16th

International Symposium

on Education for Peace,Justice, and Human Rights

23 – 30 June, 2013Hornsjø, Norway

“Development: Breaking Bridges, Building Barriers?”

Not just any bridge

The bridge on the front page of the newspaper can be found in Višegrad, atown in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The bridge is also known as the MehmedPaša Sokolović Bridge and is an UNESCO world heritage site. The bridgemade it possible to cross the river Drina and was finished in 1577 duringthe Ottoman era. It was seriously damaged in the two world wars but wasmeticulously restored in both cases. In the Balkan wars in the 1990’s thearea saw much fighting including ethnic cleansing, but the bridge escapedunharmed this time. The bridge is widely known through The Bridge onthe Drina by Nobel prize winning author Ivo Andrić. In his novel Andrićdepicts the life around and on the bridge from the time of its constructionuntil the First World War. He not only sees the bridge as a means to crossa river but also as a mechanism to unify the cultures of the people thatmeet and live here. The bridge is to Andrić a unifier, but his story alsoshows the conflicts and the imperfections in its force as a unifier.

The story ends before the the First World War, but Gavrilo Princip isthought to have passed the bridge on his way to assassinate archdukeFranz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on the 28th of June 1914 triggering the GreatWar. This drew attention to Višegrad and the bridge and the Austriantroops decided to detonate the span almost ending its more than 400 yearlong history.

Stig Bjørsholsymposium facilitator

pUnknownAuthor,cca.1900(Wikimedia)

pRudolfHorvat,1910(Wikimedia)

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JulijanNyča,2008(Flickr)

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Dear Reader,

Cordially welcome to the essays, reports, information and articles on the16th Symposium on Education for Peace, Justice, and Human Rights heldin the One World Institute in Hornsjø, Norway, 23-30 June, 2013. Thispublication covers the results of the work that has been done throughvarious activities: three workshops, lectures and presentations as well asthe thoughts of individual participants. Included you will find an article byour special guest, Prof. Sami Adwan from Bethlehem University contrib-uting to the overall theme of the Symposium: “Development: BreakingBridges, Building Barriers?”

Never since the first Workshop on Peace Education in Asserbohus(Denmark) in 1982, have we spent a week in a less distracting place, suchas this venue. No Bars, Restaurants, shops or places of leisure timeamusement. On this spot in the Norwegian wilderness solid work wasdone with some 40 participants, mostly students from around 10 coun-tries leading to results you can critically read and also comment on.

We would particularly thank the One World Institute for hosting uswith warmth and hospitality making the successes of the symposium pos-sible. We would also like to thank the contributors of this paper for theirwork giving the reader a glimpse of the overall theme, although much ofthis work cannot be covered by this medium: role plays and pieces oftheatre, presented on Saturday afternoon that could not be included here.And last not but least there is the group of wonderful participants from somany countries and so many ethnical backgrounds who have inspired thefacilitators to work hard to make possible what Scott McAleer is planningfor the 17th Symposium, to be held in Oregon in 2015.

Thank you Scott for volunteering to host the next symposium, we lookforward to seeing you as well as those friends who will be returning, andthose we have yet to meet.Stig Bjørshol Hanns-Fred Rathenow

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Lillehammer city

Hornsjø is about 35 kilometres fromthe nearest town, Lilleammer. Some of

the symposia participants had the opportunity to walkaround downtown on Sunday and reported back a closed

town and few signs of life. However, Lillehammer has quite agood standing in the Norwegian consciousness and has mostly posit-

ive connotations. If you google “Lillehammer er kjedelig” (Lillehammer isboring) you will only get a handful of hits from bloggers. Much of thetown's good reputation might be attributed to a few winter days in 1994 ora dramatic event in the 13th century.

Lillehammer is the administrative centre of the municipality of thesame name and has about 21,000 inhabitants making it a mid-sized Nor-wegian town. The town itself does not have a long history as its townshipstatus only goes back to 1842. At that time only a thousand people lived inthe area around the nucleus farm of Hammer. Its importance came fromits strategic position at the northern end of Mjøsa, the largest lake in Nor-way, and the fact that the first railway line in Norway (1854) ended at thesouthern end of the same lake. Lillehammer became the focal point forroads leading to the numerous farms in the valleys north of the town.

The coat of arms show a birkebeiner soldier carring the infant princeHåkon at Christmas 1205 to safety over the mountains from Lillehammerto Rena. Two men went the long way on skis to get away from a rebellion.The prince was later crowned as Håkon Håkonsson, which introduces along period of peace and prosperity. Today the ordeal is marked everyyear in the classic skiing event 58 km over the mountains from Rena toLillehammer. Many people make this trial of strength year after year totest their own limits, some in intense rivalry with others to win. The raceis very popular and the 15,000 places in the race are sold out in about 30seconds.

Lillehammer is known for one of the great museums in Norway,Maihaugen. It was first opened at the turn of the century housing a privatecollection of peasant artefacts and buildings from the valleys aroundLillehammer. It has been greatly extended over the years and todayMaihaugen consists of an indoor museum with several departments andan open-air museum, which is perhaps what most people come to visit.Outside you will find numerous houses from around 1400. The oldestbuilding is a 13th century wooden church. The most popular feature isperhaps the residential area. It contains houses from almost every decadeof the 1900s. Some are typical prefab houses while others are designed byrenowned architects. Building style, exterior and interior is typical for thevarious periods, as are areas around, gardens, fences, planting, locationand colour.

In 1994 Lillehammer was the venue for the 17th Olympic WinterGames . This was the second time the Olympics were held in Norway. Bestnation was Russia with eleven gold medals just finishing ahead of Norway(ten gold medals). The Olympic games are more than anything re-membered for the hoards of cheering spectators found wherever there wasan athlete competing, enjoying the splendid winter weather and defyingtemperatures lower than 30°C (-22 F).

Stig Bjørsholsymposium facilitator

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Isaac Mao, 2008 (Flickr)

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The Hornsjø Experience

High up and far into the mountains in the Øyer community in Gud-brandsdalen in Norway, 36 km northeast of the small town of Lilleham-mer, you find One World Institute, a different kind of school focusing onthe world, but situated in a beautiful barely touched and unpopulated areaof Norwegian nature. The institute is renting facilities from Hornsjø Høy-fjellshotell (high mountain hotel) and shares the environment with thestaff and guests there. Here you find youths – young and old – from manynations working, studying and mingling with normal tourists relaxing inthese beautiful surroundings.

One World Institute started its activities in September 1978 under thename of Den reisende Folkehøgskole – the Travelling Folk High School.The purpose of the school was to study social and political conditions forpeople in so called developing countries by travelling there: two months atthe school preparing for a six month trip by bus or plane to various partsof the world, and then three months summing up and disseminating ex-periences from our studies. During the first years, in which the school wasrecognized as a 4-year experimental project supported by the Ministry ofEducation in Norway, the programs consisted of travel courses to Africaand Asia, and later to Southeast Asia and North and South America.

After 1983, the school no longer received financial support from thestate, thus the students and teachers have since relied entirely on theirown efforts to finance the programs. Common fundraising periods – tak-ing jobs in the labour market or raising funds on the streets in Scand-inavian cities – became a part of the programs. At this point, the schoolalso moved to its current location at Hornsjø. Since then, the institute hastrained thousands of Development Instructors working at Humana Peopleto People (an international aid organization) projects, fighting with thepoor in Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Bot-swana, Angola and Guinea Bissau as well as India and Central America.

During the 1980s and most of the 1990s, the teams travelled andworked together in brigades, each group focusing on either literacy cam-paigns, tree planting or health and sanitation. All the work was carried outin cooperation with Humana People to People projects. During the 1990s,the focus changed from campaigns to permanent projects, focusing on awide array of development issues based on a commitment for long terminvolvement. Thus, the participating students got individual positions atdevelopment projects, working directly under the project leadership.Today, Development Instructors are organized in groups of three, eachworking together at one project or at a National Headquarters.

The Development Instructors have worked as teachers at HumanaTeacher Training colleges in various countries in Africa, and as SpecialForces in TCE – Total Control of the Epidemic – fighting HIV/AIDS. Theyhave worked in Farmer’s Clubs, Child Aid projects, Children’s Towns, vo-cational schools and in the clothes and shoes stores that raise money forthe projects in the countries.

Another important part of the programs at One World Institute is tobring the knowledge and understanding they gain to the public: givingpresentations, going out on the streets with events and exhibitions, visit-ing universities and schools to talk about and debate the topical issues oftoday and how we want to influence the future, broadcasting radio pro-grams, producing video films, writing news articles, teaching young andold in a variety of ways, and listening and learning from their points ofview. They also take part in job fairs and festivals where they do informa-tion and agitation work to enrol participants for the next teams.

A very special thing about life at One World Institute is its remarkablesetting in the highlands of Norway, just on the borderline between two

ecological systems, the forest and the mountain. This gives us a rich andvaried nature to enjoy all year round, covered in snow and ice or rushingthrough the short, but intense seasons of spring, summer and autumn:from light green to deep green and then yellow, red and purple, and fromalmost no daylight in winter to no nights at all in June and July. We be-long to nature and love our neighbours, the flora and fauna, and enjoy thefreedom of ample space and deep silence.

Another feature of school life is our coexistence with Hornsjø Høyfjell-shotell and its guests, providing an arena for interaction in many differentsituations such as guiding tours, entertaining through cultural events, ar-ranging games and competitions, telling about the school’s activities indifferent ways, holding presentations about big issues of our time andabout our travel and work, talking, discussing and getting to know some ofthe guests.

Today’s courses have changed quite a bit from the travelling-focusedcourses the first couple of years. The major course offered now is a 24months course called Fighting with the Poor, This course is approved giv-ing a B-certificate at One World University in Mocambique by theMozambican Ministry of Education. The program consists of 6 monthsWorld Studies, a 3 months preparation period, a 3 months travelling peri-od to the 6 months project work in either an African country of India, andthereafter 6 months dissemination period, ending up with formal examsfor those who so wish– such a certificate is quite relevant. The majority ofcomes from southern or eastern Europe but also from countries fromCanada through Congo to Japan.

The most spectacular element of this fascinating school, is that it gath-ers people from all over the world who come together high up in the Nor-wegian mountains and nature, to face challenges and tasks and educationtogether, in order to prepare for working six months in the deep of Africaor India, for the benefit of mankind - and themselves.

Øyvind Wistrømformer headmaster at

One World College

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mcxurxo,2009(Flickr)

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Interview with Ole Bloch

Ania Pukajlo: What were the principles of The Travelling Folk HighSchool in Tvind in the 70's and what are the principles of the One WorldInstitute now?Ole Bloch: The principle of the The Travelling Folk High School in Tvindwas to experience the reality in the Third World, to help the local peopleand then to report to other people in Europe about it. The participants hadthree months for presenting their findings at the end of the program. TheOne World Institute also expects that the participants at the last part ofthe program prepare and present a product of their work and experiencesworking with The Poor. They have now 6 months for it.

In the 80's the participants worked in the Third World as solidarityworkers, they for example built schools, toilets or planted trees. Now theparticipants have become Development Instructors in the program, sothey work at the projects and at the same time gives instructions and teachthe local people at a higher level. An example could be a Development In-structor with computer skills teaching at a Teacher Training College howto set up a network, use computers in daily life, solve breakdowns etc.

