Tell me if you find a good answer. Some of us look to selfhelp guides for advice, while others head to the school of life. Can you learn how to live . Most might say you learn life on the job. But some people actually go to school to try to get it right in our complex, fastpaced world. Just look at all the courses and seminars offering orientation and guidance. This particular course is about learning equanimity. My background is in philosophy, but i have long been interested in developing a richer understanding of the concept of the good life. The school of life brings together psychological theories, advances in neuroscience, meditation, and mindfulness. Whether it comes in the form of works of art or literature or philosophy, it is certainly something i can draw on. And sometimes i can find answers even to unanswerable questions such as the meaning of life. I consider the world to be fundamentally flawed. A world that was not created in a meaningful way, but just emerged, is probably flawed, but we have the chance to improve it. If everyone does their part, however tiny. I at least dont want to make the world worse by my actions. For me, thats the meaning of life. The meaning of life thats long been a concern of thomas biller. He set up the Berlin Branch of the school of life in 2016. He used to run tv production companies, until the financial crisis hit. I went to london and trained as a pastry chef, and there i stumbled upon a shop called the school of life. It attracted attention, like it does here in berlin. The themes were appealing. And as an entrepreneur, i was interested to see that you can make a business out of it. He acquired licences for the bags, the cards, the books all the meaningful merchandise that can enrich a life. As do the courses on offer at the school of life franchises. Its an identifiable brand. The themes are the same the world over love, relationships, work problems. The dilemmas are the same everywhere. So you can address them here in berlin or in london or in buenos aires. The enterprise is the brainchild of alain de botton. He opened the first school of life in london in 2008. Now there are 12 of them in cities around the world. And of course, there is a Youtube Channel offering philosophical insights for everyday consumption. Its been viewed by millions. There is a type of underconfidence that arises, specifically when we grow too attached to our own dignity and become anxious around any situation that might seen to threaten it. We hold back from challenges in which there is any risk of ending up looking ridiculous, which comprises, of course, almost all the most interesting situations. Doing things you are scared of, pushing the envelope, new experiences. For the longest time, i didnt do that, and remained inside my comfort zone. When i started to move beyond it starting work in a kitchen as an apprentice when i was close to 50 i realised there is so much inside us thats undiscovered. Trying it out is clearly a very valuable activity. Providing tips to help people lead a Meaningful Life it certainly looks like a winwin kind of business. For millennia, religion has been a Central Source of meaning, providing a sense of stability and structure. But today, many are turning away from the established religions and seeking comfort elsewhere. With an increasingly broad variety of spiritual alternatives available, its now possible to seek your own answers. Some are finding it in new forms of selfimprovement, while others are taking a more esoteric approach. Thousands gather at stonehenge in england every year to celebrate the summer solstice. For many, the prehistoric site is sacred a place of mystery and magic. On some level, we all seek to find meaning in our lives. In the west today, some are turning to esoteric forms of spirituality for answers. Today, europe is suffering from depression. 30 of the population is suffering from depression. Its a very high number. So its the last percentage of people in need of inner peace. Crop circles in bavaria. Some people here believe there are supernatural forces at work. Others see a message from outer space. A survey suggests 40 of germans are open to esoteric concepts such as astrology and new age. I think we all yearn for something good that will help us. Something holy. I want to attain new knowledge, enrich my life, and expand my consciousness. In search of meaning, some people are willing to travel to the remotest corners of the earth. Like this shamanistic tour of northern greenland, complete with song and incense. Its not cheap it costs several thousand euros. I am not there to pump money out of people. I am there to give them. But of course, it costs money to come here. It costs money to establish a camp. So it had to be paid. The market for Esoteric Services is huge. At the annual mystic fair in rio de janeiro, hundreds of practitioners market their Services Fortune tellers, spiritual teachers, healers, and alternative medicine types. And there is plenty of merchandise, too incense, healing crystals, tarot cards, books. Its been estimated that the industry turns over 176 billion euros a year. In cities, in urban centres, where everything is loud, the streets, thetress, espiall inlacelike that, people need spirituality. Despite, or perhaps because of, this chaos, people feel the need to believe in something, to improve their lives through spirituality. Some people seek selfimprovement through yoga. In the united states, its at least 36 million others look thinhemselves. Some do it literally. Theres a new movement