<rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"><channel><title>utopia500</title><description>utopia500</description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/blog</link><item><title>Cidade Mais</title><description><![CDATA[On the 5th of July 2019, the Utopia500 team attended Cidade Mais which was comprised of three days of conferences, talks, workshops, open classes, exhibition, conferences - all reflecting on the main theme of the event, which was imagine.With a perfect location in the centre of Porto, there was a big space for different activities surrounded by an amazing view of the gardens of the Crystal Palace. There were many small businesses that had their own stands representing their products or ideas:<img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/19DobAlYwGA/mqdefault.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Emira Gerguri</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2019/07/31/Cidade-Mais</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2019/07/31/Cidade-Mais</guid><pubDate>Wed, 31 Jul 2019 11:23:53 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>On the 5th of July 2019, the Utopia500 team attended Cidade Mais which was comprised of three days of conferences, talks, workshops, open classes, exhibition, conferences - all reflecting on the main theme of the event, which was imagine.</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/19DobAlYwGA"/><div>With a perfect location in the centre of Porto, there was a big space for different activities surrounded by an amazing view of the gardens of the Crystal Palace. There were many small businesses that had their own stands representing their products or ideas: from vegan food and pastries to certified artisans selling their all-natural products. We interviewed one representative of the food stands with a product called Da Grampas that was managed by a single woman, who makes her own jams and grows the fruits in her own garden. She told us that she has a kitchen that is uniquely used for making the jams and sells them only in the markets and added that Cidade Mais help her a lot with her product promotion. Further on we also interviewed the representatives of a stand that had an initiative to help save the environment and reduce plastic usage. Their business is called Zero Plastic and, just as the name says, it is about making products without plastic.</div><div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_965ec0e9f2074357a5ede8ed19d0ff77~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_9b9dae5ac5044182b4b55922d24cbce9~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_28d14e8b7bea4a9c8706b50a942c9baa~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_cc064d5a091d4256b278894bfa9fcb98~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_40658ea990864a2f879709fe3d16cc28~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_c3fed0658d2c480c97a3ad26ad3d13e0~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_0f60ac72410a403d991f14c68f52d726~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_10f0a94e4e19478095262dec602cb0c1~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_3e879c0ea98a485691a51a059d0299ee~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_c52710e675f44bd2af6ad103b6e37ca5~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_77f0202bd0cb4e55881e63e6d38621fd~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_f4094b8d7e5548d5a8210345622d7c53~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_3370b5d4d6ab4e4c97644eed07b4f8a5~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_88b27aa0c3a04a38be5686a49150b34e~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_68ad956548904cf49879c4740cda69cd~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_d3a42d444cd141c6a57443103c34854f~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_ba9bed95728e4c409d9e0f58e5dce625~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_9a5433c460c6436fad46c9b98651fe20~mv2_d_1350_1802_s_2.jpg"/></div><div>When we asked which their favourite product was they answered: “women’s reusable pads and natural deodorants which are difficult to find in the market.” Another amazing stand was the Bioethic who make compostable products that are an alternative to plastic. They were present at Cidade Mais to bring more awareness to other alternative uses for plastic, like sugar cane or corn. Most of them can even be domestically composted (except corn). They also informed visitors about a project that the council of Porto is promoting in terms of organic waste bins, where they collect them in people’s homes and then Lipor - the company who treats the waste – treats the organic waste and turns it into compost. Another amazing stand present at the festival was Crew - Centros de Recuperação de Resíduos de Equipamentos Elétricos e Eletrónicos (also an initiative by Lipor) who had a repair café and were there to raise awareness and sensitize the community to the growing production of electrical and electronic equipment waste. They had volunteers who demonstrated how things can and should (when possible) be repaired, be it small appliances, computers and electronic consumables or bicycles. The volunteers said the objective behind this idea is to promote the Circular Economy by not instantaneously disabling these appliances. They showed visitors of the fair that with small repair capacities you can increase the life cycle of products, without the need of constantly extracting raw material from nature.</div><div>For more info on Cidade Mais click <a href="https://cidademais.pt/">here</a>.</div><div>For more info on CREW click <a href="https://www.lipor.pt/pt/sustentabilidade-e-responsabilidade-social/projetos-de-sustentabilidade/crew/">here</a>.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Burrneshat &amp; 101 Intro to Women rights in Kosovo</title><description><![CDATA[On Friday July 12th 2019 Utopia 500’s trainee Emira Gerguri held a session in Confraria Vermelha Livraria de Mulheres about an extraordinary practice in Albania – the Burrneshat – and about Women’s rights in Kosovo. Introduced by Marinela Freitas and Marta Correia from the University of Porto, Emira began the event by showing the audience a video that explained the concept of Sworn Virgins of Albania (or burrneshat in Albanian).A Sworn Virgin is a woman who, as per Northern Albanian highland<img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/4G47jIVoXWM/mqdefault.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Emira Gerguri</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2019/07/24/Burrneshat-101-Intro-to-Women-rights-in-Kosovo</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2019/07/24/Burrneshat-101-Intro-to-Women-rights-in-Kosovo</guid><pubDate>Wed, 24 Jul 2019 10:16:27 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>On Friday July 12th 2019 Utopia 500’s trainee Emira Gerguri held a session in Confraria Vermelha Livraria de Mulheres about an extraordinary practice in Albania – the Burrneshat – and about Women’s rights in Kosovo. Introduced by Marinela Freitas and Marta Correia from the University of Porto, Emira began the event by showing the audience a video that explained the concept of Sworn Virgins of Albania (or burrneshat in Albanian).</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4G47jIVoXWM"/><div>A Sworn Virgin is a woman who, as per Northern Albanian highland tradition, can change her gender roles by taking a vow of celibacy, wearing male clothing and sometimes even adopting a man’s name. Burrneshat are allowed to smoke, to drink or even to carry a gun. In Albanian, the word Burr means “man” and when we add –esha to the end of a word, it becomes female. After the video Emira started to explain this practice and its history more in depth.</div><div>The audience was told that this practice originated from the Kanun which was Albania’s code of conduct. For a country as Albania which historically was always occupied by neighbouring forces, the Kanun was the only sense of order that could be given to their community. </div><div>Another Kosovar was also present in the audience, Lindon Krasniqi, who spoke about his grandmother’s experience – who, in a sense, followed this practice of burrnesha by pretending to be a male so she could be able to join the army.</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4WIPwwOE4jE"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_4ace754939ae4f4894aeaeb14ad2bc50~mv2_d_1240_1754_s_2.jpg"/><div>Afterwards Emira talked about her experience in Kosovo where she sometimes has to wear baggy clothes in public in order not to draw attention by catcallers (and again, one might say, another form of burrnesha). Emira continues speaking about patriarchal societies and on how Kosovo is male dominated and how there is on-going gender discrimination.</div><div>She explains that before coming to Portugal her grandmother called her a burrnesha for going to live in a foreign country because in Kosovo strong women are worthy enough to be called a burrnesha, meaning they exhibit all the qualities that make a man, a man. Emira also talked about many personal cases where she saw how women in Kosovo are struggling to have property rights. Again, since the Kanun stated that only the sons could have inheritance (the initial cause of burrneshat), this later on turned out to be part of a custom. Even though the Kanun doesn't have a relevant role in law anymore it remains a problem for it is still followed in some parts of Kosovo as a custom. As the custom of Kanun is still present in the minds of Kosovars, it strengthens the power monopoly of men.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_affebec986d04c9899102266783feff3~mv2.jpg"/><div>Emira showed statistical data by provided UN Women in 2018 that “a large majority of Kosovars (74%) blame women for ‘provoking’ the sexual harassment they experience. Additionally, 40.5% of Kosovars believe that women like to be harassed, and 31.1% believe people naturally harass others when they are attracted to them and that’s OK.” Emira continues explaining how these data are accurate and how it is extremely hard to report harassment or abuse. These attitudes are also condescending to men, as they imply that men cannot control their own behaviour. However, despite this scenario, there are a lot of women fighting for gender-equality in Kosovo. There are a lot of fields that are still male-dominated, but Emira showed images of Kosovar women that are moving boundaries and breaking existing barriers by showing the Kosovar society that women belong everywhere. For women in Kosovo, feminism is not a choice - it’s a necessity. The big wave of feminism in Kosovo began with the first female President Atifete Jahajaga being elected in 2011 (and staying in office until 2016) and continued with the presence of female singers with worldwide fame like Era Istrefi, Rita Ora and Dua Lipa and golden Olympics winner athlete Majlinda Kelmendi. All of these examples show that women are putting Kosovo on the map and prove to Kosovar women and girls that they can be anything they want and that the patriarchal barriers will eventually fall.</div><div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_8f676367043c4067a988cf985d2acaa6~mv2_d_5472_3648_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_b6ad2f0cf1a9428cb3644ef77011ca79~mv2_d_5472_3648_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_0033876ed3ec46bda6c4c34707c79927~mv2_d_5472_3648_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_3d0c22471c8e401581dabbb524639fb6~mv2_d_5472_3648_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_da146d131df74959838992aa936e14d4~mv2_d_3648_5472_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_e197393d5a274dceb4c6c5cb0875b769~mv2_d_5472_3648_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_85f359fdbd7647df9bce4daa585c73c0~mv2_d_3648_5472_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_ba41711ce58c42629f524ca34cc9b916~mv2_d_5472_3648_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_68b1b7c89a0b44b891bfd999a5c4a5fa~mv2_d_3648_5472_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_d0180266a41d41349b027f4b8a365300~mv2_d_5472_3648_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_25c3626ae5714803a6650ce2f4d423e1~mv2_d_5472_3648_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_11b02ce263894d369b770d62f3727608~mv2_d_5472_3648_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_23b6c6af971749399fde72df4838feac~mv2_d_3648_5472_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_87d0e02c47c74a10b43f81bd51f84dd9~mv2_d_5472_3648_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_07c2e40d075c495ea33e5f613fc517eb~mv2_d_3648_5472_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_8f65c2d5d47d43edb8d423d22419fea3~mv2_d_3648_5472_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_6e37002c6fa44b4d887ac09199ed6c15~mv2_d_5472_3648_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_b210a7abbcec406cae158205a2a0e1d6~mv2_d_5472_3648_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_8b0a40575b244eceaf8901e99ddd17f7~mv2_d_3648_5472_s_4_2.jpg"/></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Porto Innovation Hub</title><description><![CDATA[On the 13th of June 2019 we attended a talk in the PortoInnovation Hub on Circular Economics of Obsolete Small Electronics (OSEs) in Porto. After short opening remarks by the Vice Major, researchers from the University of Wageningen presented the preliminary results of a research project they launched in cooperation with the Intermunicipal Waste Management of Greater Porto (LIPOR).OSEs are small electronic devices like computers or mobile phones that lost their original operational purpose. In<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_a2ad240d9b0248d4a21b6f502bdecc29%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_627%2Ch_314/947986_a2ad240d9b0248d4a21b6f502bdecc29%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Miguel Ohnesorge</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2019/07/08/Porto-Innovation-Hub</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2019/07/08/Porto-Innovation-Hub</guid><pubDate>Mon, 08 Jul 2019 10:24:54 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_a2ad240d9b0248d4a21b6f502bdecc29~mv2.jpg"/><div>On the 13th of June 2019 we attended a talk in the PortoInnovation Hub on Circular Economics of Obsolete Small Electronics (OSEs) in Porto. After short opening remarks by the Vice Major, researchers from the University of Wageningen presented the preliminary results of a research project they launched in cooperation with the Intermunicipal Waste Management of Greater Porto (LIPOR).</div><div>OSEs are small electronic devices like computers or mobile phones that lost their original operational purpose. In various surveys in households and electronic businesses, as well as various field observations the members of the research groups analyzed (a) the way households deal with such devices and which infrastructures enables their (b) collection as well as (c) post-collection usage.</div><div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_5b54f27cd4a24ad28c996c1b8c5986d3~mv2_d_4928_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_47e3f2ce10a34b76817bb396fe03f983~mv2_d_4928_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_6fdb5f52cbfb45b5a217805ddf06088d~mv2_d_4928_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/></div><div>To analyze (a), the group made use of a social practice theory, taking into account how household practices are shaped by individual dispositions and intentions, as well as broader social structures. They identified knowledge gaps about the value and available infrastructure of bringing OSEs to official or informal collection points.</div><div>The various collection points (b), from municipal collection bins to informal distribution on flea markets, currently have no specific platform for OSEs, which often leads to them being mixed with various electronics that cannot be integrated in upcycling processes. This ultimately leads to many OSEs being unavailable for post-collection use.</div><div>They identified three post-collection strategies (c): reusing, repairing, and recycling. Here, they highlighted that a better a cooperation between local inhabitants, municipal entities, and companies that could effectively improve the circularity of OSE.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_8b71527d5a2e4a7eb891dbe8c729139d~mv2_d_4928_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>Subsequently, they elaborated on the communication necessary for functioning OSE circularity. The current communication between the different organizational levels (home – municipality – Portugal – EU) and private entities engaged in establishing circular economies needs to be improved and extended beyond the typical focus group of young educated people. </div><div>They ended by proposing four interventions to improve the circular use of OSEs: Setting up new motivational factors, extending collection options, establishing an effective cooperation between Lipor and local stores, and, finally, making the (post-)collection processes more transparent. </div><div>After the talk, the audience was divided into several groups, in which we could bring up our personal perspectives on the issues discussed before.</div><div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_e409aa29625a41dea033b322285d2481~mv2_d_4928_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_7ce48bdecc114fc89d916e57f4b71c1a~mv2_d_4928_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_645e3656c9a44963a90875651a463983~mv2_d_4928_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>i3s Ecological Minds</title><description><![CDATA[The international conference “Thinking and building the social and ecological transition – can we teach Utopia?” was held on 6th of June 2018, in i3S (Institute for Innovation and Investigation in Health) of the University of Porto (UPorto).A multidisciplinary team of researchers presented various perspectives towards the study of and education in utopia. The goal of the event was to invite the university community to reflect on how different disciplines can work together to prepare students to<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_ca2f4e8ef188428ea0ce4fd0f989a727%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_232%2Ch_326/947986_ca2f4e8ef188428ea0ce4fd0f989a727%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Polina Kireva</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/25/i3s-Ecological-Minds</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/25/i3s-Ecological-Minds</guid><pubDate>Wed, 25 Jul 2018 17:59:54 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_ca2f4e8ef188428ea0ce4fd0f989a727~mv2.jpg"/><div>The international conference “Thinking and building the social and ecological transition – can we teach Utopia?” was held on 6th of June 2018, in i3S (Institute for Innovation and Investigation in Health) of the University of Porto (UPorto).</div><div>A multidisciplinary team of researchers presented various perspectives towards the study of and education in utopia. The goal of the event was to invite the university community to reflect on how different disciplines can work together to prepare students to become agents for a different society –</div><div>one that enables the change of existing social and mental models towards sustainability.</div><div>The conference was opened up with the presentation of the book “Cultures of Sustainability and Wellbeing” by Professor Fátima Vieira.</div><div>There were two panel roundtable sessions, followed by discussions with the auditorium. In the first roundtable participated: Anna Olsson (from i3s, UPorto), Fátima Vieira (CETAPS, UPorto), Orfeu Bertolami (Faculty of Sciences, UPorto), Júlio Borlido Santos (i3s, UPorto) as well as Paola Spinozzi and Richard Chapman (from Routes towards Sustainability network, University of Ferrara, Italy). </div><div>The second roundtable included Isabel Menezes (CIIE, UPorto), Paulo Magalhães (CIJE, UPorto), Paulo Mota &amp; Paulo Farinha Marques (CIBIO, UPorto), Giangi Franz &amp; Massimiliano Mazzanti (Routes towards Sustainability network, University of Ferrara, Italy).</div><div>Both roundtables were followed by very interesting and active Q&amp;A sessions with the participation of students, researchers and other academia, present at the conference.</div><div>The conference concluded that it requires efforts on behalf of all fields and levels of academic communication and cooperation: inter-, multi- and transdisciplinary to build up ecological minds – bringers of positive and more sustainable societal change. </div><div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_feb359583f0245189169fab24c36184a~mv2_d_2909_1964_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_7eefdc73117144e7a5797a88b893ffcf~mv2_d_5184_3456_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_a18739e0afb3447a9c3b761242394bc0~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_8991668fcdaf4a2d9e66b613ee9ef844~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_72821bd19d524d1da28634b0f3ea0569~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_b687e6827bf94a04968a8d3dc9703f4a~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_c281ab7adeca423284eb6922137e82fe~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_840bd35391e04ab4bbf8dd58b9e6d63b~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_b0365df7b30b467ab7b1e868033745ea~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_6f857a0851e245ca9f0db909083408a7~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_0e8a37d4831d4961abe6ef5d3f9e319c~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_9526aa4bea134503bd06dac40f6c0c21~mv2_d_2912_5184_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_c898970149254054b3937c5a69cac5f8~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_f54c9979f1644812852b54ac9047bfdb~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_b22a0a87a7834829807bf88205ddf752~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_511999eccc704148867e00aa9ea52442~mv2_d_5184_3456_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_07248d649adb4b69b132ac0f4d85ac13~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_666e5b864a114f5fbec4afb063827474~mv2_d_5184_3456_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_0e81a04579634827a8dd1309ad37fc10~mv2_d_5184_2912_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_641f27ebc3bc4d8592a9af9bd31710c5~mv2_d_5184_3456_s_4_2.jpg"/></div><div>Bionotes of the researchers, present in the roundtables:</div><div>Fátima Vieira is a researcher in literature and culture with a special interest in Utopian Studies and Food Studies. Over the past two decades, she has made a considerable investment in outreach projects, as she considers the so-called “third mission” of the university to be crucial for the development of our society. She is very much interested in finding new ways of training young researchers to prepare for and contribute to the social and ecological transition that we all need to happen.</div><div>Anna Olsson is a researcher in animal welfare and (animal) research ethics. With her background in farm animal production, environmental and social sustainability are important for her outlook on research in a changing world. She finds that the ethical challenges brought about by biotechnology development increasingly highlight bigger social issues which few of us know where or how to address in a constructive way.</div><div>Paola Spinozzi has developed comparative and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of literature in relation to utopia as a genre, the visual arts, and science. For many years she has pursued the idea that humanistic and scientific thought form an integrated system of knowledge and representation. She co-coordinates the Routes towards Sustainability network, focusing on the humanities and identifying forms of sustainable wellbeing that can be achieved through the development of diverse biocultures. Starting from the assumption that habitats are physical as well as ontological, ethical, and psychological, she believes that environmental awareness and agency can be strengthened by directing higher education towards the formation of new ecological minds.</div><div>Giangi Franz is an architect and planner with an extensive experience in policies and practices for sustainability and local development, strategic spatial and social planning, urban economy, and urban creativity. For more than two decades he has worked with municipalities, regional governments, and local communities, and in 2012 he founded Routes towards Sustainability, an international university network promoting multi- and trans-disciplinary approaches to the development of places, cities, and communities. He has coordinated workshops and designed experimental postgraduate programmes involving European, Latin-American and Japanese universities, among which the MA in Ecopolis, which he directed from 2001 to 2013.</div><div>Massimiliano Mazzanti specializes in environmental and ecological economics, with special attention to eco-innovation dynamics, eco-innovation effects on socio-economic performances, environment &amp; development, waste management and policies, economic valuation of non-market goods. He explores microeconomic and macroeconomic perspectives, bringing together theory and economic policy investigations within and outside economics and political economy. A special goal of his has been the use of economic tools for policy relevant analyses and attempt to create synergies between fields and disciplines. Over the last 5 years he has set up SEEDS, a University Research Centre, and directed IAERE - Italian Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.</div><div>A background in history gives a cultural and anthropological flavour to Richard Chapman’s linguistic research, while extensive experience in teacher training results in a pragmatic bent in his approach to language. After initial research in language teaching and testing, and publishing various coursebooks in the field, he has developed an interest in the roles of the English language in a global context, exploring the potentialities of English as a lingua franca and using corpus-based research tools to observe the pragmatics and use of English in current political contexts.</div><div>Paulo Mota is a researcher in animal behaviour, with main interests in the evolution of communication systems and the value of what is communicated within each animal social system. The ecological and evolutionary continuity of cognitive processes between humans and other animals, revealed by animal behavioural biologists, has changed the way we interact with them and raised a number of ethical issues. He is also very much involved in public engagement with science activities both in museums and through citizen science projects.