My Father's Words

"....het zit er weer op.....
het is mooi geweest...."

"....done again.....
walked in beauty...."


Klaus Malten
August 1, 1920 - September 19, 2009

Bija: the Seeds of Freedom

Many of you already know the name Vandana Shiva. She is a tireless activist, writer and educator, born in Dehradun, close to the Himalayas.

Vandana's influence on 'green thinking' now reaches all over the world, but she still draws her inspiration from that inexhaustible well... Mother India. Her thought comes from long tradition of village democracy, 'small is beautiful', and Vedic heritage, walking in the footsteps of Ghandi, Schumacher and so many others, believing in the empowerment of people through appropriate technology, bio diversity and seed sovereignty, equality and justice.

Core of her understanding is the integrity of the seed or "Bija". In Sanskrite Bija means: that from which live arises forever ..."the very meaning of Bija (or seed) is the holder of perennial evolution".

Once we understand the core role of Bija-Seed deeply in evolution and its inter

weaving with human history, we can suddenly gain clarity on the issues of breeding, sustainability, bio--diversity and the whole social and ecological fabric that is assumed and implied in seed sovereignty. Breeding of seed varieties assumes a collective of keen minds, carefully observing the interchange of seeds, soil conditions and water and drawing subtle conclusions about the fertility and other characteristics of seed varieties. That is the way to start coping with larger factors such as climate change and the challenge it poses to world food security.

The networks of ecological interdependency are not random, and not to be frivolously messed with for instance through genetic manipulation. GM crops destroy bio-diversity, and then monopolize the seed stock and the availability of real food . The large seed corporations have not come up with any new seed varieties to cope with climate change. The Green Revolution people have come up with some 8000 new hybrid varieties which are highly dependent on chemical inputs and create monocultures. Yet it is the small farmers that have made the greatest contribution to seeds and seed varieties of all: during the same time they have at least 105 whole new crop species and some 1.9 million new plant varieties.

Who are you gonna trust??

To satisfy an inexhaustable greed, global corporations such as Monsanto seek world domination through domination of the food supply. These predators of bio-diversity use the tools of patenting, genetic manipulation and the establishments of monopolies of chemically responsive seeds and often infertile hybrids. Both the prices for seed and agricultural chemicals (let alone fuel for transportation) have skyrocketed opening a specter of global food emergency and hunger.

Genetic modification is not only (intentionally?) fouling up the nest of genetic integrity of organic seeds --its second generation of growth is totally unpredictable and thus unreliable for farming and food supply. Product and process patents can now be granted for seeds, plants, animals, microorganisms, cells and genetically modified organisms through the trade laws that are consistent with the WTO prescriptions. Seems like a remote concern? Consider this: these patents applied to seed, plant and genetic material may become a matter of life and death for millions of people in India and many more all over the world. Vandana Shiva explains how the suicides by over 200.000 farmers to date has directly to do with this monstrous domination ideology that is being acted out on top of the heads of farmers in India: these suicides were the result of indebtedness because of the higher and higher costs of seeds and other inputs.

The other result of globalization of the food supply has been the commodification of food. Food is now traded world wide as a commodity, and there is ever increasing speculation in commodity backed obligations which are then leveraged after that --totally removed from the agriculture or food itself, let alone the people that actually work the land. Companies don't grow food now --they grow bio-mass. Whether that ends up as fodder for the masses or bio fuels is of no concern. Only 5 companies woldwide own a majority of the seeds and thus have interest in creating scarecity in order to drive prices up. We have seen very large price fluctuations of grains for instance, mostly on the up side, that has made it clear that the food market is subject to massive market manipulation. The acreage equivalent to half of all the agricultural land of the whole of Europe, was bought up by national and corporate interests in the last 8 months or so --driving the people off the land.

Devinder Sharma, analyst with the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security in India, predicted civil unrest.

"Outsourcing food production will ensure food security for investing countries but would leave behind a trail of hunger, starvation and food scarcities for local populations," he said. "The environmental tab of highly intensive farming – devastated soils, dry aquifer, and ruined ecology from chemical infestation – will be left for the host country to pick up."

