Appalachia Rising/Rise collective

Appalachia Rising/Rise collective

If I say I’m really into this what would you think?

I see real beauty in this music and inspiration in this effort. It shines different realities and different approaches to arts and human organizing in general….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7rh8A-SLJI&feature=related

Foreclosure crisis is class warfare

Sometimes you just feel to kick the door so to speak, when you want to say what you need to say. This is such a case. In any way thinkable the title of this text says what is happening. I just read this little reuters article on a courtcase concerning the shady circumstances under which foreclosures happen in the US. The mortgages, being the financial products that they are, chopped up and sold and resold across the world the way they are the item that expose social relations here.

What I found especially interesting to read is that the people who own the house and carry the burden of debt are in the most obscure situation concerning their rights. They have this mortgage in order to buy a physical house. They work and they pay of the debts until the house is truly theirs. In this scheme there is such a virtual notion of value. Of non-existent money that gets actualized through their labor and their commtiment to the contract.

On the other hand the payments get registeredand mediated through a totally obscure and intransparent scheme called MERS. The wiki says  about MERS(I’m not gonna pretend I do this blog with academic precision btw) :

Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) is an American privately held company that operates an electronic registry designed to track servicing rights and ownership of mortgage loans in the United States.^[1] MERS is owned by holding company MERSCORP, Inc.

So its this service that obscures the relation between the debtor and the borrower. So the debtor party is clearly defined, yet the borrower isn’t. In case MERS claims that a house is up for foreclosure its clear who is going to have to leave the house. But the borrowers do not know who to fight to fight this particular claim. To be able to fight such a claim is an individual right. To be able to defend your house from external threats is a condition for a good life.

The fact that the borrower could be anyone who happens to have a piece of the rights to the mortgage exactly is the injustice in this system.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/14/us-foreclosures-courtcase-washington-idUSBRE88D1OF20120914

Zapatista Dreaming of Hope

i think there is a very special kind of dreaming, the dreaming of hope for the truth to be realized  in the way the zapatistas have inspired us to do so is one that can have transcendental potential, its not anymore about you or me, its about us and the care for each other and our future and the sacred earth on which we walk. to have this in your heart is a feeling that can easily transcend boundaries of the self and tehrefore its also a different kind of joy. its not the joy that is necessarily expressed best through smiles laughter and energetic behavior, because its actually a very introverted move. isn’t it funny? this feeling that transcends boundaries of the self, geography and time is find through introversion rather than through thrill seeking and reaffirmation of the ego and consequently it manifests totally differently

Restructuring Madrid

Restructuring Madrid

Cool initiative in Madrid. A bunch of students got the opportunity to redesign Madrids infrastructure in a way that it becomes more fit for bycicle use. Apparently there are some well established networks of people reclaiming the streets for bycicles on a regular basis, going nude once every June to make themselves more visible (how I love nudity with a purpose, if u know what I mean). These are the small struggles that are fought won and lost in todays world on so many different locations.

We fight our struggles in small battles with the whole of the world on our minds.

 In the everyday mainstream representation of how the world looks there is a great general disregard for people power. This is the most effective disregard of democratic potential out there. Therefore its of great importance to remind each other everyday there are people out there dreaming similar dreams struggling for a better world in need of an audience that will grand them the recognition on which their demands become actualized and helping hands that can further their struggles beyond their own resources and attention spans

Community Building in the 21st century

Today I wish to underline the vitality and importance of community building in the 21st century. As I have grown up I have witnessed communities being formed around material artifacts like pokemon cards. The problem with these sort of collectors games is that they are designed as a competition to consumer. They boost the ego, they boost sales. Both of them are harmful to the sustainability of communities. Therefore I´m really happy that an initiative like this comes from the ever inspiring Detroit, or what I perceive to be the world capital of urban agriculture. It shows that through cooperative play we can strengthen ties where they have been lost and we will need this now more than ever. We live in a time of turmoil and in such times its easier than ever to become distrustful and destructive but at the same time we can end up in a better situation if we join our hands together. If we get to know each other and if we learn together.

http://www.good.is/post/hopscotch-detroit-community-building-with-miles-long-pop-up-playground

meditations

the world is not necessarily a beautiful place, but there are plently of beautiful places that fill people with love and there are many beautiful people that engage with the world with a sense of love and that never ceases to give me hope

farming for peace

Hey there people,

we all know all politics and all struggle eventually becomes a complex entanglement of identity power relations and space. Therefore I was extremely happy this morning to stumble upon this little project this morning!

Lets all remember that small acts matter too1 Without them we loose all hope and it becomes easy to shy away from ideals and ethics alike. We are told everyday that we need increasingly large operational scales to keep up in the rat race of globalization. But I truly wonder what the virtue is in that. What does it say about the quality of life? Therefore, I will also include a song from one of my favorite and longest lasting teachers, Bob Marley!

Power to the Peaceful!

SHALOM! https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sV8sIlitbu4

Rat Race

Rat Race

Hey there people,

we all know all politics and all struggle eventually becomes a complex entanglement of identity power relations and space. Therefore I was extremely happy this morning to stumble upon this little project this morning!

Lets all remember that small acts matter too1 Without them we loose all hope and it becomes easy to shy away from ideals and ethics alike. We are told everyday that we need increasingly large operational scales to keep up in the rat race of globalization. But I truly wonder what the virtue is in that. What does it say about the quality of life? Therefore, I will also include a song from one of my favorite and longest lasting teachers, Bob Marley!

Power to the Peaceful!