Introduction

Autonomy
"The autonomous person must constantly practice judgement over him/herself. He who conquers nature is not great, but he, who is able to conquer his own nature, is. In the depths of true human freedom lies the knowledge and practice of the divine laws of nature."
 

Symbol

The Circle
"The circle is primarily a point with an extension. ... Therefore the point and the circle have mutual symbolic meaning: perfection, simplicity, the lack of division and differentiation. ... Circular movement is perfect, unchangeable, without beginning or end: this renders it possible for the circle to symbolize time."
 

Autonomy - Self-Sufficiency

Józsa Hévizi: 
What is Autonomy Good For?
What have the various forms of autonomy meant to minorities living in Hungary over the centuries and why are Hungarians living as minorities in the neighboring countries strive for autonomy now?

Áron Tóbiás: 
The Dream of Mankind to Create a Garden of Eden. 
The Realistic Utopias of Laszló Németh
"Few writers are not satisfied with merely publishing eruptions and lava-flows of thought, but strive to create a unity between the exuberant world surrounding them, the historical past, and the tangible future. This was precisely the work method of the writer László Németh. ... 'East was the place of the holy crusades, Europe that of the Renaissance, the continent slumbering in matter, America, the world of steam, gas and electricity the place of capitalism. Our place is a new world capable of accepting millions: the Garden, quality-agriculture. ... The Garden is just as much a symbol of our century as the factory was a symbol of the previous one.' "

Attila Ertsey: 
The Dörögdi-Basin - Microcosm and Macrocosm
Know yourself and you know the world; know the world and you know yourself. These words of wisdom, written in a wall in Greece, basically mean: what is inside is outside, and what is outside is inside.

Tamás Almássy: 
Rainbow Economy. 
The Possibility of Achieving a Human-Scale World
Wholeness is necessary in order to achieve autonomy. Therefore, the autonomy of a narrowed down area, for example of only economy or culture, cannot be lasting. Each element has its own role and unless we strive for independence in all areas, imbalance will result. The collective term for these processes, initiatives serving an approach to local autonomy, is "rainbow economy".

Colin Hines: 
A Global Manifesto. Localization - a Timely Concept
A chapter-for-chapter summary of Hines's book Localization. A Global Manifesto published in London, in 2000.

Tibor Bartos: 
A Blessing in Disguise
Milka cows need green pastures and hogs need hogwash. Both of these need water. Winter fodder, hayfields, cornfields, butterfly bushes, and swill: all need water. If we let our sewage flow straight into our drinking water, then sooner or later we will have to draw upon and clean our subterranean water to make it fit to drink for humans and animals alike. For we have heard of helicopters distributing mineral water to flooded villagers in Bereg County, but were the cows given Perrier to drink? If not, then what did they drink?

Letter to Zoltán Illés
Letter from the Eco-Region Foundation for Sustainable Development to Zoltan Illes, president of the Hungarian Parliament Environmental Protection Committee concerning the severe problems faced by small settlements in the area of water purification.

Balázs Bozzay: 
Modifications in the Regulation and Financing 
of Water Purification Systems in Smaller Settlements
The needs and possibilities of areas of the country in which the settlement structure is primarily that of small villages with a population of 500-1,000, are quite different than in areas with a high number of towns and cities. However, legal, trade and financial systems regulating the development of public utilities, rarely takes this into account. 

Teddy Goldsmith: 
Not Hygienic or Just Small? 
Hygiene as a Weapon Against Small-Scale Producers
"Science is a new religion and disinfectant is the holy water." George Bernard Shaw
In the western world the introduction of laws on hygiene actually serve the purpose of placing the manufacturing and trade of food in the hands a few international mega-companies, which in turn pull government politics under their own direction in all areas of economic life to an increasing degree. If we really want to be healthier and to defend ourselves against the threat of food poisoning, we must change politics completely.

Imre Márczi: 
Sustainable? What? For How Long?
"Do we make civilization work, or does it make us work? Are we still humans, or have we been rewired?!..."

István Barótfi: 
Energetic Self-Sufficiency - Renewable Energy Resources
"Independence of energy networks is a realistic concept even on a family level. 
Our daily efforts are motivated by the hope of a better life. We hope that with industrious work our life will be more comfortable, and that we can provide the same for our children. We strive to make our work easier with dozens of machines, and use several chemical and biological preparations in the interest of a more effective work process. These aids, however, are costly and taxing on our environment. The energy used to operate machines and the increasing amount of pollutants we let out into our environment question the attainment of our original goal, and unless we change our customs our and our children's future will not improve."

