Qilin-Giraffes – The Podcast to Restore your Faith in Humanity

Dilip Simeon is a well-known labour historian and novelist in India. He is an expert on the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. The inspiration Gandhi gives him is not only intellectual, since he has led hunger strikes himself in order to denounce injustice. In this podcast we dive into the dangers of post-truth relativism, into the underestimated powers of non-violence and what Gandhi's ideas about peaceful opposition could mean to the Middle-East.

Born in Sudan during the second civil war, his family forced to flee to Congo and later to the Central African Republic, where they had no access to education nor resources. He returned to South Sudan when he was 7, then at the age of 12 he was abducted by the LRA, the army led by Joseph Kony. He fought as a child soldier for over a year, then escaped only to find himself forcibly conscripted by the Sudanese government at the age of 16. He became a refugee at 17, crossed half of Africa to find himself in Libya, where he was tortured, exploited, forced to labor, to arbitrary detentions, kidnappings and he was sold to militias to fight in the Libyan civil war. After 4 failed attempts to reach Europe, he started working with Libyan organisations and international ngo’s to fight for the rights of refugees. He started radio programs, co-founded the organisation "Refugees in Libya,", then he spent months on the run for the Libyan secret service. He then did a fifth and finally successful attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea. David now lives in Italy where he launches campaign after campaign to raise awareness and pursues legal action for the cause of refugees in Libya and people on the move in the North African region.

Not only is he a painter, a sculptor, a photographer and a writer-performer, but for 38 years he was also the director of the prison the city of Oudenaarde in Belgium. He retired three months ago. If you want to know what is wrong with the current detention system in our society, about the political struggles involved in creating human conditions in our houses of detention, then not only should you listen to his interviews or read his scientific writings, but you should also get to know his sculptures and his paintings, for they speak about the human condition in its broadest sense. About opening the gates of our narrowed minds and about the self-inflicted detention that so many humans call ‘my freedom’. For him, art is no therapy, but an absolute and inevitable necessity in his life. He is the author of the Declaration of 30 November, a plea for necessary reforms to create a society where people LIVE TOGETHER, freed from the greed for money, and where they can appreciate one another and the nature they live in.

She is Hungarian by birth and lives in Geneva. In 2006, she published ‘Apám halálának nyara’ (translated into English as 'The Summer My Father Died'). This book covers about seventy years of turbulent Hungarian history. Lyrical, poetic and pierced with black humour, ‘The Summer My Father Died’ is a stunning and achingly beautiful memoir in which Judit uncovers het father's struggle as a communist who denied his Jewish roots, and how Judit herself deals with the implications of that choice. She is also the author of 'More nights than days', a survey of writings of child genocide survivors, and of the study 'Arms Industry Transformation and Integration: The Choices of East Central Europe'.

Since 2018, Jérôme Tubiana has been working as an operational adviser and advocacy manager with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), focusing on refugee and migration issues. This included advocating for Out of Libya’s initiative aiming at opening safe and legal pathways for migrants and refugees stranded in Libya, and systematically victims of abuses, which the United Nations have qualified as “crimes against humanity”. Prior to this, Jérôme worked as a researcher specializing in conflicts and migration across the Sahara and Horn of Africa, in particular in Sudan, including for MSF and other humanitarian NGOs, human rights organizations, the International Crisis Group, the Clingendael Institute and other think tanks, as well as the UN Security Council Panel of Experts on the Sudan and the African Union–United Nations Joint Mediation Support Team on Darfur. In addition to various reports, he is the author of several books including Chroniques du Darfour (on the war in Darfur, Glénat, 2010) and the award-winning graphic novel Guantánamo Kid (the true story of Guantánamo’s youngest prisoner, SelfMadeHero/Abrams, 2019). His articles have appeared in the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The Nation, The Baffler, Le Monde diplomatique and XXI.

In 2021, Quentin Dujardin was refused the right to organize a guitar concert in a church, even though the maximum number of participants was respected and all distancing and other measures were taken. Risking a penalty of 12000 EUR, he decided to give the concert anyway.

Since 1982 on the Schweibenalp, in this Center of Unity, people of all origins who are searching for the meaning of life or who are already concerned with the essentials of life find a universal place of spiritual practice and community. Here West and East and North and South meet, united by the experience of, or at least the instinct for, the oneness of all living things.

Walter and Grace realize the spiritual and practical life impulse for biodynamic agriculture of 1924 in Koberwitz in a tropical landscape of the Far East.

– and some have both in equal measure: That’s what’s the case with Sergio. https://fondation-ghf.one/commendations/

ISA LUQUE ALVAREZ & HUMPHREY MATTHEY Isa and Humphrey have led since young years and until today a life committed to social justice and inner truth, which knew neither fear nor laziness. – Even a synopsis of their vitae can hardly be summarized on one page; nothing, therefore, for the weary in reading, which may be forgiven. https://fondation-ghf.one/commendations/

It happened to Lieve, the daughter of Willy Vandamme (76) and Lut Wouters (70). The young woman refused to hand over her cell phone to a nurse. Ten days later she had to appear before the justice of the peace, in pajamas and barefoot, where the coercive measure was promptly extended. It took days before Willy and Lut found out that their daughter was tied up in a chilly room. They were not allowed to see her. They were not even allowed to talk to her on the phone.

