2021-06-01 2021-06-01

The horrors of Kamloops

Sitting in horror as the news of the remains of 215 Indigenous children found at Kamloops Residential School sink in.

My thoughts are open loops because what has happened fails to make sense. Few things symbolize the terror of the Indian Residential School system as this mass grave of 215 unnamed children. I don't know what grieves and upsets me the most. The loss of life of these children? The salt in the wounds of Indigenous friends, many of which themselves went to residential school and suffered abuse and saw peers being killed, or whose parents and grandparents went to these schools and despite their bravery and strength, passed down trunks of unresolved trauma? The lack of wide-spread recognition that what happened at Kamloops and across Canada and the US has in fact been genocide? I'm thinking of the mass graves found in Germany, Rwanda, Namibia, Bosnia, that served as evidence of genocide. How is the find of 215 unnamed Indigenous children at Kamloops Residential School any different? Richard Henry Pratt, the founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, one of the first and most influential residential schools on Turtle Island, described the purpose of these school as "kill the Indian, save the man". Kamloops shows that he succeeded with the first part of this equation. This genocide was conducted in the name of the church, of progress, and of White supremacy. The genocide was conducted so that folks like me can have a great time. But a great time dancing on the remains of 215 children is not to be had. I'm also sitting in horror for the emotional dulling of those who committed these killings or those who were in authority and could have stopped the abuse. I'm sitting in horror of a world looking the other way as this was happening. I'm sitting in horror of the unresolved perpetrator trauma that these people have passed down and on which our colonialist Western society is built. I'm sitting in horror because I remember the testimonies of Indigenous Elders who long knew about these graves. How many dead bodies are we yet to find and how many will we never learn about? I'm also sitting in horror knowing that although the residential schools closed, Indigenous kids are still dying in disproportionate numbers at the hands of institutions meant to serve them.

They found the bodies but can they ever capture the pain?

2020-06-23 2020-06-23

writing, breathing, living

There is a rhythm to writing non-fiction (such as a dissertation) that is like breathing. I take in a lot of information at once, it’s all over the place, it’s a mess, and I am overwhelmed. Then I breathe and relax. I let go of much of this information and organize what remains. Then I read what I wrote, it is now a text, but still a mess. Then I breathe and relax. I edit. Then I read it again. It is good enough for now. I take an afternoon off. Then I start the next section, and the cycle begins anew. Knowing that this is the rhythm of writing, mess and order, I embrace both. It is like many things in life. There is a burst of inspiration. I give up control to see where it takes me. I go all in. Eventually, I take a step back, slow down, and process. I journal, create art, or take a long walk through the woods—until it starts over again.

2020-03-15 2020-03-15

Epidemic. Welcome to the new normal.

The social distancing measures taken around the world to slow down the spread of the coronavirus may seem extraordinary, but we'll better get used to it. In a predominantly urban and inter-connected world, the spread of new diseases to which we do not yet have developed immunity will be the rule, not the exception. Accepting this, we can take pre-cautious measures—something we have failed at terribly this time around. Social distancing in an early stage of an outbreak will always be most effective. If we prepare to retreat early on, we might actually be able to contain a disease, or at least stagger its outbreak over time and space, so our health system is not overwhelmed.

If we had effective epidemic response plans, distancing ourselves could be much less disruptive. When you know an outbreak will happen at some point, you can establish an insurance fund to pay workers to stay at home, businesses to stay closed, and folks to get reimbursed for canceled travel. If your job can be done remotely, you have your temporary home office already set up. You store food and toilet paper for three weeks. Teachers are prepared to shift classes online and school children will be delivered their lunches.

And you have cultural practices in place to make the most of your lockdown time, or to meet in small groups in contagion-safe settings. I believe that such times can be moments of slowing down, cutting down the noise, introspection, focusing on what's important, healing, renewal. As a society, we have to create that space for people to retreat and focus on their healing or that of their community (by preventing others to get sick). As individuals, we need to treat the disruption as a regular opportunity to slow down, not as a reason to panic. As more of us in this coronavirus season reduce their social contacts and spend more time at home, we can start developing such practices now.

2019-09-09 2019-09-09

Meet me at the lake

Life moves on quickly. After my stint in Winnipeg, I now live in Fort Frances, Northwestern Ontario to conduct my dissertation fieldwork. I specify Northwestern, because this country here is nothing like Toronto which most people tend to think about when hearing Ontario. In fact, Toronto and Lake Ontario are about an 18h drive away. The next bigger town is 2.5h away. It has about 15000 inhabitants. Considering the vast areas of bogs, rocks, and lakes that cover this country, the sparse population does not surprise. Although the villages and towns around here have a distinct frontier feel to them—think logging trucks and gold mines—this country is steeped in old and rich Indigenous culture. Just this weekend I visited the Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation powwow. There are sweat lodge ceremonies happening almost daily, and the manoomin (a.k.a. wild rice) harvest is around the corner.

Speaking of manoomin, my dissertation focuses on how a hydro-dam here in Fort Frances impacts manoomin and the Ojibwe communities. It keeps me rather busy and so I hardly find time for blogging. When I started this blog, it was my main writing outlet. Now I am a PhD candidate and my writing opportunities have exploded. For example, Agriculture and Human Values has published the summary about my Master's thesis on Pockets of Peasantness in Upstate New York. Another piece that I have co-authored with Sarah Eisler and Brian Thiede has appeared in Global Environmental Change and there is more work in the pipe.

