Roxanne Phoenix

     Hello! I am Roxanne Phoenix (former name Oxana Kriss). I was born in Ukraine at the time while it was occupied by Russia. That time we did not know that we are occupied. We called our country Soviet Union. I grew up with strong desire to get out from under iron curtains and explore the World. I wanted to learn and to discover. I had plenty of questions and was desperate seeking answers on my endless WHY? How? & For What?

    My first master’s degree, MBA, I got from the Academy of Economics in Moscow. Same time I gave birth to my first child – my daughter.

    One year later I got a fantastic job in tourism. I became an Overseas Representative of Academservice – Russian tourism monster, which used to handle own charter flights in many different countries, servicing hundreds of thousands of tourists on those destinations. It was the beginning of tourism for ex-soviet people. I loved this job absolutely. Finally, I could travel. I could travel and got paid for it. My dream became true. Representation of Academservice let me live in Portugal, UAE, and Cyprus. In two years, economic crisis in Russia killed Academservice. All overseas representatives lost their jobs. I had to return in Moscow. But I was so much used to live overseas! I loved to travel! I could not imagine myself living in a former USSR country again. Yes, our iron curtains were lifted. But the mentality, lifestyle, infrastructure, literally everything was the same. And I did not want to be back there.

    I packed my bags and moved to UAE as I had the connections there. Quite soon my baby daughter joined me there. In one year, I created my excursions program and started to make decent money. I organized bus tours around the country, I was selling safaris in the desert, I organized diving tours and even took my tourists underwater myself as I am a licensed diver, I organized first in UAE horse riding tours and very first diving safaris in Oman. In 2001 I launched my own tourism company for inbound tourism in UAE. I had agreements and best prices with almost all hotels in UAE. I was on a raise. On 11 of September, I had to go to the airport to meet my first tourists. I was drinking coffee and decided to watch the news before to leave. I switch on TV. Airplanes were crashing into towers in New York. I could not believe it is real… OMG… this day was the beginning of the new life for the whole World… tourism in Arab world got dead, everything was cancelled, my business collapsed. It was hard.
       In a few months’ time my that time partner and I launched new business. We started cargo airlines. We leased airplanes from Ukraine and Russia, brought them in UAE and started charter flights. We flew cargo to Middle East, Africa, Asia ad Europe. I learned a lot, made a lot of money was terribly busy, slept with my phone, made contracts during daytime and supervised departure and arrivals of my airplanes at night… My life in airlines business was quite excited. There were many adventures and highlights. And same time a tragedy of the airplane crush which I will never forget, and always remember those poor pilots… and many obstacles which I had to overcome… I was imprisoned in a Sharjah jail for fake accusation. I won that criminal case at the end. It took some strong effort, but I made it. That time I learned about Sharia law which has no respect to human rights at all. That time I started to think about the violation of human rights and decided to explore this issue deeper. That time I realized that I want to become a citizen of the free country which respects human rights. I decided on aiming freedom for myself and my daughter. And I applied for immigration to Australia. I was used to UAE as I lived there for eight years. But I wanted to become a citizen of the free country, country which cares about its’ citizens and respects them.
Australian immigration process was awfully slow. It took three years from them to investigate my personality and approve my application. I got my Skill Independent Permanent Resident visa to Australia for myself and my daughter in three years since I lodged application. I almost gave up on waiting. I even launched one more business that time. I started international recruiting agency to employ people from Ukraine to UAE and Cyprus.           

