Issue 1 - Welcome Edition – Saturday 29 July
Global Village: a space to learn, to experience and to connect
Uwe Ostendorff
It's here at last! The big event that everyone has been talking about all year — Global Village — has begun.
From all corners of the globe, groups have travelled by bus, bike, boat and plane, gathering here in the UK at one of the largest meetings of International Falcon Movement members ever.
For many months we have all been working in our national organisations to prepare for this day, raising funds, planning travel schedules, choosing delegations. The excitement was growing with every single day. And now we are here.
Five thousand young peoplew will join together at this unique camp. But this camp is ot just unique because we are so many. It is also unique because we have a very ambitious programme. When we planned the camp we agreed on ten themes how to make the world a better place.
They are based on the ‘Millennium Development Goals’, adopted in the year 2000, which commit the whole world to achieve a set of concrete goals by 2015. They aim, for example, to cut world poverty by half.
But we say the aim should be no poverty. We want the same rights and opportunities for everybody. This is what we discussed when we created this camp. During the Global Village we want to tackle these issues in our particular way.
When we want to understand things we need to touch, experience and feel them. You can smell, taste and listen to our future. We learn with all our senses. We discuss with patience. When simple answers are not enough we are not afraid to tackle difficult ones. Where others repeat the same old story we ask critical questions. And while elsewhere big issues are discussed in air-conditioned conference halls we tackle them in our camps.
From our earliest childhood we learn to take the things as they are. Political decisions are led by so called objective facts. Experts propose solutions without presenting alternatives. That’s the reason why more and more young people turn away from the democratic decision-making process.
With Global Village we want to create something different. We want to motivate young people to question, to develop their ideas, and to change the world together. Global Village will be a wonderful space to learn, to experience, and to connect. And we won’t do this alone. Instead, we will share this unique experience all together because we know that another world is possible.
And, together, we will span the world with friendship!