The most important difference between the 80s Solidarity Worker andthe current Development Instructor is that the local people at the projectsnow are much more responsible and in the center of their own develop-ment. The Solidarity Workers literally speaking built and ran many of theprojects. Now the local people have taken over that part. The nowadaysDevelopment Instructors often gives half a year input to already existingprojects, helping the local project leaders to improve their projects.A.P.: Can the students of the One World Institute work with the instituteafter finishing the program or do they just go back to their countries andlive their life?O.B.: Most of them go back to their countries. The experience in the“Fighting with the Poor” program gives them a lot of inspiration to workwith people. Some of our former students go back to work in projects inAfrica or India after finishing of the program, some of them take up thechallenge to be teachers at the institute.A.P.: The One World Institute cooperates with the One World Universityin Mozambique. Are the names of the institutions accidentally similar?Do You have similar principles?O.B.: The One World University is older than the name “One World In-stitute”. I can’t say, why exactly the name was chosen or if it was inspiredfrom One World University. But it is very important, that we cooperatewith the university because of their program ”Fighting with the poor”,what is also our goal. The participants study as long-distant-learners fol-lowing the curriculum in “Fighting with The Poor” at One World Uni-versity.A.P.: In the Internet we can find some critical opinions about the TvindSchool System or the Humana project. They refer to the financial dis­crepancies (tax evasion), the bad financial transparency of the projects.How is your opinion on it?O.B.: My personal view is: we have some political enemies, who try todisturb our good reputation. It is just politics, not truth. For example onceI was employed at one of the Tvind schools near Copenhagen and severalpeople from an audit company (ordered by a minister who didn’t like us)

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came early in the morning to our school and tried to find something. Theydidn’t have any success, but at one point they found a ferry ticket showingthat students left the school Friday some hours before the regular lessonsfinished (they went to another city to play theater). The Ministry of Edu-cation used this “finding” to say that systematic swindle were taking placeand that the school should return half a million Danish crowns received ingovernment funding. This was just one of 40 cases of the same kind, tak-ing place at Tvind Schools all over Denmark, a real witch-hunt with nobase in reality. Of course the Ministry of Education couldn’t win courtcases build on these “findings” but the Minister of Education used them inthe media to create the picture that Tvind Schools systematically swindled.I would say this is an example of political harassment.A.P.: Back to the One World Institute. What are, in your opinion, the fivemost important profits for the young people, who take part in the OneWorld Institute programs?O.B.:

1. They learn how to live and function in a community.2. They can themselves develop the power to create development, not

wait for initiation of others.3. They understand, what happens in the world and can create critical

opinion about it, not just based on media.4. They develop solidarity with the Third World and poor people.5. They engage in the important questions in the world.

Ania Pukajlo

Interview with Alina AchimAnia Pukajlo: What is your function in the One World Institute?Alina Achim: I am a team-leader, who is responsible for the organizationand planning of the activities of the team during the program and I helpthe group to cope with whatever problems occur along the way.A.P.: What did you study? How was your way to become a teacher atthe One World Institute?A.A.: I graduated in Romania from Applied Modern Languages, special-ized in conference interpreting for English and French and did my Masterin advertising. After this I worked in a real-estate Israeli company for 3years running the office in Romania and in this time I decided to make achange in my life. This is how I became a development instructor at OneWorld Institute. The information about the institute I had found on theinternet. Some months later I started the program to become a develop-ment instructor – it took 14 months, 6 of it I spent in Mozambique in ateacher-training-project. Since September 2012 I have worked in theschool as a teacher and team-leader.A.P.: Could you shortly describe the program you work in?A.A.: The program is 2,5 years long, the first 6 months are for fundrais-ing, then 6 months for studies, other 3 months’ of work follow, 3 monthstravelling and investigating different issues in the world, 6 months are de-voted to the project in Africa or India and at the end 6 months for bringingthe results to the public back in Europe.

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A.P.: What about the study­period? Which materials and methods do theteachers use?A.A.: We work in cooperation with the One World University in Mozam-bique and the professors from there send us materials to teach our stu-dents. Our teachers have to teach different subjects like politics, religions,actual conflicts, globalization, etc.A.P.: What about the way of teaching and the narratives?A.A.: Our teachers try to present the subjects in more perspectives, not tosay “that is the objective history”.A.P.: If I want to become a student at the One­World­Institute. Whathave I to do?A.A.: You have to contact our promotion office – we have colleagues fromdifferent countries – and you will get there all the information you need.They are the most appropriate to furnish information on the program.A.P.: What do I have to pay for the program?A.A.: At the beginning about 500 €, that's all. During the project you willget some pocket money from the institute. The project-period is financedby us, that means we have to create and manage the budget.A.P.: On the internet you can find some critical opinions about theTvind­School, which was the first form of the One­World­Institute. Whatis your opinion about this subject?A.A.: I – of course – have heard about it, but I personally have had a goodexperience collaborating with the school and the organization. However,other people might not have had the same experience. I can only speak forthe reality I touched and the reality that is around me and I know.A.P.: What is the most important mission of the project for you?A.A.: I am in the organization, because I am sure, we can help morepeople by our projects. When I was in Mozambique and worked there, Isaw, how many jobs for the locals are created by the projects. And we can-not forget, we build schools, bring modern teaching methods, improve lifeconditions etc.A.P.: Thank you very much for the interview.

Ania Pukajlo

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Symposium Program 2013

23 JuneSunday

24 JuneMonday

25 JuneTuesday

26 JuneWednesday

27 JuneThursday

28 JuneFriday

29 JuneSaturday

30 JuneSunday

BreakfastBreakfast

BreakfastBreakfast

BreakfastBreakfast

Breakfast

Arrival at Hornsjøand registration Peace gathering& Ice Breaking

Peace gathering:playing Bafa Bafa

Peace gathering:DRH-Norwayintroduction

Peace gathering:Music nightat bonfireFacilitator:Predrag Rajevic

Peace party:Speechesand culturalpresentations

Workshops includingvisit to library

Workshops Outdoor Experiencesled by Øyvind Wistrøm

Workshop on The Middle Eastconflict in textbooks.Facilitator: prof. Sami Adwan

Peace gathering:prof. Sami Adwan:The images of Israelisand Palestinians inschool textbooks

Workshops Group trips toLillehammer

Workshops Workshops

WorkshopsFinal work and preparationfor presentation.

Presentationof workshops

Goodbye and departures

Lunch

LunchLunch

LunchLunch

Lunch

DinnerDinner

DinnerDinner

DinnerDinner

Dinner

Opening Speeches:Stig Bjørshol, symposium coordinatorProf. Hanns-Fred Rathenow:The history of the symposiaDirector Ole Bloch:The One World Institute experience

Evening Bonfire

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History of the Symposium

What is history? Does the first symposium held in Asserbohus (Denmark)in the summer of 1982 already belong to history? I’ll try to tell the story –my story – of the chain of 16 workshops and symposia we had between1982 and 2013. It begins with the “European Workshop on Peace Educa­tion” held in Denmark at this time that could be considered as the startingpoint of this story. Although I will do my best in providing details andfacts of what I have been experiencing in the last almost 30 years I can’tcall it the “true past” as it is my narrative on what I call the (my) historicalrecord of the symposia on education for peace, justice, and human rights.

This history starts in the nineteen eighties: the Cold War between Eastand West reached one of their heights with the so called “double track de-cision” of NATO to prevent Soviet SS 20 and SS 22 missiles endangeringWestern societies on both sides of the Atlantic. My colleague NorbertWeber, also from the faculty of Education at the Berlin Technische Uni-versität, with whom I was cooperating at this time in seminars on altern-ative school systems, and I visited the Tvind School at Ulfborg/Denmarkin 1980 together with a group of 30 students. Tvind was a highlight for usas the free school movement developed after ideas of the Danish father ofthe folkhighschool movement N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783-1872), attractedmany in Germany and elsewhere. And these two strands came togetherand inspired us to find colleagues from other educational institutesabroad to hold an international seminar for teacher students. We foundLéon Valk from the then Ubbo Emmius Teacher Training Institute inGroningen/Netherlands, Gunhild Nissen from Roskilde (DK) universityand Czeslaw Karolak from Poznan Adam Mieckiewicz University in Po-land to work together on the grounds of education for peace (or betterdisarmament). So the idea of bringing together teachers students fromdifferent countries was born: The “European Workshop on Peace Educa-tion” was held in the Tvind-School of Asserbohus close to Copenhagen inthe summer of 1982, some 30 years ago.

Together with Léon Valk we developed the idea of these workshopsfurther and found cooperating colleagues in other countries. With ChrisBrown, attached to Midlands College of Higher Education as its Principallecturer and Bryan Stephenson from Exeter University we found two col-leagues who organized the “Second International Workshop on PeaceEducation” (1984), held at the International Center of Coventry Cathedralstill serving as a memorial site to commemorate the German Air raidsduring WW II on Britain. Since Coventry has, similar to Berlin and theNetherlands, a high percentage of people of imigrants, we selected “Preju­dices and Enemy Images towards minorities” as our main topic.

The 3rd Workshop was held on the Frisian Island of Ameland (NL) in1986 and organized by Léon Valk and Paul van Dellen from Ubbo EmmiusTeacher Training Institute in Groningen/Leeuwarden (NL) dealing with“Methodological approaches on Peace Education”. For the first time wehad a proper delegation of students and teachers (led by Attila Horvathfrom Budapest University) from a communist country in our group ofaround 60 participants. The background to this was a cultural agreementbetween the Dutch and the Hungarian government, concluded in thespring of 1986 and indicated to mark a change in the relationshipsbetween East and West. It seemed reasonable to us to let the followingworkshop in 1988 take place in Berlin. For geographic and political reas-ons Berlin had been a bridge for the relations/confrontations betweenEast and West in the European post-war area. So the topic of this 4thWorkshop (1988) resulted from that: “Prejudices and Enemy Images inEast­West Relations”. With Attila Horvath from Budapest, Norbert and I

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concluded already at the Berlin 1988 venue that the next workshop shouldbe held in Hungary two years later. So we both went to Budapest in lateAugust 1989 already before the big political changes in Germany with thewall to come down to meet also Léon Valk (NL), Larry Sult (USA) and At-tila Horvath as our host to prepare the next workshop in Hungary 1990.

Facing the political changes in Eastern Central Europe we decided themain topic of the 5th workshop being held in Zanka at the Hungarian lakeBalaton to be “From Confrontation to Co­operation”. A couple of monthslater the political situation and the fall of the German wall had confirmedour decision.

After the complete collapse of the Communist system in all Easterncountries the 6th workshop was organized in Poznan (Poland) 1992 alsodue to the long standing relationship between the Technical University ofBerlin and the Adam-Mickiewicz-University in Poznan whose studentsand teachers participated in all the workshops mentioned here except theone in the Netherlands. As the political events in the former USSR made itpossible for the University of Education at Vilnius (Lithuania) to sendrepresentatives for the first time we titled this workshop: “The PeacefulProcess of Integration: Challenges for the Nation­State”. It was shad-owed by the tragic death of our friend and colleague Léon Valk fromGroningen who died on a bike ride a year before in Maastricht, the placehe was born in 1948. Léon was one of those persons who never gave upthe hope for a better world. Linn Benton Community College, where hehad a Fulbright grant some years before his death, commemorates Léonby naming the Léon Valk Peace Studies Fund after him.

For the first time Norwegian students joined in what was now calledthe “Seventh International Symposium on Education for Peace, Justice,and Human Rights”, held in Vilnius (Lithuania) 1994. Students andteachers from colleges and universities in Great Britain, Norway, theNetherlands, Hungary, Poland, Germany, and Latvia as well as studentsfrom two Community Colleges in the US worked on the motto, decided inIrene Kubiliene’s garden in summer 1993: “The Peaceful Process: Educa­tional Approaches to Understanding Conflict and Conflict Resolution”.She was a professor of English at the Vilnius University of Education andthe driving force behind the symposium in Vilnius.

The main focus of the 8th Symposium in Berlin 1996 dealt with thecentral question: “How do we cope with cultural diversity?” This was dueto the multicultural character of the city at that time. Every tenth citizenin Berlin had at that time a migrant background and more than 100 ethnicminorities lived in the city. One hundred and forty thousand Turkish and30.000 Polish people constitute their second large minority in the city.The symposium aimed at exchanging information and experiences aboutthe way the respective countries dealt with their minorities and the waythis could cause problems for the learning process in schools. After theNorwegian delegation with our friend and colleague Stig Bjorshol havetaken part in the Berlin symposium they soon decided to invite everybodyto the 9th symposium, to be held in Tonsberg near Oslo in 1998.

“Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges” was the slogan for the 9th sym-posium (1998), located at Vestfold University in Tonsberg, nearOslo/Norway, mainly prepared by Stig Bjorshold and his students. Due tothe Norwegian involvement in the peace process in the Middle East, thenew perspective of the ongoing conflict was introduced by having the firstjoint delegation from the Palestine National Authority (PNA) and Israel.Vestfold had previously worked with Bethlehem University on education,leading to a delegation of four students, led by two professors from thisuniversity. This also became one of the special interests of the symposium;therefore the two parts of the delegation spontaneously put together apresentation of their views of the Middle East conflict.

The 10th symposium was hosted by Linn Benton Community College inAlbany (OR), USA (2000), organized by Doug Clark, Larry Sult and oth-ers. “Learning Democracy”, the slogan of the symposium, was inspired bythe dramatic transformations in world politics in the last decade of the20th century. The opportunities and challenges resulting from the end of

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the Cold War and the “springtime of nations” in Eastern Europe focussedattention on the general problem of developing and maintaining demo-cratic values and institutions. With some nations beginning democracyagain and others struggling to deepen their democratic commitments,weasked what lessons can be taught by the older democracies and what in-spiration can be provided by the newer democratic struggles. What havewe learned about the importance of democratic procedures in human re-lations in and between our nations? What issues and problems do weshare in our now more intimate world and how does democracy contrib-ute to the nonviolent management of our conflicts? These questions wereworked on by students and teachers from Europe, the Middle East, NorthAmerica, and – for the first time – Mexico in Corvallis.

For the 11th symposium we were back to York (UK) in 2002. “Social,economical, political inclusion/exclusion” had been dealt with at theCentre for Global Education, York St. John University. As 1984 ChrisBrown, supported by Margot Brown and Chrissie Dell, helped to find thefinancial sources to also integrate a group of Czech students for the firsttime. Self experiential activities, formerly developed at the CGE, Uni-versity of York, together with David Selby, supported the methodology ofthis symposium.

For the second time the symposium went to a Polish University: It wasSzczecin University that hosted the 12th Symposium 2004 under the title“Lifting Barriers: Integration and Cooperation in Europe and theWorld”. The title was also chosen due to Poland’s and the Czech member-ship in the EU since May 1st, 2004. And both countries played a major roleduring this symposium as actual host as well as host of the next symposi-um to be held in the Czech Republic, 2006. Two strong groups of Mexicanand US-students inspirited the workshop and plenary sessions.

The Silesian University at Opava (CZ) hosted the 13th Symposiumdedicated to the theme “Growing together: Global Education in Prac­tice”. Specific emphasis was given to different aspects of oral history aswell as to the analysis of history textbooks. As one of the participantswrote in an essay afterwards: “Oral history was a revelation for me”, thepersonal development as practical starting point for Global Education hadan important impact on the relevance of the theoretical concept. Thissymposium rresulted an invitation to Guadalajara in 2 years extended bythe Mexican delegation, led by Ana Maria Velazquez and Ramon Duran.

The 14th Symposium in Guadalajara (MEX) 2008, hosted by the “Uni-versidad Jesuita de Guadalajara”, dealt with “Peace, Justice and HumanRights: Building Democracy”. Workshops about e.g. “The Powerful Effectof Culture”, “Personal and Cultural Identity”, or “Resistance and SocialMovements” but also intensive excursions to the countryside hadthoughtfully been organized by the Mexican students and especially byAna Maria. We were overwhelmed by the hospitality of our Mexicanfriends who did their utmost to lead this venue to a wonderful experience.As it had been deplored overtimes by members of our executive board thatwe did not succeed in integrating groups from the South in our symposi-um’s idea, Guadalajara meant a significant development. For the first timein the history of this kind of events we met in the political South.

Lucas Kampman from the Teacher Training College in Leeuwarden,the Netherlands, was cheered very much in Guadalajara, when he ex-pressed his intention to do everything to let the 15th symposium happen inhis country, in Leeuwarden. This also honored the late Leon Valk from thethen Ubbo Emmius Teacher Training College in Groningen, who was – asalready mentioned – one of the founders of the symposium idea in 1982.“Environmental Justice and Sustainability: Education for a SustainableFuture” was the centre of our endeavours, that included also school visitsas well as a visit to a huge farm with 500 cows.

It has been the initiative of Stig Bjorshol from Vestfold University Cen-ter, Tonsberg nr. Oslo, that made the actual 16th Symposium possible. Ayear before we met in Berlin to fix the overall leitmotif: “Development:Breaking Bridges – Building Barriers?” Students from the USA, Poland,Serbia, Lithuania, Norway, the Netherlands, Romania, Germany, Hun-

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gary, Latvia, Portugal, the widest spread of nationalities we ever had inthe past, are working together in four workshops, the results being pub-lished in this newspapaer. Looking back over the years we have constantlytried to reach the following aims:

1. To enable participants to engage in a residential, intercultural ex-perience.

2. To give participants perspectives on cross-cultural and multicultur-al issues relevant to teaching and learning in democratic societies.

3. To help participants recognize challenges to democratic practicesarising from migration/discrimination in order to develop strategiesto overcome social injustice and unpeaceful structures in society.

We tried to adopt participatory and interactive working and learningstyles in which student decision-making and initiative are strongly en-couraged. Delegations therefore participated in a variety of internationallycomposed workshops exploring as many aspects as possible of the relev-ant Symposium themes. Therefore workshops constitute the primaryarenas of the symposium where international communication and co-operation combined with peace education issues in a broad understandingincluding the global problems of environmental damage. Practicing andlearning Democracy is a constant challenge be it for students and forteachers in order to achieve personal and social development.

As one of the students put it after the Opava Symposium 2006: “Thissymposium gave me an opportunity to follow my own socialization, tosingle out certain events and to see their influence on me personally. Itwas great to discuss some events with the students from different coun­tries and to see from what standpoint they got to know about the samethings, to understand their evaluation of the already known to me facts,to compare their understanding to my own one. I must recognize some­times I was really surprised, but I picked up some completely new ideas,and became free from some common stereotypes. I must say I can feelmy personal development.”

Hanns-Fred Rathenow

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Workshop “A” – New Populism

Over the last decade, populist parties have beengrowing in strength across Western Europe. Theseparties are defined by their opposition to immigra-tion and concern for protecting national andEuropean culture, sometimes using the language ofhuman rights and freedom. On economic policy,they are often critical of globalization and the effectsof international capitalism on workers’ rights. Thisis combined with ‘antiestablishment’ rhetoric andlanguage. Often called ‘populist extremist parties’ or‘the new right’, these parties do not fit easily into thetraditional political divides’ (Bartlett, Birdwell, Lit-tler in The new Face of Digital Populism, 2011)

Goals of the workshop

• to define populism in a social context• to elaborate on populist movements, ideas and actions in each of

the participants’ country• to understand the appeal of populist movements, ideas and actions

existing in certain social groups• to understand different motives of populist movements, ideas and

actions existing in certain social groups• to critically analyze the effects on social groups of such movements,

ideas and actions• to experience involvement in a populist movement• to understand how media deals with populist movements• to reflect on personal motives, ideas and behavior in dealing with

populism

Teaching Methods

• peer-to-peer learning• studying articles• working with definitions and associations• use of social media• role-playing (activists and journalists)• creating materials such as pamphlets, posters• research

ParticipantsStephan Jacobsson, Elin Joval, Martine de Winkel, Lennart Pouwels,Steve Eide, Smaranda Cioban, Mark Kiss, Euclid Mendes Moreira

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FacilitatorsAvelien Huitema, Luuk Kampman

ApproachAt the start of our workshop on Monday the group exchanged views andopinions on what populism actually is. From there on the group divided intwo groups. One was dealing with defining populism; the other group dida small piece of research or orientation of populist sentiments and activit-ies in social media. At the end of the afternoon both groups reported backwith their findings.

The result: a working definition'Populism is a political philosophy supporting the rights andpower of the people in their struggle against the privilegedelite'.

The definition and findings were the starting point for ourapproach and program for the rest of the week. The assign-ment consisted of starting a role play where a larger group ofparticipants were starting a populist movement. This grouphad to use the definition from Monday and from there onthey had to come up with name, slogan, symbol, organiza-tional structure, media plan and so on. They also needed to beactive in social media and construct a website for their move-ment.

Only two of the participants were journalists with an as-signment to follow critically and analyze the starting up of themovement. They had access to the active social media and tothe website. They were also asked to arrange press meetings

during the week so that the journalists could ask questions. The journal-ists eventually published several articles on the movement and its pro-gress.

The presentation of the workshop on Saturday will be a press confer-ence where the group proudly presents their movement to the world. Infront of them the journalists will ask questions and also the other sym-posium participants will be allowed to ask questions.

Hyperlinks

• Inspiration for a workshop came from:http://goo.gl/P0PP8

• The populist movement group:http://goo.gl/Rdrh9

Luuk Kampmanworkshop facilitator

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Workshop “B” –Shop 'till You Drop

After the collapse of the clothing factory in Bangladesh on April 24th,there are a lot of discussions about the poor circumstances and workconditions for the people who are working in those kinds of factories. Thisworkshop is about this, and the social dilemma: What we should do asindividual persons to make it a better place, and also to observe differentpositions like, government, employers and several laws, and share andcompare this with each other.

Goals

• Working in peace together in different groups• Making our own opinion and sharing these opinions• Being able to look at different kinds of views in this social dilemma• Making a kind of solution based on the several ways of viewing the

problem.

Teaching methods

• Class discussions• Peer to peer learning• Role-play (also for the presentations)• Creating materials (like posters, pamphlets)• Research

ParticipantsHazel Betz (USA), Terra Nelson (USA), Rixt de Vries (NL), MarjolijnKruizinga (NL), Predrag Rajevic (SER), Laura Staniute (LIT), Hanne IrenPettersen (N), Astrid Wegge (N), Alin Din (RO), Iosif Csorba (RO)

The WorkshopIn this workshop we've discussed the social dilemma by using thesentence “shop till we'll drop”. The workshop is based on the case of thecollapsing of the clothing factory in Bangladesh. We all know about thepoor circumstances and working conditions the workers are in, but wedon't do anything with this knowledge. We all don't like the idea ofwearing those (mostly cheap) clothes which are made by children oradults working in bad circumstances. But we don't change anything in ourshopping behavior despite knowing these facts. However we know thatwhen we boycott this kind of clothing it is having a negative impact on theworkers’ job security, as there might not be any work left for them andthey can't live at all.

So boycotting will not solve the issue. But what can we do to makethese circumstances and working conditions better? Which bridge do wehave to break and which barrier do we have to build?

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In this workshop we've first discussed the dilemma. Of course westarted with some ice-breaking exercises. In the second workshop we'vetalked about what happened in Bangladesh and our laws of workingconditions compared to the laws of working conditions in Bangladesh. Inthis method the participants worked together in their own delegation. Theresult of their research was in the form of a poster or a pamphlet. In theend we saw some presentations of this assignment. In the third workshopwe first saw some presentations and then we talked about consumerbehavior. Why do we buy stuff? What are our needs? Could we changesomething in our consumer behavior? We used for this discussion also thepyramid of Maslow. In the end of the third workshop we split into threegroups, and we focus us on the Bangladesh case again. These three groupssplit up in the three most involved parties in the dilemma:

• Employees: Alin, Iosif, Predrag• Employer: Marjolijn, Rixt, Hazel• Government: Terra and Laura

This is the idea of a role play: the several groups have to write an article ontheir point of view in this dilemma. They had to write about the previoussituation, the situation after the collapse, and how it should be. They hadto create a solution for the problem in their point of view. Also in thearticle there had to be a link to the “Breaking Bridge, Building Barriers”symposium theme.

These articles were used as research for the presentation on Saturday.We perform a play. In the different roles mentioned above and also in therole of consumers. Hanne and Astrid made the script.

Also it could be the solution for this social dilemma to use thesedifferent perspectives all together.

Hyperlinks

• International labor rights forum: http://goo.gl/24dzPRichtsje Zeilstra

workshop facilitator

Please sign the petition!

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Workshop “C” – Damn Dams

Exploring Development Through the Lens of the Belo Monte Hydro-elec-tric Project in Brazil and the Pebble Mine Project in Alaska, USA.

