Green Seniors in the European Union

We wish you a merry Christmas,

good times between the years
and
for 2013 a happy year and a peaceful reunion.

 Your Board of ENGS

As in the past year is Birgit Meinhard-Schiebel, president of the community of interests of family carers and Board Member ENGS, on behalf of the IG on 24/12/2012 from 09:00 to 14:00 clock answer calls to any of the donations phones. She looks forward to speaking with you!

If you want to help people in distress, please call!

Donation Hotline: 0800 24 12 12
Austrian Television and broadcast  ORF site “Licht ins Dunkel”

French Green Senior Honoured …….

….. nearly 95 years of Feminism and Ecology ! 1meter52 and green eyes filled with generosity and humanism. This is Gisèle Chaleyat who has been chosen as the best loved citizen in her district of Paris (1er).

She was the first to lead an exclusively feminine list for the local elections in the seventies. She is also the co-founder of the French Greens and the one who counts the more years in her age …. which does not prevent her from being much younger in spirit than some of our leading figures.She was born in 1917, and with her hat as green as Irish fields and her water green scarf she walks the aisles of the markets handing out flyers and campaigning. As she says : « We, Greens are not indispensable, but we are useful ». Continue reading →

A comment of Birgit Meinhard-Schiebel, directly from Athens:

Greece in the crisis -

Greek green friends are on the European Green Party Council and reported about a lot of dangerous cuts in social, ecological and economical life.

Pension should cutted between 10-20 percent, employers can send the employees home or call them into work as they like and legal rights will fall…

but life is going on, people on the street, in restaurants, running marathon on sunday…

crisis is a curious phenomen. people try to do as usual.

but greens discuss for exampel new models for agricultur for their own food and resilience to handle the existence and life in crisis.

4.11.2012: Woke up this morning to a country that looks abandoned.Litter along the rails, no agriculture where there could be some, fallen trees as we roll across forests. That is the advantage in traveling by train, the country unfolds in front of you and within a few hours you have a glimpse of what that part of the country is like. The few stations where we come to a halt look good though. I can’t wait to be in Sofia and see what the capital city looks like.

(…)

We got off the train at 22:00 to rush by taxi to a birthday party with around 50 to 60 people, I started by feeling a little out of place, but in fact everybody seemed to find the presence of a white haired lady at a young people’s party  completely natural. That is something that always surprises me, in fact we, seniors are sometimes shy, and think we don’t have our place among young people ….. but several times now I have realized that the obstacles are raised by us and that it is our perception which is not accurate. In fact,  the younger generations are much more inclusive than  we think they are going to be and they are much better than we sometimes are at intergenerational exchanges.  Continue reading →

11/07/2012 ODEON Vienna
Senior-friendly communities Austria – please before the curtain!
The prize winners will present their projects.

Birgit Meinhard-Schiebel

1.11.2012: As you read all our blogs you will see that already each of us is going to have a very specific field in mind. Mine is going to be gender, women’s everyday life, and making people aware of the challenge of an ageing population in Europe.

I have met my travel companions, and it is going to be great traveling with them.

Going to Koln and already, we know where we stand. Barry, Mark and I just stayed in our coach when all the others had left …. Philipp had to come and tell us to get down ….. Funny how having an idea of who is who is sometimes quick to grasp. Maybe the fact that the three of us are half Canadian accounts for that.

Anyway the rest of the trip to Praha was fine and very enjoyable.

We spent the day with the local Greens and they were absolutely great. That is when you realize that Greens are just one family, makes you be very optimistic : we shared good practices, listened to their experiences, disagreed about the way we, as European Greens, saw our work on the Future of Europe, received presents, took hundreds of pictures  and, to summarize, had a grand time.

Continue reading →

New entry, 30.10.2012: As I was into this hardship, I realised how things have changed …… in fact, my reaction was, “I am not going to be in a jungle … if I desperately need something like something warm … I’ll just buy it”. In fact, my main concern was not forgetting any of all the electronic appliances and their plugs and connections …… With the Chinese import, clothes have become so incredibly cheap that they have lost some of their value for us …. However, we are so … connected… that going on a journey without a smartphone ….. Kindle ….. digital camera ….. has become just unconceivable!

All our documents, books, personal contacts are on these “machines” and we don’t memorize much anymore …… I agree it is practical, it makes things readily available …. but it has reversed the value of things …… and we value more technicity than man made things  ……

Continue reading →