The Optimist NL 165 juli augustus 2015

Why we need bacteria to stay healthy Lessons from super farmers Altruism: the path to a fulfilling life

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52 COVER STORY

Free money!

How digital currencies are liberating our money system—and us.

BY JURRIAAN KAMP AND MARCO VISSCHER

28 Bacteria

BY ELLEKE BAL

66 Super farmers Meet Paul and Elizabeth Kaiser, who know a thing or two about the soil and how to make it work for us in a drought-stricken time.

BY TODD OPPENHEIMER

COVER PHOTO: CENSUUR/CENSUUR.COM

No need to be afraid of them. They can help you get healthy.

Table of Contents Summer 2015

38

46 Time for a break

Altruism Try it. It’ll do you good.

A look at playgrounds around the world.

PHOTOS BY JAMES MOLLISON

BY GUUS VAN HOLLAND

STORIES

POSSIBILITY, INCLUDING:

LIFE

HEALTH & HEALING

28 Bacteria for life

74 Freedom warrior Rickard Falkvinge is in love with the Internet and will do anything he can to protect it. We meet up with him in Stockholm, where the pirates are taking over, and it’s a good thing.

They cause decay and disease, but they’re also the key to a long and healthy life. Plus: nine facts and tips about probiotics.

SPIRIT

38 The path of the altruist Selfless love is the best guarantee of a fulfilled and meaningful life.

80 When the players call

Does self-refereeing work in sports? It does in Ultimate Frisbee, where the players call their own game. A report from the world championships in Dubai.

SUSTAINABILITY & INNOVATION

52 Free money!

The Internet has disrupted dozens of industries, but none have been as big as what is about to happen to banking.

Welcome to the cryptocurrency revolution.

66 Farming for the future Paul and Elizabeth Kaiser are not your typical farmers. They turned their plot of land into an unusual field experiment, leading to much higher yields and much higher earnings. What are their secrets?

the fouls

17 Why students are signing up to live

in an elder-care home 20 This is what the new zoo looks like 26 Why danger cannot—and should

not—be eliminated 27 The true cost of cheap food REGULARS

08 The Optimist Live:

Events and courses 11 Community 12 Ode to: Jetara Séhart 14 Ode to: Kumbh Mela 37 Column: Paulo Coelho

86 A better science of

83 Column: Amy Domini

happiness

91 Food: Dukkah

Happiness studies can point the way to ever-higher levels of well-being and inspire politicians to design wiser policies. We visit two pioneering researchers in Spain.

93 Inspiration: Books and products 96 A better place: Immigration

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We are an independent journal and online community. We believe in progress, ongoing opportunities and the creativity of humankind. We know there’s a solution for each problem. We embrace and explore possibilities and perspectives. In our magazine and on our website, we point to groundbreaking innovation and the people leading the way.

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4 T HEOPT IMIST. COM SUMMER 2015

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Look up, step back,

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Letter from the Editor

Money and bugs THIS MAGAZINE INVITES YOU TO TAKE A DIFFERENT LOOK

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at (y)our reality. We’ve found that a simple, slight change of perspective opens the door to a new solution, a breakthrough, an innovation. Too often we energetically continue our march on the same paths, frustrated by our problems but blinded to solutions. We don’t step back for a moment to reflect, to look at the same reality from a new perspective—and our challenges, our ailments, remain the same. It’s the same in our personal lives as it is at the level of politics and government.

This issue offers you new takes on two very different topics that all of us struggle with on a daily basis: bacteria and money. Bacteria are bad, and we need to avoid them. Money is a problem that only very few of us seem able to solve.

We’ve learned that we should wash our hands and not eat from the floor. We should maintain hygiene to prevent disease. It’s true—but, in our complex world, only up to a point. More and more research shows that our lives—at least in the Western world—have become too clean. My favorite part of Elleke Bal’s story on page 28 is about the research that has shown that children growing up in homes that have dishwashers develop substantially more allergies than children in homes that wash dishes manually. The message: When the dishes get too clean, it negatively affects our health. We need bugs to challenge our immune system so that we don’t easily fall prey to allergies.

We need more bacteria—probiotics—in our gut, our largest internal organ, to make sure that our immune system can attack the nasty invaders that do challenge our health. The research points to the conclusion that a lack of intestinal flora—a situation brought about by the use of antibiotics to cure disease—at later stages in our lives causes degenerative diseases like dementia, Parkinson’s and more. What I’m taking away from the story is that—counterintuitively—double dipping your chips into the guacamole may be a good thing after all.

Our money story on page 52 presents a similar mind-changing perspective. It might not be a new insight that most of us have become slaves to money and interest. We just accept it as a fact and we sigh in surrender when the bank raises the interest rate on our mortgage. We blame the economy, forces beyond our control.

It may be hard to believe, but the very Internet forces that are fundamentally changing many sections of the economy can—and will—also radically change the role that money plays in our lives. This miracle is unfolding behind hard-to-digest concepts like bitcoin and block chains. Money is not an easy topic to grasp, but our message is hopeful: that not so easy topic will become much and much easier for you—an instrument that will support you rather than challenge you—in the not so distant future. Perspectives keep changing; solutions emerging. Hold on!

Available at fine bookstores, ebook retailers and online, or phone 800-567-6772.

JURRIAAN KAMP Editor-in-Chief, jjk@theoptimist.com

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How does it work? Register on our website, theoptimist.com, and you’ll receive a link to the online course/event via email. The link will allow you to attend the live event and/or watch the recording afterwards at any time convenient for you. Find out more: theoptimist.com or info@theoptimist.com.

Course

Dr. Liz Lipski Probiotics and the gut microbiome “The more you learn about it, the more you wonder: Who’s the intelligent being here?” asks Dr. Liz Lipski, who is fascinated by our microbiome and the role of probiotics. “They run our metab­olism, they determine whether we’re fat or thin. They’re in continuous conversation with our intestines. They help determine whether we’re in a good mood,” she says. If you would like to learn more about the role of beneficial microbes in your body, join this two-session course with Dr. Lipski. She holds a doctorate and is board certified in Clinical Nutrition, as a Nutrition Specialist, and in Holistic Nutrition. She is the director of academic development for the Nutrition and Integrative Health Programs at Maryland University of Integrative Health. During this course, she will share what she knows about the human microbiome and how we can each try to restore a healthy balance in our gut.

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Find out more: theoptimist.com/money

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Marty Wuttke Conquer yourself, conquer the world An Introduction to Neurofeedback A better life starts with the ability to control yourself. The ability to regulate your impulses and desires is indispensable to your health and success.

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Community Susan L. Lipson @SLLipson #Optimist motto: Today is even better than yesterday, and not as great as tomorrow. @OdeToOptimism

LETTERS

Follow us @OdetoOptimism

downstream @afteryoumatters “Polluting Is Stealing.” How do we treasure our common heritage—air, water, land? @RobertKennedyJr @OdeToOptimism

Congratulations

From the first issue onward, your magazine has made me very happy. I congratulate you (and myself) with this 20th anniversary, and I continue to walk the road together with you. I look forward to the next 20 years! Thank you for the huge inspiration you are.

there appears to be an interdependence.

Perhaps what Haramein calls a vacuum and what the Buddhists call the Void, others have called God, Source, the universal spirit or Soul.

Julia Allen, holistic counselor Duncan, British Columbia, Canada

Josien Krosenbrink Winterswijk-Miste, Netherlands Editors’ note: The latest issue for our readers in the Netherlands was our 20th-anniversary issue.

Haramein and the Void

Nassim Haramein’s findings on the nature of matter suggest some interesting ideas about how reality is created. He proposes that all matter appears to oscillate between a vacuum and form, and that the place from which matter arises is the vacuum that surrounds and is within all atoms. This void holds all the information needed to manifest the universe. He also explains that the void can be imagined to be in the shape of two doughnuts that spin into themselves in an oscillating movement that flickers in and out of manifest matter.

Haramein’s findings are especially eloquent in describing how the flickering back and forth between void and form oscillates so quickly that our everyday consciousness does not notice the flickering and strings all sensations into discrete experiences that appear to have permanency and independence. However, all reality arises from a ground-level voidness. So although form arises from the void, it is different from it. But in manifestation, they can be thought of as being one, since

Aziza & the Cure @azizaandthecure No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or opened a new doorway to the human spirit. —Helen Keller #quoteoftheday @OdeToOptimism

Kristin van Ogtrop @kvanogtrop Per @OdeToOptimism today, red wine improves memory. So what is my…my… what’s the word? Oh right— PROBLEM?!?

Goodness

Thank you for diving into the goodness subject by interviewing Tibetan Buddhist Sakyong Mipham. We teach goodness at Good Leadership Enterprises. More specifically, we find goodness is four things followers can see and feel: rewarding excellence, living generously, promoting fairness and spreading positivity. I believe each person has these instincts hardwired, and regardless of what happened yesterday, we can all decide to radiate goodness today.

Paul Batz Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Amy Schloerb @AmySchloerb Drinking more water has changed my life!

This @OdeToOptimism article explains why: http://ow.ly/JGMl6 #H2O #HealthyLiving #Optimism

Andrea Goeglein PhD @DrSuccess Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to anyone else. @OdeToOptimism

Polluting is stealing

Thank you so very much, Mr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for taking responsibility!

As a member of several nonprofit organizations, I feel that your ideas are a great support. The truth, a clear view and great courage can influence people, prevent much trouble and suffering and restore democracy. You prove it!

Els Mertens, Belgium Letters to the editor: editor@theoptimist.com Correspondence may be edited for length or clarity.

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 1 1

Ode to Jetara Séhart, San Geronimo, California, USA

1 2 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

Dances with Horses Wild horses galloping through the vast expanses of the American landscape make for a powerful and iconic metaphor for freedom. For more than four years, visual artist and dancer Jetara Séhart has joined the ranks of wild horse activists, devoting her life to educating the public about the plight of wild horses and burros under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The federal agency, which administers more than 245 million acres (101 million hectares) of public lands in the United States, is obligated to protect the animals under the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. However, “the taxpayer-funded BLM wild horse program is being used to manage the wild horses and burros to extinction,” says Séhart, “to clear the public land for a massive land grab that includes fracking, extensive cattle ranching, oil and gas projects and solar fields.”

Since 1971, 270,000 animals have been removed from a shrinking pool of protected public lands, and competition for land use rages on. It is estimated that less than 20,000 wild horses and burros are left roaming freely, many of these are targeted for removal. More than 58,000 wild horses and burros (the males are gelded - neutered ), are awaiting adoption and being held in BLM enclosures in 10 western states, living in difficult conditions and unable to propagate and pass along their genetic diversity.

In April, Séhart’s nonprofit Love Wild Horses staged an awareness march on the Golden Gate Bridge, in San Francisco. Her dream is twofold. On the one hand, there is work to be done at the federal level: enforcing the 1971 federal legislation by returning the captive geldings to protected federal land, banning the export of wild horses for slaughter, and establishing an official native-species classification of wild horses to preserve the genetic pool.

Locally, she envisions creating an education-and-healing center for horses and humans near her home in Marin County, just north of San Francisco. “People would come for peaceful gatherings and to experience ‘horse medicine,’ ” Séhart says. “I have been approached by several practicing Buddhist monks and Mayan practitioners who would love to perform prayer circles once we are established.” | FIND OUT MORE:

PHOTOGRAPHS: SUSAN MUNROE / JAMES KLEINERT

LOVEWILDHORSES.ORG | LAETITIA MAILHES

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 1 3

Ode to Kumbh Mela, Nashik, India

1 4 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

Meet me at the river

PHOTOGRAPH: AJP/SHUTTERSTOCK

The Kumbh Mela, or “Pitcher Fair,” is the largest religious festival for Hindus. During this event, which takes place only once every three years, Hindus from all over the world travel to one of the holy Indian rivers to bathe and cleanse themselves of their sins. More than 100 million people take part. For that reason, it has been called the world’s largest peaceful gathering. The next Kumbh Mela takes place this summer, from August 29 to September 18, on the Godavari River in Nashik. | PAULINE BIJSTER

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 1 5

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Possibility A DUTCH RETIREMENT HOME OFFERS STUDENTS FREE RENT IN RETURN FOR SPENDING TIME WITH THE ELDERLY RESIDENTS.

SOCIAL INNOVATION

The old folks’ dorm PHOTOGRAPH: HERMAN ENGBERS

STUDENT JURRIËN MENTINK OFTEN CYCLES BY THE FISH-

monger on his way home from college. His neighbor loves fish for dinner, and it’s “no biggie” for him to pick it up on the way, he says.

She is not very mobile anymore and has been living in an elder-care home for a while. The 21-year-old Mentink also lives there.

When Mentink wanted to go study in the Dutch city of Deventer—urban planning—and was scoping out student accommodations, he heard about the Humanitas elder-care home search for “live-in students.” He called to inquire and was invited to drop by for an interview. A month later, he moved into his room, which measures 300 square feet (30 square meters), with his own bathroom and kitchenette. He doesn’t pay any rent; the room is free. In return he

helps out in the elder-care home for around 30 hours per month.

He does some shopping, helps prepare sandwiches, and organizes activities. Mentink describes what he does as “simply being a good neighbor.”

A few elder-care homes in the Netherlands have been welcoming students to live in them lately. In the cities of Amsterdam and Arnhem, too, small groups of students are offered cheap or gratis living arrangements in exchange for volunteer work in the home. The idea started in Deventer, where about 165 senior residents live. Director Gea Sipkes wanted to add some life to the place by attracting young volunteers, and the students are looking for cheap, clean rooms to live in. The “live-in student” program is a great success. The senior SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 1 7

Possibility

residents get more personal attention and appreciate the volunteer work being done by the young people.

“We bring a bit of the outside world along with us,” says Mentink. “Some small talk, conversation, and I think the old people become a bit younger by our just being there. And it’s not a one-way street—the old people are also interested in us.” Humanitas does require that the students pass a strict selection procedure, “mainly to be sure they have their hearts in the right place.” And there are rules, of course: no rowdy student parties are allowed in their rooms.

After Deventer, similar projects were initiated in Amsterdam and Arnhem. In Arnhem, for example, the Vreedenhoff retirement home recently welcomed five students, selected out of 100 applicants, which indicates there is a lot of enthusiasm for the project. The students even did a round of “speed dating” with the residents.

The idea has received a lot of positive attention in the international media, ranging from French press agency AFP to an Australian radio broadcaster. It’s no wonder, given that connecting generations in this way is a very noble idea. And smart, too, because the solution touches on multiple social problems: the lack of student housing, loneliness among older people, and the current vacancy rates in retirement homes, a result of the elderly more often continuing to live in their own homes for longer.

“The idea is of an almost baffling simplicity,” says Mentink.

“You can write books and books about it, about how to solve these problems. But if you just put people together, something happens.”

PARIS IS ALREADY KNOWN FOR THE TOUR DE FRANCE FINISH ON THE CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES, BUT NOW ALSO WANTS TO BECOME THE WORLD CAPITAL OF CYCLING.

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1 8 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

TRANSPORT

The City of Lights LAST MARCH, IN THE DAYS FOLLOWING THE SECOND PARTICU-

late-pollution alert in as many years, Paris announced its Plan Vélo 2015–2020, with a view to improving air quality and city living conditions. After the plan was unanimously approved by the Paris Council in April, the city is now ready to invest €150 million ($168 million) toward doubling the number of kilometers of bike lanes from 700 to 1,400, providing parking spaces for 10,000 more bikes, and even subsidizing the purchase of electric bikes at up to €400 ($450) each.

“What we have at stake here is reducing greenhouse gas emissions and particulate pollution,” said Paris deputy mayor Christophe Najdovski, in charge of transportation and public spaces. “We believe that many people hold off on cycling because of safety concerns.” The plan was hashed out after a two-month consultation process last winter that involved 7,000 residents.

The most ambitious aspect of the infrastructure development plan

PHOTOGRAPH: EYEVINE/HOLLANDSE HOOGTE

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Possibility

CHILDREN

Choosing the right color

turns to cycling is Réseau Express Vélo, a grid of five bike highways. Two of them will follow each side of the River Seine, two will bisect the whole city along its north–south axis, and one will cut across an east–west line. All five will be bidirectional and almost entirely protected from automobile traffic by barriers. Safe crossing gates through major traffic zones that currently act as barriers will be created. And traffic will be made less dangerous with a strictly enforced reduced speed limit of 30 kilometers (19 miles) per hour on most streets.

It is estimated that 225,000 people cycle in Paris daily. The city’s bike-sharing service, Vélib’, has been steadily gaining ground, with a 13 percent increase last year, to 283,000 subscribers. However, cycling constitutes only 5 percent of commuting trips. City officials aim to increase that number to 15 percent by 2020, and they hope to triple the current biking population, effectively drawing more than half a million more cyclists daily onto the streets by 2020. Amsterdam, watch your back! | LAETITIA MAILHES

HE WANTED TO BUY A DOLL FOR HIS LITTLE NIECE BUT NOticed that, strangely enough, there were hardly any African dolls for sale on the entire African market. The supply of toys for girls in Nigeria was dominated by Barbie and other white dolls wearing Western clothes. And that is how, seven years ago, Nigerian entrepreneur Taofick Okoya got the idea of making dolls with dark-colored skin and African clothing and hairstyles.

It took two years before Okoya managed to interest a manufacturer in his plan. But the resistance against his dolls only served to reinforce his assumption that the dolls would be important for the children of his country. And he was right. Recently, Nigerian sales of these Queens of Africa have surpassed Barbie. Okoya sells some 9,000 queens and princesses per month, with some purchases coming from America, Europe and Brazil.

Okoya thinks it is important that children can recognize themselves in their dolls, so they can be proud of their African history, culture and fashion. “It is my mission to give hope and self-confidence to the girls via the Queens of Africa,” he said in an interview with Elle.

“Never underestimate the power of toys,” he likes to emphasize, because, according to him, toys greatly affect the way children think and experience the world. In the near future, Okoya is planning to further promote African heritage among children through books, music and an animation series. | FIND OUT MORE: QUEENSOFAFRICADOLLS.COM | PAULINE BIJSTER SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 1 9

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IN THE ZOOS OF THE FUTURE, LIKE THE BLIJDORP ZOO IN ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF THE ANIMALS WILL PREVAIL OVER THE ENJOYMENT OF THE SPECTATORS.

ANIMAL WELFARE

Freedom at the zoo PHOTOGRAPH: ROB DOOLARD

IN 2004, THE DETROIT ZOO TOOK AN UNUSUAL STEP: IT DECIDED

to let its elephants go, for their own good. With the limited space in the zoo, the animals could not lead a satisfactory elephant life.

Detroit is not alone: it has become more common for zoos to investigate how they can keep their animals as happy as possible— or set them free.

The Paris Zoological Park, for example, is enhancing animal welfare by replacing the separate pens for animals with bio-ecological zones. The idea is that animals will no longer be forced to live exclusively among members of their own species, but can mingle with other animals, as would be the case in a natural environment.

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Starting in 2019, the Givskud Zoo, in Denmark, will be offering a totally new concept in which all the pens in the entire park, which measures 300 acres (120 hectares), will have been removed. Moreover, visitors will be virtually invisible to the animals, as a result of the innovative use of mirrors and other clever ideas. Meanwhile, in Mexico, a vertical zoo has been designed, where people and animals can live in harmony, one above the other, in a sort of high-rise tower, which moreover is fully self-sufficient as regards energy and water. These are signals that indicate that in the zoos of the future, the quality of life of the animals will prevail over the enjoyment of the spectators. | PAULINE BIJSTER

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Beautiful, Affordable Country Space for Optimistic Orgs We are making our beautiful country property, located halfway between Washington DC and Charlottesville VA, available as an affordable rental to entrepreneurial or spiritual nonprofits doing good work in the world.

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Property: Rural, magical. Located in Virginia 55 miles southwest of the Washington Beltway and 45 miles north of Charlottesville.

Half-mile from Shenandoah National Park at the foot of Old Rag Mountain, considered by many to be an energy vortex; on the banks of the Hughes River. Historic nearby towns of Sperryville, Little Washington, Culpeper offer music, theater, movies, galleries, Library of Congress films, great food, 5-star Inn at Little Washington, etc.

PROPERTY INCLUDES: • 15 acres, mostly wooded • 4BR/2BA house, 2,500 sf, built in 1907 • 2,000-volume library highlighting literature on positive visions,

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INSPIRATION WOMEN

Because love matters

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

PHOTOGRAPH: MINT IMAGES LIMITED / ALAMY

JIMMY DEAN, AMERICAN COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER AND ACTOR (1928–2010)

IN MANY COUNTRIES, DISCUSSING RELATIONSHIPS AND SEX IS STILL TABOO. Information on subjects like sexually transmitted diseases and women’s rights is not always available either. The website Love Matters is here to change this. Via the website, visitors can ask questions that will be answered by local sexologists.

The website was started in 2001 in India, a country where rape has been a subject in the international press for years. Love Matters tackles themes like “female lust” and “female pleasure.” The website emphasizes that it is a human right for women to derive pleasure from sex, rather than pain. The site proved to be a success and rapidly expanded to Egypt, Kenya, China, Mexico and Venezuela. The platform now has more than 20 million returning visitors worldwide, and millions of page views per day. In 2013, Love Matters won the Award for Excellence & Innovation in Sexuality Education from the World Association for Sexual Health.

Michele Ernsting, who manages the website on behalf of Radio Netherlands Worldwide, says that she intends to focus in particular on “conservative cultures,” where the greatest need for more transparency is felt. Frequently asked questions concern the hymen, the wedding night and masturbation. “We get so many questions,” Ernsting says, “we could be busy all day and all night and still not have answered them all.”

Homosexuality is also discussed. Initially, Ernsting was worried about getting negative reactions, but her fears were soon allayed. “We have developed a community where people treat each other with respect, and which in itself functions quite well as a regulator.” It is not always easy. In Uganda, homosexuality is prohibited by law, so it is important to ensure that people are not endangered.

Good information is essential, because it provides a basis for better decisions. But Love Matters stresses that it does not give advice. “Our aim is: to inform. There are many misunderstandings about these subjects, particularly in countries where they are not discussed. We try to focus on providing scientifically sound information.” But with an encouraging tone: the bottom line is that pleasure and enjoyment are the most important factors where sexual relationships are concerned. | PAULINE BIJSTER | FIND OUT MORE: LOVEMATTERS.IN/EN SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 2 3

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SUSTAINABILITY

Up from the deep FRENCH AUTHOR JULES VERNE IS often seen as the great visionary of the future, and many of his fantasies—such as traveling to the moon—have become reality. Producing energy by making use of the temperature differences in the ocean’s waters was long dismissed as science fiction, but here again Verne’s genius is now surfacing. His dream from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, his 1870 novel, is coming true, albeit on a small scale for now.

Dutch company Bluerise, a spin-off project of the Delft University of Technology, is working hard to turn Verne’s predictions into real-life science.

The company develops solutions for extracting energy from the oceans to be used for sustainable electricity and cooling.

Co-founder Diego Acevedo discussed their projects with us with enthusiasm from his home on Aruba. It is no accident that he lives there; tropical islands are well suited to generating energy from the ocean, Acevedo says. Not only because they are situated close to the ocean, but also because energy is scarce and expensive in these locations.

