Here are my live notes of the Lift Conference session “Resilience and Resistance”. Keep an eye open for mistakes, inaccuracies, and other flakiness due to live-blogging.
Konstantina Zoehrer, check out her speaker notes.
“Since we can’t change reality, let us change the eyes that see reality.” Will try and prove this quote true.
Greece: 20K homeless people, unemployment 25%, below poverty line 28%. 57% (unemployment? steph-note: missed something there.)
Was thinking of leaving the country. Studying. Started working, interest in social media and social networks. Started a community. Blogging. Landed her a job (“dream” job). 2010. But she still wanted to leave. Phone ringing, unknown number. Prime minister’s office. “You asked him on Twitter why you should not leave the country, do you want to ask him in person?” Whee.
She asked her question. He didn’t really give a satisfying answer. “Not leaving, etc. is a personal choice.” Disappointed.
Went back to Vienna. Found a job. steph-note: did something in Athens that I didn’t get. She decided to stay, this time. Tweeted to the Prime Minister: now that I’m staying, you’re leaving (he resigned). Realised that it was indeed a personal choice of hers to stay.
Examples of community-based initiatives. Digitally-organized meetings of people in front of the parliament. Not just demonstrations against austerity measures, but also discussion about solutions.
Fighting against food waste (giving excess to charities). Combating negative stereotypes in the media. Teaching languages in public libraries. Business startup community, entrepreneurship. Changing the insurance model. Symbiosis. Loft2work.