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TEDxChange Berlin: The Big Picture

Posted by Natalie in Events - 6 April 2012 - (0 Comments)

A looming, Berghainian former power station set the perfect scene for one of TEDx’s biggest events to date, as local and international guests and speakers entered awestruck to mutters of that familiar phrase: ‘only in Berlin’.

Out back in the blogger lounge, the retro post-industrial vibe continued in a room that could have been a sixties sci-fi film set.

On to business. We were treated to an introduction and Q&A with some of the speakers before they rushed off to centre stage and the main event began.

First up was Jeff Chapin of global design consultancy, Ideo, who deglamorised design with his story of bringing a latrine to market in rural Cambodia, increasing toilet hygiene and saving hundreds of lives.  Jeff stressed the importance of locally tailored solutions to suit specific cultural and physical environments.  Through astute anecdote, we learnt how design, though unglamorous, has the power to enable longer and deeper conversations about the things that really matter, such as health, family and security.

Next, a call to action from MEP and German Green Party member, Sven Giegold. Sven explained the link between the global financial crisis and our ongoing addiction to oil.  The financial crisis is, however, not one of scarcity but of abundance – four times the global GDP is now circulating the economy, searching for short term investments and profits and over-complex financial products. We need a new deal to solve the problem, rather than rebuilding the old system, and this involves regulation of the financial markets in combination with a genuine commitment to renewable energy.

Despite disagreeing with Sven on the nuclear question, his talk was compelling and I was encouraged to hear informed and insightful reference to the interconnectedness of the environment and global economy – a key perspective on the Big Picture.

Theo Sowa is CEO of the African Women’s Development Fund, and delivered an impassioned speech about the consultation of women (or the shameful lack thereof) in discussions about development issues. Her point was poignant in its patency and moving in its manifestation: a profile of some of the thousands of women who could provide invaluable solutions to some of the continent’s most pressing problems, if only they were asked. Theo’s standing ovation was certainly well deserved, however, from the Twitter feed it appeared that many in the audience inadvertently proved one of her main points:  Theo pointed out that we don’t ask victims for solutions, and that we need to stop treating all African women as victims; but the phrase that got repeatedly retweeted was that ‘we need to start asking the victims for solutions’.

After a moving performance from Senegalese singer/songwriter, Baaba Maal (which he dedicated to all the world’s women), Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation, who organised this event, delivered the final presentation of the evening.

Having already heard a taster of Melinda’s topic in our earlier Q&A, it was clear that she is wholly devoted to the Foundation and their causes; the top four being polio elimination, vaccination, family planning and agriculture.

Melinda’s talk was on family planning – a topic that is currently hugely controversial, but why? Debates about abortion and population control are both hugely emotive issues and ones that are frequently associated with family planning – making a practical issue suddenly loaded by association.

Family planning is about the freedom to decide whether to have a child. There is, in many societies and cultures, a reluctance to address or accept birth control because it removes the act of sex from the goal of reproduction, thereby condoning promiscuity.  This is not about promiscuity, however, but about the freedom of choice, and women having more control over their bodies and their lives; the ability to “bring every good thing to this child before I have another”.

Despite some unanswered questions about cultural relativity, and ambiguities about where the Gates Foundation sits amid top-down and bottom-up approaches, I am impressed by Melinda’s dedication to this issue.  ”I’ll keep doing this for the next thirty years”, was her zealous response to a question in the blogger lounge about how long the work would need to go on.

Answering another question, Melinda explained to us the role of a foundation, describing it as a ‘catalytic wedge’, to help drive down prices and develop new technology etc. The Gates Foundation’s funds are just a drop in the ocean, and to roll out solutions on a large scale and implement lasting, positive change, takes leadership, and is ultimately down to governments.  Organising and hosting an event such as this, encouraging and enabling so many people (not just us in Berlin but the hundreds of thousands of people who tuned in live across the world) to refocus our local lens and look at the Bigger Picture, is itself an innovative display of leadership – one that can only increase the Foundation’s global influence and impact in its impressive ongoing philanthropic endeavours.

This post was republished on the Gates Foundation‘s Impatient Optimist blog.

