Ecotopia Summery

I expected Ecotopians to be hippies, but they weren’t. They seemed to be people who had certain ideology, and in order to show how well it works, they live according to that ideology (some for just the summer, others all the time). The more hard-core Ecotopians had interesting stories of how they lived according to their ideals. One person lived in a camper and would go to the nearby forest to find places to go to the bathroom. He gave a nice explanation about places to go to the bathroom in the Brandenburg/Berlin area.

Of course, every group has their problems, and a group of anti-capitalist, LGBTQI+FLINTA, anarchist bikers are no exception.

Cooking

In order to make Ecotopia more of a communal event, it every evening a large industrial-sized pot would be used to cook dinner for everyone. The leftovers would then be kept by people to be eaten during lunch.

Rocket Stove

A rocket stove is a stove that is easy to make and basically consists of a vertical tube and a narrow horizontal tube sticking out near the bottom. If the ratio of the radiuses and placement of the tubes are correct, you get a really hot burning stove that can be fed with a small amount of wood, and efficiently burn it without creating too much smoke or soot. And even if the measurements aren’t that accurate, but just made with whatever scrap metal is found, the result can be pretty good.

The problem with a rocket stove, and many other forms of cooking, is that things can catch on fire. It gets even worse when going camping in the dry woods of the summer, especially with the summers getting hotter and dryer in Europe. So there was some discussion of replacing the rocket stove with a gas stove. The main benefit of that being that the fire is more enclosed and much safer, in addition, it would be significantly easier to start and extinguish the fire.

There were several discussions in the group on that issue. The general feeling seemed to be that people were in favour of buying a gas stove. But, since this was an anarchist group, everyone had to agree and people didn’t take initiatives. My friend decided to look online for prices and even went to the local store and found a good deal. But when my friend asked if he should get it, there was no person in charge to make the decision. So in the end we stuck with the rocket stove.

Lyon Summary

Bicycle Infrastructure

In Lyon, most of the streets were built according to this model

for example,

In addition, at many traffic lights, if the light is red, it is red for vehicles. But bicycles just have to give right of way.

Like in most places, at intersections, bikers and pedestrians go straight across. This is different from in Israel where anti-pedestrian barriers force pedestrians to take a roundabout way across.

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This care for cyclists isn’t a top-down decision. On my first Shabbat, I left the Grande synagogue de Lyon and right outside the doors was a crowd of people. After finding a person who spoke English, I asked what was going on. The story was that there a few days earlier two people on a scooter got run over by a car driver. In order to honor them, locals got permission to close the street for a few hours to hold a ceremony for then. This wasn’t a small side street, but rather one of the most central streets in Lyon. If Israel were to do something like that, many streets would be closed (which would of course lower the amount of traffic accidents), but Israelis would never stand for that.

Since the zoning is mixed, residential and commercial, if I want to get some baguettes in the morning, visit a bike store in the afternoon, and go grocery shopping in the evening, all I have to do is walk downstairs and cross the block to get to my destination. Back in Israel, each destination could be a long ordeal that is difficult to do by foot.

Many people asked me how I like my bike, and if it is easier than my old bike. I can say that it is really easy to bike with my new bike. But that very well could be because I biked with my new bike in a city that designed streets for bikes and not just cars like in Israel. I will make sure to do a lot of biking in Israel to test my new bike.

Jewish Community

I was in Germany for about a month recently. Before that I was there for an entire semester. It was hard because there wasn’t that many places to get Kosher food. But in France that is not the case. I first noticed it when I arrived in Strasbourg. There I was looking out the window and I saw Jews walking around with a Kippa and Tzitzit. In Germany many Jews try to hide that, but not so in France.

One Shabbat I was invited to a Shabbat lunch meal. Many of the French Jews speak Hebrew. But the kids don’t know it at a young age. One of the children of the host was learning Hebrew. Although, all he knew was to ask for soda. I guess you learn the most important phrases first.

I was talking with the host about how it was great to see so many Jews and synagogues in Lyon. He told me that 7 years ago there were almost double as many Jews, but the antisemitism at that point caused a lot of them to move to Israel.

Somewhat unrelated, but during one of the meals a Frenchman spilled some of his food. He gave an exclamation in French, but it was not the famous Sacrebleu that the stereotypes promised.

French People

The main French stereotype that I noticed was that the French really like their baguettes. There were many bakeries that sold fresh warm baguettes for a varying price. Some places sold them for 0.5 Euros, other for 1.5 . One thing that I did not find, was snails and frogs for sale. I searched a lot of markets and stores, and I did see squids, rabbit, and other odd food, but no frogs. I was told that there was this one tourist restaurant with frogs, but it seemed like locals didn’t go there that much.

Another thing that I could not find was the French sailor’s striped shirt. I went to many second hand shops and clothing stores. It is possible that that is more of a Paris style rather than Lyon.

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