I'll probably stay busy for a while. It's time for my to apply for faculty jobs and post-docs for next year. These applications are their own side-project. When I do manage to take some down time, I make sure to enjoy this beautiful country and go out on Rainy Lake or camping. Isn't it beautiful here?

2019-02-08 2019-02-08

Reviewing James Scott's “Against the Grain”

It so happened that the subject of my second published book review, like my first, might be categorized as contemporary anarchist scholarship. Good to see that there is a space for this kind of work in the academy. This time, I like to introduce James Scott's "Against the Grain", published by Yale University Press. The book's core message, that the integration of hunters, gatherers, pastoralists, and other mobile peoples into sedentary, agrarian society has been a deeply political process of an elite trying to force peoples into a social structure that served the formers' personal interests against the letters' will is an assault on conventional narratives about unilateral civilizational progress and the inevitability of a hierarchical, agrarian society. Provocative, and - given the presented evidence - convincing stuff. Anyway, I loved this piece. Check out my review in the Journal of Agriculture and Human Values.

When blogging about my first book review, I thanked the author Alex Barnard to encourage fellow grad students like me to stay true to our values and conviction to pursue radical scholarship. Now, James Scott doesn't need more recognition and life-time achievement awards, but I still like to acknowledge that your scholarship - and success as a professor despite unpopular, "against-the-grain"-type of arguments - encouraged me to even enter academia and stick to it to this day. I will do my best to carry on that legacy!

2019-02-03 2019-02-03

finding my pace VS slowing-down-to-speed-up

I read an article in Die Zeit on the ever increasing tempo of our world, about the ever accelerating rate of change and the difficulty of the human mind to keep up with it. The author Ulrich Schnabel suggests that a key skill of our time is to both be lighting fast when need be, but also be able to slow down when need be. Slowing down is portrayed as a means to recharge and ultimately to keep up. This may indeed be a useful strategy to be successful by today's dominant standards, yet it is also written from a colonialist standpoint. The accelerating rate of change is not a natural force but it is man-made and largely fueled by burning fossil energy. It benefits those that rather have us consume and spend money than create and reflect. I have yet to see that anyone has gotten happier by responding to a text message faster or loading a browser tab in half a second vs two. The slowing-down-to-speed-up strategy is about aligning ourselves to someone else's pace rather than finding our own. However, being happy is neither about slowing down nor speeding up but about doing the things that are meaningful to us in a mindful way, however long that will take us.

2019-01-31 2019-01-31

Anxiety, my new, awkward friend

I'd like to share something about anxiety that I have come to understand over the past months which I like to share, hoping it might be helpful to some of you.

As most graduate students I know, and indeed many fellow millennials, I often struggle with anxiety. That nagging feeling of uncertainty, stress, discomfort, that often distracts me from doing the things I set out to do and that, frankly, makes it hard to enjoy life. It is often so vague and undefined that I can be ashamed of feeling miserable about it, considering the types of "objective" hardships that many other people go through, such as oppression, hunger, disease, death. I used to think I just need to get my act together, push through, and eventually I will feel better. Long story short, I saw anxiety as something bad, something to rid myself of.

I no longer see it that way. Now, I treat my anxiety as a mentor, a partner of sorts, a good spirit, a true friend that tells me the truth even though I may not want to hear it. Don't get me wrong, this friend is awkward and a huge party pooper. But still a valuable one.

My anxiety helps me in two important ways. First, it's a tell-tale that I am off-track with something. I do believe that there are right things and wrong things that we could be doing with our time on earth, and too often, most of us, me included, do the wrong things. Like spending the majority of our time working a job (or preparing for such a career) to earn enough money to approach a bourgeois middle-class lifestyle (and than needing the rest of our waking hours decompressing) while forgetting to attend to the emotional and spiritual needs of ourselves and the people around us. Probably not a good thing to do and yet the trajectory of most. So my anxiety is that red flag that is hoisted when I'm off-track. Unfortunately, it really is just a red flag. It will not tell me which of the many things I am doing is the one that caused it to give me that warning, nor does it tell me what the right path would be. So I still need to do a lot of introspection (meditation, walks, conversations, counseling, fasting, etc.) to figure these things out, but my anxiety is a gentle (or sometimes not so gentle) reminder that I still have work to do in this regard. Ultimately, I see it as an act of love, though, because aligning my life with what I perceive as my purpose in life is key to my happiness, and isn't that what we all should be striving towards?

Second, my anxieties are reminders that some things in my life are objectively shit. Some of these things are relatively evident, like some unresolved conflict with a loved one. Some are less obvious, like the profound lack of true community and solidarity in our capitalist society, imminent climate catastrophe, reemergence of fascism, a deep sitting feeling of uprootedness. The point is not to mistake the anxiety for the problem itself. Shooting the messenger will not solve the problem. So instead of blaming my anxiety, I should be blaming all these issues mentioned above, or better still, turning my energy towards working towards a solution of these things, or if that is impossible, finding other, conscious ways of coping with them. Anxiety is uncomfortable. So is fascism or deep conflict. Trying to be comfortable in the face of these issues is just plain ignorant and might even deepen these problems instead of solving them. It is time to accept discomfort and use it creatively. Becoming conscious about this type of anxiety also moves away my focus on these issues as something that is my personal problem, something that I have internalized the blame for my discomfort. No, more often that not, these things are societal issues, or at least interpersonal issues, that I might be part of, but that are also beyond my sole individual responsibility. I will no longer blame myself for feeling uncomfortable about oppression, violence, climate change, other people's avoidance of relational problems, capitalism and what have you.

