Ideas for Change - The platform for conecting ideas for a sustainable world

Today marks an important day in history

Daniel Daboczy - Editor in chief — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:14:35 +0000

As you might all know, building a better world starts with our children. How we raise them, how we teach them, what we show them. Even though it´s 2010 alot of parents don´t have the right, the opportunity or the concept to stay at home with the child when the child is young.

Of all the parents that stay at home, is the numbers of men very low. Men usually get confined in roles expected and built since centuries.

Today starts a campaing (only in swedish at this point) by Carlos Rojas for the purpose to inform, educate and inspire men to stay at home longer with their children.

http://klartjagskavarahemma.se/

Write your own message on the Palestinian wall

Hank Nokanami — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:23:49 +0000

The Wall won’t fall just because your text is written on it. True.
But your message reminds Palestinians trapped inside the Wall they have not been forgotten. You help to keep hope alive. ‘Our’ Palestinians want to send you one single, simple message: “we are human beings, just like you, with sense of humour and lust for life.” That’s why they do this, and enjoy it.

http://www.sendamessage.nl

My love-hate relationship with Iran

viola.zabeti — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:05:30 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Olympic games has started in Vancouver, Canada. I am not a winter games fan, but I am one of those people who is still amazed by the following things:TELEVISION. PHOTO. TECHNOLOGY. INNOVATIVE PEOPLE. LIVE TELEVISION and more importantly: people from all over the world who wave their flags and somehow get along, although their countrymen suffer from dictatorship, poverty. They share the same platform, although some of these country’s political representatives and presidents would unwillingly shake each other’s hands.

According to Ahmadinejad, Israel should not even exist so lets not imagine how it would have been if he stood their face to face with Benjamin Netanyahu, his “enemy”. But I think you agree with me that it would have been very interesting to see all the political leaders,from all over the world, gather around in PEACE.” imagine all the people…”. It is quit ironic if you think about it and soo absurd. IF this would happen, in a good spirit that is, that all the political leaders and representatives who ACTUALLY have power, would gather around like in the case of the Olympic ceremony, some of the countries, would then have like 100-400 representatives, while others would have maximum 10 representatives. Or in Iran’s case, Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, only two representatives.

However, I was up for the ceremony and I thought about the introducing words in John Furlong’s speech.

John Furlong, the Chief Executive Officer of Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Olympic winter games said:

” Tonight through the magic of television we visit the living rooms of the world to tell our story. And as we do, we invite people everywhere to share and experience, even if just for a few moments, what it feels like to be a proud Canadian.”

First of all I was moved by the television aspect in his speech.I would like to say that television is really like magic. It makes it possible for me in Sweden, to watch the Olympic games in Canada. To be more exact,from Stockholm city to Vancouver, 4619.67 miles according to mapcrow.

Secondly, let us focus a little bit on “telling storys” and how important it is. Wheater it is to our family, friends, neighbours or the whole world, it is still amazing how easy it is today to tell our stories thanks to technology. Thanks to platforms like Ideas For Change, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, the media overall, well you name it! Sadly, it is not as easy as it is for me for my fellow countrymen in Iran. But they still succeed to tell their stories. Their sad stories.

Thirdly, I would like to say, that it was not unexpected to hear John Furlong say something patriotic like “we invite people everywhere to share and experience, even if just for a few moments, what it feels like to be a proud Canadian.” But I am very easly impressed I guess, because it made me feel hope. I do not have any memories from my home country,where I was born but from where I left when I only was 2-years old.

All I can see in front of me, is empty albums with non existing happy pictures of my family. All my uncles and aunts and cousins. Empty albums with NON existing happy pictures of beautiful places in Iran that I have never seen.

BUT! I struggle to feel pride, for being iranian. And I want to keep dreaming about a REVOLUTION in Iran. I want to dream about a day when I stand at Borje- Azadi (The Azadi Tower in Tehran) together with millions of FREE iranians, and we actually can openly be proud of being iranian…

I am not saying that I am NOT proud today. But I admit that I have love-hate feeling towards the country of my birth. How could I ONLY feel love? It would then be like BLIND love, and what I see, is cristal clear: a country in crisis. People suffering. A DICTATORSHIP. PEOPLE BEING EXECUTED BECAUSE THEY TRIED TO SPEAK ABOUT FREEDOM.

Let me tell you one thing you only can experience as an immigrant. A sense of loss. A need of belonging.