Diesel generators have long been the main source of energy on these s­mall tropical islands like Aruba, which is bad for the environment and also inconvenient because it has to be imported. “Aruba also has a great ambition to become 100 percent renewable. You can feel the drive here to become more sustainable,” he informs me.

Bluerise started developing a technology called OTEC four and a half years ago. OTEC stands for ocean thermal energy conversion, and it takes advantage of the fact that the top layers of the ocean are heated by the sun to reach about 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 Celsius). Farther down in the ocean, approximately 3,000 feet (1,000 meters) below the surface, it is much colder, around 41° F (5° C).

Acevedo explained how the OTEC system generates energy by making use of this temperature differential: The warm water evaporates a mixture of gases (water and ammonia) to create steam, and the steam then propels a turbine that creates electricity via a generator. The gas mixture is then cooled with seawater from the lower regions that has been sucked upward through a pipe, to start the whole process again from the beginning. “The technology is similar to a refrigerator,” says Acevedo, “but in the fridge you have a compressor, and here you have a turbine.”

The beautiful thing is that the cold seawater can be used for various purposes. On the neighboring island of Curaçao, Bluerise is working on a system that is going use the cold seawater to cool the island’s airport terminal. Compared with the current air-conditioning system, this will

DIEGO ACEVEDO‘S PITCH ON HIS COMPANY BLUERISE DURING THE 2014 FINALE OF THE POSTCODE LOTTERY GREEN CHALLENGE.

save 90 percent in energy expenses. And the cold water can also be used to cool greenhouses, for example.

OTEC is a promising technology that more and more companies worldwide are committing to, says Acevedo. But the systems require enormous investments. “One of the main issues is the scale of these systems,” he says. “We need to get the investor confidence that it’s really worth it to invest in this.” Bluerise has a pilot installation and is working on development projects to scale up in different countries.

The company is trying to form partnerships with governments, project developers and energy suppliers.

Last year, Bluerise made it to the final rounds of the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, together with four other companies. Unfortunately, they did not win the competition for best green business plan.

“But we got to tell our story, and from there people got interested and connected with us,” says Acevedo. “There is a whole group of people who now understand the solution and want to help it move forward.” | ELLEKE BAL | FIND OUT MORE: BLUERISE.NL

JOIN THE COMPETITION? For the ninth time, the Dutch National Postcode Lottery is organizing the Green Challenge, a large annual international competition in the field of sustainable innovation. Out of all of the green startups that enter the contest with their brilliant business plans, one winner will be awarded a top prize of €500,000 ($570,000) to finance the development of its product or service. The organization also awards a runner-up prize of €200,000. | FIND OUT MORE: GREENCHALLENGE.INFO SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 2 5

Possibility

ONE LAST THING...

The upside of falling down DUTCH CULTURAL THEO-

logian Frank Bosman criticizes our tendency to shelter our kids at all costs. “Danger cannot be eliminated—which is just as well.”

How do we express our desire to eliminate danger?

“If there is a puddle on the floor somewhere, a fence will immediately be placed around it to warn you that you might slip. Playgrounds have those awful construction sets that even a toddler could not manage to fall off, but still they place rubber tiles under them. Trees are felled because branches might fall off or you might climb them. Ditches are filled in because toddlers might disappear into them. Fireworks are prohibited because there will always be a few idiots who blow their fingers off. I predict that in 20 years’ time you will be forbidden to drive your own car, because those driverless cars cause fewer accidents.”

Well, it certainly makes the world a safer place.

“And boring! The result is that you take all the excitement out of life. A life without risk is no life. It’s like being dead but forgetting to lie down. In a high-security environment, all kinds of freedom

and creativity are ditched. From cradle to grave, our hands are held in our rubber-tiled dictatorship, and God help you if you dare do something that the protocol does not mention! If you do, you are either stupid or subversive.”

What is so great about accepting danger?

“By doing so, you learn to deal with disappointment, sorrow and pain—issues that are part of life. Right now, a generation of little princes and princesses is growing up being carried through life with cushions strapped to their butts. If they are poor losers, they need not take part in a contest. They are not even allowed to play outside without supervision.”

What is wrong with that?

“You should teach children to go through life independently. Our basic attitude toward reality should be trust: in ourselves, in others.

Of course, children should be taught to be careful and not go off with strange men, but what do you want to teach them first? Trust or distrust?”

So why this need to eliminate all forms of danger?

“Because we want to exercise total control. We live our lives with the illusion that reality can be engineered. And if life turns out to have its own particular laws, then we try to control that reality by imposing even more rules and regulations. That is not going to work. There will always be danger. Step outside and anything can happen: you can be hit on the head by a roof tile or run over by a motorcycle. Think for five minutes and you can easily conceive of a thousand ways to die before you have reached the corner. Danger cannot be eliminated—which is just as well. If you eliminate all forms of danger, life will become a lot less fun.” | MARCO VISSCHER

Barbie Antibiotics

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Queens of Africa Probiotics

Digital rights

Analog rights

Referee

Spirit system

Anti-aging

Gelassenheit

Possibility

COMMENTARY

The true cost of cheap food

Danielle Nierenberg (top) is the president of Food Tank. Emily Nink is a Food Tank researcher. Find out more: foodtank.com

ACCORDING TO THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, THE cumulative costs of cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, cancer and diabetes in low- and middle-income countries are likely to surpass $7 trillion (€6.25 trillion) by 2025, an average of nearly $500 billion (€450 billion) per year.

These costs are not reflected in market prices for unhealthy foods, but rather are absorbed by consumers who suffer from nutrition-related diseases and taxpayers who support public health programs.

Further health-care costs are associated with agricultural inputs and occupational hazards. The high-end cost estimate of the disease burden from endocrine-disrupting hormones found in many pesticides and plastics is $359 billion (€320 billion) per year, or 2 percent of Europe’s GDP. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 167 agricultural workers suffer a lost-work-time injury every day in the United States, with 5 percent of these injuries resulting in permanent impairment. Agricultural occupational injuries cost an estimated $4.57 billion in 1992, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Farming contributes roughly 30 percent more than the national average to occupational-injury costs.

Environmental externalities can be more difficult to quantify due to poor data and uneven geographic distribution of the environmental impacts of farming. Worldwide, it is estimated that 75 billion tons (68 billion metric tons) of soil are lost every year, costing approximately $400 billion per year, or about $70 per person per year, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Much of this soil loss is attributable to intensive agriculture and poor management practices. Furthermore, crop loss from overuse of pesticides is estimated to cost $520 million just in the U.S. Patrick Holden, founding director of the Sustainable Food Trust, says that if the true cost of nitrogen fertilizer use were absorbed by the industry, it would completely wipe out the economic case for using it. However, more accurate and policy-relevant footprint analyses are needed to better understand how environmental externalities differ across regions from production to consumption.

Externalized environmental and health costs are borne

disproportionately by marginalized and disenfranchised communities. True cost accounting is therefore not only a mechanism for correcting market failures but also a way to address issues of social justice. It is a method of better aligning externalized costs of production with end-product values.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health-care costs for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in low-income settings “can quickly drain household resources, driving families into poverty. The exorbitant costs of NCDs, including often lengthy and expensive treatment and loss of breadwinners, are forcing millions of people into poverty annually, stifling development.”

David Bloom, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Health Advisory Board and professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, says that “these costs are unbearable and clearly call for innovative solutions and an all-of-society approach, with strong partnerships between government, the private sector and civil society.”

According to the World Bank, low-income nations will have to face the rise of NCDs while simultaneously facing the continued “widespread prevalence of communicable diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and mother and child conditions, and so face a ‘double burden’ of disease not experienced by their wealthier counterparts.” In the developing world, constrained budgets and institutional capacity for dealing with nutrition-related diseases will be exacerbated by this double-edged sword unless action is taken to configure effective prevention measures.

These massive market failures can be corrected through the creation of more accurate economic models and policy recommendations. In this way, agriculture can solve the problems of climate change, malnutrition and diet-related disease rather than contribute to them further.

Agriculture is unique in that it utilizes natural capital— land, water and ecosystem services—at the front end, and also influences their viability through its production practices.

By investing in more sustainable production practices rather than borrowing from future natural capital, agriculture can actually improve environmental outcomes through carbon capture, soil building and sustainable water management.

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Health & Healing

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Bacteria for

life Bacteria cause decay and disease, but they’re also the key to a long and healthy life.

BY ELLEKE BAL

A

FIERCE WIND IS BLOWING OVER THE WIDE-

open fields of Midwoud, a village of farmers and agrarians an hour’s drive north of Amsterdam. Midwoud is home to organic farm De Anna Hoeve, where the Blokker family produces a very special drink: kefir, a creamy buttermilktype dairy beverage. Farmer Ilse Blokker, a sprightly, friendly woman in boots, is just emerging from the stables into the yard.

Her husband, Paul Blokker, suddenly had this idea eight years ago, she says. “He said, ‘Humanity is going to run into trouble. The quality of our food isn’t good enough anymore. We need to change our way of thinking.’ ” His products were already organically grown, and no chemicals or antibiotics were allowed on his farm.

But now he also decided to start producing kefir, which is said to date back thousands of years to the ancient

ILLUSTRATIONS: ANKI POSTHUMUS/ART ASSOCIATES

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 2 9

shepherds of the Caucasus Mountains, between Europe and Asia.

The existence of kefir had almost been forgotten. But right now, the recipe is being dusted off all over the world. More and more research shows that we need healthy bacteria—such as the lactic acid bacteria in kefir—for a stronger immune system and better digestion. We call these health-boosting microorganisms “probiotics.” Good bacteria and yeasts are crucial in all types of processes in the body.

“Most importantly, they keep the immune system on track,” says Liz Lipski, a clinical nutritionist and academic director of Nutrition and Integrative Health Programs at Maryland University of Integrative Health.

Lipski points out that there is a growing body of scientific work that says probiotics can modulate inflammatory responses in the body.

Finding a way to prevent inflammation is one of the major challenges in the medical community today. More and more scientists point to chronic inflammation as the cause of all kinds of Western diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, some types of cancer, heart disease and Parkinson’s.

Over many thousands of years, humanity has co-evolved with healthy bacteria, and our digestive system has been the proving ground. Our intestines are in open communication with the outside world; that’s why they’re sometimes known as “the cradle of the immune system.” Twothirds of our immune system resides in the digestive tract. But since we have been rooting out too many good microbes—both by eating fewer cultured and fermented foods and obsessively using antibiotics and antibacterial sanitizers—we’ve seen an increase in inflammatory and degenerative diseases.

To restore the natural power of the human gut, we need to put down the Purell and take in more kefir, more sauerkraut, more yogurt and kombucha. But what we need even more is the understanding that probiotics are an important part of the future of medicine.

Every week, Ilse Blokker produces more than 800 liters (210 gallons) of fresh kefir, a time-consuming process that involves letting the kefir culture—a combination of bacteria, yeast and fungi—ferment in raw milk in two enormous tanks. Since the sud3 0 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

den death of her husband last year, Ilse has been continuing his life’s work and mission.

Customers come from far and wide to pick up her kefir. They have heard of the healing properties of this drink and take it for their eczema, digestive troubles, psoriasis or chronic fatigue, in the hope that it will alleviate their symptoms.

It’s quaintly interesting that in these times, people with all sorts of ailments and diseases travel to a farm in search of a drink full of bacteria. In the past, conventional wisdom held that people who were sick— for example, those suffering from infectious disease like tuberculosis—had to banish bacteria from their bodies as soon as possible, instead of ingesting a new dose.

Indeed, since the second half of the 19th century, waging war against microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi has saved millions of lives. Clever scientists like Louis Pasteur demonstrated that the bugs in our bodies cause decay and disease. Using pasteurization, disinfection, improved hygiene, antibiotics and other medications, we’ve been able to considerably increase the average human life span. It’s because of this that, in the West at least, cholera, tuberculosis and the plague became diseases of the past.

But nowadays, many of our diseases no longer go away when we take an additional course of antibiotics or create an even cleaner home environment. Those antibiotics you took for a cold as a child could lead to the development of diabetes in your body 40 years later, say scientists like Martin Blaser, professor of microbiology at the New York University School of Medicine. He quite bluntly points out the impact of aggressively fighting symptoms or illnesses with heavy artillery, which eradicates complete bacterial strains from our body. This throws off the natural balance, he says.

And his explanation really isn’t so strange. The microorganisms in our bodies have always worked together ingeniously with the body’s own cells. Take a look at our immune system. If unwanted organisms enter the body, our immune cells induce an inflammatory response to ensure that extra attention is given to the invaders. As Liz Lipski explains it, inflammatory markers “are like the conductor of an orchestra who says, ‘Everybody get really loud now!’ ” All that fuzz is necessary to eliminate the unwanted guests, but the inflammation needs

to subside at some point, because it, too, can damage healthy cells.

“We need a balance of inflammation and anti-inflammation, and probiotics help to modulate both these processes,” says Lipski.

“We know that probiotics can dampen or modulate those responses.” Since chronic inflammation nowadays is seen as a root cause of all kinds of lifestyle diseases, it’s crucial that the body get its bacteria back, to work together with the immune system.

Once you know all this, it doesn’t make sense anymore to consider the little bugs in our body the enemy. It is not in the interest of our health to keep washing our hands with disinfectant soap, to clean the house with aggressive agents until it’s almost sterile, and to take antibiotics every time we get a cold.

We have been removing these little critters from our bodies for centuries, and now it’s become clear how badly we need them for our health.

T

cause obesity? And allergies?” was one scientist’s response to an article about Blaser in Time.

Blaser’s studies suggest that the use of antibiotics in early childhood poses a grave risk to health in the long term. Alarmingly enough, American children on average receive 17 courses of antibiotics before they reach the age of 20, particularly for treatment of viral infections that cause ear infections and colds. At the same time, he claims, C-sections are robbing newborns of an important first contact with their mother’s microbiome, since, during natural childbirth, a child gets its first dose of bacteria from the mother’s birth canal.

“There are times when both [antibiotics and C-sections] are needed urgently, but we already know that we are overusing them,” wrote Blaser in an opinion article for CNN. He added: “I predict that in the

We have been removing these little critters from our bodies for centuries, and now it’s become clear how badly we need them for our health.

HE HUMAN MICROBIOME—THE AG-

gregation of fungi, viruses and, in particular, bacteria in our bodies— has become one of the hottest new fields of medical research in the past decade. In the United States, the giant Human Microbiome Project was completed last year. For the first time ever, this research project mapped out the entire collection of microorganisms that live in the body, also known as microbiota.

The scientists wanted to know how our body’s cells interact with these tiny organisms. Their research showed that billions of bacteria are living in our bodies and that there are easily 10 bacteria for each cell in the body. The total weight of the bacteria we each carry with us adds up to—wait for it— around three pounds (1.35 kilograms).

What is becoming clearer and clearer is that our Western lifestyle has disrupted our microbiomes. Slowly but surely, one scientist after another is standing up to alert us to the urgency of this fact. They are still being mocked at times. Martin Blaser knows all about that. He published the book Missing Microbes in 2014, which discussed the hypothesis that excessive use of antibiotics, cesarean sections and disinfectants have changed our microbiomes forever. Blaser argued that this could be a major cause of the increase in modern diseases such as obesity, diabetes and asthma. He received a lot of criticism for it. “What? Now antibiotics

Dishwashing as medicine TO SAY CHILDREN DON’T LOVE WASHING DISHES IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT. BUT recent studies show that children who live in houses where dishes are washed by hand have fewer allergies than children in homes with dishwashers. Swedish researchers at the University of Gothenburg reached this conclusion after studying hundreds of families. Their research was published this spring in Pediatrics.

The researchers carried out the study with the so-called hygiene hypothesis in the back of their minds. According to the hygiene hypothesis, exposure to diverse bacteria promotes the development of a strong immune system. This would explain the increase in allergies in countries where hygiene has improved substantially in recent decades. The Netherlands is one such country, where an increasing number of children are extremely sensitive to allergens. People who live in less hygienic circumstances, however, don’t suffer as much from hay fever, eczema and asthma.

The Swedish researchers wanted to find out how much influence lifestyle factors have on the development of allergies. Washing dishes by hand is probably less hygienic than putting the dirty plates and cutlery in the dishwasher. So they decided to study that. They put together questionnaires for the families of 1,029 children aged 8 to 9. They asked if the children suffered from eczema or asthma, for instance. They also took into account other factors that may influence the development of allergies, such as having been breastfed or owning pets.

Only 12 percent of the families still wash dishes by hand. But these families did report considerably fewer allergies. Of the dishwasher-using families, 38 percent reported eczema and 7 percent asthma. In families where dishes are still washed by hand, only 23 percent reported eczema and fewer than 2 percent asthma.

Also noteworthy was that families with the fewest allergies had three things in common: they wash dishes by hand, eat fermented food on a regular basis and buy food from a local farm. But the researchers don’t want to go so far as to recommend that everyone get rid of their dishwasher. They think more research is necessary first. | E.B.

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 3 1

future we will routinely be giving children back their lost microbes.”

According to Blaser, we humans have already lost 15 to 40 percent of our microbiome diversity. Studies of people who don’t live a Western lifestyle show that they carry far more varied types of microorganisms. This April, a study that appeared in the journal Science Advances showed that Yanomami nomads living in the Amazon region have hugely diverse microbiomes—at least 40 percent more diverse than people living in the industrialized West.

The puzzling thing is this: for millennia we lived together with all these tiny beasties, and now that we are diminishing their populations to fight off disease, we are faced with more allergies and new types of illnesses. According to the well-documented hygiene hypothesis, allergies are on the rise now that our lives are getting cleaner and we are keeping bacteria at a distance (see “Dishwashing as medicine”).

In our food production, too, it is seen as increasingly important to prolong the shelf life of foods by using chemicals, and to produce food in an environment that is as clean as humanly possible. Farmlands all look so tidy nowadays, Ilse Blokker says. “It’s all tidy little rows of the same types of plants, while nature’s way is to grow diverse plants so that the soil remains healthy. All sorts of ‘undesirable’ herbs are being labeled as weeds. Farms are hygienic and regulated.

Nature cannot do her work anymore. In today’s world, everything has to be too clean.”

As an organic farmer, Paul Blokker devoted years of work to generating a natural balance in the soil on his farm. “Everything was all about creating balance,” says Ilse. No chemicals are ever used at De Anna Hoeve.

Additionally, the manure is not injected into the ground, as is done at most farms, but spread onto the surface, which is better for the quality of the soil. This way, the sunlight kills harmful bacteria and viruses and promotes the growth of healthy plants.

Coincidence or not, whenever the human microbiome is discussed, the word “balance” pops up an awful lot. But what is balance? Gregor Reid finds it too broad a word to apply to the human body, because balance means something different for every person. Reid is a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Schulich School of Medicine of the University of Western On3 2 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

tario, in Canada. Interviewed remotely from his study in London, Ontario, Reid said, “You’re trying to restore homeostasis.” By this he means that every body has its own unique profile of microorganisms that is able to keep the internal environment in the body in balance. That’s how smart our bodies are.

“The question you should be asking is: Are all the organisms I have doing the right things in terms of energy utilization, deposition of fat and breaking down carbohydrates?” According to Reid, who was born in Scotland (his Twitter bio reads “Aberdeen supporter. Take probiotics daily”), probiotics, the beneficial microorganisms, are constantly supporting these systems. He imagines a future in which we go to the hospital to pick up a pill or potion containing a good bacterial strain that plays a healing or regenerative role for a specific ailment. He is a pioneer in this area and has been doing research into these healthy little beasties for decades now.

The Human Microbiome Project brought about a huge change in the way scientists think, said Reid. “People suddenly realized, Wait a minute, we need to look at the composition of our microbiota to learn more about disease and health.” Medicine in the future, he said, will be more focused on developing a healthy microbiome and less on destroying microorganisms, as it is now.

G

REGOR REID MOVED FROM SCOT-

land to Canada in the 1980s. There, he became acquainted with the urologist Andy Bruce, another Scot, and they got along very well. Bruce was interested in the role of microorganisms in the preservation and repair of the body—the microbes that today we call probiotics.

Bruce made an intriguing discovery while conducting a study of vaginal bacteria in a group of women suffering from chronic bladder infections. E. coli bacteria, present in the women’s vaginas, turned out to be the perpetrator. The remarkable thing was that women who had never had a bladder infection had a high rate of Lactobacilli instead of E. coli. It almost seemed as if the Lactobacilli were protecting the vagina and keeping the sickness-inducing E. coli at bay.

Together with Bruce, Reid started researching this further. He remembers telling a colleague about their study and being

asked mockingly, “What exactly are you going to do? Put yogurt into their vaginas?

Which flavor?”

Reid said he even received the following response to his grant request: “Why are you looking into this? We’ve got antibiotics to treat these women.” His research was viewed with derision for a long time.

But things are starting to change now. More and more studies are appearing that show probiotics are playing a positive role in the body, and that administering them has a preventive or healing effect.

The Russian Ilya Mechnikov is often seen as the founder of the science of probiotics. At the end of the 19th century, he was studying a group of nomads in Bulgaria who lived very long lives. You might already be able to guess his discovery: they drank sour milk—fermented dairy products such as kefir. Convinced of the health benefits, Mechnikov began to drink fermented dairy products every day. He made it himself, with the bacterial strain Lactocillus bulgaricus, and also distributed it among his friends.

Mechnikov later received the Nobel Prize for the discovery of phagocytosis, the process by which cells—such as white blood cells in the human immune system—engulf and destroy hostile bacteria. He was always working on the idea that harmful processes in the body could be stopped by natural microorganisms.

After Mechnikov, research around probiotics was quiet for a while. But in Japan, around 1920, the researcher Minoru Shirota became inspired by Mechnikov’s work.

Wanting to find a way to get live, intact bacteria into the intestinal gut, he developed Yakult, a drink that contains the bacterial strain Lactobacillus casei Shirota. This drink appeared on the market in Japan in 1953 but didn’t reach Europe and the United States until the 1990s.

Commercial Western companies quickly saw an opportunity for lucrative business in this type of drink, and a wave of probiotic products flooded the market. “Suddenly people started asking about gut health,” Reid remembers. Probiotics, according to Reid, do four things in our intestines: They break down food remnants that our own body’s bacteria have trouble dealing with (such as lactose), they reinforce the intestinal lining, they fight off harmful bacteria in the large intestine and they stimulate the immune sys-

Probiotics: Nine facts and tips 1

The word probiotics comes from ancient Greek, meaning “good for life.” The World Health Organization defines probiotics as “live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit.”

2

Probiotics come in various forms: as drinks or as supplements such as capsules, tablets, pills, potions and powders. If you are buying a probiotic and want to assure yourself it has scientifically proven health benefits, check which bacterial strains were used and look them up online, for example in the academic medical database PubMed.

3

That said, as Liz Lipski points out, “there’s still only bits and pieces that we know about probiotic supplements.” This is why she rotates her probiotic products. “The different strains have different properties, and we simply don’t know enough yet about each and every one of them.”

4

Yakult, the Japanese probiotic dairy product, is drunk daily by millions of people around the world. The bacterial strain used to make it has been tested and has been proven to arrive in the intestines and improve slow digestion. According to its manufacturer, Yakult also strengthens the immune system by adding more Lactobacilli to the intestines.