      There were changes in my private life also. That time I met another man, French man, and got proposal. I fell in love, got married and moved in France with my daughter. Our honeymoon we spent in Australia. All three. We came to activate our visas and discover the country we were going to move.
I spent almost three years in France. I loved it there. My daughter was in a best school. We never took school seriously and used to travel a lot and explore Europe. We lived in a two stories house with swimming pool. House was surrounded by seven hectares of private forest, we had deer in our garden, we could walk to the river and the ocean was in half an hour drive. We lived in Brittany. Life was good. But my husband appeared to be selfish and greedy. And I could not get good job as I do not know French. I could not launch any business there as I did not speak French and my husband refused to help me in business. My husband got also unsure if he wants to move to Australia, as he planned before. Finally, we decided that I will move in Sydney with my daughter, and my husband will come to visit us in six months. We had to decide then if we want to keep our family.
         I started to prepare our departure. And discovered that I am pregnant. After thinking on all pros and cons, I decided to pack bags faster. All legal, immigration, economical and personal issues were in favor of my departure. Even my high-risk pregnancy did not make me stop. My husband promised to come for our babies’ birth.

        I arrived in Sydney on the 1 February 2009. I was five months pregnant, I had 13 years old daughter with me and 5000 Euro to start the new life. I started to organize our life immediately after the jet lag was over. In three weeks, I rented a flat near to the quite beach in Dolls Point. I found secondhand furniture and household items. I bought my first car – Toyota Camry 1998 for 2500 Australian dollars. I found school with French language classes for my daughter. I found good GP doctor and proper hospital for myself. And after six weeks of such an active life I got in the hospital with bleeding. I was advised to go home and stay peacefully relaxing till the delivery of my baby. After learning this my French husband started support us financially.
         My son was born two months before the due date. I stayed in the hospital for ten days before this with bleeding. I met my baby on the third day only as I was in the ICU. My boy spent one month in the special care nursery. His father did not come. My ex arrived in four months for two weeks. It was clear that our relations were over.
          Australia welcomed me and my kids. I fell in love with the country. I explored it. I got commonwealth support as a single mother and finally had a chance to stop, take a deep breath, and think what exactly I want for myself. I got time to think how I want my life to be. And how I want life on the Earth to be in general. It was time of reassessment of life values. I discovered injustice towards humans and became human rights activist. Both of my children were with me. We stand for refugees, aboriginals, orphans. We helped to less fortunate. I started my studies of Human Rights Law in UNSW. We traveled with my son extensively. We wanted to tell our discoveries to the World, and we started to film. I learnt filmmaking in the independent film school  and documentaries producing in  documentaries school in Sydney.  Yes, we became worldschooling family of filmmakers. We discovered beauty of the World. And its endless injustice. Yes, life is beautiful. But number of injustices is endless. While witnessing injustice we were always thinking why it happens, what is the solution to stop it and what exactly we can do to make the World better.
              In 2016 I accidentally watched movie “Earthlings” – a harrowing portrayal of humanity’s exploitation and treatment of animals for financial gain. It was my turning point. I got the real cause of the injustice on our planet. I understood that it is cruelty. Yes, simple human cruelty, motivated by greed. Cruelty has no beginning and no end. It simply exists. Cruelty is not selective. Someone who cruel towards animals can be same cruel towards humans. And vise versa. Cruelty is the other side of compassion. Compassion has no boundaries and no limits. Compassion is not selective. Same is cruelty. It has no boundaries and no limits. It is not selective. It just exists. If we want to stop cruelty and develop compassion in humans – we need to start from our relations with animals. There are no other options to beat suffering on the planet Earth. And there is only one criterion to find out if you are cruel. This criterion is suffering. If your daily activity leads to the suffering of others – then you are participating in cruelty. Majority of us never thought so far, never made the connection between the daily life and suffering of other inhabitants of our planet. And I got this connection. It became so clear for me. I did not want to participate in cruelty.
         So, I turned vegan. No, it was not easy at all. And it was not fast. I dropped meat, and chicken, and milk first. Then all dairies. From the beginning I expected that my health will decline. I though that my hair will start to fall, my nails will get weak, I will be tired… But it happened totally opposite!!!! I got way more energy, my skin became clean and shiny, my sweat stop to smell… and my body!… OMG!… My body became so easy to manage! I was losing weight easily, my body got in proper shape, I got lean and beautiful!… Exercising became so easy and so much fun! I had been in fitness for all my life. I am in Kangoo Jumping since 2011. After I turned vegan, my jumping turned into flying!… I was so excited!
      In 2017 -2018 we traveled for the whole year Mexico with my son and filmed two documentaries. Our first film “One Day with Doctor Sergio” is about Mexican humanitarian who is serving locals for free for all his life. In 2020-2021 film participated in 29 festivals and won five awards. Our second documentary “Drop the School and Go Travel” is about the worldschooling, about people we met, about Mexico and our transformations through traveling. This documentary is in the postproduction stage now and will be releases in 2021. In this travel we became not only serious filmmakers, but also serious music performers. We created our duo “Golden Salamanders” and even started to write our own songs.
       My son started his vegan journey in 2017 at the age of eight. He dropped meat, chicken and milk. We promoted vegan lifestyle and its’ benefits. We were happy when people listen to us and started to think about going vegan.
       In 2018 my son watched “Dominion”. Australian film about the humankind Dominion over the animal kingdom. He left the cinema complete vegan.
       In 2018 I got my master’s degree in human Rights Law from the UNSW. And I got more confident than ever that human rights will be respected only in the compassionate society without cruelty to all living breathing creatures. In several years of veganism, I learnt how to cook vegan, how to shop vegan, how to live vegan and I got benefited for my healthy lifestyle. My son is growing healthy physically and mentally. I am seriously enjoying watching his growing athletic body and the development of his clear mind and sharp brain.
        We became animal rights activists and filmed about it. Our short new film “Cube of Truth” about vegan child animal rights activist is participating in international festivals now.
        2020 with its’ new virus turned the World upside down. Everybody got more time for inner exploration and understanding of the deepest processes. I was developing my vegan cooking skills and exercised properly. I created my own complex of workouts which includes running, kangoo jumping, weights, exercising, stretching, yoga and meditation.

