ole kristensen » Politics

the coolest place on earth

olekristensen — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:47:10 +0000

right now, i am with annesofie norn in greenland, on the upper west coast in the lovely settlement savissivik.

the settlement of savissivik

we are here to research for our project longing fast forward, and hope to stay here for a year starting next summer.
it is quite an experience to meet the sparsely distributed hunters and villagers who make their living from the nature up here.
in the north of greenland global warming is not just an abstract future, but a very present reality. local warming affects the hunters, who depend on a stably frozen sea for fishing and winter transport on dogsleighs.
we are fortunate to meet a lot of hospitable people and hear a lot of stories, and are filling harddrives and hearts with the present and the history of these guys, who still hunt from kayaks as a way of life.

A call from the BBC

olekristensen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:30:10 +0000

Having worked in the Christiania community for some years, and done a few writeups on low economy resource pooling, i got a surprise call from the bbc today.

They wanted comments on the financial crisis from a place where you cannot take out morgage as it is a squat.

It was an interesting discussion, and of course you end up talking governance, as the crisis probably is rooted more in bad govenance than bad finances. It was a pleasure to hear how other commenters referred to the scandinavian social-liberal model, where people actually don’t mind to pay 50 percent taxes for well functioning government services. It is actually beneficial to industry that you can get fired without becoming destitute. You’ll stay an asset.

Back in the nineties former danish prime minister Poul Nyrup labeled that kind of robust democratically regulated capitalism flexicurity

Back then nobody listened.

WHYS: 14 Oct 2008 Is it the end of capitalism as we know it?
The financial storm has calmed but the recession is on its way … and so are the questions. Are the days of the free market over? Can capitalism ever help the most needy? Is there a viable alternative?
Duration: 50mins | File Size: 23MB
Download Episode

Now, if we could just find a way to restore the social governance and regulate the drug market here in Copenhagen, that would be something … i guess we could start by legalising regulated hash and stop our mounting institutional racism.

Letter from Taiwan

olekristensen — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:30:49 +0000

Look, how beautiful – this was in the mail today. A package from Editions Flaneur, a Taiwanese publisher, who wrote the Christiania pressgroup mail this winter for their Chinese edition of “How to start Your Own Country”. Poster, mini-dictionary, and books on Method and Practice. Christiania is of course figuring in the ‘Practice’ book.

The Paper Fetishist's dream; How to start your Own Country from Editions Flaneur

They were asking informed questions and specifically wanted imagery of the confrontations with the Danish Police force. Being polite i sent them some of the more peaceful, albeit comical, pictures of uniforms in action.

Now, if I could only read Chinese…

More Pictures

Nuff said

olekristensen — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:39:09 +0000

so here it goes, my new blog – hopefully to become a messup of things done and things thought.

if the written and the spoken are inversely proportionate, writing a bit here will get my tounge more spare time to do funny stuff.

me and a friend posing for our thesis at roskilde university