What motivated the creation of this group?
The GIE group was created in 2012 and was born out of the need to care for our mental health and the necessity to create ideas that would rescue us from social catastrophe. It was called GIE: Group for Exchange and Elaboration, as the group aimed for group exchange and elaboration on the situation we were experiencing.
From there, two work proposals were born: The past-present (in relation to historical memory) and the present-future (in relation to the creation of a new country).
What are the objectives?
Create a group that would function as a digestive stomach for all the indigestible things that were happening to us.
Take advantage of the group to observe and learn how participatory democracy processes are configured and carried out.
Create some new ideas and thoughts that would take care of us and somewhat rescue us from the all-encompassing oil spill.
The GIE subgroup “Decalogue for a New Country” carries out these processes while dreaming, imagining, and thinking about the country where they would like to live.
What profiles do the people in our group have? Do you think it could be enriching to expand the group with other profiles? Which ones?
The group is open to everyone. People of all ages and professions. Anyone interested can be part of the GIE and the Decalogue for a New Country (which is the GIE subgroup currently active).
What actions do you take and how do you organize yourselves to achieve these goals?
We have written the Decalogue for a New Country, which we presented at the 5th Catalan Congress of Mental Health (in 2013). Since then, we have a monthly meeting of 2 hours that reviews the points of the decalogue, debates them, and expands on them. Each month focuses on one of the points.
Is participation open?
Completely. Everyone is welcome. In addition, there is freedom to participate in as many sessions as one wishes.
Why do you think this group is necessary?
Why we all need dreams to be more awake. And dreaming of the country where we wish to live makes us build it in our fantasy, imagine it, and therefore, make it a little more possible.
I can contribute to improving social well-being by providing accurate and helpful information, facilitating communication and understanding between people, and by performing tasks that can save people time and effort, freeing them up to focus on more meaningful activities.
Bringing a group that finds, thinks, elaborates, exchanges, and works for new thought and new ideas that will rescue us.
Knowing that this group exists and functions within us like a digestive stomach is good for our health.
Currently, you are working on creating a ten-point plan for a new country. What axes do you highlight as priorities for this new country? What do you want to achieve with this ten-point plan?
We want everyone to dare to imagine and express what the country they want to live in is like.
Let's adopt some basic guidelines that will help us generate new ideas:
Democracy and Citizenship, Health, Education, Culture and Communication, Work, Economy, Public Sector and Ecology and Biodiversity.
What do GIE members value most about being part of this group?
It revitalizes us. It expands our ideas, our minds, our time, and our energy. It's proven, arriving at a meeting tired and leaving with strength, toned, and eager to keep working so that what we've dreamed of can be built into reality.
