Frida thought that was a good idea. They packed a picnic basket and took Frida's Dad with them. Then they got bicycles and bicycled off.
When they got there they met a man who was walking with some dogs. It was a friend of Frida's Dad. He was a specialist on animals and plants and his name was Hans. Hans told them about different plants. Frida and Joanna thought that was fun.
Then they drank coffee and Hans told some jokes, and everyone laughed and had fun.
After half an hour Hans had to go home, so Frida, her Dad and Joanna continued walking. They found a sign that said "Big Forest Cafe - 5 km". "We'll follow the path to the cafe" said Frida's Dad. "Yes!" said Joanna and Frida. "It is a pretty forest walk" said Joanna. So the three of them walked towards the cafe.
They had not walked more than a cople of kilometers when they ran into a demonstration. It was full of people. Frida's Dad asked what they were demonstrating against. A fat woman explained that they were demonstrating against... she tripped over a root that was sticking up out of the ground. She got up and explained that they were protesting against a company that wanted to cut down the Big Forest and build a highway and houses there.
Then Joanna got very angry. She loved forests. Joanna, Frida and Frida's Dad went into the protest demonstration and forgot all about their walk. When they had walked for an hour, they came to some barracks. The woman explained that the ones who were going to cut down the forest should explain why it was so necessary to cut down the forest and build a highway and houses.
A man came up and started to talk. He said that they were going to build a lot of houses and a highway. Frida and Joanna thought it was bad that they were going to build houses. There were hundreds of empty houses where they lived. And the highway was also unnecessary. There was already a road that went through town.
Two weeks later when Frida's Dad turned on the TV to see the news, they had a report about Big Forest. They said that they would not cut down the forest. Frida was overjoyed and called Joanna.
Ellen Berkow. Stockholm. June 1995
Note: This is a made up story. The day before she wrote the story, Ellen saw a TV programme about some children in an area in Northern Sweden that was hit hard by Chernobyl, where the Sami people had to slaughter their reindeer because of contamination. In this area, the authorities wanted to do some testing, to see if it could be a good place to have a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste. The programme was about how children in the town made a protest demonstration and went up to talk to the local politicians. The children lost, they were going to drill there anyway.
Note: This is a made up story. The day before she wrote the story, Ellen saw a TV programme about some children in an area in Northern Sweden that was hit hard by Chernobyl, where the Sami people had to slaughter their reindeer because of contamination. In this area, the authorities wanted to do some testing, to see if it could be a good place to have a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste. The programme was about how children in the town made a protest demonstration and went up to talk to the local politicians. The children lost, they were going to drill there anyway.
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