First German Journal Entry

May 1, 2011

First Journal Entry

It is now Sunday May 1 and I arrived here on Wednesday April 27. I’m still a little bit in shock that I’m actually in Germany. I’ve spent the last 8 months studying the German anti-nuclear movement and now it’s actually staring me in the face (though I have not been to any protests yet). So far, I’ve mainly done bureaucratic things - I registered as a resident here and tomorrow, I will get my residence permit. I also had to buy new cleets because mine broke on Thursday at ultimate frisbee practice. I nearly bought a phone, but I was told that I should come back on Tuesday. I also went to the university and I was able to sign up for a German course, which starts tomorrow. I also got a bank account. Tomorrow I will also register at the university and get my student card. I will also move into residence. I’ve been living with Janina, who was allocated to me by the university as a ‘pass pal.’ I first received an email from her at the beginning of March and we’ve exchanged many emails since then. She’s been extremely helpful - she met me at the train station here when I arrived and she’s letting me stay in her room while she stays with her boyfriend. She’s introduced me to the people in her master’s of economics program - we went bowling on Friday night and last night, we went to see a live band. Her program is taught in English, thus there are many international students. I met people from Egypt, Albania, Serbia and the Ukraine. They all seem very nice. I’ve also met Janina’s boyfriend Johannes a couple of times. He’s a little bit shy, but we’ve spoken a bit and he seems very nice. They’ve been together for 2 years. Janina told me that I might be able to come with her to visit Johannes’ family, who live near Konstanz. This is so generous! Janina is coming to Queen’s University in the fall and I hope I can return the favour to her.

Yesterday, I actually conducted 2 interviews with Greenpeace volunteers. This is my main purpose for coming to Germany. I’m trying to get life and travel stories from activists to see how different experiences influence activism. Originally, I really wanted to meet people who have been to Japan because of what’s happening right now. Germany has had such a big reaction to the Fukushima meltdown - the government announced recently that all nuclear plants will be shut down by 2020. Unfortunately, it seems that only one Greenpeace Germany staff member has been to Japan and hopefully, I will interview him in June in Hamburg. Anyway, it’s still interesting to find out how people became involved in Greenpeace. Yesterday, I met with 2 volunteers who live near Konstanz, Michael and Wolfram. Perhaps this is ageist on my part, but I did not think that they would be older. Michael is 68 and Wolfram is 67. We decided to have the interview at the Greenpeace office in Konstanz and it was very quiet there, which is good. I’m recording the interviews using my MP3 player and it picks up a lot of background noise. Michael started giving money to Greenpeace in the 70s and he’s been volunteering with Greenpeace for 7 years. Wolfram and his wife actually started with Greenpeace back in 1988 after Chernobyl. Their children were also involved with the Green Team, which is the children’s group for Greenpeace for kids aged 8-14. Michael is a little bit shy and it was hard to get some stories out of him, but his English was excellent. He used to work in the space industry and he made many business trips to the US and other countries. He gave some presentations there. He has travelled quite a bit to the US, Canada, Israel, and many other countries, but it didn’t seem as if those travels really affected him as an environmentalist. Our interview lasted about 30 minutes. After that, I interviewed Wolfram and he was very interesting. He was born the day after there was an attempted assassination of Hitler. Wolfram and I talked for about 40 minutes and then we had to take Michael to the ferry terminal, as he lives on the other side of Lake Konstanz and the last ferry left at 7pm. Wolfram said that we could speak further if I wanted and I agreed. I was a bit reticent because Wolfram needed a lot of help from Michael to translate, but after we arrived at the cafe, things went pretty well. We stayed at the cafe for over an hour and he told me quite a bit of his life story. I feel like I know him quite well. He told me about how he met his wife, his decision to become vegetarian, etc. He also told me that he’s registered as a disabled person. I’m not sure if I should be privy to such information, but he gave it voluntarily. He showed me a card that states he’s 60% disabled (he said that if you’re 100% disabled, you’re basically dead). He retired early because of this. He used to teach geography and French at high school. When we were still at the Greenpeace office, he told me about all the actions he’s been involved in since he joined the group. He’s gone to Stockholm and collected thousands of signatures from Swedes and tourists. He’s also been to Brussels and Amsterdam. Wolfram has not travelled much outside of Europe. He’s been to the Canary Islands once on vacation, but he has made an effort not to fly in recent years.

