Courage is rewarded
To celebrate its 15th anniversary, Agent Green NGO held a special gala to recognise the work of other activists from all areas of society.
Christine Leșcu, 12.06.2024, 14:00
Agent Green, an NGO dedicated to the environment, celebrated its 15th anniversary this spring. In all this time, the association has campaigned for the protection of green spaces, has fought against the abusive and illegal exploitation of forests and has lobbied for animal rights, among others. Its actions have often upset various political and economic interests. The founder of the association, Gabriel Păun, was even assaulted by members of the so-called “forest mafia” when he uncovered acts of timber theft from protected areas. So, in Romania, to campaign against the abuses committed against the environment is a matter of extraordinary courage. And courage deserves to be recognised and even rewarded.
To celebrate Agent Green’s 15th anniversary, Gabriel Păun decided to hold a special event called Courage Gala to grant ten awards to social activists. “I wanted to show that I am not alone, but also to warn that there is a risk that social activism will end up being a solitary activity”, said Gabriel Păun, and he explained further:
“It should be natural to be able to show our courage, and yet I see that courage is expressed and exercised less and less. It has made me feel that, at least in my field, that of environmental protection, things are becoming not just difficult, but even impossible. A non-governmental organisation should be the mouthpiece of the whole society. If society is silent, if it feels disillusioned and starts not to care and not to get involved, then my voice is silent, too. I noticed this by talking to people who are active in other areas and who are faced with the same problem. That’s when the idea came to me to organise this Courage Gala to celebrate the courage of people who are more or less well-known, and from all corners of society: education, science, the arts, culture, activism and journalism. It was a successful event, it exceeded all our expectations.”
The award gala was held at the Romanian Athenaeum and also featured a music performance by the Violoncelissimo group led by Marin Cazacu, the president of the George Enescu Philharmonics. The diplomas were original creations by the well-known Romanian artist Dan Perjovski. Let’s find out who the award winners were from Gabriel Păun:
“Rroma actress Alina Șerban went up on stage and held a fabulous speech. I was touched and so was Cristian Mungiu, the director of the famous film RMN, a film which must be seen because it is absolutely spot on when it comes to ethnic discrimination in Romania. We also wanted to celebrate the LGBTQ community because that’s another area where we are still struggling with a lot of preconceptions and where there’s a lot of work to be done. We also wanted to support environmental journalism and awarded Ramona Țintea, who has done a lot of reporting on forests, poisoned food, illegal landfills, etc. We also paid tribute to Ștefan Neagu, the unseen hero of the forests. People are used to hearing my name and that of a few other courageous activists and journalists who are uncovering crimes, but there are also many scientists and researchers working in the background and whose work in the field of forests is revolutionary. Ștefan Neagu is not only the man behind our famous national forestry register that tells us how much the forest can grow in a year and how much forest we lose forever, but his speaking out against an environment ministry official responsible for forests and revealing his actions led to that official’s dismissal in a matter of hours. It’s unprecedented and I believe no activist or journalist has achieved something like this.”
One of the awards went to the poet Radu Vancu, the winner of a prize for peace, cooperation and anti-fanaticism. Radu Vancu proves, therefore, that writers and intellectuals support civil involvement, much in agreement with the beliefs of the late Israeli writer Amos Oz, the one who first mentioned the “Order of the Teaspoon,” now a symbol of the Courage Gala in Bucharest. Here is Radu Vancu on Amos Oz:
“I don’t think he imagined it would become an actual order, as it is now, but he suggested it in 2004, in a book whose title may well be used as a motto for the Courage Gala. “How to Cure a Fanatic” is an extraordinary book, in which Oz says, among other things, that in principle there are three types of response to a disaster, for instance a fire. The first response is to go with one’s self-preservation instinct, to run leaving everyone behind. The second one is to send an angry letter to one’s favourite editor, in protest. And the third response, for those who don’t have access to media platforms, to newspapers, television and so on, is to grab a bucket or a cup or a teaspoon or anything and help put out the fire. There are many of us, and many teaspoons can put out big fires. And he said, I suggest we introduce an order of the teaspoon, we may even wear a little teaspoon on the lapel of our jackets, so that we know than we are willing to give a few ounces of our altruism to other human beings, trying to rescue what we can rescue.”
In 2006, an institution in Sweden implemented this idea of bringing together small gestures to create a strong movement, and created the Order of the Teaspoon, which Agent Green brought to the Courage Gala in Bucharest. Radu Vancu:
“I mentioned this order of the teaspoon in the opening address at the Odessa Literature Festival, which was held in exile in Bucharest. Gabriel Păun heard my speech and had the wonderful idea of introducing the order of the teaspoon in the Courage Gala. He even brought some silver teaspoons with edelweiss on them, the symbol of the Agent Green association. And so we proposed the introduction of the Order of the Teaspoon in Romania, based on this elementary arithmetic: a teaspoon of 10 ml of water for each of the 20 million Romanians means 200 tonnes of water, which is enough to put out major fires. There is still enough courage and enough kindness in Romania to deal with many important fires.” (CM, AMP)