Do I need anxieties to show me these things? Probably not. A good friend that hugs me when I feel shaken up by the distressing truths they are reminding me off would probably do the same result with less pain. In an ideal world we would have lots of people around us that help us coping with this discomfort and make us feel less powerless when facing it. In fact, those people are around more often than we think but we have forgot to reach out for them and admit to our own vulnerability. But meanwhile, I appreciate my anxiety as perhaps the ultimate ally on my path towards living a more truthful and purposeful life in a world that bombards me with temptations to rather use my precious time and energy to make someone else richer and more powerful.

Now, I'm not a psychologist and there are probably instances of anxiety that are pathological, that is to say, not rooted in some actual problem that deserves our attention. Anxiety of being anxious. A self-perpetuating loop that can only be remedied by some kind of psychiatric intervention (whether medically, psychotherapeutically, or ceremonially). I also don't mean to say that one should dwell on one's anxieties. Going back to the party pooper analogy, you don't want to be around that person all the time or else you are bound to feel miserable forever. Just take their advice and then move on towards what they have told you and focus on resolving that situation. Finally, it is not always the right moment to face our inner gloom. We do have to function in the real world, we have to make ends met and secure our survival. For those moments, I welcome all the anxiety-management techniques out there - meditation, sports, arts, masturbation, video-games, the odd joint, whatever helps to move on. I just need to remember that nothing of this will actually solve anything, it only gives me time until I face what I need to face, or until I break down.

This is hard stuff and I get the temptation to somehow avoid anxieties, either through denial, medication, or even excessive, that is never-ending, coping techniques. But I doubt this is feasible in the long run. Bottling up everything that makes me feel uncomfortable is just bound to burst that bottle eventually, burnout, depression, violence, addiction, suicide, or any other type of mental breakdown. But perhaps even more importantly, anxiety can help me on a path towards more happiness and peace if I start listening to it and trusting myself that I am able to cope with its messages. Anxiety, I no longer run away from you. Let's sit down and have a tea together (but stay away from my party, FFS!).

2018-08-22 2018-08-22

Winnipeg and I don't even know how that happened but I like it

In what can only be described as a mad twist of serendipity, life washed me up against the banks of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers, in the Canadian city of Winnipeg, that only a bit over a year ago I only knew through Venetian Snare's charmingly titled song "Winnipeg is a Dogshit Dildo". I am not sure what I was supposed to expect of a city that is likened to a, well, dogshit dildo, but those expectations have been exceeded by far.Think of Winnipeg as the kind of place where–unless you try to hitch your way from East Coast to West Coast along the Trans-Canada Highway–people don't end up without a purpose of doing so (in fact, most Winnipeggers don't end up here at all, they just never left). In that respect, it is the antithesis of New York City and the Pacific Crest Trail, the obvious places where one would go who has no purpose to be anywhere else. In fact, Winnipeg is the antithesis to NYC and the PCT in many ways. These comparisons out of the way, Winnipeg is a very livable, bike-able (in the summer anyway), diverse, culturally rich, and socially complex city that seems to be the exact thing I was craving after two years in a small college town in the hills of Pennsylvania.Part of my purpose to be here is to find out what that purpose is. ~~Superficially~~ Professionally speaking, I am here to pinpoint the nitty-gritty of my dissertation, that will be something around tribal sovereignty, wild rice, and ownership over land and water. Or will it? I am currently using the blank back pages of my proposal to take my fieldnotes. This is about as useful a proposal is once you actually get into the field and get your reality check. Did I mention that I have a lot of fun figuring these things out? I mean it. Driving around Manitoba, Western Ontario and Minnesota, talking to and learning from Ojibwe elders, joining their ceremonies, attending community meetings, and just being (a person) in this beautiful country is a heck more enjoyable than sketching out a dissertation from my office desk half a continent away.But of course, there is always a deeper level to which one could take the question of purpose, and this is where the serendipity comes in and my readiness to pour out the well of my soul in the public parts of the internet drops out. So I leave it at that. Think of this post as a public service announcement, that I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) for now. Now, what about visiting me as a purpose for you to come to this city?

2017-11-01 2017-11-01

article on Pockets of Peasantness in Cornell Small Farm Quarterly

Cornell Small Farm Quarterly has published a short overview over my master's thesis work on Pockets of Peasantness in Upstate New York. I hope, this way some people outside of academia but with an interest in small farming in the Northeast will get to read it.

2017-06-10 2017-06-10

Reviewing Alex Barnard's "Freegans: diving into the wealth of food waste in America."

