The world today is facing a deep crisis. Yet at the same time, the neo liberal growth model is still presented as the only possible option. The Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos exposes the myth and made it his life’s mission to build an epistemology of alternatives. "It’s time to open the doors and windows of our universities and let the wind of alternative knowledge blow through", says de Sousa. Boaventura de Sousa Santosis is a monument in the social sciences. He is head of department of Sociology at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, but spends most of the...

To make the dreams become reality requires a decision, persistence and the place of opportunities. Carla and I found this place in England at CICD, where we have had the opportunity to change our lifestyle and go forward to the life we want to live. Our main targets were to know better the world we live in and to help those in need in the developing countries. After one year of studies and preparations in the school, where we have got knowledge about history, politics and a general understanding of the world around us, we could get a little piece...

I am Veronika (29) from Hungary and I was DI in Mozambique, Cabol Delgado, Biibiza in 2010-2011. First I had to raise fund to DI course therefore I participated in the GAIA course where mainly I was painting containers and could start as a DI in March (March team 2010). During I was a DI, I became the best fundraiser and I tried to teach the others. My secret was to smile and do not give up, just look deeply in the eyes of the people and they will stop. In October all of my team members succeed to raise...

Hi everyone My name is Ana and I come from Portugal. I’ve joined CICD in April 2011, starting with Gaia program and later joining Development Instructor 14 month’s program with placement in Mozambique. The moment I found CICD I knew I had to go for it. I had graduated in Tourism two months before and I was definitely looking for something rather different than getting a regular job. I knew there was something more out there than starting the “real adult life”. I’ve always thought of joining a mission one day, but that thought was never that close to happen....

Take my hand - and open your eyes    This is our land – and this is our skies! Take my hand - together we go   In this world - a lot to sow Seeds that come from deep in our hearts To sow right is a piece of art! Dirt and rubbish are flowing all over The flowers we plant can hardly cover We live in “one World” share the sea and the air Powerful humans think of profit and do not care! Life in our Oceans are under serious threat – Great “Pacific Plastic Garbage Patches” float in the...

One day I woke up in a different room, in a different bed, in a different country. The day before I had changed my life forever. Without knowing I have chosen the path that would make me (re)do my existence and attitude about life and people. CICD… Here every single day is a challenge. You are tested in several completely different occasions comparing with what you are used to. I believe that only the ones who experiment this kind of life understand what it really means to live in a community. You are used to do less than you have...

Click here to enjoy the song on Youtube:   It was in the 1970s, the fuel crisis had begun The choices were presented to us as if we had none Leaders of industry said they could solve the problem By mastering the power of the radioactive atom Some folks in western Jutland got a notion in their heads They thought there might be something they could offer up instead A few hundred people gathered in a little place called Tvind And declared their will to harness the power of the wind   They said we're gonna build the biggest windmill...

Here yet another example of abuse of power from the world’s strongest nations. Disguised as a fight for saving democracy and for protecting the West against chemical warfare…. Click on the links below:  

This is a speech by Harold Pinter that he made in 2005, regarding the bombings by NATO of Serbia in 1999. This is an example of a vastly superior power (in this case NATO) abusing this power outside international law and United Nations. These bombings were presented by US and UK leaders at the time as “a defense of civilization” and as being “morally imperative” – but in fact, according to Harold Pinter and many others, this was a bandit action and a war crime. Click on the link below to read the full article: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1999/05/pint-m07.html Click on the link below...

The idea of the DmM computer based programme The DmM System (Determination of Modern Methods) is a digital programme, and one of the tools in the interactive method of education used at CICD. This system puts you - the student - in charge of your own studies. Where traditional teaching methods are often organising the teacher as the master and the student as the apprentice, the DmM empowers both the subject, the student and the teacher. The subject is identified specifically and categorised as one unit of information instead of being a part of the usual and continuous stream of...

