Rashid's Blog: A Place for Inquisitive Souls

What comes to mind when thinking of foreign landscapes? Are these far off countries? Or different planets? Do they only exist in fantasy fiction? Or are they birthed from Hollywood magic?

Wherever these landscapes originate, one fact is constant: foreign landscapes inspire creativity. At the heart of art is a cry of curiosity — a desire to explore what lies beyond the world as we understand it. This is why natural disasters, everyday home supplies, and destructible objects are bringing about some of the most creative art pieces to date.

Natural Disasters

Forces of nature often leave tragic sites in their trails but even in the most horrendous of circumstances, art can be found. Take for instance the landscape created from the Superstorm Sandy that hit New York in 2012.

In a parking lot in Queens, NY, 18 piles of sand reaching 30 feet tall were collected. After days of…

At: http://www.stopwarming.eu/?news&id=203

Q&A: ‘Time to De-Grow’
IPS, August 3, 2009
Claudia Ciobanu interviews economist SERGE LATOUCHE

BUCHAREST, Aug 3 (IPS) – Serge Latouche, professor emeritus of economic science at the University of Paris-Sud, is one of the main proponents of “the society of de-growth”.

He calls for “abandoning the objective of growth for growth’s sake, an insane objective, with disastrous consequences for the environment.” The need for a ‘de-growth’ society stems from the certainty, he says, that the earth’s resources and natural cycles cannot sustain the economic growth which is the essence of capitalism and modernity.

In place of the current dominant system, Latouche argues for “a society of assumed sobriety; to work less in order to live better lives, to consume less products but of better quality, to produce less waste and recycle more.”

The new society would mean “recuperating a sense of measure and a sustainable ecological…