5

It is no simple matter for probiotics to actually reach the intestines, says Irma Kromhout-van Cappelle, a Dutch orthomolecular nutritional therapist and author of Probiotica: op zoek naar bacteriële balans (“Probiotics: In Search of a Bacterial Balance”). The stomach environment is often too acidic for probiotics because of our modern diet. It causes the probiotics to get killed in the stomach and not even reach the intestines. There are special supplements with a so-called enteric coating that doesn’t dissolve in the stomach, so that the organisms can be delivered to the intestinal tract.

6

When purchasing supplements, Kromhout-van Cappelle always pays attention to the percentage of bacteria contained in them and makes sure there are many different strains. She says, “Everyone has different gut bacteria, so if you make use of diverse bacterial strains, you have a better chance that it will be effective and the supplement will take hold.”

7

If you really want to make a drastic change in your microbiome, merely taking probiotics may not be enough. Currently, fecal microbiota transplants are being done all over the world, as a way to completely change the intestinal environment.

8

After reading this article, you too might be interested in kefir. You can make your own with a base of water or milk, and you can find lots of information on how to do this online. The special thing about the kefir from De Anne Hoeve is that it is made from raw milk that still contains many enzymes, vitamins and minerals.

9

Finally, “putting more probiotic-rich foods into our lives is foundational,” as Lipski says. Yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi (a Korean pickled cabbage), tempeh, sourdough bread and cultured pickles are all good options.

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 3 3

“People suddenly realized, Wait a minute, we need to look at the composition of our microbiota to learn more about disease and health.”

GREGOR REID, PROFESSOR OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

tem in the small intestine.

And all of this became a welcome target for the probiotics producers. “One year in America in the 2000s, there were about 300 probiotics that came on the market,” said Reid, with slight dismay. Most of these products were never tested and weren’t true probiotics, he explains.

There are still many unproven probiotics products making the rounds, said Reid.

He lists several problems. First, there are many drinks and yogurts on the market containing Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli.

These may very well be beneficial bacterial strains, but since many have never been scientifically tested, it is hard to say if they will have any benefits. The body has various Lactobacilli of its own, so it is hard to know whether merely adding a few more makes a difference.

But that doesn’t mean Reid has only a few strains of probiotics to recommend.

There has been extensive research on hundreds of strains by now, resulting in evidence for many specific health benefits.

Probiotic drops with Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938, for example: “They help treat colicky babies.” He mentioned probiotic strains that prevent and treat urogenital infections and diarrhea, and others that relieve abdominal pain and bloating in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. He also listed probiotics that prevent pouchitis and are being used to treat ulcerative colitis.

Canada is a forerunner in the field of

probiotics. In Europe and the U.S., the authorities are extremely cautious. They forbid producers of probiotics from listing their health benefits. Reid finds this terribly frustrating because, he said, this pushes probiotics off into a corner when so many people could benefit from them.

Hospitals aren’t taking probiotics seriously enough yet, either, in Reid’s opinion. He suggests that in the future, patients should be able to come to the hospital to submit a stool sample. “Within a few hours, you get your profile and they will see if there’s something wrong with the bacteria in there, and if there’s dysbiosis”—a microbial imbalance.

The next step, according to Reid, would be to offer a variety of probiotics to match the patient’s microbiome profile and pathology.

That day still lies far in the future, but Reid continues to work on proving the benefits of probiotics and their importance to our health. He eats probiotic yogurt every day and sometimes a probiotic supplement, and enjoys a good health. “As a scientist, I need to try and find out what works, why it works in some people and not in others,” he said.

But it is clear to him that probiotics are a key to good health. “The sky’s the limit,” he said. “We came from these organisms, and so they’re integral to everything that we do.

They affect every part of us.”

ELLEKE BAL, a kefir fan, now can’t help visualizing swarms of minuscule beasties every time she takes a sip.

Probiotics and the gut microbiome With Dr. Liz Lipski “The more you learn about it, the more you wonder: Who’s the intelligent being here?” asks Dr. Liz Lipski, who is fascinated by our microbiome. “They run our metabolism, they’re in continuous conversation with our intestines. They even help determine whether we’re in a good mood,” she says. To learn more about the role of beneficial microbes in your body, join this two-session course with Dr. Lipski. She holds a doctorate and is board certified in Clinical Nutrition and Holistic Nutrition.

Dr. Lipski is the academic director of Nutrition and Integrative Health Programs at Maryland University of Integrative Health.

Dates: October 15 and 22, 2015

Find out more: theoptimist.com

3 4 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

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R

esearch in this timely book shows that modern-day Westerners are living longer, becoming smarter, working less and growing richer. Democracy is on t he rise, aut hor Jurriaan K amp Now In demonstrates, and violence on the and stores decline. Reading this carefully at online n.com researched volume, packed with the amazo studies and success stories for which The Intelligent Optimist has become known over two decades, will help you cultivate an outlook of informed optimism that will improve both your life and the world, because, as Helen Keller says, “No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or How to Find sailed an uncharted land, or Health and opened a new doorway for Success in a World That’s the human spirit.”

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Column

Paulo Coelho Author of international bestsellers, including The Pilgrimage and The Alchemist. paulocoelhoblog.com

Two stories about mountains HERE WHERE I STAND

PHOTOGRAPH: SYLVIA FEUDOR

AFTER HAVING WON MANY ARCHERY COMPETITIONS,

the town champion sought out the Zen master.

“I am the best of all,” he said. “I did not learn religion, I did not look for help from the monks, and I have been considered the best archer in the whole region. I heard that some time ago you were the best archer in the area, so I ask you: Did you have to become a monk to learn to shoot arrows?”

“No,” answered the Zen master.

But the champion was not satisfied. He took out an arrow, placed it in his bow, fired and hit a cherry at a considerable distance. He smiled, as if to say, “You could have saved your time and just dedicated yourself to technique.” And he said: “I doubt if you can do the same.”

Without demonstrating the least concern, the master took his bow and began to walk toward a nearby mountain. Partway up, there was an abyss that could be crossed only by walking over an old, rotting rope bridge that was almost falling down. With the utmost calm, the Zen master went to the middle of the bridge, took his bow, placed an arrow, aimed at a tree on the other side of the gulch and hit the target.

“Now it’s your turn,” he said gently to the young man as he walked back to safe ground.

With trepidation, looking at the abyss below him, the young man went to the indicated spot and fired an arrow, but it landed very far from the target.

“You can be very skilled with an instrument, but it’s all useless if you can’t master your mind”

“That’s what one gets from discipline and practicing meditation,” concluded the master when the young man reappeared at his side. “You can be very skilled with the instrument you have chosen to earn a living with, but it’s all useless if you can’t master the mind that uses the instrument.”

VIEW FROM THE TOP Three people who were passing a hill in a small caravan in the Sahara Desert saw a man contemplating the sunset from the top.

“It must be a shepherd who has lost a sheep and is trying to find it,” said the first.

“No, I don’t think he is looking for something, especially not at sunset—that confuses your vision. I think he is waiting for a friend.”

“I bet he’s a holy man looking for enlightenment,” commented the third.

They kept on discussing what the man could be doing, and got so involved in the discussion that they nearly ended up fighting with one another. Finally, to find out who was right, they decided to climb up the hill and ask the man.

“Are you looking for your sheep?” asked the first.

“No, I don’t have a flock.”

“Then you must be waiting for someone,” claimed the second.

“I am a lonely man who lives in the desert” was the answer.

“Since you live in the desert, and in solitude, then we have to believe that you are a holy man in search of God, and you are meditating!” asserted the third man, content with this conclusion.

“Does everything on earth need to have an explanation? I am here just looking at the sunset. Isn’t that enough to lend meaning to our lives?”

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 3 7

Spirit

3 8 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

The

path altruist of the

Selfless love is the best guarantee of a fulfilled and meaningful life. An essay in five acts. BY GUUS VAN HOLLAND

PHOTOGRAPH: EL LOBO/SHUTTERSTOCK

I I am passing a flower stall when I think, Why not?

My wife and I have had a terrible row. Although the dust has settled, I can still feel the pain that I put her through. I can also feel my own hurt racing through my body. I want love to prevail again. I love her, and I want to show her that. Would a bunch of tulips help?

Yes, yellow ones, the color of forgiveness and unity. I buy a big bunch.

But on my way home, I feel ambivalent. Am I really doing this to relieve her pain? Or—and this is

why I am always of two minds the moment I want to give someone something—am I perhaps doing it for myself? Am I doing it to ease my own pain? To soften her toward me?

For heaven’s sake! Am I doing it again? Am I putting myself first again? Is it all about me again?

I’m afraid so. The point is, of course, that I no longer want her to be mad at me. Why do I not put her first? Surely I can simply reaffirm my love?

Simply give my love. Just do it, just be generous.

For once think only about her. About her and about others.

Something like that.

These are constant dilemmas. I am surely not SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 3 9

the only person affected by them. I know very few people who give for purely altruistic reasons. They do exist, of course, the Florence Nightingales and Mother Teresas who give without asking anything in return. The volunteer nurses and social workers who neglect their own needs in favor of their fellow human beings without getting anything in return. Who give a part of themselves—their love and consolation, their compassion—simply out of love for others. Neighborly love. Not opening an account. Never asking for repayment.

I wish I were like that, not always thinking, Look at how good I am. And not always thinking of myself first, not always hearing myself talk—about myself—but sometimes listening to other people and being interested in what others have to say.

It is a very difficult balancing act, altruism—or, in other words, selflessness. The word was coined in the 19th century by French philosopher Auguste Comte, who defined it as “elimination of selfish desires and egocentricity.” And: “a life devoted to the well-being of others.”

II The cover reads, Altruism: The Power of Compassion. The author is Matthieu Ricard, a 68-year-old French Buddhist monk. Egocentricity is the biggest problem of our time, he claims. Everything revolves around the ego, around the self, around self-satisfaction, and in particular around possessions. Not because people are born that way, but because it is instilled in them by their parents and by those around them. If you want to keep up in this tough world, it is your duty as an individual to stand up for yourself.

Ricard defines altruism (or compassion) as the desire to stimulate the happiness of others and relieve their suffering. To sympathize with the suffering of others. After years of research—and through discussions with thinkers, scientists, economists, and others—he concluded that altruism is the key to solving the social, economic, and ecological crises of our times.

According to Ricard, we should meet the challenge of presenting altruism at schools as an invaluable instrument children can use

to realize their natural potential for friendliness and cooperation. We must not be afraid to declare that economic principles should not be dictated only by the voice of reason and pure self-interest, but that the economy should also be organized around caring.

How can we turn the tide in the Anthropocene epoch, this era in which our planet is in danger of being fundamentally damaged by human mismanagement?

Ricard thinks that altruistic love is the best guarantee for a fulfilled and meaningful life, a life in which we work toward the happiness of others and try to relieve their suffering. He quotes with approval the famous German doctor Albert Schweitzer: “The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”

In his book, Ricard addresses the same experiences, and particularly confrontations with oneself, that I’ve been going through.

For about three years now, I have very seriously and passionately been learning to be a Buddhist. Now that I am meditating and contemplating on a daily basis, I am aware of where I’ve been going wrong. Primarily,

PHOTOGRAPH: TIM GRAHAM / ALAMY

MOTHER TERESA DEVOTED HER LIFE TO THE WELL-BEING OF OTHERS.

4 0 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

PHOTOGRAPH: BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

FRENCH BUDDHIST MONK MATTHIEU RICARD WROTE A 900-PAGE BOOK ABOUT ALTRUISM.

I have been busy with myself and have often been oblivious to what others do, how others lead their lives and how they suffer.

And that hurts.

I must read this book.

I had learned about Matthieu Ricard before. He wrote The Monk and the Philosopher. In that book he engaged in a dialogue with his father, Jean-François Revel, a famous phi­losopher. It concerns subjects such as the differences in how neighborly love is perceived in the West and in the East, educational systems and upbringing. Ricard writes: “The word compassion in the Western world frequently suggests a patronizing kind of pity, a form of commiseration that expresses a detached attitude towards the one who is suffering. Whereas the Tibetan word nyingje, which is translated as compassion, literally means ‘the master of the heart,’ in other words he who should rule our thoughts. That is something quite different from what we experience in the West.”

His recent book goes further than that.

It appeals to me. I really would like to help others without thinking of myself. It will not hurt that ego of mine—and, indeed, that of others—to be not quite so big. At almost 900 pages, this book should contain enough learning material for a lifetime.

Ricard is also like a mentor on the subject of our personal walk of life. When he was 25 years old, he traveled to the Himalayas.

He had come into contact with Eastern wisdom, which was a somewhat unlikely development. He lived in opulence and had intellectual and artistic parents, with lots of acquaintances of equal persuasion, who taught him a great deal. And he was making a career for himself. He had a doctorate in molecular biology, and in that capacity he worked at the Pasteur Institute with François Jacob, Nobel Prize winner for medicine.

But something was bothering him. There is something, but what? I recognize that nagging feeling. But Ricard did not simply accept it. In the Himalayas, thanks to Buddhist masters, meditation for hours on end, and study, he arrived at new insights. He has lived in the Himalayas for 40 years now, in the Shechen Monastery at Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. He regularly acts as an interpreter for the Dalai Lama. At the moment he is traveling around the world to propagate his mission.

To the disappointment of his father, who

died in 2006, Ricard abandoned molecular biology after his departure from the West, despite his proven talents. In The Monk and the Philosopher, he recalled how he had become aware of different priorities. “I increasingly felt that I was not making full use of the opportunities offered in an individual’s lifetime, that life was slipping through my fingers day by day.”

In addition to his teaching, Ricard manages a foundation that provides aid to some 25,000 children, and donates $1 million per year to needy schools, hospitals, monasteries and philosophical institutes in Tibet, India and Nepal. The money comes from sales of his books and from worldwide sponsorships and lectures. “Without those years of isolation, during which I trained my mind,” he said in an interview in a Dutch newspaper, “I could never have done that.”

In the Himalayas—where he spent five years in isolated meditation—Ricard met people who were on the whole far less concerned with themselves. Not only masters, but also “ordinary mortals.” Self-congratulation and vanity are quite rare among traditional peoples. He saw a form of friend-

“The lack of compassion is arguably the cause of humandkind’s biggest failures.”

—TANIA SINGER, DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE, MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 4 1

AFTER WINNING EVERY RACE HE WANTED FOR ALMOST 20 YEARS, THE BELGIAN CYCLIST EDDY MERCKX CHANGED FROM AN INCORRIGIBLE EGOIST INTO A HUMAN BEING AMONG HUMAN BEINGS.

you make friends. Without friends you are alone, right? Man is a social animal.

“The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”

—ALBERT SCHWEITZER, GERMAN DOCTOR

4 2 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

liness that was far removed from the antisocial behavior of Paris—that urban way people have of showing ourselves off. Our selves. With our egos.

What if we could learn to behave like that here in the West? What if we let our personalities recede into the background? If we eliminate our egocentricity and lead lives devoted to the welfare of others?

It is a hell of a job to let go of our egos.

For a start, you will have to be bold enough to question the premise that people are not egoists by nature. You will have to assert that, on the contrary, we are built for collaboration, because collaboration leads to better results than working by yourself. By doing something together, you create solidarity,

At one time, Eddy Merckx was a gifted racing cyclist. He could win whenever he wanted to, and that was what he did, for almost 20 years. He begrudged other cyclists any victories, because for Merckx there was only one who counted: Eddy Merckx. It was all about him, the favored supertalent. Ergo, his ego. Merckx distanced himself from others. He avoided journalists and never took notice of others. We all knew that the best racing cyclist ever was an incorrigible egoist. Hence his nickname: the Cannibal.

But a completely different Eddy Merckx came to the fore in a retrospective on his life broadcast by the Belgian television channel Canvas last year. After physical deterioration, sickness and heart operations, the Belgian, now 69, told how, as a prosperous builder of racing bicycles, he made a point of employing the men who had “obligingly” supported him during his career as a successful cyclist. Those men had fallen into a black hole after their sporting careers ended.

Without a bicycle, a purpose or a leader, their lives had become pointless, hopeless and out of control.

Merckx recognized the suffering. The black hole into which he fell after his career ended was immeasurably deep. “A cyclist who has stopped is the loneliest man in the world.” The unbeatable sportsman who had been living in a cocoon for years, who had hidden his emotions and remained silent because he did not trust the outside world (opponents, teammates, journalists, supporters), turned out to be a sensitive man after all. Eddy Merckx loved people, but he had never been allowed to show it. Because, he said, “If you want to be a champion, you must also be a champion at blocking and masking your own self.”

Now that he could dispose of his mask, a different picture emerged. Others had wanted to benefit from his success. Others had made him a god, and that was exactly why Merckx kept his distance and unerringly cycled on, toward his next victory. It was not that he had not wanted to help people who found themselves in dire straits, gasping for breath or in need of money. It was not that he had not wanted to be altruistic, but by be-

PHOTOGRAPH: GRAHAM MORLEY HISTORIC PHOTOS / ALAMY

III

ing so he would have ceded his reign as the top cyclist. He would have shortchanged his ego. A winner never shows his vulnerability.

What can we learn from this? Eddy Merckx was not the egoistic sportsman, gloating about his talents and triumphs. He was a modest man who didn’t know any better and just did what he had to do as an athlete: win. Only after his career ended did the Belgian realize that his triumphs were not all of his own making. Only then did he express his gratitude to the people who had made his successes possible: his parents and managers, who had protected him against the “hostile” outside world; his teammates, who had “kept him out of the wind”; and his “water carriers,” who had looked after him.

Only then was Merckx in a position to show his human side, and he went on to help those men who had always accused him of being cool and aloof, but who were now stuck in their black holes. Now that Merckx had nothing to lose anymore, he could afford to be humble and focus on other people.

Eddy Merckx was numbed by success. He had started to believe that he was a god: the perfect man who won everything and therefore had the world in the palm of his hand.

He had once been unable to believe that he had others to thank for those triumphs; but later in life, Merckx understood that he also felt an urge to help others. He was no longer the epicenter. He saw how others suffered, possibly because he recognized himself in their suffering: not being able to be who you really are, because you are being lived. Time for a change, he thought. I am going to help others. Eddy Merckx became a human being among human beings.

In sports, a particularly competitive world, many champions come to this conclusion over time. Michael Jordan, the best basketball player ever, was taught by his coach that he would get even better once he showed some consideration for his less talented fellow players. The coach in question, Phil Jackson, had found his inspiration in Zen Buddhism. He confronted Jordan with his ego. However good you are, you should always ask for help and offer help. Because only in collaboration with others will you achieve improvement.

Jackson had his players read the fairy tale The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, about the quest for the “savior,” born out of necessity.

On their way, three kinds of seekers meet: a scarecrow who wants a brain, a tin man who

desires a heart, a cowardly lion who hopes that the Wizard can give him more courage.

They all have their limitations, but together they form an effective team. As time goes by, they become loyal allies. The “I” makes room for the “we.”

Jordan and his teammates also meditated in a real shrine, with glowing incense and sage. They were taught to contemplate the power of doing things together and helping others by effacing yourself, letting go of your ego. In this way they learned to understand one another, the gods and their followers. Playing together. The altruism sparked

by Jackson led to record levels of triumph.

Is it strange that I use the world of sports as an example? During my 35 years as a sports reporter, I have learned that the ego of the athlete gets bigger as successes accumulate. Until an overgrown ego leads to overestimation. I saw people who did not make it to the top get depressed. They had always put themselves first—again because those around them (parents, family, friends) urged them to do so: You can do it. You are the best. We recognize the phenomenon as soon as we find ourselves watching from the sidelines as involved parties. Those directly involved want only one thing: He must win.

Although team spirit in sports captures the imagination, in the end it is about winning. Those who play on a team not only want to be better than their opponents; they also want to be better than their teammates, because if they are not, they are out of the game. Sports is the ideal platform for constantly congratulating yourself while downgrading others, for the sake of the pride and for the glory of your own ego.

Sports are supposed to be a reflection of society. The ego of the winner gets a boost; the loser feels banished. Is that also the way we think outside the stadium? Are we, in our everyday lives, also busy stroking our egos and avoiding any damage to our self-image?

Or do we, for instance, also say hello to a homeless person? Do we wonder why he has no home and no work? Indeed, do we consider offering our help and possessions, our money?

IV In the cultural center De Nieuwe Liefde (The New Love), in Amsterdam, Matthieu Ricard delivered his speech and engaged in a

debate dressed in a burgundy-colored habit.

He could well be considered a strange customer, one who raises suspicions. It requires a readiness to be open to “new” insights— even more so coming from someone who has been living far from the “civilized” world for dozens of years.

When I saw him, my curiosity prevailed over my fears. An ordinary man. He wore sneakers, did not smile all the time and did not see the world through rose-colored lenses. He was realistic, full of conviction in his need to share his experiences.

From the audience—some 250 people— a question was asked about psychopaths and sociopaths, those deranged members of a confusing society who no longer have any feelings of empathy. Or dictators, people without a conscience. How do you deal with them? How can you help them?

Ricard’s answer: “No one asks you to love your enemies or psychopaths. You do not wish them success murdering other people. The question is: What can I do to get through to them, to get some understanding of what makes them tick? What are their inner needs? I could have spent 24 hours with Saddam Hussein and listened to him, gone along for as long as possible, like a judoka, and then ever so briefly tried to get him to follow a different track: a question about love. Whom do you love? Once you notice he’s picking something up, continue listening. It requires patience and, most of all, love.

Certainly not hostility. I think it is possible to help psychopaths, people who lack empathy.

Listen to them. Show them your love, time and time again. And who knows…”

Empathy is different from altruism. Empathy goes beyond altruism. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in the place of others, hoping to get to understand them better. Ricard’s reaction to a remark made by Roman Krznaric, the English sociologist and philosopher, serves as an example. Together with Alain de Botton, Krznaric founded the School of Life, an international network of centers to develop emotional intelligence.

Onstage in Amsterdam, Krznaric, who wrote a book called Empathy, confronted Ricard with his insights on the subject.

Consider, said Krznaric, how an apparently emotionless man will look in a different, more humane setting—playing hide-and-seek with his 3-year-old son, for example, or singing a song for his elderly mother to cheer her up. This is a different SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 4 3

type of interaction, and it is likely that he, too, will soften. According to Krznaric.

Nevertheless, empathy sucks you dry.

According to Ricard, when you continually empathize with the sick, trying to feel what they feel, this can lead to burnout. “As a doctor or a nurse, you cannot with impunity suffer along with the patient all day long. Maximum commitment, maximum distance. Giving warmth can do a lot in the course of time. If the one who suffers feels your warmth, this can relieve the pain.”

Ricard’s insights are based on neurological tests by the German Tania Singer, director of social neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, in Leipzig. From brain scans carried out by Singer on Ricard, it became clear that altruistic (sympathizing) thoughts set off reactions in the brain that are different from those set off by empathic (identifying) 4 4 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

V If it is true that altruism is in our nature, then it is soon repressed. Conditioning does its job. We obey our parents and teachers. In his book, Ricard refers to a study among children aged 6 to 9 who were taken to a hospital to visit another child. Ask the child two weeks later if he wants to come along again

PHOTOGRAPH: KEYSTONE PICTURES USA / ALAMY

INFLUENCED BY MANY YEARS OF MEDITATION, EX-BEATLE GEORGE HARRISON GAVE UP MANY OF HIS POSSESSIONS. HE “GAVE” HIS WIFE, PATTIE BOYD, TO HIS FRIEND ERIC CLAPTON.

thoughts. As Singer indicated this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos (where Ricard also spoke on the subject of altruism), “The lack of compassion is arguably the cause of humankind’s biggest failures.”

