1
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Who has been to a rural area recently?

2
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Really outside and being there?

3
00:00:12,368 --> 00:00:14,140
Just hands up, please.

4
00:00:14,610 --> 00:00:16,215
So, very, very few.

5
00:00:16,215 --> 00:00:19,246
So, this talk is about rural areas,

6
00:00:19,246 --> 00:00:24,333
but to talk about rural areas,
we need to look at the urban first.

7
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Obviously, today, everybody
thinks the future is urban,

8
00:00:32,322 --> 00:00:35,028
so people move to urban areas.

9
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This year we exceeded 50% of the total
world population living in cities.

10
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Isn't that incredible?

11
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And now, instead of thinking,

12
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"This should end. This is terrible,"

13
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we think, "Well, 2030, we have 70%."

14
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And I consider this nuts.

15
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So, what do we do with that?

16
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We have areas where, on one hand,

17
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the urban - what happens there?

18
00:01:04,072 --> 00:01:05,583
Of course, there are upsides,

19
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so people go there to find a job,
to have a social environment,

20
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to find friends, get married,
whatever, go to the discotheque.

21
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But on the other hand,

22
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there's a lot of noise.

23
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You pay a fortune for a little flat
that is just facing another flat

24
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across a noisy road.

25
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Where's your garden?

26
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So obviously, some things are wrong there.

27
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And so, is that the lifestyle
that we want for the future?

28
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Everybody?

29
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The only choice?

30
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I would say no.

31
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We need more choice,
and that's what I want to talk about

32
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because there's one thing
that worries me as a city dweller.

33
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If supplies would end -

34
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so, big power cut,

35
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natural catastrophe, no supplies -

36
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I guess in around two-three hours,
all shops would be sold out

37
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because everybody wants to get
as much as possible to be prepared.

38
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And then the shops are empty,
and we don't know what to do.

39
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We don't know how we can survive.

40
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So, in a city environment,

41
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we are mostly 100% dependent
on outside supplies.

42
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Like a baby, eh?

43
00:02:20,735 --> 00:02:23,809
And now, the flip side of the urban life

44
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is that we have rural areas
that are deserted more and more.

45
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People constantly move to the cities.

46
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People in the rural, they are old.

47
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No schools anymore.

48
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And at the same time,

49
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the rural areas,

50
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they have a type of farming
that is using lots of chemicals,

51
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pesticides, toxic stuff,

52
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and this is something
what will not have a future.

53
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We cannot pollute our groundwater
further and further and further.

54
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We cannot destroy our soils
because then we won't have water anymore.

55
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We need good soil to have water.

56
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It's as simple as that.

57
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But hardly anybody is looking at that.

58
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Do you hear a lot about soil?

59
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I guess not.

60
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It's our main, crucial asset
for the future.

61
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So now, what happens?

62
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There are some good developments going on,
and you all know about that,

63
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and that would be ...

64
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green development.

65
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So, we have cities where people
start to do urban gardening,

66
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rooftop garden, balcony garden.

67
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Who is lucky has a little piece
of land behind the house.

68
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So, that is something I really like,

69
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and what I see is that many people
who are doing that -

70
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so, Transition Town
Movement, for example -

71
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they want more.

72
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But that's impossible
in the context of cities.

73
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So, the urban can supply
maybe 20% of the food

74
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with maximum urban gardening.

75
00:04:13,744 --> 00:04:15,977
It's good, but is it good enough?

76
00:04:17,157 --> 00:04:21,040
So, what happens in the rural area
on the positive side?

77
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There are some developments going on

78
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into ecological, sound agriculture,
organic agriculture.

79
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It's rising strongly
on a worldwide scale, luckily.

80
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But at the same time, it turns industrial,

81
00:04:36,706 --> 00:04:39,827
and in order to have real organic farms

82
00:04:39,827 --> 00:04:43,595
that are keeping soil intact,
building humus,

83
00:04:43,595 --> 00:04:50,013
we will need many, many people
that live with farming.

84
00:04:51,325 --> 00:04:56,539
So, is the type of farming
that is done - is this ecological?

85
00:04:57,245 --> 00:04:58,256
It's not.

