On the 28th of April 2025, during the kick-off of the Shared Visions project in Belgrade, the consortium discussed the co-operative’s by-laws. Joana de Ló, who participates in the research on behalf of KickVoidLoop, wrote a comprehensive report – outlining challenges for the years to come.

Contemporary cooperatives emerged within the workers' movement of the 19th century, as a response to the intensified exploitation brought about by the rapid industrialisation of the means of production. In 1844, in the English town of Rochdale, a group of 28 textile workers founded the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, establishing a small community-run shop that sold essential goods at fair prices, at a time when inflation, low wages, and unemployment shaped the daily lives of the working class.

This founding experience was not merely an economic solution — it was, above all, an ethical and political proposition. The principles they adopted — voluntary and open membership, democratic control, equitable distribution of surplus, autonomy, education, cooperation, and concern for the community — laid the groundwork for a coherent alternative to the dominant capitalist system.

Since then, cooperativism has asserted itself as an economic model, many times politically neutral, but coming from a rich history of resistance to hegemonic economic structures, promoting practices based on solidarity, self-management, and the valorisation of collective labour. This tradition has expanded across various sectors, now encompassed by what is broadly referred to as the Social Economy or Solidarity Economy, and has proven relevant in cultural and artistic practices also. In times of crisis, repression, or instability, artists have often turned to the cooperative model as a viable structure for organisation, sustainability, and mutual support. One of these initiatives was the Cooperativa Cinema Indipendente (CCI), founded in Naples, Italy, in 1967 and later moved to Rome.

The CCI was created with the purpose of bringing together Italian filmmakers and facilitating the distribution of experimental and underground films, explicitly inspired by models such as the Film‑Makers’ Cooperative of New York. By offering a cooperative structure for self-production, distribution, and mutual support, it played a pioneering role in helping filmmakers overcome barriers related to funding and access to distribution.

The proposal of the “SHARED VISIONS – Cultural Artists’ Cooperative” firmly situates itself within this genealogy of civic institution-building. The cooperative presents itself as a transnational, intergenerational, and solidarity-based artistic project, seeking to collectively address the structural precarity that affects the cultural sector in the Balkans and beyond. By reclaiming the founding principles of cooperativism, this initiative aims to re-establish collective structures as tools for social transformation.

It is essential that SHARED VISIONS’ internal statute is not treated as a mere legal formality, but rather as a living, structuring document that clearly expresses the seven principles of the International Cooperative Alliance. These principles are not declarative — they actively guide the ways in which members join, participate, deliberate, and share responsibility for the life of cooperatives worldwide.

They were read aloud through the first online sessions launching the Bylaws discussion, and fully adressed in Belgrade, on the 28 of April — the fourth day of the “Shared Visions” kick-off meeting — revealing a surprising convergence among an audience not always prone to easily being contended.

○ 1st principle: 1st Principle: Voluntary and Open Membership

The importance of voluntary, but informed, membership was highlighted, with proposals for a gradual entry process including a training and mentorship period. A “bicameral” model was proposed, involving a Membership Committee and the right to appeal to the General Assembly, ensuring that each new member understands the cooperative's values and commits actively to its practice.

○ 2nd Principle: Democratic Member Control

Deliberative participation was seen not merely as a formal right but as an ongoing, demanding process grounded in transparency and accessibility. Democratic control of the cooperative through it’s assembly is paramount.

○ 3rd Principle: Member Economic Participation

The issue of surplus management is a touchstone specificity of cooperative management, since there is no profit to distribute, and the allocation either of interests or of deficits is a common responsibility, and an important vehicle for it’s development.  This discussion gave rise to a rich and nuanced debate, shaped by two complementary positions. On one side, there was a call for clear minimum percentages to be established in the statute for reserves and reinvestment, safeguarding sustainability and protecting collective resources from private appropriation. On the other, concerns were raised about the risks of over-regulation, which could undermine the Assembly’s autonomy and its ability to adapt to the cooperative’s evolving needs. This tension between structure and flexibility was a constant throughout the sessions.

Reserves, in this context, were not merely seen as a legal obligation but as a political and strategic tool. Their role goes beyond financial safety — they express a collective commitment. Four main areas of allocation were identified: statutory and legal reserves; investment in continuous education and skills development; improvement of working conditions through equipment, space or production tools; and support for inter-cooperative solidarity. Although the redistribution of part of the surplus among members was mentioned, it was agreed that such a measure should only occur once collective priorities are met, and always based on actual participation — never on capital return.

