Ich habe genug - Kampagne

Heute entdeckt, die Kampagne des Vereins SOL Solidarität, Ökologie und Lebensstil. Mit der kostenlosen Anmeldung zur Kampagne erhält man entweder einen Newsletter mit Anregungen, die Möglichkeit Themen zu diskutieren oder auszuarbeiten oder Unterstützung für einen Startworkshop, um Menschen in der Bewegung zu mobilisieren.

http://www.nachhaltig.at/genug/
 
Ich mag die Idee und den Zugang. Schade finde ich, dass das Design wie oft bei sozialen, gemeinnützigen Initiativen etwas zu wünschen übrig läßt ;) Dazu aber mehr ein ander Mal, wenn es um Sustainable Design in Wien geht.

Aber in jedem Fall eine unterstützenswerte Idee und Gruppierung.

Attachment - the myth of ownership

In general I adore Ajan Brahm and his speeches. Ajan Brahm  is a Theravada Buddhist monk. Currently Brahm is the Abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery, in Serpentine, Western Australia. He studied Theoretical physics at Cambridge University before becoming a monk and providing this inspiring speeches on the following youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/BuddhistSocietyWA



Today I would like to share his speech about attachment. Attaching to the _right_ things and enjoying simplicity. He is  talking about the benefits of having less. A smaller car, a smaller house and at the same time caring for the environment. The brainwashing of our culture is also mentioned, but also they joy of inner prosperities: Love, fun, friendship, family, happiness and comfort.

You find this video also via this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L50xVM7wwss




German Wikipedia entry for Ajan Brahm:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajahn_Brahm

English Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajahn_Brahm

Reselling in Austria

As suggested in my books about minimal living, getting rid of old stuff is a big topic. At the same time, you could also think about maybe making some money out of your old stuff instead of just throwing it away.

Once you start looking around how much people pay on ebay or amazon for old books, you realize that most of your books, cds, etc. are not even worth a fraction you payed when you got it. Another moment of becoming aware of the worthlessness of your possessions.

Still, selling small items like books on amazon or ebay is not really interesting because of the relatively high fees especially when you think about the additional shipping costs for all single items. And it also takes a lot of time and you never know who and when somebody is buying.

The alternative is sending all your books, cds, dvds etc together in one packages to a reselling company.

On preisjaeger.at you find an article comparing reseller-platforms and what you eventually get for your stuff from different providers:

http://www.preisjaeger.at/24212/vergleich-online-ankaufsservices-rebuy-momox-cashfix-und-mehr/

Preisjaeger recommends only http://www.rebuy.at/ for the Austrian market. If your items are worth more than 30€ rebuy.at absorbs the shipping costs. If anybody has better or different information, you are welcome to comment on my blog.

But - I also found http://www.packundweg.at/, who seemed to have quite good conditions for heavy weight packages.

Minimal housing

I stumpled upon 2 inspiring people, living in small, wooden houses. Using little ressources and living in harmony with nature. Some of the realized solutions are amazingly simple.





Although both examples are kind of extreme, it makes you rethink about how much space you really need and what you could simply get rid of.

One man house

Noel T. Higgins wanted to build a house for a good few years but didn't own a piece of land to build it on so it seemed an obvious choice to build a house on wheels.

 

 

 

Ein Holzhäuschen auf 4x4 m². 

Nutzung von Regenwasser. Aber der Keller ist der Kühlschrank und sogar ein Gästezimmer gibts am Dachboden. In diesem Video steht zwar auch viel die schwäbische Sparsamkeit als Beweggrund im Vordergrund. Dennoch, die Freiheit und Unabhängigkeit durch den gewählten Lebensstil läßt sich nicht leugnen.