I have learned to recognize it myself.

I once tried to put myself in the place of a suffering, sick fellow human being. What is he feeling now? I went along. I thought I could feel his pain, his desperation, his hope. I buried myself in that other human being. It helped neither one of us in the least.

It exhausted me. I became confused, which caused the other person to become even more confused. Because I was not that other person. It was not my pain.

Altruism can make you feel happy, without feelings of pride or a boosted ego. Give the other individual room to think what he is thinking. Do not put him (the psychopath, sociopath, or dictator) under pressure. Gently try to persuade him of the fact that you want to understand his needs—as Ricard said of his imaginary meeting with Saddam Hussein. Give love. Listen with love. Give him, as a fellow human being, what love you have to give, and do not expect a gift in return for the love you have shown him.

One good turn deserves another: it is the trap for someone who thinks he is behaving altruistically. That means you are giving while quietly hoping, sometimes unconsciously, to receive something in return. Or simply because it flatters your ego: Look at me being good. Is everyone noticing how good I am?

Take my relationship with Facebook.

Sometimes I share a message about people in need, or about a Buddhist wanting to spread altruism. Why do I do that? To help others? To make them think? Or do I perhaps want to show that I am anxious to help others or that I have something to say again?

Am I not just fishing for compliments?

and there is a 70 percent likelihood that he will say yes. But if, after the first visit, you have given the child a reward—a sweet, a chance to play iPhone games—then the likelihood that the child will want to come along again is, surprisingly enough, much smaller.

Ricard’s conclusion: “Children are prepared to come along to offer consolation or help, but not because they are given a lollipop.”

Between 2 and 5 years of age, a child will spontaneously cooperate with others, according to Ricard. Only later does the realization dawn that not everyone is nice and helpful. And the child will proceed to protect himself against those kinds of people. From the age of 12 or 13, feelings of empathy will expand again and the child will begin to feel affinity with, for example, children of the same age in poorer countries.

At least that is the way it goes in the Western world. In traditional societies like those in the Himalayas, Ricard explains, everyone feels involved with others. “There, you do not need to tell a 10-year-old boy to take care of his 3-year-old sister,” Ricard says. “That happens spontaneously.”

Can we do that, too?

The good news is: behavior can be changed. The brain is flexible. On various occasions, Ricard has undergone brain scans. Sometimes he was asked to think altruistically, other times empathically. These two ways of thinking generated different results in different parts of the brain. Something simply happened in the brain. In the case of Ricard, and particularly in the case of monks who had been meditating and contemplating for many hours a day from a very young age, changes in the brain were observed. In the brains of people who never meditated, no changes were observed, unless they frequently indulged in altruism. Brain cells interconnect through training; synapses find one another through “practice,” as it is called in Buddhism. In short: you really can change through meditation.

In the course of his presentation, Ricard used graphics to show how children can change. If you ask them to give a present to another child, initially the present will be given to a friend. After 10 minutes’ daily meditation and contemplation (thinking about others as fellow human beings) for a couple of weeks, children will quite deliberately give the present to the ugliest or nastiest kid in class.

In 2011, Martin Scorsese made a documentary about George Harrison. It is well known that the former Beatle practiced meditation for years. In the turret of his house in England, he meditated every day in the early morning. He also spent long sessions with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. At one point, Harrison gave away many of his possessions. Even his wife—he “gave” her to his best friend, Eric Clapton. “Just go,” Clapton recalls his friend saying. “You do not belong to me, I have seen that; you belong to Eric, my best friend.” Was Harrison an altruist thanks to meditation and contemplation?

And then there is me, trying to please my wife with a bunch of flowers…

Meditation can mean: clearing the mind, generating tranquillity in your thoughts, perceiving thoughts and letting them go again.

During meditation, you can also repeat mantras—for example, the wish for others to be free of suffering, for others to experience happiness, for others to act on the basis of their fundamental goodness. That is what is called practice. If you cannot skate, you can learn how to skate through lots of practice.

During his visit to the Netherlands in February, Ricard walked through freezing-cold Amsterdam in his shirtsleeves. He said: “I have trained my body to withstand the cold.”

I can practice how to think differently.

That is risky. I can already hear people saying, You have lost your way, you are no longer the one I know. But hopefully I am on the right path. I am going to believe in fundamental goodness. In the idea that everyone wants to believe in his own goodness. That everyone is in pursuit of happiness in his own way. That everyone is altruistic and not egoistic by nature. That all people do indeed want to help one another.

In the conclusion of his presentation at De Nieuwe Liefde, Matthieu Ricard quoted from his book the words of the Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca, who, more than 2,000 years ago, wrote: “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”

For me, that is a mantra for whenever the dilemma of giving away is bothering me again.

“Consider how an apparently emotionless man will look in a different, more human setting—for example, playing hide-and-seek with his 3-year-old son.”

—ROMAN KRZNARIC, PHILOSOPHER AND AUTHOR OF EMPATHY

struggled not to let the biographical information you are reading at this moment sound too vain.

GUUS VAN HOLLAND

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 4 5

Spirit

When the school bells sound Photographer James Mollison took photographs of schoolyards all over the world.

Paso Payita Aramasi, Chuquisaca, Bolivia

WHEN YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES, YOU CAN ALMOST HEAR THE sound: that typical playground buzz. When children are playing in the schoolyard, the order and rules of the classroom are left behind and an entirely different world unfolds. Photographer James Mollison traveled the planet photographing schoolyards wherever he went, and, whether he was in Bhutan or Bolivia, “I was struck by the similarities between children’s behavior and the games they played.” Mollison was inspired to start his project after thinking back on his childhood in England. “I realized that most of my memories were from the playground. It had been a space of excitement, games, bullying, laughing, tears, teasing, fun and fear.” Sounds a lot like the grown-up world. | ELLEKE BAL

Seishin Joshi Gakuin Tokyo

Valley View School Mathare, Nairobi, Kenya

Stonyhurst College Lancashire, England

Rajkumar College Rajkot, Gujarat, India

Dechen Phodrang Monastery Thimphu, Bhutan

Sustainability & Innovation

Free money!

Digital currencies are bringing money back to the people—without interest.

BY JURRIAAN KAMP AND MARCO VISSCHER

M

ONEY IS A PROBLEM. YOU KNOW

that: you never seem to have enough of it. But money isn’t just your problem. Money is the problem.

The current monetary system causes poverty, pollution and inequality. As a result of that system, people still starve to death every day in a world that’s collectively richer and more productive than ever. Henry Ford noticed this a century ago. “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system,” he said, “for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

There was no revolution, and most people—including almost all politicians—still have no idea of the pernicious effects our monetary system has on the collective and democratic interests of the

5 2 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

community. But a radical change is under way.

We’ve gotten used to the disruptive influence of the Internet, which has turned whole industries upside down. The method of disruption is always the same: decentralization and democratization. And that’s exactly what needs to happen with money— for the sake of us all (or at least 99 percent of us).

Money’s first and most important function is as a means of exchange. As long as human beings have existed, we’ve traded. We exchanged whatever we had too much of for whatever we needed—say, a crate of apples for a bale of hay. We determined for ourselves what had value. When communities got bigger and started trading with each other, they invented symbolic currency, made of stone, grain or more valuable materials like bronze. Merchants became prosperous, powerful

ILLUSTRATIONS: CENSUUR/CENSUUR.COM

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 5 3

AT A COFFEE SHOP IN SHENZEN, CHINA, A CUSTOMER PAYS IN BITCOINS ON HIS SMARTPHONE. THIS SHOP IS ONE OF THE FIRST TO ACCEPT THE DIGITAL CURRENCY.

citizens. Their work largely served our daily needs. Money was communal. It forged relationships and strengthened society.

This beneficial, nourishing “community money” has largely been lost over the past 600 years or so. (More on that in a minute.)

But the Internet presents a fantastic opportunity to correct this historical error. The magic word is bitcoin, or cryptocurrency, or, less technically, digital currency. We’re not so much talking about the currency itself— which you can use to pay for goods and services and whose relative value fluctuates wildly—as about the technology: Bitcoin with a capital B. The idea behind it is more interesting than the currency itself.

That idea has the potential to put money back into the hands of those it was designed to serve: you, us and everybody. If we can rent one another rooms and car rides without involving a higher, supervisory body (see Airbnb, Uber and so on), why can’t we do business using our own currency? Why should we need to involve a government or central bank? Trust? That evidently isn’t a problem with apartments or cars—not exactly impersonal or trivial things—so why 5 4 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

should it be with money?

Can you see the potential? This could be the biggest Internet-based upheaval yet, since money touches everyone and everything.

Money as we know it today doesn’t belong to people but to banks. The misunderstanding started in the 15th century with an influential Italian family.

I

N THE LATE 14TH CENTURY, THE MEDI-

cis were the most powerful family in Europe. They produced four popes and several daughters who became queens in other parts of Europe. They also supported artists and scientists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei. But the Medicis exerted their greatest influence through their bank, Banco Medici.

In its heyday, Banco Medici was Eu­rope’s largest and most respected financial institution. The Medicis were bankers to royal families and merchants. They also introduced the innovation of double-entry bookkeeping, in which every transaction is recorded twice, in the credited and debited accounts. Businesses had used account books to balance

incomings with outgoings before, but never on such a large scale. The change allowed Banco Medici to assume a crucial intermediary role. People no longer had to do business directly with suppliers but could avail themselves of the bank, with its authority and its confidence-inspiring central administration—for which, of course, it charged a fee: interest.

The idea was brilliant. Historians agree that the Medicis’ innovation contributed not only to an increase in world trade but also to the artistic and architectural flowering of the Renaissance. The Medicis prepared Europe for an age of modernization, and money and banking were a key part of it.

They also came to occupy a central place in our lives. The banks’ mounting power put them in the position of being able to create money. Thus, they were in a sense the rulers of society. And we became slaves of money, subjects of the banks.

The system of money creation by banks is the main problem with modern currencies.

Currencies come into circulation when a bank issues a new loan. Let’s say you buy a house for $200,000 and take out a mortgage

for that purpose. At that moment, the bank creates that money: it adds $200,000 to the money supply by making an entry into its balance sheet and distributes that money to you. Then comes the problem: you not only have to pay back $200,000 over 30 years, but you also have to pay interest on the loan.

Yet the bank never creates that money that you paid back as interest. So where does the interest come from?

Well, for example, somebody else might go bankrupt. Another’s loss could put you in a position to pay the interest you owe.

Otherwise, you might take out a new loan.

Our financial system is built on scarcity and debt. It doesn’t lead to a healthy exchange of goods and services—the essence of a free market—but to endless competition. That’s what causes your shortage of cash.

This is also the source of the immense debts in the world. According to a recent McKinsey report, since the Great Recession of 2007, global debt (including households, governments, corporate and financial) has increased from $57 trillion to $199 trillion last year, vastly outpacing economic growth.

All that debt needs to be serviced: it requires interest payments. Governments take over debts from failing banks. The debts change hands in an ongoing, unsustainable merrygo-round. But they don’t go away, and they keep crippling economies. That’s where poverty and unemployment come from. The problem is never that there’s not enough work; it’s that there’s no money to pay for it.

A second casualty of that monetary system is the environment, since it’s tempting to convert natural resources into money that will automatically keep generating more wealth. The interests—no pun intended—of nature and society are at odds with those of the few people who have the most money.

This oligarchic scenario creates undue stress and suffering for 99 percent of humanity.

Interest is so ingrained in our society that it would appear to be a natural phenomenon.

It isn’t. Interest was invented. The idea was heavily criticized. And now we’re stuck with it. News stories always talk about interest rates and their fluctuations—but never about the fundamental question of whether we should have such a thing in the first place.

And that is most definitely the question. If you borrowed 10 bucks from a friend, how would you react if he asked for $11 when you paid it back two weeks later? In many

cases, we don’t charge interest at all when doing business with others. If you order something from a company, they’ll send it to you in total faith that you’ll pay in the foreseeable future. And if you invoice someone for work, you don’t usually charge interest on the processing time.

There’s always been resistance to interest. All the major religions opposed it. Jews were forbidden to charge interest to other Jews. Europe legalized interest only after it detached itself from the Catholic Church.

Today, only Islamic banks still eschew riba—Arabic for “interest”—on principle.

Interest fosters inequality. That’s because it rewards people who have enough extra money to lend it to those who need it badly enough to pay. Interest’s most ruinous effect is that it’s cumulative—it’s charged again and again, year after year. So the rich effortlessly become richer, while the poor have to work harder and harder to save.

That interest isn’t a natural phenomenon is evidenced by the fact that the whole idea is untenable. Put a euro in the bank today for your distant descendants, leave it there, and in 1,000 years the amount will hit 50 figures.

To use an oft-cited example, if Mary and Joseph had put a penny in the bank for their son at 4 percent interest, by the mid-18th century their descendants—if any—would have had enough to buy a ball of gold the same weight as the earth. Today they could buy 10,000 golden planets. Material reality can’t possibly keep pace with interest.

Only one conclusion is possible: interest is an invention within our monetary system that makes no contribution whatsoever to money’s long-standing community-sustaining aspects.

We know things could be different. In the 1920s and ’30s, hundreds of villages in Germany and Austria temporarily employed negative interest. It was a time of crisis, and unemployment was high. As ever, there was plenty of work to do—maintaining roads and the water supply and performing other public services, along with keeping up private homes—but no money. The Austrian town of Wörgl decided to issue a new, interest-free schilling. On the back of every banknote were 12 boxes the city could stamp, extending the bill’s validity from month to month, at a cost of 1 percent of its value.

So after a month, a 100-schilling note was stamped and became a 99-schilling note.

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin could be the biggest Internetbased upheavel yet, since money touches everyone and everything.

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 5 5

SILICON VALLEY, WHERE THE WORLD’S TOP TECHIES CONGREGATE. SOME ARE WORKING TO DISRUPT THE FINANCIAL SECTOR.

The villagers were thus encouraged to spend money. They were rewarded for investing rather than saving. The scheme stimulated economic activity and created work.

Unemployment in Wörgl dropped from above 30 percent to a marginal level. Houses were restored, roads repaved and the water system modernized. The Wörgl experiment—copied in numerous other towns— was recognized as a success. Yet Austria’s central bank perceived that its authority was being undermined. And the supreme court in Vienna declared the experiments with interest-free money illegal.

The genie was out of the bottle, however. Renowned economist John Maynard Keynes praised the inventor of negative interest, the German merchant Silvio Gesell, saying, “I believe that the future will learn more from Gesell’s than from Marx’s spirit.”

Recent decades have seen experiments with interest-free complementary currencies—monetary units accepted in particular communities. The local exchange trading system (LETS) may be the best-known example. Invented in Canada in the 1980s, it’s a model that can be deployed anywhere to facilitate the exchange of goods and services. For instance, a babysitter might earn 20 5 6 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

LETS units for an evening’s work and then use the money to hire a carpenter. Another trend is time banking, in which one member spends four hours painting walls in someone else’s house, earning “time dollars” to spend on a babysitter to come over for four hours.

Such small-scale bartering works well.

It fosters community ties and contributes to local economies. Accordingly, it’s become increasingly popular over the past 10 or 15 years. Dozens of cities and regions have their own alternative currencies—sometimes more than one.

Yet something’s preventing a breakthrough by these complementary currencies.

They work best on a small scale, at the local level, and the world’s gotten much bigger.

To truly participate in the global economy— to supply a solution to the omnipotence of banks—you have to go beyond the local community.

You have to go out into the wider world.

You have to go online.

D

ISRUPTIVE. THAT’S THE WORD FOR

the Internet. It turns everything on its head. Everybody thought encyclopedias had to be written by a select group of learned experts, and then suddenly

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T he Way of T he Heart

What if there is a way to empower your EPIC story?

With the benefit of ...

Imagine that your Life Mission is more

than just a career, it is your heart’s calling and commitment to fulfill your reason for being here in the World. Great Mystics refer this to be the Deepest Love Story of your Life: A Mystical, Magical, Heroic Journey... An EPIC Story!

An intention clarifying practice that helps you stay on course, progressing toward your ideals Awakening your inner guidance system so you will know your best response Increased Self awareness that honors skillful connection with others More courage and confidence to be your unique Self, free of inhibitions Simple movements that shift stuck patterns & limiting beliefs Bringing forth more love, kindness and magnetism for you and all you serve Restoring your energy flow to consciously embody the change you long to see in our world

You are invited to experience T he Way You’ll be glad you did.

Canada

West & Central - Dorothy Becker (604) 687.6581 Eastern - Stephanie Allen (902) 667.2227

of the Heart.

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West - Mary McGill (503) 771.1789 Midwest & East - Sarah Karnes (262) 249.1176 South - Donna Accardo (504) 234.1388

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THE IMAGE OF THOMAS PAINE GRACES A POSTER FOR THE LEWES POUND, A LOCAL CURRENCY IN LEWES, ENGLAND, THAT WAS REINTRODUCED IN 2008 AFTER BEING OUT OF CIRCULATION FOR 113 YEARS.

there was an online encyclopedia written by thousands of amateurs. We had a music industry full of record bosses and managers getting rich off the creativity of musicians, and then suddenly there were websites and apps that gave you limitless access to virtually all the music in the world, for a song.

The Internet democratizes and decentralizes. It transfers power from the upper echelons to the masses. It operates on the basis of transparency and access, eliminating shadowy agreements and secrets, putting everything out in the open. It’s global, connecting people around the planet in one immense network.

Right now, the Internet constitutes the backbone of what’s known as the sharing economy. More and more websites and apps are enabling people to use goods and services made available by other individuals. The best-known examples are Uber, which lets drivers use their own cars as taxis, and Airbnb, which allows people to rent out rooms and homes.

The sharing economy makes it possible to look at money in a whole new way as well. Five years ago, very few would have imagined that Airbnb and Uber could be worth tens of billions of dollars today without owning a single building or car. The

overnight success of these companies, which have revolutionized services delivered by institutions that once seemed eternal, allows us to imagine that the banks might lose their position of power. And that would revolutionize everything.

What’s more, if we’ve learned anything about innovation in the past 20 years, it’s that it’s highly unlikely to come from within the industry it shakes up, whether it’s publishing or the music industry or the hotel business.

Instead, renewal tends to come from outside—and specifically Silicon Valley, where the world’s top techies congregate. That’s where the major disruptors are today.

The threat to big banks probably won’t come from other big banks but from the proverbial nobody sitting in a garage with a computer and an Internet connection who surprises the world, and maybe changes it dramatically.

This is where the story of digital currency begins. We’re not just talking about online banking; almost 90 percent of money is already digital. It’s been going that way for decades, and the trend is set to continue.

Some countries, including the United States and France, are already making it illegal to transfer large sums of cash. No, when we talk about digital money, we’re talking SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 5 9

Money will be there where talents are contributed. The only thing that’s required is that you add value.

BITCOIN IS ATTRACTING INTEREST FROM ALL CORNERS OF THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM. ON THE RIGHT, LIBERTARIANS IN THE TEA PARTY SEE IT AS A WAY OF GETTING AROUND GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE IN PRIVATE LIFE …

about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are based on ideas and ambitions that go far beyond those of more idealistic proj­ ects like LETS. Cryptocurrencies are based on a con­ cept that’s reflected in the earliest source of money: the IOU (“I owe you”). Historical­ ly—before money and banks—people used IOUs to trade. Farmer A would buy seeds from farmer B, and if he didn’t have cash, he’d issue a record of debt—an IOU. He would pay off his debt once he’d been able to sell his harvest. IOUs could be traded.

Farmer B could use his claim on farmer A to pay for a purchase from farmer C. However,

6 0 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

the reach of the system was limited by the size of the community. IOUs are personal debts; farmer C would never accept an IOU from an unknown farmer A. The great promise of the cryptocurrency technology is that it provides a way to bring the IOU system—the money that works wherever people are entering value-added processes—to a global scale, with unlimited potential.

Cryptocurrency technology can finance all the transactions we need when we need them, and—as fantastical as that may sound—yes, we’re indeed talking about free money. The only thing that’s required is that you add value and express that added value in the currency. Money is there where talents are contributed and a need arises to prefinance a final product. Your contribu­ tion as a producer of goods or services is the source of your money. You create the money you need. That’s the money of the future.

Understanding bitcoin and other crypto­ currencies entirely is no simple matter. Even early adopters now seem astonished by some of the new possibilities and opportun­ ities it presents. In this respect, digital cur­ rency resembles the Internet, which was just as hard to explain back in the ’90s.

Could its impact be as far-reaching—or more so?

… WHILE ON THE LEFT, LIBERALS IN THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT SEE BITCOIN AS A WAY TO GET RID OF AN UNFAIR AND UNJUST FINANCIAL SYSTEM.

In 2008, a month after the fall of Lehman Brothers, a concise nine-page document appeared on a mailing list devoted to cryptography, the art of hiding or encrypting information. Building on earlier digital currency concepts and technologies, the document proposed how a digital monetary unit called the bitcoin could work. The sender was one Satoshi Nakamoto—thought to be the pseudonym of a lone genius or a team of smart people.

The brilliant idea behind digital currency lies in what is called the “block chain”: an encrypted shared public ledger. This ledger records all transactions that have ever been executed with a cryptocurrency. Your bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies live on your computer, hidden behind a code, or key, used in every transaction. A software protocol—a set of communication rules—enables computers to talk to one another so they can send bitcoins. The most amazing thing about bitcoin—at least from the current perspective of central banks and governments—is that there’s no central administration. The system is controlled and protected by clever software and cannot be manipulated.

The technology is complex and not easy to understand, but the gist is this: Thanks to modern technology and the Internet, a block chain provides total transparency about

transactions that have been executed— and thus about credibility and the value of money. That’s why cryptocurrencies hold the promise to take the ancient IOU system to a global scale, liberating all users and participants from the stranglehold of the current banking system.

This is how it will work. A brick manufacturer issues block chains to pay its workers to produce bricks. If you want to build a house, you buy the bricks from the brickmaker and you pay by “upgrading” the block chain with the value you are going to add. Now the block chain reflects not only the value of the bricks but also part of the to-be-built house, including cement, masonry, and so on. You issue a number of block chains that together represent the value of the house. Each block chain holds the commitment of full repayment within 30 years.

Someone who has money to spare and who’s saving for his retirement may sign up for this block chain. All transactions related to the building of your house are financed through the issuing and trading of block chains in a completely transparent Web environment.

With each step, additional value is created and the value of the block chain increases.

Over time, you will repay the block chains you issued through block-chain claims you receive for your work. People, organizations

and companies will pay you—issuing block chains just as you did to build your house— for your services and/or for the goods you produce. In the public block-chain ledger, the amount you owe gets reduced by what you earn. Ultimately, the block chain that you issued to build your house will be canceled. The money that was once needed to build a house is no longer needed and disappears, while new money for new transactions keeps being generated.

It sounds too good to be true, but here’s why it will work. The critical ingredient for any money system is trust. Money has its value because all of us recognize it. The bills in your wallet have value only because the supermarket and the coffee shop accept them. When they don’t, your money has no value. We trust money because its value is guaranteed by the government. But behind that guarantee is a carefully designed system of collateral. Banks give loans or mortgages only when they are provided with collateral.