○ 4th Principle: Autonomy and Independence

The autonomy of the cooperative was reaffirmed as a non-negotiable principle — not only economic, but also political. Several contributions warned against the dangers of dependence on conditional funding or institutional logic that could dilute cooperative practice. One intervention stood out, asserting that real autonomy requires ideological clarity: the cooperative must position itself as part of a broader movement that recognises artists as cultural workers. This identity is not decorative — it gives political coherence to the cooperative’s economic structure.

○ 5th Principle: Education, Training and Information

The centrality of cooperative education was strongly emphasised. Training must be ongoing and multifaceted, encompassing both technical skills — such as financial management — and political-historical understanding of cooperativism and cultural rights. The goal is to ensure that no one is excluded from meaningful participation due to language barriers or unequal access to knowledge.

○ 6th Principle: Co-operation among Co-operatives

The sixth cooperative principle  holds particular strategic relevance in the contemporary context, as it goes beyond the economic dimension to stand as a practice of internationalism and the building of collective power. By fostering exchanges of labour, goods, services, and knowledge, cooperatives not only strengthen the cooperative economy by creating autonomous circuits of production and distribution but also reinforce the movement itself, building networks of solidarity that transcend national borders and contexts. This intercooperation thus becomes a tool of resistance to the isolating dynamics of the liberal markets, allowing collective strength to prevail over competitive logic.

In the Balkans collaboration between cooperatives also has a decisive political dimension: by forming strategic alliances and common platforms, these organisations gain influence with policymakers, actively contributing to the development of legislation that is more favourable to the sector, while strengthening workers’ rights and the legitimacy of the cooperative model. In this sense, cooperation among cooperatives is not merely an ethical principle but a strategic imperative to consolidate a solidarity-based economy and a movement with its own voice, capable of asserting itself as a viable and sustainable alternative.

○ 7th Principle: Concern for Community

It was also widely recognised that a cultural cooperative cannot exist in isolation. SHARED VISIONS must operate in a network, share resources, engage with its surrounding artists communities, and act as a transformative cultural agent. Its internal structure must reflect this mission: it must be, at once, a tool of self-organisation and a space for collective imagination — building a cultural economy that is cooperative, solidaristic, and shared.

---

Caitlin Clark and women’s basketball teammates at a University of Iowa campus rally, 14 Apr. 2023. (Photo: A. Kotok)

15 Sept. 2025. Sure, sports are a business and have been for a long time, but betting on sports is a business nobody needs, particularly the athletes themselves. A batch of new cases this month shows how betting is perverting the sports it targets. And one of my recent photoshoots shows how the rapid spread of gambling now worries those in charge of the play.

If sports can generate big money, that's fine. Sponsorships, naming rights, merchandise sales, and endorsements bring in more revenues for teams and leagues at all levels. And why not? Sports are a form of entertainment, and people putting on the show deserve to be paid.

What makes sports entertaining is the athletes' skills and performance. Caitlin Clark's play in college and the pros has brought millions of new fans to women's basketball, and she deserves every dollar earned in pay and endorsements. Clark of the WNBA Indiana Fever is celebrated not only for her dead-eye shooting from almost anywhere on the court, but also for the way she plays the game, finding teammates and feeding them the ball in the split-seconds they're open. (Disclosure: Clark went to University of Iowa, where I got my B.A. degree, but in a previous century.)

More bettors are players' friends and classmates

In the past few years, however, legalized gambling has intruded so much on sports that it's obstructing these athletes' performances. All but a handful of states in the U.S. have some form of legalized gambling, according to USA Today. Plus, many of the avid sports gamblers now are young. American Psychological Association in 2023 cites research showing the fastest-growing group of gamblers are people in their early 20s, with many kids starting even younger than that.

Thus, the fastest-growing group of gamblers are about same age as the athletes playing the sports where bets are placed. And the problems here are obvious. Many sports bettors can be acquaintances, friends, or relatives of the athletes, or even the athletes themselves.

NCAA president Charlie Baker, former governor of Massachusetts, in an interview that I photographed at the National Press Club on 24 July 2025, came down hard on sports betting. The interview with Associated Press reporter Tara Copp dealt largely with tournaments, conferences, transfers, and financial issues like name-image-likeness payments. During much of the program, Baker was relaxed and smiling. But when sports betting came up, Baker's demeanor turned dead serious — see photo— and he shifted forward in his chair.