</div><div>Orfeu Bertolami is a theoretical physicist and his research ranges from problems of cosmology, classical and quantum gravity, quantum physics and fundamental physics in space. He has been teaching physics for over 40 years and at university level for the last 30 years. He has been involved in outreach activities involving physics, science and history of science since the start of his professional activity. He has always been a concerned citizen on the long term sustainability of the human civilisation and culture.</div><div>Isabel Menezes works in the Department of Educational Sciences. Her research deals with citizenship education and the civic and political participation of children, young people and adults to explore how the &quot;political&quot; has a potential for the agency and empowerment of groups in risk of exclusion. Some recent projects explore the role of participatory research, particularly with children and adolescents, as a means to develop comprehensive and transformative knowledge about a diversity of social and ecological problems. Parallel trends of interest are the social responsibility of universities and doctoral education.</div><div>Paulo Magalhães is a researcher on the interactions between human societies and the Earth System as a whole. His primary interest is to contribute to and support new legal solutions that allow representing the global and indivisible Earth System function with the fragmented and divided human societal organisation. To this effect, he proposes to scale-up the legal model of condominiums to the global level. </div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wplWKZo6p-w"/></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Stephanie Kwolek</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 31 July 1923 Died: 18 June 2014Nationality: AmericanStephanie Louise Kwolek was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an organic chemist, best known for inventing Kevlar in 1965. Kevlar is an immensely strong plastic, which was first used as a replacement for steel reinforcing strips in racing car tires and has gone on to be used in a large number of applications where high strength is required without high weight, including armor, gloves, tires, yacht sails, shoes, ropes and<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_1042a7aab01d4e2cb40522e6391f4d87%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_192/947986_1042a7aab01d4e2cb40522e6391f4d87%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/19/Stephanie-Kwolek</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/19/Stephanie-Kwolek</guid><pubDate>Thu, 19 Jul 2018 13:48:24 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_1042a7aab01d4e2cb40522e6391f4d87~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 31 July 1923 </div><div>Died: 18 June 2014</div><div>Nationality: American</div><div>Stephanie Louise Kwolek was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an organic chemist, best known for inventing Kevlar in 1965. Kevlar is an immensely strong plastic, which was first used as a replacement for steel reinforcing strips in racing car tires and has gone on to be used in a large number of applications where high strength is required without high weight, including armor, gloves, tires, yacht sails, shoes, ropes and tennis racket strings.</div><div>Aged 23, Kwolek graduated with a degree in chemistry from Margaret Morrison Carnegie College of Carnegie Mellon University. She was quickly recruited to work as a chemist at Dupont Chemicals in Buffalo, NY. After nine years of research work, Kwolek made her major breakthrough, discovering Kevlar. Her pathway to discovery began a year earlier, when she began looking for a new, lightweight plastic to be used in car tires. The idea was that lighter tires would allow vehicles to enjoy better fuel economy.</div><div>Not only did Kevlar find use in tires, its combination of lightness and strength has seen it used in a large variety of protective clothing applications, such as bulletproof vests, which have saved the lives of countless police officers and other people.</div><div>Stephanie Kwolek died on June 18, 2014. She was awarded the National Medal of Technology; the Perkin Medal, which is seen as the highest award in American industrial chemistry; the Chemical Pioneer Award of the American Institute of Chemists; and the Howard N. Potts Medal for Engineering. In 1994, she was admitted to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Ibn Sīnā/Avicenna</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 980 CEDied: June 1037Nationality: Turkish/ Persian Ibn-Sina was born in Bukhara, Samanid Empire, in present-day Uzbekistan. He was one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. Besides Philosophy and Medicine, Ibn-Sina’s corpus includes writings on Astronomy, Alchemy, Geography, Geology, Psychology, Islamic Theology, Logic, Mathematics, Physics and Poetry.His most famous work is 14-volume The Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun fit-Tibb) was a standard medical text in<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_ee0e1c89fad64ac0813ef3c6de194a71%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_241/947986_ee0e1c89fad64ac0813ef3c6de194a71%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/19/Ibn-S%C4%ABn%C4%81Avicenna</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/19/Ibn-S%C4%ABn%C4%81Avicenna</guid><pubDate>Thu, 19 Jul 2018 13:28:36 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_ee0e1c89fad64ac0813ef3c6de194a71~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 980 CE</div><div>Died: June 1037</div><div>Nationality: Turkish/ Persian</div><div>Ibn-Sina was born in Bukhara, Samanid Empire, in present-day Uzbekistan. He was one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. Besides Philosophy and Medicine, Ibn-Sina’s corpus includes writings on Astronomy, Alchemy, Geography, Geology, Psychology, Islamic Theology, Logic, Mathematics, Physics and Poetry.</div><div>His most famous work is 14-volume The Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun fit-Tibb) was a standard medical text in Europe and the Islamic world until the 17th century. The Canon is divided into five books of which the first and second discuss physiology, pathology and hygiene, the third and fourth deal with the methods of treating disease and the fifth describes the composition and preparation of remedies. The book is known for its description of contagious diseases and sexually transmitted diseases, plus quarantine to limit the spread of infectious diseases.</div><div>Avicenna had memorised the entire Quran by the age of 10. He learned Indian arithmetic from an Indian greengrocer and began to learn more from a wandering scholar who earned a living by curing the sick and teaching the young.</div><div>He achieved full status as a qualified physician at age 18. Most of his works were written in Arabic, however, some of them were written in Persian. One of his most famous books is the Book of Healing which became available in Europe in a partial Latin translation some fifty years after its composition, under the title Sufficientia.</div><div>Avicenna was a devout Muslim and sought to reconcile rational philosophy with Islamic theology. His aim was to prove the existence of God and his creation of the world through science, reason and logic. Avicenna's views on Islamic Theology and Philosophy were enormously influential, forming part of the core curriculum at Islamic schools until the 19th century.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Tri Mumpuni</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 6 August 1964Nationality: IndonesianIn spite of the fact that Indonesia is rich in natural resources, many of the country’s rural villages do not have electricity. Tri Mumpuni, born in 1964, has dedicated her life to improving the living conditions of more than 60 rural communities. Utilising the country’s abundant water resources, Mumpuni collaborates with rural communities to provide training in the construction and maintenance of micro-hydroelectricity plants for electricity<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_a567d3a37e654b8fb2737bb6529e60af%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_300%2Ch_208/947986_a567d3a37e654b8fb2737bb6529e60af%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/19/Tri-Mumpuni</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/19/Tri-Mumpuni</guid><pubDate>Thu, 19 Jul 2018 13:13:33 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_a567d3a37e654b8fb2737bb6529e60af~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 6 August 1964</div><div>Nationality: Indonesian</div><div>In spite of the fact that Indonesia is rich in natural resources, many of the country’s rural villages do not have electricity. Tri Mumpuni, born in 1964, has dedicated her life to improving the living conditions of more than 60 rural communities. Utilising the country’s abundant water resources, Mumpuni collaborates with rural communities to provide training in the construction and maintenance of micro-hydroelectricity plants for electricity generation.</div><div>The project strives to develop electricity systems as a community based initiative through which every individual can participate and benefit. Mumpuni has developed a system which enables communities to maintain control over the funding, administration and operation of the generators, as well as the revenue generated.</div><div>Mumpuni also works to establish connections between villages and the state-owned electricity company. This is vital for both the sustainability and the profitability of the project as it facilitates the selling on of excess power that is created by the hydro-plants.</div><div>The construction of rural micro-hydropower plants in Indonesia has received backing from The United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and Mumpuni has also received various awards and recognition, namely from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Ramon Magsaysay Award.</div><div>Tri Mumpuni is a Great Utopian for her tireless work in providing electricity to many isolated communities and for her success in developing a profitable model of development which puts people and community at the heart of its concerns.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Henry David Thoreau</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 12 July 1817Died: 6 May 1862Nationality: AmericanHenry David Thoreau was born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts. He was an American journalist, poet, philosopher and historian.He became known for his beliefs in transcendentalism, a school of thought that emphasised the importance of empirical thinking and of spiritual matters over the physical world. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_b8c55b82ee2d404f9d05b3789ab17717%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_220%2Ch_272/947986_b8c55b82ee2d404f9d05b3789ab17717%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/19/Henry-David-Thoreau</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/19/Henry-David-Thoreau</guid><pubDate>Thu, 19 Jul 2018 12:49:21 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_b8c55b82ee2d404f9d05b3789ab17717~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 12 July 1817</div><div>Died: 6 May 1862</div><div>Nationality: American</div><div>Henry David Thoreau was born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts. He was an American journalist, poet, philosopher and historian.</div><div>He became known for his beliefs in transcendentalism, a school of thought that emphasised the importance of empirical thinking and of spiritual matters over the physical world. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism.</div><div>Thoreau was also a dedicated abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law.</div><div>In 1845, Thoreau built a small home for himself on Walden Pond where he spent more than two years seeking a simpler type of life. He experimented with working as little as possible rather than engage in the pattern of six days on with one day off. His schedule gave him plenty of time to devote to his philosophical and literary interests. He felt that this new approach helped him avoid the misery he saw around him. In his best known book Walden he reflected upon simple living in natural surroundings.</div><div>One of his greatest contributions was the essay Resistance to Civil Government, an argument for disobedience to an unjust state, a call for improving rather than abolishing government. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Cai Lun</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 50 ADDied: 121 ADNationality: ChinaCai Lun was a Han dynasty Chinese eunuch and official. The pulp paper making process is said to have been developed by him in China during the early 2nd century AD, possibly as early as the year 105 AD. Although early forms of paper had existed in China since the 2nd century BC, he was responsible for the first significant improvement and standardization of paper-making by adding essential new materials into its composition.The creator of this extremely<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_6fd59c5ccdc64366bdf8ca04f05fb504%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_220%2Ch_275/947986_6fd59c5ccdc64366bdf8ca04f05fb504%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/06/Cai-Lun</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/06/Cai-Lun</guid><pubDate>Fri, 06 Jul 2018 11:38:46 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>Born: 50 AD</div><div>Died: 121 AD</div><div>Nationality: China</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_6fd59c5ccdc64366bdf8ca04f05fb504~mv2.jpg"/><div>Cai Lun was a Han dynasty Chinese eunuch and official. The pulp paper making process is said to have been developed by him in China during the early 2nd century AD, possibly as early as the year 105 AD. Although early forms of paper had existed in China since the 2nd century BC, he was responsible for the first significant improvement and standardization of paper-making by adding essential new materials into its composition.</div><div>The creator of this extremely important invention is only somewhat known outside East Asia. After Cai invented the paper making process in 105 AD, it became widely used as a writing medium in China by the 3rd century. It enabled China to develop its civilization (through widespread literature and literacy) much faster than it had with earlier writing materials (primarily bamboo and silk, of which the latter was a more expensive medium).</div><div>By the 7th century, China's paper-making technique had spread to Korea, Vietnam and Japan. In 751 AD, some Chinese paper makers were captured by Arabs after Tang troops were defeated in the Battle of Talas River. The techniques of paper making were then spread to the West. When paper was first introduced to Europe in the 12th century, it gradually revolutionized the manner in which written communication could be spread from region to region. Along with contact between Arabs and Europeans during the Crusades (with the essential recovery of ancient Greek written classics), the widespread use of paper aided the foundation of the Scholastic Age in Europe.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 25 June 1936Nationality: IndonesiaBacharuddin Jusuf Habibie is one of the most renowned Indonesia engineer. Born in southern part of Sulawesi, he takes decisive role in government by being the minister of research and technology for twenty years. In March 1998, he was appointed the position of vice president, a position he held for three months before succeeding Soeharto as the president of the country.Habibie spent much of his education in Germany, studying on aviation and aerospace<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_6836409050c74887b14655eb90d1377f%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_254/947986_6836409050c74887b14655eb90d1377f%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/06/Bacharuddin-Jusuf-Habibie</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/06/Bacharuddin-Jusuf-Habibie</guid><pubDate>Fri, 06 Jul 2018 11:17:08 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_6836409050c74887b14655eb90d1377f~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 25 June 1936</div><div>Nationality: Indonesia</div><div>Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie is one of the most renowned Indonesia engineer. Born in southern part of Sulawesi, he takes decisive role in government by being the minister of research and technology for twenty years. In March 1998, he was appointed the position of vice president, a position he held for three months before succeeding Soeharto as the president of the country.</div><div>Habibie spent much of his education in Germany, studying on aviation and aerospace engineering. He finished his doctoral degree in 1965 with a thesis that studies light construction for supersonic or hypersonic states. Habibie also developed theories on thermodynamics, construction, and aerodynamics known as the Habibie Factor, Habibie Theorem, and Habibie Method, respectively.</div><div>As part of Indonesia’s drive to industrialize and develop the country. Habibie was appointed as the CEO of new state-owned company aiming in developing Indonesia’s aviation industry. By 1991, Habibie oversaw ten state-owned industries including ship- and train-building, steel, arms, communications, and energy. Under Habibie's leadership, it became a manufacturer of aircraft including Puma helicopters and CASA planes. It pioneered a small passenger airplane, the N-250 Gatokaca, in 1995</div><div>Although he only held the Presidency for one and a half year, he made several reform efforts that is vital for early development of democracy in Indonesia. Under Habibie, Indonesia made significant changes to its political system that expanded competition and freedom of speech. Shortly after taking office, in June 1998, Habibie's government lifted the Suharto-era restriction on political parties and ended censorship by dissolving the Information Ministry. He also enacted some election laws that reduced the number of seats in parliament held by the military, and barred political activity by civil servants</div><div>Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie is one of the Great Utopians for his influential works on the aviation industry as well as his efforts in bringing a more democratic system in Indonesia.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Albert Einstein</title><description><![CDATA[Born: March 14th, 1879Died: April 18th, 1955Nationality: GermanAlbert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany. A short time later, the Einstein family went to Munich where Albert first attended elementary school and subsequently Luitpold grammar school. He was an "average" pupil but already very early interested in science and mathematics. When he turned 15 he left school without any degree and followed his family to Milan. To make up for the missed degree he attended school in Aarau (Switzerland)<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_9871399e894b4323bbddfa4b20b69fcd%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_350%2Ch_447/947986_9871399e894b4323bbddfa4b20b69fcd%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/06/Albert-Einstein</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/06/Albert-Einstein</guid><pubDate>Fri, 06 Jul 2018 10:55:50 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_9871399e894b4323bbddfa4b20b69fcd~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: March 14th, 1879</div><div>Died: April 18th, 1955</div><div>Nationality: German</div><div>Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany. A short time later, the Einstein family went to Munich where Albert first attended elementary school and subsequently Luitpold grammar school. He was an &quot;average&quot; pupil but already very early interested in science and mathematics. When he turned 15 he left school without any degree and followed his family to Milan. To make up for the missed degree he attended school in Aarau (Switzerland) from 1895 to 1896 when he successfully took his A-levels and began to study in Zurich. His ambition was to obtain the diploma of a subject teacher for mathematics and physics.</div><div>He moved to Bern and was given work at the Patent Office. In his leisure time he worked in the area of theoretical physics. In 1905 he published several of his important scientific works. One of them deals with the ground-breaking special theory of relativity. Another work contains the most famous formula of the world &quot;E = m · c2&quot;. This formula states that matter can be converted into energy.</div><div>In 1909 he became professor for theoretical physics at the University of Zurich. After that time he was given a professorship in Prague and then again in Zurich. In 1914 Einstein was called to Berlin to work there scientifically. In the same year World War I broke out.</div><div>From 1909 to 1916, Einstein worked on a generalisation of the special theory of relativity, the general theory of relativity. After this theory was proven right in an experiment in 1919 (deflection of light by the sun’s gravitational field) Einstein became famous over night. In 1921 he received the Nobel Prize for Physics.</div><div>From 1933 Einstein and his family lived in Princeton, USA. At the &quot;Institute for Advanced Study&quot; he found ideal working conditions. In 1939 World War II broke out. Because of his fear that Germany was working on atomic bombs he wrote a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the president of the United States of America, to tell him about the possibility of atomic weapons. In 1946 he proposed a world government in which he saw the only way to achieve continuous peace.</div><div>Until his last breath he worked on a new theory, the unified field theory, which was not successful. He died on April 18, 1955. He was 76 years old.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Agnes Arber</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 23 February 1879 Died: 22 March 1960Nationality: BritishAgnes Robertson Arber was a British plant anatomist and morphologist, a biology philosopher, and a botany historian. Though born in London, the 51 years of her life was spent in Cambridge. Anger Arber was recognized to be the first woman botanist and the third overall to have been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 67. Because of her contributions to botanical science, Arber received the Gold Medal of the Linnean<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_0f6d93a52b7e460ca315beab42b1f920%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_196%2Ch_288/947986_0f6d93a52b7e460ca315beab42b1f920%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/06/Agnes-Arber</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/06/Agnes-Arber</guid><pubDate>Fri, 06 Jul 2018 10:41:28 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_0f6d93a52b7e460ca315beab42b1f920~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 23 February 1879 </div><div>Died: 22 March 1960</div><div>Nationality: British</div><div>Agnes Robertson Arber was a British plant anatomist and morphologist, a biology philosopher, and a botany historian. Though born in London, the 51 years of her life was spent in Cambridge. Anger Arber was recognized to be the first woman botanist and the third overall to have been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 67. Because of her contributions to botanical science, Arber received the Gold Medal of the Linnean Society of London by the age of 69 – the first woman to receive such accolade.</div><div>In terms of her scientific research, it was focused on the comparative anatomy of flowering plants - monocotyledon class. During the beginning of the 20th century, she contributed to the development of morphological research and studies in Botany. The later part of her life and works was concentrated on the Botany philosophy topic, specifically on the nature of biological research. </div><div>During the Second World War Arber found it difficult to maintain her small laboratory, as supplies were becoming more difficult to obtain. This led to her decision to stop performing laboratory work and to concentrate more on philosophical and historical issues. She got inspired by Goethe and in 1946 she published Goethe's Botany, a translation of Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants (1790). In 1946 she became the first woman botanist to be named a fellow of the Royal Society. Her studies on the philosophy of plant morphology led her to take a broader view of the links between science and philosophy. Her final book, The Manifold and the One published in 1957 is concerned with wider philosophical questions. The book is a wide-ranging and syncretic survey, drawing on literary, scientific, religious, mystical and philosophical traditions, incorporating Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist philosophy with European philosophy in pursuit of a discussion of the mystical experience which Arber defines as &quot;that direct and unmediated contemplation which is characterised by a peculiarly intense awareness of a Whole as the Unity of all things&quot;.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Ada Lovelace</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 10 December 1815Died: 27 November 1852Nationality: BritishMost often known as ‘Ada Lovelace’ was born Ada Gordon in 1815, sole child of the brief and tempestuous marriage of the erratic poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, and his mathematics-loving wife Annabella Milbanke. Fearing that Ada would inherit her father’s volatile ‘poetic’ temperament, her mother raised her under a strict regimen of science, logic, and mathematics. Ada herself from childhood had a fascination with machines,<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_92b944454ad84858b375f5d814397bd5%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_326%2Ch_326/947986_92b944454ad84858b375f5d814397bd5%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/06/Ada-Lovelace</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/06/Ada-Lovelace</guid><pubDate>Fri, 06 Jul 2018 10:19:24 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_92b944454ad84858b375f5d814397bd5~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 10 December 1815</div><div>Died: 27 November 1852</div><div>Nationality: British</div><div>Most often known as ‘Ada Lovelace’ was born Ada Gordon in 1815, sole child of the brief and tempestuous marriage of the erratic poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, and his mathematics-loving wife Annabella Milbanke. Fearing that Ada would inherit her father’s volatile ‘poetic’ temperament, her mother raised her under a strict regimen of science, logic, and mathematics. Ada herself from childhood had a fascination with machines, designing fanciful boats and steam flying machines, whilst poring over the diagrams of the new inventions of the Industrial Revolution that filled the scientific magazines of the time.