ALUNA TEMPLE MAGAZINE EDITION No4 'BRIDGES' | Page 71

‘ON THE EDGE OF A CLIFF ONE STEP BACK IS NOT A BAD ADVICE’ Often people are ready to change because of their concern about the future of their children - and that’s good. Though shifting to sustainable solutions is not only about meeting the needs of future generations, it’s very much also about making a fair share of resources possible in the present moment. The modern lifestyle is dominated by a high level of materialistic consumption and it’s only being possible on behalf of the big population who don’t have access to economic and political power. At the same time I personally know that most people living the “modern dream” are very nice and well-meaning people, peaceful consumers. A problem is that it is difficult to figure out who is pulling the strings in the system and that the subject is not as popular as family, fashion and football. Meanwhile it doesn’t demand a university degree to see that our current economic system based on debt and continuous growth is bad math on a finite planet. Nonetheless the system is taken very serious by people in powerful positions while those with alternative ideas are not given mainstream attention. An example is when Charles Eisenstein came to Denmark last year to speak about Gift economy. The event took place in Copenhagen Business School and despite a professional press invitation, the only journalist at the event showed up on her own initiative. Just six days after there was a big demonstration against GMO and Monsanto, again the Danish press was invited but stayed silent. For me it was a wake up call that more than 2 million people in over 50 countries demonstrated on the same date and it did NOT become breaking news, only in alternative media and on Facebook. Jairo Restrepo, a pioneer of organic agriculture, holding a sign “Monsanto out of Latin America” Please JOIN: www.march-against-monsanto.com 71