I'm equally surprised and pleased, that my first academic publication is a book review about freeganism and dumpster diving. I absolutely loved reading Alex Barnard's "Freegans: diving into the wealth of food waste in America." I'm not gonna write more about the book here, just check out the review at the Journal of Agriculture and Human Values.There are certainly moments in grad school, when you're wondering if the path that you've chosen is the right one, but when you get a chance to be involved in scholarship on some radical anarchists and their interpretation of how messed up our capitalist food system is, it makes you wonder a little less.On a slightly more somber note: isn't it ironic that copyright law and my agreement with the publisher prohibits me from posting my own review on a book on freeganism on my blog?Also, if you ever read this: Go Alex! You wrote such a great book and it hugely inspirational that a grad student on the other side of the country devotes his dissertation work on such an important yet often intentionally ignored topic. Thank you!

2016-09-21 2016-09-21

Pockets of Peasantness - Small-scale Agricultural Producers in the Central Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York

Over the course of 2015 and 2016 I worked on my master's thesis called "Pockets of Peasantness - Small-scale Agricultural Producers in the Central Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York" which is finally available online.In case you haven't downloaded and read it already, here's what it is about. Some people call this an abstract:Farmers in the Central Finger Lakes Region of New York (USA) balance their production between principles of peasant farming and capitalist farming. They struggle to extend their sphere of autonomy and subsistence production, while extended commodity production is often a response to external forces of the state and capital. This struggle, together with a quantitative increase of small farms, can be described as an instance of repeasantization.Based on inductive, empirical qualitative social research, and in particular, ethnographic participant observation and semi-structured interviews, this thesis describes the economy and social organization of six farms in the area under investigation. Besides selling commodities to pay for many farming inputs and consumer goods, the farms produce for their subsistence and that of their community. They exchange products and services with other farms, they build networks of mutual provisioning, support and mentorship and try to take good care of the land.This thesis shows that subsistence production and peasant culture are not restricted to the past or the Global South, but also exist in the United States of America, albeit subject to the globalized capitalist market economy. I suggest that these pockets of peasantness are an important source of inspiration for society at large, while the dominant capitalistic social order fails to deliver good living conditions for most people. It is therefore critical to support farmers in their struggle.

2016-09-04 2016-09-04

catching up - life between North America and Europe

When months pass without me writing any blog posts, it's usually not because nothing happened (in which case I tend to turn to political commentary). Quite the contrary, so much happened that I didn't find time to blog. Or let's be honest: Blogging was the least thing I thought of.After spending about 7 months in Upstate New York to do field work for my master's thesis, I moved back to Vienna to finish my degree. Part of that was re-designing a green roof for IKEA in Budapest (don't think they ever actually implemented any of our plans). After fall semester, I reconnected with my hobo-self and kind of drifted back and forth between Vienna and my hometown Rostock while writing up my thesis. All this was interspersed with the odd trip to Prague, Berlin, Bremen, London, Somerset and Reykjavík. Don't think I ever spent so much time on long-distance busses. In the meantime, I accepted an offer to pursue a PhD in Rural Sociology at Pennsylvania State University and defended my master's thesis. Guess that makes me technically a Diplomingenieur in Landscape Planning and Landscape Architecture now.In retrospect, I realized that my restless traveling through Europe was my way to say good bye to the continent, places I love and people that I miss already. I am now in State College, PA, two weeks in the crazy adventure of grad school. Crazy it's been indeed so far, but more on that in entries to follow...

2015-12-02 2015-12-02

Die Subsistenzperspektive - eine Umorientierung zum Guten Leben für alle

Im vergangenen Sommer haben Johanna Biesenbender, Sigrid Gerl Monika Thuswald und ich in transatlantischer Zusammenarbeit einen Artikel zur Subsistenzperspektive (Die Subsistenzperspektive - eine Umorientierung zum Guten Leben für alle) geschrieben, der jetzt endlich bei der Grünen Bildungswerkstatt erschienen ist. Für alle, die es noch nicht wissen: Die Subsistenzperspektive ist ein wesentlicher Schwerpunkt meiner wissenschaftlichen Arbeit und dieser Artikel gibt eine gute Einführung zu dem Thema.

2015-10-02 2015-10-02

No, traveling is not expensive OR how to travel on a budget.

Among my friends, I have a reputation for being some kind of a traveller. Sometimes, I find it an applicable label, endearing for the romanticism it implies, and sometimes I find it misleading, as traveling to me is more a means than an end. And who can call oneself a travel who has never been to... say India? Either way, I do tend to change my position in space rather frequently and therefor I found it surprising that I write so little about it. Guess I'm more of a traveller than a writer. Certainly a rambler.One of the things that continues to strike me in conversations on traveling, that many of my contemporaries seem to see it as an expansive activity, associated with towering costs that makes it impossible for them. When I say striking, I mean profound amazement and confusion because to me, traveling is rarely more expansive than staying (what is even the opposite of traveling? Non-traveling?). Sometimes, it is actually cheaper. But more on that later. This bewilderment is the reason for this post. It's partly about my style of traveling and partly an attempt to understand the reasons that keep others from hitting the road (or rails, air, water, outer space or what not).So what is traveling? On the most basic level, it's changing one's location in space (and until beaming becomes a reality, time, too.). I include in my definition, that traveling implies staying away from wherever you stayed before. I admit, it's a difficult definition, as it implies that you had to stay somewhere, in order to be a traveller. What about someone, who never stays anywhere and is constantly on the move? Does that make the person less of a traveller? "INDEED", you might chime in, "it's a hobo, a bum, a punk!" Well, these are all judgmental expression and I think that person would be a perfectly valid traveller. What I am trying to say is that you need to stay away from wherever you came from. You can't just change your location to work and back home within one day and call yourself a traveller. This is commuting. Everything else is negotiable. Basically, if you do have a cunning, positive definition of a traveller, please post it in the comments. Lacking a better definition and internet connection to look it up (guess what, I'm traveling), I leave it as that and proceed.As earlier mentioned,traveling to me can be a fairly cheap,which to be fair is counter-logical. After all, you add one activity to the things you would be doing otherwise.