</div><div>At the age of 19 she was married to an aristocrat, William King. When King was made Earl of Lovelace in 1838 Ada became Lady Ada King, Countess of Lovelace.</div><div>In 1833, Lovelace’s mentor, the scientist and polymath Mary Sommerville, introduced her to Charles Babbage, a Lucasian Professor of Mathematics of considerable status. Lovelace was deeply intrigued by Babbage’s plans for a tremendously complicated device he called the Analytical Engine, which was to combine the array of adding gears from his earlier Difference Engine with an elaborate punch card operating system. It was never built, but the design had all the essential elements of a modern computer.</div><div>In 1842 Lovelace translated a short article describing the Analytical Engine by the italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea, for publication in England. Babbage asked her to expand the article, “as she understood the machine so well”. The final article is over three times the length of the original and contains several early ‘computer programs,’ as well as strikingly prescient observations on the potential uses of the machine, including the manipulation of symbols and creation of music. Although Babbage and his assistants had sketched out programs for his engine before, Lovelace’s are the most elaborate and complete, and the first to be published; so she is often referred to as “the first computer programmer”.</div><div>Ada Lovelace died of cancer at 36, a few short years after the publication of “Sketch of the Analytical Engine, with Notes from the Translator”.</div><div>The Analytical Engine remained a vision, until Lovelace’s notes became one of the critical documents to inspire Alan Turing’s work on the first modern computers in the 1940s.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Eric Arthur Blair “George Orwell”</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 25 June 1903Died: 21 January 1950Nationality: BritishEric Arthur Blair used George Orwell as his pen name, was one of the most renowned English novelist, essayist, journalists, and critic. Through many of his literary works, he was marked as having awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism. Coming from a civil servant Orwell was born in British India while his father was stationed there. As a child, he was often ill and was<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_4b3d04034dc64b1ab25998271ec6b4a7%7Emv2_d_2620_3782_s_4_2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_416/947986_4b3d04034dc64b1ab25998271ec6b4a7%7Emv2_d_2620_3782_s_4_2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/06/Eric-Arthur-Blair-%E2%80%9CGeorge-Orwell%E2%80%9D</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/06/Eric-Arthur-Blair-%E2%80%9CGeorge-Orwell%E2%80%9D</guid><pubDate>Fri, 06 Jul 2018 10:05:41 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_4b3d04034dc64b1ab25998271ec6b4a7~mv2_d_2620_3782_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>Born: 25 June 1903</div><div>Died: 21 January 1950</div><div>Nationality: British</div><div>Eric Arthur Blair used George Orwell as his pen name, was one of the most renowned English novelist, essayist, journalists, and critic. Through many of his literary works, he was marked as having awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism. Coming from a civil servant Orwell was born in British India while his father was stationed there. As a child, he was often ill and was diagnosed with bronchitis and flu. Orwell was reportedly composing his first poem around the age of four. He finished his education in Britain but since his family cannot afford to send him to university, he joined India Imperial Force in 1922.</div><div>After finishing his listing in India, he wrote his first major work, Down and Out in Paris and London in 1933 which explored his being frugal living in these two cities. In 1934, he published Burmese Days that explored dark look at British colonialism in Burma. This novel marked the beginning of his interest in political matters. Orwell is best known for his two novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, both of which were published toward the end of his life. Animal Farm, published in 1945, was an anti-Soviet satire in a pastoral setting featuring two pigs as its main protagonists. These pigs were said to represent Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky. The novel brought Orwell great acclaim and financial rewards.</div><div>In 1949, Orwell published another masterwork, Nineteen Eighty-Four. This bleak vision of the world divided into three oppressive nations stirred up controversy among reviewers, who found this fictional future too despairing. In the novel, Orwell gave readers a glimpse into what would happen if the government controlled every detail of a person's life, down to their own private thoughts.</div><div>George Orwell was one of the Great Utopians for his literary work that has inspired and influenced many generations until today. He also contributed the term Orwellian, which describes totalitarian or authoritarian social practices has entered the language together with many of his neologisms.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Galileo Galilei</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 15th February 1564Died: 8th January 1642Nationality: ItalianGalileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher, and mathematician who played a major role in the scientific revolution during the Renaissance. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Heliocentrism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", and the "father of modern<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_4b181a54c51a489c9863c364a8e31733%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_219/947986_4b181a54c51a489c9863c364a8e31733%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/05/Galileo-Galilei</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/05/Galileo-Galilei</guid><pubDate>Thu, 05 Jul 2018 10:31:53 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_4b181a54c51a489c9863c364a8e31733~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 15th February 1564</div><div>Died: 8th January 1642</div><div>Nationality: Italian</div><div>Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher, and mathematician who played a major role in the scientific revolution during the Renaissance. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Heliocentrism. Galileo has been called the &quot;father of modern observational astronomy&quot;, the &quot;father of modern physics&quot;, and the &quot;father of modern science&quot;. According to Stephen Hawking, Galileo probably bears more of the responsibility for the birth of modern science than anybody else, and Albert Einstein called him the father of modern science.</div><div>His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, and the observation and analysis of sunspots. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology, inventing an improved military compass and other instruments.</div><div>Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy, in 1564, the first of six children of Vincenzo Galilei, a famous lutenist, composer, and music theorist, and Giulia Ammannati. Galileo became an accomplished lutenist himself aswell. When Galileo Galilei was eight, his family moved to Florence.</div><div>Galileo's championing of Heliocentrism and Copernicanism were controversial within his lifetime, when most subscribed to either Geocentrism or the Tychonic system. The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, and they concluded that it could only be supported as a possibility, not as an established fact. He was tried by the Inquisition, found &quot;vehemently suspect of heresy&quot; by Pope Urban VIII, forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. There he wrote one of his finest works, Two New Sciences.</div><div>Galileo died on 8th January 1642, aged 77, after suffering fever and heart palpitations.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>France Prešeren</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 3 December 1800 Died: 8 February 1849Nationality: Slovenian The outstanding Slovenian poet of the Romantic movement.He was a 19th-century Romantic poet, best known as the poet who has inspired virtually all later Slovene literature and has been generally acknowledged as the greatest Slovene classical author. He wrote some high quality epic poetry, for example the first Slovene ballad and the Slovene national anthem. After his death, he became the leading name of the Slovene literary<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_3e2bd2a56886486594cec0509003f009%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_295%2Ch_293/947986_3e2bd2a56886486594cec0509003f009%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/05/France-Pre%C5%A1eren</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/05/France-Pre%C5%A1eren</guid><pubDate>Thu, 05 Jul 2018 10:06:20 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_3e2bd2a56886486594cec0509003f009~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 3 December 1800Died: 8 February 1849</div><div>Nationality: Slovenian</div><div>The outstanding Slovenian poet of the Romantic movement.</div><div>He was a 19th-century Romantic poet, best known as the poet who has inspired virtually all later Slovene literature and has been generally acknowledged as the greatest Slovene classical author. He wrote some high quality epic poetry, for example the first Slovene ballad and the Slovene national anthem. After his death, he became the leading name of the Slovene literary canon.</div><div>Prešeren was born in the village of Vrba near Lake Bled in Gorenjska to peasant parents. In Vienna he finished his law education, where he acquired the familiarity with the mainstream of European thought and literary. Unfortunately, he was unable to open his own office until only two years before his death, prior to this he worked as a law clerk in Ljubljana. He lived single and died poor.</div><div>In his poetry he sang of his unhappy love for an unobtainable middle class lady, Julija Primic, his poetic calling and the fate of his nation. His poetic work is contained in the book Poezije, published in 1847.</div><div>Although Preseren was not a prolific writer, his work gave new life to Slovenian literature, the development of which had been checked by political and social conditions. The themes and prosodic structures of his verse set new standards for Slovenian writers, and his lyric poems are among the most sensitive, original and eloquent in Slovenian. In his &quot;Sonetni venec&quot; (1834; &quot;Garland of Sonnets&quot;), inspired by his unhappy love, as in his later lyrics, he expresses the national consciousness that he sought to stimulate in his compatriots. He also wrote satirical verses (1845) on contemporary literary conditions in Slovenia. The epic poem &quot;Krst pri Savici&quot; (1836; &quot;The Baptism by the Savica&quot;) treats the conflict between Paganism and the early Slovenian converts to Christianity and illustrates Preseren's patriotism, pessimism, and resignation. He is chosen to be on a Slovenian 2 euro coin together with the inscription 'Shivé naj vsi naródi' (God's blessing on all nations), a line taken from his poem Zdravljica, which is also used in the country's national anthem.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Despina Achladioti</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 1890Died: 13 May 1982Nationality: GreekDespina Achladioti, known as the Lady of Ro, was a Greek patriot born on the island of Kastellórizo in 1890. Before the start of World War II, where her home island was repeatedly ravaged, Achladioti sailed with her husband and mother to the nearby deserted island of Ro where they lived off of a few goats, chickens and a vegetable garden. Her two companions died a few years after their arrival and Achladioti personally rowed her mother's remains back<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_39d50b94d96541f9bc49e89cc375ef38%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_276/947986_39d50b94d96541f9bc49e89cc375ef38%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/05/Despina-Achladioti</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/05/Despina-Achladioti</guid><pubDate>Thu, 05 Jul 2018 09:38:11 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>Born: 1890</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_39d50b94d96541f9bc49e89cc375ef38~mv2.jpg"/><div>Died: 13 May 1982</div><div>Nationality: Greek</div><div>Despina Achladioti, known as the Lady of Ro, was a Greek patriot born on the island of Kastellórizo in 1890. Before the start of World War II, where her home island was repeatedly ravaged, Achladioti sailed with her husband and mother to the nearby deserted island of Ro where they lived off of a few goats, chickens and a vegetable garden. Her two companions died a few years after their arrival and Achladioti personally rowed her mother's remains back to Kastellórizo for burial. She has been compared to Joan d'Arc and Boudica.</div><div>Achladioti's most renowned deed is that every day she would fly a Greek flag over the island even though the island was not formally part of Greece (along with the rest of the Dodecanese, controlled by Italy) till 1948. This made her a Greek hero, especially when Greece nearly went to war with Turkey in the 1970s, because the flag would be easily visible from Turkish soil. She raised the flag every day, regardless of the weather, from the time she arrived on the island until her death on 13 May 1982 at the age of 92. Despite not having veteran status, she was buried on the island with full military honors.</div><div>A Greek military unit is now based on the island, with the main duty of keeping the tradition of raising the flag.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Pramoedya Ananta Toer</title><description><![CDATA[Pramoedya Ananta ToerBorn: 6 February 1925Died: 30 April 2006Nationality: IndonesiaPramoedya Ananta Toer was an Indonesian author of novels, short stories, essays, polemic, and histories of his homeland and its people. His works span the colonial period, Indonesia's struggle for independence, its occupation by Japan during the Second World War, as well as the post-colonial authoritarian regimes of Sukarno and Suharto. Since some of his writings considered as provocative for the oppressing<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_68875f855fa04986ae1fd2e78b243652%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_319/947986_68875f855fa04986ae1fd2e78b243652%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/04/Pramoedya-Ananta-Toer</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/07/04/Pramoedya-Ananta-Toer</guid><pubDate>Wed, 04 Jul 2018 09:50:06 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_68875f855fa04986ae1fd2e78b243652~mv2.jpg"/><div>Pramoedya Ananta Toer</div><div>Born: 6 February 1925</div><div>Died: 30 April 2006</div><div>Nationality: Indonesia</div><div>Pramoedya Ananta Toer was an Indonesian author of novels, short stories, essays, polemic, and histories of his homeland and its people. His works span the colonial period, Indonesia's struggle for independence, its occupation by Japan during the Second World War, as well as the post-colonial authoritarian regimes of Sukarno and Suharto. Since some of his writings considered as provocative for the oppressing government, both the Dutch and Indonesian authoritarian regime imprisoned him from 1947 to 1949 and from 1965 to 1979 respectively. In the first years of Indonesia’s independence, Pramoedya wrote several works of fiction dealing with the problems of the newly founded nation, as well as works based on his wartime memoirs.</div><div>When he was held in prison from 1965 until 1979, he was banned from writing but still managed to orally compose his best-known series of work to date, the Buru Quartet, a series of four historical fiction novels chronicling the development of Indonesian nationalism and based in part on his own experiences growing up. The quartet includes strong female characters of Indonesian and Chinese ethnicity, and addresses the discrimination and indignities of living under colonial rule, the struggle for personal and national political independence. Like much of Pramoedya's work, they tell personal stories and focus on individuals caught up in the tide of a nation's history.</div><div>Though many outside of Indonesia consider the work as a classic, the publication of his writing was banned in Indonesia causing one of the most famous of Indonesia's literary works to be largely unavailable to the country's people whose history it addressed. Copies were scanned by Indonesians abroad and distributed via the Internet to people inside the country. Pramoedya earned several accolades, and was frequently discussed as Indonesia and Southeast Asia's best candidate for a Nobel Prize in Literature.</div><div>Pramoedya Ananta Toer was one of the Great Utopians for his work in developing literature in Indonesia as well as describing the situation during colonial and war times.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Mehmet the Conqueror</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 30 March 1432Died: 3 May 1481Nationality: Ottoman, TurkishII. Mehmed, known as Fatih Sultan Mehmed, known in Europe under the name Grand Turco or Turcarum Imperator or Caesar of Rome. He was an Ottoman sultan who was reputed fluent in several languages, including Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Italian, Greek and Latin and who ruled first for a short time from 1444 to 1446, and later from 1451 to 1481.Mehmed may be considered the most broad-minded and freethinking of the Ottoman sultans. After<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_c561a74421104c6c83221bb9be43342d%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/06/25/Mehmet-the-Conqueror</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/06/25/Mehmet-the-Conqueror</guid><pubDate>Mon, 25 Jun 2018 11:14:08 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_c561a74421104c6c83221bb9be43342d~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 30 March 1432</div><div>Died: 3 May 1481</div><div>Nationality: Ottoman, Turkish</div><div>II. Mehmed, known as Fatih Sultan Mehmed, known in Europe under the name Grand Turco or Turcarum Imperator or Caesar of Rome. He was an Ottoman sultan who was reputed fluent in several languages, including Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Italian, Greek and Latin and who ruled first for a short time from 1444 to 1446, and later from 1451 to 1481.</div><div>Mehmed may be considered the most broad-minded and freethinking of the Ottoman sultans. After the fall of Constantinople, he gathered Italian humanists and Greek scholars at his court; he caused the patriarch Gennadius II Scholarios to write a credo of the Christian faith and had it translated into Turkish; he collected in his palace a library of works in Greek and Latin. He called Gentile Bellini from Venice to decorate the walls of his palace with frescoes as well as to paint his portrait (now in the National Gallery, London). Around the grand mosque that he constructed, he erected eight colleges, which, for nearly a century, kept their rank as the highest teaching institutions of the Islamic sciences in the empire. At times, he assembled the ʿulamāʾ, or learned Muslim teachers, and caused them to discuss theological problems in his presence. In his reign, mathematics, astronomy, and Muslim theology reached their highest level among the Ottomans. </div><div>At the age of 21, when he conquered Constantinople, Mehmed transported his lighter warships overland, around the Genoese colony of Galata and into the Golden Horn's northern shore; eighty galleys were transported from the Bosphorus after paving a little over one-mile route with wood. After this conquest, Mehmed moved the Ottoman capital from Adrianople to Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul and brought an end to the Byzantine. This event was considered to be the beginning of a New Era in the late Middle Ages by many historians.</div><div>Mehmed is considered a hero in modern-day Turkey and parts of the wider Muslim world.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>José María Arguedas</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 18 January 1911Died: 2 December 1969Nationality: Peruvian José María Arguedas was a Peruvian novelist, poet and anthropologist. He was a mestizo (a person of combined European and Amerindian descent) of Spanish and Quechua descent who wrote novels, short stories and poems in both Spanish and Quechua.As a child, Arguedas comforted himself in the care of the family's indigenous servants, allowing him to immerse himself in the language and customs of the Andes, which came to form an important<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_685a9de93d06440fbdde98f4eb6b978a%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_340%2Ch_308/947986_685a9de93d06440fbdde98f4eb6b978a%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/06/21/Jos%C3%A9-Mar%C3%ADa-Arguedas</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/06/21/Jos%C3%A9-Mar%C3%ADa-Arguedas</guid><pubDate>Thu, 21 Jun 2018 11:07:30 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_685a9de93d06440fbdde98f4eb6b978a~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 18 January 1911</div><div>Died: 2 December 1969</div><div>Nationality: Peruvian </div><div>José María Arguedas was a Peruvian novelist, poet and anthropologist. He was a mestizo (a person of combined European and Amerindian descent) of Spanish and Quechua descent who wrote novels, short stories and poems in both Spanish and Quechua.</div><div>As a child, Arguedas comforted himself in the care of the family's indigenous servants, allowing him to immerse himself in the language and customs of the Andes, which came to form an important part of his personality.</div><div>He began studying at National University of San Carlos (Lima) in 1931; there he graduated with a degree in Literature. He later took up studies in Ethnology, receiving his degree in 1957 and his doctorate in 1963.</div><div>Arguedas is especially recognized for his intimate portrayals of indigenous Andean culture. Key in his desire to depict indigenous expression and perspective more authentically was his creation of a new language that blended Spanish and Quechua and premiered in his debut novel Yawar Fiesta.</div><div>Between 1937 and 1938 he was sent to prison for his protesting an envoy sent to Peru by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.</div><div>Arguedas also worked for the Ministry of Education, where he put into practice his interests in preserving and promoting Peruvian culture, in particular traditional Andean music and dance. He was the Director of the Casa de la Cultura (1963) and Director of the National Museum of History (1964–1966).</div><div>Arguedas was a Great Utopian because he believed in and worked in a harmonic way combining two different and socially unequal cultures.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Krste Petkov Misirkov</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 18 November 1874Died: 26 July 1926Nationality: MacedonianKrste Petkov Misirkov (Macedonian: Крсте Петков Мисирков) was a philologist, slavist, historian, ethnographer and publicist. He published a book and a scientific magazine in which he affirmed the existence of a Macedonian national identity separate from other Balkan nations, and attempted to codify a standard Macedonian language based on the Central Macedonian dialects. A survey conducted in the Republic of Macedonia found Misirkov<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_78f08c05cd614eb79c54ade88b64de67%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_192/947986_78f08c05cd614eb79c54ade88b64de67%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/05/24/Krste-Petkov-Misirkov</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/05/24/Krste-Petkov-Misirkov</guid><pubDate>Thu, 24 May 2018 12:06:21 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_78f08c05cd614eb79c54ade88b64de67~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 18 November 1874</div><div>Died: 26 July 1926</div><div>Nationality: Macedonian</div><div>Krste Petkov Misirkov (Macedonian: Крсте Петков Мисирков) was a philologist, slavist, historian, ethnographer and publicist. He published a book and a scientific magazine in which he affirmed the existence of a Macedonian national identity separate from other Balkan nations, and attempted to codify a standard Macedonian language based on the Central Macedonian dialects. A survey conducted in the Republic of Macedonia found Misirkov to be &quot;the most significant Macedonian of the 20th century&quot;. For his efforts to codify a standard Macedonian language, he is often considered &quot;the founder of the modern Macedonian literary language&quot;.</div><div>One of the most important work of Misirkov is the Macedonian book On the Macedonian Matters (За македонцките работи, Za makedonckite raboti) published in 1903 in Sofia, in which he laid down the principles of the modern Macedonian language. This book was written in Macedonian dialects from the area between Prilep and Bitola. It argued in favor of national separation, the establishment of autonomous national institutions within the Ottoman empire, and the standardization of a distinct Macedonian language. Misirkov attacked both the Bulgarian Exarchate and the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) as agents of the Bulgarian interests in Macedonia.</div><div>According to this book, the Macedonian literary language should be based on dialects from the central part of Macedonia, which were used in the book itself. On the other hand, Misirkov appealed to the Ottoman authorities for eventual recognition of a separate Macedonian nation. He admitted there was not such one, and most of the Macedonian Slavs has called themselves Bulgarians, but it should be created, when the necessary historical circumstances would arise.</div><div>His early works focused on contemporary Balkan politics and the &quot;Macedonian Question&quot;, including the codification of a standard Macedonian language, Macedonian independence, and the assertion of a Macedonian nation as distinct from the other South Slavs. However, in 1907 he began writing predominantly pro-Bulgarian articles but Misirkov reverted to Macedonian nationalism once again in 1919. During the 1920s his views change again, and he encouraged the Macedonian Slavs to adopt a Bulgarian national identity. Because Misirkov expressed conflicting views about the national identity of the Macedonians Slavs at different points in his life, his national affiliation and legacy remains a matter of dispute between Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Waste-hunter, the tiniest volunteer!