At the same time, you are so blessed as an immigrant, because you have many identites. You have many cultures and senses of belonging somewhere. But it is not so easy to feel PRIDE or be PROUD. Not always. Not when the president from one of your “cultures” says THERE ARE NO HOMOSEXUALS IN IRAN. You just want to hide. Eventhough you are not responsible of such a rasist and idiotic statement, you feel ashamed. In the same way that you actually feel proud when people talk about the great poets of Iran such as HAFEZ, when you read SadeqHedayats beautiful texts, when you listen to Gogoosh and her breathtaking lyrics or see pictures from Persepolis. You cannot really help it. IT IS A LOVE HATE relationship.

Banafshe Zabeti

If you tolerate this, then your children will be next

Daniel Daboczy - Editor in chief — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 13:27:39 +0000

Just happened to stumble upon this blog. A guy in the swedish metro stands up for our rights. He was photographing some undercover swedsih policemen who use threat to make him erase footage on his phone.

This kind of actions are what we all need to do.

Stand up for your rights. Or as the Manic Street Preachers sing “If you tolerate this, then your children will be next!”

http://tuggarna.posterous.com/polisen-som-mitt-i-tunnelbanan-star

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Dada revolutions

Daniel Daboczy - Editor in chief — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:33:52 +0000

Without Dada there would be no surrealism, no fluxus, no pop art, no video art, no punk, no performance art, no slam poetry, no conceptual art.

It’s hard to grasp or to imagine what the world would be without the meetings at Cabaret Voltaire at the beginning of the last century. These meetings witch eventually come to stand as symbols to the changes in society and to experiments and movements in the art world, witch have led us to today’s conceptual and contemporary art scene. What would the art world look like without the birth of Dada? This anti-art witch not only changed the expectations of what art could be but also most importantly opened the doors for what art could become.

It occurs to me that the famous Romanian revolution from 1989, the first televised live revolution ever, is like the first Dada – meetings. This revolution is in its form very similar to the birth of Dada. It also sprung out of a frustration towards the existing society, it also started in closed underground meetings and it also started as a chaotic reaction without clear course or direction, only with a kind of utopian dream of freedom and change. But most importantly what they both managed to accomplish is that they opened the doors to what one and society could become.

And even if history is full of these kinds of events, events witch have changed the entire world, it’s still quite hard to pinpoint exact dates or places where one meeting or one group changed history. Personally I can remember to the day, when I first met Dada. When I first realized that everything could be possible. Because Dada for me is of course an art-movement, but most importantly it’s a state of mind, it always was. A way to be. It’s actually a kind of key to everything that might be. It opens up to every possibility imaginable. I can go so far as calling it the perfect kind of freedom.
And I am quite sure that the meetings at Cabaret Voltaire almost a hundred years ago, the meetings led by exiled Romanians where for the simple purpose to change the state of mind. In every way possible!

/ Daniel Daboczy

Wikileaks ensures our freedom. Now they need your help!

Daniel Daboczy - Editor in chief — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:35:32 +0000

“ Wikileaks has probably produced more scoops in its short life than the Washington Post has in the past 30 years ”
— The National, November 19, 2009

They have received hundreds of thousands of pages from corrupt banks, the US detainee system, the Iraq war, China, the UN and many others that they do not currently have the resources to release. You can change that and by doing so, change the world. Even $10 will pay to put one of these reports into another ten thousand hands.

Courage is contagious.

Please do something important today here:

http://wikileaks.org/

Click here to view the embedded video.

Holocaust Memorial Day: Some people have actually forgotten

viola.zabeti — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:49:22 +0000

Today it is the Holocaust Memorial Day, a day of rememberance of the victims of The Holocaust which is in my opinion, humanity’s worst episod. This date is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Union in 1945. For me, it is frustrating to know that some people really need to be remembered because they do not even spend one day per year to actually rememember what human beings and ideologies are capable of.

It is even more frustrating to know that people still deny the Holocaust, and not only political leaders such as Ahamdinejad who says whatever he likes just to live up to his fantasim and ideology. Many times, too many times, I have heard people say “My God it was over 60 years ago that the Jews were victim of fascism, racism and holocaust”; what is the fuzz about? Can you imagine that people actually express themselves like this?