NCAA president turned dead-serious when the subject of sports betting came up in his 24 July 2025 interview at the National Press Club. (Photo: A. Kotok)

Baker told how prop bets, short for proposition bets, are turning college athletes into objects of hate from bettors. Prop bets are wagers on outcomes other than game winners, losers, or point spreads: for example, points, hits, catches, tackles, or sacks by specific players, called player props. Baker told Copp how fans losing prop bets at college basketball games yell abusive comments at players on the court.

Also in that interview, Baker warned against the prospect of athletes helping friends or even themselves win prop bets. That prospect became a reality on 11 Sept. 2025 when the NCAA charged 13 former college basketball players at six schools for “betting on and against their own teams, sharing information with third parties for purposes of sports betting, knowingly manipulating scoring or game outcomes and/or refusing to participate in the enforcement staff's investigation.”

These charges followed findings a day earlier by NCAA of sports betting violations against three college basketball players at Fresno State and San Jose State in California.

In the NCAA’s 11 Sept. statement, Baker blamed prop bets for much of the problem and called for their elimination. “The rise of sports betting is creating more opportunity for athletes across sports to engage in this unacceptable behavior,” he noted, “and while legalized sports betting is here to stay, regulators and gaming companies can do more to reduce these integrity risks by eliminating prop bets and giving sports leagues a seat at the table when setting policies.”

The house always wins

If there are winners in sports betting other than the gambling operators, they're hard to find. NYU business professor Scott Galloway says winning gamblers may gain some money, but they also get a dopamine rush when their bet comes through. Plus, says Galloway, gamblers get a rush from the anticipation of winning, even if the bettor loses, which encourages more risk and more betting.

Moreover, says Galloway, gambling addiction is easy to hide, since there aren't the physical manifestations seen in alcohol or drug addictions. Nonetheless, says Galloway in Feb. 2024, “at least 6 million to 8 million U.S. adults are estimated to have a mild to severe gambling problem, costing the economy $7 billion,” with calls to gambling addiction hotlines doubling every year where sports betting is legal.

And the people most engaged in sports betting are young men, a group in growing crisis from loneliness, obesity, academic failure, addiction, and incarceration that Galloway has documented many times over.

You want to gamble? Go to a casino. But leave our sports out of it.

POTUS has decided to have a trade war with China, the biggest buyer of soybeans from our farmers. These beans are incredibly useful. We use them to feed to farm animals because of the potency of their protein. We use them in our food. Ever go to an Asian restaurant and wonder what that black stuff in the bottle on the table is? It's Soy Sauce, and its delicious. People have been using soybeans for centuries, for thousands of purposes.

So here is the problem with all those tariffs and the trade war. Our farmers work very hard to produce crops which they want to sell so they can take care of their families and also buy equipment. When our farmers are effectively denied a market, which is what tariffs do, they cannot sell their products.

This problem is not just one for the farmers who grow our food, they need equipment to do it efficiently. If they don't have the funds to buy new equipment, the folks that make the equipment begin to lose their jobs, because no one is buying what they make. All because POTUS decided to up the price on all Chinese goods coming into our country, and China did exactly the same to us. Thanks POTUS, you did us all a favor!

So, how does this get fixed? Well for starters we should probably not anger the buyer of our products. Tariffs are a tax paid by an importer for the privilege of bringing things into his country to sell. When one country wants to protect its own products from what may appear as unfair competition, they put a tariff on that product. However, when a country wants to increase revenues and doesn't care about the result, it will put a tariff on everything coming from a rival country. POTUS doesn't care who gets hurt in the process.

As you drive through the countryside, look at the amazing fields of plants and the pastures of animals. All this is being done for you. So, lets not screw it up. Thank the Farmer. Nobody eats without them.

POTUSRoaster

Chaque recherche que nous lançons, chaque e-mail que nous envoyons, chaque vidéo que nous visionnons semble immatériel, un simple jeu de lumière sur nos écrans. Nous vivons dans l'illusion d'un monde numérique propre et sans effort. Pourtant, derrière cette façade lisse et épurée, une infrastructure monstrueuse et polluante dévore nos ressources.

La dernière preuve en date ? Un projet de data center « hyperscale » de Google à Thurrock, dans la banlieue londonienne, qui révèle le coût écologique vertigineux de notre boulimie de données. Les documents de planification, soumis discrètement par une filiale d'Alphabet, la maison mère de Google, dressent un portrait bien sombre. Sur 52 hectares de terrain, là où résonnaient autrefois les moteurs d'un circuit automobile, s'élèvera bientôt un complexe qui crachera plus de 568 000 tonnes d'équivalent CO2​ dans l'atmosphère chaque année. Pour visualiser l'énormité de ce chiffre, imaginez 500 vols court-courriers, comme un trajet Paris-Oran, décollant chaque semaine, toute l'année. Voilà l'empreinte carbone d'un seul des nombreux projets de l’entreprise américaine.

