In Crete, a true magic happened. By meeting Korina Miliaraki, we got a chance to learn about the great value of carob trees, which they are willing to share with us.

Thanks to Korina and a network of farmers and experts who actively promote, grow, breed and farm it, the carob tree is “coming back“ and bringing good to our common future. We visited Korinna’s friends, “carob activists“, old carob trees, and a carob forest in southern Crete. It became obvious there, that carob tree doesn't need much water to grow and bear fruits which can be eaten directly from the tree. Carob trees can be over 1000 years old and regenerate similar to the olive tree.

I hated school. I didn't feel good. I was always feeling like I was outside the system, the education system. At first, I wanted to be an acrobat, then I decided to be the minister of education. When our teacher when I was six or seven asked us what we wanted to be I said minister of education. And she asked me ”Why, my child, do you want to be...” and I said – ”Because I want to close all the schools and make the next generation not suffer from this system, the school than we now have”.

So, I decided to come and work with him and to decide what to do, to see. It is like giving exams to yourself, because you always must return to your place to see exactly who you are, after a period when you're traveling, you're learning, you're doubting. And then you must come to have a new battle with yourself. To decide who you are after all these experiences. And I came here, and I worked with him. And then I decided through this what exactly I wanted. So that's why I came to (). I found my center.

Part of the vision is to create the carob mill and create through the carobs and our efforts for the coming back of the carob to be a reference point of Mediterranean Europe for the carob. Connecting all the countries of the Mediterranean Europe for the coming back of the carob, giving it more value. I would love to create here a carob foundation for culture, gastronomy and research. And every year to have a festival with festival here.

To develop a cultivation on the island and not only on the island, but on the island because we're here, by giving the motives to the farmers and also help them through their searches, giving them the right information how to cultivate, the right way to cultivate and which type of carob tree would be right and give them also the motives to create new products of food and whatever.

(about ”equally”)

         In order to survive, the human beings, we have to be serious and to understand that we don't have differences, we're all human beings and we must live equally on this planet, and we must respect the environment.

       We have the same rights everywhere. And to stop all this moving of the population because of the wars. So maybe you're going to tell me that I'm a romantic but I'm very practical, very realist.

        And in this effort the carob tree is going to help us, and I know it.

 I'm trying to do my best and I don't have, in a way that you put it, expectations – ”So I'm trying to do this so tomorrow I'm going to have this result, otherwise I don't do anything...” – no. My whole life I'm doing this: I'm trying, trying, trying, trying, because there is no other way. And if something good is going to happen, I'll be happy. If not, I'll still try to do my best.

Kostas Karatzis is big sucess story of Korinas dreams to bring carobs back. Kostas lives alone but his inthusiasem, positive atitude and ekscetional results are a great rool model for others to learn and plant carob trees on Kreta. Alone he does work for 10, also doing products from carob- carob syrup (best in Kreata) and carob brandy 

Corina, about carob syrup. My mother takes one spoon every day, every morning. This is medicine. 

And for me it's very important, because this carob syrup is made not only with the carob (fruit?), it's made by all the carob and the seeds. The seeds have proteins.

All food from olive oil, vegetables, fruits chees, dry fruts, vine.. he produce himself- and if Kostas has a chance to host somebody as he hosted us ..a magic experiance !

Something about the carob. While I was trying to find out more and more things, I'm always searching, I found a rabbi of the 300 years after Christ. He was living in Palestine. So, he was walking in the street and he saw somebody planting a new Carob tree, a very small one, and he asked him ”Why are you trying to do this, you think you're going to live so many years to be feeding from this carob tree”, and the man answered ”No, because I'm taking the carobs of another tree that my ancestors have planted for me” and he said ”Ok” and he left. And after a while the light was very strong, he didn't go to a cave, but he sat on a rock, he slept, and then he returned. And on the way back he saw in the same place a huge carob tree full of carobs and somebody who was picking the carobs. And he said, ”Hey you, are you the same who planted this tree” and the man said ”No, no, no, my ancestors did it for me” and he realized that 54 years passed during his sleep. So, I got crazy when I found it, because, first () for another reason and then this rabbi, Honi HaMe'agel is his name, in a different place, in Palestine, it has to do with carobs this time. I don't know, there is a connection.

