Cities Race to Zero: Who’s in Cities Race to Zero? retrieved 17 June 2023

A report published in 2019 and re-emphasised in 2023 recommends that by 2030 we will not be permitted to eat meat or dairy products, we will be limited to three items of new clothing per year and one aeroplane flight every three years.  It will start in countries that “consume the most.” 

Published in 2019, ‘The Future of Urban Consumption in a 1.5°C World’ report sets out targets for cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as consistent with the 2015 Paris Agreement ambitions.  What this report aims to do is quantify and then suggest ways for city “leaders” to reduce consumption-based emissions.  In other words, reduce what you and I consume be it food, clothes or travel etc.

The place to start, a press release stated, is with those who consume the most…

We are born to love.

If we were born,

To never love, nor feel pain,

From bruised flesh, broken heart,

All in vain.

We would be born,

With blood cold as stone,

And an exterior skeleton,

A fate predetermined from our birth,

Toward an undesirable death..

In short..it would be hell on earth.

So. . .

Let me laugh, let me weep,

Should I cry myself to sleep,

Then may I wake to a bright, fresh day,

To start anew life’s loving forays.

This morning, I had the wonderful sunlit park area totally to myself, that is, there was absolutely nobody else around! 🙂

So, I had left my place a bit after 8 AM.

How early is that! 😀 I walked slowly. Always, after about twenty minutes, the walking gets easier and a bit faster. –

I contemplated, how a year ago we were still in the midst of lockdown. Yet, I am sure, last year there would have been quite a few people around with their dogs walking in this lovely, little park. So, what has changed?

When I got to the end of the walkway, I hugged two of my favourite, really magnificent trees. I noticed a bit of pink writing on the trunk of one of the trees. It said: Jesus saves!

From where I was standing, I could see this Covid Testing Station in the distance. And I…

Episode 8 Dharma in the Bhagavad Gita

A History of India

Michael Fisher (2016)

Film Review

The Bhagavad Gita (The Lord God’s Song) is the section of the Mahabharata (see Deciphering India’s Oral History Through the Mahabharata) that receives most attention in the West.

Throughout his career, Gandhi quoted and expanded to promote its non-violent teachings. Ironically his assassin Nathuram Godse also used it to help plan the assassination.

The Gita has been translated 2000 times into 75 languages. In Sanskrit alone, there are 225 different commentaries on its meaning. It was first translated into English in 1785, and Ralpha Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Robert Oppenheimer (war-time head of Los Alamos laboratory), John Coltrane and classical composer Philip Glass were all big fans. Tulsi Gabbard, the first practicing Hindu in Congress, took her oath of office on the Gita.

In the Gita, the hero Arjuna is extremely reluctant to…

I like this About Page!

About

My name isHannes van Eeden.I’m a photographercurrently living in Cape Town, South Africa.

I tell stories with my camera.

What is anAmbivert? It is a person who has a balance ofextravertandintrovertfeatures in their personality.

My goal is to break down the complexity of photography and share everything I know and learn along the way, and most importantly, to inspire your creative journey through words, photos and films.

I live my life bySeeking Discomfort.

My anthem isHigh on Life.

I believe in enjoying the small things.

I live to inspire.

“The best camera for photography is the one you have with you.”

—

“Start every day with a smile. When you smile, for me, it represents gratitude. It represents that I’m alive. I celebrate the fact that I’m alive. You know…

A two-day conference to be held at Queen Mary, University of London, 21-22 February 2024

Keynote by Professor Raewyn Connell

Deadline for abstracts: Monday 4 September 2023

Masculinity needs changing. As a manifestation of patriarchy, a predictor of violence, and a straight-jacket of identity, masculinity is widely identified as a culprit and symptom: problematic, traditional, ‘hyper’ and toxic. In response a loose network of feminists and allies, public health professionals, scholar-activists, social workers, civil society groups, international organisations and military and police forces have sought to reform masculinity for the better. Their efforts range from positive fatherhood campaigns to counter-terrorism measures, and from religious role models to queer theory. ‘Masculinity’ as a concept and configuration of practices is at the same time undergoing another round of crisis and change, split along axes of class, nation, racialisation, sexuality, gender identity and culture, torn between projects of restoration and abolition.

This two-day…

The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City

by Kelly Coynce and Eric Knutzen

Process (2010)

Book Review

This book sees three possible options for the future of industrialized society:

1. More of the same: a ruling elite with access to organic food and solar panels, with ordinary people eating heavily processed foods and being defined as “consumers” rather than citizens.
2. An apocalypse – driven mainly by resource shortages, civilization collapses
3. A shift in consciousness – a new urban agriculture arises, with people relying on their neighbors and community building rather than big tech.

The Urban Homestead offers an extremely comprehensive survival guide for all three of these options. The authors point out how citizens of Shanghai already produce 85% of their veggies within the city and how Cuban city dwellers produce half the fresh fruits and vegetables they consume.

Meanwhile in the West, industrialized…

Dennis Meadows, one of the main authors of the Club of Rome’s The Limits to Growth, is an honorary member of the Club of Rome and a member of the World Economic Forum. If you thought his ideology had softened and become less anti-human since the publishing of his book, you’d be wrong. 

Here’s a 2017 video of Meadows musing over his hopes that the coming inevitable genocide of 86% of the world population could be accomplished peacefully under a “benevolent” dictatorship. He said:

“We could [ ] have eight or nine billion, probably, if we have a very strong dictatorship which is smart … and [people have] a low standard of living …  But we want to have freedom and we want to have a high standard of living so we’re going to have a billion people. And we’re now at seven…