The only winners of these devious games are the Monsantos an their ilk, while people that live on the land and are growing the food are going hungry today.

Let there be no doubt: there is a large increase in the legions that are going hungry worldwide -now over a billion. People, some estimate as many as 600 million of them, are forced from rural areas into the cities because "that is where the food is" - a recipe for disaster and anomy. The food riots of the last few years my only be a taste of what is to come. Over 11 % of Americans, some 32 million people are on food stamps, going up at the rate of 17% per year. These symptoms of scarcity are the direct result of these agricultural policies and the revolving door between regulators, industry and wallstreet.

The food crisis of today forces us to make a choice between reliance on a few large corporations and their masters, and the carefully laid case for the model of Bija: Seed Souvereignty. Vandana Shiva and her the Navdanya team are giving us a path to cope with the crisis. They have started the establishment of bio-regional seed banks and they are calling upon us to do the same and to get informed about the issues. Support in whatever way you can:

-no patenting of seeds

-no gm foods (and insist on labeling of gm foods and then boycott them)

-promote organics: restore soil, bio-diversity, reject chemicals, restore vitality of local market

-fight WTO rules on intellectual property on plants and seeds and genetic material

-organize regional seed exchanges and resist bio-piracy

-defend the integrity of seeds through understanding "Bija Swaraj" meaning Seed sovereignty which is Self governance

-buy from your local farmers and eat less meat

Enjoy Vandana Shiva speaking herself:

Pat Mooney on the Food Crisis and Climate Change

Just now, August 2009, I had the pleasure to film Pat Mooney, a Canadian authority on agricultural biodiversity and different food and related technology and economic issues. He opened my eyes to the extreme food situation that is emerging and the role of small farmers versus giant food corporations. How does climate change affect food security ? Did you know that the plan is to move hundreds of millions of peasants to the cities ? Who is really contributing to bio-diversity and new seeds ? How come huge investments are being made in bio-mass production and synthetic biology...and who is doing it ? What is the plan to survive the coming years ?

Just to reiterate some of the numbers that Pat Mooney mentioned (so you have them handy):

-450 million farmers in the world --of which there are...

-383 million small farmers

-1.2 billion people are hungry in the world --of which about...

-700 million live in rural areas

-100 million are fed by world food programs (UN)

-600 million hungry are fed by small farmers

-150.000 patented varieties of seeds (including many roses, chrysanthiums and decorative varieties)

-8000 varieties (hybrids) were introduced by green revolution people (last 50 years)

-1.9 million plant varieties were introduced by small breeders/farmers (non patented) during same time of which there are...

-105 new crop species (some say up to a 1000) new crop species (non patented) introduced by small breeder/farmers

-0 new species were bred by mayor seed companies who mainly concentrate their research money on genetically modifying....

-4 main crops: corn, cotton, soy and rice

-67 % of all seeds are controlled by top 10 seed companies

Please listen to Pat Mooney -- a sane voice on our emerging food crisis.

Greenhouse Energy: climate neutral horticulture

While in the Netherlands I visited one of the most advanced greenhouse research centers in the world, in Bleiswijk, the Netherlands. It is managed by the university of Wageningen and it comprises of a series of different experimental set- ups for large scale greenhouses. Marcel Raaphorst a research associate was kind enough to take me along with my camera.

A lot of people in the netherlands eat daily virtually their whole diet from produce grown in large greenhouses. After serving all of the supermarkets (and markets) of the netherlands still 80% of the greenhouse produced food is exported to the EU, and the rest of the world. But the success of Greenhouses always had an incredibly high energy cost and took a good portion of natural gas found under the Northsea.

That energy use may become less if greenhouse techniques are adopted, such as I filmed here. The solutions that are shown here for climate neutral techniques of heating and cooling are in a way very technical and I believe that the scope of the research should be expanded. Climate neutrality should not just apply to the energy household of the greenhouse itself . Climate neutrality as a principle should just as much apply to issues of nutrient dependency, pest control, irrigation, composting, and crop management.

I think that there are a lot of questions here which I would like to address over time. But meanwhile I would like to also present it as is: the world's most in depth research into the energy possibilities of greenhouses. It is amazing....

