Robert seems to be a great mix of ideas and actions.
Robert Hall is our brilliant project manager for Let’s Do It Mediterranean! Anna Lindh Foundation project proposal. He joined us early in 2013 and has since brought a fresh way of putting things on the move to the whole action. For example he managed to bring together teams for this project applications from Sweden (his home country), Croatia, Egypt, Slovenia, France, Tunisia, Palestine, Israel, Montenegro, Portugal and Bosnia!
1) What is your role in Let’s Do It Mediterranean?
I have admired the Let’s Do It! movement from a distance for some time but when I heard of Let’s Do It Mediterranean! I could not resist getting involved. I see my role as using my long experience of donors, funding and projects to make this challenging but completely possible initiative a reality. I have been active in the Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF) since 2008 which supports inter-cultural dialogue around the Mediterranean. Last year I encouraged LDI’s sister organisation Global Ecovillage Network to apply for ALF funding and it worked. So after getting involved with LDIM, seeking funding from ALF was an obvious job to take on.
2) How can people who don’t live next to the Mediterranean Sea help to clean it?
We who visit the Med as tourists have an obvious responsibility to say ”no thanks” to plastic bags there just as at home. And if possible, avoid single-use plastic bottles. But even if you don’t live near the Med you can support saving the sea and protecting the sea life by joining Let’s Do It! I am sure that many of us are eating Mediterranean seafood even if we don’t live there, so we all benefit from a clean Med.
3) What is your personal connection to the Mediterranean Sea?
I have lived in Portugal and Albania more that five years and worked several years for Fisheries Department of the Food and Agriculture Oganisation of the UN which is based in Rome. As I live on an island myself, I have run international projects with Rhodes, Samos, Cyprus, Gozo and Mallorca. So I do feel a strong connection to the Mediterranean even if I myself live in the middle of the Baltic.
4) Name 3 changes you’d like to see in people for a healthier environment in next 2 years!
I think we need new healthier values and then healthier attitudes and behavior will follow. More people are finding out that it is personal happiness, not material wealth that should be our ultimate goal. We need to fully respect the rights of all our fellow humans and the imperative of protecting the environment and the ecosystem services it provides us with to live. If we realize the emptiness that over consumption and injury our focus on money has caused there is hope for a major shift within 2 years.
5) What would be your 2 suggestions for people who want to keep the Mediterranean clean?
6) What are you doing in your “real” life?
At the Black Sea
I have left my old career goals aside now and concentrate on doing that which is meaningful. Most of my time has gone to building up an ecovillage, an intentional community of activists that want to create a happier and healthy lifestyle. And then I try to connect such communities with each other, be it in Sweden, Baltic Sea Region, Danube region or Africa. More recently I have been lucky to build cooperation between green and non-violent movements. Transition Town movement, Global Ecovillage Network, Service Civil International, Anna Lindh Foundation national networks just like Let’s Do It! are all working to create a more sustainable, peaceful society through grass-roots community-led actions. We will be stronger if we can work together.
No stranger to the sea
7) Can we clean the Mediterranean Sea in spring 2014?
I think we can do much more than any of us imagines. The symbolism of volunteers in 25 countries around the Med working together on the Big Clean Up Days 10-11 May 2014 is very powerful. The simple action of working together can do more than pick up some garbage on that weekend It can break societal barriers to change and show the wider society that grass-roots community-led initiatives can create change. I foresee that we will do more than just clean the sea.
To contact Robert personally you can write to him: lystopad19 [at] yahoo.se
