sets we light our candles and drink our teas, sometimes we light a fire and make music with the friends from the neighbourhood and the travellers passing by and sleeping at our place. Its always good to get the news first hand on things that happened around. Our doors are always open, whenever people stay the night it is clear that they give a notice at the neighbourhood centre and give a hand in the vegetable gardens, fixing stuff, clean or take over caring shifts and sometimes bring new stuff and take away others from our community exchange store. Old stuff that people dont use anymore is brought there and fixed or just sorted and stored from clothes to bags, dishes and lamps. Whenever you take something, you can give something as small as it can be, the last time I took a nice pullover and handed in a pair of shoes I had fixed and didnt use anymore. But there is always more used stuff brought than taken, we never run short of the mass of products which was produced and hadn't been used in the past. On Wednesday I drop by our library and read sometimes novels, sometimes technical stuff that I want to learn. I attend three skillsharing workshops: one on arabic, cause soon I want to take a ride to Lebanon, another on herbal medicine and one on wood works to improve my skills. Everyone lasts about an hour and a half so I have plenty time to rest and cook or go over to friends. On Thursdays I teach my own workshops in sports and music to the adults. Thursday afternoon and Friday I have the open group of kids for writing skills, languages and reading.
The thing I enjoy most is that we have no waste anymore. Food is coming fresh from the food depot at the neighbourhood centres, carried in boxes which are simply made of cardboard or plastics that were leftover from the crazy times when we produced all that stuff we didnt need. All other products are repaired when they are broken. Whenever they occur to be not refixed, which almost never happens, all single parts are removed and used again or used for heating. As I mentioned food is coming parts from the community garden, house roof gardens and greenhouses and from the closest permaculture farm, finally the soil recovered from mental ideas like biotechnological/artificially genetically modified organisms, artificial fertilizers and monoculture. We reduced our energy needs to almost zero while the local windturbines on the hill, small water turbines in the next river, geothermal sources and few solar panels produce the minimal necessaries of electricity while heating/cooling was completely made unnecessary by smart building adjusting to the local topography, climate and using the wind flow in smart adjusting architecture.
Every city have its bike park and stations where you can take and give back the bikes for free, if something breaks you can take it to the next bikeworkshop and fix it yourself, pay for it or take over a small shift or class for somebody who does it for you. All these transactions and schedules are coordinated at the neighbourhood centres where you can always arrange if you moving around for a time and somebody takes over your local tasks while you report a the local centre where you arrive. The good thing is that everything is made transparent and accessible at the administration, so you see what you can learn and which shifts of administration, social and practical tasks you like most and want to take over. We have some trains and solar/compressed-air vehicles, solar-ships for longer journeys and a local and regional car/bus sharing plattform. Every house has an own wastewatercycle where the sewage is segregated and used as biomass for producing energy and rainwater is collected in a tank and cleaned to use it for showering, dishes, washing and irrigation. People are sharing skills on herbal medical treatments and kids learn all about the plants and their uses in school, which prooved to be way more effective than the shorttermed, unefficient and exploiting healthsystem before. Because local food is consumed and produced as needed and because of its value for our lives, it costs the most amount of the salary earned, thatswhy people buy and produce responsible. That means also less health problems. Also everybody has enough time and opportunities to share and offer sports classes which are coordinated to take place everyday in a different neighbourhood. Costs and expenses of neighbourhood centres and communities are made transparent and everybody can take part in administrative decisions concerning him or if he wishes to.
If decisions (access & benefit to/of natural resources, energy, infrastructure, food, water) are made concerning the community as a whole or more communities, it is communicated at the neighbourhood centres, where everybody can see them. At the local council meeting where everybody can be present at, where all neighbourhoods are represented (delegates are elected by neighbourhood councils for the issue, rotation takes place at least every 3 month), arguments are discussed and proposals are made for the neighbourhood councils to vote for. Votes and vetos, which have to include a constructive alternative, of neighbourhood councils are taken back to the local council if needed and the specific problems are discussed to find a solution, the alternative is taken back to the neighbourhood councils and voted on. The local council sends its elected delegate for the task to the regional council and if necessary elected regional delegates are sent to the federal meeting.
Everybody is earning the SAME amount of money for their invested time and accomplishments in their practical and administrative functions and work. The created value of all work is enough and shared for the neighbourhood and community, it always was, everything was made efficient, easier and transparent by decentralized distribution and regional committees for transactions.
I blow out the last candle and I think, what a good live instead of the times before. I can learn whatever I want, I can share my knowledge with everybody, I take care of my family, neighbours, kids and sometimes the sick and I am being looked after in case anything happens. I have practical, planning and social tasks, so it never gets boring. I can travel and join other communities and get to know people who drop by from far and learn from them. I can get new stuff whenever I want. I have a sound environment with clean rivers, healthy woods and no waste around and enough time to rest, read and think. Life is good.
What is your story?
