Radio Utopistan Elisabeth Weydt

The Los Cedros case is evidence that a more just future is possible. It is a constructive story in times when we almost only get dystopian news about the world we live in. It is a story humans need to not lose hope in democracy and civil engagement. It shows us how powerful and transforming civil society can be. How human rights and nature rights are interconnected and how justice can be implemented.

The cloud forest of Los Cedros in Ecuador was the first case in which a court clearly and irretrievable recognized the Rights of Nature. It ruled in favor of the forest and against an open pit copper mine and against its own government. This was only possible because a strong social movement fought for it.

The Rights of Nature movement and within it the Los Cedros case are the beginning of a revolution. They have the power to change everything. It means to respect nature as a subject, as a being, as a partner and not as an object, a commodity or a servant we can exploit and use as we like. It is a world view. If we live by it it would change how we organize our economy, our food supply, our transportation system, our housing, everything.

In this episode we visit the cloud forest and talk to biologist Elisa Levy-Ortiz who is a research coordinator in the Los Cedros nature reserve and was part of the group that started the legal case and the social movement around Los Cedros.

You'll learn:

What is the magic behind the Rights of Nature concept, why is it relevant?
How could Rights of Nature dissolve the systems colonialism and patriarchy brought us
What made the social movement around the Los Cedros case so successful
What does it need to implement justice and win a landmark court case
What is the connection between Rights of Nature and Human Rights
What is the connection between nature and justice


More information and connection:


Website of Los Cedros
https://reservaloscedros.org/

OMASNE, Alianza de Organizaciones por los Derechos Humanos y de la Naturaleza del Ecuador
https://www.instagram.com/omasne_ecuador/

CEDEMNA
https://www.instagram.com/cedenma.ec/

GARN, Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature
https://www.instagram.com/garnglobal/

It is now almost six weeks since the horrors in Israel and Palestine started – again, but this time in an unprecedented manner. It has never been so cruel so far. So much has been said about all of it already and it is still happening anyway. People are still getting killed on a daily basis by a huge military apparatus that is supported by the big Western countries of this world. Words don`t seem relevant or powerful enough in the face of this.
The increasingly loud and aggressive discussions about Israel and Palestine seem to create more and more division instead of an understanding and an end to the killing. We took some time to reflect how we could add something constructive to the horrors unfolding. Because especially in those dark and violent times Utopias are needed more than ever.

So in this episode we don`t give you a lecture about “the conflict”. We`ll tell you how we tried to create an Utopian moment in the midst of all the darkness, violence and despair happening. A tiny moment of freedom and justice from Germany for Gaza and for people in Germany that do not feel heard in their pain and disagreement towards what is happening. We`ll talk about:

How we organized a protest with watermelons and for freedom rights for all people
The very special German relation to Israel and Palestine
The difference between antisemitism and criticizing the government of Israel
The importance of freedom rights, especially the right of free speech
The relation between journalism and activism
A Haward study on the success of non-violent protest
A young man from Gaza who is sending messages of comfort to the protesters in Hamburg

More information about context and history of Israel/Palestine:

BOOKS:
The blue between sky and water by Susan Abulhawa
The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities by Simha Flapan
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 by Rashid Khalidi
Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom by Norman Finkelstein
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé

FILMS:
The Promise
Omar
5 Broken Cameras
The heart of Jenin

PODCASTS:
in German: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjYxIkjGvQE
in English: recommendations?

PEOPLE/ORGANISATIONS TO FOLLOW
Breaking the silence
B'Tselem
Motaz Azaiza
Noura Erakat
Issa Amro

We are back from a long brake - with even more passion and new tools to interconnect visionary people and bold ideas from around the world. Our mission still is to inspire a more just future through storytelling. Through constructive storytelling. And today Elisabeth will share some insights about the power of constructive storytelling.

You will learn the very basics of:
* what is constructive storytelling and solution journalism
* why humans are always paying attention to the horror stories and how that is affecting our mental health
* three principles + one tiny tool on how to brake the negativity cycle
* the areas where constructive storytelling is working: in your head, your home, society and business
* how constructive stories are used in media
* how Elisabeth came to constructive storytelling and what is her Utopia

You can dive deeper in all of this and more in our masterclasses. We work with you on the role you can play in all of this. How you can apply this power to your personal life, to your community, your movement or your social business. Online or in person. Information on our website: www.radioutopistan.de

Links:
Solution Journalism Network, USA: https://www.solutionsjournalism.org/
Constructive Institute, Denmark: https://constructiveinstitute.org/
Bonn Institute, Germany: https://www.bonn-institute.org/

When she had just become a journalist Ronja went to Afghanistan for almost two years.