</title><description><![CDATA[Did you ever feel like you should do something for your environment, but you have no idea what to do? Maybe you do not have time to do something on a big scale and feel that doing something small is not enough? These Hungarian guys will prove you wrong!Waste-hunter is a movement in Hungary that was created two years ago by a few enthusiastic friends who believed that small actions taken by one person could contribute to a big change. The idea comes from Peter Szebenyi, who launched the website<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_2cfbfdcf53ec40d88801137bb70f03da%7Emv2.png/v1/fill/w_376%2Ch_209/947986_2cfbfdcf53ec40d88801137bb70f03da%7Emv2.png"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Tímea Varga</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/04/24/Waste-hunter-the-tiniest-volunteer</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/04/24/Waste-hunter-the-tiniest-volunteer</guid><pubDate>Tue, 24 Apr 2018 11:26:02 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>Did you ever feel like you should do something for your environment, but you have no idea what to do? Maybe you do not have time to do something on a big scale and feel that doing something small is not enough? These Hungarian guys will prove you wrong!</div><div>Waste-hunter is a movement in Hungary that was created two years ago by a few enthusiastic friends who believed that small actions taken by one person could contribute to a big change. The idea comes from Peter Szebenyi, who launched the website (www.hulladekvadasz.hu) on 1st January 2016 with the purpose of attracting attention to a common problem in Hungary – and probably in other countries as well. Namely, that there is an incredible amount of waste left where it shouldn’t be. Illegally, of course.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_2cfbfdcf53ec40d88801137bb70f03da~mv2.png"/><div>The logo of the movement. (https://hulladekvadasz.hu/)</div><div>The founders of the movement realized how people were disturbed by these waste-filled places, and since nobody knew what to do about them, the movement found a solution. Waste-hunters are 15 passionate volunteers, who decided to become intermediates between people and the local governments – besides having their own jobs and families. Since this is a nonprofit organization, they do not receive any payment for their work; what is more, they often pay the expenses of the organization from their own pockets.</div><div>The most important function of the website is to provide a platform for people who are bothered by the waste, but have no idea who to turn to with this problem. People can take a picture of the illegally planted garbage and send it to the operators of the website, who then forward the information with the exact location to the responsible local government. In most of the cases, following the report, the local government takes care of the territory and cleans it up in a maximum of 2 weeks (but sometimes they even manage it in one or two days). The local governments have separated a great amount of money for this purpose (although they have many other sectors that would make use of this money).</div><div>Waste-hunters are trying to raise awareness and show people that even five minutes is enough to do something for your environment, and seemingly they are doing it quite well. The most active region is the capital, Budapest, but the website operates nationwide, and they are receiving reports from all over the country. They even set up a competition to motivate people: every month, the person giving the most reports, wins an eco-textile shirt. Utopia 500 conducted an interview with Peter Szebenyi from waste-hunters and we have asked them whether they think they were successful in grabbing the attention of Hungarian people:</div><div>Have you noticed a change in the mentality of people in the past two years, since the website exists? Has the number of people giving reports and following your page grown?</div><div>The motto of the page and the movement itself is ‘Waste-hunter, the tiniest volunteer!’ This can be embraced easily, perceiving the reality of the problem and understanding that we should do something for our environment even if it is just a small thing, such as waste hunting. In Hungary the number of people who become involved in the movement increases day by day. On an average day we have 2-3 reports, but this number can go up to 11 even. You have to know that two enthusiastic founders and a few volunteers are not enough anymore. That is why we are recruiting all the time, to have more and more volunteers working with us.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_b2fe8a588afd4cf6a17bb3c8a680b751~mv2.png"/><div>A cleaned street before and after. (https://hulladekvadasz.hu/2018/03/22/bolcsode-szemetdomb-ferencvaros/)</div><div>Just to see what this means in numbers: during these two years, they received more than 2000 reports, and almost half of that has already been cleaned. Both the local governments and the Hungarian media play an important role in that success, since they are very cooperative. The local governments are quite grateful for the work of waste-hunters and they are stating from time to time that they are delighted to work together with the operators of the website. Of course it would be much better if there was no need for their job, and there were no waste-filled lands, but for that, they have to make sure the cleaned territories stay clean. Do they think that is possible? We have asked them:</div><div>Is there a posterior control, are you paying attention to the places that are already clean, whether they stay clean? Is there a possibility at all, to keep them clean?</div><div>Yes, there is a posterior control in every case. We forward every single report to the responsible local government, and they send us pictures of the place right after cleaning it. We always upload these pictures to our website – this way we can also present the hard work of the local governments.</div><div>There is always a possibility to keep these territories clean, mostly with constant control by the responsible authorities.</div><div>Still there are many cases where the problem reappears – in order to change that, they believe the approach and mentality of people should be changed. They also think it would help a lot if cameras were set up near the mostly affected areas.</div><div>Waste-hunters frequently appear in the Hungarian media – including written media, the radio or television. Naturally, not all of their cases are presented, only the most important ones, for instance the one they consider their biggest success:</div><div>What do you consider the greatest achievement of the past two years?</div><div>It is hard to choose, we had so many success stories. But the issue creating the greatest upheaval was probably our field work on Veresegyháza (a small town close to Budapest), where the GE Power Hungary (an industrial company that manufactures, repairs, and services heavy-duty gas turbine stationary components) made the local government to burn their waste. There was a huge fuss about it, since a lot of people got cancer in the area because of this activity. Besides posting an article about it on our website, we also have a video taken by a drone that we uploaded on our YouTube channel and it appeared in the Hungarian media as well. (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCijjMfAHKb3z5fUabIZRW2A) </div><div>In the previous year, May 2017, the founders of the website created a fund, in Hungarian called ‘Jövő Öko-Nemzedéke’ (JÖN) – the future’s ecological generation. What is the purpose of that? Let them explain:</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_6f6c0b4ba01b40398f0535fc0bccb825~mv2.png"/><div>Why and with what purpose did you create JÖN fund?</div><div>Our main and most important goal is to strengthen environment protection, to create a real, active environment protecting organization – like a small, Hungarian Greenpeace. Furthermore we needed the fund to solve legal issues in connection with the operation of the website.</div><div>The fund calls people to protect their environment with all of its actions. It tries to propagate the idea of sustainable development and the use of technology enabling it, such as electronic cars. Furthermore, the fund has its own website, where they run a ‘Plant a tree’ blog. The two most important projects active now are ‘Don’t burn, compost!’ and ‘Smoke kills, a.k.a. burning waste is BAD’ which are quite seasonal topics that speak for themselves. The fund, as they already stated, helps to solve the legal issues of the waste-hunters website, for instance it provides a possibility for people to financially support the movement.</div><div>Waste-hunters have several other projects, besides handling the reports. They often organize garbage collecting actions with the participation of more than a hundred people. They also run a blog on the website, where different topics appear, sometimes controlled by people outside the movement. The common feature of these topics is that they are all connected to the theme of garbage. But how is a new topic chosen? The operators have explained this as well:</div><div>How do you choose the topics appearing on your website? Do their editors contact you or is it the other way round?</div><div>The reason we have these different topics is that waste is a quite wide-ranging subject. Our website in Hungary is currently a highly acknowledged website dealing with environment protection and we regularly appear in the Hungarian media. Creating a new blog topic is only a question of actuality. If we find a new, quasi ‘virgin’ topic, we start to deal with it. The new columns of this year are ‘Readers Opinion’, ‘Waste-Food’ and we have an old one restarted, called ‘Magnetic Fishing’ (it is just like fishing but done with a huge magnet, searching for metal waste in lakes).</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_3cb596ac3f6d4565bb39a40d8cbac8ef~mv2.png"/><div>Magnetic Fishing (https://hulladekvadasz.hu/2017/06/17/szarvasi-holtag/)</div><div>These blog topics are also meant to shape the mentality of society, which is especially true for ‘My household without waste’. It is a blog, written by a mother, working, running a household with three children and still managing to produce an incredibly low amount of waste. They even offer (in another blog topic in the website) creative ideas of DIY projects made of waste – in case you have no idea what to do with the leftovers. Their other special topic is ‘Cityscape destroyer’ where they present a picture and a description of a building in the city which has no function anymore, and that ruins the cityscape because of its erosion. This project also seems successful, since a few of these buildings have been demolished after the issue was denounced.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_68bd713c58c84901a96aefdf1a4e4841~mv2.png"/><div>A Cityscape destroyer - a casino on the verge of destruction. (https://hulladekvadasz.hu/2017/10/15/kaszino-a-megsemmisules-kapujaban/)</div><div>As we can see waste-hunters do a quite wide-ranging job in Hungary, and an utmost important one as well. They are currently the most popular voluntary movement dealing with environment protection in the country, and hopefully more and more people will follow their example and join the movement. We are happy to present their work and popularize their ideas and wish them success for the future!</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Zheng He</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 1371Died: 1435Nationality: ChinaZheng He, was a Hui court eunuch, mariner, explorer, diplomat and fleet admiral during China's early Ming dynasty. Zheng commanded expeditionary voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, and East Africa from 1405 to 1433.Roughly 600 years ago, Zheng He weighed anchor in Nanjing, on the first of seven epic voyages as far west as Africa—almost a century before Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas and Vasco da Gama's in India. Even then the<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_f820f446ea594845833986978abb27c0%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_356/947986_f820f446ea594845833986978abb27c0%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/04/16/Zheng-He</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/04/16/Zheng-He</guid><pubDate>Mon, 16 Apr 2018 11:31:37 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_f820f446ea594845833986978abb27c0~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 1371</div><div>Died: 1435</div><div>Nationality: China</div><div>Zheng He, was a Hui court eunuch, mariner, explorer, diplomat and fleet admiral during China's early Ming dynasty. Zheng commanded expeditionary voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, and East Africa from 1405 to 1433.</div><div>Roughly 600 years ago, Zheng He weighed anchor in Nanjing, on the first of seven epic voyages as far west as Africa—almost a century before Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas and Vasco da Gama's in India. Even then the European expeditions would seem paltry by comparison: All the ships of Columbus and da Gama combined could have been stored on a single deck of a single vessel in the fleet that set sail under Zheng He. The ships of Zheng's armada were as astonishing as its reach. Some accounts claim that the great treasure ships had nine masts on 122-meter-long decks. The largest wooden ships ever built, they dwarfed those of Portuguese explorer. Hundreds of smaller cargo, war, and supply ships bore tens of thousands of men who brought China to a wider world.</div><div>Zheng He did sail throughout Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, and on to the Persian gulf and Africa, creating new navigational maps, spreading Chinese culture and bringing home discoveries, treasures and tribute ranging from eye-glasses to giraffes. Porcelain wares, were often presented as trade goods during the expeditions.</div><div>As Zheng He believed Muslim, it is also said that he contributed a lot to spread of Islam in some East Asia countries, such as Malaysia, Indonesia. On his travels, Zheng He built mosques while also spreading the worship of Mazu. He apparently never found time for a pilgrimage to Mecca but did send sailors there on his last voyage. He played an important part in developing relations between China and Islamic countries.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Eva Perón</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 7 May 1919Died: 26 July 1952Nationality: ArgentinianEva María Duarte de Perón, commonly known as Eva or Evita, left school when she was 16 to pursue her dream of a career as a stage, radio, and film actress in Buenos Aires. She found a job on one of the radio stations and remained there until she met Juan Perón, the Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare, who had ambitions to be president, and was working with the Argentine workers to support this bid.Evita began a relationship with Perón<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_db7787591d3645549c91d4252acc6804%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_173/947986_db7787591d3645549c91d4252acc6804%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/04/11/Eva-Per%C3%B3n</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/04/11/Eva-Per%C3%B3n</guid><pubDate>Wed, 11 Apr 2018 11:31:04 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_db7787591d3645549c91d4252acc6804~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 7 May 1919</div><div>Died: 26 July 1952</div><div>Nationality: Argentinian</div><div>Eva María Duarte de Perón, commonly known as Eva or Evita, left school when she was 16 to pursue her dream of a career as a stage, radio, and film actress in Buenos Aires. She found a job on one of the radio stations and remained there until she met Juan Perón, the Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare, who had ambitions to be president, and was working with the Argentine workers to support this bid.</div><div>Evita began a relationship with Perón and helped him win popular support. His popularity led to his arrest, but Evita helped to organise a mass demonstration that led to his release. Perón stood in the presidential elections in 1946 and Evita was an active campaigner by his side, an unprecedented occurrence in Argentine politics. Perón was duly elected and Evita continued to play an active role. She kept her promise to the working classes and took such an interest that, in everything but name, she became the Secretary of Labor, supporting higher wages and greater social welfare benefits.</div><div>Evita also had a high public profile, visiting factories and hospitals, and holding meetings with those whom she was trying to help. Evita also took an active interest in health policy, supervising programmes to eradicate some of the most crippling diseases including tuberculosis, malaria and leprosy. In 1947, she set up the 'Maria Eva Duarte De Perón Welfare Foundation', which distributed money, food and medicines to those most in need. Evita angered the elite with her active campaign for female suffrage. Suffrage for women was enacted in 1947, largely due to the energy and soul that Evita poured into the campaign.</div><div>She died from cancer on 26 July 1952. Public grief was intense, and unprecedented in Argentina. Her precise role in Argentinian politics is still hotly debated, and her supporters and enemies battle it out to write her legacy.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Christiaan Barnard</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 8 November 1922Died: 2 September 2001Nationality: South AfricanThe South African surgeon Christiaan Neethling Barnard performed the world's first human heart transplant operation in 1967 and the first double-heart transplant in 1974.Christiaan N. Barnard was born to Dutch descendants on in Beaufort West, South Africa. Barnard then went on to the University of Cape Town, where he received a master's degree in 1953.Barnard worked for a short time as a doctor before joining the Cape Town<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_7f228fcc6fe64ca6aea4d96f91e652dc%7Emv2_d_2366_1960_s_2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_239/947986_7f228fcc6fe64ca6aea4d96f91e652dc%7Emv2_d_2366_1960_s_2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/04/09/Christiaan-Barnard</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/04/09/Christiaan-Barnard</guid><pubDate>Mon, 09 Apr 2018 11:27:09 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_7f228fcc6fe64ca6aea4d96f91e652dc~mv2_d_2366_1960_s_2.jpg"/><div>Born: 8 November 1922</div><div>Died: 2 September 2001</div><div>Nationality: South African</div><div>The South African surgeon Christiaan Neethling Barnard performed the world's first human heart transplant operation in 1967 and the first double-heart transplant in 1974.</div><div>Christiaan N. Barnard was born to Dutch descendants on in Beaufort West, South Africa. Barnard then went on to the University of Cape Town, where he received a master's degree in 1953.</div><div>Barnard worked for a short time as a doctor before joining the Cape Town Medical School staff as a research fellow in surgery. With the hope of pursuing his research interests and gaining new surgical skills and experiences, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1955. After two years of study he received his Ph.D. and returned to his native country to embark upon a career as a cardiothoracic (heart) surgeon.</div><div>Before Barnard left for America, he had gained recognition for research in gastrointestinal pathology, where he proved that the fatal birth defect known as congenital intestinal atresia was due to the fetus not receiving enough blood during pregnancy. Barnard proved that this condition could be cured by a surgical procedure. Upon his return to South Africa, he introduced open-heart surgery to the country, designed artificial valves for the human heart and experimented with the transplantation of the hearts of dogs. All of this served as preparation for his 1967 first human heart transplant.</div><div>Although Barnard was a pioneering cardiac surgeon, his advances were based on work that came before him. Of crucial importance was the first use of hypothermia (artificial lowering of the body temperature) in 1952, and the introduction in the following year of an effective heart-lung machine. These advances, combined with other techniques perfected in the 1960s, enabled the surgeon for the first time to operate upon a heart that was motionless and free of blood.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Naomi Klein</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 8 May 1970Nationality: CanadianNaomi Klein is a Canadian author, award-winning journalist, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analysis and criticism of corporate globalisation and of corporate capitalism. She is a member of the board of directors for 350.org, a global grassroots movement tackling the climate crisis.Born in Montreal, Quebec, she was brought up in a Jewish family with a history of peace activism. Her parents were self-described "hippies" who moved to<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_55155856d6d24188b721dcd67889c036%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_408/947986_55155856d6d24188b721dcd67889c036%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/04/03/Naomi-Klein</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/04/03/Naomi-Klein</guid><pubDate>Tue, 03 Apr 2018 10:28:41 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_55155856d6d24188b721dcd67889c036~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 8 May 1970</div><div>Nationality: Canadian</div><div>Naomi Klein is a Canadian author, award-winning journalist, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analysis and criticism of corporate globalisation and of corporate capitalism. She is a member of the board of directors for 350.org, a global grassroots movement tackling the climate crisis.</div><div>Born in Montreal, Quebec, she was brought up in a Jewish family with a history of peace activism. Her parents were self-described &quot;hippies&quot; who moved to Montreal from the U.S. in 1967 as war resisters of the Vietnam War.</div><div>In 2000, Klein published No Logo, a book that for many became a manifesto of the anti-corporate globalisation movement. In this book, she attacks brand-oriented consumer culture and the operations of large corporations. She also accuses several such corporations of unethically exploiting workers in the world's poorest countries in pursuit of greater profits.</div><div>However, Naomi Klein is best known for a 2007 New York Times number one international bestseller, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism which is being published in 30 languages and has over a million copies in print. Central to the book's thesis is the contention that those who wish to implement unpopular free market policies now routinely do so by taking advantage of certain economic, political, military or natural features in the aftermath of major disasters. The book appears to claim that these shocks are in some cases intentionally encouraged or even manufactured.</div><div>Klein frequently appears on global and national lists of top influential thinkers. As a journalist devoted to a restless struggle for social justice and a better future, she is one of the Greatest Utopians of our time.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Ana Aslan</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 1 January 1897Died: 20 May 1988Nationality: RomanianAna Aslan was a medic and physician who is still considered to be one of the pioneers of the geriatrics. She founded the world’s first Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics (Bucharest, Romania). The anti-aging drugs she invented (Aslavital, GerovitalH3) are still used by people who want to delay the signs of aging all over the world.Ana Aslan lived in a period when a medical career was not very suitable for a young lady, but she<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_53487871555549d0b5398b76e9783ac9%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_288/947986_53487871555549d0b5398b76e9783ac9%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/28/Ana-Aslan</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/28/Ana-Aslan</guid><pubDate>Wed, 28 Mar 2018 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_53487871555549d0b5398b76e9783ac9~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 1 January 1897</div><div>Died: 20 May 1988</div><div>Nationality: Romanian</div><div>Ana Aslan was a medic and physician who is still considered to be one of the pioneers of the geriatrics. She founded the world’s first Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics (Bucharest, Romania). The anti-aging drugs she invented (Aslavital, GerovitalH3) are still used by people who want to delay the signs of aging all over the world.</div><div>Ana Aslan lived in a period when a medical career was not very suitable for a young lady, but she graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in her home country. During her studying years she worked as a nurse for the Romanian soldiers injured in the First World War. After a while, working in endocrinology, she began studying the effect of procaine in treating arthritis. Having incredible results, she extended her research area on studying the procaine effects on ageing process. In 1952 she founded the world’s first Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology, which was recognized by the World Health Organization. Her work was famous all over the world and many personalities of the time came to her to delay the signs of aging of their bodies (among them were Charles de Gaulle, J.F. Kennedy, Salvador Dalí, Marlene Dietrich or Charlie Chaplin). She dedicated a lot of her time treating elderly people who were abandoned by their families, improving the quality of their lives. Because she wouldn’t ask them a penny, the political regime of that time initiated a long trial which she eventually won a few years before she passed away.