Hiroshima part 4: aftermath stories and the mirror

The mirror and the face of suffering and resurrection. Shigeko discovers a very profound mission: survival and witness of the atrocity that happened on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima. "No more Hiroshimas" is up to you and I now -- http://www.lasg.org/

Hiroshima: her first dream....

In this second part of Shigeko's testimony, she witnesses a kind of parade of suffering humanity, charred, shredded and mostly beyond any type of hope... Under a tree she looses consciousness and for awhile she is totally gone until she has a lucid dream.

I consider the 'dream' that Shigeko describes in detail here, as one of the rare witness accounts of an authentic mystical experience: an enlightenment born of the deepest suffering and 'dismemberment'. She bathes herself in a golden liquid...before being called back.

Shigeko Sasamori was meant to die, with all of the classmates around her, yet --through spirit --she defies death, and like Jesus, is resurrected back into life.

Listen to her amazing story here...

Hiroshima: memories of a 13 year old girl

In order to be able to act we have to understand the realities of our world. Here I am not talking about abstract theories about our political reality -- we have to understand the fate of our fellow human beings through intimacy, through closeness.

If we can develop that kind of compassion, and see the reality through that lens, we immediately realize that some larger political options, such as the use of nuclear weapons should immediately be taken off the table by prohibition and full dismantlement. Such insight cannot just be intellectual --it requires commitment and engagement of us all.

On the anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki day, 2009, Shigeko Sasamori presents her moment to moment description of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima through the eyes of a 13 year old girl.

This is the first part of an in depth conversation between Shigeko Sasamori and Willem Malten in a hotel room in New York City. Music by Peter Gordon.

Shigeko describes the explosion from a distance of less than one and a half kilometer way.

Polis Amsterdam: Thoughts on Crisis...

The Dutch --they talk about crisis. But even if there is one in Holland (and perhaps it is only starting to sink in) the dutch encounter with crisis is very different from the experience in America.

The cafes serving coffee are starting to fill up at around 11 am, and keep filling to late into the night --gradually shifting to stiffer (alcoholic) drinks. People talk incessantly. The markets and stores are crowded and lively. Food in supermarkets and open markets is so cheap that you'd think that the value of the dollar has already de-valued to about 35 euro cents. A good artisan bread is in the 95 euro cent range, jam 85 euro cents, butter 95, etc. Going out to eat can be also be cheap --Holland has great if somewhat greasy street food-- but as soon as you have a sit down dinner, things can go up quickly. Labor is expensive in the Netherlands. No store will bag your groceries any longer.

During the day many people walk the canals every break they get, or bask smoking a cigarette in the sun. And there are also many people that don't work at all somehow. But they are not marginalized or looked down upon, and generally they get sufficient resources through some kind of state program so that they can keep participating in daily live with dignity and role as elder. Despite the enormous administration that comes with a welfare state, lines in the state run offices are small and civil servants are efficient and personable in their help.

For the longest time Holland has practiced a policy of tolerance towards what they call 'soft drugs' such as marihuana ('gedogen'). The laws around this policy are deeply ambivalent: possession is ok, selling in special coffeeshops is ok, but growing (on large scale) is officially prohibited, as is delivery and transportation. When asked about the paradoxical nature of this policy, people roll their eyes:... The laws are meant to keep commercialism out....If something happens around it, usually there are not any terrible consequences. It mainly gives another opportunity for the different generations to talk to each other once again....

Cities are planned with pedestrians and bikes in mind. Public transportation is fast and accurate. There are all kinds of reductions available for cheap fares to trains and buses in the Netherlands --but if you are a tourist and you just need a ticket --the prices are pretty steep --though nothing like the cost of filling up a car. Gaz prices are so high in Europe because of taxes: like in so many other countries, gas has become a great source of tax revenue --as is offshore natural gaz --while it lasts.... The added benefit of that policy is that public transportation is popular and relatively cheap, while cities are not suffocating with cars. Lots of people walk or bike for all their transportation needs. Comparable industries are up to 60 percent more efficient than in America, also due to innovation inspired by high energy costs.