There she did reports about the war, about drug addiction, poverty and other really devastating things. Sometimes all the misery left her hopeless and without perspective. So she started to look for the constructive aspects within her stories: for people who are trying to find a way out, for projects that are offering solutions.

This is called constructive journalism or solution journalism. She didn`t know it by then because it is a recent but very much needed version of journalism. It doesn`t mean to ignore the problems and crises but rather to focus on possible solutions.

Now, ten years after her first journey to Afghanistan Ronja wrote a book about constructive storytelling. She finished it last summer while the Taliban were taking over Kabul. On the phone in Germany she helped people escape the deadly regime thousand miles away. So, around her the world was falling apart and inside her head she was thinking about good news.

We talk about what stories and news can do to your mind and mood. How we all are storytellers in our everyday life and how we can turn the negative narratives into constructive ones without ignoring reality. She even has a formula for it. It goes like: Shit + X

Her book is called “How we see the world” in German. It's still not available in English yet, but soon it will be published in Polish, Czech and Korean. Maybe in Arabic.

You can find her here:
https://www.vonwurmbseibel.com/
@ronjavws

Carolyn Ekyarisiima wanted to become a doctor to help people. Now she is an IT-Expert training thousands of girls in Tanzania how to use technology to create the world they want to live in.

She founded the organization Apps and Girls. They are teaching girls how to code. And how to use IT and technology to get their voices heard and ideas out into the world. When she founded the NGO in 2014 she was pregnant, today she has four kids and 11 employees. In the last eight years more than 100.000 girls learned about the power of IT with Apps and Girls.

Thez focus on girls and young women from underprivileged backgrounds to reduce the gender gap in IT and empower more change makers in Tanzania and across Africa.

We talk about:
* Her story on how she managed to build Apps and Girls, starting with voluntary teaching sessions in her living room up until now with 11 full time employees and some voluntaries in almost 200 schools in Tanzania and Uganda.
* Best practice example of one of her students: coding against harassment
* How it is still not easy to get funding, but how they do it anyway.
* What Europe could learn from Africa Tecwise.
* How coding is a super power.

Carolyn`s Utopia:
Apps and Girls becoming an Pan-African organization. Offering girls the technology to create different solutions and to have a positive impact on their communities. I see female developed big start-ups creating a better world everywhere because technology is an enabler. You need it in health, in economy in everything.

LINKS
Apps and Girls: https://www.appsandgirls.com/

@ecarolyne
@appsandgirls

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/magazine/women-coding-computer-programming.html

Since almost 30 years the people of Intag are successfully fighting a huge open pit copper mine in the tropical Andean mountains in northern Ecuador. It´s one of the most biodivers places left on earth, there live more species per hectare than in the Amazon.

But underneath it lies copper and some gold, worth millions and billions of dollar. Different transnational mining companies and also the state of Ecuador are trying to get it out. Exploration phase is now almost completed. Next step would be a huge and toxic hole in the rainforest. Meanwhile the hunger for copper is growing with the global shift to renewable energy.

Last hope now: Nature Rights. The people of Intag are suing their own government. Ecuador is the first and so far only country in the world where nature has rights as a legal subject on a constitutional level. That sounds a bit abstract, but is super fascinating. Some say it is as revolutionary as the end of slavery or women´s right to vote.

Carlos Zorrilla has been a leader in the resistance of Intag since the 90. He tells us what methods have helped to drive out two transnational mining companies and put another one on hold. Where his energy and hope come from and what to do with politicians you don´t like.

His Utopia: That people find another definition of wealth and a good life. For Carlos it´s not about money and cars but about harmony, with neighbors and with nature.

What you can do to support his Utopia: Ask yourself what a good life means to you and how much things and money you need for it.

GUEST
@toisan06

ORGANISATIONS working on the case:
www.decoin.org
www.cedenma.org
www.germanwatch.org

CREDITS
Host: @elisabeth_weydt
Executive producers: @_charlotte.horn and @christinafeemoebus
Music: Robert Pilgram http://robertpilgram.com/
Studio Sound: @seike_sound

MORE INFORMATION
recent articles in English:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/23/frog-back-from-the-dead-helps-fight-mine-plans-in-ecuadors-cloud-forest-aoe
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/02/plan-to-mine-in-ecuador-forest-violate-rights-of-nature-court-rules-aoe

Documentaries:
Under Rich Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRinnhejBIw
Javier con I, Intag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC2z5bnrR1Y

Radio Feature
German Public Radio
https://www1.wdr.de/radio/wdr5/sendungen/dok5/ecuador-kupferminen-bergbaufirmen-100.html