The purpose of this workshop is to explore the process of development,its impact on indigenous peoples, local economies, politics, and traditionalvalues. Development, when pushed from the outside raises issues of sov-ereignty, autonomy, and frequently creates disproportional and poorlydistributed costs and benefits. In keeping with the Symposium theme of“Development: Breaking Bridges, Building Barriers?” we have exploredthese issues through two case studies.

The first case study is the Belo Monte Dam project in Brazil whichpromises billions of dollars in economic benefit as well as the productionof hydro-power to meet the needs of the Brazilian economy. However itfaces stiff resistance from indigenous peoples who will be severely im-pacted by the project and by environmental groups who fear destruction oflocal ecosystems.

The second case study is that of the Pebble Mine project in Alaska,USA. The Pebble Project seeks to access a massive source of copper, goldand other minerals with an estimated market value of $150 Billion USD.However the location of the reserves in in an area of environmental signi-ficance at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay Salmon fishery, one of the lastgreat salmon fisheries in the world. The fishery itself is a sustainable andvaluable resource to the commercial fisherman of the region and a way oflife for the indigenous tribes who live there. These groups overwhelminglyoppose the development of the mine.

Participants in the workshop were divided into four groups with onegroup in support of each project and one group opposed to each project.Their tasks were to research their respective projects, prepare writtenstatements supporting their positions and to prepare to debate the issuesat the workshop presentations. The following text represents their re-search.

Arguments for Pebble Mine

• Monika Kaliszewska• Paulina Uminska• Daiva Cechovaite

The Pebble Mine project concerns the Pebble Partnership Company,which is trying to build an open mine of gold and copper in Alaska, nearby the Bristol Bay- one of the few natural habitats of salmon left in theworld. As far as the project is concerned, many issues have been raised bythe activists working on preservation of the area. So far the company isusing strong arguments in order to respond to all of the possible accusa-tions. After a thorough research, our team decided that from all of thereasonable arguments, the economical one is the most important and rel-evant one in this case. Therefore, this study will concern elaboration onthe positive impact that the Pebble Mine could have in Alaska.

First of all, the project will create extra places of work for almost16,500 people across the Alaska and the whole country, which will last formore than 100 years.

Secondly, the Pebble Partnership offers the great opportunity for theAlaskan people. According to the data provided by the northerndynastym-inerals.com the annual average income will grow from $ 51,000 to

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$63,500 by the fifth year of the construction phase, $72,500 during theproduction phase and up to $80,000 during the potential subsequent de-velopment phase. Therefore, the annual income per every citizen will in-crease by 56%.

This leads us to another advantage of the Pebble Mine Project which isthe fact that it will allow the Alaskan economy to develop, due to a hugenumber of new citizens, who would be interested in working in the mineand settling with their families in there. It also connects with the creationof the infrastructure with new cities to inhabit.

Finally, the greater number of citizens denotes that both the Alaskanand Federal government could increase their profits. In case of Alaska itwould be almost $13 billion and Federal Government could count for $16billion worth of taxes and royalty payments. This means, that the govern-ment would have more money to invest in the development of the Alaskaand to take care of new citizens.

In conclusion, letting the Pebble Partnership to run the project can givemany opportunities which have a huge potential to influence people’s lifeand Alaskan economy. Furthermore, it creates a chance to make this placeeven more amazing and fascinating than it is right now.Sources:

• Northern Dynasty Minerals: “National Economic Impact Study” –http://goo.gl/CVs8t

• Pebble Partnership website: http://goo.gl/hv0sh

Arguments against of Pebble Mine

• Alina Achim• Piotr Dobrzynski• Vali Munteanu

Bristol Bay region with its population of 997 inhabitants according to 2012census is known for its pristine environment, and the bay’s watershedsthat support world’s largest wild sockeye salmon fisheries. The residentpopulation is ethnically and culturally complex and is the home to 25 fed-erally recognized tribal governments whose way of life did not changedmuch for last 4,000 years. Bristol Bay watershed is also the home to 29fish species, more than 40 terrestrial mammal species and more than 190bird species. Also, in the Nushagak and Kvitchak river watersheds thereare living the Yup’ik and Dena’ina tribes which are the last two intact, sus-tainable, salmon-based cultures in the world (EPA), and exactly in this re-gion the Pebble Limited Partnership wants to build the biggest open pitmine in the world. For the reasons we will mention later on in this workwe do strongly oppose to this investment.

The Pebble Mine project would change an ancient way of life since allthe activities of the indigenous people rely on a clean environment. Anychange in the fisheries would have subsequent effects on the entire wildlifeof Alaska and on the viability and welfare of Alaska Native Populations. Anentire ecosystem will be changed. Although spills might be avoided (whichis just an assumption in PM’s benefit), the smallest traces of copper wouldnot kill the salmon but change their capacity to use their fine senses. Weshould not put a price on culture and tradition. Alaska is a unique regionthat we are planning to transform radically.

First of all, 79% of local residents oppose to the pebble mine idea, alongwith many local tribes, commercial companies, churches, organizationsand so on. All of them are deeply afraid that it may destroy the fishing in-dustry that is the most important part of the Bristol Bay industry and themain part of the local cultural traditions. Salmon fishery constitutes ap-proximately 52% of the subsistence harvest, and for some tribes even

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more (EPA). Moreover, this project will create a mining industry which infinal stage will need 55,000 workers who will need to be supported withthe whole infrastructure like living places or even entire cities, powerplants, airports, roads, pipelines etc. In the region with a total of 997 in-habitants it will be a huge change. The effects on the culture and on theenvironment may have disastrous effects.

Pebble scientists argue that the small creeks which will be destroyedare not important for salmon population. PLP’s CEO repeatedly declaredthat the Pebble project will not continue if it affects the fish population.On the other side, the entire scientific community disagrees. The shallowwaters of small creeks are crucial for salmon growth, as studies in Alaskaand California River revealed.

The opposition to the pebble mine points out the possible problemsthat may occur in the mine. Those are leakages during routine operations,waste treatment plant failure, road accidents on the transportation cor-ridor which would cross 53 streams and rivers, tailing dam failure etc. Infact, those are not taken out of the blue, the research made about theAnglo-American PLC- the company that holds up to 50% of the shares inPebble Limited Partnership shows their problems in the following opera-tions all over the world:

• Sulfur dioxide emissions and numerous spills and accidental dis-charges in platinum operations in South Africa

• Water contamination from acid runoff from mine in Zimbabwe be-fore 2003, which is believed to have harmed the Yellow JacketRiver’s fish population

• The largest source of mercury air pollution in the United Statesfrom a mining operation in Nevada

• Repeated waste spills into the water in Ghana operated by Anglo-Gold Ashanti – an Anglo American subsidiary until 2006

• A zinc, lead and copper mine in South Africa is believed to have el-evated the levels of lead in children’s blood, which lowered theirschool performance

• A zinc mine in Ireland has polluted river with heavy metals• Copper emissions from a mine near Kruger National Park have

contaminated soils and wildlife.This shows perfectly how good the company is in keeping their promisesabout the environment safety. The pebble mine after closing will still needto hold the toxic waste rock pile of total surface of 22,6 km² (or the equi-valent of 10 billion tons) for eternity not to pollute the Bristol Bay rivers,yet they are known from leaving their mines when the resources finish orthe problems occur. With all this examples Anglo America can hardly beconsidered a model company.

Pebble claims that it has the technology to build dams that would lastthousands of years. However the failure rate of tailings dams is one failureevery eight months. These are not limited to old technology or to countrieswithout regulations. Most tailings dam failures occur at operating mines,and 39% of the tailing dam failures worldwide occur in the United States,significantly more than in any other country. There is absolutely no data todemonstrate that tailings dams can withstand the of time for mine watestorage in perpetuity.

There is another issue raised by Reprisk in their report about AngloAmerican PLC. The company faced a lot of criticism across the globe in2011. There were protests at many mining sites due to safety concerns ofthe workers and in opposition to new projects that would affect local andindigenous communities like those of Bristal Bay region. At the Collahuasimine in Chile over twenty labor unions accused the companies owing themine (a joint venture of Anglo American with Xstrata and Mitsui & Co) ofserious acts of retaliation against union leaders. The Quellaveco Copper

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Mine on the other hand was criticized due to heavy usage of scarce watersupplies. The other fact comes from South Africa where several workers ofAnglo American and other mining companies were demonstrating againstalleged poor safety standards. “Finally over 220 mine workers have diedat Anglo American mining operations in the last five years” according toAnglo American\s Track Record.

AngloGold Ashanti, a subsidiary of Anglo American, was accused ofhuman rights breach, murder of trade union and community activists andthe company itself revealed unacceptable safety performance in its mines.In 2011 AngloGold Ashanti was named the world’s “Most IrresponsibleCompany” at the Public Eye Awards, hosted by the Berne Declaration andGreenpeace. Anglo American PLC left AngloGold Ashanti in 2009 andtheir response to all accusations to this date is that AngloGold Ashanti hasno affiliation with Anglo American.

To sum up, we strongly disagree with this project because of all thefactors involved in the process. Bristol Bay area is one of the most uniqueplaces on Earth, an undisputed reserve of priceless natural resources andlocal cultures and heritages. The co-existence of the mine together withthe current ecosystem is impossible even inside current industry regula-tions in spite of all the attempts of PLP to prove the safety of the project.We might assume (although is highly unlikely) that their technology usedis flawless now but nobody can guarantee that the unavoidable waste willbe monitored potentially in perpetuity. On top of the obvious reasons whythis project is one of the worse ideas in the history of mankind, we want toemphasize once more the unreliability of Anglo-American corporationbased on their poor moral and environmental track record.Sources:

• Ground Truth Trekking: “Copper/Gold Prospect”http://goo.gl/8QSuh

• Alison Fairbrother: “EPA: Poisoning the Largest Remaining Sal­mon Run Is Not a Great Idea”http://goo.gl/zkskr

• GhanaWeb: “AngloGold Is World’s Most Evil Company”http://goo.gl/eGzvn

• Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay: “The Economic Importanceof theBristol Bay Salmon Industry”http://goo.gl/4ZctW

• Matt Skoglund: “Say No to Pebble Mine in the Name of Jobs andthe Economy”http://goo.gl/JlIay

• Bonnie Gestring: “The Proposed Pebble Mine: Some Time BombsDon’t Tick”http://goo.gl/KUIKz

• Tim Sands: “Overview of the Bristol Bay SalmonFishery 2010­2012”http://goo.gl/hGOJo

• US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): “Executive Summary”http://goo.gl/gFRMb

• Our Bristol Bay: “The Protection Effort”http://goo.gl/VG70I

• Our Bristol Bay: “Anglo American's Environmental and SocialTrack Record”http://goo.gl/ikG9b

• Reprisk: “Most Controversial Mining Companies of 2011”http://goo.gl/YJqYO

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Arguments in Favor of Belo Monte Dam

• Michal Bor• Tudor Vlad Enea

The planned installed capacity of the dam complex would be 11,233 mega-watts (MW), which would make it the second-largest hydroelectric damcomplex in Brazil and the world's third-largest in installed capacity, be-hind the Three Gorges Dam in China and the Brazilian-Paraguayan ItaipuDam. The energy produced by Belo Monte will be used to support Brazil’scontinued economic and population growth(more than 60 mil people).70% of the energy produced by the dam is intended for the captive mar-ket, which includes all households, most of the trade and service sector,and part of the industrial sector. The remaining 30% is intended for thefree market and self-producers, which also includes the electro-intensiveindustry.

Through this dam, the government will add over 11,000 mega-watts(MW) of installed capacityvto the national energy grid.

The energy-generation-to-installed-power ratio is largely due tochanges to the project over its lifetime and adjustments made to meet im-portant social and environmental requirements. Measures taken to re-duce energy generation include:

a) Reduction of the reservoir and elimination of the capacity to regu-late the flow of the tributary river into the Belo Monte dam;

b) Elimination of other uses in the basin that would allow greater flowregulation upstream;

c) Adoption of a minimum hygrogram (minimum flow ratesthroughout the year) to be held in the flow area of Volta Grande doXingu, so as to ensure indigenous communities the necessary con-ditions for fishing and navigation, among other things.