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Related articles:

TEDx Berlin 2011: High Energy

The Big Picture

Moving Mountains: hunger and waste in an age of austerity

The Meaning of Clean

 

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Ij Hallen Fleamarket, Amsterdam

Posted by Natalie in Sustainable Travel Journal - 6 March 2012 - (0 Comments)

Ij Hallen Fleamarket, Amsterdam

“It offended his sense of proportion and economy to throw away a ninety-percent serviceable string of lights. It offended his sense of himself, because he was an individual from an age of individuals, and a string of lights was, like him, an individual thing. No matter how little the thing had cost, to throw it away was to deny its value and, by extension, the value of individuals generally: to willfully designate as trash an object that you knew wasn’t trash. Modernity expected this designation and Alfred resisted it.” – Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections

IJ-Hallen

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Getting there

Train from Berlin to Amsterdam Zuid – approx 6.5 hours (€31.75 pp each way with Bahn Card 25).

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Bean there: Coffee Circle’s brewing and tasting workshop

Posted by Natalie in Events - 15 February 2012 - (0 Comments)

Berlin startup, Coffee Circle, began life in a humble corner of Betahaus.  Two years later, they’re housed in a typically cavernous ex-warehouse office space shared with a handful of similarly youthful businesses. Plenty of room, finally, to host a Gidsy event to share their passion for coffee.

This afternoon’s workshop was led by Robert, one of the three founders of Coffee Circle. The remaining two are currently soaring at speed in a south-westerly direction, bound for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Abbaba, on their annual quest for the best coffees the country has to offer.

Unlike most other coffee traders, Coffee Circle buy direct from growers in Ethiopia. Due to a lack of infrastructure, employment and welfare in the country, people generally have to sustain themselves by growing their own food. Families often club together in cooperatives to farm small plantations, producing some of the world’s best coffee, completely organically.  By cutting out the middle man, the company can source the best coffee and make sure the growers get a fair deal. For every kilo of coffee purchased, Coffee Circle gives €1 back to local development projects. Farmers see the benefits within their community and increase their efforts to produce the best beans, driving up quality of produce for the company and ensuring ongoing investment in local development projects. Hence the name Coffee Circle.

We learnt a great deal about the different coffee producing areas of Ethiopia and the difficulties in finding, getting to, tasting, choosing and eventually purchasing coffee – and that’s before it even gets to the roaster. The process is painstaking, adventurous, competitive (Starbucks is also a major direct purchaser in the region), fascinating and incredibly complicated, requiring expertise at every stage.  Two years down the line, Coffee Circle seem confident in themselves and their product, so it was time to start tasting their fare.

In this spirit of complexity, there were five different coffees to taste and five different brewing methods – far too many variables to elicit a clear winner in both categories without proper scientific process, but more than enough to get us started on the road to coffee connoisseurship.  The coffees included three Coffee Circle products: Limu, espresso and Sidamu; one Square Mile Bolivian filter coffee; and a Kaiser’s common-or-garden filter coffee.

The brewing techniques:

#1 Espresso

A familiar favourite on a particularly impressive La Marzocco machine.  Obviously only the espresso beans were sampled in this test, and we learnt some of the finer points to the barista’s art. It’s called espresso, of course, because of the short brewing time – the water has only a maximum of about 20 seconds to pass through the coffee, so ideally the beans should be finely ground and also need to be roasted for longer during the roasting stage to ensure strength of flavour and aroma.

#2 Drip filter

Another classic and relatively old-fashioned method, the drip filter has been improved by the Japanese invention of adding small ridges to the funnel, which prevent the filter paper sticking to the wall and improve the flow.  The paper must be rinsed by pouring warm water over it before adding the ground coffee, to avoid that papery taste.

#3 The syphon

Also known as a vacuum coffee maker, this method is visually amazing.  It works by varying the temperatures of two connecting vessels, firstly increasing the pressure to force water upwards and then lowering it to allow it to soak back down through the coffee. It’s been around since the 1930s but has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, possibly due to its gimmicky look (apparently it pulls in crowds at events, but I didn’t rate the results – see my verdict below).

#4 Chemex

Much like the drip filter but with thicker paper (which again must be rinsed before use) and a slightly different vessel, the Chemex produces a noticeably smoother cup of coffee by filtering out all the residue. Its diligence as a filter means it does take a while, but the result is well worth waiting for.

#5 AeroPress

Currently a very popular choice of brewer, especially among singletons for whom one cup is just enough, the AeroPress is a quick, simple and highly effective method, even if it does lack the glamour of its contemporaries.  Consisting of two cylinders that create an airtight chamber, the device works much like a syringe.

The verdict

The espresso was perhaps a bad place to start, because it was by far the most overpowering taste and possibly my favourite, though I can’t be sure my views haven’t been influenced by that magnificent machine.  The Sidamu coffee tasted underwhelming from the drip filter but exceptional from the AeroPress, which gave it a cloudy texture and strong taste. Sadly, both the Limu and the Sidamu tasted bitter and burnt through the syphon. The Chemex-brewed coffees were impressive, especially the Square Mile sample, which tasted too fruity for quotidian dosage but perfect for a special occasion.

