Portugal

Step One: Learn to cook vegetarian food… So here I am sitting at the breakfast table, set with bread, butter, cheese, an egg – just the way we’re used to in a hotel – the cup of coffee, the orange juice, the granola mix. I’m thinking back to the previous evening and trying to put myself in the place of a meat eater told that as from the next day there would be no more meat for them, no more sausages. For ethical reasons, say, or because the climate is out of kilter. Everything is at stake, I’m told. If …

Off the bat, I wouldn’t consider talking about taxes an interesting topic, because recent experience suggests that for many of us they simply represent a very real burden. A burden that despite everything, society pledges to take on. And all of us have an opinion on the matter; without much hesitation, I’d say that what we all want is for taxes to not overburden us, and at the same time for them to provide truly beneficial effects to society. It’s obvious that what constitutes something “truly beneficial” is subjective, variable and sometimes contradictory, as the preoccupations felt by citizens vary …

To Be or to Have, that too is the question here. Renault is celebrating its 122nd anniversary. What is there to celebrate exactly? Three stories come to my mind, completely different ones. The first is this: a seven-year old boy is hit by a car. The child, as noted in the police report, wanted to cross the street with his scooter at a pedestrian crossing. On doing so, the boy is hit by the car of a 48-year old driver. In the accident on Sunday evening the seven-year old was dragged along several metres by the car and was later …

There are stories that all seem to resemble one another. It’s always about money and the lack of justice, including social justice. These stories tell of arbitrary actions on the part of state institutions, injustice, a lack of rights and the abuse of power. No, we’re not writing a story about China or the Philippines. Instead, we’re trying to keep our own house in order. This story was told to me by Maria N*, who is 67 years old and has been retired for a year. Every month she receives just under 400 euros. To earn this right, she paid …

We said that this would be a conversation and not an ordinary interview, you remember?   Manuel Nina: Yes, I have lots of questions about permaculture. I actually just went to see my father-in-law, who’s a farmer in the Douro valley. He has a two-hectare smallholding, where he grows vines and fruit for the family, and I brought these big baskets of lettuces and cabbages back home with me to Lisbon. But he also showed me the local trees. He has a small plot of land with pine trees, medronho trees, and olive trees as well. My first question is …

Humans always want more: more technology, more comfort, more consumption, more money. Their lifestyle throws up many unanswered questions. What is happening in the fields, the forests, the streets, the cities, the workplaces, the schools and universities? Humans shirk from concrete responses and decisions. Humans carry on, just like their machines, as if these questions – what is inside their food, their clothing, their medication? – weren’t relevant. Has industrialisation poisoned them and their Earth? How clean is the groundwater, the air they breathe? Does their lifestyle stand in the way of further development? Should Humans not simply switch off …

The setting is Nepal. Looking out the window of his childhood home, M gazes across a green valley, with some mixed and conifer forest a little further down. M is from Merangdi, a village with a handful of houses in the Solukhumbu district. In fine weather, stepping out of his parents’ house and looking up towards the north, he can see the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, 8,848 metres high, in the sky. The tall summit towering above the valley and Province no. 1 is an imposing sight. M and his three siblings, two older brothers and a …

People usually define success using external values such as money, status and bodily perfection. What human beings tend to leave aside are mental goals such as emotional well-being, the ability to enjoy life and to manage emotions, as well as the acquisition of the skills involved. You seldom learn these things at home, in school or at university. A cloak of silence covers any discussion of mental well-being and the management of emotions: not functioning is considered embarrassing. If humans want to find out how come they spend their lives running after money, work and a sick economic growth, they’ll …

Saturday 20 of February 2021 Our goal is to become self sufficient with our food. We need five years to achieve this. We will reach this goal in five steps. In the first year, we worked the land, clearing it and creating a fine tilth, removing the stones and weeds. At the same time, we composted, then used compost as a fertilizer for the first sowing in the second year: potatoes and onions, peas and beans, tomatoes and peppers and many more things. We also would recommend a permaculture course at Quinta Vale da Lama in Lagos. For today’s recipe, …

Saturday the 13th of February 2021 The forest is filled with animals, plants, grasses, herbs and mushrooms. And that’s why I love every native tree growing exactly where it happens to be. For our forest and winter cuisine, I have chosen three types of mushrooms. Why? Because I know them. Those mushrooms that I don’t really know stay where they are, and I leave them to carry on growing in the forest. They don’t get to see the inside of my kitchen. I’m happy to admit that my knowledge is finite; too many people have paid with their lives for …