They will finance your house because if you don’t make your payments, they get legal ownership of it.

People will trust and accept cryptocurrencies only when similar guarantees are in place. Future block chains will need to incorporate a legal title—ownership—so that the one who holds the block chain can exeSUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 6 1

KENYA IS THE GLOBAL LEADER IN MOBILE PAYMENTS. AFRICANS MAY FIND IT EASIER TO INTEGRATE CRYPTOCURRENCIES INTO THEIR DAILY LIVES THAN PEOPLE IN THE WEST, WHO ARE USED TO DEBIT AND CREDIT CARDS.

cute his rights. That’s not going to be difficult, because ownership is well documented in our modern societies. Land, houses, cars, companies and shares are all registered in public, accessible ledgers; we need only connect those to the block-chain technology. That’s not yet happening today, but it will happen, because it’s in the interest of all of us, and clever entrepreneurs will find the ways to realize this potential. The critical issue of trust can be resolved through transparent and reliable technology.

And the best thing about all this? In the cryptocurrency system, there’s no need for interest. When there’s enough money to finance the necessary transactions, there’s no scarcity. Interest is a result of the scarcity of money. It’s a scarcity that’s carefully created and maintained by banks, because they don’t issue the amount of money necessary for interest payments when they distribute a loan. That’s their business model. That’s how banks make money for themselves: at our expense.

However, we don’t need banks if we can generate money ourselves, whenever we need it, by converting our assets—a house, 6 2 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

a car, but also the value of the goods we are going to produce or the services we are going to provide—into block chains. Technology allows you to make assets liquid in the same way Airbnb and Uber allow you to easily make money with your possessions where you couldn’t before.

We may not pay interest on the money of the future, but depending on the reliability of the value of the collateral, there can be insurance fees to make sure the value of block chains is guaranteed. The value of a house is pretty stable over time. But the future value of goods to be manufactured can be dependent on market forces, and block chains may be accepted to finance this production only with certain additional insurance fees. When the risk of a new venture is perceived to be high and the collateral may not cover it, investors may accept a block chain only when additional insurance is offered.

M

ONEY MAY NOT BE COMPLETELY

free, but this new money will be liberated from the crazy world of modern finance that is currently serving a few at the expense of many. Much of the

pain that the current money system causes comes from the practice of making money with money. That’s an insane process that fuels the speculation bubbles that lead to the recurring financial crises that wreck our economies and societies. That’s impossible in the block-chain system. The technology prevents double use of money. Every block chain is strictly related to a certain transaction in a chain of value creation. And when the transaction is completed with full repayment, the block chain expires. That’s also why there’s no risk of inflation in a block-chain system.

Inflation happens when there’s too much money in circulation. That can’t happen in a system where money is created only to finance a specific transaction based on real value. Bitcoin hasn’t yet become such an inflation-proof system because it does not yet incorporate a link to asset ownership and is therefore still vulnerable to speculation. The money of the future is the collective value of all IOUs. That is: of all things we, as a worldwide community, are making, doing and trading. And that’s exactly what money was supposed to do—and did, until clever bankers hijacked the system centuries ago.

Will the bankers and their money system disappear at some point in the near future?

Probably not. The end of the banks has been predicted, but recall that when the radio was invented, the end of the newspaper was announced. And when television came along, the end of radio; and with the arrival of the computer, the end of television. Today we use all these technologies next to one another. Similarly, cryptocurrencies won’t replace dollars, euros, pounds, francs and yen.

But they will change the playing field.

Some experts predict that when 20 percent of the economy is financed with interest-free cryptocurrencies, the impact will be such that market conditions will no longer provide room for banks to earn money out of thin air, and they themselves might be forced to offer interest-free loans. After all, they operate in a competitive environment—a free market, not a money monopoly.

The cryptocurrency revolution is well under way. Young financial geniuses are eschewing Wall Street and moving to Silicon Valley instead to join the Internet initiatives that are inventing the money of the future.

At the same time, big investments are be-

Big change from a small nation The cryptocurrency revolution isn’t just coming to the West: It’s already arrived in Kenya.

BITCOIN PROMISES DEMOCRATIZATION AND DECENTRALIZATION. THAT WILL AFFECT us all. But the first people to benefit will be the outcasts of today’s monetary system: poor residents of developing countries. As everyone who’s heard of microcredit knows, they face limited access to financial services. Bitcoin gives them a way to get around several challenges.

It may come as a surprise, but Kenya is the global leader in mobile payments. Nowhere else is it easier to pay a cabdriver using your cell phone. More than three-quarters of the population has phones, and 80 percent of those people use them to withdraw, deposit and transfer money through the M-Pesa mobile platform. Mobile payments in Kenya top $10 billion (€8.9 billion) annually, and M-Pesa has expanded to other countries like South Africa, India and Afghanistan.

Thanks to their unreliable landlines, poor countries have a surprising jump on developed ones.

Using bitcoin will be a smaller one for people already making everyday mobile payments at markets and stores than for Westerners used to paying by cash, credit card or debit card.

You probably aren’t one of the roughly 2.5 billion people in the world who lack access to a bank. These people don’t have checking or savings accounts, much less credit cards. That’s because they live in places commercial banks don’t see as worthwhile markets. Bitcoin could truly help them, as people like Songyi Lee have discovered. Lee was working for the anti-poverty charity World Vision when she arrived in Mali in 2013. Mali is one of the world’s poorest countries; 70 percent of its citizens live below the poverty line. When Lee got there, the country had been racked by violent civil war. She met a woman named Fatima who was living in a refugee camp with her five children. Fatima’s husband was working in the Ivory Coast and sending money home to his family. But the cash didn’t always make it to its destination. Since Fatima was one of the “unbanked,” she had to rely on other people to transport it from the Ivory Coast to Mali, and they weren’t exactly reliable.

Back home in Seoul, Lee told her boyfriend about Fatima, and inspiration struck. Lee mentioned that Fatima had a cheap cell phone—not a smartphone, but one that could receive texts.

And Lee’s boyfriend, Johann Barbie, had an idea. A software engineer who’d worked for IBM, he was hugely interested in bitcoin—he’d been unable to sleep for two days after discovering it. Lee and Barbie realized something: people like Fatima can use simple cell phones to connect to a computer system that can deliver bitcoins. All they have to do is start a “wallet” with 37coins, the company Lee and Barbie founded. Sending bitcoins is as easy as sending an email or a text.

37coins is far from the only company to have spied an opportunity. Other businesses that recognize bitcoin’s immense potential to help the poor include BitPesa in Kenya, BitPagos in South America and Volabit in Mexico. In The Age of Cryptocurrency, Paul Vigna and Michael Casey write: “All share the belief that they can make good money and make money good.” They share something else, too: a deeper awareness that banking as we know it is not designed to improve the lives of the majority.

Think of the money that immigrants send back to their home countries. Though Fatima’s husband had no access to banking services, most migrants do. They use companies like Western Union and MoneyGram, and they use them often. According to the World Bank, last year migrants sent more than $400 billion (€355 billion) to their native lands—three times as much as all the official development aid in every country combined.

Yet plenty of that money never makes it to the households it’s intended for. Unavoidable transaction costs at both ends can easily add up to 10 or even 20 percent of the original amount.

That’s tens of billions of dollars being skimmed off for a service that costs just a few cents per transfer in the bitcoin world. Look out, Western Union. The global market leader in small international money transfers could soon go the way of Kodak. | M.V.

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 6 3

Our experts These are the people we spoke with while researching this article. We thank them for their time and insights.

HENK VAN ARKEL CEO of Netherlands-based STRO (Social Trade Organisation), which aims to alter the very concept of money by developing “news ways of working with money” to promote sustainability and social justice. Innovative methods are tested and implemented by cooperatives, businesses and governments, mostly in Latin America but also in Italy, Spain and the UK. Van Arkel is lecturing at universities in several countries. | Find out more: socialtrade.nl MICHAEL J. CASEY Australian-born columnist and blogger on global finance for The Wall Street Journal. His latest book, co-authored with Paul Vigna, is The Age of Cryptocurrency, which details the impact of Bitcoin and digital money on the global economy. As a journalist, Casey has worked in Bangkok, Jakarta and Buenos Aires to cover currencies, bonds and equities. | Find out more: theageofcryptocurrency.com THOMAS H. GRECO JR. Community economist who has become an authority on moneyless exchange systems and community currencies. Greco is the author of several books, including The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, in which he prescribes actions to “enhance economic stability and vitality.” His blog is “devoted to the liberation of money and credit, and the restoration of the commons.” | Find out more: beyondmoney.net ARJO KLAMER A professor of the economics of art and culture at Erasmus University, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where he holds the world’s only chair in the field of cultural economics. An early critic of the euro, Klamer has been promoting ideas of a new economy in which quality is more important than quantity. He’s the author of several books about economics, in both Dutch and English. Last year, he became alderman in his hometown, Hilversum. | Find out more: klamer.nl DAVID KORTEN Founder and president of the Living Economies Forum, set up to “light the path to a New Economy grounded in positive living system principles that recognize life’s extraordinary capacity for cooperative self-organization.” Korten is the author of many books, the best-known of which is When Corporations Rule the World, a fierce critique of corporate globalization. He blogs for YES! Magazine, of which he’s the co-founder and board chair. | Find out more: livingeconomiesforum.org BERNARD LIETAER Belgian economist who has probably studied monetary systems more than anyone else in the world. While at the National Bank of Belgium, Lietaer implemented the covergence mechanism (ECU) to the single European currency system, which became the euro. Back in 1992, BusinessWeek named him “the world’s top currency trader.” He’s the author of The Future of Money, New Money for a New World and other books, mainly about alternative, local and regional currencies. | Find out more: lietaer.com STEPHEN DEMEULENAERE Founder and coordinator of the Complementary Currency Resource Center, an information center for and by users and initiators of community currencies and academics. He has been working in the field of community and complementary currencies for more than 20 years, in Latin America, Asia and his native Canada.

He also runs the Coin Academy, designed to educate people about bitcoin and other digital currencies. | Find out more: complementarycurrency.org

6 4 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

ing made in further development and finetuning of the block-chain technology. And the cryptocurrency revolution is riding the waves of the ongoing frustration with the current banking system—where, after the painful happenings of 2007 and 2008, business seems to have returned to “normal,” all the way up to the million-dollar bonuses that are once again fueling public anger.

Bitcoin is attracting interest from all sorts of corners. On the left, liberals in the Occupy movement see it as a way to get rid of an unfair and unjust financial system. On the right, libertarians in the Tea Party see it as a way of getting around government interference in private life.

But it’s not just the fringes of the political landscape that are embracing digital currencies as a much-needed solution. Even economist Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary and Harvard University president, says, “It’s a serious mistake to write this off.”

The geeks of today have enthusiastically embraced bitcoin in the way their predecessors did video games and HTML. And they are increasingly joined by a more tech-savvy public that is building the cryptocurrency revolution. There are hundreds of YouTube videos explaining how cryptocurrencies work and how you can use them. More and more people are discovering the opportunities and starting to try them out. There are already about 100,000 bitcoin transactions taking place daily.

And it doesn’t end there: bitcoin may be the most famous, or infamous, digital currency, but it’s certainly not the only one.

There are Ripple, Auroracoin, Litecoin, BlackCoin, DigiByte, BitBay, BanxShares, Unobtanium, Pangea Poker and hundreds of others. The floodgates are open.

These currencies are experiments. Some will fail; others will succeed. That’s how it goes in the laboratories of innovation. But the successful ones will have an impact.

They’ll usher in improvements, new innovations and Bitcoin 2.0. That’s the way change happens.

Cryptocurrencies will deliver money back to where it belongs: the community— local as well as global. Money is a tool for realizing value—real value, not speculation.

Facilitating value creation is an essential function of money. And value creation is what we do all the time—when we deliver our services and when we create our prod-

AN UBER DRIVER GIVES A RIDE. NOW A BILLIONDOLLAR COMPANY, UBER EXEMPLIFIES THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY TO BREAK A TRADITIONAL VALUE CHAIN.

ucts. We need upfront money to bridge the gap between the moment we start producing our product or preparing our service and the moment of our first sale.

In the direct IOU system of cryptocurrencies, we will rediscover that loans are not just a hobby for someone who wants to lend money for his own benefit. Loans are vital instruments that deliver purchasing power to the community. When you build your house, you create economic opportunities for your community. That’s why loans are essential community-building instruments. That’s why money creation has to be connected to the activities—the life—of the community.

Technology and the Internet are bringing us full circle. The money of the future will be the money of the past—a past before banks. It’s not a distant future. It’s a liberation waiting to happen.

The Internet is not yet done transforming our world. Here’s our bold prediction: Ten years from now, the world of finance will be a completely different animal from what it is today.

And that interest-free mortgage may be just around the corner.

JURRIAAN KAMP

and MARCO VISSCHER ac-

cept bitcoin.

Free money!

With Stephen DeMeulenaere

ONLINE EVENT

We don’t doubt our cover story is mind-boggling. You may have many questions, so we’re proud to present a webinar with Stephen DeMeulenaere, a global thought leader on complementary currencies who has moved on to explore the potential of digital currencies. Like no other, Canadian-born DeMeulenaere will be able to present a clear overview while peeking into a fascinating future. This webinar is for anyone who considers joining the growing movement of users of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. DeMeulenaere will tell you how to get started, and why it’s important for you to do so. If you want to prepare for what will happen to our money system, make sure to tune in.

Find out more: theoptimist.com/money

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 6 5

Sustainability & Innovation

FARMERS ELIZABETH AND PAUL KAISER AND THE FARM DOG WENGE, STANDING AMID SOME OF THEIR INTENSIVE, NO-TILL VEGETABLE BEDS.

Farming for the future Paul and Elizabeth Kaiser are not your typical farmers. They turned their plot of land into an unusual field experiment, leading to much higher yields and much higher earnings.

What are their secrets?

BY TODD OPPENHEIMER

PHOTOGRAPHS: SAXON HOLT PHOTOGRAPHY

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 6 7

O

NE AFTERNOON IN MARCH, ON

Singing Frogs Farm, a small vegetable operation that Paul and Elizabeth Kaiser run in a particularly chilly valley in Sebastopol, California, a group of agriculture specialists gathered around a four-foot steel pole. The experts had come to test the depth and quality of Kaiser’s topsoil, and one of them, a veteran farmer from the Central Valley named Tom Willey, leaned on the pole to push it into the dirt as far as he could.

On a typical farm, the pole comes to a stop against infertile hardpan after less than a foot. But in Kaiser’s field, the pole’s entire length slid into the ground, and Willey almost fell over. “Wow, that’s incredible,” he said, wondering if he’d hit a gopher hole.

The whole group burst out laughing. “Do it again! Do it again!” said Jeff Mitchell, a longtime professor of agriculture at the University of California at Davis.

The group repeated the exercise, over and over—for photo ops, and to make sure that Kaiser really had accomplished the various feats he talks about, which he does almost incessantly these days. It’s not the easiest sell. Kaiser, an ebullient former woodworker who is only 40, farms a mere eight acres (3.2 hectares) and harvests fewer than three of them (1.2 hectares). Nonetheless, his methods are at the forefront of a farming movement that is so new, and so built for a climate-changed world of diminishing rains, that it opens up gargantuan possibilities.

One might call this methodology sustainability on steroids, because it can generate substantial profits. Last year, the couple’s Sonoma County farm grossed more than $100,000 an acre (€227,000 per hectare), which is 10 times the average per-acre income of comparable California farms, including Sonoma’s legendary vineyards.

The Kaisers manage all of this without plowing an inch of their ground, without doing any weeding to speak of, and without using any sprays—either chemical or organic. And while most farmers, even on model organic farms, constantly tinker with various fertilizer cocktails, the Kaisers concentrate on just one: a pile of rotten food and plants, commonly known as compost, and lots of it.

They adds all this compost to a rare blend of farming practices, both old and new, all aimed at returning dirt to the richest, most

6 8 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

fertile seedbed possible.

“It’s unique,” Mitchell told me after his visit. “I’ve never seen anything approaching that kind of thing.”

Singing Frogs Farm may be minuscule in comparison with the mega-farms that feed most of us today. But each of Kaiser’s methods is being used, to some degree, by much larger operations—both in and outside the U.S.—with growing success. By combining all of these practices in one place, and taking a few to the extreme, the Kaisers have turned their farm into an unusual, and increasingly controversial, field experiment.

Perhaps the best name for the collection of their efforts is Organic Farming 2.0, because the standard practices of organic farming have fallen so far short of their environmental ideals. “On some of the big organic farms, the soils are incredibly destroyed,” Ray Archuleta, an agronomist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told me. The reason Archuleta gave me is almost counterintuitive: while they do avoid chemicals, most organic farmers still resort to what are essentially artificial methods of cultivation, based largely on tearing up the ground with discs and spaders, the same way conventional farmers do, then abandoning it until the next season.

They also use too much water. As an illustration of Archuleta’s point, in the five years since Kaiser stopped plowing his fields, his irrigation levels have dropped by more than half, to as little as an hour a week, while production has steadily increased. He now irrigates almost exclusively with a drip system, through thin plastic tubes; meanwhile, some of his organic neighbors still run sprinklers, which require massive amounts of water, a good deal of which is lost almost immediately through evaporation.

This is a big deal, as weather patterns have made abundantly clear. California’s historic drought has caused such panic that farmers have gone on a frenzy of costly well drilling. This has caused water levels in California aquifers to drop so dramatically that in some areas the farmland has started caving in. All across the Midwest, conditions threatened a replay of the Dust Bowl in some of the same places that it struck the last time: eastern Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma.

The sparse rainfalls simply highlight, and

aggravate, a problem that has been accumulating for decades: the steady thinning out of our topsoil. “I never thought I would see the Dust Bowl again,” Archuleta says. “We’ve spent trillions of dollars and we’re still in the same place. What’s going on?”

If you listen to climatologists, droughts in California are likely to become the new norm, only worsening as the years go by.

That is not just a West Coast issue. California has long served as the nation’s primary food basket, providing more than 90 percent of its artichokes, celery, garlic, plums, kiwis, avocados and walnuts and more than 50 percent of virtually every other fruit and vegetable Americans eat. When looked at from this perspective, the fields on this little farm are crawling with implications.

I first met Paul Kaiser at a Napa farming conservation conference, where he delivered his presentation in his signature Australian leather cowboy hat, which is so worn out that the wire rim hangs over his eyes like a broken lampshade.

On this particular day, Kaiser was given 10 minutes during a small side panel to present his standard, two-hour spiel. The constraint didn’t seem to matter, though.

Kaiser is a lover of data, which spews from his brain faster than his tongue can keep up with it. Engaging with him is therefore an exercise in speed listening, like playing a taped lecture on fast-forward.

The lectures sometimes contain the kinds of sweeping claims one might hear from a 1960s-era dreamer. And some can be a little wobbly. But most, upon scrutiny, prove to have a surprising amount of solid science behind them.

Before Kaiser was done with his Napa presentation, for example, he had battered the room’s small audience with slides illustrating the evils of organic sprays, stark contrasts between the fertility of his fields and his neighbors’ and piles of stunning governmental and academic statistics.

Kaiser concluded the presentation with an ambitious definition of agricultural sustainability—as a circle with three pieces.

“Sustainable farming methods are just one corner,” he said. “Economic sustainability is another, and social sustainability is the third.

Kaiser envisions a world where every city— even in the driest areas of the globe—is surrounded by small, healthy farms like his.

In his estimation, the higher income these farms can generate will allow their owners to hire more laborers; and the workers will come because these jobs are skilled, fulltime, and well-paying. Right now, Kaiser argues, what people throughout the world need most is good jobs.

As it happens, that very argument was made last fall in a joint report from none other than the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United Nations. Kaiser so deeply believes in this future, and his model for it, that he evangelizes about his vision every opportunity he gets—at conferences and community events, in his newsletters and to visitors who come to his farm tours.

Evangelism, of course, rarely goes unnoticed. More than a few farmers have objected to the frequency of Kaiser’s boastful comparisons. Some describe him as a “know-it-all.” Some believe his system is ecologically dangerous. Others just think there is nothing special, or practical, in what he’s peddling.

“It sounds like a big garden,” says Ed Thompson Jr., American Farmland Trust’s longtime California director. “How many two-acre farms do we need to feed ourselves? Could the economic system support that? Would there be enough willing farm laborers?”

To Warren Weber, one of the state’s first big organic farmers, Kaiser is simply naive.

“There is no one perfect way,” Weber told me. “He will go through all kinds of changes as he keeps farming.”

Yet plenty of others think Kaiser is on to something. People repeatedly return to his farm tours, seeking guidance as they strive to replicate his system, and a few already have increased their income by doing so.

In 2013, his work was even commended by the U.S. Congress. When billed for talks now, Kaiser often packs the house. As an example, Kaiser spoke to a full house at this year’s EcoFarm Conference in Pacific Grove, California, a five-day thinkfest that has become the American West’s largest gathering dedicated to sustainable farming.

At each highlight—such as his astronomical profits, or his equally astronomical measures of soil fertility—audible gasps were heard throughout the audience.

It’s enough to make a person wonder: Is

LOOKING FROM A SMALL PATCH OF SAVOY CABBAGES THROUGH A GATE INTO A LARGER FIELD OF VARIOUS LEAFY GREENS AND ROOT CROPS.

Paul Kaiser an evangelist worth listening to?

Doomsayers have been warning about soil abuse since the dawn of agriculture, at least 5,000 years before Christ. We have also known how soil fertility gets rebuilt ever since 1882, when Charles Darwin published one of his more obscure discoveries: that topsoil is created by none other than the lowly earthworm, at a rate of 10 to 20 tons per acre (22 to 44 tons per hectare) each year. Worms manage this feat because, alone among earth’s creatures, they dine on rocks, mixing their minerals with roots, leaves and biology’s other leftovers for a nice, square meal.

When it’s time to poop, out comes fertile soil.

But if that soil is beaten into the dusty

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 6 9

“Tilling the soil is the equivalent of an earthquake, hurricane, tornado and forest fire occurring simultaneously to the world of soil organisms” USDA REPORT

7 0 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

powder that has become increasingly common all across the globe, there is nothing in it anymore for the worms—or, by extension, for the rest of the earth’s ecosystems.

During the past few decades, soil scientists have found that this ecosystem is far more extensive than anything yet seen on land or in the sea. Some have counted more organisms in a teaspoon of soil than there are human beings on the planet.

Others, such as Noah Fierer, a professor specializing in microbial ecology at the University of Colorado, have found the biodiversity of soil to be so vast that it defies tabulation through today’s DNA tests. When examined under a microscope, the dirt in that teaspoon looks like a cross between an Amazon jungle and some exotic tropical coral reef teeming with seaweed, plankton and monstrous creatures from a Jules Verne novel. As all these invisible creatures collaborate, they strengthen the soil to hold water; withstand erosion; store nutrients and feed then to the plants; help build their immune systems; and, preliminary research suggests, stimulate symbiotic microbes in the human gut as we eat these plants, which strengthens our immune systems, too.

Considering all this activity, Kaiser, like a growing number of his peers, cannot understand the way we’ve treated the world beneath our feet. “What creates life?” he asks.

