World

4 th Instalment Madan tells about his grandfather When Madan visited me in Kalimpong he told me the stories of his childhood. I asked and asked, and he brought his mountain village Merangdi in Nepal to life through his simple stories, his gestures, the expressions on his face. The story about his grandfather fascinated me the most. It goes like that: Grandfather was the owner of the village house in which he lived with pride and contentment. He was 84 years. Well, he told Madan that he was 84, and since a good number of years he told the elderly …

3rd Instalment Refugium Kalimpong*. – The town in the Himalayas clings tightly to the slopes like a survivor on a cliff. Kalimpong has grown, crawling and creeping across all the rocks and ravines into the far-off folds of the landscape. Nonetheless, it feels cheerful in a small-town sort of way, and charming. Kalimpong is my Indian refuge. I always breathe a sigh of relief when I move into my room, which Indira Bose, my landlady, built for me. To one side of her house with its numerous occupants, hidden away, protected from people’s gaze by an incline on one side …

2nd Instalment Buying shoes and team spirit. – Kamal (aged 48) and I went to the shoe shop in the early afternoon, choosing that time quite deliberately because many people are having their lunch and a rest, or at any rate they are not driving on the roads. The main street in the once small town of Bolpur has developed into a permanent state of traffic chaos. When I arrived in 1980, there were only bicycles and buses on the roads, and occasional cars, no motorbikes which were not yet being manufactured in India. I often pedalled to the station, …

1st Instalment Conversation with Boro –An important moment: for the first time, Boro admitted to me in a conversation that he feels fulfilled and content in his work. After twenty years of uncertainty and indecision. A few years ago, he was still talking about looking for employment with the state “for a few years”. The draw of cakri, a lifelong position as a civil servant, is so powerful that even a sensible, thoughtful person like Boro was unable to escape from it for twenty years. Finally, he has realised that he is in a better position as principal of the …

To tell the story of SolarImpulse – the first solar aero plane project – we have to begin seven years ago in Switzerland. Here the idea was born. This summer the initiators and pilots André Borschberg and Bernard Piccard flew with it across the USA covering more than 5.600 km despite being confronted with heavy weather challenges. SolarImpulse, the first airplane ever to fly day and night on solar energy only, proved the reliability and efficiency of clean technologies and renewable energies. SolarImpulse took advantage of Switzerland’s long tradition of technological innovation, research and entrepreneurial excellence. Over the centuries this …

If there is one person who takes the maxim “think globally, act locally” literally, it is Tom Bauer, founder member of the NGO Surfing The Nations (STN). Based in Hawaii and founded in 1997, STN allowed Tom to combine his two passions: surfing and humanitarian work. The aim is to counteract the idea that surfing is something done by egomaniacs obsessed with personal fulfilment. But also to motivate practitioners to go out of their comfort zone and provide hope and change for local people who are in need of both of these things. But exactly how can surfing contribute to …

Despite the difficulties, there are many Guineans – both residents and emigrants, in which Portugal plays an important part – who are looking for ways to improve the country, trying to reverse the trend towards political, military and economic fragility. To this end, a group of Guinean women resident in Portugal decided to join forces drawing on the experience of Filomena Djassi. She is a woman with well-founded ideas, and, despite her youth, she is already taking on a leadership role. After a training course with a group of women in Lisbon, she spoke to ECO123. ECO123: Who is Filomena …

Bochum (D). When people pursue a common goal, they can achieve a great deal. A parents’ initiative involving just over 1,000 people wanted to do something meaningful with their money. They founded a bank, which in itself is not something that happens every day. But then they started compiling a checklist for the securities and credit business. They apply the following negative investment criteria: breaches of human rights, breaches of basic and labour rights, child labour, animal experimentation, controversial environmental activity, controversial economic practices, nuclear power, biocides, chlororganic mass production, embryo research, agro-genetic engineering, pornography, armaments, narcotics. Instead, they invest …

Imagine free public transport. Would you leave your car at home? For many years, public transport in Lisbon and Porto has been both declining and running at a loss. The system is being used to only just over 22% of capacity. In contrast, private use of cars has risen fivefold in the past 12 years. Serious problems are the result: endless traffic jams, a shortfall of at least 18,000 parking spaces in Lisbon, more than three times the number of road traffic accidents and a huge burden of noise and exhaust fumes on local residents. The idea of free transport …