Now I need to think about some lessons I learned from the interviews:

1. For Michael - I wish I could have drawn more details from him. Partly it was difficult because he couldn’t remember certain things from the 70s when he first started supporting Greenpeace. He seemed to suggest that going to Israel had some kind of impact on him and I think I should have asked more questions about that. I’m trying to strike a balance between asking questions and letting the stories flow naturally, since I’m using the method of narrative. I need to read more about how to use narrative as a method.
2. For Wolfram- I did gather lots of information from him, but I’m not sure how much of it will be relevant. His stories from after the war were very interesting and I’m wondering if that had anything to do with him becoming an activist. He said that he used to be conservative and very deferential to authority; for example, he didn’t support the 1968 student movement. He did say that after that, he began to change his mind and he became more progressive. It sounds like his wife is progressive, as she was also involved in Greenpeace, and maybe she had an affect on him? They’ve been married for 30 years and she is his 2nd wife. I wonder about his first wife... Maybe I’m just nosy. Anyway, there was a language barrier, but it wasn’t a huge deal. I wish my German were better, but I don’t think I’ll be able to interview in German by the time I leave. We’ll see.

In short, I need to learn more about narrative and I’ll try to put people more at ease and perhaps that will lead to them telling more stories. I will hopefully meet with 2 members of the couchsurfing website soon and I’ll try some interview techniques with them. At the end of June, I will hopefully be going to Hamburg to interview the Greenpeace staff member who is in Japan right now. Before that (or after that), I will also meet with Greenpeace volunteers in Stuttgart and Freiburg. So far, I have only been in contact with the Greenpeace head office in Hamburg and with the Baden-Wurttemberg offices, so I’m going to contact people in other states.

The Environmental and Economic Crisis

Many people are saying that we cannot forget the environment during times of economic crisis - I couldn't agree more. On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve Board in the US did something historic - they brought interest rates to nearly zero. Why did they do this? To stimulate the economy, of course. Today, I read an article on the website truthout.org that said that 2/3rds of the economy is driven by consumers. This is a huge amount - no wonder George Bush told people to go shopping after 9/11. Given that the Earth will run out of resources sometime soon, how can we afford to keep consuming? In Japan, people seem to shop like there is no tomorrow. Department stores are always busy and convenience stores sell god knows how many bentos every day. One of my private clients says that the reason this happens on weekends is because people have to work off the stress from their weeks, as it's quite normal for people to work 12 hours a day here. How can we sustain this when the population keeps rising? Of course, in Japan, the population is dropping because couples literally have no time for sex anymore, as reported by the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/28/japan-sexual-health

So, how can we avert both economic and environmental disaster? Easy - we need green jobs. Imagine if the Big 3 turned their factories from car assembly plants to wind turbine and solar panel plants. Imagine if coal workers turned their talents to digging for geothermal power. In many countries, states like California and Michigan and provinces like Ontario around the world, people are paid for putting up wind turbines, solar panels and other renewable energy equipment. The US is a national policy like this - come on Barack! This will aid the US enormously.

Numbers

I've been living in Japan for just over 2 months now and I still can't read the signs, but it's always comforting to know that I'll always be able to read numbers. In many countries, numbers look the same. Sometimes the numbers are up and sometimes, like now, they are down. We all have to figure out a way to keep our numbers healthy at the very least. Whether it's the numbers in our bank account or our weight, it all matters to us.

What about the numbers affecting the Earth? For example, the numbers 2 and 2030. I just read that by 2030, we might need 2 planets to sustain our needs. Where will we get 2 planets? Are we going to colonize Mars as some suggest? Will it be possible to make our lives so efficient that we can live on 1 planet? Sometimes I think about whether having children in the developed world is responsible. Can we actually dare to dream that our children and grandchildren will live in a world where they have enough to eat and drink? How about the number, well actually the fraction, 1/3? That's the amount that biodiversity has declined by since 1970. How about the number 50? That's the number of countries experiencing a "moderate to severe water stress on a year-round basis," according to the Guardian. Here's the link to the article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/29/climatechange-endangeredhabitats

Numbers are knowledge. Knowledge is power. What will we do with this new found power to predict our doom? Yesterday's Guardian looked at the possibility that we could become like the Maya - when the Maya were at the height of their power, they crashed. Will we become like them? Here's the article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/28/climatechange-population
I really hope we can learn from our mistakes and make the Earth a better place. After all, this is the only place we have to live on.

The Recevolution

Of course, many economists are now saying we are in a recession or on the brink. There's the old saying that the Chinese word for crisis is the same word for opportunity - that's exactly what we are in right now. In the US debate on October 7, both candidates said they are in favour of tax cuts. Yes, it's very prudent to decrease government programs right at the moment that people need them most. McCain believes that reducing taxes for businesses will create more jobs, but I believe that most large business owners might just take the money for themselves. We are also losing jobs in Ontario due to the decrease in the manufacturing sector. Yet, Ontario is now growing as a user of renewable energy - if we could turn the abandoned plants into useful plants for the manufacturing of wind turbines and solar panels, it would be a win win. Many people trained in the manufacturing sector to have good jobs - they could keep those jobs and contribute to a cleaner, more 21st century economy.