It follows, that

right? Well, not quite. Basically, for these two reasons:

Now, the critical point is, that you need to minimize your expanses for board, transportation and stuff. When you achieve the following two statements to be true

then you reached the holy grail of cheap traveling, you safe money while traveling, expressed as

Depending on your situation, that's $200-$500 savings a month right there (You are doing something seriously wrong, if it's even more. But I save that for a later post). Now you practice the art of free living. Especially in the warmer months, you could be camping. Many countries have lands where backcountry camping is free of charge. If you want to stay in more developed areas, you can sleep in most airports for free. Even better, you sign up to sites such as couchsurfing or hospitality club and stay with kind strangers, that invite you to their homes. It's ~~mostly~~ safe and fun. Heck, travelers relied on strangers for century for free lodging. Just ask, built a relationship instead of buying a commodity. Only when you end up somewhere longer, you rent or sublet a room (do not take a hotel!). Of course, in that case your expanses won't necessarily be lower than they were at home, but if you look around, they won't be higher either.

It's even easier in the stuff department. Since you don't want to bring all that expansive and heavy entertainment equipment in your rucksack, you pick up something more lightweight, which tends to be cheaper, too. Reading a book (one at a time) is a popular choice among travelers. So is taking pictures with a small camera. Part of why people go traveling in the first place is to see something new, so you'll enjoy studying that. Be it a new city or the plants and wildlife in the great outdoors. All that is incredibly cheap yet more fulfilling then watching movies or jet-skiing.

Transportation can be had for free, too. Provided you are able to walk, you are already gifted with a free mode of transportation. Just hike places. If you want to be faster, hitchhike. Yes, it can still be done and in most places, it is legal, too (Hitchwiki.org is a great resource to get you started). If you prefer the train, you could hop on a freight train. Personally, I have never done it myself, but I met many who did and had a great time and it sure sounds intriguing. But here is the secret point: since you're already saved a couple of hundred dollars (or some other currencies, whatever) for shelter and stuff, you can easily afford train or plane tickets or gas AND still have some money left. Yes, it is indeed wonderful!

So this is how I travel cheaply. Let's turn our attention to the second question of inquiry,

why do people think traveling is expansive and unaffordable, even though it isn't as we have seen?

Well, I can't be sure, but this is what I assume:When people say traveling, they don't mean changing one's position in space (excluding commuting). They mean changing one's position in space AND living a middle class life while doing so WHILE keep paying that apartment/room/house back home. Hell yes, that would be way more expansive and it seems utterly ridiculous to me why anyone would want to do that. And it gets worse. From that perspective, it's not far to even more irritating assumptions, like traveling has to include a very far and exotic destination and perhaps on a even higher level of consumption (think whirlpools and fancy restaurants), since you only do this once a year. Now, don't get me wrong, all that qualifies as traveling and it's probably fun, too. But when people say, they don't have the funds for traveling, they mean expansive spa traveling (shorthand for every kind of traveling that includes hotels, restaurants etc.) as a vacation from work, not traveling per se. This is all fine and fair, but please name it accordingly.Please comment if you think my assumption is wrong and you have a different explanation. You can also comment to tell me that my views are pretentious or righteous or that I'm a hobo, which would be a fair point.A few qualifications/further explanations at the end.I didn't yet satisfactory address the issue of food. In my experience, it usually ends up being the same no matter where I am. That's why I assumed thatWhen I travel, I tend to eat out more often, mostly because I don't have access to a kitchen, but also because I'm interested in the local cuisine (the best way of exploring that, though, is by being invited by locals to their homes. Not only is this free [you might want to contribute to that dinner in some ways], but also more authentic). The higher price tag for restaurant visits is then offset by having extremely cheap camping meals, like beans, oatmeal or peanut butter sandwiches and bananas. Of course, food expanses don't have to be equal, depending on your specific situation. If beans, rice and oatmeal is the stable of your diet already, you will hardly beat that on the road. Conversely, if you eat out a lot at home, you might make considerable savings when restricted to a very basic diet on your backpacking outing.

Another valid criticism is that my explanation above doesn't address the job factor at all. More often then not, our need to earn money forces us to live at a specific place and we would lose that income when traveling, thus making traveling more expansive if you sum up income and expenses. Now, however, the main constrain to travel becomes time, not money. There is a whole different (yet related) argument to have here, why one might want to free up some time for traveling, which I save for later. You might also want to look into ways, how you could make money WHILE traveling. In my case, I usually used the model, where you work in a place and then find a new job or study program somewhere else and use this as an opportunity to a) travel to that place, where I sometimes try to extend the time for some diversions on my way and b) check out the new place, which some people consider traveling as well. Again, the most noble way of traveling, however, is if traveling becomes your life and you do it, because you want to avoid the exploitive world of wage- labor altogether.

