Always a great reception

As usual I had the pleasure to attend the Polish Independence Day (11 November 2012) reception, held on 6 November in the embassy. The crowd was big enough to fill up the many reception halls. Food was done by famous Polish chefs. And of course Polish vodka was aplenty.

A lucky encounter

I had the unique opportunity to give U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke a signed copy of my book “Toxic Capitalism”. We chatted a bit and he was very nice and modest, being the ambassador of a country in the limelight that day: presidential elections. Happy to say, he can now keep his job!

Presenting to 4 major chambers

Finally four major chambers have agreed to jointly organize a book talk. See here the European Chamber announcement:

European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, along with SwissCham Beijing, Bencham, BritCham and China-Britain Business Council, are delighted to invite you to “Book Presentation – Toxic Capitalism: Are we the last Generation on Earth?” on 27th November, 2012 at Face Bar.

The book presentation

Author Gilbert Van Kerckhove joins us the book presentation to give us a review of his thought provoking new book, “Toxic Capitalism the orgy of consumerism and waste: are we the last generation on Earth?”
The book centers on the world’s economic, environmental, governmental and social problems and what we need to do to fix them. Living in China Gilbert became alarmed by the dramatic pollution levels and the impact of Toxic Capitalism, an unwelcome strain of capitalism that thrives on over consumption and indiscriminate wastage, promoted by the West with the help of questionable companies, financial institutions and governments. 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?
We need to combat the idolatry of consumerism and fight for our goals: quality & durability, saving resources and energy. We simply consume too much and too quickly: too many gadgets, too many clothes, too many consumer products we either use little or even never at all. We waste too much, including food. Quality & durability is not limited to consumer products. We need it in governments, services, companies, and financial institutions. We have to change our lifestyle.

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