In some ways I found it remarkable how little people are concerned or know about greening the economy, growing healthy foods, or other green solutions. And yet they live in a nation that is so much greener on a daily basis that the US. When asked someone pointed out: .....for those kinds of things we train engineers who are then hired by a city or nation...it is their task to come up with the best solutions for let's say garbage, or food, or energy or clean water availability, and then implement them... Main thing is that you take the profit motive out of these projects.....There is no way you can do anything by yourself in this respect.....

It is a mystery to me how that can all hang together without breaking the system --but it does. This coherence and flexibility, may be the result of a fairer 'social contract', where industries and corporations pay their share, while citizens in their productive live also pay a lot in taxes, they are benefiting from it so much through access to services, care, education and medicine. This stake in one's security and future, based on a kind of altruism which is called civilization, makes people identify with the dutch experience so deeply, that there are no violent outbreaks (or very rarely) to speak of. To keep people calm, there are no moralizing Obama-esque speeches laying out right and wrong --there is a reality to the welfare state. That is the security that comes from Polis, the citizen run City State which provides values for all.

In the US the inequality between the rich and poor are now so extreme both in numbers and in economic capacity, that the interest of 'The Nation ruled by the few', and 'The People' have started to diverge and an enormous chasm is tearing at the seams of being a civilized society. The strategy has been to keep the masses uninformed though a Soviet style incessant media machine, blinding people to their own reality. Sooner or later however, people will connect the dots back from living in tent cities to the places where the wealth was monopolized in stacks of worthless paper. Given the amount of guns in the US and the return of so many soldiers without victory, this should be of grave concern.

What will go into history as the biggest mistake of the otherwise righteous Obama administration, is that the takeover by the banks (in particular Goldman Sachs) of the economic and political system has gone unchallenged.

In many respects there was a heist of wealth, starting with Greenspan. Paulsen was the Goldman Sachs appointed thief and con to finish the job. Instead of having a criminal investigation of the banks' shenanigans, the sky rocketing losses are now being forcefully underwritten on the backs of the middle and blue collar labor. And their offspring. Why does the Obama administration not tax the bankers and speculators that made money this way at 95 % ?? Retroactive ! With a cap on individual wealth at a generous $100 million dollar per person. Please! That would restore some confidence in the ability of capitalism to self-regulate.

A large labor pool of unemployed people at hand, will keep wages low and profits high. The middle class is being squeezed out, while there is a growing number of tent living dispossessed and destitute --the newly emerging underclass.

For all of them, the various bailouts mean only one thing: work until you drop! A new type of feudalism may be emerging at the beginning of this century: an economic enslavement, perpetuated by a corrupted body politic, paid off by the corporations, inflicting military

violence and destruction all around --creating a world devoid of meaning.

"The Politics of Police". (see next article)

This may very well lead to a situation one of the earliest sociologists Emile Durkheim in the second half of the 19th century, called...."Anomy", an out of control situation, resulting from....resistance to change, which causes disruptive cycles of collective behavior (e.g. economics) due to the necessity of a prolonged buildup of sufficient force or momentum to overcome the inertia....

Watch for that word "Anomy" starting to appear in publications...

or see what is happening in the streets for yourselves.

Polis: Amsterdam

One time, during the Concert for Bangladesh, Beatle George Harrison declared that the word "politics" must have come from the word "polite". Then someone more cynical remarked: no... the word "politics" actually comes from the word "police".

Those three words, politics, polite and police all find their root in the Greek word Polis, meaning city state. Polis as a political entity was ruled by its body of citizens --not by some kind of king. Polis in that sense is also the common bond between the citizenry. Together they figured the best way to exercise power, so that civilization is possible: the arts, the crafts, agriculture, medicine and the pursuit of knowledge and science. The politics oscillating between polite and police.

From visiting Amsterdam for a few weeks in the last month, I see the Netherlands going towards more 'polite', rather than more 'police' politics -- despite the failed assault on the queen and some unfortunate racial politics and the fundamentalist murder of Theo VanGogh, dutch artist and film maker. One may recall the death of Theo Van Gogh through Jihadist' hands which resulted in some racial tensions further aggrevated by the lingering influence of hate monger politician Geert Wilders --a glamourous blond dutch version of Donald Trump --a 'police politician' seeding hatred and division where-ever he goes.

