Security Day!

Hey everyone,

Today started with two hours devoted to coming up with projects in our small groups. Though I feel like we're making progress, we're really struggling with how we can make our projects self-supporting in future years. We (as a group, though I personally am a little unsure) feel confident that we could raise requisite funding for the initial costs of a project, but long-term revenue generation currently eludes us.

My favorite idea so far is to do a survey project of Eastern European businesses to determine where they are in terms of sustainability, and what their tool/resource needs are. There are several benefits to this, including the fact that it would fit well within the year time-frame that we have to use the money, it is within the skill set of the group, it would help to generate data in a currently under-explored area, and it would keep us from developing a project that Central European businesses have no real interest in or use for. Unfortunately, we were kinda discouraged from doing research projects, and that's really what this is - it's also not something that's self-sustaining (unless we promise to do follow up studies on a frequent basis... with additional money from.... somewhere). We'll just have to keep brainstorming tomorrow.

After the brainstorming session, everyone met to listen to the two security presentations. They were reasonably interesting, particularly the one by the Czech former general. He said that he felt that the Czech Republic was toning down its security in the wrong ways. For example, he said, and we all agreed, that if there were to be a bio-terrorism attach in the Czech Republic, it would probably happen in Prague, and it would probably be in the Metro, where lots of people would be exposed. Unfortunately, the hospital that is equipped to deal with that is over 100 km away. People would have to be transported by helicopter. Unfortunately, the helicopters are also located far away, and there is a mountain range between them and Prague - a mountain range that can't be crossed by helicopters in the winter. There is a hospital that is equipped to handle bio-terrorism closer to Prague. It has four beds. So... with all that in mind, I guess that I feel like he made a pretty compelling argument.

After lunch, the next session was on environmental literacy and using education to create sustainable development. The speakers were pretty good, though they both seemed a little jaded. Blazena Huskova talked to us about nature deficit disorder and how challenging it is to change beliefs and attitudes once people get older - her organization has had more success in working with children. Jana Dlouha talked about the history of environmental and sustainable development education, and highlighted some of the differences between the two. As nearly as I can tell, sustainable development education looks at the future and encapsulates a number of different values, while with environmental education, the environment and nature are the values. Both speakers agreed that in order for change to occur, there needs to be a respected spokesperson, and that educating children is the way to go.

After hearing about environmental literacy, my friend Laura (a native of York, ME) and I decided to explore Prague a little bit. We took the metro and then the tram to the castle, where we walked around the grounds. It was really cold - I was really hoping for some snow (it was on the forecast!) but alas. The castle is absolutely huge, and seems to have had several different additions from different time periods. We even got to see the changing of the guards! Not as exciting as it is in London, but still. I'll put the video up on Facebook at some point. We kept walking and window-shopping and eventually made our way back to the hotel.

Now I'm going to do some school work. We're eating with our dialogue group (so all the other people in the environmental section) tonight, so that should be fun.

Plans for tomorrow
Chipping Away at Intolerance in America - Wayne Drash and Robert Johnson, CNN
Group Photo
90 Minutes Live with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Program (Focus on Chechnya and Human Rights) - Jeff Gedmin, President of Radio Free Europe; Jaromir Stetina, Czech Senator; Josef Pazderka, Czech TV Reporter
Group Project Meetings Group Reports Closing Remarks - Judith A. McHale, Under Secretary, Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, US Department of State

Feel free to comment! Also, sorry about the photo - it was foggy today.
P.S. KATIE COMES TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!