86
00:04:58,256 --> 00:05:01,155
Even the big organic farms
are not really ecological,

87
00:05:01,155 --> 00:05:02,730
if you look at it.

88
00:05:02,730 --> 00:05:07,689
And so, what we need
is attractive lifestyles in the rural

89
00:05:07,689 --> 00:05:10,004
that also do some farming,

90
00:05:11,184 --> 00:05:16,126
but not from morning to night,

91
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seven days a week.

92
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I wouldn't like that.

93
00:05:19,948 --> 00:05:23,138
Many people on farms don't like that.

94
00:05:23,588 --> 00:05:26,986
The young guys leave the farm -
as we see it everywhere -

95
00:05:26,986 --> 00:05:28,258
and another small farm,

96
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going to the big one
where one person works 3,000 hectares

97
00:05:33,171 --> 00:05:37,048
probably with a robot
machine in the future.

98
00:05:37,048 --> 00:05:40,218
Nobody's working there anymore.

99
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That has no future.

100
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And now, what can we do?

101
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We must turn around the situation.

102
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So, we need to put
the urban into its place.

103
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Of course, we will have
urban areas in the future,

104
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but not for all of the world population.

105
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So, we need more attractive
rural lifestyles,

106
00:06:05,441 --> 00:06:09,095
and that is what I think
we should create now.

107
00:06:09,101 --> 00:06:13,073
And there is something
where we could create something

108
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that we could call maybe "New Towns."

109
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The New Town should have
the positive sides of city life

110
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combined with the positive
sides of rural life:

111
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having space, quiet areas, forest nearby,

112
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a lake where you can go swimming
in the morning, or a river.

113
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But combining that with job opportunities,

114
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having interesting people around,

115
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with the possibility
to create your own things,

116
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not being like in city life 100% dependent
on somebody giving you a job,

117
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giving you a flat,

118
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providing a car and so on.

119
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So, how can that work?

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What would you think?

121
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How could, well,
the dream town in the rural,

122
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not near the city where you go
to the discotheque every day

123
00:07:04,149 --> 00:07:06,259
or commute to work -

124
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how could that village look like?

125
00:07:08,673 --> 00:07:10,505
How could that town look like?

126
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I don't know, but I have some ideas,
and that's what I want to share with you.

127
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So, one thing is that we have
the social level,

128
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and that would be -

129
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we should have sufficient
numbers of people to make it attractive.

130
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Nobody wants to live alone
in some remote rural area.

131
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Few people might like that,
but that's pretty much the exception.

132
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So, we should have New Towns
that have maybe 100 to 500 people.

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And one thing that is crucial now

134
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is we should have productive towns

135
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that are producing high-quality food

136
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not only for themselves,

137
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but also for sale,
for supplying the cities

138
00:08:02,362 --> 00:08:05,982
in a way that is fun, leisure

139
00:08:05,982 --> 00:08:10,409
and a good work-life balance
or work-work-work balance.

140
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And I'll explain you
what I understand from that.

141
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So, when we do a normal job,

142
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we normally work from morning
to evening at the desk,

143
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or we do something, sort of the same thing

144
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five days a week.

145
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And now we could balance,

146
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and in the morning,
we could go and work with this thing.

147
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It's really fun.

148
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It's very efficient
when you learn how to do it.

149
00:08:39,108 --> 00:08:42,858
And then we could go
to the computer or something else:

150
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go to the workshop,

151
00:08:44,029 --> 00:08:47,845
make, create something, build this,
for example, build a scythe.

152
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And actually,

153
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I worked 30 years with computers,

154
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and I'm fed up!

155
00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:56,800
(Loud bang)

156
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And so, the life can be different,

157
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so we can do different things: balancing.

158
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And I don't mind working
a third of my time on a computer,

159
00:09:05,912 --> 00:09:07,986
but not full-time.

160
00:09:07,986 --> 00:09:11,476
Economy - so, how can economy look like?

161
00:09:12,074 --> 00:09:17,641
We need something where we need
to reduce the costs of living.

162
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It's really difficult
to survive in a rural area,

163
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far away from a city,
far away from supplies,

164
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from some government and so on.

165
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So, reduce costs.