Yesterday I saw the awaraded documentary “Mr Rakowski” by Jan Diederen about Sam and Richie Rawkowski, a father who was reffered to as a “survivor from the Holocaust” and his son Richie Rawkowski who belongs to the category “the second generation of survivors”. What was very striking with the documentary, that I will always remember, is what mr Richie Rawkowski said about the term “survivor” about the people who were not murdered during the Holocaust and who are still alive. He said, and I quote “What a bad word, what a wrong word”. In Richie Rawkowski’s point of view, the survivor experience, wheather you belong to the second generation of “survivors” or the victims, it is mainly an experience of rage and bitterness. He says “The real message and goal should not be survining, it should be thriving”.

I agree with mr Rawkowski, let us grow together and re-value our own thoughts about our human beings and their experiences. Let us transform the anger into political and personal will to change this world. Not all human beings were gulity of the Holocaust, but we are all responsible of our thougts and actions today. So let us all remember The Holocaust and what fantasism and ideologies are capable of doing to our fellow human beings. Let us all remember that it is not an innocent comment to say “Oh what is the fuzz about, the second world war was over 60 years ago”.

First of all, 60 years is nothing and you cannot measure one of humanity’s worst tragedy’s, if not THE worst tragedy in human history, in years, seconds, hours etcetera. But you can measure your own thoughts and actions and CHANGE your way of thinking. This is what we need to do. How can someone in a modern world, express themselves in terms like that?

Would the very same person with this fanatic ideas that I would like to call racist, look into his fellow human beings who actually experienced fascism and its horrour and say the very same thing? I do not think so. He or she would not be able to say one word. So once again, please let us all change our ways of thinking about mankind, our fellow human beings and how we think about ideologies. You do not need to be in an explicit racist organisation to be a racist today. New racism is so hidden in everyday comments and deabtes, that it is invisible to many people.

These ideas and thoughts who appears to be innocent, said during the coffee break, or while drinking a glass of wine with some people, are actually dangerous and political. It is in my point of view: violation, racism and oppression. It is visible oppression that is unseen.

So lets make unvisible oppression visible by never being quiet. We are not directly responsible of other people’s thoughts and actions, but by shutting up, we are responsible of in some ways repeating history.

Viola Banafshe Zabeti

Click here to view the embedded video.

FREE IRAN

viola.zabeti — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:54:17 +0000

Yesterday it was Neda’s birthday. Do you remember Neda? Neda was a woman who showed courage for her rights as a human, her right to show that she had enough. Enough of political abuse from the regime. A couple of months ago Neda was a symbol for hope, change and political will to stand up against dictatorship and social injustices. Neda was killed in the riots in Iran 2009. Yesterday, I walked by Sergels Torg in Stockholm Central, where I met very few people who had gathered around to remember Neda and celebrate her. Just a couple of months ago, when there was so much fuzz in the media, Iranians, non Iranians, politicians and non politicians gathered to raise their voices against the injustices in Iran.

Yesterday it was so quiet at the very same spot where hundreds of people had gathered, that I could hear the chilly January wind. Yet, I was hopeful. Because, you know what? We are still many in democratic countries who can hear Neda and other courageous people like Neda, living in dictatorship and under corrupt regimes. We can hear them say “Keep fighting and keep raising your voices”. So here we are, to keep making noise and raising our voices against the oppression in Iran. Most recently I received an email from a relative in Iran saying “Be dademon berezin”, meaning “help us”. He wrote “All I can say dear Banafshe, is that this is the beginning, at any case, the Iranian people will not stop fighting”. In the very same email he wrote twice “Banafshe joon(dear Banafshe) are you sure that this is safe? I mean are you sure that it is safe to write to you? ”

What could I answer? Living in total security in Sweden. So far away from oppression, injustices, corruption and totalitarian regimes. He wrote “How can you save your old powerless relative in Iran? How can we start a safe way of communication”? I almost burst into tears while reading his email, but my tears were stopped and transformed into a big smile, by the last phrase of the email from my relative: “Banafshe, I must insist that this is the beginning of a story, the beginning of a new history. The more you all talk about Iran and we all keep fighting. The better it will get”. So please, keep contributing with your ideas. With your comments and analysis about Iran, we do not have the right to say “it is useless”. What if all the revolutionaries reasoned like this? What kind of world would it have been then? What if Neda had decided to stay at home and let the regime keep on with their mockery? Let’s help each other to FREE IRAN. Free the people of Iran.

This is a forum for everyone who wants to contribute with their knowledge, ideas, events etcetera to keep the hope alive. Never stop hoping. FREE IRAN.