After all these amazing samples, it was only left to try the supermarket special. I often drink similar coffees and was completely unprepared for the taste that hit my tongue after all the high quality we’d just experienced. To quote one of the other participants, Philip, “it just tastes so… empty”.  Empty indeed, and stale, and bitter and – frankly – awful.

Apparently, in the name of efficiency, supermarkets and other producers of cheap coffee roast their beans at high temperatures for three to five minutes to reduce the roasting time required. In order to get rid of the fruity acid and other toxins, and to preserve a delicate and desirable aroma, beans should be roasted at much lower temperatures for longer – up to 20 minutes or so.  The result of cutting corners during the complex roasting stage is a poor tasting and unhealthy coffee.

So there we have it. Another expensive taste developed in a few short hours. Having said that, coffee is a staple in our household and I’m more than willing to pay the price for high quality, ethical produce, so these few eye-opening hours with Coffee Circle were well worthwhile, as well as highly enjoyable.

Related articles

Berlin: a monument to optimism

TEDx Berlin

FutureCityLab

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FutureCityLab

Posted by Natalie in Projects - 27 January 2012 - (0 Comments)

An open-source project aiming for sustainable cities by 2050, this loose but dedicated network of professionals and experts focuses on the move towards locally sourced food production, new forms of energy harnessing, and building upon what is already there rather than  knocking down and starting over.  Inspirational stuff. I just joined them at http://ftrctlb.com/

 

 

think the unthinkable from ftr.ct.lb* on Vimeo.

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TEDx Berlin 2011: High Energy

Posted by Natalie in Events - 21 November 2011 - (1 Comments)

An eclectic line-up of apparently unrelated topics came together beautifully today at TEDx Berlin, with themes curving in a topical arc through this thoughtfully curated event.

Katherine Lucey, CEO of Solar Sister, ignited our imaginative kindling with a moving account of the power of electricity to change lives in rural Africa.  Her company provides people with solar lights that cost a one-off price of $20, making it a more financially viable option than the toxic kerosene lamps that cost $2 a week to run.  Working with local women in hardest-to-reach communities, the solar lamps improve quality of life and can kick start cycles of increased prosperity and self-sufficiency.  Katherine argued that energy poverty and energy prosperity are gender issues – an angle that seemed to cause controversy amongst the audience, judging from post-presentation conversations.

Next, Alexander Voigt, CEO of Younicos, talked us through the potential of renewables, in particular photovoltaics (PVs).  He showed that the challenge lies not with technology but our relationship to it.  Solar panels are increasingly efficient and affordable, so why aren’t we all installing them?

It may have been due to the moving start that the first TED video talk seemed particularly overwhelming. Using biomimicry, Markus Fischer and his team created their SmartBird, an achievement that has to be seen to be believed:

Design duo Mischer’Traxler create products based on the history visible in the rings of a tree.  A solar powered machine threads and dyes cotton around a mold, so that rings are produced and different colour intensities depending on how sunny it is (thus how fast the solar powered machine feeds the thread). A time lapse video and examples of their work demonstrates the ingenuity perfectly.

To end the first session, climate engineer and director of Trans Solar, Wolfgang Kessling, complemented Voigt’s earlier points well by showing that only 20m2 of PV panels is required to supply a family’s energy for a year.  This would cost just €5000 and, of course, reduce energy costs significantly.  Another 20m2 would be enough for 15,000km in an electric car.

As we shivered uncomfortably through the session, Kessling talked about ‘high comfort’ and making a building comfortable by controlling the air temperature and the radiant environment.  We often underestimate the importance of ensuring the passive efficiency of a building before investing in energy to heat it.  What’s more, he said, “We overestimate what we can do in the future and  underestimate what we can do today.”

Things warmed up in session two as we were told we would be part of a real time experiment in ‘high comfort.’  Fittingly, Nils Lindell was next up to divulge his experiences of attempting to live a One Tonne Life with his family in Sweden.

Martin Cordsmeier of Million Ways, then called for creative tenders to help society move towards a more person-focused system.  There are surely few more focused people than Lewis Pugh, who is widely regarded as the world’s greatest cold water swimmer.  His efforts at swimming in a lake left by a melted glacier at 5,300 metres aim to raise awareness of climate change, “The Mount Everest of all problems.”