</div><div>Her researching made a great change in the treatment of elderly people and social medicine. Her receipts (Aslavital and GerovitalH3) are still used for producing pills and cosmetics products. Her scientific activity was rewarded with many awards and distinctions. Ana Aslan was a member of several academies and medical forums (member of The Romanian Academy, Science Academy of New York, honorary member of European Center for Medical Research, president of International Association of Gerontology and president of Romanian Society of Gerontology), although the advances she made in geriatrics were so precious that there is no distinction to give her for the gift she left to us, finding a way to delay aging, something we’re all afraid of.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Omar Khayyam</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 18 May 1048Died: 4 December 1131Nationality: Iranian (Persian)Omar Khayyam is a ruba’i, quatrain, Persian poet and one of the most influential philosophers of the Middle age. He was born in 18 May 1048 in Nishapur, a flourishing city in the province of Khorasan in Iran (Persia), and died on 4 December 1131. He is known not only as a great poet and philosopher, but also as an outstanding astronomer and mathematician. His most famous work Rubaiyat has become a powerful symbol for argument<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_350bcbd5ac9c4607a42d920ee5ddc5b8%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_266%2Ch_399/947986_350bcbd5ac9c4607a42d920ee5ddc5b8%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Ruzbeh Babaee</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/26/Omar-Khayyam</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/26/Omar-Khayyam</guid><pubDate>Mon, 26 Mar 2018 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_350bcbd5ac9c4607a42d920ee5ddc5b8~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 18 May 1048</div><div>Died: 4 December 1131</div><div>Nationality: Iranian (Persian)</div><div>Omar Khayyam is a ruba’i, quatrain, Persian poet and one of the most influential philosophers of the Middle age. He was born in 18 May 1048 in Nishapur, a flourishing city in the province of Khorasan in Iran (Persia), and died on 4 December 1131. He is known not only as a great poet and philosopher, but also as an outstanding astronomer and mathematician.</div><div> His most famous work Rubaiyat has become a powerful symbol for argument and communication between the East and the West since its first translation by Edward FitzGerald who translated Khayyam’s quatrains under the title 'Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam' in 1859. Through his Rubaiyat, FitzGerald represents a philosophy of “seizing the day”: by the considering of individual experience, lamentation, and metaphorical presentations of a world in which human being lacks meaningful will. The exoticism of the Rubaiyat and its introduction of determinism caught the Pre-Raphaelites’ imaginations and their admiration was enough to make the poem popular. It was also interesting to the Victorian readers, who found humanism as a result of the Renaissance, to find out that the wise figure from Persia also expressed the same notion centuries before. Furthermore, the Rubaiyat gives the reader the chance to think about the West relationship in general with the East and in particular with Iran since its first translation in the Victorian era. Khayyam challenged fundamentalism and advocated a type of humanism in his poetry. A central theme of Khayyam’s quatrain revolves around the position of mankind in creation, his relationship with the Creator, and the mystery of death and the hereafter. The Rubaiyat advocates an exotic utopian East of freethinking, spiritualism and living in now. It is inevitable that people, recognizing the various corruptions and inequities current in their society, should attempt to create a better system for people living together. Omar Khayyam uttered the attitude splendidly in The Rubaiyat:</div><div>&quot;Ah, Love, could you and I with Him conspire To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire, Would we not shatter it to bits — and then Remold it nearer to the Heart's Desire!&quot;</div><div>Khayyam represents a nostalgic yearning for a kind of life which he imagines is free from the stresses of a commercial civilization.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Chairil Anwar</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 26 July 1922Died: 28 April 1949Nationality: IndonesiaChairil Anwar (26 July 1922 – 28 April 1949) was an Indonesian poet and member of the 1945 generation of writers. He is estimated to have written 96 works, including 70 individual poems. His work dealt with various themes, including death, individualism, and existentialism, and were often multi-interpretable. Drawing influence from foreign poets, Anwar used everyday language and new syntax to write his poetry, which has been noted as<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_a5717552c4ab4bb5b0226287080bc1c7%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_420/947986_a5717552c4ab4bb5b0226287080bc1c7%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/22/Chairil-Anwar</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/22/Chairil-Anwar</guid><pubDate>Thu, 22 Mar 2018 10:08:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_a5717552c4ab4bb5b0226287080bc1c7~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 26 July 1922</div><div>Died: 28 April 1949</div><div>Nationality: Indonesia</div><div>Chairil Anwar (26 July 1922 – 28 April 1949) was an Indonesian poet and member of the 1945 generation of writers. He is estimated to have written 96 works, including 70 individual poems. His work dealt with various themes, including death, individualism, and existentialism, and were often multi-interpretable. Drawing influence from foreign poets, Anwar used everyday language and new syntax to write his poetry, which has been noted as aiding the development of the Indonesian language. His poems were often constructed irregularly, but with individual patterns.</div><div>After Anwar's poem Nisan (Grave) inspired by his grandmother's death, was written in 1942, Anwar gained recognition. However, publishers rejected his poems mostly for being too individualistic and not keeping with the spirit of war time era. However, some, including the poem 'Diponegoro', were able to pass the censors. During this period, he continued associating with other writers, trading ideas and later becoming a leader amongst them. He wrote his last poem, 'Cemara Menderai Sampai Jauh' (Fir Trees Are Sown Off Into the Distance) in 1949.</div><div>During his lifetime, Anwar wrote approximately 94 works, including seventy-one poems. Most of those were unpublished at the time of his death, but were later collected in several collections of his work published posthumously. Of these, Anwar considered only 13 to be truly good poems. The first published was 'Deru Tjampur Debu' (Roar Mixed with Dust), which was followed by 'Kerikil Tadjam dan Jang Terampas dan Terputus' (Sharp Pebbles and the Seized and The Broken). The most celebrated of his works is 'Aku' (Me). Anwar died in Jakarta, on 28 April 1949.</div><div>Chairil Anwar is one of the Great Utopians for his literary works and expanding Indonesian world of literature. The anniversary of his death is celebrated as National Literature Day in Indonesia.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Alberto Santos-Dumont</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 20 July 1873Died: 23 July 1932Nationality: BrazilianAlberto Santos-Dumont was a Brazilian aviation pioneer. The heir of a wealthy family of coffee producers, Santos Dumont dedicated himself to aeronautical study and experimentation in Paris, France.Santos-Dumont designed, built, and flew the first practical dirigible, demonstrating that routine, controlled flight was possible. This "conquest of the air", in particular his winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize on 19 October 1901 on a<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_d2908427692548ff999f53e0e14b47d3%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_162/947986_d2908427692548ff999f53e0e14b47d3%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/22/Alberto-Santos-Dumont</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/22/Alberto-Santos-Dumont</guid><pubDate>Thu, 22 Mar 2018 09:10:38 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_d2908427692548ff999f53e0e14b47d3~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 20 July 1873</div><div>Died: 23 July 1932</div><div>Nationality: Brazilian</div><div>Alberto Santos-Dumont was a Brazilian aviation pioneer. The heir of a wealthy family of coffee producers, Santos Dumont dedicated himself to aeronautical study and experimentation in Paris, France.</div><div>Santos-Dumont designed, built, and flew the first practical dirigible, demonstrating that routine, controlled flight was possible. This &quot;conquest of the air&quot;, in particular his winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize on 19 October 1901 on a flight that rounded the Eiffel Tower, made him one of the most famous people in the world during the early 20th century.</div><div>Following his pioneering work in airships, Santos-Dumont constructed a heavier than air aircraft, the 14 bis. On 23 October 1906, he flew this to make the first verified powered heavier than air flight, certified by the Aéro Club de France and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).</div><div>In his homeland, Brazil, Santos-Dumont is a national hero, having his name written in Brazilian Hero Panthéon. He is credited in Brazil as the &quot;father of flight&quot;. Santos-Dumont occupied the 38th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1931 until his death in 1932.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Wangari Maathai</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 1 April 1940Died: 25 September 2011Nationality: KenyanBorn in Nyeri, Kenya, Wangari Maathai became an internationally recognised figure for her persistent struggle for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation. She is the first African woman and environmentalist to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and the first woman in Eastern and Central Africa to earn a Ph.D.Prof. Maathai is also best known as the founder of the Green Belt Movement (GBM), an environmental non-governmental<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_8f413b5fac03417bb9e3eccfe77fc051%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_291/947986_8f413b5fac03417bb9e3eccfe77fc051%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/14/Wangari-Maathai</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/14/Wangari-Maathai</guid><pubDate>Wed, 14 Mar 2018 11:14:40 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_8f413b5fac03417bb9e3eccfe77fc051~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 1 April 1940</div><div>Died: 25 September 2011</div><div>Nationality: Kenyan</div><div>Born in Nyeri, Kenya, Wangari Maathai became an internationally recognised figure for her persistent struggle for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation. She is the first African woman and environmentalist to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and the first woman in Eastern and Central Africa to earn a Ph.D.</div><div>Prof. Maathai is also best known as the founder of the Green Belt Movement (GBM), an environmental non-governmental organisation focused on planting trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. She has addressed the UN on several occasions and spoken on behalf of women at special sessions of the General Assembly, and has also served on the commission for Global Governance and the Commission on the Future. In 2002, she was elected to Kenya's Parliament where she served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005.</div><div>In 2007, Prof. Maathai accepted an invitation to be the co-chair of the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) with the former Prime Minister of Canada, Rt. Hon. Paul Martin.</div><div>To date, she has persistently advocated for the sustainable management and conservation of the Congo Basin forest as a world heritage and mega hotspot for biodiversity. Known famously as Africa’s “tree woman,” Prof. Wangari Maathai is definitely one of the world’s Great Utopians.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Albrecht von Haller</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 16 October 1708Died: 12 December 1777Nationality: SwissAlbrecht von Haller was a Swiss Anatomist, Physiologist, Naturalist and Poet. A pupil of Herman Boerhaave, he is often referred to as "the father of modern physiology."He studied the form and function of one organ after the other, launching anatomy as an experimental science, and also enforcing dynamic rules to the study of physiology.Haller analysed the irritability of muscle and the sensibility of nerves, studying circulation time<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_25f841ce78c64df79255341460f659ae%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_369/947986_25f841ce78c64df79255341460f659ae%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/14/Albrecht-von-Haller</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/14/Albrecht-von-Haller</guid><pubDate>Wed, 14 Mar 2018 10:47:10 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>Born: 16 October 1708</div><div>Died: 12 December 1777</div><div>Nationality: Swiss</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_25f841ce78c64df79255341460f659ae~mv2.jpg"/><div>Albrecht von Haller was a Swiss Anatomist, Physiologist, Naturalist and Poet. A pupil of Herman Boerhaave, he is often referred to as &quot;the father of modern physiology.&quot;</div><div>He studied the form and function of one organ after the other, launching anatomy as an experimental science, and also enforcing dynamic rules to the study of physiology.</div><div>Haller analysed the irritability of muscle and the sensibility of nerves, studying circulation time and the automatic action of the heart. He gave the first to give detailed explanation of respiration.</div><div>His publication “Elements of Physiology” proved to be one of the influential works on the subject. Haller consistently broadened the field of anatomy, relating it to physiology by experimentation, and implemented dynamic rules to complex physiological problems.</div><div>The approach of Albrecht von Haller was precise, analytical and objective. He was the first person to discover that only nerves produce sensation and only those parts of the body connected to the nervous system can undergo a sensation. Probably his most notable contribution was the formulation of the method of physiological research.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Laozi</title><description><![CDATA[Born: c. 571 BCDied: 471 BCNationality: ChineseLaozi (老子) was a philosopher and poet of ancient China. He is known as the reputed author of the Tao Te Ching (also referred to as the Laozi), the founder of philosophical Taoism and as a deity in religious Taoism and traditional Chinese religions. As a religious figure, he is worshiped under the name "Supreme Old Lord" and as one of the "Three Pure Ones".Two core concepts in Laozi’s ideas are Zi Ran (Nature) and Wu Wei, in which Wu Wei refers to<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_757ccb1383094895824b9b1f43feb323%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_200%2Ch_250/947986_757ccb1383094895824b9b1f43feb323%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/12/Laozi</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/12/Laozi</guid><pubDate>Mon, 12 Mar 2018 11:27:47 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>Born: c. 571 BC</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_757ccb1383094895824b9b1f43feb323~mv2.jpg"/><div>Died: 471 BC</div><div>Nationality: Chinese</div><div>Laozi (老子) was a philosopher and poet of ancient China. He is known as the reputed author of the Tao Te Ching (also referred to as the Laozi), the founder of philosophical Taoism and as a deity in religious Taoism and traditional Chinese religions. As a religious figure, he is worshiped under the name &quot;Supreme Old Lord&quot; and as one of the &quot;Three Pure Ones&quot;.</div><div>Two core concepts in Laozi’s ideas are Zi Ran (Nature) and Wu Wei, in which Wu Wei refers to action without any struggle or excessive force. In the Laozi, while meditation and other forms of spiritual practice may be carried out, the concept of Wu Wei seems to be used more broadly as a contrast against any form of action characterised by self-serving desire. In Tao Te Ching, Laozi describes the ideal sage-ruler as someone who understands and follows Zi Ran (the nature).</div><div>From nature lovers to management gurus, a growing audience is discovering that the Laozi has something to offer them. The reception of the Tao Te Ching in modern Asia and the West falls outside the scope of this article; nevertheless, it is important to note that the Laozi should be regarded not only as a work of early Chinese philosophy but also as a classic of world literature with keen contemporary relevance.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Candy Lightner</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 30 May 1946Nationality: American Candy Lightner transformed a personal tragedy into a crusade against drink driving. She founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving or MADD, a grassroots organisation dedicated to curbing alcohol-related traffic deaths.Lightner's 13-year-old daughter Cari, whilst walking down a quiet street, was struck from behind by a car. The impact threw Cari 125 feet, knocking off her shoes and mutilating her body so badly that it was not possible to save her organs for<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_80a72a4f4b5a4a779a05291274372f10%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_339%2Ch_179/947986_80a72a4f4b5a4a779a05291274372f10%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/06/Candy-Lightner</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/06/Candy-Lightner</guid><pubDate>Tue, 06 Mar 2018 12:41:12 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_80a72a4f4b5a4a779a05291274372f10~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 30 May 1946</div><div>Nationality: American </div><div>Candy Lightner transformed a personal tragedy into a crusade against drink driving. She founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving or MADD, a grassroots organisation dedicated to curbing alcohol-related traffic deaths.</div><div>Lightner's 13-year-old daughter Cari, whilst walking down a quiet street, was struck from behind by a car. The impact threw Cari 125 feet, knocking off her shoes and mutilating her body so badly that it was not possible to save her organs for donation. The driver of the car, Clarence William Busch, did not stop. At the time of the crash, Busch had four previous drunk driving convictions, for which he had served at most 48 hours in jail. He had been arrested for another hit-and-run accident just two days before hitting Cari.</div><div> Cari's death was the most tragic event in Lightner's life, but not the first time a drunk driver had injured her children. Earlier, when Cari and her identical twin sister, Serena, were 18 months old, Candy Lightner's station wagon was rear-ended by a drunk driver. In that wreck, Serena was bruised and covered with glass cuts. Six years later, Lightner's son, Travis, then four, had been run over while playing in front of the family's house. Travis was temporarily paralysed and suffered a collapsed lung, broken ribs, a broken leg, and a fractured skull. He spent several days slipping in and out of a coma and require multiple surgeries to repair the damage to his body. His head injury caused permanent brain damage. The driver, who was unlicensed, was driving under the influence of tranquilisers at the time she hit Travis, but did not even receive a ticket.</div><div> Lightner was overwhelmed with anger when, she learned that the driver who had caused her daughter's death would likely serve little or no time in jail. After learning the details of the accident from a highway patrolman, Lightner sat in a restaurant bar with friends and took action. She decided to found an organisation against drink driving.</div><div>One day, she was a divorced mother of three selling real estate in California, not even registered to vote. Within months, Lightner was lobbying and spreading her message across the whole of the US. Today MADD is growing as a national force. Instead of trying to eliminate drinking entirely, the group focuses its attention on curbing drink driving.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Georgian history, culture and literature – Interview with Professor Ana Chikovani</title><description><![CDATA[On 16th February CETAPS and the Utopia500 Team welcomed Professor Ana Chikovani from the Institute of Classical, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies of Tbilisi State University, Georgia. Professor Chikovani gave a seminar on Georgian literature and culture, presenting the figure of Medea in Georgian literature, as well as comparing the phenomenon of vendetta appearing in Greek and Georgian literature. The title of the seminar was Medea as Self – Personification of Medea by Modern Greek and<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_367edab5083a4806baca4f351346cf31%7Emv2_d_5184_3888_s_4_2.jpg/v1/fill/w_364%2Ch_273/947986_367edab5083a4806baca4f351346cf31%7Emv2_d_5184_3888_s_4_2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Tímea Varga</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/01/Georgian-history-culture-and-literature-%E2%80%93-Interview-with-Professor-Ana-Chikovani</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/01/Georgian-history-culture-and-literature-%E2%80%93-Interview-with-Professor-Ana-Chikovani</guid><pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2018 10:20:35 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>On 16th February CETAPS and the Utopia500 Team welcomed Professor Ana Chikovani from the Institute of Classical, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies of Tbilisi State University, Georgia. Professor Chikovani gave a seminar on Georgian literature and culture, presenting the figure of Medea in Georgian literature, as well as comparing the phenomenon of vendetta appearing in Greek and Georgian literature. The title of the seminar was Medea as Self – Personification of Medea by Modern Greek and Georgian Authors.</div><div>We were able to learn some quite interesting facts about Georgian culture, for instance that they have their own alphabet, which has incredibly beautiful graphics. We also got to know that Christianity and religion is utmost important to Georgia and Georgian people – it is interwoven with the country’s long history. The first memories written in Georgian language were connected to Christianity, and the country’s greatest quest has always been to find a strong Christian partner to break out of the circle of Islamic countries that surround them. Georgia found this partner first in Greece, and later on in the Russian Empire.</div><div>We also had the chance to get some insight into Georgian history – a story that is not one to be told without the history of Russia and the Soviet Union. Georgia first became part of the Russian Empire in 1801, when they made a pact with Russia, stating that Georgia was under Russian protection. However, right after the treaty was signed, Russian troops invaded the country, and it only became independent after World War I, which only lasted three years. In 1921, Georgia lost its independence again to the Russians, and it became part of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991.</div><div>After the lecture we had the opportunity to ask a few questions to Professor Chikovani on this particular era of Georgian history. It was very interesting, since the most well-known general secretary of the Soviet Union, Stalin, was of Georgian origin. The first questions we asked Professor Chikovani were on this topic:</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_367edab5083a4806baca4f351346cf31~mv2_d_5184_3888_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>How do you think the fact that Stalin was of Georgian origin affected Georgia at the time?In my opinion, the fact that Stalin was of Georgian origin did not have such a good impact on Georgia, because he was not a Georgian in his mind, he was an imperial agent and his interest did not lie in Georgian national interests, but in the national interest of the Soviet Union and Soviet people. I cannot say that there was something good in it for Georgia, having Stalin or other people of the Soviet nomenclature of Georgian origin.</div><div>What did Georgian people think about Stalin in the past? Has that changed since Georgia is an independent state?In the Soviet Union people adored Stalin, because he was the political figure that helped the SU to defeat Nazi Germany during World War II. But as I already said he was a Soviet nomenclature man… Well, in the small town of Gori, where he originated from, there are still people who are fond of him, because of his Georgian origins. But of course after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the new generation has realized that anyone whose imperial vision is so inflexible cannot be good for his country.</div><div>Just to connect to your main field of interest, literature, let me ask: is Stalin a popular topic in literature, does he appear often in literary works?Well, during the Soviet Union he was, yes. Since there was a censorship, writers and poets frequently wrote their literary works about the Soviet Union or about Stalin or the ideas of the soviets – and those who did not do so, were all executed or exiled. There are many literary works dedicated to Stalin as a figure of worship. But I cannot say that after the collapse of the Soviet Union the figure of Stalin continued to be interesting for authors.</div><div>As Professor Chikovani knows most about Georgian literature and culture, we also asked her about the cultural life during the Soviet Union. In that era, culture and literature had its restrictions, nothing was as free as it is today, and thus it is quite fascinating to see how members of their society coped with this:</div><div>I have read that Georgia had a rather free cultural life compared to other member states of the Soviet Union. Do you think that is true?Well, yes, this is what we hear about – I did not grow up in this era, since I was 13 years old when the Soviet Union collapsed. But yes, it was more open and free than other soviet republics. For instance, you can take into consideration that a lot of people within the Soviet Union who were exiled, their place of exile was Siberia, which was death for them. But the other place for exile was the Caucasus or Georgia, which was a very nice place because it is a pleasant, sunny country, with a seaside. And Georgian people felt somehow freer than other members of the soviet republic in other ways too. For example, in the majority of the Soviet Union, people went to Russian schools – in Georgia, never. We had Russian schools, but we always had Georgian schools, so we were not obliged to go to the Russian ones. In some neighboring republics people chose to send their children to Russian schools because then they would have the opportunity to go to Moscow, and to pursue an academic career or a more prestigious job. In Georgia people preferred to send their children to a Georgian school and continue to preserve Georgian culture.