The last qualification addresses people, that already live extremely cheap in their non-traveling day-to-day life. Many of my friends (and potential blog readers) are skilled frugalists (of choice or/and necessity) who hardly will be able to reduce their expanses even further while traveling. Interestingly, since these people know how to live on a budget already, they never think that traveling is expansive.PS: Can anyone give me a pointer, how to embed those mathematic formula nicely into html? I know how to get my pdfs through markdown, but html doesn't seem to work.

2015-09-06 2015-09-06

Refugees Welcome - Some thoughts on the current events in Europe

While I enjoy labor day weekend in Upstate New York, the news about refugees arriving in Europe are becoming overwhelming. It is strange to observe these historic events from a country, that tends to see itself as the center of the world and yet couldn't be more away from the events that currently dominate the global news. Isolated by a huge ocean and the unwillingness to take responsibility for a crisis, that is not completely unrelated to American intervention in the Middle East, the US is merely a supporting actor in this plot, at best. To be fair, the US have their own issues with refugees and immigration. No western country has accepted more refugees than the US. And yet, the American willingness to help people escaping from war and political prosecution is very limited in comparison to the millions of refugees in the middle east.But this article is not about the US, but an attempt to make sense of what is currently happening in Europe. I used to accuse Europe for a racist immigration policy, that willingly accepts thousands of refugees to die in their attempt to cross the border. And I don't see much reason, or hope, to change my opinion anytime soon. When Merkel is now credited for her human stance on helping refugees, it is less her politics that have changed than it is the number of people trying to find a refuge in Europa. We read about the thousands of refugees that arrive in Germany or Hungary every day, but people continue to die at the borders.And yet, the tracks of refugees across Europe points out a few issue I like to address:

The hundreds of thousands of refugees are a very powerful reminder, that much is messed up in this world. I do not like the term "refugee crisis", as it implies that the refugees themselves are the problem. But framed differently, the term becomes useful. It is fair to say that every single refugee experiences a personal and a collective crisis. And refugees are a small, often privileged group that represent much greater crises. The war crises in Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia etc. cause misery and often death to millions who cannot or do not want to escape. Other crises, as the food crisis, the climate crisis or the poverty crisis add on top of that. While not officially recognized as reasons to seek asylum, they are experienced in a similar way, as a threat to life. When refugees from these countries come to Europe to seek asylum, it reminds us, that these crises are our crises. Not in a way, that Europe should intervene wherever it can. But certainly in a way, that we rethink our legacy of colonialism and global economic domination, which impact that has on other parts of the world and how we can help each other to solve those crises that threaten us all as humankind. Because we're all in it together.
Europe remains a popular goal for people in distress. Neither Europe's politics of deportation and closed borders nor [growing numbers of attacks on refugees]() stop people from trying to get there. The degree of political stability and recognition of human rights in Europe compared to countries such as Syria or Afghanistan can't be taken for granted. I find a lot to criticize and improve in Europe, but sometimes it's useful to put things in perspective.
It is said that Europe (it's a gross generalization, I know) is good at a few things. In disciplines such as economic power, individual wealth, education, health, even personal well-being, at least some European countries rank in the top tier. But when we see pictures of refugees walking on rail tracks or sleeping in tents or on the street amid the oh-so-wealthy Europe, we have to conclude, that Europe is terrible in being a good host and helper. Europe can built skyscrapers and high-speed trains, but apparently it is incapable of providing for people, that have lost everything and reach out for help.
There is growing divide among Europeans and their government(s). While the latter try to stop as many refugees from entering Europe as possible and try to get rid of those who made it, backed up by a to a great extend xenophobic electorate, more and more people take charity in their own hands and organize help to welcome and support refugees. About a year ago, we organized a small group of students at my university to support refugees, who have moved into a shelter right next to our school. When I now see hundreds of volunteers in Vienna (and elsewhere, like Munich or Hungary), who try to help where they can, it gives me hope, that humanity is not lost. It is great to see, how these idealistic and self-organized groups are so much more efficient in providing for people in distress than the officials.In a way, this is telling about the neoliberal course Europe is taking. Charity and humanity is privatized and delegated to a minority who has the time and means to provide social services. While I cannot thank those activists enough (and I almost feel guilty that I cannot be among them right now), their commitment is no justification for the government to reduce services. Rather, it should be a signal, that people in Europe are willing and able to support refugees and that their government should follow suit. So if anyone in Europe deserves credit for humanity and helpfulness, it's the civil society, the activists and not the government(s) nor Europe as a whole.
In some way, this current period of flight reminds me of other historic events, when people tried to escape one country to get into another. Remember, when Europe was like the Middle East today and one crazy group called Germans or Nazis tried to dominate and extinguish other Europeans? Millions fled to countries close (like Jordan or Turkey today) and far (just like Germany today). When Merkel announced that refugees in Hungary could proceed to Germany without being stopped it remind me a lot of 1989 when East German refugees in the German embassy suddenly were allowed to move to Western Germany. Every event is unique and history only repeats so much, but I think it is time to reciprocate the generosity Europeans have experienced during those times.

This entry is mostly an article about the grand scheme of things, of flight and humanity. And yet, we shouldn't forget this isn't only an arena of political struggle. It is the sum of million individual stories and destinies of people who risk their lives for a better future. I wish people in Europe keep that in mind when they consider their personal response to the current events.

