ABSTRACTS

Introduction

Cultural Environmental Movement?
What, Why and How?
In December 1990 a small group held a meeting in Washington in a borrowed conference room to launch the so called 'Cultural Environmental Movement'. Their aims are to explore the problem of the symbolic environment: becoming more and more centralized and commercialized, and to find the way toward a more democratic cultural policy.

Symbols

Man
Man as the centre of the world of symbols from various viewpoints-Translation from the book entitled Dictionnaire des Symboles (Dictionary of Symbols)

Environment and Culture

Gaia Review
Here is America
The 4 May 1992 episode of 'Gaia'
Ecological Film Magazine on Hungarian T\/ 1 dealt with our everyday life becoming rapidly Americanized by showing the more and more centralized symbolic environment serving the goals of mass consumption. László Hollós talked with the invited guests. Extracts from the programme.

Szabolcs Baróti:
The Reality of Utopias Adventures around 'Ecopolis'
First of all one's spiritual driving force (patience, joy of life, love of work) depends on one's relation to the environment. 'Where do you live?' has become an important question on the case sheets of patients suffering from neurosis.

György Szegő:
Resource-art. Aft-religion
As a result of the expanding European civilisation we live in an unnatural world, in a constant struggle with desecrated nature. The artists try to warn us, that this war against nature will ultimately prove fatal for the human race.

Imre Bak:
Art in the Cultural Environment of the Turn of the Millennium
The great dream of a 'modern' world, launched by the Enlightenment is fading away. Its revolutionary excitement has settled down. Contemplating its achievements and failures calmly and critically, we begin weaving new dreams.

Ferenc Bodor:
Scenes from Pest Citizens' Lives in the 20th Century
The scenes, the culture of a bygone world. Where and how did the citizens of Pest use to live? The short history of cafés, from the elegant beginning until the appearance of the first frugal coffee-bars in Budapest.

Tamás Sajó:
How the Meaning of Diósgyőr's Main Street Has Changed?
A town history from birth to ruin, symbolized by the fate of a main street.

The Precise Moment the Picture is Stopped
Thoughts about the concept of picture, the possibilities and dangers of technology, and the need of keeping it under control.

László Hollós:
The Moment Caught or Where to Stop the Picture?
What does fair play mean in the world of humour? An interview with Tivadar Farkasházy, the chief editor of the satirical biweekly journal 'Hócipő'.
'l have never begged a politican's pardon, and I will never do it:.'

Sándor Balázs:
Advertising in a Trap From
'Shoes from the Shoe shop' to 'Mr. and Ms. Hair'. The role of advertisements in general and in the special Hungarian situation of transition from socialism to capitalism.

Eco-test

Opinions from Different Viewpoints
Children as the Young Objects of Temptation
Barbie, GI Joe, McDonalds serve as models for our children. Creativity, fantasy, team spirit are all replaced by international standards. The traditional toys and games of childhood are out of fashion. But how can we expect original ideas, creativity from a young man socialized in such a way

Ways and Ways out

Historic
Manor Preservation in Transylvania
Since the changes of 1989 in Romania, it has become possible to study Hungarian monuments there more openly, and to assess their states. The relations between the institutions of the two countries seems to be encouraging and hopeful. The Gaudium Foundation had the opportunity to contact the Technological University of Kolozsvár, proposing that a common fieldwork should be held in Alvinc at Martinuzzi Manor. which was in bad condition...
Extracts from the report of the Gaudium Foundation.

The Fairy Tale House in Békéscsaba
'Once upon a time there was a nice, old house in Békéscsaba waiting for everybody who was interested in folk art, folklore, ethnography...'
Well, the old house mentioned above still stands open there, like in a fairy tale, inviting the young and the old to see the exhibitions, to play games, to tell tales and listen to them, to keep tradition alive.

The Island
Plans of an 'Ecopark' on Óbuda Island. The organisers ask for help to establish an ecological park serving the aims of rest and education on a peaceful island.

Ecology and Economy

New Economics
The aim of the New Economics, as of conventional economics, is to facilitate economic development. The difference derives from its interpretation of the word 'development', which, to differentiate it from the present paradigm, is sometimes called 'Another Development'.
Extracts from the book entitled The Living Economy. A New Economics in the Making'. Translated by Tamás Hosszú.

Ecology and Ideology

József Zelnik:
Cultural Environment or Harnessing Our Life
One of the well-known, frightening images of ecological literature is, that the first men on Mount Everest left the empty oxygen bottles there. They left the litter there and didn't realise they were on such a sacred place on Earth, where even all-conquering man must not litter.

Wendell Berry:
Don't Think Globally!
Arguments against the harmful and dangerous slogan of think globally, act locally'. in the author's opinion, global thinkers are responsible for the mess we are in. Remedy lies in self-sufficient local communities, making peace with their environment. Think locally and act locally is the only way forward.'
(This article is taken from the The Atlantic Monthly)

Lajos Eff:
Could the Human Right to a Healthy Environment be a Constitutional Right? Beyond the Declaration
There is an appalling difference in people's life expectancy according to the quality of their environment, deepening the social inequality which already existed. What should be done to prevent the right to a healthy environment remaining a dead letter?

Tenth Assembly of the Fourth World,
July 3rd-6th 1991 Charter of Community Rights
The primary condition of the democratic control over our political and economic affairs 15, that the local communities should be given power.
The Draft of the Charter of Community Rights, is one of the documents prepared by the Forum.