News from YIP – One year of making sense

Recommendations to Rio+20 from YIP4 Participants

Mon, 14 May 2012 10:24:00 +0200

Memorandum to the organising committee of the Rio +20 conference, June 2012, from the Participants of the International Youth Initiative Program in Sweden

Introduction

The International Youth Initiative Program (YIP) is now in its 4^th year and provides an opportunity for 40 young people aged 19-25 to spend a year in intensive study and project work to prepare themselves for an active role in promoting virtuous change in the world to deliver a human-centered future, sustainable lifestyles and a world that respects all its citizens and works to improve the physical, environmental, spiritual well-being of all world citizens.

More information on YIP can be found on www.yip.se

During the week beginning 23^rd April 2012 YIP participants undertook debate, design and policy-oriented project work to identify how to deliver a sustainable future for the planet and its inhabitants and how to design and deliver high quality sustainable lifestyles that avoid over-consumption and eradicate poverty and inequality.

On Friday 27^th April the group decided to bring all these discussions and conclusions together in a formal memorandum to the Rio + 20 conference with a strong message that very specific and tangible changes need to be made by local communities, national governments and international organizations to deliver sustainability. These are the changes the group wishes to see put in place in the world and we formally submit them to you for consideration and adoption.

Recommendations

Societal

Fulfill requirements of millennium development goals.
Free sexual health service worldwide.
Developed nations should fund basic numeracy and literacy development programs in low income and middle income countries (no multinational/corporate funding/propaganda).
Increase in education of sustainability topics.

Economics

Develop and use alternative progress measurement to GDP e.g. the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW); ISEW should always increase.
Reserve bank is not allowed to charge interest.
Agreed industry standards (recycling, energy, cradle to cradle).
De-privatization of water, education, healthcare, public transport.
Introduce basic income, an unconditional, government-insured guarantee that all citizens will have enough income to meet their basic needs.
50% reduction in military spending worldwide (funds to clean transport, clean water, organic and local food production, renewable energy, and cradle to cradle).

Environment and Food

Planetary boundaries (Note 1) - a requirement to avoid breaching boundaries and repair those dimensions already breached should be mandated in international law by 2022.
Action plan for recycling in every country.
Each country must return to 1950's forestry percentage within ten years.
100% organic agriculture worldwide (subsidized) in ten years.
All food should be produced on small scale local farms, make large-scale monoculture illegal.
Reduce meat production by 35% in three years (2015... Money goes to subsidize vegetarian food production).
No genetically modified organisms.

Energy and Transport

Move investments from nuclear energy to renewable energy technology, deconstruct ALL nuclear plants, and reach 90% renewable energy by 2022.
RIO + 20 call to action – 10% energy reduction per family worldwide, increase in renewable energy for each family.
Reduction in cost of train travel and increase in cost of plane travel.
No private vehicles in city centers; public transport, walking and cycling only.

Contacts

Pieter Ploeg, YIP Co-ordinator

Professor John Whitelegg, Facilitator for the week on sustainable development and sustainable lifestyle

Note

Planetary boundaries reference http://www.stockholmresilience.org/download/18.8615c78125078c8d3380002197/ES-2009-3180.pdf

Make a Buzz about the Bees

Fri, 04 May 2012 11:35:00 +0200

Honey bees fulfill an essential role in the world’s food chain. Approximately 1/3 of all food on the planet depends on bee pollination.

Bees are having a hard time lately; they’re dying in droves. Beekeepers have seen average population losses of around 30 percent every year since 2006. This is probably the result of three factors: large-scale use of insecticides in conventional agriculture, a downward trend in general biodiversity, and the spread of bee diseases as a result of globalization. The way bees are being kept probably plays a role as well.

Organic agriculture tackles two of the three causes of the decimation of bee populations: organic agriculture provides for increased biodiversity, and no chemical compounds (i.e. neonicotine) are used in production. 