166
00:09:32,726 --> 00:09:35,694
The idea is to have a starter house,

167
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modular house that is small,
but very efficient -

168
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solar, passive solar, very well insulated,
but small for the beginning -

169
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so that young people moving out,
they don't have a big debt in the bank.

170
00:09:47,924 --> 00:09:52,254
But with around, well, maybe 25,000 euros,

171
00:09:52,258 --> 00:09:56,541
they could own their own house
and pay off the house

172
00:09:56,541 --> 00:10:01,130
plus maybe 3,000 square meters of land

173
00:10:01,430 --> 00:10:03,153
within a 10 years' time -

174
00:10:03,863 --> 00:10:05,443
own it completely.

175
00:10:06,046 --> 00:10:11,897
And that means that, well,
the retirement security is there

176
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because the land will stay
and is productive.

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You can produce not only your own food,
but you can supply 50 more people,

178
00:10:19,609 --> 00:10:22,722
with one third of a working day.

179
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That's the main thing -

180
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we don't want to get into this type
of agriculture that we have today.

181
00:10:29,606 --> 00:10:30,643
So,

182
00:10:32,063 --> 00:10:34,818
people who move out
should be entrepreneurs,

183
00:10:34,818 --> 00:10:36,538
should be producers.

184
00:10:36,538 --> 00:10:41,052
They can produce, well,
agricultural products,

185
00:10:41,052 --> 00:10:43,857
but with that, we should have more jobs.

186
00:10:43,857 --> 00:10:49,452
And of course, there are jobs
for child care, teachers.

187
00:10:49,452 --> 00:10:51,121
There would be demand for tools,

188
00:10:51,121 --> 00:10:57,000
so somebody can build tools
and run a company for producing that.

189
00:10:57,223 --> 00:11:00,421
Transportation: transporting
the vegetables into the city

190
00:11:00,421 --> 00:11:03,790
with a bus, maybe,
that people can also join.

191
00:11:04,949 --> 00:11:08,963
There's many, many, many options for that.

192
00:11:09,298 --> 00:11:12,609
So, that is something
that is well possible.

193
00:11:13,942 --> 00:11:16,335
Now, we have the social, economic,

194
00:11:16,335 --> 00:11:20,290
and now the ecological level
for the New Town.

195
00:11:20,643 --> 00:11:26,167
And it would be a prerequisite
that people do organic gardening

196
00:11:26,755 --> 00:11:31,560
because only organic gardening
can assure building up soil.

197
00:11:31,561 --> 00:11:36,025
The soil should become richer and richer
or more productive every year.

198
00:11:36,843 --> 00:11:39,387
And that's a good, good asset
for the future,

199
00:11:39,387 --> 00:11:43,337
for a good future for many,
many people on the planet.

200
00:11:44,436 --> 00:11:48,880
We can have 100% of regenerative energy,

201
00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:54,384
and in fact, I could cook my meal
on this wood gas stove.

202
00:11:54,978 --> 00:11:56,816
With local resources,

203
00:11:56,816 --> 00:12:03,669
this stove was produced in a town
in Burkina Faso for 15 euros,

204
00:12:03,669 --> 00:12:07,138
all with waste materials
from old fridges and so on.

205
00:12:07,138 --> 00:12:08,978
So, also that is possible.

206
00:12:09,308 --> 00:12:11,944
And what is even better,

207
00:12:11,944 --> 00:12:15,244
the fuel comes from the waste
from the agriculture.

208
00:12:15,244 --> 00:12:18,324
This is made from reed
and stuff and woody waste.

209
00:12:18,324 --> 00:12:22,331
And with that we can cook,
and we could also produce electricity

210
00:12:22,331 --> 00:12:23,363
and so on.

211
00:12:23,363 --> 00:12:25,121
I don't want to go into details here.

212
00:12:25,121 --> 00:12:26,528
There's a lot available.

213
00:12:27,430 --> 00:12:32,650
Then, we have one key issue
that is often overlooked,

214
00:12:33,215 --> 00:12:36,864
and that is that we need
a social environment

215
00:12:36,864 --> 00:12:38,895
where personal growth

216
00:12:38,895 --> 00:12:43,795
is, well, sort of promoted or possible.