2015-04-24 2015-04-24

Fuck Borders. European Shame.

Why borders suck, in general, and Europe in particular.

This is going to be a rant on a racist Europe that kills thousands of refugees each year. To put all my cards on the table, I disapprove of borders (writing this seems as trivial as saying I disapprove of being run over by a car but as it turns out, it is not as trivial). They exist so people inside the borders don't have to deal with what is going on outside. The whole argument about people from all over the world coming to some presumably "developed" country and thus ultimately lower its standard of life, boils down to the attitude, that those who enjoy this standard of life don't want to share it. They enjoy being on the favored side of the inequality. Of course, this inequality exists with or without borders. But with borders, it's much easier not to look at it, making the people inside the borders feel good.I am aware, that the world being the way it currently is, makes the vision of a human society without borders look like a leftist, anarchist utopia (to those who lack imagination and especially to those, who in fact appreciate their borders). I'm just writing this as a primer on why borders suck in general so you don't have to point out my position, when I now continue to write, why they suck in particular.The dying of more than thousand refugees in the Mediterranean during the last week has in fact very little to do with one's stance on borders in general. Like them or not, it is apparent that people are willing to cross them at all costs, even risking their own lives. And it is also apparent, that the Mediterranean Sea is the kind of border, you either cross or you die. And the European border policy and police makes it clear, they rather see you die than crossing the Mediterranean. One could argue, this is not true, sure do the various European border guards rescue refugees in distress at sea. Oh these hypocrites. Making sure that refugees can't just take the safe ferries from Tangier or Tunis - and, instead, have to resort to overloaded, life-threatening boats - and then even getting credit for picking a few back out of the water. So what's gonna happen, if the coast guard destroys potential border crossing boats as has been proposed in the last days? Besides effectively destroying the fishing fleet of the North African countries...rubber boats! Even more distress at sea. Even more deaths.So if all the people that expressed their sorrow over the most recent catastrophes would actually mean to save lives, they would allow legal and affordable ways of entering the country. What happens then, is where my leftist anarchist vision would come in. In my world, there would be people waiting for the newcomers with music and hot tea and the newcomers could immediately do and get what everyone else is allowed to do or entitled to get. The point is, even if one disagrees with this vision and everyone would have to apply to remain in the country and the application would be assessed according to the rule of the law (as it is now - at least in theory - the case for everyone who manages to get into Europe alive. The theory-qualification is due to the fact, that more often than not, refugees are not treated according to the rule of the law and instead are being abused or deported without a fair process), people would not have to die in the sea. So all the proposals of increasing the funds for search and rescue missions aren't changing a thing, that refugees still have to resort to the dangerous sea in the first place. The green proposal to not only increase funds but also widen the area in which theses rescue missions can operate, is not an exception.Therefore, if politicians wanted to save lives, they would NOW allow everyone to legally enter Europe. History has thought us that the unconditional opening of borders from one moment to the other is possible. Compared to the saving of thousands of lives, all the problems that may arise in consequence are subordinate. Kenia, Ethiopia, Jordan, Turkey and Iran have accepted more than 500.000 refugees each. Lebanon and Pakistan more then a million. Did this cause massive humanitarian problems in the refugees camps? Yes. Still, people choose these camp over residing in countries of war, terror, torture and/or political prosecution. I am not saying that massive, slum-like camps are the best way to treat people. They are actually pretty bad. Still, the rescuing of human lives must come first.I don't see this happening, though. And as a result, I accuse those in power in Europe and everyone who supports them of racism, as the life of a foreign refugees seem to weigh less than the quality of life of people from inside the border. Secondly, I accuse the same people of complicity to murder. As had been expressed several times, the death of refugees in the Mediterranean is not only accepted, it is used as a (inefficient) tool to control borders by scaring new people from crossing the sea by boat. Thus, refugees die by purpose of the European border policy. To me, that's an act of active, fatal violence that I, lacking legal expertise but owning a common sense and some degree of sympathy, call murder. Shame on you, Europe.

2015-04-24 2015-04-24

borders instead of humanity - Why I accuse Europe for the murder of thousands of refugees

2015-04-23 2015-04-23

Ithaca, NY it is

One thing I find with blogging is that things usually start seem worth to be written about a few weeks after they happened. And then it takes me another few weeks to allocate the time for writing. What I am really trying to say, is that I moved from Vienna to Ithaca, New York about 2 months ago.Professor Philip McMichael invited me to write my Master's thesis on peasant farming in the United States at the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University. I don't want to go into the actual research quite yet, apart from mentioning that I'm extremely happy to work with Rachel Bezner Kerr and Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen back at BOKU as my supervisors. Working with both of them has been encouraging and empowering to the point to realize, what grad school wasn't for me during most of my master's as BOKU. Really, most of it were just a continuation of my Bachelor. Which wasn't a waste of time, at all, but education can be so much more. Generally, grad school here at the department seem to be more about one's own development and critical thought rather than just ticking some of the skill boxes on your resume. Long story short, the last 4 months (basically when I started working with Veronika) have been very intellectual challenging and exiting.

