Pieter Jan Herman Fredrik (Wam) Kat (born 23. November 1956, Zeist

Zeist

Zeist is a municipality and a town in the central Netherlands, located east of the city of Utrecht.-Population centres :*Austerlitz*Bosch en Duin*Den Dolder*Huis ter Heide*Zeist- The town of Zeist :...

) is a Dutch political activist and author who now lives in Germany and serves in the city government of Belzig

Belzig

Bad Belzig, also known as Belzig, is a historic town in Brandenburg, Germany located about southwest of Berlin. It is the capital of the Potsdam-Mittelmark district.-Geography:...

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Biography

As child Wam was a longtime member of the Boy Scouts

Boy Scouts

A Boy Scout is a member of a Scouting organization. There are thousands of national Scouting organizations or federations; these are grouped into six international Scouting associations with some non-aligned organizations....

 and founded the local branch of the World Wild Life Rangers, the youth organisation of World Wide Fund for Nature

World Wide Fund for Nature

The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...

.

Wam was told by a doctor when he was 18 that he had a year to live and made a conscious choice to live a whole life in a single year, when he did not die, he did not slow down. During his youth and study period he co-founded different organisations and actionsgroups national level for child & youth rights (f.e. Komitee Kindervuist). He was Chairman of the Pacifist Socialist Youth Organisation and Dutch Youth Representative towards the UNESCO in the late 1970'ties. He was also long time co-publisher from the first Dutch New Age magazine "Waterman".

Wam was also one of the founders of the Dutch mobile vegetarian kitchen, "Rampenplan" which supports political activists at extended actions by providing food and other services (since 1981).

Wam co-founded the European youth environmental network EYFA (European Youth For(est) Action) in 1986 to address the effect of acid rain on the regional forests. Wam was instrumental in the rapid growth of the organization and was the principal organizer of the summer festival/university called Ecotopia

Ecotopia gathering

Ecotopia is an annual summer gathering for activists in Europe, since 1989. Typically, the event draws young environmental activists from both east and west Europe...

 which was first held in Cologne, Germany in 1989 and moved every subsequent year to a different country. Wam also developed the "Eco Rate" system which EYFA and other progressive organizations used to equalize access to events and goods by. The Eco rates used a non-market currency conversation system, so that participants from poorer countries would have more favorable rates of exchange than participants from rich countries.

Wam is best known for his work during the Yugoslav Wars

Yugoslav wars

The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...

, co-founder of Za Mir Network

ZaMirNET

ZaMirNET is a Croatia-based non-governmental organisation working in the field of ICT . It describes itself as "a citizen association dedicated toward civil society development, promoting the culture of peace and the idea of sustainable development in Croatia and the region."-Roots: describes its...

 (For Peace) and the "Zagreb Diaries" which he penned at the time, initially as the equivalent of a blog, but ultimately they came out in book form and were translated into several languages. Wam was also co-founder and instrumental in securing funding for the Suncokret Centar (Sunflower) a voluntary humanitary and social organisation during and after the Bosnian war which was with almost 8000 volunteers from all over the world, one of the largest non-governmental efforts to deal with the influx of refugees from the war and was responsible for the free-time activities, schools and social programs in up to 36 refugeecamps in Croatia and Bosnia.

Wam later went on to found the Pakrac

Pakrac

Pakrac is a town in western Slavonia, Croatia, population 4,852, total municipality population 8,482 . Pakrac is located on the road and railroad connecting the regions of Posavina and Podravina.-Name:...

 reconstruction project in the Slavonian border region of Croatia and Serbia. This project used local people from both sides of the regional conflict and international volunteers to rebuild housing which had been destroyed.

After leaving Croatia, Wam moved end 1995 to ZEGG intentional community outside of Berlin in Belzig

Belzig

Bad Belzig, also known as Belzig, is a historic town in Brandenburg, Germany located about southwest of Berlin. It is the capital of the Potsdam-Mittelmark district.-Geography:...

 in the Fläming

Fläming

The Fläming Heath is a region and a hill chain that reaches over 100 km from the Elbe river to the Dahme River in the German states Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg. Its highest elevation is the Hagelberg...

 region where he lived and worked for a number of years. In Belzig he started the so-called "Info-Cafe Der Winkel" (a center for Tolerance and better understanding of different Cultures), which became known as one of Germans best examples of local actions against right-wing violence. Between 1999 and 2001 he shortly moved back to the Balkan, there he was co-founder of Balkan Sunflowers, which still works in Albania

Albania

Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

, Kosovo

Kosovo

Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...

 and the Republic of Macedonia

Republic of Macedonia

Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...

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In July 2008, he published a political cookbook in Germany, called "24 Rezepte zur kulinarischen Weltverbesserung" which is roughly translated to "24 recipes for culinary world improvement."

Wam has been arrested for crimes of conscious in multiple countries.

Currently Wam is also serving in the left-wing party Die Linke in the local towncouncil of Belzig.

Family

Wam Kat is son of Frits Kat, sculptor, and stepson of Pieke Dassen, actor and painter.

Kat was married to Ulla Traedmark Jensen and had two children with her, Rik and Pjort, living in Denmark. His older daughter Tyche is from a previous relationship.