Ode to Earth

The chair of our Peacemaking Committee has suggested this magazine, Ode. Heard of it?


Here is a blurb about it from the editor:

Dear Readers:

My name is Jurriaan Kamp and I edit Ode -- a very unusual magazine. Since 1995 it has been giving Europeans a rich diet of real-life stories about positive change, from all over the world. Since 2003, Ode's been doing the same for Americans and the rest of the world with its international, English-language edition.

Well researched, well written, and - yes - inspiring. When I worked as an editor at a major newspaper in the Netherlands, I saw the need for responsible reporting on stories that give us reasons to hope -- but are poorly reported.

• I believe it IS news when natural nutrients are shown to cure diseases better than commercial pharmaceuticals do.
• I believe it IS news when people in villages and cities in countries that rarely make headlines stand up for their own culture, their own hopes and their own future, by opposing the juggernaut of multinational corporations seeking to take their resources and profit from their misery.

Here are two reasons why our mainstream media don’t agree with me:

• Bad news sells - cynical news editors sum it up in the phrase, “If it bleeds, it leads…”
• All major media in the US is owned by large, wealthy, multinational corporations, with huge investments in the way things are.

We will only turn around the great problems of our world when we plan and invest five, ten years, 50 years into a better future.

And we all need to tell each other about every breakthrough idea, invention and real-life practice - anywhere and everywhere such real-world research and development is happening.

This is what Ode is all about.

Here is a reader response:

"What a sweet, intelligent magazine that Ode is. In a world force fed bad news to make its citizenry pessimistic and cynical so that people will stay depressed and anxious so that they will be good consumers; Ode shows great things happening, showing care for all people and our environment. Ode shows that there is a revolution for what could be, right now. It's us!"

-- Patch Adams, M.D., founder of the Gesundheit! Institute, Hagerstown, Virginia