7 years. For the first, double of the olive tree. Olive tree- less years. That's why the Portuguese have a saying, ”Plant an olive tree for your children and a carob tree for your grandchildren”.

more>CAROB TREE PHYSIOLOGY: GROWTH AND REPRODUCTION BIOLOGY

Manolis Loukakis  a profesor of agronomy, an expert for breeding , teaching a great connoisseur of carobs, species suitable for planting and grafting trees and Crete

...nobody knows, I could say, because sometimes, even if something looks very dark or very pessimistic, there are moments, but everything can be changed, so we have to try. And if we're lucky in our lifetime to see a difference, to see this revolution that I believe in, there are moments, but even the environment and human beings together, we can change everything. I don't know if I'll be so lucky to see it, but I can tell you that I've seen it, in moments in a small scale. So, if I have this experience to see it in moments, that means that it can be done, so in this way I'm an optimist, but I don't know if in my lifetime I will see it. Everything can be done. Even the what now we think that is impossible, it can be possible. But it can be possible only if some people will be in the same line, will find a way to connect with each other and to have the same purpose, the same goal. And even unconsciously, to have the same way, without knowing it, but knowing it, if you understand. Even unconsciously, because there is a social unconsciousness that moves the thing.

Manos Babionitakis: an inventor of carob mill machine , before him there was nobady to proces carobs into 100% carob flower in Creta, wital for all that crop carob 

 We are all the same, from the same material. It's all clear to me. There are no differences. From the north to the south, to the west, to the east, we're all human beings. Whites, yellows, I don't know what...

>> next steps – carob trees

 I have a feeling that it's going to save us again. In a different way this time. If I have a dialog with a carob tree, it has too many secrets, and I'm asking it. ”What are your secrets?” I'll find out what they are.

virgine carob forest in Southeren Crete grows where no other plants can exist They are old trees, never the less small and regenarate here by nature. 

Olive trees, Carob trees..I love both of them, but carob is the symbol of survival, against everything, all the extreme conditions. And this is for me more important. And you can't survive eating olives, you can survive eating carobs. In order to survive with olives,  we have to make olive oil, we have to have a process, but the other one gives you directly what you need, that's why it saved a population. But yeah, this is again fire, preventing the fire. Many places would get burned..., it helps the soil to be stronger. I don't know it's magic. It's something the nature created, it gives us that way and I'm so enthusiastic about it. I'm feeling that I have a duty to do whatever I can for this. I feel like that, because it's a tree that nobody looks at it, focuses on and I have to show everybody that it's so important. The most important tree.

It is a symbol of survival.

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SEEDS OF PALESTINE dreans, is the title of 2nd edition of a book, where 99 Palestinians expres in selfportrait and words, there  relation with ladn of Palestine and people living there (previev 1st edition) Book -2nd, edition is on the short list, to be published by publisher Sanje

Eyad Tamallah, 20 ....I have many dreams. The big dream is for the world to be in peace. I believe that peace will start from the people themselves and not from the government...

I was born in Quira but I live in Ramallah. I study engineering at Birzeit University. I love to do things where you can see changes. The purpose of engineering is to make life easier for people. I think this is a big purpose. I also love philosophy. To learn about society. For a young person, to build your future, it is good to go to the city. It has more opportunities and you can meet people from different places. You can get a wider perspective so I think this is important. But I also really like coming back to the village during the weekends, holidays. I like the way people here are together, the family evenings, how they love each other. When I am here I do agricultural work and I feel I am part of the village. I do a lot of traditional farming. Here I get a lot of knowledge. I think it is important to work with the land. When you are in contact with nature, you get a very deep connection with yourself. I think this will make you stronger, wiser.

