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NGO Market offers shopping for social activists

Annual gathering includes English-language debates and presentations this year

By Elisabeth Amante Heys
For The Prague Post
March 28th, 2007 issue

More than 30 years into “multiculturalism,” most people still lead fairly segregated lives. Without leadership to promote civic interaction, old attitudes stay locked in place and cities become ghettos, in the view of Phil Wood, a partner with Comedia, a British urban-planning firm.  

Wood will be in Prague April 4 as part of the NGO Market, a daylong event designed to bring leaders of nongovernmental organizations, political leaders and the public together to ponder the world’s most pressing social issues, and offer some ideas for dealing with them. Representatives from more than 100 NGOs will host booths, offer Fair Trade refreshments and other NGO products, solicit volunteers and join in a full schedule of lectures, debates and seminars. There will be a special section for exhibitors from abroad, which this year include countries as far-flung as Lebanon, Israel and Taiwan, and as close as the Visegrad group (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) .
NGO Market

When: Wednesday, April 4, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
Where: Tyršův dům, Újezd 40, Prague 1–Malá Strana
Admission: The event is free and open to the public

NGO Market, in its eighth year, is sponsored by the Forum 2000 Foundation, a joint initiative founded in 1996 by then President Václav Havel, Japanese philanthropist Yohei Sasakawa and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel. Forum 2000 aims to identify ways to prevent conflicts that have religion, culture or ethnicity as their primary components. The organization sponsors an annual conference in Prague that usually includes Havel and other political and intellectual luminaries.
While the conference is typically a collection of elder statesmen, NGO Market is aimed at a young audience, according to Jana Neupauerová, who is coordinating the event this year.
“We are targeting the young because they are not burdened with the prejudices of the past,” she says, adding that schools throughout the Czech Republic have been invited to get involved with NGO Market, particularly university political science students.
Certainly a younger crowd seems more likely to be receptive to ideas such as those espoused by Wood, who has an almost Utopian view of what he calls an “Intercultural City.”
But the impetus for that starts at the top, he says.
“[Political leaders] firstly must have the courage to challenge the racists and separatists,” Wood says via e-mail. “They must demonstrate to the people that cultural mixing is the only way the city can move forward. They must encourage a lively public sphere in which dialogue, argument and disagreement are possible, but in which the seeking of common ground is always a priority. They must dispense power and resources to the bridge-builders, not the gatekeepers.”
Wood stresses that he’s talking about more than tolerance. In his Intercultural City, residents see cultural mixing as a value in and of itself. “We need to relearn the principles of civility — the belief that through the way we interact with each other on a daily basis we can make a change,” he says.
Wood will be presenting his ideas in a lecture at 3:30 p.m. Other English-language events on the schedule include:
■ A 10 a.m. discussion on the role and perception of NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe, especially in post-communist countries
■ A 2:30 presentation on water shortage and drought problems in the Middle East
■ A 4 p.m. debate on corporate social responsibility, sponsored by the European online magazine cafebabel.com
    
If your Czech is good, some of the other events are even more provocative. At 1:30 p.m., a celebrity panel that includes Vendula Svobodová and Aňa Geislerová will discuss the pros and cons of having celebrities involved in NGO activities. And, if you’re looking to get involved in meaningful volunteer work yourself, a 1 p.m. seminar will offer practical advice for getting started.  
But language need not be a barrier. All the organizations are eager to promote an awareness and understanding of their activities, and a “volunteer fair” portion of the event will help the inspired find a good fit for their interests.
That kind of involvement is key, particularly in a country still adjusting to ideas of personal responsibility and community involvement. As Wood notes, “Changes, no matter how great, have to start with the individual.”

Elisabeth Amante Heys can be reached at tempo@praguepost.com


Other articles in Tempo (28/03/2007):

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