London – Dundee, Saturday 26th of September 2009

Topics of the day: back to Scotland, mixed feelings

The last day of my trip from Heathrow Airport via London King’s Cross to Dundee station by train was fairly uneventful. I slept a lot, wrote a bit, looked out the window (appreciating the autumn scenery – trees, hay bales and Scottish stone houses) and thought about the past, present and future… I didn’t really talk to anyone on the way because I wasn’t feeling very communicative.
I arrived in Dundee safely (and on time) and walked up to my new flat. It’s not very well insulated but still homelike and my new flat mates (a civil engineering student from Kenya and a philosophy student from Edinburgh) are very nice and easy-going.

Final thoughts of the day and about the project:

I wonder if I actually made a difference and how the project is going to develop… would the result be different if I hadn’t participated?

How is Raphael’s thesis going to turn out?
How will the storage-problem be solved?
Will the government pick up the energy-concept and actually put it into practice?

How will Robert’s documentary turn out?
What will Eric and Volker be up to in the future?

Will the people who received a copy of the translation “Le Projet Tahiti” get together and form a strong alliance to push for change?
How will the newsletter I just sent (trying to encourage people to start up a public participation solar farm) affect each one of the roughly 400 recipients?
Can one initial push be enough to start making things move?

I know our economic system is wrong and I’m sick of people using that thought-terminating/killer argument “that’s too expensive”. It’s just too easy to keep wearing those blinkers and happily leaning back in a comfy chair saying “I’ve done my bit – who am I to say I could change the way things work!”. We’re living at the cost of future generations and the less “fortunate” people in the world so how can we even dare to say something more sustainable is too expensive?

The know-how to change the world is all there it just needs to be put into practice and that takes every one of us – no more lame excuses!

Just found this quote by Eva Young (not sure who she was though):

To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.

I shall now stop wasting time philosophising and e-mail a whole bunch of students who responded to my advertisement about student allotments. We want to start growing our own local organic fruit and vegetables on a little plot in the botanical gardens which the university is kindly letting us use. I know this is not a land reform but a step in the right direction and something I can manage while I’m still studying.

I’m sure that the Tahiti Projekt – and Virus will create waves and inspire thousands of people!
Stay in touch.

Thank you Dirk for inspiring me and sharing your blog – keep it alive!