For people who will not lose their jobs but are feeling the squeeze in other areas, consumption can always be reduced. Because of cold Canadian winters, our heating bills are always high, but many homes do not have enough insulation. People should be given money by the government for weatherization and for energy audits. At the moment, Ontario pays people for erecting wind turbines and solar panels - they should be paid for audits as well.

One of the most important issues right now is food. Many countries do not have enough and others import too much. During World War II, the Canadian government encouraged people to grow food on their lawns because rationing was occuring. We need exactly the same thing today - everyone's bills would go down and organic farming would get a huge boost. The Government needs to educate people on how to grow their own food - it's as simple as that. This is also a big issue here in Japan because only 38% of food in Japan is grown locally due to the mountainous terrain. In Japan, most people do not have backyards or front lawns - why not grow food on the roof? Japan would be much more pleasant with more plants. As many people point out, Tokyo is a concrete jungle - we need more grass.

As the title of this blog suggests, we need a recevolution not a recession. Our world is changing so quickly and we need to change with it. Our current economic system is not working - take a look at the US. If we use this crisis as an opportunity, we can change the world for the better.

Power

In the news, power is definitely the number one issue right now, whether it's political or electrical. I'm currently living in Japan and there have been many prime ministers here over the last year. The new Prime Minister, Aso, comes from a very political family and many people say that he's completely out of touch with what voters want. I'm teaching English here and one of my students said that Japan needs a revolutionary change but Aso will not deliver it.

Meanwhile, in Canada and the US, it's election season. In Canada, we certainly do not need 4 more years of Harper. If you live in the riding of Ottawa South, I urge you to vote for Hijal DeSarkar. I have known him for a long time and he's very trustworthy. He's running for the NDP and he recently told me that Jack Layton has a chance of becoming leader of the Opposition - I would be extremely proud of the NDP and of Canada if this happened. We definitely need changes in Canada so we don't become just a copy of the US.

I just watched the American presidential debate. You know the old adage that most communication is non-verbal - well, McCain said it all. Just the way he sits in his chair tells you how uncomfortable he is with normal people. Obama sat forward and really listened to what McCain and the audience said and I congratulate him on that. However, although I support Obama, he is in favour of offshore drilling and nuclear power. But, Obama was kind enough to point out that the US only has 3% of the world's oil reserves, but consumes 25% of the world's oil. Does this justify offshore drilling? Oil is expected to run out in my lifetime, so we really need to start thinking about driving less. Speaking of which, a small island in Denmark called Samso recently became completely carbon neutral. Everything is powered with wind turbines and solar panels and wood chip boilers are used for heat. If the world expects to achieve this someday, we have to think small. Today, most power plants are on a large scale and are hooked up to an enormous grid - the only way we can get out of this is to build smaller plants and to use renewable energy right where it is consumed.

There are many important people around the world today that support nuclear power while ignoring that merely digging the uranium out of the ground causes an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. This doesn't even recognize the fact that we have no idea what to do with the waste. If we are to tackle climate change, we have to decrease energy consumption for rich countries - it's as simple as that. Then, we won't need any new nuclear power plants.

The Power of Photography

Yesterday, I attended a show as part of the Contact Festival in Toronto, which celebrates photography. At the show I went to, Lucas Oleniuk from the Toronto Star presented photographs he took as part of a special in the Star called AirSick. He turned the photographs into a movie and that movie is now on YouTube. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv9K02PC1aI

I spoke to Lucas after the show and he said he can't find anything more important to write about than the environment, not to mention take pictures of. These images are very simple yet powerful. Take a look!

Critical Mass

Last Friday I attended Critical Mass in Toronto for the very first time. If you haven't heard of critical mass before, it's essentially a big bike ride. The motto for Toronto critical mass is: we're not blocking traffic, we are traffic. The first critical mass took place on September 25, 1992 in San Francisco; however, for that first ride, it was known as the Commute Clot. The reason it became known as critical mass is because after the first ride, those who participated went to see a film about cycling. The film, Return of the Scorcher, showed that when a critical mass of cyclists and motorists in China reached an intersection where there were no signals, the crowd would continue through the intersection. There are now at least 325 cities that host critical mass every last Friday of the month including Seattle, Honolulu, Riga (Latvia) and Vilnius (Lithuania).

There's definitely something about critical mass that can't really be explained. It's that feeling of being part of a crowd and participating in something bigger than yourself. That being said, it does feel strange to have motorists supporting you (some honked for us). If they are for it, why aren't they cycling home from their jobs?