Face à cette aberration écologique, la réponse du géant du web est d'une désinvolture qui frôle le cynisme. Dans sa demande, Google qualifie cet impact de « négatif mineur et non significatif par rapport aux budgets carbone du Royaume-Uni ». Une affirmation balayée d'un revers de main par les défenseurs de l'environnement. Pour le groupe de campagne Foxglove, la réalité est tout autre:

« L'installation prévue par Google dans l'Essex produira des émissions de carbone plusieurs fois supérieures à celles d'un aéroport international ».

Ce projet n'est pas un acte isolé. Il s'agit de la tête de pont d'une invasion concertée par les GAFAM, bien décidés à transformer le Royaume-Uni en leur entrepôt de données personnel, sans se soucier des conséquences pour la planète. Cette offensive est encouragée par une alliance politique inquiétante. Alors que l'administration Trump et le gouvernement britannique poussent frénétiquement pour augmenter les capacités en intelligence artificielle, le Premier ministre Keir Starmer semble dérouler le tapis rouge, aveuglé par des promesses de croissance économique.

Ce même gouvernement prévoit en effet une multiplication par treize de la puissance de calcul nécessaire à l'IA d'ici 2035. Pour satisfaire cet appétit gargantuesque, il brade l'environnement en espérant que la technologie relancera une productivité économique anémique. Des accords de plusieurs milliards de dollars avec des mastodontes comme Nvidia et OpenAI sont dans les tuyaux. Le risque est de créer un déficit de calcul qui, selon Downing Street, minerait la sécurité nationale et la croissance économique. Dans cette course effrénée, l'écologie est la première sacrifiée.

Les conséquences pour les citoyens d’outre-Manche et l'environnement seront, elles, bien réelles. Les data centers consomment déjà environ 2,5 % de l'électricité du Royaume-Uni, et cette demande devrait quadrupler d'ici 2030 selon la bibliothèque de la chambre des communes. Cette pression énorme sur le réseau électrique se traduira inévitablement par des factures d'énergie plus élevées pour tous. Pire encore, ces centres sont de véritables ogres en matière d'eau, une ressource de plus en plus précieuse, utilisée en quantités massives pour refroidir les serveurs en surchauffe.

L'argument, qui mise sur la décarbonation du réseau électrique pour minimiser l'impact, est un pari risqué et trompeur. Il ignore la réalité immédiate de ces émissions massives et la pression insoutenable exercée sur des ressources limitées. C'est au final le public qui finira par payer la facture des data centers des géants de la tech, que ce soit en termes de factures d'énergie exorbitantes, de réserves d'eau en diminution ou d'une planète qui se réchauffe. Le problème est global. L'IA et ses data centers pourraient représenter 2 % des émissions mondiales et 17 % des émissions industrielles d'ici 2035. Le projet de Thurrock n'est qu'un symptôme d'une maladie qui ronge la planète: la croyance aveugle en une croissance technologique infinie sur une planète aux ressources finies. Le monde numérique a un coût physique, et il est exorbitant. La question n'est plus de savoir si nous avons besoin de la technologie, mais à quel prix. Et derrière la façade épurée de Google, la facture environnementale s'annonce salée, très salée.

My first job out of university was working for a Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) named John Hastings. I wrote speeches, letters, press releases, emails and other small things. I didn’t learn anything other than that everything I wrote was bad, everything I did was wrong, but I was cheap, so they kept me. I never learned and didn’t grow. I would quit and go to school for a year, but I started volunteering at a different MPP’s office.

My boss there was different. He taught me how things worked – the reason why we sent out mailers, and the reason why we do things in the legislature to collect data on voters in a way that allows us to learn more about them and adjust. I would spend more and more time in the MPP’s office than I did in school. There was an election in Ontario in 1999, where I volunteered, and we won the seat and our political party won government. I would continue to learn and grow until I took a job at a different MPP as their Senior Advisor.

I applied what I learned and continued to grow. Working with my MPP, we passed legislation to strengthen the province's drinking and driving laws. I moved to different offices and learned with each move. It was amazing until stress arose. The polling showed the government would lose the next election, and I would be out of a job. For someone in politics, the only viable route is into government/public relations, or to remain in politics; however, the job is challenging, and the pay is not as good as in the private sector. I wanted to see the world, so I took a job as a teacher in Korea, which eventually led me here to Hong Kong.