Giraffes are known to need a very, very big and strong heart to pump the blood all the way to the head - Humadi's heart full of helpfulness, attention and generosity is an impressive example. He does not distinguish between living and working. He is not a "40 hours a week do-gooder", but lives his vision every second and with every single activity...

We are living through not only one of the most polarizing times in history but unfortunately also one of the most vicious and ideologically charged. Views expressed, which do not fit the mainstream agenda are hammered out, literally, by fact checkers operating the largest perfectionist Procrustes bed in history for sure. The common ground for differentiated approaches to the hidden meaning of truth and reality is lost. – This gets especially tragic when it comes to kids and adolescents, who are increasingly pulled into the net of this new reality of the coming metaverse, its convenience, health doctrine and social uprooting. Indeed, AI, virtual reality and a redefinition of the very identity concept of society and its individual members threaten the existence of humanness and related values as has been hitherto known and fought for.

These are two people who came to Germany from Australia and America, or better, from Taiwan where they met, fell in love and started to make their music some ten years ago. They are young and beautiful but even more, resilient, artistic, hard working and giving all for creating life and environment in a way lost on most of the lost of today, who are many……

If black soldier fly larvae could enter competitive eating contests, they would excel, especially when it comes to eating nasty stuff that we don’t want around or wouldn’t think of eating ourselves. The ability of the black soldier fly to convert low-grade organic waste into high-quality nutrients has opened-up a ground-breaking prospect for the large-scale production of animal feed. The high protein content of insects provides an immense opportunity to develop sustainable technology for the production of animal feed at a low cost. kanthari participant Adegbite Tobi Gabriel from Nigeria tell us about that. Homepage: https://entojutu.org/

When Cavin Odera’s parents and oldest sister died of HIV/AIDS, he was mocked and discriminated against. This experience eventually triggered his willingness to empower girls and young women. So he created WA-Wa, to equip them with skills to earn sustainable livelihoods without falling victim to “sex for fish”, a common practice around the Lake Victoria. Wa-Wa trains this woman in everything about fishing, from tying nets, building boats, fishing on Lake Victoria, to fish farming in self-built ponds. More details about WA-WA can be found at: wawakenya.org/

Last Summer, as for 2021, Afghanistan was again everywhere in the news. The Taliban captured Afghanistan's capital Kabul 20 years after they were ousted from power. Most of us, still remember the horrifying video, showing two people tragically falling down from a plane in Kabul, as they tied themselves to the wheels of the aircraft to fly out of the country, amid tension. My guest today comes from Afghanistan. Nematullah Ahangosh is an Activist, a Poet, and founder of Stretch More; a mobile empowerment parkour for the disable. By Stretch More, people with disabilities can empower themselves through survival skills, entrepreneurship, leadership and sports activities. Nemat is physically disabled and also a kanthari alumni, he just graduated. A few weeks back, as for december 2021, he had his dream speech which you can see at the youtube channel of the kanthari education center.

First an Apology. It's been a while since we published an Episode of this Podcast, but I had strong reasons. I explain everything in the first two Minutes of this Episode. Now, today´s Podcast: one of the lesser known facts of 20th-century world history is Cuba's military help in Afghanistan during the critical years of the Saur Revolution of 1978. Cuba was among a small number of countries who voted against a resolution by the Non-Aligned Movement at the United Nations General Assembly which condemned the Soviet union's intervention in Afghanistan in 1979. And todays Podcast its about Afghanistan. I recorded this Interview in january, a few days before I went back home. The interview lastet two hours, but I decided to split the recording in two, so this week my guest is going to talk about the situation in Afghanistan. Next week, he’s going to talk about his dream. So I kindly invite you to listen to this Episode.

Hubert Maria Dietrich, one of the new commended Giraffe Hero, is a very nice, very straight guy. We all know, Giraffes are known to need a big and strong heart to pump the blood all the way to the head – Humadi’s heart full of helpfulness, attention and generosity is an impressive example. We at the foundation call him Humadi, founded humanum, a people-to-people company that produces pioneering products for a better world with the following vision: “When everyone shares, no one is left empty-handed.” Today you'll get to know Humadi. On the day he got his commendation, he talked to us at the foundation and also played some songs. Yes he is also a musician. His speech and performance was in german. So i'm apologising to my non-german speaking listeners with a promise. Soon I'm recording a Podcast with Humadi and you will get the chance to get to know him better. In the meantime, I kindly invite you to enjoy this speech and performance. To reflect and, why not, to philosophize a little with us. So please, lean back and enjoy Grenzgängertum und die Verkürzung der Strecke.

As children, gender bombards us in more ways than one – the clothes we wear, the toys we buy, the way we express ourselves…From the moment we're born, our gender identity is no secret. We're either a boy or a girl. We are pink or blue. Today I'm talking to a recent kanthari alumni: Niwas Kumar. For some children, what's between their legs doesn't match what's between their ears -- they insist they were born into the wrong body. They are transgender children, diagnosed with gender identity disorder, and their parents insist this is not a phase. My guest today has founded anantmool, a Gender-Free Learning Centre for children who are experiencing gender dysphoria.