I have many dreams. The big dream is for the world to be in peace. I believe that peace will start from the people themselves and not from the government. This is my big dream, that people find peace in their hearts. I see my future here in Palestine. I think you should help your society, your country, the place where you live and where you share your memories. But I would love to go for a trip somewhere. I wish to go to the sea. To see the other side of our land. As a young man I can’t go to Jerusalem, to the sea, Haifa, Jaffa. So I wish to go there.

BOOK-preview

During 10 days in July 2018, anthropologist Barbara Vodopivec and me did 100+ interviews with selfportraits in the country of Palestine – cities and villages in the West Bank. The result is unique, nothing I could have imagined beforehand. It presents a parallel life, deeply rooted in heartfelt  relationships between people, as well as to the land. Land as a space that provides everything necessary for life, as well as culture and history. The wisdom based on the intelligence of heart, which goes beyond unconscious survival patterns of human nature, is very valuable for everyone of us, because we are all to some extent exposed to the pressures of domination, exploitation, control, violence. It is the way  to find a peaceful transition to the next step of our evolution in harmony with all beings.
At least half of the Palestinians are scattered around the world, but remain connected with the land and the people in Palestine. In this way, the wisdom they developed is also spreading around the world. The situation is similar to the side effect of the occupation of Tibet since 1950. More than half of the Tibetans live outside of Tibet, spreading Buddhist wisdom all over the world as an important mankind’s endeavor to understand life and develop peaceful ways of coexistence. It is based on compassion, which is also a common point with Palestinian wisdom. It lies in their hearts. 
What also became clear to me during our time in Palestine is that Jewish people, through their centurieslong struggle for survival, developed extreme intellectual consciousness. The latter drives and motivates us “from the opposite side” to the intelligence of heart. To this day, these two fundamentally different worlds have not found a peaceful dialogue. When talking about the future, many of our Palestinian interlocutors stressed that the most important goal should be peaceful coexistence for ALL in Palestine, which also includes the settlers who took over the Palestinian land.

PALESTINIAN YOUTH AND SEEDS OF THE FUTURE

introduction from the book  by Barbara Vodopivec, anthropologist, Society for Human Rights Humanitas, Slovenia

How do young people in Palestine see themselves? How do they live their lives, what do they dream about and what are their hopes for the future? With this book we try to give a glimpse into the way youngpeople in Palestine think about these questions. Thisis not a research about Palestinian youth or a holisticrepresentation of their lives. Rather, it is an artproject, a mosaic of images and a story about the way they understand themselves and the place andtime in which they live.

Through the use of self-portrait photography and short interviews we hope to capture young people’s voices, particularly their experience and expressionof a personal and collective identity. The portraits,which always place an individual against his or her background, explore identity from a very intimate, individual perspective but always in relation to thebroader environment. Personal and collectiveidentities are closely interconnected and in the narrative of the young people, the harsh politicaland economic situation further intertwines the two.When young people talk about their own lives theyalso talk about Palestine. When they describe their home they also describe their country. In theirnarrative Palestine is not something abstract but what they experience and express through their daily life – through work, dance, sport, studies, art,architecture, friendship, family. As many emphasize,due to the struggle for freedom and justice,Palestine is in everything they do. This means thatpersonal dreams are impossible to separate fromthe hopes and aspiration for a Palestinian future.

The portraits and interviews thus aim to tell a story of how young people feel their identity, how they experience it through their personal self as well as through the place in which they live, and in relationto people they live with, or are separated from. Forthe context of Palestine, the latter is particularly important, with Palestinians living divided betweenthe West Bank, Gaza, and the rest of the world. Thisseparation, together with the system of oppression, discrimination and colonization which makes it almost impossible for people to travel, creates a distance that many young people try to overcome in their imagination by pointing to their emotional attachment to places and people they have only heard about, either through friends, parents orgrandparents.

