50km Diät: Frühstück mit dem SWR

Edgar Müller, Gerti Müller und ein sehr interessierter SWR Redakteur, der hier checkt was man alles so zum Frühstück essen kann, wenn man sich mit Essen aus 50km Umkreis ernähren will. Und da gibt es so einiges: Butter & Milch von der Schwarzwaldmilch, Pfefferminztee aus dem Garten, Marmelade, Wurst von der Metgerei Winterhalter und Käse gegen vom Bauernmarkt.

Den SWR Beitrag gibt es hier:

Thinking global, eating local

For one week now, my parents and I have been trying to eat only stuff that is made within 50 km of Freiburg, where we live. The pictures shows both of them getting interviewed by our local radio station SWR. The project has generated some media attention already. Note the rabbit collection in the background.

That sounds funny but has a very serious background: We produce a lot of CO2 not only by driving around in our cars or by travelling, but also by the stuff we eat. Lots of our foodstuff is grown or processed in distant places. And that does not only extend to the obvious stuff like coffee or chocolate, bananas or Kiwis, but by a lot of other food like pasta or bread.

You get into talking with other people a lot, nothing is such a good topic then food. When you go into shopping places and ask around for stuff that is grown here in the region. Farmers markets, such as the one in Stühlinger or at Freiburgs Cathedral square work very well, but supermarkets are awful for getting local stuff. Despite getting to talk with lots of people, you are  thinking more about what you eat and where you get it from. „Thinking global, eating local“ weiterlesen

From Tampere for Europe

The international youth council seminar in Tampere is over for more then an week now and for me it is time to write down a little bit what I experienced. There are some things I mentioned on previous blog posts as well, but this should be the last one.

From here a big thanks to the organisers at nuva ry. It is always difficult to organise such an europe spanning event, involving participants from Germany, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Finnland, Lithuania and bring them all togehter to do something. a total of about 40 young people. The participants were between 15-30 years old and work in the local youth local councils or similar democratically elected bodies. Already youth councils have a very strong foothold in several countries or regions in Europe exist umbrella organisations and other bodies.

Of course we didn’t only work, we had a lot of fun as well, the following video, which the finns all love is a testament to that:

Funding

We had a very interesting presentation by a lady from CIMO, which is the Finish organisation with distributes the funding for European Youth in Action Programmes. „From Tampere for Europe“ weiterlesen

Panel discussion on european youth participation

Amongst  many other interesting stuff happening at the Tampere Seminar on European youth participation there was a panel on youth in politics. On the panel we had:

Sirpa Pietikäinen, Member of European Parliament (European People’s Party)
Till Burckhardt, Treasurer, Executive Bureau, JEF
Sissi Penttilä, Schengen Youth Assembly representative of Finland
Alina Böling, Youth delegate of Finland, United Nations
and the moderator was Fatim Diarra, Chair of International Affairs
Committee, Allianssi

STE-012_Panel_Discussion_mp3 (90 min, ca 90 mb)

Sometimes the language was difficult to understand, but Fatimas way of leading the discussion was really good. Lots of people had the chance to participate and it also a little bit controversial at times. Especially when Tim Burckhard of Jeff said he was disappointed by youth. Unfortunately we didn’t get a straight answer about continuing the youth in action program after 2013.

Of course the location was really hip: the council chamber of Tampere city council is the most beautiful part of the city hall.

50km Diät

Heute mal einen Gastbeitrag meiner Mutter zur 50km Diät:

„Am 18. August war ich dann beim Cafe Futur im Waldhaus, da hat Ilaria DeAltin das Projekt 50km-Diät vorgestellt.

Spontan habe ich dann zugesagt, dass wir uns an dieser 50km- Diät-Aktion beteiligen würden. Zu Hause musste ich erstmal erklären, was das bedeutet. Eine Woche lang nur einkaufen und verzehren, was im Umkreis von 50 km zu kaufen ist. Also nur regionale Produkte.

Stühlinger Kirche
Viele Sachen kaufen wir beim Markt um die Stühlinger Kirche

Als ersten Punkt habe ich mir überlegt, wie mache ich das denn bisher mit dem Einkaufen, was kaufe ich wo.

Der nächste Punkt war, dass ich alle Angebotszettel vom „Der Sonntag“ durchgesehen habe, ob bei den Produkten dabeisteht, wo sie herkommen. Z.B. Käse aus Frankreich oder Käse aus dem Allgäu usw. Erstaunlicherweise war das sogar recht oft der Fall, dass es genaue Herkunftsbezeichnungen gab.

Jetzt galt es noch einen Termin mit dem Beginn zu finden bzw. ich dachte, ein fließender Übergang wäre auch nicht schlecht. So habe ich gleich mal angefangen und beim Einkaufen darauf geachtet, was für Produkte ich mir in den Einkaufskorb lege. Joghurt von der Breisgau-Milch. Brotaufstrich und Butter auch von dort. Obst und Gemüse, sowie Kartoffeln und Eier vom Stühlinger Bauernmarkt, der Erzeuger kommt aus Schallstadt. Käse und Joghurt kaufen wir auch beim Stühlinger Bauernmarkt, der Selbsterzeuger kommt aus Lenzkirch. Geht auch noch. (Breisgaumilchcheck beim Blog von Frau Schuck)

Fleisch und Wurst habe ich heute bei der Metzgerei Winterhalter gekauft, auf Nachfrage wurde mir erklärt, alle Produkte kämen aus dem Elztal (also die Tiere), die Eier aus Gengenbach vom Bauernhof, von da sind auch die Teigwaren. Gengenbach wäre grad noch okay.