Banafshe Zabeti

We believe in change

viola.zabeti — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:28:23 +0000

No related posts. No related posts.

Why do we need an earthquake to understand that our fellow human beings suffer?

viola.zabeti — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:31:21 +0000

How often do we really think about, for more than a couple of minutes, that life can end in any second. How often do we hug our loved ones and tell them how much we love them and realize how privileged we are? Well, I would like to say: NOT OFTEN ENOUGH. When catastrophes such as the earthquake in Haiti occur, we think “ohhh we are so lucky being alive, having roof over our heads and living in security”. Many of us actually contribute with money, feel good about ourselves and the very next morning life goes on. That is what I did. When I read the news about the earthquake in Haiti, I felt sad for the people, I sent some money and the very next day my life moved on just as usual. When a catastrophe happens in a country so far away, no matter how much we would like to get involved, we do not really feel the sadness that we actually feel if a catastrophe or tragedy happens close to us geographically, this is a common fact. We keep reading about the lack of functional institutions in Haiti, the extreme poverty etcetera. I do not want to be a cynical and bitter critique, but I must ask: WHERE WERE THE MEDIA AND THE WORLD before the earthquake? Have we all been blind? When the Tsunami occurred 2004, the same fantastic thing happened. The western media highlighted the tragedy and every one kept talking about it and contributed with money. As simple as that. When the media stopped writing, people kept on with their lives. When I was in my early 20:ees, I felt immortal. I took so many things and persons for granted. Now I feel mortality coming closer and life is suddenly worth so much more. We do not know what will happen tomorrow. Some of us know that we will be able to eat, to sleep in a comfortable bed, but at the end, we will all leave this world in one way or the other, without being able to choose how. Without being able to say “good-bye” to the people we love. So this is what I suggest, keep helping your fellow human beings. Stop being proud, if you know someone that you love deep inside that you do not talk to for some reason, do not hesitate a minute: JUST PICK UP THE PHONE AND SAY “I LOVE YOU”. If you feel immortal, think again. Life is precious. Make every second last longer and do not waste it on complaining, being greedy etcetera. HELP your surroundings. Do not wait for a catastrophe such as the earth quake in Haiti before you contribute. Yes, we are not immortal. But our ideas and actions can be immortal if we do our best. B Why do we need an earthquake to understand that our fellow-human beings suffer? How often do we really think about, for more than a couple of minutes, that life can end in any second. How often do we hug our loved ones and tell them how much we love them and realize how privileged we are? Well, I would like to say: NOT OFTEN ENOUGH. When catastrophes such as the earthquake in Haiti occur, we think “ohhh we are so lucky being alive, having roof over our heads and living in security”. Many of us actually contribute with money, feel good about ourselves and the very next morning life goes on. That is what I did. When I read the news about the earthquake in Haiti, I felt sad for the people, I sent some money and the very next day my life moved on just as usual. When a catastrophe happens in a country so far away, no matter how much we would like to get involved, we do not really feel the sadness that we actually feel if a catastrophe or tragedy happens close to us geographically, this is a common fact. We keep reading about the lack of functional institutions in Haiti, the extreme poverty etcetera. I do not want to be a cynical and bitter critique, but I must ask: WHERE WERE THE MEDIA AND THE WORLD before the earthquake? Have we all been blind? When the Tsunami occurred 2004, the same fantastic thing happened. The western media highlighted the tragedy and every one kept talking about it and contributed with money. As simple as that. When the media stopped writing, people kept on with their lives. When I was in my early 20:ees, I felt immortal. I took so many things and persons for granted. Now I feel mortality coming closer and life is suddenly worth so much more. We do not know what will happen tomorrow. Some of us know that we will be able to eat, to sleep in a comfortable bed, but at the end, we will all leave this world in one way or the other, without being able to choose how. Without being able to say “good-bye” to the people we love. So this is what I suggest, keep helping your fellow human beings. Stop being proud, if you know someone that you love deep inside that you do not talk to for some reason, do not hesitate a minute: JUST PICK UP THE PHONE AND SAY “I LOVE YOU”. If you feel immortal, think again. Life is precious. Make every second last longer and do not waste it on complaining, being greedy etcetera. HELP your surroundings. Do not wait for a catastrophe such as the earth quake in Haiti before you contribute. Yes, we are not immortal. But our ideas and actions can be immortal if we do our best.

Viola Zabèti