The people we met were outspoken about the way the political and social context they live in limits theirdreams and possibilities for the future. And the sadness and anger this causes. Yet they alsoexpressed an incredible perseverance, resilience andhopefulness. Despite insecurities that perpetuatetheir lives young people stress the importance oflooking forward and struggle for change. Their dreams and imagination of a different future are not to be excluded from this change.

All the photos are self-portraits. While thephotographer set up the photo studio it was thepeople themselves who took the portraits. This so called Selffish Studio developed by the Slovenianphotographer Bojan Brecelj enables people to express themselves in a creative way, making themnot only participants but co-authors of the project.

Every portrait was followed by a short interviewwhich is partially published together with the photo. The photo studio was set up on different locations – streets, universities, youth centres, parks, cafes.Aside from few exceptions most of the people wereselected randomly. Conversations took place in English or in Arabic with the help of a translator.

During our ten day stay in Palestine we visited East Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nablus, Jenin, Ramallah andHebron, always with the surrounding areas. People wemet live in these cities for various reasons: some were born there while others moved to the area to work,study, or are only passing through. These mix of people with different personal backgrounds shows the flow of the cities and its interconnectedness, the mobility, which although limited, it is still taking place.

During our stay in Palestine we also planned to visit Gaza yet we were not able to obtain permission toenter. Unfortunately, we were also not able to meetPalestinians living inside the 1948 territory, the importance of which was stressed by several peoplewe met. Hopefully, this is something we will be able to do another time in the future.

Lastly, we would also like to mention that both authors of the publication are form Slovenia and donot live in Palestine. This of course had an impact onthe way we approached the project, on the set up ofthe studio, on the questions we asked and the final selection for the publication. Our voices are thus impossible to exclude from the publication. This istherefore not just a book about the way young people see themselves, but to a certain extent, it is also connected to the way we see lives of youngpeople in Palestine. 

Intruduction to the 2'nd edition : (google translate from slo )

Hopefully this is something we will be able to do at some other time in the future, stated in the foreword to the first edition, because we were not able to get permission to enter Gaza to interview the young people as we were able to do in the West Bank ( the Jordan River) and in Jerusalem.

If I had not visited Palestine and Israel, it would have been an impossible mission for me to connect and understand this part of the world. Meetings and conversations with many people throughout the West Bank of occupied Palestine, who welcomed me with open arms, opened my eyes. So many years of constant oppression and aggression should make them miserable. But I experienced the opposite. The Palestinians showed us another side of (human) nature - I met proud and down-to-earth people whose self-confidence is based on trust in life itself. They managed to establish a parallel life, which they live together to the fullest. Order there is not based on obedience or survival, but on self-awareness, self-awareness that is not formally expressed. I could identify with this because, even though I was only a passing stranger, they welcomed me so warmly. A simple definition of coexistence among Palestinians in this part of the world has three pillars: a loving relationship with the land where they live; strong mutual relations or strong community; a deeply internalized consciousness of unity with a unique, invincible life. Many have expressed their dreams in interviews that one day there will be peace and harmony among the people currently living on this earth. Palestinians in Palestine - now in Gaza - know that many more can be killed, but that their spirit and the true nature they embody will eventually be part of a shared peaceful future. In a world where the consciousness of interconnectedness (unity) is a threat to many, the "parallel life model" mastered by the Palestinians, especially in Gaza for 75 years, the Lebanese with the experience of the thirteen-year war in Beirut, the Syrians and other Arabs in this part of the world , a common human experience that is spreading, as a large part of these families are displaced around the world - they live among us. at the same time, they remain connected to their original place and people. The awareness that it is possible to live fully, even as a parallel life, should not be just a dream for many around the world who do not agree to violence. In a world with such awareness, there will be no division between Palestinians and Israelis.