The plant will produce electricity to the Brazilian population for nearlyhalf the price of other energy sources. None of the 10 indigenous com-munities located in the Belo Monte project area will be flooded as a resultof the dam.

The licensing conditions for the Belo Monte project require a minimummonthly flow of 700 m3/s in the Xingu River, which exceeds the 400 m3/sminimum rate recorded over the previous 80-year period. This minimumflow condition will ensure that the natural resources required by indigen-ous people, who depend on the river bed for transportation and whoseeating habits are linked to fishing, will continue to be readily available.

The Brazilian government has set conditions to ensure that no indi-genous communities will be displaced from the lands they have tradition-ally occupied and that are recognized by the State as a result of the BeloMonte project. Interference in hunting, fishing and farming activities inthe project areas will be offset by the social-environmental programs andprojects outlined in the federal Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)and in the Basic Environmental Project. For the indigenous populationsalone, these include the following programs:

a) Institutional strengthening of indigenous rightsb) Economic sustainability of indigenous peoplesc) Basic sanitation in indigenous communitiesd) Restructuring of educational services for indigenous peoplese) Indigenous housing improvementf) Territorial security of indigenous landsg) The guarantee of the indigenous population’s access to Altamira

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The Belo Monte dam will be constructed on land that is currently inhab-ited by approximately 4,300 families in urban areas and 800 families inrural areas. All residents affected by the dam’s construction will be able tochoose between cash compensation for land and improvements; mon-itored relocation; or resettlement in urban or rural areas by the dam de-veloper.

Estimates indicate that 19,000 direct jobs will be created at the peak ofconstruction works in Belo Monte. Based on the parameters of IBAMA’sEnvironmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which assumed that 4.7 resid-ents will be attracted for each job created, a total of approximately 90,000people will be attracted to the project area at that stage.

According to national studies, 32,000 people are expected to remain inthe region after plant construction is completed. These people will be ab-sorbed by the regional labor market. The main benefits of the project willinclude the followings:Improvements in urban areas

• Relocation of the population currently living in precarious condi-tions: About 4,500 families currently living in stilt houses in thetown of Altamira – who are evacuated by city hall to temporaryshelters during the flood season of the Xingu River – will beprovided with brick houses in urbanized areas.

Improvements in the health area• Implementation of programs for epidemiological surveillance, dis-

ease prevention and control (including malaria), and incentive tothe structuring of primary care in the public health network.

• Technical and financial support to municipalities, with a view toensuring a highquality public health network.

Environmental conservation• Measures for the conservation of terrestrial fauna and flora and

aquatic ecosystems in areas near the dam that are currently in theprocess of environmental degradation.

• Establishment of two conservation units on the right bank of theXingu River, totaling 280,000 ha of forests.

• Implementation of management actions in existing conservationunits.

• Rehabilitation of portions of the vegetation around the reservoirsand projects to encourage sustainable fishing.

Improvements in road infrastructure• Enlargement, graveling and extension of roads and construction of

bridges.Benefits for indigenous populations

• Training in economic activities on a sustainable basis (handicraft,vegetable extraction, beekeeping, cultivation of cocoa, native fruitand medicinal herbs, animal husbandry, etc.) and in the marketingof production.

• Provision of infrastructure to transport goods and of equipment tofacilitate production activities.

• Support for the service of indigenous peoples’ formal education(training indigenous teachers, promoting cultural and linguistic ex-changes with other indigenous lands (IL), and readjusting the edu-cation infrastructure).

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• Improvement of housing units in the IL Arara da Volta Grande doXingu and of the Juruna indigenous area at km 17.

• Development of actions aimed to the territorial security of indigen-ous lands (strengthening inspection of IL limits by purchasing com-munication equipment like radios and telephones and trainingindigenous control agents).

• Training indigenous environmental agents.In addition to benefiting the local and regional population, the Belo Monteplant will provide the country with a large amount of low-cost energy,which is required for its development. Furthermore, Belo Monte, throughthe use of clean and renewable technology will contribute to the global en-vironment by avoiding the emission of greenhouse gases.

In many countries, wind generation, for example, is complemented bythermal sources (coal or natural gas). In the case of Brazil, both the sugar-cane biomass production cycle and wind regime complement the hydraul-ic cycle. Thus, the most appropriate solution in our case is adopting a jointapproach between alternative energy sources and Belo Monte, in order toreduce the need for fossil fuels. This solution is the most appropriate notonly from an environmental standpoint, but also in terms of cost: the dir-ect-to-consumer cost of meeting the growing energy demand with windand biomass energy alone would be twice as much as that of Belo Monte.In the case of solar energy, this cost overage would be even higher.

People are addicted to technology. We are living in an era of con-sumerism and in this way we need to be permanently investing in techno-logical research and development. And economy is connected to it as well.As you know the economic development of Brazil in the last years de-pended directly on new industries and technological innovation. For beingable to sustain it we need energy.Sources:

• Carlos Nogueira da Costa Junior: “Geology and Mining: Infra­structure for Development”http://goo.gl/gxqm4

• Ecowrex: “Ministry of Mines and Energy, Brazil”http://goo.gl/nomRb

• Ministry of Mines and Energy: “FAQ of Belo Monte”http://goo.gl/fI4u5

• Norte Energia S.A. corporate website:http://goo.gl/DnK23

• Norte Energia S.A. blog: http://goo.gl/dpO84

Arguments Against Belo Monte Dam

• Jeff Pierce• Mattias Larsen

It is our position that the Brazilian government has been less than truthfulregarding the impact this project would have on the environment. Thedam would divert 80 % of the flow of the Xingu river flooding 400 squarekm of Brazilian rainforest. The overall impact to the Xingu River basinwould affect over 1500 square km due to the building of roads and campsfor workers. There will be an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 people dis-placed by the basin flooding, and currently there are approximately25,000 indiginous people in the Xingu river basin that rely on it's re-sources. The 1988 Brazilian constitutution states in Article 231 that it re-cognises the cultural and territorial rights of native peoples, based on

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traditonal territories and use of natural resources. Later, Article 67 of theconstitution mandated the demarcation of tribal lands, a law that has beenlargely ignored within the country. In 1996, politicians implemented de-cree 1775 giving a legal mechanism to apeal demarcation by govermentand private interests. This law was introduced by the Brazilian Minister ofJustice and signed into law by the Brazilian president.

Besides cultural inpacts, we have numerous enviromental impacts thathave received inadequate study to say the least. Presently, 9 fish speciesare already thretend by the initial dam constuction. Along with loss ofbiodiversity of animal species, there will also be massive deforestation.Brazil is already the 4th largest emitter of carbon, due to emissions anddeforestation, with the scale of this project easily moving them into a pos-ition as the worst poluter on the face of the Earth. Besides the carbon emi-sions from building the dam, there will be a dramatic increase in methaneproduction caused by decomposing vegatation in the reservoir. Methane is25-50 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, leadingto a significant increase in the rate of global warming. Scientists from theAmazon Reasearch Institute estimate greenhouse gas emissions frombrazilian dam construction and usage can be equal or higher than if theyused coal fired power plants. Independent studies show that it could takeup to 40 years of optimal production before the dam would reach envir-onmental sustainabilty. Due to climate change and the predictableBrazilian dry season, optimal energy production can never be achieved orsustained. During the brazilian dry season the dam will produce only 11%of maximum power production, and to keep the dam at a yearly average of39% production they will need to build 5 other dams upstream to feed asteady flow to the Belo Monte complex.

To gain a better understanding of the history of the Belo Monte project,it is important to understand it's origins. The original project was part of a7 dam complex devised under Brazils previous dictatorship govermentduring the 1970's. Under Brazil's democratic goverment, the project wasdefeated by a coalition of indiginous peoples in 1989 based on provisionswritten into their constitution. The project was revived by the govermentin 2003 and given final aprovel in 2005. The enviromental license wasaproved in 2010 under political pressure and with inadiquate environ-mental assesment, as well as failuire to implement mitigation plans toprotect the enviroment during construction activities. On the 14 August2012, the the Federal court of Brazil ruled the building of the dam to be il-legal, this being because the project is in direct violation of the constitu-tion. The constitution states that indigenous people must be heard andmust agree to construction and developement in areas concerning theirtribes and chiefdoms. This never happend, thus the building of the damwas halted. On the 28 August 2012, the Supreme Federal court overturnedthis decision without valid reason, and had the construction of the damreopened.Sources:

• Indigenous Brazil: “TRF1 on Belo Monte”http://goo.gl/3QXq0

• Kristin Jackman: “The Belo Monte Dam Project”http://goo.gl/xHzTN

• Amazon Watch: “Indigenous People Occupy Belo Monte Again overConsultation Process”http://goo.gl/AJKEH

• Amazon Watch: “Brazil's Belo Monte Dam”http://goo.gl/9h4cW

• SAIIC: “Indigenous Rights in Brazil”http://goo.gl/ZTeB6

Scott McAleerworkshop facilitator

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AllemannsrettenReport no. 39 (2000-2001) to the Norwegian par-liament is concerned with Friluftsliv (outdoor re-creation) as a means to a higher quality of life.Reports such as this are guidelines for the policiesof the government in Norway. In this report wefind that the making of bonfires is a cherishedtradition and an essential element in outdoor re-creation. Thus this symposium has definitely beenliving up to this tradition, and not only in goodweather. Outdoor recreation in Norway has noth-ing to do with bad weather as the saying goes:“There is no bad weather just bad clothing”.

Allemannsretten is also known as everyman’sright or the freedom to roam and is concernedwith the public access not only to the wildernessbut to the access to nature in general. This righthas deep roots in many countries, but can befound today in its purest form in Finland, Swedenand Norway. The origin of such rights might betraced back to ancient times where land owner-ship was unknown. In Norway allemannsretten isthe individual right of access to property owned bysomeone else. This right was codified in 1957 as apart of the Outdoor Recreation Act. As such, alle-mannsretten is protected by law but it is based onand within the limits of respect for nature andwith an obligation to protect the environment.Cultivated land is exempted from the law whenthe ground is not frozen. All swimmers, berrypickers, campers and other visitors are expectedto show respect for farmers, other landowners and

visitors like themselves. Hunting rights and fish-ing in rivers and lakes belongs to the landownerand is not a part of the right of free access. How-ever, you can fish if you are under the age of 16,have permission from the landowner or pay for afishing licence.

Allemannsretten has always been under attackfrom landowners, but in recent years their frus-tration has increased especially in more denselypopulated areas. In general building is unlawful ina 100 meter zone from the sea, but a number oflocal authorities have been found to be muchmore liberal than the law intends. Land ownersare also known to be very creative in underliningprivate property by putting up flag poles, making“natural” barriers, putting out towels and BBQ-grills. Any changes within the 100 meter zone willoften result in heavy fines and the landowner isresponsible for restoring the landscape to its ori-ginal condition.

Stig Bjørsholsymposium facilitator

RutgerBlom,2012(Flickr)

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Digital Self-Defense

How does peace goes together with the digital era? At first sight it mayseem to a strange couple, but in the following I am going to describe theirrelation – which is quite close actually.

During this week of our symposium we mentioned frequently thephrase of “peace” along with others like “freedom”, “justice” and “power”.To gain more of the last one, governments usually strives to widen theircontrol, which sometimes leeds to confrontations with the opposites: for-profit corporations, non-profit organizations, foreign powers and themasses of individuals. Supressing those people has several practices, af-fecting many areas of their life.

While the global digital infrastructure (not exclusively the Internet, buttogether with electrical energy supply utility, satellite broadcasting, cabletelevision networks, GPS-navigation, mobile phone cellular s, etc.) grewnup to a major part of our everydays and their role became even more im-portant in the first decade of the 21st century, it is obvious that govern-ments perform acts upon affecting people's access to the digital world.Filtering communication with the Great Firewall in China, insultingMegaupload and other file-sharing services in Sweden, closing down socialmedia channels during the Arab Spring, trying to bring alive censorshiplaws in the USA, where secret service admittedly spyies on millions' per-sonal privacy without any kind of agreement from the companies whostores their users' data – only some examples.