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_aa51a30ccfd348979ef110fee3c18292~mv2_d_5184_3888_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>Yes, I have also read that Georgia managed to maintain Georgian as the official language of the state. How do you think that was possible?</div><div>Well, I think that it was so holy for Georgian people that if the Soviet Union would have touched it, there could have been very bad results. And the soviets felt that it was very sacred and very important for us, so they preferred not to touch it. They tried once to make some restrictions but people – </div><div>despite the fact that they knew they could be executed or exiled – came to the streets and protested. Since this was not desired by the Soviet Union, they gave us the opportunity to keep our language.</div><div>What about Georgian authors of the time? Did they play an important role in shaping the views of society during the soviet era? Or were they rather serving the system?Yes, it is very interesting that in a totalitarian system, when you have censorship, writers have managed to write their literary works in a way that a reader can read between the lines. So, for censorship it might be okay, but a good reader could see some ideas that were prohibited by censorship. From this point of view we can say that yes, the writers have somehow helped to shape the consciousness of Georgian people.</div><div>All in all we could agree with Professor Chikovani that Georgia was quite an outlier in the Soviet Union, thus it would be very interesting to study its history and culture with more depth. Although for now we had only a short time together, we hope she will visit us again, and we will have the opportunity to get to know more about Georgia.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Michel Foucault</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 15 October 1926Died: 25 June 1984Nationality: FrenchPaul Michel Foucault - generally known as Michel Foucault - was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, social theorist and literary critic. Paul Michel was born in the city of Poiters, in an upper-middle-class family: the philosopher’s father was a successful surgeon with his own practice and Michel’s mother was the daughter of prosperous surgeon. It would make sense that Michel would continue the family tradition and become a surgeon,<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_007cc820f5dd4daf8ad63a77d6b0c59d%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_370%2Ch_205/947986_007cc820f5dd4daf8ad63a77d6b0c59d%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/01/Michel-Foucault</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/03/01/Michel-Foucault</guid><pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2018 08:12:06 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_007cc820f5dd4daf8ad63a77d6b0c59d~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 15 October 1926</div><div>Died: 25 June 1984</div><div>Nationality: French</div><div>Paul Michel Foucault - generally known as Michel Foucault - was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, social theorist and literary critic. Paul Michel was born in the city of Poiters, in an upper-middle-class family: the philosopher’s father was a successful surgeon with his own practice and Michel’s mother was the daughter of prosperous surgeon. It would make sense that Michel would continue the family tradition and become a surgeon, but he rejected his father’s wishes and in 1945 went to Paris. There he enrolled into a prestigious secondary school and developed an interest in philosophy and history of ideas. Foucault became particularly influenced by the ideas of Marxism, Phenomenology and Structuralism and soon he created his own philosophical stand. For his own personal reasons, the philosopher also studied in depth Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry, and later these interests merged and surfaced in his work.</div><div> His first book, ‘Mental Illness and Personality’ (Maladie mentale et personalité), presented a theory that illness has always been culturally relative. Subsequently, in 1960, his primary thesis for his State doctorate was entitled ‘Madness and Insanity: History of Madness in the Classical Age’ (Folie et déraison: Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique). The main theme of the book is how Western European society had dealt with madness throughout time, proving that it was a social construct, which differs from mental illness. Foucault continued to write influential books questioning powerful social institutions, namely prisons, mental health facilities and religion, as well as on more abstract issues such as power, knowledge, sexuality and selfhood.</div><div> Foucault was also politically active as a leftist supporting prisoners’ rights, he campaigned in anti-racist campaigns, and more generally protested against abuses on human rights around the world. In 1975 the great philosopher was at the University of California, Berkeley for the first time - as a result of his works’ growing popularity in America. Foucault was also very engaged in the San Francisco gay scene, which he would praise in interviews with the gay press. Foucault contracted HIV, which eventually developed in AIDS. Little was known about the virus at that time and in June 1984 he died. His partner Daniel Defert founded the first national HIV/AIDS organisation in France. Michel Foucault is a Great Utopian for his ground-breaking work not only for philosophy and psychology, but also for gender studies, gay and lesbian studies, literary criticism, anthropology, sociology and governmentality.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Ibn Battuta</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 25 February 1304Died: 1369Nationality: MoroccanIbn Battuta or Muhammad Ibn Battuta (Arabic: محمد ابن بطوطة‎) sometimes referred to as “Islamic Marco Polo” was an explorer of Berber descent, who is widely recognised as one of the greatest travelers of all time. He is known for his extensive expeditions; his accounts were published in the Rihla (The Travels). Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic medieval world as well as many non-Muslim lands.After<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_eb87016e9e974964879d5162859d781d%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_241/947986_eb87016e9e974964879d5162859d781d%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/21/Ibn-Battuta</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/21/Ibn-Battuta</guid><pubDate>Wed, 21 Feb 2018 11:48:41 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_eb87016e9e974964879d5162859d781d~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 25 February 1304</div><div>Died: 1369</div><div>Nationality: Moroccan</div><div>Ibn Battuta or Muhammad Ibn Battuta (Arabic: محمد ابن بطوطة‎) sometimes referred to as “Islamic Marco Polo” was an explorer of Berber descent, who is widely recognised as one of the greatest travelers of all time. He is known for his extensive expeditions; his accounts were published in the Rihla (The Travels). Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic medieval world as well as many non-Muslim lands.</div><div><div>After receiving an education in Islamic law, he chose to travel. He left his home in June 1325 when he was twenty-one years old on Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, a journey that took him 16 months. His journey was mostly by land. He first began his voyage by exploring the lands of the Middle East. Thereafter he sailed down the Red Sea to Mec</div>ca. He crossed Arabian Desert and traveled to Iraq and Iran. In 1330, he set off again, down the Red Sea to Aden and then to Tanzania. In 1332, Ibn Battuta decided to go to India where he was given a job as a judge. He stayed in India for a period of 8 years and then left for China. In 1352, he went south, crossed the Sahara desert, and visited the African kingdom of Mali. Finally, he returned home to Tangier in 1355.</div><div>Ibn Battuta often experienced culture shock in regions he visited. The local customs of recently converted people did not fit his orthodox Muslim background. Among Turks and Mongols, he was astonished at the way women behaved and how they were given freedom of speech. Near the end of his life, he dictated an account of his journeys, titled 'A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling' (تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار usually simply referred to as 'The Travels' (الرحلة, Rihla).</div><div>This account of his journeys provides a picture of medieval civilisation that is still widely consulted today. Ibn Battuta was one of the great utopians for his service in providing accounts of 14th century society and culture in the places that he visited: accounts still used in the present day.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Confucius</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 28 September 551 BCDied: 479 BCNationality: ChineseConfucius (孔子) was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. It is generally thought that Confucius was born on 28 September, 551 BC. His birthplace was in Lu state, Zhou Dynasty. His father was an officer in the Lu military. His father died when Confucius was three years old, and Confucius was raised by his mother in poverty. Confucius was educated at schools for commoners,<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_f9af260e4070409e95b0e78b91d75544%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_224/947986_f9af260e4070409e95b0e78b91d75544%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/16/Confucius</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/16/Confucius</guid><pubDate>Fri, 16 Feb 2018 12:30:05 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_f9af260e4070409e95b0e78b91d75544~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 28 September 551 BC</div><div>Died: 479 BC</div><div>Nationality: Chinese</div><div>Confucius (孔子) was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. It is generally thought that Confucius was born on 28 September, 551 BC. His birthplace was in Lu state, Zhou Dynasty. His father was an officer in the Lu military. His father died when Confucius was three years old, and Confucius was raised by his mother in poverty. Confucius was educated at schools for commoners, where he studied and learned the Six Arts.</div><div>Confucius was born into the class of shi (士), between the aristocracy and the common people. He is said to have worked in various government jobs during his early 20s, and also worked as a bookkeeper and a caretaker of sheep and horses, which he used the proceeds to give his mother a proper burial. His followers collected his talks and thoughts and edited to a book called Analects of Confucius, which is believed to be one of the most widely read and studied books in China for the last 2,000 years.</div><div>The core thoughts from Confucius became an ethical and philosophical system called Confucianism after he died. One of core idea in Confucianism is Datong, which is believed to be the traditional Chinese Utopia. The main description of it is found in the Chinese Classic of Rites, in the chapter called &quot;Li Yun&quot;.</div><div>Confucianism became the official state ideology in China since Han dynasty (206 BC – 9 AD, 190–195 AD), and lasted until the establishment of People’s Republic of China (1945). Moreover, historically, other cultures and countries strongly influenced by Confucianism include Korea, Japan and Vietnam, as well as various territories inhabited predominantly by Chinese people, such as Singapore.</div><div>If you are interested to learn more about Confucius and Confucianism visit the links below:</div><div><a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/confuciu/">http://www.iep.utm.edu/confuciu/</a> Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy</div><div><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547k8">http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547k8</a> BBC 4 radio programme about Confucius</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Vasco da Gama</title><description><![CDATA[Nationality: PortugueseBorn: c. 1460’sDied: December 24th, 1524Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer. He led the first expedition that traveled from Europe to India by sailing around Africa.Vasco da Gama was born in a small coastal town in Portugal named Sines. His father was a knight and an explorer. He followed in his father's footsteps and soon commanded ships in the king's name.Spices from India were very popular in Europe, however, the only way to travel from Europe to India was over<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_56b867cdddac4d738e0ac714fe041bb0%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_288%2Ch_357/947986_56b867cdddac4d738e0ac714fe041bb0%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/15/Vasco-da-Gama</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/15/Vasco-da-Gama</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Feb 2018 08:39:25 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_56b867cdddac4d738e0ac714fe041bb0~mv2.jpg"/><div>Nationality: Portuguese</div><div>Born: c. 1460’s</div><div>Died: December 24th, 1524</div><div>Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer. He led the first expedition that traveled from Europe to India by sailing around Africa.</div><div>Vasco da Gama was born in a small coastal town in Portugal named Sines. His father was a knight and an explorer. He followed in his father's footsteps and soon commanded ships in the king's name.</div><div>Spices from India were very popular in Europe, however, the only way to travel from Europe to India was over land. The King of Portugal figured if he could find a way to get to India by sailing on the ocean, he would become rich trading spices in Europe.</div><div>The explorer Bartolomeu Dias had discovered the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa. It was thought that there may be a way around the Cape and to the northeast towards India.</div><div>Vasco da Gama was given a fleet of ships by the king and told to find a trade route around Africa to India. He was also told to find any other trading opportunities along the way.</div><div>Vasco da Gama left on his first voyage from Lisbon, Portugal on July 8, 1497. He had 170 men and 4 ships.</div><div>The expedition rounded the southern tip of Africa at the Cape of Good Hope on November 22. They headed north up the coast of Africa. They stopped at trading ports along the way including Mombasa and Malindi. At Malindi they gained a local navigator who knew the direction to India. With the help of a Monsoon wind they were able to cross the Indian Ocean and arrive in Calicut, India in less than a month.</div><div>At Calicut, Vasco ran into issues when trying to trade. He had brought little of value in his ships. Soon he had to leave. The voyage back was disastrous. Around half of his crew died from scurvy as the trip back took much longer. However, when he returned home, he was a hero. He had found the much needed trade route to India. </div><div>Vasco da Gama commanded two more fleets to India. The second voyage was more of a military expedition. On the third voyage Vasco was to take over as Viceroy of Portuguese India. However, he died of malaria shortly after arriving.</div><div>Vasco da Gama is a Great Utopian for the distances he covered in the outward and return voyages that made his great expedition the longest ocean voyage ever made until then, far longer than a full voyage around the world by way of the Equator. Furthermore, this voyage was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Clara Barton</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 25 December 1821Died: 12 April 1912Nationality: AmericanClara was born Clarissa Harlowe Barton on Christmas Day in 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts.When Clara was eleven years old, her brother David fell off the roof of a barn. He became very sick. Clara spent the next two years taking care of David. The doctors didn't hold out much hope for David, but, with Clara's help, he eventually got better. It was during this time that Clara discovered that she enjoyed taking care of others.At the<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_fcb3a101fa6d4d1f80aa62dd8f8e310b%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_295%2Ch_287/947986_fcb3a101fa6d4d1f80aa62dd8f8e310b%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/14/Clara-Barton</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/14/Clara-Barton</guid><pubDate>Wed, 14 Feb 2018 12:19:17 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_fcb3a101fa6d4d1f80aa62dd8f8e310b~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 25 December 1821</div><div>Died: 12 April 1912</div><div>Nationality: American</div><div>Clara was born Clarissa Harlowe Barton on Christmas Day in 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts.</div><div>When Clara was eleven years old, her brother David fell off the roof of a barn. He became very sick. Clara spent the next two years taking care of David. The doctors didn't hold out much hope for David, but, with Clara's help, he eventually got better. It was during this time that Clara discovered that she enjoyed taking care of others.</div><div>At the young age of seventeen, Clara began to work as a schoolteacher and was teaching at a summer school. Soon school wanted to hire her to teach during the winter as well. They offered to pay her less than the male teachers were making. She said she would not do a man's work for less than a man's pay. They soon agreed to pay her the full wage.</div><div>Eventually Clara decided to get a degree in Education and graduated in 1851. At first she went to work at a private school, but then decided to work on opening a free public school. She worked hard to get the school built, and by 1854 the school had six hundred students.</div><div>Clara moved to Washington D.C. and went to work for the patent office. However, as a woman she was not treated well. At one point she, and all the other female employees, were fired just because they were women. Clara fought for the right for women to be treated equally in the workplace.</div><div>Near the start of the Civil War a number of wounded soldiers arrived in Washington D.C. Clara and her sister Sally did what they could to help the men. They found out that the soldiers had little in the way of basic supplies to take care of their wounds. She soon organised a way to get needed supplies to the soldiers on the front lines.</div><div>While traveling overseas Clara learned of a group called the International Red Cross. This group helped wounded soldiers during the war. They hung a flag with a red cross and a white background on the outside of their hospital tents. After working for the Red Cross in France, Clara wanted to bring the organisation to America.</div><div>After four years of lobbying, Clara founded the American Red Cross on 21 May 1881. Since then, the American Red Cross has helped people recover from all sorts of disasters from floods to fires to earthquakes.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nikolas Asimos</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 20th August 1949Died: 17th March 1988Nationality: GreekΝikolas Asimos (real name: Nikolas Asimopoulos) was born in 1949 in Thessaloniki. At the age of 18 he moved to Athens to study at the Faculty of Philosophy. From a young age his artistic vein was made evident by his participation in theater groups, but his biggest love was music and the guitar. He became a self-taught music writer and appeared in many Athenian music halls, along with other musicians. Asimos was an authentically<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_d7aa4c8d022e4e4da52bd888887b510b%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_326%2Ch_217/947986_d7aa4c8d022e4e4da52bd888887b510b%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/09/Nikolas-Asimos</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/09/Nikolas-Asimos</guid><pubDate>Fri, 09 Feb 2018 12:17:45 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_d7aa4c8d022e4e4da52bd888887b510b~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 20th August 1949</div><div>Died: 17th March 1988</div><div>Nationality: Greek</div><div>Νikolas Asimos (real name: Nikolas Asimopoulos) was born in 1949 in Thessaloniki. At the age of 18 he moved to Athens to study at the Faculty of Philosophy. From a young age his artistic vein was made evident by his participation in theater groups, but his biggest love was music and the guitar. He became a self-taught music writer and appeared in many Athenian music halls, along with other musicians. </div><div> Asimos was an authentically rebellious character during a conservative period for Greek society; he ignored all warnings of the censorship and the police concerning the lyrics of his songs and therefore was arrested several times. The haunt and the spiritual core of his unconventional political and artistic action was Exarchia, where he met and interacted with interesting alternative artists and movements. His unconventional character led to his political and artistic isolation, his placement into a psychiatric clinic and a number of unsuccessful suicide attempts. Crushed by fear of the asylum, Asimos hanged himself on 17th March 1988. He was the greatest troubadour of the anarchist movement in Greece and one of the figures that created Exarcheia’s environment of radical thinking and practice.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Utopia 500 team visits Alexandre Herculano secondary school in Porto</title><description><![CDATA[On 25th of January Utopia 500 team visited one of the oldest secondary schools in Porto – Escola Secundária Alexandre Herculano. Workshops entitled “What is Science Fiction for?” were held with two classes of pupils of 11th grade. The themes addressed were science fiction and modern technologies as well as climate change and food security. Several of ourinternational trainees, Aleksandra from Poland, Sara from Spain and Hermine from Latvia prepared interesting and interactive materials on these<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_ebb4bf4d200844018ac297fd9d85ffb5%7Emv2_d_5184_3888_s_4_2.jpg/v1/fill/w_307%2Ch_230/947986_ebb4bf4d200844018ac297fd9d85ffb5%7Emv2_d_5184_3888_s_4_2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Polina Kireva</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/07/Utopia-500-team-visits-Alexandre-Herculano-secondary-school-in-Porto</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/07/Utopia-500-team-visits-Alexandre-Herculano-secondary-school-in-Porto</guid><pubDate>Wed, 07 Feb 2018 12:52:20 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_ebb4bf4d200844018ac297fd9d85ffb5~mv2_d_5184_3888_s_4_2.jpg"/><div> On 25th of January Utopia 500 team visited one of the oldest secondary schools in Porto – Escola Secundária Alexandre Herculano. Workshops entitled “What is Science Fiction for?” were held with two classes of pupils of 11th grade. The themes addressed were science fiction and modern technologies as well as climate change and food security. Several of our</div><div>international trainees, Aleksandra from Poland, Sara from Spain and Hermine from Latvia prepared interesting and interactive materials on these topics, fostering the young people, aged between 16 and 18 years, to develop and exercise critical thinking. A few short movies were shown, followed by discussions in which the pupils openly shared in English language their observations, ideas and views, related to such actual and crucial contemporary society issues. </div><div>The pupils were very enthusiastic about discussing various modern and classical sci-fi movies, they had seen or heard about, for example Star Trek, The Hunger Games, Wall-e, E.T., Lucy, Interstellar, Terminator, etc. They were introduced to the terms &quot;utopia&quot; and &quot;dystopia&quot;, although a few already knew their meaning. The dystopian movies appeared to be well known. After watching the short movie &quot;Sight&quot; the students shared their concerns about the possible misuse of technologies for manipulation of the social communication, control over other people, living a fake, unreal life and invading privacy.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_256211e6807d47c08282c482258582b7~mv2.png"/><div>The topics of global food production and security, including health related issues, arising from malnutrition or fast food consumption, were also regarded as very interesting and relevant. The pupils of the two classes were pushed to thinking of solutions to global challenges like monocultural corporate food production and the risks of losing harvests, resulting in hunger and starvation. Organic farming and supporting local production were among the possible solutions, mentioned by the children. The fact that in the center of Porto there is a place, where everybody could buy for a normal price organic but not so attractively looking fruits and veggies, produced by farmers of the area around Porto, was surprising. &quot;Fruta feia&quot; project (frutafeia.pt) will surely get new customers now! Some youngsters even said they started thinking of growing a garden on their own. </div><div>Iara Dias (16 years old, 11-B class) said: “This experience changed me and my friends. Tomorrow I will do something differently. I think this project is very good because it changes the world.”</div><div>The Utopia 500 trainees played some games with the pupils that helped them realize how we are all interconnected.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_9bc0ca08efee418483ce89dd49452f7b~mv2_d_5184_3888_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_2d24d66163d84ceebf9a6a2d368837aa~mv2_d_5184_3888_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>One of the girls, Ines Pereira (16 years old, 11-A class) shared: “It was funny and educational and helped us realize what is happening in the world.” Her classmate, Patricia Guerreiro (16 years old, 11-A class), agreed with her and added: “I really liked it; it was a really nice workshop! We talked about the environment and pandemic diseases, the causes and some solutions to those problems. It does make me think.”