Whenever I am back in Toronto, I always walk around Queen’s Park and wonder ‘what if?’ What if I stayed in politics, or if I only went to Korea for a year and returned, perhaps working in Ottawa when my party regained power there, or even back in Queen’s Park many years later, where my party also regained power? A lot of the regret is the time away from my mother and my father, who passed away in 2019. I wonder if my life would have been more settled earlier – would I be married in my 30s rather than dating someone long-term in my 50s?

I love my life in Hong Kong. I have travelled around the world and seen things I would never have seen if I had lived in Canada. I like to think I have helped thousands of students as their teacher and a few as their counsellor. There have been struggles abroad, but I have learned to accept who I am more so in the past decade than at any other time in my life. I have been lucky to find love a few times, only to lose it and find it again.

Still, every time I am in and around this building, what if?

Après avoir révolutionné notre interaction avec le monde numérique grâce à ChatGPT, OpenAI, le laboratoire de recherche en intelligence artificielle le plus en vue de la planète, semble désormais tourner son regard vers le monde physique. Loin des serveurs où naissent les conversations et les lignes de code, l'entreprise se lance dans une nouvelle quête ambitieuse, donner un corps à ses intelligences.

Des indices de plus en plus nombreux suggèrent qu'OpenAI accélère massivement ses efforts en robotique, avec une fascination particulière pour les systèmes humanoïdes, ces machines qui nous ressemblent. Cette nouvelle orientation stratégique pourrait bien être la prochaine étape importante dans sa marche vers l'intelligence artificielle générale (AGI). Les signaux de ce virage sont devenus impossibles à ignorer. Ces derniers mois, l’entreprise américaine a mené une campagne de recrutement agressive, débauchant des chercheurs de premier plan spécialisés dans les algorithmes d'IA pour le contrôle de robots humanoïdes.

Les offres d'emploi qu’elle a publié sont révélatrices. Elles dessinent les contours d'une équipe capable de créer des systèmes apprenant par téléopération et par simulation. La téléopération est une technique clé dans ce domaine: un opérateur humain contrôle les membres d'un robot pour accomplir une tâche, tandis qu'un algorithme observe et apprend à imiter ses actions. Les annonces mentionnent également une expertise requise dans des outils comme Nvidia Isaac, une plateforme de simulation largement utilisée pour entraîner des IA dans des environnements virtuels avant de les déployer dans le monde réel.

Des sources proches du dossier confirment cette tendance, indiquant qu'OpenAI recrute spécifiquement pour des projets liés aux robots humanoïdes. Un chercheur travaillant dans un laboratoire de pointe a même confié que l'entreprise avait déjà commencé à entraîner des modèles d'IA conçus pour mieux appréhender notre environnement physique, une compétence indispensable pour permettre à un robot de naviguer et d'interagir avec des objets de manière autonome.

Plusieurs embauches récentes confirment cette accélération. En juin 2025, Chengshu Li, venu de l'université de Stanford, a rejoint les rangs d’OpenAI. Ses travaux portaient sur des projets de robotique, notamment le développement de benchmarks pour évaluer les capacités de robots humanoïdes à effectuer une large gamme de tâches domestiques. D'autres chercheurs issus de laboratoires renommés ont également mis à jour leur profil LinkedIn, affichant fièrement leur nouvelle appartenance à l'entreprise de Sam Altman.

La grande question reste de savoir si cette dernière compte construire ses propres robots, utiliser du matériel existant ou nouer des partenariats réfléchis. Une offre d'emploi particulièrement intéressante, publiée il y a quelques semaines, recherchait un ingénieur en mécanique avec une expertise en prototypage et en construction de systèmes robotiques dotés de capteurs tactiles et de mouvement. Pour certains experts, cela pourrait signifier qu'OpenAI envisage de développer son propre hardware. Fait encore plus intrigant, l'annonce exigeait une expérience dans la conception de systèmes mécaniques destinés à une production en grand volume (plus d'un million d'unités). Une telle mention suggère des ambitions de production de masse, peut-être pour un déploiement dans des usines ou même, à terme, dans nos foyers.

Ce regain d'intérêt pour la robotique marque un retour aux sources pour OpenAI. L'entreprise avait déjà mené des recherches notables dans ce domaine, comme en 2019, lorsqu'elle avait développé un algorithme capable de résoudre un Rubik's Cube à l'aide d'une main robotique. En 2021, cependant, elle avait brusquement mis fin à ces activités pour se concentrer sur les modèles de langage qui ont donné naissance à ChatGPT. Aujourd'hui, le pendule semble revenir dans l'autre sens, porté par la conviction que l'AGI, cette intelligence hypothétique dépassant les capacités humaines, ne pourra être atteinte sans une interaction profonde avec le monde physique.