Knowledge is power, one of the few we have on our side to fight backagainst supression. Information is on its way in order to become the mostvaluable asset that a person can have. Today maybe it sounds futuristic,but global trends shows into the direction of changes on the value system.The 20th century was about owning touchable objects as material goods,but this seems to change for the next century: accessing the necessarypieces of data starts to play the key role.

Fortunately we don't walk alone: many organizations have been estab-lished already to help millions of users: Wikimedia shares almost thewhole knowledge of humankind, Wikileaks brings public governmentalsecrets hidden behind the curtain, Mozilla maintains the only one existingtransparently privacy-safe web browser, thousands of voluntary com-munities develop and provide free open-source software tools (some ofwhich already bankrupted proprietary products), Creative Commonsmade it possible to break through the limitations of the traditionally strictcopyright laws, Computer Aid transported hundreds of thousands ofsecond-hand used computers to the Third World allowing millions to con-nect – and the list can be continued.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is one among of them, whichprotects the rights of digital citizens. Their wide activity covers helpingbloggers how to stay in anonimity, offering practical tips to avoid unne-cessary surveillance, sharing information about proxies to pass by govern-mental firewalls and so on. They also composed these knowledge into anextensive learning material under the title of „Surveillance Self-Defense”.SSD easily can be included in any kind of educational systems.

Paranoia or normal worry of our privacy?Everyone should decide on their own, which level they consider unreason-al paranoia and healthy worry of our privacy.

I think this decision strongly depends on individual education: more

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knowledge on this topic results in more serious opinion. Until massesdon't know what is going on in the outer World (literally in the cyber-space), they can not realize what big troubles threaten them. They don'tknow, which signs should be watched, and when they occur, what do theywarn them about? For example when they type in a web address, and thebrowser returns with an error message instead of displaying the requestedwebsite, they think it's a sort of technical error and leave. They don't knowthat in the background this website is forbidden to visit for them: e.g. AlJazeera is not allowed to visit from a Western country. While the Internetis not 100% reliable, users sometimes face real technical errors – howeverunfortunately the Bad Power can use it to cover their dark goals with amask of fake technical errors.

Hiding content and surveilling peopleThese are the two main goals of the bad Power: to hide the truth (or betterto say, the closer-to-truth – there is no „One Big Truth”) from the widepublic and spy on the exact persons who published it, or can be harmful tothe Power. As a citizen acting against the bad Power, we have the follow-ing two goals:

1. obtain the closer-to-truth2. keep our privacy in secret

Reporters Without BordersAn originally French, but today an international organization helping offi-cial journalists to tackle down governmental political, legal obstacles dur-ing their jobs. As nowadays the civil reporting started to become moresignificant, RWB turns to non-official bloggers also and offers help themtoo by publishing educational materials how to start their own reportingmission as a blogger.

The Tor systemA widely distributed network to make almost impossible – or at least veryhard – to follow data packets travelling through the whole internet.Simply we can say that Tor is the distributed network for surfing websitesand emailing, like Bittorrent is for downloading huge files. The mainconcept behind it is to travel a data packet not directly from A – B, butthrough some other nodes too: A – C – D – E – F – B. This way, when aspy catches a data packet at any inserted nodes, they can not figure outwhere it was originally travelling from and to. Tor hides their user in themass: more bigger and various the community of users, so more differentnodes are connected, more complex routes can be set up, which means atthe end more efficient camouflage for packets.

The Internet Defense LeagueAn internaional association between several organizations related to theinternet business (e.g. Mozilla, WordPress, EFF, PHP, etc.) to protectthemselves by protecting their users. When the USA goverment were con-sidering the new censorship laws (ACTA and CISPA), they organized a„blackout” action and activated millions to stand against bringing them to

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life. They earned succes, both of those laws have been postponed to vote,so today this ally is in stand-by mode – waiting for the next phase, whenthe liberty of Internet will be threatened again.

Alavateli CMSAcronym CMS means „Content Management System” which mostly refersto a kind of software to run websites. While the most widely-known CMS'slike WordPress, Drupal or Joomla are built for general purposes, there arehundreds of others made for running special websites: online stores, for-ums, wikis, blogs, portals, and so on. Alaveteli is one of them: specializedto publish the e-mail communication between a citizen and the gover-ment. Recently many European countries included a law into their consti-tution: any citizen has the right to request information from anyadministrational entity, which is compulsory to respond if that piece ofdata can be considered as public. Alaveteli comes into game at this point:to help the governmental institutions reply only once to the same ques-tion, the software collects the similar requests and posts together as a pe-tition, with the signatures below of the asking people (displaying theimportance of the request). After the request has been posted to the au-thorities, their reply becomes public not only for the requesting users, butfor the whole masses of citizens. This way citizens has the power to obtainthe information they are curious about. The only backside of the process iswhen the authorities reject offering a response and the requested inform-ation cannot be revealed to the public. In this cases Alaveteli can be usedto prepare bringing the issue to court.

Alaveteli is a free and opensource software: anyone can download it forfree and any nations can set it up for their own, as many European coun-tries (including the EU itself as well) already inplemented: WhatDoThey-Know.com, AskTheEU.com, Atlatszo.hu, etc. Alaveteli is originally startedby Open Society Institute.

Change.orgAfter I mentioned petitions in the previous chapter, Change.org is a web-site dedicated to signing petitions and sending open letters to companies,governments, or other big organiaztions. A big difference betweenAlaveteli and Change.org is the first one is based on the law, which legallyguarantees any result for the request, but Change.org does not. They haveachieved several successes against powerful bodies, the page listing theirhappy stories is a really heart-warming piece – for me at least:http://www.change.org/victories

ConclusionWhat are the personal risks? You can be surveilled without your agree-ment. Some content can be hidden from you based on your geographicallocation. Some services can block your user account if they think youbroke their Terms & Conditions.

Where does this risks come from? From the lack of knowledge of indi-viduals. With wide education and well-prepared users we can make BadPower's job much harder in achieving their dark goals: hiding content andspying our privacy. I believe Education is the power in our hand againstthem. This is why I'd love to teach.

Balu Ertlonline media researcher

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Development orSustainable Contraction?

As citizens and consumers we have gotten used to taking what we areentitled to: the air for breathing, water, and light, as public good and aprerequisite of life. These concepts should be self-evident and withoutquestion. This idea is expressed in what Francis Bacon, the Englishphilosopher, stated at the beginning of the 17th century: ”We have tostretch nature on the torture wheel and have the right to squeeze out ofher the last secrets”. Therefore it is not astonishing that we as humanbeings have not developed an awareness of what our planet needs. As weare part of the planet, we are not even considering the effects of such anattitude . Along this mentality of western thinking (white people in theNorthern Hemisphere), we view the planet as an object of exploitation.

Like a mantra, politicians of the geographical North tell their electoratethat only economic growth contributes to workplaces in their societies.Individual happiness can only be achieved by growth in every direction.But could this kind of growth be equated with development? In manycases green growth is on the agenda of progressive politicians. However, Ithink, the question is whether or not green growth is a myth such as themyth that happiness cannot be achieved without growth. The challengefor industrialized countries is how to achieve that pursuit of happinessand standard of living without destroying the fundamental prerequisitesof life. We have to say goodbye to the credo of growth, and implementmore regionalized policies of reduced consumption, reuse, repair andrepurposing of materials, and to recycle what we cannot immediatelyreuse. Regional economic circles could be one of the starting points forwhat is termed in some European countries as Décroissance. We mustdispose of the current chain of production that generates excessive wastethat follows closely with the production and consumption of goods. Wemust localize the chain of production to create self-sustaining economiesand rid ourselves of rampant consumerism perpetuated by marketingstrategies that intend to sell us what we don’t need.The German social philosopher Erich Fromm, in his book titled “To Haveor to Be”, argued that are two modes of existence for societies. The firstone is the mode of “to have”: to accumulate more and more possessionsalong with the promise of unlimited happiness. This materialistic natureof "having" has become more developed than "being". It is profit seeking,power, greed, envy, and violence rather than the attempt to share materialgoods and to care for people. “Being” instead of “having” shoulddetermine our lives. “I have - therefore I am“ is an outmoded ideology thathas become the modern “Cogito ergo sum”, in other words, mydemonstrative property forms my existence. Canadian scholar DavidSelby has proposed the idea of “sustainable contraction”, that is, we needto find ways of simplifying and consolidating a lifestyle based on our basicneeds and not our desires. German sociologist Nico Paech argues forridding ourselves of materialistic burdens in order to achieve less stressand more happiness. Development is then less necessary when you canachieve a state of well-being without being saddled by consumerism.

Hanns-Fred Rathenow

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monetary terms. How do we go about convincingothers that wealth us better measured by what wedo and not what we have? Is it because societyalso trains us to be skeptical of gifts or help ashaving strings attached? Small steps can be madethrough establishing gift economies and othernon-monetary systems like hour trading. Hourtrading is and interesting concept where peopletrade time instead of actual cash money. An evenbetter idea is local gift economies that buildcommunity and trust. A few years ago, I met agroup of friends that held monthly gift circles.Having never been to one before, I wasn't surewhat to expect but quickly realized the benefits ofsuch gatherings.

First off, these gatherings regain and reinforcea sense of community. In this day and age, howmany people really know or interact with theirneighbors? Gift circles become a way ifreconnecting with that sense if community orextended family that seems to have beendiscarded in the technology age. Secondly, it helpsto connect people who have something to offer tothose who are in need. Sometimes the offers orneeds are material, but most often they are offersor needs of assistance and friendship. At giftcircles I have offered my labor and skills to thosewho were in need. I've offered advice from adifferent perspective. I've given away materialpossessions that I did not need or no longer used.I did these things expecting nothing in return, butknowing there were others like me willing toeagerly do the same.

I gained an extended family, or as some likedto call it, an urban tribe. We look out for the wellbeing of each other expecting nothing in return.These experiences gave me hope that society canchange. We didn't become selfish and greedyovernight, but just as with any reversal ofbehavior, it takes longer to unlearn than to learn.A simple way for me to look at it is to quantifywhat I have spent to be here this week. Sure, I canput a monetary value on what it cost mepersonally to get here, and sure, I can think of all Imay have wanted in materialistic value... but myexperience of "being" is much more valuable.What I take from this experience and give back toothers? That will be priceless.

Jeff Piercee

In 2010, my cousin passed away. At 46 years old,it was a great shock to everyone who knew him,that he would no longer be with us. Now, I don'twish to cause everyone to be depressed within thefirst paragraph: this is a story of how I learned it isbetter to be than to have. My journey ofrealization began at his funeral service, and hasbeen evolving ever since. My cousin was a humbleman who raised two children, ran a timberharvesting company, all while running his owncattle ranch. This was how I viewed him, as a hardworker who tried to do everything he could toprovide for his family. What I failed to recognizewas all that he did for other people around him.

My cousin spent any free time he hadmentoring others, especially other children in thecommunity. He employed people who may havehad a criminal past or battled drug problemsbecause he felt everyone deserved second chances.The enormity of the impact he had on othersdidn't register with me until I realized how manypeople attended his funeral service. Well over athousand people came to pay their respects to aman I had only viewed as a simple logger andcowboy. It was because he chose to be, not tohave. He gave himself to whoever needed his help,always ready to lend a helping hand or teachothers what he knew.

Through this flood of emotion I realized that Itoo wished to be remembered for what I could dofor others, not for what I could accumulate inwealth or material possessions. Within a year Iwas quitting my job and returning to to school,first to become an emergency medical technician,then to finish a college degree I'd all but given upon eighteen years prior. Eventually I also becamea volunteer firefighter to give back to thecommunity that I have called home for the lastnine years. I thoroughly believe I am busier nowthan when I was managing a business, but at theend if the day I have a smile on my face. Myincome is very meager, I don't drive a fancy car, Ihold on to what I have until it is too worn out touse further, but at the same time I am willing togive when someone is in need. I have chosen to be.