Verena Delius, CEO of Young Internet, delivered a thought-provoking analysis of dynamism within companies and that dangers facing those that do not adapt to evolving markets.  Despite its focus on industry, we agreed in chats afterwards that such approaches can be equally applied to interpersonal relationships. Strike while the iron’s hot!

After a musical interlude from Studnitzky, Rune Nielsen, co-founder of Kollision, clarified what is meant by ‘media arcitechture,’ and how it can be used to make the invisible, visible; the abstract tangible and the boring playful.  Projecting interactive light shows onto the sides of buildings provided opportunities to engage the public in a conversation about the facts of climate change, and their interactive nature encourages communication between strangers.

Closing the loop on session two, Lehna Malmkvist of Swell Environmental Consulting, brought us back to the biomimicry theme by arguing that we need to reject one-way systems of resource management.  Ecosystems are the most complex and efficient systems on earth and we should take a leaf from nature’s book and move towards integrated systems where one stage’s waste is another’s resource.  Swell’s project at Dockside Green near Victoria, BC is a work in progress that practices what they preach, and they are learning by doing whilst implementing an economically and socially viable urban design project.

A glance at the programme for the third session indicated a sinister aside that seemed somewhat off-topic. Axel Peterman, criminologist and consultant to cult TV series Tatort, began with an advocation of interdisciplinary criminology that includes profiling suspects’ personalities.  Interspersed with gruesome photos and more captivating than an episode of CSI, the talk was a rare, if somewhat tenuously fitting insight into a world we all find so morbidly fascinating.

Of all the amazingly inspirational and industrious people that spoke at TEDx today, magician Thimon V. Berlepsch, taught me the most valuable lesson; something new about myself. He showed us that our human need for routine also has a detrimental side, in that it can blind us to childlike wonderment.  Breaking the patterns of mundanity brings the magic back to life.  For Berlepsch, this break comes in the form of travel, adventures into the unknown.  I’ve always wondered what that feeling is when travelling; that unique euphoria which melts into an elusive sense of homecoming perspective.  Some people tell me the urge to travel is a sign of instability, unwillingness to settle or a means of escape. They are right, but that’s not a bad thing.

The transition to Pamela Meyer’s How to Spot a Liar video talk was surprisingly smooth.  An interesting speech, whose most poignant argument in today’s context was that in order to avoid deception we must be self-aware enough to know what it is we are hungry for:

J Henry Fair’s aerial photographs make beautiful images out of horrible situations, and it is this dissonance, he claimed, that makes them affective and therefore effective:

The earth is bleeding - J Henry Fair - Industrial Scars

Nik Nowak’s presentation, entitled ‘Sound as Weapon’ was not as menacing as it sounds.  The title related more to the recent Occupy events where microphone bans were subverted with creative and peaceful innovation in the form of human mics.  Nowak then demonstrated his Soundtank during the break before the final session.

If we were becoming fatigued by this deluge of inspiration, Benedikt Foit and Habib Lesevic woke us up with a start.  Their game, Energy Streetfight, uses play as a way of engaging people to make real reductions in their CO2 footprint.  Passionate critics of the ‘consumerism virus’, the pair advocate the importance of individual action in combatting simplified but currently dominant notions of progress as economic growth.  Consumerism affects our perspective and leads to psychological passivity and the logic of taking.  While culture spreads the virus, it is also culture that can cure us, one revolutionary mind at a time.

Johnny West is a journalist, transparency activist and proponent of a direct citizen dividend for oil-producing countries to combat the resource curse.

Finally,  Daniela Schiffer’s highlighted the need for energy-saving efforts to be visible and tangible.  Her company, Changers, is an ingenious scheme that makes combating climate change an individual, measurable, comparable process with results that mean something in the real world.  An antidote to the sense of helplessness in the face of this mammoth issue, in a playful format with visibility and economic viability, where the individual feels a sense of worth and community, Changers is, I realised with pleasant surprise, the culmination of today’s discussions.

These ideas have been whirling around for a number of years now, and to see them form into real solutions delivered by remarkable and passionate people gave me hope when I’d almost given up.  As John Perry Barlow pointed out in his closing address, via video from California, today was consistently inspiring and in some places depressing.  The climate crisis is lacking in hope, and events like TEDx are essential for momentum to gather and positive change to occur.  As we teeter on the edge of the tipping point, these aren’t just ideas worth spreading, they are ideas that must spread if we are to overcome man’s greatest challenge yet.

TEDxChange, an initiative of the Gates Foundation, will be in Berlin on 5th April 2012.