La firme n'entre pas dans une arène vide. La concurrence est féroce. Des startups spécialisées comme Figure, Agility et Apptronik ont déjà fait des avancées impressionnantes, tandis que des géants comme Tesla et Google investissent massivement dans leurs propres programmes de robots humanoïdes. Alors, pourquoi ce retour en force maintenant ? Une hypothèse fascinante émerge: et si la progression fulgurante des modèles de langage commençait à atteindre un plateau ? La déception relative entourant le récent GPT-5 fait partie d'une prise de conscience généralisée dans le milieu de l'IA. Pour continuer à progresser vers une intelligence véritablement humaine, de nouvelles voies de recherche sont nécessaires. L'interaction avec le monde physique pourrait être cette nouvelle frontière.

OpenAI semble parier que la prochaine grande avancée en intelligence artificielle ne se trouvera pas dans un texte ou une image, mais dans le geste d'une main robotique qui apprend à saisir une pomme, à plier un vêtement ou à naviguer dans le chaos d'une pièce désordonnée. Le créateur des esprits numériques les plus puissants au monde est désormais en quête d'un corps pour eux.

🌊 In the Trough

“Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.” (Micah 7:8, KJV)

---

The silence pressed down heavy, a sea with no horizon. I sank into its hollow, where even echoes drowned.

The trough was wide and merciless, its depth a whispered threat— you will not rise again.

But even there, a pulse remained— the faint beat of a heart that refused to be stilled.

And the wave, as waves must, lifted.

What drowned me yesterday became the swell beneath my feet today. The silence could not keep me. The water could not hold me.

For the trough is not the end, but the space between crests— proof that rising always follows the fall.

#InTheTrough #FaithThroughWaves #SilentSentinelWrites #Endurance #HopeRises #Unshaken

---

🌊 En la Fosa

“No te alegres de mí, oh enemiga mía; porque aunque caí, me levantaré; aunque more en tinieblas, Jehová será mi luz.” (Miqueas 7:8, RVR1960)

---

El silencio me oprimía pesado, un mar sin horizonte. Me hundí en su vacío, donde hasta los ecos se ahogaban.

La fosa era ancha y despiadada, su profundidad un susurro amenazante— no volverás a levantarte.

Pero aun allí, un pulso quedaba— el leve latido de un corazón que se negaba a ser callado.

Y la ola, como toda ola, se alzó.

Lo que ayer me ahogaba hoy se volvió el impulso bajo mis pies. El silencio no pudo retenerme. El agua no pudo sujetarme.

Porque la fosa no es el final, sino el espacio entre crestas— prueba de que el levantar siempre sigue a la caída.

#EnElValleDeLaOla #FeEntreLasOlas #SilentSentinelWrites #Resistencia #LaEsperanzaSeLevanta #Inquebrantable

Am fünfzehnten September,

ein verspätetes Geschenk:

nicht Gold, nicht Blumen,

nur das Ende der Schatten,

die über meine Schwelle kriechen.

Wer Mut hat,

bricht den Kreis der Qual,

reißt die Ketten entzwei,

stellt sich gegen das Schweigen.

Lasst uns den Dämon bezwingen,

der sich in unsere Gassen frisst.

Lasst uns die Schweine verjagen,

die von unserer Angst leben.

Aus Asche wächst eine Welt,

heller, freier,

ohne Feinde,

ohne Gift im Atem.

Oops –

so beginnt vielleicht

die Wahrheit.

justamente si pudiéramos recordar dónde dejamos aquella conversación profunda verdadera tranquila en la que ninguno ganaba ninguno perdía sin comparación sin medida

aquella conversación en la que todos volvíamos a casa sintiendo la claridad de un corazón en paz sin una pedrada o un tiro

aquella en la que no había sobre la mesa nada que negociar ni ganar ni ceder ni amedrentar ni temer

esa en la que ninguno tenía la razón porque la verdad era sencillamente de todos como el aire

Ein säkularer syrischer Kurde, frei im Geist,

im Herzen stark, auch wenn die Welt vereist.

In Deutschland trug er Lasten, still und schwer,

ein Fremder blieb er vielen – doch er sehnte sich nach mehr.

Er suchte Wärme, Menschlichkeit im Blick,

doch fand so oft nur Kälte, trat müde zurück.

