Book Project
The first big project of the Order was realised in the early Autumn of 2007 when the Swedish version of “How to Cure a Fanatic” – together with a specially prepared teacher’s guide – was distributed, free of charge, to all senior high school 2nd graders (17-18 years old) in Sweden – some 150,000 of them! An audio book was also produced, with a popular young Swedish actor reading the text. All this was made possible with the voluntary and enthusiastic support of several organisations and institutions. The initiative received a lot of attention in the Swedish media, not least because Amos Oz himself was in Sweden on the first day of distribution and was present at a Stockholm school when students opened their parcels containing the books.
This project has been most appreciated by both teachers and pupils. And because of the positive feed back another 150,000 2nd graders received the book during each of the years 2008 – 2011. More than 600 000 Swedish students will have been introduced to Amos’ book.
Grants
Each year two people who have helped in one way or another to put out the flames of fanaticism and kept the torch of tolerance burning are awarded with grants. On November 17, 2008 we celebrated The Day of The Order of the Teaspoon for the first time and gave out the first grants from the foundation. Former Swedish Foreign Minister and U.N. ambassador Jan Eliasson handed the winners diplomas, flowers and a check of SEK 50 000 each.
Grant Winners 2010
Winners 2010, Kerstin Blomberg och Zana Muhammad
Kerstin Blomberg, a nurse in her sixties from the island of Fårö, and Zana Muhammad, a 26 year old moslem from Gothenburg with origins in Iraq, were the recipients of the grants from The Order of the Teaspoon (Sweden) for the year 2010. They received their grants at a well-attended ceremony on February 3rd 2011.
Ms Blomberg was awarded for a 40 year engagement in several humanitarian causes, among them a camp for Tibetan refugees in India and the organization of help with school homework to refugee children in Sweden.
Zana Muhammad got his grant for a number of initiatives in arranging cross-culture meetings in order to diminish predjudices and emphasizing all peoples equal rights – from cooperation projects with The Museum of World Culture, the most visited museum in Gothenburg, to arranging football games between protestant Swedish clergymen and moslem imams working in Sweden, including the occasional rabbi as well.
Grant Winner s 2009
In January 2010 we celebrated The Day of the Order of the Teaspoon for the second time and gave out grants number three and four (for the year 2009) from the Foundation. The event was highly successful with around 200 people attending and with our “artist in residence” (Foundation board member) Lill Lindfors as Master of Ceremonies.
We on the Blanket
“We on the Blanket”, a group of young people who for the last few years have organized a picnic in a park in Gothenburg (Sweden’s second largest city), based on the idea that food and music will bring people from all walks of life and nationalities closer together was one of the Grants winners of the year of 2009. The five young persons who started the picnic in 2005 did this as a reaction when a girl with a veil was beaten to the ground by some boys at their school – and because they felt that the adult world, including school authorities, acted too meekly afterwards. The purpose of the picnic festival is to promote equality, tolerance and solidarity. In June 2009 more than 6 000 attended!
Ale Möller
Ale Möller the other grant winner is a respected and well-known musician, born in Malmö in 1955. He is a multi-instrumentalist who leads a band of musicians from all around the world – a band that plays music from many countries. He has successfully shown that creativity will grow when people with roots in different cultures get together. He also stresses that creativity is better found in looking for the differences rather than the likenesses.
Grant winners 2008
The first grant winner was Anita Doraziowho for over 30 years has helped people looking for asylum in Sweden, refugees (some of them hidden), people threatened by expulsion, victims of torture etc. She has organized medical assistance and legal help, she has helped them in contacts with authorities, she gives lectures on the plight of refugees and a lot more – and all an a completely idealistic basis.
Josef Fares och Anita Doraizo
The other winner was Josef Fares, immigrant to Sweden and well-known film maker. In this context it is especially his film “Zozo” that was rewarded, a story about a young boy who comes to Sweden from war-torn Lebanon and his attempts to be accepted in this new environment, a story which is told with both compassion and humour.
Movie Project
Also aimed at young people The Order of the Teaspoon in 2009 distributed, free of charge, 5000 dvd:s of the film Zozo (by Josef Fares, who received the Order’s grant in 2008) together with a teacher’s guide to 8th grade classes (15 year olds) in Swedish schools. In 2010 the British film This Is England was sent out in the same way. Both films deal, in different ways, with subject matters within the general area of the Order’s aims and motto.
Prospect
The projects that The Order of the Teaspoon run or plan to run have a strong emphasis on reaching young people. The number of reported so called hate crimes is increasing rapidly. The majority of those suspected of committing such crimes are young people, often under twenty years of age.
The Order is now considering various ways to initiate discussions on the subject – tolerance versus fanaticism – among different age levels. Part of the plan is to launch during the years 2011 – 2012 a new project aimed at 4th graders (10 year olds) around the country. The idea being that a seventeen year old who has been thinking and talking about the meaning of words like “human dignity” and “respect” and “tolerance” at an early age is less likely to adopt intolerant attitudes than one who has not.
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If you would like to support the Order of the Teaspoon, you can buy a teaspoon pin to put on your dress/jacket/tie. We also offer the spoon as a necklace and earrings. If you are interested in purchasing a Teaspoon please fill out the order form here.
You can also contribute to the Order of the Teaspoon by a direct payment to our account, plusgiro number 40 89 48 -8. If you are in another country please use: IBAN (International Bank Account Number): SE53 9500 0099 6026 0894 1031. BIC (Bank International Code): NDEASESS