Ithaca itself is almost the most ideal setup of a town for my needs. Small enough so everything is easily walkable, buzzing enough so you don't get bored but inspired and feel connected to the world (thanks to Cornell and Ithaca college) and has great outdoors within easy reach. A major drawback, however, is the seemingly endless winter. It's late April now and yes, we had snow this morning. To be fair, it's been in the 80ies only a week ago, but generally speaking, I'm fed up with the cold and I'm not quite decided yet, if I could stand winters like that for several years, notwithstanding the beautiful summers.Someone asked me this morning, if I thought Ithaca is like Portland, OR. The Portland of the East so to speak. Apart from that there is Portland, ME, I don't think this is true. Yes, it is a very liberal and progressive city, but unlike Portland, Ithaca has this slightly weird college bubble feel to it. Portland is just weird in itself. That's at least what the Oregonians say. Also city planning. Ithaca, come on. There's like zero bike infrastructure and most sidewalks are pretty horrible. At least they exist. But I definitely enjoy the scale of Ithaca and it's strong ties with the surrounding farmers, which is great both for my research and, you know, every town and city should have strong ties with its surrounding farmers.So this is the place I am going to spent my life in until late summer.Oh, there's another thing that happened during the last months and it's only now I feel it's worth mentioning: Photography. While I have always been a busy picture-taker, my artistic ambitions sort of declined over the years. Or put it another way, moving from one place to another, hitchhiking, wwoofing, exploring places, all that was some sort of artistic project in itself, so point-and-shoot along the way yielded quite a few good pictures I hold deeply to my heart (after all, geysers, waterfalls, deserts, oases...there's not so much you can do to make pictures that aren't pleasant to look at). Also, it was a deliberate choice to have a simple camera I could bring to all of my trips. Now that has changed a bit. I sold that most-of-the-time-with-me camera to a friend and got a DSLR instead and picked up photography wherever I left it about 10 years ago when I gave away my old, analog film camera. I'm still mostly playing around but I do find some sort of meaning in the photos I take, a way of expressing myself rather then documenting events and trips.So here are few pictures I took during my first weeks in Ithaca.

2014-11-30 2014-11-30

field trip to Kasba Tadla, Morocco

In May I had the chance to take part in a field study in Kasba Tadla, Morocco which I combined with two weeks of travelling across this beautiful country. Lazy blogger I am, I didn't quite allocated the time to write about it - apart from diary entries and the research report.Alas, it was my first stay south of the Mediterranean sea. And while I leave the description of the beautiful landscapes that change dramatically as you cross the country away from the coast, south through a chain of several mountain ranges (being the Rif mountains and the numerous manifestations of the Atlas) right into the Sahara as well as a portrait of the rich cultural heritage to the travel writing trade (as well to my photography and real-life in-your-face story-telling), I'd like to point out that Morocco is probably a good start if you aim to leave the European bubble without feeling completely lost and helpless. Face it, it is some beautiful country and if you're priviledged enough to be on a vacation and not having to make a living, it's the most relaxing place I can think of. "Très tranquille" as they say. Actually, I'd like to make the point, that even if you HAVE TO make a living, it can be a very relaxing place. I'm not going to romanticize the life of Moroccan peasants and city dwellers alike. Most people we've talked to gave accounts on their hardships, the daunting unemployment and inapt politicians. However, most people in Morocco alloted time for the most basic yet important thing: time spent in community with friends and strangers alike. Being invited by complete strangers for a good "thé à la menthe" made me wonder, what I do with all the time in my life.Our research was titled "Urban primary production of food." Originally, we meant to work on urban subsistence production. However, we began to question the viability of the term "subsistence" in this specific context. Unlike in Europe, the distinction of the two domains of labor for subsistence and labor for profit is highly blurred. It is not too say, the term is completely inapplicable. It would "simply" require a new re-definition which we didn't quite have the time for in this one week field trip. One of the things that screams: "Further Research!"In three of Kasba Tadla's quarters, Hay Dakhla, Hay Berraka and Dar Draouech, we surveyed fruit trees, livestock husbandry and kitchen gardens. Thinking about the effort that grassroots movements all across the industrialized countries invest in order to push forward (small-scale) food production in cities, we were amazed to see, it is all in place in Kasba Tadla. So who is the developed country? Another term that lost its suitability. At the same time, we were shocked to realize, how much these practices are frowned upon by the local government. They dismiss subsistence as something backward of semi-wild, rural peasants that doesn't fit into a modern city. It is cynical: A group of European academics come to Morroco to critize a political position that had been implemented by European academics (and other colonialists) in the first place. How can we know, we're right this time?To sum up, we have shown that primary production of food takes place to a significant amount in Kasba Tadla. While it doesn't allow for self-sufficiency, it contributes to local resilience by reducing the amount of food that needs to be imported, by preserving local knowledge on food production and processing and by strengthening human relationship s1in the community. It is also of outstanding cultural value and, thus, adds to the quality of life of the population of Kasba Tadla.

2014-10-26 2014-10-26

Choir Corridor

Back in November 2013 I had the honor to sing with the BOKU-Choir in Seth Weiner’s performance “Choir Corridor” at the Museum of Applied Arts Vienna (MAK). It’s been a great experience and luckily, the MAK published some footage of the show. While, obviously, it doesn’t quite capture the spatial quality of the performance, it still offers some good impressions what the whole fuzz was about.