The forgotten thinker you need to know
Thirty years ago, Ivan Illich raised questions on the promise of progress. The blind faith in modern development and technology was a threat to human's freedom, he argued. That critical analysis was one of the pillars for the Ode founders. In 2001, a year before Illich died at the age of 76, Read More...
Native intelligence
Anthropologist Jeremy Narby is bringing together indigenous knowledge and Western science to inform the search for a sustainable future. Kim Ridley | May 2007 issue If you think a slime mould is just a stupid glob of protoplasm, think again. Japanese researchers have discovered that this Read More...
The many sides of Allah
Increasingly, Fouad Laroui heard Muslims making allegations that showed they had very little idea what their religion was about and no clue at all about other religions. So he decided to write a book about Islam. Ode spoke with the author. Tijn Touber | May 2007 issue Fouad Laroui was fed up. He Read More...
We are the world we imagine
Paul Hawken on the optimism of our hearts. Jurriaan Kamp | May 2007 issue In your earlier books - especially The Ecology of Commerce - you sounded more pessimistic about the future of the world than now in Blessed Unrest. Paul Hawken: "The Ecology of Commerce was written for the business community Read More...
Dancing with change
Poem by Ben Okri about change. Ben Okri | April 2007 issue "Change is good, but no change Is better" It rang through the great hall As it has resounded silently Through the ages. It rang past the faces Of stern masters and poets And lords of learning, Asleep in their hidden academies. Change is Read More...
One last thing...
Microcredit could help young people in the West. Marco Visscher | March 2007 issue You mean it could help poor youth in Africa or India to take out a loan - very noble. Edgar Neo: "No, I actually mean young people in the West." But aren't they wealthier than ever? "Just ask the tens of thousands of Read More...
Real men play nice
What the world can learn from Nordic countries. Marco Visscher| March 2007 issue In the 1960s when Stuart Schlegel went to live among the Teduray, a tribe that made its home in the Philippine rainforest, the American missionary found a society he called "radically egalitarian." Men and women, Read More...
Column Tijn Touber
Finding wholeness at 30,000 feet Tijn Touber| March 2007 issue A friend who was juggling a myriad of personal problems had to take a long overseas flight for business. Rigid with tension, she was desperate for a couple of hours’ sleep but was wedged into a middle seat between two large men. She Read More...
Is God a delusion?
Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God, responds to biologist Richard Dawkins' assertion that God does not exist in any form. Neale Donald Walsch| March 2007 issue English scientist Richard Dawkins ignited a fierce debate with his book The God Delusion (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) - Read More...
The power of intention
A lesson from sports champions: The power of intention changes reality. Your health. Your career. Your world. Lynne McTaggart | Jan/Feb 2007 issue Seven weeks before Muhammad Ali met World Heavyweight Champion George Foreman for their “rumble in the jungle” at Kinshasa in 1975, Ali practised Read More...