On April 22, Nature & More launched the "Bees Love Organic" campaign. During the campaign period from April till July they are going to hand out 400,000 bags of bee-friendly flower seeds in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and here in Sweden at YIP! By planting these seeds in your garden or on your balcony you will help to create 400,000 square meters of organic, flowery, bee-friendly environment.

Buy organic fruits from Nature & More to get free seeds, or order them via bijenpad@natureandmore.com

YIP and Initiative Forum are collaborating with Nature & More to help the bees! Nature & More sponsored all of the organic fruit and most vegetables at Initiative Forum, and provides us with organic flower seeds. Now we ask for your help in this campaign to help the bees!

What can you do?

- Plant organic flowers everywhere!
- Buy only Organic Food (not sprayed with pesticides or neonicotine)
- Don't use pesticides (especially neonicotine)
- Sign a petition: http://www.avaaz.org/en/bayer_save_the_bees/
- Support your local beekeepers
- Become a beekeeper

Initiative Forum 2012 Harvest

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:32:00 +0100

Process Reflections Initiative Forum 2012

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:27:00 +0100

One thing is for sure, no matter what the outcome of Initiative Forum 2012, the planning and organizing process that we have gone through has been intense. It has been a journey that has given us very valuable and hard-earned understandings of how people work together. In today’s Western culture, we are taught from a young age to take and give instructions. It is how our conventional educational systems are designed, how our businesses are often run, and how our governments are usually set up. We are not taught to meet our peers and colleagues face-to-face as equals and share our beliefs, ideas, and prejudices. To decide a theme for a weeklong forum, plan the schedule, and bring the whole thing to life when there are no hierarchies and everyone’s opinions are held equally is something completely novel for us; it is an exercise in compromise and open-mindedness. People have very different perspectives and opinions of how things should happen, and very often these are strongly held opinions that have their roots deep within our personalities and world-views. But these are people we have to work with, eat with, and live with. We have to learn to be honest with ourselves just as much as we have to be honest with the other person. And even when we are honest, there is no guarantee we will understand each other—most of the time it is not what we say but how we say it. Learning to throw off the top-down approach to decision making and instead self-organize in a participatory manner is not something that can be taught or learned from of a book. It has to be experienced first-hand and we have to retain such a degree of objectivity and wisdom as to be able to reflect on the proceedings, and then have the self-discipline to make personal adjustments. It is certainly not easy, and I very much doubt we will have perfected this art by the end of Initiative Forum 2012. But we will have begun our journey—a journey that is necessary if we ever want to stand a chance of repairing the damage our old societies have inflicted upon each other and the planet. Self-organizing is so much more effective and quicker than working through hierarchical relationships. It allows us to use our imagination, to be creative, and work where and how we are best suited. But for this to happen, we have to relinquish our grasp on order and control. We have to ask ourselves, ‘What IF we are brave enough to fully place our trust in those around us and walk into the unknown?’

The YIP Game: Change, Network, Win!

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:00:00 +0100

Tell the story about how you make change happen, and activate your network to collect points and...

Application Now Online!

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:21:00 +0100

The Application Form for YIP 2012–2013 is now available, and it will remain open until 10 June...

OASIS Södertälje

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:27:00 +0100

The Oasis Game is a tool that promotes civil mobilization, to awake and give impulse to communities through fast actions with a high impact. During the project week 9 participants hosted a game in Hovsjö Skolan in Södertälje. Mini-documentary of the game:
http://youtu.be/t5QWOT2WCxQ Website of the project
http://oasissodertalje.withtank.com