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Gentrification

Posted by Natalie in Society - 28 January 2011 - (1 Comments)

Does gentrification always mean ‘generification’?

Gentrification is an emotive issue in Berlin, but what does it actually mean, and can it be stopped?

Celebrations of unity could still be heard echoing in the streets of Prenzlauer Berg when the first wave of migration occurred. Lured by the affordable living spaces prevalent in the former East Berlin, people flocked from the West immediately after the fall of the wall in 1989.  Since then, a battle has raged over the gentrification of the city, as inveterate residents become priced-out of their lifelong residences.

The term gentrification is a relatively modern one. It was first coined by a British sociologist in 1964 and refers to the Landed Gentry, an old-fashioned social class in the UK, one level down from the nobility. In its original meaning, gentrification refers to the displacement of poorer, working class people by middle class migrants to the inner city. Since then its meaning has become more multifaceted, often with negative connotations. Currently, gentrification is often assumed to involve a process that starts with a deprived or derelict urban area whose low rents attract artists and other local and foreign immigrants. The new residents begin to improve the area, literally and idealistically, so it becomes more desirable, more sought-after, rents increase and so on.

Due to the unique and intense nature of Berlin’s recent history, gentrification in the city has been particularly aggressive, and so has the ferocity of emotion evoked by the debate it has raised. Anti-gentrification activities such as torching cars – particularly those models associated with wealth – and vandalising new housing developments, are as prevalent now as they were in the mid 90s.

As a former long-term resident of London who has been priced out to increasingly inaccessible and undesirable areas of the city, I have always been sympathetic and sensitive to the complex issues surrounding gentrification, and have watched in horror as former village-style communities have transformed overnight into characterless duplicates.

Berlin, now as always, has a somewhat different story to tell. A city of two tales, its dichotomies persist; the force of change being kept in check by the passion of those who are compelled to resist.  It is not only the so-called anarchist movement that resists gentrification, mainly with violence and vandalism (often, it has to be said, somewhat mindlessly and counter-productively). There are a number of well-informed, well-organised groups, such as Wir Bleiben Alle, committed to protecting communities and preventing the displacement of low-income inhabitants. They publish seasonal literature that is distributed across the city, which includes such articles entitled ‘Was ist eigentlich mit den Sozialwohnungen los?’ (what’s so wrong with social housing?), ‘Ein Stadt ist kien Unternehmen’ (a city is not a business), and ‘“1984”? Berlin 2010!’

Being a recent migrant to Germany’s capital has forced me to contemplate my own role in the city’s transformation. As both a victim and agent of gentrification, I can see that there is an inevitable and unfortunate pricing-out of long-standing community members.  That this should happen is symptomatic of the wider system and should be addressed with social solutions designed to inject humanity into the capitalist machinations. If we can learn anything from recent global financial events, it is the need for such intervention at both the local and international level.

In a capitalist society within a globalised world, gentrification is an unstoppable occurrence. That is not to say, though, that its meaning can’t be changed.  There is an underlying assumption that it replaces diversity with homogeneity, and it is that which I want to call into question.  To exclude and vilify a group of people (in this instance those on higher incomes) for the sake of diversity is an uncomfortable paradox. Yet it is understandable at the same time; experience of  from past examples shows that gentrification often means generification.  Is it  impossible to conceive of a situation where people of differing means can live in the same area? It is in fact, a step towards not just social but environmental equality. Can we envisage a scenario where decisions are made not on short-term economic factors but more long-lasting community well-being. In fact, if we are to be prepared for a sustainable future, then this is not mere socialist idealism, it is pragmatic conceptioneering! For example, utilise someone’s  garden for crop-planting; others can work on it and share the produce. Or introduce a system similar to Council Tax in the UK (hear me out!), where inhabitants are taxed depending on the size and location of their property. There would of course have to be an efficient, localised and community-led system of spending the funds raised.

The diversity of Berlin is being constantly enriched by its flow of migrants, both rich and poor. It is a place that attracts open-mindedness, creativity and excitement.  Its residents, like the city itself, defy convention.  While the cacophony of philosophies and lifestyles continues to play tug-o-war, mischievous diversity trips up the smug swagger of indiscriminate gentrification as it flounders awkwardly towards its ignoble goal.

Perhaps a  balance can be found where wealth and diversity are not mutually exclusive, where urban development benefits existing communities as well as migrant ones together with a sustainable environment.  It may be a hopeful fantasy, but if there’s anywhere it can happen, it’s Berlin.

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