The legendary folk singer and activist Pete Seeger died Monday at the age of 94. For nearly seven decades, Seeger was a musical and political icon who helped create the modern American folk music movement. We air highlights of two appearances by Seeger on Democracy Now!, including one of his last television interviews recorded just four months ago. Interspersed in the interviews, Seeger sings some of his classic songs, "We Shall Overcome," "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone." He also talks about what has been described as his “defiant optimism.” "Realize that little things lead...

A major project is restoring fertility and hope to China's Loess Plateau, until recently one of the poorest regions of the country. Centuries of continuous agriculture have removed the trees and leaving land vulnerable to erosion from wind and rain. An area the size of Belgium, its once fertile soils have been washed away, leaving a blighted land scarred with deep ravines - and farmers scarcely able to make a living. According to soil scientist John D. Liu of the Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP), it's a story repeated all over the world. For 15 years John has been following a...

By piecing together a complex ecological puzzle, biologist Willie Smits believes he has found a way to re-grow clearcut rainforest in Borneo, saving local orangutans — and creating a thrilling blueprint for restoring fragile ecosystems.   Click on the link below to watch his TED talk in Long Beach,  California from February 2009: http://www.ted.com/talks/willie_smits_restores_a_rainforest  

The Gaia theory (or hypothesis) is, basically, the idea of the Earth as a single entity that is self-regulated. This hypothesis forms part of “Earth System” science – a set of models in which life encourages and maintains suitable conditions for its ongoing existence. The originator of this school of thought is James Lovelock. He first developed his hypothesis in the 1960s while working with NASA and published an article in the science journal, Nature. At this time he expressed the idea in words such as: “Life, or the biosphere, regulates or maintains the climate and the atmospheric composition at...

1970 from the Zinn Reader, Seven Stories Press Parts of speech by Howard Zinn I start from the supposition that the world is topsy-turvy, that things are all wrong, that the wrong people are in jail and the wrong people are out of jail, that the wrong people are in power and the wrong people are out of power, that the wealth is distributed in this country and the world in such a way as not simply to require small reform but to require a drastic reallocation of wealth. I start from the supposition that we don't have to say...

Published time: November 26, 2013 14:34 on Russia Today Pope Francis has taken aim at capitalism as "a new tyranny" and is urging world leaders to step up their efforts against poverty and inequality, saying "thou shall not kill" the economy. Francis calls on rich people to share their wealth. The existing financial system that fuels the unequal distribution of wealth and violence must be changed, the Pope warned. "How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?" Pope...

Hi my name is Paulius Baltakis and I’m from Lithuania.  When I became 24 years old I decided to change my life and I joined CICD. I m just a simple person who thinks that the world is what kind of place that you create by yourself.  And if you want to create it of your best vision first of all you must find yourself. So CICD is great place to start doing it. It helps me to keep my mind clean and keep focus on my goal. It gives me opportunity to live with people from all around Europe,...

From Wikipedia   The War You Don't See is a 2010 British documentary film written, produced and directed by John Pilger with Alan Lowery, which challenges the media for the role they played in the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel/Palestine conflicts. The film begins with footage of an unreported July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike and black and white stills of the victims of the U.S. Occupation of Iraq. In his opening narration Pilger quotes World War I British Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s comment to Guardian editor C. P. Scott that, “If the people really knew the truth, the war would...

El Sistema is a network of childrens and youth orchestras, music centres and workshops in Venezuela, in which more than 250,000 children and young people are currently learning to play an instrument. It was set up over thirty years ago by José Antonio Abreu, who was driven by the utopian vision of a better future. In the dangerous and poverty-stricken shanty towns of Caracas, Abreu lifts children out of poverty through music, changing both people and structures. The story, which has all the makings of a fairytale, is the extraordinary account of a vision that has become reality. Several of...

From Wikipedia Gandhi is a 1982 epic biographical film which dramatises the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, an Indian lawyer and activist who was a leader of the nation's non-violent, non-cooperative independence movement against the United Kingdom's rule of the country during the 20th century. Gandhi was a collaboration of British and Indian production companies and was written by John Briley and produced and directed by Richard Attenborough. It stars Ben Kingsley in the titular role. The film covers Gandhi's life from a defining moment in 1893, as he is thrown off a South African train for being in a...