Dear readers and friends,
my name is Matthias van der Minde; I was born in 1985. Right now, I am absolving my teacher training in order to become a teacher for English and “Politics and Economics”. My school is the Goethe-Gymnasium in Kassel. Until spring 2011, I’d studied in Marburg and also some time in The Hague where I mainly focussed on international and European law, as well as on human rights.
That’s my girlfriend and me in Annecy, France, 2008.
As you may guess from the topics of this webblog, I’m highly interested in global topics, mainly in nuclear weapons, war and climate change, but also in economical issues, international relations, and human rights. However, I act on a very local level to help making the world a better place:
Since August 2011, I’m a board member of the Greens in our “Landkreis Kassel”. Go to our party’s website.
Before that, I’ve participated in establishing a regional currency in Kassel, the “Buergerbluete”. In simple words, it runs with extra banknotes which just circulate between consumers and shops in a certain local area. Thus, the money cannot drift away. The local economy, as well as the environment, may profit from short trade channels. Please visit the initiative’s page.
In Marburg, Anka and me had regularly been involved in the “Bildungsfest: Bildung in Zeiten des Klimawandels.” It’s something like an alternative street festival which presents local environmental initiatives and wants to connect them. Here’s an article about the festival and our contribution (taken from the “Marburger Neue Zeitung, 20.6.2009):
Besides that, I like organising and participating in conferences. In 2009, my best friends Dirk Weidmann and Mathias Lotz and I arranged a three-days conference entitled “Von Platon bis zur Global Governance: Entwürfe für menschliches Zusammenleben”. Our aim was to gather motivated scientists and students for extensive discussions about our human history, our successes and mistakes and what to learn out of them. One workshop tried to find new ideals for a future German Basic Law, another critically investigated in the role of education and so on. Please visit the conference’s website, read the conference report or a newspaper article about last day’s plenary discussion (taken from the “Oberhessische Presse”, 27.7.2009):
In 2010, my girlfriend and I discovered Australia (yeah, indeed, a dilemma for an environmentalist): the tropical rainforest, the desert, the coasts, the cities, and – very important – lots of kangaroos, koalas, camels, parrots, and fish. Here, you find a small report (German) with some pictures. Due to the pics, the pdf file is rather big (30 mb), so please allow for some minutes to open the document: Ankas u. Matthias’ Australien-Bericht.
Some of the “Twelve Apostles” at the Great Ocean Road, near Melbourne.