Society has become accustomed to judgingpeople by what they have, not what they do. Ourmeasure of wealth is aimed at possessions and in

To Be or to Have

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Portrayal of the “Others”

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues over self-determination, territ-ory, natural resources, holy places and security. Contradictory goals andinterests in different domains have to be addressed in conflict resolution.Resolution of these disagreements is made more difficult by powerful so-cio-psychological forces which fuel distrust and hostility. These forces in-clude beliefs, perceptions, images, myths or attitudes about the rival, thecollective self and the conflict. Such beliefs and images are often part ofeach society’s national narrative, and these narratives can be important associeties continue to marshal human and material resources demanded bythe conflict. The narratives are propagated through many years by variouschannels of communication and various institutions in each involved so-ciety, including the education system. However, these collective narrativesoften leave little room for acknowledgement of the historical past, culture,and future aspirations of the other collective. Thus, while these narrativeshelp sustain cultures during conflicts, they can stand as a major obstacleto any peace-making process and later processes of reconciliation. Thenarratives may need to be modified in order to facilitate building a newreality of peace. In this endeavor there can be a need to modify schooltextbooks which may serve as one agent among others in socializing newgenerations.

The current study analyzed descriptions of the other side and the con-flict in general that appear in the school textbooks of the Israeli andPalestinian educational systems. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is longstanding, and multiple observers have commented that negative stereo-typic and dehumanizing views of the “other” create fear, hatred andenmity, contribute to mistrust, and obstruct diplomatic efforts to resolveconflict. Explicit attempts to address these issues have been made, espe-cially after the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. But the national narrat-ives have strong roots due to the long duration of the conflict. Moreover,accusations by each side about the current content of the other’s schoolbooks add to the mistrust and animosity.

Peace negotiations have included efforts to deal with this aspect of theconflict. In the Taba Agreement (Oslo 2, signed in 1995) under chapterfour, Cooperation, article 22 says each side:

...shall accordingly abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda,against each other...that their respective educational systems contribute to thepeace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and to peace in the entire re­gion, and will refrain from the introduction of any motifs that could adversely af­fect the process of reconciliation

Pursuant to promoting development of a culture of peace and mutualrespect a joint Israeli/Palestinian research team developed and applied astandardized, manualized and multi-rater research method to maximizeobjectivity. Study methods and findings were reviewed by a Scientific Ad-visory Panel of international experts in text books analysis and leading Is-raeli and Palestinian academics.

Israeli books were from the State Secular and Religious Tracts andfrom independent Ultra-Orthodox schools. Palestinian books were nearlyall from the Ministry of Education’s text books, but a small number ofbooks from the few independent religious schools (Sharia) were includedwhen relevant to study themes. Israeli books were on average 2.5 times aslong as Palestinian books and included more photographs and illustra-tions. Israelis have produced their own school books for over 60 years,and they have gone through repeated cycles of review and revision.Palestinians began producing their own books for the first time only in2000 and completed the full set of books for grades 1-12 in 2006. Severalof the first-produced books are now in a second or third edition.

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There were seven main findings of the study. First, dehumanizing anddemonizing characterizations of the other as seen in textbooks elsewhereand of concern to the general public are rare in both Israeli and Palestini-an books. Second, both Israeli and Palestinian books present exclusiveunilateral national narratives that present the other as enemy, chroniclenegative actions by the other directed at the self-community, and presentthe self-community in positive terms with actions aimed at self-protectionand goals of peace. Descriptions of the other as enemy in Israeli bookswere generally related to violent attacks against Israelis, and Israeli booksmore often described Palestinians as aiming to destroy than to dominateIsrael. Descriptions of the other as enemy in Palestinian books were gen-erally related to Israel being given (by international powers) or appropri-ating Palestinian land and resources (e.g. water), and Palestinian booksmore often described Israelis as seeking to dominate than to destroyPalestinians. Historical events, while not false or fabricated, are selectivelypresented to reinforce each community’s national narrative. Third, thereis a lack of information about the religions, culture, economic and dailyactivities of the other, or even of the existence of the other on maps. Theabsence of this kind of information about the other serves to deny the le-gitimate presence of the other. This important problem can be addressedby the addition of information about the culture, religions, and everydayactivities of the other. Fourth, while present and problematic in all threeschool systems, the negative bias in presentation of the other, the positivebias in presentation of the self, and the absence of images and informationabout the other are statistically significantly more pronounced in the Is-raeli Ultra-Orthodox and Palestinian books than in the Israeli State books.The Israeli Ultra-Orthodox and Palestinian books do not differ signific-antly from each other. Within the two tracks of the Israeli State schools,self-critical presentations were significantly more common in the secularthan in the religious track books; books from the religious track were sim-ilar in presentation of the self-community to the Israeli Ultra-Orthodoxand Palestinian books. Fifth, the majority of maps in both sides schoolbooks do not show the other sides or recognize the borders. The majorityof maps in the ultra-Orthodox books name the west bank and Judea andSamaria (biblical names). Sixth, both sides’ schoolbooks value the sacri-fice of life for the protection of their country and respect for their heroes.Seventh, the few photos and the illustration in both sides’ school books donot show much of stereotype.

This general profile of portrayals of the “other” is typical of schoolbooks of societies in conflict. Each society creates a national narrativebased on repeated descriptions of the other and its acts in negative terms,recounting of historical events from the perspective of the self-com-munity’s legitimate struggles for self-preservation in relation to threats ofdestruction or domination by the other, and the absence of informationthat legitimizes the presence and humanizes the other. These narrativeshelp sustain the community as it deals with the violence, losses anddeprivations of the conflict. However, they can also be obstacles to peaceas they engender fear, mistrust, misunderstanding and dehumanization ofthe other. Social scientists have described steps through which conflict-related national narratives can be modified, and some governments havetaken these steps in deliberate efforts to reduce conflict and promotepeace.

It is recommended that the Israeli and Palestinian Ministries of Edu-cation each establish a committee of Ministry staff and community ex-perts to review current and future books in light of the study findings andprepare a plan of action based upon the review. Additional steps will benecessary to facilitate similar processes regarding the books of the IsraeliUltra-Orthodox communities. A list of more specific possible action itemsis provided for consideration of interested parties.

prof. Sami Adwan

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The Palestines’ Need

Professor Sami Adwan facilitated a workshop on Wednesday morning onthe Middle East conflict. After an introductory lecture the participantswere divided into three groups as a part of a role play. To be able to viewthe conflict from the point of view of the Palestinians, the Israelis and theinternational society, the three groups withdrew to collect evidence and tocreate a written statement as a focal point for the role play discussion onthe issue of the Palestinian refugees.

Seen from an international perspectiveOur group of nine students and teachers was chosen to analyze theconflicts regarding the refugees from Palestine in Jordan, West Bank,Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. These refugees were driven from their homeseither by force from militant forces or by fear of these forces. Thefollowing issues were considered the most relevant and important todiscuss: the conflict over Jerusalem, two conflicting laws which relinquishownership of refugee homes to Israeli government, the problem ofreintegration and compensation to refugees, the issue of human rightsviolations, the importance of internal United Nations agreementregarding what to do, and the question of how action could be funded.

The two laws that were discussed are both Israeli. One law disallowsPalestinians from entering Israel. The other law states that if a house hasbeen abandoned for ten years, the estate becomes state property. This isan issue for Palestinians who were living in or whose ancestors were livingin Israel territory and who fled their homes to seek safety from conflictthat was occurring in 1948.

The issue of reintegration and compensation of refugees is one that ishighly controversial. Israelis claim that they should offer no compensationto those who fled, and the refugees should instead seek compensationfrom neighboring Arab nations. A relevant issue is where the funding forcompensation programs would come from. Our group consensus was thatthe funding should come from many industrialized nations. Also relevantis the suggestion that economic involvement from outside nations shouldshift from a military focus to a developmental focus.

The United Nations has previously concluded on actions that should betaken in regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The multiple decisionsthe UN made have not been effectively put into practice, and we believethis is because there is disagreement inside the UN in terms of what thebest course of action is. For this reason it is vital that the UN can agree ona plan that has support from a large majority within the UN, and that theUN is capable of enacting.

Another important issue is the upholding of the basic human rights ofthose who are involved in the conflict. There have been gross violationsfrom both sides, and something must be done so as to cease such horridactions.

Finally, there is the issue of the sharing of Jerusalem. Both groupsinvolved in this conflict lay claim to Jerusalem as a site of spiritualimportance. These are not the only groups that feel so strongly forJerusalem, however.

Seen from an Israeli perspectiveThe Palestinians left their homes I 1947-1948 for a variety of reasons

and against the wishes of Israel at the time. Thousands of wealthy Arabs

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left in anticipation of a war, thousands more responded to Arab leader’scalls to get out of the way of advancing armies, a handful were expelled,but most simply fled to avoid being caught in the cross fire of battle. Hadthe Arabs accepted the 1947 UN-resolution, not a single Palestinian wouldhave become a refugee and an independent Arab state would now existbeside Israel.

• The Arab world should be responsible for accepting Palestinianrefugees into their countries and assimilating them into their owncultures.

• The exchange of Palestinian leaving Israel and Jews fleeing Arabcountries for Israel since 1947 is roughly equal.

• International funds sustain/maintain the refugee camps.• If we (Israel) were to allow Palestinian refugees into Israel, the only

Jewish state in the world would cease to exist (returning refugees =death of Jews).

• in 1948 the Palestinians chose to leave their homes for variousreasons.

• Israel accepts no responsibility for the State of the economy inGaza, but rather view it as the fault of other Middle East countries,especially Egypt.

Seen from a Palestinian perspectiveAs a representative of the Palestinian refugee group, it was easy tosympathise with their cause based on my own feelings of home andproperty. It is safe to say that the rest of the group felt the same empathy,as we began to feel emotionally connected to the research we conducted tobetter understand the plight of the Palestinian refugees. As we found, thePalestinian refugee population is the largest in the world, and has beenfighting for recognition and homeland since 1948. Our view was that theinternational community supported the activities and sovereignty of Israelwith little regard to the Palestinian people.

We felt that we were due compensation and a sense of security,demands that the United Nations supported, but the Israelis andinternational community largely ignored. We further believed toaccomplish this, radical measures needed to be taken. Palestinians havebeen killed or displaced by Israeli troops, largely backed by the USgovernment. We felt that all US aid and support needed to cease, theyhave a country, we do not. Why do they receive the assistance when thePalestinian people are scattered about the world. We demand restitution,we want to build an economy, we should be able to have a home and tofeel safe there.

Summing upAfter our discussion and questions, it was clear that all sides involvedwere passionate about their positions, but then came the realization thatno one was completely right, but rather there were many of the sameconcerns and fears. The Israelis lived in as much fear as Palestinians, buteach side would manipulate history to support their cause. Each side hada need for homeland to reinforce their identity, and each side containedradical elements that don't want to compromise. Just in our shortdiscourse, it was obvious that identity and history motivate the actions ofboth sides in this conflict and each side has their own interpretations ifhistory. The more the sides interact and are willing to revisit history, thebetter chance progress can be made.

Jeff, Hanne, Terra and Stig

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Political Theatre

Our world: fascinating and wonderful, but also complicated and frustrat-ing. Sometimes it's perfect and sometimes you just have to wonder howunfair everything is. But is it so? What defines our world and which arethe factors that shape it? We all have been witnesses of moments thatmarked our course of history. We were witnesses of many moments thattook our breath away. Think about the first landing on the MOON; thinkabout the First World War; think about the Second World War; thinkabout the attack on the World Trade Center in New York; think aboutGandhi's Salt March; think about Mother Teresa; think about all the mo-ments that marked our history and that will never be forgotten. So, ourworld is actually continuously changing, surprising us every now andthen, but when it does, we all have to stop for a second and ask ourselves:Oau, what was that?

But still, the present tends to impress us more than the past. Whateverhappened in the past and had an influence on our planet, it still is past. Iwill give you an example of what I mean. Peter Brook, one of the greatesttheatre men made once an experiment. While being on stage in front of abig crowd of spectators, he asked one man to come on the stage and read alist with names. Those names represented people who died during theCrecy battle in 1346 (France). Here, the French army led by Philip VI wasdefeated by the English. So, those names were victims of this war. Afterthe spectator read the list, Brook asked the crowd if they were impressedby these names. The answer was negative. These things happened too longago. The history was bigger than their emotional capacity. However tragic,a moment may be, during time it loses its importance and its greatness.

