Christine Graf's blog

Espaces oubliés

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RomaniaWhen talking about the garden project with different people in our region, I received an invitation to an event about "Espaces oubliés" (forgotten places) in Perpignan.

It was a really interesting experience, because the presentations from local associations were inspiring and for me a practical lesson on cultural behaviour and thinking. 

The commonalities of all initiatives are:

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European gardening

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Apple treesFew weeks ago, we started a new European learning partnership project about gardening, with institutions from Italy, Wales, Latvia, Greece, Germany, Portugal.
The partners combine quite a mix of very different competencies, as these are private consulting companies, non-profit organizations, adult education providers, vocational training centers, a second chance school.
All have in common that they are situated in rural areas.

It's visible for everyone, rural areas have been through a dramatic transformation in recent decades, leaving significant numbers of people on the margins of mainstream society. In response to such difficulties, partners in this project have been exploring alternative strategies for local/regional development which include learning as the drive wheel of transformation.

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    Exploring old houses

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    House in Kernavė

    The "About houses" project started two years ago and comes to an end right now.

    A lot of stuff, in seven languages, has been done:

    We worked with experts in the field of restoration, heritage and preservation, with people who are living in old houses, who are restoring their own houses, with historians and people who were just curious to explore their neighborhood. Some of our partners could involve municipalities in their local work as they saw the chance to value local treasures, such as houses, the knowledge and engagement of local people.

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      500,000 Free Downloads

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      500,000Since more than ten years we are writing and publishing books about open source software, mainly about Joomla and Drupal.
      We started with Pearson Education Germany, with whom we have had for many years a good partnership.
      Many years ago, we decided to publish while writing, which was supported by Pearson Education Germany to a certain extend.

      However, times are changing, and the publishing industry is not changing that fast, until today.
      Since two years we are a publisher by ourselves.

      Our books are freely available on our website in HTML and PDF, and of course, you can still buy them either as ePub or as a real books via Amazon.
      And today, we reached the 500,000 downloads for the Joomla books! There are only few countries, where we had no downloads from, e.g. Chad, North Korea, South Sudan, Lesotho, Central African Republic.

      Why did we decided to end the contract with a big publishing house and do all the work by ourselves?
      First of all, it's not about money, you can't get rich, it's even difficult to earn a substantial part for your living.
      There are some other reasons behind:

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          Love, Peace & Leadership

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          Museu DaliIntroduction

          Leadership – is the art to support and encourage others to achieve common goals.
          Good leaders are enablers, helping people and organizations to perform, develop and master changes.

          Leadership requires strong emotional intelligence and empathy to reflect people's needs and necessary changes. Reality shows that this is easier to understand than to apply in practice.
          The acting, direction and success of organizations depend decisively on the competencies and maturity of those people who are in power.
          When talking about leadership, you can quickly get into very controversial discussions about power and the misuse of power, social responsibilities and justice, free spirits, community sharing and declination of authorities, something between peace & love and authorities.
          It’s an emotional topic because as written above, its appearance depends on the personality of human beings.

          In this article, I’ll explain, by using Transactional Analysis models, what leadership means, what makes someone a leader and reflect on leadership styles and complementary behaviour.

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