Home

I have come home to Germany and it feels no more like returning home than when I moved back in with my Spanish friends two weeks ago. It is cold here and the long drive has weakened me so that my body reacted strongly to the change of climate and I stayed in bed today. Not much more need be said, just that life is good and that I wish you could see the beauty as I see it in this moment. Take this as a hint and as a little pointer to recognize the perfection all around you. The rain on your window and the tree's rustle. Enjoy!

On Moral Openness

I am passionate about what is going on in the world, politically, ethically, environmentally, socially and with regard to consciousness. I count myself as a liberal thinker and also as an openminded individual. I do not want to belong to a closed group that damns others for believing what they believe. And yet I cannot get a full understanding of how so many people embrace Sarah Palin's conservative ideas (here as they are seen by liberal bloggers). I wonder if I can escape this obstacle to my openness and be more understanding to what is really happening here.

The video below has shed some light on my question and shown that there is a principal divide among liberals and conservatives that seems hard to bridge. Though as Eckhart Tolle says (about whom I will soon post separately): "Awareness is incompatible with the ego." I take it this way and try just to be aware of my objections without judging. I guess the bridge will turn out to be already built or entirely unnecessary ;-)

On Education

When I think about my life I wonder at times where it is all leading. I am a student of sociology and also have classes on politics and law. I have a knack for learning languages though it is mostly to be able to communicate, not for the sake of learning. There is a feeling of responsibility for the world in me that will ultimately lead me into a position where I can excercise it for the advancement of my fellow beings on this planet.
Now this is all nice and it sounds like the tree-hugger in me. But what does it mean and how is all this self-definition useful if there is no clear mission to go with it?
Well, a mission is beginning to show on the horizon. When I was watching this video on TED.com, it became clear to me once again how powerful education, especially primary education, really is. What children learn during their early years has such an enormous impact on how they interact with the world that it seems to me one of the most powerful tools if you ever want to change the world. Many people know that and many also practice it unconsciously, though some do it with only their own interests at heart. Primary education should be universal as the UN development goals have stated. There must be a way for all children to bring their inner curiosity, openness and tolerance into society. I could live with this being my mission in the world!

I leave you with this talk by Sugata Mitra, an education researcher from India who describes his fascinating experiment. Life is ingenious, when its creativity is allowed to unfold itself.



In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC, and left it there (with a hidden camera filming the area). What they saw was kids from the slum playing around with the computer and in the process learning how to use it and how to go online, and then teaching each other.

In the following years they replicated the experiment in other parts of India, urban and rural, with similar results, challenging some of the key assumptions of formal education. The "Hole in the Wall" project demonstrates that, even in the absence of any direct input from a teacher, an environment that stimulates curiosity can cause learning through self-instruction and peer-shared knowledge. Mitra, who's now a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University (UK), calls it "minimally invasive education."

Once and now

Part of me
Has died
And won't return
And part of me
Wants to hide
The part that's burned

Once, once
I knew how to talk to you
Once, once
But not anymore

Hear the sirens call me home
Hear the sirens call me home

Part of me
Has vied
To watch it burn
And the heart of me
Has tried
But look what it's become

Once, once
I knew how to look for you
Once, once
But that was before
Once, once
I would have laid down and died for you
Once, once
But not anymore.

Hear the sirens call me home


************ Music from the movie Once ***************


Quisiera escribirte algo bonito, bonito de verdad,
pero se trata de despedirme, se me da muy mal.
Quisiera escirbirte algo sencillo, en realidad,
pero se trata de despedirme de alguien que no tuve jamás.

ESTRIBILLO
Y dime qué difícil es intentarse olvidar de algo que nunca tuvo lugar,
y qué difícil es dejar de imaginar, y que difícil es intentarse alejar.
Quisiera encontrar algún final que no, no sonará tan mal.


Difícil escribir algo bonito, se trata de un final,
no acabaré con un 'te quiero', no me dio tiempo a llegar.
Difícil escribir algo sencillo, en realidad,
que se hace algo cuesta arriba darse la vuelto y echar a andar.

ESTRIBILLO

Y antes de olvidarme, y antes de alejarme,
y antes de marcharme y que todo se acabe,
yo solo quería haberte escrito algo bonito, algo bonito de verdad.

Que difícil es intentarse alejar,
quisiera encontrar algun final que no,
no acabará tan mal.


********* Conchita - Algo bonito ************