Between food and politics
I met Wam Kat in 1999 in the Netherlands. He had set up a European youth forum there for the protection of forests, the promotion of sustainable energy, and a place to bring like-minded, optimistic and idealistic people together. Wam never said no to an idea. Whoever wanted to organize an action Read More...
We Live in a Rain Forest
Jurriaan Kamp | April/May 2010 issue Our brains don’t function like a machine; rather they function like an ecosystem. “The brain has a tremendous ability to transform itself in response to change,” writes psychologist Thomas Armstrong in our cover story for this issue. Armstrong believes Read More...
“Laughter can set people free”
Marco Visscher | August 2009 issue Ron Jenkins Photograph: Franziska Blattner Does laughter have a socio-political impact? "For ages, comedy has been used as a liberating tool for people, especially in oppressive regimes, to confront, ridicule and criticize the powerful." For example? "I Read More...
An address I hope President Obama will deliver
What he needs to say and do to create an economy that serves human rather than financial values David Korten | March 2009 issue Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. presidency on a promise of change. Before his inauguration, indeed before his election, I drafted the following as my dream for the Read More...
Open borders need open arms
People's natural mistrust of strangers plays a big role in the immigration debate. Let's acknowledge that and then seek better ways to accept foreigners. Ode Editors | April 2007 issue Answering an appeal for open borders - such as the one made by Philippe Legrain in this issue of Ode (see Let them Read More...
Right turn on green
The rise of a political paradox brings hope for the world Jay Walljasper | June 2006 issue Modern politics is notorious for the way it creates strange new meanings for familiar words. “National security,” for instance, now means attacking distant countries. “Choice,” in American electoral Read More...
Wild in the streets of Damascus
Recent riots in the Middle East turn a colony of young global expats upside down Aatish Taseer | June 2006 issue The last time I saw my friend Torbjorn Askevold, we were eating okra and mutton in my flat near the diplomatic quarter of Damascus, Syria. The 22-year-old Norwegian theology student, who Read More...
The whole world is blogging!
The great promise of this democratic tool depends on participation by all people Jay Walljasper | May 2006 issue “I have no interest in being anti-establishment,” proclaims Matt Stoller, a leading progressive blogger on at the popular U.S. web site MyDD.com. “We’re going to be the Read More...
The Disunited States of America
Looking a half-century into the future, a maverick businessman warns that America may fall apart as a nation. He believes the U.S. can avoid this fate--but that it will require some radical steps right now.Jurriaan Kamp | March 2006 issue In 1950 the United Nations had 50 members. Today there are Read More...
How Africa developed the West
Without Africa's wealth and resources, the West would not have prospered. A conversation on the Western debt to Africa.Marco Visscher | March 2006 issue In the late 17th century when Dutch traders returned home from Africa and described their impressions of a region of Africa in what is now Read More...