I want to briefly introduce the project mentioned in my first blog entry.
One of my interests is sustainability including sustainable settlements as a way of life. The Place Spotters Project is aimed to share information of already existing or about-to-be-created locations with sustainable lifestyle. The information is shared in three ways: via website, newsletters and meetings. Registration is simple, quick and free and only Hungarian - sorry!
The second project goes beyond sharing information.
A group of around 40 Place Spotters started to design a virtual ecovillage. It is like a game, just like our lives. We work and plan our common future while having fun together. The challenge is to create a place of living in line with the ecovillage idea, on paper and in our minds. The added bonus is a community with members with working relationships and the most essential trust at the end.
UK readers likely heard about the Transition Towns movement. I've been hoping to find a way to adopt this great idea in Hungary since I attended the initial meeting in Totnes in 2006. However, it does not suit Eastern Europe, I came to realise. My view is that priority should be given to community building in Hungary and other countries of the Eastern Block. I know it sounds odd but communism destroyed communities first and did a great damage to families. We need to find new ways to rebuild the social web. This building should be based on love and trust. As trust exist in the UK already, TTs were able to start with co-operation.
With different approach, the goal of both the Hungarian project and the TTs in the UK in to enhance resilience and sustainability. Neither encourages going back to Victorian times or the Middle Ages but combines new and old technologies to do something inspiring, something great that is easy to follow or adopt. The first TT in the UK was a model and we want to create a model, too. A model for way of living, way of life. A way out of the present crisis.
More to come later. Please give me some encouragement by leaving your comment if you find this interesting. Thanks for reading.
In my 31 October 2012 entry (http://moved2east.blogspot.hu/2012/10/place-spotters-helykeresok.html) I said the Transition Town idea is not fit for Hungary. I was wrong. The TT movement started in Hungary with a few towns in the Friends of Climate Association (http://klimabarat.hu/node/185) in 2007-2008. I see quite a few initiatives focused on locality and sustainability including evolving to-be and existing ecovillages, community cooperatives and self-resilient villages such as Rozsaly (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16309078).
ReplyDelete