called quantified self using technology to collect data about our bodies and environment. I track my sleep pattern very closely. And its easy to track how much exercise i get. If you sleep better, eat better, and move more, you just el better. Boosting performance and enhancing health in the hope of attaining happiness. This, too, is a huge market. In germany, we spend about 8 of gdp on health. In the united states, it is a lot more its 16 . That amounts to several hundred billion dollars. That figure is about double germanys entire auto industry. Some are taking selfoptimization even further, like these biohackers in pittsburgh. Theyre taking a diy approach, Building Monitoring devices in their home laboratory. The little boxes collect data and analyze it on the spot within the body. Heart rate, blood sugar, and cholesterol when a value moves out of the normal range, the biohackers step in. A brave new world in the search for meaning and personal growth. Society seems bent on striving for perfection optimal performance, beauty, and health. Science and technology has opened the door to new diagnostic procedures that make imperfection harder and harder to accept. Which raises key ethical questions. What does it mean to decide in favor of a child you know is disabled . Just what is a life worth . We head to south africa to meet some people who show that life is hugely valuable, whether its ablebodied or not. My name is edward ndopu. 20 years ago medical experts told your mother that due to spinal muscular atrophy, you would not live past your fifth birthday. You feel guilty because you have left folks behind. Unlike you, they are locked up in the back rooms of grim nursing homes, made to disappear from public view, and are neglected and illtreated by society and the state. I want to have something of my own preferably my own business. I want to learn more about jewelry so i can teach others, even those who arent disabled. So they can see we can do this, despite our disabilities. My names ntswaki tsoliwe. Im 31 years old. The kind of life that i seek to live is on an epic scale and really big. And i think theres a reason for that. I think because i know that im dying. I know, because i have a degenerative disability and because i know the older i get, the weaker i become, theres an urgency at the back of my mind. And because of that urgency, i dont have time to play small. I think that the vast majority of people with disabilities in south africa are incredibly disenfranchised, to the point of being invisible. People with disabilities disappear into the background. We dont see them. We dont hear from them. Theres already overwhelming poverty and overwhelming inequality and unemployment in south africa for your nondisabled person. But for disabled south africans, its compounded by the antidisability society in which we live which is not just a south african problem, but i would argue, a global problem. On the street, people feel pity for me. They say why is it so difficult for you to walk . What caused this . I dont respond. This is how god made me. I didnt cause this condition. Do you feel ashamed of your disability, or you are not ashamed of it . No, im proud of it. I paint houses purple to show support for people like me. We also need people to support us. Just like we support each other. Schools rejected you time and time again. It was said that you would never cut it in the formal education system. So when i was 16 years old, my mum came home one afternoon and she brought with her a magazine, and snap bang in the middle was a feature on this new school, the African Leadership academy. The poem was part of the grand opening of the academy. I am free. If we look at society, it is made to help ablebodied people. Everything about the built environment is structured because somebody assumes a certain body. And this body stands and walks and sees and hears. This is why i say that independence doesnt exist. What does exist is interdependence. We all need each other to survive. We all do. I want to say that people with disabilities are human just like everyone else. Were all the same. The only difference is that i need help walking and other people dont. I want to leave the planet in a blaze of glory. I want to go out like a firework. My body may have deteriorated over the years and may have decayed, but my spirit is everlasting and will continue to reverberate long after ive left the earth. Where do you head to find spirituality . Check out our Facebook Page and let us know. This week, its all about the meaning of life on dw global society. Without water, theres no life its our most important resource. And its the topic of this weeks global ideas, our series focusing on people and projects involved in climate protection. 80 of the worlds sewage is dumped unprocessed in the environment. Our reporter Joachim Eggers travelled to peru. Every year, millions of tourists visit cusco, latin americas oldest settlement, before making a pilgrimage to the worldfamous inca site of machu picchu. And thats a huge challenge for cuscos Water Utility even though it has a tradition spanning centuries. From the source, the water flows through channels into the terraced gardens of tipon. Built 600 years ago, its an idyllic place. 