Yet prisons are closing due to a lack of criminalization combined with very successful 'social engineering' which has led to a lack of criminals.

Pot is becoming again more of a 'neighborhood thing', rather than anything organized on a larger scale. Overall drug use is down --despite or perhaps thanks to the 'tolerance' policy towards pot, useage under teenagers has dropped from 14 to 10%.

Formerly military installations are transformed into artistic playgrounds. Theatre, hands on arts instruction, etc. they all find their home in former bunkers and a huge defunct airforce facility.

The Netherlands is greening energy wise with giant windmills, public transportation and bicycles everywhere, and in cities, you see sidewalks broken open to make room for gardens and plants --one of our favorites being giant climbing roses. Amsterdam itself blooms with urban gardens, no larger than a few tiles wide. Flowers, grapes, countless trees, bamboo, vegetables, you name it --I have never seen it this green since my birth there some eons ago.

In people everywhere you meet this unique combination of vitality and innocence in the Netherlands. On a dayly basis there are massive cookouts of families and friends in the parks. A tremendous peace seems to have descended.

To preserve this peace, racial relationships are dealt with in a very conscious manner, since in a country where there are growing minorities from a large variety of sources, including a large Islam contingent, there is always the potential of racial extremism --which once it starts is in almost every instance hard to calm down. Racial hatred goes through the ages, so it is better to prevent it from starting in the first place. How ? Let me give you a couple of examples of how they try in Amsterdam.

While in Amsterdam I attended what was billed as a 'roots' festival in the Oosterpark, my old 'hood'. That area is dominated by one of the cheapest daily central markets, with an incredible variety of foods, fish cheese etc, but you can also find more or less all your common needs there, such as clothing, toothpaste, etc. This market is frequented by a large variety of ethnicities and religions --almost always speaking dutch as well as other languages.

Anyhow: no expense is spared for the ROOTS EXPERIENCE. About 8 stages are scattered throughout the park and a large variety of world music

bands play from dawn deep into the night.

From African rythms, to gypsy chanting, an arab electronic oud band, schoolchildren from Suriname --all giving it their best while throngs of many thousands file by, snacking on a kebab, a roti, sushi or some Indonesian Nasi goreng.

Meanwhile the park is filled

with small folk art displays (for sale) and one can learn about green opportunities and volunteer organizations from all over the world, etc. Some of the people drink a mint tea and smoke a hookah under a tree (8 euros).

Only yards away the younger children have their own fun and spontaniously bath in one of the park's water elements.

Listen to the sound of the next generation here:

Of course the Roots event is heavily subsidized --like so many others it is free-- but the goodwill created between the people is immeasurable. As Lydia Popova a russian scientist once remarked: "We are connected by the beauty in this world". Strangely.... more than religion, more than science, it is beauty that we can recognize in each other's music, art and expression and in that deep way we find our common humanity.

Less than two weeks later, in the same Oosterpark there was an anti slavery manifestation. A large permanent anti slavery monument was unveiled and the dutch government offered its sincere apologies for some of the blackest pages in its history. In particular the history of the Surinam people was highlighted, who first came to South America as slaves and much later moved to the Netherlands as dutch citizens. Slavery where-ever practiced is dehumanizing and that is the core of its evil. The event again drew forth many different ethnicities, this time a lot of them in their traditional or indigenous dress. Reckoning with the reality of the collective history, allows each person to be more individuated (as Jung would say) --or: to be more themselves. In the monument the slaves walk through the winged gate of liberation:

The roots festival as well as the anti slavery manifestation are some of the many attempts to try to anchor the sense of ethnic pride into the dutch experience. Encourage communication --the Dutch talk incessantly with each other, encourage collectives --one rarely sees people walking alone on the streets. In the Dutch playbook the main tool here is to allow all people a stake in a common future. Encourage a sense of belonging: an exercise in teaching tolerance ever so subtle --through inner pride, respect and enjoyment of each others' cultural expression. The Dutch are becoming masters of 'social engineering': The polite politics of Polis.

Hope you enjoy this.

I will write some more articles on Polis, Politics and Police in the coming days, mainly based on my notes from Amsterdam.