Henry David Thoreau: 
The Bean Field (excerpt) 
Thoreau's experiences with growing and selling beans, from Walden.
 

Eco-Philosophy

József Zelnik: 
...On Earth As It Is In Heaven... 
The Natural History and Transcendence-History of an Eco-Prayer
"Religion and ecology. The religious and ecological situation of the world. These two phenomenon are surely and completely connected with a single word: crisis. And if we look closely, at the root of each concept we find another mutual concept: native land."
 

Masters and Workshops

"Europe in Transition" 
A discussion with József Angyán, the director of the Environmental and Regional Economy Institute of the Saint Stephen University at Gödöllő
The institute coordinates the curriculum of the ten university departments and directs the background research of scientific programs including several in commission to the government's Environmental Protection Portfolio. The sixth graduating class will finish their studies this year.

Judit Vásárhelyi: 
Sustaining Order: The Freedom of Self-Restriction 
István Imreh, the archeologist of ecological sustainability
István Imreh published his first study in 1947 on the village records and laws of a region in Transylvania. His continuing research of village records has since provided valuable information for several other fields of study.
 

The Scenes of Our Lives

Small Towns, Communities
Agricultural Valleys
In this column we continue the publication of excerpts from Christopher Alexander: Pattern Language. Towns, Buildings, Construction (New York, 1981) that pertain to the central theme of the journal. 
Small towns "should be handled as a political community which provide a setting for the development of each phase of human life."
"Let's divert the growth of towns to higher altitude areas while linking the ownership of the land in the valleys to basic ecological requirements."
 

Eco-Grumbling

Viola Benedikty: 
The Mistaken Role of Money
In the world we live in today a moderate amount of money is needed support ourselves, and a lot more to achieve independence. It has reached the point where it is quite difficult indeed to imagine, that it wasn't always so and declaring it might not always be so, is on the verge of tempting fate.

Erik Szabó: 
Ecological Projections of the Art of Joseph Beuys 
"Not far from Heroes Square, along the side of the Műcsarnok, there is a small oak tree that was ceremoniously planted in October, 2000, in Joseph Beuys's honor. ... Beuys specialists from six countries arrived to Hungary in October, 2000, to tell us something about this exceptional artist. The Joseph Beuys Symposium was held at the Műcsarnok in Budapest..."
 

Bookshelf

Tibor Bartos: 
Frigyes Pálos and His Church at Tereske
The story of the church of Tereske, whose parson discovered a series of Romanesque frescoes on the legend of Saint Ladislaus during the 1970's. The Parson, Frigyes Pálos, was so intrigued by the history of the church and its frescoes that he enrolled in the University of Budapest majoring in art history. Several years later, in 2000, he published a book about his church, the church of Tereske.

Lajos Eff: 
Why Does Man Build Gardens?
Géza Galavics ed.: Historical Gardens. 
Garden Art and Historic Monument Protection
A book on a barely known yet remarkable aspect of our cultural history.

C. A. Bowers: 
Let Them Eat Data -How Computers Affect Education, 
Cultural Diversity, and the Prospects of Ecological Sustainability
"If we accept the thesis, that a fundamental requirement of survival is the transgression of consumer mono-culture and the reinstatement of cultural and biological diversity, then this book outstandingly illustrates why we cannot ignore information technology in our stance against the murderous nature of globalization and our struggle to rebuild our relationship with the living world."

Hugh Barton ed.: 
Sustainable Communities 
-The Potential for Eco-Neighbourhoods
"This volume of studies is neither an Utopian dream, nor a plan of execution: it is a serious attempt to verbalize the real questions. The authors examine the nature of local communities and the methods of social capital formation, work out an original approach to the planning and development of neighbour-relationships in areas surrounding cities while taking the ecosystem into account, prepare a practical program for economy management based on local resources, and elaborate on community-oriented decision-making."

Vithal Rajan ed.: 
Rebuilding Communities-Experiences 
and Experiments in Europe
According to the Author, the main concept of the book can be summed up in a single saying: "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." The collection of studies reflects the struggle of people from various walks of life who have attempted to reinstate the viability and health of the community and natural environment surrounding them.

Dr. Sándor Győri-Nagy: 
Cultural-Ecology 
The book is the script for a subject to be taught at the Saint Stephen University's Institute for Environmental Economy at Gödöllő.
 

Eco-Library
In this column we introduce works from our library's collection published mostly abroad dealing with the theme of our current edition.