Brot und Brötchen. Klar war mir, dass die Bäckerei Kaiser in Ehrenkirchen ein „Regionaler Erzeuger“ ist. Edgar und ich hatten mal ein längeres Gespräch mit der Juniorchefin und ich erinnerte mich, dass sie uns erklärte, dass das Mehl aus dem Umland komme. (Mehr zu Bäckercheck auf dem Blog von Frau Schuck) „50km Diät“ weiterlesen

What is a youth council?

What is a youth council and what does correspond to the institutions we in Germany know as youth-city-councils (Jugendgemeinderat)? The definitions what youth councils are differ from country to country.

Tampere
Tampere with dramatic light

Even in Germany there are several definitions that seem to be equally valid and good:

  • „A youth council is a democrativly elected body compromised of people mostly aged between 13 and 20 years, that works on a regular, continuous basis and exerts influence on local policy“ (concept08 was a meeting of Finish and Baden-Württemberg youth councillors in Summer 2008)
  • “youth councils are representing the interests of youth toward local politics. They are a model of participation and offer young people an entry into politics without getting bound to a party. Ideally these have the right to talk in the city council and the right to make formal proposals in the city council. Ideally they have their own budget for publicity, events and other projects”  (Interessenvertretung der Jugend, von der Website des Dachverbands der Jugendgemeinderäte http://www.jugendgemeinderat.de/index.php?id=21, abgefragt am 15.2.2011)
  • “through youth councils youth in their municipality are formally represented. (…) they offer the possibility to transport wishes, suggestions or proposals for improvement of youth towards the political system. Through this youth can participate in the community. (…) they offer all youth political means of participation and creating a political will. (…)
    Youth councils are directly, democratically elected by youth and represent different ages and school types. Youth can participate at planning and projects, which concern their interests within a reasonable way. The elected youth gain deeper insight into local politics and learn on how to take responsibility and represent their position in the public (…)” ( Landtag von Baden-Wu?rttemberg Drucksache 14 / 6762 State Government of Baden-Württemberg
    (in response towards questions of the green party group)

Internationally the definiton seems to be very variable. For example nuva ry the finnish umbrella organisation of youth councils defines them as follows: (Senni Raunio, Salo 2011, „Suomen Nuorisovaltuustojen Liitto – Nuva ry. The Union of Youth Councils in Finland“ Vortrag beim Treffen der Delegation des Dachverbands der Jugend- gemeinderäte Baden-Württemberg und des Finnischen Dachverbands der Jugendgemein- dera?te in Salo am 9.4.2011)

  • „The age of the representatives in Youth Councils varies typically from 13 to 20 years
  • The amount of the representatives varies from 7 to 60 members
  • Members are usually selected via election, but also other methods are being used
  • They are trying to make sure that decision-making in municipalities is fair to the young people
  • Being a part of the municipal boards and other groups
  • Taking part to the public discussion and start new discussions by highlighting the problems that young people are facing“ „What is a youth council?“ weiterlesen

Links

das Niveau des öffentlichen Diskurses bleibt hoch
das Niveau des öffentlichen Diskurses bleibt hoch

Ein «eingebetteter» Reporter hinter französischen Gardinen Marc Zitzman schreibt in der NZZ über ein neues Buch, das den Haftalltag hinter französischen Gardienen schildert

Wie soll Artik heissen? Freiburgs neues / altes / neugeborenes Innenstadtjugendkulturzentrum lässt via fudder.de ueber seinen Namen abstimmen!

Dailymail about the new Europe: Where Hitler failed by military means to conquer Europe, modern Germans are succeeding through trade and financial discipline. Welcome  to the Fourth Reich. (…) If Germany is to continue to prosper, Europe must prosper: but a ruthless solution may have to be imposed in order for that to happen. If the European project is to continue, Germany will not merely have to underwrite it, but control it.“

Eckhart Friebis lästert in einem offenen Brief über die Arbeit der CDU Fraktionsgeschäftstelle ab: „Zum einen gebe ich zu bedenken, dass weniger manchmal mehr ist, d.h. eine alltägliche Exhalation von Pressemitteilungen oder ähnlichen Verlautbarungen aus der CDU-Geschäftsstelle muss nicht zwingend auch ein Beleg für seriöse politische Arbeit und überdurchschnittliches kommunalpolitisches Engagement sein.“

Crashing the Tea Party – the New York Times about the problems of the Tea Party and its voters: „they seek “deeply religious” elected officials, approve of religious  leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates“

Two week in Upsala on Comparative Education: some thoughts

I spent the last two weeks on a hugely interesting and stimulating seminar on comparative education in Uppsala, Sweden.

We studied in a very European atmosphere of students from Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Finland (or so), Denmark and Poland. Our lecturers came from Universities in this countries and Cyprus. So we had all the traps and possibilities shown so nicely by the auberge espaniol.

But of course we did study a lot and learn a lot, not only academically but because we had so many different styles of lecturers and so intensive discussions on the subjects with participants with very diverse backgrounds. Some oft hem going for teacher training others for more sophisticated approaches to education or more theoretical ones.

By the way, I blog this from a Swedish Rail X2000 that offers wireless internet free in every first class seat and for a small fee in the second class, on all routes not just on some like German Rail.

Swedish school system

Amongst others we had a very interesting presentation on the Swedish school system by Jessica Lindvert, Mats Wennerholm, Jenny Kallstenius from the Swedish national agency for schools (Skolverket). The agency supervises the school system, does testing and evaluations and provides the national curriculum. „Two week in Upsala on Comparative Education: some thoughts“ weiterlesen