       I had time to read, and I discovered Yuval Noah Harari. I read his three books our civilization with its history and future.  I found there confirmation of my understanding why we must go vegan.

     I started to learn proper meditation with Sadhguru. I completed his Inner Engineering course, and it helps me a lot in my everyday life. I found the real meaning of yoga. And I happily got confirmation from Sadhguru that my understanding of connection in between total injustice and cruelty towards animals is correct.
          I wanted to do something more than just storytelling through my films and songs. I wanted to change this world for a better place for every living breathing creature. I understood that I want to save the Planet for future generations with all its inhabitants. I want people to be happy, healthy, and kind to everyone on this planet. I wanted happy Earth. This is what I wanted.
         And I learnt again. And got two certifications – Vegan Nutrition Health Coach and Life Coach. And I created my exclusive program of vegan transition coaching “Personal Evolution”. This program helps you to get happy, healthy, fit, beautiful, ageless, kind human. It will significantly improve your body, your mind, and your soul. You will be in love with yourself and the World again. You are welcome to join “Personal Evolution” program!
          My son continues his homeschooling journey. I am actively advocating homeschooling, worldschooling, unschooling. My daughter was at school as I did not know about homeschooling. But with her also we traveled a lot and did not take school seriously. She is 25 now. She is Registered Nurse in the Emergency Department. And when I am comparing two ways of education – regular school and independent self-directed learning – the second is a winner. My son is 12 now. He reads a lot. He knows a lot. He is learning so many exciting things which he is choosing himself. He is learning art of filmmaking and all skills associated with it. He is a performer. He is singing and playing guitar. He is learning drama. He is in sport. He is easy to communicate and travel with. He is social and responsible. I am proud for him. If you have any questions about homeschooling, worldschooling, self-directed learning – I am here to guide you.
        And cherry on the cake. Veganism not only help you to lose weight, get fit and beautiful, get rid of guilt for cruelty towards animals. Veganism will seriously boost your immunity. Veganism will help you to stop aging. Seriously. People can leave long and healthy life! They just need to choose proper way of living.

Welcome to my world!

Welcome to the World of Golden Salamanders Roxanne & Nikita Phoenix!

With Love,

Roxanne.