300 people once lived here, explains a hydraulic engineer whos worked here for decades. The ruin is situated 3,500 meters above sea level and is considered a masterpiece of water management. Tipon was a huge ecological experiment, where the prehispanic people made use of nature and especially water. It was used for rituals and ceremonies and also for agriculture. Specific hydraulic systems were developed for these purposes for example, the channels, the subterranean cisterns, and the aquaducts. The incas succeeded in channelling the water over a course of several hundred meters down the hillside, without it gaining pace, then sending it in various directions to irrigate their gardens, and then on down into the valley. A few kilometers to the west is cusco, the capital of the inca empire before the spanish conquest. Today, over 2 million tourists visit each year. The city is thriving, its population booming. 450,000 people live here. But it hasnt lost its unique atmosphere. The legacy of the incas still survives. Even the course of the river sapi outside the city limits is a testament to inca history. Like in tipon, the water is channelled into manmade basins to slow down the flow. That also helps remove debris from the water. But washedup trash is the least of the problems. Much worse is the raw sewage from thousands of toilets. The stench is overwhelming. This engineer works for the sedacusco Water Utility company, which aims to improve the situation. Our goal is to decontaminate cuscos water. Including here in the river sapi. The water here is filthy, and its our duty to rid the river of toxins. The problem is the many new Housing Developments on the outskirts of the city. There are 50 in the northwest alone. All generate sewage from toilets, sinks, baths, washing machines, and dishwashers. The river flows in underground channels to the neighborhood of san jeronimo at the other end of the city. From there, it flows into a Sewage Treatment plant. Its the pride of cusco. Its been undergoing renovation since 2014. With the help of german consultants, its being made more efficient. Working in perus most modern Sewage Treatment plant is very gratifying. Its also very challenging. Every day we investigate new technologies and learn about how cities in other countries are implementing them things that are new to us in peru. Most of perus sewage ends up unfiltered in rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Its dangerously unhygienic and an environmental nightmare. Human waste generate approximately 75 kilos of Carbon Dioxide per year per person. If it isnt treated, it could soon be 400. This plant allows us to reduce humangenerated emissions to 20 kilos of Carbon Dioxide per year. You can smell the improvement. The fermentation gas that accrues in Sewage Treatment plants is now filtered out more efficiently, so the stench is far less overwhelming. Much to the relief of the plants neighbors. On avenida collana, for example. This shop owner has been living here for seven years. The street used to be notorious. When you came here by bus, the stop would be announced as buenos aires good air. Thats what the neighborhood was called. No one would visit. Even the buses didnt want to come here. It was especially bad at midday. In the past, when i would eat over there with my therinlaw, we thought at first that the stench came from the bathroom. And anyone who visited us would notice the smell. Wed always tell them that it came from the plant. Its much better now. It smells a bit. But its nowhere near as bad. Delegations come from across the country to visit the Sewage Treatment plant on average two a month. The stench has largely disappeared, thanks to the optimized biogas facility. It prevents thousands of tonnes of Greenhouse Gases from being released into the atmosphere. Were in the process of deciding on a framework for the biogas team. The plan is for cusco to convert 2000 cubic meters of gas into electricity by the end of the year. The plant will soon be completely selfsufficient. The Water Company will save over 20,000 euros in electricity costs per month. The only question that remains is, how did the incas deal with sewage . This is the bedroom. The toilet, the bathroom, was probably adjacent. The bathroom . Yes. We assume it was the bathroom on the basis of the floor plan and the ceramics we found. Researchers have identified layers of organic material on pots with layers of sand between them. The incas probably used them as chamber pots. The cat litter principle. Perhaps the incas valued their water supply too highly to befoul it. Next week on global ideas, we head to south africa, where agriculture and trade are key to the economy. Every day, thousands of refrigerated lorries carrying perishable goods hit the roads. Most of them use environmentallytoxic cooling agents, and theyre also often poorly insulated. By substituting natural coolants and using improved technologies, refrigerated transport is set to become a whole lot greener. Youll find all that and more on next weeks edition. Thats all for today, but we love hearing from you. Drop us a line to global3000 dw. Com or visit us on facebook dw global society. Bye for now. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] this program is made possible in part by the town of marion. Historic marion virginia, home of the Wayne Henderson school of appalachian arts, celebrating 21 years as a certified virginia main street community. The ellis family foundation, general Francis Marion hotel. The historic general Francis Marion hotel and black rooster restaurant and lounge providing luxurious accommodations and casual fine dining. The bank of marion. The bank of marion, your vision, your community, your bank. Wbrf, 98. 1 fm. Bryan label, a proud supporter of our regions musical heritage. cherokee shuffle by gerald anderson