But, after this reading, another spectator was asked to read another listwith names. This time the names represented people who died in Aus-chwitz. A deep silence reigned instantly in the theatre. This time the emo-tion was more overwhelming than the history. It was exactly the oppositefrom the first reading. Asked once more whether the audience was im-pressed by the reading of these names, they immediately said: YES! Yes,because the tragedy was a recent one. So, we can see that our present con-cerns us more than our past and also more than our future. In a way weare programmed to care of ourselves more than of anything else. But, if so,are we not responsible for our behavior? Ought we not to think about thefuture generations? Should we be ignorant towards our future? Should wenot want to know why things are the way they are? Should we not thinkabout sustainable development? Well, some seem not to think about thesethings - but some do!

We live nowadays in a world that changes so rapidly, that it is almostimpossible to keep up with this speed. In the last few years we witnessedmany negative records that seemed to raise questions among us that untilthis day didn't concern us. But because of heath records, nuclear disasters,natural disasters (floods, hurricanes, droughts etc.) we begin to be awarethat our world is facing a problem. More and more people are facingproblems, and the number of people that live under the poverty line hasincreased. Our world faces a political crisis. At least that's what many ex-perts say. The political systems are directly responsible for most of the badthings that happen to us. Well, it may be exaggerated, but it is true thatpolitics play an important role in our world. Actually politics shaped ourworld. Due to political decisions there have been wars, peace treaties,peace movements, and colonization etc.

Politics inspired many of us. But while some decided to be politicians,others declared war to politics. And these wars were different. But a fieldthat entered such a war was Theatre. Because of its importance, theatre

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influenced a lot the way of thinking of our society. People like BertholdBrecht, Shakespeare, Peter Brook, Peter Weiss, Arthur Miller and manyothers, decided to inform people about the way politics influence our lives.So, in this case Theatre was used as a weapon. It fought not only againstthe abusive policies, but it also fought against the ignorance of the masses,trying to teach. There is almost something magical about Theatre. It has apower that we cannot explain. But it imposes respect and dignity. Maybealso because Theatre does not seem to have a negative influence on oursociety! Even if something that we see on stage may concern us, or evenupset us, still Theatre cannot be blamed.

I would just want to point out that Theatre may be a solution to ourproblems. It can teach and it can help us know ourselves and the worldbetter. A study shows us that students involved in drama performancecoursework or experience outscored non-arts students on the 2005 SATby an average of 65 points in the verbal component and 34 points in themath component. Drama activities help us to improve reading under-standing and also are a cause for the development of our non-verbal com-munication skills. A 2005 Harris Poll showed that 93% of the peopleinterviewed believe that theatre is vital for a well-rounded education. So,theatre has the power. It is a power that some should fear. If exploitedwisely, it can change our world.

I remember participating in an International Theater festival. Therewere many participating countries taking part at that festival. But onething shocked me. Iranian and Iraqi actors were performing on stage to-gether. And this happened while Iran and Iraq were at war. The two na-tions met on the stage, creating a bridge between them. It wasoverwhelming to see how well they met on the stage. The whole audiencewas crying and cheering the actors. It was a moment that marked us all.That's when I realized what a great power Theater is.

Nowadays more and more theater writers tend to adapt to our needsand problems. We see cultural projects that are develop fast and whichhave big success. Such a project is “Hunger for Trade”.

“Hunger for Trade” is an inter-cultural performing arts project in re-sponse to the global food crisis. Eight theatres from four continents - ActeSept in Bamako (Mali), Indian Ensemble Bangalore (India), DeutschesSchauspielhaus Hamburg (Germany), State Theatre Pretoria (SouthAfrica), KVS Brüssel (Belgium), Odeon Theatre in Bucharest in Romania,a theatre in Brazil and The Royal Exchange in Manchester, UK - create inclose cooperation eight different performances. These performances arebased on a shared research, which is conducted and documented in eachparticipating country. The intense exchange between the seven partnersduring the research, rehearsing and performance process is a key factorfor the project, just as the transparency of the whole creation process to-wards an international public."

“Hunger for Trade” portrays the subjective perspective of differentstakeholders in different countries and brings them into a global context.It looks at the situation on the food market in a personal and at the sametime multi-perspective way. Therefore it cooperates with NGOs, scientistsand experts, who are engaged by each partner theatre as advisors".

As described, this project comes as an answer to one of the world'scrises. But it's only one of the steps that we have to make in order to makeour world a sustainable one. Let's not stop here. While I was writing theessay, I realized that the words actor and acting have something in com-mon. That is the verb ACT. So, let's act, not just sit, talk and presume. Andwhether it's theater, movie, music, writing... We should just choose aweapon and declare war to ignorance. Never forget the goal: a sustainableworld for our coming generations and, why not PEACE!

Iosif Csorba

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Wildlife

To summarize, Hornsjø consists of small pools of water, a sky without asun, wet firewood and no shopping centres. However, culicidae is whatputs wild into life. What was found at Hornsjø was a whole world popula-tion of mosquitoes. Small gnats, mosquitoes; big, noisy mosquitoes, quietmosquitoes, black ones, green ones, bloodsucking mosquitoes and notleast some satanic troublesome mosquitoes. In particular, the recentlymentioned type was particularly abundant. It was almost as one could seesatanic horns standing out of their heads. You are not surprised when youonce understand that Hornsjø really means the lake of the horn. Mosqui-toes are dangerous and outdoor life at Hornsjø carries risks that depres-sion, frostbite, drowning accidents, rabies, and homesickness will set in.This all created by the fear of what was bitten while using the forest as atoilet. After several days around in the wilderness at Hornsjø the fearcomes creeping, maybe the lower parts never again can be used for theirnormal function. Swollen, prickly, red and blue – not a sight for sore eyes(also swollen). The common stikkemygg – culicidae – (satanic bloodsucker in English) develops in stagnant water (also known as Hornsjø).Wikipedia tells us that there are approximately 40 species in Norway.Never trust the Internet – I can swear that there are at least 60 species atHornsjø alone.

an Anonymous Anaemic

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List of ParticipantsGrouped by Delegations in alphabetical order.

Germany

Ania PukajloPhotographerapukajlo@gmx.netHanns­Fred RathenowEditor in Chiefrathenow@tu-berlin.dePredrag RajevicPhotographerrajpred@aol.com(and Tom Theodor)

Lithuania

Laura Stantutellaurasstaniute@gmail.com

The Netherlands

Avelien Huitemaavelienhuitema@hotmail.com

Lennart Pouwelslenpouwels@gmail.com

Luke KampmanFacilitator of Workshop “A”l.kampman@nhl.nlMarjolijn Kruizingamkruizinga56@gmail.com

Martine de Winkelmartinedewinkel@gmail.com

Richtsje ZeilstraFacilitator of Workshop “B”richtsjezeilstra@hotmail.comRixt de Vriesrixxie_de_vries@hotmail.com

Norway

Astrid Weggastrid_wegge@yahoo.com

Elin Therese Jovalelijov@drmk.no

Hanne Irene Pettersenhipe@online.no

Mattias Noras Larsenmatias.noras1995@gmail.com

Øyvind Wistrømoyvind.wistrom@hive.no

Stephan Jacobssonstephan.jacobsson@drmk.no

Stig BjørsholEditor in Chiefstig.bjorshol@hive.no

Palestine

prof. Sami Adwanadwan.sami@gmail.com

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Poland

Monika Kaliszewskakaliszewska.m@gmail.com

Paulina Umińskapaulina.uminska@gmail.com

Piotr Dobrzyńskipiotr.dobrzynski@gmail.com

United States of America

Hazel Betzazel_mel@yahoo.com

Jeff Piercejeffrey.pierce.8065@mail.linnbenton.eduJosh Youngbumbaloe62@gmail.com

Scott McAleerFacilitator of Workshop “C”scottmcaleer@yahoo.comSteve Eidecpbysteve@yahoo.com

Terra Nelsonterralynn227@yahoo.com

One World Institute

Agnese Tucaagnesetuca@gmail.com

Alin Dinalinvscafu@yahoo.com

Alina AchimTeacher of 2013 March Teamalina_achim2000@yahoo.com.auAndrás Mezeiobejo008@yahoo.com

Balu ErtlLayout Editorwrite.me@baluertl.comDaiva Cechovaitesecretary.drh.norway@gmail.com

Euclid Mendes Moreiramendsmoreira@hotmail.com

Iosif Csorbaioshy87@yahoo.com

Liga Hermaneliigahermane@gmail.com

Márk Kisskissmark1987@gmail.com

Michal Bormichal.bor@seznam.cz

Ole Blochole@drh-norway.org

Smaranda Ciobansmari_cioban@yahoo.com

Tudor Vlad Eneatu26dor@gmail.com

Valerian Munteanuvali_vvv@yahoo.com

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Table of ContentsNot just any bridge ................................................................................ 2Dear Reader ........................................................................................... 3Lillehammer city .................................................................................... 4The Hornsjø Experience ........................................................................ 5Interview with Ole Bloch ....................................................................... 7Interview with Alina Achim ................................................................... 8Symposium Program 2013 .................................................................. 10History of the Symposium .................................................................... 11

The Results of the WorkshopsWorkshop “A” – New Populism ........................................................... 15Workshop “B” – Shop 'till You Drop .................................................... 17Workshop “C” – Damn Dams .............................................................. 19Some side effects of our workAllemannsretten ................................................................................... 27Digital Self-Defense ............................................................................. 28Development or Sustainable Contraction? .......................................... 31To Be or To Have ................................................................................. 32On the Middle East ProblemPortrayal of the “Others” ..................................................................... 33The Palestines’ Need ............................................................................ 35MiscellaneousPolitical Theatre ................................................................................... 37Wildlife ................................................................................................. 39List of Participants .............................................................................. 40Table of Contents ................................................................................. 42

Page #01 Front Cover: cb “Visegrad Drina Bridge 1” by Julijan Nyča on Jan 01, 2008 atViμegrad, Republika Srpska, BA via Flickr (goo.gl/UXl9M) • Page #02: p “Mehmed PasaSokolovic Bridge Visegrad” by Unknown Author via Wikimedia (goo.gl/S7R6e) •p “Visegraddrina” by Rudolf Horvat via Wikimedia (goo.gl/sd0fa) • cb “Visegrad Drina Bridge 2” byJulijan Nyča on Jan 01, 2008 via Flickr (goo.gl/XpXbV) • Page #04: cb “lillehammer” byIsaac Mao on September 13, 2008 via Flickr (goo.gl/hFMu2) • cba “Lysgårdsbakkene SkiJumping Arena” by Philippe Teuwen on August 3, 2008 at Lillehammer, Oppland Fylke, NOvia Flickr (goo.gl/d1cnE) • Page #05: cb “lillehammer” by mcxurxo on June 11, 2009 atLillehammer, Oppland Fylke, NO via Flickr (goo.gl/PouLD) • Page #36: cb “WalpurgisNight Bonfire” by Rutger Blom on April 30, 2012 at Lund, Skane, SE via Flickr(goo.gl/UOeK0) • All other images not listed above are made by participants of the symposium.

Photo Credits

The official whitepaper of the “16th International Symposium on Education for Peace,Justice, and Human Rights” held on 23 – 30 June, 2013 in Hornsjø, Norway.Editor in Chiefs: Hanns-Fred Rathenow and Stig BjørsholArticle Authors: Ania Pukajlo, Balu Ertl, Hanne Irene Pettersen, Hanns-Fred RathenowIosif Csorba, Jeff Pierce, Luke Kampman, Øyvind Wistrøm, RichtsjeZeilstra, prof. Sami Adwan, Scott McAleer, Stig Bjørshol, Terra NelsonPhotographers: Ania Pukajlo and Predrag RajevicLayout Editor: Balu Ertlcbna Published under “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported” licence.For more information about the usage rights please read the full licence on the CreativeCommons' website: http://goo.gl/zQz0z. Proudly created with open-source software:Scribus, Gimp, Inkscape, LibreOffice. Follow us on Facebook: http://goo.gl/YlRoS

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