“Sun, rain and soil. We can only impact one of these: soil. It’s the only thing on the planet that takes death and converts it back to life.

And all we’ve done is destroy it.”

When Kaiser was in Costa Rica pursuing his graduate studies, a colleague who was studying two citrus orchards noticed something unusual. The first orchard, planted on the edge of a forest that was dense with trees, bushes and wild vines, had more than 90 percent fewer pests than the second orchard, which was in an open plain almost a mile away. Kaiser was stunned.

“You can’t get 90 percent reduction with chemical sprays,” he says. “And sprays kill everything—the pests and the beneficials.”

(Beneficials are insects that don’t eat crops but instead help them grow. Bees, for example, help pollinate; others, like ladybugs and praying mantises, eat the insects that eat the crops.) Every farmer wants beneficials, but after spraying, the pests always come back faster and stronger than beneficials

do. More sprays follow, and the death spiral widens. This process of destruction occurs whether the sprays are synthetic or organic.

In Costa Rica, Kaiser and his colleagues realized that the pest-free orchard escaped this fate for a simple reason: the beneficials were hanging out in the foliage bordering the orchard, which gave these insects an easy commute to manage the crops. At one point, Kaiser visited a banana plantation that had doubled its productivity simply by using the “supertree” Moringa oleifera to provide both shade and nitrogen, which is the most important nutrient to a plant.

In Kaiser’s mind, a pattern was emerging.

“If you take care of Mother Nature first,” he says, “the food production is easy.”

In other trials in parts of Latin America, Miguel Altieri, a professor of agroecology at UC Berkeley, has reached much the same conclusion: in case after case, peasant farmers who used the natural resources on their own land to build up fertility earned higher profits, and often larger yields, than conventional farmers who used chemicals and other supplements of conventional agriculture.

The newfound fertility through returning to old ways has been particularly dramatic in Cuba, as Craftsmanship Magazine reports in “Cuba’s Harvest of Surprises.”

In 2005, Kaiser returned to the U.S. to marry Elizabeth, raise a family and test what he had learned on his home turf. After nosing around for a few months, he finally found his target: Singing Frogs Farm, an eight-acre spread just outside Sebastopol.

It was not the most obvious choice. The property had been neglected for years; it was cold and wet, on a slope that turned the farm into a neighborhood drainage sink, with no flat expanses for easy row cropping. In other words, Kaiser’s ideal piece of land. “I was looking for a place I could heal,” he says. “I knew I wanted to grow things, but I didn’t have any concept of what that meant.”

The Kaisers began farming the property using whatever tools they had inherited, plowing the ground like every other farmer does. Since the soil had gone uncultivated for years, simple weed growth had already banked the land with some pent-up fertility.

So the farm quickly blossomed. But so did the labor. “The weeds were immense,” Kaiser says. “We were out there at night, with

headlamps, weeding for hours!”

Then one spring morning, Kaiser saw a female killdeer, a local bird, screeching at his tractor. After a few more passes up and down the field, he realized she was protecting her eggs, which were nesting invisibly in the ground. When Kaiser stopped to inspect, he noticed all kinds of damage in the wake of his plow—cut-up worms and snakes, damaged beehives, valuable roots and bug colonies exposed to the hot sun.

Some months later, after getting his thumb mangled in his tractor’s engine, he had an epiphany: “I am not doing this anymore!” he recalls thinking. “There has got to be a better way.”

After renewing his studies, Kaiser noticed a prodigious amount of literature extolling the virtues of “no-till” agriculture—in other words, farming without using machines such as a plow or spader to turn over the ground.

The practice follows the second often-ignored rule of cultivation: disturb your soil as little as possible. Yet no-till farming had a surprisingly mixed record.

On the positive side, leaving old crops behind feeds the soil with a variety of crucial nutrients, as the plants decompose into rich compost; the roughage also minimizes water evaporation, erosion and the array of hidden damage that both cause. The federal government has been plenty blunt about this. In a 2010 report, the USDA said, “Tilling the soil is the equivalent of an earthquake, hurricane, tornado, and forest fire occurring simultaneously to the world of soil organisms.” Don Tyler, a USDA conservation specialist, has argued that one year of tillage can undo 25 years of an untilled farm’s soil improvement.

But no-till has its negative side, too: if fields aren’t managed with special care, notill farming can lower productivity. It also tends to involve more pesticides and herbicides than tillage does, because the vegetation left behind has to be dealt with in some way. But spraying wasn’t an issue on Kaiser’s farm. To mimic what he’d learned overseas, he laced his farm with hedgerows of trees and shrubs favored by those “beneficial” insects. He also built his own greenhouses, so he could jump-start new plantings with seedlings that he let grow for four weeks instead of the standard two. His transplants allowed for constant harvests, even in winter.

To most farmers, a routine like this involves too much muddy trouble, and demands too much from their soil. Actually, they’ve got it backwards. The longer crops remain in the ground, the happier the dirt is—because all those Jules Verne creatures depend on plant roots for their food.

This casts a new light on the myriad fields across the country that are disked and left fallow every winter. They aren’t resting; they’re dying.

As Jerry Hatfield, a crop physiologist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, explained it to me recently, “You’re basically starving out your biological system if you are a farmer who lets a plowed field lie fallow. I always ask them, ‘How would you feel if I only fed you once a year?’”

To Kaiser, this principle boils down to yet another simple lesson: “Keep roots in the ground at all times.”

Then Kaiser tried another experiment: instead of following the standard procedure of mixing a little fertilizer into his fields, he laid a thick layer of compost right on top.

The choice had its risks. Compost is essentially nature’s version of a chef’s reduction: dense, rich, a potent blend of vegetation’s essences. It starts out as a bucket of discards—from our kitchens, from yard and tree trimmings and sometimes from nearby farmers’ manure piles.

To become usable, all these leavings have to thoroughly decompose; and once they do, they turn into something akin to concentrated dirt. Despite its liveliness, this material can be too much for young crops, burning their tender shoots with undiluted chemicals.

With a little more reading, Kaiser discovered that he could neutralize his compost with calcium (from crushed oyster shells) and trace minerals (from rock powder). So he layered on the entire mess and planted straight through it.

Thanks to the nutrient balance in his new dirt, Kaiser’s seedlings, which were already robust, got an extra head start. “Our crops outcompete the weeds from the get-go,” he says. “So we just got rid of the weeding.”

This high-intensity cycle—compost, transplant, harvest, repeat—has allowed Kaiser to produce up to seven crops of vegetables per acre every year. This is three to five times what most farms produce. What’s not to love about that?

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visitors arrived at Singing Frogs Farm from the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at UC Santa Cruz. One was Jim Leap, who for decades managed the center’s farm-and-garden program. Over the years, the UC garden, which created fertility on a rocky slope, became legendary, and so Leap had pretty much seen it all—until that morning.

As Leap and his colleague Darryl Wong strolled past Kaiser’s overflowing beds of vegetables, they seemed tickled by one innovation after another. Most farmers grow only a few varieties of vegetables. And some, including many who claim to follow “organic” or “sustainable” principles, concentrate on just one (lettuce being a common mainstay). This practice, called “monocropping,” is widely scorned. It exhausts the soil and narrows the variety of wildlife that would otherwise colonize a farm, creating a vacuum that stimulates pests.

By contrast, Kaiser aims for variety, in extremis. On a mere eight acres, he grows hundreds of native trees and shrubs. On the two and a half acres of this that he cultivates, he grows an equivalent variety of vegetables. These include broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, peppers, cucumbers, winter squash, lettuce and mustard greens—in about a half-dozen varieties apiece—plus 30 to 35 different kinds of tomatoes.

“There’s nobody else doing this,” Leap said, with a look of amazement.

One newly cultivated field was covered with a thick, felt-like blanket—Kaiser’s version of the miles of black plastic sheets you see during winter drives through Big Ag farmland. Those long sheets are called “plastic mulch,” and they are extremely effective—at suppressing weeds, holding in moisture and nurturing soil microbes. Every year, however, all that plastic gets trashed in landfills. Pointing to his blankets, Kaiser said, “These last me 10 years. When we roll them up in the spring”— here Kaiser suddenly broke into high-pitched song—“the soil underneath is gloooooorious!”

Could Big Ag’s mega-machinery handle blankets like these? “Sure,” Leap said. “If they can pick it up to landfill, they could pick it up to reuse.” Even the uncultivated pathways between the crop beds impressed Leap and Wong. On a typical farm, these are bare

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 7 1

and hard; Kaiser’s were soft and green. “It’s so fun to see this working on a small scale,” Leap said, “because this is what everyone’s hoping to do.”

The farm’s abundance eventually led Leap to pester Kaiser with the issue that everyone raises: “I’m not sure if this is scaleuppable,” he said. Kaiser loves this question because it’s crucial, but he hates the way it’s always posed. “I used to think the best way to do this would be to have one large farm with a bunch of fields like this around a central hub,” Kaiser answered. “But my neighbor plants 44 acres, produces less than I do, sells at fewer farmers’ markets, and has fewer CSA [community-supported agriculture] members. So we don’t need to scale up. We need to have more small farms like this in urban cores, and fewer 100-acre farms 100 miles away from the people who eat the food.”

While most farm labor is part-time and seasonal, the work at Singing Frogs is fulltime year-round. Labor costs in California are high, and Kaiser’s labor costs are higher still—acre for acre, he uses four to five times the number of employees that similar farms do. Kaiser also pays slightly higher wages than the local norm to match the higher level of skill that his system requires—to read soil conditions, adjust practices from bed to bed,and work quickly.

But he’s not paying for herbicides and pesticides, tons of fertilizer, heavy tractor use, constant fuel and machine maintenance or daily irrigation. So, he says, he still ends up well ahead of the game.

At one point during Leap’s tour, we all dug our hands into Kaiser’s soil. The dirt was richly aromatic but surprisingly lightweight. “It’s almost like potting mix,” Leap said as he ran it through his fingers. This was mostly because much of it was compost, which becomes somewhat fluffy as it dries.

All this compost really scared Leap. “He’s using way beyond what’s common.”

Compost, it turns out, is a complicated creature. On one hand, its rich ingredients stimulate crop growth so effectively that one can’t help wondering why farmers don’t make greater use of it. “We just don’t have the carbon,” says Ray Archuleta of the USDA. Archuleta is mainly referring to the gap between current compost supplies and the 920 million acres (372 million hectares)

7 2 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

currently planted with crops in this country.

But he’s also calling compost “carbon” for provocative reasons. Carbon is bad, right?

As it transforms into carbon dioxide, it’s the main cause of climate change. The same goes for nitrogen as it becomes nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas nearly 300 times as potent as carbon dioxide.

Well, carbon and nitrogen also are the primary ingredients in compost and, by extension, in the fertile elements of topsoil.

So these chemicals are bad only if we put them in the wrong place—in our air, when they should be going back into the ground.

As Kaiser puts it, “What do I need most as a farmer? Carbon for soil structure, and nitrogen for crop growth.”

On the other hand, compost has its ugly sides. Due to the world’s ceaseless pressure for more American crops, farmers everywhere have become addicted to nitrogen.

And when fields contain too much nitrogen, it leaks into water supplies. At this point, Leap says, “every single aquifer under every agricultural operation in the state is polluted with nitrate.” Most nitrate poisoning comes from stormwater runoff from livestock feedlots, and from factory farms, which use abundant amounts of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. Plenty comes from compost, however, which is typically loaded with nitrogen.

Strangely, some academic surveys have found that organic farmers, who love compost, tend to be among the worst nitrate polluters. And Leap fears that Kaiser might be a particularly prominent offender. Over the past few years, Kaiser has applied more than 60 tons of particularly high-nitrogen compost on each acre of his crops every year— five to ten times what is customary. Before each planting, he also supplements with a little organic fertilizer that contains extra doses of nitrogen, as well as phosphorus— yet another problematic nutrient.

“That’s unheard of,” Leap says. “That is a huge, huge, huge overapplication. If Paul wanted to be certified organic, that could really cause trouble.” Surprisingly, Kaiser’s farm is not certified organic—a stamp of approval that he resists, he says, because of its expense, its complications and its standards, which he finds superficial. Equally strangely, his customers don’t seem to mind; when polled, virtually all of them approved of Kaiser’s unconventional farming methods.

Kaiser argues that his circumstances are within bounds—for four reasons. First, he says the extra nitrogen is necessary because he’s farming so many more crops per acre than the average farm. Second, he says soil tests show that his nitrogen levels are “right where they should be for healthy crops.”

Third, he says the crops are clearly not being overfed: on some, the leaves occasionally turn yellow, usually a sign of nitrogen deficiency. And fourth, he says his ponds, which catch the farm’s runoff, are visibly clear and full of wildlife. “All our fields and indicators show that our nitrogen levels are okay or not enough,” Kaiser says.

The problem is that, to some extent, both Kaiser and his critics are just guessing.

Nitrogen and phosphorus are just two of the billions of ingredients, both elemental and alive, that create something called soil. Scientists have only recently begun to understand how this ecosystem affects fertility as its micro-inhabitants interact. Some of those interactions might excuse Kaiser’s excesses; others can make them worse. “We know less about the soil than we do about the moon, probably,” Morris says.

In the months since his visit, Jim Leap de-

PAUL KAISER TAKING MOCHA THE GOAT AND CHARLIE THE LLAMA OUT TO FRESH PASTURE FOR THE DAY.

“The crops will be fine,” Kaiser said with a shrug. “I’m worried about the trees.” Kaiser had faith in his crops’ fortitude, he said, because he doesn’t baby them with lots of sprays and fertilizers. This forces them to manufacture their own polyphenols—the core of a plant’s immune system. Plants, it seems, operate under the same axiom that humans do: Use it or lose it. “If you do all the defense for them,” Kaiser said, “they won’t defend themselves.”

Suddenly, Elizabeth called Kaiser’s attention to a little geyser of water spewing behind the barn—signs of a broken pipe.

Kaiser groaned in frustration and trudged over to close a nearby connection. “I am really sick of these freezes,” he said as he returned to the conversation.

For the previous few weeks, the city of Sebastopol had endured temperature swings N A FRIGID MORNING IN JANUARY of more than 50 Fahrenheit degrees (28 Celof 2014, I was sitting at a picnic sius degrees) every day, inspiring the local table overlooking Singing Frogs’ paper to describe the weather as desert confields while Kaiser and his wife, both hud- ditions. “Two of the last five years, our last dling in fleece jackets, told me their story. rainfall was February 1,” Kaiser said, “and The first signs of that year’s drought were it’s looking the same now.” The gaps left by already starting to appear, and I asked if they low rainfall are filled each year by frosts— the first typically hits Kaiser’s property in were worried. bated these questions—with himself, with Kaiser and with many of his organic-farming peers. The question that animated these exchanges was both basic and intractable.

If Kaiser’s methodology is indeed flawed, is it fixable? “I’m just not sure he can produce at the level he’s doing now without these excesses,” Leap told me toward the end of our discussions. “I’m afraid it’s inextricable from his system. It’s kind of like his vegetables are pumped up on compost.”

Others are more optimistic. “Paul has probably developed enough soil to hold these excesses,” says Ray Ward, who runs a widely respected soil-testing laboratory in Nebraska. Ward’s endorsement does come with a warning, however. “He can’t keep building at this rate or eventually it’s going to spill out.”

O

late September, the last in late May. “We get temperatures below 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 7 Celsius) at least four weeks a year,” Kaiser said. The reason is that Singing Frogs sits at the bottom of a shallow valley, which turns the air ten degrees colder, on average, than it is for their neighbors, who live just a few hundred yards uphill. That morning, Kaiser’s crops looked more discouraged than he was—many were wilted or dead. Ravenous whiteflies were buzzing everywhere.

When I called Kaiser months later, in the middle of spring, he was reenergized. Despite the drought, his harvests were abundant and profits were already higher than the previous year’s. This was partly because his competition had decreased—on many neighboring farms, crops had not survived the harsh, dry winter.

Meanwhile, Kaiser’s customers remained well fed. “At the farmers’ markets,” Kaiser said, “we’ve had people come up and say, ‘Is your cauliflower on crack?!’ ” TODD OPPENHEIMER is founding editor and publisher of Craftmanship Magazine, from which this was adapted (craftsmanship.net).

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 7 3

Life

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Freedom warrior Rickard Falkvinge is in love with the Internet and will do anything he can to protect it. And we should be doing the same. Because “the Internet was built to connect people, and that creates the most beautiful opportunities.”

BY ELLEKE BAL

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O OTHER SHIP OF WAR EVER KNEW AS IGNOBLE

an end as the Vasa, and yet she still takes pride of place. The three-master ship, decorated with hundreds of wildly ornate lions and warriors carved in wood, once offered berth to 64 cannons. That turned out to be too many: the ship was not seaworthy. But King Gustav II Adolph of Sweden had ordered it to be built for carrying a record number of cannons, and no one dared contradict him.

When the Vasa left the harbor of Stockholm in 1628, she sank before she’d made it one mile. It took only the slightest of breezes to capsize the top-heavy Vasa. Dozens of passengers drowned as she sank to the seabed. Much later, the three-master was fished out of her seaman’s grave, and today she is showcased in a beautiful museum. Every year, hundreds

PHOTOGRAPH: HELENA AUGUSTSSON

of thousands of visitors come here to learn all about the glorious sea battles of the Swedes. Those tourists are probably unaware that the city has once again become a capital of ambitious seafarers, now that a 21st-century pirate has turned up in Stockholm. But today the battle has shifted to waves of streaming data. He has no ships under his command, but one thing is certain: he has already gone farther than the Vasa ever dreamed of sailing.

Laptop tucked under his arm, Rick Falkvinge is waiting on the doorstep of a hip coffee bar in Stockholm. Ever since he laid the foundation for the Swedish Pirate Party, 10 years ago, he has become one of the ideological leaders in the international fight for a free Internet. He has turned a small underground movement into a global political movement that now

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 7 5

has parties in more than 60 countries.

Though he occasionally dons an eye patch, it must be said that Falkvinge doesn’t look the part of a pirate. He is a gallant, friendly man. His outfit—neat suit, fancy shirt, computer—would not look out of place on a businessman or a lawyer. But as soon as you engage in conversation with him, he surprises. He is sharp, original, unconventional, with a talent for well-timed dry humor.

People are staring at him in the coffee bar.

Quite surreptitiously, but they are. Falkvinge is well-known to Swedes. He’s been noticeably present in the media. Ten years ago,

he announced that he was going to run for national office. When a reporter would then ask him, “So you want to be a parliamentarian?” he would simply answer, “No.” After a short, uncomfortable silence, he would add that he had not the slightest inclination to sit through meetings all day reading documents, but that no one else seemed to be standing up for civil liberties—so he was doing it.

Falkvinge points toward the Riksdagshuset, not far from where he is now ordering himself a coffee with milk and hazelnut syrup. “I saw bad law after bad law coming out of parliament over there. In the summer of

Who is Rick Falkvinge?

His birth name was Dick Greger Augustsson, but in 2004 he decided to change it to Rickard Falkvinge. “I always wanted a unique name,” he says. Falkvinge means “falcon wing,” and he says it stands for vision and freedom.

As a child, he was always taking appliances apart and putting them back together—sometimes with success. He fell in love with computers at an early age.

His entrepreneurial streak became evident when he was 16. He made software for local companies. After high school, he started studying chemistry, but business suited him better. He decided to keep working, first for himself and later for a company that after several years was taken over by Microsoft.

In 2005, he got the idea to start the Pirate Party, inspired in part by popular Swedish think tank Piratbyrån (the Pirate Bureau). He did it as a protest against the growing strength of the anti-piracy stakeholders. One year later, the Pirate Party took part in the Swedish national elections for the first time.

In 2009, the party also entered the European elections and won two Swedish seats in the European Parliament. In that election, the Pirate Party became the most popular party among voters younger than 30. All over Europe, Pirate Parties were formed after the example of the Swedish Piratpartiet. The German Pirate Party won an additional seat in 2014.

On January 1, 2011, Falkvinge stepped down as leader of the party.

In 2012, Time nominated him as one of the 100 most influential thinkers. British paper The Guardian called him one of the world’s 20 most prominent Internet freedom fighters.

He has written two books: The Case for Copyright Reform (with Christian Engström, 2012) and Swarmwise: The Tactical Manual to Changing the World (2013).

Today he is traveling the world as a “political evangelist” and dedicating himself to a free Internet, freedom of speech, privacy protection and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

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2005, a new copyright law was coming up which would criminalize downloading from unauthorized sources.” He still shudders at the idea of penalizing people for this.

Compare this with radio, says Falkvinge: a listener can’t be fined if the radio station hasn’t paid for the right to play a certain record. “They didn’t know what they were doing,” he says of the politicians. “I was frustrated with the way legislators did not understand the Internet.”

Politicians still seem to believe that some kind of ownership of the Internet is possible, and Falkvinge thinks that lies at the root of the lack of comprehension. But there is no owner. Yes, Internet providers such as AT&T and Verizon have owners. And there are organizations that have some say about Internet protocols and domain names. But the fully open network belongs to no one— or, actually, to everyone. In that respect, networks are like public waterways, which countries also try to stake property claims on again and again.

All around the world, people are looking for ways to keep the Web open and free— for example, the Internet activists who are fighting for net neutrality in the arguments about whether providers are allowed to favor certain sorts of Internet traffic over others.

Just as urgently, though, states and companies are trying to maintain control: The international trade agreement ACTA and various U.S. law proposals (the Stop Online Piracy Act, the Protect IP Act) were designed to fight piracy on the Internet. Policy makers like to talk of Internet governance, but Falkvinge objects strongly to that term (see box). In his opinion, the Internet cannot be governed, because it belongs to everybody.

The need for jurisdiction is not hard to grasp from the point of view of our governments. Edward Snowden has made it abundantly clear to the world what interests are at stake here. But the commercial interests of companies are also involved—companies that feel threatened by the possibilities of the Internet, which have been made manifest through websites such as Airbnb and Uber.

According to Falkvinge, we are seeing “the industrial interests of the 20th century conflicting with the most important values of the Internet: transparency and freedom.”

Falkvinge speaks impeccable English, richly peppered with proverbs and sayings.

When he studies something, such as the

PHOTOGRAPH: ANNA TROBERG

RICK FALKVINGE FOUNDED THE FIRST SWEDISH PIRATE PARTY IN 2006. IT NOW HAS REPRESENTATION IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND HAS SPAWNED PIRATE PARTIES IN MORE THAN 60 COUNTRIES.

English language, he does so thoroughly.

“I’ve always been a nerd,” he acknowledges. “Actually, on my way here, I read that oxygen can be toxic. Very interesting… Do you want to hear about it?”

The Gothenburg native today lives in Sollentuna, a suburb of Stockholm, close to the Arlanda airport. This has come in handy, as he has been traveling all over the world as a political evangelist, as he calls it, since he gave up his formal role in the Pirate Party.

His message is: The world can be a place of unprecedented creativity and freedom if we are given the same rights online as we have in the analog world.

Think about it, says Falkvinge. In the analog world you can send a letter anonymously. “The letter is anonymous, untracked in transit, never opened in transit, and the mailman is not responsible for the content of the message. All these characteristics have been lost in e-mail.” He uses the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) protocol to send all his mail messages with a secret code to prevent anyone reading over his shoulder.

