Posted: Mar. 25 2005,07:01 |
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PROGRESS: Has your organization seen
progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of
action and in your constituency during the first half of the Decade? |
Since
the 9/11 events the whole world came into a rapid of awareness. After
the sixties where it all began, the seventies where everybody joined
the debates, and the eighties where consumers began to help and to
finance new projects, we are now in a phase of professionalizing
"consumer governance". After centuries of an economy of question and
offering we are now learning to build an economy of questions and
answers! Especially since 2004 consumers realize that they are
end-users (and financiers) of all processes. That they are themselves
the basis for a culture of peace and nonviolence! Indicators are the
many special reports and initiatives coming up since 2004! The consumer
has grown mature into this 21st century. See also the worldwide
democratizations and Forums.
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OBSTACLES: What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress?
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Awareness
is a irreversible process. Maturity will always be a learning process
in the sense of "education permanente"! We see now that we as consumers
and consumerassociations face in "consumer governance" the same
problems as in corporate governance and government governance. Most
obstacles in the past were the unawareness untill 9/11, internet,
democratization. In practice you see that we had to wait untill our
generation of students in the sixties came into the position to put our
money where our mouth is!
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ACTIONS: What actions have been
undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence during the first half of the Decade?
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Six
billion individuals are co-responsible for a culture of peace and
nonviolence. We all have to learn to ask the right questions to hope
for the right answers. How can we help each other? Like the MIT
University in Boston did with "open-course-ware" we placed all our
core-knowledge about consumer governance on the internet. A summary of
it is on the english page of www.vrijeconsumenten.nl and later hopefully in an fully english website.
Photos from training of EU consumer unions in Brussels
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ADVICE: What advice would you like to
give to the Secretary-General and the General Assembly to promote a
culture of peace and nonviolence during the second half of the Decade? |
Tell everybody in the world in a way that Bill Clinton should say: "It's the consumer stupid!"
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PARTNERSHIPS: What partnerships and
networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the
global movement for a culture of peace? |
Consumers International (affiliate membership) BEUC - Europe / Consumentenbond - Netherlands All kinds of consumer associations Especially many innovative initiatives World Social Forum / Dutch Social Forum World Watch Inst / Triodosbank (co-founder)
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PLANS: What new engagements are
planned by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence in the second half of the Decade (2005-2010)? |
Consumer education in "consumer governance" via
website, lectures, seminars, articles, press releases, joining debates,
helping with new developments in innovative consumer initiatives.
Especially individual consumers. (2001 was the foundation year,
2002/3 finishing old tasks and jobs, 2004 the start of interviews
articles and seminars. So 2005-2010 and further on we've got a lot of
work to do!)
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Postal address of organization
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Aristotelesstraat 783 7323NS Apeldoorn Netherlands
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E-mail address of organization
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info@vrijeconsumenten.nl
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Website address of organization
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www.vrijeconsumenten.nl
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Highest priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Understanding, tolerance, solidarity
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Second priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Education for a culture of peace
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Highest priority country of action (or international)
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INTERNATIONAL
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Second priority country of action (or international)
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Netherlands
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