The fear of failure – Thoughts about the unfinised story of Galgahévíz

Galgahévíz is an ecovillage that was founded in the beginning of the ’90s in Hungary among several similar villages. After 1990 as the continuing of the ’green movements’ that were born during the Soviet regime people formed communities and settled down in the rural area with the aim of creating a sustainable life. It means that the habitants of the village do farming without using any reagent, use environment-friendly technologies in architecture and in all of their activities. They try to have a law consumption, make a live on, trade and entertain in the village. They try to have economical autonomy and self-sufficiency.[1] But they don’t see themselves as they would have left the society. They think they are part of it as an autonom community and they serve the society with sharing their knowledge and showing a good example for the outside world.[2]

Galgahévíz is a type of ecovillage that uses and develops high technologies. They claim in their webpage that ’the population has no objective knowledge about climate change and the potential for reducing carbon dioxide emissions therefore people are not expected to be actively involved in improving their situation.’ To make a change they want ’to create an "Information Office" in Galgahévíz, which provides professional information and useful knowledge to those interested’ and at the same time they want to develop technical appliances that help sustainability. It is interesting that in their statement they show that they want to serve the society: they don’t blame people who do not live a sustainable life, they try to help them, make the ideas about echo-friendly lifestyle more popular. They run also a restaurant and a hotel where people can spend ’wellness weekends’, they organize open days when people can visit them, contact them, ask questions, and they invite people to live with them: in 2014 they have built 12 houses that fits to the government’s criterias of giving a support of families to build/buy new houses (CSOK).

Among the tasks of the foundation teaching, spreading of knowledge and communication with the people and with other organizations got a big emphasis.

The results and activity of Gaia Foundation between 2010-2013 are quite impressive.

•  In 2010 they handed in a petition against a building rule that in practice makes the use of natural construction materials impossible. ^[3]  They got a quite positive answer that was one of the first steps in the legalization of the use of natural construction materials. ^[4]
•  They closed a 3 year long project at the end of 2011 called EuropAfrica. It run a research about the effect of Common Agriculture Policy to the agriculture and food supply of Africa.
• In 2010 they started to construct the biological watercleaning system in Galgahévíz with the help of the Hungarian Slovakian Beyond Borders Cooperational Program.
•  They had a learning connection program with Austrian, German and Italian ecovillages. Its results were written in a book that was presented in the International Village Conference in Berlin in 2011. [5]

And these are just some examples of their activity.

Although it is quite unknown what have happened since the beginning of the 2010s. Did anyone move in the village in the 12 houses they offer on their website? Did they continue the projects that they were involved in? Did they finish the watercleaning system? Did they do the ’Information Office’? What happened with Galgahévíz? They were so visible and active some years ago… Is that possible that people lost their enthusiasm and they are not active anymore? And what if this community will just stop working after so many years of optimistic rush, because of people burned out? And why does this thought make me so sad?

Here at my CEU class everyone is here because they have a project, a vision in their minds. So have I. We all have to be responsible when we start something: we have to see whether it’s worth doing something, whether we have the resources before we rise hope in others and in our own heart. And we have to be aware how long-term can we plan: with the project itself and with our presence in the project. Is it OK to stop a project or to leave a project? How far can we plan ahead?

I would like to give a positive end to this blogpost so I would like to say that it doesn’t matter if we loose enthusiasm and we get out of a project or a whole project stops at a certain moment because of us. It doesn’t matter in a way, because we can draw the consequences, we can have all the experiences that we got during that period and we can move on and maybe start another project. But I am not honest when I say that it doesn’t matter. It does. It does matter that with cutting down an activity we disappoint others and ourselves. I know that if I want to create something in my life I have to take the risk of failure. And I have to be aware of the responsibility and with this onus on my back I am supposed to jump enthusiastically and freely at the same time. I wish someone could tell me if it is possible at all…

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[1] Judit Farkas, ‘Kicsi Kis Hősök - Az Ökofalu-Mozgalom Története És Gyökerei’, Kovász 18 (1 2014): 44.

[2] Farkas, ‘„Meghalt Gyűrűfű – Éljen Gyűrűfű.” Egy Jelképpé Vált Falu-Történet (Újra)Hasznosítása. / ’Gyűrűfű Is Dead, Long Live New Gyűrűfű!’ (Re)-Using of a Symbolic Village-Story’, 76–77.

[3] ‘Petíció Az Ombudsmannak’, Magyar Szalmaépítők Egyesülete, accessed 14 November 2017, http://www.szalmaepitok.hu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25:peticio-az-ombudsmannak-a-32003-i-25-bm-gkm-kvvm-rendelet-uegyeben&catid=7:hirek&Itemid=2.

[4] ‘Az Építési Termékek Megfelelőség Igazolása’, Magyar Szalmaépítők Egyesülete, accessed 14 November 2017, http://szalmaepitok.hu/hirek/24-az-epitesi-termekek-megfelelseg-igazolasa.

[5] ‘Gaia Alapitvány - Nemzetközi Kapcsolatok És Projektek’, accessed 14 November 2017, https://www.gaiaalapitvany.hu/gaia-alapitvany/alapitvany/nemzetkoezi-kapcsolatok.