Sein Weg war steinig, sein Atem so matt,

die Heimat im Herzen, die Ferne stets satt.

Ein Autounfall nahm ihn, so plötzlich, so rau,

doch sein Name bleibt, wie ein Stern in der Au.

Denn ein säkularer syrischer Kurde zu sein, mit Gedanken so klar,

das brennt in der Seele – unsterblich, fürwahr.

Sein Leiden verklang nicht, es hallt in der Zeit,

doch auch seine Stärke, sein stiller Streit.

Er lebt in Erinnerungen, in Worten, im Blut,

ein säkularer syrischer Kurde – in Schmerz und in Mut.

pared una cuando nos trajeron al mundo éramos amigas / como hermanas y ahora ni nos hablamos

pared dos tú / desde que te pusieron la cabeza de ciervo te crees de la nobleza

pared una qué ingrata

pared cuatro por favor / no sigan

pared tres es la verdad / a mí me rompieron para poner el aire acondicionado y hasta te reíste

pared una estaba tosiendo

pared tres hipócrita

/ fin

Lots of updates, hoo boy.

Ce qui n'était au départ qu'un cri de colère face à une injustice flagrante est en train de devenir un mouvement citoyen d'une ampleur historique. La campagne “Stop Killing Games” devient un raz-de-marée qui menace de faire trembler les fondations d'une industrie trop longtemps habituée à dicter ses propres règles.

Avec près de 1,45 million de signatures récoltées et en cours de vérification, le message envoyé par les joueurs à travers l'Europe est d'une clarté déconcertante: nous ne sommes plus des consommateurs passifs, nous sommes des citoyens qui défendons nos droits. Tout a commencé par un acte de mépris, un de trop. Lorsque Ubisoft a décidé non seulement de retirer son jeu The Crew de la vente, mais aussi de révoquer purement et simplement l'accès au jeu pour ceux qui l'avaient légalement acheté, une ligne rouge a été franchie. Imaginez acheter un livre, le lire, le placer dans votre bibliothèque, pour que l'éditeur s'introduise chez vous des années plus tard pour le brûler. C'est précisément ce qui s'est produit dans nos bibliothèques numériques. Cette pratique, que l'industrie nomme pudiquement la “fin de support”, n'est rien de moins qu'une dépossession organisée, une négation de notre droit de propriété le plus élémentaire sur des biens culturels que nous avons payés.

Face à cette trahison, la communauté des joueurs a répondu avec une force inouïe. La barre symbolique du million de signatures nécessaires pour une initiative citoyenne européenne a été pulvérisée. Les premières craintes, savamment entretenues par certains détracteurs, concernant la validité de ces signatures ont été balayées d'un revers de main. Les organisateurs de la campagne ont annoncé, après une première analyse, un taux de validité stupéfiant d'environ 97 %. Non, ce ne sont pas des bots ni des signatures fantaisistes. Ce sont 1,45 million de joueurs, de pères et de mères de famille, d'étudiants, de travailleurs, qui ont pris quelques minutes de leur temps pour dire “ça suffit”.

Désormais, la bataille quitte le terrain numérique pour entrer dans l'arène politique, au cœur même de l'Union Européenne. Le processus est enclenché. Une fois les signatures officiellement soumises, la commission disposera de trois mois pour les vérifier. Passé ce délai, les organisateurs remettront en personne ce témoignage de la volonté populaire aux instances dirigeantes à Bruxelles. Un geste symbolique fort pour s'assurer que nos voix ne soient pas noyées dans le brouhaha administratif. La véritable épreuve de force commencera alors. L'Europe aura six mois pour statuer sur le mouvement “Stop Killing Games”. Six mois pour décider si le droit des consommateurs et la préservation du patrimoine culturel vidéoludique pèsent plus lourd que les intérêts financiers de quelques multinationales. Le risque, bien réel, est que cette initiative soit poliment reçue puis classée sans suite, un scénario que les organisateurs refusent d'envisager.

Le combat sera rude. Il faudra déjouer les manœuvres des lobbies de l'industrie, toujours prompts à défendre un modèle économique basé sur l'obsolescence et le contrôle total. Il faudra contrer la désinformation et expliquer aux députés et aux commissaires européens que le jeu vidéo n'est pas un simple produit de consommation jetable, mais une forme d'art et de culture qui mérite d'être préservée. Pour ce faire, les équipes de “Stop Killing Games” vont multiplier les contacts, préparer des argumentaires solides et mobiliser tous les soutiens possibles au sein du Parlement et de la Commission.