Another analog right Falkvinge says we are losing is the ability to discuss any topic of our choosing, wherever and whenever we want to. “Instead, you cannot discuss nudity on Facebook. In the analog world, it’s perfectly normal to discuss nudity. Pay attention: online, we’re gradually losing the ability to discuss certain topics.”

And the worst thing, says Falkvinge, who was born in 1972, is that most people don’t even realize that the civil rights won by past generations are not being passed on to the digital generation. “It is the biggest failure of our generation.” In the same way that socialists stood for solidarity and the greens stand for sustainability, he wants to make the concept of empowerment big again. In his vision, this means: “Individual people should be able to act without permission— to communicate, transact, trade and share permissionlessly.”

Ten years after founding the Pirate Party, the voice of Falkvinge and of his rising pirate movement has become inextricably interwoven with the debate on the information society—from piracy and file sharing to cryptocurrency. The U.S. magazine Foreign Policy once included him in its list of the world’s most important thinkers. In 2009, Falkvinge successfully got two Swedish Pirate Party members into the European Par-

liament (EP). Meanwhile, there are dozens of Pirate Parties worldwide, from Serbia to South Korea; they hold a few seats in national and local governments here and there, as well as a German seat in the EP. Falkvinge compares the rise of “his” party to the advent of the green parties in Western Europe in the 1970s and ’80s, which also needed time to grow and acquire influence.

But time is precisely what is running out. Because right now, when the establishment is doing everything it can to regulate and govern the Internet, a countermovement like the Pirate Party is needed more than ever, says Falkvinge. “The Internet was not built to be controlled, and it was not built to be owned. The Internet was built to connect people, and that brings beautiful possibilities.”

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“The Internet was not built to be controlled, and it was not built to be owned.”

ACK AT THE ESPRESSO HOUSE, THE

second cup of coffee with milk and hazelnut syrup has made its way to our table. Behind Falkvinge, three men are deeply immersed in a meeting, their laptops open before them on the table. They are talking loudly, but Falkvinge is not distracted.

He sees patterns in the resistance being brought to bear by the establishment against these digital developments. Whether the authorities are trying to regulate the new digital currency or to forbid the downloading of movies, again and again the same game is being played out.

Four arguments are bandied about with suspicious regularity, says Falkvinge. The weapons with which they parry are: the fight against terrorism, organized crime, SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 7 7

UNDER THE MOTTO “FREEDOM NOT FEAR,” SEVERAL THOUSAND PEOPLE IN BERLIN DEMONSTRATED FOR THE PROTECTION OF INTERNET CIVIL RIGHTS IN 2013.

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doesn’t own a newspaper. Uber is the largest taxi company in the world, but doesn’t own a car. Airbnb is the largest hosting company, and it doesn’t own one single property.”

Falkvinge goes quiet to let the meaning of this sink in, and then erupts: “People are directly connected! The previous gatekeepers are losing out, and there is significant value in connecting people, rather than being the middleman.”

In the autumn of 2014, Rick Falkvinge was in Rotterdam briefly for the Geld voor de Toekomst (“Money for the Future”) conference. He gave a talk about virtual currencies, such as bitcoin, and about the lessons that developers can learn from the global conflicts surrounding copyright. He also delivered a scathing reply to a statement by an employee of a large Dutch bank, who had said: “I find it very logical that strict regulation is being prepared for bitcoin; after all, it lends itself very well to illegal activity.”

Whereupon Falkvinge answered with a fine sense of irony: “I would have to agree with you that bitcoin is sometimes used for illegal activities.” Then, after a pregnant pause: “Unlike the U.S. dollar…”

Falkvinge sees bitcoin as one of the most important innovations made possible by the Internet. It is an example of what can happen when people can connect directly, without any middleman, such as a bank. “The people have learned how to talk directly to each other, to create and share money together.”

The first time he used bitcoin, “I felt like I was teleported 50 years into the future. In 2011, I sent the value of a cup of coffee to a friend in India, on a Sunday. My friend had

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HE SUN IS SHINING IN MEDBOR­

garplatsen, one of the largest squares in Stockholm. Terraces are crowded with late-afternoon arrivals. Medborgarplatsen means “Citizen Square.” It was here, on the island of Södermalm, that Falkvinge held his first big speech, back in June 2006.

He held forth that forbidding the online sharing of files is, in his eyes, an attack on knowl­edge and on culture.

“If you allow free sharing,” he said, “humanity will have 24/7 access to all of the world’s knowledge and culture, a situation where the culture and the information flow organically between millions of different people.” In one week’s time, the membership of his fledgling party tripled. The timing was perfect. This was shortly after the first police action against the Pirate Bay, a torrent website that makes it possible to upload and download data, including movies, books and

PHOTOGRAPH: BOCMAN1973/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

child pornography and the violation of copyright. In reality, he thinks, the resistance springs from a much deeper source. To illustrate, he tells the story of the invention of the printing press.

In those times, the Church had a monopoly on reading, interpreting and copying the Bible, because only the clergy was able to read Latin. This gave them the role of gatekeepers of the truth, and they were able to dictate what was right and what was wrong. But the printing press made it possible to publish Bibles in local languages, and the opportunity was created for new interpretations and discussions. The gatekeepers weren’t pleased. “They wanted to punish everyone who was copying,” says Falkvinge. “You could get the death penalty by hanging for using the printing press.”

The printing press unleashed a war, says Falkvinge, “because the gatekeeper position over the world’s knowledge and culture was changing.” The advent of the Internet is eliciting exactly the same reflexive response in the current establishment, he says. Governments, banks, the media and the multinationals—who for decades have held the power to dictate the “truth”—are losing that power. “An old self-selected elite that is used to having the power of narrative no longer holds it. They have not realized it yet,” says Falkvinge, “but a new generation is no longer listening to them.”

He looks around and then says softly, as if it is a secret: “There is something very interesting happening online, don’t you see it?

The most important news editor today is the manager of the Facebook timeline. But he

the money instantly. I didn’t pay a fee. Nobody was able to see that I sent this. No bank was consulted.” But he was also alarmed by the consequences. Because if people can get together and create money with algorithms, banks won’t be necessary anymore, and Falkvinge thinks this will lead to an enormous power struggle. “Bitcoin is going to do to the banks what e-mail did to the postal services.” (See our coverstory as well.)

In Falkvinge’s assessment, private parties, as well as companies, will simply have no use for banks in the near future. At this moment, banks are charging 4 to 5 percent on nearly every transaction a company carries out, he explains. “Just for the service of processing the transaction. Corporations will gradually realize that they can maximize profits more efficiently if they don’t use banks.” For private clients, too, he believes, the use of a bank will in the end be less efficient and more expensive than the use of cryptocurrency. “People will realize that we are circumventing the old power structures with bitcoin.”

Falkvinge acknowledges that bitcoin is an unstable currency and that a lot of work still has to be done to make the system useful to as many people as possible. But he also says: “I think it’s only going to be our kids and grandkids who understand bitcoin.

Most inventions are not understood by the generation making them. This is going to be one of them.”

music, in a free network. The Pirate Bay is a formidable roadblock in the fight against such “piracy,” as this type of website enables the violation of copyright law. In recent years, the three founders of the Pirate Bay have been arrested, sentenced to jail time and fined millions of dollars. The website has been taken offline multiple times when police seized the servers, but every time the site returns again, with its pirate flag still waving on the URL. Falkvinge continues his work as an impassioned proponent of a free digital information stream. In his view, artists, actors, musicians and other creative spirits could all earn their income in other ways if their work became freely available. People are prepared to reward makers of beautiful things—he’s convinced of it. The only thing that is required is the development of a way to remove the middleman from the sales chain.

Falkvinge points out that at the moment, file sharing already takes place worldwide and that the income generated by music and the movie industry has been steadily increasing. Tickets for live performances, personal merchandise, online streaming of concerts—these are significant sources of income for artists, he says, which balance out the loss of income from CD sales. He also cites a Harvard University study that concluded that “since the advent of file sharing, both the number of music albums and films released per year have increased.”

Falkvinge also continues to devote himself to his mission to change the world. An important discovery he made when he was the leader of the Pirate Party was that he is capable of mobilizing tens of thousands of party members and volunteers in a matter of a few months. He calls it “swarm politics.”

He wrote a book about it, Swarmwise: The Tactical Manual to Changing the World, which is available, naturally, for free on his website. He is convinced that other organizations can also deploy this tactic to create a large and positive impact and is busy making software that these groups can use all over the world, which also incorporates an option to use bitcoins as the method of payment. “I’m putting this tool into people’s hands to catalyze change.”

Falkvinge enthusiastically shows me what his new software looks like. And how he, after noticing interest from the Arab world, made sure the website can also be

read from right to left. “I told you I’m a nerd,” he says, laughing.

And a nerd he remains: a computer freak, void of mainstream viewpoints and slightly unworldly. But he is also a person who lives on the crucial intersection of the analog and digital worlds. A connector of worlds, in the same way that the Vasa magically brings to life the miscalculations of 400 years ago— teaching us to stay awake, not to blindly follow our rulers. It’s our own responsibility to build a seaworthy future, Falkvinge believes. “Who controls the Internet?” he asks. “I want it to be us. Citizens.”

ELLEKE BAL

“If you allow free sharing, humanity will have 24/7 access to all of the world’s knowledge and culture.”

is thinking about sending letters

again.

A better Internet Fragments from the speech Rick Falkvinge gave last year at the founding of the European Pirate Party.

“YOU SEE A LOT OF CONFERENCES CALLED ‘INTERNET GOVERNANCE’ THESE DAYS. The problem is, it’s a total contradiction in terms. This term ‘Internet governance’ is not an Internet term. Nobody on the Internet would talk about Internet governance. This is a governmental term, this is a corporate term. And there are reasons for that.

The Internet is not a corporation. The Internet is not a department. The Internet is not a legal entity. It’s something much larger than that. Here’s where this misunderstanding comes into play. Governments define themselves by what they regulate. Corporations define themselves by what they own. So they want to regulate and own the Internet, because it’s beautiful and useful. But it doesn’t work that way. The Internet was not built to be governed, controlled and owned. It was built to connect people, and that brings beautiful possibilities.

We’re talking about freeing up knowledge for the six and a half billion people who don’t have access to it. About making medicine possible for the six and a half billion who don’t have any, who cannot afford it because somebody realized it made a greater profit to let millions of people die and look good in the next quarterly report. Imagine letting billions of people manufacture in ways they couldn’t before, with 3-D printing, spreading means of production to corners of the world where it’s never been before. When I see our brothers and sisters around the world being shut out of the opportunity to learn and to contribute to humanity, I think what a sad waste and tragedy that is.

We can build a better humanity. We can make higher education available for all seven billion people on the planet, and allow them to contribute their brilliance to what we are building on a daily basis.

This is not just about changing the laws of Europe. This is about making it possible to communicate love between billions of people on the planet, about making wars impossible to wage, because people can see through lies. This is about making sure that we can feel like the good brothers and sisters that we are on this planet.”

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 7 9

Life

When the

Does self-refereeing work in sports? It does in Ultimate Frisbee, where the players call their own game. “The authority of a man with a whistle disempowers the players.” BY MARIEKE BUIJS

players call the fouls 8 0 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

PHOTOGRAPH: XINHUA / ALAMY

DUTCHMAN ARJEN ROBBEN GRIMACES DURING A 2014 WORLD CUP MATCH WHILE ARGENTINA’S COACH ALEJANDRO SABELLA IS UPSET. IN SOCCER, THEATER HAS BECOME A WAY TO INFLUENCE THE REFEREE.

I

N THE SEARING HEAT OF THE DUBAI

high noon, the Dutch team is playing against the Philippines in the last pool-play match of the World Championships of Beach Ultimate (WCBU). The game is close, and the tall Dutch are having trouble stopping the nimble and fleet-footed attacks of the Filipinos. They are behind, 8–10, in a match that goes up to 11. The winner goes to the quarterfinals. The Filipinos attack: a long pass to the end zone, where they want to score. The Dutch reserve players on the bench yell encouragement to

defender Sanne Leufkens, hoping she can catch the disc as it flies in her di­rection.

This is the match that the ten men and seven women of the Dutch national team have been training for over the past year.

At the gym; in rain, snow and wind on the beach at Zandvoort; and in preparation tournaments abroad. The players all have regular jobs or studies, and Ultimate Frisbee is only a hobby for them, but they spend all their free time on it. And it costs a lot of money.

Preparing and participating in this tournament costs almost €45,000 ($51,000) for the team, and this is all paid for by the players themselves. Aside from a medal and a bottle of champagne, the only prize to be gained in Dubai is honor.

And just as there is no prize money, there are also no referees in this tournament. In Ultimate, as the game is called in short, the players themselves are expected to know and abide by the game’s rules. The basic premise of this so-called spirit system is that players do not intentionally break any of the rules. For this reason, no red or yellow cards are waved about, no penalties are given, and there are no clock violations. If a player makes a mistake anyway, for example by pushing an opponent while running to catch the disc, the aggrieved party will address the issue. If the trespasser admits to the foul, they continue the game from the point at which it was stopped. If the alleged trespasser is not aware of any wrongdoing, they talk about it some more, exchanging viewpoints.

If they still can’t come to an agreement, the game is restarted from the point before the alleged foul occurred.

Tim van Ommen, spirit captain of the Dutch team, is a big fan of self-officiating.

Players who are given responsibility, he says, are much more likely to act responsibly. “The fact that there is no referee is a large part of the reason that I play Ultimate,” he says. “The authority of a man with a whistle disempowers players. In Ultimate, you feel like you have your own control over a fair course of play.” Van Ommen feels that it brings out the best in players. “A referee often changes a match into a battle over who can influence the referee most. Players try to see how much they can get away with and end up making tactical transgressions.”

The matches at the WCBU generally are played respectfully. The Russian and American ladies who are battling one another in the very exciting final stop play now and then for a brief discussion. For example, an American player impressively tilts forward

to pluck the disc out of the air high above her while barely keeping her toes within the lines of the end zone. She thinks she has been successful and is already celebrating the point, but her Russian opponent thinks she stepped out of bounds. After a brief discussion they still disagree, and the decision is made to send the disc back to the person who threw it. The spectators and the other players show their appreciation for the controlled and respectful interaction with a round of applause. It presents a striking contrast with many a soccer match, where audiences whistle at referees and players alike, and grown men throw themselves around the penalty zone like divas to fake a foul.

Although the self-officiating of Ultimate Frisbee is unique in the sports world, off the playing field it is considered completely normal for people to interact and deal with one another without the intercession of an authority. “People in general tend to find a solution together to fix any conflict that arises,” says professor of socio-legal studies Marc Hertogh, at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands. “Only 5 percent of arguments are battled out in legal court.”

And that’s a good thing, too, says the sociologist, because going to court in most cases brings about an end to the relationship between the parties involved.

Hertogh is of the opinion that finding a solution together, in sports as well as in other areas of life, leads to healthier mutual relationships and more sustainable solutions that both parties can be content with. Judging by the atmosphere in Dubai, self-officiating promotes mutual respect. Opponents compliment each other on good plays, and the reserve players on the sidelines wish their opponents good luck when the game starts.

Could this same ethos be realized in other sports? Would soccer survive without a referee? Could it possibly be a way to end the ridiculous Schwalbes (what Americans call flops) and sneaky elbow thrusts? Sports philosopher Ivo van Hilvoorde, of the VU University, in Amsterdam, thinks that reciprocal conflict management could improve the atmosphere in other sports. “A lot of frustration and aggression on the field comes from the disappointment concerning losing or discontent about a card or a penalty,” he says. “When there is no referee to blame for these things, and you are forced to enter into discussion with your opponent, you learn to deal with disappointment in a different way.”

Hertogh reckons that a soccer competition without referees is possible, because SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 8 1

the same teams often play each other. When people have to depend on one another, it creates what the sociologist says is an important precondition for the success of an anti-authoritarian system. Naturally, in such a setting people are more inclined to be concerned about each other’s well-being.

Hertogh cites the Frisian village of Makkinga, in the Netherlands, where 15 years ago all traffic signs were removed so as to put an end to the chaotic and sometimes downright dangerous situations that were occurring on the roads there. It resulted in an unexpectedly huge success. Lacking an authoritative presence, people paid attention to each other again and took care of each other.

But elsewhere in the Netherlands, an opposite trend is taking place. In response to the death of soccer linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen, kicked to death by aggressive players in 2012, the Dutch soccer association, KNVB, has granted the referee more power. He can now issue time penalties or send misbehaving players to reeducation classes, and clubs whose players consistently cross the line can be disqualified from competitions. Hertogh doubts that this is the right approach to take: “I think what we need to do is make the referee less important. Give players more responsibility so that playing according to the rules is no longer something the players can outsource to the referee and only be confronted with when the whistle blows.” Van Hilvoorde agrees 8 2 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

that responsibility for and involvement with the rules of the game are crucial for fair play.

“Research shows that soccer players who also referee games behave better as players.”

Both researchers emphasize that selfofficiating and fair play work only if sports organizations make these concepts a high priority. Ultimate Frisbee has developed an extensive system to support it. Participants in tournaments have to take an online exam to prove their knowledge of the rules. And after every match, the competing teams meet to discuss the scores, strategies and fair play. Everyone then assesses their opponents’ conduct using fixed criteria that are the embodiment of the Spirit of the Game. How well has the opponent applied the rules?

How many fouls did the team commit? Did participants control their negative emotions during the game? Did they communicate quietly and with respect? The scores are published, and at each tournament there are prizes not only for the winning team but also for the Most Spirited team. Many Frisbee players experience spirit as the foundation of their sport and are proud of it.

And yet the emphasis on fair play does not diminish the competitiveness of the game, states spirit captain Van Ommen. “A good spirit score means you are playing the game by the rules, but more important, of course, is that you perform as the best within those rules, and that you win.”

And a good performance is just what the

Dutch players are working hard to deliver in the match against the Philippines. When the disc flies from the hands of the Philippines offense through the air to the end zone, Leufkens does succeed in plucking it out of the air with an athletic leap, and hope is renewed on the Dutch side. They are ready to attack and recover from their 9–10 position.

Well, that’s what Leufkens and her team members thought, anyway. The Philippines’ offensive player, who dived for the disc at the same time, is of the opinion that he had it in his hands first. The two cannot reach an agreement, and the disc goes back to the Filipino who threw it. With a few simple passes, the Philippines scores the winning point. The Netherlands’ chance of reaching the quarterfinals evaporates.

The moment leaves a sour taste for the Dutch team. In their dejection, they discuss the spirit of the Philippines team, and in the category of fair-mindedness they all vote 1 out of 4. Although this incident reveals the problems inherent in self-officiating, the realization that referees don’t judge all plays correctly, either, offers some consolation. In the end, it is these types of moments that are the biggest test for a player’s spirit. The ultimate goal is to remain in control despite disappointment and to assume at all times the honest intention of the other party.

MARIEKE BUIJS, a science writer, also prefers

to write and play Frisbee without a referee.

PHOTOGRAPH: DON LACZI

DURING THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS OF BEACH ULTIMATE IN DUBAI, DUTCH PLAYERS MISSED THE NEXT ROUND AFTER A DUBIOUS CONFLICT OF OPINION WITH THEIR OPPONENTS FROM THE PHILIPPINES.

Column

Amy Domini Founder and CEO of Domini Social Investments and author of several books on ethical investing. amydomini.com

The corn dilemma AS AN EATER OF CORNFLAKES, I WAS IMMEDIATELY

PHOTOGRAPH: PAK FUNG WONG

interested in a headline from a recent Bloomberg Business article, “U.S. Forced to Import Corn as Shoppers Demand Organic Food.” It turns out that our organic demands are a pretty good thing for some small economies in other parts of the world. I learned, for instance, that the value of Romanian corn exports to the U.S. rose to $11.6 million in 2014, from $545,000 the year before. That’s a pretty big jump.

What is going on here? Corn is about as American as apple pie. It’s one of the crops that grew on our continent before the Europeans arrived. And we certainly grow a lot of it. According to the National Corn Growers Association, we’re the largest producer of corn in the world, responsible for 32 percent of the world’s crop in the early 2010s. We have 84 million acres of land devoted to corn crops, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and that corn sells for about $63.9 billion a year.

But apparently big corn growers in America don’t want to bother with organic corn. They have their system. They use genetically modified corn that can withstand huge amounts of pesticides without dying; they spray their crops and have no pests. This gives them a high crop output. It’s been going on for years, and the time it would take to reverse course and become qualified organic growers is not, in their view, worth it.

But the demand for organics is growing fast, according to the Nutrition Business Journal. Consumer spending on organic foods grew from $11 billion in 2004 to an estimated $27 billion in 2012. It is far and away the largest growth trend in food.

This triggers a whole series of responses in me.

I feel glad that American consumers are supporting farmers in less developed countries who provide a

Big corn growers in America don’t want to bother with growing organic corn. Yet the demand for organics is growing fast.

safe and fast-growing product. Their success will raise the standard of living in their communities. I feel sad that we expose our own farmland and consumers to so many pesticides and that it is so profitable to do so.

I feel a patriotic sense of disgust that we have given away the healthy corn market. After all, I grew up on stories of Natives teaching Puritans to put fish meat in with the corn to get a better crop. It belongs to us.

I feel pride that my organic shopping is contributing to such strong demand. And I feel that our agriculture industry is sort of pathetic in that it fights so hard for outdated and increasingly less desired food-production methods.

The shift to organic food consumption is an extremely powerful force for good in the world. As long ago as 1992, a National Cancer Institute review of two dozen epidemiological studies found pesticides to be one of five likely suspects explaining why farmers had elevated risks of several forms of cancer. Of course, farmers’ exposure levels are much higher than average, so, like the canary in the coal mine, they are the first to feel the effects of pesticides in their environment. That study was 23 years ago.

You’d have thought that industry itself might have taken steps to move away from the dangerous ways corporate farming had been growing food, but it took consumers to bring change. As millions of Americans have begun to seek out organic food, organic food is being grown. For higher-priced items like many fresh vegetables, small family farms have converted to organic production methods and are able to succeed.

But for large crops like corn, we must go abroad to find what we want.

There was a time in my life when I was not especially fanatical about eating organic. I thought of it as a nice thing, but not a needed thing. My own father gave me a bit of a jump start. He had a business. He purchased eggplants, peeled them, sliced them, dipped them in batter, cooked them, froze them and sold them in bulk to universities and the like for eggplant Parmesan dinners. One year he decided to supplement the purchase with a crop of his own. So he asked me if I knew of any organic pesticide he might use for his crop. I was surprised and asked him why he cared.

His answer was “This is food. People eat it.”

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 8 3

SOLUTIONS YOU By

together with

Welcome to (y)our solutions.

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SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 8 5

Life

8 6 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

Happiness studies can point the way to ever-higher levels of well-being and inspire politicians to design wiser policies.

We visit two pioneering researchers in Spain. BY MARCO VISSCHER

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 8 7

C

ARMELO VÁZQUEZ RECEIVES

his apologetic foreign visitor with open arms and a broad smile. He’s not one to get grumpy just because somebody shows up a little late. “How wonderful that you’ve made it!” he exclaims.

As we sit down, a thought occurs to Vázquez, one of the world’s first researchers on happiness and professor of psychopathology at the Complutense University of Madrid. He immediately gets up again and takes a book off a shelf. He places it on the coffee table in silence and awaits a reaction. The book’s title explains his triumphant smile: Optimismo inteligente.