Invitation for Initiative Forum 2012

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:40:00 +0100

What IF...? What IF 40 young people host a forum where the challenges of our world today can be transformed into opportunities through shared understanding, inspiration, and collaboration?
What IF we celebrate our connection to each other, nature, and life, and emerge together?
What IF you participate in the 2^nd annual Initiative Forum in Järna, Sweden from April 7-14, 2012? 7^th and 8^th of April:
The first two days will be the YIP days. The International Youth Initiative Program (YIP) invites its participants, alumni, contributors, network, old and new friends to revisit the vision and purpose and co-create the future of the program together. We started this process in 2011 and will deepen certain of the outcomes of this process during the 2012 YIP days. Everyone is warmly invited to bring their ideas for the future of YIP! 9^th – 14^th of April:
During the following five days the Initiative Forum will be a place for all of us to share, exchange, connect and celebrate with one another the initiatives, questions, knowledge and journeys we are all living. We invite all individuals, initiatives, and partner organizations, who are working both within and beyond the YIP network to participate in lectures, open spaces, discussions, presentations and cultural events. The Initiative Forum 2012 will create a strong foundation that supports the bringing of a new future into being in our personal lives and environments. We are inspired to open the space of Initiative Forum for your dreams and inspirations. Come and enlighten your spring! The organizing team of the Initiative Forum at YIP You can get further information and indicate your interest at initiativeforum.yip.se

Chaordic Occupation

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:46:00 +0100

Goosebump inducing if you ask me!

The entire theme of chaordic leadership is fascinating and even more so that it has been given a name.

It explains the kind of leadership that is needed in times of chaos in order for order to arise.

Allow me to put what I speak of into context. We were happily skipping along our YIP path feeling somewhat in control of what we felt and what we were involved in.

As with life, some sort of interruption had to arise.

In It arrived in the form of an invitation to participate wholeheartedly in the Occupy Stockholm movement. The invitation itself was a lesson to all. If I had to sum it up, I would let it seep into your mind and heart with the use of this quote, “Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected” Mahatma Ghandi.

While the group dealt with this invitation and the feelings it brought up I decided to see what it was all about and decide if amidst all the madness, I could find a little spot of comfort or growth.

I swiftly fulfilled the role of communicator or mediator between those at Occupy Stockholm and YIP (our home).

It became increasingly difficult to satisfy the collective needs.

This is where the most powerful learning I acquired from Chaordic Leadership came in to save the day.

I realised that chaordic leadership need not only apply to the madness and chaos we find in the outside world (and there is a lot of it) it also applies quite deeply to our internal conflicts, on an emotional and mental level. When we are flooded with so many options and opportunities and we feel paralysed by what to do next.

How do we bring that internal chaos into order?

How do we best lead ourselves?

I stumbled upon yet another favourite quote, this time by David Allen, which reminded me of a sheer reality that I needed to address - `You can do anything but not everything`.

It was time to stop and re-evaluate what was within my capabilities.

I ended up silencing all the noise around me and sitting with my internal voices and finally decided upon following what felt right.

Me and a couple of other YIPPIES are still playing an important role in `Occupy Stockholm` movement and are still battling with the endless chaos which is the internal and external voices and options of how to face this particular situation.

This has been a priceless experience for the YIP4 family and the course content and the events could not have been better aligned.

What a gift! Although it didn't feel like it at the time.

As we continue on our turbulent, challenging, beautiful, sometimes painful yet enriching journey that is YIP we continue to use the concept of Chaordic Leadership to sift through what we should do next.

We live and we learn and we continue to jump.

Reflections by Caleb

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:43:00 +0100

I however, hold the belief that impossible is only that which has not yet happened, so I shall try. Over a year ago 40 people gathered together to share something. Themselves. To be born in a cloud of hellfire enthusiasm. Creating such a want to love it hurt. When the dust would settle from all around could be heard voices asking “who am I?” Through pressure awakened to our more silent places. The slow crystallization of what I mean. And you. You who are unknowable. You whose light illuminates my dark and in turn whose dark calls forth my light. One year of dipping our toes in the pool of creation and seeing how it feels to break the surface. Now the year is over. Sometimes the silence is deafening. Without your pressure my form loosens. The man behind the desk tries his best to persuade me it was just a dream. That, what I remember are just the recollections of childish naïveté. When I still my breath and listen however, somewhere from my centre rises that which was given by you. The unknowable taking me in its hands and striding forward.