A Fork in the Road to Sustainability

Earlier today a giant inflatable whale was erected in front of our building- the headquarters of ABN AMRO. A number of hours later our communications department have published a message on the department news site.

"Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have staged a peaceful protest outside our headquarters in Amsterdam today, to coincide with the annual shareholders’ meeting. ABN AMRO said it did not object to the demonstration taking place.

The centre-piece of the demonstration, which concerns the Sakhalin project in east Russia, was a model whale measuring six metres in height and 18 metres in length. The protestors argue that the Sakhalin II Phase 2 oil project will harm the environment, and hope that ABN AMRO will decide not to give it backing.

At present, the bank is still deciding whether or not it will help to finance the project. A final decision, which will be in line with our commitment to the Equator Principles, is expected later this year.

The bank has stressed that it will listen to the views of all our stakeholders, including NGOs, to ensure that the final decision is balanced, objective, and based on all relevant and available information."

At lunch, I went with a few trainees to visit the protest. We met with one of protesters from Friends of the Earth - and as I expected we shared quite similar concerns. Here's what they have to say;

"Shell is asking for millions of dollars in public financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for a controversial oil and gas project in the Russian Far East set to cause the extinction of the Western Pacific grey whale and widespread damage to the local environment and salmon fishing industry.

Independent scientific experts believe that the off-shore platforms and subsea pipelines of Sakhalin II (the largest project of its kind in the world) represent a grave threat to Sakhalin Island's ecology and economy. The project lacks an effective oil spill response plan, even though eight hundred kilometres of its onshore pipelines slice through wild salmon rivers and spawning beds, a primary source of income for many of the island's residents. The dumping of dredged wastes into the Aniva Bay worsens the environmental impact, while local residents stand to gain little if any economic benefit from the project's proposed revenue sharing scheme."

The challenge arises because ABN AMRO is currently deliberating whether it will be the lead bank in financing the project. Interestingly, Russell (exMCP Ireland) is an AIESEC trainee working in the Sustainable Business Advisory, the department who is conducting the feasibility analysis.

On one hand we have the relationship with Shell that has a long and fruitful history and the powerful driving forces from the market, the management and the shareholders. On the other hand we have our newly forged direction as an award-winning Sustainable Bank. The Bank has received the 2006 WEC (World Environment Centre) Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development to for its significant contribution to global sustainability. Namely for the creation, adoption, and implementation of the “Equator Principles”, a set of voluntary guidelines and principles that addresses environmental and social risk in project financing.

Somewhere in the middle of these two is the first quarter net profit of EUR 1.038 bln.

ABN AMRO is facing a litmus test that will determine not only the perception from external stakeholders but also a rising number of engaged individuals from within.

A Quarter in Berlin

"Yesterday slipped away, it cannot be filled anymore with meaning. About tomorrow nothing is known. But this day, today, is yours, make use of it." - Anon.

Recently, I passed a milestone- 25 years, the quarter century. And this milestone was marked with some celebration. It was a most perfect day and one I will happily recount when further quarters fall and I stop to take stock of where I once stood.


My first morning in Berlin marked this anniversary but the days roll into one series of experiences and I recount them as so. We were staying with one of Monika's childhood friends; a most interesting character and protagonist upon his own stage- a Vietnamese German, Artist and Designer- Troung "Wicked Tao" Ngu. A softly spoken man with a reservation in his face that tells me he is trying to judge whether those around him are any saner then he. He seems to be of his art and I will say no more than I was most grateful for his company, connections and the platform upon which he offered us his Berlin.

I have already written some of the Rain and Fire, the darker times that began the downfall of Berlin's cultural heart in Nazism. Of the jail that was East Berlin under the German Democratic Republic, I know little but hear the grip of Socialist Realism pressed harder here, clipping the wings from the precious bird of creation and drowning the daughter of beauty.


But this is already long ago for many and Berlin is in its cultural Spring. Life is burgeoning from the cafe's and art houses that line so many streets. Each individual seems a pronounced expression and one imagines many of these walking canvasses are the pinnacle of their own creation. From the Indy fashion chic, to the self-aware artiste, to the punks and their remarkably pleasant dogs, the Berliners seem a different kind of German- a sentiment they seem happy to reinforce.

Icon's, like the Tacheles I visited, are abundant here. These institutions seem to grow and change with the new life, to be reincarnated in the next manifestation of cool and culture. From institutions to individuals fullness can be felt, in so many dreams and discussions art is brewing. It is a naivety that takes on a seriousness- so different from the serious masquerading as the naive that we find in so much of Western Europe.


Some post 30's I met, mentioned that Berlin was already gone, or going fast. Perhaps it is, or has, but the flame here is stronger and less fragile than these early moths might fear. What is now, stands unique and will fuel the hearts and minds of generations yet. But true, nothing can match the space and simple opportunity provided by reunificaiton; in which huge swathes of East Berlin were abandoned as people rushed West leaving ground for those who wished to sit and wonder why and what if, and all the art in the world that follows.

