Interim report COMMON GOODS AND PEACE June 2011

The 1st Meeting on COMMON GOODS AND PEACE took place in Brandbu , Norway, from 07.11.2010 till 12.07.2010. To prepare this meeting each partner investigated the own country’s situation in the chosen field of energy , water, health, history and democracy. All this in the atmosphere of eco moment, eco decision, eco philosophy and eco lifestyle.
The partner school in Brandbu chose to focus on 2 important aspects , 2 important Common Goods: energy and history.
Focusing on HISTORY we learned that the PAST is a common heritage like oil reserves or water We learned that History is important, culturally, economically and politically speaking. History is an important tool to shape the future: the way we view the past , the lessons we draw from it , the attitudes we produce from it...all this has an importance for the way in which we choose to act today. In mixed groups students could prepare answers to several questions on the subject of teaching “history” at school, in the process of nation building, the stress being put on global history , European history or national history, modern history as starting from ancient history. Proof could be taken in visits to Museum Maihaugen and a historic lecture on the spot as well as to The Norwegian Olympic Museum.
Talking about history as a Common Good led automatically to looking at DEMOCRACY as a Common Good. This was studied in a visit to the National Parliament (Stortinget) with a lecture on Norwegian Democracy.
ENERGY as a Common Good was studied in a visit to the Energi Garden , an information centre for bio energy , theory and practice, discussion of local solutions to global challenges. Scandinavian countries reach a high level of Common Goods , a high level of welfare reaching 2 solutions: reaching democracy and the trust between the people and the government. Students studied greenhouse gases and came to 3 main goals: reducing CO2 greenhouse gas , more efficient use of energy and change from fossile energy sources to renewable energy Key words used by young people : solar energy, recycling, turndown heating, public transport, biomass energy Young people CAN make the difference!

The 2nd meeting for COMMON GOODS AND PEACE took place in Törökbàlint, Hungary from 27.03.2011 till 01.04.2011.The main focus was put on FOOD as a COMMON GOOD!
Each partner prepared information on subtopics and tried to find answers guideline questions in the field of: the capacity of planet Earth, undernourished population, the food we waste, water –down the drain, fishing, rainforests cut down, (genetic) manipulation, the meat we eat and the global (food) market. Visits were paid to ice producing factory, biscuit factory, champagne factory, the central food market in Budapest, and the Galgafarm. As a final diner each partner prepared and presented its own local and traditional food and recipes.
To prepare this meeting each partner did some extra teaching and research on climate change, biodiversity, sustainable resources, health and waste management; Results of this preparatory work at the own school was presented , discussed, illustrated in a creative and even artistic way, concentrating on FOOD and HEALTH .

DEMOCRACY also came into the attention when visiting the Houses of Parliament in Budapest.

The COORDINATORS’ MEETING of the 1st project year took place in BERLIN and DRESDEN from 26.05.2011 till 29.06.2011.
Partner schools from Berlin and Dresden worked together in putting up a programme focusing on evaluating the 1st project year as well as preparing the 2nd one .
Stress was put again on Common Goods and Peace by paying a visit to NOCHTEN, a centre for communication and nature protection, in a old brown coal exploiting area ,being reused for recreation, modern architecture and giving a new destination to an old industrial area close to Dresden. In Dresden itself Dr. Eric Linnert explained about city protection, city renewal, city preservation during a highly appreciated tour around the Frauenkirche and the Neumarkt.
DEMOCRACY again appeared in the visit paid to the Saxonian parliament.