In the current context of climate and social protests popping all over the world, we wanted to contribute in the improvement of the social dialogue by sharing the best practices seen in history and around the world to find better solutions together, avoid harming people and any authoritarian drift. 

“The peaceful revolution is difficult but not impossible.” 

Stop the violence and show your integrity to public agents

Violence always will bring more violence. Insulting, hitting, destroying, all these actions lead to further repression, hate and division. Especially in the case of the public service such as the police, the fire-fighters and the ambulance, whose most important duty is to protect the life of others! 

If you are psychologically and physically able, don’t be passive and help to stop or calm down people who are destroying public goods and help to clean and restore the damage done on public structures and common goods. 

It’s one way to respect public infrastructures and common goods, to the police, the ambulance, the fire-fighters and the military. 

Bring assistance to street-medics in their work. They are usually volunteers and doing a great job to save lives in case of an emergency.  

If you witness a case of police brutality or violence* without any apparent reason, try to keep a proof of it by filming the episode with your phone or sharing it in the live stream but don’t put your life in danger.

Don’t forget to also film good acts you can see in the protests (pacific march, people helping each other, support between protesters and public agents) to counter-balance the negative perception around protests and to inspire a more positive model of “fighting for your rights”. 

Raise conciousness and protest peacfully

  Don’t use the protests as an outlet for anger and dissatisfaction. Use them to organise gatherings and bring solutions (in other words clear claims). 

  •  Protests are not the only place to bring awareness. Plan peaceful gatherings in the districts with community members to discuss your vision of the problems and exchange about the solutions that can be brought to benefit them and society. That is a pleasant moment of living together. 
  • Generate strong claims and write them down. You may do that through popular assemblies and participatory democracy.
  • Organize a peaceful and strong movement around well-thought claims. 
  • Create online discussion venues such as “Discord” (free, secure and decentralized online server) to create a written and verbal dialogue between regions and for expatriate citizens, to share claims, ideas and important information. 

                                                  “Just because an action is legal it doesn’t make it moral”

Communicate with violent protestors

1. Talk to them with your heart, not with your mind. 

Examples: If someone present a violent behavior against others 

Heart: If you explain that “you are afraid, that you understand the reasons that he/she is stressed/pissed out/…, that you don’t want anyone to get hurt anymore and that you can have a conversation with them to find better solutions.” It will make them think about what they have in common and they might rethink their actions. 

Mind: If you say “you are a stupid a**hole, stop doing this!”. They might become angrier because you are showing them that you are different from them and may become even more aggressive. 

2. Explain why they are hurting the protest claims and the convergence of the fights with their actions.  

Explain that they are playing the game of the people that they are fight against, by dividing the support to the protests (“dividing for a better ruling”), that violence will only bring more violence, and would become a justification to “their opponent” for making repressions to all the society.  

3. Learn more about nonviolent civil disobedience : like the movements launched in Europe (Extinction Rebellion, ANV COP21, …) and share the information with others. 

Explain how this can impact politics and corporations without harming citizens and common goods (such as public infrastructure), by decreasing their profits and slowing down economy. 

Be kind, have good intentions, exchange your vision with others respectfully, listen to the perspectives of others. 

Be rational : even if you are angry with your government, do not destroy our commons goods or make violent justice yourself, because we will all have to pay the price. 

XVI. AARDHUIS EARTHSHIP – A SELF-BUILD ECOLOGICAL HOUSE

Imagine a house, that respects the environment, self-built and cheap, as well as based on abundant natural materials and upcycling recycled material. Too good to be true? No, and it has a name: Earthship!

Our team has visited some of these incredible houses in the world! Here is the first example visited by Anna and Aymeric in Netherland.

The city of Olst (North East Netherlands) has witnessed the development of 23 earthships in 2011.

Here is the concept of an earthship, applied to the “Aardhuis” of Olst (Earthship in Dutch).

The idea initially came from Michael Reynolds, an American architect. The goal was to build an ecological and self-sufficient house fulfilling these six criteria:

1. Temperature must stay constant thanks to solar and thermal energy (insulation)

2. Solar and wind electricity

3. Independent sewage system

4. Construction with natural and recycled materials

5. Water recovery

6. Food production

One can build one on their own as there is no knowledge needed : construction is accessible to all, just requiring support from others for construction. Workshops and instruction manuals are available through websites for construction provision and knowledge. Building time can vary from 30 days to many years, depending on the assistance and motivation. Aardehuis of Olst have build 23 houses within two years, with the help of more than a thousand volunteers from around the world.

Picture Credit : Le Journal Terre Native & Aardehuis Olst

The Earthship is built with ecological, sustainable, and recycled materials. By using natural local materials such as earth, straw, wood, and stones and giving life to used objects such as bottles, cans, or tires, the construction of the Earthship is extremely beneficial to our planet. At Aardehuis, the construction doesn’t follow the exact Earthship architecture as several houses don’t have the typical “tire-wall” of the Earthship.

These houses are made of straw and earth, but only half of the walls are composed of tires. 

Tires acts as amazing insulation, although hard to recycle. Some walls are also composed of bottled glass, which allow light to pass through.

Picture Credit : Le Journal Terra Native & Aardehuis Olst

An earthship is willing to be as self-sufficient as possible through energy, water use, and waste. The goal is to be as independent as possible from the state services (electricity, water, sewage), where each house at Aardehuis has composting toilets, groundwater pumps, and solar heating.

For the water they pump it straight from the groundwater then, when used, they process it themselves on the spot through a natural filter system (stones, reeds,…) so it can be given back to nature (which leads to the groundwater again). For electricity, they use solar panels.

​Picture Credit : Le Journal Terre Native & Aardehuis Olst

Houses are built in a way that doesn’t waste energy, with great south facing windows, where the sun is strongest year-round. Heat is stocked by the walls during the day time and spread over the night time. Wouter, our guide, has got a revolutionary stove which spread the heat in the water pipes to heat the water, and on stones which will keep the warmth for a long time. When it is very cold, wood is burnt for heat. Heat waste is very low, although occurs through the chimney.

North facing where there is no sun-heat, there are no windows, and no energy lost. Some mirrors are placed around the roof windows to bring in brightness!

​Picture Credit : Le Journal Terre Native & Aardehuis Olst

Houses are built in a way that doesn’t waste energy, with great south facing windows, where the sun is strongest year-round. Heat is stocked by the walls during the day time and spread over the night time. Wouter, our guide, has got a revolutionary stove which spread the heat in the water pipes to heat the water, and on stones which will keep the warmth for a long time. When it is very cold, wood is burnt for heat. Heat waste is very low, although occurs through the chimney.

North facing where there is no sun-heat, there are no windows, and no energy lost. Some mirrors are placed around the roof windows to bring in brightness!

These 23 houses have been built within the same project, through owners themselves and volunteers. These houses had one common architect who worked together with helpers throughout construction.

The inhabitants have built a communal building which can be used by all to give workshops, parties, and to gather. A community spirit rules over this little village where people know each others and help each others.

Ultimately, this way of living offers a soft reconnection to simplify life concerning all natural needs of a human being.

🌄Further information, to deepen the subject :

🌄Sources:

Published by ro.d.economade in Eudaimonpedia, Solution ID