Vázquez coauthored the work, which outlines a “psychology of positive emotions,” in 1997. He recalls a colleague’s response: “He congratulated me on the book and said, ‘You’re so brave!’ Back then, it wasn’t too fashionable to take positive emotions seriously.”

Since then, things have changed. Policy makers, mostly in Europe, have begun questioning the value of indicators like gross national product, which simply tots up economic activity. And they’re working to devise programs designed to increase citizens’ happiness. The United Nations has called for feelings of well-being to be included in

CARMELO VÁZQUEZ (LEFT) AND GONZALO HERVÁS ARE WORKING TO PROVIDE CUSTOM HAPPINESS TIPS TO ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONDENTS.

8 8 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

the next set of data for the Human Development Index.

The increased interest in happiness has spurred more and more scholars to study the subject. Scientists are steadily refining methods for determining how happy we are and how we can become more so. Their findings have implications not only for individuals’ personal lives and choices but also for politicians’ and public servants’ ability to set better agendas and priorities.

Not all the studies are equally sound, however. Some merely ask people to rate their own experience of happiness, leading to results that are far too subjective. The more thorough research sounds out a range of emotions and feelings so that a fuller picture emerges. “If you were to measure depression simply by asking people how depressed they feel, everybody understands the results wouldn’t be very useful,” Vázquez says. “So researchers on depression also measure lack of appetite, lack of desire to meet people, sexual dysfunction and other things so they can create a more general picture.” The best happiness research takes a similar approach.

With his colleague Gonzalo Hervás— who’s joined our conversation—Vázquez has recently devised a new means of measuring the emotion the pair prefers to call

“well-being” or “life satisfaction.” Their Pemberton Happiness Index—named for the founder of Coca-Cola, the company that cofunded the research—overcomes a key problem scientists have faced.

They may be on to something. With their track record, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Together they founded the Spanish Society of Positive Psychology. Vázquez heads the International Positive Psychology Association and represents Spain in the European Network for Positive Psychology. Hervás has authored dozens of studies published in leading journals, among them Behavior Therapy, The Journal of Positive Psychology and Emotion.

Two forms of happiness can be studied and measured. First, there’s the hedonic type: our satisfaction with our lives and the recent experiences and events that affect our mood. Then there’s the eudaimonic kind, which has to do with self-actualization and personal growth. The first type is more emotional and intuitive; the second is steadier and more fundamental. “Our index tries to reflect these two different lenses for looking at happiness,” Vázquez says.

Their approach eliminates a well-known problem in happiness research. While subjects answering questionnaires tend to search their memories in a rational manner, memory biases lead all of us to recall events that stand out in a positive or negative sense. Though these are influential, they hardly matter for the overall picture.

So the context of the questionnaire can taint research results.

“If I ask you how many positive experiences you’ve had today,” Vázquez says, “then you may tell me you had almost none.

Your plane was delayed. You were in a rush.

You got lost. You got confused by the address. You couldn’t reach me by phone…. A researcher could conclude you had a miserable life.” That conclusion would be overly hasty, according to Vázquez, since all those things happened as the subject was cycling through one of Europe’s most beautiful cities on a dazzling spring day while doing the world’s most wonderful job.

He and Hervás are modest about their index. It isn’t the last word; they emphasize that more research is needed. They say they would have liked to study an even bigger, more international group of subjects. Their modesty suggests the scale of their ambition: to create a more nuanced index that would

do justice to the complex social science they practice and serve to measure the success of political decisions.

You might wonder what purpose all this research serves. What good does it do us to know how we rate—individually or collectively, as inhabitants of a country—on a scale of 1 to 10? Hervás and Vázquez get that question a lot. “The rankings are just for the newspapers, so they have a fun item,” Hervás says with a smile. More seriously, he adds, the results are a good way of evaluating whether governments are doing their job properly.

There’s a clear relationship between citizens’ experience of happiness and various public policies, such as those that provide for good public transport and greater political freedom. Relatively low inequality, a progressive tax system and proximity to nature are also linked to increased well-being. And can it be a coincidence that most countries that consistently rank among the world’s happiest have robust social safety nets?

“We know from research that reducing the unemployment rate is much more important for overall well-being than the rate of economic growth,” Hervás adds. “If someone loses his or her job, it breaks the whole structure of well-being, so it seems important for politicians to know that creating jobs is fundamental.”

Immanuel Kant said happiness shouldn’t be the purpose of politics. The Spanish researchers disagree. “Maybe politicians can’t make us feel happier,” Vázquez says, “but they are able to provide the conditions that lead us to feel happier.” And that, he feels, obliges them to do so.

It’s logical that politics and happiness should be linked, according to Vázquez.

After all, what good is social policy if it’s not designed to improve citizens’ lives?

“Politicians need to be brave,” he says, “and face up to the measurement of happiness to evaluate their work.”

In acknowledging the importance of happiness research, the scholars say, we should also finally acknowledge the limitations of current economic indicators. They point to Bhutan, whose king famously got furious at how his small country languishes at the bottom of various international rankings on economic metrics, even though his people respect nature, live peacefully and are, in general, highly satisfied. Bhutan’s king

coined the phrase “gross national happiness” to offer an alternative. “For decades, we’ve been measuring human development with strictly economic criteria,” Vázquez says.

“We can do better than that.”

The Pemberton Happiness Index will serve as a source of inspiration not just in politics but also in our personal lives.

Vázquez and Hervás are refining a useful add-on: fill out an online questionnaire to measure your happiness level and you’ll receive custom tips for raising it. One person might be advised to get outdoors more; another, to contemplate whether her current job suits her values.

For Vázquez, this work—raising happiness as well as measuring it—harks back to the route by which he became professionally involved in the subject. Like the founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman (who wrote the foreword to Optimismo inteligente), Vázquez initially studied depression.

People with depression hold a negative view of the world based on how they interpret events in their lives; intelligent optimists are able to maintain a positive one in the same circumstances. “That is our normal, healthy state,” Vázquez says.

Learning to shed emotional baggage isn’t just a science; it’s also an art. And fortunately, we can continue to advance both. Looking for a word to convey his enthusiasm for the opportunities afforded by the new index, Vázquez laughs. “I’m very happy with it.”

“Politicians need to face up to the measurement of happiness to evaluate their work.”

CARMELO VÁZQUEZ, PSYCHOPATHOLOGY PROFESSOR, MADRID

felt his happiness level rising steadily during this interview.

MARCO VISSCHER

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 8 9

Finally, The Practical Guide To A Sustainable Life!

Science and spirituality are uniting to tell us that we all have the power to create the kind of future we desire. It is TODAY that you and I must choose how TOMORROW will look like for humanity and our world. Find out in this practical guide the concrete steps we can each take to make life sustainable on our planet.

“We live in a time of profound change and transformation. In this process, we are being called to imagine a new future for our collective wellbeing. In this important new book, Wee and Lau offer a sensitive and insightful roadmap for navigating all aspects of our life and work. Theirs is a call to help us awaken to a more nourishing and sustainable world.”

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“It’s an encyclopedic review of the current human condition that proposes pragmatic solutions encompassing the physical, mental and spiritual realms. I heartily recommend it.”

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“At different points in our history, scientists have framed our views of the world in terms of what was correct or possible.

Even though some of their theories have proved to be incorrect, they served their purpose, helping humanity to evolve positively. Our lesson? We collectively need to embrace incomplete assumptions in order to improve our world.

If you look at what is happening around the globe, you can clearly see that holding on to our current assumptions can only lead us to a world of conflict, shortage and destruction. To manifest a better world, we need to have the audacity to envision and embody new paradigm-breaking assumptions.”

—Barney Wee, co-author of Choices of Now

Book orders: amazon.com More about the book: www.choicesofnow.org

Food

You can create time A little dukkah in the house makes all your dishes exciting THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT FOR A GOOD MEAL is time. Regrettably, it’s not possible to save a bit of time by canning it or storing it some other way. How nice would it be to open a jar of time when you want to make a dish that requires more of it than you have at the moment. What you can do, though, is open a can (or jar or box) of something you don’t have time to make right now. The supermarkets are full of this type of “canned time”: bouillon blocks, sauces, powders, mixes.

But even though we can choose from thousands of products in the store, they don’t compare to the creations we can make ourselves. In that sense, you can invest time now to save it later.

You could make dukkah, for example. This Egyptian blend of nuts and seeds can be sprinkled on any humdrum vegetable, from beets to stir-fried spinach, to transform it into an irresistible dish.

In a frying pan or in the oven, toast 2/3 cup (100 grams) of sesame seeds. Remove and toast about 1 cup (100 grams) of nuts—walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds and cashews all work. Toast 2 to 5 tablespoons of coriander seeds and 2 to 3 tablespoons of cumin seeds. Mix the seeds and nuts with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of crushed red chile or cayenne and grind them together for a few seconds in a food processor to make a crumbly topping to sprinkle on the food of your choice.

Another delicious tip: Dip pieces torn from a big loaf of flatbread first in olive oil and then in dukkah for an extremely tasty snack.

Nice bonus: Dukkah is easy to make in large amounts without spending extra time. It keeps for easily a month in a closely sealed tin or jar. | ELBRICH FENNEMA

PHOTO: PIETER DE SWART

SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 9 1

SongwritingWith:Soldiers The Power of WITH

What happens when active duty service members and veterans sit down with professional songwriters and write songs?

“It’s like a revival of the soul,” said one veteran.

“It’s the most meaningful work I’ve ever done,” said a Grammy winning songwriter.

It all began when two old friends — Darden Smith, a singer songwriter in Austin, TX, and Mary Judd, a positive psychology writer and educator in New York – combined their skills and passions to create SongwritingWith:Soldiers (SW:S), a program that uses songwriting as a catalyst to build creativity, connections, and strengths. The results are a treasure trove of American history and healing, rippling far and wide.

In two short years, SW:S has traveled to TX, NY, CA, VA, MD, FL, holding intimate retreats that pair veterans and family members from all branches with some of the worlds top songwriters*. The nearly 150 songs written so far are today’s equivalent of the Civil War Diaries, rich personal accounts of military life, at home and in combat, with much to teach us all.

The songs are written WITH the veterans. Not for them or about them, but with them. They are their stories, put into song by masters of the trade.

“I never thought that something so painful could be turned into something so beautiful and be helpful to others.”

Hear the songs. Watch the videos.

Learn more at songwritingwithsoldiers.org If you would like to help SongwritingWith:Soldiers reach more veterans, produce CDs, and hold awareness building concerts, go to songwritingwithsoldiers.org/donate * SW:S songwriters include Smith, Marshall Crenshaw, Radney Foster, Gary Nicholson, Darrell Scott, Mary Gauthier, Beth Nielsen-Chapman, and more.

SongwritingWith:Soldiers

518-468-7889 songwritingwithsoldiers.org

Inspiration “YOU HAVE TO LET ENERGY DO ITS WORK. THIS IS THE FOUNDATION OF GELASSENHEIT,” SAYS WILHELM SCHMID.

Q+A

“Live with your age, not against it” WHEN GERMAN PHILOSOPHER WILHELM SCHMID TURNED 60, HE SUDDENLY CONSIDERED HIMSELF OLD. HE DIDN’T LIKE THAT AT all, and immediately started reflecting on what could help him embrace aging. What he found was the concept of gelassenheit. The book he wrote on the topic, What We Gain As We Grow Older: On Gelassenheit, topped the German bestseller lists for months.

PHOTOGRAPH: THOMAS SCHLIJPER

Gelassenheit—what is it?

“In my view, it could be translated as ‘serenity,’ or ‘letting go.’ But to my surprise, my English editor decided not to translate it, because he wanted to add this word to the English language. Gelassenheit is a rich word full of meaning. It was first mentioned by the German mystic theologian Meister Eckhart, when he built this noun out of the verb lassen, which means ‘to leave be.’ His idea was that it is important to let go of the unimportant things that fill our lives—letting go of others and of ourselves and of our emotions. You need to let go to be able to let something else be. That something else could be God. For me, ‘God’ is a word for the essence of all life, and in my view, that is energy. So you have to let energy do its work. I let the energy move through me. This is the foundation of gelassenheit.”

Why do you think people in this time are drawn to this concept?

“A lot of people do not have gelassenheit. Modern life is very dy-

namic. And don’t get me wrong: I do not want to change this. The dynamism of modern life is the basis for development and progress.

But maybe it’s a bit too much. I think it would be interesting to cool down a little bit. The dynamism is unhealthy for a lot of people.

Modern Western culture tells you that you have to stay young. Getting older is not valued. This is why a lot of people today have no idea how to deal with getting older. They think it is only about losing things and life becoming more difficult. My proposal is that you simply accept that you are aging, because when you grow older it’s easier to grow toward gelassenheit, and this can add a lot to your life.”

What does this mean? That you need to sit back quietly and relax while life passes?

“Not at all. The German edition of this book has a red cover, a very strong color. Why? Because I want to have a vivid gelassenheit, not a passive one. My advice is: Live with your age, not against it.” > > SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 9 3

Inspiration

What does that mean in practice?

“In the book, I give ten possible ways to work toward gelassenheit. For example, it’s important to consciously enjoy the simple pleasures of life that you get only when you age. Younger people cannot imagine this, but older people do have sex. One of the wonderful things about growing older is having quality sex. In youth, many people think more about quantity, but when you’re older you have very intense relationships.

Also, you have the pleasure of a memory.

Younger people are less interested in these memories, but older people can have pure fun thinking about situations from the past.”

And what about dealing with disease?

What do you think when you see very ambitious older people, like 70-year-old politicians? Isn’t it inspirational? Or would you call it too dynamic?

“I’m sure that a 70-year-old politician feels wonderful, because at that age it’s a pleasure to still be able to work. You probably do it because you love your job, because it brings fulfillment and meaning to your life. Gelassenheit can be full of energy.”

Can we learn to become more gelassen?

“Yes. The most important exercise is very simple: Embrace, and be embraced. Because when you’re embraced, there’s a full flow of energy. The problem for elderly people is: maybe there are no more people to embrace you. My advice is—and this goes also for younger people—make sure that you have relationships that make you feel embraced. Grow relationships until the end of life. The meaning of touch is very important.

Everybody intuitively knows that if you are touched and hugged by someone you love, you become more gelassen.” | ELLEKE BAL 9 4 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

Cooler than wood

THERE’S NOTHING LIKE STYLISH SHADES CONSTRUCTED OF ECO-FRIENDLY bamboo to make a statement on a hot summer day. This is the inspiration behind Bamboozz, a company launched in 2013 in Barcelona and Tel Aviv. Not only do the handcrafted glasses appeal to the fashion- and environmentally conscious among us, but they are functional and affordable. Strong yet lightweight, they are comfortable to wear, protect the eyes thanks to their UVA/UVB polarized lenses, and easily hang on a light summer shirt. Last but not least, they come in many different styles and colors for both men and women. Oh, and did we mention they ship for free to anywhere in the world? Something to inspire sun lovers to indulge in a bit of guilt-free summer fashion. | LAETITIA MAILHES | FIND OUT MORE: BAMBOOZZ.NET

BUDDHA BASICS

“I had a lot of discussions about this question with people. One possibility is asking yourself: Could there be a meaning in your situation? If you can imagine there is a meaning in disease, it might be easier to deal with it.

One meaning could be that this illness was necessary to cool you down. You have been too dynamic, and it was unhealthy. You are free to give meaning to a situation, to try to understand it. The most difficult discussions are always about death. Think about the meaning of your life, give it meaning.

Maybe there is no meaning in death, but it’s simply a condition of life that it is dangerous and that you die in the end. You cannot eliminate this idea from your life. Let it be.”

PRODUCT

WE’RE SITTING ON A ROCKY MOUNTAIN slope in Turkey. We hear the sound of bees swirling around us. The morning sunshine paints a collage on our faces. I say, “Words are fingers pointing at the moon.” A Zen saying. I can feel it touch our group of writers like the pine needles that are poking our skin. It’s Zen’s way of reminding us that words can never replace or explain the real thing, the direct experience of being alive. Of eating a bite of halvah. Of fingertips on someone else’s back. Of being heartbroken. Of taking a sip of water.

Words describe; they never replace. Language always fails. According to Buddhism, you have to know this when you write—or talk. You have to feel this deeply, and at the same time forget about it and try anyway.

It’s in the trying anyway that art is born, that love is born. Love and art are like fingers pointed at the sky in a very exact way: There is the moon.

Even if you don’t see it now because it’s daytime, it’s there, exactly there.

The opposite of love and art is a hand mindlessly tossed up at the sky to point out the moon. Confusing and careless.

Remembering that words are fingers pointing at the moon takes some pressure off of language. At the same time, it inspires us to choose words wisely, knowing that we all point to the same moon anyway. Our mountain tribe starts writing. We fail happily and start walking again. | GEERTJE COUWENBERGH IS AN AUTHOR AND INNERPRENEUR | FIND OUT MORE: GEERTJECOUWENBERGH.COM

Inspiration

BOOK

SHORT TAKE

We are becoming better people SAME-SEX MARRIAGE REMAINS A

topic of heated debate and opposition.

There were fierce protests in the streets of Paris, and large regions of the United States still resist the introduction of gay marriage. That will not be the case for very much longer, according to Michael Shermer. He even claims that in 25 years’ time it will be fully accepted. Why? Because moral progress is undeniable, and it is happening so fast that conservatives The New Wild today are more progressive—in the way Fred Pearce they talk and think about women, homoBEACON PRESS sexuals, Jews and minorities—than proInvasive species are bad, and we need to get rid gressives were half a century ago. of them before they destroy nature. Right? This Against a backdrop of grim news book might make you reconsider. Fred Pearce, an reports—about everything from the author and journalist from London, traveled across increase of race riots to Islamic terror— the world and came to a surprising conclusion: we Shermer has written an impressive book. need invasive species and the new ecosystems The Moral Arc In The Moral Arc: How Science and they create for a healthy future.

Reason Lead Humanity Michael Shermer Toward Truth, Justice, and HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Freedom, Shermer cheerfully argues that the world has made tremendous progress over the past few centuries. And the end of this moral arc—the title is a reference to a famous speech by Martin Luther King Jr.—is nowhere in sight.

Shermer perceives the progress in the way people treat one another as natuurlijke uitvaartmanden an “improvement in the survival and flourishing of sentient beings.” Armed Vriendelijk ogende FAIR TRADE ECO uitvaartmanden en with graphs and figures, as well as a rich arsenal of colorful examples, he kisten voor hen die ervoor kiezen om een milieubewuste delivers proof of the continuous extension of our circle of empathy. For levensstijl ook na het overlijden in praktijk te brengen. instance, democracy and human rights have meant that freedom and justice Handmatig vervaardigd van ondermeer pandanus, bananenblad en bamboe. are now quite common for an increasing number of people. Our moral www.greencoffins.nl sphere has expanded. In the past, our group was limited to our own family, clan or village. These days, there is a worldwide community we can feel empathy toward. By now even animals are benefiting from that expansion, something that a hundred years ago would have been absolutely inconceivable.

According to Shermer, all of this can be attributed to scientific, rational thinking—and not to religion. Indeed, he contends, God by definition does not provide new insights, whether it is to abolish slavery or to give women the vote. The basis of faith is the fact that there is a book that contains all the answers. It is precisely the curiosity of scientists that enables us to achieve progress.

During the Enlightenment, our interest in the laws of nature grew, and soon these laws were applied to the organization of our society. These scientists might not have worn white coats and worked in laboratories, but they used the best of what our minds have to offer: reason. Only reason is to be thanked for the fact that we can understand the world and formulate ideas to make it a better and more beautiful place. From the scientific revoPostbus 412 | 2220 AK Katwijk Z-H lution onward, there was no way to stem the surge. If we manage to retain T +31 6 22 43 80 80 E welkom@greencoffins.nl that same openness, the moral arc will continue to climb for a long time to www.greencoffins.nl come. | MARCO VISSCHER SUMMER 2015 T H EO PT I M I ST. CO M 9 5

The world is a better place

than you think

Immigration People in the West fear a mass influx of immigrants. But what would really happen if we loosened the borders?

AFRICANS HEADING FOR EUROPE IN RICKETY BOATS

have been all over the news lately. Some have drowned; more fortunate ones have been rescued. Thousands have already died this year—dozens of times as many as in past years. Refugee boat disasters have been the main topic of debate in Europe.

Politicians are searching for ways of dealing with the flood of illegal arrivals; proposals include stricter controls and immigrant quotas. Meanwhile, commentators fume over the European Union’s inability to provide emergency aid at sea. The debate over boat refugees appears to revolve around the widely held belief that immigration is undesirable and should be prevented.

But is immigration really something the West should fear? Will it hurt us if hordes of people come to Europe—or North America—in search of a better life?

It’s impossible to calculate what effect easing immigration controls might have on the global economy.

Some estimates, though, calculate an annual benefit in the trillions of dollars. The logic runs as follows: if the unimpeded flow of goods and services makes the world richer, so will lifting bans on the free movement of human beings.

“Is Migration Good for the Economy?” asked the title of a 2014 OECD report. Its answer: a resounding yes. Immigrants account for almost half of the expansion of the U.S. workforce in the past decade. They fill niches in fast-growing and declining sectors. And they do jobs that native-born people are no longer interested in. So they don’t so much steal work as create it. And as a group, contrary to public opinion, immigrants contribute more in taxes than they receive in benefits, to which they usually have limited access. Since they go to school elsewhere, they don’t cost the state money that needs to be “paid back” to even the balance sheet. And immigrants are more enterprising than nonimmigrants. In the UK, for instance, they start twice 9 6 T H EO PT IM I ST.COM SUMMER 2015

as many businesses as the British.

They help their homelands’ economies, too. A World Bank report estimated that immigrants would transfer $436 billion to their native countries last year. That’s more than triple the total amount of development aid in 2014, which clocked in at $134 billion, according to the OECD. And while development funds are spent mostly on infrastructure projects and humanitarian interventions, money sent home by immigrants goes directly to families.

There’s a fear that if we throw open the gates, “they” will come en masse. History says otherwise. After the EU admitted ten formerly communist countries, there was no law to keep 100 million citizens from moving to wealthier parts of Europe. The gap was considerable: average income in Sweden was eight times that in Romania. But in ten years, only about four million Eastern Europeans moved between countries—and many later returned home.

This spring, British commentator Philippe Legrain pointed out in The New York Times that Europe could learn from what happened with the U.S.–Mexico border.

Until the 1950s, it was loosely guarded, and Mexicans came north to do seasonal work, but most didn’t stay. It was after the U.S. decided to close the border that settlement increased. Evidently, those who want outsiders who enter Europe to leave again should make the borders more porous, not less.

In his 2009 book Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them, Legrain pointed out that immigrants could help fill gaps in the labor market in countries with aging populations. The EU’s shrinking workforce presents a serious challenge. It numbered 336 million in 2010; by 2030, the figure will drop to 300 million. Meanwhile, with its population aging, Europe will need more health care workers. If it keeps the borders sealed, it will be following a recipe for long-term economic stagnation.

Why, then, is Europe allowing the Mediterranean Sea to become a mass grave?

MARCO VISSCHER

is editor-at-large at The Optimist.

PHOTOGRAPH: ABDELHALIM ABDALLAH

BY MARCO VISSCHER

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