I saw three sides of music here. I vibed with Bonobo, one of my favorite down-tempo DJs, as he threw down an incredible subterranean set. I watched the launch of the electro-metal experience of Shaka Ponk and thought back 10 years when I would have been moshing in the middle, all blue haired and swathed in band rags. And I went to a "funky club" in a tower overlooking East Berlin- and felt the empty smell of money.


I ate incredibly well- like UN well. Vietnamese-Japanese fusions, top-range Italian, delicious doners, it was all there and to be had and so it was consumed with nothing less than a smile and the slightly awed expression of someone who just doesn't eat this well. Damn.

And of course I wandered the streets, blessed with a girlfriend who doesn't think I'm crazy for not taking photos of the Brandenburg gate or the Reichstag, but stopping before every second tree in search of that perspective where the simple beauty of entwined branches against the blue yields us a precious glimpse into the perfection of reality that lies below. To share in this freedom is truly beautiful.


And so this milestone was filled upon every surface with pleasure and happiness, such as can only be known with the full sun upon your back, glowing within your heart and standing by your side.

I have yet to rest a while by this stone and take stock of where this path has lain and where it now finds itself; this vast field of desire and despair, life and longing, tragedy and transcendence- a wonderful rhyme in an ancient tongue that I'm slowly beginning to comprehend.

The Tacheles

On Oranienburger Strasse in Berlin there is an apartment building called the Kunst Haus Tacheles - or simply "the Tacheles". Since the fall of the wall the Tacheles has been occupied by artists, performers and musicians who create and exhibit there. The structure of the building has been damaged by shelling in the war and fire and dereliction since; anywhere else in Germany it would have already been demolished and replaced. More interesting than the art on display were the surfaces and spaces of the building itself. Monika and I took the series of photos below to capture the feeling of this Berlin icon.

Rain and Fire

Friday afternoon, 14th of April 2006, a quarter century after my birth. Cloudcover masks the sky as Monika and I beat our way through the wind and rain across the Bebelplatz in Berlin. The Humboldt University, St Hedwigs Cathedral and the German State Opera flank the paved square.

I steal a glance through a narrow gap between the umbrella, which is wedged at a horizontal into the wind, and the rainsoaked pavings. A small plastic window comes into my acute view- the only landmark in this open area.

"This is where the Nazi's burned the books in '33", Monika tells me. May 10, 1933; Nazi youth groups burned around 20,000 books from the Humboldt University and the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft; including works by Thomas Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx and H.G. Wells.

The rain sinks deeper into my coat. I'm lost in a vision of a dark night, of rain and fire, black smoke and echoing anthems.

I peel back the black and return to the grey, now staring through the plastic window into an almost featureless chamber below- a underground chamber cloaked in an off white, featureless except it is lined with massive bookshelves. Rows and rows of empty bookshelves. They are not graves, they are not remains, they are not even nothing- they are lost.


Another couple battle across the square and look into the chamber below. "It's beautiful" says the American woman. I don't know if she doesn't get it or even if it could be beautiful. I feel revulsion. I want to get away and think about how it could happen- how a civilisation can destroy its essential treasure, its value, it's offering to the future. I want to think about why this touches me more than murder.

"Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen", "Where they burn books, they will end in burning human beings." Heinrich Heine, Almansor, 1821.

Still to Blog

Way more Berlin Blogging to come. Also "Where Has Arthur Disappeared To And What Is Going On For All These Months?" update. Plus many pictures of art and wonderful trees. Don't like trees? I wont vote for you if you have a song in the Eurovision Song Contest. Nor will I distribute you favourable fortune cookies if it is ever in my power to do so. Khatami himself could not refuse such wily negotiation.

damn forgot about this blog what with things

Roastbeef and I have been in synergetic "Zen Blogging- No Blogging". Anyhow he knows what to say in these awkward reintroductory overtures.

"Oh dang I didn't do this blog in mainly forever. Crazy how a dude can get up to things and not remember that an amount of computer disk the weight of a spider's ovaries is waiting to hear what he had for lunch or how much trouble he is having remembering the name of his school librarian.

Okay so for lunch today I had some steak that Ray had left in the fridge (he had demanded that I eat it since he was gonna be out playin' golf while it was goin' through its Flavor Window), and the name of my school librarian escapes me. She was nice, and short, and it is sad to say but she is probably dead by now. Sad how lives go like that. Never was a president or on a rocket to Mars, but dead all the same, with no boat or street to tell it. Perhaps they renamed a small alcove of the library after her, whatever her name was. I think she wore green pants once. Iris? Irene?

There you go that is a blog plain and simple! I definitely did an extremely believable blog tonight."

PS- He is a fictional cat from Achewood who is way down with Herman Hesse.