217
00:12:43,795 --> 00:12:46,130
And there are wonderful tools for that.

218
00:12:46,411 --> 00:12:47,418
Without that,

219
00:12:47,418 --> 00:12:50,198
we have the same problems
that we have today.

220
00:12:50,198 --> 00:12:53,824
So, our society reflects
lack of personal growth,

221
00:12:53,824 --> 00:12:56,849
and that's why we go
into this dead-end road

222
00:12:56,849 --> 00:12:58,224
in many aspects.

223
00:12:59,191 --> 00:13:03,193
Now, this is something
where we could come to something

224
00:13:03,193 --> 00:13:08,161
when we have, I said,
20% with green development,

225
00:13:08,161 --> 00:13:09,638
production of food.

226
00:13:10,663 --> 00:13:15,501
The New Town could make 500%.

227
00:13:15,501 --> 00:13:18,923
So, that would be exporters
also having income from that.

228
00:13:19,274 --> 00:13:21,605
And then, this whole context,

229
00:13:21,605 --> 00:13:28,372
this whole idea is sort of
the post-industrialization development.

230
00:13:30,332 --> 00:13:32,946
The idea for people to move into cities

231
00:13:32,946 --> 00:13:36,275
came from, "There's a factory,
there's a job."

232
00:13:36,275 --> 00:13:42,089
And only then people started to gather
in bigger and bigger numbers.

233
00:13:42,419 --> 00:13:44,945
And now this is not the case anymore:

234
00:13:44,945 --> 00:13:48,145
a lot of the production processes
can be decentralized.

235
00:13:48,865 --> 00:13:49,893
Even in the New Town,

236
00:13:49,893 --> 00:13:53,900
we can have somebody
doing high-tech production

237
00:13:53,900 --> 00:13:56,637
with 3D printers and things like that.

238
00:13:56,637 --> 00:13:58,738
If somebody wants
to do that, it's an option.

239
00:13:58,738 --> 00:14:00,108
So we get freedom.

240
00:14:00,108 --> 00:14:02,135
And with that,

241
00:14:02,135 --> 00:14:03,885
we have something

242
00:14:03,895 --> 00:14:09,895
where we have a definition of wealth

243
00:14:10,435 --> 00:14:14,013
that is from Amartya Sen,

244
00:14:14,013 --> 00:14:19,221
Nobel Prize winner of the Nobel Prize
in Economic Sciences.

245
00:14:19,223 --> 00:14:22,888
And he has defined wealth

246
00:14:24,938 --> 00:14:28,138
as the degree of freedom that we obtain.

247
00:14:29,258 --> 00:14:32,186
So, having a job 12 hours a day,

248
00:14:32,186 --> 00:14:35,379
being burned-out every weekend

249
00:14:35,709 --> 00:14:38,455
is not very much wealth,
with this definition.

250
00:14:38,455 --> 00:14:42,590
So, let's go for a future
with lots of wealth

251
00:14:42,590 --> 00:14:45,440
where we have the freedom
to choose what we want to do,

252
00:14:45,558 --> 00:14:49,134
where we have diversity of things
that can be done.

253
00:14:49,134 --> 00:14:52,043
We should move into a region

254
00:14:52,043 --> 00:14:56,431
that is attractive, has forests,
mountains or a lake, a river

255
00:14:56,431 --> 00:14:59,062
so that it's really a place to be,

256
00:14:59,062 --> 00:15:01,924
where people love to be

257
00:15:02,144 --> 00:15:05,658
and at the same time, being productive.

258
00:15:05,658 --> 00:15:11,765
And that is something what I think
is part of the model for our future.

259
00:15:12,195 --> 00:15:14,349
And now my final question to you:

260
00:15:14,764 --> 00:15:18,224
who can imagine to live
in a New Town like that?

261
00:15:18,230 --> 00:15:19,650
Please hands up.

262
00:15:21,344 --> 00:15:22,955
Okay, that convinces me,

263
00:15:22,955 --> 00:15:25,199
and I hope you will join this development.

264
00:15:25,199 --> 00:15:26,908
Thank you very much.

265
00:15:26,908 --> 00:15:29,078
(Applause)