Cette lutte dépasse de loin le simple cas de The Crew. C'est aussi une bataille pour l'avenir de la propriété numérique. Accepterons-nous de n'être que des locataires précaires de nos propres biens culturels ? Laisserons-nous des entreprises décider unilatéralement de la durée de vie d'une œuvre ? La réponse apportée par 1,45 million de citoyens européens est un non retentissant. La suite s'écrira dans les couloirs de Bruxelles, mais aussi et surtout grâce à la mobilisation continue de la communauté. Les organisateurs promettent des mises à jour fréquentes via leur canal Discord et Reddit. Plus que jamais, il est nécessaire de rester informé, de partager l'information et de maintenir la pression. L'histoire est en marche, et c'est nous, les joueurs, qui tenons la manette. Nous avons gagné une bataille, mais la guerre pour nos droits ne fait que commencer.

Let me replay some oft-repeated statements.

“This island suffers from a scarcity of land.”

“This is not just population density, this is hyper-density.”

(source: a 46-minute documentary. Metropolis – The Search For A Third Place. Hosted on Channel News Asia. includes advertisements. Published on 13 Sep 2025. Accessed on 15 Sep 2025.)

Hi, by way of introduction: I have gone by many names, and now I'm trying to move 3C humans (Curious, Creative, Crazy) from a place of suffocation and over-crowdedness in urban settings, to a sense of spaciousness and easy (or at least, easier) breathing. I do this through the following methodologies:

• connecting people to their own inner wisdom and intuition
• nurturing high-performance team-mates, who are themselves able to teach others, and
• practising diligence in housework, such as sweeping the floor (don't laugh)

To do this, I must first:

• follow – and esteem – my own intuition,
• allow myself to be nurtured by sincere and ethical professionals (including food providers; good food is very important), and
• commit to a regime of physical discipline, although my body may dislike it.

The hoped-for outcome of all these practices: a sense of joy, identity, and meaning, in the life of a human being whom I shall term Hearth-Dweller Aleph.

Yes, that's right. A dweller of a hearth – not a city, nor a town.

And what is a hearth? A song expresses the idea of hearth better than my words can:

with what heart's content shall my mind sing for this wide and warm hearth we have all gone through wolves and storms and come together to sing this song

Are you hungry for a hearth, O weary traveller? Will you become Hearth-dweller Aleph, living a life that is rich with bliss, satisfaction and fulfillment?

Well, you know the way to your hearth. There's a voice inside you – that voice has known the way, all along. Some call it your “gut feeling”.

Traveller, there is no path Your footsteps are the path

As Steve Jobs has said (in his commencement speech at Stanford University, in 2005 – link on YouTube):

“Somehow your heart already knows where it wants to go.”

And I believe in this:

“Follow your heart; it will never lead you astray.”

By way of example of a rich, fulfulling life – which is not necessarily devoid of snares, traps and difficulties – I present a number of photos from other Hearth-dwellers:

• Genevieve, a.k.a. MultiStoryCarePark. over at Instagram
• Koo Hui Ying. over at Google Photos. her self-introduction is at LinkedIn (I know, I know).
• Julian JP Lee. “Poem of Hope, No. 3: for all who are oppressed and for all who suffer.” over at Instagram.
• Chye and Olivia. over at Wesley Tidings, an online magazine. (published on 25 June 2024; accessed on 15 Sept 2025).

mistakes and failures I've made

What didn't work for me?

I learnt, the hard way, that if the other party doesn't want to change, no amount of hand-holding or spoon-feeding on my part is ever going to change things for the better.

As my friend from England says: “you can't help those who don't want to help themselves.”

With some healthy sense of shame, I realise that it was my own pride talking, when I thought I could change them for the better.

For those who consistently struggle – and those who consistently use me as an emotional punching bag whenever they do struggle (which happens often) – I've learnt to “trade or train”: trade them for another high-potential person who is more likely to become Hearth-dweller Aleph, and who would be more likely to “fly on their own energy”, so to speak; or to send them to another community-leader's training ground (and hence, out of my social circles).

conclusion

May you be well. And may your suffering be eased.

And may the merit accrued from this blog-post serve to reduce the suffering of sentient humans in the following segments of society:

• fatherless orphans
• abused/neglected spouses
• those who are ill-treated and yet are left without a voice to advocate for themselves

So then, in everything treat others the same way you want them to treat you, for this is [the essence of] the Law and the [writings of the] Prophets. – Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verse 12.)

#talmid