Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC)

On 31 October I had the privilege to introduce Toxic Capitalism to the FCCC. The venue was the Embassy of Poland, a great place as it is one of the most impressive embassies in Beijing. The journalists and other participants did ask some sharp questions but were “more friendly than I expected”. They were just nice and interested!. They had announced the talk as follows:

Headlines from China feature dramatic pollution levels and a strain of capitalism that thrives on overconsumption and indiscriminate wastage, promoted by the West with the help of questionable companies, financial institutions and governments. The Factory of the World, China is facing depletion of resources and roams the world to satisfy its voracious appetite for energy, raw materials, and food. How serious is the environmental destruction? Is capitalism fundamentally wrong? How did we come to this madness, and what can we do to preserve the future of our children?
Join a talk with Gilbert Van Kerckhove, whose recently published book Toxic Capitalism criticizes the overconsumption and wastage caused by questionable companies, financial institutions and governments, and leading to depletion of natural resources and environmental destruction.

German Centre for Industry and Trade Beijing

On 8 November the German Centre organized another talk about my book. Small crowd but very lively interaction. Location: the German Centre Meeting Room (11th Floor, Landmark Tower 2). See here one of the pics, taken by the Centre.
Their announcement:

Mr. Gilbert Van Kerckhove, Chair of Public Procurement Working Group of the EUCCC, engineer, researcher and writer of the book “Toxic Capitalism. The orgy of consumerism and waste: Are we the last generation on earth?” is going to share insights, facts and figures as well as his advice to the government on waste and recycling issues, condemned water, air pollution and other “intoxifying” issues that modern China faces.
Please join us for an open discussion on questions like the following: “China, as Factory of the World, is facing depletion of resources and roams the world to satisfy its voracious appetite for energy, raw materials, and food. How serious is the environmental destruction? Is capitalism fundamentally wrong? How did we come to this madness, and what can we do to preserve the future of our children?”

Frank wrote on facebook on 13 Sept 12:
“I am writing it here publicly because I want all of your other FB friends to know. I just finished Toxic Capitalism from cover to cover and it is even better than I said it was when I had my first glance. You did a fantastic job! Enormous work went into this. Bravo, mi amigo.”
Thanks Frank for the nice words…

The book trailer is out!

See the short trailer done by AuthorHouse (Author Solutions) for my book “Toxic Capitalism”, introducing its main themes, what we can do to stop the madness of excessive consumption, the depletion of natural resources and the destruction of the environment. We need quality of goods, services, governments and financial institutions.

The trailer is also on a few other sites.
Dailymotion: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/48953472
Youtube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=LzFzd8EYJ8Y

BIBF 2012

The 19th Beijing International Book Fair is being held at the new China International Exhibition Center (the one close to Beijing Airport) from August 29 to September 2, 2012. The exhibition area covers 53,600 sqm, and the Netherlands takes part as the Country of Honor.
I went to visit to the fair to find back my book “Toxic Capitalism” that is officially on the Fair. It was on the USA Pavilion, part of the exhibit from AuthorHouse.

My book on the 19th Beijing International Book Fair

See here some pictures of the Fair that seemed to be well attended, despite being so horribly far and the weather being like a wet sauna. Click to enlarge.

There was also a section with books from Flanders!