</div><div>Climate change and what every one of us could do to prevent a future climate disaster intrigued largely all participants. Simple everyday life actions and deeds were the key focus of the discussion that followed the presentation of Aleksandra from Poland.</div><div>Pedro Silva from 11-A class stated that “I like this project and it was a lot of fun to be with these people; it was very interesting talking about the future and our actions – how we can prevent the calamity that will happen to the world if we don’t act.”</div><div>Among the possible solutions to climate change that the children thought of immediately were: use more public transport and bikes, instead of cars; use more paper and cloth bags and stop using plastic bags; use more renewable energy; refill bottles; don’t use aerosols, etc.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_93297bb48a2a4dc0bf6671b52ddf5b28~mv2_d_5184_3888_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>Pedro Silva said: “What made the most impression on me was working in groups to think of solutions for the various problems; it was a very interesting activity and I liked to meet people from other countries in person instead of talking to them through the computer.”</div><div>The youngsters from both classes, altogether 40 people, were very inspired and said they will be happy to have Utopia 500 team to visit them again. Their teacher, Mrs. Maria José Pereira, who teaches for more than 37 years now, confirmed the interest of her pupils. “This workshop was very important because it teaches the students to think of the future and of how what they do today impacts their future”, she said. “The students were very proactive! I think it is good to continue and next time it will be very interesting for them to talk about Ecotopia”.</div><div>Alexandre Herculano is among the oldest secondary schools in Porto, built more than 110 years ago. Some prominent academicians of the University of Porto are related to this school, such as Torquato Brochado de Sousa Soares (1903-1988) and Armindo de Sousa (1941-1998), both historians and professors at the Faculty of Arts.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_811c1509e658439a868f6f5caeda2961~mv2.png"/></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Franz Kafka</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 3 July 1883Died: 3 June 1924Nationality: CzechFranz Kafka was a German-language writer of novels and short stories. Kafka is regarded by critics as one of the most influential authors of the 20th century with his original thought and unique ideas. Most of his works, such as Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis), Der Process (The Trial), and Das Schloss (The Castle), are filled with the themes and archetypes of alienation, physical and psychological brutality, parent–child conflict,<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_b8f34d8acecb4b988669531152a96933%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_382%2Ch_215/947986_b8f34d8acecb4b988669531152a96933%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/07/Franz-Kafka</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/07/Franz-Kafka</guid><pubDate>Wed, 07 Feb 2018 12:45:24 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_b8f34d8acecb4b988669531152a96933~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 3 July 1883</div><div>Died: 3 June 1924</div><div>Nationality: Czech</div><div>Franz Kafka was a German-language writer of novels and short stories. Kafka is regarded by critics as one of the most influential authors of the 20th century with his original thought and unique ideas. Most of his works, such as Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis), Der Process (The Trial), and Das Schloss (The Castle), are filled with the themes and archetypes of alienation, physical and psychological brutality, parent–child conflict, characters on a terrifying quest, labyrinths of bureaucracy, and mystical transformations.</div><div>After completing his legal education, he obtained employment with an insurance company. Kafka began to write short stories in his spare time. For the rest of his life, he complained about the little time he had to devote to what he came to regard as his calling. Kafka preferred to communicate by letter; he wrote hundreds of letters to family and close female friends. Recipients included his father, his fiancée Felice Bauer, and his youngest sister Ottla.</div><div>Only a few of Kafka's works were published during his lifetime: the story collections Betrachtung (Contemplation) and Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor). He prepared the story collection Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist) for print, but it was not published until after his death. Kafka's unfinished works, including his novels Der Process, Das Schloss and Amerika (also known as Der Verschollene/ The Man Who Disappeared), were published posthumously, mostly by his friend Max Brod, who ignored Kafka's wish to have the manuscripts destroyed. Albert Camus, Gabriel García Márquez and Jean-Paul Sartre are among some of the writers influenced by Kafka's work; the term Kafkaesque has entered the English language to describe existential situations like those in his writing.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Mustafa Kemal Atatürk</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 19 May 1881Died: 10 November 1938Nationality: TurkishMustafa Kemal Atatürk was an accomplished army officer come revolutionary, who became Turkey’s first President. Initially, he trained at European-style military schools within the Ottoman Empire and proved himself an able soldier/ leader in the final conflicts of the Ottoman Empire’s military and in World War I. After the war the Ottoman Sultanate, under the governance of Grand Vizier Damat Ferid Pasha, agreed to the 'Treaty of Sèvres'<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_e0519ce6d44548ba8bd56a6206a36dbf%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_263%2Ch_156/947986_e0519ce6d44548ba8bd56a6206a36dbf%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/02/Mustafa-Kemal-Atat%C3%BCrk</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2018/02/02/Mustafa-Kemal-Atat%C3%BCrk</guid><pubDate>Fri, 02 Feb 2018 10:21:37 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_e0519ce6d44548ba8bd56a6206a36dbf~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 19 May 1881</div><div>Died: 10 November 1938</div><div>Nationality: Turkish</div><div>Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an accomplished army officer come revolutionary, who became Turkey’s first President. Initially, he trained at European-style military schools within the Ottoman Empire and proved himself an able soldier/ leader in the final conflicts of the Ottoman Empire’s military and in World War I. After the war the Ottoman Sultanate, under the governance of Grand Vizier Damat Ferid Pasha, agreed to the 'Treaty of Sèvres' but Kemal and his newly established Turkish Parliament/ Grand National Assembly rejected this treaty and its terms, thus, starting Turkish War of Independence. After gaining independence for the Turkish State, he came to the fore as 'revolutionary statesman'.</div><div>Through Atatürk’s and the GNA’s (Grand National Assembly) tireless efforts, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed on 29th October 1923, after the 'Treaty of Lausanne'. The GNA elected him to rule and between 1923 and 1938, he was the first elected President of the Republic of Turkey.</div><div>His new government focused on modernising the newly formed Republic of Turkey and adopted social, economic and political reforms that moved Turkey from its former Islamic and imperial roots, to a modern, democratic and secular nation.</div><div>Mustafa Kemal Atatürk can definitely be considered a Great Utopian. His dedication to his country revolutionised Turkey and its society for the better. Moreover, he is seen as the person who unified the nation and all of its peoples, hence why the name Atatürk was granted solely to him by the Turkish parliament which translates to ‘Father or All Turks’.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Sigmund Freud</title><description><![CDATA[Born: 6 May 1856Died: 23 September 1939Nationality: AustrianSigmund Freud was born as Sigismund Schlomo Freud to Jewish parents in Freiberg, Austrian Empire. Sigmund was born in caul and since medieval times it has been considered as a sign of luck and that the child is destined for greatness. So believed his mother too. His father was a wool merchant who struggled financially and the whole family was forced to move to Vienna. Sigmund proved to be a very bright student and at the age of 17 he<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/a3c20d_2fc09cc12d0d49408c9016e21056d219.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2015/11/24/Sigmund-Schlomo-Freud</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2015/11/24/Sigmund-Schlomo-Freud</guid><pubDate>Fri, 19 Jan 2018 15:15:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_9456fa44735e43fe82e6d27a36bd4c8b~mv2.jpg"/><div>Born: 6 May 1856</div><div>Died: 23 September 1939</div><div>Nationality: Austrian</div><div>Sigmund Freud was born as Sigismund Schlomo Freud to Jewish parents in Freiberg, Austrian Empire. Sigmund was born in caul and since medieval times it has been considered as a sign of luck and that the child is destined for greatness. So believed his mother too. His father was a wool merchant who struggled financially and the whole family was forced to move to Vienna. Sigmund proved to be a very bright student and at the age of 17 he was finishing a gymnasium and translating the ‘Myth of Oedipus’ from Ancient Greek. Before entering the University of Vienna he was already proficient in English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Latin and Spanish. Nevertheless, he could not choose what to study next – law, medicine or politics. Eventually he joined the medical faculty at the university, where he studied philosophy under Franz Brentano, physiology under Ernst Brücke, and zoology under Darwinist professor Carl Claus.</div><div>In 1884 Freud wrote an article ‘On Coca’ where he praised it as a stimulant as well as analgesic and suggested it to all his friends and relatives. It was a time when drug testing became very popular between scientists. An episode was especially critiqued by most doctors – when Freud suggested cocaine as a cure for addiction to morphine to his friend Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow. Freud was also curing himself with cocaine and soon developed pain in nose and severe headaches. Therefore, his next friend is Wilhelm Fliess – an otolaryngologist.</div><div>In 1886 Freud started up a private practice specializing in “nervous disorders”, where he began using hypnosis in his clinical work. Hypnosis that he used was different from that of the famous Jean-Martin Charcot in that that he did not use suggestion. The same year he married Martha Bernays and the couple had six children. By 1896 Freud abandoned hypnosis as a method and introduced the term “psychoanalysis” to refer to his new clinical method as known as “free association” or “talking cure” and the theories on which it was based in ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ (Die Traumdeutung, 1896). In the autumn 1902 Freud and his likeminded friends - Alfred Adler, Max Kahane, and Rudolf Reitler started meeting every Wednesday at his apartment and became known as ‘Wednesday Psychological Society’ (Psychologische Mittwochs-Gesellschaft). By 1906 the group had grown to sixteen members as Otto Rank, Ludwig Binswanger, Carl Gustav Jung and others joined it. The Wednesday group was renamed the ‘Vienna Psychoanalytic Society’ that later grew to The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) which nowadays is an association of 12,000 members worldwide with 70 constituent organizations.</div><div>In January 1933, the Nazis took control of Germany, and Freud's books were prominent among those they burned and destroyed. Freud flew from Nazi regime to London where he continued to see patients until the last stages of his cancer of jaw.</div><div>Some of his most prominent ideas are: introduction of ‘unconscious’ in psychology; theory of Oedipus complex; model of human psyche: Id, ego and super-ego; feminine castration complex and penis envy. Sigmund Freud is a Great Utopian as he is a founder of psychoanalysis as a science (or pseudo-science) and his ideas are still influential and widely used in psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy and in humanities overall, although his ideas also generate a highly contested debate whether they lack scientific merit, objectivity or are corrupt.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Portuguese Immigration Measures</title><description><![CDATA[How much do we know about refugees and immigrants? This issue is a major problem of the last decades and, although you can find all types of data about refugees arriving to countries like the UK and Germany, there is very little to no information about this subject in minor countries like Portugal. Although this Iberian country has not received as many immigrants and asylum seekers, it is undoubtedly their problem too. In fact, Portugal offered to accept 10.000 people, more than 3 times the<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_50d1b7f486554a139ec1492c5e840222%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_188%2Ch_48/947986_50d1b7f486554a139ec1492c5e840222%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Sara Conesa</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2017/12/04/Portuguese-Immigration-Measures</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2017/12/04/Portuguese-Immigration-Measures</guid><pubDate>Mon, 04 Dec 2017 12:39:14 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>How much do we know about refugees and immigrants? This issue is a major problem of the last decades and, although you can find all types of data about refugees arriving to countries like the UK and Germany, there is very little to no information about this subject in minor countries like Portugal. Although this Iberian country has not received as many immigrants and asylum seekers, it is undoubtedly their problem too. In fact, Portugal offered to accept 10.000 people, more than 3 times the amount it was assigned. Thanks to Refugees Welcome Porto and an interview with a volunteer in the Portuguese Immigration Centre, I have been able to collect some important information that will be useful to understand the procedures immigrants have to go through and how it is to live without papers.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_50d1b7f486554a139ec1492c5e840222~mv2.jpg"/><div>We should always keep in mind that the terms “refugee” and “asylum seeker” do not refer to the same thing. Refugee refers to an individual that has fled from his country and has a permit (i.e. legal papers) to stay in a different country from his. On the other hand, asylum seekers are those in the process to become refugees. As such, when they arrive to Portugal to seek asylum, they have to present themselves to the authorities or the SEF (Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras), who has 20 days to decide on the admissibility or inadmissibility of the asylum claim. If the decision is negative, the applicant can solicit a re-appreciation of its case. If it is approved, the applicant is either recognised as a Refugee or issued a Temporary Residence Permit valid for two months and which can be renewed for periods of 30 days until the final decision. With this permit, asylum seekers are allowed to work, to study, to attend professional training courses, and to apply for a tax contributor card. In other words, if you are not a refugee and do not have this permit, you do not have access to any of these rights. Concerning health care, asylum seekers, stateless persons and refugees, regardless of whether they are holding a Residence Permit (temporary or not), are entitled to medical assistance and medication.</div><div>But who exactly is being detained? As detailed by Portuguese immigration laws, asylum seekers lodging or asking for an application at ports of entry and any foreign citizen who unlawfully enters or stays in national territory may be detained. But this does not end here. It seems very easy for immigrants to become undocumented and illegal, and be detained by the authorities, for instance, if your passport expires and you do not renew it. Moreover, immigrants can only be held at airports or other ports of entry for a maximum of 7 days, and the detention order needs to be validated by a judge. Nevertheless, they can be held beyond that time frame if there is a risk of absconding or a failure to comply with the voluntary removal order. At detention centres this time frame is extended to 60 days, but if you are an immigrant already living in Portugal, you are offered an alternative to immigration detention centres: the obligation to report to immigration or police authorities, and home confinement using electronic surveillance. To what extent this is granted we do not know yet.</div><div>Naturally, all detainees have a high chance of being deported if their documents are not valid or approved by a judge, but this is more complicated than it seems at first. Countries are not allowed to deport people whose countries of birth are at war or have been declared unstable by the UN. For instance, Afghanistan has become more peaceful in the last fifteen years and, although being still one of the most unstable states in the world, the UN has declared it stable and Afghan asylum seekers can now be deported. However, deportation involves a lot of costs and agreements. As a case in point, if Portugal wants to deport someone to Morocco, first they have to contact them in order to confirm if they will accept him. If Morocco refuses, then Portugal is obliged to maintain the person in the country. On the other hand, if you are deported, you are allowed to apply for a visa again to that same country after a period of 3 years.</div><div>On top of that, while their documents are being processed, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants are detained at the Immigration Detention Centre in Porto, namely Unidade Habitacional de Santo António, for a maximum of 60 days, after which they are released for 21 days and can be detained back again after that time frame. The problem is that even when they are released, they still do not have legal papers, which means that they cannot get jobs nor rent a house, and they go homeless. Sometimes, the only way for them to get food and a place to sleep is by actually being detained to the detention centre, where they may find both good and bad conditions.</div><div>The Unidade Habitacional de Santo António is managed by SEF, which collaborates in delivering services at the facility with IOM (International Organisation for Migration), JRS (Jesuit Refugee Services), and Médicos do Mundo (Doctors of the World). SEF also manages short-term holding facilities located at the airports of Faro, Lisbon, Funchal, and Ponta Delgada, and other border central stations. The facilities include an outdoor green space; common areas with tables, sofas and two TVs; a child-friendly zone equipped with toys and cribs; a canteen; and the rooms, which are divided by gender and located in different floors. It has been reported, nevertheless, that the facilities lack adequate recreational facilities. Moreover, the total capacity of the centre is 36 people (30 adults and 6 children), which is barely enough space for the increasing influx of immigrants and asylum seekers in Portugal. This means that sometimes detainees have to sleep on the floor because there is not enough room in the centre. Many of them are even sent back to the detention facilities at the airports, which can be more fittingly described as jails. On the other hand, detainees at the centre have access to the Internet and telephone cards (to personal phones in some instances) for a certain price, and are allowed two hours of phone calls and four cigarettes per day. It is nevertheless true that the centre has certain security rules. For instance, journalists are not allowed in the facilities, detainees have to be together at all times, and there are some objects that they are not allowed to have, such as scissors, belts, shoe laces, pens or pencils, and anything that could be used as a weapon.</div><div>All in all, there are still many things beyond our understanding and we cannot claim to comprehend the entire journey of becoming stateless, but we can help make these people’s lives a little bit better, and a great example of this is Gail, a volunteer at the Immigration Detention Centre in Porto that helped me understand this strange world of politics and immigration laws. She pointed out several times throughout our conversation how important it is to help this minority directly in order to make an impact: “I think that when you are doing volunteering, it is important that you have a connection with the people you are helping. It is not like putting money in an envelope every month or something like that. You need to see what you are doing so that you can either adjust your behaviour or your attitude, or be able to talk about it at first hand. You can get reports on how well your money is doing in a volunteering, donation or charity situation, but your reward should be seeing the people you are helping. If you see someone who needs help, you can do something about it straightaway. I cannot help these people become legal, but I can help them feel better. Many of these people have a lot of problems, and sometimes it is just being there and remembering their names and where they come from that makes a difference.” So, if you feel like you are not doing enough and want to collaborate in a solution, helping those who arrive to your country, and showing them your language and culture, may be a fun and life-enhancing way to do it. You can always count on associations like Refugees Welcome or Programa Mentores Para Migrantes to help you through this process and make the most out of it (see the link below for more information).</div><iframe src="//static.usrfiles.com/html/9d1fec_0e0fd731e82ed8aa99baf2cc33fbca11.html"/></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Boski Fest</title><description><![CDATA[In 2017, the 7th edition of Boski Fest- a festival organized by a group of friends in Poland - was celebrated. But among all the festivals around Europe, what makes this small celebration so special? The festival does not only show the history and development of young people and their utopian ideology, later spread into a bigger group, but also how important ecology and sustainability is for them and all of us. So who are they? Their ideology evolved over the years, engaging with new people with<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_a4c9ca0cbd524b0aa50c0f2607aa09a4%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_282%2Ch_282/947986_a4c9ca0cbd524b0aa50c0f2607aa09a4%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Aleksandra Pawlik</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2017/11/29/Boski-Fest</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2017/11/29/Boski-Fest</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Nov 2017 14:16:37 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_a4c9ca0cbd524b0aa50c0f2607aa09a4~mv2.jpg"/><div> In 2017, the 7th edition of Boski Fest- a festival organized by a group of friends in Poland - was celebrated. But among all the festivals around Europe, what makes this small celebration so special? The festival does not only show the history and development of young people and their utopian ideology, later spread into a bigger group, but also how important ecology and sustainability is for them and all of us.</div><div>So who are they?</div><div> Their ideology evolved over the years, engaging with new people with similar opinions and ideas. Everything started with three school-friends who decided to throw a birthday party together in 2010. It was at this party that the name of the festival was born: Boski, which means “Divine” and which is also the nickname of one of the three birthday boys. But nobody expected this idea to grow as big as it is nowadays. Since the beginning, this group of friends was very creative and open-minded. To understand why these people felt the strong need to organize an event and share their ideas with a bigger audience, first we need to get know their environment. They all grew up in Bydgoszcz, a city in central Poland, far away from the sea and even farther away from the mountains. A typical big, industrial city without many opportunities for young people to have fun or to do something special. But they all love the city, so they started to gather people with the same need to create something new in their home town.</div><div>The first three editions of the festival were basically birthday parties with friends and other friends of their friends, and they found the perfect spot: a small island in the river of the city, to which you could get to with a small boat. In the beginning, this group of friends were just creating a way to spend time and a place for hosting an alternative party. However, every year more people started getting involved, along with new ideas. They were so creative that they organized a party at a student flat where one of the rooms was filled with sand beach. The recording of this house party became the official fan video of a Polish band known as SOFA.</div><div> Since 2013, the group of organizers and the festival idea has rapidly grown. By that time, it was not a party with friends anymore, but a new movement presented to the bigger audience, a movement with the goal of showing how we can positively change our environment. The organizers started to pay more attention to subjects close to their hearts, such as ecology, travelling, stemming from a certain scheme of living, and sharing the idea that it is possible to do whatever you love in your life, and be successful at it.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_9f2a200e6de04563924374e59411a4fd~mv2.jpg"/><div>3 “roots”</div><div> The Boski team decided to organize 3 panels, or main roots, of the festival. The first root is music, as you can imagine. The music is often proposed by participants, and later chosen by their collective according to their own taste, and into which they are finding positive vibrations, and a similar ideology of freedom. The second root of the festival is a workshop panel full of passion. The task of this panel is not only to put smiles on people’s faces, but also to leave a trace and a thought on their minds. This is the kind of influence that can rest in their lives, waking up new ideas, inspirations, and thoughts. For this reason, there were workshops like natural building to show how you can help the natural environment by changing very simple things in your life. There were also workshops focused on waking up creativity, and other activities like capoeira, yoga, crocheting, making your own t-shirts or making your own kokadama (a Japanese art of making natural flowerpots, instead of using plastic ones). There is a part of the workshops dedicated to the work of discovering ourselves by waking up awareness of our own selves and the people around us. These included laughing workshops, where people are taught how to break their own barriers and just laugh, with a final discussion about what was the hardest part of it and why. Kids and the elderly are also very important members of our community, so there were several activities with the purpose of integrating all generations. One of these activities was a trip through the forest, prepared for parents and kids. Throughout the trip they explored the different living beings in the forest and how to take care of nature, as well as legends and stories connected to those plants.</div><div>The last root, but not less important, is a discussion panel. This is where the shared ideology of equality and freedom of the festival comes into play. These meetings were created as a place to give everyone the chance to share their ideas, and discuss about different topics. During one of the editions, the participants of the festival had the chance to meet with two disabled travelers: Michał Woroch and Maciej Kamiński, who created a blog known as Wheelchair trip, in which they talk about their trips across all the world. Thenceforth, they have visited South America, Europe, and some parts of Asia. One of their challenges was a 3-day trip riding horses through Mongolia. Apart from them, there has always been place in the discussion panels for non-typical travelers, ecologists, or people close to the city hall that encourage the cooperation between the city and the locals.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_56459f92037c443eba6f1def2dc00665~mv2.jpg"/><div>The organizers have explained several times that, for all of these three roots, they are trying to get involved both professionals, and friends, colleagues, parents, and grandparents. To put it bluntly, people with passion and energy willing to share, and all of this in a DiY and ecological spirit. Each year they build the entire infrastructure themselves, with the help of volunteers, using recycled materials. They have also resigned from using disposable plastic cups, and, instead, they have designed reusable festival cups and edible plates created from oat brans. That simple intervention decreased the trash in more than a half.</div><div>Another important aspect, as I mentioned before, is integration between generations. That is why the organizers are promoting special free entrance or cheaper tickets if you take a member of your family from other generations (younger siblings, grandparents, etc.) with you. Each year they are inviting elderly people from different associations like a chorus of seniors or the seniors dance association, and encourage them to perform and dance with the youngsters, and vice versa.</div><div>Throughout the whole festival organizers pay attention to how participants react in each activity to learn how to manage and organize people and volunteers, and how to improve planning the event in terms of logistics, security, sanitation, and legality.</div><div>How is it funded?</div><div>Since 2013, Boski collective decided to participate in a city contest known as “Realization of artistic projects and undertakings of promotional importance for the city Bydgoszcz”. It is through this contest that they got a grant from the city for 3 years. A different role of the funding, and probably the most meaningful, is collecting money via a crowdfunding platform. Thanks to this opportunity, they are promoting a win-win situation. Through this platform people can donate as much as they want to, and each payment gives you an entrance to the festival. The slogan of this idea is “You give as much as you feel like”; that is, you decide how important the festival is to you. Of course, people that decide to donate more can also choose their extra rewards, like vouchers of restaurants in the city, entrance to the climbing wall, or a visit to the doctor’s specialist office. All of these places became partners thanks to negotiations and conversations of the Boski team with the companies’ managers. Moreover, in order to inform people about how and where they can participate in the crowdfunding, a short movie campaign was created to explain the idea of the festival as well. In 2017 the biggest crowdfunding platform (Polak Potrafi) in Poland awarded prizes for the best projects funded via their platform. The prize of the category “Crowd culture” (Kultura Tłumu) was granted to Boski Fest.</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EA4-dpQJoa0"/><div>Workcamp</div><div> This year, the Boski collective did not stop spreading their ideas. A new challenge for them supposed creating a work camp for foreign volunteers, the result being the reception of 12 foreign volunteers from Taiwan, China, Korea, France, Turkey, Spain, Belarus, and USA. Throughout the two weeks previous to the festival, both volunteers and the collective built the infrastructures, and prepared the area all together. It was a great experience to get to know other cultures and learn to live side by side. As such, the symbol of this cooperation became the very moment in which they were moving a destroyed wooden house in order to use it as a beach stage.</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MFNbCIuY6ec"/><div>In the future, they want to keep developing themselves and the festival with new ideas. The new goal that they have already presented is to create an atmosphere and opportunity to engage more people, and explain to all the participants of the festival that they are not only mere visitors, but that they are also creating and changing it. That will be the idea for the fourth root of Boski Fest: society. In other words, to make participants feel more important during the festival, and give them more opportunities to be heard, as well as give them responsibility in their actions, but always in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation. We will see how the festival develops in the future.</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s1hu7P0oEBY"/><div>Aftermovie-2015</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l759F0WtAk0"/><div> Aftermovie-2016</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Refugees Welcome Porto</title><description><![CDATA[If you missed the presentation event of Refugees Welcome Porto on the 26th of October, here is some information about this organization that will be very helpful for you to know if you are thinking about contributing to the cause of refugees. The event started with a series of short films, which you can find at the end of this article, and continued with a talk and powerpoint about the main tasks of this project.Refugees Welcome is a non-profit organization created in 2015 by a group of young<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_871c27135c2c444199e02a00cd3e3b28%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_339%2Ch_198/947986_871c27135c2c444199e02a00cd3e3b28%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Sara Conesa</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2017/11/13/Refugees-Welcome-Porto</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2017/11/13/Refugees-Welcome-Porto</guid><pubDate>Mon, 13 Nov 2017 11:13:29 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_871c27135c2c444199e02a00cd3e3b28~mv2.jpg"/><div>If you missed the presentation event of Refugees Welcome Porto on the 26th of October, here is some information about this organization that will be very helpful for you to know if you are thinking about contributing to the cause of refugees. The event started with a series of short films, which you can find at the end of this article, and continued with a talk and powerpoint about the main tasks of this project.</div><div>Refugees Welcome is a non-profit organization created in 2015 by a group of young people. The project started in Germany with the idea of flatsharing with refugees and it has been expanding to other countries in Europe ever since. Their goal is to help refugees adjust to the new country and overcome any difficulties they may find while adapting to a new, different reality. If you are interested in collaborating with them, you should be taking into account that there are two ways of contributing: either as a volunteer or a as mentor. </div><div>Regarding voluntary service, there are several different teams that you can be a member of, such as the refugees team, in which volunteers conduct interviews and meetings with the new refugees that contact the organization in order to get to know them and evaluate their needs; or the events team, where members are in charge of carrying out a series of events to raise awareness within the local community and other activities like dinner meetings. They also have other small teams for the social media, marketing and sustainability, and others. But perhaps, one of the main teams of this project is the housing team. Here, people can help refugees by providing them accommodation for a certain period of time for free, or with an arranged contract between the two parts. It should be taken into account that the whole idea of this project is not that of renting or lending rooms, but of flatsharing with equal tenancy rights. For more information about this project check out the link to their website below.</div><iframe src="//static.usrfiles.com/html/9d1fec_03200d27d58f4ba6b4773a873250ce98.html"/><div>If you are interested in helping a refugee in a more direct way, you can become a mentor. “Programa mentores para migrantes” is a project supported by the Portuguese government to support not only refugees, but also Portuguese migrants that are returning after a long period of time living in a different country. Through this platform, you will be assigned to a refugee or Portuguese migrant to help them get any kind of legal documents, to create a Curriculum Vitae and look for a job, to look for accommodation, to learn Portuguese, and many other tasks to help them settle. For more information click on the link below.</div><iframe src="//static.usrfiles.com/html/9d1fec_172cd3baaafc628e81c4c62442155c23.html"/><div>&quot;Nowhere Line: Voices from Manus Island&quot;</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_D8B0o1aRcs"/><div>&quot;Malak and the Boat&quot;</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2UMjSZaMY2Y"/><div>&quot;Refuge&quot;</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R6CHMDHHgr0"/><div>&quot;Scent of Geranium&quot;</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y_l6TyDudk8"/></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>4th Edition of MICAR</title><description><![CDATA[SOS Racismo is a nongovernmental organization that advocates the fight against racism and promotes a society that respects the equality of rights of everyone. To promote awareness of this matter, they have carried out the 4th edition of MICAR (Mostra Internacional de Cinema Anti Racista) in Porto this month. The event took place from the 13th to the 14th of October at Teatro Municipal do Porto and more than 30 films were exhibited for free. These included short and full-length films,<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_383ba770423f450fabaa1e1e2fdc44d7%7Emv2.png/v1/fill/w_627%2Ch_239/947986_383ba770423f450fabaa1e1e2fdc44d7%7Emv2.png"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Sara Conesa</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2017/10/26/4th-Edition-of-MICAR</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2017/10/26/4th-Edition-of-MICAR</guid><pubDate>Thu, 26 Oct 2017 13:03:17 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_383ba770423f450fabaa1e1e2fdc44d7~mv2.png"/><div>SOS Racismo is a nongovernmental organization that advocates the fight against racism and promotes a society that respects the equality of rights of everyone. To promote awareness of this matter, they have carried out the 4th edition of MICAR (Mostra Internacional de Cinema Anti Racista) in Porto this month. The event took place from the 13th to the 14th of October at Teatro Municipal do Porto and more than 30 films were exhibited for free. These included short and full-length films, documentaries and animation films within the subject matters of racism, immigration, xenophobia, discrimination, and ethnic minorities.</div><div>The purpose of this article is to introduce a few of the films to you and debate some of the issues central to these films.</div><div>13th</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_1a7b829de1724af2940b34b6168f5dc4~mv2.jpg"/><div>One of the main documentaries displayed was 13th (2016), an American documentary by director Ava DuVernay that shows how racism led the USA to have the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The documentary opens with the following statement of former President Barack Obama: “The United States is home to 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners.” The question is, then, how they reached this point.</div><div>After the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment Bill was passed to ban any kind of slavery throughout the country:</div><div>“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”</div><div>However, the economy of the country started to fall very rapidly, since slavery was one of the main profits, and the government figured out that they could take advantage of the 13th Amendment to arrest African American for extremely minor crimes and use criminalization as a mean of rebuilding the economy of the country. This way, African Americans were forced to work for the state under convict leasing, and this is a problem that persists nowadays. ‘Super predators’, as they started to be called, were overrepresented in the news as criminals, to such a point where black people started to fear themselves. As a matter of fact, as pointed out in the documentary, the Bureau of Justice reported that one in three young, black males is expected to go to prison during his lifetime, in contrast to one in seventeen white males. In consequence, the USA reached the peak of mass incarceration of people of colour by the late 20th century, and as Kevin Gannon asserts, “ this is the product of a centuries-long historical process”. This way, it does not come as a surprise that in such an advanced era more and more people are joining protests against racism and police violence in the USA.</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V66F3WU2CKk"/><div>Mediterranea</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_498dbd3b54f54e7b841b17a13565af7d~mv2.jpg"/><div>An even more serious issue that has been silenced for years is the migrant<div> crisis. With Mediterranea (2016), Jonas Carpignano addresses the problems African immigrants encounter when they arrive to the Mediterranean coast (the city of Rosarno in Italy, in this case) looking for the ‘European dream’. The film is based on the life of Koudous Seihon, who stars in the film as himself. The first part of the film focuses on his journey from Burkina Faso to Italy via Algeria and Libya. This part of the film is very short and it does not do justice to the life-threatening journey that African migrants try to do daily. After days and months crossing deserts on foot, many of them engage in the dangerous affair of travelling to Europe with a small, barely seaworthy, illegal boat (only 10% of African migrants choose this type of journey), which in order to embark they have to pay the vast amount of about 2000€ . More often than not, the boat shipwrecks and many people end up drowning (as many of them do not know how to swim). Shockingly, approximately 3771 immigrants died in the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 and at least 3800 in 2016, as reported by the UN.</div></div><div>Nevertheless, the nightmare continues when they arrive and find out that Europe is not as they imagined. African immigrants find themselves in humiliating, poor life conditions, getting the worst jobs one could ever have and having to adapt to a new society that marginalizes them, not to mention the language barrier that they have to surpass. In the film, we can see how Koudous and his companions have to live in shacks when they arrive due to the difficulty of finding proper housing without legal papers. Moreover, the working conditions are very poor, having to work day and night, if they find it. There are less jobs everyday and, if you have ever visited big cities in Spain or Italy, you may find African people selling things illegally in the street. However, sometimes what they sell is not enough to survive. For instance, those who sell illegal, dvd films have to survive with 5€ per day, 10€ if they are lucky.</div><div>Mediterranea also represents very well how many people try to help them in any way they can, but also how many others humiliate and use xenophobic terms against them. As shown, Koudous and his companions started a protest after finding out that two black men were murdered and seeing in the news that the police of Rosouno evicted immigrants from the city centre simply because the local residents did not want them in the neighbourhood. The outcome resulted in locals throwing things at them, such as stones, and in the riot police fighting them and using violence. Throughout the film one can also see how the police further deals with illegal immigrants by violently asking for their legal papers and even stealing their money.</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1tza2aOL_xk"/><div>Die Welle</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_dc974a93e5e4403dbe3a8282d9780037~mv2.jpg"/><div>On a different subject, Die Welle (The Wave) is a German film from 2008 produced by Dennis Gansel, based on a true story that happened in 1967 in a high school in California. The film shows how easy it is to manipulate information, especially for teenagers who are in the search of new ideologies.</div><div>In a high school in Germany, a teacher, Rainer Wenger, comes up with the idea of carrying out an experiment in his class to show his students how an autocratic and totalitarian government works, to which they respond with the belief that another dictatorship could not happen again in Germany after what it has gone through already. The experiment started with a few harmless ideas, such as promoting discipline and a sense of community, which derived into a real movement: the wave, where the students agreed to use uniforms and even came up with a symbol to represent it. After a few days, the movement gets stronger and the students are spreading it not only in the corridors of the school, but also in the streets of the city. On the fourth day, they come up with a salute and those students who do not use it or wear the proper uniform are excluded and are no longer allowed to enter the school. The movement starts to develop violence against those who do not follow it, and one of the students even offers himself to be the bodyguard of Rainer, the leader of the movement. At this point, Rainer realizes that the experiment has gotten out of control and tries to stop it.</div><div>The film deals with the problem of manipulation of young minds to establish a certain kind of ideology and a totalitarian system, which is achieved by eradicating individual differences and giving them the illusion that they have a voice, along with a sense of community and unity. We live in a society defined by individuality and teenagers have the need to feel superior and something to identify themselves with, making it very easy to induce ideas in their minds and manipulate them. Die Welle only shows a small part of how dangerous the proper manipulation of information can be and how our world and societies can be turned into the unexpected: autocracy.</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N9vdfb2f-B0"/></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Is vegetarianism the new trend?</title><description><![CDATA[“Casa da Horta é uma associação, não é um restaurante” is the motto of this small organization located in Porto. If you have read the former article dedicated to Casa da Horta, then you already know that it consists of a cultural and environmental association with the purpose of creating local action in areas such as recycling and ethical food consumption. Every so often, they host a series of events of interest, being the last one a small debate on vegetarianism. The debate was organized by<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_1110a185b3634095b9e25dab173e4f98%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_276%2Ch_166/947986_1110a185b3634095b9e25dab173e4f98%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>Sara Conesa</dc:creator><link>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2017/10/10/Is-vegetarianism-the-new-trend</link><guid>https://www.utopia500.net/single-post/2017/10/10/Is-vegetarianism-the-new-trend</guid><pubDate>Tue, 10 Oct 2017 11:21:47 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>“Casa da Horta é uma associação, não é um restaurante” is the motto of this small organization located in Porto. If you have read the former article dedicated to Casa da Horta, then you already know that it consists of a cultural and environmental association with the purpose of creating local action in areas such as recycling and ethical food consumption. Every so often, they host a series of events of interest, being the last one a small debate on vegetarianism. The debate was organized by Pedro Jorge Pereira and was attended by six people, mostly vegetarians and vegans. This debate was carried out following the World Vegetarian Day on the 1st of October, and the main discussion point was the growth of vegetarianism over the years and its immediate positive and negative consequences.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_1110a185b3634095b9e25dab173e4f98~mv2.jpg"/><div>While many people think that this sudden growth in the number of vegans and vegetarians over the world is a positive thing, there are many negative aspects surrounding this issue. It is true that it supposes less people contributing to the mass killing of animals and to companies profiting from slaughter and the use of animals as testing materials. And it is no surprise that this is done every day en masse as a result of industrialization. It was pointed out through the debate that while our grandparents only had meat, say, once a week, nowadays the demand is increasing every minute in order to feed all the population.</div><div>This is one of the many reasons for becoming vegetarian, along with ecological and health concerns. Indeed, the World Health Organization asserted that processed meat such as bacon and sausages are carcinogenic, directly involved in causing cancer in humans. They classify processed meat as a Group One carcinogen, along with cigarettes, asbestos and plutonium, meaning that each 50-gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%. Similarly, Harvard researchers found meat to be directly linked to diabetes and cancer, as well as what is known as ‘white meat’ (chicken and turkey).</div><div>Regarding ecological matters, it has been demonstrated that animal raising and agriculture produces more greenhouse gases than the transportation sector, causing ocean dead zones and rainforest destruction in conjunction with other problems of pollution.</div><div>Nevertheless, it has been found that the increasing number of vegetarians is causing negative impacts too, especially in some areas of the world. One of the main concerns nowadays is the increase of the demand of vegetarian products such as quinoa. As a matter of fact, quinoa, an ingredient mainly cropped in Bolivia and Peru, is starting to become very popular globally. However, due to its success, its cost is starting to severely inflate and it is no longer affordable for most of the local community in Bolivia and Peru, followed by a drastic change in their health and food habits in consequence. Many organizations have started promoting the idea of growth of quinoa in other parts of the world to avoid this problem, but this is still in an ongoing debate and has not been fully achieved.</div><div><div>Nonetheless, the main concern in the debate was the reason behind the growth of vegetarianism. Many polls and surveys have proved an increase of vegetarianism and veganism among youngsters. In Britain, for instance, the number of vegans has raised by 360% in the last 10 years and by 500% in the US since 2014, being teenagers the predominant participants in this type of polls. The matter in question, then, is whether vegetarianism is growing thanks to an increase of awareness or simply as a trend among young people. During the debate many of the attendants agreed on the fact that vegetarianism has become some sort of fashion, causing teenagers to become vegetarians for no good reason. One of the main causes for this kind of behaviour is social media, a great source of influence nowadays. In fact, vegetarianism has become a trendy label to have and seeing people bragging about it on Instagram is not rare at all. An even further trend that is starting to be known since the beginning of 2017 is the so-called ‘flexitarianism’, that is, eating predominantly, but not strictly, vegetarian meals as an alternative to going full vegetarian or vega</div>n. Therefore, we have to ask ourselves what will be the longevity of this trend. The participants of the debate claimed that, as a fashion label, many </div><img src="http://media2.giphy.com/media/2QB6cpUJ1Iyc/giphy.gif"/><div>people who join it do not really understand what being vegetarian means<div>and the ethics and ideologies behind it. And, although this trend couldincrease awareness of the issues surrounding factory farming or animal testing, the idea that when this fashion ends the people who joined it will just as easily abandon it and start eating meat regularly again was strongly supported. However, we cannot reach a conclusion yet, since these changes are still ongoing. So what do you think? Will it last or will it pass?</div></div><div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_57bb407f7bd34b46ae7efe18c2f0d91f~mv2_d_1812_1359_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_077020dee1f14cd6b57a94494d2b0346~mv2_d_1812_1359_s_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/947986_73921497a13f49288db46ba543a8c01c~mv2_d_1812_1359_s_2.jpg"/></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>